Entertainment For Lively Minds
Gone AND forgotten: The hitmakers who have been airbrushed out of history
Posted by Five-Centres on 18 June 2010 - 3:47pm.
Sometimes it might be good thing, but there's a number of bands who enjoyed success who no one talks about anymore, and who you rarely, if ever, hear on the radio outside of Pick Of The Pops, like:
Nazareth
Amazulu
Marmalade
Arrival
Mr Mister
New World
Roger Whittaker
Hipsway
The Glitter Band
Lyndsey De Paul
Matchbox
King
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch
Mari Wilson
...to name but a few.
Any more?
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You don't hear...
...the Glitter Band's singer on the radio much nowadays, either.
Popular misconception
None of the Glitter Band's own hits featured Gary Glitter. But the fact that everyone thinks they did means they never get heard anymore.
Conversely & perversely...
... none of the Gary Glitter hits featured The Glitter Band (everything was played by Glitter and producer Mike Leander, apparently), though they did play together live.
The first time the Glitter Band and Gary Glitter performed on record together was for their version of "Suspicious Minds" on the BEF "Music Of Quality & Distinction" album.
Is it a misconception?
I would have assumed that most people knew they were a seperate entity, or else what would be the point of their releasing stuff if the Leader/Paeder (delete as appropriate) was featured on it anyway?
as Luke Haines has it
...I believe the Glitter
...I believe the Glitter Band renamed themselves " The G Band " towards the end of their original 70s UK run , didn't they ?
Maybe they could try that again...
The Thompson Twins
They were everywhere for a while but outstayed their welcome. As a result they don't seem to be remembered.
ABBA were, for about 10 years, forgotten and widely derided if ever mentioned.
TT were a
haircut band that is why no one remembers them.
That bloke who did Seasons in the Sun
Terry Jacks? Sappy death song that seemed to be No1 for ages in the seventies
That song is remembered even now though
Mostly via football chants.
One hit wonder though wasn't he ?
Terry Jacks was the James Blunt of his day...
... loathed by all except those who bought his records. Jacks wasn't quite a one-hit wonder, he had a minor follow-up hit with another bowdlerised translation of another Jaques Brel song, "If You Go Away", but disappeared after that...
PS Brel's original of "Seasons In The Sun" ("Le Moribund") is far from "sappy"...
Me First...
...And The Gimme Gimmes gleefully massacred that song in Bay Area punk fashion a while back. I liked their version.
Until
He won Superstars.
at least he had
joy and he had fun
He had
City on the run...
sadly
the joy didn't last
Their season
has all gone
Only because they came up in conversation recently...
... how about B*Witched? Their first four (that's four) singles entered the charts at number one in 1998/9, their debut album sold a million in the US, and I defy you to hum as much as a line from any of those songs. Hardly Massive territory I admit, but a good example of "how soon they forget."
On a ratio of record sales against how little they're heard these days, I don't think you can beat The Boomtown Rats - a great run of singles, including 2 big number ones, and I can't remember the last time I heard/saw them...
I can totally hum...
...three B*Witched songs. "C'est La Vie", "Rollercoaster" and "Blame It On The Weatherman". "Rollercoaster" was a cracking little pop song.
I can hum the fourth
"To You I Belong" is was called. I can actually also hum the first single from their "difficult" second album too. In my defence, this all happened before I was in my teens... honest...
And I can hum Jesse Hold On
So between us, we've got it covered.
let's form a tribute act
- we could be called B*fuddled.
Or...
...B*Smirched.
B*Hayve
(sic)
B*Ald
A cut above the rest!
WHAT ARE YOU
LOIKE?
I fight like me Dad as well
Rollercoaster is easily the pick of the bunch
Pick Of The Pops is indeed the place
Tune into Dale Winton's show on a Saturday afternoon, and it seems dedicated to airing the chart tracks which have tipped into often deserved obscurity. So much so that if the chart that week had The Specials/Bunnymen/whatever or loads of Stars On 45 records you just KNOW which will the ones Dale will play.
Ah, King, Paul King. Surely the most fearsome ligger of his generation. Once described as a man who would turn up for the opening of a colostomy bag.
I rather liked Mari Wilson though. She knew how to put on a show.
Love and pride
Seem to recall that due to the rather inclement weather conditions at Glastonbury 85 that King played two sets and in each they played Love & Pride twice. That wouldn't happen now
I was at Uni at the time
And my next door neighbour used to put the 7" single of that on his record player, on repeat. Until we would burst into his room, pin him down, remove the record & threaten physical violence if we heard it again.
