LIGHTNING SEEDS singer IAN BROUDIE helped to revitalise the Liverpool music scene and has written the most famous football song to date. Next on his list is a set at Dorset's CAMP BESTIVAL. The Guide finds out more.

POPULAR Liverpool rock band The Lightning Seeds, whose hits include Pure, Lucky You and The Life of Riley, will be performing at the family-friendly festival in the grounds of Lulworth Castle this month.

They join a line-up which includes Madness, Brian Wilson, Mark Ronson, All Saints and Leftfield.

Seasoned song-writer Ian Broudie never assumed he would produce, but he has a production portfolio of some of the most critically acclaimed artists of the Liverpool music scene in The Coral, The Zutons and Echo & the Bunnymen.

Ian originally emerged from the post punk Liverpool music scene of the late seventies playing in the band “Big in Japan” alongside fellow band members Bill Drummond (KLF) Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) Budgie (The Slits/Souxie And The Banshees) and Jayne Casey (Pink Military). Before the band ended in 1979 they created the independent record label Zoo Records which would later feature the bands Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen.

In 1989, Broudie returned to his songwriting with a set of home recordings. Out of necessity, with no record contract and no band in place, Ian sang and played everything on the tapes himself recording in his 'spare bedroom'.

Eventually, there was the opportunity for extra production on the tracks and a few hundred copies of Pure were pressed up through Rough Trade on the small independent record label Ghetto. “Pure” was released under the name “Lightning Seeds”, the imaginary group he had envisioned to write his songs for in the hope it would become a reality.

Gradually over a period of months, Pure started to gain some attention. Initially with radio play from the legendary DJ John Peel and then specialist nighttime plays on regional radio stations. Pure began to climb the independent record charts and before long it was featured on daytime radio and became a chart success.

He never expected to write a hit song, but as Ian quite rightly points out whilst reminiscing the success of 1989's Pure, ‘the hits are always most obvious to you afterwards.’

Fast forward to 1996 and there was the small matter of Euro 96 anthem Three Lions, his collaboration with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, which can still be heard on the terraces and in the public houses over 20 years later.

The chorus 'football's coming home' encapsulated the magical experience of the England-held tournament for players and fans, which saw England lose to Germany in a heart-breaking semi-final penalty shootout.

Ian said: "I doubt I'll do another football record. Sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time. If Terry Venables hadn't got England playing great, or if the tournament hadn't been here, it would never have happened. I don't really like football records – I laughed a lot at the New Order one with John Barnes and Keith Allen. My favourite is You'll Never Walk Alone, which wasn't a football song until it was adopted by the Kop."

Ian, sometimes known as Kingbird, recently started touring again, coming off the back of supporting Madness in 2016 and is now preparing a new album later this year.

He said: “I don’t tour much at the moment but I decided to perform at about 15 festivals, so it will be older stuff played and the album will get showcased closer to the New Year.”

“People want to hear the hits.”

Ian’s studio is now located in Liverpool on the roof of a warehouse, overlooking the river Mersey, in which he mixed the album Don’t Forget Who You Are which he had produced for Miles Kane in 2013. Broudie recently performed a solo concert, which included a collection of his songs and some of his favourite productions, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Guest vocalists James Skelly, Terry Hall, Ian McCulloch and Miles Kane joined Broudie who was backed by guest musicians Sean Payne, Nick Power, Bill RyderJones, Martyn Campbell and Riley Broudie.

He is currently writing and recording the first Lightning Seeds album for many years.

On why the 58-year-old decided now would be the right time to start writing for Lightning Seeds after 18 years (he outlines Four Winds was mainly a solo album), he has a simple response. ‘Life’.

“I think for a long time I just got let into other areas. I was on a different path.

“Four Winds was a solo album that got turned into Lightning Seeds as we went on, but eventually I just sat down and wrote some songs that sounded like the band and here we are.”

The Liverpudlian maintains that his writing style is like no other, often mentally hearing how a song should be played and working out the mechanics later.

This is what prompted him to produce, in that he could hear the potential of the music that he was listening to.

He said: “I always think I’d make a really poor DJ, I just listen to music and my friend will say ‘what the hell is that’ and I’ll just have explain the fact that It’s the bridge of the guitar that pulls me in. It’s all the little things in music that get me.”

When asked if he could pin down particular moment along the way that sticks with him, he’s only too quick to pick out two in what is a career of achievements.

“The Hillsborough concert was a big moment for me, at that time (1997) as well, it was very emotional.”

“But it was lovely moment to find out Pure was the most played record in California for a year.”

*The Lightning Seeds, Camp Bestival, Sunday, July 30. See campbestival.net for more information.