The group was created in late 1994 when Mark Cancellara & Mike Johnston started to buy old analogue keyboards and fx and began to rehearse making huge soundscapes. Mike was living with Billy Bainbridge (who was in another band at the time, Supernal, also containing members of electro band sol dat) who bought himself a keyboard and joined the band.
The band started gigging as support to local bands such as Pram & Broadcast. In 1997 the band were approached by Wurlitzer Jukebox who released the single "Press a Key". On the strength of this the band were signed to Warp and in September 1998 released the single 'plock'. This was tipped as one of the singles of the year by NME, Melody Maker, Dazed & Confused etc.
An album For Beginner Piano was released in September 1999 to widespread critical acclaim.
Rob Mitchell (who had originally signed the band to Warp) was diagnosed with cancer in 2001. Rob died in the September of that year.
Their second album has never been officially released but has appeared on torrent and other file sharing sites on the Internet.
Billy went on to play keyboards with Broadcast (on the Ha Ha Sound tour) and is now a member of Seeland with Tim Felton (now also ex-Broadcast) and have released a single "Wander"/"Pherox" on Duophonic in 2005.
Mike Johnston went on to form Mike In Mono and is also 'Clive 2' in ZX Spectrum Orchestra and a member of The Modified Toy Orchestra.
Mark is currently DJing with Matt from Pram for Silver Dollar, a reggae club in Birmingham.
Starting in the Summer of 2009, Plone's song Plaything appeared on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercial.
From Wikipedia
