Following his collaboration with bands such as 'Big in Japan' and 'Original Mirrors', then producing 'Echo & The Bunnymen', 'The Fall', 'The Pale Fountains' and 'Wah', as well as several others, it was in 1989 that Ian Broudie returned to his songwriting with a set of home recordings. This is when the spotlight finally fell on him as, out of necessity, with no record contract and no band in place, Ian sang and played everything on the tapes himself, recording in his 'spare bedroom'. Eventually there was the opportunity for extra production on the tracks and a few hundred copies of a single 'Pure' were pressed up through Rough Trade Records on the small independent record label Ghetto.
'Pure' was released under the name 'Lightning Seeds', the imaginary group Ian had envisioned to write his songs for, in the hope it would become a reality. The name came from Ian mishearing the lyrics to the Prince song 'Rasperry Beret' - 'Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees' and thought it was cool enough to appropriate for the name for his band. So 'The Lightning Seeds' were essentially Ian, taking on the role of vocals, guitarist and producer, and gradually over a period of months, his single 'Pure' started to gain some attention. Initially with radio play from the legendary DJ John Peel and then specialist night time plays on regional radio stations, 'Pure' began to climb the independent record charts and before long it was featured on daytime radio and became a chart success.
With its simple but devastating melody, and sparkling lyrics, it seemed to cast a spell on listeners that still hasn't been broken. It seems crazy that Ian really didn't want it on the subsequent album as it was the first time he'd ever sung and written all the lyrics of a song. Imported copies of the single had somehow made their way to the USA and 'Pure' was spontaneously being played on American college stations and championed by KROQ's legendary DJ Rodney Biggenheimer. It soon became the most requested record in California topping the airplay charts before it was released or even placed with a label in the USA.
In 1990, with the release of the first album, 'Cloudcuckooland', on which Ian again performed all vocals and instruments, 'The Lightning Seeds' were truly up and running on both sides of the Atlantic although the first gig would come a lot later.
In 1991 after producing 'The Wild Swans' and 'Pink Industry', he started on the second 'Lightning Seeds' album 'Sense'. His brother Rob kindly donated his front room agreeing to let it be commandeered for a couple of months as a makeshift studio. The album featured the song 'The Life of Riley' written at the time of the birth off his son. The song 'Sense', which also became the album title, was the first of many songwriting collaborations between Ian and his good friend Terry Hall which became the most effective and memorable recordings and pointed the way to the future sound of the band.
Following the release of 'Sense', Ian rented a couple of rooms in an old laboratory in Liverpool city centre and set up his equipment in a more formal studio setting.
By the end of 1993 he had finished the 'Jollification' album, which became a critical success, and included contributions from Terry Hall, Alison Moyet and Ian McNabb. A promotional tour began in August 1994 and for the first time Ian gathered musician friends together to form a formidable band that originally consisted of Chris Sharrock (future 'Oasis' drummer), bassist Martyn Campbell (of the legendary Liverpool beat band 'Rain') and Ian's neighbour, Paul Hemmings (also a founder member of 'The La's'). There was a consistently changing line up over the years with Ian Broudie the only constant.
The group experienced commercial success throughout the 1990s and are well known for their single 'Three Lions', as a request from the FA, in a collaboration with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, which reached No. 1 in the UK in 1996 and 1998. The single once again reached No.1 in the UK in 2018.
The album 'Dizzy Heights' was released in 1996 and contained many of the group's most successful hit singles. Ian co-wrote songs with Nicky Wire ('Manic Street Preachers'), Stephen Jones ('Babybird') and once more with Terry Hall ('The Specials'). A reworking of The Turtles' song 'You Showed Me' was also featured.
The final 'Lightning Seeds' album 'Tilt' was released on Epic in 1999 and was followed by a long hiatus. During this break from 'The Lightning Seeds', Ian returned to his hometown Liverpool and started helping to develop two unsigned bands 'The Coral' and 'The Zutons'. Subsequently this resulted in Broudie producing debut platinum selling albums for both bands.
In 2019 Ian made a decision to tour 'The Lightning Seeds' third album, 1994s 'Jollification' on its turns 25th anniversary. Rehearsing songs from the record, he said gave
him a renewed appreciation for his older material. "It's made me go
into the intricacies of the tracks. It's given me a little bit
of confidence in my songwriting and enabled me to finish some tunes
I’ve been writing for a while." Riley Broudie now plays second guitar in 'The Lightning Seeds' – and so is
in the strange situation of performing a song his father wrote about
him before he was born, one which is possibly Ian's favourite.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2020/06/pool-of-sound-sonia.html
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