Vitamin Z

This article is about the English pop music group. For the anti-depressant drug nicknamed Vitamin Z, see Sertraline.

Vitamin Z
Origin	Sheffield, England
Genres	Rock, new wave, synthpop
Years active	1982–1991
Labels	Phonogram, Mercury, Geffen
Past members	Geoff Barradale Nick Lockwood David Rhodes

Vitamin Z were an English pop rock group, formed in 1982 by vocalist Geoff Barradale and bassist Nick Lockwood. Their biggest hit "Burning Flame" charted in the UK and US, but their one other hit in the UK, "Every Time That I See You," did not chart in the US. Geoff Barradale now serves as manager for the Arctic Monkeys.

History

Vitamin Z founders Geoff Barradale and Nick Lockwood were born and raised in Sheffield. The group originally took shape around a loose-knit collection of local musicians who came together in a common rehearsal space.

The band's debut album Rites of Passage, was released in 1985. Its most prominent single, "Burning Flame", hit #73 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the band toured England with Tears for Fears. Vitamin Z also made news when their video for the song "Circus Ring (We Scream About)" was filmed in Istanbul, making them the first Western Europeans to be allowed to film in Turkey since Midnight Express prompted government officials there to close the border to foreign film units.

A year or so further on and the follow-up album was ready to go. "We sat down and listened to it and it didn't do anything", recalls Barradale. "If it didn't move us, it wasn't going to move anybody else. The songs were good, but the treatment was wrong, contrived, plastic. We see ourselves as far more edgy, spiky. It was the wrong marriage with a producer."

While they awaited the results of a lawsuit that would hopefully allow them to rework the songs, they wrote a number of new ones. They liked what they were hearing so much that they paid for another demo out of their own pockets. "We knew", says Barradale, "that this was our moment. We had to take it." By the time the legal matters were settled, they were already in the studio working on Sharp Stone Rain, beginning with producer Pete Smith (Sting, The Adventures) but ended up co-producing tracks.

Also seizing the moment, Lockwood decided to move from bass and keyboards to guitar.

Barradale appeared on The Alan Parsons Project album Gaudi, released in 1987. He sang lead vocals for the "Standing on Higher Ground" lead off single.

Vitamin Z recorded demos for a third album, which was never released.

Barradale continued to record and perform from his native Sheffield, teaming up with guitarist Mick Bratby and bass player Ade Thorpe, both formerly of No Mean City and Aku Ake and later with guitarist and songwriter Alan Smyth, later a producer based at his own 2-Fly Studios in the city. Their bands Fruit, Seafruit, were championed by broadcaster Jeff Cooper's 'XS' show (now radio2XS) at the radio station Hallam FM, where they recorded two sessions in 1996 and 1997. Cooper also employed Barradale as the narrator of a 1995 radio documentary for the BBC Sheffield Music 1995, which also featured Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and others.

Discography

Albums

• 1985: "Rites of Passage" (Geffen Records)
• 1989: "Sharp Stone Rain" (Geffen Records)

Singles

• 1985: "Burning Flame" (7" and 12") [UK #80, US #73]
• 1985: "Circus Ring (We Scream About)" (7" and 12")
• 1985: "Every Time That I See You" (7" and 12") [UK #78]
• 1985: "Hi Hi Friend" (7" and 12")
• 1989: "Burn For You" (7", 12" and CD single)
• 1990: "Can't Live Without You" (7", 12" and CD single)

External links

• Vitamin Z: Official website