News
Titanium unlocked at Project LYs
25 July 2012
No, not the lustrous white metal (we’re not building a corrosion-resistant battleship, honest) but rather our live acoustic version of the David Guetta hit from his recent album ‘Nothing But The Beat’.
The track was unlocked when we hit 25,000 views at www.ProjectLightyears.com. Massive thanks to everyone who has been sharing our videos on social networking sites and so on… you’re a huge bunch of legends. Click here to claim your delicious free prize.
We’re still (ahem) a short distance from our eventual target of 10 million, but these things take time! The more hits we get, the more content we unlock – so do keep spreading the good word.
And if you haven’t had a chance to check the site out yet, give it a gander (as in slang for ‘look’, not an adult male goose. I’m not doing well today, am I?) for recent LYs music videos and a trilogy of readings from my upcoming Lightyears novel, Mockstars.
LYs win Telegraph Arts Award for Olympic Project
19 July 2012
We recently collaborated with the Voyager Academy on a community project to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic Torch in Peterborough, and we found out last week that the project had been nominated in the city’s 2012 Evening Telegraph Education Awards. The news from last night’s ceremony at Peterborough’s Key Theatre is… we won!
George and I wrote “There With You” at the tail-end of 2011, having been commissioned by the Voyager Academy to write an anthemic song for Peterborough that could be used to welcome the Olympic Torch this summer. The song was then learned and eventually performed by a massive collective of six-hundred singers and drummers on the Embankment at the official Olympic Torch celebration concert, as well as in front of the cathedral for the BBC cameras while the torch passed and, finally, in the Town Square the following morning.
Click here to watch a video of the Cathedral performance.
On behalf of The Lightyears, many thanks to Moira Green (Vice-Principal at the Voyager and project coordinator), Simon Allen (arranger and orchestrator) and the huge number of adults and children from across the city who put months of work into making the song sound amazing.
Lightyears nominated for Telegraph arts award
11 July 2012
Our 2012 Olympic project – which last week saw us performing our specially-commissioned anthem “There With You” at Peterborough’s Olympic Torch Relay concert with 600 singers and drummers – has been nominated for the Peterborough Evening Telegraph Education Awards.
Spearheaded by Moira Green, Vice Principal at Peterborough’s Voyager Academy, the project began last October when George and I spent three days holed up in his Yorkshire studio working on a track that would be suitable for a huge choir and an epic orchestral arrangement. Nine months later, joined by Tony and his army of drummers and ably assisted by orchestrator, arranger and saxophonist extraordinaire Simon Allen, we played a trilogy of Olympic concerts in Peterborough and helped to herald the arrival of the Torch in the city. Last night we learned we had received a nomination from the Evening Telegraph in the Arts category of their annual Education Awards.
Click here to read my blog on the concert experience.
Click here for a video of the second performance, shot for the BBC outside Peterborough Cathedral.
The ceremony takes place next Wednesday 18 July at the Key Theatre in Peterborough. If we were to win our category, it would earn us a place in the National Education Awards… so we’ll let you know how we get on!
Archive of tour photos now online
8 July 2012
We’ve just posted a comprehensive archive of our tour photos on The Lightyears’ Facebook page, stretching all the way back to 1996 and covering tours to the USA, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, Istanbul and more…
Click here to visit the archive and venture into the mysterious and terrifying world of The Lightyears On Tour. Yes, that’s right – mysterious and terrifying. If you can call photos of me gawping with my thumbs up and Danny draping himself across parked cars mysterious and terrifying.
Which I think you can.
Feel free to leave disparaging comments, or perhaps the occasional ‘Like’ for the ones that take your fancy.
And if your day is still left wanting for entertainment, mosey on over to Project Lightyears and help us reach our next target – just 2,000 more views will unlock your free copy of our live acoustic cover of David Guetta’s Titanium.
New track unlocked at Project LYs
1 July 2012
Thanks to you folks, we’ve now reached over 22,000 views at Project Lightyears – which means the first free gift has been unlocked. Hoorah!
Click here to visit Project LYs and download your free copy of “This House Will Burn”. We first recorded THWB for our 2009 album London, England and it’s been a favourite in our set for a while. This is a previously unreleased, slowed-down acoustic version we recently recorded at the Ritz Studios in Putney.
