Spacehog
Encyclopedia
Spacehog is an English
rock band
formed in 1994. Their music is heavily influenced by David Bowie
, Queen
, and T.Rex.
, England
, the band formed in New York City
in 1994 when Antony Langdon met Cragg by chance in a café where Cragg had a job killing rats
. Soon after, Langdon's brother Royston joined the band, and Spacehog was born. When the band's original guitarist left the band, Cragg called his friend Richard Steel to join. The band signed in 1994 with Seymour Stein to Sire Records
.
On October 24, 1995, Spacehog released their debut album, Resident Alien
. It went gold
on the Billboard charts
, selling over 500,000 copies and spawned the hit single and video "In the Meantime" as well as the single "Cruel To Be Kind". "In the Meantime" received heavy video and radio play, and featured as background music to BBC
's Match of the Day
football
programme. The band's second album, The Chinese Album
, was released on March 10, 1998. Though it did not sell as well as Resident Alien, the band's popularity continued to increase as Spacehog opened for more popular acts like Pearl Jam
and Supergrass
. The Chinese Album featured a more "artsy" sound, with the Pink Floyd
-like piano on the opening track and Michael Stipe
of R.E.M.
contributing vocals to the song "Almond Kisses".
After the band was dropped by Elektra Records
, Spacehog signed with upstart label Artemis Records and released its third album, The Hogyssey
, on April 10, 2001. The album continued the band's neo-glam approach and featured the singles "I Want to Live" and "At Least I Got Laid", as well as a funk
version of Richard Strauss
's "Also sprach Zarathustra". The band joined The Black Crowes
and Oasis
on the Tour of Brotherly Love in support of the album, which proved to be the band's final major tour outing.
Royston Langdon married actress Liv Tyler
in 2004 and they had one child. They separated in 2008.
. By June 2006, they had recorded eight songs with Bryce Goggin at Trout Studios in Brooklyn. Jonny Cragg, now sporting a moustache, joined The Twenty-Twos as their drummer post-Spacehog, but has since rejoined the Langdon brothers in Arckid.
At the end of November 2006 Antony Langdon left Arckid on good terms and had devised an alter ego known as "Louis Arogant". This project was near completion as a record entitled Victoria: an homage to Langdon's love for his wife, the director Victoria Clay de Mendoza. The album was intended to release at end of 2007, but was never released. He also continued in the production of his television work. Also in the works was an album by Antony Langdon and Joaquin Phoenix. The project was called This Lady is a Tramp and was being mixed by Paul McKenna with help from Creation Records founder Alan McGee and the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess.
Antony Langdon was briefly replaced in Arckid by Your Vegas
guitarist Mat Steel, who subsequently left Arckid after they shot their first video to rejoin Your Vegas. Pete Denton of Cube and Kid Symphony fame joined Arckid for a short period of time. Richard Steel accompanied the three members of Arckid on stage during the Hilfiger Sessions NY and the 2007 Lollapalooza
gigs.
and the second at Troubador. Drummer Jonny Cragg posted on the Arckid MySpace
page that Spacehog will be reuniting and begin work on a new record. In July 2009, Spacehog reunited at Spaceland
in Los Angeles.
starring Joaquin Phoenix
I'm Still Here
. Langdon, who was one of Phoenix's assistants as well as a musical partner, staged a falling-out with the actor during the documentary's filming and is shown (in the film's most shocking scene) defecating on the troubled actor in retaliation for an earlier argument. In an earlier part of the film, there is a similarly shocking scene involving Langdon getting out of the shower.
Langdon's time in Spacehog is not mentioned in the film, but a clip of the band performing on television is shown. Royston Langdon is also credited for one of the film's songs.
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...
rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
formed in 1994. Their music is heavily influenced by David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
, and T.Rex.
Members
- Royston Langdon a.k.a. "Ray Sprinkles" (born Royston William Langdon, May 1, 1972) – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and vocalsSingingSinging 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... - Antony Langdon a.k.a. "Tone Down" (born Antony Chester Langdon, May 14, 1968) – rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
and vocals - Jonny Cragg (born July 18, 1966 or 1968) – drumsDrum kitA 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 ....
