Breathe (band)

Breathe were a London based musical group formed in the early 1980s.

Career

Originally a larger, five-person band called Catch 22, all the members were actually childhood friends who went to Yateley School together in Hampshire where they lived. They later trimmed down to a quartet. In 1984 singer David Glasper, guitarist Marcus Lillington, drummer Ian "Spike" Spice, and bass guitarist Michael "Mick" Delahunty began working on some demos. Those tunes were introduced to personnel from the label Siren Records, and that lead to a recording contract with A&M Records. They recorded the album, "All That Jazz", in 1987. This contained their two best-known hits, "How Can I Fall?" and "Hands to Heaven". The former charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #3, and the latter at #2 in 1988 and at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. "Hands" also ranked inside Billboard's 1988 Year-End top ten at #9.

Bassist Michael Delahunty left the group in 1988 as they were about to reach the peak of their success, and the remaining three continued with promotion for the "All That Jazz" album and singles. After this, they continued in this line-up with the lesser known "Peace of Mind" in early 1990.

Their sound was a combination of light jazz with some pop and soul, somewhat reminiscent of Air Supply or even Rick Astley. However, their success was short-lived. They failed to make the charts with any hit singles from their second album "Peace of Mind", and sales were practically non-existent. This was in spite of the fact that many radio stations did play some tracks from the second release. By 1990 they had disbanded with a general disinterest by any major record company to continue to promote them.

According to Breathe's now-defunct homepage, drummer Ian Spice passed away sometime in 2000 although no specific information was given about the cause of his death.

After years of silence, David Glasper returned to singing in the 21st century. Although he has yet to make a formal return, a MySpace account [ [http://www.myspace.com/davidglasper David Glasper's MySpace Profile] ] has been set up with two demos. A full Glasper solo album is rumoured to surface in 2008.

Personnel

* David Glasper (vocals) - born 4 January 1965, Cardigan, Mid Wales.
* Marcus Lillington (guitars, keyboards) - born 28 February 1967, London. Now works at web design firm, [http://www.headscape.co.uk Headscape] [ [http://headscape.co.uk/people/lillington.html Headscape team: Marcus Lillington] ] , and co-hosts web design podcast, [http://www.boagworld.com/podcast/ Boagworld.com] [ [http://boagworld.com/about.php About Boagworld] ] .
* Spike (drums) - born Ian Spice, 18 September 1966- died 2000. Born with six fingers on one hand; extra finger removed at birth.
* Michael Delahunty (bass) - band member 1984-1989.
* Steve Price-Wombley (keyboards) - born in Trinidad and educated at Charterhouse. Later formed a indie record label with Will "Crikey" Crichton-Stuart.

Discography

ingles

*"Don't Tell Me Lies" (UK #77) (1986)
*"Hands to Heaven" (U.S. #2, AC #2 UK #4) (1988)
*"Jonah" (UK #60) (1988)
*"How Can I Fall?" (U.S. #3, AC #1 UK #48) (1988)
*"Don't Tell Me Lies" (re-release) (U.S. #10, AC #5 UK #45) (1989)
*"Say Hello" (UK #87) (1990)
*"Say a Prayer" (U.S. #21, AC #3 UK #93) (1990)
*"Does She Love That Man" (U.S. #34, AC #17) (1990)

Albums

*"All That Jazz" - (1988) UK #22, U.S. #34
*"Peace of Mind" - (1990) U.S. #116
*"Best of Breathe" - (2004)

References

External links

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifyxqw5ldde Breathe biography] at Allmusic website
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifyxqw5ldde~T20 Breathe discography] at Allmusic website
* [http://www.angelfire.com/wi/handstoheaven/] Unofficial Breathe Homepage