Good song, mind.
Whatever Happened To
the King spinoff band - Joboxers - disappeared without trace, I think.
Edit: Whoops, have just scrolled down and seen 3 more references - sorry!
JoBoxers weren't a King spin-off...
... they were formerly Subway Sect (as in "Vic Godard &") plus singer Dig Wayne.
I was a King fan almost by default, as I was a student in Coventry at the time they were getting their record deal, and saw them play probably a dozen times - they were actually a storming live act, which didn't really come across in their 15 minutes in the spotlight, though I still enjoy their first album.
Nothing wrong with King.
I think King were actually a great little pop act, but suffered i think from being strangely marketed. I still occasionally dig their stuff out for a spin.
You can see why
Looking at that list, they are all pretty naff. I like This Flight Tonight by Nazareth, though, and I agree with Doods about Mari Wilson.
Mostly, I'd say gone & best forgotten.
Worldbeating hitmakers
There were several acts in the late 80s/early 90s who mustered a clutch of hefty hits yet elicit blank-eyed stares today
The Pasadenas (8 top 40 hits? EIGHT?)
The London Boys
Technotronic
Though I believe the least-remembered big hits of this era are the top 3 chart singles of Mr Holly Johnson.
Sometimes I have to type the names of groups like these into everyhit.com just to prove that I didn't imagine their careers.
Here's a good fake fact to try to spread around: "I believe Clarke Peters of the Wire was in the Pasadenas."
John
London Boys
Not forgotten by a Mr P Crowther of Oxford. He's posted their video more than once if memory serves.
Not forgotten, but certainly gone
Tragically, they both died in a car accident in the mid 90s. And one of their hits was called Requiem. Eeps.
How could I possibly forget them?
Strong candidates for worst act of all time!
Career highpoint
I believe they did the backing vocals for Microdisney's United Colours.
Which is something.
No, really it is.
"Colours of brain rot -shot to hell"
oh and standard SPT response to a Word thread
Red Box.
'nuff said. I listened to their album again the other day. It wasn't as good as I remembered.
What a fact!
I am writing that one down. It's a goodie.
Red Box
Coincidentally, their second album Motive features a guest turn by Mari Wilson, featured elsewhere on this thread. Is there a herding instinct amongst forgotten hitmakers?
a few to start with
JoBoxers
Linx
Freez
C&C Music Factory
You lose one point...
... for missing out one of the "e"s in Freeez.
Didn't they completely change members between "Southern Freeez" and "I.O.U"?
Well
There was no sign of that woman on IOU.
Jazz funk was shortlived, but it did give us Shakatak, and for that we should be eternally grateful.
Freeez's IOU is still revered by old soulboys...
Sean McCluskey of the JoBoxers has had various other musical guises and has been a man-about-town club promoter and mischievous svengali type ever since acid house.
But it's still not as good as ..
.. Southern Freeze
Just Got Lucky
Remember when JoBoxers were all the rage? For about five minutes. And Roman Holiday? I'd love to hear Stand By again.
I love Linx's Intuition. There are far worse songs that still get airplay.
Linx begat
David Grant, who still turns up on reality telly and stuff about god.
He's still "down wiv da kids"
those of us with small children will shout "popshop" at the mention of his name.
'Stand By'
Not quite how I remembered it
Not heard it since 1983, which is written through that video like a stick of rock
Gordon bleedin
Bennett.
I've got the Roman Holliday (two 'L's) album. Cookin' on the Roof. Every single song sounds exactly like the one before. Fun while it lasts but, like masturbation, feels a bit empty afterwards.
Wasn't there a bit of a JoBoxers v Roman Holliday (two 'L's) standoff at one point? Don't know about you but I think the 'Boxers would have battered 'em.
how about
Tracie?
Pepsi and Shirlie?
Phil Fearon and Galaxy?
Tight Fit? (produced by Tim Friese-Greene of Talk Talk!)
Toyah? ('Thunder In The Mountains', 'It's A Mystery' or 'I Want To Be Free')
BTW, we don't have to MISS the acts we're remembering, do we?
I've not exactly lost sleep over not hearing Pepsi & Shirlie or Tight Fit...
Wouldn't mind hearing Nick Heyward's never-played solo hits again though. (wanders off in the direction of YouTube...)
Or, for that matter
Daphne and Celeste, those famous two hit wonders.
I did think about posting the video of them getting bottled off at Reading, but, you know...
I did try and give...
...you more than one up arrow for posting the fabulous Daphne & Celeste (their first mention here?), but the board wouldn't let me.
Daphne & Celeste...
