Information AboutAtomic Kitten |
Atomic Kitten is an English Girl Group from Liverpool composed of Liz "Lil" McClarnon , Natasha "Tash" Hamilton , and Jenny Frost - who replaced original member Kerry Katona in January 2001. Atomic Kitten has sold over 12 million Official biography of Liz McClarnon (Accessed August 1, 2006) albums and 8 million singles around the world. Many of their singles and albums entered the Top 40 charts worldwide such as " Right Now ," " Whole Again ," " Eternal Flame ," " The Tide Is High ," and " Ladies Night ." BIOGRAPHY The group was formed in 1997 by Andy McCluskey of '80s band Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and included Heidi Range in the original line-up. However, Heidi left the group and was only featured on the demo recordings. In 2001 Heidi joined the Sugababes . The group was first called "Honeyhead" but later renamed itself to "Automatic Kittens", the name of the label of its designer, and abbreviated to "Atomic Kitten." Perfect People (Accessed December 31, 2005) The group's first single "Right Now" debuted in December of 1999 and ended up reaching the British top 10. After the initial success Atomic Kitten made an Asian tour during which it scored their first hit with "Cradle". The album, also titled '' Right Now '', was first released in Japan on March 16 , 2000 and subsequently released in the United Kingdom on May 21 , 2000 with a slightly modified track list. In July 2000 the group released a cover version of The Locomotion for the movie ''Thomas And The Magic Railroad'' ''Right Now'' was a modest success upon first release. Initially there were no plans to focus on the global market. The record label was even considering dropping them because of limited success, however they persuaded Innocent Records to record one more single. BBC News: Atomic Kitten's perfect year (Accessed July 29, 2006) This one single changed the career of Atomic Kitten because they scored their first number-one hit in the UK in 2001 with " Whole Again ". The song and video for "Whole Again" originally featured Kerry Katona however she left the group several days prior to the number-one position because of her pregnancy. BBC News: McFadden and Katona tie knot (Accessed July 30, 2006) The single was remade when Jenny Frost was added to the line-up as Kerry's replacement. The success was such that it was decided to remaster and rerelease the album, which then went to number one on its second appearance on the chart. The next single " Eternal Flame ", a cover version of the 1989 hit by The Bangles , also became a number-one hit. Second album and independence Given the success a new album, '' Feels So Good '', was recorded. The songwriting and production agreement with Andy McCluskey was an increasing source of tension within the group and the girls decided to terminate the contract with Andy half way through the recording of the album. Luckily they had the good fortune of getting unexpected support from Kylie Minogue and Susanna Hoffs who both wrote a song each for their new album. '' (2002)]] The first single of the album was "It's Ok!" and was shot in South Africa. Even though this song performed well in the charts, securing a number three position, it was the next single " The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)", a remake of the 1965 song by The Paragons (but also made famous by Blondie in 1980), which attained Atomic Kitten its third number-one single. Natasha announced in April 2002 that she was pregnant, but she had no intention of leaving the group and wanted the scheduled 2002 tour to continue. Natasha also featured in the video " The Tide Is High " and her last duty was the 2002 Party In The Park Fun Trivia: Atomic Kitten (Accessed July 29, 2006) before finally going on pregnancy leave. 2003 world tour, "Ladies Night" During January and February of 2003, Atomic Kitten toured around south-east Asia and visited countries like Singapore , Thailand and Korea . Atomic Kitten active - News Jan 9, 2003 (Accessed July 30, 2006) Natasha decided to take her newborn baby with her on the tour as well. The American market had been neglected up to then, therefore on April 2003 an album called '' Atomic Kitten '' was released, consisting of tracks from the first two albums. It was promoted by teaming up with Disney for '' The Lizzie McGuire Movie '' starring Hilary Duff , however the album only managed to peak at #102 The Arkansas Traveler online: Atomic Kitten: what America is missing (Accessed August 16, 2006) and it was decided to focus on the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. '', their third studio album.]] A large part of 2003 was spent in the studio