Liverpool band Space reunite for hometown Christmas show
LIVERPOOL band Space announced today they will reform to play a special hometown Christmas show, on Thursday 22 December at the 02 Academy Liverpool. Tickets are priced £12.50 and general on sale is Monday 14 November. Tickets are available from www.ticketweb.co.uk/ 0844 477 2000.
The line-up will feature original band members Tommy Scott (vocals/bass), Jamie Murphy (vocals/guitar) and Franny Griffiths (keyboards). Along with Ryan Clarke (vintage keys) and drummer Allan Jones who will replace Andy Parle who sadly died in 2009.
"We can't wait to play Liverpool again as Space. I started to play the Space songs again this summer and started to get nostalgic about the band. I think a lot of it is down to timing, it just feels right to give it a go again" says Tommy Scott.
"I'm made up Space are back together because I was heading for a lengthy prison sentence the way I was going on! So once again Space have saved the day" adds Jamie Murphy.
The platinum selling band came to prominence in the mid 1990's with hit single such as Female of the Species, Neighbourhood, Avenging Angels, Me and you Verses the World and The Balllad of Tom Jones. They worked with Tom Jones in 1999 and Cerys Matthews a year earlier. The band formed in 1993 and released four studio albums, plus a number of charting singles, before disbanding in 2005.
Back in 1993, Tommy Scott and Andy Parle had been floating around their hometown of Liverpool for too long. Where the shadow of The Beatles still hung over every aspiring Liverpudlian musician, finding the personnel to translate the sound in Scott's head had proved a frustrating and fruitless task.
A teenage would-be guitarist Jamie Murphy was always around. A precocious musical talent and hive of hyperactivity, he'd always seemed too young to be involved. With a saying in mind "If you're big enough, you're old enough", the first time Scott saw him out in a local nightclub, he decided to give it a go. Murphy turned up to his first rehearsal in school uniform. Kraftwerk fanatic Franny Griffiths was the next to join the fold. The original line-up was complete. Space had been born.
Liverpool manager Mark Cowley has been with the band since their first gig and recorded the band’s first single If it’s Real on his own label Hug Records, with The Farm's Carl Hunter designing the Artwork. It was from this that Gut Records first discovered the band and started a sub label under the same name. "It’s exciting working with the boys again....it was crazy back then and it will crazier again next year" says Mark.
An initial low key single Money/Kill Me was released in November 1995, it left the shops as quickly as it had entered. They cut their live teeth around this time too, but it was the release of their first proper single Neighbourhood that really kicked things off for the band. It told the tale of Tommy's childhood street in Liverpool, but with serial killers and transvestites in starring role. This was pop music with a dark and sharp edge, a taste of things to come.
The second single Female of the Species was a bolt from the blue. Scott wrote this song for his late father, who had always hated his music. He wanted it to sound like a Burt Bacharach tune sung by Frank Sinatra. The results were wonderful. Female of the Species was an instant classic, staying in the UK top 40 for an amazing 3 months. It was this song that catapulted Space to a whole new audience. The debut album Spiders was a resounding critical success. Three sold out tours, three further Top 20 singles, Dark Clouds, a re-released Neighbourhood and the Top 10 hit Me and You Versus The World and some triumphant festival appearances followed.
Old acquaintance Dave Palmer, better known as Yorkie, joined the band in late 1997. After helping out with the album, Yorkie was asked to become the bands' full time bassist, allowing Tommy to concentrate on vocals.
Internationally, things began to happen for the band; already a massive hit in the UK Female of the Species also gained moderate airplay on college radio and MTV in America as well. With success comes touring, with touring comes stress. A tour of the US followed in mid-1997. Jamie, the youngest member of the band at only 21, found it all too much. He took a break, missing some live shows and TV appearances. The death of Palmer's mother, legendary Liverpool singer Gladys Palmer, also devastated the band.
Jamie returned for the recording of Space's second album Tin Planet. This was a darker, more song-led album than their debut. Scott's voice was at the fore, as the band mixed the classicism of his songs with Griffiths' keyboard backdrops, Murphy's energy and Parles' solid rhythms.
Tommy described Tin Planet as, "More darkness, but the songs were pure love songs. Our first songs used to be trying to be like Speedy Gonzales or Peter Lorre. Then it became more Marlene Dietrich."
In early 1998 after finishing Space's second album Tin Planet, drummer Andy Parle left. He was immediately replaced by Leon Caffrey.
In 2001, Space parted ways with Gut following certain issues with the label, including the constant postponing of their third album Love you More Than Football . Jamie Murphy decided to quit the band in early 2002. After a three year break from public attention, Space returned in 2004 to release Surburban Rock 'N' Roll, their first proper release of new material since Tin Planet.
In 2005 Space announced their decision to go their separate ways.