The band Shampoo could have been.
RC I think you'll find the title
was "It's a mithtery"
Didn't she release an album called Anthem?
As in, "Tall, dark and..."?
I've got a soft spot for DDDBM&T
Their Greatest Hits album was part of the soundtrack of my formative years. The Legend Of Xanadu still sounds unique to my ears, and Hold Tight, Zabadak! and Last Night In Soho are fine 60s pop songs.
And, fact fans, Dave Dee was the copper present at the scene of the accident which killed Eddie Cochran...
Me too. You can't really fault them
and I also have a soft spot for Tracie's Give It Some Emotion. Isn't time for a Respond retrospective CD? And I'm an unashamed fan of Phil Fearon's Everybody's Laughing.
There's a Tracie Young CD..
...coming out next month, as the lady herself posted here.
Give It Some Emotion was great...
And she had another song that I liked even more. Remember I Love You When You Sleep? Beautiful. Written by Declan McManus, y'know.
This'll take you back...
Charmingly unpolished performances you got from your female popsters in them days. See also Jo & Sue from t'League, the bananaramas, Pepsi & Shirlie...
A world away from Pussycat Doll Land, and no bad thing imho.
BTW, is it just me or does she look surprisingly like 80s pop star nonpareil Nick Heyward in this video?
I like it when
former hitmakers are on their last legs and effect a name change to symbolise a 'new direction' or line up change. Thus,
Kajagoogoo became Kaja
Kissing the Pink became KTP
Curiosity Killed the Cat became 'Curiosity'
The Beach Boys toyed with dropping the 'Boys'
Madness added a 'The'
any others?
You are Simon Bates
And I claim my five pounds.
You forgot The Spands.
Prentencieux? Them?
Duran Duran turned into duranduran for a while.
What about Genesis?
Briefly recaptured some chart form as 'Marillion'.
Marmalade
Had a bit of a purple patch after Ob la di and The Loving Things..they started writing their own stuff: Reflections of My Life
complete with a great Maccaesque bass part,Cousin Norman, My Little One, Radancer..bought the best of for five dollars Canadian and I love it!
Rainbow
That's my favourite
Modern Romance
Nothing more to add really.
More to the 'January' hitmakers than handclaps
Christ
l hated Pilot
Or as I like to think of them...
...The Alan Parsons Project
Pale Fountains
One of Bransons few mistakes... they received the biggest ever advance in music history. Although given that they knocked this out they'd get my quarter of a million.
Notable nowadays
For having Michael Head of Shack/Strands fame in their line-up. I mean fame in a very much Word sense here....
Jimmy the Hoover
The "Tantalise" hitmakers rarely get a mention for some reason.
Oh and The Christians and London Beat were two genuinely good bands that have completely disappeared.
The Christians
have obviously disappeared in Forgotten Town.
They're still going
doing Pub gigs, I saw a poster advertising a show in Mold in North Wale. Not sure who is in the band now.
Jimmy The Hoover
A Malcolm McLaren misfire IIRC. Loved that song, with it's African hi-life lilt. Not on CD or itunes or anything.
Fills the brief of the OP then
Because during the lengthy recent articles about the career of Malcolm McLaren, much was made of his zeitgeist-hugging, svengali midas touch - but little mention of the 'hooves.
"The Hoover" made the front page of Smash Hits
Jimmy the hoover
O,O, E, Yeah yeah, I remember them.
Sorry I just had to do it.
It was bound to happen !
John Kongos
Couple of Big Hits - one later covered by Happy Mondays
They covered the other one, also...
Didn't know that
I do now - cheers for filling a gap in my ignorance
It was because
Step On was recorded for an Elektra compilation album. The Mondays having covered Step On, Nathan (son of Roger) McGough realised they'd created an enormous hit record so they quickly knocked this off this for the Elektra album instead. Not very good is it.
John Kongos
Happy Mondays covered Tokoloshe man as well as Step on.
I've just come across
The seventies channel on You Tube and can offer:
Middle of the Road. I think I was just too young to appreciate the singer in the way she deserved.
I also offer Sailor and their rather unique pronunciation of the word "Champagne". I think this still sounds fresh.
Sailor. Not a million miles away from...
...Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music. If Bry and Brian gurned a bit more and acted a little more bonkers, then they could have taken an enormous slab of the lucrative Sailor audience with them.
I was thinking on the same lines
The start of "....Champagne" is very "Virginia Plain", isn't it?
Damn you Thomas the Rhymer /// shakes fist
was scrolling down this thread and thought "Sailor" ... then saw that no one had mentioned them ... then got to the bottom and ... but hang on, what about Girls, Girls, Girls?
