Howard Eliott Payne (born 5 November 1975 in Liverpool) is an English singer-songwriter, and former frontman of The Stands, which he formed in 2003. Prior to forming The Stands, Payne had been in a number of Liverpool bands. He fronted first band The Magic Clock,The Windmills with Keith O'Neill later of Cast on drums,Telefone and Blueseed.[4] He was also the lead guitarist in The Big Kids with former Stairs frontman Edgar Jones. along with brother Sean Payne and Russell Pritchard who both went on to play in The Zutons. The Stands were together for two and a half years together and signed to Echo Records. The band had a succession of 5 top 40 UK singles, toured with acts including Oasis,The Libertines, Spiritualized, Paul Weller, and Jet, and released two albums, All Years Leaving and Horse Fabulous. Despite this success, Payne grew frustrated by the artistic constraints of being in The Stands, quit the group and returned to the USA, spending time in Texas and Los Angeles before returning once more to England and teaming up with producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams/Kings of Leon/Ray Lamontagne/Emmylou Harris) to record his debut solo album Bright Light Ballads under his full name Howard Eliott Payne. Bright Light Ballads was recorded and mixed in seven days using a vintage 8 track tape machine. Other musicians on the record include singer Candie Payne (Payne's sister), Dean Ravera (formerly of The Stands) and Ethan Johns, among others. The album was released digitally through Payne’s own label "Move City Records" on 14 April 2009, and entered the iTunes Folk Album Charts at #1 and the iTunes Albums Charts at #13. The album was then given a physical CD release in the UK on 5 May 2009.