CLASSIC WIN BAlupeotortoathblespeaker!

CLASSIC POP

eighties
electronic
eclectic SOPHIE
ELLIS-BEXTOR KIM APPLEBY
MAY 2018

She´s back – with ˝We weren´t part

strings attached of the Hit Factory˝
KYLIE MINOGUE • GREEN GARTSIDE • PREFAB SPROUT • KIM APPLEBY • SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR • DAPHNE & CELESTE • THE BEAT STARRING DAVE WAKELING

GREEN GARTSIDE
How Scritti Politti‘s
creative genius fell
back in love with pop
SOPHISTI-POP

+
The 15 albums you
need to hear now!

Prefab Sprout
The Beat Starring
Dave Wakeling
Morrissey
Daphne
& Celeste
Chvrches
Sting & Shaggy
E SS O
R INC F Alison Moyet
Erasure
THE P

From PWL to Golden

PO
P

– we celebrate the Much more...

N dancefloor goddess
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V E R SA
40
CL ASSIC POP
M AY 18
ISSUE 40
9 772050 664327 PRICE £5.99

CP40.cover.print.indd 1 13/04/2018 09:55

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Sony Music_Eurythmics_CPMag_FP Ad.indd 1 03/04/2018 16:59

 WELCOME TO
CLASSIC

SOME POP STARS ARRIVE ON THE SCENE

AS THE FINISHED ARTICLE STRAIGHT OUT
OF THE BOX, WHILE OTHERS GRADUALLY
GROW INTO THE ROLE. KYLIE MINOGUE
IS DEFINITELY IN THE LATTER CATEGORY. 40
OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS, WE’VE SEEN
SEVERAL REINVENTIONS

AND THE ODD MISSTEP,
BUT MOST INTRIGUINGLY
OF ALL, THE GRADUAL
REFINEMENT OF artistic moment of clarity in the early
90s when she started taking control
A REMARKABLE of her musical output.
POP PERSONA.
I
t’s been fascinating to see Kylie’s
evolution from the days of the
Stock Aitken and Waterman
production line and witness her
Even more heartening is that
she achieved her biggest success
in her 30s. PWLKylie, IndieKylie,
DiscoKylie and now CountryKylie –
although we now know the last one
is somewhat of a red herring after
we’ve fully taken in her terrific new
album, Golden – there’s something
for every pop fan.
Here in the UK, Kylie may be the
most beloved pop artist of all time.
It seems almost ridiculous to say
there’s something of the underdog
about Kylie – anyone who can thrill
arena- and stadium-sized audiences
around the globe is no shrinking
violet, but she’s never given off
the bulletproof confidence of
Madonna and Beyoncé – there’s
an underlying fragility about her
which we perhaps find particularly
appealing on these shores.
Part of her enduring success
may be explained by her down-to-
earth, girl-next-door appeal. It’s
just now next door is a multi-million-
pound mansion complete with a
glitterball dancefloor.
And how bizarre to think that
30 years’ worth of albums, singles
and tours may never have occurred
without Kylie being spotted by
chance leading a Neighbours cast
singalong at a charity dinner...
In addition to our healthy chunk
of La Minogue, we hope you enjoy
our generous portion of sophisti-pop
in this month’s issue. Scritti Politti’s
Green Gartside grants us a very
rare audience to talk about his
ups and downs as a reluctant chart
star; we take an in-depth look
at the glorious Prefab Sprout and
kick off the debate about the Top 15
sophisti-pop albums of all time.
Does your favourite make our list?
Before I sign off, a quick
heads-up about the latest incarnation
of Classic Pop. In addition to our
print version and web, Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram online
presence, we’ve now got a mobile-
responsive app for those of you
who want to read the mag on
the go. Search for Classic Pop at
Pocketmags, iTunes and Google
Play. Enjoy the issue!
Steve Harnell, Editor
Follow me on Twitter:
@AnthemEditor

S U B S C R I B E

With our unique mix of features, interviews

and reviews, Classic Pop is unmissable.
Get yours delivered to your door – and
save yourself some cash – by subscribing.
@ClassicPopMag Turn to pages 102-103 for details.

CP40.Welcome.print.indd 3 13/04/2018 12:54

 CLASSIC RI
NC
E SS O
F

THE P

PO
P
N

RY
A
NI
V E R SA
CONTENTS
24
40
36 48 50
Follow us F E A T U R E S Hurley counts down his choice of the orchestral retrospective of reworked
KYLIE MINOGUE 24 best 15 sophisti-pop albums tracks titled The Song Diaries
From Ramsay Street to new album, LOWDOWN: PREFAB SPROUT 50 THE PRODUCERS 78
Golden, Mark Lindores traces how Matt Phillips reflects on the career Andy Jones meets Phil Harding, the
@ClassicPopMag the princess of pop has continually of the County Durham collective man behind hits for acts like East 17,
reinvented herself to stay on top of the KIM APPLEBY 54 911 and Boyzone
charts for the past 30 years Darren Scott looks back to a time when DAVE WAKELING 82
CLASSIC ALBUM 36 “anything was possible” for Kim Appleby The original singer of The Beat tells
We take an in-depth look at Kylie Minogue’s POP ART: AREA 60 Douglas McPherson about his new
eighth studio album, the mega-selling, Fever Andrew Dineley reviews the portfolio album Here We Go Love!
GREEN GARTSIDE 42 of Area with founder Richard Smith COMPETITION 109
Jonathan Wright meets the genius behind DAPHNE & CELESTE 66 Win a Braven Bluetooth speaker
Scritti Politti and discusses the highs and The Ooh Stick You and U.G.L.Y.
lows of the pop music industry hitmakers are back to save the world N E W S
TOP 15: SOPHISTI-POP 48 SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR 72 POP-UP 08
Featuring Curiosity Killed The Cat, Talk Talk, Ian Peel talks to the ever-evolving Our news round-up featuring Culture Club,
Deacon Blue, Kate Bush and ABC, Oliver Sophie Ellis-Bextor about her new George Michael, Pet Shop Boys and more...

CP40.Contents.print.indd 4 13/04/2018 10:39

 60
66
82
54
94
91

72 ONE HIT WONDER

Black Slate’s No.9 hit Amigo
10 Joy Division, Terence Trent D’Arby,
Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits and more
101
NEW ALBUMS
Featuring Sting & Shaggy, Chvrches,
89 Subscribe
110
Subscribe to Classic
Pop, save some cash
BURIED TREASURES 12 POPARAZZI 41 Alison Moyet and many more
Includes Erasure, Lloyd Cole and Kim Wilde Our readers with some of the REISSUES 94 (UK readers only)
LOST & FOUND 14 biggest names on planet pop Includes John Foxx, New York Dolls, Pages 102-103
Hot Chocolate’s eighth studio album, TOP 10: 26 MAY 1984 70 Brian Eno and The Human League

42
Love Shot Featuring Duran Duran, Wham!, Queen, COMPILATIONS 99
GODFATHERS OF POP 17 Deniece Williams, The Pointer Sisters, Including Revamp: Reimagining The Songs
With Foreigner’s Mick Jones Phil Collins, Kenny Loggins and more Of Elton John & Bernie Taupin
GODFATHERS OF POP 19 CLASSIC POP MOMENT 114 LONG LIVE VINYL 100
We meet Hue And Cry’s Pat Kane Paul Weller unveils The Style Council A Record Store Day vinyl swag bag
BOOKS 104
R E G U L A R S R E V I E W S Featuring Jake Shears’ Boys Keep
A TO Z OF POP 21 SINGLES 88 Swinging: A Memoir
S is for... Slap & Pop Matthew Rudd on the latest releases LIVE 110
THIS MONTH IN POP 22 from Kylie Minogue, James Bay, Kim Wilde, With Erasure, Morrissey, Lloyd Cole
News from May featuring Paul Hardcastle, Craig David and more and Paul Weller

CP40.Contents.print.indd 5 13/04/2018 10:11

 CLASSIC
WHO’S WHO
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE KYLIE MINOGUE SONG?
EDITOR
Steve Harnell
steve.harnell@anthem-publishing.com
Confide In Me *1
ART EDITOR Alex Duce
alex.duce@anthem-publishing.com
Kids
PRODUCTION EDITOR Dan Biggane
dan.biggane@anthem-publishing.com
Some Kind Of Bliss *2
SENIOR ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Sam Willis
sam.willis@anthem-publishing.com
Cowboy Style
FOUNDER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE Ian Peel
ian.peel@anthem-publishing.com
Put Yourself In My Place
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jenny Cook
jenny.cook@anthem-publishing.com
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
MARKETING MANAGER Gemma Bailey
gemma.bailey@anthem-publishing.com
Where The Wild Roses Grow
CONTRIBUTORS
Mark Lindores
Confide In Me
Wyndham Wallace
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Ian Gittins
Confide In Me *3
O U R C O N T R I B U T O R S
Ian Gittins is a music writer
for the Guardian, formerly of
Melody Maker and Q. He is
the co-writer of the best-selling
autobiographies of Nikki
Sixx, David Essex and Shane
Filan, among many more, and the author of
A Perfect Dream, an illustrated history of the
40-year career of The Cure, to be published
this autumn. Classic Pop welcomes Ian to the
fold to oversee our reissues section.
SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES 0844 8560642 (Calls cost 7 pence per minute plus your phone company’s access charge) or +44 (0)1371 853609 shop@anthem-
publishing.com PRINTING William Gibbons & SonTel +44 (0)1902 730011 DISTRIBUTION Marketforce (UK) Ltd 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London,
E14 5HU Tel +44 (0) 20 378 79001 LICENSING ENQUIRIES Regina Erak Tel +44 (0)7753 811622 regina.erak@googlemail.com
CP40.Flannel.print.indd 6
40
Johnny Black
Right Here, Right Now
Darren Scott
What Do I Have To Do
Andrew Dineley
GBI (German Bold Italic)
Andy Jones
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Jonathan Wright
Where The Wild Roses Grow
Douglas McPherson
Chocolate *4
Oliver Hurley
White Diamond *5
Rudy Bolly
Put Yourself In My Place *6
Matt Phillips
If You Don’t Love Me *7
Richard Purden
Spinning Around
Matthew Rudd
Wouldn’t Change A Thing
Ian Penman
Wow
Tom Hocknell
Put Yourself In My Place *8
CEO
Jon Bickley
jon.bickley@anthem-publishing.com
Spinning Around *9
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Simon Lewis
simon.lewis@anthem-publishing.com
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Mark Lindores grew up
during the golden age of
pop mags, devouring
Smash Hits and Number
One. He now writes about
the artists he used to read
about for Classic Pop, Total Film and
Mixmag. As well as reviewing the best new
books and DVDs, this month Mark serves
up our expansive Kylie cover feature and
looks at her classic album, Fever.
Anthem Publishing
Suite 6, Piccadilly House,
London Road, Bath, BA1 6PL
Tel +44 (0)1225 489984
www.classicpopmag.com
SOUNDBITES
*1 “A watershed moment in Kylie’s career
artistically. Includes drum samples of jazz
legend Jimmy Smith covering Barry White.”
*2 “She looks absolutely adorable in the
accompanying video. Red suits you if you’re
reading Kylie!”
*3 “Strings and high drama – a great Bond
theme that never was.”
*4 “As smooth, sensual, sexy – and just a little
bit naughty – as the confectionery of the title.”
*5 “Written with the Scissor Sisters, this
banger of a dancefloor stomp is something
of a lost Kylie classic – find it on Showgirl
Homecoming Live.”
*6 “Kylie’s second Deconstruction single
shamefully stalled at No.11, despite the
Barbarella-inspired video with a zero
gravity striptease.”
*7 “Gorgeous acoustic rendering of the Paddy
McAloon classic. I didn’t think she had it in her.”
*8 “The tenderest of love songs and NOTHING
to do with the zero-gravity video.”
*9 “Kylie crashed back into our consciousness
and established herself as an even bigger star
for the new millennium.”
All content copyright Anthem Publishing Ltd 2018, all rights reserved.
While we make every effort to ensure that the factual content of
Classic Pop magazine is correct, we cannot take any responsibility nor be
held accountable for any factual errors printed. Please make every effort
to check quoted prices and product specifications with manufacturers prior
to purchase. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or resold without prior consent of Anthem Publishing Ltd.
Classic Pop magazine recognises all copyrights contained within the
issue. Where possible, we acknowledge the copyright holder.
Darren Scott has
a career based on
variations of the words
“a bit like Smash Hits“
and has now written
for more magazines,
newspapers and websites than he can
shake a fright wig at. This issue, he
tries to decipher a conversation with
Daphne & Celeste, and is granted a
rare audience with Kim Appleby.
13/04/2018 10:38
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UP
It’s A Miracle! Boy George & Culture Club announce tour

B
oy George has compared Culture Club’s
on-off relationship as being like the one
between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Talking on BBC’s The One Show, the
flamboyant frontman said: “We’ve broken up so
many times, we’re like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Roy [Hay] will say things like, ‘why don’t you sing it more
soulfully like Mick Hucknall’... I do love Mick, but we know
how to push each other’s buttons.”
The singer was on the show to promote the first leg
of their Life Tour and revealed that the band, completed
by Mikey Craig and Jon Moss, were in the studio working
on a new album. He said: “I’m very excited about this
record. It’s definitely the best thing we’ve ever done and
my voice is stronger now... it’s so exciting!”
After originally breaking up in 1986, the band has
reformed and toured on numerous occasions. However,
George is still looking forward to revisiting the classics.
“Those hits are a gift at a live show. Karma Chameleon is
a song you do last so nobody leaves,” he laughed. “We’ve
done this for a long time and kinda know how to play it.”
The tour, which kicks off on 9 November in Nottingham,
will also feature Belinda Carlisle and Thompson Twins’ Tom
Bailey. “We have put together an amazing show that is
going to be filled with fabulous memories,” says George.
“We know it will be hands down the best night out. To be
here, 30 years on, to go out on tour, fill venues and have
an audience is quite mind-blowing. It’s a lot of work, we’re
doing the US, then the UK and, hopefully, the UK leg will
be extended.”

Madonna’s flight of fancy

M
adonna is getting behind the camera again, to
direct two new movies. The Material Girl has
reportedly signed on to helm Taking Flight, the
true story of Michaela DePrince, who grew up
an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone but rose to
become a world-renowned ballerina.
After her parents died DePrince was adopted by an American
family and went on to appear in videos with Beyoncé. Madonna
is also in talks to direct the Andrew Sean Greer adaptation, The
Impossible Lives Of Greta Wells. The films would be Madonna’s
first directorial projects since 2011’s poorly received W.E.,
which was based on the romance between King Edward VIII and
American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Prior to that she directed 2008
comedy, Filth And Wisdom.
The singer has also been busy of late sharing pictures from
the recording studio promising new music imminently, as well
launching further cosmetics as part of her MDNA range.

CP40.news.print.indd 8 12/04/2018 16:10

 WE HAVE PUT
TOGETHER
AN AMAZING
SHOW THAT
IS GOING TO
BE FILLED WITH
FABULOUS
MEMORIES
B O Y G E O R G E

CP40.news.print.indd 9 12/04/2018 17:23

 UP

No.40 AMIGO
BLACK SLATE
Black Slate established a huge
reputation as a backing band for
the most highly-rated reggae
singers of the 70s, so there was
ample goodwill when they went
into the studio themselves.
A multi-national sextet formed
in London, they provided the
music for Ken Boothe when he
toured the UK on the back of his
success with Everything I Own,
and later performed with Bob
Marley’s favourite singer Dennis
Brown at the end of the 70s after
the youthful reggae star broke
into the UK mainstream with
Money In My Pocket. In between,
they fitfully recorded their own
material, reaching the specialist
reggae and indie charts.
Amigo, a rallying call to
Rastafarians and a catchy single,
was the title track of their second
album and peaked at No.9 in the
UK in October 1980, just four
weeks after release.
A follow-up, Boom Boom,
missed the Top 40, stalling at
No.51. They continued to gig
and release music throughout the
80s and, though there have been LENNOX HANGS UP HER PEN
long breaks and multiple line-up Annie Lennox hasn’t written a pop song in 10 years and inspiration is unlikely to strike soon.
changes, Black Slate remain “Oh, years ago the muse left me,” she admits, perhaps an unfortunate by-product of finding
together as an entity. Chris happiness with her third husband Dr Mitch Besser. “I don’t know that I had to be unhappy to write,
Hanson (guitar) and Desmond but I often was unhappy and the feelings were predominantly painful, sad and melancholic.
Mahoney (drums) are the original There is a beauty in that, without question.” Lennox recently took to the Sadler’s Wells stage
members still involved. for An Evening of Music and Conversation – her first solo show in London for many years.
They are on the bill to perform For somebody so familiar and ingrained in popular culture she does her best to keep away
at the One Love Festival between from the public eye. Lennox told the Sunday Times magazine: “I tried to avoid red carpets and keep
31 August and 2 September. my head down. This whole world of celebrity they talk about now, it’s completely vacuous.
Matthew Rudd is the host of Forgotten I can’t stand the star bullshit. I’ve realised over the years just how uncomfortable it makes
80s on Absolute 80s me feel.” The star’s solo albums Diva and Medusa were recently reissued on vinyl.

10

CP40.news.print.indd 10 12/04/2018 17:01

 Ch-Ch-Changing names
A petition has been started by David Bowie fans to change the name
of Aylesbury to “Aylesbowie” in honour of the late star. Legend has
it that his Ziggy Stardust persona made his first appearance in the
Buckinghamshire town, specifically at the Friars venue in the early
70s. David Stopps, who first came up with the idea, insists it isn’t as
outlandish as it first sounds, saying: “Since records began there have
been 57 variations of the town’s name.” Buckinghamshire County
Council responded dryly: “It’s an interesting idea and perhaps on
25 March we could all think
Aylesbowie – just for one day!”
The council were referring to a
successful crowd-funding appeal,
again by Stopps, to build a Bowie
statue in the market square. The
finished article – depicting Bowie
in full Ziggy regalia amongst other
famous looks – was vandalised less
than 48 hours after it was unveiled.
The words “feed the homeless first”
had been spray-painted on the
ground in front of the statue, while
“RIP DB” was painted on the wall
behind the sculpture.
CP40.news.print.indd 11
George’s secret project
G
eorge Michael was planning a
secret project shortly before he died.
The star opened up to Desert Island
Discs presenter Kirsty Young while
they worked on his documentary
Freedom in 2016. “He was optimistic and in
the moment.” Young revealed at the TRIC Awards.
“He said to me that he felt the thing that he
would do next would be his best thing ever.
When I spoke to George, the future was in front
of him. There was something on the horizon.
He was talking about something new.”
However, the singer kept his cards close to his
chest, right until the end. “George hinted about
new projects, but refused to give details,” she
added. “I think he was starting to write again.
I presumed it was an album, but he did not
specify about that or talk about touring.”
George passed away at his home in Goring-
on-Thames on Christmas Day 2016, aged 53.
Recalling their meeting, Kirsty said: “When we
had finished recording we went out to his garden
and he was talking about his plans for replanting
here and how he was going to do a bit there.
“He was chatting and we were having a glass
of wine. I didn’t sense any loneliness. He had
friends around the day I spoke to him. I was
obviously not aware this was going to be the
last interview. With hindsight, it would have
been a different interview.”
11
12/04/2018 16:11
 UP
BURIED TREASURES
1
R
Which single did Kylie co-write ooting around those boxes of “junk” in your loft may turn up more
with James Dean Bradfield on than you bargained for. While many vinyl releases from the 70s, 80s
her Impossible Princess album? and 90s are worth next to nothing (nostalgic value aside, of course),
some could land you a small fortune – should you choose to part with
2 Soft Cell’s Dave Ball formed
which electronic group with
Richard Norris?
them. Here, we take four rare artefacts to the experts at 991.com and
ask them for a valuation. Browse their online store at www.991.com, or tweet
them about your own buried treasure @991dotcom.
3 Name Mel & Kim’s only
1 Some Kind Of Bliss; 2 The Grid; 3. F.L.M; 4 Theaudience; 5 Cupid & Psyche 85; 6 David Sylvian; 7 For Your Eyes Only; 8 Sade; 9 Clark Datchler; 10 The Perfect Kiss; 11 August Darnell; 12 Johnny Marr; 13 Ultravox; 14 Albuquerque; 15 Deacon Blue

studio album KYLIE MINOGUE HEAVENLY ACTION

4 Which indie band was fronted

by Sophie Ellis-Bextor?
KYLIE MINOGUE
This 10-track Dutch pressing of her
ERASURE
Issued by Mute Records in November 1985,

5 The Word Girl appears on 1994 self-titled album (catalogue number this limited edition release was the synth-
which Scritti Politti album? 74321227491), includes the singles Confide pop duo’s second single and only reached
In Me, Put Yourself In My Place and Where No.100 on the UK charts. The two-track
6 Ryuichi Sakamoto teamed up
with which musician for the
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Is The Feeling? With its glossy picture
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7 Sheena Easton sang the theme

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8 Whose albums include Lovers

Rock and Love Deluxe?

9 Name the lead singer of

Johnny Hates Jazz

10 Hollywood film director

Jonathan Demme was behind
which New Order video?

11 What is Kid Creole’s

real name?

12 Whose forthcoming
solo album will be titled
Call The Comet?

13 John Foxx is the former

frontman of which band? DON’T GET WEIRD
ON ME BABE
YOU KEEP ME
HANGIN´ ON
14 Which New Mexico city
appears in Prefab Sprout’s
The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll?
LLOYD COLE
Reaching No.21 on its release in 1991,
KIM WILDE
This rare, Japanese six-track CD single,
this UK 12-track vinyl LP was recorded in features remixes and extended versions of
15 Lorraine McIntosh is a
member of which Scottish
sophisti-pop group?
two parts: one side follows the rock of his
first solo album, while the other features
Another Step (Closer to You), Rage To Love,
Say You Really Want Me, The Second Time
a session orchestra. It includes illustrated and The Touch. It comes with picture sleeve,
credits on the inner sleeve. fold-out Japanese insert and obi-strip.
VALUE £30 VALUE £50

HOW DID YOU DO?

13-15 You´re the Best
10-12 Ain’t No Stoppin´ Us Now
6-9 Rip It Up
0-5 Beat It

12

CP40.news.print.indd 12 12/04/2018 17:07

 buying
explore or
our selling vinyl?
buried treasure!

since 1987, the 991.com team has been buying & selling
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posters, programmes, music memorabilia & more.

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Do They Know
It’s a comedy?
Midge Ure and Bob Geldof became the unwitting
stars of a new TV comedy recently. Neil Forsyth’s
film titled Backstage At Live Aid aired in April as
part of Sky Arts’ latest series of Urban Myth shorts,
and focused on the tensions behind the scenes on
that famous day at Wembley Stadium in July 1985.
“This was inspired by the multiple music industry
urban myths about Live Aid I’ve heard and read
over the years, and was a chance to bring them
all together,” Forsyth told The Courier. “I also
wanted to show how impressive Bob Geldof’s
achievement was in putting on the show and
the myriad issues he faced on the day, including
Elton John being furious with Noel Edmonds for
landing his helicopter in his garden and ruining
his begonias.”
In The Line Of Duty’s Martin Compston landed
the role of Midge Ure because of his uncanny
resemblance to the Ultravox singer. Forsyth added,
“When I was flicking through old pictures of Midge,
I came across one that I actually thought was a
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Martin’s an old pal, even though we had never or other times by appointment. free appraisals given - check the site
worked with each other. I sent him the pic as he
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Meanwhile, the real Midge Ure is backing a at 991.com - use code CPSUMMER15 at the checkout.
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CP40.news.print.indd 13 12/04/2018 16:11

 UP
L OS T Music for Eno fans
N
ew, rare and previously unreleased
& F O U N D
music will feature on a vast boxset
by Brian Eno. Due on 4 May, Music
For Installations is a 6CD and 9LP
set containing work Eno has produced for
various events and audio-visual installations from 1986 right up
to the current day. Eno worked with long-time collaborator Nick Robertson to create various
formats including a limited edition numbered package containing a 64-page Plexiglas bound
book with rare and unseen exhibition photos along with a typically enlightening new essay
written by Eno himself.
Eno recently opened Bloom: Open Space in Amsterdam – an art and music installation
using 3D technology. “I want to be able to be inside the music, to walk around and examine
it from different places,” he told the New York Times. “I don’t feel this is a replacement for
other musical experiences. I feel it’s an easy thing to add.”

No.40
LOVE SHOT
● Music For Installations is reviewed on page 96.

