| The Feeling | |
|---|---|
Performing in London, 2007 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Horsham, West Sussex |
| Genres | Pop, pop rock, power pop, soft rock |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Labels | MCA Music, Inc./Island |
| Website | www.thefeeling.co.uk |
| Members | |
| Dan Gillespie Sells Richard Jones Kevin Jeremiah Ciaran Jeremiah Paul Stewart |
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The Feeling are a BRIT award-nominated English pop band from West Sussex and London. The band categorise their music as "pop".[1]
Following a limited release of their first single "Fill My Little World" in late 2005, the band entered the UK Singles Chart at #7 with their first full release "Sewn" in February 2006. The single was one of the year's biggest radio hits, after being played first in the UK on the Dermot O'Leary Show on Radio 2, along with their first live radio session.
Their debut album Twelve Stops and Home was released in the UK on 5 June 2006 and on February 27, 2007 in the US. Their second album, Join With Us, which reached number-one on the UK Charts, was released on 18 February 2008. Their third album, Together We Were Made, was released on 20 June 2011, followed by the release of their greatest hits album Singles (2006-2011) on 5 December. Their name comes from a neon sign seen on a bar (Le Feeling) in Paris.[2]
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The majority of the band are from Horsham, West Sussex, with the exception of lead vocalist Dan Gillespie Sells, who is from London, and bassist Richard Jones, who is from Forest Row, in East Sussex. The Jeremiahs and Stewart met while attending St Wilfrid's Catholic School, Crawley, West Sussex. Sells and Jones met as music students at the BRIT School in Croydon, Surrey in 1995. They were members of one of the school's most popular bands, "Horn".
The band members worked as session musicians for several years before coming together as a group.[3] During their formative years, all 5 members attended the University of Westminster were they studied for a B.A. in Commercial Music.[4] The Feeling has its roots in a covers band called Superfly, which Paul Stewart and Ciaran and Kevin Jeremiah played in, and which also acted the house band on the Richard Blackwood show. They spent a lot of time performing as resident band at the La Tania ski resort in the Alps before their début doing covers (such as "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles and "Reign In Blood" by Slayer), and after the line-up of the Feeling had been completed, they continued to use the name Superfly, as it was easier to get bookings.[5][6] It was revealed in a podcast for The Times that the band had "blagged" their way into the La Tania residency, saying they could perform fifty songs when in fact they only knew six.[7] The last gigs in the Alps were in the winter of 2004. After these gigs they would sell demo CDs, which included the tracks "Funny Cigarette", "Sun is Shining", "Still You Want More", "Never Be Lonely" and "Join With Us". Most of these tracks have since been released as singles, album tracks, or B-sides.
According to Island A&R, Louis Bloom, a particularly underwhelming industry showcase gig prompted various record company representatives in attendance to pass on the band.[8] However, following the performance their manager Adrian Jolly phoned up Bloom and persuaded him to ignore the disastrous gig and instead listen to the band's demos. The demos - which featured all the eventual singles from the debut album - convinced the Island A&R to sign the band, who singled out the songwriting in particular as being "fantastic".[8]
On 5 June 2006, The Feeling released their debut album, Twelve Stops and Home, which reached #2 in the UK Albums Chart.[9] To celebrate the release, the band's record company, Island Records, took 120 British music journalists on the Eurostar to Paris for the day, where the band performed live in a restaurant. This was in recognition of the fact the band took their name from a Parisian bar.
The first single, "Sewn" reached #7 on the UK charts in March 2006, followed by the top ten hit "Fill My Little World" in May 2006.[9] The release spent four consecutive weeks at #16 and outsold the band's debut single. "Never Be Lonely" was released in August 2006 and became their third top ten hit, peaking at #9, where it stayed for two weeks.[9]
In 2006, The Feeling toured the United States, opening for The Fray and strengthening their following across the Atlantic. They sold an EP named Four Stops and Home along the way. It consisted of two album tracks "Sewn" and "Helicopter" and two future B-sides "When I Return" and "All You Need To Do". In November 2006, just days after returning from the US, the band headed off on their first major UK and Ireland tour, playing at Birmingham, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Oxford, Southampton, Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Glasgow, Leeds, Belfast and Dublin. During this time, the band maintained a blog on The Sun newspaper's website.[10] It continued intermittently until January 2007.
