Lindy Layton | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Belinda Kimberly Layton |
Born | Hammersmith, London, England | 7 December 1970
Genres | Electronic |
Occupation | Singer |
Instrument | Vocals |
Years active | 1989–present |
Labels |
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Belinda Kimberly "Lindy" Layton (born 7 December 1970) is an English singer. She was a founding member of and vocalist for dance music band Beats International. She has released a number of solo albums and singles and worked with other musicians, more recently including Hardknox and Dub Pistols.
Layton attended the Barbara Speake Stage School in the 1980s and appeared as an actor in TV shows such as Casualty and Press Gang [1] (though many people have mistaken the latter for an appearance in Grange Hill on BBC One, getting Layton mixed up with the actress Lindy Brill, who had also played a character called Cathy (Hargreaves)). [2] [3] [4] [5] In the early 1990s, Layton was part of Norman Cook's dance music collective Beats International, which featured her as lead vocalist on a couple of singles, including the number-one hit "Dub Be Good to Me". Beats International's debut album, Let Them Eat Bingo , sold moderately. [6]
Following the success of the singles with Beats International in 1990, Layton signed a solo deal with Arista, and released her version of Janet Kay's hit "Silly Games". The single was a hit, and further releases followed from her 1991 debut album Pressure. However, these decreased in popularity. Pressure was mostly produced by Norman Cook and the dance-soul-funk outfit Driza Bone. The album's second single, "Echo My Heart", narrowly missed a UK Top 40 placing in January 1991, [7] while "Wait for Love" produced by Norman Cook failed to reach the UK Top 75 Singles Chart altogether, in April of that year.
Layton's summer 1991 release of "Without You (One and One)" followed, again produced by Driza Bone. "Without You (One and One)" sold better than Layton's previous single, but failed to reach the Top 40. [7] Layton released a one-off single for Debut Records in 1992. "I'll Be a Freak for You" was not a UK Top 75 chart hit. The following year, Layton re-emerged with a new deal with PWL. The new material was more commercial, and two single releases of minor chart success were released in the UK: "We Got the Love" and "Show Me". [7] Without the expected profitable return, Layton parted company with PWL.
In Japan she released a pop-reggae album, No Other Star, in 1996, and went on to release other work as Hardknox with fellow DJ Steve Proctor the same year. They were signed to Skint Records and released their debut single "Coz I Can" which was given "Single of the Week" honours by NME . The group's second effort, the "Psychopath" EP, received the same recognition. After various performing remixes for artists such as Orgy, Crystal Method, and Faith No More, plus appearing on a various compilations and mixes, a self-titled LP was released in 1999 by Jive Electro.
Layton guested on three tracks on the 2009 Groove Diggerz album Money for Good Times: "Weirdness", "Just Be Good to Me" (a reworking of her Beats International hit "Dub Be Good to Me"), and "Body Flow", for which she also shared a writing credit.
She guested with the Dub Pistols in May 2009, reprising "Dub Be Good to Me", at their support slot to the Specials at the O2 Academy Brixton. She guested again with the Dub Pistols at Rock the River 2009, a wakeboard and music festival held on the quay of World Heritage Site, Conwy. She also appeared with the Dub Pistols at the last Glade Festival in 2009. Layton has also recorded with the band, appearing alongside Rodney P on the single "I'm in Love" from their 2009 album Rum & Coke [8] and "Rock Steady" from the 2013 LP Worshipping the Dollar. [9] In 2013, she began a daytime radio show on Kane FM with Mel Foster, The Mrs, which ran for about a year. She is now a songwriter and composes with her writing partner Matt Kootchi, who owns and runs house label Good Lucky Recordings.
Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | |
---|---|---|---|---|
UK [10] | NED | |||
1990 | "Silly Games" (featuring Janet Kaye) | 22 | — | Pressure |
1991 | "Echo My Heart" | 42 | 61 | |
"Wait For Love" | 84 | — | ||
"Without You (One And One)" | 71 | — | ||
1992 | "I'll Be A Freak For You" | 89 | — | singles only |
1993 | "We Got The Love" | 38 | — | |
"Show Me" | 47 | — | ||
1996 | "Who Do You Think You Are?" (Japan only) | – | — | No Other Star |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. |
Norman Quentin Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the Hull-based indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split up, Cook formed the electronic band Beats International in Brighton, who produced the number-one single "Dub Be Good to Me". He then played in Freak Power, Pizzaman, and the Mighty Dub Katz with moderate success.
The Housemartins were an English indie rock group formed in Hull who were active in the 1980s and charted three top-ten albums and six top-twenty singles in the UK. Many of their lyrics conveyed a mixture of socialist politics and Christianity, reflecting the beliefs of the band. The group's a cappella cover version of "Caravan of Love" was a UK number one single in December 1986.
Beats International were a British dance music band and hip-hop collective, formed in the late 1980s by Norman Cook based in Brighton, East Sussex, England, after his departure from the Housemartins.
Kylie is the debut studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released on 4 July 1988 by Mushroom Records. Minogue had established herself as a child actress before signing to the record label in early 1987. The success of her debut single, "Locomotion", resulted in her working with Stock Aitken Waterman, who produced the album and wrote nine of its ten tracks. Their recording sessions, commencing in October 1987 in London and Melbourne, coincided with Minogue's filming schedule for the soap opera Neighbours.
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"Turn It into Love" is a single released by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. It was taken from her debut studio album Kylie (1988). The single was released in December 1988 in Japan only. The B-side was a new song "Made in Heaven", which also served as the B-side to both "Je ne sais pas pourquoi" and "It's No Secret" in other international territories.
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"Got to Be Certain" is a song by Australian singer Kylie Minogue from her debut studio album, Kylie (1988). Written and produced by English songwriting and record production trio Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), the song was released as the second single from Kylie in most territories outside Australia, and was released on 2 May 1988 in Australia and the United Kingdom. In Australia, "Got to Be Certain" was Minogue's third single release. "Got to Be Certain" was a commercial success, peaking at number one in Minogue's native Australia and number two on the UK Singles Chart.
Hardknox is an English electronic music duo consisting of producer and instrumentalist Steve Proctor and vocalist Lindy Layton. They have released two singles and a self-titled album. Their musical style features heavy beats with powerful vocal samples and unusual loops and sound effects.
"You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" is the debut single of English pop singer Sonia. Written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, the song was included on Sonia's debut album, Everybody Knows (1990). The single became Sonia's only number-one single on the UK Singles Chart and reached number 10 on the US Billboard Dance Club Play chart.
"Dub Be Good to Me" is a song by British dub group Beats International featuring singer Lindy Layton, released on 24 January 1990 by Go! Beat Records as the first single from their debut album, Let Them Eat Bingo (1990). It was written by frontman Norman Cook and interprets the SOS Band's 1983 hit "Just Be Good to Me", which it is named after. It also samples the songs "The Guns of Brixton" by the Clash, the Once Upon a Time in the West theme by Ennio Morricone, and "Jam Hot" by Johnny Dynell.
David Barbarossa is an English musician and author. As the drummer in both Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, he was instrumental in creating the highly influential and innovative tribal drumming style that was popular among British and some American bands from 1979 to 1983.
DRIZABONE is an international dance music / remixing musical group, led by record producer, musician and songwriter Vincent Garcia. Garcia used various female vocalists to provide the vocal element to his output. Driza Bone was primarily popular in the early 1990s. Garcia named his production company after the Driza-Bone brand of waterproof riding coats.
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The Raw & the Remix is a remix album by English alternative band Fine Young Cannibals, released in 1990 by I.R.S. Records, MCA Records and London Records. It contains remixes and alternate versions of songs by the band, mostly from their 1989 album The Raw & the Cooked. Several of the remixes were created by David Steele and Andy Cox of the band, whilst others were created by disc jockeys such as Smith & Mighty, Youth, Jazzie B, Nellee Hooper and Derrick May. The remixes on the album are said to be significantly different from the originals, some of which contain major stylistic differences in the arrangements.
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