Jake Shillingford was born on 15 May 1966 in Southend-on-Sea, and he formed his first band in 1980, athough he didn't start a career until the late 80's. In the mid-80's, he briefly attended the Southend Art College, after which he held a job at Dingwalls in Camden, working there during the day and running the Panic Station Club at night, often playing with his band, My Life Story. They released the 'Home Sweet Zoo' EP on the Think Tank label in 1986, but after a few years, he grew bored and left for America on a mission to find himself, returning in 1990 convinced that he would remodel 'My Life Story' as a string-laden, orchestral pop band. Over the course of that year, he assembled a new version of the band, re-hiring his old drummer Aaron Cahill as musical arranger, and adding drummer Steave Searley, bassist Jon King, keyboardist Helen Caddick, violinists Alison Gabriel and Ellie Newton, cellist Judith Fleet, Rob Spriggs on viola, and Rachel Simnett, who played various brass instruments. Playing concerts in underground London clubs, the band slowly built a small following, self-releasing their indie debut EP 'Big' at the end of the year. By 1992, they'd grown to comprise a total of 11 musicians, and they were regularly playing clubs like the 100 Club and the Marquee. In 1993 their profile began to rise considerably when they contributed strings to the Wonder Stuff's 'Welcome to the Cheap Seats' EP, and that led to them signing with Mother Tongue Records, releasing the single 'Girl A, Girl B, Boy C' by the end of the year. Produced by Giles Martin, the son of legendary Beatles' producer George Martin, the record was named Single of the Week by Melody Maker and NME, and My Life Story opened for both Blur and Pulp on their tours during the winter of 1994.
In February, the group's second single, 'Funny Ha Ha', was released, and a year later 'You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes)' reached the indie Top Ten, followed by the February 1995 release of their debut album, 'Mornington Crescent'. Although the record received positive reviews, its release was hampered by threatened legal action from London Underground due to breach of copyright, but that issue quickly vanished, and by the end of the year Melody Maker had named 'Mornington Crescent' as one of the year's best albums. However, this critical acclaim didn't translate into sales, and so a distraught Shillingford decided to have My Life Story perform a month-long residency at Dingwalls in February 1996, and if the band wasn't signed to a major label at the end of the four-Sunday stint, he was going to disband the group. His plan worked, and by the end of the Dingwalls residency, My Life Story had signed to Parlophone Records. They recorded their major-label debut during the spring and summer, and played a series of high-profile gigs that increased their profile substantially. Late that summer, the group's first Parlophone single, '12 Reasons Why I Love Her' was released, followed by 'Sparkle' in October and 'The King Of Kissingdom' in February 1997, both of which received mixed reviews in the music press. The band's long-delayed major-label debut, 'The Golden Mile', was finally released in March 1997, and although their audience was larger than ever, a critical backlash had begun, and the reviews for the record were frequently harsh, with Select labelling the record as "the worst album ever made". Despite the bad reviews, 'The Golden Mile' turned out to be the band's peak, although they parted ways with Parlophone after its release, signing with It Records for 2000's 'Joined Up Talking'.
This album went no further than 126 on the U.K. charts, so Shillingford arranged a series of farewell concerts for My Life Story at the end of 2000, and the band went on hiatus for six year. In 2006 they reunited with the full line-up of thirteen members to play two concerts to celebrate the release for two 2006 compilations: 'Sex & Violins (The Best Of My Life Story)' and 'Megaphone Theology: B-Sides and Rarities'. The reunions so were successful that My Life Story again became a going concern, and further reunions have taken place every two years, beginning with a 2007 show at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, followed by a 2009 concert where they played 'Mornington Crescent' in its entirety. Shillingford assembled a streamlined edition of My Life Story for a 2013 U.K. tour, and in 2016 the group released their first single in 16 years, '24 Hour Deflowerer'. The next two years found the band playing Brit-pop revival package tours, and all this activity culminated with the 2019 release of 'World Citizen', the band's first album in nearly 20 years, which was crowd-funded with pre-orders from fans. A new album, 'Loving You Is Killing Me', was released earlier this year, and despite only releasing five long-players, the band didn't waste anything that they recorded during that time, adding over 40 non-albums tracks to the b-sides of their singles and EP's. The 'Megaphone Theology' compilation was a pretty good attempt at collecting these tracks, but it did miss quite a few of them, including all the music from that first 1986 EP, so this post has every non-album track that the band added to their singles.