HOT CHOCOLATE
Hot Chocolate were a classic
example of the music snob’s
contempt for an act that was far
from cool but massively popular.
Love Shot, the band’s eighth
studio album, was as modestly
received as the rest of their
catalogue. However, with their
slick melodies, adaptation of
numerous musical fashions and an
instantly recognisable lead singer,
Hot Chocolate were fantastic.
That they had an entry in the
UK singles chart every year from
1970 to 1984 says a lot, and this
affable album brings that glorious
run to its conclusion.
Love Shot followed the Hot
Chocolate formula of exceptional
lyrics on amiable melodies, all
harnessed by Errol Brown’s
charisma. Three singles came from
it, including the jolly I Gave You
My Heart (Didn’t I), which earnt
them their last original Top 20 hit,
and the more maudlin Tears On

Tennant sets the barre high

The Telephone.
Sentimentality works thanks
to Brown’s charm on mid-tempo
tracks Jeannie and Let’s Try
Again, while Friend Of Mine hints
at darker stuff related to a love
triangle. The bouncy Touch The
Night is a standout track – the
soulful chorus befitting their
disco-influenced 70s heyday.
Love Shot was released on
the Rak label and was scorned
or shunned by critics. The band
disbanded afterwards and Brown
went on alone as a solo artist.
Matthew Rudd
In a parallel universe Neil Tennant is a ballet dancer. The Pet Shop Boys
vocalist witnessed the Royal Ballet performing Giselle in Newcastle as a
child with his brother and they were so enamoured he borrowed a Teach
Yourself Ballet book from his local library. “We used the radiator as a barre,”
Tennant told the New York Times. “I moved on and decided I wanted to be
an actor. And then I thought I might have the potential for being a pop star.”
Tennant did, of course, eventually fulfil some ballet ambition with his
production, The Most Incredible Thing, which earned rave reviews during
its Sadler’s Wells Theatre run in London during 2011. The production was
too expensive to tour but a scaled down version ran at the Knight Theater in
North Carolina earlier this year. The cost and commitment hasn’t put the Pet
Shop Boys off doing another ballet one day, but Neil Tennant admitted: “It’s
not like three-act narrative ballets come along every day of the week.”

14

CP40.news.print.indd 14 12/04/2018 17:01

 N E W S

OMD IN THE PINK

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark might
be enjoying a second wind in the United States,
but it wasn’t until the mid-80s that the band hit
their stride overseas thanks to John Hughes and
his movie Pretty In Pink. “We met him, Molly
Ringwald and Jon Cryer,” recalls Andy McCluskey.
“He needed a song for the final prom scene and
we gave him one. He said that he loved it, but had
changed the ending and asked if we could write
another. We were about to start touring, but went
into a Hollywood studio and had finished one
by 4am. We had it delivered to him for 9am.”
The song OMD delivered was If You Leave and
it became their biggest hit in the US, but they were
never satisfied with the finished product. “It could
have been better if we had more time. It’s a good
track from a period when we were writing a lot
of songs quickly out of necessity. ”
Despite chart success OMD didn’t reap the riches
many other British invasion acts enjoyed. “For
all the millions of records we sold, we never made
the money that Depeche [Mode] did, because
we signed a terrible contract,” McCluskey tells
the Chicago Tribune. “We sold 20 million singles
and 12 million albums, but we owed Virgin
£12 million, and not because we bought castles
and yachts. We were on a schedule where we
had six weeks to write a record, because
we needed the money.”

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Featuring members of Wobbler,
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PLENTY | IT COULD BE HOME Ossicles.
Formed in 1986, Plenty was Tim Bowness’s immediate
pre-no-man band. In 2016 and 2017, Bowness and fellow
founder members Brian Hulse and David K Jones re-recorded JORDSJØ | JORD
Plenty’s catalogue of 1980s songs, which alternating between For the first time, Jordsjø has one
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Featuring band members from
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Distributed by:
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15

CP40.news.print.indd 15 12/04/2018 17:01


Ladytron return
to The Circus
Electroclash kids Ladytron are
back and they have a synth legend
on their side. The quartet who
enjoyed cult status at the start of
the century released The Animals,
their first song in seven years in
March, backed by a remix from
Erasure’s Vince Clarke. “We have
always wanted to work with
Vince in some way, he’s obviously
a legend in our sphere,” says
Ladytron’s Daniel Hunt.
Vocalist Helen Marnie, who has
released two solo albums since
the band’s hiatus, added: “The
Animals was the first new song
we had and we immediately went
into the studio with Jim Abbiss.
He’s the producer who has really
understood us the most.”
Ladytron will be on tour
throughout the year.
Luxury Gap
‘still relevant’
Heaven 17 are hitting the road to
toast an old classic. Glenn Gregory
and Martyn Ware celebrate the
35th anniversary of their 1983
masterpiece, The Luxury Gap,
with a 10-date winter tour.
Ware promises “spectacular”
performances of H17’s post-
modern critique of society adding:
“The themes of the songs are more
relevant than ever before.”
It kicks off at Northampton’s
Roadmender on 9 November and
wraps up with a homecoming date
at Sheffield O2 Academy on
8 December. Visit heaven17.com
for more information.
16
CP40.news.print.indd 16
UP
A ‘psychedelic puzzle’ for Cure‘s Robert
R
obert Smith has unveiled the first round of names due to perform at
his Meltdown Festival this summer. The Cure man has the honour of
curating the 25th edition of the event at London’s Southbank Centre
with highlights including sets by The Church, Kristin Hersh, Mogwai, My
Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Placebo, The Notwist, The Psychedelic
Furs and Manic Street Preachers. Smith remarked: “Curating this 25th Meltdown
festival is a dream come true, a fantastic experience... albeit getting 60 wonderful
artists, including many of my all-time favourites, to come together for 10 days in
June is not without its challenges – as one of my predecessors noted, it is akin
to figuring out a giant psychedelic puzzle. But as each invitee confirms, as each
shimmering piece falls into place, I pinch myself – this is really happening. And
the complete picture will undoubtedly be out of this world!”
The concert series takes place across multiple venues between 15-24 June.
The Cure themselves follow the event with a huge gig at BST Hyde Park in
London on 7 July.
PA L O M A’ S A C L A S S A C T
Paloma Faith fears the working class is being forced out of
pop music. The star believes that opportunities are drying up
for those less well off or connected. “The greatest music
in Britain has come from that [working class],” she
said. “But creative industries are now geared towards
making no money and if you come from no money you
can’t do that. The Prince’s Trust helped me when I felt
like I couldn’t live up to my full potential because of
financial problems. They help young people do that,
now it’s important the cycle continues.”
Paloma also got a leg up by telling a little white lie.
“I was lucky because I had management willing to invest
in me,” she told the Daily Star. “I was supporting my
sister and had to work, but they said we’ll match what you
earn. So I lied and said I earned more than I did and got myself
a pay rise from working in a knicker shop.”
12/04/2018 17:01

B
ritish guitar-slinger Mick Jones
cut his musical teeth in the band
of Johnny Hallyday, the ‘French
Elvis’, in the 60s. Returning to
England, he joined Spooky
Tooth before winding up in New
York in the mid-70s, where he
formed Foreigner with ex-King
Crimson multi-instrumentalist Ian
McDonald and US singer Lou Gramm.
The transatlantic rockers went on to sell
80 million records and scored No.1 hits
with the ballads Waiting For A Girl Like
You and I Want To Know What Love Is.
You have a new album, Foreigner
With The 21st Century Symphony
Orchestra & Chorus. How did that
come about?
We were looking at the tour schedule for
last year and I noticed we had a couple
of extra days in Lucerne, Switzerland.
I was then told that they liked the idea of
us going down to play a concert with the
orchestra at their new concert hall.
We decided it may not be a bad idea
and before I knew it, I was in New York
preparing orchestrations with Dave Egger,
who I chose to be the arranger. We packed
ourselves off to Lucerne for a week to
rehearse with the orchestra – it was quite
an event.
Did you feel the pressure of making
a live album and DVD with so
many musicians?
Definitely. It was okay when we were
rehearsing and everybody was relaxed, but
when the curtain rises, it’s a different thing!
But it felt great. It was wonderful having
passages where the orchestra is very
powerful and strident and others where it’s
very tender and emotional. Some of my
favourite bits are the interludes between
songs. The overture came off really well.
We were very happy with that.
Will you be playing the orchestral
versions on tour?
We’re doing eight or nine concerts
CP40.Godfather_MJ.print.indd 17
GODFATHERS
of
M I C K J O N E S
© Babs Marks
with a cut-down orchestra between our
normal shows this summer. We haven’t
got anything set for England yet, which
surprised me, because we’re playing the
Albert Hall on 16 May and I thought that
would have been a good opportunity
to do one. Someone asked me if we’re
changing our direction and I said: “No, no,
this isn’t going to be the new Foreigner.”
The recording was really part of our
40th anniversary year, when we wanted
to do a few special things for the fans.
We’ve also been playing with members
of the original line-up, including Lou
Gramm. I wouldn’t have believed that if
you’d told me last year, but we did a thing
in New York where Lou and four of the
original guys got up with us and tore the
house down. So we’re going to do a few
more of those during the summer, featuring
Lou and our current singer, Kelly Hansen.
Having led the band through
four decades and many line-up
changes, what are the main things
you’ve learned?
That it’s not for the faint-hearted! I guess
it’s down to the vision that I developed in
the years leading up to starting the band.
I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted
to start from and aspirations as to where
we’d end up.
It required me to be a bit of a taskmaster
in certain areas at certain times. Sometimes
I had to have confrontations but I had to
accept that it was all part of keeping the
integrity of the sound and direction.
I felt that I was the captain of the ship
and had to get everybody to share my
vision with me.
Looking back, do you have a
favourite period of the band?
Just the year leading up to the first release,
1977’s Foreigner. Putting the songs and
band together. Locked away in this little
studio just off Broadway in New York,
doing the auditions and the excitement.
It was a really important time in my life.
I figured I’d paid my dues in other
people’s bands and this time it was
something I was responsible for. There
was just some magic about the way it
came together.
I remember, at the end of it, laying down
one night and listening to the whole album
for the first time on headphones.
My eyes started dripping. I couldn’t
believe it, because it was finally real and
I thought: “Is this what we’ve been doing
over the past year?. Wow”... It really
moved me.
What’s next for Foreigner?
Lou and I have started listening to some
old tapes that I hadn’t heard for 12 or
15 years, and there’s a good possibility
that we might try to bring those to light.
There are a couple of cool songs that
might be the nucleus of an EP perhaps.
So hopefully there may be a little ‘new-old’
Foreigner on the way.
Douglas McPherson
● Foreigner With The 21st Century
Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
is released via earMusic and is
reviewed on page 92.
17
10/04/2018 13:18
 Video Tech
THREE PROMO VIDEO
NUGGETS FROM THE
SOPHISTI-POP LOCKER
TALK TALK
TALK TALK, 1982
The fantastic Talk Talk in full-on
angsty mode. Perhaps sponsored
by Colgate, Mark Hollis and
keyboardist Simon Brenner compete
to see who can bare the most teeth
while they’re trapped in a glass case
of emotion. A UK chart placing of just
No.52 hardly did the track justice.
bit.ly/2Cnwbk1
JOHNNY HATES JAZZ
TURN BACK THE CLOCK, 1987
Relocating the boys to a leafy
autumnal location in the US, there’s
a Spielbergian/Stranger Things vibe
to the video for this wistful ode to
the simplicities of childhood and the
director makes the most of frontman
Clark Datchler’s leading man looks.
bit.ly/1b7UkwR
CURIOSITY KILLED
THE CAT
ORDINARY DAY, 1987
On a set that looks like it’s been
equipped by The White Company,
drummer Migi Drummond plays traffic
cones and dustbin lids in the garage
while guitarist Julian Brookhouse gets
wheeled under a car with axe still
attached. Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot is on
good form with his loose-limbed wonky
dancing. bit.ly/2EwDDLI
18
CP40.news.print.indd 18
Take That hit
the West End
T
ake That are bringing
their hit musical The Band
to London. The show,
which has been touring
the UK, will open at
the Theatre Royal Haymarket
on 1 December for a six-week
run. Accompanying the 50-show
residency will be a new greatest
hits package, which will feature
re-imagined versions of their
best-loved songs. Gary Barlow
tells Classic Pop: “The timing
is purely coincidental because
we’ve been wanting to put the
Greatest Hits together for a
while. We are spending
a bit of time finding the right
arrangements and planning
a tour as well.
“I feel we’re worth more
than just a run-of-the-mill
compilation of old songs.
It’s an interesting process
reworking them and we are
thoroughly enjoying it. We
got all the old multi-track
tapes and digitised them.
There’s a few that we’ve
re-imagined from scratch.”
Mark Owen adds: “The
songs mean a lot to us so
we want to do things without
losing them completely.”
As for The Band, that must
go on as well. Mark reveals:
“We are talking about taking
it to Germany, Canada and
Australia, it deserves to be
seen... Broadway would be
amazing, too.”
12/04/2018 17:01

P
at Kane formed the jazz-infused
Hue And Cry with his brother
Greg in the mid-80s. Hailing
from Coatbridge, near Glasgow,
the duo scored their biggest hit
in 1987 when Labour Of Love
reached No.6 in the UK charts.
Further success followed with
the singles Looking For Linda,
Ordinary Angel and the Violently EP. By
the end of the 90s the pair decided to
concentrate on their solo projects, before
reconvening in 2005 for the ITV1 show Hit
Me Baby One More Time. They released
their latest album, Pocketful Of Stones,
at the end of last year and are about to
embark on a tour with The Christians.
In 2015, you released an album
of Frank Sinatra material called
September Songs. Was Ol’ Blue
Eyes a big influence on you?
Inescapably... almost neurologically. What
I mean by that is my father used to sing
me to sleep as a baby by crooning Sinatra
songs straight into my temple. It was the
only thing that would quieten me down.
That’s how deep me and Frank go!
Was it obvious growing up that
you and Greg would form a
musical partnership?
Gregory was heavily involved in the
punk and post-punk scene. He was
always forming or joining bands, playing
saxophone and keyboards. One day we
all started to play in our mum’s front room.
I think the song was Start!, by The Jam,
and it sounded like my voice would work
in a group context. Eventually we decided
that we should form a band that was just
a partnership. That was 1985 or ‘86, and
it all went crazy from there.
Did you think Labour Of Love
would be your big breakthrough
when you wrote it?
I argued that it shouldn’t come out as a
single. I said: “This is too complex for the
mainstream.” It’s an industrial metaphor –
CP40.Godfather_PK.print.indd 19
GODFATHERS
of
P A T K A N E
withdraw my labour of love – and I thought
nobody would get the hook. I thought the
beat was too complicated and that nobody
would be able to dance to it. I thought it
would be a terrible mistake. As a result,
nobody has ever listened to me since, when
it comes to what singles should be released
off a record – and who could blame them?
I’m incredibly proud of the song, though,
and that’s the thing about our relationship
with our back catalogue. We were listening
to our idols like Steely Dan, Scritti Politti
and Elvis Costello and we tried to reach
those heights. It’s in the ear of the beholder
whether we did so or not, but we can go
back to our songs from 30 years ago and
still be delighted to sing them because they
were the best that we could make them.
A lot of sibling acts have fallen
out badly. How have you and
Greg managed to stay together?
We’ve kept it together because we admire
each other’s musical talents and instincts.
There’s nothing more exciting than when
a bit of telepathy happens between two
brothers making music. We did some
growing up in public and we were in that
adolescent state of mind where everything
was extreme. We had our disputes, but
they were mostly hormonal rather than
anything that really mattered, and now
we’re literally the best of friends.
Why did you decide to reform the
duo on the TV show Hit Me Baby
One More Time in 2005?
One factor is that I’m the Liza Minnelli
of the partnership and Greg is the Kurt
Cobain. I’m always up for a bit of showbiz
and he’s up for living in the studio and
making records. So, I wanted to do it
because I thought it would be a lot of fun,
which it was. Secondly, around that time,
YouTube was kicking off and we discovered
that there had been 100,000 views of old
videos of us on Top Of The Pops. I said to
Gregory that this could be a great way to
reconnect with the community of fans that
were evidently still out there and then, using
all this new digital technology and social
media, maybe find a way of putting albums
out in our own way without being beholden
to any corporate entity. It’s been a very
interesting ride this past 10 or 11 years.
Your most recent album, Pocketful
Of Stones, includes a duet with
your daughter on Let Her Go –
a song about her leaving home
to start drama school. Are you
happy to see her following you
into the entertainment business?
I am. I have a theory that in the next 20
to 30 years most routine jobs are going
to be done by algorithms or robots, so
the roles they can’t do will be the things
that you should push your children into.
There’s a line in the song about triple threat
performers – they dance, act and sing –
and that’s what Eleanor is. She’s just scored
a lead part in the Young Vic’s new musical,
Fun Home. So, she’s on her way.
Douglas McPherson
● Hue And Cry are about to tour
the UK with The Christians. Visit
hueandcry.co.uk for details.
19
09/04/2018 16:27
 © Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
UP

Tiffany laments
magical malls
Tiffany famously made her name
performing at US shopping malls
in the 80s, so it’s no surprise she’s
concerned that so many of those
shops are closing down. There’s
been a huge decline in retail sales
thanks to internet shopping. The
star says: “I think it’s a shame.
Malls were destinations and there
was something magical about
them. Yes, online shopping is really
convenient, and I’m all for small
business. But we’re missing out on
some of those activities that were
just fun and connected people.”
During the 80s, the I Think
We’re Alone Now singer was
often pitted against chart nemesis
Debbie Gibson. However, talking
to Tampabay.com, Tiffany said:
“I love her [Gibson], she’s one
of my dearest friends.
“The rivalry thing was never
really from us, but we’ve had
fun with it over the years. We’ve
learned to really respect each
other’s working form. And as
friends, we talk as girls. We
don’t have a problem.”

Tune in again
Freak Power, the 90s funkateers,
are back minus their most familiar
face, Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’
Cook. The band recently issued
a brand new EP titled, United
State marking their first music
since 1999. Now they are hitting
the road again much to vocalist
and trombonist Ashley Slater’s
delight: “I’m terrifically excited
to be writing and releasing new
material, and a little depressed
that my socio-politically slanted
lyrics are still as relevant today
as they ever were.”
Freak Power enjoyed a huge
hit with Turn On, Tune In, Cop
Out at the second time of asking
in 1995, thanks to its use in a
jeans commercial. Cook left shortly
afterwards to create Fatboy Slim
and redefine the term DJ.
Reinvigorated Ryuichi’s creative revival
A
mbient master Ryuichi Sakamoto has been making up
for lost time following health problems. The Academy
Award-winning Japanese musician is enjoying a creative
revival after recovering from throat cancer with numerous
projects. Async Remodels, a set of remixes based on his
2017 album Async, has reinvigorated the star and encouraged further
work with young up-and-coming producers involved like Arca and
Oneohtrix Point Never.
Async was Sakamoto’s first solo album in seven years and perhaps
reflects his status as an elder statesman of electronica. “I was aware
of that theme of mortality in my music since around 2009,” he told
The Guardian. “The decaying and the disappearance of the piano
sound is very much symbolic of life and mortality. It’s not sad. I just
meditate about it. I have a longing for violin or organ. Is it too simple
to say those sustaining sounds symbolise immortality?”
Among Sakamoto’s other arts events is the Ultima Festival,
installations for museums in Paris and Kyoto combining art and
science, and work on of two new soundtracks for Korean films.

20

CP40.news.print.indd 20 12/04/2018 17:02


S IS
DOES SLAP BASS HAVE A PLACE IN POP, OR IS IT
A RARE ASTEROID HITTING OUR UNIVERSE FROM PLANET FUNK?
I WOULD ARGUE ITS IMPORTANCE, AS THE BEATING HEART
OF EVERYTHING FROM POST-PUNK TO SYNTH-POP.
1
984 was as epochal in the eyes
of pop fans as it was in those of
George Orwell, we all know that.
And one of the iconic moments
of the year was Chaka Khan’s
breakthrough, Prince-penned
No.1 single. While most people
remember the two main lines of
the chorus – “I feel for you, I think
I love you” – it’s the third, a descending
slap & pop bassline, that did it for me.
Does such playing have a place in
pop, or is it a rare asteroid hitting our
universe from planet funk? I’d argue
that, more than having a place, slap &
pop can be found at pivotal moments in
every chapter of the classic pop story:
disco, new wave, post-punk, sophisti-pop
and even synth-pop...
What is slap & pop exactly? It’s
the ultra-funky style of bass playing,
whose chief exponent is Level 42’s
Mark King. Some people call it thumb
bass (Mark even released a record as
Thunderthumbs). Some call it slap bass
or just slap. But the “pop” is just as
important to the sound, in which players
slap the lower strings with their thumb
and pop out the higher strings with their
first and middle fingers.
It’s the popping in particular that
you can hear all over disco tracks.
Like Cher’s Take Me Home or ABBA’s
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After
Midnight), the pops jumping off those
spiralling, Madonna-inspiring strings.
While Mark King is the figurehead
of slap & pop, an unsung hero is John
Taylor of Duran Duran. Notorious
wouldn’t have been the same without
his bassline, and he’s still slapping and
popping, most recently on Pressure Off
featuring Janelle Monáe.
Another unsung hero is Nick Beggs of
CP40.IanPeel.print.indd 21
IAN PEEL’S A TO Z
of
FOR... SLAP & POP
“Slap & pop can be found
at pivotal moments in every
chapter of the classic pop
story: disco, new wave,
post-punk, sophisti-pop and
even synth-pop”
Kajagoogoo who put slap & pop centre
stage on all the band’s early tracks –
Too Shy, Big Apple – and more
experimental pieces like Islands/The
Pump Rooms of Bath.
It’s a style of playing – giving the
music an indiscernible, absorbing feel –
that connects the most unlikely artists.
From Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes to Katy
Perry’s California Gurls. From Nena’s
99 Red Balloons to Lionel Richie’s
Dancing On The Ceiling.
Or from Heaven 17’s Play To Win to
Murray Head’s One Night in Bangkok.
Slap & pop’s the only thing any of these
records could possibly have in common!
It’s in The Blue Nile’s Tinseltown
In The Rain, too, adding a level of
sophistication that you can hear across
the unholy trinity of S is for Sophisti-pop:
Sade, The Style Council and Simply Red.
No real surprises there, but you might
raise an eyebrow at some of the other
songs in which I’ve noticed it appear,
down in the rocky end of the spectrum.
Have you noticed it on Billy Idol’s
Flesh for Fantasy, Dire Straits’ One
World from Brothers in Arms and The
Cure’s Let’s Go To Bed?
My own personal favourite slap & pop
tracks, the complete works of Level 42
notwithstanding? Top of the list would be
pretty much anything by Shriekback who
– on albums like Oil & Gold and Big
Night Music – placed the style in a dark,
intense post-punk context.
Likewise A Certain Ratio, across all
their back catalogue. Just start with
Lucinda from 1983’s Sextet on Factory
Records and take it from there.
I also loved it when Jean-Michel Jarre
used slap & pop to add an organic layer
to his synthesized worlds on Zoolook
and Zoolookologie.
And I always recommend perhaps
the most unsung slap & pop hero of
all, Haircut One Hundred’s Les Nemes
who seemed to become a master of the
style overnight on their second album,
the Balearic masterpiece that is Paint
And Paint.
Thumbs up, I say. Even on singles that
are so massive you needn’t mention the
artist name: PYT (Pretty Young Thing),
Club Tropicana, Fame… Slap & pop is
the beating heart of them all.
21
09/04/2018 16:33
 T H I S M O N T H I N...

1985

P
aul Hardcastle, previously best-known as

MaY
PAUL HARDCASTLE’S COMMENTARY ON THE
AGE OF U.S. SERVICEMEN IN THE VIETNAM
WAR TOPS THE CHARTS AND JOY DIVISION’S
IAN CURTIS COMMITS SUICIDE, DURING MAY’S
PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN POP HISTORY
J O H N N Y
keyboardist for the jazz-funk combo Direct
Drive, began experiencing solo success when
his track Rain Forest knocked Madonna off
the top of the US dance chart. “I got signed
to Chrysalis Records on the strength of doing so well
in America,” he has recalled. “When I told Chrysalis
that my next idea was to do a song about the
Vietnam War, they all thought I was mad.”
Nevertheless, the single was released. “We had
an immense stroke of luck in that 19 came out on the
10th anniversary of the [end of the] Vietnam War,”
explained Paul. “So when News At Ten was reporting
on that, they tagged a bit on the end saying that a
young record producer had just released a single
B L A C K about the war, and they played it on the TV. I was
surprised, but he was totally gobsmacked.”
Two weeks later, 19 went to No.4, then jumped
to No.1. “Something nobody
1980 knew at the time,” reveals
Hardcastle, “was that, when
The first edition Rory Bremner did that send-up
of style mag version, N-N-Nineteen
The Face is Not Out, that was me
published, featuring doing the music, once
Jerry Dammers more against my record
of The Specials company’s wishes.”
on its cover.

