WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Upside Down

Did Upside Down change your mind or were you not worried if they leave now?

Upside Down were a manufactured British boy band of the 1990’s. Formed by independent label World Records, and having auditioned some 8,000 applicants, they settled on early 20 somethings Jamie Browne, Giles Kristian, Chris Leng and Richard Micallef. Their debut single was written by fellow boy band Bad Boys Inc., who had enjoyed chart success during 1994. The song, “Change Your Mind”, peaked at No.11 in early 1996 and would become the first of three consecuitive UK top twenty hits that year, perhaps thanks to a BBC documentary, Inside Story, which followed how a boy band was put together.

Upside Down consolidated this with “Every Time I Fall In Love” (No.18) and “Never Found A Love Like This Before” (No.19) before closing the year out with a cover of Chicago’s 1976 number one hit “If You Leave Me Now”, which Upside Down took to No.27, giving them four straight top 40 hits. But it wasn’t enough for World Records and the label went bankrupt the following year. The boys re-signed to Blue Cherry Records under a new name, Orange Orange, and released “Beautiful Day” in 1997. But a lack of marketing and promotion saw the single flop and the would be fab four called it a day.

Giles Kristian has since become a noted author of historical fiction creating the Raven and Rise Of Sigurd series of novels as well as two books (to date) on the Camelot legend. He returned, briefly, to music in 2001 when he released the single “I Just Wanna Know”. Jamie Browne dropped out of music and became a successful artist, Chris Leng also left the music industry and became an IT specialist while Richard Micallef is the only one of the group to remain and continues to work as a songwriter and producer.