Texas (band)
| Texas | |
|---|---|
 McErlaine and Spiteri, 2006 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Pop , country rock |
| founding | 1986 |
| Website | www.texas.uk.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Sharleen Spiteri | |
| John McElhone | |
guitar |
Alistar "Ally" McErlaine |
guitar |
Tony McGovern |
| Eddie Campbell | |
| Neil Payne | |
Keyboard |
Michael Bannister |
| former members | |
Drums |
Stuart Kerr (1987-1999) |
Drums |
Mykie Wilson (1999-2005) |
Texas is a British pop band . It was founded in 1986 in Glasgow ( Scotland ) by Johnny McElhone. The band's name was taken from the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas . Texas was the most played band on British radio in 1989. Well-known hits from Texas are I Don't Want A Lover , Say What You Want , Summer Son and Inner Smile .
Band history
Bassist John McElhone (formerly Altered Images and Hipsway ) formed the band in his hometown of Glasgow in 1986. With the singer Sharleen Spiteri , the guitarist Alistair McErlaine and the drummer Stuart Kerr, the first line- up was complete. Texas gave their first concert in March 1988 at the University of Dundee . McElhone's earlier contacts with Mercury Records led to a record deal with the label. In January 1989, I Don't Want a Lover, the band's first single , which reached number eight in the UK charts , was released. The debut album Southside was released in March 1989 and sold around two million times worldwide. This was followed by a tour of Europe and in July 1989 the album was released in the USA . The drummer Stuart Kerr left the band in 1990, Richard Hynd came for him. At the same time, live keyboardist Eddie Campbell became a permanent member of Texas .
The second album Mothers Heaven was released in September 1991 and was less commercially successful than Southside . The first US tour followed in November 1991. After further appearances in Europe, the recordings for the next album began. The theme song of the August 1993 pre-released single So Called Friend later became the theme song of the television series Ellen and was part of the soundtrack of the film Last Dance . The album Ricks Road was released in Europe in November 1993. After various appearances in North America in 1994, the album was also released in the USA, but only sold around 38,000 times, which is why Texas in the following years concentrated exclusively on the European music market.
From December 1994 the band took a two-year break, after which they gave their first concert on December 5, 1996 in Glasgow.
In January 1997 the fourth album White On Blonde was released , which sold around 1.7 million copies in Great Britain alone and with Halo , Black Eyed Boy and Put Your Arms Around Me, three top ten hits. The first tour in Australia followed in May 1997 . In the US, White On Blonde was released in August 1997, but did not hit the album charts. Although Texas did not give any concerts in the US, but only had a few promotional dates in October 1997 , two titles from the album were used in Hollywood productions: Say What You Want in The Booked Man and Put Your Arms Around Me in Forever and Forever . At the BRIT Awards in February 1998, Texas played a version of Say What You Want with members of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan , including Method Man . The rest of 1998 the band played various concerts while working on the next album.
At the end of April 1999 the single In Our Lifetime was released , a few weeks later the album The Hush . In the meantime, the drummer Hynd had left the band and was replaced by Mykie Wilson. A music video was shot for the second single, Summer Son, in August 1999 . After further tours and single releases, the best-of album The Greatest Hits was released in October 2000, which is the band's most successful release to date with around five million units sold. After an extensive European tour, the singer Spiteri took a break because she was expecting a child.
In October 2003 the next studio album Careful What You Wish For was released . The new drummer was Neil Payne, and live guitarist Tony McGovern became an official member of the band. The single Carnival Girl was a collaboration with rapper Cardinal Offishall .
In November 2005, the studio album Red Book was released , with which the commercial success of Texas continued to decline. It never reached the top ten of the album charts except in France, the band's most consistent market. In early 2006, Texas managed to reach number 6 on the British music charts with Sleep . The song is a duet with Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile .
In 2007 a compilation was released under the title The BBC Sessions , which includes all live sessions that the band had recorded for the BBC 's radio program . Singer Sharleen Spiteri began a career as a solo artist in 2008.
After a long absence, the album The Conversation was released on May 20, 2013 . The first single was released on May 13, also with the title The Conversation .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1989 | Southside |
DE22 (16 weeks) DE |
- |
CH1  (22 weeks)CH |
UK3  (32 weeks)UK |
US88 (16 weeks) US |
First published: March 1, 1989
Sales: + 600,000 |
| 1991 | Mothers Heaven |
DE39 (7 weeks) DE |
- |
CH17th (8 weeks)CH |
UK32 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: October 8, 1991
Sales: + 225,000 |
| 1993 | Ricks Road | - | - |
CH14 (8 weeks) CH |
UK18th  (2 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: November 13, 1993
Sales: + 310,000 |
| 1997 | White on blonde |
DE44 (8 weeks) DE |
AT32 (12 weeks) AT |
CH25th (14 weeks)CH |
UK1 × 6
(112 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: February 3, 1997
Sales: + 2,250,000 |
| 1999 | The Hush |
DE7th (37 weeks)DE |
AT11 (19 weeks) AT |
CH5 (42 weeks)CH |
UK1 × 3
(53 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: May 10, 1999
Sales: + 1,950,000 |
| 2003 | Careful What You Wish For |
DE25 (3 weeks) DE |
AT46 (3 weeks) AT |
CH6th (6 weeks)CH |
UK5 (8 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: October 20, 2003
Sales: + 120,000 |
| 2005 | Red Book |
DE43 (2 weeks) DE |
- |
CH10 (6 weeks) CH |
UK16 (14 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: November 7, 2005
Sales: + 100,000 |
| 2013 | The conversation |
DE38 (2 weeks) DE |
- |
CH7 (18 weeks) CH |
UK4th (17 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: May 17, 2013
Sales: + 200,000 |
| 2017 | Jump on board |
DE63 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH12 (8 weeks) CH |
UK6 (6 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: April 21, 2017
Sales: + 50,000 |
Web links
- Texas at Allmusic (English)
- Texas at laut.de
- Texas at MusicBrainz (English)
- Texas at Discogs (English)
-
↑ Chart sources:
- Texas in the German charts on OfficialCharts.de
- Texas in the Austrian charts on AustrianCharts.at
- Texas in the Swiss charts on Hitparade.ch
- Texas in the Official UK Charts (English)
- Texas on the US Billboard Charts
- ↑ The Conversation - Impala Diamond (200,000)