Katrina and the Waves
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| Katrina and the Waves | ||
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 Katrina and the Waves on cassette cover in 1985
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| Background information | ||
| Also known as | The Waves | |
| Origin | Cambridge, England | |
| Genre(s) | New Wave, Rock, Pop | |
| Years active | 1981–1997 | |
| Label(s) | Capitol Records | |
| Website | http://www.katw.com/ | |
| Former members | ||
| Katrina Leskanich Kimberley Rew Alex Cooper Vince de la Cruz |
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Katrina and the Waves were a pop rock band of the 1980s, best known for their 1985 hit "Walking on Sunshine" and their 1997 Eurovision Song Contest victory.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Pre-history: The Waves and Mama's Cookin' (1975-1980)
The band's earliest incarnation was as The Waves, a group that played in and around Cambridge, England from 1975-77 and featured guitarist Kimberley Rew and drummer Alex Cooper. This incarnation of the Waves never issued any recordings, and broke up when Rew left to join the Soft Boys.
Cooper gigged with a number of bands before joining the pop/soul cover band Mama's Cookin' in 1979. This group was in fact just about to break up when Cooper contacted them -- he had heard from a friend about "a young girl with very long hair and a good voice" who fronted the band (i.e., Katrina Leskanich), and Cooper was interested working with her. All the members of Mama's Cookin' were, at this point, Americans living in England, but the band's bassist and drummer had both decided to return to the US to attend college. The remaining two members, (Leskanich on vocals and guitar, and her then-boyfriend Vince de la Cruz on guitar) were considering doing the same thing, but instead decided to continue with Mama's Cookin', adding Cooper on drums and Bob Jakins on bass.
Mama's Cookin' proceeded to gig steadily in England over the next two years, specializing in covers of songs by American acts such as Heart, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt, and ZZ Top.
When The Soft Boys broke up in 1981, Rew contacted his old Wave-mate to see about renewing their musical partnership. Cooper convinced Rew to join Mama's Cookin', and the group was quickly re-named The Waves after the band Rew and Cooper had been in together in the mid-1970s.
[edit] Early days as "The Waves" (1981-82)
The Waves were initially fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Rew, who brought a wealth of original material to the band. Leskanich, meanwhile, originally only sang lead vocals on the cover tunes in the band's repetoire. However, over the first year of the Waves' existence, Rew began to write material for Leskanich to sing, and she was soon the primary vocalist.
Rounding out the Waves were de la Cruz on guitar, Jakins on bass, and Cooper on drums,
The Waves made their initial recorded appearances on a 1982 single ("Nightmare"/"Hey, War Pig!"); both tracks were included on the 1982 Rew solo album called The Bible of Bop. The Waves then issued their debut EP Shock Horror later in 1982. Around this time, bassist Jakins left the band. Jakins was not replaced, as de la Cruz took over on bass and the band was rechristened Katrina and the Waves.
[edit] Early Canadian success (1983-84)
In early 1983, the fledgling band recorded -- at their own expense -- an LP of their original material designed to be sold at gigs. Rew wrote all the songs on this LP, while Leskanich sang eight of the albums ten tracks. (Rew sang lead on the other two.)
The LP was shopped around to various labels, but only Attic Records in Canada responded with an offer. Consequently, although they were based in England, Katrina and The Waves' first album Walking On Sunshine was released only in Canada.
The album garnered enough critical attention and radio play (especially for the title track) to merit a Canadian tour. In 1984, the group released a follow-up album in Canada (Katrina and the Waves 2), with Leskanich now handling all the lead vocals. Rew was still the primary songwriter, but de la Cruz was also responsible for a few songs, including the Canadian airplay hit "Mexico".
Also in 1984, their song “Going Down to Liverpool” was covered by the Bangles, which added to their profile. With the group building a fan base with their recordings and extensive touring, major label interest began to build, and Katrina and the Waves eventually signed an international deal with Capitol Records in 1985.
[edit] "Walking On Sunshine" and international success (1985-1989)
For the first Capitol album, the band re-recorded, remixed, or overdubbed 10 songs from their earlier Canadian releases to create their self-titled international 'debut' album in 1985.
The Katrina and the Waves album was a substantial critical and commercial success, and the group had a worldwide hit with the song "Walking on Sunshine" (a completely re-recorded, and substantially rearranged version of the song when compared to its initial 1983 Canada-only release). A Grammy award nominee for "Best New Artist" followed, as did constant touring, both of which helped to spur moderate sales of new releases.
A follow-up single to "Walking on Sunshine" called "Do You Want Crying" (written by de la Cruz) also became a top 40 US hit.
However, the band's follow-up album to Katrina and the Waves (simply entitled Waves) didn't meet with the same measure of success, either critically or commercially. Rew wrote only two of the ten songs on the LP; de la Cruz and Leskanich each wrote four. Drummer Cooper, interviewed some years later, claimed "It was (a) mistake when we started taking over from Kimberley in the musical contribution side. The second Capitol album was awful...".
The album did spin off a minor UK and US hit in the form of the Rew-penned "Is That It?" (#70 US, #82 UK), and "Sun Street" (a de la Cruz composition) was a UK Top 30 hit in 1986. However, Capitol dropped the band after the Waves album didn't perform to expectations.
