News

LYs song used in New York theatre soundtrack

Lightyears track Miles Away was recently featured as part of the soundtrack for off-Broadway show Vital Signs at the June Havoc Theatre in New York.

The play, written by the Pulitzer-nominated Jane Martin, interweaves the stories of six characters through pivotal points in their lives. The piece is composed of over 30 monologues, each around two minutes in length, and Miles Away was used to provide a musical link between the various scenes.

The production, which ran from 13-15 June, was staged by the Plays for Progress Theatre Company, an organisation with the aim of using the art of theatre to promote social change. Plays For Progress believes that investing in children and youth is crucial to creating a better society and providing more equitable opportunities for everyone.

The Lightyears’ Glastonbury Report

The Lightyears returned from Worthy Farm in Somerset, home to the UK’s most famous and best loved festival, two gigs and several suntans richer. Read reviews of the LYs gigs (or write your own), see pictures of how it all went down, plus get a feel for the festival in general through the eyes of a band who played it.

We have more Glastonbury words and pictures than you can hurl a cow at… Just follow the links:

• GIG REPORT : Thursday 26 July : The Lightyears on the Green Fuse Stage
• GIG REPORT : Friday 27 July : The Lightyears on the Small World Stage
• CHRIS LIGHTYEAR’S BLOG : “Life should always be exactly like this…”
• GEORGE LIGHTYEAR’S BLOG : My Glastonbury Top 50
• GALLERY : Photos from the farm ’08

If you have pictures of The Lightyears either performing or around and about at the festival you can upload them on The Lightyears’ Fan Photo Pool. Photos of George just after he fell in the mud on Thursday night would be particularly welcome!

If you have videos uploaded to YouTube, let us know and we’ll add them to The Lightyears’ YouTube Channel.

WANTED: Your Lightyears Photos & Videos

Do you have photos or videos of The Lightyears playing? In the spirit of interactivity we’ve set up pages on our Flickr and YouTube pages where you can share your pictures and videos of Lightyears gigs. We also welcome comments, gig reviews, compliments and abuse on any of our Past Gig pages, News pages, Blogs or anywhere you see a Comments box.

If you’re signed up to Flickr you can join the Lightyears FanPics group. Once you’ve done that you can upload pictures to the group which will then automatically appear on the front page of The Lightyears website on the bottom right hand side.

Click to visit The Lightyears FanPics Pool.

If you have YouTube videos of The Lightyears playing, send us a message either by e-mail, on YouTube, or leave a comment in the box below and we’ll add the video to our channel.

Click to visit The Lightyears YouTube Channel.

LYs to play in front of European Champions Man Utd

On Monday 4 August The Lightyears will be playing at London Road Stadium for the Manchester United Vs Peterborough United pre-season friendly. The band will be performing in the centre-circle just before kick-off, whilst the two teams train around them.   

The band made their debut performance at London Road on Saturday 3 May at the last match of the season against Darlington and have been invited back to Peterborough’s ground on the strength of their performance that day. Watch of a clip from the gig here.

The Lightyears have a long-standing relationship with Peterborough United following their collaboration with the club on the charity single release of Posh We Are (the PUFC anthem) back in May. The song reached #45 in the iTunes Plus Top 100 Chart.

The Posh were promoted at the end of the 07/08 season and the buzz this created has enabled them to schedule in pre-season friendlies with some of the country’s top clubs including West Ham and, of course, Man Utd.

This is an opportunity for LYs fans to hear a half-hour set of the band’s most familiar tunes played in a stadium setting to a crowd of approaching 10,000 people – surrounded by some of the most famous footballers in the world!

If you’re planning to come along, be aware that this match will sell out quickly. Tickets are on sale now from www.ThePosh.com.

Go on. Come and see Ronaldo kick a football at Tony’s head. Priceless.

Brand new Lightyears website online now

The new-look www.TheLightyears.com is now online with a load of new features aimed at making your Lightyears experience more interactive.

The Lightyears are a busy band with a wide range of audio tracks, videos, pictures as well as Chris’s near-legendary tour blog. All of this stuff is now much easier to get hold of on the new site.

Also new is the ability for users to add their own comments and reviews with the ability to add photos and videos coming soon. If you’ve been to a Lightyears gig recently, check out the Past Gigs section where there are write-ups of gigs along with photos.

If you’re into RSS feeds and Social Bookmarking we’ve got that too. In the address bar at the top of the screen you’ll see an RSS logo which you can use to subscribe to The Lightyears newsfeed (for help click here). Below each story is a list of bookmark buttons so that you can share stories from this website with friends (for help click here).

If all that means nothing to you, you can simply add your email address to the box on the right to get Lightyears news and updates delivered to your inbox.