"Fill My Little World" was used in the farewell montage on the last ever The Vicar of Dibley on New Year's Day 2007 and an edited version of "Love It When You Call" appeared in the 2007 film Good Luck Chuck. At the end of March 2007, the band went Stateside once again, taking part in VH1's first ever "You Oughta Know" tour alongside Mat Kearney and Rocco DeLuca and The Burden. The tour lasted approximately two months, and finished with The Feeling playing the 2007 Coachella festival in Indio, California.
The band also headlined a mini-tour of the UK's forests around June 2007. They played at large clearings and forest activity sites, leading Gillespie Sells to quip about playing to elves.[11]
In an e-mail newsletter released on 11 January 2007, it was announced that The Feeling was the most played band on UK radio in 2006. Their four singles received a total of 97,436 plays, which meant that, on average, a song by The Feeling was played 267 times every day, or once every 5 minutes.[12]
Their second album, entitled Join With Us was released on 18 February 2008, with the first single "I Thought It Was Over" entering the UK charts at #12 on 10 February 2008 on the strength of downloads alone.[9] The album peaked at #1 on the UK Charts.[9]
The majority of the album was recorded at the Bradley House - a stately home in Maiden Bradley near Warminster, Wiltshire (home of the Duke of Somerset),[13] whilst most mixing was carried out in Los Angeles, California.
The band performed at the 2008 V Festivals in Chelmsford and Staffordshire in August. On 7 March 2008, they embarked on a mini-tour of the UK, starting in Birmingham Academy and ending at London. On 1 April 2008, it was confirmed that they would support Bon Jovi at four of their seven dates on the UK leg of Bon Jovi's Lost Highway World Tour.[14]
On 27 June 2008, the band played the pyramid stage at the Glastonbury Festival, which was their first appearance at the legendary festival. During the performance, they covered The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" and A-ha's "Take on Me". In November 2008, the band embarked on one of their biggest UK and Irish tours to date, performing at 21 different venues.
The Feeling have recently recorded their third studio album, which was released on 20 June 2011. The band played a short two-night series of intimate concerts at the Monto Water Rats Theatre on 4 and 5 May 2010 to preview new tracks for the album.
The band have already confirmed that they will play at the Isle Of Man Bay Festival in June and a special concert at Epsom Downs Racecourse in July.[15] Singer, and wife of bassist Richard Jones, Sophie Ellis-Bextor has confirmed that she has done a duet with the band on their third album. She said in an interview on The Album Chart Show that the song is called "Leave Me Out Of It".
During two small concerts at The Water Rats venue in London 4 and 5 May 2010 The Feeling showcased 10 new songs. Set My World On Fire, Leave Me Out, Penny's Dropped, Love & Care, Another Soldier, Say No, 7 Years, Searched Every Corner, Bullshit Rules the World and Undeniable.
"Set My World on Fire" was confirmed as the new single on 6 February 2011 to be released on iTunes in March, however the date was pushed back in order to make way for a limited-edition CD release of the single. The song was released on 1 May and the new album, Together We Were Made was released on 20 June. They performed "Set My World on Fire" on ITV1's Paul O'Grady Live on 6 May 2011. On 2 June 2011, The Feeling played a concert for Radio 2 at The Mermaid Theatre in Blackfriars, London. During this set they played numerous songs from the new album including "Set My World On Fire", "Say No", "Leave Me Out of It", "Another Soldier" and "100 Sinners".
Due to the inclusion of a re-recorded version of the band's 2007 single Rosé on a worldwide TV commercial for Burberry Body perfume[16], the band announced that their first greatest hits album Singles (2006-2011) would be released on 5 December 2011, featuring all of the band's singles to date[17]. In an interview on the band's website, drummer Paul Stewart also revealed that they have begun work on their fourth studio album[18].
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2006
2007
2008
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