History
Following Simply Red's 1991 album Stars, which garnered the band's greatest commercial success in the UK and worldwide at the time, Tim Kellett, one of 2 musicians from the original 6 still in the band (as trumpet/keyboard player and backing vocalist), left the band. Meanwhile, Robin Taylor-Firth had decided to branch out although continuing with George Evelyn's project Nightmares on Wax. The two met through a mutual friend who had recently joined Simply Red as bassist, and formed a musical collaboration (Robin Taylor-Firth cites the disparity between his relatively "underground" work among Sheffield's electronic music and DJ community, and Kellett's mainstream history).
By 1994, three demos (which would become "Miracle", "Falling" and "You're Not Alone") were recorded in Kellett's cellar studio, upon which the two began their search for a singer. At this time, Kellett went on tour as keyboardist with Vini Reilly's The Durutti Column (which he played for a decade ago prior to joining Simply Red). While playing back pre-recorded keyboard samples on stage, Kellett heard a favourable vocal sample; the voice was that of Ruth-Ann Boyle, who had provided the samples for The Durutti Column's 1994 album Sex and Death.
Kellett contacted Boyle about singing for the collaboration; at the time working in a bar, and though disillusioned from past experiences singing in bands, Boyle accepted. After a "kind of an audition" with "Miracle", Boyle's membership in the band was set. The completion of the three initial demos attracted the interest of various UK record labels, and Olive signed with the top bidder, RCA, in September 1995.
The songwriting and recording process concluded with the completion of their first album in January 1996. The first single, "You're Not Alone," was released in 1996. Although the song took a year for audiences in England to catch onto, it eventually made number one in 1997, after the release of a new, remixed version, selling over 500000 copies. Popularity in America and Australia was muted, with the track falling short of an American Top 40 position and being restricted to a small musical niche with Australians. "Outlaw" followed not long after, with similar responses, as well as their first album, Extra Virgin in 1996.
Riding the success of the remixed single, Extra Virgin was re-released with a bonus disc of remixes (by producers including Monkey Mafia, Roni Size, and the famed duo of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne) in 1997.
The band went on tour to promote the album with a seven-piece band, playing three episodes of Top of the Pops ("You're Not Alone" twice in May 1997, "Outlaw" in August), a ten-date UK tour, as well as legs in Germany (alongside Faithless) and the U.S.
In the time leading up to the release of the follow-up album, Robin Taylor-Firth had left the group to concentrate on Nightmares on Wax, and begin other projects (Sub Machena, BudNubac, Piano Segundo) bringing it down to a duo. He also founded BlancoMusic, a release platform for the aforementioned acts, plus others such as Mil i Maria. Meanwhile, Olive lost the support of RCA's UK branch, which dropped the band; however, they were then picked up by Madonna's Maverick Records (supposedly, with Madonna's personal approval after she attended one of their concerts in Germany).
In 2000, their presciently-named second album Trickle was released. While Trickle still displayed the distinctive Olive sound, the tunes were more dance-oriented. The best known song on this album was a cover of the 10cc song "I'm Not in Love"; it reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and was featured on the soundtrack to The Next Best Thing.
Since then little was heard of them. The band entered an extended hiatus. Kellett is focussing on songwriting for other artists so that he can spend more time with his family. Ruth-Ann joined Enigma as a vocalist, and released her first solo album What About Us on 4 June 2007. It was released exclusively through iTunes.
In 2009, Tinchy Stryder released a version of 'You're Not Alone', sparking new interest in Olive. Around the same time Digital Spy announced that Olive are working on their third album, due for release in early 2011. The album will feature Ruth Ann again on vocals, as well as featuring other special guest vocalists.
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