| I am Seven | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Birmingham, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | Britpop |
| Years active | 1996–2001 |
| Labels | Solid Records, I am 7 Recordings |
| Website | I am 7 Recordings website |
| Past members | |
| Jai Stokes, Ian Faragher, Matt Russell | |
I am Seven (or I am 7) are a now-defunct Britpop group.
Contents |
Matt Russell and Jai Stokes first teamed up to form Broadsword. When they invited David Brown into the band, they dropped Broadsword and became Zeus. The line-up changed sixteen times throughout the band's history. In 1996, when Dave Trimnall, the drummer for Zeus, emigrated to Australia, Stokes promptly closed the band.
Later that year, Stokes met Ian Faragher, a promising drummer, who had played with Russell in a Manchester based rock band, Crazy Apartment. They decided to form a new band as a trio. The band first made their breakthrough when they won the Pepsi New Band of 1998. Soon afterwards, they released their first single, "Welcome". The song received praise from Bob Geldof, who called it "a great song". The music video was banned, due to its graphic images of heavy drinking and smoking. They performed several acoustic radio gigs for XFM, SBN and other student based radio stations to promote the single, finishing the campaign with a three day residency in the Virgin Megastores Tent at Glastonbury Festival.
The band followed up the critically acclaimed first single with their second, "Better". The single became a hit on student radio both in London and their native Birmingham, The video, this time, was aired on terrestrial television. Following another moderate success, they released their third (and last) single "Time" early in 2001, which fared worse than the previous two singles, despite the band's appearance on Men & Motors and a small UK tour. The press, especially Kerrang, did not favour the new polished direction of the band. Soon after, the band closed for a new project (New English Music Foundation, a group with the same members as I am Seven). However, in 2004, a greatest hits compilation album with their three singles and three b-sides was released, and a comprehensive DVD spaning their career. Stokes went on to video directing for EMI, Faragher into music publishing for Sony.