STOP PRESS
We have finally uploaded the unreleased album from 1997 entitled 'The Mind Of The Machine' to itunes & other download sites. We recorded two new tracks, 'Free Running' & 'The Earth Is Dying' to complete the album & tried to produce the tracks in a similar style to what we recorded back in 1997.
N-Trance officially started on the 1st of Jan 1992 with the signing to 380 records in Manchester (which was a sub-label of the hugely successful PWL empire), but the roots of the band go back to 1989 when Kevin O’Toole & Dale Longworth met on a sound engineering course at Oldham college. After flirting with a novelty record, which was a pop version of the Rhoobarb theme, they decided to make dance music after being hugely inspired by the KLF. The first record produced was a heavy trance track called ‘Back to the bass’, which was the track that 380 records signed after a bidding war with ‘Dead Dead Good’ records of Northwich. By this time the band had become a trio with the addition of Mike Lewis, who was a local DJ that Kevin O’Toole met via his bar job in a club in Rochdale. ’Back to the bass’ was purely sample based & was sadly never released, but this led the band to move to vocal music & this is when things started to happen…
It was decided that the band needed a female vocalist, so Mike Lewis went to Oldham College to try & find a singer. A singer called Kelly Llorenna (who was only 16 at the time) was recommended, and she swiftly came to the bedroom studio of Kevin’s to record the song that became ‘Set You Free’. Incidentally… the lyrics for the song where written in a mass panic by the time it took Kelly to travel from Oldham to Shaw, which takes about 15mins.
There where 500 white labels of ‘Set You Free’ released on promo in 1992, but the song wasn’t considered for a full release, so N-Trance parted company with 380 after only a year & signed to ‘All Around The World’ records. In this time the band constantly took there live show all over the UK, and where acknowledged with an award for best dance record in Scotland in 1993, thanks to selfless promotion by the sadly late DJ Tom Wilson. The promos were selling about £50 at the time, so it was obvious the song would get a full release.
AATW released ‘Set You Free’ in 1993 & 1994, but he song struggled to get any media attention & radio play. Luckily AATW didn’t lose faith and eventually ‘Set You Free’ became the biggest selling dance record of 1995, selling 580,000 copies & reaching number 2 in the UK charts. The song was quickly followed with a rap track sampling the Bee Gees classic ‘Stayin Alive’, and featured the rap talents of Ricardo Da Force (formally of the KLF).
The first album released was ‘Electronic Pleasure’ & featured more different artists & styles the usual compilation album. The singers included on this album where artists such as Jerome Stokes (Love Decade), Rachel McFarlane (LMC), David & Carrie Grant (Celebrity vocal coaches), Viveen Wray (backing vocalist for Take That/Robbie Williams/ Tom Jones). The release of ‘Stayin Alive’ worldwide also make the band hugely successful, amassing 14 number ones… including number one’s in Canada & Australia.
The 2nd album ’Happy Hour’ followed the same trend as the first, becoming experimental with the 160BPM breakbeat track ‘The Mind Of The Machine’. This track also featured the vocal talents of the actor Steven Berkoff, who also agreed to star in the video. This album sadly though was going to be the last one produced by Kevin O’Toole & Dale Longworth, when Dale left the band shortly after the albums release.
Thanks to bootlegs & new remixes of ‘Set you Free’ the song got a re-release in 2001, thanks to a hugely popular Rob Searle remix. The track peaked at number 4 in the charts & was then followed by another new hit called ‘Forever’, thanks to a brilliant remix by Voodoo & Serano. A ‘Best Of’ album was released with a few new tracks included, and this then looked like the end of the band was in sight.
Kelly Llorenna embarked on a solo career, but Gillian Tennant (Q-Tex) joined the band to take her place as lead vocalist. The first release with Gillian was ‘I’m In Heaven’, which has been a hugely favorite song on the live shows. The live shows since then have taken priority, but recently the band have started to write some new material. Gillian’s song writing talents have been a great addition to the band, as Kevin had been the sole songwriter since 1998. Mike Lewis has also joined back up with the band & does the DJ sets with Kevin who quit playing live on stage back in 1998. The prospects of full live shows in the future are being planed solely for universities, which will see Kevin take the stage again, playing live piano/synths again for the first time in nearly 10yrs.
Dale & Kevin briefly teamed up again to produce the top 10 hit ‘So Much Love To Give’ under the new name 'Freeloaders' and also released an album called ‘Freshly Squeezed‘. Kevin has started working again with Kelly Llorenna & have nearly completed the new N-Trance album & have a new single ready for this summer called ‘ You're My Angel’.‘
