Pure

Night time slows, raindrops splash rainbows
Perhaps someone you know, could sparkle and shine
As daydreams slide to colour from shadow
Picture the moonglow, that dazzles my eyes
And I love you

Today's edition of Retro Friday features the song Pure, by The Lightning Seeds.

I was in a happy-go-lucky sort of mood today, and was looking for something light and sunny for today's blog post, and this is definitely it. This song came out my senior year in high school and it brings back some wonderful, sunny memories.

The Lightning Seeds are an English alternative rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1989 by Ian Broudie (vocals, guitar, producer), formerly of the Big in Japan band.

The band started out as a studio-based solo project for Broudie, and then the Lightning Seeds expanded into a touring band following the album Jollification in 1994. The group experienced commercial success throughout the 1990s and are well-known for their single "Three Lions", a collaboration with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner which reached No. 1 in the UK in 1996 and 1998.

In 1989 Ian Broudie began recording alone under the name the Lightning Seeds and achieved his first commercial success with the psychedelic sounding synthpop hit "Pure", from the album Cloudcuckooland. Pure reached the UK Top 20. The same year "Joy" and "All I Want" were also released but failed to make much of an impression. "Pure" had some success in the US Billboard Top 40 reaching #32. Both "Pure" and "All I Want" also reached the Modern Rock Tracks top 10, and in 1991 Broudie returned to song-writing and moved labels from Rough Trade to Virgin.

During his time with Virgin records he released the album Sense (1992) which featured the song "The Life of Riley", written by Broudie for his son, that reached #28 in the UK Singles Chart and just registered at #98 in the US Billboard Hot 100.

When Broudie's contract expired with Virgin, Epic agreed to sign him to their label and he was very excited about the new opportunity. Broudie put other projects on hold and embarked on a touring schedule. "I'd been wanting to perform live again for some time and this was the first time I found myself talking to somebody at a record company who believed in Lightning Seeds."

By the end of 1993 Broudie had finished the Jollification (1994) album, which
included contributions from Terry Hall and Simon Rogers as well as Ian McNabb. A promotional tour began in August of 1994 with their lineup consisting of guitarist Paul Hemmings, drummer Chris Sharrock, bassist Martyn Campbell and keyboardist Ali Kane. The tour benefited from the success of the second single from the album "Change", which reached #13 in the UK Singles Charts, becoming Lightning Seeds second top twenty hit in the UK. The album Jollification their best success to date and the singles taken from this album, "Lucky You", "Marvellous" and "Perfect" made noticeable impact. Mark Farrow's album cover featured the use of computer graphics to create an enormous strawberry and depicting seeds with superimposed human faces.

The band still tours live to this date. In October 2010 they performed in Indonesia at the Jakarta Playground festival. After the band's final headline show of 2010 at Leamington Assembly on 12 November, they supported Squeeze on a 22 stop UK tour. On Friday 8 July, The Lightning Seeds headlined the AmpRocks festival in Ampthill Park. They also played at the South Tyneside Summer Festival in South Shields at the end of July 2011.

Okay ... and here is a little Pure for your listening pleasure. Hope you are having a wonderful Friday!



Cheers!