1989–1993: Formation and early years Prior to forming his own project,
Ian Broudie had been a member of the 1970s post-punk band
Big in Japan and the
new wave bands
Original Mirrors and
Care. By the late 1980s, Broudie was better known as a producer than as a musician, and had produced albums for new wave and alternative rock artists such as
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Wall of Voodoo and
the Fall. In 1989, Broudie began recording alone under the name "Lightning Seeds". and the singles taken from this album, "Lucky You", "Marvellous" and "Perfect" made noticeable impact.
Mark Farrow's album cover featured the use of
computer graphics to create an enormous
strawberry, its seeds depicted with superimposed human faces, while the singles' covers featured different variations on this theme. During this period a number of songs were recorded at a private river barge studio located at
Eel Pie Studios, then owned by
Pete Townshend for the fourth studio album
Dizzy Heights. In 1998, the Lightning Seeds also performed on the Main Stage at both the
Glastonbury Festival and the
V Festival in the UK.
1999–2005: Tilt and hiatus Their album
Tilt (1999) was dance-oriented and featured collaborations with
Stephen Jones. The single "Life's Too Short" was heralded by
BBC Radio 1 DJ
Chris Moyles as "one of the band's strongest singles to date" and rose to No. 27 in the UK Singles Chart.
2006–present The band's second greatest hits album
The Very Best of the Lightning Seeds was released on 12 June 2006, followed by the re-release of "Three Lions", which rose to No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2009, the band released their sixth studio album,
Four Winds, and returned to touring in April 2010 after a ten-year hiatus. In 2014, the songs and career of Ian Broudie were celebrated in a concert held at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra and performances by
Ian McCulloch (
Echo And The Bunnymen),
Miles Kane (
the Last Shadow Puppets),
Terry Hall (
the Specials), James Skelly (
the Coral) and Broudie himself with a band featuring musicians Sean Payne (
the Zutons), Bill Ryder Jones and Nick Power (
the Coral) and Broudie's son, Riley. The event was filmed but is yet to be released. On 22 August 2014, the Lightning Seeds were joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Liverpool's
Sefton Park for a show in front of 30,000 people, reprising the Philharmonic show without the special guests. In December 2016, the Lightning Seeds supported
Madness on their British pre-Christmas arena tour. In June 2018, the single "
Three Lions" re-entered the UK chart and reached number one on the chart dated 19 July 2018, celebrating the progress of
England national football team at the
2018 FIFA World Cup, with the phrase "it's coming home" featuring heavily on social media and television. A new single, "Sunshine", was released on 15 June 2022. Alongside the new song "Emily Smiles" it was taken from the studio album
See You in the Stars, which was released in October 2022. In 2023, the Lightning Seeds opened the Glastonbury Festival's "Other Stage". They also supported Madness on tour once again that year. ==Band members==