This week marks 20 years since Super Furry Animals released their Creation debut with ‘Hometown Unicorn’.

At the time it seemed as though they had appeared out of nowhere, in many ways they had, Creation signed Super Furry Animals after only their forth gig, however all the members of the band had been playing in other various bands for the past decade. Their individual stories are shown in the video shown below.

The band had released two EPs in 1995 on the local Ankst label, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and Moog Droog were released summer/autumn of that year with the band playing their first gig at The Water Rats in London’s King Cross.

As 1995 came to a close all eyes were on Super Furry Animals as the latest signing to Creation, at the time home to one of the most successful bands on the planet following the success of the second Oasis album. Could Creation hit the jackpot again?

Select magazine gave them a full page feature for their first interview at the end of 1995 despite still with no release date set for their Creation debut.

‘Hometown Unicorn’ was released on 26th February 1996 to rave reviews and became single of the week in many music publications, however it just missed the charts. Two months later ‘God! Show Me Magic’ saw the band appear on Saturday morning TV show ‘The Chart Show’ and enter the charts at number 33.

For the rest of 1996 the hits just kept coming with ‘Something 4 The Weekend’, ‘If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You’ and ‘The Man Don’t Give A Fuck’ accompanied by the obligatory appearance on Top of The Pops which confirmed their new popstar status. Debut album ‘Fuzzy Logic’ released in June was certified silver.

During the summer the band bought a tank and also became caught up in a row over their use of the English language in their pop hits which some Welsh fans complained about stating they should be singing in their native language.

Whilst the band were far more at home on the festival circuit, they also managed to cross over when they hit the stage in Cardiff for the Smash Hits tour followed by an Arena tour with Manic Street Preachers.

For the rest of the 90s the front covers of the music papers became commonplace. After 1996 there would be two more studio album and a rarities compilation for Creation before the band moved to Sony. Despite taking a few years out after 2009 to work on their various side projects they’ve continued to be easily one of the best live bands around.

They were certainly the best band Creation signed during the Sony years and the chances of seeing such a creative and innovative band in the pop charts again seems highly unlikely.