Atomic Kitten
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| Atomic Kitten
<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Atomic Kitten in concert.jpg Atomic Kitten in concert in Poland in 2005. </td></tr>
Left to right: Liz McClarnon, Jenny Frost and Natasha Hamilton. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information
<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Image:Flag of England.svgLiverpool, England</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Pop</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1999*–present |
Atomic Kitten is an English girl group from Liverpool composed of Liz McClarnon ("Lil"), Natasha Hamilton ("Tash"), and Jenny Frost, who replaced original member Kerry Katona in January 2001. Atomic Kitten has sold over 8 million <ref>Official biography of Liz McClarnon (Accessed Aug 1, 2006)</ref> albums and 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.
Contents |
[edit] 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." <ref>Perfect People (Accessed Dec 31, 2005)</ref>
The group has released 16 singles and six albums: Right Now (2001), Feels So Good (2002), Atomic Kitten (2003 - US only), Ladies Night (2003), The Greatest Hits (2004) and The Collection (2005).
The group's first single "Right Now" debuted in December 1999, 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.
Right Now was a modest success upon first release. Initially there were no plans to focus on the global market yet. The record label was even considering dropping them because of limited success, however they persuaded Innocent Records to record one more single. <ref>BBC News: Atomic Kitten's perfect year (Accessed July 29, 2006)</ref> 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. <ref>BBC News: McFadden and Katona tie knot (Accessed July 30, 2006)</ref> 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.
[edit] 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 for their new album.
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 <ref>Fun Trivia: Atomic Kitten (Accessed July 29, 2006)</ref> before finally going on pregnancy leave.
[edit] 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. <ref>Atomic Kitten active - News Jan 9, 2003 (Accessed July 30, 2006)</ref> 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 Hillary Duff, however the album only managed to peak at #102 <ref name="arkansas">The Arkansas Traveler online: Atomic Kitten: what America is missing (Accessed August 16, 2006)</ref> and it was decided to focus on the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.
A large part of 2003 was spent in the studio recording their third and final studio album Ladies Night. Upto 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 honor of this collaboration. <ref>CBBC News: Ladies Night interview (Accessed July 29, 2006)</ref> The album and singles were slightly less successful than the two previous albums.
November and December 2003 were spend on an arena tour in the United Kingdom making Atomic Kitten the second girl group after the Spice Girls to do an arena tour. <ref>CBBC News: Atomic Kitten reveal new tour dates (Accessed July 30, 2006)</ref>
[edit] No longer a group, but still recording sometimes
Their career was going well, however 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 was 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. <ref>AtomicKittenz (Accessed Dec 31, 2005)</ref>
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. <ref>Natasha Hamilton's official site - News section (Accessed July 29, 2006)</ref>
The girls will reunite for a one-off performance of "Whole Again" at a benefit concert for the Michael Shields appeal which will be held at the Liverpool Empire Theatre on December 4, 2006. <ref>Official Liz McClarnon blog October 27, 2006 (Accessed October 28, 2006)</ref>
[edit] Solo careers
- Natasha Hamilton is scheduled to release of the single "The Way You Move". <ref>Official Natasha Hamilton site (Accessed October 15, 2006)</ref>
- Liz McClarnon made a reasonable performance from the start and her single "Woman In Love / I Get the Sweetest Feeling" entered the chart at no. 5 <ref>EveryHit.com UK Top 40 database (Accessed July 30, 2006)</ref> and debuted higher than the last three singles of Atomic Kitten. No exact date is known for her next single "Happy" <ref name="mattcd">Matt's CD singles New UK Single releases. October 16, 2006. (Accessed October 16, 2006)</ref>, her solo debut album is scheduled for 2007. <ref name="soloalbum">Official Liz McClarnon blog (Accessed October 22, 2006)</ref>
- Jenny Frost only reached no. 47 <ref> I'm a celebrity biography of Jennifer Frost (Accessed July 30, 2006)</ref> with her debut solo single "Crash Landing" and will release "Bad Girl", a track originally set for - and recorded by - Lisa Scott-Lee. [citation needed]
[edit] People
Jennifer Frost (born February 22, 1978, in Liverpool, United Kingdom), started her musical career in the girl-band Precious and replaced Kerry Katona in 2001. After the split of Atomic Kitten, Jenny has embarked on a solo career and released her first single "Crash Landing" on October 10, 2005.
Natasha Maria Hamilton (born July 17, 1982, in Liverpool, United Kingdom) joined Atomic Kitten after Heidi Range left the group. On January, 2004, she decided taking a break from Atomic Kitten because she wanted spent more time with her son Josh. She is currently working on her first solo release "The Way You Move."
Kerry Jayne Elizabeth Katona (born September 6, 1980, in Warrington, United Kingdom), was one of the original members of Atomic Kitten. Kerry was featured on the original Right Now album in 2000, but left in January 2001 because she had become pregnant. Her place in the group was taken by Jenny Frost.
Elizabeth Margaret McClarnon (born April 10, 1981, in Liverpool, United Kingdom), was one of the original members of the group. While in the band, she co-wrote many of their songs. Her solo single "Woman In Love" was released on February 14, 2006.
Andy McCluskey (born June 24, 1959, in Liverpool, United Kingdom), was the lead singer and primary songwriter for the group OMD. In 1997 he founded Atomic Kitten and wrote and produced many of the early songs. In 2002 the girls terminated the songwriting/production agreement with Andy.
[edit] Discography
See also: Atomic Kitten Discography (includes charts all over the world, group and solo, sales)
[edit] Albums
| Date | Title | UK Chart<ref name="ukchart">All chart data refers to the United Kingdom unless noted otherwise</ref> | UK Copies | Certification | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 16, 2000 | Right Now | #39 | unk | Original release | |
| June 8, 2001 | Right Now | #1 | ~600,000 <ref name="chartwatch">Figures from Chartwatch. Last update: 12 October 2004</ref> <ref>The first album Right Now sales is only the reissue album with Jenny Frost.</ref> | 2x Platinum <ref name="bpi">British Phonographic Industry certification database (Accessed September 26, 2006)</ref> | Reissued featuring Jenny Frost |
| September 9, 2002 | Feels So Good | #1 | ~1,000,000 <ref>Booklet The Collection</ref> | 2x Platinum <ref name="bpi">British Phonographic Industry certification database (Accessed August 3, 2006)</ref> | |
| April 22, 2003 | Atomic Kitten | #102 <ref name="arkansas"/> | unk. | US only | |
| November 10, 2003 | Ladies Night | #5 | ~300,000 <ref name="chartwatch"/> | Platinum <ref name="bpi"/> | |
| April 5, 2004 | Greatest Hits | #5 | ~100,000 <ref name="chartwatch"/> | Gold <ref name="bpi"/> | |
| May 2, 2005 | The Collection | - | 83,781 | unk. | UK only. Charted at #7 in the UK compilation chart <ref>Chart Log UK 2005 (Accessed August 16, 2006)</ref> |
| August 30, 2005 | Access All Areas: Remixed & B-Side | - | unk. | CD + 2 DVDs (multi-region) released in Asia only |
[edit] Singles
| Date | Title | United Kingdom <ref name="ukchart"/> | Worldwide | Certification | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Copies | # <ref>World Singles Official Top 100</ref> | |||||
| From: Right Now | |||||||
| 1999 | "Right Now" | #10 | 120,000 | ||||
| 2000 | "See Ya" | #6 | 104,000 | ||||
| 2000 | "Cradle" | ||||||
| 2000 | "I Want Your Love" | #10 | 72,000 | unk | |||
| 2000 | "Follow Me" | #20 | 44,000 | ||||
| 2001 | "Whole Again" | #1 (4 weeks) | 934,600 <ref name="chartwatch"/> | #8 | Platinum <ref name="bpi"/> | ||
| 2001 | "Eternal Flame" | #1 (2 weeks) | ~400,000 <ref name="chartwatch"/> | #12 | Gold <ref name="bpi"/> | ||
| 2001 | "You Are" | #31 (NL) | NZ, Aus & EU only | ||||
| From: Feels So Good | |||||||
| 2002 | "It's OK!" | #3 | ~200,000 <ref name="chartwatch"/> | #20 | Silver <ref name="bpi"/> | ||
| 2002 | "Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)" | #1 (3 weeks) | ~400,000 <ref name="chartwatch"/> | #6 | Gold <ref name="bpi"/> | ||
| 2002 | "The Last Goodbye/Be With You" | #2 | 210,000 | #10 | |||
| 2003 | "Love Doesn't Have To Hurt" | #4 | 140,000 | #28 | |||
| From: Ladies Night | |||||||
| 2003 | "If You Come To Me" | #3 | 180,000 | #15 | |||
| 2003 | "Ladies Night" | #8 | 150,000 | #30 | |||
| Reissues | |||||||
| 2004 | "Someone Like Me/Right Now 2004" | #8 | 75,000 | #45 | Re-issue | ||
| 2005 | "Cradle 2005" | #10 | 32,000 | #60 | Charity reissue | ||
| 2006 | "All Together Now" | #16 (Germany) <ref>MusicSquare: All Together Now chart (Accessed August 3, 2006)</ref> | FIFA World Cup release | ||||
[edit] DVDs
| Year | Title | Certification | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | So Far So Good | Also available as video | |
| 2002 | Right Here, Right Now | ||
| 2003 | Be with Us | Gold <ref name="bpi"/> | |
| 2004 | The Greatest Hits Live at Wembley Arena | ||
| 2005 | Access All Areas: Remixed & B-Side | CD + 2 DVDs |
[edit] Bibliography
- McLeish, Ian (August 5, 2002). Atomic Kitten: So Good, So Far. Carlton Books. 1842226193.
[edit] References and notes
<references/>
[edit] External links
- Atomic Kitten (official website)
- Atomic Kitten (unofficial website)
- Atomic Kitten Active
- Atomic Kitten Online
- Atomic Kitten Songs Bing Bangbg:Атомик Китън
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