Feeder (band)

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Background information <tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Newport, Wales</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Alternative Rock, Indie Rock</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1992–present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Echo/EMI</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">www.feederweb.com</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Grant Nicholas Taka Hirose Mark Richardson</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Former members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Jon Lee</td></tr>

Feeder are an independent rock band who formed in Newport, South Wales in 1992. The band are Welsh singer/guitarist/songwriter, Grant Nicholas, Japanese bass guitarist Taka Hirose, and English drummer Mark Richardson. The band is also accompanied on tour by second guitarist Dean Tidey of The Sandstone Veterans. The band's original drummer, Welsh-born Jon Lee, committed suicide in 2002.

To date the band have sold over a million certified albums in the UK according to the BPI's searchable database [1], with three of those certified Platinum and 3.5 million records worldwide at the end of 2005.^[1][2]

The band are very loyal supporters of the charities War Child and Oxfam, and in 2006 also visited The Congo as part of War Child's fundraising initiatives.

They are considered as one of the most popular bands in their respective genre group at the moment, having won two Kerrang! awards in 2001 and 2003. Their hit single "Buck Rogers" is seen by many as a UK music festival anthem.

Dean Tidey is also signed to Sir George Martin's publishing label, and played in an all-star band at the UK Music Hall of Fame performing Beatles classics to mark his induction.

History

Swim - Echo Park

The band's first release was the 1995 "Two Colours EP" a limited edition of 1500 vinyls and 1000 CD's. 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" which saw 4 top 75 hits and a rare 10/10 rating and a #1 ranking by Metal Hammer magazine in their 1997 albums of the year list, making it one of the top 10 most critically successful albums that year.^[3] Following the release of the album, the band performed a number of small gigs and the main stage at the Reading Festival. In 1998, the band played a major gig at the V Festival, and also toured the US and UK with Everclear, swapping support and headline slots. This ended in a sellout two-date show at the London Astoria.^[1]

The band returned to the US to tour extensively, and following it's inclusion on the soundtrack to the film Can't Hardly Wait, "High" became a rock chart hit, making #24 and spending 14 weeks on the top 40. The majority of the material to appear on the band's second LP was written during this period.

The band's second release, 1999's "Yesterday Went Too Soon", met with substantially more mainstream success than their first, debuting at #8 on the UK charts.^[4] In 2001 their third full-length album "Echo Park" proved another commercial success. Singles from the album entered high in the charts, with songs such as "Buck Rogers" and "Seven Days in the Sun" entering high in the Top 20, and proving to be major chart hits as far afield as the United Arab Emirates.

It was during this time they also had a huge critically-acclaimed following in South Africa, in which "Buck Rogers" was an airplay #1,^[5] but attention has been quiet since the release of the follow-up "Seven Days In The Sun".

The B-side to Seven Days in the Sun - "Just A Day" - featured as the main track for the PAL version of the popular video game "Gran Turismo 3", and was later released as a major single in its own right, outselling all the band's previous releases and becoming a major hit.^[1]

Shortly after the release of Just A Day, in January 2002, drummer Jon Lee committed suicide in his Miami home.

Comfort In Sound

With former Skunk Anansie drummer Mark Richardson on board, the band returned to the studio. Feeder's next album, "Comfort in Sound", was a more melancholy affair than previous releases, this often being attributed to the death of Lee.^{[citation needed]} It was preceded by single "Come Back Around". The album was highly rated by critics, and charted at #6 in the UK, going Gold in its first week and then went on to gain UK Platinum status.^{[6] [2]} The band began a lengthy touring schedule to promote the release, selling out every date of the albums first tour- a total of 60,000 tickets.^[7] Further singles from the album included "Just the Way I'm Feeling", "Forget About Tomorrow", "Find The Colour" and "Comfort In Sound", which was only available during the band's 2003 arena tour.

Their next album, "Picture of Perfect Youth", consisted of 36 b-sides, including "Just A Day". Released on vinyl and CD, the album was only available on the band's website, as a limited edition and is no longer available. Only 1750 copies of the vinyl were pressed.

Pushing The Senses

"Pushing the Senses", was released in the UK on Jan 31st 2005. The album was their highest charting in the UK to date and is now their joint highest, reaching #2, and #11 in Europe.^[8] It's lead single "Tumble and Fall" made the top 5, it also made #20 on the European singles chart.^[9] Further singles "Feeling A Moment", "Pushing The Senses" and former B-side "Shatter" continued to chart within the top 30, Shatter having been included on the 2005 film Nightwatch's soundtrack in Europe and America. The year also seen their Australian top 40 breakthrough with "Feeling a Moment", despite having not played there since 2000 and airplay being very limited, and even bucking a common trend as a result.^[10]

The Singles

"The Singles" was released on the 15th of May 2006. The album featured a collection of singles from throughout their history, plus three new tracks: "Lost and Found", "Burn The Bridges" and "Save Us", two of which have been released to promote the album. The limited edition version of the album includes a DVD of all 26 of the band's promotional videos released to that point, running from the "Lost and Found" promo back to original release "Stereo World", as well as extensive sleeve notes by long-time collaborator Ben Johncock, a freelance writer and author.

