LYs provide soundtrack for celebrity-backed campaign

We've just written two original pieces of music to soundtrack the latest short film releases from the Body Gossip campaign. Body Gossip, run by the fantastic Ruth Rogers, aims to challenge society's unrealistic and narrow beauty ideals and has been gaining huge traction over the last few years. The videos, entitled "What Are We Protecting Our Children From?" and "...

USA Tour starts this week!

Our fifth American tour starts this Thursday 15 July at Union Square in New York. Here's a full rundown of the venues we're playing: Thursday 15 July: UNION SQUARE, New York NY This will be our third year headlining at the Union Square Summer Concert Series in Manhattan. Recent years have seen crowds of thousands and, thanks to the prime location right in the centre of New York, it's the ideal way to spend a late afternoon in the Big Apple. ENTRY ...

Tickets go on sale for American Tour 2010

**UPDATE (24 June): Tickets are now on sale for LYs @ Blockley Pourhouse (Philadelphia) on Sat 17 July. CLICK HERE TO BUY YOURS! Tickets are also available for our show at The Saint in Asbury Park (New Jersey) with local act Root Glen, on Sunday 18 July. Buy yours here. All our other shows in the USA this summer are ...

LYs to headline London festival this Sunday

We will be performing at the Northcote Road Carnival in Battersea this Sunday 13 June at 8pm on the Bennerley Stage. The Northcote Road Carnival is in its second year and crowds of over 10,000 are expected throughout the day. Alongside the live music there'll be a parade, a funfair, food and flower markets and all kinds of shenanigans going on up and down the street. Entry is free. For more information, click here ...

Ahoy there matey! It’s those pesky LYs…

On Saturday night we performed for Her Majesty's Ambassador and six hundred esteemed guests at The Queen's BIrthday Ball in Seoul, South Korea. The theme for the evening was classic 1930s cruise ship glamour, and in honour of this This is definitely the most unusual stage we've played on. I mean, we've done some bizarre gigs (that crèche we headlined at in Peterborough springs immediately to mind, along with the cow ...

LYs to tour East Coast USA in July

We're very excited to announce our 2010 USA Tour, which will consist of a string of dates in mid-July in the New York/Philadelphia area. This will be our fifth visit to the United States and promises to be an absolute cracker! Dates include a return to Union Square on 15 July to headline at their Summer Concert Series (where we performed to thousands last July) as well as our second performance at the Burlington Amphitheatre in New Jersey on the 16th. New venues we will be appearing at include ...

Happy 10th Birthday LYs…!

As we were walking out onstage at Wembley Stadium a couple of weeks ago, Tony reminded me that we played our first gig together almost exactly ten years previously, on 29 April 2000, in a tiny venue in Oxford called The Jam Factory. I can't be certain how many people were there but it definitely wasn't 50,000. Probably more like 20. Either way, this makes today The Lightyears' official 10th birthday. Although The Lightyears per se didn't officially come into ...

LYs to support Right Said Fred at Wembley Stadium

That's right - our next performance at Wembley will be in support to pop legends Right Said Fred on Saturday 17 April. Our previous Wembley gigs have seen us performing to crowds of over 45,000 and a similarly epic attendance is anticipated for the 17th. We will be playing on the pitch from 4.30pm (surrounded by a carnival entourage of firebreathers, cheerleaders, knights on horseback, acrobats, stilt walkers and jugglers) and Right Said Fred will be onstage ...

Lightyears to return to Cape Town

Our 2010 Cape Town tour kicks off next week. We will be returning to South Africa to headline at the Cape Town Tens Rugby Tournament (sponsored by Castle Lager) at Hamiltons RFC on 6 and 7 February. Last year's event was an absolute blast and the word on the street is that it's only gonna get better this time round! Click here to buy tickets to the CT Tens....

A call to arms… help us hit the charts!

Today, Monday 11 January, marks the date of our first major label release - the song "Come With Me", which we wrote for the Josh's Band project. We're hoping that, with your help, we'll be able to reach the UK Top 40 Chart on Sunday. You guys have supported us loyally for years now and we truly appreciate it - a band without a fanbase is, after all, just four blokes sat in a room eating crisps and arguing about whether ...

