superband

Our Top 20 Moments Of 2009

Christmas Time is here again and there’s enormous excitement in the air. There’s an outside chance that Rage Against The Machine will beat the X Factor to Number One on Sunday and the weather-man says that snow’s a-coming. Things literally couldn’t be any better.

We thought we’d add to the general feeling of goodwill and festivity by recounting our favourite and most memorable experiences from the past year. Most of them – whether in London, Cape Town or the USA – involved the support of our fans and we’d like to personally thank everyone who has helped us make 2009 one of our best years yet. You guys rule.

So here, in no particular order, are The Lightyears’ Top 20 Moments Of 2009:

1. Stepping out onstage at Wembley Stadium for the first time in front of 45,000 people

2. Winning over an audience of leather-clad Norwegian bikers at the Speedway Cafe in Cape Town

3. Performing a barbershop medley of British seaside tunes in front of the British Ambassador in Seoul

4. Writing a song for a national ad campaign (“Come With Me” is released on Universal Records in January)

5. Spotting our faces in train stations and on the side of buses

6. Performing for a full-house of fans, friends and family at The Lightyears’ Christmas Party

7. Playing to a crowd of thousands on a hot summer’s evening in Union Square, Manhattan

8. Working with top producers Bacon & Quarmby (David Bowie, Finley Quaye, Sugababes) on the studio release of “Come With Me”

9. Watching South Africa’s foremost FHM model Roxy Louw stage-dive into a crowd of boogying revelers at our Cape Town Tens gig

10. Being invited back to Wembley Stadium

11. Drinking Pina Coladas by the pool at the Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town

12. Seeing ourselves on TV (click here)

13. Touring the country with Josh’s Band

14. Finding out we’ve been immortalised on canvas!

15. Spotting The Lightyears in the New York Post

16. Dressing up as intergalactic space rockstars for a Forbidden Planet tribute gig

17. Selling out our latest album London, England on the US Tour

18. Celebrating the end of the Korean Tour with a Lightyears night on the tiles

19. Appearing on the same bill as Diversity, winners of Britain’s Got Talent

20. Partying with the LYs American Fan Club in Riverton, New Jersey!

Kate Nash & Her Famous Rabbit

Last night we went back into the studio to finish the lead vocal track for “Come With Me“, the song we wrote for the new T-Mobile ad campaign. The record is being produced by Jonathan Quarmby, whose past work includes Finley Quaye’s seminal album Maverick A Strike.

George and I both lent our voices to the lead vocal track along with an awesome, honey-voiced female singer called Obenwa. The track is being mixed today and, in theory, the finished product will be sent to the record label tomorrow – which is, conveniently, George’s birthday! We’ve been invited back into the studio tomorrow morning to listen to the final product and have our reactions documented by the film crew… and then I suspect we shall head off to the pub for a celebratory pint or two.

Josh was full of beans when we arrived yesterday evening having spent the afternoon taking tea with Kate Nash in the studio green room. She was recording in one of Rak’s other studios and was accompanied – as, apparently, she always is – by her pet rabbit Fluffy.

That’s nothing though. When I’m famous I’m going to cart a basking shark around with me in a skip.

Just you try and stop me.

LYs starring in two TV ads – out now!

Over the past month, The Lightyears have been touring around the country with Josh’s Band as part of a series of enormous jamming sessions in five of the UK’s major cities. These gigs have been turned into two T-Mobile adverts, both of which are now airing on primetime television.

After writing the song “Come With Me” – which became the soundtrack for the campaign – Chris and George joined Josh’s core band on keytar and vocals respectively. The line-up was completed by drummer Mike Glozier who, by complete coincidence, is an old friend of Chris and George’s from their schooldays.

“Come With Me” will be released on Universal Records in January. Watch this space for news…

Setting the record straight

Yesterday afternoon we gathered at Rak Studios in St John’s Wood to put the finishing touches to the track we wrote for Josh’s Band, “Come With Me”. Awesome turns were made by, amongst others, a rather talented tuba player, several trumpeters and the inimitable Russell Ward on the squeezebox.