The album peaked at #2 in the UK album charts, after entering at #3 the week before, and reached platinum sales status soon after.^[2] It also made #10 in the European charts,^[11] and #32 in the Worldwide sales chart.^[12] As well as going Platinum in the UK, it has also sold 500,000 worldwide.^[13] It was also for it's first three chart weeks the best-selling album by a UK domestic act.

A successful European tour, and UK/European festival appearances to promote the album followed, but the Winter 2005 "Pushing The Senses" tour was delayed when Grant Nicholas was diagnosed with a throat infection and bleeding vocal chords, necessitating a brief hiatus. The rescheduled shows took place over one week in March 2006, with an emotional end to the tour at the Birmingham NEC instead of the Hammersmith Apollo as originally planned.^[14]

"Burn The Bridges" from "The Singles" was first played at the Rock It festival in Hong Kong, and then the UK winter tour. As the tour was postponed due to Grant's bleeds on his vocal chords, the song was dropped from the setlist for the rescheduled dates to possibly avoid a repeat of the incident. "Waiting For Changes" from 1999's "Yesterday Went Too Soon" was only played on the first night at the Hammersmith Apollo, before being dropped for the rest of the tour with the reason being suggested within the fanbase that Grant felt he needed to rest his voice.

The year was mainly for touring Europe but also played many UK festivals including Reading/Leeds, T In The Park, as well as Pukkelpop in Belgium.

On 6 November 2006, Feeder played the first of three gigs at London's Roundhouse venue in aid of Warchild. The Sugababes made a surprise appearance after the encore and performed a cover version of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" and their own hit "Freak Like Me" with the band.

Each of the three gigs ended with a cover of Nirvana's "Breed", with the second night having no special guest and the third at the Coronet Club, having Jamelia as the special guest singing with the band "Everybody Hurts" and her own song "Beware of the Dog".

The band's current activity

A statement was made in a Feederweb mailing list e-mail that their recent London shows would be their last for a while, due to recording sessions of the new album. Grant Nicholas once stated in an interview that one of the new tracks on the album has a working title of "Step By Step".^[15]

Feeder have announced also that they plan to make the afforementioned album their last with their current label Echo, (due for release Summer/Late 2007) and then change labels for future records.^[16]

Awards and achievements

Awards

• 1997 Metal Hammer Magazine Album Of The Year ("Polythene")

• 2001 Kerrang! Award- "Best British Live Act"

• 2003 Kerrang! Award- "Best British Band"

• 2003 IMA Award- "Best Video" ("Just The Way I'm Feeling")

• 2005 Pop Factory Award- "Best Album" ("Pushing The Senses")

• They have also won an award in 2000 at a major televised ceremony in Thailand beating Radiohead^{[citation needed]}

• Q Magazines Band of the Year 2003^{[citation needed]}

• 2006 Radio 1 award^{[citation needed]}

Nominations

• 2001 MTV Europe Music Award for "Best UK and Ireland Act"

• 2003 Brit Award for "Best British Rock Act"

• 2005 Pop Factory Award for "Best Live Act"

• 2005 Pop Factory Award for "Best Band"

• 2005 DMA Awards for "Best British Band"

• 2005 DMA Awards for "Peoples Choice Award"

• 2005 DMA Awards for "Artist of the Year"

• 2005 Kerrang Award for "Best British Band"

Other achievements

• Over 1 million UK certified album sales.

• 3.5 million records sold worldwide at the end of 2005, with best seller being the "Comfort In Sound" album on 600,000 copies. ^[17]

• #1 on South Africa's airplay chart with "Buck Rogers" during the near-halfway point of 2001, meaning they were the most critically acclaimed act on South African radio that week.

• #1 on the UAE international artist airplay chart with "7 Days In The Sun".^[18]

• Their albums "Echo Park" and "Comfort In Sound" are two of the biggest UK independent albums of all time both clocking up over 100 weeks on the UK indie albums top 50. ^{[citation needed]}

Discography

Albums and EPs

Singles

* Also appears on Feeder - The Singles** First time this version of "Suffocate" has appeared on an album

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} FeederWeb
2. ^ ^{a b c} British Phonographic Industry
3. ^ Rock List Music
4. ^ DVD Fever 11th September 1999
5. ^ Real South Africa Feeder Press Release
6. ^ DVD Fever 2nd November 2002
7. ^ EMI Chrysalis News Article
8. ^ Aria Chart 14th February 2005
9. ^ Aria Chart 31st January 2005
10. ^ Aria Australian Singles Chart 15th August 2005
11. ^ Aria Chart 20th June 2006
12. ^ Media Traffic - World Wide Sales June 2006
13. ^ Roundhouse Press Release 2005
14. ^ Ents 24
15. ^ Official Feeder Live Gig Guide Message Board
16. ^ Feeder Fan Site @ Moonfruit
17. ^ The Age - Feeder News Article 10th March 2005
18. ^ Feeder Anorak FAQ

External links

• Feeder's official website
• Feeder's MySpace profile
• Unofficial fan site containing comprehensive band history and forum

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