Kula shaker

Kula shaker
Crispian Mills by Kula Shaker (2007)
General information
Genre (s)	Britpop , Psychedelic Rock , Raga Rock
founding	1995, 2004
resolution	1999
Website	www.kulashaker.co.uk
Founding members
Guitar , vocals , harmonica , sarod	Crispian Mills
Bass , vocals	Alonza Bevan
Drums	Paul Winterhart
Keyboard	Jay Darlington (until 1999)
Current occupation
Guitar, vocals	Crispian Mills
Bass, vocals	Alonza Bevan
Drums	Paul Winterhart
Keyboard	Harry Broadbent (since 2004)
former members
Keyboard	Jay Darlington (1995-1999)

Kula Shaker is an English band that mixes Britpop and psychedelic rock with Indian music .

history

In 1988, Crispian Mills and Alonza Bevan met for the first time and decided to make music together. They joined Object of Desire , the band was led by Macus Maclaine at the time. From 1991 Paul Winterhart played drums, but other members left the group, whose name changed very often (including: The Lovely Lads , The New Originals ). Finally, Suan Dismont (Mills' cousin) - who sang while Mills only played guitar - and Jay Darlington joined them.

From now on the band became increasingly spiritualistic . Suan told the others about the magic of the letter "K" and thus the name was changed to The Kays . Shortly thereafter, however, Dismont left the group and it was decided that Mills would be the new front man .

In 1993 Mills decided to go to India where he worked in a temple. It was here that he came up with the idea of combining classical Indian with rock music . Impressed by the temple chants, he also decided to incorporate Sanskrit words into his texts. Back in England, the band tried to put Mills' idea into practice. The four were signed to Gut Records , which turned out to be a big disappointment. At the end of 1994, The Kays played in the Leisure Lounge in London . Mills remembers this: “The support act was some guy who hung irons and swords from his dick. He played real loud techno while his naked girlfriend smoked crack on stage. " (The opening act was a guy who hung iron weights and swords on his cock. He played really loud techno while his girlfriend smoked crack on stage  .)

In the spring of the following year they left Gut Records. Then one day the band met a disciple of Krishna , an American who called himself Kula Sekhara and who claimed to have lived with John Lennon . He told the musicians stories about the historical Kula Sekhara , a ninth century Indian prince who had studied religion , music and poetry intensively . If they take this name, protect them from Kula Sekhara, said the Krishnait. So the band renamed itself Kula Shaker ; it was the last name change.

Three weeks after the band renamed themselves, RCA made them an offer for a contract, and other labels suddenly showed interest. Ultimately , the decision was made for Columbia , an offshoot of the Sony Corporation.

In 1996 the group's first album, K , was finally released , which would also be their biggest success. More than a million CDs were sold in the UK alone, the hit single Hey Dude landed at number two on the charts and was only beaten by the Spice Girls . The band was nominated four times for the Brit Award at the height of their history . The single Govinda , which was subsequently released and sung entirely in Sanskrit , reached number seven on the British singles chart . The lyrics mostly consist of a traditional Indian chant in honor of the Hindu deity Krishna , which was recorded by George Harrison in 1970.

Then, however, a scandal erupted after Crispian Mills said in an interview that he would like to install burning swastikas at the band's concerts. The English press pounced on this statement, and tore the band in the air, National Socialist tendencies were suddenly identified. Nevertheless, Kula Shaker managed by Billy Joe Royal - cover Hush again the jump to number two on the charts.

After a tour of Great Britain in 1997, they wanted success in the USA , which the band toured in the same year. Due to disputes with the Columbia management, however, the band soon withdrew to Europe.

In 1998 the single Sound of Drums (UK only) was released, which peaked at third place in the charts, but an album planned for that year did not come out. Not until a year later, in March 1999, did the second album Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts come out, with which Kula Shaker could not build on the success of K. Mills then left the band in September. A greatest hits album was released by the record company in 2002 and marked the temporary end of the band.

Mills founded the band The Jeevas in 2003 , with whom he recorded two albums. He also produced the debut of the British band Bucky and worked on an unreleased charity album called School of Braja .

The big surprise took place shortly before Christmas 2005 when Kula Shaker played a concert with the original line-up in the English town of Leighton in a club under the code name The Garcons . On January 11, 2006 it was officially confirmed that Kula Shaker had reformed and released new material for the EP Revenge of the King .

