- David Lloyd (musician)
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For other people named David Lloyd, see David Lloyd.
David Lloyd Origin England Genres Rock Music, Alternative Pop, Dance-Rock Occupations Singer, Songwriter, Artist, Musician, Record Producer. Years active 1980-present Labels Worldwide: Arista Records Canada SPG Music Associated acts Uropa Lula The Neighbourhood Talks, Playground, The Lovefield, Dumb Baby Sounds. David Lloyd is an English singer, musician, songwriter, currently living in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Contents
Biography
David Lloyd is a multi-media artist/composer/singer from South Shields in the North East of England. Lloyd moved to London in 1976, to study at Central St Martins College of Art. Whilst still an art student, he played guitar in punk bands the Fauves and the Brides of Christ before singing in an early incarnation of The The with Tom Johnson and Peter Ashworth. In the late 70’s Lloyd worked on the Snips album 'La Rocca’,[1] with Chris Spedding, Midge Ure and Bill Nelson, writing one of the songs, "Happy Sometimes". After recording the album, Lloyd was asked to sing live with Suzi Quatro on the Michael Parkinson Show at the BBC.
Uropa Lula
In 1980 Lloyd formed Uropa Lula with Hilde Swendgaard (Manager) and Kevin Smith (drums), making two short films, ‘Here in the Sun’ and ‘At Night Time’ with Video Active. They were joined by Colin Prior (bass) and Peter Fromm (keyboards) in 1981 and began performing live in London, opening for John Cale, Alternative TV and Depeche Mode. American bass player Allan Dias, replaced Colin Prior in August of the same year and Leeds born drummer Andrew Edge joined the group in October. Uropa Lula signed to Clive Davis’s Arista Records in May 1982 and spent the rest of that year recording at Trident Studios, The Manor Studio, Townhouse Studios and RAK Studios. Tom Tom 84, the Phenix Horns arranger helped the band out on keyboards during the recording of their first release, ‘Our Love Has Just Begun.’ In the Fall of 1982, guitarist Chester Kamen and keyboard player Carol Isaacs joined the group in time for extensive tours of the UK and US in 1983. Kamen is the brother of pop singer Nick Kamen. Isaacs grew up in London, Kamen in Harlow. The band left Arista Records at the end of 1983 after releasing three singles with the label.
After Uropa Lula, Lloyd embarked on a solo career, albeit continuing to work with Kamen and Dias throughout the 80’s. Dias joined Public Image Ltd in 1986 (becoming one of their longest serving band members outside of John Lydon) whilst Kamen worked with a number of artists, most notably Bryan Ferry, Madonna (Like a Prayer), Massive Attack (Protection), Robbie Williams ("Angels") and Roger Waters (Dark Side of the Moon Tour). Edge and Isaacs played together in Savage Progress before Edge moved to Austria to begin a solo career with YOYO, solo, and Drumsing. Isaacs went on to play with Sinead O’Connor, Ian Dury and the Indigo Girls.
Uropa Lula Live
Uropa Lula played live for the first time on 24 March 1981 promoting their own event at the White Lion in Putney, London. They continued playing[2] in London throughout 1981 and early in 1982 until they signed to Arista Records. The group played a headlining tour of the Eastern United States for six weeks in early 1983, performing at The Ritz in New York (1 February 1982), Mudd Club (7 February 1982), the 9:30 Club in Washington DC and shared the bill with Holly and the Italians at the Brooklyn Zoo (26 February 1982). Upon their return to the UK, on 2 June 1982 the group played at the Camden Palace (now called Koko), opened for Big Country at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool (19 June 1982), and John Cale at the The Venue, Victoria, London (5 July 1982).
They also toured with Big Country in June 1983:
12 June 1983, Swansea Brangwyn Hall. 13, Bath Pavilion. 14, St Austell Coliseum. 15, Salisbury City Hall. 16, Dunstable Queensway Hall. 17, Poole Arts Centre. 22, Llandudno Astra Theatre. 23, Redcar Coatham Bowl. 24, Hull City Hall. 25, Leeds Town Hall. 26, Oldham Queen Elizabeth. 27, Mansfield Leisure Centre, and on 2 July 1983, Leicester De Montfort Hall.[3]
Singles
Uropa Lula released three singles on Arista Records:
"Our Love Has Just Begun" B/W "I've Suddenly Remembered Something" (ARIST476, 1982) as Uropa Lula.[4]
"Fell Upon A Jewel" B/W "She Appears to Vanish" (ARIST498, 1983) as Uropa Lula.[5]
"Dad Sings The Blues" B/W "Surely There Must Be Some Mistake" (ARIST 540, July 1983) as Viva Lula.[6][7]
Album
"Our Love Has Just Begun" featured on Hardest Hits Volume 1[8] (SPG001) Released by SPG Music Productions in 1991.
