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British band from Liverpool

The Farm are a British band from Liverpool. Their first album, Spartacus, reached the top position on the UK Albums Chart when it was released in March 1991; Spartacus 30 was released in 2021 to commemorate the anniversary. Spartacus includes two songs which had been top 10 singles the year before.

The band was formed in early 1983 who was killed in a police chase on 1 October 1986 at the age of 21, and to whose parents the band's subsequent album, Spartacus, is dedicated. The band evolved from an earlier group called The Excitements, initially including Phil Stephenson on bass guitar, Neil (Cad) Campbell on drums, Grimes on guitar and Thomas (the band's dancer). They became The Farm after Martin Dunbar (vocals) left and Peter Hooton joined, although they did play several gigs as The Excitements with Hooton on vocals. In 1984, they released the single, "Hearts and Minds", produced by Graham "Suggs" McPherson, lead vocalist with Madness. In 1989, the band had been given a cameo role in the movie The Final Frame starring Suggs. They were signed after this and hired Suggs as their producer. Their first single under new management was "Stepping Stone", a dance remake of Paul Revere & the Raiders and The Monkees' single "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", In late November that year, they released their most memorable song, "All Together Now", which instantly became a hit and peaked at number three in the charts in December 1990. and followed it up with three smaller hits on the Produce record label. With the success of Spartacus, the band signed a major label deal with Sony Records, who gave them their own End Product record label (which played on the name of their former independent record company Produce). However their success was to be short lived due to changes in the indie music scene and the move to a major. Their first single for Sony, "Rising Sun" (1992), moved away from the baggy sound and did not perform well, peaking at Number 48 in the UK Top 75.) to accompany their presence in the 1995 FA Cup Final, in which Everton beat Manchester United 1 0. Their most recent hit single under their own name was "All Together Now 2004", featuring the S. F. X. Boys Choir of Liverpool, as the official anthem of the England National Football Team at Euro 2004. It was issued on 31 May 2004 and, as the name suggests, in a slightly remixed format, with radio commentary from the Euro 2004 qualifiers added to the track, whilst a bonus remix was included on the single with the help of DJ Spoony. The Farm was also one of the first bands to perform at the Echo Arena Liverpool when it opened in January 2008.

The Farm were also central to the track released to commemorate the Hillsborough disaster, "The Fields of Anfield Road", the proceeds going to the families of those killed in the disaster. Credited to the Liverpool Collective featuring the Kop Choir, this single was a new entry at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart on 12 April 2009 and reached number 14 a week later. In 2011, the Farm joined forces with others to create the Don't Buy The Sun Gig, at the Olympia in Liverpool, which was part of the continuing protest on Merseyside against The Sun newspaper for its false reporting on the Hillsborough disaster 22 years before. This comprised Mick Jones from the Clash, Pete Wylie from the Mighty Wah, John Power and others. This then formed the core of The Justice Tonight Band which toured from 2011 to 2012, including four performances supporting the Stone Roses in their comeback tour in 2012. The Justice Tonight Band headlined the Strummerville festival in 2012 and went on to form the Justice Collective who had the Christmas number 1 with their version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", a charity single in aid of the families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

Throughout 2013 and 2014, the band have continued to perform at festivals around the UK, including the Isle of Wight Festival in 2013. In 2014, Alan McGee said that the band's acoustic gig at his new venue The Tabernacle, was in his "Top Ten All Time Gigs". The Farm continued to perform live in 2015 at various festivals such as at the Shiiine On Weekender in November, 2015 and appeared live doing a number of acoustic performances. In 2016, the band along with numerous other celebrities, toured the UK to support Jeremy Corbyn's bid to become Prime Minister. In June 2017, the band supported a Labour Party rally prior to the 2017 UK general election. In 2018, Carl Hunter directed the feature film Sometimes Always Never, which was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and starred Bill Nighy, Sam Riley, Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter and Tim McInnerny. This film received a 4 star review in The Guardian and even though the soundtrack featured music by Edwyn Collins and Sean Read rather than the Farm, the film was produced by members of group. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Spartacus being No. 1 in the album charts, BMG released Spartacus 30 which includes many tracks/remixes previously unavailable and released a HD version of "Groovy Train". Former member George Maher died in December 2022.

+List of singles, with selected peak chart positions and certifications Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications Album UK BEL(FL) GER IRE NLD SWI "Hearts and Minds" 1984 — — — — — — — Pastures Old and New "Steps of Emotion" 1985 — — — — — — — "Some People" 1986 — — — — — — — "Body and Soul" 1989 — — — — — — — rowspan="2" "Stepping Stone" / "Family of Man" 1990 58 — — — — — — "Groovy Train" 6 — — — 41 — 41 Spartacus "All Together Now" 4 13 5 — 9 18 — BPI: Silver "Sinful! (Scary Jiggin' with Doctor Love)" (with Pete Wylie) 1991 28 — — 25 — — — "Don't Let Me Down" 36 — 78 29 — — — Spartacus "Mind" 31 — — 15 — — — Love See No Colour "Love See No Colour" 1992 58 — — 30 — — — "Rising Sun" 48 — — — — — — "Don't You Want Me" 18 – – 19 – – – "Love See No Colour" (re mix) 35 — — — — — — "Messiah" 1994 92 — — — — — — Hullabaloo "Comfort" — — — — — — — "All Together Now" (Everton FA Cup Final version) 1995 24 — — — — — — rowspan="2" "All Together Now 2004" (featuring SFX Boys Choir) 2004 5 — — — — — — "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.