My Life Story
are a UK indie pop group who peaked in the mid to late 1990s, when they were regarded as part of the Britpop movement. Fronted by singer/songwriter Jake Shillingford, the group was formed in London around 1991, and inherited their name from an earlier group in which Shillingford had appeared. A cross between a pop group and a chamber orchestra, the band's sound was heavily oriented toward orchestral instruments.
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MY LIFE STORY TICKETS
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History
At the time of their debut
single, "Girl A, Girl B, Boy C" (1993), the group had a regular line-up of twelve members. Though the membership fluctuated continually, it rarely dipped into single figures until 1999, when their third
album credited just four regular members, though most of the former line-up were still used as
session musicians.
My Life Story enjoyed the most success at the time of their second
album, which spawned five singles that entered the lower half of the
UK Singles Chart,
[1] but finally disbanded after a series of farewell
concerts in December 2000.
On 26 May 2006 the band reformed with the full line-up of thirteen members to play to a sell-out crowd at
the Mean Fiddler on
Charing Cross Road in London, in support of their forthcoming
Best Of
album. The gig got a review rating of 10/10 from
Planet Sound
. A second reunion show took place at the Astoria in London on 8 December 2006. A third reunion show took place on 13 December 2007 at the
Shepherds Bush Empire in London.
In 2009, it was announced that, to mark 15 years since their debut album, the group would reform and perform the album in full, together with later songs. This concert is to be at
KOKO which is next door to
Mornington Crescent tube station.
Their
recording of the
song "Mr Boyd" (originally recorded by
Argosy in 1969) was featured during the
closing credits of the
film,
Stiff Upper Lips
.
"12 Reasons Why I Love Her" was used in an advert for
The Sarah Silverman Program on
Comedy Central in the UK.
Other projects
The spirit of the band lives on in Shillingford's current project, ExileInside, which draws its influences from 1980s electronica, replacing the lush orchestral sounds of My Life Story with a quirky retro synth based sound. Former band members Aaron Cahill and Mal Campbell appear in the line-up, and the material is engineered by
George Shilling. Shilling also produced many My Life Story tracks, including most of the
Golden Mile
album.
Shillingford has also presented an
electronica music show on the
Essex based community radio station
Phoenix FM.
Dan Turner the band's
keyboard player went on to form the band Macarthur after the group split in 2000. He landed a
recording contract with Artist Network and recorded the
Northern Soul influenced album
Macarthur
working with musicians such as Gary "Mudbone" Cooper {
Funkadelic} and Chris Sharrock {
The La's,
World Party,
Robbie Williams,
Oasis}. As the band were about to release their first single the record company went bankrupt. The music has now been taken on by Fairwood Music.
Discography
Albums
- Mornington Crescent
(Mother Tongue Records - 1994)
- The Golden Mile
(Parlophone - 1997) UK # 36
- Mornington Crescent
(Parlophone - 1998)
- Joined Up Talking
(it Records 2000).
- Sex & Violins (The Best of My Life Story)
(Exilophone Records 2006)
- Megaphone Theology (B-Sides and Rarities)
(Exilophone Records 2006)
Singles
- "Girl A, Girl B, Boy C" (1993)
- "Funny Ha Ha" (1994)
- "You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes)" (1995)
- "The Mornington Crescent Companion EP" (1995)
- "12 Reasons Why I Love Her" (1996) UK #32
- "Sparkle" (1996) UK #34
- "The King Of Kissingdom" (1997) UK #35
- "Strumpet" (1997) UK #27
- "Duchess" (1997) UK #39
- "If You Can't Live Without Me Then Why Aren't You Dead Yet?" (1998) - Download-only single in Windows Media format (later available as an MP3)
- "It's A Girl Thing" (1999) UK #37
- "Empire Line" (1999) UK #58
- "Walk/Don't Walk" (2000) UK #48
Notes
- "Sparkle" was a re-arranged and re-recorded version of "You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes)".
- My Life Story produced promotional CDs for a single version of "You Can't Uneat The Apple" but "Duchess" was released in its place.
Collaborations
- Yesterday Has Gone
with P.J. Proby and Marc Almond (as the My Life Story Orchestra
)
See also
Baroque pop
References
- British Hit Singles & Albums