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 •
1980
Dexys Midnight
Runners reach
No.1 in the UK 1980
1982

O
singles chart
with Geno, their n the eve of his band’s departure for a tour of the
homage to 60s Duran Duran United States, Ian Curtis, singer and songwriter
soul star Geno release a new with Joy Division, was found hanged at his home in
Washington. single, Hungry Macclesfield. Press reports at the time depicted him as
Like The Wolf, ‘depressed’ but that single word gave no hint of the
in the UK. complexity of the factors that drove him to take his own life.
Although he hid a great deal of his misery from his bandmates, it
soon became clear the breakdown of his marriage, compounded by
1988 his fear that the worsening of his epilepsy could kill him, and anxiety
Wishing Well by Terence about the upcoming US trip were all factors, not made any more
Trent D’Arby reaches bearable by his dependence on barbiturates.
No.1 in the Billboard Guitarist Bernard Sumner said: “It was the breakdown of his
Top 40 singles chart in relationship, accentuated by the amount of barbiturates he was taking
the United States. to subdue his epilepsy. Barbiturates make you so you’re laughing
one minute, crying the next. He’d had a physical breakdown, a
relationship breakdown, which caused an emotional breakdown.”
The band’s bassist, Peter Hook, and their manager Rob Gretton,
have both recalled Curtis being in good spirits in the days before his
death. According to Gretton: “There was no great depression, no hint
at all. The week before, we went and bought all these new clothes.
He was really happy. A lot of his problems were personal. We could
1981 advise him, but we couldn’t do anything about it.”
His wife, Deborah Curtis, believed that: “He didn’t commit suicide
Sheena Easton
because he had marital problems. He had marital problems because
reaches No.1 in the he wanted to commit suicide.”
Billboard singles chart
in the United States with
Morning Train (9 To 5).

22

CP40.monthinpop.print.indd 22 10/04/2018 15:01

 1981
TOP FIVE
Prince plays his first INDIE
ever concert in Europe,
at The Paradiso,
Amsterdam.
ALBUMS
SOUNDS
25 MAY 1985
1 NATIVE SONS

1986 THE LONG RYDERS

Propelled by a
1984 ground-breaking
Wham! release a new animated video,
single, Wake Me Up Peter Gabriel’s
Before You Go-Go, on Sledgehammer
Epic Records in the UK. enters the
Billboard Top 40
singles chart in the
United States on
its way to No.1. 2 BAD INFLUENCE
THE ROBERT CRAY BAND
© Martyn Goddard/REX/Shutterstock

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 MEAT IS MURDER
3

• • • • • • • • • • THE SMITHS
© Avalon/Photoshot

1990
For the first time ever, the Top 5
positions on the US singles chart
were held by female artists:
Madonna was at No.1 with Vogue,
4 VENGEANCE
followed by Heart, Sinead O’Connor,
Wilson Phillips and Janet Jackson. NEW MODEL ARMY

1982
Madness score their
first UK No.1 when
1985
The Dire Straits album
House Of Fun knocks
Brothers In Arms debuts
Eurovision Song
at No.1 in the UK, and
Contest winner Nicole
will become the UK’s
off the top spot.
biggest-selling LP of
the decade. 5 “HATFUL OF HOLLOW”
THE SMITHS

1988
As Milli Vanilli begin a
European promotional
trek, it is claimed that
uncredited vocalist
Charles Shaw was the
main singer on their
hit single, Girl You All data supplied by
Know It’s True. www.MusicDayz.com

23

CP40.monthinpop.print.indd 23 09/04/2018 17:19

 E SS O
INC F
R

THE P

PO
P
N

RY
A
NI
V E R SA

S , T O P 1 0 SINGLES
E R 1 4 S T U DIO ALBUM RLDWIDE
AF T W IT H W O
ND
APLENTY A O F M O RE THAN
L E S
RECORD SA O G U E J U ST KEEPS
0 M IL L IO N , KYLIE MIN M RAMSAY
8 E T T E R . F R O
GB SICS AND
ON GETTIN L U B C L A S
R E E T A N D PWL TO C O NOUR THE
S T S W E H
, JOIN US A
N A S H V IL L E
T H E D A N CEFLOOR...
DOYEN MOAF R K L I N D O R E S

t’s hard to believe that it has
been 30 years since Kylie
Minogue first entered our
consciousness... Maybe we
don’t want to believe it. For
those of us that bunked off
school to watch Scott and
Charlene’s wedding on
Neighbours and have grown
up with Kylie – going through
our own dance, sex, indie
and pop phases, but not in the glare of the
media and had each prefixed to our names
in order to define us as she has – it is a
shocking reminder of the passing of time.
We were all set to add Country Kylie to that
ever-expanding list when the star revealed
that she was recording her Golden album
in Nashville last year, but it appears we
may have jumped the gun and Miss
Minogue is not vacating the disco and
strapping on her banjo for nights at the
Grand Ole Opry any time soon.
“I was recording synth-pop dance songs
that were more like what people would
expect from me, I suppose,” Kylie recently
told Entertainment Weekly. “Then I went
to Nashville in July, and it all started to
make sense. We managed to find this
country inspiration but bring it back into
my world. It was super fun. It felt like it took
an eternity to get there. You go through
so much experimentation to get to a point
where you go: ‘Okay, this is the foundation,
we’re going to build on this’. Once we had
those foundations after my two weeks in
Nashville, everything I did when I got back
to London was coloured by that. But it’s still
a ‘Kylie’ album, whatever that is...”
Whatever indeed. Like much of the
UK, Stock, Aitken nor Waterman had
heard of Kylie Minogue when they

24

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 24 12/04/2018 14:21

 Kylie Minogue –
refining the art of
pop reinvention
since 1987

“We managed to find this

country inspiration but bring
it back into my world... After
my two weeks in Nashville,
everything I did was
coloured by that. But it’s
still a ‘Kylie’ album,
whatever that is...”
K Y L I E

25

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 25 12/04/2018 12:37

In the UK
Kylie was the
best-selling
album by a
female artist
in the 80s

© Photoshot
The UK’s love
affair with Kylie
started in 1986
when she first
appeared on our
screens as tomboy
mechanic Charlene
Robinson in
Neighbours

© Photoshot

Both the intensity and the magnitude of I Should Be

received a call from Gary Ashley, head of Australia’s
Mushroom Records in the summer of 1987. Her debut
single, a cover of Little Eva’s The Loco-Motion (she led the
Neighbours cast in an impromptu singalong at a charity
dinner) released under the title Locomotion, had spent
seven weeks at No.1 there and he was desperate for
her to record a follow-up. Agreeing to write something
for her, Pete booked the singer in for a recording session
before promptly forgetting all about her. With no song
for Kylie when she turned up at the studio, I Should Be
So Lucky was written on the spot and she had recorded
her vocals within an hour.
“We treated Kylie so badly that first time we met her,”
recalls Mike Stock. “Not deliberately, but to the extent
that I had to fly to Melbourne and apologise. Nobody
had told me she was in London and we were booked in
to work with her. As usual, Matt and I were in the studio
working on half a dozen acts all screaming for songs –
the last thing we needed was another.”
Just as Kylie hadn’t been regarded as a priority to
SAW when approached to write a song for her, she
wasn’t seen as a viable prospect to record labels when
they were looking for a label to release her single.
THE HIT FACTORY
“Every single label we went to passed on Kylie,”
adds Pete Waterman. “No one ever said
anything bad about her or the song,
it was the fact that she was a TV star.
Everybody said you couldn’t turn a TV star
into a pop star, they flat-out refused. We
offered …Lucky to Simon Cowell for £500
and he turned us down! That’s why we had
to start our PWL label – to put the records out.”
So Lucky’s success took everyone by surprise, its ascent
up the chart was so rapid that the video wasn’t even
finished. For many, their introduction to Kylie as a pop
star was a hastily-shot clip for Top Of The Pops featuring
Kylie being driven around Sydney in an open-top BMW
miming to the track. By February 1988, Kylie had
scored her first British No.1 hit. Spotting a talent and
star quality in their latest protégé, SAW realised they
had some making up to do to keep Kylie. Accepting
Mike’s apology and offer of a deal with PWL, she spent
an afternoon away from Neighbours recording Got
Released by
PWL on 4 July To Be Certain and Turn It Into Love before flying back
1988, Kylie to London the following month to record her album. It
featured four was to be the way Kylie’s relationship with SAW would
Top 5 hits
including function. As Australia’s biggest TV star, free time was
the No.1 smash scarce and SAW’s production-line set-up was perfect.
I Should Be “That way of recording worked for both of us at that
So Lucky
time,” Kylie says. “I’d get off the plane from
Australia and go straight to the studio. It was
like I imagine it must have been like at Motown
or a Hollywood set-up. You just had to be very
adaptable. I’d get to the studio, they’d say:
‘OK, this is what we’re working on today and
this is what it goes like’, then play me the song
a couple of times, then I’d go into the studio
and record it. That was the beginning and the
end of my involvement in those songs.”
Kylie’s debut album was released in July
1988 and, having already spawned three huge
hits, topped the UK album chart for four weeks
(it returned to No.1 later in the year). Going on
to sell over five million copies worldwide (two
million of those in the UK – a first for a female
artist), it beat the likes of Madonna, Whitney
and Cyndi to become the UK’s best-selling
album of the decade by a female artist.

26

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 26 12/04/2018 12:37

 Throug
h
career, out her K Y L I E
Kylie h
been k as
reinven nown for
ting he
and is rself
fashion a bona fide
icon, w
two bo riting
oks La
and Ky La L
lie Fash a
ion

As the hits kept coming, the pull between

Neighbours and her pop career began to take its
toll and she quit the soap to pursue a life in music.
“People forget how big she was at that time,”
SCREEN QUEEN says Waterman. “You have all these girls now,
the likes of Rihanna and Taylor Swift and she was
Before pop stardom beckoned, Kylie’s career
bigger than them all. The music industry was vastly
looked certain to be in acting. One of Australia’s
different to what it is today. People heard the songs
most popular child actresses, she appeared in
on the radio, saw her on Top Of The Pops or the
series such as Skyways, The Henderson Kids
Saturday morning TV shows and had to physically go
and The Sullivans before landing the role that
to a record shop and buy the singles. There was no
would change her life – as Charlene Robinson
streaming or social media – those shows were like
in Neighbours.
the Twitter of their day.”
Despite scoring a string of hits and a mega-
As the 90s dawned, the musical landscape
selling album, she was unsure her success would
had shifted immeasurably with the advent of club
be long-term and fully intended to fall back on
culture and Kylie herself was growing up. She
her acting career. At the peak of her SAW success
had shot her first film, a 50s-set teen romance
in 1989, she made her big-screen debut in the
called The Delinquents, and set out to silence
charming teen-romance The Delinquents, which
her critics by hitting the road for the first time
revealed her to be a great actress and, due to Kylie’s
on the Disco In Dreams Tour of the Far East, before
legions of fans, a box office smash.
headlining SAW’s Hitman Roadshow in the UK. It was
In 1994 we were introduced to Kickass Kylie as
whilst in the Far East that Kylie began a relationship with
she became an unlikely action star opposite Jean Claude
Michael Hutchence, a man whom would prove to make
Van Damme in Street Fighter. Subsequent roles included
a significant impact on her.
Hollywood flops such as Bio-Dome and San Andreas (her
blink-and-you’ll-miss-her appearance opposite Dwayne
THE SEX FACTOR
Johnson) and indie flicks such as Sample People, Cut and
“I met him at a point in my life when I was ready to
Holy Motors. Kylie herself has admitted being embarrassed at
look at the world and it was like he just took my blinkers
some of the movies on her CV, but is immensely proud of her
off,” she told Michael Parkinson in 2002. “I was at an
cameo as The Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge! and new film
impressionable age and was happy to be guided by
Swinging Safari, a 70s-set comedy which sees her reunited
him – in a nurturing way. He never said: ‘This is how
with former Neighbours co-star Guy Pearce.
I think you should perform’ or ‘these are the decisions
Much more successful has been her return to the small
you should be making’, he just had absolute belief in me
screen, where she has guested in Dr Who, The Vicar Of
at a time when it really wasn’t de rigueur to do so and
Dibley and, best of all, cult Aussie comedy Kath & Kim,
that gave me confidence in myself.”
in which she got married in a wedding not too dissimilar
Kylie’s relationship with the INXS star coincided with
to that one…
a radical image overhaul. Her transformation from

27

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 27 12/04/2018 12:37

 K Y L I E

girl-next-door to sex kitten was pounced upon by she gave interviews that were uncharacteristically
the press who, spurred on by comments Hutchence prickly, defensive and dismissive of her previous
playfully made in an interview claiming his hobby was work – she later explained her attitude at the time as
“corrupting Kylie”, christened her ‘Sex Kylie’. “childish rebellion”.
Taking a page from Madonna’s book (to whom she Given that the album was being heralded as an
was often unfavourably compared to at the time), Kylie artistic breakthrough following her emancipation
amped up the sex factor. Positively tame by today’s from the SAW stable, one major disappointment
standards, her “raunchy” videos became headline news was how little her own input was – a sole writing
for a number of reasons including a topless clinch with credit on one track. After following the album with
a dancer (Better The Devil You Know), speculation as to Where The Wild Roses Grow, an unexpected duet
whether she had undergone a boob job (Give Me Just with Nick Cave, Kylie once again found herself in
A Little More Time) and seemingly playing the role of a limbo, her only certainty being that her next musical
prostitute (Word Is Out). Kylie later explained her image statement would come entirely from her.
change had been a result of her frustration at the lack of The result was Kylie’s most misunderstood
control she had over her music. Though that, too, had and divisive album, Impossible Princess
taken on a trendier, more adult feel, it had nothing to do (1997). Dubbed ‘Indie Kylie’ by the
with Kylie’s personal life, contrary to popular belief. press, the record was perceived as
“The story that Better The Devil You Know was a a trend-chasing attempt to jump on
direct result of Kylie’s awakened sexuality with Michael the Britpop bandwagon, when in fact
Hutchence was complete nonsense!” says Mike Stock. the core of Impossible Princess is a set
“Matt Aitken and I had it planned all along – we knew of electronic-backed introspection that
we had to grow her up and we didn’t even know about was way ahead of its time (leading the
her relationship with Hutchence. We had discussed how album with the rocky Some Kind Of Bliss,
we could subtly change the emphasis both musically and a co-write with Manic Street Preachers’
lyrically. We went from I Should Be So Lucky to Shocked James Dean Bradfield, proved to be a
and Better The Devil You Know in about 18 months.” major misstep and a misrepresentation of the
album). Having co-written every track on the
TAKING THE STEERING WHEEL album herself, it also revealed Kylie to be an
Having taken control of her image, Kylie also began to incredible lyricist.
take a more active role in her music. On 1990’s Rhythm
Of Love, she went to the US to record a handful of tracks
without SAW for the first time, and the following year’s
Let’s Get To It saw her writing with Mike Stock and Pete
Waterman. Feeling more in control of her career, Kylie
ended her association with SAW in 1992 with the
release of a greatest hits album.
Featuring 19 Top 20 hits, it marked the end of a
hugely successful chapter in her career. The girl once
dubbed “The Singing Budgie” by her critics now felt STYLE
compelled to flee the gilded cage of the PWL Hit Factory
As someone often held up as an example
for cooler climes.
of bad 80s fashion thanks to her bubble
Though her signing with achingly hip dance label
perm and ra-ra skirts, Kylie has more than
Deconstruction Records promised the ‘re-engineering
redeemed herself in the style stakes since,
of Kylie’, it’s questionable in hindsight whether her time
emerging as a bona fide fashion icon, having
there lived up to that promise, or whether it was a case
exhibited her costumes at London’s prestigious
of style over substance. Having won a bidding war to
V&A Museum to prove it.
sign Kylie, it soon became clear that Deconstruction had
From the 60s-inspired looks of her ‘Sex Kylie’
no idea what to do with her.
years (immortalised in one of her greatest videos,
Released in September 1994, Kylie’s self-titled album,
What Do I Have To Do?), to the sci-fi siren of
was a collection of house and swingbeat tracks written
Fever, not to mention the Bardot-esque aesthetic
and produced by Brothers In Rhythm, Heller
of Body Language, celestial goddess of Aphrodite
and Farley, Jimmy Harry and M People.
and edgy ingénue of Impossible Princess, it is little
Though her time at Deconstruction got off
wonder that the world’s top fashion houses vie to get their
to a great start with two of
designs on her.
her finest singles, Confide
After the Spinning Around video elevated her bottom
In Me and Put Yourself In
to national treasure status, she capitalised on it by riding
My Place, the rest of the
a velvet bucking bronco in a sexy ad for Agent Provocateur
album failed to live up to
underwear before launching her own range – Love Kylie.
their epic grandeur.
Following the hugely successful V&A exhibition (the first of
Kylie Minogue was a
its kind), Kylie’s outfits were donated to the Melbourne Arts
moderate commercial success
Centre where they are displayed when not touring the world.
and established Minogue in
Like Madonna, reinvention has been key to Kylie’s
the circles she wanted to be in
longevity, a fact she embraces, and while she says she would
at that time. Instead of touring,
never want to write an autobiography, she has published
she played PA’s in clubs and at
La La La and Kylie Fashion, books which detail the creative
festivals for the first time. She was
process that goes into her tours, videos and photoshoots.
also celebrated in style bibles
such as The Face, i-D, Dazed &
Confused and Sky, in which
© Photoshot

28

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 28 12/04/2018 14:22

 From girl-next-door to sex
kitten, Mike Stock says that
Kylie ”went from I Should
Be So Lucky to Shocked and
Better The Devil You Know
in about 18 months”

“The story that Better The

Devil You Know was as
a direct result of Kylie’s
awakened sexuality with
Michael Hutchence was
complete nonsense!
Matt Aitken and I knew we
had to grow her up”
K Y L I E

29

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 29 12/04/2018 14:26

 Preserved for
posterior-ity!
Directed by
Dawn Shadforth,
the Spinning
Around video is
famed for Kylie’s
bottom and those
50p gold lamé
hotpants

“I fee
ls
a sen uch
s
achie e of
v
havin ement
g
going a song
to
these No.1
becau days
s
what e I know
a stru
g
it is” gle

THE COLLABORATIONS

NICK CAVE & THE PET SHOP BOYS JASON DONOVAN HURTS TOWA TEI
BAD SEEDS IN DENIAL ESPECIALLY FOR YOU DEVOTION G.B.I. (GERMAN
WHERE THE WILD An epic melodrama Blurring the lines Kylie added her vocals BOLD ITALIC)
ROSES GROW from Pet Shop Boys’ between reality and to this track on Hurts’ G.B.I. is Kylie at her
Superb duet from Nick’s 1999 album Nightlife. fiction, Kylie and her synth-pop debut in 2010 experimental best on
1995 album Murder It’s a sensitive dialogue onscreen Neighbours because she loved the Deee-Lite’s Towa Tei’s
Ballads. Kylie is perfect between a homosexual, husband teamed up song when it was sent sparse house track.
as the captivating Eliza middle-aged, man and for the endearingly to her. Describing his Featuring a memorable
Day who meets a grisly his daughter – played saccharine classic. Much “life-long illicit love” video in which Kylie
end. Stalling at No.11 in here by Minogue. Kylie maligned at the time, it for her, singer Theo is a geisha girl, she
the UK chart, the NME went on to perform the has sold over a million Hutchcraft described included this 1997 song
listed it in the 100 Best song on her Showgirl copies and topped the her contribution as the as an interlude on her
Songs Of The 90s. Tour in 2004. UK charts. “saviour of the album”. KylieFever2002 Tour.

30

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 30 12/04/2018 12:39


However, after a postponed European release
following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and
a string of negative reviews, sales were disappointing,
leaving her feeling creatively unfulfilled. “I was really
unlucky with that album,” she said. “There are lots of
reasons why it wasn’t a commercial success but I think
the main reason it didn’t work was that it wasn’t
a cohesive album – it was a bit all over the place,
and that was because I made it over a two-year
period, with four different producers. There are
still parts of it that I really like and I value the
experience, even though at the time I was
frustrated and really felt like there was
no one there to help me.”
The failure of the album in the UK
signalled the end of her time with
Deconstruction but left Kylie with a
feeling of liberation. She returned
to Australia, where the album had
been a success, for her Intimate &
Live Tour of small venues. Though
the setlist showcased Impossible
Princess, she thanked her loyal
fanbase by including a handful of old
hits as well as two covers, The Clash’s
Should I Stay Or Should I Go? and
Abba’s Dancing Queen. It was the
performance of the latter, during which
she donned an embellished corset and
feather headdress, that proved to be an
epiphany for Kylie. The highlight of the
show on every stop of the tour, she realised where her
strengths lay as a performer and cultivated her showgirl
stage persona. As she performed Dancing Queen
during the final night of the tour at London’s Shepherd’s
Bush Empire in July 1998, no-one could have predicted
that two years later she’d be performing it for a global
audience of four billion people at the Sydney Olympics.
If ever a lyric captured the point at which an artist
was at in their career, it was Kylie’s comeback single
Spinning Around in 2000: “Traded in my sorrow for
GIORGIO ROBBIE WILLIAMS DANNII MINOGUE
MORODER KIDS 100 DEGREES
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW One of the first songs Christmas is a time for
Kylie teamed up with written for Kylie’s Light family and Kylie teamed
the Godfather of disco Years album, Kids was up with sister Dannii
for his Déjà Vu album in one of the biggest hits for 100 Degrees, a
2014. After performing of 2000, selling over fun disco song for her
the song with Giorgio on 200,000 copies in the Kylie Christmas album
her Kiss Me Once Tour, UK. An altered version, in 2015. An alternate
Kylie realised a lifelong which featured a rap by version was released
dream by covering Williams, was included in April 2016, entitled
Donna Summer’s I Feel on his Sing When You're 100 Degrees (Still
Love with him. Winning album. Disco To Me).
CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 31
K Y L I E
some joy that I borrowed from back in the day” and
“Did I forget to mention that I found a new direction
and it leads back to me?” perfectly encapsulated her
signing to Parlophone on the basis that she return to
pop music.
With labelmates Robbie Williams and Pet Shop Boys
indicative of the kind of music she wanted to make, Kylie
went into the studio with both as well as pop maestros
Guy Chambers, Biffco and Steve Anderson.
Working with keywords ‘sunshine, beach,
glamour, disco, cocktails and fun’, the
result was Light Years, a glittering,
modern take on disco, Europop and,
having finally embraced her pure pop
past, even the occasional nod to her
SAW days. Fuelled by a video that would
achieve infamy due to Kylie’s 50p
gold hotpants (and trigger a national
obsession with her pert posterior),
Spinning Around gave Kylie her first
No.1 single in a decade. After the
rocky road she’d been down with
Deconstruction, the success meant
more to her than ever.
“I feel such a sense of achievement
having a song going to No.1 these
days because I know what a
struggle it is,” she said. “In the early
days, when every single reached
No.1 or No.2, I just thought that’s the
way it was, but now, having realised how difficult it is to
get a song in the charts at all, I’m always panicking once
a song is released to see where it’s going to go.”
With a platinum-selling album, four hit singles, a sold-
out tour, cameo appearance in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin
Rouge! and a performance at the closing ceremony
of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the success of
the Light Years was affirmation that her return to pop
had been the right decision. After the frustration of her
“wilderness years”, Kylie was keen to get back into the
studio as soon as possible to work on the follow-up.
COLDPLAY KEITH
LHUNA WASHINGTON
Originally recorded IF YOU WERE WITH
during sessions for ME NOW
Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Lifted from her Let's Get
Or Death And All His To It album, the duet
Friends album, frontman with US R&B singer
Chris Martin described Washington is one of
it as “too sexy” and it Kylie’s most overlooked
never made the final cut. singles. Reaching No.4
It was later released as in 1991, it is Minogue’s
a charity single to mark first hit to feature her as
World Aids Day. a co-writer.
31
12/04/2018 12:40
With its futuristic
stylings, Kylie’s
Can’t Get You Out
Of My Head video
saw the singer
strike various
poses in bright
crimson lipstick
and a revealing
hooded white
jumpsuit
If Light Years had been the public’s reintroduction to
Kylie, Fever was the rekindling of a teenage romance.
The pristine pop sheen of Can’t Get You Out Of My
Head was cool enough to lure back the fans that had
grown up to a soundtrack of hits such as Hand On Your
Heart and Better The Devil You Know, and garner her an
entire new audience. The runaway success of the single
set the stage for Kylie’s most successful album to date.
A progression of the dance-pop sound, Fever toned
down the overt disco influence of Light Years in favour
of a streamlined, electro influence and struck the
perfect balance between cutting-edge and commercial.
While her mid-90s quest for credibility had at times
seemed forced, by finally accepting herself and being
comfortable in her own skin, on Fever she exuded an
effortless cool. With six million copies sold worldwide
and yielding mammoth hits in Love At First Sight and
In Your Eyes, Fever was an unstoppable, hit-packed
colossus unlike anything she had experienced before,
and elevated her to a level of fame that she wasn’t
comfortable with.
Following a hectic two-year whirlwind of live
appearances, promo duties and her biggest tour to date,
Kylie was exhausted and overwhelmed by the level of
fame she had achieved. Retreating home to Australia,
ON STAGE
Despite suffering a serious knock to her confidence at
the beginning of her career when she was dubbed “The
Singing Budgie” and mocked for her voice, Kylie’s
journey from performing over backing
tracks on the Hitman Roadshow to her
enduring reputation as one of pop’s
most entertaining live acts, has been
nothing short of spectacular.
From her first full-scale tours,
Enjoy Yourself (1990) and Let’s Get
To It (1991), both of which were
accomplished pop shows for the
time (even though the latter was
slated in the press for Kylie’s risqué
outfits), to 1998’s Intimate And
32
CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 32
she went into hiding, as the pressure of her career
led to what she described as “a mini breakdown”.
The experience caused her to rethink her work
strategy and she vowed to take more breaks.
Her next album, 2003’s Body Language
was a concerted effort to distance
herself from the parade of identikit
Kylie clones that were inhabiting CD:UK
every Saturday morning as the likes of
Rachel Stevens, Holly Valance and Sarah
Whatmore all performed songs she had
refused the offer of recording (she had
also turned down Toxic before it went
to Britney Spears).
Drawing its influences from early 80s
pop that a teenage Kylie had adored, such
as Prince, Scritti Politti and Jam & Lewis and
blending them with the current sounds of R&B
and electroclash, Body Language was a much
more diverse album than its predecessors
and a riskier one, at points harking back to her
mid-90s experimentalism. Fearing burnout from
touring again so soon, Kylie had taken a much
more relaxed approach to promoting the
album, a decision which led to
disappointing sales.
A career-spanning
retrospective, Ultimate Kylie was
released, bringing together
her PWL, Deconstruction
and Parlophone material
for the first time and
while promoting it on her
Showgirl: The Greatest Hits
Tour in 2005, Kylie received
the devastating diagnosis
that she was suffering from
breast cancer.
Arriving in Australia,
she was given the
Live Tour she had already shown amazing growth as a
live performer, but it was in the 2000s, on the back of her
career rejuvenation with Light Years, that she really came
into her own.
The On A Night Like This Tour in 2001 was a romp
through her career, camp and kitsch, much like the
album itself. In 2002, blessed with a big budget, the sci-fi
spectacle that was KylieFever2002 was a huge turning
point, transforming her from idol to icon, and signalling
a series of ground-breaking pop shows ranging from the
innovative KylieX2008 to the theatrical Showgirl
extravaganzas – Vegas-on-the-road grandeur
of Aphrodite: Les Folies to stripped-back-
again Kiss Me Once Tour.
However, as Kylie proved with her
Anti Tour in 2012 – which featured
the singer playing rare B-sides and
album tracks – even when stripped
of elaborate sets, dancers and
costumes, her remarkable stage
presence and charisma was more
than enough to make the show a
spectacular success.
12/04/2018 14:23
 K Y L I E

