News

Mockstars: out now!

25 June 2014

music novelOur Lightyears novel Mockstars is now available to buy for your Kindle, smartphone, tablet or computer.

Follow your preferred links to get your grubby hands on the goods:

 

 

AMAZON KINDLE UK
AMAZON KINDLE USA
KOBO
NOOK USA

The iBooks links for both UK and USA will be available soon, along with Nook UK.

If you enjoy the book, please don’t hesitate to tell people about it, follow Mockstars on Twitter or indeed paint yourself blue and climb to the top of the Shard yelling “IT’S BETTER THAN THE RUDDY BIBLE, BITCHES”.

Whatever suits.

* * * * * *

Here’s what Amazon readers are saying so far:

“The most British rock and roll story you could possibly get … Too many jokes for one read, the drummer is one to watch.”

“Like Dickens, a novel overflowing with eccentric characters and delightfully comic moments … A delicious read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting a band.”

The new Bridget Jones brought to life in a male, aspiring rock star from the Home Counties.”

Watch the Mockstars book trailer

11 June 2014

Today we released the book trailer for our upcoming Lightyears novel, Mockstars.

Feast your eyes on this bad-boy:

Loosely inspired by Chris Lightyear’s international tour diaries for the band, Mockstars tells the story of how The Lightyears got together. You might call it the band’s “creation myth”, if you were being churlish.

Mockstars is released as an eBook on 25 June 2014 by Red Button Publishing. Find out more at www.MockstarsTheNovel.com.

Last week the band went into the studio to record brand-new live tracks for an audio-enhanced version of the book. These tracks included Blinded By Light, Embrace Of Many and Wait ForeverMockstars: The Enhanced Edition is planned for release later this year. Watch this space for updates.

Finally, and most importantly…

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story…” (Tony, Lightyears drummer)

Revealed: cover image for “Mockstars”

21 May 2014

Check it out, people: the brand-new cover image for our Lightyears novel, Mockstars.

mockstars

She’s a beaut, right?! Inked by the fair hand of George Lightyear, with consultation from myself and the book’s publishers Red Button, the cover image provides a wee insight into the ups and downs of the Mockstars story, which was inspired by Chris LY’s international tour diaries for the band.

Oh, and a point of trivia: these photos were taken backstage at Wembley Stadium (la-dee-dah).

The eBook will hit your kindles and eReaders this summer – so keep your eyes and ears peeled for news on publication dates. You can find out more about the novel at the Mockstars website.

Mockstars: Four boys. One band. No chance.

LYs to headline Goring & Streatley Festival

25 April 2014

goring & streatley festivalWe’ve been booked to headline at the first ever Goring & Streatley Festival this summer, and will be topping the bill in two consecutive performances at Goring Village Hall on Saturday 5 July.

Due to demand, the festival organisers are planning two separate shows – the first 7-9pm, the second 9.30-11.30pm. Tickets are available from the Swan Hotel (cash, credit or debit cards) or from the portable Ticket Booth in the village. If you’re not local and wish to obtain tickets online, click here.

Further details are available on our GIGS page.

The festival, which is presenting a wide variety of music, comedy and arts over a ten-day period, was inspired by the success of the village’s Royal Jubilee event in June 2012, at which we also headlined.

We’re looking forward to returning to our roots for another homecoming show! In the meantime, here’s a video taken from the crowd of our Hey Jude encore at the Jubilee:

LYs novel to be published this summer

17 April 2014

lightyears novelWe’re very excited to announce that our Lightyears novel, Mockstars, will be published in summer 2014 by Red Button Publishing.

Mockstars is an uplifting comedy about friendship and chasing the rock ‘n’ roll dream, inspired by pianist Chris Lightyear’s international tour diaries for the band. The project has a musical angle too, and The Lightyears will be releasing brand-new original material to directly accompany the book. Over time, two versions of the book will be made available – first, a straight eBook, and shortly after that, an enhanced eBook featuring music excerpts embedded within the text.

To find out more, visit www.MockstarsTheNovel.com.

You can also read up on the project on the Red Button website.

Release dates will be announced in due course – keep a close eye on the website for regular news.

…In the meantime, if you’re looking for a fix, here’s a video extract from the novel:

Lightyears to headline Twyfest 2014

14 April 2014

twyfestOn Saturday 31 May we’ll be headlining the first ever Twyfest, supported by a host of excellent acts including Pressgang, WOB and Tony Lightyear’s solo project, Rushkeeper.

Almost half the tickets have already been sold, so don’t delay in getting yours here.

Twyfest – based near Reading, Berkshire – is in its first year and will be presenting a packed programme of music, comedy and drama over a ten-day period. We’ll be headlining the Blues & Rock Event, kicking off at 2pm.

The bill is bursting with top quality acts such as the inimitable WOB (who might as well have taught Frank Turner everything he knows), the wonderful Pressgang (a much-loved folk-rock act in their last ever UK appearance), and Tony’s ‘other’ band Rushkeeper, whose set we plan to sabotage with custard pies who are also spiffing. Find out more here.

 

 

Lightyears appear on video soundtrack

17 January 2014

body gossipThe Lightyears have been used to soundtrack a brand-new promotional video by positive body image campaign group Body Gossip.

Our collaboration with the wondrous folks over at Body Gossip has been going on for some years now, and in fact we’ve provided the soundtrack for many previous BG videos including “This One’s For You” and “What are we protecting our children from?“.

The campaign’s new video “What Is Body Gossip?” explains the background to the campaign and chronicles its achievements thus far. The soundtrack is “Sing”, a song we recorded with The Voyager School Choir in Peterborough a few years back. Watch the video in full below.

Jam with the LYs on Whole World Band

26 November 2013

whole world bandThe Lightyears have been selected to feature alongside Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones in a new and innovative music app called Whole World Band, which allows musicians to digitally ‘jam’ together over the internet.

The app, which launched this month, takes video ‘seed’ tracks by artists and invites users to layer their own recordings over the top. An e-Jam, if you will. And to get things moving, Whole World Band are giving €8 of credit to the first 5,000 users to download the app to their mobile device.

Pop over to www.WholeWorldBand.com now to take a look. Because come on – we know how many of you have “Jam With The Lightyears” on your bucket list (right next to swimming with dolphins, and licking Zac Efron).

Confused? Fear not – here’s an explanatory video from the WWB folks themselves:

LYs music video breaks 100,000 views

19 November 2013

titanium coverOur piano-based acoustic cover of David Guetta’s smash hit song Titanium has now surpassed 100,000 views on YouTube. We’d like to thank our parents, our fans, and of course Jesus.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you may be aware that a fair old chunk of this traffic has come from Turkey, where the video has been on regular rotation on the country’s equivalent of MTV. Honestly, we now can’t walk down the street in Ankara without being showered in confetti. It’s a little disconcerting.

Powder Keg Sessions

The Lightyears’ Titanium cover came out of our Powder Keg Sessions, where we recorded similar versions of Coldplay’s Paradise and Rihanna’s We Found Love. If you like the look of the place in these videos, it’s actually a really excellent cocktail bar in Clapham called Powder Keg Diplomacy – you know, the kind of place where they serve gin slings in china teacups. Well worth a visit.

Now, as proud as we are of this frankly eye-watering level of success, we are nevertheless aware that there are still approximately 7,124,900,000 humans who haven’t seen our video, so we’ve posted it below. Quite what those people have been doing all this time, we have no idea.

Chris Lightyear signs to top literary agent

2 November 2013

literary agents londonFor the last few years, LYs pianist Chris has been working on a Lightyears novel called Mockstars. It’s been an interesting road so far, and things took an exciting turn this week when Chris was signed up by leading literary agent Ed Wilson at Johnson & Alcock.

Johnson & Alcock are a boutique literary agency based in Clerkenwell, representing a diverse range of prestigious writers of fiction and non-fiction. Ed and Chris will be working together on taking Mockstars to the next level, and hope to have news on publication soon. Watch this space! Chris said of the signing:

“I’m thrilled to be working with Ed on my Lightyears novel. The odds of finding a good literary agent these days, in a market saturated with writers, are pretty tiny… so I feel very lucky and excited to be in this position. One thing I will say, though, is this – it seems odd that you’d feel the need to quote me in this article, since everyone knows it’s me who writes these news stories in the first place.”

You’re right. That does seem strange.

Inspired by the band’s international tour diaries, and set against the backdrop of the French Alps, Mockstars is an uplifting tale of friendship, rock ‘n’ roll and following your dreams. Think Almost Famous meets High Fidelity. Find out more at the links below:

– Official website: www.MockstarsTheNovel.com
– Mockstars video excerpt: “The A&R Man”
– Mockstars live excerpt: “Posh Groupies”

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