Lightning Seeds

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Lightning Seeds
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. The group has its origins in the English city of Liverpool.

Contents 1 Pre-Lightning Seeds and establishment of the name 1.1 Cloudcuckooland 1.2 Sense 2 Rise to popularity 2.1 Jollification 2.2 Dizzy Heights and "Three Lions" 2.3 Like You Do 2.4 "Three Lions 98" 2.5 Tilt 3 Quiet period, reformation and new material 4 Misc 5 Discography 5.1 Albums 6 Chart history 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Pre-Lightning Seeds and establishment of the name

Previous to the Lightning Seeds, Broudie was involved with other bands: firstly Big in Japan, followed by Original Mirrors and then Care with Paul Simpson. 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]

[edit] Cloudcuckooland

After Simpson 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.

The same year, "Joy" and "All I Want" were also released though they failed to reach the top 100. A moderate amount of success was to be had in the United States, however, where Pure reached the U.S. Billboard top 40. Both "Pure" and "All I Want" would also reach the Modern Rock Tracks top 10.

[edit] Sense

In 1991, Broudie returned to song-writing, laying down a number of tracks for a new album. However before its release, Rough Trade, the distributor for Ghetto collapsed leading to the band being sold on to Virgin Records.

Sense featured the song "The Life of Riley", written for his son. The song was a minor hit at the time reaching #28 on the UK singles chart but would later become much more 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. It was this that would later prompt the FA to approach Broudie to produce a song for the England national football team.

Sense would mark Broudie's first Lightning Seeds song-writing collaborations with former Specials singer Terry Hall. In years to come, it would prove a fruitful partnership. The album's title track "Sense", co written with Hall, would achieve some chart success, reaching #31 in the UK. Despite this, Virgin began to lose interest in the band as a result of poor sales of the album, which stagnated at #53 in the charts. The Lightning Seeds were subsequently dropped from the label.

[edit] Rise to popularity

Fortunes would change, however, when Epic agreed to sign the band on the condition that Broudie increase production effort on The Lightning Seeds, putting work with other bands on the backburner and embarking on live tours.

“	I'd been wanting to perform live again for some time and this was the first time I found myself talking to somebody at a record company who believed in Lightning Seeds.	”
—Ian Broudie.[2]

[edit] Jollification

By the end of 1993, Broudie was applying the finishing touches to Jollification, The Lightning Seeds' new album, which would see contributions from Terry Hall and Simon Rogers as well as Ian McNabb. However the time had come to assemble band members for a live tour. Chris Sharrock and Paul Hemmings, both ex-La's, former Rain bass guitarist Martyn Campbell and keyboardist Ali Kane were recruited as in August 1994, the new Lightning Seeds touring line up hit the road.

The tour seemed to benefit sales of the second single to be released from the album, "Change". Reaching #13 in the charts, it gave The Lightning Seeds their second UK top twenty hit. The band would continue in this vein, Jollification becoming a critical success ^[3] and spawning several hit singles, including "Lucky You," "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.

[edit] Dizzy Heights and "Three Lions"

Now a chart success, The Lightning Seeds could afford to purchase their own recording studio, Eel Pie Studios - a barge on the River Thames - from Pete Townshend of The Who. This was a long way from 1992 when Broudie was recording in his brother's front room after splitting with his girlfriend^[4].

During this period, a number of songs were recorded for the fourth studio album. One of these, "Ready Or Not", was released as a single in anticipation of the forthcoming Dizzy Heights. It scored the band yet another top twenty hit, scraping in at #20.

Production of the album was halted however, as in 1996 the Lightning Seeds provided the music and production for the official England anthem for the Euro '96 football tournament. The FA had contacted Broudie asking whether he would like to do the song though he did not initially accept. Later that evening, after seeing an episode of Fantasy Football, Broudie called back and agreed on the condition that comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel write they lyrics. The success of the English national football team at the tournament would ensure that the song, "Three Lions", became the band's first Number 1 in the UK singles chart. The song would become much bigger than anyone involved could have imagined, becoming a constant terrace chant not only in the UK but abroad, including Germany where the single, complete with new video, reached #16 after Euro '96.

When production of Dizzy Heights resumed, Martyn and Sharrock recorded live bass guitar and drums respectively to complement the melodic loops which had previously been laid down. The resulting 'feel' reflected the live sound which the band had developed through extensive touring ^[5].

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.

[edit] Like You Do

In 1996 and 1997 the band's line-up changed. Chris Sharrock left to work with World Party on their Egyptology album and was subsequently replaced by Mat Priest of Dodgy. Angie Pollock, who had worked with Shakespears Sister and Terry Hall, replaced Ali Kane on keyboards.

1997 saw the release of greatest hits compilation Like You Do and a UK tour to promote it. "What You Say", one of two new songs included with the compilation, was released and narrowly failed to chart in the top forty. Part way through the tour, Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr, replaced Mat Priest on drums. Starkey has since gone on to drum with The Who, and also joined Oasis for their most recent album and tour.

