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Our Top 5 Glastonbury Festival Memories

25 June 2013

Glastonbury Festival MemoriesIt’s Glasto week, children, but I’m not going. Boo-hoo.

I couldn’t get tickets, and Mr Eavis’ invitation for The Lightyears to bump the Stones off their headline slot must have got lost in the post, because we’re not playing this year either.

However, to mark the occasion I thought I’d run down my list of The Lightyears’ Top Five Glastonbury Festival Memories. And if you’re going this year, can I recommend the warm cider? It’s ruddy brilliant.

Blagging our first Glasto gig on the festival bandstand

Back in 2005 we were desperate to play the world’s greatest festival, but didn’t have any leads. So we squeezed a busking drum, acoustic guitar and battery-powered keyboard into our luggage and wandered around the site sporadically busking until someone gave us a gig – on the Glastonbury Festival bandstand.

Glastonbury Festival MemoriesHeadlining the Green Fuse Stage after 400 gin and tonics

Soon graduating from the bandstand, we were booked for a Saturday night set on the Green Fuse Stage that started at around half past twelve. Assuming nobody would be there we drank steadily all day, neglecting to realise that since we were coming on after Coldplay finished on the main stage, 150,000 people would be stumbling about pissed, looking for entertainment. We arrived at Green Fuse somewhat worse-for-wear to find the marquee absolutely rammed full of people, which was a bit of a shock. After desperately sobering up, however, we proceeded to deliver a rambunctious set of enthusiastic acoustic ditties that seemed to go down rather well. (Something really gross happened at this gig, but Tony would kill me if I published it on the web. I will happily tell anyone in person though, because it’s really bloody funny.)

Driving overnight from the studio to the stage

In 2007 we drove to Glastonbury at 3am in the morning after finishing in the studio with Sting’s producer, Hugh Padgham. Hugh simply couldn’t understand why anyone would do this, which I think is fair enough. We smashed up the underside of our car on the way down, and had to sleep in the boot that night – only for 45 minutes though, because we didn’t arrive until 7am and were opening the bill at the Small World Stage just a couple of hours later. Whisky was involved.

Glastonbury Festival MemoriesWatching the sunset to the sound of Leonard Cohen

Glastonbury 2008 was a truly wonderful weekend in which we played two gigs and saw some absolutely belting performances (Crowded House and John Mayer deserve special mention). The weekend ended with the sun setting over the Stone Circle while the strains of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah floated across Worthy Farm. Absolutely magical. Read the full story here.

Disguising a festival hangover live on BBC Radio

We got home from Glasto at around 4.30am on Monday morning, and took immediately to our beds. Just a few hours later I was woken by my phone, and when I answered I was told I was live on BBC Radio Berkshire – who had apparently called to ask how our weekend had been. I was a little dazed, but managed to shift effortlessly into anecdote mode: “Well,” I replied, as enigmatically as possible. “It goes a little something like this…”.

Enjoy the festival, folks!

The Lightyears join Spotify

14 June 2013

In case you were wondering when we were going to get off our bums and embrace the future of music, it’s finally happened – The Lightyears are now on Spotify.

This means you can stream our 2009 album London, England in full, for free, by clicking here (you can do that here too but it’s nice to have options). This is great because it means you don’t have to bother buying the record off iTunes, which saves you £7.90 and also stops us spending all the money – as we inevitably would – on crack, bitches, automatic weapons and hummus.

If you don’t know what Spotify is, what on earth are you doing on a computer? Sorry, I jest – Spotify is a digital music service you can set up on your computer, smartphone or tablet that gives you access to a truly enormous database of songs. Premium members (£9.99 a month) can enjoy music without the adverts, which I’d personally highly recommend – most of us are premium members in The Lightyears, and it’s absolutely tremendous. We can listen to our own music for near-enough free, which is excellent news because otherwise we’d only go spending all the cash on crack, bitches etc (see above).

London, England features two tracks from million-selling producer Hugh Padgham (Sting, Paul McCartney, Elton John), as well as LYs favourites This House Will Burn and England.

 

“London, England” sells out on US tour

10 August 2009

We had such an overwhelming response from American fans during our recent Stateside tour that hard copies of our latest album, London, England, have now completely sold out.

The album is still available on iTunes priced £7.90. Click here to buy your copy.

Watch this space for a re-pressing of the album for those of you who prefer the old school format!

We released London, England in January 2009. It features many of our most popular tracks including “This House Will Burn”, “Emily” and “Sleepless”. The latter two tracks were produced by Hugh Padgham, the four time Grammy-winning producer responsible for selling over 50 million records with Sting, Paul McCartney, Elton John and many more.

Ireland’s State Magazine gave the record 4/5 and described the band as “Babyshambles with better manners”. Read the review by clicking here.

Further reviews of the album can be read here, here and here.

Read my blog on the experience of recording London, England by clicking here.

Lightyears complete new album “London, England”

23 December 2008

Tony turning up for Day One of recording back in March!It’s been nine months since we first set foot in the Voyager Studio to begin work on our second full-length album – and as 2008 draws to a close, we can now announce that the record is finished!  

The ten-track album is called London, England and features familiar tracks “This House Will Burn”, “Filmstar” and “She’s The One” along with lesser-heard material such as “England”, “I’m Not” and “Firefly”. We’re also very excited to reveal that it will include the tracks we recorded last year with Hugh Padgham, “Sleepless” and “Emily”. Hugh has worked with countless great artists such as Sting & The Police, Genesis, Paul McCartney and David Bowie, won four Grammys and sold over 50 million records – so we’re incredibly honoured to have his work on our album.

We’re really proud of the record and can’t wait for you guys to hear it. London, England will be released in the New Year – watch this space for updates!

Lightyears to appear on National TV

1 September 2007

It has just been announced that The Lightyears will be appearing on ITV1’s new chat show The Alan Titchmarsh Show on Thursday 18 October.



Alan will interview the band, along with new Lightyears producer Hugh Padgham (Sting & The Police, Genesis, Paul McCartney, David Bowie etc), and following this the LYs will play a song live in the studio. Other artists currently scheduled to appear in the series include Kaiser Chiefs, Jools Holland, Sugababes and Lionel Ritchie.



The show is aired at 3pm daily and is expected to go out to around 3 million viewers.



…In the meantime, don’t forget that The Lightyears are headlining the Clapham Grand this Wednesday 5 September for Feedme Music’s INDY AWARDS CELEBRATION PARTY.



Doors 7.30pm, first band 8pm. LYs onstage 9.30pm. See you there!

LYs record with legendary producer Hugh Padgham

28 June 2007



If you’re wondering why The Lightyears have been a little quiet for the last few weeks, here’s why – the band have been busy in the studio, recording new tracks with legendary producer Hugh Padgham.



Hugh Padgham is generally regarded as one of the most important producers in the history of popular music. He has worked with Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Kate Bush and Elton John but is perhaps most famous for his work with Sting, The Police, Genesis and Phil Collins. Hugh’s production skills were behind such classic hits as Sting’s Fields Of Gold, Every Breath You Take by The Police and Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight. Over his prestigious career he has won 4 Grammys and sold over 250 million records.



Over recent weeks, The Lightyears have recorded three songs with Hugh. Watch this space for further updates over the coming months!