One perennial truth of being in the studio is that you spend 10% of your time making records and 90% of your time hanging about. It’s vitally important that, during this 90% majority period, you have armed yourself with some quality reading material to divert your attention once the banter starts wearing thin and everybody has grown tired of quoting scenes from Spinal Tap at each other. Yesterday, Tony had picked up a copy of The Guardian and soon enough a vitriolic slating of Josh’s supergroup project, penned by the infamous pessimist Charlie Brooker, was doing the rounds (read it here). Unsurprisingly, Charlie ain’t a fan of Josh’s Band. However, he is very funny and, if you’re gonna be mocked, it may as well be entertaining.

It was quite a bizarre experience to be reading somebody’s skewed interpretation of a project whilst simultaneously living through the markedly different reality. Funny thing is, if I were in Charlie’s position, I might well think exactly the same thing. It’s a set-up. Josh is an actor. The band are all session musicians. But he isn’t, and we’re not. Of course, T-Mobile set the whole thing in motion and it clearly helps to have the support of a production company when you’re organising large events, but I can personally testify that the grassroots movement that Brooker is so suspicious of has genuinely happened.

Clearly, many of the people who attended the gigs on our recent tour came for the TV cameras and the chance of 15 minutes of fame; however, crucially, they stayed for the music. Nobody freezes their knackers off in Edinburgh for five straight hours under fire from basically horizontal rain unless they’re actually enjoying themselves.

As for the music itself, Josh asked us to come into the studio a few weeks back to write a song for the project and the resultant session produced the track “Come With Me”, which has gone on to soundtrack the entire campaign. Charlie wrote in his article that the lyrics were clearly “penned by some dickshoe at Saatchi & Saatchi” and so, in the interest of setting the record straight, I ought to point out that George (Lightyears guitarist and the man behind the lyrics in question) does not and has never worked for Saatchi.

On the other hand, between you and me… he is a bit of a dickshoe.

Look out Manchester – Josh’s Band is a-coming…

Since I last blogged, Josh’s Band has jammed in Bristol, London and Edinburgh. We’ve played with pipers, melodised with melodica players and harmonised with hurdy-gurdyists (don’t be fooled by the elaborate alliteration – all of this is true). Plus our mates are starting to get in contact to say they’ve heard us on the radio tonight – so the word is spreading…

It’s been an awesome journey so far and is set to continue in style with an enormous gig at Manchester’s Trafford Centre this Saturday. If you live in the area, make sure you get your butt down there. You won’t regret it.

And, if you’ve managed to miss out on this poptastic jamboree entirely, fear not – you can come and see The Lightyears headline The Troubadour in Earls Court next Friday 4 December. Josh will be making a special guest appearance and no doubt an impromptu singalong will ensue…

Historically we tend to sell this venue out so it’s advisable to buy in advance (click here to purchase tickets) or arrive early. Doors at 8pm; first act 8.15pm; LYs onstage 9.45pm. Visit the GIGS page for full details. See you there!

Josh’s Band hits the road…

Well… Birmingham was awesome. Nobody knew quite what to expect from the first date on Josh’s Band’s tour but what we got was a mass singalong in the Bullring, just enough decent weather to perform outside and about 200 screaming fans! Josh, it seems, has become a minor celebrity overnight and his mere presence now sparks mass hysteria amongst his devoted groupies.

Our song, “Come With Me“, went down really well and a large proportion of the crowd had done their homework and learnt the lyrics, tune and chords (check out the video tutorial here). People were turning up with guitars, miniature drumkits, saxophones, kazoos and ukuleles and, despite the rain, British spirit endured and everybody had a whale of a time.

Next stop, Bristol – this Thursday 19 November. Details coming soon!

Now, if you’ll forgive me, I must return to Lightyears duties and go and prepare for tomorrow’s gig. Which is at Wembley Stadium. In front of 60,000 people.

