Luke Michael Haines (born 7 October 1967) is an English musician, songwriter and author. He has recorded music under various names and with various bands, including

The Auteurs The Auteurs were a British alternative rock band of the 1990s, and a vehicle for songwriter Luke Haines (guitar, piano and vocals). Several bands influenced by the Auteurs have taken their names from the band's songs. The Polish band Lenny V ...

, Baader Meinhof and

Black Box Recorder Black Box Recorder were an English indie rock band. They debuted in 1998 with '' England Made Me'' and followed this up with '' The Facts of Life'', which gave them their first hit with the single of the same name in April 2000. Their third ...

Career

''New Wave''

Haines formed numerous bands when he was at school. At college he joined

The Servants The Servants were an indie band formed in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England by singer-songwriter David Westlake. The band was the original home of Luke Haines. The band’s '' Small Time'' album was well received on its 2012 release, more th ...

who recorded two commercially unsuccessful albums. It was only when Haines formed

with Glenn Collins and girlfriend Alice Readman, who had also been drafted into The Servants on occasion, in 1991, that he began to achieve some success. Regular gigging in London and an ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''-sponsored gig brought them to the attention of

Hut Records VC Recordings trading as Hut Records was a British record label brand which was started in 1990 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Records. Despite being wholly owned by a major label, it was classed as an independent label for the purposes ...

. They released their first single, "Showgirl" in 1993, and their debut album '' New Wave'' a month later. Haines claimed the album started

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

, though he later showed disdain towards the movement. The album sold only 12,000 copies but was nominated for a

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

, although the eventual winners were

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was firs ...

Brush with fame

Their second album, ''Now I'm a Cowboy'', (1994) featured "Lenny Valentino", which became one of their best-known songs. Soon after, Haines broke both of his ankles, resulting in the cancellation of much of their 1994 European tour. At the time he claimed "I jumped off a fifteen-foot wall ..o finish the tour and get the insurance" but later, in the sleeve notes to greatest hits collection '' Das Capital'', he denied that it was deliberate, writing "I merely drank too much wine and fell over." Confined to a wheelchair for most of 1995, Haines began writing the Auteurs' third album, ''After Murder Park''. Bleaker and more introspective than previous albums, it was produced by

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

and recorded at

Abbey Road studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

in North London.

New projects

The Auteurs recorded a session for

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

on 20 February 1996. Soon after, Haines formed solo side project called

Baader-Meinhof The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "#Name, Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German Far-left politics, far-left Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist Urb ...

named after the German far-left terrorist group. The Auteurs briefly disbanded, only to reunite them back together again for their fourth album ''How I Learned to Love the Bootboys''.

Black Box Recorder

Following the release of what turned out to be the final Auteurs record, Haines formed

with John Moore (formerly of

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they re ...

) and Sarah Nixey. The band produced three commercially successful albums, ''England Made Me'', ''The Facts of Life'', and ''Passionoia''. There is also a B-sides collection, ''The Worst of Black Box Recorder''. ''The Facts of Life'' produced the eponymous single, which has been the biggest hit of Haines' career so far. Although no official split announcement was made, the band have been on hiatus since the mid-2000s.

Going solo

In 2000 Haines wrote the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for '' Christie Malry's Own Double Entry'', a film adaptation of the

B. S. Johnson Bryan Stanley William Johnson (5 February 1933 – 13 November 1973) was an English experimental novelist, poet and literary critic. He also produced television programmes and made films. Early life Johnson was born into a working-class family, ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

. Director Paul Tickell had originally expressed a wish to license ''How I Learned to Love the Bootboys'' as the soundtrack for the film but couldn't afford the rights. In the same year Haines released ''The Oliver Twist Manifesto'', a solo album released under his own name. Soon after the sale of Virgin Records to French company

Fnac Fnac () is a large French retail chain selling cultural and electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. Its head office is in ''Le Flavia'' in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris. It is an abbreviation of Fédération Nationale d ...

, David Boyd of

(owned by Virgin) enlisted Haines to release an Auteurs

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

collection, giving the band the opportunity to re-record the songs as they saw fit. ''Das Capital: The Song Writing Genius of Luke Haines'' therefore consisted mostly of new versions of Auteurs songs with the inclusion of a string quartet, with some new tracks. A box set covering his career to date, ''Luke Haines is Dead,'' was issued in 2005, and two new albums were expected in 2006, including the soundtrack to the abandoned musical ''Property'', which also features Sarah Nixey. It remains unreleased.

Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as well ...

released a ''Best of The Servants'' compilation, with sleeve notes by Haines, the same year. '' Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop'' was released in October 2006. Haines worked with pop producer

Richard X Richard Philips, better known by his stage name Richard X, is a British songwriter and music producer. Gaining attention as a pioneer of the bootleg craze, Richard X has earned success as a producer and remixer. He has helmed hit singles for arti ...

on some tracks. The album was preceded by a double A-sided single "Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop (

version)", backed with "I Am The Best Artist/Skinny White Girls." Haines toured the UK and Ireland in support of the album during November 2006, with John Moore guesting on bowed saw and backing vocals at some dates. Haines also played at book signings for

David Peace David Peace (born 1967) is an English writer. Best known for his UK-set novels Red Riding Quartet (1999–2002), '' GB84'' (2004), ''The Damned Utd'' (2006), and '' Red or Dead'' (2013), Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novel ...

during the promotional tour for his novel ''

The Damned United ''The Damned United'' is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling 2006 novel ''The Damned Utd'' – a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Bria ...

