Captain are an

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band from London, England, who formed in 2004. Influenced by groups such as

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chambe ...

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

, My Bloody Valentine and

The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...

, their music has also been compared by critics to

Prefab Sprout Prefab Sprout are an English pop music, pop band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham who rose to fame during the 1980s. Formed in 1978 by brothers Paddy McAloon, Paddy and Martin McAloon and joined by vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Wend ...

The Beautiful South The Beautiful South were an English pop rock group formed in 1988 by Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, two former members of the Hull group The Housemartins, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members throughout the band's exi ...

and

Deacon Blue Deacon Blue are a Scottish pop rock band formed in Glasgow during 1985. The line-up of the band consists of vocalists Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime and drummer Dougie Vipond. The band released their debut al ...

. The band initially signed a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with At Large Records and released their debut single "Frontline" with that

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed d ...

in December 2005. Soon after, the group signed to

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

and achieved minor success in 2006 with their

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

"Broke" and "Glorious", which reached numbers 34 and 30 on 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 ...

respectively. Their

Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

debut album, ''

This Is Hazelville ''This Is Hazelville'' is the debut album of the English rock group Captain, produced by Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best ...

'', was released on 14 August 2006 and reached number 23 on 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 ...

. On 5 May 2008, Captain released "Keep an Open Mind" as the lead single from their forthcoming second album, ''Distraction'', which had a tentative release date of July 2008. But before it could be released, the band were dropped by EMI (along with many other acts on its roster) as a part of a restructuring plan following the company's purchase by the private equity firm, Terrafirma. Captain never split up, but chose to work on other projects to keep their enthusiasm for music. Singer/guitarist Rik Flynn and drummer Reuben Humphries formed a new band called More Diamonds, while

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

Alex Yeoman and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical ins ...

/singer Clare Szembek went on to form the group Misdirectors. The band have discussed making a new record for some time but never had the opportunity due to many differing work commitments. They planned to release a second album in 2012. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Captain recorded some tracks at Half-Ton Studios in Cambridge. In March 2014, Captain posted some videos of new songs (including a cover of The Lotus Eaters' 'The First Picture of You') on their Facebook page. Lead guitarist Mario Athanasiou died in early 2016. Captain returned in 2017, releasing the album For Irini, and remained active on Facebook. As of June 2022, they claimed to be working on new music.

Members

* Rik Flynn -

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of th ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guita ...

* Clare Szembek -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Alex Yeoman -

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 s ...

* Reuben "Reu" Humphries -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

* Seb Wesson -

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the feature ...

Former members

* Mario Athanasiou -

Discography

Albums

*''

'' (UK #23) *''Distraction'' (no official release, although promo copies do exist) *''For Irini''

Singles

*"Frontline" (released on At Large Records) *"Broke" (UK #34) *"Glorious" (UK #30) *"Frontline" (UK #62) *"Keep an Open Mind" (UK #53)

References

External links

ComfortComes interview with Captain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Musical groups from London