Underworld | |
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Underworld live at Alexandra Palace in 2017 (Left to right: Rick Smith and Karl Hyde)
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Background information | |
Also known as | Lemon Interupt, Mr. and Mrs. Christmas |
Origin | Romford, Greater London, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 1980–present |
Labels |
Cooking Vinyl, Om Records, Junior Boy's Own, V2, Wax Trax!, Sire, Warner Bros. underworldlive.com, Traffic, Different Recordings |
Associated acts | The Screen Gemz, Freur, Steppin' Razor |
Website | underworldlive.com |
Members |
Karl Hyde Rick Smith |
Past members | Gary Bond Steve Irwin Stuart Keeling Bryn Burrows Alfie Thomas John Warwicker Baz Allen Pascal Consoli Darren Emerson |
Underworld are a British electronic group formed in 1980 in Cardiff and the principal name under which musicians Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together. Darren Price has toured with the band since 2005, after the departure of Darren Emerson in 2000. Known for visual style and dynamic live performances, Underworld have influenced a wide range of artists and been featured in soundtracks and scores for films, television and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Hyde and Smith began their musical partnership in Cardiff in 1979 with the Kraftwerk and reggae-inspired sounds of The Screen Gemz. They were joined by The Screen Gemz' bass player Alfie Thomas, drummer Bryn Burrows, and keyboardist John Warwicker in forming a proto-electroclash/new wave band whose name was a graphic squiggle, which was subsequently given the pronunciation Freur. The band signed to CBS Records, released 1983's Doot-Doot, and disbanded in 1986 after followup Get Us out of Here was withheld.
In 1987, Hyde, Smith, Thomas, Burrows and bass player Baz Allen formed a band under the name Underworld (named after a Clive Barker-scripted film which was scored by Freur), which tried a more guitar-orientated funky electropop sound. The band signed to Sire Records and released the album Underneath the Radar in 1988 and, following the departure of Burrows, the album Change the Weather in 1989. This version of the band disbanded in 1990 and is supposedly regarded as a separate entity by the band's members to the one which would go on to release dubnobasswithmyheadman (this album is therefore frequently referred to as being a debut). The Underworld of the Underneath the Radar and Change the Weather period is sometimes also referred to as being "Underworld Mk1".