"Northern Lites" is the ninth single by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be taken from the Guerrilla album and reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart after its release on 10 May 1999. The song was written by singer Gruff Rhys and was inspired by the El Niño phenomenon. The track's title refers to the Aurora Borealis, a natural light display which the band were convinced they had seen prior to the song being written. Rhys wrote the melody for "Northern Lites" several years before it was completed but only decided on a calypso style after he wrote the lyrics. The steel drums on the track are played by keyboardist Cian Ciaran and were added on the spur of the moment after the group saw them "lying around" Real World Studios during recording.[1]
Critical reaction was largely positive with the song being named "Single of the Week" in both the Melody Maker and NME, with the latter also listing the song at number 3 in their single of the year list for 1999. The music video for "Northern Lites" was directed by Super Furry Animals and Martin McCarthy and consists of stock footage of curling and Irish road bowling although Rhys has blamed the song's failure to chart higher on the fact that it "didn't have a video".[2]
^Foster, Richard (10 October 2005). "Incendiary interview Super Furry Animals". Incendiary Magazine. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
^Martin, Piers (April 2008). "Album by album: Super Furry Animals". Uncut. 131: 70–72.
"NorthernLites" is the ninth single by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be taken from the Guerrilla album and reached number 11 in the...
Here, 1993 "Northern Lites", by Super Furry Animals, 1999 Northern Lights Casino, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada Northern Lights College, in British...
Rings Around the World as well as contributing to the 1999 single "NorthernLites". The group played their first concerts in 2008 in low-key venues in...
three years since they released their debut album). In May, the single "NorthernLites" was released and made No. 11 in the charts. A dense production, with...
Duchy of Lancaster is known as the Lites, and the ceremony of selection known as Pricking the Lites. The term lites, meaning list, was once reserved for...
disappointed with the limited success they received: the first single, "NorthernLites", charted just outside the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart at number...
Northern China (Chinese: 中国北方 or 中国北部; lit. 'China's North') and Southern China (Chinese: 中国南方 or 中国南部; lit. 'China's South') are two approximate regions...
contemporary music format. The station signed on the air as "94.3 Michigan's NorthernLites", with a soft adult contemporary format on March 15, 1990. In the early...
Northern Low Saxon (in Standard High German: Nordniedersächsisch, also Nordniederdeutsch, lit. North(ern) Low Saxon/German; in Standard Dutch: Noord-Nedersaksisch)...
in Virginia Northern Region Film and Television Archive, an English organisation Uttar Pradesh (lit. 'northern region'), a state in northern India North...
The Northern Society of the Decembrists (Russian: Северное тайное общество, lit. 'Northern Secret Society') was formed in St. Petersburg after the dissolution...
produced aurorae at far more equatorial latitudes than usual in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. On 8 May 2024, a solar active region which had...
The Northern Yuan (Chinese: 北元; pinyin: Běi Yuán) was a dynastic regime ruled by the Mongol Borjigin clan based in the Mongolian Plateau. It existed as...
numerous writers from Great Britain, both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the US, and former British colonies have received the Nobel Prize...
Kurmanji (Kurdish: کورمانجی, Kurmancî, lit. 'Kurdish'), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly...
The Northern Liang (Chinese: 北涼; pinyin: Běi Liáng; 397–439) was a dynastic state of China and one of the Sixteen Kingdoms in Chinese history. It was ruled...
distinct grouping in many cultures. The North Star (Polaris), the current northern pole star and the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper (Little Bear)...
The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is...
Painter, was published in 2007 by HarperCollins Canada. It won the 2008 NorthernLit Award from the Ontario Library Service and was nominated for a 2008 Arthur...
Carrickfergus in 1690, his supporters across Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, lit bonfires to celebrate. Some of those who did not join in the...
(Arabic: حرفيش; Hebrew: חֻרְפֵישׁ; lit. "milk thistle" or possibly from "snake" ) is a Druze town in the Northern District of Israel. In 2022 it had a...
Zuppa toscana (lit. 'Tuscan soup'), also known in Italy as minestra di pane (lit. 'bread soup'), is a soup from the region of Tuscany, northern Italy. While...
Tires Prototype Lites. He then made the jump to L1 class. He placed second in each of the first two rounds of the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites support series...
Global Information