recording their third and final studio album '' Ladies Night ''. Up to now the girl group mainly relied on songwriters and sometimes co-wrote a song. This time they decided that it was time to be directly involved in the creation of eight of the fifteen songs. Kool And The Gang asked them to collaborate with them for their '' Odyssey '' album because they wanted an updated version of Ladies Night and were looking for a Girl Group to sing the lyrics. Atomic Kitten liked the idea and inquired whether they could use it for their next album as well which was subsequently named '' Ladies Night '' in honour of this collaboration. CBBC News: Ladies Night interview (Accessed July 29, 2006) The album and singles were slightly less successful than the two previous albums. A scheduled "Ladies Night" tour in November/December 2003 in United Kingdom had to be rescheduled to February/March 2004, and was renamed the "Greatest Hits Tour", as the girls announced they would be splitting shortly before they went on this tour. This made Atomic Kitten the second girl group after the Spice Girls to do an arena tour. CBBC News: Atomic Kitten reveal new tour dates (Accessed July 30, 2006) No longer a group, but still recording sometimes On January 23 , 2004 Natasha decided that she wanted to spend time out of the group and spend more time with her son Josh. The group released a single "Someone Like Me / Right Now 2004" as a goodbye, but were reunited on Valentine's Day to release the charity single "Cradle 2005", a new version of the original on their album ''Right Now'', which charted at No. 10. The proceeds of the single went to World Vision . AtomicKittenz (Accessed December 31, 2005) Atomic Kitten was featured on the soundtrack of Disney's Mulan II in 2005 which was their third time as a featured artist. Atomic Kitten recorded a one-off single, " All Together Now (Strong Together) ", in association with Goleo VI , the official mascot of the FIFA World Cup 2006. The track is taken from the official Goleo VI World Cup 2006 album and was released on CD and digitally in Germany , where the World Cup was held, on 16 June 2006 . However even though the single was listed by the HMV website for release in the UK many weeks prior to the competition, the single was taken off from schedule and deleted from the catalogue, due to the amount of competing football records that were being released at that time. The proceeds of the single went to SOS Children's Villages . Natasha Hamilton's official site - News section (Accessed July 29, 2006) The girls reunited for a one-off performance of " Whole Again " and two other songs at a benefit concert for the Michael Shields appeal which will be held at the Liverpool Empire Theatre on December 4 , 2006 . {Link without Title} They performed as a group in Hong Kong on December, 31st, 2006 for Nokia New Year's Eve. 2008 Reunion Atomic Kitten will reunite in 2008 releasing celebrating the fact Liverpool have had more number ones than any other city and Atomic Kitten have had three of them with " Whole Again ", " Eternal Flame " and " The Tide Is High . It's unknown whether the reunion wil be permanent or just a one-off appearance as none of the group have talked about the reunion, but their manager has stated in an interview with the Liverpool Echo they will be performing {Link without Title} . Solo careers
PEOPLE
DISCOGRAPHY See Also: Atomic Kitten Discography Albums
Singles
Note : Anyone Who Had A Heart will be released on 21 January 2008 in aid of Liverpool Number One Project, Martin O'Shea the manager is hoping it will become the 57th Number One for Liverpool. B-SIDES
OTHER SONGS
Atomic Kitten also recorded a '' album. This recording was also featured in the 2000 film '' Thomas And The Magic Railroad ''. TRIVIA The names of Atomic Kitten's first 2 albums, ''Right Now'' and ''Feels So Good'', are also names of songs by the rock band Van Halen . In 2002, the band sponsored a team in the British Touring Car Championship . Gareth Howell and Colin Turkington drove MG ZS cars alongside the official 'Works' MG's from second meeting of the season onwards. Gareth and Colin fished 13th and 14th respectively in the driver's championshp, and the team finished 6th in the Team Championship. Throughout the year, the band made appearances at meetings to cheer on the cars. The band where once named The Spice Girls Of The 2000's. Melanie C is a huge Atomic Kitten Fan, She once recorded Whole Again & The Last Goodbye for her Beautiful Intensions tour. The kittens even supported Mel C on a gig in Liverpool Empire in 2001. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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