The Lads
| The Lads | |
|---|---|
| Origin | New Zealand |
| Genres |
Pop Christian rock |
| Years active | 1993-present |
| Associated acts | Phil Joel |
| Website | theladsband.com |
| Members | Steve King Mark Millard |
| Past members | Paul Cotton Bennett Knowles Chris White Matt Chapman Kristian Bennett Bjorn Bennett Tim Smith |
The Lads are a New Zealand Christian rock/pop group that was formed in 1993. In early 2005 the band moved from New Zealand to Nashville, Tennessee.
The Lads are an American-based New Zealand band that has been active since the late 1990s. The band has played at many church services, youth events, camps and high schools around Australia and New Zealand. Before moving to America, The Lads were a popular act at Parachute Music Festival and performed at each festival, except for 2006, up until 2007. In August 2010, The Lads confirmed via Facebook that they would return to New Zealand for Parachute 2011. It would be their first New Zealand concert in four years. In addition to live tours across the United States, the Lads also produce a TV show which is shown on TV stations around the world.
The show uses the band's humour to teach kids about certain principles, and episodes are based around action taking place in the band's HQ and their hangout, Murray's Milk Bar. At the end of each show, Murray offers a monologue about that week's episode, followed by a live performance by the band.
The founding members of The Lads are: Mark Millard (vocals/trombone/saxophone/drums), Steve King (drums/vocals), Chris White (keyboards/trumpet/vocals), Bennett "Ben" Knowles (bass/vocals) and Paul Cotton (guitar/vocals). The founding members were friends as children, growing up together at the same church - Wellington South Salvation Army - in Wellington, New Zealand. All of the founding members except Paul were born and raised in New Zealand. Paul was born in Canada but moved with his family to New Zealand at the age of 12. As such, he speaks with a Canadian accent. He is also the older brother of TrueBliss singer Joe Cotton.
The band members started out writing songs for fun and became known as "Lads." This quickly changed with the success of their second album, Arbor Day. The Lads had a string of number one hits on Christian radio in Australia and New Zealand, and were invited to headline all of the major Christian festivals throughout New Zealand and Australia. During these early performances, the band had no dedicated lead vocalist. Instead, all members except Paul shared the job. Mark became the primary lead vocalist by the time Lost @ Sea was released. Chris and Ben covered lead vocals occasionally. Most notably, Ben sings the song "Understand" from the Lost @ Sea album - a song which gained huge radio airplay in New Zealand and was later featured on TV show Dawson's Creek. The song "Alone" was also featured.
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