Sunscreem

Sunscreem
Origin Essex, England
Genres House, trance, Hi NRG
Years active 1991–present
Labels Columbia/SME Records
Website http://sunscreem.co.uk/
Members Lucia Holm
Paul Carnell
Nick Slingsby
Past members Gary "Baz" Bailey
Duane Brazier
Rob Fricker
Darren Woodford
Sean Wright
Dave Valentine
Tony Rush
Wayne Simms
Kristien Buckle

Sunscreem is a band from Essex, England that scored a number of hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century. Sunscreem also has the rare reputation as a techno-based band that successfully performs concerts.[1] Over a ten-year period, 12 of its singles made an entry to the UK Singles Chart.[2]

Career

The nucleus of the group is lead vocalist/keyboardist Lucia Holm and fellow keyboardist Paul Carnell. The group has also, at times, included Darren Woodford, Rob Fricker, Sean Wright, Nick Slingsby (aka "Bongo Ted"), and DJ Dave Valentine.

Sunscreem released a 12" promo of "Love U More" on the Sony Soho Square record label in 1991, a song that went on to spend two weeks at #1 on the U.S. Dance chart in March 1993. The group also had club hits in the UK with the singles "Walk On" and "Pressure" (also on Sony Soho Square) before releasing its successful first album O3 on multiple labels in 1993. Other singles from O3 included "Perfect Motion" and a cover of the Marianne Faithfull song "Broken English."

"Love U More" was one of the first techno songs to hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40, climbing to No. 36 (to date it is their only Hot 100 entry). It was subsequently covered (usually in a bowdlerized form, omitting the climactic reference to rape and toning down other images in the lyrics) by other artists including Paul Elstak, LMP, Rollergirl, and Steps.

The band is known for having its songs remixed by a wide variety of dance music producers, including Leftfield, Band of Gypsies, Carl Cox, Push, Rollo Armstrong from Faithless, Red Jerry, Matt Darey, Slam, X-Press 2, Trouser Enthusiasts, Robbie Rivera, Jimmy Gomez, K-Klass, Armand Van Helden, and Fire Island (Pete Heller and Terry Farley) among others.

Ahead of its second album, the group released a variety of tracks under alternative names including a selection of 12-inch singles referred to as the Anna Series. This included the instrumental "Angel Dub," which was credited to Anna Din, and was featured on many compilations[3] such as Renaissance: The Mix Collection by Sasha & John Digweed. These tracks were released independently, breaking the terms of their contract with Sony and leading to an increasingly strained relationship with the label.[4]

The group's second album was called Change Or Die, and from it, the band released the singles "When" (U.S. Dance #1), "Exodus," "White Skies," "Secrets," and "Looking at You" (U.S. Dance #2). Despite all these singles, the album was not commercially released in major territories outside the UK, and the band therefore negotiated its release from its Sony Music contract. Their next release was a mainly instrumental limited-edition CD called New Dark Times, issued on the band's own Kali label, which combined new material with tracks from the Anna Series and remixes from Change Or Die.

The band subsequently signed with UK dance label Pulse-8. Its next single, "Catch" (U.K. Dance No. 1,[5] U.S. Dance #2), was from an album titled Out of the Woods, but the label went bankrupt in 1997 before its completion, and the album and the second single "Cover Me" were never released, though remixes of "Cover Me" by Trouser Enthusiasts appeared on compilations, and an unfinished version of the album was leaked online.

Since then there have been a handful of releases and compilations such as the Sunscreem vs Push "Please Save Me" single (US Dance No. 26, UK Singles #40), and a re-release of "Perfect Motion" with new remixes by Starchaser and Way out West. In 2002, the group released Ten Mile Bank, which combined new and remixed material in the manner of New Dark Times, many of the tracks being club mixes of songs from the still-unissued Out of the Woods. Former lead singer Lucia Holm released a promo called "Heaven" (a cover of the Psychedelic Furs song) to radio stations in 2005, but it was never fully published.

In May 2015 Sunscreem played at a series of local events to promote their album "Sweet Life", which was released on iTunes.

Discography

  • O3 (1993) UK No. 33,[6] AUS No. 73[7]
  • Change or Die (1996) UK No. 53[6]
  • New Dark Times (1996)
  • Looking at You: Club Anthems (1998)
  • Ten Mile Bank (2001)
  • Club Classics (2007) (digital download)
  • House Classics (2008) (iTunes exclusive)
  • Love U More – The Very Best of Sunscreem (2009)
  • Sweet Life (2015)

Singles

Year Single title UK
[6]		 US Hot 100 US Dance AUS
[7]		 Album Notes
1991 "Walk On" - - - 143 O3
"Pressure" 60 - - -
1992 "Love U More" 23 36 1 30
"Perfect Motion" 18 - 1 161
"Broken English" 13 - - 101 Cover of the Marianne Faithfull song.
1993 "Pressure US" 19 - 1 64 Remake of "Pressure"
1995 "When" 47 - 1 205 Change Or Die
"Exodus" 40 - - -
"White Skies" 25 - - -
1996 "Secrets" 36 - - -
"Looking at You" - - 2 -
1997 "Catch" 55 - 2 - Out of the Woods (cancelled)
1999 "No Angel" - - 35 - Change or Die
"Exodus '99" 155 - - -
2001 "Please Save Me" 36 - 26 - New Dark Times Credited to Sunscreem vs Push. Remix of the track "Who Will Love Me Now?"
"Coda" - - - - Ten Mile Bank
2002 "Perfect Motion 2002" 71 - - - O3
2008 "Perfect Motion (Remix)" - - - - Credited to James Fitch featuring Sunscreem.

Under aliases

  • Anna Din: "Angel" / "Angel Dub" (1994)
  • Anna Crusis: "XS" / "Syclik" (1994)
  • Anna Nas: Untitled (1994)
  • Chiba: "Time Flies" (1997)
  • DJ AWOL: "Absent" (2002)

The "Anna series" were issued on 12" only. Variants of these tracks were subsequently issued (some under different titles) on Change Or Die, New Dark Times and the "Exodus" single. "Time Flies" was an extended version of "A Brief History of Nonsense" from New Dark Times, itself a radical remix of "Exodus".

In addition, DJs Darren Tate and Judge Jules had a hit in 2000 with "It's My Turn" credited to Angelic, which was their previously-issued remix of Sunscreem's "Change" with the original vocal track replaced with a new one by Jules' wife Amanda O'Riordan. The track reached number 11 in the UK singles chart.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sherman: 'Sol Music', New Musical Express, 21 March 1992
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 540. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. ↑ Archived 24 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ M.Taylor: 'Sunscreem caught taking Annadin', Essex Chronicle, 5 May 1995
  5. ↑ DJ Magazine Club Chart, 15 August 1997
  6. 1 2 3 UK chart peaks:
    • Top 100 charting releases: "Official Charts > Sunscream". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
    • Releases charting outside of the top 100, from November 1994: "Chart Log UK 1994–2010 DJ S – The System of Life". Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  7. 1 2 Australian (ARIA) chart peaks:
    • "Love U More": "australian-charts.com > Sunscreem". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
    • "Pressure Us" & "O3": Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
    • "Walk On", "Perfect Motion", "Broken English" and "When": "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 15 July 2015". Imgur.com. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
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