The Neighbourhood Talks
After disbanding Uropa Lula, Lloyd began work on The Neighbourhood Talks,[9] a solo project that would continue through to the end of the 1990s, producing five albums worth of material. Lloyd continued to work with ex Uropa Lula members, Allan Dias, Chester Kamen and Kevin Smith, whilst bringing in a number of other musicians who would contribute to the project. They would include vocalists Pepsi Demacque, Carole Rowley, Sony Southern, Janet Sewell and Carmalita Wyatte; guitarists Maurice Michaels and Chris Pye; Simon Etchel on keyboards and Bimbo Acock on saxophone. During this period Lloyd produced demos for Wham! backing vocalists Pepsi & Shirlie and Dunfermline based Angel Enterprise. Janet Sewell co-wrote "Empire State of Mind" with Angela Hunte and hip hop artist Jay-Z. The song, featuring Alicia Keys, appeared on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint 3 (2009) and peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks. Pepsi and Shirlie's first two singles reached the top 10 in the UK Singles Chart in 1987.
Film and television
In 1986 Lloyd sang on the motion picture soundtrack of Recruits featuring as lead vocalist on "Temptation" and the title track "Recruits". The film was directed by Rafal Zielinski with score by Stephen Parsons. By the early 90’s Lloyd had begun a new project, The Lovefield,[10] financing the recordings by working in Film and Television. He sang on numerous TV Commercials including those for Coca Cola, Halifax Building Society, BASF Audio, British Gas and Southern Water. Songs from Lloyd’s Neighbourhood Talks catalogue were used regularly on the British Television show Byker Grove. In 1992 Lloyd co-wrote and performed Really Something [11] with Chester Kamen as ‘The Playground’ for the motion picture Split Second starring Rutger Hauer, Kim Cattrall and Peter Postlethwaite. The film was directed by Tony Maylam and featured Alun Armstrong, Ian Dury and Sarah Stockbridge. In 1994 "The Sacrifice of Love" a song written and performed by David Lloyd featured on the soundtrack of the motion picture Funny Man. The film was directed by Simon Sprackling.
The Lovefield
As the principle producer, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist and only official member of the Lovefield, Lloyd was solely responsible for the projects direction, although in 1992 he collaborated with Sep Cipriano (Keyboards), Mitch Horner (Bass) and Bub Roberts (Guitar) for a number of low key live Lovefield performances.[12] In 2009 Lloyd made the Lovefield[13] catalogue available for the first time.
Dumb Baby Sounds
In December 2009 Lloyd, by now living in Newcastle (UK), began recording again, covering the Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt" and the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale". In 2010 Lloyd made the films Blue Parade[14] and "Chills" [15] as the first steps of a new multimedia project Dumb Baby Sounds.[16] In June 2011 Lloyd made the film "At the End of Everything"[17] for a song of the same name. Lloyd is the principle producer, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist in Dumb Baby Sounds though vocal contributions have been made by Little Buttons, Yellow Bows and Baby Cakes on the songs 'Ballad of the Babies' and 'Heaven is a State of Mind. Rain Dancing[18] the Dumb Baby Sounds debut single, written and produced by David Lloyd, was released on 9 September 2011. The song will feature on the forthcoming album 'He Had It Coming!'
References
- ^ http://www.uropalula.com/#/happy-sometimes/4540213288
- ^ http://www.uropalula.com/#/live/4540476911
- ^ Milburn, Trev (2009-05-14). "Official Big Country Forum". Big Country. http://www.bigcountry.co.uk/forums/viewmessage/index.php?o=0&t=6070. Retrieved 2010-04-12.
- ^ "Our Love Has Just Begun". discogs. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Uropa+Lula. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
- ^ http://www.uropalula.com/#/fell-upon-a-jewel/4540211369
- ^ "Dad Sings the Blues". 45cat. http://www.45cat.com/record/arist540. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
- ^ "Dad Sings the Blues cover". Vinyltap. http://www.vinyltap.co.uk/shop/item/660391728181333.aspx. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ http://www.discogs.com/Various-Hardest-Hits-Volume-One/release/190124
- ^ http://www.reverbnation.com/theneighbourhoodtalks
- ^ http://www.reverbnation.com/lovefield
- ^ "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idl6z9VRGO8&feature=related
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPILvsfhAkM&feature=player_embedded
- ^ "David Lloyd - Lovefield". Bebo. http://apps.bebo.com/my-band/artist/davidlloydlovefield. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Ssy1NTe2Q
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8SbjmGEbQ&feature=player_embedded
- ^ http://www.dumbbabysounds.com/
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ubuDjjjMZo
- ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005JBTB4Q/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_C5IAob133F83Z
External links
Categories:- Living people
- English-language singers
- English male singers
- English songwriters
- People from Newcastle upon Tyne
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