Hothouse Flowers

Hothouse Flowers biography

The Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock group that combines traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel and rock.

Career

The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí­ and Fiachna Ó Braonáin (who had known each other as children in an Irish-speaking school, Coláiste Eoin) began performing as street musicians, or buskers, on the streets of Dublin, Ireland as "The Incomparable Benzini Brothers". They were soon joined by Peter O'Toole, and had won a street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group "Hothouse Flowers" (the name was suggested by singer Maria Doyle Kennedy during a brain-storming by band-members and friends in the Trinity College Arts Block cafe) and began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland. Rolling Stone magazine called them "the best unsigned band in Europe".

In 1986 Bono from the band U2, saw the Flowers performing on television and offered his support. They released their first single, "Love Don't Work This Way", on U2's Mother Records label, which quickly led to a deal with the PolyGram subsidiary London Records.

Their first album, People was released in May 1988, and was the most successful debut album in Irish history. It reached the #1 slot in Ireland within a week and eventually reached #2 in the UK Albums Chart. The international success of the album received a boost when a music video for the first single, "Don't Go", was played in the interval between contestants and the scoring in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. This propelled the song to #11 in the UK Singles Chart, the highest position the band would ever achieve in this chart. Meanwhile, at home, "Feet on the Ground", the album's second single, reached #1 in the Irish singles chart. In September 1988, the band appeared on the bill at the Reading Festival. In June 1989 they played at the Glastonbury Festival, and appreared there again the following year.

The group's second album, Home was released in June 1990. It was recorded sporadically during extensive touring; with sessions in Dublin, London, a rented house with a mobile recording set-up in Carlow, Ireland, and one day of work with Daniel Lanois in New Orleans, while Bob Dylan was taking a break from his sessions with Lanois. The album did not have the overwhelming success of the first record, but it did reach #1 in Australia. The two singles from the album, "Give It Up" and "I Can See Clearly Now" (a cover version of the Johnny Nash song) reached #30 and 23 respectively in the UK Singles Chart.

In January 1992, the group appeared (as themselves) in an episode of the popular BBC drama series Lovejoy, entitled No Strings.

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