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Band

A1

A1 (band)

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A1
Origin United Kingdom
Genre(s) Pop, Pop/Rock
Years active 1998-2002, 2009present
Label(s) Sony BMG (1998-2002)
Epic Records (1998-2002)
Members
Ben Adams
Mark Read
Christian Ingebrigtsen
Former members
Paul Marazzi (1998-2002)

A1 is a British/Norwegian boy band who was originally made up of Mark Read, Paul Marazzi, Ben Adams and Christian Ingebrigtsen. Their first single, "Be the First to Believe", entered the UK singles chart at #6 in early 1999. They had relative success in the charts with two number #1s and eight top 10 hits. Adding to this they also won a BRIT Award for "British Breakthrough Act" in 2001. They were formed by band manager Tim Byrne, who also formed Steps. A1's journey came to an end when original member Paul Marazzi left in 2002 and the band subsequently decided to split. In August 2009 they announced that they would reform, albeit without Marazzi, for a series of concerts in Oslo in December 2009 at the Christiania Theatre.[1] Since their comeback they have already released two new singles, "Take You Home" and "Don't Wanna Lose You Again". Their new album will be released on October, 2010.

Career

Mark Read (b. 7 November 1978, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, England), Ben Adams (b. 22 November 1981, Middlesex, England), Christian Ingebrigtsen (b. 25 January 1977, Oslo, Norway), and Paul Marazzi (b. 24 January 1975, Wanstead, London, England) were formed in 1998 by the management team of Tim Byrne and Vicky Blood. They signed with Columbia Records in February 1999 and released "Be the First to Believe" in Summer 1999[2]. In 2000 they achieved two number ones with a cover of a-ha's "Take on Me" and the hit "Same Old Brand New You".

Their third album, Make It Good, featured a sound closer to traditional rock music, but was to be their last studio project. The album's title track narrowly missed the top 10, then on 8 October 2002, Paul Marazzi left the group citing personal reasons[3], and a1 subsequently decided to split[4].

In 2001 the band toured Asia, where they were well-received. The music video for their single "No More" was filmed in Singapore. During the Indonesian leg of their tour in the Taman Anggrek Mall, four teenage girls were killed in a stampede. [5]

They released The Best of a1, a compilation album throughout South East Asia in January 2004, featuring all their singles (excluding "Be the First to Believe"), two previously unreleased concert recordings and three previous B-Sides. Another compilation album was released in February 2009 following Ben Adams appearance on Celebrity Big Brother[6].

Post a1 and Solo Careers

Since their split majority of the groups members went off to pursue solo projects whilst some went onto producing and song writing. Ben Adams stepped out of the a1 bubble when he released his solo single, "Sorry", which reached #18 in the UK in April 2005. Adams was a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother series, He finished 5th in the show's finale [7].

Since 2003 Christian Ingebrigtsen started his career as a solo artist. His debut was the specially written duet "In Love with an Angel" for the new talent Maria Arredondo and himself. The song became a smash hit, staying 3 months on the top 10 list of VG-Lista Topp 20 (Norway's official single chart). In May of the same year he made his debut as a solo performer with the song "Things Are Gonna Change".

After a1 disbanded in 2002, Mark Read focussed on writing for other artists, signing a publishing deal with Metrophonic. Read has written and collaborated with a number of international artists, such as: Charlotte Church, Joe Brown , Sam Brown, Jarvis Cocker, Roger Cook (songwriter) among others. Read launched 'Greatest Lady In My Life', his debut single, at the Tesco Magazine 'Mum Of The Year' Awards on March 1 2009. The single was available for download from retailers such as iTunes and Amazon.com[8] from March 2 2009 along with a 'karaoke' version or backing track of the same song.Mark has also released his first solo album "Peace at Last" in June 2009.

Online

The four band members formed a MySpace group in November 2008 to keep fans updated of their progress [9].

Reunion

In the summer of 2009, A1 decided they would do concerts in December, in Oslo, to celebrate their 10 years anniversary. On 2 November 2009 the group announced by Press Conference that their new single, "Take You Home" would be available immediately via iTunes in Norway . The single entered the Official Chart in Norway at No.9, based only in downloads.

It was announced online in late November 2009 that the band would compete to represent Norway in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, with "Don't Wanna Lose You Again"[10]. The song reached #4 in the Norwegian Singles Chart, based only in downloads, being #1 on iTunes.

On New Years Eve 2009, the band made their official UK comeback by performing at G-A-Y Heaven's new years eve party.

They placed second at the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest national final, Melodi Grand Prix.

In March 2010, the band embarked on a tour through Norway, performing in Oslo, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Bergen, Trondheim and Haugesund. The band has also said that their comeback would later extend to Europe and rest of the world.

Discography

Main article: A1 discography

Studio albums

  • Here We Come (1999)
  • The A list (2000)
  • Make It Good (2002)
  • Fourth Studio Album (2010)

Compilation albums

  • The Best of a1 (2004)
  • A1 Greatest Hits (2009)

In popular culture

  • A1 were the subject of a question in Major Charles Ingram's run on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2001. Ingram had a question for £32,000: "Who had a hit UK album with Born to Do It, released in 2000?"; after which he decided to go for A1 but then he reversed his decision and picked Craig David, which was the correct answer.

References

External links

This page was last modified 18.04.2010 16:50:03

This article uses material from the article A1 (band) from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.