My Life Story
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My Life Story are an indie pop group who peaked in the mid to late 1990s when they were regarded as part of the Britpop movement. Fronted by singer/songwriter Jake Shillingford, the group was formed in London around 1991, and inherited the name from an earlier group in which Shillingford had appeared. A cross between a pop group and a chamber orchestra, the band's sound was heavily oriented toward orchestral instruments.
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[edit] History
At the time of their debut single, "Girl A, Girl B, Boy C" (1993), the group had a regular line-up of twelve members. Though the membership fluctuated continually, it rarely dipped into single figures until 1999, when their third album credited just four regular members, though most of the former line-up were still used as session players.
My Life Story enjoyed the most success at the time of their second album, which spawned five singles that entered the lower half of the UK top 40, and finally disbanded after a series of farewell performances in December 2000.
On 26 May 2006 the band reformed with the full line up of thirteen members to play to a sell-out crowd at the Mean Fiddler on Charing Cross Road in London, in support of their forthcoming "Best Of" album. The gig got an extremely rare review rating of 10/10 from Planet Sound. A second reunion show took place at the Astoria in London on 8 December 2006. A third reunion show took place on 13th December 2007 at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.
In a posting on the band's official MySpace page Jake said in 2006: "I'll be taking a break over Christmas to do a bit of travelling and work things through. Many people have asked if we are to continue. At the moment I just can't answer that. It takes an immense amount of planning, work and mental preparation to get this sleeping beast of beauty up and running, not to mention the financial costs of putting on a big show...especially running the label myself using the DIY model. If we are to continue, one thing I need you to do for sure is buy our records! For so many people at the show..we need you to buy the material too and support the label. So please place an order for the new album and a T-shirt so we have the option of financing any future endeavours."
Their recording of the song 'Mr Boyd' (originally recorded by Argosy in 1969) was featured during the closing credits of the film Stiff Upper Lips.
[edit] Other projects
The spirit of the band lives on in Shillingford's current project, ExileInside, which draws its influences from 1980s electronica, replacing the lush orchestral sounds of My Life Story with a quirky retro synth based sound. Former band members Aaron Cahill and Mal Campbell appear in the line up, and the material is engineered by George Shilling. Shilling also produced many My Life Story tracks, including most of the Golden Mile album.
Shillingford has also presented an electronica music show on Essex-based community radio station Phoenix FM.
Dan Turner the bands keyboard player went on to form the band Macarthur after the groups split in 2000. He landed a record deal with Dave Stewart's{ Eurythmics} label Artist Network and recorded the Northern Soul inlfuenced album Macarthur working with musicians such as Gary "mudbone" Cooper {Funkadelic} and Chris Sharrock {The La's, World Party, Robbie Williams}. Unfortunately just as the band were to release their first single the record company went bust! The music has now been taken on by Fairwood music.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Mornington Crescent (Mother Tongue Records - 1994)
- The Golden Mile (Parlophone Records - 1996) UK # 36
- Mornington Crescent (Parlophone Records - 1998)
- Joined Up Talking (it Records 1999).
- Sex & Violins (The Best of My Life Story) (Exilophone Records 2006)
- Megaphone Theology (B-Sides and Rarities) (Exilophone Records 2006)
[edit] Singles
- Girl A, Girl B, Boy C (1993)
- Funny Ha Ha (1994)
- You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes) (1995)
- The Mornington Crescent Companion EP (1995)
- 12 Reasons Why I Love Her (1996) UK #32
- Sparkle (1996) UK #34
- The King Of Kissingdom (1997) UK #35
- Strumpet (1997) UK #27
- Duchess (1997) UK #39
- If You Can't Live Without Me Then Why Aren't You Dead Yet? (1998) - Download-only single in Windows Media format (later available as an MP3)
- It's A Girl Thing (1999) UK #37
- Empire Line (1999) UK #58
- Walk/Don't Walk (2000) UK #48
[edit] Notes
- "Sparkle" was a re-arranged and re-recorded version of "You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes)".
- My Life Story produced promotional CDs for a single version of "You Can't Uneat The Apple" but "Duchess" was released in its place.
[edit] Collaborations
- Yesterday Has Gone with P.J. Proby and Marc Almond (as the My Life Story Orchestra)