- Richard Steel a.k.a. "Rich" (born November 12, 1968) – lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
History
Though all the band members hail originally from LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, 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...
, the band formed in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1994 when Antony Langdon met Cragg by chance in a café where Cragg had a job killing rats
RATS
RATS may refer to:* RATS , Regression Analysis of Time Series, a statistical package* Rough Auditing Tool for Security, a computer program...
. Soon after, Langdon's brother Royston joined the band, and Spacehog was born. When the band's original guitarist left the band, Cragg called his friend Richard Steel to join. The band signed in 1994 with Seymour Stein to Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
.
On October 24, 1995, Spacehog released their debut album, Resident Alien
Resident Alien
Resident Alien is the debut album from the British glam rock band Spacehog. Released by Elektra Records on 24 October 1995, the album was certified as gold on 29 July 1996 and included the hit single "In the Meantime", which reached the top of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States,...
. It went gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
on the Billboard charts
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
, selling over 500,000 copies and spawned the hit single and video "In the Meantime" as well as the single "Cruel To Be Kind". "In the Meantime" received heavy video and radio play, and featured as background music to BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Match of the Day
Match of the Day
Match of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in English football's top division, the Premier League...
football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
programme. The band's second album, The Chinese Album
The Chinese Album
The Chinese Album is the second album from the expatriate British alternative rock band Spacehog. It was released on Sire Records on March 10, 1998....
, was released on March 10, 1998. Though it did not sell as well as Resident Alien, the band's popularity continued to increase as Spacehog opened for more popular acts like Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
and Supergrass
Supergrass
Supergrass was an English alternative rock band from Oxford. The band consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes , Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey ....
. The Chinese Album featured a more "artsy" sound, with the Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
-like piano on the opening track and Michael Stipe
Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...
of R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
contributing vocals to the song "Almond Kisses".
After the band was dropped by Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
, Spacehog signed with upstart label Artemis Records and released its third album, The Hogyssey
The Hogyssey
The Hogyssey is the third and final album from the rock band Spacehog.The album was released on Artemis Records on April 10, 2001 on compact disc. It included as the title track a rock arrangement of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra...
, on April 10, 2001. The album continued the band's neo-glam approach and featured the singles "I Want to Live" and "At Least I Got Laid", as well as a funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
version of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's "Also sprach Zarathustra". The band joined The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in 1989. Their discography includes nine studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer George Drakoulias and released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, the...
and Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
on the Tour of Brotherly Love in support of the album, which proved to be the band's final major tour outing.
Royston Langdon married actress Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler
Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
in 2004 and they had one child. They separated in 2008.
Arckid
Antony, Royston, and Christian Langdon then pooled their resources to form ArckidArckid
ARCKID was formed mainly of former members of Spacehog, a rock band from the 1990s and 2000s, heavily influenced by David Bowie, Queen and T. Rex...
. By June 2006, they had recorded eight songs with Bryce Goggin at Trout Studios in Brooklyn. Jonny Cragg, now sporting a moustache, joined The Twenty-Twos as their drummer post-Spacehog, but has since rejoined the Langdon brothers in Arckid.
At the end of November 2006 Antony Langdon left Arckid on good terms and had devised an alter ego known as "Louis Arogant". This project was near completion as a record entitled Victoria: an homage to Langdon's love for his wife, the director Victoria Clay de Mendoza. The album was intended to release at end of 2007, but was never released. He also continued in the production of his television work. Also in the works was an album by Antony Langdon and Joaquin Phoenix. The project was called This Lady is a Tramp and was being mixed by Paul McKenna with help from Creation Records founder Alan McGee and the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess.
Antony Langdon was briefly replaced in Arckid by Your Vegas
Your Vegas
Your Vegas are a British rock band from Leeds, England.-Background:The band started playing music together while attending Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley, West Yorkshire. Their first band was called Orka but they later changed their name to Salvadore...
guitarist Mat Steel, who subsequently left Arckid after they shot their first video to rejoin Your Vegas. Pete Denton of Cube and Kid Symphony fame joined Arckid for a short period of time. Richard Steel accompanied the three members of Arckid on stage during the Hilfiger Sessions NY and the 2007 Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
gigs.
