Phixx were an English-Irish

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

formed in 2003 from the five runners up on British TV show '' Popstars: The Rivals''. The original members were Andrew Kinlochan, Chris Park, Mikey Green, Peter Smith, and Nikk Mager. Between 2003 and 2005, they achieved four top 20 singles in the UK. They broke up in 2006.

Band history

In February 2003, they signed to Hyperactive Management, who had previously been successful with Liberty X. In October 2003, they released their first single, " Hold on Me", on the Concept Records label, which charted at number 10 in the UK, selling over 60,000 copies. March 2004 saw the release of their second single, "Love Revolution". This sold over 50,000 copies and charted at number 13. The videos and dance routines for their first two singles aroused media attention for their content, as they often featured the band topless or naked, often in sexually suggestive and aggressive situations with other men. The third single, released in June 2004, was a cover of

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

's " Wild Boys". During the release week, one version of the single was disqualified from the chart for being a few seconds too long, so the single dropped from the midweek chart position of 9, to number 23; however, an appeal was made to the chart regulators and both versions were eventually counted, giving a final position of number 12. The single sold over 65,000 copies. Just after the release of "Wild Boys", Peter Smith announced he was leaving to pursue a solo career and to give him more time to write music. In autumn 2004, Phixx toured

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, where they were already popular. They released their debut album, ''Electrophonic Revolution'', there and it became the best-selling album for their South African record company Sheer Music. The band co-wrote some of the songs for the album with Lee Ryan from

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

, Brian McFadden (formerly of

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

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Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

, and Theo from Liberty X. All the tracks were produced by

John McLaughlin John or Jon McLaughlin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John McLaughlin (musician) (born 1942), English jazz fusion guitarist, member of Mahavishnu Orchestra * Jon McLaughlin (musician) (born 1982), American singer-songwriter * John McLaugh ...

, who had previously worked with Busted. In December 2004, the band recorded a Christmas song written by

Matt Baker Matthew James Baker (born 23 December 1977) is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show ''Blue Peter'' from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's ''Countryfile'' since 2009 and ''The One Show'' from 2011 to 2020, wit ...

for the children's show ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

''. This song was available as a free download from the Blue Peter website in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but was never released for sale. In January 2005, they released their fourth UK single, "Strange Love" (written by Judie Tzuke), which entered the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

at number 19. In May 2005, Nikk Mager also left the band. They continued to perform around England and Ireland as a three piece, and spent six months in the recording studio, writing and recording new material. In November 2005, Chris Park announced that the remaining members of Phixx would be breaking up for good in 2006, in order to work on their own solo projects. Band members made appearances on the music panel game, ''

Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hoste ...

''. Green appeared on the show in 2004, followed by Park a year later. Both appeared as panellists on

Phill Jupitus Phillip Christopher Jupitus (, ''né'' Swan; born 25 June 1962) is an English stand-up and improv comedian, actor, performance poet, cartoonist and podcaster. Jupitus was a team captain on all but one BBC Two-broadcast episode of music quiz ''N ...

' team. In 2006, fellow band member Mager appeared in the Identity Parade line-up, where the panellists were asked to pick out a forgotten star from a group of five. In 2008, Mager also appeared in the audition stage of '' The X Factor'', but he was eliminated after his performance of " The Rose". Phixx appeared at number 35 in Chantelle's Top 50 Reality TV Stars. Like Liberty X, who were formed from the runners up on the first series of ''Popstars'', Phixx had a much longer career than the male winners of ''Popstars: The Rivals'', One True Voice, who split up in 2003 after releasing just two singles. Phixx by contrast were active until 2006, and released several singles and an LP during their time together. In 2013, Peter Smith appeared on ''The Voice of Ireland'', but none of the coaches turned their chairs for him.

Discography

Albums

* ''

Electrophonic Revolution ''Electrophonic Revolution'' is the debut and only studio album released by English-Irish boy band Phixx, formed from the five runners-up of the ITV reality television series '' Popstars: The Rivals'' who failed to make it into the boy band One ...

'' (2004)

Singles

*" Hold on Me" (2003) - UK #10 *"Love Revolution" (2004) - UK #13 *" Wild Boys" (2004) - UK #12 *"Strange Love" (2005) - UK #19

References

External links