The band subsequently recorded a 1989 album for SBK Records called Break of Hearts, a harder, more rock-oriented effort than their previous releases. The album included a US top 40 single in "That's The Way" (credited to Leskanich/Rew), but subsequent singles, including the infectious "Rock'n'Roll Girl", failed to chart, and the band once again was dropped from their label.
[edit] Downturn and surprise comeback (1990-1997)
Throughout the nineties, Katrina and the Waves recorded fairly steadily, though most releases were available only in continental Europe and/or Canada, and they issued no charting singles.
By the late nineties, however, the band had all but disappeared -- until they surprisingly (if briefly) surged back into the limelight by winning the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom on 3 May 1997 with the song "Love Shine A Light". Reacting to the win, Katrina said it was the second landslide victory in a week; the song won by a record points margin, and Tony Blair had won the 1997 British general election two days previously.
"Love Shine A Light" would up becoming the Katrina and the Waves' biggest-ever UK hit, peaking at #3.
[edit] Dissolution and aftermath
Despite their return to the public eye in the UK, Katrina and the Waves were not able to follow up "Love Shine A Light" with another hit, and Katrina Leskanich left the band in 1999. Though attempts were made to find a new "Katrina" to front the group, the remaining Waves eventually dissolved the band to pursue individual careers.
Six years after the original band split up, Katrina formed a new group in an attempt to repeat the Waves' Eurovision triumph, this time in Sweden. At the 2005 Melodifestivalen (the competition to select Sweden's Eurovision entry) the group failed to qualify directly from the fourth semi-final of the competition, and were eventually eliminated in a 'second-chance semi'. Having planned to call themselves "Katrina and the New Wave", they dubbed themselves "Katrina and the Nameless" after legal objections from the original Waves.
[edit] Hurricane "Katrina"
In 2005, the storm surge of a storm named Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast, including the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The MSNBC news program Countdown with Keith Olbermann dubbed its coverage of the hurricane "Katrina and the Waves", referring to the storm itself and its storm surge, and that name also appeared in numerous headlines and blog posts. As the Waves lead singer Katrina Leskanich now shares her name with the devastation, she was quoted in the New York Times as saying the following:
- "The first time I opened the paper and saw 'Katrina kills 9,' it was a bit of a shock. It's a very sad situation, but I'm sure the strength and good will of the survivors will turn it around. I hope that the true spirit of 'Walking on Sunshine' will prevail. I would hate for the title to be tinged with sadness, and I will have to do my own part to help turn that around."
[edit] Members
- Katrina Leskanich - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Kimberley Rew - lead guitar
- Alex Cooper - drums
- Vince de la Cruz - bass
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Shock Horror (1983) (as The Waves)
- Walking on Sunshine (1983) (Canadian release only)
- Katrina and the Waves 2 (1984) (Canadian release only)
- Katrina and the Waves (1985) #28 UK
- Waves (1986) #25 US
- Break of Hearts (1989) #122 US*
- Pet The Tiger (1991) (German release only)
- Edge of the Land (1993) (German release only)
- Turnaround (1994) (German release only)
- Walk on Water (1997)
[edit] Compilation albums
- Roses (1995) (Canadian release only -- compiles tracks from Edge of the Land and Turnaround)
- Katrina and the Waves / Waves (1996)
- Walking on Sunshine - Greatest Hits (1997)
- The Original Recordings - 1983-1984 (2003)
[edit] Singles
- "Nightmare" (1982) (as The Waves)
- "Brown Eyed Son" (1982) (as The Waves)
- "Que Te Querio" (1983)
- "Plastic Man" (1984)
- "Que Te Queiro" (re-recording) (1984) #84 UK, #71 US
- "Walking on Sunshine" (1985) #8 UK, #9 US, #4 AUS
- "Do You Want Crying" (1985) #96 UK, #37 US
- "Is That It" (1986) #82 UK, #70 US
- "Sun Street" (1986) #22 UK
- "That's The Way" (1989) #84 UK, #16 US
- "Rock 'N' Roll Girl" (1989) #93 UK
- "Walking on Sunshine" (re-issue) (1996) #53 UK
- "Love Shine a Light" (1997) #3 UK
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Eimear Quinn |
Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 |
Succeeded by Dana International |
| Preceded by Gina G |
UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 |
Succeeded by Imaani |
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| 1950s | Lys Assia • Corry Brokken • André Claveau • Teddy Scholten |
| 1960s | Jacqueline Boyer • Jean-Claude Pascal • Isabelle Aubret • Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann • Gigliola Cinquetti • France Gall • Udo Jürgens • Sandie Shaw • Massiel • Frida Boccara • Lenny Kuhr • Lulu • Salomé |
| 1970s | Dana • Séverine • Vicky Leandros • Anne-Marie David • ABBA • Teach-In • Brotherhood of Man • Marie Myriam • Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta • Gali Atari & Milk and Honey |
| 1980s | Johnny Logan • Bucks Fizz • Nicole • Corinne Hermès • Herreys • Bobbysocks • Sandra Kim • Johnny Logan • Celine Dion • Riva |
| 1990s | Toto Cutugno • Carola • Linda Martin • Niamh Kavanagh • Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan • Secret Garden • Eimear Quinn • Katrina and the Waves • Dana International • Charlotte Nilsson |
| 2000s | Olsen Brothers • Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL • Marie N • Sertab Erener • Ruslana • Elena Paparizou • Lordi |
