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Ben, Christian,
Mark and Paul are four amazing singers, talented songwriters, accomplished musicians, good looking guys with great personalities.
They've taken a mixture of pop, soul, funk and rock and added a huge dose of fun.
'We write a lot of our own songs
and have a big input in the studio,' says Ben Adams. 'We each bring in a lot of ideas, and the day we met, we wrote our first
song.'
Paul is the oldest member of a1, and then its Christian,
and then Mark and then at the end its Ben who is the youngest member and the baby of the band.
Ben is a former head chorister at St Margaret's, Westminster
Abbey, and have sung solos on two choral CDs and performed in front of the Pope and the Queen.
'Pop music is all about
a strong melody, and we've got lots of those', says Christian Ingebrigtsen. 'Mark loves pop, Ben is into soul, Paul likes
funk and I love rock.'
Christian is the group's Nordic blond whose whole life has been devoted to music. The son of
a famous Norwegian pop star, he's played classical piano since the age of six and is an accomplished guitarist. He studied
music full-time at the Paul McCartney fame school.
'Our managers spent three years putting a1 together and they only
chose one of us through an audition,' says Mark Read. 'I've worked with other bands and it's so difficult to find four people
with the same dedication and an equal amount of talent.'
Mark's played the piano since he was two and toured with his
mum and dad's covers band all over the world. At 15, he scooped a best newcomer award at an international song festival in
Romania.
'I am a serious fan of music,' says Paul. 'It's amazing how fate has brought the four of us together, even
from different countries, and we want to show how much a1 have to offer.'
Mark says, "We all
spent years trying to find the right people to form a band with before we were introduced to each other. I've worked with
other bands and it's so difficult to find four people with the same dedication and an equal amount of talent."
Christian says, "We've got such big dreams and high ambitions
for this group and as a songwriting team, we eventually want to be perceived like the BeeGees who write songs for everybody."
At
19, Paul moved from the UK to Benidorm where he ducked, dived and danced in clubs before modelling for Christian Dior. One
fateful New Year's Eve, a karaoke performance at his dad's bar eventually led to a career in singing and eventually an audition
for a1. Paul takes the leading role in a1's choreography.
How they got together
It took three years to put a1 together. And the group was finished in 1998.
And here is how they go together:
Paul was the first member to join a1. He heard about an audition that their manager were setting up. They were putting
together a boyband. Paul went to the audition to attend it. And he was the only one picked out of about 3000 hopeful young
men in 1996. And Paul is the only one who doesn`t play any istruments.
The next member to join a1 was the norwegian Christian Ingebrigsten. Son of the very famous 70s pop artist Stein Ingebrigsten.
Christian had been doing music all his life, and had followed his passion and was now attending the Liverpool Institute Of
Performing Arts (LIPA), also known as the Paul McCartney fame school. The management called the school and asked if there
was anybody they could recommend to being in such a band. And the teachers contacted Christian, and he had to send a demotape
of his voice, and finally sing i front of them, and then they invited him to join the band.
Mark was the third member to join a1. He had almost done nothing but performing and playing piano and sing his whole
life. And one day he was coming down to watch his brothers band performing. And there was a talent-scout there among the audience,
witch turned out to be their manager Tim Byrne, who was checking out the band. Mark was also in the audience, singing along
with the songs, and the manager noticed him, and asked him if he could sing, play an instrument and if he could songwrite.
And off course Mark could that, so he was asked to come down to his office to talk about all the performing he had been doing,
and sang a couple of songs, and he was invited to join the band. And Mark was asked if he knew anybody else who would be right
for this band...
And off course he did. The youngest member of a1, Ben Adams and Mark knew each other from before, when they were in
a group called North And South. But they weren`t going anywhere with that band. Ben had been doing music scence he was three
years old. He was chorister of one of the best choirs in the world. He was the last member to join a1, and only 16 years old.
This was 1998, and a1 was finally finshed, and the mangement had finally found the band
they were looking for.
Those ambitions start coming true this year.
Everything kicks off with a serious songwriting and recording session in January, with
Ben, Mark, Christian and Paul in and out of the studio all year. Spring sees a Steps support tour, a schools tour and an under-18s
club tour!
21st June - "Be The First To Believe" is released, hitting Number 6 in the UK charts, all the
while the guys continue to record, promote and perform at summer roadshows.
In August, they start to take the
a1 experience to the rest of Europe, kicking off in Scandinavia.
30th August - "Summertime Of Our Lives" is
released, hitting number 5 in the UK charts. The guys continue to promote throughout the UK.
