Belinda Kimberly "Lindy" Layton (born 7 December 1970) is an English singer. She was a founding member of and vocalist for

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

band

Beats International Beats International were a British dance music band and hip-hop collective, formed in the late 1980s by Norman Cook (later in his career known as Fatboy Slim) based in Brighton, East Sussex, England, after his departure from the Housemartins. ...

. She has released a number of solo albums and singles and worked with other musicians, more recently including Hardknox and

Dub Pistols Dub Pistols are an English electronic music band founded in 1996 by Barry Ashworth and Jason O'Bryan. Career The band's first singles were "There's Gonna Be a Riot" and "Best Got Better" in 1998. Their first album, '' Point Blank'', came ou ...

Career

Layton attended the Barbara Speake Stage School in the 1980s and appeared as an actor in TV shows such as ''

Casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

'' and ''

Press Gang Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is a type of conscription of people into a military force, especially a naval force, via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"). European nav ...

'' (though many people have mistaken the latter for an appearance in ''

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

'' on BBC One, getting Layton mixed up with the actress Lindy Brill, who had also played a character called Cathy (Hargreaves)). In the early 1990s, Layton was part of Norman Cook's dance music collective

, which featured her as lead vocalist on a couple of singles, including the number-one hit "

Dub Be Good to Me "Dub Be Good to Me" is a song by British dub group Beats International featuring singer Lindy Layton, released on 24 January 1990 by Go! Beat Records as the first single from their debut album, '' Let Them Eat Bingo'' (1990). It was written b ...

". Beats International's debut album, '' Let Them Eat Bingo'', sold moderately. Following the success of the singles with Beats International in 1990, Layton signed a solo deal with Arista, and released her version of

Janet Kay Janet Kay Bogle (born 17 January 1958) is an English actress and vocalist, best known for her 1979 lovers rock hit " Silly Games". Biography Janet Kay Bogle was born in Willesden, North West London. She was discovered singing impromptu at a ...

's hit " Silly Games". The single was a hit, and further releases followed from her 1991 debut album ''Pressure''. However, these decreased in popularity. ''Pressure'' was mostly produced by Norman Cook and the dance-

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

outfit Driza Bone. The album's second single, "Echo My Heart", narrowly missed a UK Top 40 placing in January 1991, while "Wait for Love" produced by Norman Cook failed to reach the UK Top 75 Singles Chart altogether, in April of that year. Layton's summer 1991 release of "Without You (One and One)" followed, again produced by Driza Bone. "Without You (One and One)" sold better than Layton's previous single, but failed to reach the Top 40. Layton released a one-off single for Debut Records in 1992. "I'll Be a Freak for You" was not a UK Top 75 chart hit. The following year, Layton re-emerged with a new deal with PWL. The new material was more commercial, and two single releases of minor chart success were released in the UK: "We Got the Love" and "Show Me". Without the expected profitable return, Layton parted company with PWL. In Japan she released a pop-reggae album, ''No Other Star'', in 1996, and went on to release other work as Hardknox with fellow DJ Steve Proctor the same year. They were signed to Skint Records and released their debut single "Coz I Can" which was given "Single of the Week" honours by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''. The group's second effort, the "Psychopath" EP, received the same recognition. After various performing remixes for artists such as

Orgy An orgy is a sex party where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex. Swingers' parties do not always conform to this designation, because at many swinger parties the sexual partners may all know each other o ...

, Crystal Method, and

Faith No More Faith No More is an American Rock music, rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before September 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/rhythm guitarist ...

, plus appearing on a various compilations and mixes, a self-titled LP was released in 1999 by

Jive Electro Jive Electro was a sublabel of the Zomba Group's Jive Records noted for releasing albums by Groove Armada, Hardknox, and Tangerine Dream as well as few remixes for the Madchester band the Stone Roses. The label was largely active between 1984 ...

. Layton guested on three tracks on the 2009 Groove Diggerz album ''Money for Good Times'': "Weirdness", "Just Be Good to Me" (a reworking of her

hit "

"), and "Body Flow", for which she also shared a writing credit. She guested with the

in May 2009, reprising "Dub Be Good to Me", at their support slot to

the Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

at the O₂ Academy Brixton. She guested again with the Dub Pistols at Rock the River 2009, a wakeboard and music festival held on the quay of World Heritage Site, Conwy. She also appeared with the Dub Pistols at the last

Glade Festival Glade Festival was an electronic dance music festival, founded by Nick Ladd and Ans Guise, which originally started out as Glastonbury Festival's Glade Stage, which was established by Luke Piper and Mark Parsons who also became founding partne ...

in 2009. Layton has also recorded with the band, appearing alongside

Rodney P Rodney Panton, also known as Rodney P (born in Balham, London, 12 December 1969) is an English MC, as well as a radio and television personality who first gained attention via the UK hip hop scene in the 1980s. A former member of UK hip-hop gro ...

on the single "I'm in Love" from their 2009 album '' Rum & Coke'' and "Rock Steady" from the 2013 LP ''Worshipping the Dollar''. In 2013, she began a daytime radio show on Kane FM with Mel Foster, ''The Mrs'', which ran for about a year. She is now a songwriter and composes with her writing partner Matt Kootchi, who owns and runs house label Good Lucky Recordings.

Singles

References

External links

* * *
Lindy Layton on Myspace
* Allmusic.com Profile for Hardknox
Pitchforkmedia.com Review of Hardknox Debut LP

GrooveDiggerz page on Breakin Even Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Layton, Lindy 1970 births Living people English dance musicians Singers from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham People from Hammersmith English electronic musicians 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers English women in electronic music