Picturehouse are a band from Dublin, Ireland. The band are most famous for their song "Sunburst" from the album Karmarama in Ireland.

Picturehouse
OriginDublin, Ireland
Genres
Members
  • Dave Browne
  • Johnny Boyle
  • Geoff Woods
  • Aongus Ralston
  • Duncan Maitland
  • Yann O'Brien
  • Esa Taponen
Past members
  • Aidan Pierce
  • Jason Duffy
  • Keith Farrell
  • Steo Farrell
  • Karl Murray
  • Robbie Sexton
  • Peter Gosnell
Websitepicturehouse.ie

History

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PictureHouse is the brainchild of Dave Browne. Originally signed to London Records in 1994, a rather tumultuous time resulted in the band returning to their native Dublin. They self-financed the release of their debut album "Shine Box". The album produced a number of popular singles such as "Somebody Somewhere", "The World and His Dog" and the smash hit "Heavenly Day". With success in their native Ireland the band toured with fellow Irish band The Saw Doctors on their UK tour in 1996. They later supported Bon Jovi in Dublin in the following year. Following this the band released 'Shine Box' across Europe following a distribution KOCH.[1] The band toured the Nordic countries extensively in 1997.

Their second album 'Karmarama'[2] was released in 1998 through the East-West label in Ireland. This release strengthened their presence in their native Ireland. "Sunburst" was the most played song on Irish radio in 1998, a multinational retail group put in the song in their TV campaign and the band played countless sold out shows including the legendary Olympia Theatre and the Point Depot. An award followed with Dave receiving "The Phil Lynott songwriting award" which was presented by Phil's mother in London.

More touring commenced, the band shared stages with the likes of Mel C, Texas, Meatloaf, Marillion and then an eventful arena tour with The Corrs. 2000 saw the band release the live album "Bring The House Down", again, self-released and in 2001 they set about making "Madness Sadness Gladness" with Adam Kviman in Sweden. Madness Sadness Gladness featured the massive single "Everybody Loves My Girl" -another summer smash in 2002. The pressure of constantly being self funded finally caved in and after the release of the tongue-in-cheekily titled singles collection "Get Yer Hits Out", the band went into hiatus.

Following 10-year hiatus the band were given the opportunity to begin songwriting with Lasse Anderson (Son of ABBA's Stig Anderson) produced a number of songs which Browne said "Sounded like PictureHouse". The result was "Evolution", which was released in Ireland in June 2013. Evolution features a new look PictureHouse, cowrites with Lasse Anderson and Graham Lyle, as well as appearances from Frankie Gavin of De Dannan and vocalist Ingrid Madsen.

They reformed with a brand new album "evolution" in June 2013. In February 2013 they asked fans to vote on the title of their new album. They voted to call it "Evolution". Following the success of the single Rules of Science which got considerable airplay in Ireland, The UK, Romania, Latvia, Cyprus and Indonesia, Cherry Red Records released a remastered, repackaged version of Evolution in 2014.

In 2017, they celebrated the 21st anniversary of Shine Box with a compilation album entitled "How Can I Explain How This Came To Be?" and a show in Dublin's National Concert Hall. as part of the celebrations, the band received plaudits from all round Ireland including Bono, Michael D Higgins, Ian Dempsey, Dustin The Turkey, Ray d'Arcy, Dermot and Dave, Keith Barry, Ken Doherty, Pat Shortt and The Coronas.

Discography

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Studio albums

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Year Album
1996 Shine Box
1998 Shine Box (reissue)
1998 Karmarama
1998 The Definitive Karmarama (reissue)
2000 Bring the House Down (live)
2000 The Definitive Shine Box (reissue)
2003 Madness, Sadness, Gladness
2004 Get Yer Hits Out! (best of)
2013 Evolution
2017 How Can I Explain How This Came to Be?
2020 1999 - Live in Dublin

Irish charts

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Name Label Date entered Peak position
Rules of Science PHRC 17 March 2014 49
Everybody Loves My Girl Wacca Wacca 27 June 2002 17
She Wacca Wacca 5 April 2001 27
Love in the Streets East West 18 February 1999 27
All the Time in the World East West 5 November 1998 29
Sunburst East West 27 August 1998 18

Compilations

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Picturehouse performed a cover version of "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex" and a hidden track of "Papa Don't Preach" on Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 1 and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" on Even Better Than the Real Thing Vol. 3.

References

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  1. ^ "About " PictureHouse".
  2. ^ "Karmarama". Amazon UK. 28 September 1998.
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