The band owes its origins to Mark and Nick Cope, Nick Burton and John Halliday all living in the same village, Islip, Oxfordshire, and attending the same local secondary school (Gosford Hill School) between around 1974 and 1980. The four Islip members of the band had begun working together by the time they left school and various line-ups and name-changes followed during the 1980s, until "The Candyskins" were formed in 1989, with Richard (mini) Brown on bass and banjo. After the successful release of the single "Submarine Song" in 1990, the band went into the studio to produce their first full-length album "Space I'm In". The album included three singles: "Submarine Song", "She Blew Me Away" and "You Are Here". Brown left the band before the album was released.