Gulp.

Come one, come all, to Birmingham…

All the great tours start in great cities. That’s just a simple fact of rock and roll. It might be the Enormodome, Memphis, or the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, or New York’s Madison Square Gardens.

This tour, on the other hand, begins in Birmingham.

But you gotta start somewhere, eh?!

Tomorrow morning at 11am, Josh’s Band (featuring Chris and George Lightyear) will be premiering at the Birmingham Bullring in an attempt to get the good people of the UK singing the song we wrote last week in a studio in St John’s Wood. It’s called “Come With Me” and it’s invitingly simple to play and sing (click here for lyrics and chords; click here for recording and sheet music).

If you possess even just a modicum of musical talent or inclination, come join us and you could end up starring in a T-Mobile advert. It’s going to be exactly like the video for “All You Need Is Love”… except, you know, in a shopping centre.

Visit Josh’s Myspace page to find out more.

LYs write song for T-Mobile ad campaign

Last week we were asked by T-Mobile and Josh Ward (the face of their recent “free texts for life” adverts) to write a song for their new campaign that would inspire thousands of people across the country to “Join Josh’s Superband”. We were up against a number of other musicians and songwriters but we’re excited to announce that T-Mobile have chosen our song!

The track is called “Come With Me” and a basic recording can be heard here. The idea is that, over time, loads of musicians and singers will add their voices and instruments to the track to create a joyous, ramshackle, ‘superband’ sound.

Click here to read the lyrics and learn the chords (it’s very straighforward!).

The other development from the past week is that George and I, along with the superb Mike Glozier on drums, have been recruited for Josh’s core band. The band will be touring around the country over the coming month and teaching “Come With Me” to as many people as possible. Visit Josh’s Myspace for details.

Where the project will go from there, only time will tell…

Visit the BLOG page to read about our experiences so far.

Our song in a national ad campaign…!

Here’s the news – T-Mobile have selected our song “Come With Me” to be the signature song for their upcoming ad campaign. On top of this, George and Chris have now officially joined Josh Ward (the face of the ad campaign) and virtuoso drummer Mike Glozier to form the core band for the tour. This means that we’ll be bombing up and down the country over the next month or so performing the song and teaching it to – hopefully – thousands of people.

Click here to view the latest episode of Josh’s Superband Saga – featuring The Lightyears in the studio, working on “Come With Me”.

This whole campaign has grown organically and it’s impossible to say what will happen next… but there’s a good chance you’ll be hearing more about it soon, whether it’s in the paper, on the TV or in your hometown. Whether you’re musical or not, Josh wants you to Join His Band. And you should. He’s a lovely chap, you know.

You can read the lyrics for our song “Come With Me” on the LYRICS page.

You can here “Come With Me” on Josh’s Myspace page by clicking here.

Writing a song for T-Mobile…

Our involvement with the new T-Mobile ad campaign is now beginning to get exciting. Friends and family have been spotting us all over the UK on TV ads, billboards, bus-stops and train station big screens…. and today we were brought in to write the campaign’s flagship song.

We were invited to the famous Rak Studios in St John’s Wood, which is where Radiohead recorded The Bends. Our brief was to write a song that would provide the basis for the next leg of the campaign – travelling around the country and inspiring mass nationwide sing-alongs. No pressure then.

Joined by Josh on bass and the amazing Mike Glozier on the drums, George and I wrote a song called “Come With Me” – an uplifting, quirky, catchy pop number about gathering together everyone you know and going on a massive road trip (you can read the lyrics here). Various different songwriters and groups of musicians have been asked to contribute material to T-Mobile’s cause and it’s not clear yet which song the ad execs at Saatchi & Saatchi will choose. Fingers crossed – we find out tomorrow…

ps. If you’ve seen The Lightyears on a billboard or bus-stop, send us a picture of yourself with the advert (preferably with your thumbs-up – it’s the only respectable way to be photographed) and we’ll publish it on the website.

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