“In the early days, when

every single reached No.1
or No.2, I just thought that’s
the way it was... having
realised how difficult it is
to get a song in the charts,
I’m always panicking once
a song is released.”
K Y L I E

33

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 33 12/04/2018 12:40


2012’s The
Abbey Road
Sessions
features 16
tracks, all
radically
reworked,
with a full
orchestra
news and was forced to postpone the Australian dates
while she received treatment. While spending the next
year recuperating in Paris, supported by family, friends
and boyfriend Olivier Martinez, Kylie’s focus was
making a full recovery and completing her tour.
Arriving on stage in Sydney in November 2006 to
a rapturous welcome, Kylie jokingly apologised for
being “fashionably late”.
GOLDEN YEARS
With a career now spanning three decades, Kylie is the
first to credit her incredibly loyal fanbase for sticking by
her through the good and bad times and, more so than
many other artists, not only listens to their opinions, but
actually takes them into account.
When fans voiced their disappointment that X, her first
album after recovering from cancer made barely a single
reference to what she had been through, she explained
that though she had written tracks about her experience,
they didn’t fit into her record company’s vision for her
album. She compensated by performing some of the
unreleased songs on her KylieX2008 Tour.
“It would have been great to have songs that I’d
written about that dark period in my life on the album,”
she later said in an interview with Popjustice. “Maybe
I wasn’t strong enough to fight for them at the time, but
I went with what I thought was the better judgement of
others. I fully understand that a fan or someone who sent
out positive vibes to me throughout that period would
have wanted to hear something about that time and not
just ‘hey I saw you across the dancefloor’.”
Which is not to be dismissive of those songs intended
solely for the dancefloor – over the past 30 years Kylie
has delivered more than her fair share. From I Should Be
So Lucky to I Believe In You, On A Night Like This to All
The Lovers, this is a woman whose unofficial anthem is
a song called Your Disco Needs You (she recently told
Radio 2 that it was the song she most wishes had been
a single and anyone who has seen her perform it live
will understand why), though she is far more than a
dance diva and many of those songs have deeper
meaning, often going unnoticed.
34
CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 34
Kylie enjoyed stripping back some of her
poppier tracks and revealing a different side to
them (and to herself) with The Abbey Road Sessions
in 2012. Featuring orchestral reworkings of some
of her biggest hits. PWL tracks such as ...Lucky and
Never Too Late were revelatory as heart-wrenching
odes to love lost or unrequited, while Can’t Get You
Out Of My Head’s tortured angst comes through in
the Abbey Road arrangement.
“It still amazes me that how you translate a song
makes such a difference,” she says. “Pop just seduces
you in such a way that you bounce along singing
these lyrics being fooled that you are having a
great time.”
Which brings us to Golden. While many
songs on the album appear instantly
upbeat and joyous, closer inspection
reveals a deep melancholy (first single
Dancing for example deals with the
subject of mortality). Described as Kylie’s
most personal album to date, she co-wrote
every song on the record, a process she
described as “cathartic” as she recovered
from a nervous breakdown and devastation
over the end of her engagement to actor Joshua
Sasse, a period she has revealed was one of the
most difficult of her life.
It was also a time of great uncertainty after she
dealt with another separation – that from her record
label Parlophone. Having enjoyed great success
with them in the early 2000s, their relationship
had become stagnant and, after her last two
studio albums, Aphrodite and Kiss Me Once,
underperformed due to mismanagement and
circumstances beyond Kylie’s control – most
notably the bizarre choices of singles (Better Than
Today and I Was Gonna Cancel respectively are
bottom tier on both albums), she left Parlophone
for pastures new.
Now signed to BMG, she is overjoyed at the
reception to the first two singles Dancing
and Stop Me From Falling, and
the album itself, and is looking
forward to taking the LP on the
road in September for the
Golden Tour, which, if last
month’s intimate shows
(which included a cover
of her current inspiration
Dolly Parton’s Islands In The
Stream)) are anything to go
by, promises to be as grand
a spectacle as we’ve come
to expect from pop’s
ultimate showgirl. “The
Golden Tour’s the next
truly exciting step,” she
says. “I’m really looking
forward to getting into
rehearsals with my band
and giving a different life
to these songs. I’m curious
to see how many of
the songs have a
big production,
how many are
going to be
stripped back –
I can’t wait!”
12/04/2018 14:24
 K Y L I E

“It still amazes me that

how you translate a song
makes such a difference...
Pop just seduces you in
such a way that you bounce
along singing these lyrics
being fooled that you are
having a great time.”
K Y L I E
Golden, Kylie’s 14th
studio album, was
described by the
singer as being “Dolly
Parton standing on
a dancefloor”

35

CP40.kylie_30.print.indd 35 12/04/2018 12:44

 C L A S S I C

ALBUM
FEVER
K Y L I E M I N O G U E
HAVING MADE HER TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO POP WITH 2000’S
SHIMMERING DISCO OPUS LIGHT YEARS, KYLIE CAPPED HER COMEBACK
THE FOLLOWING YEAR WITH A STREAMLINED NEW SOUND AND A COOL
NEW IMAGE, WHICH SAW HER POPULARITY REACH FEVER PITCH
M A R K L I N D O R E S

36

CP40.Classic_Album_Fever.print.indd 36 09/04/2018 16:25

 F E V E R C L A S S I C A L B U M

I
t’s hard to imagine now,

© Charles Sykes/Rex/Shutterstock
but when Kylie Minogue,
mid-way through a concert
at Manchester’s Apollo
Theatre in March 2001,
introduced the song that would
be her next single, it was met
with sheer ambivalence by the
crowd – trips to the bar or toilet
and polite nods – none of us
there that night had the foresight
to imagine the effect Can’t Get
You Out Of My Head would
have when it was unleashed
onto an unsuspecting public a
few months later.
At the time riding the
wave of success that was her
comeback album Light Years,
her first UK No.1 single since
1989’s Tears On My Pillow,
Spinning Around, a No.2 duet
with pop’s golden boy Robbie
Williams and a show-stopping
performance at the closing
ceremony of the 2000 Sydney
Olympic Games, Kylie capped
her remarkable comeback with
the On A Night Like This Tour.
Having experienced pitfalls
and frustration towards the end
of her time on Deconstruction
Records, the singer’s career
rejuvenation tasted that much
In the UK, Fever entered the album
sweeter and she was desperate chart at No.1 and would go on to
to maintain momentum, already
THE
be certified five-times platinum

laying down the groundwork
for her next album before
touring her current one.
The genesis of the Fever
album came towards the end
of 2000 while Kylie and her
label Parlophone were at
loggerheads deciding what
to release as a fifth single from
Light Years (it had boundless
possibilities). The Goddess of
Pop wanted to release Your
Disco Needs You, a rallying
call to arms inspired by the
Village People’s Go West as a
thank you to her gay audience
for supporting her during her
career lull, the label felt that
the campy disco track would
push Kylie further into niche act
territory rather than broaden
her audience.
To indicate the kind of
direction they envisaged for
her, they played her a demo
of Can’t Get You Out Of My
Head. “From the very first time
it was played to me I absolutely
loved it,” Kylie said. “It was
exactly what I was looking
for – cool, edgy, simple. Then
I started panicking: ‘Are you
sure we’ve got it? No-one else
PLAYERS
with shipments of 1.5 million units
is going to record it?’ I just
KYLIE MINOGUE wanted to get in the studio
Kylie signed to record label PWL in 1987 while still starring and record it as soon as
as Charlene in Aussie soap opera Neighbours. Her first UK possible, I was so excited.”
single, I Should Be So Lucky, topped the UK charts as did her Written by Cathy Dennis
debut album a year later. The hits kept coming and every
and Rob Davis, the song had
single she released in the 80s went Top 10. Her unprecedented chart
success continued throughout the 90s and 2000s. In April 2018, 30 years
already been rejected by
on from Kylie, the singer released her 14th studio album, Golden. S Club 7 and Sophie Ellis-
Bextor before Kylie’s A&R man
BIFFCO Jamie Nelson heard it and
Having co-written and produced some of the Spice Girls said it was the perfect song for
and Five’s biggest hits, the Biffco team of Richard Stannard, the progression Minogue was
Julian Gallagher and Ash Howes were the perfect choice looking to make musically.
to work with Kylie on her return to pop music on 2000’s “Even though Kylie wasn’t
Light Years. For Fever, they co-wrote two of its biggest hits, Love At First the first artist to be offered the
Sight and In Your Eyes. song, I don’t believe it was
meant to go to anyone other
STEVE ANDERSON than her, and I don’t believe
Having remixed Finer Feelings for Kylie in 1992, Steve anyone else would have done
has continued working with her for over 25 years. As well the incredible job she did
as writing and producing, he has been Kylie’s musical director with it,” Cathy Dennis told
on all of her tours since 1998.
M Magazine. “It was a very
natural and fluid process, the
ROB DAVIS whole thing was written in
Guitarist with 70s glam rockers Mud turned pop songwriter,
about three-and-a-half hours.
Rob wrote Spiller’s monster hit Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)
before joining Cathy Dennis at the suggestion of Simon Fuller “We had the ‘can’t get you
to pen hits for some of pop’s biggest names. As well as Can’t out of my head’ bit and we
Get You Out Of My Head and Come Into My World with Cathy for Fever, had the bridge, but it needed
he also wrote and produced Fragile. another hook. We knew it didn’t
need another lyric, so I just went
‘la, la, la…’”

37

CP40.Classic_Album_Fever.print.indd 37 11/04/2018 14:37

 C L A S S I C A L B U M
THE
SONGS
1 MORE MORE MORE
Fun, frothy and flirty, More More
More sets the agenda for the rest
of the album. Spiritual brethren
of the dirty disco of Andrea True
Connection’s risqué track of the
same name, the house-inflected
opener, written and produced by
Tommy D, sees Kylie at her most
alluring. Very much capturing the
carefree abandon of disco in its
lyrics, the production gives it a
modern twist.
2 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Co-written by Kylie, Love At
First Sight is a standout on the
album, one of her personal
favourites and a regular highlight
of live shows. A breezy ode to
the feeling of being in a new
relationship, the song is elevated
by its state-of-the-art dance
production which evoked recent
hits from Daft Punk, Modjo and
Stardust’s Music Sounds Better
With You. Released as the third
single from Fever, Love At First
Sight reached No.2 and became
her third ever US hit.
3 CAN’T GET YOU
OUT OF MY HEAD
Thirteen years into her pop career
and Kylie scored her biggest hit.
The track saw Minogue embraced
by the dance world, not only for
the song in its minimal electro
form, but in various remixes – the
most popular of which was Erol
Alkan’s mash-up of the vocal over
the backing track of New Order’s
Blue Monday, which was a staple
of his sets at celebrated club
night Trash. Kylie took the mix
mainstream when she performed
it at the BRITs in 2002. Stuart
Crichton created an official remix
of the track for the B-side of Love
At First Sight.
4 FEVER
Written by Greg Fitzgerald and
Tom Nichols, Fever’s title track
is a departure from the dance-
pop sound that dominates much
of the album, instead being an
updated electro track inspired by
the New Romantic sound of the
early 80s. Lyrically, the song’s
tongue-in-cheek flirtation between
a ‘lovesick’ Kylie and her doctor
gives it an air of ‘Carry On
Kylie’, a narrative brought to
life on ITV’s An Audience With
Kylie, in which she performed it
in a campy doctors and nurses
scenario before an audience of
bemused-looking celebs.
38
CP40.Classic_Album_Fever.print.indd 38
F E V E R
5 GIVE IT TO ME
Fever’s weakest song, Give It To
Me’s hard electro-funk sounds
out of place on the album and
could have been replaced
with some of the strong tracks
relegated to B-side/bonus track
status such as Tightrope (a
hidden gem of her discography),
Good Like That or Boy. Heavily
treated with chopped-up vocals
and an annoying recurrent
telephone ringing, the song is an
experiment that didn’t quite hit
the mark.
6 FRAGILE
After the sonic chaos of Give
It To Me, the soothing Fragile
is a beautiful mid-tempo track
with a dreamy vocal from Kylie
perfectly capturing the essence of
the song which details the feeling
of vulnerability in a relationship,
singing: “’Cause I’m fragile
when I hear your name/ Fragile
when you call/ This could be the
nearest thing to love/ And I’m
fragile when I hear you speak/
Fragile feeling small/ This could
be the closest thing to love,” over
a hypnotic soundscape.
7 COME INTO
MY WORLD
A last-minute addition to Fever
and another triumph from Rob
Davis and Cathy Dennis, Come
Into My World treads a similar
sonic path to Can’t Get You Out
Of My Head. The fourth and
final single from the album, it
was re-recorded for the album’s
deluxe edition and single release
(apparently as Cathy Dennis’
backing vocal was too prominent
on the original) though Kylie’s
breathy vocal sounds flimsy in
contrast to the stronger original.
In 2004, Kylie won her first
Grammy for this song for Best
Dance Recording. Come Into
My World was also the basis for
one of Kylie’s best ever remixes
when it was given an electroclash
reworking by Fischerspooner.
8 IN YOUR EYES
A dance anthem, In Your Eyes
is a sultry ode to lust across
a crowded nightclub with an
aggressive beat and infectious
chorus and the perfect follow-
up to Can’t Get You Out Of
My Head. However, despite its
release being pushed back by a
month due to the endurance of its
predecessor, In Your Eyes was still
somewhat overshadowed. It was
Featuring as a sample of New
Order’s Blue Monday, Kylie
performs a show-stopping
Can’t Get You Out Of My
Head at The BRITs 2002
© Richard Young/REX/Shutterstock
also notable for self-referencing,
with Kylie imploring: “Is the
world still Spinning Around?” The
album’s second single, it reached
No.3 in the UK and No.1 in
Australia where it was also
released as her first DVD single.
9 DANCEFLOOR
Written by Cathy Dennis and
long-time Kylie collaborator
Steve Anderson, Dancefloor is
the song that sounds most like a
continuation of the classic disco
sound of Light Years. A breakup
track on which Kylie berates an
ex for not treating her as well as
she deserved and getting over
him by hitting the dancefloor, the
song’s message is fairly universal.
10 LOVE AFFAIR
If Fever had produced a fifth
single, Love Affair would almost
certainly have been the main
contender for release. A perfectly
crafted slice of dance-pop with
Kylie at her seductive best, Love
Affair is a continuation of the
narrative from In Your Eyes with
a similar clubby style with trance-
like inflections. An undeniable
album highlight.
11 YOUR LOVE
Winding down the album,
Your Love is another stunning
mid-tempo number. Similar to
Fragile, a lilting guitar lends the
song a blissed-out Balearic feel.
The sole track on the LP from
Pascal Gabriel and Paul Statham,
Your Love is from the same sonic The song informed the
palette as some of the other tracks direction of Kylie’s next album
on the album which, had they and, feeling inspired, she
been recorded by other artists headed into the studio to begin
with a lesser identity than Kylie, work on the album, collating
risked sounded same-y rather writers, producers and ideas
than succeeding as a cohesive
before she went on tour. As well
body of work.
as asking Cathy and Rob to
12 BURNING UP submit more songs, she teamed
An anomaly to close the album, up with writers that she’d
Burning Up was again penned worked with on Light Years,
by Greg Fitzgerald and Tom Steve Anderson and Biffco
Nichols who with this, along [Richard Stannard], Ash Howes
with the title track, provided two and Julian Gallagher as well as
of the record’s best moments. several new writers/producers
Burning Up’s unusual teaming who had submitted tracks.
of an acoustic verse with an
Work on the album resumed
upbeat, dance-y chorus has been
revived recently by Kylie who after Kylie completed her On
has deployed a similar structure A Night Like This Tour in May
to her recent hit Dancing. With in Australia. She flew straight
its gentle, hazy chorus bursting to the US to work with Mark
into a bassline and chorus Picchiotti in Chicago before
reminiscent of Nile Rodgers’ best returning to the UK to finish
work, Burning Up was a standout the album at London’s Olympic
performance of her Fever Tour. Studios and Biffco’s studios
in Dublin.
11/04/2018 14:37
 Throughout the summer, she
recorded around 25 tracks,
including a pair of Greg
Fitzgerald/Tom Nichols cuts
(one of which became the title
track) and two more tracks
from Cathy Dennis and Rob
Davis. After repeated playbacks
to what she had recorded,
Kylie and her label began
formulating a cohesive direction
for the album.
“What we set out to do
with Fever was to make it a
culmination of everything I’ve
learned and everything I’ve
done,” said Kylie. “Everything
I’ve done well, and also
everything that I’ve done
terribly in the past! I just feel
like the album has the best
of both worlds – Light Years
and Impossible Princess, it’s a
summation of the two. I feel like
I’m starting to develop a style
that’s my own and though it’s
very challenging, I’m enjoying
it immensely.”
Having decided on a more
stripped-back version of dance-
pop than the OTT opulence of
Light Years, Fever’s foundation
was in electro rather than
disco and that also informed
the aesthetic of the album.
While Light Years had conjured
up images of Studio 54 and
poolside parties, Fever’s points
of reference were sci-fi and
minimalist modernity.
CP40.Classic_Album_Fever.print.indd 39
Fashion photographer
Vincent Peters, who had
shot Kylie for her Light Years
cover as well as an editorial
in Vogue magazine, shot the
singer against a plain white
background wearing a white
t-shirt, knickers and heels
holding a microphone for the
album cover – it is a new take
on Jean-Paul Goude’s iconic
photograph of Grace Jones
from the Island Life cover.
When it came to shooting the
video for Can’t Get You Out
Of My Head, Jones’ influence
remained prevalent.
Fashion designer and DJ
Fee Doran, a friend of Kylie’s
“What we set out to do with Fever was to make
it a culmination of everything I’ve learned and
everything I’ve done... I feel like I’m starting to
develop a style that’s my own”
K Y L I E
stylist William Baker, was asked
if she had ideas, as she had
similar points of reference to
what William and Kylie were
looking for. When the singer
visited Fee’s studio, she spotted
a hooded jumpsuit and asked
to try it on.
“Kylie’s half my size, a
fragile little bird and I’m this
big clumsy oaf,” says the six-
feet-tall Fee. “It was laughable
because it drowned her but she
knew what she wanted. We
pinned it up and even then, we
could see it was going to look
amazing. Her grandmother was
a seamstress so we discussed
how we were going to tweak it”
M I N O G U E
With the video wrapped,
album finished and artwork
completed, Fever was set for
release on 1 October 2001,
with Can’t Get You Out Of
My Head proceeding on
8 September. As the record
company began arranging
Kylie’s promo schedule, they
were dealt a blow when it
was revealed that the release
of Can’t Get You Out Of My
Head embroiled her in a chart
battle with Victoria Beckham’s
debut solo single Not Such An
Innocent Girl.
“I did ring my manager as
soon as I heard and asked
whether we should change
it,” Kylie said. “In the end, the
cards had been dealt and
I just had to play the game.
If it hadn’t been Victoria I would
have just been in competition
with someone else.”
The extra publicity generated
from the ‘chart battle’ helped
both records and, when it was
revealed in the midweek charts
that Minogue’s single had sold
125,000 copies in its first three
days, the face-off was already
won. Nevertheless, Kylie was
overwhelmed when she found
out the final chart position.
“It was one of those movie
moments,” she said.
“My record company has
a number that you call that
39
11/04/2018 14:37
 C L A S S I C A L B U M F E V E R

© Alstiar Grant/AP/Rex/Shutterstock
THE BIG
PICTURE
T H E V I D E O S

CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD

Filmed in July 2001, Dawn Shadforth’s iconic video featured Kylie in a
series of slick sci-fi scenarios, the most striking of which was the dance
sequence featuring Minogue, swathed in a slashed-to-flash hooded
jumpsuit, surrounded by a troupe
of dancers dressed in Kraftwerk’s
Man Machine uniforms of red
shirts and black ties. Later in
the clip, hi-fi meets sci-fi as
she performs in front of a
Metropolis-style backdrop,
with the lights of the buildings
taking on the effect of an old
graphic equalizer.
youtu.be/YPwtJ89jes4w

IN YOUR EYES
Set in a bank of LED lights and neon lasers, In Your Eyes is a Kylie took home two of the most
straightforward performance-led promo from Shadforth. Stylist William coveted British music awards in 2002
Baker described Kylie’s style in the video as “hip-hop chic meets sci-fi when she won Best International
lunacy” with Kylie teaming her multi-coloured ribbon dress (the work Female Solo Artist and Best
of designer Fee Doran) with International Album at The BRITs
items of jewellery from her
collaboration with Johnny Rocket.
The range was inspired by the “The voice on the phone said: ‘Kylie is
Fever album artwork – and
incorporated key artefacts from No.1 with sales of 306,000 copies’. I was
it – a microphone, headphones, absolutely flabbergasted. I just thought, ‘that
a stiletto shoe and the ‘K’-star
logo, and was available to fans can’t be right’.””
on Kylie’s website. K Y L I E M I N O G U E
youtu.be/OjETibEMbJY

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

A continuation of the sci-fi theme, Love At First Sight (directed by Johan gives the week’s chart result. due to the enduring success of
Renck) sees Minogue in a futuristic maze with backup dancers, all shot The voice on the phone said: Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
in single take motions – the dancers would later join her onstage for the ‘Kylie is No.1 with sales (the label were at one point
‘Silvanemesis’ section of the Fever of 306,000 copies’. I was considering deleting the single
Tour. While the set and Kylie’s absolutely flabbergasted. I just in order to continue Fever’s
outfit are all neutral colours, shots thought, ‘that can’t be right’.” release strategy).
of neon are accentuated by her
The single spent four weeks When Kylie performed it as
shoes, jewellery and make-up
giving her a cohesion with the at No.1 and she did the double a mash-up with New Order’s
dancers. The performance of the when Fever entered the album Blue Monday at The BRITs the
video is overlapped as diagrams, chart at No.1. Internationally, following February, it was still in
graphics and set pieces are both the single and the album the charts. As well as delivering
drawn around her. fared just as well. Can’t Get an iconic performance,
youtu.be/wf421JsG004 You Out Of My Head topped she picked up awards for
the charts in 40 countries while International Female Solo Artist
COME INTO MY WORLD Fever went on to sell six million, and International Album.
One of Kylie’s most ambitious videos and also one of her most technically the most successful album of Living up to those
demanding, Come Into My World featured a cast of 50 extras. Kylie Kylie’s career. international plaudits, Kylie was
walked through the streets of Paris in a loop, and every time she reached The critics universally praised forced to sacrifice 10 days of
her starting point, the number Kylie’s mature take on dance- her tour rehearsals to fly to the
of Kylies multiplied giving the infused pop and an arena tour US where Can’t Get You Out
finished video the stunning was announced, beginning the Of My Head topped the dance
effect of multiple identical
following April. Underestimating chart and landed the singer
Kylies walking through Paris.
Director Michel Gondry had
the demand, KylieFever2002 with her first Top 10 hit since
experimented with the concept sold out within minutes and the The Loco-Motion. With Fever
of duplicity earlier in his career initial number of dates doubled. following it into the US Top 10,
with his video for Neneh Cherry’s The success continued into she had conquered the final
Feel It in 1997. the new year. Plans for In Your market where success had so
youtu.be/63vqob-MljQ Eyes, Fever’s second single, had far eluded her. Kylie-mania had
to be postponed by a month reached its zenith.

