Sunscreem

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Sunscreem
Origin	Essex, England, United Kingdom
Genre(s)	Techno House Rave Trance
Years active	1991-????
Members
Lucia Holm Paul Carnell Nick Slingsby
Former members
Darren Woodford Rob Fricker Gary "Baz" Bailey Sean Wright Dave Valentine Tony Rush Wayne Simms

Sunscreem is a techno/house band from Essex, England, who scored a number of big hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart throughout the nineties and into the 21st century. Sunscreem also has the rare reputation as a techno-based band that successfully performs live concerts.

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 label in 1991, a song which went on to spend two weeks at #1 on the US dance chart in March 1993. They had club hits in the UK with the singles Walk On and Pressure (also on Sony Soho Square) before releasing their successful first album O₃ on multiple labels in 1993. Other singles from O₃ include Perfect Motion and a cover of the Marianne Faithfull record Broken English.

"Love U More" is considered to be one of the first techno songs to hit the US Top 40, climbing to #36 (to date it is their only Hot 100 entry). It has subsequently been covered by a number of other artists including Paul Elstak, Rollergirl and Steps.

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

Their second album was called Change Or Die, and from it the band released the singles "When" (US dance #1), "Exodus", "White Skies", "Secrets", and "Looking At You" (US dance #2). Despite all these singles the album was widely considered a failure and it parted company with Sony Records. They put out a remixed and mainly instrumental 'alternative' to Change Or Die, called New Dark Times, through their own label Kali, and a variety of tracks under alternative names including a selection of 12-inches referred to as "The Anna Series".

Of note is that while Change or Die, was considered a commercial failure, technically and moreover artistically this album is considered by many to be way ahead of its time. An unreleased track off Change or Die - "For Maddened Prophets" resonates perfectly with the times right now.

Their next single, "Catch" (US dance #2), was from an album entitled Out Of The Woods but due to legal problems between the band and their new record label Pulse-8 in 1997, the album and the second single "Cover Me" were never released.

Since then there have been a handful of odd releases and compilations such as the Sunscreem vs Push "Please Save Me" single (US dance #26), the Ten Mile Bank remix/compilation album and a re-release of "Perfect Motion" with new remixes by Starchaser and Way Out West, but fans are still waiting for a 'proper' return for the band with a new album. It is currently unclear whether or not the band is still together. Lead singer Lucia Holm released a promo called "Heaven" to radio in 2005, but it was never fully published.