Feeder (band)

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 also an "unofficial fifth member of Feeder", a phrase coined by the close-knit Feeder fanbase referring to touring guitarist Dean Tidey, whom many fans regard as a member of Feeder, despite only appearing in music videos containing live footage due to only being known to play with the band live. Dean also has his own band, the Sandstone Veterans.

History

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, including a #6 in Metal Hammer's list and the highest from a British album. Polythene is only a handful of debut albums to appear at #1 in any magazines end of year lists.

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 video game A-Spec. 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, similarly 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 as having been 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 installment, the album rife with despair. The album was highly rated by the critics with many positive reviews and featured also in many end of year lists in music mags.

Before the release of the album, Feeder played their first show after Jon's tragic death at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, which was a warm-up for the Reading/Leeds festivals. The Reading/Leeds shows were played in the Radio 1 Evening Session tent on the 23rd and 24th August, filling the tent way beyond it's capacity on both occasions.

When they went on tour the following year to promote the album, they sold out every date selling 55,000 tickets in total. This then encoraged them to go on an arena tour at the end of the year.

Earlier on in 2003, they won the Kerrang! award for Best British Band, amazingly beating Muse in the category.

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 had to postpone the last few dates of their 2005 Winter UK tour, after Grant was diagnosed with a throat infection.

A Greatest Hits album entitled Feeder: The Singles was released on the 15th of May 2006, featuring a collection of singles from throughout their history, plus three new tracks: Lost and Found, Burn The Bridges (which was first played in the Winter Tour 2005) and Save Us. Lost And Found was released as a single on 1st of May, to promote the album. The limited edition version of the album includes a DVD of 26 videos, running from the Lost and Found promo back to original release Stereo World, as well as extensive sleeve notes by longtime collaborator Ben Johncock, a freelance writer and author. It seems unlikely that they will tour to promote this new singles collection, however they have been announced to play at the 2006 Reading and Leeds festivals, as well as several other European festival dates.

Feeder have annouced also that they plan to make one last record with their current label Echo and then change labels for future records.

Awards and achievements

Awards

Album of the year 1997- Polythene - December 1997 in Metal Hammer magazine
Kerrang Awards - Best British Live Act - August 2001
Kerrang Awards - Best British Band - August 2003
2005 Pop Factory Awards - Best Album for Pushing The Senses - December 2005

They have also won an award in 2000 at a major televised ceremony in Thailand beating Radiohead

They have also had a small number of nominations for awards they did not win, with the most notable by a long mile being their 2003 Brit Awards nomination for Best British Rock Act, as well as their MTV Europe Music Awards nomination for Best UK and Ireland Act in 2001, which came as a surprise shock and a remarkable notable achievement in the bands history.

Other achievements

Over 1.3 million chart-elegible albums sold in the UK, despite only being known within UK rock circles.
3.7 million singles, albums, b-side albums and mini-albums combined sold worldwide, with best seller being the Comfort In Sound album on 600,000 copies.
Ranked at position #559/7,500 estimated chart acts in the latest edition of the Guinness British Hit Singles & Albums book.
#1 In South Africa with Buck Rogers in the near-halfway point of 2001.
#1 in the UAE Radio 4 international artist airplay chart with 7 Days In The Sun.

Discography

Chart positions listed are for the UK.

Albums

|#178 (after copies ended up in Indie stores) (Limited edition EP)

|#90

|#63

|#91

Cover	Title	Released
Two Colours EP	November, 1995
Swim EP	June, 1996	-
Polythene	May, 1997
Polythene (Re-released)	October, 1997
Yesterday Went Too Soon	August, 1999
Echo Park	April, 2001
Swim (re-release)	July, 2001
Comfort in Sound	October, 2002
Picture Of Perfect Youth	August, 2004	Internet only release
Pushing the Senses	January, 2005
Feeder The Singles	May, 2006

Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions			Album
Year	Title	UK Singles Chart	UK Download	US Modern Rock	Album
1996	"Stereo World"	#128	-	-	Swim
1997	"Tangerine"	#60	-	-	Polythene
1997	"Cement"	#53	-	#32	Polythene
1997	"Crash"	#48	-	#36	Polythene
1997	"High"	#24	#24	#24	Polythene
1998	"Suffocate"	#37	-	-	Polythene
1999	"Day in Day Out"	#31	-	-	Yesterday Went Too Soon
1999	"Insomnia"	#22	-	-	Yesterday Went Too Soon
1999	"Yesterday Went Too Soon"	#20	-	-	Yesterday Went Too Soon
1999	"Paperfaces"	#41	-	-	Yesterday Went Too Soon
2001	"Buck Rogers"	#5	#58	-	Echo Park
2001	"Seven Days in the Sun"	#14	-	-	Echo Park
2001	"Turn"	#27	-	-	Echo Park
2001	"Piece by Piece"	-	-	-	Echo Park
2001	"Just A Day"	#12	#85	-
2002	"Come Back Around"	#14	-	-	Comfort in Sound
2003	"Just the Way I'm Feeling"	#10	#96	-	Comfort in Sound
2003	"Forget About Tomorrow"	#12	-	-	Comfort in Sound
2003	"Find the Colour"	#24	-	-	Comfort in Sound
2003	"Comfort In Sound"	-	-	-	Comfort in Sound
2005	"Tumble And Fall"	#5	-	-	Pushing the Senses
2005	"Feeling A Moment"	#13	#35	#32	Pushing the Senses
2005	"Pushing the Senses"	#30	-	-	Pushing the Senses
2005	"Shatter / Tender"	#11	#35	-	Pushing the Senses
2006	"Lost and Found"	#12	#20	-	Feeder - The Singles
2006	"Save Us"	-	-	-	Feeder - The Singles

Trivia

When bassist Taka turned up for his audition to the band, he met frontman Grant at Camden Station in London and took him back to his apartment for a cup of tea.

Grant Nicholas was a member of Band Aid 20, singing backing vocals in the chorus.

Jon Lee once was a journalist for the South Wales Argus, the countries most popular newspaper.

Mark Richardson was also a member of cult rockers Little Angels, playing drums on their last album Jam and the first three tracks of the remastered Too Posh To Mosh (Too Good To Last).

They are one of many acts to give a reference to the late actor Steve McQueen. In the song Under The Weather on Echo Park, one of the lines in the first verse is I wish I was still fifteen, Debbie Harry or Steve McQueen.

External links

Rock music groups | Welsh musical groups

Feeder (Band) | Feeder | フィーダー | Feeder (muziek) | Feeder

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