Ultra (boy band)
Encyclopedia
Ultra is an English
male pop
band, which was most successful in the late 1990s. The original line-up consisted of James Hearn
(born 19 June 1976) (vocals
), Michael Harwood (born 12 December 1975) (guitar
), Jon O'Mahony (born 10 August 1973) (drum
s) and Nick Keynes (born 3 May 1972) (bass
).
, England
in the mid 1990s. After they left school they formed various bands, playing under names such as Stepping Stoned, Decade and Suburban Surfers. They eventually called themselves Ultra (named after the Depeche Mode
album), and the following year Nick Keynes joined as bass player after being introduced by mutual friend Neil Cowley, who was the keyboard player for the Brand New Heavies.
(ex-Tears for Fears
) and they were signed to Warner's
EastWest label. In 1998 they released their first single, "Say You Do", written by band members, which reached #11 in the UK. Their next single, "Say it Once", only charted at #16 in the UK, but became a #1 hit in Italy, Australia and all over SE Asia, as well as hitting the Top 10 spot in several other territories including Spain and the Middle East. Over the next two years they had several singles in the UK, Italian and Spanish top 20, and in 1999, their debut album, Ultra
, entered the UK top 40 at #37. Their final single for Warners was "Rescue Me", which charted in the UK at No 8, the band's only British Top 10 single, but hit the No 1 spot in several territories.
The band were very popular with young female audiences, although they insisted that their success came primarily from their songs, not their looks. Ultra performed live and also supported a number of other pop acts including Irish boyband Boyzone
in 1997, former Eternal
member Louise Nurding for a performance at Wembley
, and boyband 911
. They were particularly popular in South East Asia and Italy, where they were mobbed by 3000 teenage girls at a record signing in Milan
.
The band performed on Top Of The Pops 3 times, as well as saturated UK and international TV coverage over a 2 year period. Their biggest audience was at a festival in Seville where they performed to over 100,000 people.
"My music career was great fun and, as a bunch of guys who got together at Leeds University to give the musical bigtime a go, we had a good time".
. Singers Alistair Griffin
and James Fox
were both briefly members of the band at different times.
In 2002 several members of Ultra wrote and recorded a song to celebrate the World Cup
, called "England Crazy", which they recorded as a one-off project as 'Rider' with Terry Venables
. This project was re-signed to their old record label East West, but only reached number 46 in the UK chart due to a lacklustre campaign from the label. It has since been featured on a number of football-themed compilation album
s.
, Kylie Minogue
, Natasha Bedingfield
, Phixx
and Liberty X
. They have also written music for movies, with title tracks on the Andy García
movie Modigliani, and The Magic Roundabout
.
but in 2004 he returned to college. He continued to write and produce tracks for other artists.
, which also features songs written by former member Alistair Griffin, (who provides guest vocals on one of the tracks). Producer credits on the album include Ian Stanley (who produced their first album), Claudio Guidetti (Laura Pausini
, Eros Ramazzotti
), and Ash Howes (Texas
, Blue
). This was released on 2 October 2006 on the Goldust label.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
male pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
band, which was most successful in the late 1990s. The original line-up consisted of James Hearn
James Hearn
James Hearn is an English singer-songwriter. He is best known as being the vocalist of boyband Ultra.-Biography:James Daniel Guy Hearn born on June 19, 1976, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England....
(born 19 June 1976) (vocals
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
), Michael Harwood (born 12 December 1975) (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
), Jon O'Mahony (born 10 August 1973) (drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s) and Nick Keynes (born 3 May 1972) (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
).
Musical history
Although sometimes mistakenly described as a manufactured boyband, Ultra was originally formed by James Hearn, James Rose, Michael Harwood and Jon O'Mahony who were schoolfriends from BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the mid 1990s. After they left school they formed various bands, playing under names such as Stepping Stoned, Decade and Suburban Surfers. They eventually called themselves Ultra (named after the Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
album), and the following year Nick Keynes joined as bass player after being introduced by mutual friend Neil Cowley, who was the keyboard player for the Brand New Heavies.
Chart success
Their demo tape eventually came to the attention of Ian StanleyIan Stanley
Ian Stanley is an English musician, songwriter and record producer...
(ex-Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...