I think I'm alone with this one
but the first time I heard Franz Ferdinand, I thought of this song.
As it goes,
I believe FF have actually acknowledged their debt to Sailor...
My friend and I had a spooky Sailor moment
at the recent BFI rare music TV screening there was a newly unearthed mid 70's Top Of The Pops and before it started one of us said. "What you expecting?" to which the other said "Oh probably Sailor- Glass Of Champagne'.
Imagine our surprise when after the theme faded out up popped the afformention GGGHM with that song.
Someone I know
got taught A-level Chemistry by the drummer from Sailor
Amen.
To this.
Dorothy Moore - Misty Blue
the only tune I know by her, but its a corker.
I will admit to being a bit of a guilty pleasures nerd. I used to tape these 70's TOTP repeats back in the early 90's when they were shown on UK Gold. Thats where my taste for the naff 70's tracks started. So whilst we're on the subject here's a few that have disappeared and you hardly ever heard being played, like was said before, only on Dales Pick of the Pops (another show that I download every week to listen to on my ipod, just so I can find a "lost classic.")
I could go on but that's enough punishment. I'll try and find some good ones now......
when I was 12...
... I thought that Noosha Fox was all of teh sex ... Alison Goldfrapp's spiritual auntie ...
When I saw the picture of Noosha Fox up there
my first thought was 'Alison Goldfrapp's Mum'
Well, I never...
realised this:
was in fact a cover of this:
I always loved the former, but now I've heard the original I'm not suire which is better. Noosha's certainly on one for this video, though!
You forget 'context' don't you?
Lene Lovich, Souixsie, Kate Bush - complete originals all, but all would surely have at least seen Noosha Fox on telly.
Latin Quarter - Radio Africa
Radio Africa
Fabulous, havent heard it in years, going to hunt it down tomorrow.
Yep, I love Radio Africa....
Here's some more....
that Pete Wylie
- what a mover, eh?
Wylie
to be fair is still active and ligging backstage at a show near you.
The Lotus Eaters are back back back and currently on tour!
My Lotus Eaters story
When I went to Liverpool Poly in the mid eighties, the FPOYHM were star turn at the Freshers Ball, one of my earliest gigs, I think my first after turning 18. Anyway they started playing their set, no FPOY. They played their follow up song which was recognisable, then back to the rest of their set. Still no FPOY. Band finishes, walk off, crowd calls for encore... The Lotus Eaters re-appear for the encore and play... the follow up single to the hit record again. Bemused audience, confused me, didn't know if this was par for the course with pop bands - not playing their one bona-fide hit.
Anyway I wonder if they will be so willfully contrary about playing that song on the revival tour? I'm not going to risk it...
takes me back
I'd forgotten all about them. Very popular with the right on types of mid '80s London. Saw them live once. The drumemr didn't turn up. They were played a lot on a brilliant pirate radio station called Alice Restaurant. Now that was real radio. Just had a listen to this on Spotify...its not bad.
Hazel O'Connor.....
.....Will You......ace tune.
Shame they took out the sax solo
Even if it does pretty much double the length of the song. Top stuff from Wesley Magoogan, later of the Beat. Wonder where he is now?
Kevin Coyne!
Coyne had been a blind spot for me musically, partly because when I saw him mentioned I thought people were just talking about one of the Coyne brothers from Sid Presley Experience / The Godfathers, but mainly because he actually practically never did get mentioned. Then came Virgin's reissues last year and I discovered a) how could some of his records were and b) how popular he'd actually been. Why was he not as documented and revered in retrospect as so many others of the heyday of Serious Rock? Was he maybe not serious enough?
Also, whatever happened to The Screaming Blue Messiahs?
Gone and almost forgotten
Pickettywitch - That Same Old Feeling
Candlewick Green - Who Do You Think You Are
Sad Cafe - Every Day Hurts
The Passions - I'm In Love With a German Film Star
Closest Thing To Heaven - The Kane Gang
Red Guitars - Good Technology
Champion Doug Veitch - Jumping Into Love
Every one a classic in it's own small way
Roger Whittaker
Sir, your contention that the Durham Town hitmaker is forgotten is confounded by the number of times he has appeared in threads on this blog.
Enter his name into search and you'll find many threads popping up, allowing you to sink into a reverie soundtracked by I Don't Believe In If Anymore.
Rumours that it was hearing this song that led to Terry Smith's departure from the eponymous British jazz rock combo are totally unfounded.