[edit] "Three Lions 98"

For the most part of 1998, things were rather quiet. However the band were kept busy by recording a second version of Three Lions; "Three Lions 98" was cut for the World Cup in France, featuring a re-written lyric; again, it went to Number 1. It would become the first song ever to top the charts on two separate occasions with different sets of lyrics, despite the fact it was not officially endorsed by the FA this time round. That honour went to England United with their song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World" (which, incidentally, was produced by one of Broudie's writing partners Ian McCulloch) that would only chart at #9^[6].

The Lightning Seeds also headlined Glastonbury and the V Festival in 1998.

[edit] Tilt

The Lightning Seeds burst back onto the scene in 1999 with new album Tilt. A more dance orientated affair, it featured collaborations with Stephen Jones (Babybird) and Mark Cullen of Fixed Stars. The album yielded two singles - the first, "Life's Too Short" was heralded as "one of the band's strongest singles to date" by Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles but would chart at a modest 27. "Sweetest Soul Sensations" would also chart disappointingly at 67, mainly due to lack of Radio 1 airplay and the fact that major record stores would not stock the single but also poor B-side selection^[7].

The new Millennium saw The Lightning Seeds playing alongside Space and Stereophonics at Cream 2000. Rumours, however, began to spread that the band were about to split up. Indeed, Broudie confirmed in the Liverpool Echo that The Lightning Seeds were to take an elongated break after a final gig at Liverpool's L2.

[edit] Quiet period, reformation and new material

Since the turn of the century, the act took a back seat as Broudie concentrated on producing the works of other bands, most notably The Coral, I Am Kloot and The Zutons. 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 band's previous success.

The band would return to release their second greatest hits album, The Very Best of the Lightning Seeds on 12 June 2006 followed by a re-release of "Three Lions" (which charted at #9) 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 which the show-stopper "Three Lions" featured the lyric change "forty years of hurt".

In 2007, Broudie appeared on Ken Bruce's Radio 2 show during which he confirmed that he was writing and producing more material. He did not confirm whether this would be a solo project or under the Lightning Seeds name, though he strongly suggested that he would be releasing new material in 2008^[8].

[edit] Misc

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

Despite receiving airplay on college and alternative radio, the Lightning Seeds placed only two singles on the US charts. "Pure" reached #31 in 1990, and "The Life of Riley" reached #98 in 1992.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• 1989 Cloudcuckooland #50 UK, #46 US
• 1992 Sense #53 UK, #154 US
• 1994 Jollification #12 UK
• 1996 Pure (compilation) #27 UK
• 1996 Dizzy Heights #11 UK
• 1997 Like You Do... Best of the Lightning Seeds (compilation) #5 UK
• 1999 Tilt #46 UK
• 2004 Life of Riley: The Lightning Seeds Collection (compilation)
• 2006 The Very Best of the Lightning Seeds (compilation) #33 UK

[edit] Chart history

Year	Song	UK Singles Charts[9]	US Billboard Hot 100[10]	US Modern Rock Tracks[11]	Irish Singles Chart[12]	German Singles Chart[13]	Album
1989	"Pure"	16	31	8	-	-	Cloudcuckooland
	"All I Want"	110[14]	-	9	-	-
1990	"Joy"	121[15]	-	-	-	-
1992	"The Life Of Riley"	28	98	2	-	52	Sense
	"Sense"	31	-	-	-	-
	"Blowing Bubbles"	-	-	19	-	-
1994	"Lucky You"	43	-	38	-	60	Jollification
1995	"Change"	13	-	-	-	74
	"Marvellous"	24	-	-	-	80
	"Perfect"	18	-	-	-	-
	"Lucky You" (re-release)	15	-	-	-	-
1996	"Ready Or Not"	20	-	-	-	-	Dizzy Heights
	"Three Lions" With Skinner and Baddiel	1	-	-	9	17	Like You Do
	"What If..."	14	-	-	-	77	Dizzy Heights
1997	"Sugar Coated Iceberg"	12	-	-	-	76
	"You Showed Me"	8	-	-	-	-
	"What You Say"	41	-	-	-	-	Like You Do
1998	"Three Lions 98" With Skinner and Baddiel	1	-	-	14	-	-
1999	"Life's Too Short"	27	-	-	-	-	Tilt
2000	"Sweetest Soul Sensations"	67	-	-	-	-
2002	"Three Lions 98" (Re-release)	16	-	-	-	-	-
2006	"Three Lions" (Re-release)	9	-	-	-	-	-
	"Song For No One"	-	-	-	-	-	The Very Best Of

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Works of Ian Broudie & The Lightning Seeds
• Official Web site of Ian Broudie and The Lightning Seeds (not updated since 2006)
• French Page about The Lightning Seeds