| Background: | group_or_band |
| Alias: | Hi-Flyerz, WTF!, Steampunk |
| Origin: | Liverpool, England |
| Genre: | Electronic, trance, house, dance, happy hardcore |
| Years Active: | –present |
| Label: | All Around the World |
| Associated Acts: | Rezonance Q, N-Force, CamelPhat, Darren Styles |
| Current Members: | Chris Henry Ian Redman Micky D Frankie Fairbairn TeknoKat Rebecca Rudd |
| Past Members: | Danny Penquet, Mike Di Scala |
Ultrabeat are a British electronic dance music group from Liverpool, England, formed in 2002. Originally consisting of vocalist and producer Mike 'Re-Con' Di Scala and producers Ian Redman and Chris Henry, Ultrabeat emerged with their cover of the Force & Styles song "Pretty Green Eyes", which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart 2003. With the addition of vocalist Rebecca Rudd in 2005, they released further singles, including top forty hits such as "Feelin' Fine", "Better than Life" and "Elysium (I Go Crazy)", followed by their début album in 2007, which peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart
In 2008, Ultrabeat released "Discolights" with collaborators Darren Styles and Danny P, which peaked at number 23 on the UK Singles Chart. Their second album, released in 2009, The Weekend Has Landed, peaked at number 29 on the UK Albums Chart.
Di Scala left the group in 2013 to focus on his new band CamelPhat with Dave Whelan, and Rudd took over as the lead vocalist.
Prior to forming Ultrabeat, Mike Di Scala, Chris Henry and Ian Redman were DJ’s (Disc Jockey’s) in Liverpool and mixed in the same circle of friends. With a common interest in late-1990s happy hardcore music, the group decided to enter studio for recording sessions. Initially, their productions were bootleg versions of old happy hardcore tracks recorded in order to improve their DJ sets.[1] In 2002 Ultrabeat produced their first remixes and the first record by the group was a double A-side 12-inch single "Sonic Burnin'"/"Boomcore" released on label BCD Records in January 2003. The Ultrabeat name originated from Scottish DJ group Ultrasonic and Boomcore’s let the beat go boom line. Di Scala was previously a member of Rezonance Q, who had chart success with their cover of "Someday" by Mariah Carey. Di Scala played his record label Ultrabeat's demo of "Pretty Green Eyes", a cover of Force & Styles, and following this they were also signed by the label.[2]
"Pretty Green Eyes" went on to peak at Number #2 on the UK Singles Chart in August 2003, behind "Breathe" by Blu Cantrell featuring Sean Paul. It was playlisted on most radio stations including BBC Radio 1, and was performed live on Top of the Pops.[3] The following single was "Feelin' Fine" which peaked at number twelve on the UK Singles Chart in December 2003. Their next release was "Better Than Life", which was issued the following year and peaked at number twenty three on the UK Singles Chart.[4]
Their next single, "Feel It with Me", was released ten months after "Better than Life", and peaked at number fifty five on the UK Singles Chart in 2005. An album (originally titled Better than Life: The Album) was expected to be released around this time, although this never materialised.[5]
In 2005, vocalist Rebecca Rudd joined the group. Her first track with Ultrabeat titled "Elysium (I Go Crazy) which sampled Scott Brown's "Elysium", reached #38 in the UK charts. "Elysium (I Go Crazy)" was played on TV music channels more frequently than "Feel It with Me" and was voted number one on MTV's 'Galaxy Chart'.[6] [7]
Their sixth single was a collaboration with Darren Styles, "Sure Feels Good", and was released in August 2007. It peaked at number fifty one on the UK Singles Chart. It was the second single featuring Rudd and along with "Elysium (I Go Crazy)" was the second collaboration with another hardcore artist. In September 2007 the band released their album, , which peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart. At that time band undertook a national tour in support of Cascada (who are also on the AATW label). Their seventh single, "I Wanna Touch You", was released on 4 February 2008.[8] [9]
A new single "Discolights" was released in June 2008. An original release date of 12 January 2009 was set for the album, but despite this, it has been leaked onto the internet on various file sharing platforms.[10] [11] [12]
The first single from the album was Discolights. It peaked at number twenty three on the UK Singles Chart. The second single from the album was Never Ever, which did not achieve a peak on the UK Singles Charts.The third single was Starry Eyed Girl, which, like the majority of the album, did not achieve a peak on the UK Singles Chart, and the fourth is Use Somebody, a cover of Kings of Leon's track from their multi-platinum album Only by the Night. The album was released on 26 October 2009 and includes 18 tracks plus a chronology DVD of all of their music videos, including Pretty Green Eyes, Feelin' Fine, The Stalker, Discolights and more.
