Love City Groove
| Love City Groove | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Manchester, England |
| Genres | Pop, R&B |
| Labels | Sony Music |
| Past members | Paul Hardy Steven Rudden Tatsiana Mais Jay Williams Yinka Charles a.k.a. Reason |
Love City Groove represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, with their self-titled song after being the runaway winner in a public vote. The song finished tenth with 76 points; and peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart.
Love City Groove were formed by the producer and songwriter, Stephen 'Beanz' Rudden - who at the time was a staff writer at Warner Chappell publishing company. Rudden had worked with fellow Warner Chappell writer Tatiana Mais also known as 'Q-Tee', producing one of her songs and requested that she rap over a song he had written, called "Sentence of Love". Q-Tee believing that a male rapper was also needed, arrived at the studio with Jay Williams - a student at the BRIT School For Performing Arts & Technology. Rudden had written the song at his West Hempstead studio in December 1993 where he had met Paul Hardy, who later sang the chorus, 'In the morning, when the sun shines'. In February 1994, Rudden took the rap parts and mixed them in with the new chorus track sung by Hardy. He presented the song to his A&R rep, Dave Ambrose at Planet 3 Records, which was to be released later that year. However, Jonathan King heard it at BBC and requested that the song be submitted for 'A Song for Europe' in 1995. The final line up of the band consisted of Stephen Rudden, Jay Williams, Yinka Charles (a.k.a. 'Reason') and Paul Hardy.
Despite the success of their Eurovision entry which went on to sell over 200,000 copies in the UK, they had trouble repeating the trick. The follow-up "Soft Spot" missed out on the UK Singles Chart. This was followed by "J.U.M.P" which likewise did not enter the official UK listing. Their debut album Hard Times received a limited release, and sold in small quantities. The group then split from their record label, Planet 3. The band returned a year later with a cover of the track "I Found Lovin'". With several line up changes, but not much success, the group finally split up for good.
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