Finally, keep up to date with The Lightyears on the move by following the band with Twitter, the new social network that has taken America by storm. Like the Facebook Status Update, Twitter tells you what The Lightyears are doing as they’re doing it. Our latest ‘tweet’ is shown in the top left corner of the page. You can subscribe to Twitter here.

Enjoy!

Thailand tour confirmed

The LYs’ return to Phuket in Thailand has now been confirmed for the end of October. Dates will include headlining the P.A.W.S. Charity Gala and a show at The Green Man in Muang.

The band made their first trip to Thailand back in October ’07. The tour lasted just over a week and, by all accounts, was pretty much a life-changing experience. Read Chris’ tour blog here; check out Danny Lightyear’s Thailand photo album here. 

The Lightyears were flown over to Phuket to headline at the annual charity gala for the Phuket Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and whilst they were there they notched up two additional performances at the Green Man in Muang.

MC of the PAWS gala, Martin Carpenter MBE, commented: “The Lightyears are, without doubt, one of the best bands I have seen play in Phuket during the past fifteen years”.

The boys were delighted to be invited back again for this autumn’s event. And not just because it’ll allow them to stock up on the questionable Thai rum they brought home last time. Although that’s always a perk.

Lightyears land second gig at Glastonbury Festival

The band have secured a second gig at Glastonbury Festival 2008 and will be performing on both the Green Fuse Stage (Thursday evening 9pm) and the Small World Stage (Friday evening 10.30pm). Plus, if you’re shrewd, you might be able to catch them a third time. But keep it under your hat, right…? 

The Green Fuse Stage, in the Greenfields, which hosts the band’s opening performance at this year’s Glastonbury, is windmill-powered – we kid you not.

Similarly, the Small World Stage, also in the Greenfields, is powered by the sun (a touch optimistic for Glasto maybe?!). Both stages are run by organisations who support renewable energy sources; click on the links for more info.

Now, this next news item is hot-off-the-press… at the festival this year the LYs will also be collaborating with Youth Music (based in the Left Field) to be a part of their Build A Band competition. Build A Band has brought together five talented teenagers from across the country who will meet for the first time on Day One of the festival – and be given just a few days to write and rehearse a protest song which they will perform together on Sunday afternoon on the Left Field Stage (where they’ll be sharing a bill with Dirty Pretty Things, the Bluetones and British Sea Power).

The Lightyears have been asked to meet the band on Friday evening at 6pm to give them some tips ahead of their big performance and have a bit of a jam behind the Left Field Stage. If you can find us, you can join us. The event will be filmed and will go live on the Orange festival website just a few hours later. 

This is the band’s third appearance at Glastonbury. If you’re at the festival this year, come hang out with us. If you can surf the web on your mobile phone, keep an eye on our Twitter status on the LYs homepage – this’ll tell you where we are and when! Even better, you can sign up to Twitter on your mobile and receive instant updates by text message, wherever you are (details at www.Twitter.com).

Chris’ Tour Blog: Korea 2008 – online now!

This year, for the third year running, The Lightyears were invited to headline at The Queen’s Birthday Ball in Seoul, South Korea. Chris Lightyear has documented the trip in his LYs tour blog – read up on the band’s Korean adventures here.

The LYs played two gigs whilst in Seoul this year, the first at a “Meet The Lightyears” evening in Itaewon and the second at the ball itself. The theme for 2008 was Phantom Of The Opera and the event, held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Mount Namsan, raised an incredible 160 Million KRW. 

The QBB is organised annually by the hard-working BASS committee in honour of the Queen’s birthday, which I think we can all agree is a wonderfully British thing to do. In excess of 500 people attend every year.

Danny Lightyear was diligently snapping away all week and you can check out his photos by clicking here.

LYs return to South Korea

Tomorrow the LYs travel to Seoul in South Korea to play at The Queen’s Birthday Ball and hang out with the British Ambassador. This marks the band’s third consecutive year headlining at the event and the 2008 QBB promises to be bigger than ever…

The Lightyears were first booked for The Queen’s Birthday Ball back in 2006. The event, organised by the BASS Committee, is a regular highlight of the social calendar in Seoul and raises funds for a number of Korean charities.

Whilst in Korea the band will also be headlining at The Bungalow in Itaewon on Thursday 29 May.

Listen out for tales of daring and adventure on our return…

Win FREE TICKETS to The Lightyears @ “No One Died”

The band’s next London show is at the famed No One Died club night at The Enterprise opposite Chalk Farm tube station. The LYs will be headlining and the night also features a live performance from Marcel and DJ sets from The Camden Slags, iRod and Might Marvin Martin.

No One Died has a history of selling out so buying in advance is recommended (tickets are available here). Alternatively, social networking website M3 are giving away 12 pairs of free tickets for the gig. To enter the draw you need to be an M3 user; visit www.m3mob.com for details. Offer ends Wednesday 4 June.   

This will also be The Lightyears’ last club gig in London until the autumn. So don’t miss out…!

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