) and they were signed to Warner's
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
EastWest label. In 1998 they released their first single, "Say You Do", written by band members, which reached #11 in the UK. Their next single, "Say it Once", only charted at #16 in the UK, but became a #1 hit in Italy, Australia and all over SE Asia, as well as hitting the Top 10 spot in several other territories including Spain and the Middle East. Over the next two years they had several singles in the UK, Italian and Spanish top 20, and in 1999, their debut album, Ultra
Ultra (debut album)
Ultra was the debut studio album from the English pop band Ultra, released in February 1999 by East West Records .The album reached #37 in the UK album charts and spawned several hit singles in the UK and Europe...
, entered the UK top 40 at #37. Their final single for Warners was "Rescue Me", which charted in the UK at No 8, the band's only British Top 10 single, but hit the No 1 spot in several territories.
The band were very popular with young female audiences, although they insisted that their success came primarily from their songs, not their looks. Ultra performed live and also supported a number of other pop acts including Irish boyband Boyzone
Boyzone
Boyzone are an Irish boy band comprising Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating,Shane Lynch, and formerly Stephen Gately. Boyzone have 19 singles in the top 40 UK charts and 21 singles in the Ire charts. The group currently have 6 UK number one singles and 9 number one singles in Ireland with 12...
in 1997, former Eternal
Eternal (band)
Eternal were an English R&B girl group formed in 1992. The group featured two sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett, alongside Kelle Bryan and Louise Nurding...
member Louise Nurding for a performance at Wembley
Wembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...
, and boyband 911
911 (band)
911 is a British boyband that consists of Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable Spike Dawbarn and for a short period Lee Womack who left the band to study at Huddersfield University. The band were formed in 1995 and released their debut single in May 1996...
. They were particularly popular in South East Asia and Italy, where they were mobbed by 3000 teenage girls at a record signing in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
The band performed on Top Of The Pops 3 times, as well as saturated UK and international TV coverage over a 2 year period. Their biggest audience was at a festival in Seville where they performed to over 100,000 people.
Band split
Despite selling over a million records worldwide, the band lost their contract before recording their second album, as all of the record company A&R who signed them had left, and the new hierarchy passed on the opportunity to record a follow-up. They were offered several deals from other record companies after leaving Warners, including Universal Records in Italy and EMI in SE Asia, but nothing materialized. The band split up in 2001 after James Hearn became disillusioned with the music business and decided to leave. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph James said of his time in Ultra:"My music career was great fun and, as a bunch of guys who got together at Leeds University to give the musical bigtime a go, we had a good time".
Rider
The other band members formed a new group with a number of different short term vocalists including Ryan MolloyRyan Molloy
Ryan Molloy is a British singer, songwriter and actor, who replaced Holly Johnson as the lead singer in Frankie Goes to Hollywood . He has also been successful in musical theatre, appearing in a number of hit musicals in the UK....
. Singers Alistair Griffin
Alistair Griffin
Alistair Richard Griffin is an English singer/songwriter and musician. Already an established songwriter, he first became famous as a solo artist through his appearances on the BBC television show Fame Academy 2 in 2003, where he was "spotted" and championed by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees...
and James Fox
James Fox (singer)
James Fox, real name . is a pop music singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist. He represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul...
were both briefly members of the band at different times.
In 2002 several members of Ultra wrote and recorded a song to celebrate the World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, called "England Crazy", which they recorded as a one-off project as 'Rider' with Terry Venables
Terry Venables
Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...
. This project was re-signed to their old record label East West, but only reached number 46 in the UK chart due to a lacklustre campaign from the label. It has since been featured on a number of football-themed compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s.
Goldust Productions
O'Mahony, Harwood and Keynes set up a music production company, Goldust, writing and producing for other artists such as Bryan AdamsBryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
, Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
, Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Anne Bedingfield is a British pop singer and songwriter. Bedingfield debuted in the 1990s as a member of the Christian dance/electronic group The DNA Algorithm with her siblings Daniel Bedingfield and Nikola Rachelle...
, Phixx
Phixx
Phixx were an English boy band formed in 2003 from the five runners up on British TV show Popstars: The Rivals. The original members were Andrew Kinlochan, Chris Park, Mikey Green, Peter Smith, and Nikk Mager. Between 2003 and 2005 they had four top 20 singles in the UK...
and Liberty X
Liberty X
Liberty X were a British pop vocal group formed by the five contestants eliminated from the final ten qualifiers from the 2001 ITV show Popstars. The group consisted of Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Michelle Heaton, Kelli Young and Jessica Taylor...
