The story of Republica began when Tim Dorney and Andrew 'Toddy' Todd started to write songs together on their keyboards and samplers. Soon they realized that their songs would sound way better with a voice, so they started searching for a singer.
At the same time, Saffron was looking for a band, because she wanted to do her own thing after she had worked with N-Joi, The Shamen and Jah Wobble before.
A mutual friend brought Saffron and the boys together and Republica was born!

Toddy, Tim & Saffron

Their idea was to mix all their different musical influences together and make a new style. They also wanted to add biting lyrics to their songs, because they grew tired with the stupid nonsense lyrics of all the dance acts around.

After two released promos ('Out of this World' and 'Bloke') Jonny Male joined the band as guitarist and in spring '96 came Dave Barborossa to play the drums for Republica.
Soon after that the band released the single 'Ready To Go' which was a huge chartbreaker all over the world and made Republica stars over night. The following album simply called 'Republica' went to high positions in the charts as well.
In spring '97 the band released their new single 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' which was also in the movie 'Scream'. 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' wasn't such a big hit as the catchy 'Ready To Go', but still quite successful (and the song that made me a Republica fan, by the way ;-)).

While they were very famous in the US, nearly nobody in Europe seemed to care about this freaky band, so they toured the USA extensively for a long time.

Republica in '99

In late summer '97 rumours started about a new Republica album and even official news were talking about a new single to be released soon, but nothing happened and both single and album were rescheduled again and again.
Both Toddy and Dave Barborossa left the band in the end of '97 "due to other commitments" and for a while nobody knew what's going on with Republica.
Jonny had become a full-time member in the meantime and Pete Riley joined the band to play the drums for their upcoming album.

In late September '98 it finally happened: Republica released their new single 'From Rush Hour With Love'! The song went high in the charts, but unfortunately disappeared quite fast.
The album 'Speed Ballads' came soon after the single, but wasn't huge success. It still hasn't been released in the US though. Right now the band is in the studios recording new songs which will be on the US release of 'Speed Ballads'. We are waiting!