Track listing
Disc I - 1986-1996
01 Home Sweet Zoo (from the 'Home Sweet Zoo' EP 1986)
02 Boring Dream (from the 'Home Sweet Zoo' EP 1986)
03 The Sliding Bookcase (from the 'Home Sweet Zoo' EP 1986)
04 Star Colliding (b-side of 'Girl A, Girl B, Girl C' 1993)
05 First Person Singular (b-side of 'You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes)' 1994)
06 Stood Amongst Friends (b-side of 'You Don't Sparkle (In My Eyes)' 1994)
07 The Lady Is A Tramp (b-side of 'Funny Ha Ha' 1994)
08 These Words Are Haunting (b-side of 'Funny Ha Ha' 1994)
09 Funny Peculiar (b-side of 'Funny Ha Ha' 1994)
10 Checkmate (from the 'Mornington Crescent Companion' EP 1995)
11 Outdoor Miner (from the 'Mornington Crescent Companion' EP 1995)
12 Emerald Green (b-side of 'Sparkle' 1996)
13 Megaphone Theology (b-side of 'Sparkle' 1996)
14 The Garden Fence Affair (b-side of 'Sparkle' 1996)
Disc II - 1996-1997
01 17 Reasons Why I Love Her (b-side of 'Sparkle' 1996)
02 Lover's Recipe (b-side of '12 Reasons Why I Love Her' 1996)
03 Lady Somerset (b-s (b-side of '12 Reasons Why I Love Her' 1996)
04 Silently Screaming (b-side of '12 Reasons Why I Love Her' 1996)
05 Heaven Suitcase (b-side of '12 Reasons Why I Love Her' 1996)
06 A Boy Called Daydream (b-side of 'The King Of Kissingdom' 1997)
07 Stuck Up Your Own Era (b-side of 'The King Of Kissingdom' 1997)
08 I Love You Like Gala (b-side of 'The King Of Kissingdom' 1997)
09 Sir Richard Steele (b-side of 'The King Of Kissingdom' 1997)
Disc III - 1997
01 The Return Of Emerald Green (b-side of 'Strumpet' 1997)
02 Wallpaper (b-side of 'Strumpet' 1997)
03 Welcome To My Archipelago (b-side of 'Strumpet' 1997)
04 Waiting To Explode (b-side of 'Strumpet' 1997)
05 I Faced The Music (b-side of 'Strumpet' 1997)
06 March 9th (b-side of 'Strumpet' 1997)
07 Duchess (single 1997)
08 Birthday Suit (b-side of 'Duchess')
09 Emerald Green Strikes Back (b-side of 'Duchess')
10 Love Scene (b-side of 'Duchess')
11 Cherries (b-side of 'You Can't Uneat The Apple' 1997)
Disc IV - 1999-2000
01 I'm A Statistic (b-side of 'Empire Line' 1999)
02 Paint It Emerald Green (b-side of 'Empire Line' 1999)
03 Sleep (b-side of 'Empire Line' 1999)
04 It's A Boy Thing (b-side of 'Empire Line' 1999)
05 Emerald Green Blah Blah (b-side of 'It's A Girl Thing' 1999)
06 Florence's Theme (b-side of 'It's A Girl Thing' 1999)
07 My Sweet Little Death (b-side of 'It's A Girl Thing' 1999)
08 E.G.M.C.M.X.C.I.X. (b-side of 'It's A Girl Thing' 1999)
09 The History Of The World On Ice (b-side of 'Why Aren't You Dead Yet' download 1999)
10 Holy Deadlock (b-side of 'Walk/Don't Walk' 2000)
11 Self Defence Mechanism (b-side of 'Walk/Don't Walk' 2000)
