1980-жылдардың британдық поп-рок тобы "Breathe" туралы

English pop rock group
the British band

Breathe were an English pop band formed in London in 1984. The band enjoyed chart success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with hit singles "Don't Tell Me Lies", "How Can I Fall? ", and "Say a Prayer". The group's biggest hit was "Hands to Heaven", which reached #2 in the United States in August 1988.

The members of Breathe were childhood friends who attended Yateley School, a comprehensive in north east Hampshire. During 1982 they formed a five piece jazz infused outfit called Catch 22, performing covers and the occasional original song. The lineup consisted of David Glasper (vocals), Marcus Lillington (guitar & keyboards), Phill Harrison (bass), Michael Delahunty (bass guitar), and Ian Spice (drums). In a 1990 interview, Glasper offered the following recollections: I was 17 when the band started, so the other guys were two years younger than myself, 15 we had bands that we loved, but it was so far apart in musical tastes It was just this confusion of different styles. Marcus and Phill were into things like Led Zep and Floyd, that area. I was into things like the Eagles, Little Feat, some soul stuff. Spike was probably into heavier, sort of rock music. So we had all these different kind of styles, which at first was just like a terrible mixture So we played around our local area quite a lot and that helped kind of formulate or create some kind of style. After Phill Harrison left Catch 22 to join the Fire Brigade, the band became known as Breathe.

In 1984, Breathe began working on some demos. These songs were introduced to personnel from Virgin Records, which led to a recording contract in 1985 with its subsidiary Siren Records. Their second single, "In All Honesty", was released in Britain in May 1986, but failed to chart. It was a common industry practice to break a new artist with an up tempo number, so in May 1987, an abbreviated mix of "Jonah" was chosen instead of "Hands to Heaven" as Breathe's third UK single. Los Angeles based label A&M Records released the album All That Jazz in the United States on 24 August 1987, issuing "Jonah" as Breathe's first stateside single. "Jonah" did not chart in either the United States or the United Kingdom. At the end of August 1987, Siren Records released the single "All That Jazz" in Britain as a prelude to the full length same titled album, originally scheduled for an October UK release. Although this title track did not chart, the album would soon go on to score the group two of the band's best known hits, "Hands to Heaven" and "How Can I Fall?". In September 1987, Breathe embarked on their first live national tour, The Big Blow Tour. Between 9 and 28 September, the band played 17 dates. Faced with four unsuccessful singles after "All That Jazz" failed to reach the Top 100 Singles chart, Siren released "Hands To Heaven" in October 1987, while A&M Records issued "Hands To Heaven" in January 1988 as Breathe's second American single. Siren Records released a remix of "Any Trick" in March 1988. In America, "Hands To Heaven" debuted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart on 20 February 1988. With repeated rotation of the music video on VH1, "Hands To Heaven" crept onto the Billboard Hot 100 at #90 on 16 April and drifted about the lower regions of the chart for the following two months until it finally broke into the Top 40 in June. As the band's next single in the United States, A&M chose "How Can I Fall?". This song cracked the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart on 3 September and reached the Hot 100 one week later. In Britain, with the success of "Hands to Heaven", Siren Records decided to revamp the album All That Jazz, which had not yet charted. A new cover was commissioned to reflect the changed band lineup, with the track listing altered by the addition of a remix of "Don't Tell Me Lies". All That Jazz was re released in the UK on 26 September 1988, and debuted on the British album chart the week of 8 October 1988. That same month, Breathe performed at the Ku Club on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza as part of the Ibiza '88 music festival. Also in October, the remixed "Jonah" was released as Breathe's seventh single in the UK, and found minor chart success with a peak of #60. By September 1988, Breathe had also began to work on their second album titled Peace of Mind. In the United States, "How Can I Fall?" continued to climb the charts, hitting #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks in November and peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. On 3 January 1989, A&M issued a remixed version of "Don't Tell Me Lies" as a single. When the single reached #10 on 18 March, Breathe became the first group in A&M's 27 year history to achieve three Top 10 singles from its debut album. The song also reached #5 on the adult contemporary chart. In the United Kingdom, Siren issued the remix of "Don't Tell Me Lies" in early March. Neither of the successful US follow ups translated to the British charts; "How Can I Fall?" peaked at #48, and "Don't Tell Me Lies" at #45. In April 1989, A&M released "All This I Should Have Known" in the US as the final single from All That Jazz. While it made a respectable #34 placing on the Adult Contemporary chart, it missed the Hot 100. In May 1989, Billboard Magazine named David Glasper (number 12) and Marcus Lillington (number 13) in its top 20 pop songwriters for 1988. Later in the year, they were honoured at the ASCAP annual pop awards, held in London on 27 September, for "Hands To Heaven" and "How Can I Fall?"

David Glasper and Marcus Lillington continued to pen songs for the band's second album Peace of Mind and by December 1989 Breathe was back in the studio with producer Bob Sargeant. This album also saw Glasper collaborate with prolific songwriter Francis "Eg" White on four tracks. In 1990, David Glasper and Marcus Lillington were again honoured amongst songwriters whose songs had achieved the greatest airplay in the US during the previous year. At the ASCAP Pop awards, held on 26 September 1990, they were recognised for the success of "How Can I Fall?" and "Don't Tell Me Lies". Peace of Mind was released on 20 August 1990 in the UK, Europe and internationally, and issued in the United States on 4 September 1990. Three commercial singles were released from Peace of Mind the first being "Say a Prayer", issued by A&M in the United States during August 1990. The song reached #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. In the United Kingdom, "Say a Prayer" was released by Siren in October 1990 as the second single from the album (after "Say Hello") where it peaked at #93 in the Top 100. "Say Hello" was issued on 3 September 1990 as a single in the UK and Europe only, achieving a modest top placing of #88 on the UK singles chart on 15 September. By 1992 Breathe had disbanded, allegedly due to their frustration with the lack of promotional support they were receiving from A&M, which had been acquired by PolyGram (now Universal Music Group) in 1989. In a 2012 interview, Marcus Lillington stated that the band "kind of fell apart as a band during the making of Peace of Mind. We just weren't into promoting it in the same way as All That Jazz. I also don't think the songs were quite up to the standard of the first album".