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Turin Brakes are an English band, comprising the original duo Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian, and long-term collaborators Rob Allum and Eddie Myer. They had a UK top 5 hit in 2003 with their song "Painkiller (Summer Rain)". Since starting out in 1999, the band have sold about one million records worldwide. They are currently signed to Cooking Vinyl.
Source reissued the song "The Door" before releasing their first album, The Optimist LP, in 2001. The album, which was released in the United States by Astralwerks, was greeted with critical praise, spawned several modestly successful UK singles, "Underdog (Save Me)" (reaching no. 39 in the UK Singles Charts ), Mind Over Money (reaching no. 31 ) and "Emergency 72", and received a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. In August 2001, the album was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry. A planned tour of the United States opening for the Stereophonics and Matthew Jay, was cancelled due to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Still, the band played at over 80 venues in Europe and the United States that year.
In February 2002, the band embarked on their biggest headline tour to date, covering 24 UK venues in a month, including two sold-out shows at Brixton Academy, a venue they frequently visited when growing up. On 1 March 2003, their single "Pain Killer" became their biggest hit to date, reaching the top 5 of the singles chart.
Turin Brakes' second album, Ether Song, was released on 3 March 2003. This album was a departure from the acoustic sound that had brought them success with their first album. The album was popular enough to reach number 4 in the UK Albums Chart upon its release and to be certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry four days after the release, on 7 March 2003.
After the successful release, the record company sought to replicate the commercial success by releasing a third single from the album, Average Man. However, UK radio stations didn't embrace the single as they had with previous releases, and its chart performance (no. 35) was perceived as disappointing by fans and the record label.
The album's commercial performance created some tension between the band and their label. In fact, between tours in the United States (their own headline tour and supporting David Gray) in the Summer of 2003, the band recorded a new single for a re-release of Ether Song with Tony Hoffer. The first re-release of Ether Song, featuring an orange version of the cover and a single 5 Mile was released on 6 October 2003. 5 Mile charted higher than Average Man (no. 31 ) but was largely overlooked by UK radio stations. Overall, the album was re-released four times during its lifespan, and received various bonus discs between regions and versions. The band was on record as being unhappy with the way the record company was treating them and the fans regarding the release.
Following the success and stress of Ether Song, the band took a short break, but not before touring Australia and New Zealand and releasing a DJ mix for Azuli Records' Late Night Tales series in February 2004. The (2004) was a collection of some of their favourite songs and main influences, and also contained The Rolling Stones song "Moonlight Mile" as a cover. The band have done some DJ sets in the London area over the years.
The band spent the first half of 2004 writing and recording new material in their own studio, which they built in Brixton, London. That summer, they played a successful set at Somerset House, playing a selection of old and new material, including future singles Fishing For A Dream and Over And Over. Later that year, they found themselves part of the Band Aid 20 cast for the revamped Noughties take on Do They Know It’s Christmas, alongside Paul McCartney, Radiohead and Robbie Williams, giving them their only chart topper to date in the process.
Following the success of Jackinabox and its subsequent tour, a download-only album, Live at the Palladium (recorded in London) was released in November 2005. Released one day after the concert took place in London, it was available on the band's website. Later it was also released on iTunes and did well in the download charts. During the October / November 2005 tour, the band also sold the Red Moon EP. This acoustic EP featured a new (acoustic) version of "Red Moon", two new songs (live favourite Jet Trail and Love Is All You Deserve) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover "Breaking The Girl" (recorded at KCRW).
The new album, Dark on Fire, was released in the UK in September 2007, preceded by a download-only single. "Stalker". On 14 January 2008 another download-only single was released: "Something In My Eye". The b-side was a cover version of Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby". Both singles failed to make an impact on the singles charts, but Dark on Fire did chart at no. 36 in the top 40.
In March 2009, the band announced they would make their live return later in the year with two acoustic shows at Folk in the Barn in Canterbury in May. In June 2009, it was announced that the band would be releasing a 'Best Of' album, to mark the tenth anniversary of their debut single "The Door", along with a festival slot at Latitude in late-July and a headline performance at London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane the following September. This album, Bottled at Source – The Best of the Source Years, was also their last album for the Source record label.
During the performance at Theatre Royal on 13 September, the band played brand-new songs off the untitled forthcoming album, which they hinted would come out in February 2010.
In November 2011, the band toured the United Kingdom to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their debut album The Optimist LP. The band played the complete debut album in the correct order, apart from hidden track Three Days Old and a second set of more recent work, including new song Rescue Squad and their re-working of Mary Poppins song Chim Chim Cher-ee, which they released as a digital single to raise money for homeless charities. A live recording of their show at Koko in London on 11 November 2011 was released as a live album.
Throughout 2012, the band wrote new material and played intimate venues in the United Kingdom. In October 2012, Olly Knights released a solo album If Not Now When on Turin Brakes' own record label, The Complete ATOMIC. In November 2012, the band returned to their studio to record material for their sixth studio album.
In 2014, the band played the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas and toured the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. In 2015, the band started work on their seventh studio album.
On 6 September 2012, all four Turin Brakes members played at a "Spirit of Talk Talk" evening at 229 Great Portland Street where they joined some former members of Talk Talk to play a few hits including It's My Life, with the band then playing a set of their own afterwards. Before playing the song "Painkiller" Gale announced to the audience that although it wouldn't be obvious to most people the song was heavily influenced by Talk Talk and by the work they did with producer Phill Brown in the Kent countryside some years ago.
| + List of albums, with selected details and chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Details ! scope="col" colspan="2" | Peak chart positions |
| + List of singles, with selected chart positions
!Year
!Song
!Label
!Format
!Album
!UK Singles Chart | |||||
| 2001 | "The Door" | Source | 12"/7"/CD | The Optimist LP | 67 |
| "Underdog (Save Me)" | 7"/CD | 39 | |||
| "Mind Over Money" | 31 | ||||
| "Emergency 72" | 41 | ||||
| 2002 | "Long Distance" | Ether Song | 22 | ||
| 2003 | "Pain Killer (Summer Rain)" | 5 | |||
| "Average Man" | 7"/CD/DVD | 35 | |||
| "5 Mile (These Are the Days)" | 7"/CD | 31 | |||
| 2005 | "Fishing for a Dream" | Jackinabox | 32 | ||
| "Over and Over" | 62 | ||||
| 2007 | "Stalker" | Download | Dark On Fire | ||
| 2008 | "Something In My Eye" | ||||
| 2010 | "Sea Change" | Cooking Vinyl | Outbursts| style="text-align:center;" | ||
| 2013 | "Time and Money" | We Were Here | |||
| 2015 | "96" | Lost Property | |||
| "Keep Me Around" | |||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released. | |||||
| "The Door" |
| "Emergency 72" |
| "Underdog (Save Me)" |
| Acoustic Vol. 1 |
| The Album Vol. 3 |
| "Emergency 72" |
| "Angel of the Morning" |
| "Painkiller" |
| "Rain City" |
| "Long Distance" |
| "Painkiller" |
| "Fishing For a Dream" |
| "Future Boy" |
| "Fishing For a Dream" |
| "Feeling Oblivion" |
| "Painkiller" |
| The Acoustic Album |
| The Songs |
| "Moonlight_Mile_(song)" |
| "Breaking the Girl" |
| "They Can't Buy the Sunshine" |
|
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