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Atomic Kitten are an English girl group
from Liverpool composed of Liz "Lil"
McClarnon, Natasha "Tash" Hamilton, and Jenny
Frost - who replaced original member Kerry Katona in
January 2001.
Atomic Kitten has sold over 12 million
albums and singles around the world. Many of their
singles and albums entered the Top 40 charts worldwide
such as "Right Now," "Whole Again,"
"Eternal Flame," "The Tide Is High,"
and "Ladies Night."
Biography: The group was formed in 1997 by Andy
McCluskey of '80s band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
and included Heidi Range in the original line-up.
However Heidi left the group and was only featured on
the demo recordings. In 2001 Heidi joined the Sugababes.
The group was first called "Honeyhead" but
later renamed itself to "Automatic Kittens",
the name of the label of its designer, and abbreviated
to "Atomic Kitten."
The group's first single "Right Now" debuted
in December of 1999 and ended up reaching the British
top 10. After the initial success Atomic Kitten made an
Asian tour during which it scored their first hit with
"Cradle". The album, also titled Right Now,
was first released in Japan on March 16, 2000 and
subsequently released in the United Kingdom on May 21,
2000 with a slightly modified track list.
Right Now was a modest success upon first release.
Initially there were no plans to focus on the global
market. The record label was even considering dropping
them because of limited success, however they persuaded
Innocent Records to record one more single. This one
single changed the career of Atomic Kitten because they
scored their first number-one hit in the UK in 2001 with
"Whole Again".
The song and video for "Whole
Again" originally featured Kerry Katona however she
left the group several days prior to the number-one
position because of her pregnancy. The single was remade
when Jenny Frost was added to the line-up as Kerry's
replacement. The success was such that it was decided to
remaster and rerelease the album, which then went to
number one on its second appearance on the chart.
The next single "Eternal Flame", a cover
version of the 1989 hit by The Bangles, also became a
number-one hit.
Second album and independence: Given the success
a new album, Feels So Good, was recorded. The
songwriting and production agreement with Andy McCluskey
was an increasing source of tension within the group and
the girls decided to terminate the contract with Andy
half way through the recording of the album. Luckily
they had the good fortune of getting unexpected support
from Kylie Minogue and Susanna Hoffs who both wrote a
song for their new album.
The first single of the album was "It's Ok!"
and was shot in South Africa. Even though this song
performed well in the charts, securing a number three
position, it was the next single "The Tide Is High
(Get The Feeling)", a remake of the 1965 song by
The Paragons (but also made famous by Blondie in 1980),
which attained Atomic Kitten its third number-one
single.
Natasha announced in April 2002 that she was pregnant,
but she had no intention of leaving the group and wanted
the scheduled 2002 tour to continue. Natasha also
featured in the video "The Tide Is High" and
her last duty was the 2002 Party in the Park before
finally going on pregnancy leave.
2003 world tour, "Ladies Night": During
January and February of 2003, Atomic Kitten toured
around south-east Asia and visited countries like
Singapore, Thailand and Korea. Natasha decided to take
her newborn baby with her on the tour as well.
The American market had been neglected up to then,
therefore on April 2003 an album called Atomic Kitten
was released, consisting of tracks from the first two
albums. It was promoted by teaming up with Disney for
The Lizzie McGuire Movie starring Hilary Duff, however
the album only managed to peak at #102 and it was
decided to focus on the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.
A large part of 2003 was spent in the studio recording
their third and final studio album Ladies Night. Up to
now the girl group mainly relied on songwriters and
sometimes co-wrote a song. This time they decided that
it was time to be directly involved in the creation of
eight of the fifteen songs.
Kool and the Gang asked them to collaborate with them
for their Odyssey album because they wanted an updated
version of Ladies Night and were looking for a girl
group to sing the lyrics. Atomic Kitten liked the idea
and inquired whether they could use it for their next
album as well which was subsequently named Ladies Night
in honor of this collaboration. The album and singles
were slightly less successful than the two previous
albums.
