Hothouse Flowers

Hothouse Flowers
Hothouse Flowers playing at Bumbershoot 2005
Background information
Origin	Monkstown, Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Alternative rock, folk rock, Celtic rock
Years active	1985–present
Labels	London, PolyGram, Rubyworks
Associated acts	Def Leppard
Website	www.hothouseflowers.com
Members	Liam Ó Maonlaí Fiachna Ó Braonáin Dave Clarke Peter O'Toole
Past members	Leo Barnes Jerry Fehily Wayne Sheehy Rob Malone Kieron Kennedy

Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock group that combines traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel, and rock.

The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin (who had known each other as children in an Irish-speaking school, Coláiste Eoin in Booterstown, Dublin. They began performing as street musicians, also known as buskers, on the streets of Dublin as "The Incomparable Benzini Brothers". They were soon joined by Peter O'Toole and had won a street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group "Hothouse Flowers" (the name was suggested by singer Maria Doyle Kennedy during a brain-storming by band-members and friends in the Trinity College Arts Block café) and began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland.Rolling Stone magazine called them "the best-unsigned band in Europe".

In 1986, Bono from the band U2 saw the Flowers performing on television and offered his support. They released their first single, "Love Don't Work This Way", on U2's Mother Records label, which quickly led to a deal with the PolyGram subsidiary London Records.

Their first album, People, was released in May 1988 and was the most successful debut album in Irish history. It reached the #1 slot in Ireland within a week and eventually reached No. 2 in the UK Albums Chart. The first single off the album "Feet on the Ground" shot to the No. 1 slot in Ireland on 19 March 1988. The international success of the album received a boost when a music video for the first single, "Don't Go", was played in the interval between contestants and the scoring in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. This propelled the song to No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart, the highest position the band would ever achieve in this chart. In September 1988, the band appeared on the bill at the Reading Festival. In June 1989 they played at the Glastonbury Festival, and appeared there again the following year.