Whatever Happened To Terry Smith?
used to see him at the Bulls Head a lot when I lived in London. Also a member of Zzebra.
Also, whatever happened to:-
Saw her at Ronnie Scott's once
I was a huge fan. She was big in France. Where is she now. An amazing voice.
Me too
Used to love him - Zzebra's instrumental version of You've Lost That Loving Feeling was brilliant.
Did I hear somewhere that the residents of the new flats built adjacent to the Bulls Head have complained about the noise from the pub?
Bad Day
One of the best videos from the video era in my book. I love the simplicity of the idea, and particularly like the bass drum shots.
She got blanded to death ...
... by Sade
Terry Smith
Terry is still a regular around the London jazz circuit. You can also find some of his more recent cds at www.actonerecords.co.uk
Thanks !
Doctor !
badfinger
?
Grand Funk Railroad ?
Absolutely mega huge for 3 years 72-75 in the States, selling out enormodomes left right and centre then fell off the face of the earth.
All three members are (I think) still with us. Surely there's a re-union in the offing. The t-shirt sales in marketing them as Homer Simpsons favourite band must have the old kerching value if nothing else.
Considering their current standing
as Britain's favourite primetime impish double-act, you don't hear anything by Let's Get Ready to Rumble hitmakers, Ant and Dec, on the radio these days.
It's also been a fair while since I heard a 911 song too (not that that's a bad thing)
Well, whither 5ive? Or Another Level?
Both huge, both fading fast from memories (apart from Dane Bowers's Big Brother stint).
I saw Blue's attempt to get on the Take That comeback goodwill bandwagon at a Capital FM gig last summer. It was woeful, they were dressed up in Mad Max via Deptford Market drag, and nobody really cared. Apart from one of Birds Of A Feather who was sat along the row from us getting drunk with her kids - they all seemed to be very into it.
The road to hell
is littered with the corpses of boy and girlbands:
Hepburn
Atomic Kitten
Central Line
Two Thirds
Yell
Red Alert
...to name but a few. There was one band with a song I quite liked, but I can't remember song or band. Like Another Level, late Nineties, but kind of slightly older
Damage?
They had some fairly decent R&B / swingbeat type songs... again, big hits, but do we remember them (other than the fact one of them squired Emma Bunton)? Do we arse.
As much as I hate to admit it
You're really talking my era, as far as chart music goes; I was a big Smash Hits reader at the time. I actually owned a Hepburn single. Whither also:
Code Red
The Thunderbugs
Kick Angel
Point Break
Buffalo G
Anyway, I'll stop now, except to say I don't think the band F-C mentioned above were called Central Line, they were Northern Line.
One more thing, I note with interest that Hanson have just released a new album.
Fraser, where do I hand in my honorary membership card for The Massive...?
No none of those
It's driving me mad. Not RnB, but the singer had kind of gingery, sandy hair. I've left my ipod at home so I can't check it (yes it is on there - I worked at the place where TV Hits and Sugar, etc, were produced during so I could get freebies of any song I liked. There were few, but I cherish Mmmbop and C'est La Vie and Child by Mark Owen. One day they might be worth something).
Anyway, you're right Joe, it was Northern Line.
I saw who I'm sure was Point Break perform once song at a Disney press do once, and afterwards the main guy was changing in the loo, sweating like a pig and vowing to give it all up. It was too exhausting. He got his wish.
How did the song go?
Were they male/female, four/five of them? Any more details and I'll see if I can work it out.
Three of them, all male
Quite a tall lead singer, but I can't remember how it went or what it's called or anything and it was one of a few hits, possibly their biggest.
Over to you, Joe.
Was it The Moffats?
That's the only answer I can think of, and I'm fairly sure there were four of them.
This is the kind of thing that will drive me mad, please check your iPod and report back!
No, that's not it
I'm thinking Another Level, but I'm pretty sure it's not that. I'll check when I get home. I can picture them, but just can't pluck that name out of the depths.
Edit: Ooh, it's something 'World'?
It was Let Loose!
Still can't remember the name of the song though.
Crazy For You?
Yes!
That's it. Thanks. At last, it's come back to me.
I remember them!
That wasn't exactly on the tip of my tongue though, unfortunately. However, it has reminded me of other boy bands completely airbrushed from history, like Ultra, OTT and Bad Boys Inc.
Hepburn had...
...a very foxy bassist.
Mmmm.
Hepburn's bassist was rather saucy, wasn't she?
Looked like the young Traci Lords if I recall
She's a policeman woman now you know
Hepburn's bassist was rather saucy, wasn't she?
