Artists & Bands

Sophie Ellis-Bextor tunes

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From a rock band to an Italian DJ to Murder!

With members out of several moderately successful bands (The Sundays, Porcupine, The Bridge, Congregation), London-based rock band theaudience recruited Sophie Ellis-Bextor in 1996 to write and record their only album.

Released in 1998, it was critically acclaimed, although, without a big hit, the founder Billy Reeves left. At first, the remaining members kept going, writing and demoing many more tunes before the label decided to drop them in ’99.

Having had her vocals “out there” and been voted #1 on “the sexiest people in rock” list by Melody Maker, Sophie soon heard from Welsh Manic Street Preachers, English Departure Lounge, and Italian DJ Spiller.

It was alongside Spiller that her first real success came with Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love), a tune many rank as her best. Melody Maker declared it the single of the year in 2000.

The success with Groovejet led Sophie to a new deal with Polydor, and many famous musicians and producers flocked to take part in her debut album, Read My Lips. Among them were Moby, Alex James (Bassist of Blur), Gregg Alexander (New Radicals), and, of course, Spiller.

Four singles came off the debut: Take Me Home (a Cher cover), Murder on the Dancefloor, Get Over You (Move This Mountain was also released here as a double A-side), and Music Gets The Best Of Me.

Clearly, Murder on the Dancefloor, Sophie’s signature song, was the shining light and the most successful follow-up to Groovejet.

Charting reasonably well worldwide, it was in the U.K. that the album did best with almost a million copies sold; “Murder” did 600,000.

Following the success of the debut, Sophie has released another six albums: Shoot from the Hip (2003), Trip the Light Fantastic (2007), Make a Scene (2011), Wanderlust (2014), Familia (2016), and Hana (2023).

None of the albums has had any tunes of the same calibre as Groovejet and Murder on the Dancefloor. Not that it seemed to matter; Sophie has been touring solo and supporting big acts ever since the turn of the millennium when she became a household name in the U.K.