1991 - 2000
Brian, Paul, Dom and Damien Rice form Juniper, having met in school. They go to college, play some weddings, 21st's and Bar Mitzvahs... and for a while have a Sunday night residency in the Kildrought Lounge and Bar, Celbridge. They meet Dave, who weans them off the Neil Diamond and Roxette covers. Band move into house in country, release EP, Manna, and two singles in Ireland. Damien leaves band, the others read about Chuck Yeager and his Right Stuff. They call the new band Bell X1. Bell X1 support Elliott Smith and Bon Jovi in the same 1 week period, leading to severe identity crisis, making small music with big hair. They make their first album, Neither Am I, in the summer/autumn of 1999 with Nick Seymour of Crowded House and release it in Ireland a year later, after much touring and a couple of old singles.
2001
Band take some time to indulge musical differences. Paul records and tours as drummer with Tipperary siren Gemma Hayes, Brian's away with Offaly hearthrob Mundy, and Dave and Dom join Richie Mullen of Lino Richie Carpets, Finglas, in touring cabaret show. Bell X1 regroup in late summer and write songs for what would become Music in Mouth in a house by the sea in Wexford.
2002
Second album recording starts in Ridge Farm studios in Surrey, with producer Jamie Cullum. After 4 weeks they move to the Fallout Shelter, London. The studio has no teapot!! Some moaning. The band take turns to make dinner. Some of it is shit. The world Cup happens. Mixing finishes in July and everyone goes away for a while. Come back and mix it all again. Borrow a friend's house in Kilkenny, record some more songs, play hurling, are laughed at by locals. Music in Mouth finally finished in December, a few days after the birth of Jamie's daughter Ellie, who was both conceived and born during the making of the record.
2003, 2004
The album Music in Mouth is released on July 21st 2003, to tremendous applause, and the band play with all sorts to try to flog it. Tom McRae, Keane, Starsailor, Aqualung and Snow Patrol show them the highways and byways of the UK and continental Europe. Songs from the record appear in many TV series, from Teachers to The OC, and at home the album goes double platinum, with four top 40 singles. In July 2004, the band gather in yet another house in Wexford to write a new record.
2005
Flock is recorded in Dublin and mixed in London, with Roger Becherian producing and Phil Hayes knob twiddling. A shrine to Daniel O' Donnell (Irish singing deity, ref Cliff Richard without ever having had a brush with cool) is created in the green room, Dave creates Pistachio Nut Shell Installation and mustaches are grown. The band take a break from recording and sell out a mini tour in the USA, where they record a live session for Nic Harcourt’s essential show on KCRW in L.A.
Flock is released in Ireland and hits the heights of #1 in the album charts. The band leaves Island Records and sets up its own record label called BellyUp records. A live album called Tour De Flock is released - it is a 2-disc compilation featuring 16 tracks from their sold-out gig at The Point Theatre, Dublin on December 1, 2006.
In 2008, Flock is released in the USA and the band appears on the St. Patrick's Day edition of the Late Show with David Letterman.
On 2nd October, Brian Crosby quits saying "It's been an extraordinary privilege to be in a band with your mates for more than 15 years. I'm really grateful for everything I got to do with Bell X1, for all the adventures we had and for the great support of our fans. It's been particularly wonderful to have connected with so many people and to have got to meet people all over the world doing what I love. I look forward to continue making those connections. At the same time I'll be applauding the boys continued success."
As well as promoting Flock in the USA, the band gets busy recording a new album Blue Lights On The Runway. It finally sees the light of day in 2009, with lead single The Great Defector becoming their biggest hit to date (no. 3 in the Irish charts).
2011
The band will release its newest album Bloodless Coup in stores and online on April 1 in Ireland, April 4 in the UK, April 8 in Germany and Benelux, April 12 in the USA and Canada, and April 26 in France. The album's lead single is “Velcro,” which the band performed on The Rachael Ray Show on St. Patrick's Day.
In Every Sunflower
Bell X1 Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Cause it take me ages
Or is everybody reading
Is everybody reading
Standing on a black Ulster hill
I never fear the chill
Cause everybody's holding
I wouldn't swap the pain
For never knowing you
I wouldn't swap the pain
It was worth it for the view
My book has more bookmarks than pages
Cause it take me ages
Or is everybody reading
Is everybody reading
Of a sparkling Medusa
With snakes of cerise and blue
And though we're all pillars of salt now
It was worth is for the view
I wouldn't swap the pain
For never knowing you
I wouldn't swap the pain
Cause it was worth it for the view
We're still watching
Your rainbow through the shower
And we still see you
In every sunflower
We're still watching
I make days from the hours
And I still see you
In every sunflower
Every screaming sunflower
And how they scream of you
The lyrics to Bell X1's song "In Every Sunflower" paint a vivid picture of the singer's experiences and emotions. The first stanza begins with a description of the singer's book, which has more bookmarks than pages, implying that they take a long time to read. They question whether everyone else is reading as well. This could be interpreted metaphorically as a commentary on the pace of life, where everyone is rushing around without taking time to truly absorb their experiences. The second half of the stanza describes the singer standing on a black Ulster hill without fear of the cold, because everyone around them is somehow "holding." This could mean physically holding onto one another, emotionally holding each other up, or simply holding space for each other.
The second stanza introduces the idea of pain being worth it for the view. The singer focuses on a "sparkling Medusa" with snakes of cerise and blue, a reference to the Greek myth of Medusa, whose gaze turned people to stone. The mythological allusion implies that the pain the singer has experienced has been similarly life-altering. But the view was worth it. This could mean that the pain has revealed something beautiful, or that the singer has grown from the difficulty they've endured.
The final stanza is hopeful, with the singer saying that they still see the person they've lost in every sunflower, and make days from the hours. The use of "screaming sunflower" is interesting - sunflowers don't make noise. But the idea of a flower with a voice is significant - it implies that the singer's memories are so powerful that they scream out to them.
Overall, "In Every Sunflower" is a powerful meditation on the meaning of pain and the ways in which we see the world. It speaks to the beauty of difficult experiences and the way in which memories of those we've lost can continue to shape our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
My book has more bookmarks than pages
I read very slowly or do others read more and use bookmarks excessively?
Cause it take me ages
It takes me a long time to read.
Or is everybody reading
Maybe it's not me who takes ages to read; everyone reads as much as I do.
Standing on a black Ulster hill
I am not afraid to stand on a dark hill in Ulster.
I never fear the chill
I am not afraid of the cold.
Cause everybody's holding
Because everyone is gathered/grouped together.
I wouldn't swap the pain
I would not trade my suffering.
For never knowing you
Because I would rather experience the pain than to never have known you.
It was worth it for the view
The feeling of pain that I experience even now was worth meeting you.
Of a sparkling Medusa
Description of an image in my mind of a shining Medusa.
With snakes of cerise and blue
With snakes of red and blue color entangled in her hair.
And though we're all pillars of salt now
Despite all of us turning to pillars of salt.
It was worth is for the view
It was still worth the cost paid for seeing something so beautiful.
We're still watching
We are still paying attention even though you're gone.
Your rainbow through the shower
Your appearance through the rainbows.
And we still see you
We still think about you and remember you.
In every sunflower
Your existence is in every sunflower that we see.
I make days from the hours
I stretch time to make days from hours.
And I still see you
I still see you in my mind.
In every sunflower
You are still present in every sunflower that I see.
Every screaming sunflower
Each sunflower screams out your name.
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: PAUL JOHN WELLER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind