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Happy 10th Birthday LYs…!

As we were walking out onstage at Wembley Stadium a couple of weeks ago, Tony reminded me that we played our first gig together almost exactly ten years previously, on 29 April 2000, in a tiny venue in Oxford called The Jam Factory. I can’t be certain how many people were there but it definitely wasn’t 50,000. Probably more like 20.

Either way, this makes today The Lightyears’ official 10th birthday.

Although The Lightyears per se didn’t officially come into existence until 2004, this date marked the first time George, Tony and I ever gigged together in public. As far as I’m aware, no photos exist of this momentous occasion. However, we have managed to dig out this priceless pic of the LYs (or “Satellite” as we were known at the time) busking on the Royal Mile at the Edinburgh Festival, circa 2003. Note the presence (far-right) of the only man ever to have left the band, Mr Tom Mansfield, looking (like the rest of us) rather fresh-faced.

And so… Happy Birthday to us. Here’s to the next ten years!

I think I’ve got some party poppers in the back of a cupboard somewhere…

LYs to appear in national ad campaign

***UPDATE: check out the T-Mobile East London Jam feat. The Lightyears! Click here***

The Lightyears are appearing in several T-Mobile adverts broadcast nationwide over the coming weeks.

If you’ve seen any of the company’s recent campaign – “What Would You Do With Free Texts For Life?” – you’ll probably have noticed the one where the curly-haired chap vows to start a superband (watch it here). Well, it turns out that we’re in that superband.

So far this has involved jamming with thirty other musicians in a warehouse loft, kicking up a storm in a pub in Oxford and cruising round central London in an open-top bus with cellists, trumpeters, saxophonists, singers, guitarists, bass players, drummers, percussionists and cheerleaders and performing to crowds of startled onlookers in Piccadilly Circus, Mayfair and Soho. You can check out some photos from the bus-tour here.

The first adverts were recently aired during primetime commercial breaks on ITV1. Keep your eyes peeled!