About Us: Biography
MJ Hibbett & The Validators have performed live on Radio One, had a Record Of The Year in Rolling Stone, an Album Of The Day on 6Music, released one of the first ever viral videos, toured the UK and Europe, featured in an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, and recorded a science fiction rock opera, all while maintaining their complete independence from outside record labels. They've had a bloody good time doing it too.The band were formed in 1999 when MJ Hibbett recruited Tim Pattison from indie rock legends Prolapse on drums and Frankie Machine on bass to record a single, Born With The Century. They enjoyed it so much they then recorded a whole album, Say It With Words, released in 2000. They were joined for this by Tom McClure on violin and Emma Pattison on backing vocals. Emma's first 'gig' with the group was at her own wedding, singing a song she and MJ had written as a surprise for her husband Tim.
Their next album, This Is Not A Library was named 'Record Of The Year' in 2003 by Rolling Stone's Well Hung At Dawn column. Even now, none of the band are quite sure how this happened.
In 2004 a flash animation for their song Hey Hey 16K (created by Rob Manuel of b3ta.com) became a massive internet hit, getting over two million downloads in its first fortnight of release. It became an international phenomenon, was featured on television and in print all over the world and was even played at that year's Gay Pride festival in London.
Shortly after that Steve Lamacq invited MJ to become his show's European Football Championship correspondent, writing a new song every week. He returned to the show at Christmas to perform The Advent Calendar Of FACT written specially for the occasion.
The next year The Validators released a 'Rest Of' compilation, Warriors Of Nanpantan and MJ was approached by a major publisher to write his rock memoirs. Unfortunately the editor in charge was fired for coming up with stupid ideas for books before any contracts could be signed. The stories collected would, however, come in useful later on.
The band's third album, WE VALIDATE!, was released in 2006 to rave reviews and radio play. Artrocker called it '2006's most worthwhile album', The Morning Star said it was 'a manifesto for living' and The Word said 'MJ Hibbett should be a national institution'. The Validators performed a live Maida Vale session for Radio One and then headed out on a ten date national tour.
Steve Lamacq played the session version of The Lesson Of The Smiths as the last song on his final Lamacq Live show, and he returned to the song in 2007 when he played the single version on his Radio 2 show. This would become one of the band's most popular songs, ending up at number 41 in that year's Festive Fifty.
MJ played sixty gigs in 2007, including a storming Validators' set at Indietracks in Derbyshire and an appearance supporting Echo & The Bunnymen on ukelele at the Cornbury Festival. Ukeleles became a theme as he produced his first proper solo album, A Million Ukeleles, featuring Phil Wilson of The June Brides on banjo and mandolin. This limited edition album sold out within a fortnight, and tracks were played on Radio One, XFM, Dandelion, and various BBC local stations.
There were even more gigs - seventy two - over the course of 2008, including a highly successful run of the hour long autobiographical show My Exciting Life In ROCK, based on the aborted autobiography, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. One performance featured a live simul-cast with BBC 6Music and the show was taken on tour around the country.
The Validators released two singles in 2008, Do The Indie Kid and It Only Works Because You're Here, both of which appear on their latest album Regardez, Ecoutez Et Repetez, released as ever on their own label Artists Against Success. In the week of its release Regardez, Ecoutez Et Repetez was featured as Album Of The Day on BBC 6Music - the first 'unsigned' band to ever receive this honour - and this was followed by a self-booked national tour. Tracks were played on Radio One, Radio 2, 6Music, XFM and Dandelion and reviews raved about its sleek production values enhancing the usual mix of witty, incisive and above all heartfelt lyrics and thunderously catchy tunes that are the bands' hallmark.
A further single, My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once was released that year and, much to the band's delight, made it into the lower reaches of the Dandelion Radio Festive 50. That Christmas their Christmas song I Got You What You Want For Christmas came on on Helen Llewelyn Product 19 Records, accompanied by not one but two videos featuring fans listing what they wanted for Christmas which, as with so many Validators Videos, went viral.
Meanwhile MJ had returned to the Edinburgh Fringe with a new one-man show called Dinosaur Planet, which The Validators were to spend the next few years recording. In 2010 he took the show back to the Fringe as a two-man version featuring his friend Steve Hewitt and they once more took the show around the country. In 2011 the pair returned with a new Fringe show, Moon Horse vs The Mars Men Of Jupiter, which Radio One described, aptly, as 'like two drunk Dads at a barbecue'. This too toured extensively and will be recorded for use as a podcast series in 2012.
While all this was going on The Validators took a lengthy break from live performance - they toured Germany (twice) and played a huge show at the Indietracks Festival but were otherwise rather limited by the fact that Tim and Emma were living in Mauritius, returning every few months to take part in sessions for Dinosaur Planet. The album was finally finished by the end of 2011, ready to be released in early 2012 when the band are hoping to get out and play some more gigs again to publicise it.