Member Event: Sunscreem

The nucleus of the group is lead vocalist/cellist/keyboardist Lucia Holm and fellow keyboardist Paul Carnell. The group has also, at times, included Darren Woodford, Rob Fricker, Sean Wright, Nick Slingsby (aka “Bongo Ted”), and DJ Dave Valentine.

Sunscreem released a 12″ promo of “Love U More” on the Sony Soho Square record label in 1991, a song that went on to spend two weeks at #1 on the U.S. Dance chart in March 1993. The group also had club hits in the UK with the singles “Walk On” and “Pressure” (also on Sony Soho Square) before releasing its successful first album O3 on multiple labels in 1993. Other singles from O3 included “Perfect Motion” and a cover of the Marianne Faithfull song “Broken English.”

“Love U More” was one of the first techno songs to hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40, climbing to No. 36 (to date it is their only Hot 100 entry). It was subsequently covered (usually in a bowdlerized form, omitting the climactic reference to rape and toning down other images in the lyrics) by other artists including Paul Elstak, LMP, Rollergirl, and Steps.

The band is known for having its songs remixed by a wide variety of dance music producers, including Leftfield, Band of Gypsies, Carl Cox, Push, Rollo Armstrong from Faithless, Red Jerry, Matt Darey, Slam, X-Press 2, Trouser Enthusiasts, Robbie Rivera, Jimmy Gomez, K-Klass, Armand Van Helden, and Fire Island (Pete Heller and Terry Farley) among others.