News

At Midnight available online now [updated]

At Midnight, the new EP from The Lightyears is now available to buy. To be among the first to get a copy you can order the CD on the Shop page now.

The EP features familiar tracks She’s The One and This House Will Burn along with instrumental Phoenix and new songs Brightest Star and Run.

Additionally, all five tracks from the EP are exclusively available on US download store Amie Street. For more information read about The Lightyears on Amie Street.

LYs track “Single Of The Day” at Amie Street

One day after being uploaded to the site, Lightyears track Phoenix has been named “Single Of The Day” on online download store Amie Street.

All five tracks from new Lightyears EP At Midnight have been made available for download from Amie Street ahead of the record’s physical release this Sunday 14 September at the Time Out “Back To School Blowout” Festival in Union Square, New York. The physical release for UK fans follows a week later on Monday 22nd.

Amie Street, a social networking site as well as a music download outlet, has been making waves since its launch in 2006 due to it unique system of pricing tracks. The site uses an algorithm to determine song prices – the cost of a track starts at zero when a song is uploaded onto the site and rises according to increased demand (with the price being capped at 98 cents). 

Users can open accounts and purchase credit in order to download songs; alternatively, users can earn credit by recommending songs they like to other listeners. The site also has its own Facebook Application called “Fantasy Records”, which allows fans to create their own “record label” from songs in their Amie Street account.  

Visit The Lightyears on Amie Street to find out more.

New Lightyears EP – out next week

At Midnight, the new 5-track EP from The Lightyears, will be released this Sunday 14 September in the USA. UK release will follow a week later.

The first opportunity for fans in the States to get their hands on At Midnight will be at the Time Out “Back To School Blowout” open-air festival in Union Square, New York, this Sunday. Following The Lightyears’ performance on the main stage at 3.30pm, At Midnight will be on sale in Virgin Megastore where the band will also be signing copies on request.

In addition, all five tracks are available online at new social networking site and music download store Amie Street. At Amie Street, the price for newly-uploaded tracks begins at zero and rises according to increasing demand (with the ultimate price being capped at 98 cents). Check out The Lightyears on Amie Street.

The EP will be released in the UK on Monday 22 September. The record features familiar tracks She’s The One and This House Will Burn along with instrumental Phoenix and new songs Brightest Star and Run. 

Lightyears in FourFourTwo

The Lightyears get a mention in this month’s edition of football magazine FourFourTwo following their collaboration with Peterborough United Football Club on the charity single Posh We Are.

The single, a re-working of the club’s 30 year-old terrace anthem, was released in May of this year to raise money for Peterborough-based sports charity Free Kicks. The record reached #45 in the iTunes Plus Top 100 Chart.  

See Page 123 of FourFourTwo’s October edition (part of the “Planet Football” feature) for the band’s appearance. 

Our sources suggest that this represents The Lightyears’ first appearance in the national sporting press. Hopes for the future include a double-page spread in the Subbuteo Almanac and an intimate and revealing exposé in the Gymkhana Gazette.

LY-TV begins transmission…

The band have launched a series of bite-sized video “webisodes” documenting life in The Lightyears called LY-TV. 

Each episode of LY-TV covers one of the band’s various adventures, whether that’s performing live on BBC Radio or playing a gig in front of 12,000 people in a football stadium.

LY-TV’s most recent instalment documents last week’s gig with the Mystery Jets, and gives a flavour of what it was like to be in the audience at a sold-out Barfly. The videos are available to view here on this website on the VIDEO page or on The Lightyears’ YouTube Channel.

Tickets on sale for Pennsylvania show

Tickets have just gone on sale for The Lightyears’ headline show at Milkboy Coffee in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday 17 September.

The band’s previous gigs at Milkboy have all sold out so you’d be advised to get your tickets early – visit the Milkboy website to grab yours whilst they’re hot…

And, just because we’re feeling charitable, the LYs’ shows in New York this September are all totally free to attend. The Time Out Back To School Blowout, presented in association with Virgin, is a four-hour event in Union Square with bands a-plenty and all kinds of wacky shenanigans going on, including live comedy from the Gotham Comedy Club. If you’re a student you can also take advantage of a bucket-load of free giveaways from participating vendors. Check the Back To School Blowout website for more info.