Lightyears to appear on Channel 4

The music video for "Come With Me" - the song we wrote for the Josh's Band project - is being screened in full this Friday evening on Channel 4 between 9pm and 10pm (during Celebrity Big Brother) to an estimated audience of 3 million people. Watch this space for full details of timing later in the week. If we manage to sell enough copies of the single (which is out NOW on Universal Records) we  may be able to make the UK Top 40 Chart on Sunday. It's important that you buy your copy by ...

Help us hit the Top 40

The single "Come With Me", which we wrote at the end of last year for the Josh's Band ad campaign, is being released on Universal Records on Monday 11 January. If we sell enough copies, we might even make it into the Top 40. Watch this space for details of how to download your copy! CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO. The track was produced by Bacon & Quarmby (David Bowie, Ian Brown, Finley Quaye) at London's Rak Studios and, ...

Our Top 20 Moments Of 2009

Christmas Time is here again and there’s enormous excitement in the air. There’s an outside chance that Rage Against The Machine will beat the X Factor to Number One on Sunday and the weather-man says that snow’s a-coming. Things literally couldn’t be any better. We thought we’d add to the general feeling of goodwill and festivity by recounting our favourite and most memorable experiences from the past year. Most of them - whether in London, Cape Town or the USA - ...

LYs starring in two TV ads – out now!

Over the past month, The Lightyears have been touring around the country with Josh's Band as part of a series of enormous jamming sessions in five of the UK's major cities. These gigs have been turned into two T-Mobile adverts, both of which are now airing on primetime television. After writing the song "Come With Me" - which became the soundtrack for the campaign - Chris and George joined Josh's core band on ...

The Lightyears on your telly-box

So... the inaugural nationwide tour of Josh's Band is now over. We've been to Birmingham, Bristol, London, Edinburgh and Manchester and played to (and with!) over 1,100 people. It's been an incredible experience to be part of Josh's core band and the general consensus is that all of this is merely the beginning. Work on the track we wrote for the campaign - "Come With Me" - continues apace and it is due for release on a major record label in January. The final recording will feature hundreds of musicians and singers ...

Lightyears Christmas party – this Friday night

Your last chance to see The Lightyears live in 2009 is this Friday night (4 December) at The Troubadour in Earls Court. We're throwing an enormous, super-shiny Christmas party to usher in the festive season and promise to lavish all kinds of delectable rock treats upon everybody present. Tickets are selling fast so it's advisable to buy in advance by clicking here or turn up early! Doors are ...

Look out Manchester – Josh’s Band is a-coming…

Since I last blogged, Josh's Band has jammed in Bristol, London and Edinburgh. We've played with pipers, melodised with melodica players and harmonised with hurdy-gurdyists (don't be fooled by the elaborate alliteration - all of this is true). Plus our mates are starting to get in contact to say they've heard us on the radio tonight - so the word is spreading... It's been an awesome journey so far and ...

Thank you Wembley… and hello Bristol!

Last night we played to 46,000 people at Wembley Stadium and who should turn up to join the crowd but that bloke off the telly, Josh Ward! Seriously though, we had an awesome night and it was great to see so many LYs fans there. We took the opportunity to do a little onstage camera piece with Josh ahead of our trip to Bristol tonight - the next stop on Josh's Band's T-Mobile tour. I studied at Bristol University so I have a special affection for the place... ...

Josh’s Band hits the road…

Well... Birmingham was awesome. Nobody knew quite what to expect from the first date on Josh's Band's tour but what we got was a mass singalong in the Bullring, just enough decent weather to perform outside and about 200 screaming fans! Josh, it seems, has become a minor celebrity overnight and his mere presence now sparks mass hysteria amongst his devoted groupies. Our song, "Come With Me", went down really well ...

Come one, come all, to Birmingham…

All the great tours start in great cities. That's just a simple fact of rock and roll. It might be the Enormodome, Memphis, or the Shepherd's Bush Empire, or New York's Madison Square Gardens. This tour, on the other hand, begins in Birmingham. But you gotta start somewhere, eh?! Tomorrow morning at 11am, Josh's Band (featuring Chris and George Lightyear) will be premiering at the Birmingham Bullring in an attempt to get the good people of the UK singing the song ...

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