You can watch the Phoenix live webcast (recorded on the 24th October for Dingwalls, London) here at 7pm (BST) on the 18th January 2001.

Phoenix played on Later With Jules Holland on the 25th November, click here to view the performance of 'If I Ever Feel Better'.

Phoenix are set to blow your mind, with their blend of rock, indie with a touch of hip-hop, jazz and house. What a mixture!

Phoenix are a French band who formed in 1991 but don't expect them to sound like any of the other French bands you may have heard. Original band members include Thomas Mars (vocals), Deck D'Arcy (bass) and Christian Mazzalai (guitars), they were in a garage at Thomas's house in the Paris suburbs practising. Around this time Christian's older brother Laurent 'Branco' Brancowitz, was playing in a short lived indie outfit named Darlin'. That ended in 1995, and Branco began playing guitar with Phoenix and the rest is history.

The name Phoenix was chosen in 1997, when they pressed 500 singles on their aptly titled own label Ghettoblaster. To Phoenix's delight, Paris based label Source Records were hot on their heels.

"We're all children of the 80's" explains Branco. "We wanted to take the hot burning sound of American records and give them the contemporary feel of hip hop and house".

Some of the influences that Phoenix has had over the years include Serge Gainsbourg, AC/DC, Country & Western, Blues as well as Michael Jackson and Gil Scott Heron. The guys have also written a disco-styled tune for the Source Rocks compilation, however their debut album sounds totally different to this track.

"There's an irony in our music" admits Thomas. "We're conscious of the historical background of music and we're not afraid to listen to things that are not cool. Even in bad music you can find something good. But in the end we want to do good music, not a joke."

This is evident in the inventiveness of 'United'. Deck's mum even appears on the Funky Squaredance that features a country sound before kicking into a zombie breakdancing with gothic guitar-work.

One thing is for sure, Phoenix are here to plan their strategy for world domination, so watch out!

Nov 15, 2000	Fribourg	Fri-son	France
Nov 20, 2000	Milan	Maggazzini Generali	Italy