A scheduled "Ladies Night" tour in
November/December 2003 in United Kingdom had to be
rescheduled to February/March 2004, and was renamed the
"Greatest Hits Tour", as the girls announced
they would be splitting shortly before they went on this
tour. This made Atomic Kitten the second girl group
after the Spice Girls to do an arena tour.
No longer a group, but still recording sometimes:
Their career was going well, however on January 23, 2004
Natasha decided that she wanted to spend time out of the
group and spend more time with her son Josh. The group
released a single "Someone Like Me / Right Now
2004" as a goodbye, but was reunited on Valentine's
Day to release the charity single "Cradle
2005", a new version of the original on their album
Right Now, which charted at No. 10. The proceeds of the
single went to World Vision.
Atomic Kitten was featured on the soundtrack of Disney's
Mulan II in 2005 which was their third time as a
featured artist.
Atomic Kitten recorded a one-off single, "All
Together Now (Strong Together)", in association
with Goleo VI, the official mascot of the FIFA World Cup
2006. The track is taken from the official Goleo VI
World Cup 2006 album and was released on CD and
digitally in Germany, where the World Cup was held, on
16 June 2006.
However even though the single was
listed by the HMV website for release in the UK many
weeks prior to the competition, the single was taken off
from schedule and deleted from the catalogue, due to the
amount of competing football records that were being
released at that time. The proceeds of the single went
to SOS Children's Villages.
The girls reunited for a one-off performance of
"Whole Again" at a benefit concert for the
Michael Shields appeal which will be held at the
Liverpool Empire Theatre on December 4, 2006.
They performed as a group in Hong Kong on December,
31st, 2006 for Nokia New Year's Eve.
Solo careers:
- Natasha Hamilton is scheduled to release of the
single "The Way You Move".
- Liz McClarnon made a reasonable performance from
the start and her single "Woman in Love / I Get
the Sweetest Feeling" entered the chart at no.
5 and debuted higher than the last three singles of
Atomic Kitten. Her next single "Happy" is
competing to represent the United Kingdom in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2007 although no release
date has yet been confirmed, her solo debut album is
scheduled for 2007.
- Jenny Frost only reached no. 47 with her debut
solo single "Crash Landing" and will
release "Bad Girl", a track originally set
for - and recorded by - Lisa Scott-Lee.
People:
- Jennifer Frost (born 22 February 1978, in
Liverpool, United Kingdom), started her musical
career in the girl-band Precious and replaced Kerry
Katona in 2001. After the split of Atomic Kitten,
Jenny has embarked on a solo career and released her
first single "Crash Landing" on 10 October
2005.
- Heidi India Range (born in Liverpool,
United Kingdom left the band and was replaced by
Natasha Hamilton, later joined the U.K's biggest
girlgroup Sugababes.
- Natasha Maria Hamilton (born 17 July 1982,
in Liverpool, United Kingdom) joined Atomic Kitten
after Heidi Range left the group. In January, 2004,
she decided to take a break from Atomic Kitten
because she wanted to spend more time with her son
Josh. She is currently working on her first solo
release "The Way You Move" and possibly an
Euro-American band called Tanga Girls as Eva, the
Red-haired character (the spanish version is
unknown) with her two nicknames Ginger Tanga
and Elizabeth Erin alongside Michelle
Stephenson, Kelly Rowland and Miho Hatori or Ami
Onuki.
- Kerry Jayne Elizabeth Katona (born 6
September 1980, in Warrington, United Kingdom), was
one of the original members of Atomic Kitten. Kerry
was featured on the original Right Now album in
2000, but left in January 2001 because she had
become pregnant. Her place in the group was taken by
Jenny Frost.
- Elizabeth Margaret McClarnon (born 10 April
1981, in Liverpool, United Kingdom), was one of the
original members of the group. While in the band,
she co-wrote many of their songs. Her solo single
"Woman in Love" was released on 14
February 2006.
- Andy McCluskey (born 24 June 1959, in
Liverpool, United Kingdom), was the lead singer and
primary songwriter for the group OMD. In 1997 he
founded Atomic Kitten and wrote and produced many of
the early songs. In 2002 the girls terminated the
songwriting/production agreement with Andy.
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