Following The Weekend Has Landed album, Ultrabeat released three singles, "Bring It Back", "You Will See" and "Rising". A new song "Rain Stops" appeared on Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 9 in 2013.
The group produced a track called "Pumpanola" using the alias Hi-Flyerz which appeared on Clubland X-Treme in 2003. In 2012, they had a hit single with "Da Bop" using the alias WTF!, which samples the 1967 song "Our Neighbour" (Russian: "Наш сосед" nash sosed) by Russian singer Edita Piekha. Two songs recorded by the group using the name Steampunk, "Loki's Theme" and "Forever Loved", appeared on Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 9 in 2013.
Di Scala, Henry and Lee Butler recorded using several aliases such as 3 Amigos, King of Clubs and The Tranceriffs on BCD Records. Di Scala left the group in 2013, to focus on his new band CamelPhat with Dave Whelan, for which he formed in 2006. Chris Henry and Mike Di Scala have also recorded using the name M&C Project, releasing songs "Coming Back" (2005), a cover of Siedah Garrett's "Do You Want It Right Now" (2006) and "Magic Touch" (2007). Chris Henry is also a member of N-Force, with Jorg Schmid.
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [13] | IRE [14] | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | 51 | |||||||||||||
| The Weekend Has Landed |
| 29 | — | ||||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | UK Dance | AUS [16] | AUT | BEL [17] | IRE | NL [18] | singles: Web site: Discografie WTF! . 5 August 2009. | SCO | |||||||
| "Sonic Burnin'" / "Boomcore"[19] | 2003 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Pretty Green Eyes"[20] | 2 | 1 | 102 | — | 56 | 7 | 37 | 1 |
| Ultrabeat: The Album | |||||
| "Feelin' Fine"[21] | 12 | 1 | — | — | — | 26 | 35 | 8 | |||||||
| "Better than Life"[22] | 2004 | 23 | 2 | — | — | 65 | 34 | 51 | 15 | ||||||
| "Feel It with Me"[23] | 2005 | 57 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | 37 | ||||||
| "Elysium (I Go Crazy)"[24] | 2006 | 35 | 4 | 153 | — | — | 40 | — | 13 |
| |||||
| "Sure Feels Good"[25] | 2007 | 52 | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | 24 | ||||||
| "I Wanna Touch You"[26] | 2008 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Discolights"[27] | 23 | 2 | — | — | — | 28 | — | 4 | The Weekend Has Landed | ||||||
| "Never Ever"[28] | 2009 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Starry Eyed Girl"[29] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Use Somebody"[30] | 100 | 40 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Bring It Back"[31] | 2011 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | rowspan="7" | |||||
| "You Will See"[32] | 2012 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Da Bop"[33] | — | — | — | 63 | — | — | 4 | — | |||||||
| "The Sway"[34] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Rising"[35] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Pretty Green Eyes 2013"[36] | 2013 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Hallelujah"[37] | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Livin On A Prayer" [''featuring [[Flip & Fill]]] | 2023 | Non-album single | |||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Artist(s) |
