The Farm biography
The Farm are a British band from Liverpool. Their debut album Spartacus reached the top position on the UK Albums Chart when it was released in March 1991. Currently, they are on tour with their Spartacus Live 2012 shows, and form part of The Justice Tonight Band, supporting The Stone Roses at Heaton Park, Lyon and Milan.
History
They formed in early 1983. who was killed in a police chase on 1 October 1986 at the age of 21, and to whose parents the band's subsequent album,
Spartacus, would be dedicated.
The band evolved out of an earlier group called The Excitements, initially including Phil Stephenson on bass, Neil (Cad) Campbell on drums, as well as Grimes on guitar & Thomas (the bands dancer). They became The Farm after Martin Dunbar (vocals) left and Peter Hooton joined, although they did play several gigs as The Excitements with Hooton on vocals. In 1984, they released the single, "Hearts and Minds," produced by Graham "Suggs" McPherson, lead vocalist with Madness. In 1986, after McVann's death, Melvin left the band to pursue a varied career as the director of his own construction firm, but he eventually returned to music in 1990 under the guise of Mr. Smith, a two-piece band that would tour frequently, but not release anything of note. In 1987, the band supported The Housemartins on their UK tour.
After the departure of Melvin and the death of McVann, Hooton promptly brought in a new line-up. They released four Indie singles, but failed to earn themselves a big break until 1990. In 1989, the band had been given a cameo role in the movie The Final Frame starring Suggs. They were signed after this and hired Suggs as their producer. Their first single under new management was "Stepping Stone," a dance remake of Paul Revere & the Raiders and The Monkees' single "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," a 1966 single that in its day reached #20 in the U.S. Billboard charts for The Monkees. They were soon featured in The Face, an influential popular culture magazine in the UK, and their promotion of "No alla violenza" anti-hooligan t-shirts during the Italia 90 helped raise their profile further.
The Farm's first song to reach the upper end of the UK singles chart was "Groovy Train," which reached the Top 10 in September 1990. In late November that year they released their most famous song, "All Together Now," which instantly became a hit. It was on the crest of this wave that their album Spartacus reached #1 in the UK. However, this success was short-lived, and their first single for a major label (Sony Records), "Love See No Colour" (1992), did not perform well, which led to a split from producers Pete Heller and Terry Farley. The band joined up with Mark Saunders, the man who had produced Erasure and The Cure. They released a cover of The Human League's "Don't You Want Me," which reached the Top 20.
In 1994, they released the album Hullabaloo on the Sire label, followed by their last major single. Despite being a group largely supporting Liverpool F.C., they released a single to accompany the presence of their cross-city rivals, Everton, in the 1995 FA Cup Final.
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