roger taylor

Our Favourite Moments Of 2012

That’s right, people… it’s 2013. Not quite sure how that happened – we appear to be edging ever closer to the date in Back To The Future II, which doesn’t seem at all right, but there you go.

The Lightyears are looking forward to an exciting couple of months. We’re returning to the London stage on Saturday 9 February to headline at Westminster Reference Library, and before then we’ll be hitting the recording studio to lay down preview versions of some of the tracks we’ve been working on for the new album.

We’ll keep you posted on all that but, until then, feel free to avail yourself heartily of The Lightyears Favourite Moments Of 2012…

Chilling backstage with multiple Rogers
In October we larked off to Sweden to perform with Roger Daltrey from The Who and Queen drummer Roger Taylor. We spent most of the time buggering about on bikes and learned that people named Roger are always spiffing. Click here to read my Gothenburg Tour Diary.

Surprising some Cumbrian ramblers
As part of a new band initiative to get back to nature, 2012 saw us popping up in a number of al fresco gig destinations and shooting funny little acoustic videos. Here’s one of us on the banks of Lake Grasmere, shortly after we confused the absolute heck out of some local hiking types:

Nearly starting a fight with The Buzzcocks
In September, while we were on tour in France, one of my legendarily BRILLIANT jokes predictably backfired and I narrowly escaped fisticuffs with a punk legend. Read the story here.

Making acoustic music really quite sexy
Our first move in 2012 was to film and release a series of acoustic videos shot at the awesome Powder Keg Diplomacy in Clapham. These proved almost suspiciously popular in Turkey. Have a gander…

Releasing The Ultimate Lightyears Photo Album
Tired of having to recreate our precious band memories by scribing them into slates like Victorian schoolchildren, this year we decided to compile an archive of our craaaaaaziest international tour photos. Click here to take a look.

Coming perilously close to outshining Bolt at the Games
Back in the heady sporting summer of 2012, we wrote and performed an Olympic Anthem for the city of Peterborough. Here we are performing it with quite literally lots of humans.

Creating lasting world peace with our new app
A couple of months ago we made ourselves tiny enough to fit inside your phone. Apparently professional people call these apps; I call them Mini-Moving-Picture-Boxes. Click here to download your copy.

Queening it up at The Goring Jubilee
Roger Taylor’s all very well, but the shocking truth is that his band nicked their entire identity from this old rocker ALSO CALLED QUEEN. On 3 June we celebrated how many hats she has by playing a big, wet gig in Goring. It was epic.

Eclipsing the internet with Project LYs
In the summer we launched our multimedia micro-site Project Lightyears. The site proved so popular that it immediately broke Google. Don’t worry, there’s a bloke coming round to fix it.

Finishing the book that is fast becoming known as The New New Testament
I’ve been writing a book inspired by the international shenanigans of The Lightyears for some years now, and in 2012 I finished it. The spelling in it is excellent. And if you come to our gig on Saturday 9 February, you can hear me read from it. Here’s an excerpt:

Mercilessly rocking Cape Town
Cape Town welcomed us yet again with open arms at the beginning of the year, and we responded by first eating loads and loads of their delicious meat (not Tony) and then rocking their cocking socks off. Here’s a teeny tiny clip.

Happy New Year folks! And thanks to everyone who supported us in 2012 – it means a lot.

Chris, George, Tony & John
THE LIGHTYEARS

Sweden tour photos now online

Last week we jetted off to Gothenburg, Sweden, to perform with Roger Daltrey from The Who and Queen drummer Roger Taylor.

Aside from the catastrophic impact on our wallets of Gothenburg’s ‘nine quid for a pint of beer’ culture, the trip was a grand success. I’m in the process of documenting our adventures in a tour diary, but in the meantime, head to The Lightyears’ Facebook page where our Sweden tour photo album is now online.

“Nothing really matters…”

Today we awake to the news that Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody has been voted the nation’s favourite Number 1 single as part of an ITV series called, um… well, called The Nation’s Favourite Number 1 Single.

First off, let’s spare a thought for all those fans of The Ketchup Song, Shaddap You Face and most importantly Blazin’ Squad’s early Noughties smash-hit Crossroads who were let down by the decision. I’m sorry Flava, Frenzie, Tommy-B, Freek & the gang – you may rap like Reebok-clad angels but I’m afraid your falsetto skills fall woefully short of Freddie’s.

Secondly, this constant opinion polling is pretty bizarre. We all know how it’ll pan out – Del Boy falling through the bar is the funniest thing that’s ever happened, Star Wars is the greatest film of all time etc. So quite what the point is of yet another vote to decide that Clearly The Greatest Song Of All Time is indeed officially still The Greatest Song Of All Time does seem to have been lost somewhere in the haze. Still… people love countdowns, don’t they?

Anyhow, all that nonsense aside, Queen – we salute you. There will never be another band like Freddie, Brian, Roger and John.

Also, here in The Lightyears, we’re proud to be able to say that (along with Queen, obviously) we’re one of the few acts ever to have performed Bohemian Rhapsody at Wembley Stadium.

Mind you, we also once performed La Bamba at a jumble sale, so it’s swing and roundabouts.