Blazin' Squad

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Blazin' Squad
Also known as Blazin' Squad (2001-05, 2009)
Friday Hill (2005-06)
Origin Chingford, London, England
Genres Hip hop, R&B, UK garage
Years active 2001–2006, 2009
Labels East West (2001–05, 2009)
Polydor (2005-06)
Associated acts 5th Story
Past members Strider
Flava
Kenzie
Melo-D
Bar-E
Mitch-L
Reepa
Spike-E
Krazy
Freek
Tommy-B
Rocky B

Blazin' Squad was an English group, whose music was a mixture of hip hop, R&B and UK garage. The group had seven top ten hits, including "Crossroads", a cover version of the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony original.

Career

In The Beginning: 2002

Created by Niall Quinn in the early 2000s, the band released a cover of the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony song "Crossroads" as their début single in August 2002, reaching #1 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was highly re-recorded and hardly contained any lyrics of the original. The single was heavily criticised by the media, some of whom claimed their rap skills were 'not to be taken seriously', and others sidelining them to a younger audience. Despite this, however, their debut album, In the Beginning achieved gold status in the UK and spawned two further top ten hits, "Love on the Line" and double A-side single, "Reminisce/Where the Story Ends". The album was released to general critical censure.[1][2]

Now or Never: 2003-2004

The group went on to achieve further chart success in 2003, with two further top five chart hits. "We Just Be Dreamin'" reached number three in July 2003, and "Flip Reverse", written by former member Liam D'Souza, reached number two in November. "Flip Reverse" was subsequently used to re-launch Top of the Pops, with a special performance recorded outside the BBC Television Centre with 100 or so hooded back-up dancers. Despite the chart success of their singles, the group failed to match their success with their second album, Now or Never, only peaking at #36 on the UK Albums Chart. A live recording of a concert in Liverpool was released on DVD for Christmas 2003 but failed to achieve any commercial success. It also failed to re-ignite the low sales of the album. The band soon attempted an eleventh-hour revival of their career, adding new member Joe-E to the group, and using their previous album track, "Here 4 One", as his first single. The song peaked at number six during early 2004, but failed to be strong enough to warrant a third album deal.

Friday Hill and Times Like These: 2005-2006

In 2005, Strider, Flava & Kenzie signed a record deal with Polydor records, and began recording an album under the name Friday Hill, named after a location in their hometown in Chingford. In October 2005, the group released their début single, "Baby Goodbye", which reached #5 in the UK Singles Chart, staying in the Top 10 for over a month and selling over 80,000 copies. In February 2006, they released a second single, "One More Night Alone", which reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart. Their album, entitled Times Like These, was also released in February 2006, but only peaked at #67 on the UK Albums Chart, and such, were soon dropped from their label.[3] In July 2006, Rocky-B, Reepa, Spike-E, Melo-D & MC Vyper (formerly Danny-B) made an announcement that they were going to reform as Blazin' Squad, and record and release a new album under Peach Records. They released a single, "All Nite Long", in August 2006, however, it only peaked at #54, which resulted in their record deal being scrapped and a further disbandment.

Greatest Hits: 2009

In 2009, Strider, Flava, Kenzie, Krazy, Russ G (freek) and Rocky B announced that they would be reuniting as a five-piece, and in June 2009 released their comeback single, "Let's Start Again". The single fared slightly better than the previous single but could only peak at #51 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite their record label wanting to drop them following the lack of success of the single, they had signed a binding contract to release an album. The label issued a Greatest Hits compilation via digital download and thereby ended the contract with the group.

Future

During an appearance on Celebrity Juice, Kenzie admitted the possibility of all ten original members of Blazin' Squad reuniting[citation needed]. During an interview with The Vault[disambiguation needed] Melo D also confirmed[citation needed] that there may be a slight chance of a reunion with six or seven members, but it is still early stages to confirm a proper reunion.

Discography

Albums

Title Details Peak chart
positions		 Certifications
(sales threshold)
UK
[4]		 GER
[5]
In the Beginning 33 —
Now or Never
  • Release date: 20 November 2003
  • Label: East West Records
  • Formats: CD, cassette
 37 57
Times Like These
(As Friday Hill)		 67 -
Greatest Hits
  • Release date: 22 June 2009
  • Label: Naughty Boy Records
  • Formats: Digital Download
 - -
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

Year Single Peak chart
positions		 Album
UK
[4]		 GER
[7]		 IRE
[8]
2002 "Crossroads" 1 82 13 In the Beginning
"Love on the Line" 6 — 28
2003 "Reminisce / Where the Story Ends" 8 — 28
"We Just Be Dreamin'" 3 75 31 Now or Never
"Flip Reverse" 2 22 15
2004 "Here 4 One" 6 — 18
2005 "Baby Goodbye" (As Friday Hill) 5 — — Times Like These
2006 "One More Night Alone" (As Friday Hill) 13 — —
"All Night Long" 54 — — Greatest Hits
2009 "Let's Start Again" 51 — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

References

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  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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