Whilst you’re there, don’t forget to check out our brand-new cover of Coldplay’s “Paradise” and the trilogy of readings from my upcoming Lightyears novel, Mockstars. If you like ’em, leave us a comment on YouTube or give us a shout-out on Twitter. If you do, I promise good fortune shalt be rained down upon you for evermore, and stuff.
Project Lightyears has arrived…
1 July 2012
People of the world… Project Lightyears is upon us.
No, not a NASA space initiative, but a social-media storm aimed at spreading the word of The Lightyears to all corners of this good green Earth.
It’s all go here at LYs HQ. Work is moving on apace on our new album, which we hope to release later this year along with my Lightyears novel, Mockstars. We need your support to make this happen, and that’s what Project Lightyears is about.
Click here to visit the Project LYs mini-site and you’ll find a host of video content including live acoustic performances and brand-new novel readings.
Our message is simple – we’d like you to share these videos with as many people as you can. The more our fanbase grows, the closer we will come to making this release a reality.
Our ultimate aim is to reach 10 million views, and as the counter climbs we’ll be unlocking delicious free downloads for your listening pleasure.
To kick things off, we need just over 500 more views to unlock an unheard acoustic version of “This House Will Burn”. Click here to pay your first visit to Project Lightyears.
Thank you, as ever, for your support.
BBC pick up on Lightyears Olympic song
22 June 2012
Last year we were commissioned to write a song for the Olympic Games by Moira Green, Vice Principal at the Voyager Academy (on behalf of the city of Peterborough). Following a recent rehearsal visit from a local journalist, the BBC have picked up on the story.
“There With You”, which George and I wrote in his studio up in Yorkshire in Autumn 2011, will be performed on Peterborough Embankment on Tuesday 3 July by The Lightyears and an army of singers and drummers from all corners of the city (nearly 800 in total) to mark the passing of the Olympic Torch through the city.
The BBC were so taken by the story that they extended their planned coverage of the rehearsal and plans are now afoot to screen the Embankment performance live and nationally, in its entirety, on BBC1 on the evening of 3rd July. Our experience of TV is that things can change at the last minute, however, so watch out for updates from us so you don’t end up sitting through half an hour of Newsround wondering where the bleeding heck the bleeding Lightyears are.
Click here to read the story on the BBC website.
n.b. the sharp-witted amongst you will notice an error in this story, namely that the BBC have reported the song as having been written by pupils at the school. Now, I’m known for not being afraid of releasing my inner child, but that may be stretching it a bit.
Lightyears write song for 2012 Olympics
28 March 2012
At the end of last year The Lightyears were commissioned to write a song for the London Olympics – and we have penned a track called There With You, due to be performed at the Peterborough leg of the Olympic Torch Relay on Tuesday 3 July.
Peterborough has big plans for its Olympic Torch celebrations, and the performance of There With You promises to be nothing short of spectacular. In addition to The Lightyears, the concert will feature nearly 700 voices, along with 50 drummers to reflect the cultural diversity of the region. More details to come nearer the time!
Visit the Voyager School website to find out more.
Many of you will remember that we have a long-standing relationship with the city of Peterborough, having released charity football single Posh We Are with Peterborough FC and the Voyager School back in 2008. Read more here.
New LYs music videos now online
6 February 2012
Earlier this month we recorded a series of live music videos in our favourite local bar, Powder Keg Diplomacy.
The first two videos are now online – click to view our acoustic covers of David Guetta’s Titanium and Rihanna’s We Found Love.
More videos to come, including a dusting-off of Lightyears favourite Girl on The Radio and three readings from my new LYs novel, Mockstars.
Lightyears return to South Africa
23 January 2012
Our fourth Cape Town tour kicks off at the end of the month.
We’ll be heading back to CT to headline at the Cape Town Tens on Saturday 4 February. This has always been one of our favourite international gigs and has repeatedly proved to be pretty much the greatest party on earth (apart from those parties you had as kids where one of your chums would hire out the top floor of McDonalds in Reading. Man, were those parties ACE.)
Click here to read my previous South Africa tour blogs.
To our South African friends – we’ll see you all out there!
