Titus writes:
After
a lovely short break in Norfolk, and consequently a blog-free week
last week, I make no apologies for successive pieces on bands who can
only be described as “The Juggernauts” of electronic music. A couple of
weeks ago it was the mighty Underworld and this week I am concentrating
on Orbital, who I have followed since the band’s birth in 1989. As in
all band names, there’s generally a reason behind the name, and
Orbital are no exception, having taken their name from the London
Orbital Motorway, the M25, which went hand in hand with the early days
of acid house. Orbital consist of only two members – the brothers
Hartnoll – Phil and Paul, who explained that the band was, in a
nutshell, set up as “A low cost bedroom New Order / Severed Heads”.
The
first piece I remember listening to was ‘Chime’ which was apparently
recorded on the brothers’ father’s 4 track tape deck. Not a lot of
people know that this track became an anthem on the rave scene and
earned them a ‘Top of the Pops’ appearance, having reached the dizzy
heights of No. 17 in the UK Singles Chart. I made a VHS recording of
this, and noted that the brothers were wearing anti-Poll Tax tee
shirts. In 1992, the band recorded what was to be one of their most
requested tunes, ‘Halcyon’, which was dedicated to their mother, who
was sadly addicted to the tranquiliser ‘Halcion’ (Triazolam) for many
years. Versions of this song played live by the band have incorporated
‘You give love a bad name’ by Bon Jovi, ‘Heaven is a place on Earth’ by
Belinda Carlisle and ‘I believe in an thing called love’ by The
Darkness. The brothers’ popularity grew rapidly in the nineties, and
they headlined at Glastonbury in 1994, with ‘Q’ magazine classing it as
“One of the top 50 gigs of all time”.
When
I blogged about Underworld, I mentioned that they had contributed to
film scores. Orbital did exactly the same, with ‘The Saint’, ‘Event
Horizon’ and ‘Spawn’, plus in 1995 they would aid the ‘Mortal Kombat’
film in reaching Platinum selling status, with a remix of ‘Halcyon’.
After more success as the new Millennium dawned, the band later split
up in 2004, after recording seven albums and making another Glastonbury
appearance. They were very much liked by John Peel and recorded 2
sessions for his programme, in 1993 & 2004. In November 2008, the
brothers announced that they were re-forming to play a gig called “20
years after Chime” at The Big Chill Festival of 2009. At the
Glastonbury Festival of 2010, the eleventh Doctor Who, Matt Smith,
joined Orbital on stage for their cover of the Doctor Who theme tune.
The brothers Hartnoll appeared at the Opening Ceremony of the London
Paralympics in 2012, performing “Where is it going?”, after which the
late Professor Stephen Hawking joined them on stage, delivering a
speech on the Large Hadron Collider.
In
2014 there was a second break up of the band, who announced that they
were “hanging up their iconic torch glasses and parting ways for the
final time”. Phil then focused on DJ’ing, whilst Paul worked with Vince
Clarke of Erasure, and also did soundtrack work for ‘Peaky Blinders’
and ‘American Ultra’. I know you can sense that there is a second
reunion coming, dear reader, and you are quite right. In 2017 the band
reunited and in 2018 released their ‘Monsters Exist’ album, with
Professor Brian Cox featuring on the final track. In 2022 the duo
composed and recorded the soundtrack for the Netflix series ‘The
Pentavaerate’, and in 2024 again appeared at Glastonbury, featuring
special guests Tilda Swinton (vocals on Deeper) and Mel C (vocals on
Spicy). Throughout the band’s career they have contributed
socio-political messages. Paul Hartnoll summarised these by saying “
The Earth is still burning, and even today isn’t fixed. Governments are
still fucking idiots. I’m not saying I could do any better, but they
could. With our music we’re saying “Go on then, sort it out!”
I am asking Lex to play is ‘Ringa Ringa (The old pandemic folk song)’ from the 2024 album ‘Optical Delusions’.