You can also catch the band for free at Pianos, Lower East Side, on Tuesday 16 September. The LYs will be forming one half of the venue’s legendary Cross-Pollination night, where two acts (who have, in many cases, never met) collaborate in a one-off jamming session. Joining the boys on the night will be California’s Chris & Thomas.

This autumn’s tour represents the band’s third visit to the United States. Read up on The Lightyears’ 2006/07 American adventures in Chris Lightyear’s International Tour Blog.

Barfly gig sold out (update)

UPDATE: The gig has now sold out.

The Lightyears’ gig with the Mystery Jets at the Camden Barfly on Thursday 21 August is looking set to sell out – so if you don’t yet have your tickets, it is strongly advised that you visit the Barfly website and pick some up before it’s too late. 

Over 130 tickets have already been sold for the show and the remainder are expected to disappear pretty sharpish when the Jets officially announce the gig on their site next Monday 18 August. 

The gig, organised and masterminded by Quiroga Promotions, will be raising funds for the Global Exchange programme (run jointly by Voluntary Service Overseas and the British Council). The aim of the programme is to create “Active Global Citizens” and to encourage people to start thinking of the world as a whole unit, rather than a place that is divided by cultural or territorial barriers. Click here to find out more.

An extensive line-up of DJs has just been added to the bill and so, following sets from the Mystery Jets and the LYs, the venue will be throwing a full-on aftershow party featuring Tapedeck DJs, Fallout DJs, Yes Sir Idol and Dead Meat DJs. We’ll be having it LARGE. Don’t get left behind….

[click to read the news story about this gig on the NME website]

Tickets now on sale for Lightyears + Mystery Jets

Tickets are now on sale for The Lightyears’ gig with the Mystery Jets on Thursday 21 August at the Camden Barfly.

The week-long pre-sale period is over and tickets are now available to the general public. Visit the Barfly website to buy yours – but be quick! These tickets are hot and early indications are that the show may sell out before 21 August. 

The Barfly gig promises to be a cracking night – The Lightyears will be coming out of hiding to showcase a batch of new songs and share a stage with one of the country’s top indie acts before they rock the main stage at Reading Festival. Don’t miss out!

Lightyears to support Mystery Jets

The Lightyears have just been booked to support the Mystery Jets at Camden Barfly on Thursday 21 August.

Tickets go on sale on Monday 4 August but Lightyears fans are being given the exclusive opportunity to get in there before the general public. Pre-sale tickets will be available online for a week from next Monday 28 July – keep an eye on www.TheLightyears.com for details of how to get yours.  

The Mystery Jets have enjoyed a string of Top 40 hits since hitting the mainstream in 2005 and this will be a rare opportunity to see them in an intimate venue just two days before they hit the main stage at Reading Festival. 

The LYs will be fresh from a sell-out stadium gig in front of Manchester United and just a couple of weeks away from playing the Time Out Festival in Union Square, New York.  

The Barfly gig has been put together to raise money for international development charity VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas). Watch this space next Monday for details of how to nab your pre-sale tickets…

LYs to play Time Out Festival in New York

The Lightyears have just been booked to play in front of 4,000 people at the 2008 Time Out Back To School Blowout in Union Square Park, New York, on Sunday 14 September.

The Blowout is held as a welcoming party for the Big Apple’s massive student population as they return to the city for the beginning of the academic year. Presented with Virgin Megastore, New York University and the Union Square Partnership, the event will be held in the Square’s south plaza and, along with The Lightyears, will feature four of America’s hottest new signed bands.

This will be the band’s third trip to the States in the last two years. Since November 2006, the LYs have built up a loyal following in the Philadelphia area, appearing on national radio station WXPN and playing sell-out shows in various venues in Pennsylvania.

For tales of high jinx in the USA, see Chris Lightyear’s 2006 and 2007 US Tour Blogs…

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