8th November - The double
A-side "Everytime"/ "Ready Or Not" is released, scoring them their highest chart entry yet at number 3.
The album,
Here We Come follows three weeks later to great acclaim and goes platinum.
24th November - a1 embark
on the Smash Hits Tour, all the while promoting and switching on Christmas lights throughout the UK!
5th
December - They steal the show at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party and a week later perform at the Nobel Peace Prize concert.
Finally on
23rd December, they take a well-earned rest. Ben says: "This year's been amazing for us, it's like we live out
a dream every day."
The a1 action gets even crazier.
6th January - the guys
return to work, getting down to it in the studio with mega-producers, Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. Says Paul: "Our producers
also work with Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Cher and Tina Turner and they've all heard the music we've written and either want
to work with us at some point or have us do backing vocals for them!" The guys then head off to Japan for the first of the
year's promotional visits.
21st February - "Like A Rose" is released, hitting number 6 in the UK
charts.
3rd March - a1 fly to Singapore before hitting Japan for their ground-breaking whirlwind tour
of all of its hot spots. They're away almost a month.
6th April - a1 record Beatles songs for a
Stars Sing The Beatles spectacular and continue to work in the studio on new material.
23rd April - They begin promotion in Australia.
6th May - Australia
segues into Asia: Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. They return to the UK to continue recording.
7th
June - Mega three day shoot to film FX-laden video for "Take On Me".
19th June - They record
with uber-producer Eric Foster White, then manage to take a sneaky holiday.
28th August - "Take
On Me" gives a1 their first UK Number One, while the guys are actually in Los Angeles recording. Ben says, "It's a fantastic
song. Basically we all loved the original and we just wanted to try it out and see what we'd sound like on it."
24th
September - a1 record for Motown Mania, then start rehearsals for a1 UK 2K tour.
20th October - a1 UK
2K tour kicks off.
6th November - "Same Old Brand New You" gives the guys their second
Number One, which is followed by the release of their second album, The A List, which goes double platinum.
29th November - Back on the Smash Hits Tour
January - The year kicks
off with some serious promotion throughout Europe.
19th February - "No More" is released, hitting number 6 in the UK charts.
26th
February - a1 win a BRIT for Best Newcomers. They then head back to Asia, but on their return take some well-earned time off.
21st
April - MTV 5 Night Stand with the UK's premier pop acts, instantly followed by some long-term songwriting with occasional
promotional duties in the UK and across Europe.
10th June - Summer PAs kick off in Southampton,
followed by recording with Chris Porter.
1st July - They record Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes as the Beatles
- Paul even learns drums just for the occasion, saying "I'm taking to it like a duck to water."
20th
July - They scoop best Foreign Act at MTV Awards in Beijing. August - Summer roadshow PAs continue, as does recording.
10th
September - Asia tour rehearsals begin.
18th September - The guys record "Caught In The
Middle" with Mike Hedges, who says: "Apart from being very good songwriters, the four guys are amazing musicians." Says Mark,
"It's got to the point where we're influencing each other. We're constantly trying to step our writing up to the next level."
27th
September - Asia tour kicks off in Bahrain
November - Even more recording! Says Ben,
"We have a great fanbase and they do a lot for us, like vote for us in the BRITS and turn up to our signings and things, and
we really respect them. We're not going to do wrong by them. We've been so careful not to alienate them because it's those
fans who've brought us this far. All we're doing is just broadening our music a bit, so that you don't have to be an a1 fan
to like our new album."
13th May - 'Make It Good' is released.
27th May The album Make it good is released.
8th October - a very sad day. This was the day that the oldest member of a1 Paul Marazzi har pronounced his decition
that he will leave a1. Everyone is in shock, even the other guys.
Ben, Christian and Mark have today said, "After five solid years with a1, each of us have recently begun
working on individual projects which mean that we need to take a temporary break from the band and to part company with Sony
Music.
"Mark is writing with Rob Davis (Kylie, Spiller). Christian has formed a production company in Norway which
will be releasing a single by hot new Norwegian artist Maria Arredondo in the next few months. Ben is working on a solo album.
We have had four very successful years with Sony but we feel the time is right to move on."
"We know there's always
a lot of speculation when band members undertake individual projects but we can assure you this is not the end for a1."
"We
will be playing at the Smash Hits tour in Nottingham and Newcastle this week (sorry we missed Manchester but Ben was really
sick yesterday!), we have several other gigs lined up and are already working on new material together.
"You'll still
be able to stay in touch with absolutely everything we're doing together and individually on this website so stay posted for
lots of exciting news and we'll see you soon!"
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