Biography Wikipedia
Group Members: Sean Wright
Wikipedia:
Sunscreem is a techno/house band from Essex, England, who scored a number of hits on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century. Sunscreem also has the rare reputation as a techno-based band that successfully performs concerts. Over a ten-year period, 12 of their singles made an entry to the UK Singles Chart.
Career
The nucleus of the group is lead vocalist/keyboardist Lucia Holm and fellow keyboardist Paul Carnell. The group has also, at times, included Darren Woodford, Rob Fricker, Sean Wright, Nick Slingsby (aka "Bongo Ted") and DJ Dave Valentine.
Sunscreem released a 12" promo of "Love U More" on the Sony Soho Square record label in 1991, a song which went on to spend two weeks at #1 on the U.S. Dance chart in March 1993. They had club hits in the UK with the singles "Walk On" and "Pressure" (also on Sony Soho Square) before releasing their successful first album on multiple labels in 1993. Other singles from included "Perfect Motion" and a cover of the Marianne Faithfull record "Broken English".
"Love U More" was one of the first techno songs to hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40, climbing to #36 (to date it is their only Hot 100 entry). It has subsequently been covered (usually in a bowdlerised form, omitting the climactic reference to rape and toning down other images in the lyrics) by other artists including Paul Elstak, LMP, Rollergirl and Steps.
The band is known for having their songs remixed by a wide variety of dance music producers. They have been those including Leftfield, Band of Gypsies, Carl Cox, Push, Rollo Armstrong from Faithless, Red Jerry, Matt Darey, Slam, X-Press 2, Trouser Enthusiasts, Robbie Rivera, Jimmy Gomez, K-Klass, Armand Van Helden and Fire Island (Pete Heller and Terry Farley) amongst others.
Ahead of their second album, the group released a variety of tracks under alternative names including a selection of 12-inches referred to as 'The Anna Series'. This included the instrumental "Angel Dub" credited to Anna Din, and featured on many compilations such as Renaissance: The Mix Collection by Sasha & John Digweed. These tracks were released independently, breaking the terms of their contract with Sony and leading to an increasingly strained relationship with the label.
Their second album was called Change Or Die, and from it the band released the singles "When" (U.S. Dance #1), "Exodus", "White Skies", "Secrets", and "Looking At You" (U.S. Dance #2). Despite all these singles, the album was not commercially released in major territories outside the UK, and the band therefore negotiated their release from the Sony Records contract. Their next release was a mainly instrumental limited edition CD called New Dark Times, issued on their own label Kali, which combined new material with tracks from the "Anna Series" and remixes from Change Or Die.
The band subsequently signed to UK dance label Pulse-8. Their next single, "Catch" (U.K. Dance #1, U.S. Dance #2), was from an album entitled Out Of The Woods, but the label went bankrupt in 1997 before its completion, and the album and the second single "Cover Me" were never released.
Since then there have been a handful of releases and compilations such as the Sunscreem vs Push "Please Save Me" single (US Dance #26, UK Singles #40), and a re-release of "Perfect Motion" with new remixes by Starchaser and Way Out West. In 2002, the group released Ten Mile Bank, which combined new and remixed material in the manner of New Dark Times, many of the tracks being club mixes of songs from the still-unissued Out of the Woods. Former lead singer Lucia Holm released a promo called "Heaven" (a cover of the Psychedelic Furs song) to radio stations in 2005, but it was never fully published.
