Amsterdam (band)
Encyclopedia
Amsterdam are a pop
/rock
group from Liverpool
, England
. Formed in 1999, they had their first UK
Top 40 single with "The Journey" in February 2005. The current band members are Ian Prowse
(vocals
/guitar
), Johnny Barlow (lead guitar), Tony Kiley (percussion), Kevin Spurgeon (keyboards
), Anna Jenkins (violin
), Eimear McGeowan (flute), Deian Elfryn (drums
) and Dave Mastrocola (bass guitar
).
in 1999, and the following year won an NME
competition to find the best unsigned band of 2000. They were also among the winners at the prestigious music business event In the City
. Amsterdam appeared on an EMI
compilation album
, Mersey Boys and Liverpool Girls, alongside Paul McCartney
and other Liverpool musicians. They performed sell out shows in Liverpool and London to critical acclaim, and played three tracks on Janice Long
's BBC Radio 2
show.
Elvis Costello
invited the band to play with him live on BBC TV's Jonathon Ross
Show to promote his new single. This was followed by opening for Costello in Amsterdam
and at the Kings Arena in Liverpool, on his world tour. Amsterdam also made the last-ever John Peel
Festive Fifty
with "Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?".
Following the recruitment of new bassist Paul Hagan, the band signed to London-based indie label Beat Crazy Records, and recorded their debut album, The Journey. The first single, "The Journey" / "Stop Knocking the Walls Down", reached #32 in the UK Singles Chart
in January 2005. The follow-up "Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?" also hit the chart in June 2005, to be followed by the album release. The third single, "Takin' On The World", was playlisted on BBC Radio 2 and many other stations.
The band announced on the 14 June 2006 that they had parted company with the record label, Beat Crazy. A live album, 1,2,3,4 was released, featuring fifteen live tracks, and a studio album Arm In Arm was released on 17 March 2008.
Former members
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
group from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Formed in 1999, they had their first UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Top 40 single with "The Journey" in February 2005. The current band members are Ian Prowse
Ian Prowse
Ian Prowse is a singer/songwriter from Cheshire, England who has formed two bands, Pele, and Amsterdam.-Pele:Pele were a 5 piece formed by Prowse on Merseyside in 1990 following the demise of his first schoolboy bands When in Rome/Joseph Groome Towers in Ellesmere Port. Signed by Michael Levy in...
(vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
/guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
), Johnny Barlow (lead guitar), Tony Kiley (percussion), Kevin Spurgeon (keyboards
Musical keyboard
A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
), Anna Jenkins (violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
), Eimear McGeowan (flute), Deian Elfryn (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
) and Dave Mastrocola (bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
).
Biography
Amsterdam were formed on MerseysideMerseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
in 1999, and the following year won an NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
competition to find the best unsigned band of 2000. They were also among the winners at the prestigious music business event In the City
In The City (festival)
In The City is an annual music industry conference and festival founded by the late Tony Wilson, formerly of Factory Records and Granada Television, and his partner Yvette Livesey....
. Amsterdam appeared on an EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, Mersey Boys and Liverpool Girls, alongside Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and other Liverpool musicians. They performed sell out shows in Liverpool and London to critical acclaim, and played three tracks on Janice Long
Janice Long
Janice Long is an English radio broadcaster currently working on BBC Radio 2. Her show is on Sunday to Thursday nights from midnight to 02:00. She is the older sister of TV and radio personality Keith Chegwin.-Early career:...
's BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
show.
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
invited the band to play with him live on BBC TV's Jonathon Ross
Jonathon Ross
Jonathon Ross is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. He played with the Adelaide Crows.A well-built, strong key position player, Jonathon Ross had the potential to go far...
Show to promote his new single. This was followed by opening for Costello in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and at the Kings Arena in Liverpool, on his world tour. Amsterdam also made the last-ever John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
with "Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?".
Following the recruitment of new bassist Paul Hagan, the band signed to London-based indie label Beat Crazy Records, and recorded their debut album, The Journey. The first single, "The Journey" / "Stop Knocking the Walls Down", reached #32 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in January 2005. The follow-up "Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?" also hit the chart in June 2005, to be followed by the album release. The third single, "Takin' On The World", was playlisted on BBC Radio 2 and many other stations.
The band announced on the 14 June 2006 that they had parted company with the record label, Beat Crazy. A live album, 1,2,3,4 was released, featuring fifteen live tracks, and a studio album Arm In Arm was released on 17 March 2008.
Members
Current members- Ian ProwseIan ProwseIan Prowse is a singer/songwriter from Cheshire, England who has formed two bands, Pele, and Amsterdam.-Pele:Pele were a 5 piece formed by Prowse on Merseyside in 1990 following the demise of his first schoolboy bands When in Rome/Joseph Groome Towers in Ellesmere Port. Signed by Michael Levy in...
– vocals, guitar (1999–present) - Johnny Barlow – bass, lead guitar (1999–present)
- Tony Kiley – drums, percussion (1999–present)
- Kevin Spurgeon – keyboards (2005–present)
- Anna Jenkins – violin (2006–present)
- Eimaear McGeowan – flute (2008–present)
- Deian Elfryn – drums (2008–present)
- Dave Mastrocola – bass (2009–present)
Former members
- Genevieve Mort – vocals, guitar, flute (1999–2003)
- Nigel Hopkins – keyboards (1999–2005)
- Paul Hagan – bass (2003–2008)
- Pete O'Connor – drums (2005–2008)
Albums
- Attitunes (2001) [studio album]
- Live, Left and Covered (2001) [compilation album]
- The Curse (2002) [studio album]
- Live Bootleg (2003) [live video]
- The Journey (2005) [compilation/studio album]
- OneTwoThreeFour – Live at The Borderline (2007) [live album]
- Arm in Arm (2008) [studio album]
- The Glorious Return of Amsterdam: Live in Liverpool (2010) [live video]
Singles
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||
| 2001 | "Love Phenomenon" | – | Attitunes |
| 2005 | "The Journey" | 32 | The Journey |
| "Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?" | 53 | ||
| "Takin' on the World" | 90 | ||
| 2007 | "Home" | – | Arm in Arm |
| 2008 | "Hey Hilary" | – |
External links
- Belfast Telegraph review of Arm in Arm.
- http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/opinion/columnists/billy-sloan/2008/03/02/rocker-is-up-in-arms-over-his-lost-love-78057-20337220/Sunday MailSunday Mail (Scotland)The Sunday Mail is a Scottish tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is the sister paper of the Daily Record and is owned by Trinity Mirror and as such has a left-wing outlook which in turn tends to guide Scottish political debate in that direction.The Sunday Mail is read by over one million...
article, "Rocker Is Up In Arms Over His Lost Love."]