Luke Haines

Haines and Peter Buck (formerly of R.E.M.) collaborated on an album, Beat Poetry for Survivalists, which was released in 2020.

Haines' first cookbook Outsider Food and Righteous Rock 'N' Roll was published in 2015

A documentary on Luke Haines by Irish director Niall McCann, called Art Will Save the World, premiered at the East End film festival in Dalston on 6 July 2012. It was also shown at the Barcelona, Copenhagen and Cork film festivals. It featured interviews with Jarvis Cocker, John Niven, David Peace and Stewart Home along with extensive interviews with Haines.

Post Everything: Outsider Rock and Roll, Haines' second book of memoirs, was published in July 2011 by William Heinemann Ltd.

It was subsequently announced on Luke Haines' web site that the band would play their first headlining gig for five years at The Luminaire, Kilburn, London in February 2009.

Haines' memoir Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall was published on 1 January 2009 by William Heinemann Ltd. The book covers Haines' experiences during the Britpop era 1991 to 1997.

In May 2009 a novel about Haines by author Tim Mitchell Truth and Lies in Murder Park: a book about Mr Luke Haines was published by benben press. The book includes material based on interviews with Luke, and explores the themes of his music.

In October 2008 Black Box Recorder appeared at the Nick Sanderson (Earl Brutus) tribute concert.

In December 2007, Black Box Recorder teamed up with Art Brut to create the single Christmas Number One under the collaborative title of The Black Arts.

Cherry Red Records released a "Best of The Servants" compilation, with sleeve notes by Haines, early in 2006.

New album Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop was released in October 2006. Haines worked with maverick pop producer Richard X (Sugababes, Liberty X, Rachel Stevens) on some tracks. The album was preceded by a double A-sided single 'Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop (Richard X version) b/w I Am The Best Artist/Skinny White Girls.' There is currently no news on a release date for the 'Property' soundtrack.

Haines toured the UK and Ireland during November 2006. John Moore guested on bowed saw and backing vocals at some gigs. On 16 November 2006, Haines played a live session for BBC Radio 6 Music's Gideon Coe show. On 13 December 2006, Haines played a live session (three songs) for BBC Radio 2's Janice Long show. During an interview on the same show Haines said that he may play some gigs in early 2007 in support of a E.P. release of Leeds United.

A box set covering his career to date, Luke Haines is Dead, was issued in 2005, and two new albums were expected in 2006: 'Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop', and the soundtrack to the abandoned musical 'Property', which like his Black Box Recorder work, also features Sarah Nixey.

In 2001 Haines called for a "National Pop Strike".

Although no official split announcement was made, the band was on hiatus during the mid-2000s.

Haines has branched into film music, writing the music for Christie Malry's Own Double Entry, a British film based on the novel by B. S. Johnson. Director Paul Tickell had originally expressed a wish to license How I Learned to Love the Bootboys as the Soundtrack for the film but couldnt afford the sync rights from Virgin Records which allowed Luke to write a soundtrack more tailored for the film. Unfortunately reception for the film was lacklustre as a result of the film being released post-Twin Towers attack in America, as Luke put it "Back in 2000, this celluloidal genocide just seemed like logical fictitious denouement to a film about a deranged, avenging angel, but in the heightened state of paranoia of the post Twin Towers world, it seems less far-fetched. The upshot of all this is that no distributors will go anywhere [the film]".

The Auteurs recorded a session for John Peel on 20 February 1996.

At this point, Haines created a solo side project called Baader-Meinhof. Haines released one eponymous album under this moniker in 1996, which is named after the Baader Meinhof terrorist group. The sound was similar to that of The Auteurs, but more sparsely produced and with elements of funk and electronica, with lyrics, typically for the ever-contrary Haines, about terrorism.

Their second album, Now I'm a Cowboy, (1994) featured "Lenny Valentino", one of their most famous songs. By now the band were touring Europe and the States regularly, and were gaining a reputation as one of the best new British bands.

However, just as the band looked like achieved mainstream success (as other British bands, such as Oasis and Blur were then doing), Haines broke both of his ankles, resulting in the cancellation of much of their 1994 European tour. At the time he claimed "I jumped off a fifteen-foot wall (while) touring, ... to finish the tour and get the insurance" but later, in the sleeve notes to Das Capital, he denied that it was deliberate, writing "I merely drank too much wine and fell over. It happens." Having to use a wheelchair for most of 1995, Haines wrote the very different songs that would end up becoming the Auteurs' third album, After Murder Park. Even bleaker and more introspective than previous Auteurs albums, this was just as English as his previous work but now showed very different influences: the downbeat folk of Richard Thompson, the aggression of My Bloody Valentine, the pared down experimentalism of Wire, and the caustic lyrics of The Fall. It was produced by Steve Albini and recorded at Abbey Road studios in North London.

Regular gigging in the London area and an NME-sponsored gig brought them to the attention of Hut Records. They released their first single, "Showgirl" in 1993, and their debut album New Wave a month later. Haines was later to claim that this was the album that started Britpop, though he later showed disdain towards the movement, stating in a 2003 interview that Britpop consisted of "a bunch of bands who weren't good enough to exist in their own right, like music's equivalent of the Bloomsbury Group." Certainly it was ahead of its time in turning back from the acid house then popular to more traditional songwriting in the vein of The Kinks or The Small Faces. It is arguable that more commercially successful bands (such as Suede) owed much to Haines' vision. In any case, the album sold only 12,000 copies but was nominated for a Mercury Prize although the eventual winners were Suede

Haines formed numerous bands when he was at school. At college he joined The Servants who recorded two commercially unsuccessful albums. It was only when Haines formed The Auteurs with his girlfriend Alice Readman (who had also been drafted into The Servants from time to time) and Glenn Collins in 1991 that he began to achieve some success.

Haines has played at book signings for David Peace who was promoting The Damned United, a book on Brian Clough's brief tenure at Leeds United in the 1970s. Leeds United relates to this, and with the reference to the Yorkshire Ripper, to Peace's earlier Yorkshire/Red Riding Quartet. The refrain "The North! The North!" advances on the earlier Auteurs track The South Will Rise Again, itself a response to The N.W.R.A. by The Fall. The phrase "The North! The North! Where we do what we want! The North! The North! Where we do what we like" is also a quote from a character in the Red Riding Quartet.

Luke Michael Haines (born 7 October 1967) is an English musician, songwriter and author, who has recorded music under various names and with various bands, including The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder.