Embrace
Formed in the early ’90s, and having performed under numerous different names and with a less than consistent line-up, Embrace, as we know them, came to be in 1996 with a line-up that remains to this day—brothers Danny and Richard McNamara, bassist Steve Firth, keyboardist Mickey Dale and drummer Mike Heaton.
Releasing the indie anthem “All You Good Good People” through taste-maker label Fierce Panda in 1997 followed by “Fireworks” and “One Big Family,” they went on to release their debut album The Good Will Out in June 1998 and went straight in at number one making it one of the fastest-ever-selling debut albums by a British artist. Their second and third albums soon followed. In 2000 they released Drawn from Memory followed by If You've Never Been in 2001, both breaking into the top 10, but they were dropped by their label. After a hiatus of three years, the band were signed to Independiente Records, and with the release of Out of Nothing in 2004, they were catapulted back to the top of the charts, in no small part thanks to Coldplay’s Chris Martin who wrote the hit single “Gravity” for the album.