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Lightyears – part of Saatchi & Saatchi’s history!

The T-Mobile advert we appeared in (and wrote the music for) earlier this year has been included in Saatchi & Saatchi’s 40 Years of Nothing Is Impossible feature, which chronicles all the best and most popular ads made by the company since they began (forty years ago last weekend).

The Josh’s Band music video is included alongside such classics as Carlsberg’s ‘Probably The Best Lager In The World‘ and that ‘Furry Friends‘ advert where the cat snuggles up in front of the fire with the bulldog. Vintage. Click here to view the feature.

If you managed to miss our advert when it was on telly, click here to watch it.

Why LYs fans are the best fans in the world…

When we discovered that a five-star hotel in Cape Town had erected a plaque in our honour back in January (read about it here), I think we all expected this would be the last time something like that would happen to us. Au contraire, however! After our recent gig at the Burlington Amphitheatre in New Jersey, USA, we were invited back to the picturesque town of Riverton for an after-party. The bash was being held on the legendary porch of one Maureen Murray, known well to The Lightyears during our recent visits to the USA for her propensity to ply us with Bombay Sapphire and delicious all-American breakfasts.

Lo and behold, in honour of an impromptu unplugged show we played on her porch back in 2007, it turned out that Maureen had erected a Ye Olde Wooden Plaque on the outside of her home (see photo above). Long may it hang there.

The more I think about this, the more I wonder whether Maureen may have started something here. A movement, perhaps. A mission for us to inspire plaque-hanging in every country in the world. USA and South Africa down, only about two hundred countries left to go.

Please feel free to help our cause. Erect a Lightyears plaque today. If you do, I promise to write a blog about it. And I’m a man of my word.

Ahoy there matey! It’s those pesky LYs…

On Saturday night we performed for Her Majesty’s Ambassador and six hundred esteemed guests at The Queen’s Birthday Ball in Seoul, South Korea. The theme for the evening was classic 1930s cruise ship glamour and, in honour of this, we performed our set inside an enormous scale model of  a vintage seafaring vessel, which opened up dramatically to reveal us inside.

This is definitely the most unusual stage we’ve played on. I mean, we’ve done some bizarre gigs (that crèche we headlined at in Peterborough springs immediately to mind, along with the cow shed in Belgium) but emerging from inside a cruise-liner bearing the legend “Queen Elizabeth” definitely takes the biscuit.

After the show I had a chat with the lady behind the idea and she explained she’d had many sleepless nights worrying about how the ship would turn out when it appeared on the day. She said that it had ended up being much bigger than she’d anticipated. I replied that she should thank her lucky stars – at least it didn’t come out unexpectedly tiny. They could have had a serious case of Stonehenge on their hands (for reference, see the famous scene in Spinal Tap in which a mix-up over feet and inches results in the dramatic lowering onto the stage of a model of Stonehenge so small that “it was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf”).

This happened to us once. Years ago we got our first big gig at a festival supporting The Levellers. Keen to make the most of the exposure, we had a banner made bearing our name and website address. In our innocence we decided that three-feet long by one-foot wide would be a sufficient size for the job, although when we picked up the banner from the shop and unwrapped it from its little sheath, it turned out to be only slightly larger than a pair of men’s pants. At least if we’d hung pants on the stage this could conceivably have been read as an anarchic gesture.

Note to self: in rock ‘n’ roll, bigger is always better…

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…

The Kookaburra counts his money…

You may have heard that Men At Work, who wrote and performed the massive 1983 hit, “Down Under“, have been sued by Sydney-based publishing company Larrikin Music for apparently plagiarising a line of melody from “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree”, a song written for the Girl Guides in 1934. Larrikin were attempting to claim up to 60% of the income earned from the song, which could amount to as much as $60 million. It is unclear at the moment exactly how much money the publishing company will make from the endeavour, but one thing is for sure – the judge has ruled in their favour.

There are a whole bunch of things that annoy me about this.

First of all, this song has been kicking around for 25 years and, in that time, nobody apart from Larrikin (and that includes the late Marion Sinclair, who actually wrote Kookaburra) has noticed this apparent “rip-off”. Secondly, “Down Under” songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Stryckert of Men At Work actually had nothing to do with the flute riff in question. It was, unsurprisingly, improvised by a flautist called Greg Ham. Thirdly, to suggest that two seconds of an instrumental hook could equate to 60% of the popularity of the song is patently ludicrous.

Ultimately, however, the thing that really grinds my gears about this whole business is an article I read on the BBC website, in which Larrikin’s lawyer Adam Simpson claimed that his triumph in the case had been “a victory for the underdog”. Underdog?!! Aspiring musicians strike it lucky with a cracking tune and make a ton of money USING THEIR ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE TALENT and then, nearly thirty years later, a bunch of guys in suits who have probably never created anything more complicated than a pasta sauce gang together to mercilessly rob them of millions and millions of their hard-earned dollars? Underdog my hat. What a load of utter bullcrap.

