The Lightning Seeds

Essentially a band name used by Ian Broudie as an outlet for his crafted songwriting and studio experiments, the Lightning Seeds have nevertheless produced an admirable body of work, rocketing into household name status after the collaboration with comedy duo David Baddiel and Frank Skinner which produced the 1996 soccer anthem Three Lions. Formerly with the Liverpool post-punk band Big In Japan, Broudie produced albums for the likes of Icicle Works, Echo and The Bunnymen and The Fall (as Kingbird), before scoring his first Lightning Seeds hit in 1989 with Pure. He followed it with the 1994 album Jollification which, though still broadly a solo project, featured guest appearances by Alison Moyet, Ian McNabb and Terry Hall. Its success encouraged Broudie to form a more conventional touring band and the hits continued, climaxing with the witty Three Lions, a theme song for the Euro '96 tournament which became a smash hit all over Europe and captured the imagination of football crowds everywhere. More hits followed before Broudie announced in 2002 that the Seeds would be taking an indefinite break. However, a Greatest Hits collection and reissues of Three Lions re-focused interest and in 2009 the Lightning Seeds were back with a new studio album Four Winds and a tour with Squeeze.