Current Line up: Dale Longworth (keyboards/guitar/programming),
Kevin O'Toole (keyboards/piano/programming), Kelly Llorenna (vocals),
Jerome Stokes (vocals), Ricardo Da Force (rapper), Kenny Martin
(rapper), Lee Limer (dance)
N-Trance
were formed in 1990 by Manchester students, Kevin O'Toole and
Dale Longworth. Before introducing a vocalist their work was mainly
instrumental trance as neither could sing, hence the name N-Trance.
They signed to Pete Waterman's Manchester label, 380/Eastern Bloc
Records, and recorded "Set You Free" in 1992 which featured
fellow Manchester student Kelly Llorenna. The track was only ever
released as a white-label demo.
By
1993, N-Trance had changed labels to All Around the World (AATW)
and released "Set You Free" as a single. Initially, it
failed to make any impression (it only got as high as UK No.81)
however the band persisted and on it's re-release in 1994 it finally
made it into the Top 40 (UK no.39). The follow up, a real Euro-pop
single, "Turn Up The Power" (featuring Loveland's
Rachel McFarlane and rapper T-1k) saw the band reach Number 23
in the UK chart. Still unfazed by the previous lack of success,
N-Trance re-released "Turn Up the Power" once again in
1995. Their persistence paid off and the track reached UK No.2,
selling over 600,000 copies and went on to become the best selling
dance single of the year.
In
September 1995, N-Trance showed absolute cheek in releasing a
cover of the Bee-Gees'
classic
disco anthem, "Stayin Alive" (the track had also previously
been just as cheekily covered
by Happy
Mondays).
It featured vocals from Viveen Wray and rapping by Ricardo Da
Force (ex-KLF). The success was phenomenal (and possibly predictable).
"Stayin' Alive" reached UK No.2 and sold over 2.5 million
copies World-wide, topping the charts in Australia, Canada, and
South Africa! (The original Bee
Gees version
actually reached Number 1 in the UK twenty years previous).
N-Trance's
1995 debut album, "Electronic Pleasure", followed. The
album mixed rap, techno, gospel and good old Euro-Pop whilst featuring
7 different guest vocalists as well as a gospel choir. It reached
a respectable Number 11 in the UK album charts, an impressive
result for a dance act.
Ricardo
also appeared alongside Gillian Wisdom, on the 1996 single "Electronic
Pleasure". The title-track off the album reached Number 11
in the UK singles chart with the help of its stunning video, filmed
in the disused Prestwich Mental Hospital.
N-Trance
entered 1997 with the Number 11 single, "D.I.S.C.O.", a
cover of Ottawan's classic disco anthem. It featured Ricardo and
Viveen alongside vocalist Jerome Stokes whilst the video was shot
in a Manchester discotheque.
The
next single "The Mind Of The Machine", featuring the voice
of Steven Berkoff and the vocals of Kelly, reached UK Number 15
in the August of 1997. True to form, N-Trance released yet another
cover version of a disco anthem. Rod Stewart's vocal was actually
sampled and credited in the 1997 version of "Da Ya Think I'm
Sexy?" and scored World-wide success, including a UK Number
7.
N-Trance,
by now the undisputed sample Kings, released a dance version of
Guns'n'Roses' "Paradise City" (it was actually only Slash's
guitar riff that was sampled). Needless to say, Axel and the boys
were none too pleased at the 1998 Number 15 UK hit!
N-Trance
returned to their serious "Set You Free"-days with the
release of "Tears In the Rain" in 1999 with Kelly again
providing vocals. "Tears In the Rain" was included on their
'almost Greatest Hits' album, the smash, "Happy Hour",
which also included "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy", "Paradise City",
"D.I.S.C.O.", "The Mind Of The Machine" and the German single
release, "Broken Dreams" (a rip-off of Mr.Mister's "Broken
Wings").
N-Trance,
mainly through their cheeky sampling, have so far sold over 5
million records World-wide and topped the charts in 8 different
countries. Alongside
Vimto
and
Boddingtons,
they
are surprisingly one of Manchester's biggest exports!
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