Bond (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bond
The four members of bond(From their album Born)
The four members of bond
(From their album Born)
Background information
Genre(s) Classical crossover
Years active 2001 – present
Label(s) MCA Music, Inc.
Decca Records
Website www.bondmusic.net
Members
Haylie Ecker
Eos Chater
Tania Davis
Gay-Yee Westerhoff
Notable instrument(s)
Violin, Viola, Cello

Bond (often typeset as bond in deference to the owners of the 007 copyright)[1] is an Australian/British string quartet that specialise in classical crossover music. Bond has been described as the best selling string quartet of all time[2], selling over 4 million records.

Contents

[edit] Creation

Bond was formed by music producer extraordinaire Mike Batt, after Batt told fellow-producer Mel Bush that the two of them should put together a quartet consisting of "four beautiful, talented musicians".[3] Batt went on to produce their first single, with Bush producing their albums.[3] The quartet consists of Haylie Ecker (first violin, from Perth, Australia), Eos Chater (second violin, from Cardiff, Wales), Tania Davis (viola, from Sydney) and Gay-Yee Westerhoff (cello, from Hull, England).

[edit] Genre & success

Their debut album Born was removed from the UK classical chart, apparently owing to its "sounding too much like pop music". Born later rose to the #1 position on 21 different charts around the world. Shine, their second album, went gold in six countries. Remixed, their third release, featured remixes from their first two hit albums as well as three new unreleased songs. Their third studio album Classified was a popular and successful release. Classified went double platinum in Australia, reaching the number one spot on both the classical and pop charts. Explosive: The Best of Bond, their latest release, is a "best of" collection that includes three previously unreleased songs. They also participated at the 50th annual Miss World pageant in 2000, held in London.

[edit] Appearances & recent work

The quartet spent much of 2003 touring, particularly throughout Asia, and participating in the Miss Universe 2003 held in Panama City, Panama. They also fitted in performing and filming a TV commercial for American department store chain Marshall Field's and made a commercial in Los Angeles for the Japanese karaoke manufacturer Daiichi Kosho. The group made their movie debut playing themselves in a scene in Rowan Atkinson's James Bond spoof Johnny English for which they also contributed the track "Kismet", composed by Gay-Yee, and played on the Main Theme. They also appeared as themselves in the film XXX: State of the Union, performing "Victory". Their single "Explosive" became a massive hit in Australia when it was used as the theme song for the national TV coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The quartet is currently working on an untitled fourth studio album, which was set to be released in spring of 2008, but has now been pushed back to sometime between September and November, 2008. Bond was recently on a "collective maternity leave" for Tania Davis because she gave birth to a boy named Lukas.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Release Date Title
October 2, 2000 Born
October 15, 2002 Shine
June 15, 2004 Classified

[edit] Compilations

Release Date Title
September 16, 2003 Remixed
June 28, 2005 Explosive: The Best of Bond

[edit] Promotional albums

[edit] Soundtracks

[edit] Singles

[edit] DVDs

[edit] Movie appearances

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sex in the Symphony (2002-03-11). Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  2. ^ [1] iClassics: Crossover Café
  3. ^ a b Mike Batt's Official Website: Bond - String Quartet. Accessed May 27, 2008

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Bond
Eos Chater · Tania Davis · Haylie Ecker · Gay-Yee Westerhoff
Studio albums
Other albums
Compilation albums
Singles
DVDs
Related articles