''Do It Yourself'' is the only album by
the Seahorses
The Seahorses were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1996 by guitarist John Squire, following his departure from The Stone Roses.
The band released their debut album ''Do It Yourself (The Seahorses album), Do It Yourself'' in 1997, a ...
, an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band that
John Squire
Jonathan Thomas "John" Squire (born 24 November 1962)Larkin, Colin (ed.) (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave'', Virgin Books, is an English musician, songwriter and painter. He was the guitarist for The Stone Roses, a rock ba ...
, formerly guitarist in
the Stone Roses
The Stone Roses were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. One of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band's classic and most prominent lineup consisted of vocalist I ...
formed. The album's cover features a
photograph
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
of Squire's 1996 sculpture in the shape of
globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
made of
puzzle pieces and also named ''Do It Yourself''.
The album was released to mixed-to-positive reviews, but was well received by the British public. It entered the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
at #2, behind
Gary Barlow
Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He is the lead singer of the British pop group Take That.
Barlow is one of the United Kingdom's most successful songwriters, havi ...
's solo debut ''
Open Road'', and went on to gain
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
status after selling over 300,000 copies in the UK alone. The album featured three
charting UK singles: "Love Is the Law" (No. 3), "Blinded by the Sun" (No. 7), and "Love Me and Leave Me" (No. 16), the latter of which was
Liam Gallagher
William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He achieved fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis from 1991 to 2009, and later fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2009 to 2014, before starti ...
's first songwriting credit. ''
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 ...
'' readers voted The Seahorses the fourth best new act of 1997;
''Guitarist'' magazine readers voted ''Do It Yourself'' the tenth-best album of the year.
["Best of 1997". '']Guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
''. February 1998.
A short UK tour in December 1997, with support from American alternative rock band
Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1993. After years of lineup changes in the early and mid-1990s, the songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan signed the band's first major-label recor ...
, promoted the album's release, as did subsequent support slots with
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
,
U2 and
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.”
The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
.
["Ex-Seahorses Singer Chris Helme On Life With John Squire and His Solo Future"](_blank)
''live4ever''. 6 Jan, 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2012. Ongoing recording sessions, which yielded the 1997 single "You Can Talk to Me" (UK #15,
US Modern Rock Tracks #30), were aborted in January 1999, and the band split soon after, without completing the planned follow-up to ''Do It Yourself''.
Track listing
All songs composed by John Squire unless otherwise noted.
# "I Want You to Know" – 4:52 (
Chris Helme
Christopher Alan Helme (born 22 July 1971 in Howden, Yorkshire) is an English singer-songwriter, formerly the frontman of John Squire's post-Stone Roses band The Seahorses.
History
Early days (1990–1996)
Helme began singing and performing a ...
,
Stuart Fletcher)
# "Blinded by the Sun" – 4:39 (Helme)
# "Suicide Drive" – 3:31
# "Boy in the Picture" – 2:54
# "
Love Is the Law" – 7:43
# "Happiness is Egg-Shaped" – 3:45
# "Love Me and Leave Me" – 3:55 (Squire,
Liam Gallagher
William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He achieved fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis from 1991 to 2009, and later fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2009 to 2014, before starti ...
)
# "Round the Universe" – 3:45
# "1999" – 3:25
# "Standing on Your Head" – 4:39
# "Hello" – 2:22 (Helme)
Personnel
;The Seahorses
*
Chris Helme
Christopher Alan Helme (born 22 July 1971 in Howden, Yorkshire) is an English singer-songwriter, formerly the frontman of John Squire's post-Stone Roses band The Seahorses.
History
Early days (1990–1996)
Helme began singing and performing a ...
- vocals,
acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
*
John Squire
Jonathan Thomas "John" Squire (born 24 November 1962)Larkin, Colin (ed.) (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave'', Virgin Books, is an English musician, songwriter and painter. He was the guitarist for The Stone Roses, a rock ba ...
-
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
, artwork
*
Stuart Fletcher -
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
*Andy Watts -
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
, backing vocals
with:
*
Lili Haydn
Lili Haydn (born December 25, 1969) is a Canadian-born rock violinist, vocalist, actress, and composer. As a child, she pursued a career as an actress; at age eight she discovered the violin and began to focus on classical music. By the time Hay ...
-
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
;Technical
*
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...
-
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
, arrangements, conductor,
mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
,
tambura,
theremin
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
*Jeff Thomas -
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
*Rob Jacobs - recording, mixing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Singles
References
External links
''Do It Yourself''at
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
(streamed copy where licensed)
{{Authority control
1997 debut albums
Albums produced by Tony Visconti
Geffen Records albums
The Seahorses albums