*
The Maisonettes
I really like this homage to sixties soul:
AFAIK, they never bothered the airways again.
If you look carefully, you'll realize there is a connection with a previous bunch of forgotten hitmakers, City Boy:
Obscure fact of the day
The Maisonettes DID in fact bother the charts again. They sang backing vocals on Belle and Sebastian's Legal Man.
The bass player
was the PhD supervisor of a colleague of mine
and here's his website: http://www.elsom-cook.com/
(previously mentioned herein)
More, more, more X 2
Carmel - huge in france by all accounts
Andrea true connection - I dont think they ever bothered the charts again, however, it was sampled on "steal my sunshine" by Len.
Carmel
I saw her support the Bunnymen. Quite an odd pairing.
Cadbury's
do a Caramel Bunny. They're very nice. :-)
Five Star
Again, not a band for the Word audience but they had a dozen top 20 hits in the mid 80s.
I remember them fondly for the telephone call abuse they received on Going Live, "I'd just like to ask 5Star, why they're so fucking crap" - this even gets a mention on wiki.
Oh god
Five Star! I can't remember their songs, but I vividly recall the thick layers of make up and clouds of hairspray that they were dipped in! They looked plastic...
And one of the sisters were briefly engaged to be married to Eddie Murphy, until he broke it off...it was all a little bizarre.
They used to compare themselves to the Jackson family in interviews, and go on about not having sex before marriage, etcetera.
What ever happened to them ?
They went bankrupt, didn't they?
I used to really like the song Rain Or Shine, and System Addict has a certain something. But as you say, long forgotten now.
One of the chaps in 5 Star got arrested ...
...for a George Michael-style toilet trading incident, which didn't exactly help their squeaky clean image
Is he
a Cistern Addict?
A lot of bands on this thread from the period
... when the 70s met the 80s. Another two from that time:
New Musik
Fischer Z
Anyone still play them? I did at the time.
Liked them both
Not sure New Musik has aged too well. Still play my Fischer z lps though..
remember really liking New Musik's brief run of hits as a kid..
especially World Of Water. They weren't the coolest-looking combo
though - and the lead singer had an unfortunate resemblace to Keith Harris
Thomas Dolby
I Scare Myself is a cracking song. Is he still around?
Didn't he
invent something to do with mobile phones ?
( He deafened us with science, ha-ha-not-so-much-ha )
Composed
the Nokia Ring Tone (apparently)
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dolby)
late entries
anyone mentioned Rip Rig and Panic yet?
Sniff and the Tears
The Flying Pickets
Phil Fearon
Kim Wilde
Hazel Deane
Jon Waite
shall I go on?
John Waite
is a blogger on this very site.
Possibly not the same one, though...
probably not, no
I've got a Best of 1984 tape and there's a song of his on there. and I have never, ever head of him. So not quite in the forgotten category.
how about Racey? Gonzalez?
Racey Gonzalez?
Wasn't he that cartoon mexican mouse?
Racey!
John waite
He was the singer in the Babys who Peter Powell was touting in late 77 as the big band for 78 - Isnt it time was there one & only (minor) hit, I thought it was shit hot.
The Babys...
... had one other great track, "Everytime I Think Of You", one of those big "Don't Stop Believing"-type rawk ballads, a personal guilty pleasure.
As for other artists mentioned earlier, I actually downloaded New Musik's debut album last year - the singles still sparkle, the album tracks, not so much... their leader, Tony Mansfield, was producer du jour for a few weeks in the 80s, with Captain Sensible (Mansfield is the keyboard player in the boiler suit on those TOTP clips) and A-Ha on his books.
Thomas Dolby was blogged here just last week, and is about to release a new album for download a few tracks at a time. He got into soundtracks ("Gothic" and, er, "Howard The Duck" spring to mind) after The Pop Years, before getting early into mobile phone ringtones, and by all accounts, making a fortune...
John Waite had huge hit in the US in 84
"Missing You" - it was everywhere that summer, inescapable.
Big Sound Authority
Recalling only the song title, I had to Google it to find the band's name...
The Seekers
This massive-selling band must really take the biscuit for being unfairly forgotten.
When it comes to any retrospective of the 60s British pop charts, these Antipodean folkies get completly airbrushed out of the picture. Rather cruel as The Carnival Is Over was one of the biggest selling songs of the entire decade, but you rarely hear it on the radio anymore. They were a pretty square bunch for a 60's group, but it's a cold heart that's never whistled along to Georgy Girl or gotten tingly when hearing Judith Durham's final high notes on Carnival
Not forgotten in my house
I've seen them live three times, much to Mrs F-C's chagrin. Judith Durham has one of the all time great voices, and Morningtown Ride always brings a little tear to one's eye.
