The Brightlights were the first established band signed to Distiller Records, a label owned by Samuel Dyson, son of James Dyson . They released their debut single, "Inspired By", on 7" vinyl and download on 5 November 2007. Reviews were generally favourable. The video for the single was filmed in the band's hometown of Grimsby on the eastern coast of England. It was directed by Jay Burridge who has also worked on a video for Hot Chip. It features Shane Meadows cult drama This Is England's star Thomas Turgoose. Prolific DJs such as Zane Lowe, Colin Murray and Steve Lamacq have positively commented on the bands releases. Their first single entered the UK Indie Chart at No. 2 on 11 November 2007. The Brightlights second single was titled "3". It reached the top 5 in the BBC Indie Charts beating both Kings Of Leon & Arctic Monkeys on weekly vinyl sales. . The single was produced by Steve Power who is most well known for producing songs for Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and Blur at the Tower of Power Studios in London.
Short Rise & Fall
In 2007, they became the poster boys of Richard Branson's new television project Virgin 1 and played at the launch party at his home in Oxfordshire with support from the bandThe Enemy. In early 2008, the band began recording their first album at The Crypt Studio in London with engineer and producer Matt Sime, who is most well known for producing Feeder 's albums. The tracks that were recorded in those sessions have never been released. The Brightlights were on the verge of becoming one of the biggest exports in modern UK guitar music and were one of the last bands to be offered a large five album deal advance by Jive/Zomba Records, before the label collapsed in 2011. However, the band were advised to hold out for bigger and better offers and in turn the deal was declined. Fashion writers Company Magazine printed a large two page article which predicted the band would become one of the biggest bands in the UK by 2012. Unfortunately, with the rapid descent of Indie guitar music, in conjunction with the decline of their most popular fanbase platform Myspace, the band were short lived and disbanded in late 2008. The Brightlights represent one of the quickest and most un-documented rise & fall stories in popular band culture of the early noughties. There are rumours circulating on social media networks that the band may be making a come back in 2019, though there has been no official confirmation from the band.
Post Brightlights
Leon Blanchard & James Buxton went on to form a 4 piece band Venacava which were active between 2008 - 2010. Adam Featherstone & Luke Parker went on to form a five piece band called Old Arcadians which were active between 2008 - 2010. Other associated bands include Casanova, Little Fears & The Chaplins which all consisted of The Brightlights band members.
