The Chemical Brothers
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| The Chemical Brothers | |
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 The Chemical Brothers
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Dust Brothers The 237 Turbo Nutters |
| Origin | Manchester, England |
| Genre(s) | Big beat, house, trip hop, electronic music |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Label(s) | Junior Boy's Own, Astralwerks, Freestyle Dust |
| Website | TheChemicalBrothers.com |
| Members | |
| Tom Rowlands Ed Simons |
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The Chemical Brothers are the UK-based Grammy Award winning electronic music duo of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons (occasionally referred to as Chemical Tom and Chemical Ed). Initially they called themselves "The Dust Brothers", after the noted United States production duo of the same name, but their burgeoning popularity and the threat of legal action from the originals led them to change their name in 1995. Along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and The Crystal Method, as well as other lesser-known acts they were pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre, and are known for high-quality live sets.
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[edit] Live
The Chemical Brothers are credited as being one of the few truly arena-sized electronic acts. Their live acts comprise large screens displaying psychedelic images, strobe lights and lasers that project over the crowd. There has been speculation over how much of their live gigs are pre-recorded, although they insist (on their official website FAQ) that they have a mere outline of track order and the rest is mixed live. This would seem to be confirmed by concert goers who have seen gigs on consecutive nights and have posted notable differences between the sets played (see External links below.)
The Brothers have also played at many major festivals, from Glastonbury to Reading and currently hold the record for most gigs performed in a year at the Brixton Academy. The brothers have infamously despite their high status in the mainstream, never appeared on Top of the Pops, with the use of music videos to replace the performance, sometimes accompanied by a video apoligising for their absence. In 1999 a live US tour video of "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" was shown, even though the song was not in the top 40 at the time, and also released other singles before then at the time.
In addition to performing their own music they also hold regular DJ nights where they mix other artist's tracks (in the style of Brothers Gonna Work It Out).
As with their recorded albums The Chemical Brothers are well known for their incorporation of guest vocalists into their live performances. Notable appearances in recent gigs have included Bernard Sumner of New Order, who sang on the original "Out of Control", and Tim Burgess.
The duo also played at the launch event for the Wii gaming device.
On the night of the 1 September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played at the main stage of the Electric Picnic to a crowd of around 20,000. The festival was however marred by the death of a 23 year-old fan. The incident occurred as The Chemical Brothers came to a climax at 2 a.m. early on the Sunday morning. Organiser John Reynolds extended his sympathies and said: "A young man took ill at the festival, was treated at the medical centre, removed to Port Laoise Hospital and was later pronounced dead." Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious.[1]
The Chemical Brothers took over the streets of downtown Los Angeles on September 29, 2007, headlining the 13th Annual Nocturnal Wonderland Festival.
The duo have been announced as one of the head-liners for Roskilde Festival 2008 in Denmark. The festival is held from the 3rd-6th of July and is the biggest festival in Northern Europe.
[edit] Discography
[edit] See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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