If at first you don't succeed keep on trying, should be the motto of this UK boy band. Mark Read (b. 7 November 1978, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, England), Ben Adams (b. 22 November 1981, Middlesex, England), Christian Ingebrigtsen (b. 25 January 1977, Oslo, Norway), and Paul Marazzi (b. 24 January 1975, Wanstead, London, England) were brought together in 1998 by the management team of Tim Byrne and Vicky Blood. The quartet's diversity, with six years between the oldest and youngest members and a Norwegian and a Spanish citizen (Marazzi), did little to distinguish them from the glut of boy bands saturating the UK pop market. The four members, who compose most of their own material, signed a lucrative recording and publishing deal with Columbia Records in February 1999. They debuted in June with "Be The First To Believe", a catchy slice of pure pop co-written with Peter Cunnah of D:Ream which broke into the UK Top 10. The follow-up, "Summertime Of Our Lives", reached number 5, and the double a-side "Everytime"/"Ready Or Not" broke into the Top 3. The fickle UK pop scene, however, places high expectations on boy bands to have instant number 1 hits, and the pressure began to mount on the quartet when their debut album Here We Come struggled to make the Top 20. The following year began inauspiciously when "Like A Rose" failed to broach the Top 5, and the quartet set off for the Far East where, in contrast, they have become spectacularly popular. Returning to the UK, A1 finally achieved the holy grail of boy bands, topping the singles chart with a rather lame cover version of A-Ha's 80s hit "Take On Me". The R&B-styled follow-up, "Same Old Brand New You", was a far superior track which deservedly gave the quartet their second UK chart-topper in November. Tragedy beset the group the following March, when four teenage girls were crushed to death during an in-store appearance at a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia. They bounced back in January 2002 with their finest song to date, the harmony-laden "Caught In The Middle". Make It Good saw the quartet aiming for the space in the AOR pop market recently vacated by Australian duo Savage Garden. Marazzi announced he was leaving the group the same October.

Listen to A1 at Finetune.

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