The Farm were a band from
Liverpool
, England popular through the early 1990s.
Their album
Spartacus reached the top
position on the
UK albums chart when
it was released in April 1991.
History
The Farm were unofficially called Soul of Socialism in the early
1980s. This band comprised Peter Hooton, Steve Grimes, John Melvin
and Andy McVann, who was killed in a police chase on 1 October
1986, 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 (Stinker) on bass, Neil (Cad)
Campbell on drums, as well as Steve Grimes on guitar. They became
The Farm after Martin Dunbar (vocals) left and Peter Hooton joined.
The name came from a friend's farm where they used to practise. In
the 1980s they released a 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.
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 Graham
McPherson. They were signed up on the back of this and hired
McPherson as their producer. Their first single under new
management was "Stepping Stone", a dance re-make of
Paul Revere & the Raiders
and
The Monkees' single "(I'm Not Your)
Steppin' Stone", a 1966 single which 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 Ten in
September 1990. Later that year, they released their most famous
song, "
All Together
Now", which was a huge 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
Twenty.
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.
Their most recent release was "All Together Now (Strike Three)", as
the official anthem of the
England National Football
Team at
Euro 2004. It was issued on 31
May 2004, having been remixed with the help of
DJ Spoony. The Farm were also central to the
commemorative Hillsborough track "
The Fields of Anfield Road" from
which the proceeds went to the families of those killed in the
disaster.
Line-up
Others
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Singles
- 1990 - "Stepping
Stone / Family of Man" - #58 UK
- 1990 - "Groovy Train" - #6 UK, #15
US Modern Rock
- 1990 - "All
Together Now" - #4 UK, #7 US Modern Rock
- 1991 - "Sinful!" (Pete Wylie
with The Farm) - #28 UK
- 1991 - "Don't Let
Me Down" - #36 UK
- 1991 - "Mind" - #31 UK
- 1992 - "Love See No Colour" - #58 UK
- 1992 - "Rising Sun" - #48 UK
- 1992 - "Don't You Want Me" -
#18 UK
- 1992 - "Love See No Colour (re-mix)" - #35 UK
- 1994 - "Messiah"
- 1994 - "Comfort"
- 1995 - "All Together Now" (Everton FA Cup Final
version) - #24 UK
- 2004 - "All Together Now" (England Euro 2004 version,
The Farm featuring SFX Boys Choir) - #5 UK
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