Breathe

Breathe were a London based group formed in the early 1980s.

Career

Originally a larger, five-person band called Catch 22, all the members were actually childhood friends who went to Yateley School together in Hampshire where they lived. They later trimmed down to a quartet. In 1984 singer David Glasper, guitarist Marcus Lillington, drummer Ian "Spike" Spice, and bass guitarist Michael "Mick" Delahunty began working on some demos. Those tunes were introduced to personnel from the label Siren Records, and that lead to a recording contract with A&M Records. They recorded the album, All That Jazz, in 1987. This contained their two best-known hits, "How Can I Fall?" and "Hands to Heaven". The former charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #3, and the latter at #2 in 1988 and at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. "Hands" also ranked inside Billboard's 1988 Year-End Top 10 at #9.

Bassist Michael Delahunty left the group in 1988 as they were about to reach the peak of their success, and the remaining three continued with promotion for the All That Jazz album and singles. After this, they continued in this line-up with the lesser known Peace of Mind in early 1990.

Their sound was a combination of light jazz with some pop and soul, somewhat reminiscent of Air Supply or even Rick Astley. However, their success was short-lived. They failed to make the charts with any hit singles from their second album Peace of Mind, and sales were practically non-existent. This was in spite of the fact that many radio stations did play some tracks from the second release. By 1990 they had disbanded with a general disinterest by any major record label to continue to promote them.

According to Breathe's now-defunct homepage, drummer Ian Spice died sometime in 2000, although no specific information was given about the cause of his death.

After years of silence, David Glasper returned to singing in the 21st century. Although he has yet to make a formal return, a MySpace account has been set up with two demos.

Personnel

David Glasper (vocals) - born 4 January 1965, Cardigan, Mid Wales.
Marcus Lillington (guitars, keyboards) - born 28 February 1967, London. Now works at web design firm, Headscape, and co-hosts web design podcast, Boagworld.com. He plays guitar and sings in the band Stroke the Toad.
Spike (drums) - born Ian Spice, 18 September 1966 - died 2000. Born with six fingers on one hand; extra finger removed at birth.
Michael Delahunty (bass) - band member 1984-1989.
Steve Price-Wardley (keyboards) - born in Trinidad and educated at Charterhouse. Later formed a indie record label with Will Crichton-Stuart.

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathe