Profile of Karl Wallinger on Famous Like Me

World Party is a British pop/rock band, which is essentially the solo project of its multi-talented only member, Karl Wallinger (born October 19, 1957 in Prestatyn, Wales). The band was started in 1986 after Wallinger left The Waterboys. World Party was named after one of the Waterboys' tracks.

World Party's music is hard to categorise, being a tuneful but sophisticated pop and rock combination, with elements of folk, funk, R n B and soul thrown in. Wallinger sings and plays most of the instruments himself, using multitracking to create a polished studio sound. Lyrically, many of the songs feature thoughtful and occasionally political sentiments. The first album was Private Revolution, released in 1987, which yielded a moderate hit, "Ship of Fools", but it wasn't until the follow up, Goodbye Jumbo (1990) that World Party came to more widespread notice. This album yielded two significant hits - "Put the Message in the Box" and "Way Down Now". Goodbye Jumbo was voted album of the year by Q magazine. The third album, Bang! (1993) was an even bigger success, reaching number 2 in the UK album chart, with the track "Is It Like Today?" also being a successful single. Egyptology (1996) was a fourth album, but did not do so well commercially. The album Dumbing Up was released in 2000. World Party occasionally tours, with Wallinger and a band formed using session musicians.

Wallinger's musical career began in the 1970s with a couple of unsuccessful bands, after which he became musical director of The Rocky Horror Show. He joined The Waterboys from 1983-86. While working on his World Party material, he also worked on Sinéad O'Connor's 1987 debut album The Lion and the Cobra - Sinéad also sings some backing vocals on the World Party track "Sweet Soul Dream". Wallinger was also musical director for the 1994 film Reality Bites, and also contributed to the soundtrack of Clueless, 1996. The Wallinger-penned "She's The One" has been successfully covered by Robbie Williams (another Williams hit, "Angels" was written by Guy Chambers, who was originally with World Party).

Dicography

• Private Revolution (1987)
• Goodbye Jumbo (1990)
• Bang! (1993)
• Egyptology (1996)
• Dumbing Up (2000)

Singles

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