. They have also written music for movies, with title tracks on the Andy García
Andy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
movie Modigliani, and The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout (film)
The Magic Roundabout, , is a 2005 British computer-animated film based on the television series of the same name...
.
Careers after break-up
James Hearn initially left the music business to work as a property surveyor in SloughSlough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
but in 2004 he returned to college. He continued to write and produce tracks for other artists.
Reunification
In 2005 the four original members of the band reunited to write and record their second studio album, The Sun Shines BrighterThe Sun Shines Brighter
The Sun Shines Brighter is the second studio album from English band Ultra, released in October 2006, seven years after their debut album Ultra...
, which also features songs written by former member Alistair Griffin, (who provides guest vocals on one of the tracks). Producer credits on the album include Ian Stanley (who produced their first album), Claudio Guidetti (Laura Pausini
Laura Pausini
Laura Pausini, is a Grammy Award-winning Italian soul singer-songwriter. She debuted in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit, reaching the top spot on the Italian...
, Eros Ramazzotti
Eros Ramazzotti
Eros Luciano Walter Ramazzotti , known simply as Eros Ramazzotti, is an Italian singer and songwriter. Ramazzotti is enormously popular in Italy, and is well known in most non-English-speaking European countries and in the Spanish-speaking world, as he has released most of his albums in both...
), and Ash Howes (Texas
Texas (band)
Texas are a Scottish pop band from Bearsden, near Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone in 1986 and feature Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals. Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee...
, Blue
Blue (boy band)
Blue are an English pop vocal group, whose members are Simon Webbe, Lee Ryan, Duncan James and Antony Costa. Blue originally formed in 2001 before splitting in 2005. In 2009, it was confirmed that the band would reform. In April 2009, the group reunited and a Best of Blue Tour was announced...
). This was released on 2 October 2006 on the Goldust label.
As Ultra
- Say You Do (April 1998, UK #11)
CD 1 - Say You Do 3:39
- Whatever 3:44
- Evolution 3:43
CD 2 - Say You Do 3:39
- Say You Do (Extended Version) 5:40
- Human After All 3:31
- Say You Do (video) 3:40
12" Single - Say You Do 3:39
- Say You Do (Extended Version) 5:40
- Say It Once (July 1998,UK #16, Spain #2, Italy #1, AUS #1, SE Asia #1, New Zealand #4, Middle East #1)
CD 1 - Say It Once (Single Edit) 3:59
- Shine 4:19
- Say It Once (Acoustic Version) 3:22
- Say It Once (Ultra Mix) 3:59
CD 2 - Say It Once (Single Edit) 3:59
- Say It Once (Paleface Mix) 4:04
- Say It Once (Bodger Mix) 3:43
- The Right Time (October 1998, UK #28)
CD 1 - The Right Time (Radio Edit) 3:45
- Stereotype 3:53
- The Right Time (Acoustic Version) 3:02
CD 2 - The Right Time (Radio Edit) 3:45
- The Right Time (Handbaggers Remix) 6:20
- The Right Time (video) 3:55
- Rescue Me (Jan 1999, UK #8, SE Asia #1, Italy #9)
CD Single - Rescue Me (Ultra Radio Edit) 3:45
- Rescue Me (Steelworks 12" Mix) 5:47
- Rescue Me (Orchestra Mix) 4:27
- Blind to the Groove (July 1999 Spain #4, Italy #7)
CD Single - Blind to the Groove (Edit) 3:47
- Human After All 3:31
- UltraUltra (debut album)Ultra was the debut studio album from the English pop band Ultra, released in February 1999 by East West Records .The album reached #37 in the UK album charts and spawned several hit singles in the UK and Europe...
(Feb 1999, #37 UK, #1 Italy, #10 Spain, #1 SE Asia, #5 Australia) - The Sun Shines BrighterThe Sun Shines BrighterThe Sun Shines Brighter is the second studio album from English band Ultra, released in October 2006, seven years after their debut album Ultra...
(Oct 2006) - Entry in Muze Encyclopedia of Popular Music
- Interview with Nina Ti, 1998
- Ultra official Myspace
- Official Ultra - Official website
- Goldust Productions
- Ultrafanclub, unofficial fansite
- Ultra-abiglove, unofficial Italian fansite
- Ultra.iwsm, unofficial Italian fansite
- Interview with Jon O'Mahony, HitQuarters Apr 2009