News

Help us hit the Top 40

The single “Come With Me”, which we wrote at the end of last year for the Josh’s Band ad campaign, is being released on Universal Records on Monday 11 January.

If we sell enough copies, we might even make it into the Top 40. Watch this space for details of how to download your copy!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO.

The track was produced by Bacon & Quarmby (David Bowie, Ian Brown, Finley Quaye) at London’s Rak Studios and, alongside Josh’s Band – which features Chris and George from The Lightyears – includes many of the performers who joined us on the tour, not least our very own Tony Lightyear and his awesome percussion collective Drum Club.

The music video for “Come With Me” is out on Monday 4 January in anticipation of the single release. Keep an eye on this website for updates…

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…

Lightyears Christmas party – this Friday night

Your last chance to see The Lightyears live in 2009 is this Friday night (4 December) at The Troubadour in Earls Court. We’re throwing an enormous, super-shiny Christmas party to usher in the festive season and promise to lavish all kinds of delectable rock treats upon everybody present.

Tickets are selling fast so it’s advisable to buy in advance by clicking here or turn up early! Doors are at 8pm; music starts 8.15pm; LYs onstage 9.45pm. Door tickets are £6 before 9pm and £7 afterwards.

Support comes from Iain Hornal’s new act Young Squires, Neil Thomas and Shaun Russell.

We’ve also invited a few special guests down, including Josh Ward, star of the T-Mobile superband adverts. Josh will be joining us for a performance of “Come With Me“, the song we wrote for the campaign. The track is due for release on a major record label in January. Not to be missed!

Come and star in a TV advert – this Saturday

This Saturday The Lightyears are joining Josh Ward (from the T-Mobile ads) to try to get 200 musicians together playing “Come With Me” (the song George and Chris recently wrote for the campaign). Top record producer Jonathan Quarmby will be there recording the session for a potential full-scale release in January on a major label (we’re not telling you which one..!).

All musicians and singers of all abilities are welcome to join in. Click here to read the lyrics and learn the chords. You can also download the sheet music. The audio of the song (as recorded at RAK studios a few weeks ago) is online on Josh’s Myspace page.

The session will be from 12noon until 3pm. Meet at Smithfields Market EC1A 9PQ at midday. Bring your instruments (acoustic is preferable).

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.

LYs to appear in national ad campaign

***UPDATE: check out the T-Mobile East London Jam feat. The Lightyears! Click here***

The Lightyears are appearing in several T-Mobile adverts broadcast nationwide over the coming weeks.

If you’ve seen any of the company’s recent campaign – “What Would You Do With Free Texts For Life?” – you’ll probably have noticed the one where the curly-haired chap vows to start a superband (watch it here). Well, it turns out that we’re in that superband.

So far this has involved jamming with thirty other musicians in a warehouse loft, kicking up a storm in a pub in Oxford and cruising round central London in an open-top bus with cellists, trumpeters, saxophonists, singers, guitarists, bass players, drummers, percussionists and cheerleaders and performing to crowds of startled onlookers in Piccadilly Circus, Mayfair and Soho. You can check out some photos from the bus-tour here.

The first adverts were recently aired during primetime commercial breaks on ITV1. Keep your eyes peeled!

Lightyears to play second gig at Wembley Stadium

We’re rather excited to announce that we’ve just been invited back to play Wembley Stadium again on Tuesday 17 November.

Following our performance in September in front of a crowd of nearly 45,000 people, we will be returning to the UK’s most iconic venue to play before the greatly anticipated match between Guinness Premiership leaders Saracens and world-champions South Africa.

As before, the tickets will be super-cheap – just £10 for adults and £5 for under-16s. Click here to buy yours.

Buy tickets for the LYs’ Christmas Party

We’re headlining The Troubadour in Earls Court on Friday 4 December and it’ll be a MASSIVE Christmas party to celebrate the coming of the festive season.

Tickets are now on sale. Buy yours by clicking here!

Advance tickets cost £6. Tickets on the door will cost £7 before 9.30pm and £8 afterwards. Buying in advance is advisable as THIS GIG WILL SELL OUT.

We were aware of a few technical/timing issues at our last Troubadour gig but we’ll be ironing those out this time by running the night ourselves. So expect superior sound quality and faultless punctuality! (Because, let’s face it, there’s nothing more rock ‘n’ roll than being punctual.)

On top of The Lightyears there’ll be music from Shaun Russell, Neil Thomas and The Iain Hornal Experience. Iain is the former frontman of the wonderful Genius, who some of you may remember from a couple of years back when they were touring with The Feeling. After our set, DJ Mark Love will keep the party going long into the night. All-in-all, the place will be heaving with seasonal merriment, wondrous dancing and joy to all men. It’ll be just like Christmas Day, only you won’t have to waste hours trying to fit AAA batteries into an ultimately disappointing remote-controlled helicopter.

…Remember Fezzywig’s Christmas Party in the Charles Dickens novel “A Christmas Carol”? Well, it’s going to be exactly like that. But without the smallpox.

Doors 8pm, first act 8.15. LYs onstage 9.45pm. Full details on the GIGS page.

Wembley media now online

We have just published the first batch of media from our recent performance at Wembley. Visit the GALLERY page to check out our photo gallery and visit the TOUR DIARY page to read my behind-the-scenes report.

Keep your eyes peeled over the coming week for the new episode of LY-TV, featuring exclusive backstage footage of us monkeying around in the bowels of Wembley Stadium. Not for the faint-hearted. Coming soon to www.TheLightyears.com.

The crowd that day reached a record-breaking 45,000 – the biggest ever crowd in the history of Saracens RFC. You can read the HemelToday review of the Sarries’ Big Day Out by clicking here.

First footage of the LYs at Wembley

The first footage of our performance at Wembley Stadium is now online on the Saracens website. Sarries TV have published a 4-minute video with highlights of The Big Day Out also featuring Diversity (winners of Britain’s Got Talent), behind-the-scenes footage and fan reactions.

Click here to view the video (click on “The Big Day Out”).

Watch this space for more media from the day including photos, videos and my Wembley tour diary.

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