|---|---|---|
| "Loud and Proud" | 2002 | Brooklyn Bounce |
| "I Believe in Love" | Cooper | |
| "See Me Here" | Orion | |
| "When I Call Your Name" | 2003 | Haifa |
| "If You Leave Me Now" [38] | The System presents Kerri B | |
| "Crazy Sexy Marvellous" | Paffendorf | |
| "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" | Resource | |
| "I'll Be Your Angel" | Kira | |
| "Magic Fly" | Minimalistix | |
| "Overload" [39] | VooDoo & Serano | |
| "Passion" | Amen! UK | |
| "Maria (I Like It Loud)" | Scooter vs. Marc Acardipane & Dick Rules | |
| "Come & Fly with Me" | Element | |
| "Paradise & Dreams" | The Force | |
| "Welcome to Tomorrow" | Miss Peppermint | |
| "Irish Blue" [40] | 2004 | Flip & Fill featuring Junior |
| "Look at Us" [41] | Northern Heightz | |
| "Come into My Dream" [42] | Foggy | |
| "It's Over Now" [43] | 2005 | Big Ang featuring Siobhan |
| "Easy" | 2006 | Sugababes |
| "I Will Love Again" [44] | 2007 | Kelly Llorenna |
| "Rise Again" | Breeze vs. Lost Witness | |
| "About You Now" | Sugababes | |
| "Show Me Heaven" | Micky Modelle vs. Jessy | |
| "What Hurts the Most" [45] | Cascada | |
| "Headbone Connected" [46] | Maximum Spell | |
| "Piece of Heaven" | 2008 | Beatplayers featuring Lara McAllen |
| "Right by Your Side" [47] | N-Force vs. Darren Styles | |
| "Gotta Tell You" [48] | Micky Modelle vs. Samantha Mumba | |
| "What Is Happening" | Alphabeat | |
| "True Faith" | Liz Kay | |
| "Burning Love" | Katie Jewels | |
| "Hold Me Tonight" | Manian | |
| "Apologize" | Dee Grees vs. The Real Booty Babes | |
| "Everywhere" | 2009 | Master Blaster |
| "Blade (Phatt Bass)" | Ali Payami vs. Aquagen featuring Warp Brothers | |
| "Strong Again" | N-Dubz | |
| "I'll Be There" | Stunt | |
| "Evacuate the Dancefloor" [49] | Cascada | |
| "Fight for this Love" | Cheryl Cole | |
| "Boys and Girls" | Pixie Lott | |
| "Do You Know" | eSQUIRE & Di Scala featuring Ruth Cullen | |
| "If You Were Mine" | Alex K | |
| "Sound without a Name" | 2010 | Darren Styles |
| "Broken Arrow" | Pixie Lott | |
| "Together" [50] | Pet Shop Boys | |
| "Girls" [51] | 2011 | N-Dubz |
| "30 Days" | 2012 | The Saturdays |
| Title | Year | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| "Pretty Green Eyes" | 2003 | Jamie Balliu[52] |
| "Feelin' Fine" | ||
| "Better than Life" | 2004 | Tom King[53] [54] |
| "Feel It with Me" | 2005 | |
| "Elysium (I Go Crazy)" | 2006 | Mike Cockayne[55] |
| "Sure Feels Good" | 2007 | Kevin Hewitt[56] |
| "Megamix" | Various | |
| "I Wanna Touch You" | Kevin Hewitt[57] | |
| "Discolights" | 2008 | Paul Boyd[58] |
| "Never Ever" | Andy Soup[59] | |
| "The Stalker" | 2009 | Iain Titterington[60] |
| "Starry Eyed Girl" | ||
| "Don't Wanna Let Go" | Michael Holdaway[61] | |
| "Use Somebody" | Graham Hector[62] | |
| "Megamix Part 2" | 2010 | Various |
| "Bring It Back" | ||
| "Waiting for a Girl Like You" | 2011 | |
| "Da Bop" | 2012 | |
| "The Sway" | Lina Schütze[63] | |
| "Rising" | Ben Peters[64] |