(Pop) Bellefire - Spin The Wheel (2004), MP3, 192 kbps

Bellefire was an Irish girl group, best known for their 2002 cover of the U2 song "All I Want Is You". They originally consisted of Kelly Kilfeather (born 23 March 1979), Tara Lee (born 25 July 1982), Cathy Newell (born 14 July 1982) and Ciara Newell (born 7 July 1983) and a fifth-member named Paula O'Neill. They mostly performed pop and adult contemporary music. Outside Southeast Asia and their native Ireland, they have received minimal recognition, although they did experience minor success in the United Kingdom with their singles.
They first formed in 1999 (see 1999 in music), backstage at an audition for a boy-girl band in which Louis Walsh was a judge. According to the Irish Independent, Walsh was disappointed with the standard of male entrants and opted to sign a girl group instead. The intention was to aim towards a "a more mature niche in the pop market" than what was becoming the norm for vocal groups at the time.
After recording their debut album After the Rain, they released two singles, both of which were top twenty hits in the UK. Their first single, "Perfect Bliss" reached #2 in the Irish charts and went double platinum in their home country. It started to pick up high levels of airplay in Japan, so the girls delayed release of the album in the UK in order to concentrate on the Japanese market. Perfect Bliss reached No.1 in the Japanese international music charts and meant three months of touring and promotion in Asia and the release of their album After The Rain, especially for the Japanese market. They collaborated with Japanese artist Hitomi Yaida; re-writing English lyrics for Yaida's hit song Buzzstyle, which they recorded in their own harmonised sound and they performed this with her on Japanese TV and in a televised concert.
Their second single "All I Want Is You" was released almost a year after their first single in the UK. It received a lot of airplay and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. However, just as the album and another single were due for release, their record company Virgin unexpectedly dropped them and European version of their album was never released. Changes at Virgin meant new management at the label who had not worked with the band before, decided that Bellefire along with many other artists on the label were to be dropped. A disillusioned Tara left to become a fashion student, while the other three girls continued without their top harmonist and developed a new repertoire. They were signed by WEA in 2003 and moved their base to London. They subsequently recorded a new album entitled Spin the Wheel.
Their first single as a trio was "Say Something Anyway", which peaked in the UK at #26, but spent only three weeks on the charts. It peaked in Ireland at #2 and repeated previous success by going double platinum. The planned follow-up single for the summer of 2004, "You Were Meant for Me", was shelved. Bellefire spent the summer of 2004 promoting their upcoming single and album release around the UK at various festivals, but due to the album and single being continually pushed back, the summer promotion did little to boost their reputation and sales. After the failure of their next single, the title track "Spin the Wheel" to impact the UK charts in October 2004, Bellefire once again concentrated on the Asian market, where "Say Something Anyway" was reaching the top of the charts in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and The Philippines. They completed their tour of Southeast Asia and released their album there. The UK release of the Spin the Wheel album and a third single was pushed back several times until it was eventually cancelled.
After the non release of the "Spin the Wheel" album in the UK, Bellefire and Atlantic Records parted company, and the group went their separate ways.
Ciara Newell was credited as a backing vocalist for Blue member Lee Ryan's solo album in 2005, and also performed on the soundtrack for RTÉ drama, Showbands. She now works for a record label in London where she deals in promotions and is still an active songwriter. She is also involved with the Irish language television station, TG4, where she has been working as a judge on the 4th series of its flagship talent show, Glas Vegas. The series began airing on TG4 in early 2010.
Cathy Newell was a judge on the 2005 Irish television show Star Stream Final, and is currently living and working in London.