| Feeder
Feeder is an independent rock band who formed in London, England in 1992. The band are Welsh singer/guitarist Grant Nicholas, Japanese bass guitarist Taka Hirose, and English drummer Mark Richardson. The band's original drummer, Jon Lee, committed suicide in 2002. There is an "unofficial fifth member of Feeder". The phrase was coined by the close-knit Feeder fanbase, referring to touring guitarist Dean Tidey, whom many fans regard as a member of Feeder also, although he never appears in music videos but has been known to play with the band on live television appearances. Dean also has his own band, the Sandstone Veterans.
The band's first release was the 1995 Two Colours EP which was a limited edition of 1500 and is now quite valuable. After this was the 6-track mini-album, Swim, originally released in June 1996 and later re-released with bonus tracks in 2001. This was followed by their first full-length effort, Polythene. The band's second release, Yesterday Went Too Soon, met with little more mainstream success than their first. However, in 2001, their third full-length album Echo Park hit the big-time. Singles from the album soared into the charts, with songs such as Buck Rogers and Seven Days in the Sun receiving extensive radio play. Buck Rogers also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Behind Enemy Lines.
Echo Park was also voted in 25th place in a Kerrang! magazine readers poll in 2005 to discover the top 100 British Rock albums of all time. Also, Polythene was Metal Hammer magazines #1 album of 1997, and Yesterday Went Too Soon featured in many end of year lists in various music magazines in 1999.
The B-side to the famous Seven Days in the Sun - Just A Day - featured as the main track for the PAL version of the popular videogame Gran Turismo 3. It is a little known fact that they in fact appear on versions 1, 3, and 4 of the PAL edition of the game, with one track or another, most recently, though, a b-side to Tumble and Fall on Gran Turismo 4 - Shatter, simlarly to Just a Day, was later released as a single in its own right - as a Double-A side with the track Tender from their most recent album. This was partially due to a petition started by Feeders UK fanbase to have the track released (The names on the petition were included as a special feature of the DVD release of the single). The song also features in the soundtrack to the Russian film Nightwatch, and the video contains the band members featuring in notable scenes from the movie.
Feeder's next album, Comfort in Sound is commonly mistaken for being written 'for' the deceased drummer Jon Lee, however the drummer committed suicide in the January of 2002 having finished most of the demoing for the forthcoming album. The songs featured on the album were already of a melancholy tone, but the ex-member's death seemed to hang like a cloud through each anthemic instalment, the album rife with despair. The album was highly rated by the critics with many postive reviews and featured also in many end of year lists in music mags.
Their next album, Picture of Perfect Youth, was a collection of 36 b-sides and other tracks, including Just A Day (which had previously been a b-side on the Seven Days In The Sun single). The album was only available on the band's website, and only a limited number of copies were produced.
Their latest full release, Pushing the Senses, was released in the UK on Jan 31st 2005 after a very long gap which had been made primarily for touring Europe and the United Kingdom. The album was their highest charting in the UK to date, and its lead single Tumble and Fall made the top 5 despite some critical reviews - undoubtedly its chart position has helped by being released in the traditionally quiet chart weeks of January, which the band has used to its advantage several times. The band have recently postponed the last few dates of their UK tour, after Grant was diagnosed with a throat infection.
A Greatest Hits album entiled Feeder- The Singles is planned for Spring 2006, featuring a collection of singles from throughout their history, plus three new tracks. As of March 2006, their latest track, Lost And Found, began recieving limited radio airplay, and will be their next single release on 24th of April, to promote the afore-mentioned Greatest Hits collection, due 1st of May.
The Greatest Hits will also include the new tracks Burn The Bridges and Save Us. The former was previewed on the Winter tour of December 2005. The limited edition version of the album is mooted to include a DVD of 26 videos, from first promo "Stereo World" to the as-yet-unseen "Lost And Found".
For further information see: http://www.feederweb.com/
|
