Atomic Kitten Biography
Atomic Kitten was an English girl band from Liverpool composed of Liz McClarnon ("Lil"), Natasha Hamilton ("Tash"), and Jenny Frost, who replaced original member Kerry Katona in January 2001.
"Atomic Kitten" is also the stage name of a number of American actresses.
The band was formed in 1997 by Andy McCluskey of '80s band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and included Heidi Range in the original line-up. However Heidi left the band and was only featured on the demo recordings. The band was first called "Honeyhead" but later renamed itself to "Automatic Kittens", the name of the label of its designer, and abbreviated to "Atomic Kitten."
The group's first single "Right Now" debuted in December 1999, reaching the British top 10. After the initial success Atomic Kitten made an Asian tour during which it scored their first hit with "Cradle". The album, also titled Right Now, was first released in Japan on March 16, 2001 and subsequently released in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2000 with a slightly modified track list.
Right Now was a modest success upon first release. However, there were no plans to focus on the global market yet. This changed when Atomic Kitten scored its first number-one hit in the UK in 2001 with "Whole Again". The song and video for "Whole Again" originally featured Kerry Katona, but it was remade when Jenny Frost was added to the line-up as a replacement. The success was such that it was decided to remaster and rerelease the album, which then went to number one on its second appearance on the chart.
The next single "Eternal Flame", a cover version of the 1989 hit by the The Bangles, also became a number-one hit. Given the success a new album, Feels So Good, was released. The first single of the album was "It's Ok!" and was shot in South Africa. Even though this song performed well in the charts, securing a number three position, it was the next single "The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)", a remake of the 1965 song by The Paragons (but also made famous by Blondie in 1980), which attained Atomic Kitten its third number-one single. The American market had been neglected up to then, and finally an album called "Atomic Kitten" was released, consisting of tracks from the first two albums.
The band has released 16 singles and five albums: Right Now (2001), Feels So Good (2002), Ladies Night (2003), The Greatest Hits (2004) & The Collection (2005)(rumer The Collection entered at #4 and 483,781 copies). The career was going well, but on January 23, 2004 Natasha decided that she wanted to spend time out of the band as she wantedto spend more time with her son Josh. The group released a single "Someone Like Me / Right Now 2004" as a goodbye, but was reunited on [Valentine's Day]] to release the charity single "Cradle 2005", a new version of the original on their album Right Now, which charted at No. 10. The proceeds of the single went to [World Vision]. Both Jenny Frost and Liz McClarnon have since then embarked on solo careers. Jenny reached around no. 49 with her debut solo single 'Crashlanding' and Liz McClarnon's first single 'Woman In Love/I Get the Sweetest Feeling' entered the charts at no. 5.