''. Haines and

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his car ...

, formerly of

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

, collaborated on an album, '' Beat Poetry for Survivalists'', which was released in 2020.

Black Box Recorder reformation

In December 2007,

teamed up with Art Brut to create the single ''Christmas Number One'' under the collaborative title of The Black Arts. In October 2008

appeared at a Nick Sanderson tribute concert. It was subsequently announced on Luke Haines' web site that the band would play their first headlining gig for five years at The Luminaire, Kilburn, London in February 2009.

Writing

Haines' memoir ''Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall'' was published on 1 January 2009 by William Heinemann Ltd. The book covers Haines' experiences during the

era 1991 to 1997. ''Post Everything: Outsider Rock and Roll'', his second volume of memoirs, was published in July 2011. Haines' first cookbook, ''Outsider Food and Righteous Rock 'N' Roll'', was published in 2015. In May 2009 a novel about Haines by Tim Mitchell ''Truth and Lies in Murder Park'' was published by benben press. The book includes material based on interviews with Luke, and explores the themes of his music. In issue four of the comic book ''

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phone ...

'', Haines appears as a spirit guide leading the main character through a metaphorical land representing

Documentary

A documentary on Haines by Irish director Niall McCann, called ''Art Will Save the World'', premiered at the East End film festival in Dalston on 6 July 2012. It was also shown at the Barcelona, Copenhagen and Cork film festivals. It featured interviews with

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...

, John Niven,

and

Stewart Home Kevin Llewellyn Callan (born 24 March 1962), better known as Stewart Home, is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. His novels include the non-narrative ''69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess'' (2002), an ...

along with extensive interviews with Haines.

Discography

Solo albums

* '' The Oliver Twist Manifesto'', 2001 * '' Das Capital'', 2003 *''The State Funeral of Winston Churchill (unreleased)'', 2005 (Luke Haines) * '' Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop'', 2006 * ''21st Century Man/Achtung Mutha'', 2009 * ''Outsider Music (Vols 1-50)'', 2010 * '' 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s & Early '80s'', 2011 * '' Rock and Roll Animals'', 2013 * '' New York in the '70s'', 2014 * ''Raving (Vols 1-75)'', 2015 *''Adventures In Dementia'' 2015 *''British Nuclear Bunkers'' 2015 *''Smash the System'' 2016 *''Freqs'' 2016 *''I Sometimes Dream of Glue'' 2018 * ''Setting the Dogs on the Post Punk Postman'', 2021

Soundtracks

* ''

Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry ''Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry'' (1973) is the penultimate novel by the late British avant-garde novelist B. S. Johnson. It is the metafictional account of a disaffected young man, Christie Malry, who applies the principles of double-entry b ...

'', 2001

Singles and EPs

* "Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop", 2006 * ''Leeds United'' EP, 2007 * "Love Letter To London", 2010 * "Rock N Roll Animals", 2013 * "Gene Vincent (Rock n Roll Mums and Rock n Roll Dads)", 2013 * "Lou Reed, Lou Reed", 2014 * "Caravan Man", 2015 * ''Glue E.P'' EP, 2018

Compilation

* '' Luke Haines Is Dead'', 2005 * ''Outsider/In: The Collection'', 2012 * ''Luke Haines is Alive and Well and Living in Buenos Aires (Heavy, Frenz - The Solo Anthology 2001-2017)'', 2017

Others

The Auteurs

*'' New Wave'', 1993 *''

Now I'm a Cowboy ''Now I'm a Cowboy'' is the 1994 second album by British alternative rock band The Auteurs. On 2 June 2014 ''Now I'm a Cowboy'' was reissued alongside ''After Murder Park'' and ''How I Learned to Love the Bootboys''. The reissue features unrele ...

'', 1994 *'' After Murder Park'', 1996 *'' How I Learned to Love the Bootboys'', 1999

Black Box Recorder

*'' England Made Me'', 1999 *'' The Facts of Life'', 2000 *'' The Worst of Black Box Recorder'', 2001 *''

Passionoia ''Passionoia'' is the third and final studio album by British pop band Black Box Recorder, released in 2003. Reception ''Passionoia'' was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating ...

'', 2003 *''Life is Unfair'', 2018, compilation

Baader Meinhof

*''

Baader Meinhof The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

'', 1996

Collaborations

*"Christmas Number One", 2007 (The Black Arts – collaboration between Black Box Recorder and Art Brut) *'' The North Sea Scrolls'', 2012 (Luke Haines, Cathal Coughlan, Andrew Mueller) *'' Beat Poetry for Survivalists'', 2020 (Luke Haines and Peter Buck) *'' All the Kids Are Super Bummed Out'', 2022 (Luke Haines and Peter Buck)

Bibliography

*''Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall'', 2009 (Published by William Heinemann Ltd) *''Post Everything: Outsider Rock and Roll'', 2011 (Published by William Heinemann Ltd) *''Outsider Food And Righteous Rock And Roll'', 2015

References

External links

Luke Haines's MySpace profileLuke Haines Website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060113034145/http://www.playlouder.co.uk/feature/+luke-haines-0/ 2005 Interviewbr>2003 InterviewLeeds Today article on Leeds United song Art will save the world review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haines, Luke 1967 births Living people English male singer-songwriters English male singers English rock singers People from Walton-on-Thames