40

CP40.Classic_Album_Fever.print.indd 40 09/04/2018 16:25

 P P
(

READERS SHARE THEIR FAVOURITE PHOTOS AS

THEY GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH
SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN PLANET POP
Send your Poparazzi pics now to steve.harnell@anthem-publishing.com

MIDGE URE
W I T H C R A I G S TA R K
”This is Midge and I at
his acoustic set in Perth,
Australia, in April 2015.
I reminded Midge that
I first met him in 1985 in
Edinburgh on his solo tour
for The Gift where he had
more hair and I was a
skinny teenager – it made
him laugh!”

C A P TA I N S E N S I B L E
WITH LUCIA AND
MARTIN GÄRTNER SUGGS
”I had my photo taken with WITH AD
RIAN KE
the Captain in Bratislava in “Here is a EBLE
picture of m
2013. The Damned were frontman, S yself with M
uggs, after adness
supported by our friend’s one-man sh his I’m A K
ow in Basin ing Cnut
goth band The Last Days He was a tr gstoke this
ue gent with year.
Of Jesus at their first gig waited for all those w
him. He sig ho had
in Slovakia. What an allowed ph ned memora
otos and en bilia and
excellent show and had someth sured that e
ing before veryone
afterparty! Captain celebrities he left. Wh
be this nice y can’t all
was very friendly hilarious. C ? The show
atch it if yo itself was
and complimented u can.”
me on my ‘lovely
hair’. The
smaller photo
of Martin
was taken in
Prague in 2004
at the PunkAid
Festival.”

JONA LEWIE
WITH MICHAEL
MCLAUGHLIN
”Here I am with Jona
Lewie after the Let’s
Rock Xmas show at
the O2 in London
last December.
After arriving at the
aftershow party,
he chatted and
signed autographs
for everyone who
was there. An
absolute legend.”

41

CP40.Poparazzi.print.indd 41 10/04/2018 15:18

 Th e
en t a l
p
acc id
o
P St a r
n the great pantheon of unlikely
GREEN GARTSIDE, pop stars during the 80s, of which
THE CREATIVE FORCE let’s face it there were many, Green
Gartside stood out. It wasn’t that
BEHIND SCRITTI POLITTI, he didn’t have the good looks or
DISCUSSES THE HIGHS musical chops, he most certainly
did, but it was more that his songs
AND LOWS OF THE were so fiercely, unapologetically
clever. Here was a musician whose
MUSIC INDUSTRY AND Scritti Politti project was originally run as
REVEALS HOW HE a kind of collective and played improvised
live shows. A lapsed Marxist whose band
OVERCAME CRIPPLING name was mangled Italian for “political
writing” and who named a song Jacques
ANXIETY TO FALL BACK Derrida after the French philosopher.
IN LOVE WITH POP Yet for a while, following the release
of their second album
J O N A T H A N W R I G H T
Cupid & Psyche 85 in
1985, Scritti Politti were
bona fide mainstream
pop stars around the
world. “It’s a period
I remember with absolute
dread and fondness,” he
says, before bursting out
with laughter.
In truth, as becomes
clear during Classic
Pop’s two-hour
conversation, Gartside is a man subject
to bouts of self-doubt and anxiety. It is not
unreasonable to suggest that he really
wasn’t cut out to be a pop star, a status
he found to be a kind of “exquisite
agony”. But, as Gartside himself
acknowledges, it was a fame
he courted, albeit indirectly.
“It was not the success that I was
going for, it was an attempt to
make a certain kind of music
that interested me,” he says.
“I liked the idea of pop music.
Along with that came an obvious
42
CP40.green_Gartside.print.indd 42
recognition that there would be a kind
of ‘playing the pop person’ as well.”
To understand why Gartside might have
made such a decision, it helps to go back
to 1980 and a Scritti gig supporting Gang
Of Four. Gartside hadn’t been looking after
himself physically – “I was never very good
at that and I’m still absolutely rubbish,” he
says – and he collapsed after the show.
He returned to his childhood home in
Wales to convalesce and began to rethink
his approach to music. Out was the idea
of “getting away as far as possible from
song structure, melody and all the rest of
it”. In was the idea that Michael Jackson
could be considered to be as radical as,
say, Captain Beefheart,
a rebellion against the
idea of “pop music
being thought of as
secondary, derivative,
inauthentic, inexpressive,
commodified, inessential
– all that stuff.”
TO BE WITH POP
Scritti’s debut, Songs
To Remember (1982),
reflected both this shift
and a wider shift in the UK’s musical
culture. The post-punk angularities of
Scritti’s early output was replaced by the
“feeble little graspings” at funk and dub,
which anticipated the band’s new pop
phase. Released by Rough Trade, it made
a creditable No.12 in the UK album
charts and the song that most endures is,
arguably, The “Sweetest Girl”.
While Gartside describes the album
today as “an utter mess”, it had set Scritti’s
future direction. By 1983, he was ready to
move on. “There’s the Gilbert and George
quote: ‘To be with art is all we ask’,”
12/04/2018 09:46
 Playing the pop person:
Green Gartside, the enigmatic
frontman of Scritti Politti, tells
Classic Pop why making pop music
“didn’t mean selling out principles
or dumbing down”

“IT WAS N
OT THE SU
THAT I WA CCESS
S GOING
IT WAS AN FOR,
ATTEMPT T
A CERTAIN O MAKE
KIND OF M
THAT INTER USIC
ESTED ME”
© Tom Sheehan

G r e en Ga r ts
id e

43

CP40.green_Gartside.print.indd 43 12/04/2018 09:46

 © LFI/Photoshot
G R E E N G A R T S I D E

Ro ug hT
r
The
ad e
THE THREE ALBUMS SCRITTI POLITTI
MADE FOR VIRGIN RECORDS ARE
re-releases
SOON TO BE RE-RELEASED BY ROUGH TRADE ON VINYL,
INCLUDING ANOMIE & BONHOMIE FOR THE FIRST TIME.
EXPANDED VERSIONS OF THE ALBUMS WILL FOLLOW.
SO, WHICH SHOULD YOU INVEST IN?
CUPID & PSYCHE 85 (1985) Despite the myriad dramas that surrounded its recording, this
is the album where Gartside and cohorts got – in the end – just about everything right. An album
that consciously used pop music itself to deconstruct pop music but did it so slyly that the surface
sheen of the records sounded perfect on the radio.

PROVISION (1988) More of the same, except more is less here and there’s the sense of
a band caught in a trap of their own making. In the year that Public Enemy unleashed It Takes
A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Happy Mondays were Bummed and Pixies ripped at the
heart of fey indie with Surfer Rosa, Scritti mostly sounded stuck in the past.

ANOMIE & BONHOMIE (1999) An album that’s ripe for reassessment. While it tries to cover
too many bases there are still some terrific songs here. True, some of the rapping sounds weirdly like
an afterthought (especially given Gartside’s self-professed love of hip-hop), but it is a pleasure to hear
a man rediscovering his own muse.

“You’d go out he says by way of explaining the change of
to the clubs of approach he made. “There was part of me
New York and
do whatever... that did feel: ‘To be with pop is all I ask’.
but during the You can only sing with the language that
whole time makes itself available to you – the language
there was a
huge sense of
that made itself available to me was the
inadequacy” – one of pop songs and French theorists.”
Green Gartside
on recording ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
Cupid & Psyche
85 in the US To play the music that was beginning
to rattle around his head and that
would form Cupid & Psyche 85,
Gartside needed new cohorts.
He found them in New York
where he hooked up with
keyboardist/programmer
David Gamson and drummer
Fred Maher. In Gartside’s
words: “They were very smart,
sophisticated New Yorkers who
were passionate about music.”
A third key figure was Arif
Mardin, the renowned Turkish-
American producer associated
with Atlantic Records who had
worked with Aretha Franklin, Dusty
Springfield, Average White Band and
the Bee Gees.
Left to his own devices, Gartside
would never have approached such
a figure, but Green was now
managed by Bob Last of Fast Product fame,
the man who released the first singles by
The Human League and Gang Of Four.
“Bob Last was just one of those kinds of
individuals who says: ‘Well why not? Give
me a phone’,” says Gartside. “Sometimes
you just meet people who can do that,
they’re confident and I had never really
met anybody quite like that before. So,
as a consequence of his bravado and the
musical nous of Gamson and Maher, I was
soon in these New York studios, with some
of the best R&B and funk players around,
making a record – which is where some
of the terror and dread starts.”
At this point Gartside laughs again,
but his anxiety and depression was real.
“Week after week I sang these songs
exactly the same way, 80 times or more,”
he says. He was indulged, he suspects,
partly because his fellow musicians wanted
to please Mardin. “Arif was a great
gentleman and treated all the musicians
with the utmost respect.
“We used to go to his palatial Central
Park apartment at the end of recording
in these enormously expensive New York
studios and he would make us these
Martinis, or ‘Mardinis’ as he called them.
It was fascinating and thrilling. You’d
go out to the clubs of New York and do

44

CP40.green_Gartside.print.indd 44 12/04/2018 09:47

 “ALTHOUG
H I WOULD
LIKED TO H HAVE
AVE BEEN
WITH RAPP WORKING
ERS MUCH
AT THE TIM MORE
E, WE DIDN
WE JUST B ’T, SO
ASICALLY P
ON DOING LOUGHED
THE SAME
THAT WE’D THING
DONE WIT
H CUPID
& PSYCHE
85.”
G r e en Ga r ts
id e

person. These are words being spoken

whatever... but during the whole time there
was a huge sense of inadequacy.”
When recording the vocals on a song
such as Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha
Franklin), he reveals how doubt would
set in and, at huge expense, Gartside
insisted on leaving New York to work
on his own in London.
“But it did work,” Green admits. “There
is something about the mix of sensibilities,
principally between David Gamson and
I, that made it work.”
As the results of these sessions made their
way into the world, Green finally became
a pop star. Both Wood Beez... and The
Word Girl made the UK Top 10 and
Gartside, never shy with a quote, became
even more of a fixture in the music papers.
In the US, Perfect Way climbed to No.11
in the charts. So, having worked so hard
to be a pop star, was it what Gartside
wanted when he got there?
“It wasn’t, no,” he replies immediately.
Not confident enough to play the songs
live, Scritti found themselves going around
the world doing, “shit interviews with
morons and terrible lip-synching things.”
It was so dispiriting for Gartside who
started to believe that Scritti would not
record a follow-up. However, the trio
reconvened to make Provision (1988).
“I don’t think enough recovery time or
planning went into Provision,” he says.
“I think it shows and you can hear it. It’s a
strangely empty record. It’s like the bones
of a record, I don’t know what it is. I can
remember vividly making it. It was difficult.”
by a humorous, bearded, bear of a man
dressed down in denim and a sweatshirt...
not the 80s pop star Gartside. Now in
his early 60s, he looks a little like Rupert
Everett, but built from a Tom Jones blueprint.
“Perhaps I’ve stressed too much the
difficulty,” he says of his life during the
80s. “I mean there’s nothing worse than
a musician whanging on about how
difficult making records is. I was incredibly
fortunate and I was living well. I had money
and whatever else.” Besides, he adds,
Provision enabled him to work with, among
others, Roger Troutman, a “genius” funk
Early Scritti multi-instrumentalist.
featuring Green Nonetheless, a breakdown lay ahead.
Gartside with
manager/
While he’s reluctant to go into details, in
keyboardist the wake of Provision, which reached the
Matthew Kay UK Top 10 and spawned a hit in Oh Patti
and drummer (Don’t Feel Sorry For Loverboy), Gartside
Tom Morley
retreated to South Wales for much of
the 90s. “I lost the plot completely and,
When Classic Pop suggests that maybe after a spell in hospital, I left everybody
this was because Gartside didn’t, as at and everything. I went to live on my own
previous key moments in the Scritti story, go in Wales,” he says. “At that point my
away and write a manifesto for what might management were quite keen to part
come next, he doesn’t entirely disagree. company with me. I think they thought:
“We didn’t stop to reconsider the brief ‘Christ he’s lost it’, and I was just happy
so it was still: ‘Let’s make pop music’,” to run away.”
he says. Yet pop music was no longer as Having been on an “extraordinary”
important to the band, who had become journey with Scritti, Gartside was burnt out.
much more interested in hip-hop. Yet this “I didn’t want anything to do with music,”
isn’t reflected in the album. Were the band he says. “I had all my musical
worried about accusations of equipment in a room and the
cultural appropriation? door was firmly shut. If you
“That was the argument opened it, there was that
and, although I would smell that musical equipment
have liked to have been has, the smell of guitar cases
working with rappers and synths, and it would fill
much more at the time, we me with dread – again.”
didn’t, so we just basically Gradually, he came
ploughed on doing the back to making music.
same thing that we’d Even in the darkest
done with Cupid & times, he remained
Psyche 85.” fascinated by hip-hop.
“That sustained me
BURN OUT along with the Welsh
If Gartside pubs and countryside,” he
sometimes says. “I was particularly in
sounds like love with the production of DJ
he’s being Premier [half of the duo Gang
precious, that’s not Starr], and I wanted to know
how he comes across in what it was like to sample stuff

45

CP40.green_Gartside.print.indd 45 12/04/2018 09:48

 G R E E N G A R T S I D E

Blu e In G r een...
HANGING WITH JAZZ LEGEND MILES DAVIS
The iconic Miles Davis covered Scritti Politti’s Perfect Way in 1986. So began an unlikely friendship
that saw Gartside asking Davis to play trumpet on Oh Patti (Don’t Feel Sorry For Loverboy). “He came
to the studio for a day, and it was just David [Gamson], Miles and I there. Miles didn’t bring anyone else
with him, which I thought he would. I filmed a lot of that day, and nobody has seen it, but it’s interesting.
Miles was quite nervous almost in a way, cautious, he spent quite a lot of time going over the changes
at the piano, and then going back to the trumpet and back to the piano, figuring things out.”
Subsequently, Gartside used to visit Davis in his New York apartment. “People would say he was
kind of bonkers, but he wasn’t, and it was a privilege to go to his apartment. He had a wall
of tapes of him playing live shows and would go through them, and say: ‘Listen to this,’ and pull out
Munich in 1970-whatever to listen to. And then he showed me all of his paintings.”
A picture of the duo exists, showing them touching hands. Gartside says: “I’m wearing sunglasses in the picture because I have
a hangover, which was not uncommon during those very hedonistic times...”

and make beats. So that’s what I started
doing in Wales. I was just playing around
and that was the first foray back into putting
any sort of music together.”
He moved back to London when his
sister asked him to rent her house. “That’s
when I felt revived and alive again to make
music,” he says. He got back in touch with
Gamson and took demos to Virgin. “I made
Anomie & Bonhomie in New York and Los
Angeles. That was a record that began to
admit some of the hip-hop influences, but
also some guitar-y stuff.”
Unlike the Scritti albums of the 80s,
which were assembled “part by part,
piece by piece” as exercises in “sonic
engineering,” Gartside put together
“a tight little band.” The band that recorded
on Anomie & Bonhomie included Prince
guitarist Wendy Melvoin and Abe Laboriel
Jr, who now drums with Paul McCartney.
“Everybody knew what the songs were
and how they went – it was unbelievable!”
says Gartside. “It was a bit more traditional
in that respect and I had just the best time
making it. I was happy and I had nice
places to stay in New York and LA. I was
friends with David again, which mattered
hugely to me. I was very upset that we’d
not seen each other after the break-up...
breakdown thing.
“People say it was a very strange record,
an odd record that only a mother could
love or whatever.”
As Gartside hints, the album wasn’t
a hit and received mixed reviews. Despite
jumping all over the place stylistically,
from rock to jangly pop to hip-hop and
even a hint of show tune on Brushed With
Trade, got in touch with Gartside to invite
him back to the label and he relocated
permanently to the capital.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
In 2006, he made a Scritti album for
Rough Trade, White Bread Black Beer, that
garnered a Mercury nomination, allowed
in bubblegum pop influences and was
as clever as anything he’s ever recorded,
but somehow much more relaxed about
its cleverness.
“It was just me being happy at home,
and finally finding a home to be happy in,”
he says. “I loved moving to Dalston. I found Nominated for the 2006
Mercury Music Prize,
the possibility of me playing live [to be] real White Bread Black Beer
again, in my local pub, making friends and would see Gartside
having a sense of community.” return to the stage and
perform his first gigs in
While Gartside has yet to complete a almost 25 years
follow-up – and when we meet he’s worried
that thanks to a computer software issue,
he can’t access the material he’s amassed
in the years since then and which might
eventually make “a very good record,
maybe the best” – he’s been consistently
as busy as you’d imagine he needs to be.
Despite recurring problems with stage
fright, he’s toured semi-regularly, both as
Scritti Politti and on one-off projects that
have piqued his curiosity, such as dates
in tribute to the late Sandy Denny
of Fairport Convention in 2012, the
intersection with the folk world further
confirmation that he’s over pop.
Or perhaps not entirely over it. Late last
year, Gartside went out on the road with
Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip and played Scritti
hits as part of the show.
“I never thought those Scritti songs
© Tom Sheehan

Oil, Dusted With Powder, it has aged
surprisingly well, helped by the abiding
strength of Gartside’s melodies.
More to the point, Gartside was back
in the world of music and musicians in
earnest. Geoff Travis, founder of Rough
from the 80s would be played live.
I never thought I could sing them.
But you can and they’re great fun
to play... it’s an incredible pleasure
after all those years to actually make
that music.”

46

CP40.green_Gartside.print.indd 46 12/04/2018 11:48

 “I NEVER T
HOUGHT T
SCRITTI SO HOSE
NGS FROM
80s WOUL THE
D BE PLAYE
I NEVER TH D LIVE.
OUGHT I C
SING THEM OULD
. BUT YOU
AND THEY CAN
’RE GREAT
TO PLAY... IT FUN
’S AN INC
PLEASURE A REDIBLE
FTER ALL
THOSE YEA
RS TO ACT
MAKE THA UALLY
T MUSIC”
G r e en Ga r ts
id e

47

CP40.green_Gartside.print.indd 47 12/04/2018 09:48

 Top
p
15
o p
Sop hi st i -
al b u m s
BY MIXING ELEMENTS
OF JAZZ, R&B AND SOUL,
15
CURIOSITY KILLED
14
TALK TALK
13
SCRITTI POLITTI
A NEW WAVE OF ARTIST
THE CAT THE PARTY’S OVER (1982) CUPID & PSYCHE 85 (1985)
EMERGED DURING THE KEEP YOUR DISTANCE (1987) Thanks to its emphatic synth Despite a name that
MID-80S, BRINGING The opening one-two combo riff and simple chorus, it’s suggests they’d do a
of the singles Misfit (which impossible not to be swept along convincing turn as post-punk
WITH THEM A CERTAIN would reach No.7) and Down by opening track Talk Talk. The noisemongers, Scritti’s second
CULTURED ELEGANCE To Earth (No.3), immediately rest of the group’s debut similarly long-player is a forward-looking
takes you back to Curiosity’s hurtles along, bringing together collection of Quincy Jones-
TO THE CHARTS.
1986-87 heyday. For a brief classic synth-pop with considered influenced synth-pop. While the
HERE IS OUR PICK OF moment, their accessible blend lyrics. Indeed, Mark Hollis’ reggae-tinged The Word Girl was
THE SOPHISTI-POPS of pop, soul and funk, and boy captivating vocals are a high the album’s most successful single
band looks, made them very much point of the record, and every reaching No.6 in the UK charts,
O L I V E R H U R L E Y in vogue: on its release in April track – whether it’s Today, with far stronger are songs such as
1987, Keep Your Distance spent its chant-along chorus, or the the Prince-esque Small Talk, and
two weeks at No.1. It remains rhythmic new wave of Hate – ultra-slick Wood Beez (Pray Like
an intriguing time capsule. is packed with hooks. Aretha Franklin).

“AZTEC CAMERA’S LOVE IS SO POLISHED

YOU COULD SEE YOUR REFLECTION IN IT”

O8
AZTEC CAMERA
LOVE (1987)
Aztec Camera’s third album
is so polished you could see
your reflection in it. In a conscious
move away from his indie roots,
Roddy Frame employed more
than 20 session musicians to
make the record. The hugely
catchy Somewhere In My Heart
reached No.3 in June 1988 but
is actually atypical of the rest of
the album, and the best songs
here, such as How Men Are, are
prime examples of moody yet
oh-so-glossy soul-pop.
O7
JOHNNY HATES JAZZ
TURN BACK THE
CLOCK (1988)
If sophisti-pop is all
super-slick production,
introspective lyrics and rich
instrumentation (not to mention
dapper suits), then Johnny Hates
Jazz’s debut album is surely
one of the genre’s classics. The
three-piece were clearly on to
something: four singles went Top
20 and the album itself debuted
at No.1. Even 30 years on, lead
single Shattered Dreams is as
much of an earworm as ever.
O6
EVERYTHING
BUT THE GIRL
IDLEWILD (1988)
There’s a real easy-listening
vibe to the Hull duo’s fourth
album. You can’t help but be
captivated, though, by Tracey
Thorn’s beautiful voice. Their
cover of I Don’t Want To Talk
About It (originally recorded
by Crazy Horse) reached No.3
and is a heartbreaking piece of
acoustic pop, while songs such
as Blue Moon Rose and Love Is
Here Where I Live create an
unmistakable sense of yearning.
O5
SWING OUT SISTER
IT’S BETTER TO TRAVEL (1987)
Swing Out Sister’s debut is,
at its heart, a radio-friendly
electronic album – albeit one that
takes its cue from 60s pop, jazz
and early house. The songs are
given added layers of warmth
and depth thanks to Corinne
Drewery’s distinctive vocals and
the shrewd use of a horn section
and real strings. The upbeat single
Breakout remains their most
recognisable moment but there’s
an almost cinematic feel to many
of the numbers here.