Oh, and whilst I’m on the subject of the prosecutors, Larrikin owner Norm Lurie has had the gall to imply that this wasn’t all about the money and to position himself as some kind of crusader for moral justice. He has commented in interview: “Of course it would be disingenuous for me to say that there wasn’t a financial aspect involved, [but] you could just as easily say what has won out today is the importance of checking before using other people’s copyrights.” Hang on a minute – “a financial aspect“? Fine. If it really wasn’t all about the money, then shouldn’t you consider giving half of it to Marion Sinclair’s family…?

There’s something about the thought of thousands of lawyers and publishers across the world jumping on the bandwagon and insidiously rifling through every song that ever made any money in search of a tiny snatch of allegedly stolen melody that could lead to their next big pay cheque that makes me want to be really quite sick all over everything. No piece of art is ever completely original. Everybody knows that. The music industry has been recycling material since time-in-memoriam. That is how art works. Obviously you can’t go around shamefacedly nicking other people’s work – of course you can’t – but there is a line and in this case it has been crossed, as far as I’m concerned.

Having said all this, in researching this blog I came across a transcript for some of the words in “Down Under”, which to be honest I’d never fully taken in despite having heard the song numerous times. Check this out: “I come from a land down under, where beer does flow and men chunder”. Crikey. Those are some pretty dubious lyrics – which does make me wonder rather whether they had it coming to them….

Best start to a tour… ever.

So, we landed in Cape Town yesterday and immediately jumped in a cab bound for the Table Bay Hotel. The Table Bay is generally regarded as being the city’s best hotel (it’s in the “Leading Hotels Of The World” group, don’t you know) and is definitely one of the major perks of our annual South Africa trip.

We were sat in the lobby waiting for our rooms to be prepared and decided to wander outside into the sunshine and have a closer look at the statue of a giant golden seal (the hotel’s emblem) that sits resplendently on the harbourside. The statue features a series of commemorative plaques bearing the names of the many illustrious figures who have stayed here over the years, and to pass the time we spent a while examining them in closer detail. We were suitably impressed. Examples included:

– Michael Jackson
– Snoop Dogg
– Maroon Five
– Wesley Snipes
– Vladimir Putin
– Manchester United
– Stevie Wonder
– Robert De Niro
– Quincy Jones
– Barack Obama
– … and, just above Obama and slightly to the left… us.

The Lightyears.

We have a plaque on the Table Bay’s Golden Seal. And in case you don’t believe me, I’ve posted a photo above.

I suspect that if Putin discovered that he featured on the side of a statue, he’d play things pretty cool. Not us. We proceeded to take a variety of shameless photos of ourselves pointing and grinning at our name, flipping the thumbs-up and generally behaving like the worst kind of tourists. But we didn’t care. We’ve got our name on a statue. With a little union jack under it.

Our mothers will be so proud.

Best start to a tour… ever.

ps. this actually got me thinking – how many other plaques have been forged in our honour without us knowing? If we were to return one day to the Knutsford M6 Travelodge, would one of the concrete parking bollards bear the legend “The Lightyears stayed here – and they saw that it was good”? There’s simply no way of knowing for sure.

A call to arms… help us hit the charts!

Today, Monday 11 January, marks the date of our first major label release – the song “Come With Me”, which we wrote for the Josh’s Band project. We’re hoping that, with your help, we’ll be able to reach the UK Top 40 Chart on Sunday.

You guys have supported us loyally for years now and we truly appreciate it – a band without a fanbase is, after all, just four blokes sat in a room eating crisps and arguing about whether or not The White Album has too many tracks on it. Both the recording and the video for “Come With Me” actually feature a number of you and so, in a sense, it’s as much your record as it is ours. Now is the time for rallying together and seeing if we can make a dent on the charts!

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CLICK HERE TO BUY THE SINGLE ON AMAZON.

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE SINGLE ON PLAY.COM.

*It’s important you buy your copy by midnight on Saturday so as to maximise our chances of chart success!*

Last November, Josh’s Band toured five cities – Birmingham, Bristol, London, Edinburgh and Manchester – and the gigs were caught on camera and turned into a series of TV adverts and a music video featuring all 1,107 people who played and/or sang on the track. The shows were unlike anything we’ve ever been a part of and we’d like to thank everybody who came down for helping to create a truly unique musical experience.

You can watch the music video by clicking here or, alternatively, you can catch it on Channel 4 this Friday 15 January between 9pm and 10pm (during Celebrity Big Brother – exact timing T.B.A.).

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.

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.

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