Reunion
In July 2008, Spacehog reunited to play two shows, the first at the Viper RoomViper Room
The Viper Room is a nightclub located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. The club became known for being a hangout of Hollywood elite, and was the site where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on...
and the second at Troubador. Drummer Jonny Cragg posted on the Arckid MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page that Spacehog will be reuniting and begin work on a new record. In July 2009, Spacehog reunited at Spaceland
Spaceland
Spaceland was an alternative rock/indie rock nightclub in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, that existed between 1995 and 2011. The club was formerly a gay disco called Dreams...
in Los Angeles.
I'm Still Here
In 2010, Spacehog guitarist Antony Langdon gained notoriety for his role in the controversial mockumentaryMockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
starring Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...
I'm Still Here
I'm Still Here (film)
I'm Still Here is a 2010 mockumentary film directed by Casey Affleck, and written by Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix. The film purports to follow the life of Phoenix, from the announcement of his retirement from acting, through his transition into a career as a hip hop artist. Filming officially began...
. Langdon, who was one of Phoenix's assistants as well as a musical partner, staged a falling-out with the actor during the documentary's filming and is shown (in the film's most shocking scene) defecating on the troubled actor in retaliation for an earlier argument. In an earlier part of the film, there is a similarly shocking scene involving Langdon getting out of the shower.
Langdon's time in Spacehog is not mentioned in the film, but a clip of the band performing on television is shown. Royston Langdon is also credited for one of the film's songs.
New album
On September 17, 2011, Spacehog announced the completion of their latest album on their MySpace page.Albums
- Resident AlienResident AlienResident Alien is the debut album from the British glam rock band Spacehog. Released by Elektra Records on 24 October 1995, the album was certified as gold on 29 July 1996 and included the hit single "In the Meantime", which reached the top of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States,...
(Sire, 1995) USUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
#49 Gold, UKUnited KingdomThe 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...
#40, AUSAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
#50, CANCanadian Albums ChartThe Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...
#27 Platinum - The Chinese AlbumThe Chinese AlbumThe Chinese Album is the second album from the expatriate British alternative rock band Spacehog. It was released on Sire Records on March 10, 1998....
(Sire, 1998) #126 UKUnited KingdomThe 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... - The HogysseyThe HogysseyThe Hogyssey is the third and final album from the rock band Spacehog.The album was released on Artemis Records on April 10, 2001 on compact disc. It included as the title track a rock arrangement of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra...
(Artemis, 2001) US Top Independent Albums #21
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart peak positions | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
Main. Rock |
Mod. Rock |
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 ... |
CAN Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
CAN Alt. Canadian rock/alternative chart The Canadian rock/alternative chart was first published on June 11, 1995 by RPM magazine under the name Alternative 30. The song which held the number-one spot on this first chart was "More Human than Human" by White Zombie... |
AUS Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
NZ New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
SWE Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
|||
| 1996 | "In the Meantime In the Meantime (Spacehog song) "In the Meantime" is a song by English alternative rock band Spacehog, from their debut album Resident Alien. It hit the top of the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart... " |
32 | 1 | 2 | 29 | 33 | 6 | 40 | 45 | 36 | Resident Alien Resident Alien Resident Alien is the debut album from the British glam rock band Spacehog. Released by Elektra Records on 24 October 1995, the album was certified as gold on 29 July 1996 and included the hit single "In the Meantime", which reached the top of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States,... |
| "Cruel to Be Kind" | — | 29 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Space Is the Place" | — | — | — | 145 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1998 | "Mungo City" | — | 19 | 21 | 82 | — | — | — | — | — | The Chinese Album The Chinese Album The Chinese Album is the second album from the expatriate British alternative rock band Spacehog. It was released on Sire Records on March 10, 1998.... |
| "Carry On" | — | — | — | 43 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2001 | "I Want to Live" | — | 23 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Hogyssey The Hogyssey The Hogyssey is the third and final album from the rock band Spacehog.The album was released on Artemis Records on April 10, 2001 on compact disc. It included as the title track a rock arrangement of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra... |