My Life Story are an English

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

group formed in

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, England, in 1993. The group's success peaked in the mid to late 1990s as part of the Britpop era. Fronted by singer/

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

Jake Shillingford, the group inherited their name from an earlier group in which Shillingford had appeared. A cross between a

group and a

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

, the band's sound was heavily oriented toward orchestral

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. My Life Story's fourth studio album ''World Citizen'' was released in September 2019. In 2020 Shillingford and co-writer Nick Evans were signed t
Mute Song
in a worldwide publishing deal which included rights to World Citizen as well as much of the band’s back catalogue from the Britpop era, formerly held by

Universal Music Publishing Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is a North American music publishing company and is part of the Universal Music Group. It was formerly known as MCA Music Publishing until it merged with PolyGram. Universal Music Publishing is the worl ...

History

At the time of their debut

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, "Girl A, Girl B, Boy C" (1993) produced by

Giles Martin Giles Martin (born 9 October 1969) is an English record producer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. His studio recordings, stage shows, TV and film works have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful around the world ...

, son of George, the group had a regular line-up of twelve members. Though the membership fluctuated continually, it rarely dipped into single figures until 1999, when their third

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

credited just four regular members, though most of the former line-up were still used as

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s. Their orchestral sound led them to be compared to groups such as Tindersticks and especially

The Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

. Their debut album, ''Mornington Crescent'' was released on 10 January 1995. My Life Story enjoyed the most success at the time of their second

''The Golden Mile'', which was released on 10 March 1997. It spawned five singles that entered the lower half of the

UK Top 40 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 ...

, but the group finally disbanded after a series of farewell

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

s in December 2000. On 26 May 2006 the band reformed with the full line-up of thirteen members, to play at the Mean Fiddler (LA2) on Charing Cross Road in London, in support of their forthcoming Best Of album. The gig got a review rating of 10/10 from Planet Sound. A second reunion show took place at the Astoria in London on 8 December 2006. Further reunions have taken place every two years on 13 December 2007 at the

O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire Shepherd's Bush Empire (currently known as O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the BBC Television Theatre) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, West London, run by the Academy Music Group. It was originally ...

, and Koko on 26 November 2009, where the band performed their debut album, ''Mornington Crescent'', for the first time in its entirety. In 2009, it was announced that, to mark 15 years since their debut album, the group would reform and perform the album in full, together with later songs. This concert took place at

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which is next door to Mornington Crescent tube station. My Life Story announced that they were to reunite again to perform ''The Golden Mile'' at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on 3 March 2012 to celebrate fifteen years since the album's release. In mid-2013 the group announced their first UK tour in 14 years. Singer Jake Shillingford is reported to have said: "For many years we have only been able to play a big London show due to the sheer size and scale of the band. Now I am able to take my songs out on the road with a stripped down tight rocking outfit. "I will be joined by various members of My Life Story along my journey around the UK, culminating in our traditional annual London concert with the original bunch, I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again, expect a big, bold and brash performance, all foxy horns and horny foxes." In September 2016 My Life Story released their first single in 16 years, "24 Hour Deflowerer". The launch was marked with a two-night residency at The Borderline in London on 14–15 October, with all audience members receiving a numbered limited edition 7" vinyl of the single. My Life Story performed in the Star Shaped Festival, a Britpop revival tour, alongside The Bluetones,

Space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

Dodgy Dodgy is an English rock band formed in Hounslow in 1990. The band rose to prominence during the Britpop era of the 1990s. They are best known for their hits "Staying Out for the Summer", "If You're Thinking of Me", and " Good Enough". Good ...

and

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, in July/August 2017 and again in August/September 2018 together with Echobelly, Black Grape and

The Supernaturals The Supernaturals are a five piece guitar-based indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, they signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and fo ...

. The band's current five-piece line-up features Jake Shillingford (vocals), Nick Evans (guitar), Chris Hardwick (drums), Jack Hosgood (bass) and Aimee Smith (keys). The fourth My Life Story studio album, ''World Citizen,'' was crowd-funded with pre-orders from fans and was released on 6 September 2019. Described as "the best My Life Story album ever", ''World Citizen'' received review scores of 4/5 in The Express, 85% in Hi Fi News and 7/10 in Uncut.

Other projects

The spirit of the band lived on in Shillingford's next project, ExileInside, which drew its influences from 1980s electronica, replacing the lush orchestral sounds of My Life Story with a quirky retro synth based sound. Former band members Aaron Cahill and Mal Campbell appear in the line-up, and the material is engineered by George Shilling. Shilling also produced many My Life Story tracks, including most of the ''Golden Mile'' album. ExileInside was created in 2002 thanks to a fan-funded investor model. Shillingford released an acoustic solo album in 2009 called ''Written Large'', which featured two new tracks, plus acoustic versions of My Life Story and ExileInside songs. In 2014 Shillingford formed the production music company Choppersaurus along with writing partner and multi-instrumentalist Nick Evans. Debut single "Motel 66" was released on 27 January 2017, from the album ''Herx''. Tracks "Motel 66" and "Did You Come Alone?" from the album appear in the first series of '' The Grand Tour''. The duo has also composed a trailer for '' Homeland'' Series 5 ("Dystopia") and has written toplines for "You Are Not Alone" and "Live on Dreams" by house DJ Mason. Two Choppersaurus tracks were nominated in the UK Music Production Awards 2016 – "Trouble in the Delta" for Best Rock Production Music Track and "In Limbo" for Best Trailer Production Music Track. Choppersaurus won Best Electronic Production Music Track in the 2018 UK Production Music Awards for "Blast Radius" and in the same year composed the score for US comedy horror movie ''

Blood Fest ''Blood Fest'' is a 2018 American comedy horror film written and directed by Owen Egerton and starring Robbie Kay, Seychelle Gabriel, and Jacob Batalon. Other cast members include Barbara Dunkelman, Nick Rutherford, and Tate Donovan, with a c ...

.'' In 2019 Choppersaurus track "Treasure", used in a Ponds For Men TV advertisement, won Best Use of Production Music in Online, Viral & Ambient Advertising (Ponds For Men advert) in the ''Music & Sound Awards 2019''. In 2020 "Get On Your Feet" featured in the end credits of hit

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original movie '' Dangerous Lies''. Shillingford has also presented an

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

music show on the

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based community radio station

Phoenix FM Phoenix FM is a community radio station serving the areas of Brentwood and Billericay, England on 98.0FM and online, covering an area of over 140,000 people. History The station was formed in 1996 and has been broadcasting full-time on FM since ...

. Dan Turner the band's

keyboard 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 ...

player went on to form the band MacArthur with singer Dom Chapman after the group split in 2000. He landed 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 Artist Network and recorded the Northern Soul influenced album ''MacArthur'' working with musicians such as Gary "Mudbone" Cooper ( Funkadelic) and Chris Sharrock ( The La's,

World Party World Party were a British musical group, which was essentially the solo proj