Lo-Tel

Lo-Tel was a pop rock band based in Sydney, Australia. They received commercial success and are best known for their single "Teenager of the Year" in 2000. They no longer perform as Lo-Tel however Hanigan and Lumsdaine continue to produce music together.

History

Initially a trio consisting of Luke Hannigan (singer and guitarist), Dave Lumsdaine (bass) and Darren Brollo (drums), Lo-Tel were signed to Murmur Records in 1999 on the strength of a demo that reached the label through an industry veteran who saw potential in the band. Their first single, Genre Casting, was released in early 2000 on vinyl only, subsequently leading to their first commercial single Teenager of the Year. The latter became a Top 40 hit on the back of its appearance in the popular Australian film Looking For Alibrandi. They are often mistakenly credited with singing the Telstra advertisement remix of I Am Australian. The remake of this song was done by the Sydney band, The Botanics. Lo-tel's debut album Planet of the Stereos dropped in November 2000 and achieved moderate commercial success. Two further singles from the album, "A Pop Song Saved My Life" and "Crucifix", enjoyed a similar amount of airplay and publicity but were less successful. In March 2001, Luke Hannigan married his long time partner, Australian actor Pia Miranda, in Las Vegas.

After a two-year break, Lo-Tel regrouped in 2002 (with Paul Wheeler replacing Brollo), and put out their elaborate second album The Lost Thing, with artwork by Shaun Tan. Although the album track "Angel" received widespread commercial airplay, The Lost Thing failed to make the Top 50 upon release, and Lo-Tel slipped from view soon after.

Luke Hanigan continues to write music under a solo title, David Lumsdaine has had commercial success as a production music composer.

And Darren Brollo is currently the drummer of a band called Betamax, which is headed by singer/songwriter Jacob Butler of Australian Idol (2007).

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-Tel