Square Seekers?
That was always the image that came over and that I had for years.
However some years back I read the novel The Doubleman by C J Koch. Telling the story of the birth and growth of a folk group in Australia in the early 60's, the author in his acknowledgements thanks Keith Potger of the The Seekers for background information on the then folk scene. I don't think the novel purports to be any sort of roman à clef, but I think it does indicate the Seekers may not have been quite as unworldly as their image suggested.
The Pearls
Guilty - "caught in possession of this heart of mine, and you're guilty of love" etc etc. Great pap from the House of Bell, a hit in 1974, and I don't think I've heard it since. Apparently one of them married the Beatles' drummer...
Spirea X
I think their lead man had been in an early incarnation of Primal Scream, before going on to form Spirea X. I may be wrong but I think their debut EP came out on Creation in about 1991. It was called Chlorine Dream and was actually quite good, ploughing the more Byrdsy end of the shoegazing field. I Never got round to the album but I believe it is currently on itunes....
Terry Reid
Television Personalities
Terence Trent Darby
The Beloved
Diamond Life?
When I worked in a record shop, we sold Sade's album by the TRUCKLOAD - it even outsold 'Steeltown' by Big Country, and that's saying something. Now, I know she's got a new album out n' all but when these 'I remember the '80's' programmes turn up, whither her smoove white XR3i and Malibu vocal style?
ah, but
this was a reply to The Pale Fountains clip which I've managed to post in the wrong place
given that Mick and John went on to be the incomparable and eternally under appreciated Shack, giving us 20 more years of gorgeousness and serving as a version of Love for Arthur Lee in the mid 90s, surely Branson's mistake was in letting them go?
As an aside, apparently the orchestra on Thank You was the Geoff Love Orchestra supposedly due to the fact that when asked which orch the lads wanted to use, Geoff's was (they claimed) the only one they knew by name
The Adventures
wonderfully 80's
Couldn't agree more
Pat Gribben could write a pop tune, singer Terry Sharpe managed to pull Kerin from Bananarama and Broken Land was the most played record on radio of its year. This despite it only scraping the top 20. The band were a very enjoyable live attraction too. Sadly, the world failed to take notice.
Double
"The Captain of Her Heart"
I'm not really that old but
the unwholesomely wholesome Johnny Ray, Bill Haley and Pat Boone seemed to have been erased from history by the credibility airbrush, despite leaving a massive smear on the pop charts.
Spare a thought also for the unholy duo of Acker Bilk, and Frank Ifield, who along with Sir Cliff, managed to whack out the three biggest selling singles in British history within a couple of months of each other back in 1962.
Lest anyone forget, David Soul and his moustache were the biggest pop double act of 1977, and Pat Boone's Grammy-winning devilbitchspawn Debbie released the USA's biggest selling of the 1970's in the chilling (but in no way chillin') "You Light Up My Life".
Wither now Hot Chocolate, the band whose snake-hipped white-denim doggedness and "consistency" made them the true Beatles Of The Seventies? What is left of them but a single "sexy" relic that still thrills the crumblies on H.R.T. FM?
Where now Jonathan King, who left a vuvuzeloid trail of pop trash across the 1970's that was even wider than his own mouth, but who is now solely remembered for his overzealous early-morning bum-juice delivery rounds.
And let's not forget that high-school gate-hangers and perennial CRB-bottlers The Knack released the best selling album AND single of the year in the USA in 1979.
And who now remembers that John Wayne's leggy was quite big, or that Jimmy The Hoover were so massive for a weekend that they even got a namecheck from Vera Duckworth in The Kabin?
Frank Ifield
I have a soft spot for the B-side of his "big hit". I often sing "She tought me how to yodel" when I'm in a good mood.
Hot Chocolate - good call, Pax!
There have been a lot of one-hit wonders brought up on this thread, but The Chocs (as nobody called them) had thirty (thirty!) chart hits from 1970-1984, plus a clutch of later re-release hits (including 2 top tenners), Errol Brown had/has a great smooth soul voice, and they deserve more than being "that band who did that song from that film." And how subliminally witty is this greatest hits sleeve?
PS Doubt if they made much money from Suicide crooner Alan Vega's unrecognisable cover of "Every 1's A Winner", either...)
Yes, very good calL
They were indeed massive. My favourite: I Believe (In Love), their first hit IIRC.
DDDBM&T's " Hold Tight ".........
