[[quoteright:191:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/band97_3562.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:191: Call them Crank, their idea. From left to right: Rob Dickinson, Brian Futter, Dave Hawes and Neil Sims.]]

Catherine Wheel is a band, not a solo artist. Since that has been cleared up now, they formed in 1990 in the UK. The band consisted of Rob Dickinson (a paternal cousin of Music/BruceDickinson from Music/IronMaiden), Brian Futter, Dave Hawes (replaced by Ben Ellis in 1999), and Neil Sims.

They started as one of {{shoegazing}}'s pioneers, and one of the more memorable; their albums ''Ferment'' and ''Chrome'' are both considered classics and early examples of "metalgaze".

Over the years of their existence, they disliked being labeled "shoegaze" and thus shrugged it off, with ''Happy Days'' heading into more of a HardRock[=/=]{{Grunge}} direction and ''Adam and Eve'' being heavily influenced by art rock. Unfortunately, this led to critical reviews and commercial sales slowly dropping.

After releasing the mostly unsuccessful ''Wishville'' in 2000, the band split. Dickinson became a solo artist, Futter and Sims recorded an album under the name ''50ft Monster'', and Ellis joined the band Serafin.
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!!Discography:
* ''Painful Thing'' EP (1991)
* ''Ferment'' (1992)
* ''Chrome'' (1993)
* ''Happy Days'' (1995)
* ''Like Cats and Dogs'' (1996, compilation of outtakes, B-sides and covers)
* ''Adam and Eve'' (1997)
* ''Wishville'' (2000)
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! ''I always thought the way you troped was neat'':
* AndIMustScream: The cover art of ''Happy Days'' is of a man on a bed falling down a giant baby crib; the album booklet shows him haplessly screaming while stuck as a small person in a large crib. [[SarcasmMode Sweet dreams.]]
* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Ferment'' in "I Want to Touch You" and its title track. ''Chrome'' gets it in "Crank" and its title track as well.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Chrome'', ''Happy Days''
* EpicRocking: "Black Metallic", "Pain", "Fripp", "Heal", "Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck", "Thunderbird", "Goodbye", "For Dreaming"
* LighterAndSofter: ''Ferment'', ''Adam and Eve''
* LyricalDissonance: One of their gentlest songs also has some of their angriest lyrics and song title, "Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck".
* LyricsVideoMismatch: "Judy Staring at the Sun" is a melancholy song about a woman's heroin addiction. The music video is a kitschy, pop art-styled PerformanceVideo set in space.
* MeaningfulName: The band is named after a spinning firework, which is very meaningful, especially with the subject matter of their music.
* TheNotRemix: On the single mix of "Judy Staring at the Sun", [[Music/ThrowingMuses Tanya]] [[Music/BellyBand Donelly]] sings the chorus and the second verse, but on ''Happy Days'', Rob sings all the verses and Tanya only sings the chorus. The two versions are otherwise identical.
* OneManSong: "Ballad of a Running Man"
* OneWomanSong: "Judy Staring at the Sun"
* OneWordTitle: "Texture", "Shallow", "Ferment", "Tumbledown", "Salt", "Balloon", "Crank", "Pain", "Chrome", "Fripp", "Waydown", "Heal", "Receive", "Shocking", "Hole", "Delicious", "Satellite", "Thunderbird", "Goodbye", "Gasoline", "Lifeline"
* {{Overcrank}}: Used in the music video for "I Want to Touch You".
* PrecisionFStrike: "Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck"
* ShoutOut: "Fripp" is named after Music/RobertFripp of Music/KingCrimson.
** "Receive" includes the lines "Grow my hair / Long and strange / I'll be a walking mountain range" as a reference to a very similar passage in Music/BobDylan's "I Shall Be Free No. 10" (" I'm gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange / So I look like a walking mountain range")
* TitleTrack: ''Ferment'' and ''Chrome'' both have one.
* {{Undercrank}}: Also used in the music video for "I Want to Touch You".
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! ''Love my superstitious games, troping circles round my brain''
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