48

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12
HUE AND CRY
SEDUCED AND
ABANDONED (1987)
This was the first album to
be released by the Scottish
duo. For the most part, this is a
relentlessly jaunty collection driven
by a rich array of funk bass, jazz
guitars and horns – of which the
infectious Labour Of Love is a
prime example. The orchestral
album closer Truth, all strings and
piano, gives vocalist Pat Kane the
chance to unleash his full
Sinatra-esque croon and is a
pleasant change of pace.
“THE LEXICON OF LOVE IS ONE OF THE
DEFINITIVE ALBUMS OF THE 80S...”
O4
PREFAB SPROUT
STEVE MCQUEEN (1985)
If ever an opening track
was there to wrongfoot the
listener, the rockabilly-infused
Faron Young is surely it. But the rest
of Steve McQueen (Two Wheels
Good in the US) is an enduring
example of this County Durham
quartet’s stylish jazz-pop. Thomas
Dolby’s understated production
gives it a less saccharine flavour
than some other records on this list.
With its complex arrangements
and poetic lyrics, this is an album
that rewards repeated listens.
CP40.Top15_SP.print.indd 49
11
THE BLOW MONKEYS
ANIMAL MAGIC (1986)
This is adventurous pop
music of substance – there’s
more to the album than the group’s
best-known hit Digging Your
Scene. Take, for instance, the title
track, with its sweeping strings,
blasts of sax and tempo changes,
or the R&B of Wicked Ways,
which isn’t that far from what The
Rolling Stones were doing at the
time. Burn The Rich even has a
country twang to it. Despite its
eclectic influences, Animal Magic
is both coherent and compelling.
O3
SADE
DIAMOND LIFE (1984)
With their monstrously
successful debut, Sade
created a timeless amalgamation
of smooth jazz and R&B. Across
the nine confident and unrushed
tracks (the majority are around
the five-minute mark), Sade Adu’s
soulful yet understated voice is
impeccably complemented by an
unshowy backing of saxes, pianos,
keyboards and wah-wah guitars.
Sure, the whole thing screams
80s dinner party soundtrack...
but what a soundtrack it is.
T O P 1 5 S O P H I S T I - P O P
1O
THE STYLE COUNCIL
CAFÉ BLEU (1984)
After he disbanded The Jam
at the end of 1982, Paul
Weller formed The Style Council
with keyboardist Mick Talbot to
explore his interest in soul, jazz,
R&B and more. The 13 tracks
here cover everything from a
boogie-woogie instrumental
(Mick’s Blessings) to ill-advised
rapping (A Gospel). But, in
between such curios, this record
is full of poignant moments,
including the No.5 single
My Ever Changing Moods.
O2
KATE BUSH
HOUNDS OF LOVE (1985)
When a record’s opening
triumvirate is Running Up
That Hill (A Deal With God),
Hounds Of Love and The Big Sky,
you know it’s something special.
But then, after the more accessible
tracks of its first half, side two of
Kate Bush’s self-produced fifth
album comprises a conceptual
song cycle. With its extensive use
of the revolutionary Fairlight CMI
synthesizer/sampler, this is packed
with sonic flourishes and remains
her masterpiece.
A L B U M S
O9
DEACON BLUE
WHEN THE WORLD KNOWS
YOUR NAME (1989)
On its release in April 1989,
When The World Knows
Your Name entered the charts at
No.1 and cemented the Scottish
band’s status as consummate
purveyors of insistent melodies and
captivating harmonies. In contrast
to the melancholic sound of their
debut, 1987’s Raintown, songs
such as Fergus Sings The Blues and
Real Gone Kid have an energetic
immediacy while also embracing
blue-eyed soul and Celtic music.
O1
ABC
THE LEXICON
OF LOVE (1982)
This is one of the definitive
albums of the 80s and
among the finest British debuts
ever. Sure, it’s over-the-top –
Martin Fry’s vocals wouldn’t be out
of place in musical theatre – but
you can’t argue with the likes
of The Look Of Love and Poison
Arrow, while Date Stamp invents
Frankie Goes To Hollywood. But
the highlight is All Of My Heart,
a perfect realisation of what
sophisticated pop can achieve.
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 T H E L O W

DOWN
© LFI/Photoshot

P R E FA B S P R O U T

T
FROM THEIR he Prefab Sprout story is one of
family, faith, bereavement, serious
QUIRKY ROOTS illness and partial pop stardom.
TO COMMERCIAL Emerging from County Durham in
BREAKTHROUGH, THE the early 80s, brothers Paddy (vocals,
guitar and keyboards) and Martin
COUNTY DURHAM McAloon (bass), were joined by
COLLECTIVE FORMED Paddy’s one-time girlfriend Wendy
Smith (vocals) and Neil Conti (drums),
BY THE BROTHERS before signing to local independent
MCALOON HAVE label Kitchenware. The group quickly
COMBINED CLASSIC built a reputation for smart lyrics and
elaborate musicianship, echoing their
SONGWRITING peers Lloyd Cole, Green Gartside, Edwyn
WITH A MASTERY Collins and Roddy Frame.
OF MELODY TO Their debut album Swoon was a wonderful
mix of the band’s eclectic early influences,
CREATE ONE OF THE which included Television, Stravinsky, Simon &
MOST IMPRESSIVE Garfunkel and T. Rex. Released in 1984,
BODIES OF WORK it was an immediate cult hit, reaching No.22
in the UK album charts. It ushered in a golden
IN BRITISH POP. period for the band where their output was
M A T T P H I L L I P S virtually flawless. The classic, Thomas Dolby-
produced Steve McQueen was released a
month before Live Aid in June 1985 and
Protest Songs, recorded in 1985 but not
issued until 1989, saw the band explore
their Northern roots and cover topics such
as unemployment, mortality, childhood and
Princess Diana...
Sandwiched between these two releases
was 1988’s smash album From Langley
Park To Memphis, which features notable
appearances from Stevie Wonder and
Pete Townshend. The landmark album,
established Prefab Sprout as one of
Europe’s biggest draws.
Jordan: The Comeback was a remarkable
follow-up and another artistic triumph. A
successful greatest hits collection titled A Life
Of Surprises came two years later and marked
Prefab’s commercial zenith, but then there was
five years of silence during which both Conti
and Smith moved on to other projects. Paddy
returned in 1997 with Andromeda Heights,
the long-awaited and well-received studio
comeback. Since then, Paddy has continued to
produce arresting and deeply personal music,
including three Prefab Sprout albums and one
official solo release.

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T H E M U S T- H AV E A L B U M S
STEVE MCQUEEN
1985
Sophomore special
Thomas Dolby was, of course,
a bona fide – if somewhat
reluctant – pop star himself when
he got the train up to County
Durham in 1984 to hear 40 of
Paddy’s new songs. With a view
to producing the Sprouts, Dolby
quickly selected his favourites for
the LP that was to become their
calling card. Steve McQueen –
renamed Two Wheels Good in
the US – reached No.21 in the
UK and No.4 in NME’s albums
of the year poll in 1985.
The album spawned four
singles including Faron Young,
Appetite, Goodbye Lucille #1
(or Johnny Johnny as it was
renamed) and lead single When
Love Breaks Down, which would
be reissued in 1985. There was
a remarkable consistency of tone
throughout, from the affecting,
J.D. Salingeresque Moving The
River to the musically ambitious
Horsin’ Around.
AND THE REST...
SWOON
1984
Recorded in super-quick
time at Edinburgh’s
Palladium Studios, Prefab Sprout’s
debut was co-produced with David
Brewis from Kitchenware labelmates
The Kane Gang.
According to Martin McAloon:
“We recorded all the backing tracks
in one day. Bass, drums, guitar, some
keyboards, guide vocals, the lot.”
The album was an immediate cult
hit, reaching No.22 in the UK, and
Paddy was unrepentant about its
quirkiness: “There’s lots of odd chords
and angles and strange things going
on. Really, it was our first time in
a studio, and I was into being as
intensely yourself as you could be.
“We thought that for all the
intricate twists and turns of the music,
even a record like Swoon would be
as big as Thriller .”
CP40.Lowdown.print.indd 51
FROM LANGLEY PARK
TO MEMPHIS
1988
Prefab’s pure pop album
When Thomas Dolby couldn’t
commit to the whole project,
Paddy briefly contemplated using
a different producer for each
song. In the end, he plumped
for three. Dolby helmed the
band’s biggest hit The King Of
Rock’n’Roll and three other tracks.
Paddy would co-produce the rest
with Deacon Blue/Kate Bush
man Jon Kelly and ZTT protégé
Andy Richards.
While the singles Hey
Manhattan!, The Golden Calf,
Cars And Girls and Nightingales
all missed the Top 40, the quality
threshold was exceptionally
high. Even ‘filler’ tracks Knock
On Wood, Nancy (Let Your Hair
Down For Me) and The Venus
Of The Soup Kitchen were easy
on the ear and impressively
ambitious. From Langley Park To
Memphis reached No.5 in the UK
and is their best-selling album.
ANDROMEDA
HEIGHTS
1997
The departure of
drummer Neil Conti gave Paddy the
opportunity to write and produce
what was for all intents and purposes
a solo album, though he was joined
by his brother Martin on bass and
Wendy Smith on occasional vocals.
Engineered by Blue Nile
collaborator Calum Malcolm and
named after Paddy’s new home
studio, Andromeda Heights is
probably McAloon’s most tuneful
album. The singles, Electric Guitars
and A Prisoner Of The Past, were
musically light and lyrically pithy,
while Life’s A Miracle, Anne Marie
and Swans were mini-masterpieces
of melody.
Andromeda Heights matched
Jordan: The Comeback’s very healthy
No.7 placing in the UK chart.
P R E F A B S P R O U T
PROTEST SONGS
1989
Why the wait?
Speedily recorded and mixed
at Lynx Studios in Newcastle,
Protest Songs was intended
to be the quick follow-up to
Steve McQueen. Showcasing
the band’s live sound, it was a
lo-fi affair. However, it was held
back until 1989, a year after
the release of From Langley Park
To Memphis. But the album was
worth the wait – it is a moving,
razor-sharp suite of songs dealing
with life and death in the North
East and the social mores of the
Thatcher years, with detours via
Dublin and Princess Diana.
Protest Songs featured arguably
Paddy’s strongest and most
impassioned lyrics to date – the
only thing tongue-in-cheek about
the album was its title. These
were not protests against nuclear
power or war, but rather against
ordinary life in the mid-80s.
It peaked at No.18 on the
UK album chart.
THE GUNMAN
AND OTHER
STORIES
2001
Paddy’s one and only album for EMI
saw him teaming up with producer
Tony Visconti, as well as a host of
well-respected session players such
as Carlos Alomar, Jeff Pevar and
Jordan Rudess.
By now, Paddy’s country and
Americana influences were coming
through loud and clear, particularly
on The Streets Of Laredo, Cornfield
Ablaze, Cowboy Dreams and the
epic The Gunman, a song first
recorded by pop diva Cher on her
1995 album It’s A Man’s World.
Beautifully recorded and
performed, The Gunman And Other
Stories is typically likeable but lacks
the edge of Paddy’s best work.
It reached a disappointing No.60
in the UK album chart.
T H E L O W D O W N
JORDAN: THE
COMEBACK
1990
Comeback kings
The pressure was on Paddy after
the band’s pop breakthrough with
From Langley Park To Memphis
and he didn’t disappoint on
album number five. Featuring
19 spookily-assured and
spiritually-uplifting new
compositions, Paul Lester in the
Melody Maker described the
album as: “Walt Disney themes
produced by Trevor Horn.”
The band had truly found their
George Martin in Thomas Dolby
who once again impressed with
a variety of textures and grooves,
while McAloon’s colourful lyrics
dealt with Elvis, Jesse James,
Agnetha Fältskog, God and
Lucifer. There was even room for
a Jenny Agutter cameo on the
sublime Wild Horses.
Jordan: The Comeback was
another strong-selling record and
was nominated for the best album
award at the BRITs.
CRIMSON/RED
2013
The most recent
Prefab Sprout release,
Crimson/Red was originally borne
out of a contractual obligation, when
Paddy realised that he owed music
investment company Icebreaker an
album... and soon. “The springboard
was panic that I would be sued.
So, I did it all in a hurry.”
Playing all the instruments and
recording at home, Paddy worked
fast, an approach that sometimes
rankled with him: “I wish I was more
hi-tech. Sometimes I do ache to make
a beautiful-sounding Steely Dan-style
record like in the old days. But it’s
not everything. So, I then cut my
cloth accordingly.”
Despite its lo-fi credentials,
Crimson/Red was chock-a-block
with memorable songs such as
Adolescence and Billy.
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 T H E L O W D O W N P R E F A B S P R O U T

THE ESSENTIAL SINGLES

WHEN LOVE CARS AND GIRLS HEY MANHATTAN! THE KING OF

BREAKS DOWN
1984 + 1985 (REISSUE)
First Top 40 entry
Produced by future Johnny
Hates Jazz member and Torn
songwriter Phil Thornalley,
the band’s trademark single
was written by Paddy on
16 June 1984: “I remember
wanting to write something
simple. Sometimes it takes time
to create melodies and songs,
but this came in the blink of an
eye. It’s about passionate love
but wasn’t written from my own
experience alone.”
When Love Breaks Down
limped to No.25 in the UK
singles chart on its re-release in
early 1985, but provided the
band with its first US singles
chart entry.
1988
Berating The Boss
Co-produced by Paddy and
Jon Kelly, McAloon claims that
he came up with the opening
Springsteen-referencing line
“Brucie dreams life’s a highway”
completely spontaneously. The
song became a deconstruction of
rock’s clichés: “It’s part homage,
part spoof – a completely Prefab
Sprout thing to do,” as Paddy
put it.
The first single lifted from
From Langley Park To Memphis,
Thomas Dolby was originally
slated to produce but was
nonplussed by the demo.
Cars And Girls reached
No.44 in the UK singles chart in
February 1988 and spent five
weeks on the chart.
1988
Taking a bite out of The Big Apple
Hey Manhattan! was an ironic
statement on celebrity tourism and
the cult of the Big Apple. Paddy
was apparently ill with flu on the
day his brother Martin asked The
Who guitarist Pete Townshend to
play on the song. He said: “Our
Martin walked past this room and
Pete had this Ovation acoustic
and he was shaking it over his
head violently. Martin thought:
‘God, he even does it in private!’
But then it turned out he’d lost
his plectrum inside it, like a mere
mortal. He was trying to shake it
out... It’s just a straightforward,
but beautiful, rhythm guitar with
strange chords going on.”
Hey Manhattan! would reach
No.72 in the UK.
ROCK’N’ROLL
1988
The big hitter!
“It’s a simple pop song about
an old pop singer,” said Paddy.
“I always try to find some
opposite point of view from the
last thing I did, just because I
think it would be fun. So after
Steve McQueen I did King Of
Rock‘n’Roll. Paul McCartney was
apparently a fan of the song,
telling the songwriter: “You got
the young ‘uns and the oldies
with that!” It reached a very
sprightly No.7 in the UK, but not
everyone enjoyed the band’s
new pop status: “We actually
get letters from people that say:
‘We like you hovering around
the 40 mark...’” Paddy said at
the time.

ONLY FOR THE BRAVE

I TRAWL THE
MEGAHERTZ
2003
A very personal
response to Paddy’s period of ill-
health during which he temporarily
lost much of his sight. The almost
hour-long piece is beautifully
realised but remains a challenge.
LET’S CHANGE
THE WORLD
WITH MUSIC
2009
The album was intended for the
full four-piece line-up but ended
up being a solo project for Paddy.
Unfortunately, it sounds sorely in
need of some band input.

THE SOUND OF CRYING A PRISONER

OF THE PAST

1992
Sign of the times
The band hooked up with
producer Stephen Lipson for a
track that mused on the possibility
of an interventionist god amid
world disasters.
It’s a heartfelt lyric but all the
more ironic for featuring the
band’s funkiest music to date.
The song was actually intended
for a completely different album
that Paddy was writing about
Michael Jackson.
But he added new lyrics in
April 1991 as a response to
the Gulf War. Sadly, as relevant
today as it was in 1992, The
Sound Of Crying reached No.23.
1997
Echoes of Mozzer
The Phil Spector-style lead
single from Andromeda Heights,
A Prisoner... reached No.30 in
the UK chart.
Paddy said: “I intended it to
sound like Spector when I was
writing it, with the sort of volume
and richness of The Righteous
Brothers or Scott Walker. I wanted
to make my own River Deep –
Mountain High.”
Lyrically, it’s a somewhat dark
tale of unrequited love and an
interesting companion piece to
Morrissey’s The More You Ignore
Me, The Closer I Get.
NEED TO KNOW
S H H H
● Why has the band got such weren’t pumping gas or
a silly name? It is a question tinkering under bonnets,
that has always haunted the they were jamming and
McAloon brothers. Paddy writing songs. “We are
claims it’s a gentle dig at the literally a garage band,”
progressive bands of the said Paddy...
early 70s that the ‘cool kids’
liked at school. ● Paddy’s songs have been
covered by a range of artists
● The McAloon brothers learnt including Cher, The Zombies,
their musical trade between Lisa Stansfield, Jimmy Nail,
1978 and 1981 while Snow Patrol and even Kylie.
working at their dad’s petrol He also contributed the theme
station in Witton Gilbert, song for the ITV series Where
County Durham. When they The Heart Is.

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 T H E M U S T- WAT C H V I D E O S
APPETITE
During a 1988 interview, Paddy
named Appetite as one of his
two all-time favourite Prefab
Sprout videos (alongside Cars
And Girls). It’s essentially a band
performance of the song shot on
a ship with its bow doors open
to the elements.
According to Paddy: “You can
see the sky change from daylight
to night with absolutely no regard
for continuity, and I like that!”
The video is notable for featuring
tour keyboard player Michael
Graves, who never recorded with
the band but performed live with
them throughout 1985.
There’s some fairly elaborate
facial hair from Paddy and the
video begins with some home
movie-style clowning on the ship’s
deck. There’s also an interlude
featuring the band riding the
same motorbike that adorned the
cover of Steve McQueen –
a TR6C Triumph Trophy.
youtu.be/NS0hpiN_z3g
THE KING OF
ROCK’N’ROLL
Prefab embraced their newfound
pop status and had some fun
with it. Acclaimed director
Andy Morahan (Pet Shop Boys,
Wham!, Tina Turner) had by now
become their go-to guy, and he
ramps up the glamour to produce
the band’s most distinctive video.
Paddy portrays a louche, gold-
suited lounge lizard sitting around
the proverbial pool with the band,
all served drinks by a dancing
frog butler. Neil Conti is decked
out in garish Gingham cap and
shorts in a curious prefiguring of
‘chav’ couture. A Brylcreemed,
tanned, 50s-style teen idol cavorts
around, too, possibly a homage
to a similar scene in the Elvis
movie Blue Hawaii.
Then there are the famous
dancing hot dogs...
The video wasn’t subtle but it
did the trick, helping the band to
their biggest hit single to date.
youtu.be/4T6e3GJCjow
THE GOLDEN CALF
The Golden Calf was From
Langley Park To Memphis’ oldest
song but the fifth and final single
to be released from the album.
On 17 March 1988, Prefab
Sprout did a signing session at
the HMV megastore in Oxford
Street. Fans attending were then
invited along to the video shoot
that evening at Fulham Studios on
Farm Lane, West London, where
they were duly transformed into
a frantic crowd gathering to see
the band play at a nightclub.
The video is essentially a band
performance of the song, mainly
notable for featuring Wendy
Smith brandishing a Fender
Telecaster; Paddy has half-
seriously claimed that she does
play guitar on some Prefab Sprout
records. However, a decent video
didn’t do much for the single –
released in February 1989,
The Golden Calf only reached
a disappointing No.82.
youtu.be/0SvzhKltoAU
ELECTRIC GUITARS
The second single from
Andromeda Heights was given
a gently satirical video to suit the
somewhat ironic lyrics. While
Paddy’s recitation of the song is
fairly standard and sober, during
the choruses there are regular
intrusions from actor Phil Cornwell
as a succession of rock icons:
Slash, Pete Townshend, Jimi
Hendrix, Slade’s Dave Hill.
A record player, plate of beans
on toast and paperback copy of
Look Back In Anger get blown to
smithereens, the latter possibly
a nod to Paddy’s newfound
romantic ‘realism’, or maybe just
an acknowledgement that he’s not
an angry young man any more.
Footage of classic Beatlemania
fan mayhem is intercut, too, and
then there’s the final shot of an
exploding analogue radio –
quite probably the songwriter’s
comment on the state of pop
music at the tail end of the 90s.
youtu.be/z-KIHpU2Ly8

“Pete Townshend had this Ovation acoustic and

LISTEN UP! 10 Cruel
he was shaking it over his head violently. Martin Paddy has a habit of surfacing Bacharach-inspired bossa-nova.
when we least expect him, so it’s
thought: ‘God, he even does it in private!’... it possible that his recent collaboration 11 A Prisoner Of The Past

turned out he’d lost his plectrum inside it” with Spike Lee will spark a new
Prefab Sprout album in 2018. Until
A majestic melody meets pithy lyrics.

P A D D Y M C A L O O N then, here are 20 tracks of prime 12 Adolescence

Paddy to delight your eardrums. “Adolescence – what’s it like? It’s
a psychedelic motorbike...”
1 When Love Breaks Down

WHAT’S NEXT?
Despite the success of
2013’s Crimson/Red,
A song of love, loss and longing. 13 Moving The River
A great novel condensed into
2 One Of The Broken four minutes.
God speaks to us through Paddy!
14 Nightingales
3Don’t Sing Stephen Sondheim meets ZTT.
and YouTube channels of Where it all began.
Keith Armstrong, his manager 15 Cars And Girls

there’s little chance of the and former label boss.

4Hey Manhattan! A gentle nudge in the ribs for Brucie.
Sumptuous slice of ironic pop.
classic line-up Released with no 16 If You Don’t Love Me
reforming. Wendy accompanying 5The World Awake Kylie covered this mid-career corker.
Smith is now a publicity, it Does what it says on the tin.
respected music ON 3 MARCH became the
6 The Sound Of Crying
17 Diana
There’s nothing else in pop quite
therapist; Neil subject
Conti owns
2017, PADDY POSTED of much Heartfelt and affecting lyrics over like this Princess Di ‘tribute’.
their funkiest groove.
a recording A VIDEO OF HIMSELF SINGING discussion on 18 Talking Scarlet
studio in A NEW SONG ENTITLED social media. 7We Let The Stars Go A perfect marriage of words
France; and In December Gorgeous, lilting nostalgia-pop. and music.
Martin is a AMERICA 2017, it was
8 Goodbye Lucille #1 19 Faron Young
music teacher. announced
Oooh Johnny, Johnny, Johnny... Many people’s rockin’-good
On 3 March that Paddy had
introduction to Prefab.
2017, Paddy posted provided some music 9 The King Of Rock’n’Roll
a video of himself singing a for the TV series based on Pop hooks aplenty in their biggest 20 Wild Horses
new song entitled America. It Spike Lee’s 1986 film She’s UK hit. Another classic ballad.
appeared on the Instagram Gotta Have It.

53

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 54

CP40.melandkim.print.indd 54 09/04/2018 17:02

 SISTER
AS ONE HALF OF
THE TRULY ICONIC
80s DUO MEL & KIM,
KIM APPLEBY IS A
AK CT im Appleby has been
out of the spotlight for
a while. In fact, it’s been
so long, that she doesn’t
really remember how
long. She chuckles when
she counts back and
figures it out for herself.
“I’m quite a private person and
PART OF POP ROYALTY. I don’t really crave the limelight,”
NOW SHE’S BACK, she explains. “So it’s not important
for me to keep the profile out there,
HEADING UP A I guess.” But there’s another reason
she’s turned down numerous
BBC FOUR SERIES interviews, television shows and
CALLED THE 80s POP reality programmes.
“Sometimes I feel that I’ve said
ROAD MAP WITH enough about the Mel & Kim story,
and what went on there. I just feel that
CO-PRESENTER MIDGE sometimes it becomes quite repetitive.”
URE. THE PWL LEGEND However, it is a tale that bears
repeating, because the Mel & Kim
TALKS US THROUGH A story is pop gold: sisters, from
Hackney in London, record a demo
LIFE IN MUSIC. in 1985 which lands them a deal
D A R R E N S C O T T with Supreme Records. They are then
CP40.melandkim.print.indd 55
K I M A P P L E B Y
introduced to the talented
up-and-coming producers Stock
Aitken and Waterman, who go
on to write material specially for
them and their personalities...
“What was great was that Mel
and I had Mike, Matt and Pete all
to ourselves, because they were
so unknown,” she recalls.
“They’d done the Divine thing,
remixed Dead Or Alive, and Pete had
something to do with Musical Youth’s
Pass The Dutchie. It wasn’t known as
The Hit Factory then either – just PWL.
Mel and I were very lucky because all
the songs were personalised to us. It
was a great time.”
She elaborates further on how
their first recording session with SAW
could’ve gone quite differently...
“We recorded a track called System,
which ended up on the album, and
then they took us down the pub. We
were streetwise Hackney girls with
strong accents and laughs. They were
asking us tons of questions about
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09/04/2018 17:02
 K I M A P P L E B Y

“I JUST DON’T FEEL

THAT MEL AND I WERE
PART OF THAT HIT FACTORY.
THAT’S THE GOD’S
HONEST TRUTH.”
where we lived and what we did. We were there with
them for a good hour-and-a-half and the story goes that
Pete went back to the studio and said: ‘scrap that track,
we need something tough for these girls’ and that’s
where Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend) came
in. The rest all followed like that... songs like F.L.M. –
which I think you know doesn’t really stand for Fun, Love
and Money. That’s what I mean when I say that we were
very lucky, we had their undivided attention and those
songs were written around us.”

SPECIAL MEMORIES
Sadly, their time was cruelly cut short when, in January
1990, Mel passed away aged 23 from cancer. But, as
Kim goes on to suggest, they wouldn’t have continued
working with the hitmakers. “I think we were probably
going to do our own thing at that point,” she says.
“We’d discovered that we could do this and
that we were pretty good, too. We enjoyed
the process so much. By that time we would
have gone on to find other producers
because the boys seemed so
preoccupied. I mean, they really
were churning stuff out. They were
just dominating the charts and
there wasn’t a week when

Y
they didn’t have at least one

O U R P RO P E RT
NOT Y
.
with F.L.M
ing new

I’M
so m e th a rn e rs ,”
to do om W
r, th e re are plans im c a talogue fr o w . T h ey’ve
v e K n
Howe
o u g h t th e Mel & te ly e v erything , w hich
ersion s just b abso lu dition
/ o r e x panded v ,
“They’ve C h e rr y Red have g to d o another e
luxe an d t least ls. “ e goin
urs of de e being a she revea , so they’r n
the rumo for the tim rs to e masters xe editio
It see m s th a t
lo a lb u m s a re ,
o w n th e m a st e
s b o u g h t th
n ta st ic .” th e ir 2 010 delu li k e
so l] stil l y plan l be fa fer fro m looks
ppleby’s cord labe re are an I think wil n will dif s? – but it
of Kim A a m . “[The re e d enies the y . n ew versio x se t, perhap
e d re a s sh k a w a w th is s b o
just a pip ,” Kim sa
ys, Brea Ho single ase.
lo album masters to uess – a a CD rele Kim says.
my firt so h o u g h I own the y c a n ’t I find the is a nyone’s g fi n a ll y b e getting a n y remixes,”
a se . “ A lt y in g ‘w h h a e s m ig h t d o so m c o ver all
for a re-r
ele
gs from fa
ns sa master, rare mix used to ack to
fe w th in e c a u se I own the it h it s th e k in th e day you e s o f th e same tr tr e a t. There
I’ve seen
a
a n d that’s b t th e re, once “Bac e , fo ur remix b e in for a
m ’, y train o u I th re g to
ay albu a runawa nice idea
and
“You’d h
ave
guys are
goin
t of day.”
Breakaw kles. “It’s e a really ce it to I think you w the ligh
e c h u c w o u ld b u ld li c e n a s, so t n e v e r sa
ha!” sh uess that e I co are re tha
at’s it. I g at. Mayb mething
to think uff on the
internet th u t re p a c kaging th re . It ’s so will be st
ught abo out th e
have tho uld put it
R e d a n d they co
Cherr y the line.”
her down
about furt

Aside from the dancefloor

hits, Mel & Kim were
celebrated for their style
which combined urban street
wear with high fashion

56

CP40.melandkim.print.indd 56 11/04/2018 13:08

 y,
t-t-t-tay-ta
tay, tay,
Tay, tay, or le av e the
take
tay, tay – was an
pectable
video, Res t which took 87
Mel
ib le hi 19
irresist M ar ch
No.1 in
and Kim to

She still has a lot of memorabilia hidden away,

including “gold, platinum and triple platinum discs”,
gloves, hats, jackets and magazine covers. “People ask
‘why the discs aren’t hanging on the walls?’” Kim says.
“It’s just not me, to be honest with you. For me, it’s my
little secret. It’s Mel and I’s little thing... and I’d like to
keep it as Mel and I’s little thing... my memories of
what we did. I want to keep it close to her and I.”

A BREAK AWAY
Solo albums, Kim Appleby and Breakaway followed
onour:
In her h in 1990 and 1993 respectively, and then Kim was
Kim’s
Much of
9 9 0 d e but solo rarely to be seen. Until now... “It’s a long time, isn’t it?”
1
atured she considers. “I mean, even for me, I can’t believe
album fe
s co -w ritten
son g
M el that I’ve been gone for such a long time. And it
w it h
was by choice. After Mel passed away, I made
the first solo album in her honour. I put so much
energy into it and wanted to showcase some
of the songs we’d been writing during her
illness. By the time of Breakaway I wasn’t
enjoying it anymore or happy with the
way the music was going. I wanted
to take a rest and collect my thoughts.
I was on a personal quest to show the
world the legacy she had left behind and
didn’t really take any time out to grieve. I found
it quite lonely. Especially on the road travelling
without Melanie. I missed my homelife and decided
that I didn’t want to be in the limelight.”
It’s the creative process, writing in particular, that
track in the Top 10. I think Mel and I also felt that it had Kim says she enjoys most and continues to do so. Being
become very samey and we didn’t want that. We would free of a major label meant she could make her own
never have wanted that for our music because, as I said, decisions, “release the odd little dance track here and
it was a very personalised sound. there” and write for other artists.
“It had all become very formulaic, so I’m pretty sure How then, did she get involved with the British
that Mel and I would have wanted to have gone on to Academy of Songwriters, Composers And Authors?
work with other producers, or at least experimented “In 1991, I was nominated for an Ivor [Novello] in
with another sound. the best contemporary song category for Don’t Worry.
“I don’t feel like Mel and I were really part of the I lost to Adamski’s Killer, and rightly so because it’s just
Hit Factory. That all came about a year or so later. an amazing track. Because BASCA do the Ivor Novello’s
I don’t associate Mel and I with it and that’s the I started to get involved and that’s what I did for a
God’s honest truth.” number of years, about 15 years, in fact.”

57

CP40.melandkim.print.indd 57 09/04/2018 17:03

 Stints in soap operas such as Doctors and
The Dream Team followed, along with her
own internet radio (“one of the first actually”)
ry
and travelling abroad. “So I kind of did I were ve
“Mel and all the Stock
everything that kept me away from being ause
lucky bec an
nd Waterm d
a pop star basically,” she laughs. Aitken a se
s w er e personali
“Then, 10 years ago, my mum was song im Appleby
s” – K
to u
diagnosed with an illness and I took time out
to care for her. I dedicated a lot of time to
looking after my mum, but she sadly passed
away in October last year. So, it has all been
a bit of a journey, to be honest with you.” don’t want to say it’s longer because I’ll feel old!
It reminded me how much I loved performing and
RESPECTING THE PAST I didn’t realise how much I missed it.”
Last year she returned to the stage, performing at The bug must have bitten her, because she’s
the Rewind Festival, something she repeatedly refers making more festivals appearances this year,
to as “huge”. “It was a really big deal, because I’d performing a full set of Mel & Kim numbers.
never performed Mel & Kim songs solo,” she says There’s even new music. Sort of... Fans will
thoughtfully. I’d been asked many, many times to do no doubt be well aware that a ‘new’ Mel &
that. I’ve been offered silly money but always turned Kim song has recently surfaced. Where Is Love
them down. I performed Respectable for the first is available to download via the usual outlets,
time in 25 years... I think it might even with physical editions from PledgeMusic.
be longer, but I really “It was a track that Mel and I did before we
were famous,” Kim explains. “I think it was the
demo that got us the deal with Supreme Records,

T H E
and we recorded it in a kitchen. It was such a

T ’
THA IS S
long time ago!”
In fact, it was so long ago that when the people
behind the Mel & Kim website [Krisztian and Iain]

WAY IT
sent her the track, she couldn’t believe it was them.
“I didn’t recognise it at all. But when they came back
with the full story, I remembered recording the vocals
ing part and feeling terrified. Melanie was always a lot more
u g h o ri g inally be & Kim knew
altho , Mel confident than me. We recorded it and then Steve
tion that, it Factory udio was
m o n m isconcep k n o w n as The H e re th e st Rowland, who was the American producer who kind
It’s a co m
r becom e e were th Rick
u ld la te w h e n w P W L. “I think of discovered us, said that he was going to take it to
of w h a t w o tr u th is , rd in g a t u rn s. Pete
o f th e a cts. “The of their time reco y w e m et Pete B er him this label that had the artist Princess and who’d recently
many says Obviousl ound. I rememb
mpty,” Kim s of tea! had
usually e d to make us cup ed You Spin Me R t my face, and I had a huge hit with Say I’m Your Number One... the
y ] u se re m ix k in g a o u t
[Astle y had was loo ing ab rest is history.”
a s th e re when the
s it to o k , and he e d o u t h e was talk t my nose
w job turn to g e
w many about. It ad taken
asking ho t he was talking m a n y jobs it h over, because sh
e FRESH START
id e a w h a g m e h o w e la n ie d le r, and
n o in M d
o se . H e was ask m e m b e r calling d io li k e a wild to d sh e For the vocals on Where Is Love to be extracted
my n did. I re e stu
around th e had a nose job ” She
!’ An properly, technology had to catch up. It now comes
lo o k th e way it ru n n in g v .’
to and thinks I’ nose
buzzing inks! He my mum’s cent with a host of contemporary mixes, as well as ones
was just ss w hat he th n a h , she’s got th a t lovely ac
u e h , ’ in that boast the iconic original Mel & Kim sound.
saying: ‘g im and says: ‘na e was like ‘eff off
to h dh n’t Does this mean there are more unearthed gems
goes up round an they were em
He turned er – and
laughs. “ .” recall o n e o th
ut we ’d se e th out there somewhere?
that he h
ad
ts , K im can only a n a ra m a there, b lie, Jason and “No, I think that would be it,” Kim says matter-
er a c w Ba n eK y
As for oth dio... “I never sa t studio. By the tim cancer, and we of-factly. “I think that there’s nothing else out there
stu uie w ith
eve n in th e
y a very , v e ry q
en diag n o se d where did
a s re a ll e l h a d b e in k in g: ‘wow, featuring the two of us together.”
out. It w th e re M t h o m e th
It’s a whole other story for solo material...
else was e were a
everyone ctators to it all. W In 2016 the single, What’s Not To Love, was
e sp e
becam om?’”
t come fr due to kickstart things once again. “I wrote
all this lo

58

CP40.melandkim.print.indd 58 09/04/2018 17:03


16 tracks with Dominic
King in the Pyrenees, and then I had
a few remixes done of it, because
I wanted to make it sound more
contemporary. But then my mum was
ill and I put everything on hold and
I haven’t gone back to it – it’s still
sitting there and I’m looking for
a producer.
“From a songwriting point of view
there are some really great tracks. But
I guess I’m still a little bit of a reluctant
pop star as well.”
Why, you may ask, has a reluctant
pop star agreed to front a new show on BBC
Four? “Because it’s music and it’s about the
80s,” she replies without hesitation. “I think
the subject matter is just incredible. I’m going
to sound old now, but I think the 80s was
an incredible time for creativity right across
the board – from music to fashion.
“You’d go out and you’d customise your
clothes to try to be different. It was a time
when everyone tried to be different and
image was everything. It was certainly very
close to my heart when I was young.”
The show, The 80s Pop Road Map, sees Kim and
Midge Ure travelling across Britain to interview other
pop stars about why certain sounds came from different
parts of the country.
“We visit every area of the country to chart the
change in the British music scene and discover musical
influences. You had electro coming out of Sheffield, the
ska movement in the Midlands, this hybrid country sound
coming out of Scotland, dance culture in London and
psychedelia coming out of Liverpool.
“It was the days before streaming services and the
ability to hold your entire music library in your pocket.
A time when UK artists were releasing records and
having hits on both sides of the Atlantic. Today Adele,
Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, they’re the hardcore ones
flying the flag for Britain. Back then, there really was a
CP40.melandkim.print.indd 59
“I’M GOING TO SOUND
OLD NOW, BUT I THINK
THE 80S WAS AN
INCREDIBLE TIME FOR
CREATIVITY ACROSS
THE BOARD – FROM
MUSIC TO FASHION...”
British invasion and it was an incredible time. You just
felt that it was all there for the taking. Anything was
possible if you had the talent and you were creative.
It was all there and a really great time.”
She says she’s enjoyed the experience of working
with BBC Four so much that she’d love to do more.
“I love music and I know my music. My father
came here in the 50s on the Windrush and
brought his music with him. I kind of grew up
with original ska. So, by the time it got to The
Beat and The Selecter, it wasn’t a new sound to
me. What was new to me was the set-up. It was
racially diverse and that is what was new to me.
Then my mum loved Al Green and there was
John Holt and Helen Reddy. I’m very eclectic
with my music taste!”
So a less reluctant television presenter then?
“Yeah, well, I love talking about music!” she
chuckles. “I still love music, I’ve always
loved music. It’s part of my DNA. I never
want that to change. You got me with
the reluctant pop star, haven’t you? It’s
what Tony Swain, from Swain & Jolley,
used to call me. At the time I didn’t really
understand what he meant by being
reluctant. But obviously he saw something
in me that I didn’t – years later I understand
what he means.”
It seems she’s not as opposed to the idea
of embracing a dancing nation once more.
“I’m sure I will release music, but I want it to
be right,” she says. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist,
Where Is Love and I’m quite hard on myself so I don’t want to
is available to send just anything out there.”
download via the
usual outlets,
But as well as the fans, there’s someone else she wants
with physical to get things right for. “I want to do something that I
editions from think Melanie would be proud of, too,” she explains.
PledgeMusic “Because Melanie’s always at the forefront for me. I
really want to get it right for her at these shows this year.
I’m giving back to my sister. She has probably been
saying for the last 30 years: ‘why haven’t you gone out
there and celebrated us?’”
So, contrary to what Kim might believe, there’s still
plenty of life, love and tales to be told in the Mel & Kim
story yet.
● The 80s Pop Road Map is set to be
broadcast on BBC Four in early July. Visit
www.melandkim.com for further information.
59
12/04/2018 09:22
 A R E A

RICHARD SMITH’S CREATIVE OUTPUT INCLUDES

A DIVERSE RANGE OF CLIENTS AND
STELLAR COLLABORATIONS. AS HALF OF s
uild
THE DESIGN DUO, AREA, THE GRAPHIC it y & G For
n
a C Desig rd
DESIGNER’S IMPRESSIVE POP PORTFOLIO er o
Aft rse in uildf e,
g
G d
cou t at Colle igne
WAS HUGELY INFLUENTIAL IN THE 90s. n
Pri nical mith at
s
h
Tec ard S a HND lege
A N D R E W D I N E L E Y h l
Ric to do n Co then
o
up Lond g, he ith tes
n
the rinti job w ssocia
P
of ded a ille A

H
ow did you get
involved with
design and was
it always your
intention to work
in the field of sleeve art?
When I was finishing my last year
of school in Guildford I spent much
of my free time at the local record
store or working on a fanzine called
Catcrap with a friend. This became
the gateway to the rest of my career.
I was on the verge of leaving
school and looking to go to college,
but had no clue what I wanted to
do. Fortuitously, my school career
guidance counsellor said: “If you
like fanzines why don’t you do this
graphic design course at Guildford
Technical College?” Within a few
months, I enrolled on a City &
Guilds course in Design For Print. I
was infatuated by the work of Peter
Saville and his work married my
obsession with Joy Division and New
Order with my emerging design
sensibilities. At the end of the course,
I signed up to do a HND at the
London College of Printing. Then,
once I had graduated, I had to start
looking for a job.
A friend of my older brother
worked at Pentagram and I started
a brief internship there. My brother’s
friend gave me a list of agencies
that Pentagram worked with to
help me search for a job. One of
those agencies was Peter Saville
Associates (PSA). When I called
them, Peter answered the phone
and, within a few minutes, I had
v
arranged a meeting. On the day of lan er Sa
Pet
my interview I waited several hours
for him to arrive (I later realised this
was ‘normal’ for him) and at the end
of our very interesting conversation,
I was offered a job.
What was the first sleeve
design commission for you
after the formation of your
own design studio, Area, at
the end of the 80s?
It was Personal Jesus, the first single
from Depeche Mode’s 1990 album,
Violator. For Personal Jesus, Anton
Corbijn created the entire cover
sleeve as a square painting, which uth
,
we photographed. This approach O f Tr the
icy d
se ight’
became challenging when the Pol tili l
For ard u inted had
h e
record company asked for a cassette Ric e ‘pa ect h n
f
sam to ef Anto hey ue
version or a rectangular in-store h
pho d wit hen t talog
a
poster... anything that wasn’t square. use bijn w n a c igner
s
For the follow-up single Enjoy The Cor ked o n de
r o
wo fashi no
Silence, I asked Anton to break it u
for i Tats
j
down into components that I could Ko
move around, colourise, edit and
so on. Most of the ideas came from
Anton, but, the more I worked with
him, the more we discussed ideas.
At the beginning of every new
album he usually had a very clear
idea about what he wanted to do.
However, as I gained his trust, he
leaned on me increasingly to do
more of the design.
For Depeche singles Policy
Of Truth and World In My
Eyes, you moved away from
the naturalistic forms and
dominant darkness, to

60

CP40.popart.print.indd 60 10/04/2018 16:39

 A R E A P O P A R T

e
rst ter h
s fi f
h a rd’ on, a as lator
i
Ric miss rea, w s Vio
’
com ed A Mode ding
m l
for eche inclu sona
r
Dep paign s Pe e
e
cam singl joy Th rld
the us, En d Wo
n
Jes nce a s
e
Sile y Ey
M
In

re
e mo
th
, b ut, t the r idea
ijn .A lea he
C orb ideas er y c trust,
n v s
A nto ussed ad a ed hi
om isc ly h ain ..”
m e fr we d usual as I g esign.
e a s ca more um he ever, the d
id the lb w of
f t he him, ew a o. Ho more
o n d
M ost d with ever y ed to to do
“
ork
e of ant gly
I w inning t he w reasin
a c
Xxxxxxx
beg ut wh me in
o
ab ed on
n
lea

e
cam e
a n ds ing th nd
b a
ow tor, de
any oll a
“M rea f f Viol e Mo n
A h r
to ess o epec to tu
c D
suc ause able from
bec been away t”
s g
had rner p’ pa orkin
o
a c ir ‘po on w ode
M
the chard eche
i
– R h Dep 61
wit

CP40.popart.print.indd 61 09/04/2018 17:24

 For
cam the 1
the paign 997 U
A G singl , incl ltra
e u
and un, H s Ba ding
o r
Ric It’s me, rel O
h N U f
and ard i o Go seles
n o s
a r expe corp d,
a o
sou nge rimen rated
rce of d t
ma iffe ed wi
ter r t
ials ent h

“Fo
r
wh the c
ate o
tha ver ver o
t. I f
fad .. Ant want Barre
es on ed l
wa aw me wit Of A
sb a n h
eca y in t tione his p Gun,
use he i d ho An
of w mag somet tos an ton a
hat e an hing d llo
wa dh abo I fully wed m
sg o
oin w sym ut how capita e to d
go
n w bolic Dave lised o o
ith i n
Ga t was Gaha
han – n
per I think
son
ally that
.”

“Fo
cov r the
wa er, th Ultra
s e
ste mad lett album
n e
on cil ch e by p ring
pap to ph aract rojec
o e tin
int er. It togra rs g
e
The resti was a phic
r n
aes e is g tec real
a l
the thetic n od hniqu y
sin f d e.
gle or m
s” ost
of

62

CP40.popart.print.indd 62 09/04/2018 17:24

 A R E A P O P A R T

embrace more vivid colours For the Ultra campaign idea of riffing off corporate graphic
and portraiture. in 1997, you incorporated language. They really liked that
Before Policy Of Truth I’d worked a range of source material industrial aesthetic so I think that’s
with Anton on a catalogue for into the designs – from where it started.
a fashion designer called Koji drawings and photographs
Tatsuno. He’d just started shooting to iconography… In 1991, you worked with
colour photography after years of For the cover of Barrel Of A Gun, ABC on the sleeve of their
black and white. The imagery in Anton allowed me to do whatever album Abracadabra and
that fashion catalogue utilised the I wanted with his photos and I fully its singles, Love Conquers
same ‘painted light’ photo style capitalised on that. I was really into All and Say It. The album
as Policy Of Truth. The process this fake handmade aesthetic at the cover shared some visual
exaggerated the film time, using the computer to create themes with Enjoy The
colour, so you ended a low-fi, scrappy design style, where Silence – an organic element
up with super- I composed scans of my handwriting against a Yves Klein-esque
saturated or bright and drawings. Anton mentioned blue background.
images. World In something about how Dave Gahan There was no conscious decision
My Eyes happened fades away in the image and how on my part to do something similar.
quickly. I think Anton symbolic it was – I think that was Many bands came to Area following
shot some photos of because of what was going on with the success of Violator, and because
the band around New Gahan personally. There was a lot Depeche Mode had been able to
York and that became of uncertainty about the future of the turn a corner away from their ‘pop’
the imagery for band at that time and the music also past. We had a few different ideas
the sleeve. had an aggressive edge. I think the for ABC, but landed on the idea of
sleeve design reflected that. Mute using Lewis Mulatero’s photographs
boss, Daniel Miller, told me that he of seashells, seahorses and starfish.
thought it was the best sleeve Area I think the overarching narrative was
had designed. based on the fact the band had a
For the Ultra album cover, new style, so there were definitely
the lettering was made by aspects of the past they wanted us to
projecting stencil characters on help lose. At the time, Peter Saville
to photographic paper. It was a and Trevor Key had been doing
really interesting technique. There all this cool dichromat imagery for
is an odd aesthetic for most New Order, and Nick Knight had
Aft been experimenting with colour
er
Are suc
of the singles (Home,
wit a we cess w Useless and It’s processing. I think their developing
n
Bad h Nick t on ith D No Good) styles got picked up across the
t M
Dre Seed Cave o wo ,
art am), s (He & Th k
r from that musical landscape.
i i n e
(As st Ni ndus ry’s campaign.
t t
(Ab Is EP zer E rial
)
Con racad and b
b They seem to go In 1991, you went on to work
que abr ABC from the intense with Trevor Key, creating
rs a
All , Love
and to the bizarre to the several sleeve designs for
Say
It) juvenile. For each OMD. What was that like?
single, Anton gave us I’d always dreamed of working with
all the pieces and we my favourite bands and musicians.
put the cover I managed to do that with OMD and
designs it really was an honour. With OMD,
together we had sent our book to Virgin
from those. Records and the art department
arranged a meeting for us with Andy
As well McCluskey. We were able to trade
as Depeche ‘war stories’ about working with
Mode, Mute Peter Saville and we bonded over
Records our memories. The image for Sugar
commissioned Tax was based on an invitation we
you to work with created for a London art gallery
Nick Cave and show. The artist used oil in his work
Nitzer Ebb. to create striking images and Andy
I did a couple of different loved it. There was no one else
projects for Nick Cave. I knew who could shoot the image
I think the Henry’s Dream other than Trevor and that final shot
material came first, which was used dish detergent on plexi-glass.
another Anton collaboration.
He came up with the idea of The sleeves you worked
using a billboard and I created the on for OMD varied in style,
supporting graphics. It was this Pulp particularly the glamorous
Fiction reference. As Is for Nitzer follow-up album, Liberator.
Ebb was a one-off. They were really It was all about an expression of
into skateboarding, and liked the the song or what the song was

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 P O P A R T A R E A
about. I think that was the reason
why all the sleeves were all
so different. Usually the
first single, album, and
maybe the second single, all
had a similar feel. The story
behind the sleeve for Liberator
is a little more interesting than
some of the others we did. The
original sleeve was banned by
Woolworths because it was too
raunchy. Andy McCluskey
really liked an image
we found by
Stéphane
Sednaoui, which
was originally
created for The Face
magazine. Andy
wanted his own version,
so we commissioned
Stéphane
to shoot a
similar series
of images. Our
model was wearing
a Jean-Paul Gaultier
body suit – with fake
nipples and hair – so
she looked nude. It was
more provocative than the
original, but it made its way
through the entire process
and it was only when Woolworths
complained that we had to come up
with an alternative. So, we reverted
to Stéphane’s original shoot for The
Face. They were less provocative,
but still worked. Andy was still
thrilled that he’d had something
banned by Woolworths.
For OMD’s 1996 album,
Universal, Peter Saville had shown
Andy something similar to the
final cover image. Peter may have
even created something that we
repurposed or redrew. But we
didn’t actually work with him on
the sleeve design beyond that. I
think he just got a credit because
it was his original idea and we
liked the association. The images
were created in a 3D modelling
programme and we developed
variations for different purposes:
posters, inner sleeves, the Walking
On The Milky Way single etc.
Your work for Tears For
Fears was predominantly
photographic. Was this a
conscious decision with the
band now being a solo
vehicle for Roland Orzabal?
We had been working with an artist
called David Austen on a gallery
project and showed Roland some
of his work.
64
CP40.popart.print.indd 64
It was a lot like Matisse’s
work, simple collage cut-outs,
and I think, because of the
earthy spiritual quality of David’s
work and the title of the album,
Elemental, there was a vague
connection there. Roland
was definitely on a spiritual
journey, so I think much of that
came through in the cover design.
In the mid-90s you worked
with two 80s icons, Kim
Wilde and Adam Ant. Was
there any pressure for the
design work to reference their
commercially successful past?
I forget how Kim Wilde came
about. I remember we were on
vacation and somehow, I managed
to orchestrate a shoot. I remember
she came across as being very
self-conscious about her looks at
the actual shoot. But there was
no request to relive the past.
Adam was another person Corbijn
put us in contact with. Adam didn’t
get involved in the design and we
only met him a few times – we
mostly worked with Marco Pirroni.
Are there any sleeve designs
you’ve worked on that you
remain particularly proud of?
Barrel Of A Gun, but I also really
like the Songs Of Faith And Devotion
d
ure
h ono on
as MD
d w h O tor,
i c har k wit ibera g
R r L kin
wo x,
to ar Ta l, Wal ay,
Sug versa ilky W s For e
i r h
Un The M s Tea al), T g)
t n
On ell a men mera Of
w e s
as rs (El (Boo (Song ive)
s L
Live sleeve. Because of Fea ature gain tion
Cre DM a Devo
its pure typography and and h An
d
t
atmospheric photography, Fai
I’d say another favourite is
Boomerang by The Creatures.
I’ve somehow stumbled into something I love!”
I’ve always felt really lucky
throughout my career and I’m proud
career and I’m proud that, despite having
“I’ve always felt really lucky throughout my
no clue what I wanted to do with my life,
that, despite having no clue what
I wanted to do with my life, I’ve
somehow stumbled into something
I love!
More recently, I’ve held the
position of creative director at
Sullivan brand engagement agency
in New York City.
The work I do now is a far cry
from those early days, but I still
apply the same principles and
I’m still driven by the same
subversive attitude.
Record cover design is relatively
easy. There’s something about
what I do today that feels more
satisfying, more challenging, if not
as important culturally.
10/04/2018 17:06
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CP40.Spring_House_Advert.print.indd 65 10/04/2018 09:44

 r lsJu St
D A P H N E &

i
C E L E S T E

G a
w H F
a nn ave u n!

The last time we saw Daphne

& Celeste they were performing
under a hail of bottles, food
and goodness knows what else
at Reading Festival 2000... now
the bubbly pop duo are back to
save the world!