...DID get a full-length , mentioned-in-the-picture , showcase in the 2000s in Quentin Tarentino's " GRINDHOUSE/DEATH PROOF "...which did absolutely nada for them ( at least at the time ) I suppose , so...:-(?
forgot about this one.............
Fiction Factory - Feels like heaven
hadn't heard it for years and whaddya know............. it just pops up like and old friend ..!!!
forgotten
Darts. All over TV at the time (and Den Heagarty was in Tiswas!) but never mentioned.
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Now yer talkin'..
Darts. My first favourite band. Bet I can name the lineup in that vid. OK..
Vox: Den Hegarty, Rita Ray, Griff Fender, Bob Fish
Guitar: George Currie
Piano: The sadly late Hammy Howell
Drums: John Dummer
Bass: Thump Thompson (Mate of Danny Baker's..)
Sax: Nigel Trubridge
Do I win five pounds?
Fine band the Darts
Are they still unavailable on CD (seem to be) - any sign of that ending?
Yes
- available here in compilation form...
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/directQuery.do?Ntt=darts&searchType=music&N=1622&N...
They're still going!
In fact they played London's 100 Club just four days ago. A mate went, although yet to hear his report.
Anyone mentioned Blue Mink?
Coffee coloured people - that's what we need.
Paul Young
Nary gets a mention or an airplay these days. Huge in his day. His backing singers made quite an impression on me when they appeared on The Tube.
Speaking of foxy bass players
... I saw them live and they were quite a powerful act but I think they were rendered obsolete by the ascendence of Muse, much as Starsailor were no longer required once Coldplay came along...
Headswim
I guess the mid 90s wasn't a good time to set out as a murky prog metal outfit
Granted I don't think this was a hit, but they had one a little later called Tourniquet which was a bit Radiohead lite
I see your Hot Chocolate
and raise you The Real Thing, also one of the finest UK soul bands
I don't know why
But I absolutely love that record. It's completely wonderful.
Rodeo Channeler....
I waited and waited, and the fact that they still remain strangers to this thread proves that they are the most airbrushed of the airbrushed. How quickly we forget: ten Top Ten hits, a million-selling number one that outsold every other single in 1976, 209 weeks on the charts, seven consecutive Top Five smashes, and still wowing the hen party circuit more than thirty years later with no less than five of their original complement on board.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the most terrifyingly large-mouthed Brummie ever to wear brothel creepers:
Or just perhaps
that no one's actually forgotten them - this song is very well remembered and loved around this manor.
Besides which, they're from Leicester.
Leicester?
All the same. It's North innit?
Oooh
get 'er! ;)
Oh please, please make it stop
I am transported back to school discos. And not in a good way.
The horror, the horror...
Yes - make it stop!
Romeo Challenger
also drummed with the CTTSH - but i'm sure you all knew that.
CTTSH?
I think OMGWTF would be more suitable.
I was in their fan club!
They may be regarded as a joke band but working backwards from their cover versions I discovered a lot of great rock'n'roll.
Lennon
couldn't have got arrested in Britain for 5 or 6 years before he snuffed it, amazing how history gets revised.
People were exasperated with him as I recall
and with Macca for that matter - but Lennon hadn't released any records at all. Macca was one of the biggest acts in the world, Lennon was looking after his son. What's your point?
Hayzee Fantayzee
Anyone mentioned them yet? 'John Wayne is Big Leggy'. Whats that all about?
It has a postscript
"I get to shag Patsy Kensit"
And appear as the sinister DJ
In Zoolander
No longer waiting for a train.
Flash & The Pan (Waiting for a train). Talk about self-fulfilling prophecy!
Danny Baker often plays Waiting For A Train
as a bumper.
http://open.spotify.com/track/0LUKGhmYjHUqSl3wmCFIZp
The Mobiles
"Drowning in Berlin". I am contractually obliged to mention them as I grew up on the mean streets of Eastbourne - "the hood". Soon to be joined by Toploader.
Also Hear'Say - whatever happened to the blokes?
A personal favourite
I loved then, & still love now, The first album by "The Stray cats"
B side
Did a great version of You Cant Hurry Love on the b side of Runaway Boys or Rock This Town, well before Phil Collins murdered it
Barry Blue
(or Barry Green as he really was) - produced the first classic 'Heatwave' Album.
Dave Dee...
...Cozy, Powell and Pressburger?
As a relative newcomer to
As a relative newcomer to the forum I don't want to tread any toes so I searched for them before writing this. A few mentions for It's Immaterial, if only for Driving Away From Home which makes me curiously proud to be Northern.