Live (band)

Live at a gig in 2008

Live is an American rock band from York , Pennsylvania . In the 1990s, the alternative band gained international fame.

Members

Live members include Ed Kowalczyk (vocals and guitar), Chad Taylor (guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass) and Chad Gracey (drums). Between March 2012 and December 2016, Chris Shinn took on the role of lead singer Ed Kowalczyk. On December 12, 2016, the band announced their reunion with Kowalczyk on their website.

Band history

The original name of the band, formed in the early 1980s, was First Aid . Several name changes followed, including public affection . Under this name, the band released the album The Death of a Dictionary in 1989 .

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to gain a foothold in the music business, Live hired Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads to produce the album Mental Jewelry in 1990 . This album is based on the texts of the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti . Live managed to win a fan base with Mental Jewelry .

In 1994 the album Throwing Copper was released , which benefited mainly in the USA from the success of the singles Selling the Drama , I Alone and Lightning Crashes . Live then released four more albums, but their commercial success was limited and a mixed response from the critics. Above all, Secret Samadhi , the 1997 successor to Throwing Copper , offered over-produced, mostly weak song material in the opinion of many critics, but once again reached the top of the US charts. After that, live in Europe was hardly noticed, but continued to tour the USA with considerable success. In 2004 they released their greatest hits album Awake , which contains a few alternative recordings and a previously unreleased song from the time around the album Throwing Copper, as well as a cover version of the song I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash .

At the end of 2009, the band announced their split. Ed Kowalczyk was then sued by his band colleagues and has since tried his hand at being a solo artist, the remaining band members initially founded the band The Gracious Few together with Candlebox singer Kevin Martin .

In June 2011, Chad Taylor said in a newspaper interview that he, along with Chad Gracey and Patrick Dahlheimer, wanted to revive the group without Kowalczyk. Kowalczyk announced that he was not interested in working with the three again. In March 2012 Live presented their new singer Chris Shinn.

On December 12, 2016, the band announced that Ed Kowalczyk would return to the band. A tour was planned for 2017, while new songs were being worked on.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1991	Mental jewelry	-	-	-	-	US73 platinum (24 weeks)US	First published: September 30, 1991 Sales: + 1,000,000
1994	Throwing Copper	DE28 (26 weeks) DE	AT11 (16 weeks) AT	-	UK37 gold (11 weeks)UK	US1 × 8 Eight times platinum (121 weeks)US	First published: April 26, 1994 Sales: + 8,500,000
1997	Secret samadhi	DE23 (9 weeks) DE	AT10 (13 weeks) AT	CH17 (8 weeks) CH	UK31 (3 weeks) UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (46 weeks)US	First published: February 18, 1997 Sales: + 2,500,000
1999	The Distance to Here	DE13 (7 weeks) DE	AT11 (6 weeks) AT	CH47 (2 weeks) CH	UK56 (2 weeks) UK	US4th platinum (26 weeks)US	First published: October 5, 1999 Sales: + 1,250,000
2001	V	DE17 (5 weeks) DE	AT24 (7 weeks) AT	CH37 (5 weeks) CH	UK80 (1 week) UK	US22 (8 weeks) US	First published: September 18, 2001
2003	Birds of Pray	DE43 (4 weeks) DE	AT27 (5 weeks) AT	CH71 (2 weeks) CH	-	US28 (19 weeks) US	First published: May 20, 2003
2006	Songs from Black Mountain	DE73 (1 week) DE	AT66 (3 weeks) AT	CH73 (2 weeks) CH	-	US52 (3 weeks) US	First published: April 10, 2006
2014	The turn	-	-	-	-	US133 (1 week) US	First published: October 24, 2014

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2004	Awake: The Best of	-	-	-	-	US65 (3 weeks) US	First published: November 2, 2004

more publishments

• 1989: The Death of a Dictionary
• 1990: Divided Mind, Divided Planet
• 1991: Four Songs
• 2007: Radiant Sea
• 2008: Live at the Paradiso - Amsterdam

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1994	Selling the Drama Throwing Copper	DE89 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK30 (3 weeks) UK	US43 (19 weeks) US	First published: February 1994
	I Alone Throwing Copper	-	-	-	UK48 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 1994
1995	Lightning Crashes Throwing Copper	-	-	-	UK33 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: February 1995
	All Over You Throwing Copper	-	-	-	UK48 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 1995
1997	Lakini's Juice Secret Samadhi	-	-	-	UK29 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 1997
	Freaks Secret Samadhi	-	-	-	UK60 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1997
	Turn My Head Secret Samadhi	-	AT36 (1 week) AT	-	-	-	First published: October 1997
1999	The Dolphin's Cry The Distance to Here	-	-	-	UK62 (2 weeks) UK	US78 (10 weeks) US	First published: October 1999
2003	Heaven Birds of Pray	-	-	-	-	US59 (20 weeks) US	First published: April 2003

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Australia 2000: for the single The Dolphin's Cry 2001: for the album V 2006: for the album Songs from Black Mountain  Canada 1999: for the album Mental Jewelry Platinum record  Australia 2003: for the album Birds of Pray 2004: for the album Awake: The Best of 2013: for the video album Live At The Paradiso - Amsterdam  Canada 1999: for the album The Distance to Here

2 × platinum record  Australia 1997: for the album Secret Samadhi 2000: for the album The Distance to Here  Canada 1997: for the album Secret Samadhi 7 × platinum record  Canada 1997: for the album Throwing Copper 10 × platinum record  Australia 2019: for the album Throwing Copper

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	3 × gold3	17 × platinum17th	1,240,000	aria.com.au
Canada (MC)	gold1	10 × platinum10	1,050,000	musiccanada.com
United States (RIAA)	-	12 × platinum12	12,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold1	-	100,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	5 × gold5	39 × platinum39

swell

1. ↑ "Live Homepage"
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK US

Web links

Commons : Live  collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.freaks4live.com
• Google+ LIVE