In August 2007 the album Strangefolk was released, followed by a tour through Europe. At the beginning of 2008 further appearances in Great Britain, Japan and Europe followed. At the time the band was working on a new album. The first song titles were Witches and wine , Light years ahead of your time and All dressed up and ready . Only a few festivals were planned for the summer, including the Haldern Pop at the beginning of August in North Rhine-Westphalia .

In early 2009, the band was again on the verge of separating. Despite financial problems, Mills & Co. decided to work on a new, fourth album. All songs were recorded in a studio in Belgium specially set up by bassist Alonza Bevan and mixed in London. The release date of the work entitled Pilgrim's Progress was July 9, 2010. The first single was Peter Pan RIP , which the band made available to their fans for free download in advance. Along with the album release, there was a tour of England and Europe.

On January 20, 2010, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the album Peasants Pigs and Astronauts, an anniversary box was released, which was initially only available on the band's website. In addition to the first release of the song Strangefolk , the Special Edition includes a second CD with additional demo recordings and an interview with singer Crispian Mills and bassist Alonza Bevan recorded in November 2009.

On February 12, 2016 the new album called K 2.0 was released .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1996	K	DE67 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 × 2 Double platinum (51 weeks)UK	US200 (1 week) US	First published: September 16, 1996
1999	Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts	DE33 (5 weeks) DE	AT31 (7 weeks) AT	CH41 (1 week) CH	UK9 gold (12 weeks)UK	-	First published: March 8, 1999
2007	Strand folk	-	-	-	UK69 (1 week) UK	-	First published: June 27, 2007
2016	K 2.0	DE84 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK32 (1 week) UK	-	First published: February 12, 2016

more publishments

year	title	Remarks
1997	Summer Sun	First published: July 29, 1997
2002	Collected - The Best Of	First published: December 16, 2002
2006	Revenge of the King	First published: March 31, 2006
2007	Freedom Lovin 'People	First published: May 23, 2007
2010	Pilgrims Progress	First published: June 28, 2010

Rarities:

• 1996: S (unofficial release with 19 tracks)
• 1997: Long Live Tibet (EMI-Records, a.o. with Kula Shaker)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1996	Grateful When You're Dead / Jerry Was There K	-	-	-	UK35 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: April 22, 1996
	Tattva K	DE85 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK4 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 24, 1996
	Hey dude k	-	-	-	UK2 silver (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: August 1996
	Govinda K	-	-	-	UK7 (10 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 11, 1996
1997	Hush K	-	-	-	UK2 silver (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: February 1997
1998	Sound of Drums Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts	-	-	-	UK3 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: April 1998
1999	Mystical Machine Gun Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts	-	-	-	UK14 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: February 1999
	Shower Your Love Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts	-	-	-	UK14 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 3, 1999

The Jeevas discography

Studio albums

year	title	Remarks
2002	1,2,3,4	First published: September 9, 2002
2003	Cowboys and Indians	First published: October 6, 2003

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2002	Virginia 1,2,3,4	-	-	-	UK97 (1 week) UK	-	First published: September 2002
	Ghost (Cowboys In The Movies) 1,2,3,4	-	-	-	UK82 (1 week) UK	-	First published: November 2002
2003	Once Upon a Time in America 1,2,3,4	-	-	-	UK61 (1 week) UK	-	First published: March 2003
	The Way You Carry On Cowboys and Indians	-	-	-	UK78 (1 week) UK	-	First published: September 2003
2004	Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Cowboys and Indians	-	-	-	UK70 (1 week) UK	-	First published: February 2004

More singles

• 2002: One Louder
• 2002: Scary Parents

Miscellaneous

• The Prodigy took advantage of the euphoria surrounding Crispian Mills in 1997 and invited him to the studio as a guest singer for the track NARAYAN, which can be found on their album The Fat of the Land . For their album Strangefolk , Kula Shaker now used elements from that song for the track Song of Love / Narayana .
• The first album K jumped from the stand to number 1 in the British charts. The successor Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts only made it to number 8. The studio recordings for the second record sometimes took place on a houseboat on the Thames, which Pink Floyd also used to record on .
• Her version of Hush was also featured on the soundtrack album for I Know What You Did Last Summer .
• Some fans have teamed up and publish a Kula Shaker fanzine with the title STRANGE FOLK at irregular intervals . The first edition appeared in 2006, the fifth in January 2010. The fanzine is available for free download in PDF format.

Web links

• Official website
• Page of the STRANGE FOLK Kula Shaker Fanzine

swell

1. ↑ George Harrison produces Govinda by Radha Krshna Temple at beatlesbible.com
2. ↑ Buckytheband.com
3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
5. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
6. ↑ MySpace.com/Kulafanzine