The 4 of Us are a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band from

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland.(24 January 2003)
The 4 of Us to play Dublin in March
'' RTÉ.ie''(5 April 2003)
Just the Four of Us
''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Of the four founding members, only brothers Brendan and Declan Murphy have remained continuously part of the group; the occupants of the other positions have varied.

History

The 4 of Us released their first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, ''Songs for the Tempted'' on CBS Records in 1989, with the single "Mary", becoming one of the most played songs on Irish radio that year. Consequently, the album went

double platinum Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music Sound recording and reproduction, recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video ...

in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

and won Best Album of the Year at the Irish Music Awards, defeating the internationally known act U2. The album ''Man Alive'' followed on

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

in 1992, and saw the group enter the UK charts for the first time, with the album entering the chart at No. 64, and the single, "She Hits Me" spending four weeks on the chart peaking at No. 35.(13 March 1993)
Hits of the UK
''

'' (listing "She Hits Me" debuting at #35 on UK chart) The band then lost momentum, scrapping the release of ''Amplifier'', their proposed third album but released two singles, "Change (Amplifier Version)" and "Someone's Got to Lose" in 1997. They did not separate however, and eventually returned to recording albums, releasing the largely acoustic-based ''Classified Personal'' on the FUTURE INC. label in 1999.(9 October 2007)
'We can't wait to get back there'
''

Derry Journal The ''Derry Journal'' is a newspaper based in Derry, Northern Ireland, serving Derry as well as County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. It is operated by National World. The paper is published on Tuesday and Friday and is a sister paper of ...

2000s

''Off the Record'', an album of re-recordings of the band's best known songs appeared on

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

in 2000 and included the previously unreleased songs "The Girl Next Door" and "She's So Real". In 2003, the single "Sunlight", which would appear on the 2004 album ''Heaven and Earth'', began to receive

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

and was voted fourth in a poll to find the 'best Irish single ever', conducted by the national

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

Today FM Today FM is an Irish commercial FM radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio Ireland Limited. Broadcasting since 17 March 1997, it broadcasts mostly music, with a daily news and current affairs programme. Today FM holds a licen ...

. In November 2006, the band released the album ''Fingerprints'' and followed this with a live album, ''Live at Vicar Street'' in 2009. Throughout 2010/2011 via their Facebook page, the band previewed exclusive content, including previously unreleased tracks "The Way the River Flows" and "I Guess I Wasn't Made for These Times" which was made available as a free download single for a limited period. On 21 October 2011, Brendan confirmed via '' The Gerry Anderson Show'' on

BBC Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster is a Northern Ireland, Northern Irish national radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. Acc ...

, that a brand new studio album is in progress and scheduled for release in 2012. He also mentioned the possibility of a 'Best Of...' compilation in the very near future. Declan announced on 5 December 2011 via Facebook that the previously unavailable third album ''Amplifier'' would be released as a free download on the band'
official website
On 14 August 2013, the first track "Seventy-Three" from the new album ''Sugar Island'' was premiered on the band's The4OfUsMurphyMusic YouTube channel. This was followed up on 10 September with "Hell to Pay". On 25 March 2015, "Birds Eye View" was premiered before getting its mastered radio release on 8 April.

Solo work

In 2010, Brendan Murphy released his first solo album ''Walk with Me'' with brother Declan playing on several tracks. Via Brendan's Facebook, the non-album song "She Comes at Night" was made available as a limited free download single in May 2011 and, due to popular demand, again in November 2011. Also via Brendan Murphy's Facebook page, two demos of "Shadow on the Sun" and "Raise the Dead Man", co-written with string arranger Kevin Malpass, were previewed.

Recognition

*''Man Alive'' was listed at one of ''Q'' magazine's Top 50 albums of 1992. *In 2009, the band were voted No. 7 in the Top Irish Bands Ever category along with U2 and

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...

on Irish television's TV3.

Discography

Albums

* ''Songs for the Tempted'' ,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

(1989) * ''Man Alive'' ,

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

(1992, re-released Feb 1993) - UK #64 * ''Classified Personal'' , Future Inc (1999) * ''Off the Record'' ,

(2000) * ''Heaven and Earth'' , Future Inc. (2004) * ''Fingerprints'' , Future Inc./

(2006) * ''Live at Vicar Street'' , Future Inc (2009) * ''Walk with Me'' , Brendan Murphy solo , Future Inc (2010) * ''Amplifier'' , Future Inc (2011) - free download via official website * ''Sugar Island'' , Future Inc (Sept 2015) * Crescent Nights , Future Inc (Oct 2024)

Singles

* "I Just Can't Get Enough" (January 1989, IRE #18, UK # 121) * "Drag My Bad Name Down" (March 1989, UK #131) * "Mary" (June 1989, IRE #9, UK #109) * "Washington Down" / "Possessed" (November 1989, IRE #9) * "Drag My Bad Name Down (remix)" (March 1990, IRE #6, UK #79, US #77, US Cash Box #55) * "Mary (Remix)" (May 1990, IRE #9, UK #104) * "Baby Jesus" (October 1991, IRE #3) * "Man Alive" (September 1992) * "She Hits Me" (February 1993, IRE #16, UK #35) * "I Miss You" (March 1993, UK #62) * "Change" (''Amplifier'' version) (March 1997, IRE #23) * "Turn On" (unreleased ''Amplifier'' single, 1997) * "Someone's Got to Lose" (September 1997, IRE #30) * "Maybe It's You" (April 1999, IRE #12) * "Change (Classified Personal Version)" (July 1999) * "Volatile" (February 2000) * "Mary (Super AD Remix)" (August 2000, IRE #29) * "Sunlight" (October 2002) * "Voice on the Radio" (April 2003) * "U Make Me Feel" (July 2003) * "What's to Come" (September 2006) * "Blue" (November 2006) * "Wildflower" (January 2007) * " Sound of the Underground" - cover version, available on '' Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 1'' (2007) * "I Guess I Wasn't Made for These Times" - limited edition free download single (May 2011) * "She Comes at Night" , Brendan Murphy solo - limited non-album free download (May / Nov 2011) * "Birds Eye View" (April 2015 )

References

External links

The 4 of Us official website

The 4 of Us Facebook

Brendan Murphy official website

Brendan Murphy Facebook

The4OfUsTV YouTube

Official "Mary" video
*

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Review of ''Fingerprints''
in ''

Hot Press ''Hot Press'' is a monthly music and politics magazine based in Dublin, Ireland, founded in June 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. History ''Hot Press'' was founded in June 1977 by Niall Stokes, who cont ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:4 of Us, The Rock music groups from Northern Ireland Musical groups established in 1988 1988 establishments in Northern Ireland