The Lighthouse Family set to reunite in Gibraltar

Lighthouse Family will be performing at the Gibraltar Calling Classic Stage this September.

The band that had great success of the late 90s and early 00s will be performing locally on Saturday, September 7 at the new Europa Point Sports Complex.

Lighthouse Family will return with a new studio album after 18 years, called ‘Blue Sky In Your Head'.

This year the band will celebrate their 25th anniversary.

Tunde Baiyewu and Paul Tucker formed Lighthouse Family after meeting at Newcastle University in the early 1990s.

Their 1995 debut album 'Ocean Drive' went six times platinum while staying in the album charts for almost three years.

'Lifted' became one of the defining songs of the era, a pop-soul classic that was inescapable on radio, becoming the soundtrack of high street Britain, drive-time Britain and night-out Britain.

The 1997 follow-up album, 'Postcards From Heaven', featured three Top Ten singles – 'Raincloud', 'High' and 'Lost In Space' – and also went six times platinum, charting across Europe, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand.

In 2001 the band were at breaking point. Their friendship burnt out after years on the road living in each other’s pockets.

Tunde was dealing with the grief of losing his mother, a situation complicated by the fact that his stepfather, Olusegun Obasanjo, was at the time the President of Nigeria.

In the intervening years Paul formed a band, The Orange Lights, while Tunde released two solo albums. But the old connection between the pair remained, and in 2010 they got back together with a view to making a fourth album.

By the time the band reunited again in 2016 they were determined to make a record.

'Blue Sky In Your Head' opens with the rippling, rolling, title track.

“Its theme is similar to ‘Ocean Drive’,” Mr Baiyewu said.

“A dream of a place, a dream of escape, something you want to get away to.”

Mr Tucker added: “And that's kind of what you want Lighthouse Family songs to do: put a Blue Sky In Your Head.”