Lightning Seeds

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Lightning Seeds
Image:Lightningseeds.jpg
Background information
Origin Liverpool, England
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Britpop
Synth Pop
Rock
Years active 1989–present
Label(s) Epic
Sony BMG
EMI
Atlantic
Website lightning-seeds.co.uk
Members
Ian Broudie
Simon Rogers
Ali Kane
Martyn Campbell
Former members
Zak Starkey
Chris Sharrock
Paul Hemmings
Angie Pollack

Lightning Seeds are an alternative pop/rock band, largely the brainchild of writer, singer and guitarist Ian Broudie (born August 4 1958, Liverpool, England).

Contents

[edit] History

Previous to the Lightning Seeds, Broudie was involved with other bands: firstly Big in Japan, followed by Original Mirrors and then Care with Simon Rogers. Big in Japan was effectively a supergroup in reverse, including as it did future members of The KLF, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Frankie Goes to Hollywood among others.[1]

After Rogers parted from Broudie, citing musical differences he returned to production , producing Frazier Chorus and The Icicle Works. In 1989 he returned as an artist with material he had recorded alone but took the name The Lightning Seeds for his project. The Lightning Seeds soon broke through in 1989 with the shimmery, psychedelic synth pop hit, "Pure", from the album Cloudcuckooland, which made the UK Top 20.

In 1992, the band returned with the album Sense, with Rogers returning to provide musical and production assistance. The album featured the song The Life of Riley, which was written about Broudie's nerves during the birth of his son. The song was a minor hit at the time reaching #28 on the UK singles chart but later became very well known after the instrumental version was adopted by the BBC's Match Of The Day programme for use as the theme for the "Goal of the Month" competition. More importantly this later led to the commission for the official England song for the Euro '96 football tournament.

In the 1990s The Lightning Seeds would become one of the most popular bands of the Britpop era. The 1994 album Jollification was a critical success [2], spawning several hit singles, including "Lucky You," "Change," "Marvellous," and "Perfect." Its cover designed by Mark Farrow featured the then innovative use of computer graphics to create an enormous strawberry with people's faces as its seeds. The sleeve for "Change" was a strawberry wearing a Groucho Marx nose, glasses and moustache set.

In 1996, the Lightning Seeds provided the music and production for the official England anthem for the Euro '96 football tournament. The lyric was written and sung by comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, and the song, "Three Lions", and became the bands first Number 1 in the UK singles chart.

The Lightning Seeds maintained their popularity, enjoying three more UK Top 20 hits, including a cover version of The Turtles "You Showed Me," which became the act's biggest non-football hit. In 1998, though the Football Association decided not to re-endorse it, a second version; "Three Lions 98" was cut for the World Cup in France, featuring a re-written lyric; again, it went to Number 1, outselling the official England anthem of that tournament.[3] It became the first song ever to top the charts on two separate occasions with different sets of lyrics.

The band line-up has changed on numerous occasions, notably when Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr joined in 1997 when Chris Sharrock left to join Robbie Williams' touring line-up. Starkey has since gone on to drum with The Who, and also joined Oasis for their most recent album and tour.

Since the end of the 1990s, the act has taken a back seat as Broudie concentrated on producing the works of other bands, most notably The Coral. In 2004, Broudie released his first proper solo album, Tales Told. It was his first release since the Lightning Seeds' more dance-focused Tilt of 1999, although it failed to emulate the bands previous success.

The band released their second greatest hits album, The Very Best of the Lightning Seeds on June 20th to coincide with the England World Cup campaign. Summer 2006 saw Broudie forming a new Lightning Seeds line-up for a number of gigs and festival appearances.

In 2002 Italian dance producer Alex Farolfi sampled "You Showed Me" for his first solo single "Burnin'", featuring Corinna Joseph.

The Lightning Seeds - Lucky You excerpt Image:Lightning Seeds - Lucky You excerpt.ogg

An excerpt from Lucky You

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] UK singles

  • Pure (17/7/1989) 16
  • All I Want (1989)
  • Joy (1990)
  • The Life Of Riley (9/3/1992) 28
  • Sense (25/5/1992) 31
  • Lucky You (15/8/1994) 43
  • Change (9/1/1995) 13
  • Marvellous (10/4/1995) 24
  • Perfect (17/7/1995) 18
  • Lucky You (Re-release) (16/10/1996) 15
  • Ready Or Not (4/3/1996) 20
  • Three Lions (27/5/1996) 1
  • What If… (28/10/1996) 14
  • Sugar Coated Iceberg (13/1/1997) 12
  • You Showed Me (21/4/1997) 8
  • What You Say (8/12/1997) 41
  • Three Lions '98 (15/6/1998) 1
  • Life's Too Short (22/11/1999) 27
  • Sweetest Soul Sensations (13/3/2000) 67
  • Three Lions '98 (re-release) (10/6/2002) 16
  • Three Lions (re-release) (5/6/2006) 09
  • Song For No One (26/6/2006)

Chart positions from everyhit.com.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pete Frame - More Rock Family Trees ISBN 0711968799
  2. ^ http://www.lightning-seeds.co.uk/fs_net/written.htm# Lightning Seeds website - links to reviews
  3. ^ England's Euro 2004 Song Released

[edit] External links

lt:Lightning Seeds pl:The Lightning Seeds ru:Lightning Seeds

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Lightning_Seeds"
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