66

CP40.Daphne+Celeste.print.indd 66 10/04/2018 17:10

!
aphne
and Ce
save th leste are
e world back to
HAD , bu
M A Y H AV E that be
achieve t how can
d? Fun,
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SHO R T CAN r... And a lot of
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n
SS, STE Karen D ir – Celeste Cru a lot!
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A MARK
Univers
DUO D al, who et at an auditio aka Daphne
I N L Y LEFT A P.
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ing
were lo
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C E R TA R L D OF PO the duo les and an alb g to create a
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ON TH K I N D OF MA been fr
iends e
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t.
AT K giggling ver sinc la te
LY W H H STIC , self-de e, and r. They’ve
EXACT K E O O jokes a p it sho
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ITS LI FOR
WITH H . G . L . Y. , I S As we c tious. ur and
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ND U UT hat, the
IDE. B copies n
YOU A C p air are
D E of their in Ne
R TO K, The Wo new alb
um, Da w York, signin
STENE K, BAC rld. “I’m
THE LI E ‘ B A C Daphne signing phne &
Cele
g
THEY’R E reveals three w
URPRIS Karen, . “So, y ith my re ste Save
NOW H A S it will p ou if ge al name
’ WIT F THE Roadsh rob
ow in 2 ably be worth e that says
t on ,”
BACK! F O R ONE O Celeste 035... m o re
NDER LBUMS de or may on Anti
CONTE POP A
ques
O - “We sta adpans: “I think be 2045.”
LEC T R yed ver it’ll be a lo
BEST E ... says, as y close,”
E YEAR the conv Daphne ng time
.”
OF TH S C O T
T
ersation
turns to
their
R E N
D A R

67

CP40.Daphne+Celeste.print.indd 67 11/04/2018 11:09

 D A P H N E & C E L E S T E

latest comeback. “Celeste is like a little sister

to me. We’ve been in each other’s lives ever
since we met. But I don’t think we necessarily
ever thought we were going to do this again.”
Before we get to ‘this’, we need to go back
to the beginning...

POWERPUFF GIRLS
“We were kid actors,” Daphne explains. “So
that’s how we got the audition. We got a deal
with Universal who already had two songs written –
Ooh Stick You and U.G.L.Y. – I’m convinced that
the only reason we got it is because we looked like
Anime characters.”
Celeste elaborates: “They were just going to use
cartoons. That was very popular at the time – to not
have an artist and just have a cartoon do it. Do you
remember Gorillaz? So, something like that.”
What they thought was just going to be a free trip
to London soon turned into a job that they discovered
people took quite seriously.
“Once we got to the UK, we realised pop was very
serious. Which was hilarious to us,” Celeste says. There’s
a very long pause when asking if they took it seriously.
“Ummm, no,” Daphne eventually responds before
bursting out laughing. “We definitely didn’t take
it seriously. How could we? It was all so hilarious.”
“They pitched our voices up, we sounded like
chipmunks!” Celeste chimes in. “We were basically
actors. Even the audition itself was a weird audition
to get. My agent was like: ‘OK, so they need two girls
for a pop group’. You don’t really process what that
means when you’re a young performer... you think you
work really hard, find a producer, record an album.
You don’t think you meet these two guys and they’re
like: ‘here are your songs’,” she howls with laughter. of raw meat and a wheelchair. “It really makes
Joining in with the hysterics, Daphne adds: “Also, sense to throw tomatoes,” Celeste considers.
we didn’t realise it at the time, but at that audition “It’s very easy to throw them really far...
we danced to what would become Ooh Stick You. Wheelchairs don’t really go that far.”
So, we were bopping around and afterwards we were Daphne gasps: “Here is something that
like ‘what is that song?’ We were super judgemental I hadn’t thought about until
about it!” now, the tomatoes... they didn’t
Celeste agrees: “We were such bitches, it’s so funny. splatter. Thanks for getting us to
Then we met the woman who wrote our songs and she look back at this!
was amazing. She intended for the songs to be hardcore “I think the bigger thing is
drum and bass.” The pair scream laughing. “So when that wheelchair... did someone
she heard them, that made everything even more give up their mobility because
hilarious for us.” they hated us so much? That’s
Celeste explains that the name change came about interesting to think about. That’s
from the recording session for Ooh Stick You, where real hate... It’s like: ‘I’ll sacrifice.
they played about with different names. “I think at the I won’t see any of the bands
time, somebody wanted to do a Scooby-Doo thing, like I came here to see because
‘Daphne and Velma’. We thought it was just for the song I hate them so much’.”
and didn’t think it was going to stick to this degree.” Celeste thinks for a second and
Celeste starts laughing and the pair are off again... says: “Unless they have a spare
or they’re on crutches now.” Aided by
UNDER ATTACK “I’m thinking that they had another getaway producer Max
Tundra, Save
No interview with Daphne & Celeste would be complete wheelchair waiting,” Daphne suggests. The World
without discussing Reading Festival 2000. It’s written in Now they’ve saved themselves from identified flying sees Daphne
pop history – the duo lied their way into getting a slot, objects, they’re back to save the world with a brand & Celeste
return with
all because Celeste wanted to meet Eminem (who later new record. It’s been a fairly organic process, as you
a delightful
dropped out of performing). They were on a line-up with might expect from a duo that haven’t released an album of
Rage Against The Machine and Slipknot and the stage album in 18 years. modernist
was bombarded with, well, anything the crowd could lay Producer, Max Tundra, originally got in touch with electro-pop,
which features
their hands on. Celeste via Twitter in 2011. The recording of You And a biting
“I have a notebook of everything that was thrown at I Alone followed – either that year or the following, takedown of
us,” Daphne says. “I wrote it right after we got off stage.” they can’t quite recall – and then it sat on the shelf until Ed Sheeran
et al on the
Items included a mirror (pocket version – thankfully – eventually being released in 2015. “We were kind single BB
which they kept), ‘lots of food’ (“food made it far”), packs of just experimenting,” Daphne explains.

68

CP40.Daphne+Celeste.print.indd 68 09/04/2018 16:22


POP
“I think that at some point, we weren’t
even going to release it,” Celeste ventures.
“I thought it would be really funny to just
release that one song,” Daphne explains.
“Again, I think there’s something about our
origin as a manufactured pop band – the more
ridiculous the better. So we were just into releasing
it and seeing what happened. We had such a good
time working with Max that we just felt like we should
record an album.”
“It just feels so right for us that our follow-up album
took nearly 20 years,” Celeste smiles. “I think there’s
something deeply satisfying in that for me.”
The positive response to You And I Alone took the girls
by surprise. “It was the first time that we had not been on
a worst list,” Daphne laughs. “Not being one of the most
annoying tracks of the week was huge!”
Celeste tries to put her finger on why album Daphne &
Celeste Save The World works. “What I really like about
the album is it’s an updated mash-up of who we were
when we first came out. It’s a very eclectic album. I like
all the shout-outs to who we were then, they’re peppered
throughout. Max’s music mixed with Daphne & Celeste
doesn’t really go together, but somehow it does.”
Daphne agrees: “You can’t really predict where a
song is going to go next, and that for me is what is really
awesome about Max and his work. The longer we kept
working together, the more we realised how absurd and
weird we could push it.”
Daphne & Celeste Save The World feels nostalgic, but
also very ‘now’. Out of place, yet ahead of its time. In
many ways, a grown up version of their debut offering...
“I think the thing that’s funny about We Didn’t Say
That!, our debut album – it took me a long time to realise
– it’s got a little bit of everything too,” says Celeste.
CP40.Daphne+Celeste.print.indd 69
The only way is up for
Daphne & Celeste as they
return with a Max Tundra-
produced sophomore album
Ro&my
aphne and Celeste weren’t exactly embraced
The by the rock community, as seen by their Reading
Festival performance. It seems they managed to
le
ruffle a few other feathers along the way – Daphne
c he
famously mocked Placebo’s Brian Molko in an NME
Mi oF
interview. “I wrote him an apology.” Celeste shrugs.
“We reached out, so I feel like that’s OK.” Daphne nods:
“We tried to make amends.”
Celeste bursts out laughing. “He didn’t answer the door!”
Daphne considers. “But I feel like we were kinda outsiders
in all communities. We didn’t really find our group. It’s like
MuSi
when you’re in high school and you just don’t know what
table to sit at.” Celeste agrees: “We were just never invited
c
to anyone’s table, ever.”
Does this make them the Romy and Michele of pop music?
Daphne beams: “That’s actually a brilliant way to put it,
I think we were the Romy and Michele of pop.
“We made some cool friends, but we also were like kinda
desperate for friends I think at that point, too... I think we
said a lot of things that people didn’t take kindly to –
I said that a guy, he was in Five, looked like a muppet.
I thought I was being sweet! But he was really mad
and he actually confronted us one day...”
Celeste laughs. “Because apparently muppet
means something else in the UK. It means idiot.”
“It definitely isn’t like anything else that was
on the pop scene at that point,” Daphne agrees.
“And I would venture to say that this new album is kind
of the same... it’s hard to compare it to something else
that’s out right now and we don’t have to worry about
anyone else sounding like us.”
What’s next then, if this new process has been so
enjoyable? “I think it’s about 18 years until we have
to think about it again,” Celeste replies, and Daphne
screams with laughter. “Even popstars are taking
themselves too seriously now,” Daphne considers. ● Daphne &
“It’s like, where do we go? I’m going to Max Celeste Save
Tundra’s world for a while. That suits me.” The World is
Celeste is, as ever, in agreement: “The magical out now on
world of Max Tundra!” all formats.
69
11/04/2018 11:10
 The Reflex
DURAN DURAN (EMI)
So what’s the real story behind Duran Duran’s
most successful single? Simon Le Bon has
CP40_Top10.print.indd 70
covered his tracks on occasion by stating the
lyrics are nonsense and merely the product
of recording after a couple of bottles of vino
destructo, but we think there’s more to it
than that. Fan theories posit that it’s a paean
to masturbation, an oblique celebration of
drug-taking, an exploration into gaining self-
confidence, or even rather more prosaically
a song about keyboard player Nick Rhodes.
After thorough research, it seems the idea that
this is an ode on onanism errr stands up best.
My internet search history now looks shocking
after trying to write this
entry. Maybe this will
remain Duran’s most
unknowable song. After
all: “Every little thing the
reflex does, leaves you
answered with
a question mark.”
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
WHAM! (EPIC)
You probably know the origin story of
Wham!’s first UK and US No.1 hit, but for
the slow ones at the back here it is again.
The title comes from a note that Andrew
Ridgeley scribbled to his parents. Meant
to say ‘wake me up before you go’, he
accidentally wrote ‘up’ twice and added a
second ‘go’ on purpose. That’s thinking on
your feet, that is. George took the concept
and ran with it, conjuring up a 50s and 60s
pop homage bursting with the usual Wham!
teenage chutzpah. The video, which sees
the band rocking it in Katharine Hamnett-
designed T-shirts (George’s CHOOSE LIFE tee
has become iconic)
was once listed
in the NME’s 50
Worst Music Videos
countdown. What do
they know? Whatever
happened to the
NME, by the way?
12/04/2018 13:15
Automatic
THE POINTER
SISTERS
(PLANET)
The biggest hit The
Pointer Sisters ever
had in the UK. It was
the second song
released from their 10th studio album, 1983’s
Break Out with Ruth Pointer taking the husky
lead vocal. Manning the recording console
were heavyweight pop producers Glenn
Ballard and Richard Perry. Look out, too, for
an extended mix of this track by Madonna
collaborator John “Jellybean” Benitez. Also
included on Break Out was the storming
Neutron Dance track that featured on the
Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack (remember Eddie
Murphy hanging on in the back of that open
truck?) and Jump (For My Love). I’d like to take
this opportunity to thank the Sisters for the freak
funk Pinball Number Count song from Sesame
Street. It’s how I learned to count to 12 without
resorting to taking my shoes and socks off.
Let’s Hear It For The Boy
DENIECE WILLIAMS (CBS)
One of two entries into this Top 10 rundown
from the movie Footloose. Nominated for
an Oscar for Best Original Song, Williams
eventually lost out to former boss Stevie
Wonder and I Just Called To Say I Love
You from Woman In Red – in the 70s,
WEEK ENDING 26 MAY 1984 Williams was part of Stevie’s backing band
Wonderlove. In a previous incarnation as
OSCAR-NOMINATED SONGS DOMINATE A CHART Deniece Chandler she recorded the Northern
THAT INCLUDES CLASSICS FROM BOB MARLEY, Soul favourite I’m Walking Away. Let’s Hear
It For The Boy peaked at No.2 in the UK’s
WHAM! AND A LYRICALLY OBLIQUE DURAN DURAN
singles chart and features backing vocals
S T E V E H A R N E L L
from George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam,
who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets
Girl – best known for
their hit Waiting For
(1) The Reflex A Star To Fall and for
DURAN DURAN (EMI) writing two classics
5TH WEEK ON CHART
1 for Whitney Houston,
How Will I Know and
a
(2) Automatic I Wanna Dance With
THE POINTER SISTERS (PLANET) Somebody (Who
2 8TH WEEK ON CHART Loves Me).
 I Want To (8) Let’s Hear It For The Boy One Love /
Break Free DENIECE WILLIAMS (CBS)
People
QUEEN (EMI)
Get Ready
5TH WEEK ON CHART
BOB MARLEY
3

CP40_Top10.print.indd 71
A highlight from the
& THE WAILERS
band’s return-to-form (-) Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (ISLAND)
album The Works, WHAM! (EPIC) There’s a convoluted
I Want To Break Free 4 1ST WEEK ON CHART back story to one of
was another gem
Bob Marley’s greatest
written by their quiet (4) I Want To Break Free anthems of unity. Marley originally recorded
man bassist, John Deacon. That memorable
QUEEN (EMI) the song in a ska style in 1965, incorporating
solo isn’t a heavily treated Brian May special
7TH WEEK ON CHART snatches of The Impressions’ People Get Ready
by the way, it’s actually played by session 5 written by Curtis Mayfield. As copyright law was
man Fred Mandel on a Roland Jupiter-8 synth.
Equally noteworthy was the promo, which
(5) One Love / People Get Ready not enforced in Jamaica at the time, Mayfield
BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS (ISLAND) went uncredited on the track. Marley revisited
included a Coronation Street parody featuring
6TH WEEK ON CHART it on the 1970 reggae medley All In One but
the quartet dressed in drag. Incredibly, this 6 the most famous version turned up on his Exodus
piece of knockabout fun was deemed too
controversial for audiences in the US and (6) Footloose album of 1977. This was later re-released as
KENNY LOGGINS (CBS) a single to accompany the equally important
was banned by MTV. The song was soon taken
6TH WEEK ON CHART Legend LP – still one of the greatest single artist
on as an anthem in the fight against political 7 compilations of all time. The 1984 video for the
oppression in territories such as South Africa (3) Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) song featured archive footage of Bob plus Paul
and South America. When Freddie Mercury
PHIL COLLINS (VIRGIN) McCartney, Suggs and Chas Smith, Keren and
performed the song in drag in Rio in 1985 8TH WEEK ON CHART
8 Sara from Bananarama and many more.
before a 325,000-strong crowd, fans pelted
him with stones believing he was belittling (16) Break Dance Party
its importance. Against All Odds
BREAK MACHINE (RECORD SHACK)
9 3RD WEEK ON CHART (Take A Look At Me Now)
PHIL COLLINS (VIRGIN)
Footloose (29) Dancing With Tears In My Eyes I can spot a theme emerging in this Top 10.
KENNY LOGGINS (CBS) ULTRAVOX (CHRYSALIS) Here’s ‘The Collins’ with a further Hollywood
Essentially an updated old school rock’n’roller 10 2ND WEEK ON CHART movie tie-in and yet another Oscar nomination
with a sprinkling of arena rock synths, Loggins for Best Original Song. These nominations are
turns in a punch-the-air anthem that perfectly like buses, aren’t they? Wait for ages, then
encapsulates the situation of the movie’s central three come along at once. Against All Odds...
character, Ren McCormack, played by the Break Dancing was the first of seven US solo No.1s for the
twinkle-toed Kevin Bacon in the days before he Dance Party With Tears Genesis frontman and was originally called
was flogging mobile phone contracts. Like the BREAK MACHINE In My Eyes the rather more sedentary How Can You Just
aforementioned Deniece Williams, Footloose (RECORD SHACK) ULTRAVOX Sit There? (come on, Phil, up your game – that’s
was also nominated for the Best Original Fronted by musician (CHRYSALIS) not sexy enough for Hollywood). The movie
Song at the Oscars of 1985. This year, it and radio DJ Keith The band’s second itself was directed by Mr Helen Mirren, Taylor
was selected for preservation in the National Rodgers, Break biggest hit after Hackford, and starred premier league 80s
Recording Registry by the Library of Congress Machine were the Vienna was influenced saucepot Rachel Ward and Iron Man’s eventual
in the US as being brainchild of producers Jacques Morali and by Midge Ure’s love of the apocalyptic nemesis Jeff Bridges.
“culturally, historically, Henri Belolo, the team behind The Village atmosphere of Bowie’s Five Years from Ziggy Subsequently, Against
or artistically People. The whistling solo in Break Dance Party Stardust... and the novel On The Beach by All Odds was also taken
significant.” To fully is a callback to their other hit, Street Dance, Nevil Shute. Ure poses the question, if you to the top of the UK
cement his 80s movie which made it to No.3 in the UK singles chart had just four minutes to live in the face of singles chart by Mariah
tie-in credentials, in March 1984. The video is best forgotten, impending nuclear destruction, what would Carey and Westlife
Loggins went on to though, and looks like the kind of low-rent you do? Answer: don’t put Led Zeppelin’s in 2000 and X Factor
provide Danger Zone production that The Two Ronnies would have Stairway To Heaven on the stereo, you winner Steve Brookstein
for the Top Gun OST. turned out for a hip-hop parody sketch. won’t make it past the guitar solo. in 2005.

12/04/2018 13:15
 S O P H I E E L L I S - B E X T O R

W I T H S T R I N G S

ATTACHED
IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO THIS SUMMER THAT SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR
APPEARED ON THE FRONT OF MELODY MAKER UNDER THE BANNER
“DESPERATELY SEEKING SOPHIE!” AND A HEADLINE THAT DESCRIBED HER
FIRST GROUP AS “THE BEST NEW BAND IN BRITAIN.” IN THE TWO DECADES
THAT HAVE FOLLOWED SHE HAS EMBRACED EURO, DISCO, BAROQUE
AND SYNTH-POP. NOW IT’S TIME TO LOOK BACK…
I A N P E E L

I
didn’t just say: ‘OK, which are the
songs that charted the highest?’
I think it’s got to be more about
a shorthand way of saying: ‘these
are the songs that tell my story
so far’...” Sophie Ellis-Bextor is
explaining the thinking behind
which tracks she’s chosen for a new
greatest hits collection. More of an
audio memoir than a straight Best Of,
The Song Diaries places her voice
and songwriting front and centre stage,
set against a lush backdrop of new
orchestral arrangements.
But where did the philharmonic idea
come from? Not classical music, as you
might first think, or even the 80s’ lexicon
of pop string arrangements.

72

CP40.Sophie_EB.print.indd 72 10/04/2018 09:41

 As Sophie Ellis-Bextor
gets set to release
The Song Diaries,
16 orchestral
reworkings of some
of her favourite
songs, she tells
Classic Pop why these
are the tracks that
tell the story of her
life... so far

IN DISCO,
THE
ORCHESTRA
WOULD BE
FULL-ON...
UNABASHED
EMOTION
© Laura Lewis

S O P H I E
E L L I S - B E X T O R

73

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 S O P H I E E L L I S - B E X T O R
“I think the disco vibe is probably where
it came from for me,” Sophie explains.
“In disco, the orchestra would be full-on
bells and whistles, all emotion. Like
a sweep of everything coming at you
all at once. Unabashed emotion.
“Pleasure and pain of the heartbreak,
all of that. I love it! In fact, it’s kind
of what started the beginning
of my solo career. When
I was choosing songs
for Read My Lips,
I was gigging
around doing
solo club PAs for
Groovejet (If This
Ain’t Love), and
my tour manager
at the time used
to play Larry
Levan’s Live At The
Paradise Garage
remix album. One
track was a seven-minute
version of Cher’s Take Me
Home. So, I said to the label:
‘I think I’d like to do a cover of this’.
When I did the single version, it was
a lot more pop and synthy. But when
I’ve been playing it live more recently
I’ve actually got the Larry Levan string
arrangement. So, for The Song Diaries
I’ve created a hybrid of my single and
the Larry Levan version. It has some
orchestral flourishes and movements
that are absolutely beautiful.”
DON’T KILL THE GROOVE
Whether it’s the trance of Not Giving Up
On Love, the Italo-flavoured Groovejet or
the dystopian synths of Starlight, disco
has been at the heart of Sophie’s work,
at least for the ‘first chapter’, her quartet
of major label albums from 2001 to
2011. It’s in her roots. “I think people
overlook 70s disco quite a lot because
so much was over-familiar, with so many
big songs. But every once in a while,
I’ll be in the back of a taxi and a track
will come on and you’ll suddenly listen
to it as if you were in the mixing room,
hearing it for the first time. In terms of
musicianship, I consider all musicians
that can play disco to be pretty high-
brow. Their musicality is watertight.
“When I was touring the last record,
Familia, my husband Richard (Jones,
of The Feeling), was playing bass.
On Come With Us, which is a very
disco-based track, he was cautious and
thinking that he didn’t know if he was
able to really play that style. But then,
when he nailed it, it really made him
feel good to know that he could.”
This more recent diversification of
Sophie’s songwriting and sound has seen
her live work become quite a spectacle.
Wanderlust shows in 2014 were rootsy,
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CP40.Sophie_EB.print.indd 74
acoustic-based affairs that would set
things up for a disco finale. She would Dear
Diary
still encore with a stripped-back guitar
and vocal set, which usually took place
off-stage, with the singer popping up in
the middle of the crowd, on a balcony,
or wherever that night’s venue allowed.
“It is fun,” she confesses, “and What was that ‘turning point
I like an element of the moment’ for Sophie, when she
unexpected. Especially knew she’d broken through to the
because the last two mainstream? Perhaps reaching
records both had No.1 with Spiller or her first solo hit?
a slightly different “I think, for me, the one that really
sound, particularly stands out is much more basic,” she
Wanderlust. explains. “It’s the first time
That was much I ever heard anything I’d sung
more folky and played on the radio. It was I Got The
left-field. So, in Wherewithal (her debut single as
a concert, to do lead singer of Theaudience, which
lots of Wanderlust reached No.170, no less, in 1997).
at the beginning I liked a lot of the earlier stuff, but I
of the set, and then think that song really encapsulates
go to all the classics – the spirit of the band. I heard it on
Take Me Home, Murder Xfm and it was just a moment of:
On The Dancefloor and all ‘Oh my goodness, that’s me’. And
that stuff – and then to bring it the next moment, that took it up
back to something from Wanderlust at another level? “After that, probably
the end was quite nice. I want to do that when Theaudience was on the
again with the next tour.” cover of Melody Maker, because
In the Wanderlust show we reviewed I used to buy that all the time. Those
in Classic Pop, that encore was a bit of were the two first ‘hits’ that really
a pin-drop moment. made me feel excited.”
“They’re not normally that quiet! Over
in Manchester, they could be a bit noisy.
The Song
Diaries is
coming out
via Sophie’s
PledgeMusic
page in a
variety of
formats
with a
number of
extra offers
© Ben Weller
10/04/2018 09:41
 Piece of cake! “Normally, when you walk into
a studio with an orchestra it’s quite
intimidating... but this time I knew probably
three quarters of them when we started”

They just take a while to shut up, really!

I loved it at the Union Chapel in London.
The venue is perfect, because you’ve got
all these pews, so everything’s very neat.
Then you have a balcony for an encore.
You’ve got the acoustics of a church, too.
So when you’re singing it’s not as hard
to project because you’re literally in the
church, whereas some other places it’s
like I have this little tiny voice that I’m
trying to project.”

ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES
All of which paves the way for a new
tour, developing these ideas, with the
arrival of the new orchestral album.
“Ideally, it would be a tour with the
whole orchestra, but that’s not going
to happen!,” she says. “To take an
orchestra on the road would be
amazing, but I think I’ll take eight strings
and maybe a multi-instrumentalist, maybe
two, because each song has its own feel.
“There might be timpani on one
song, flute on another, or woodwind,
brass or harp. There’s only a couple
that have got all the bells and whistles.”
Recording orchestral, even with
a greatest hits, is still a case of an
artist placing themselves in a new
context, working with a ‘new band’,
and unfamiliar faces. It’s certainly

TO TAKE AN a brave departure.

“The recording has been quite

ORCHESTRA intense,” Sophie agrees. “But I think

that’s quite normal for orchestral stuff.
All the sheet music gets done, then it’s
ON THE just a matter of getting the orchestra in
and they’ll play it through.

ROAD WOULD “They might be different to pop or rock

musicians, but we had a nice hybrid for

BE AMAZING
this album.
“Amy Langley, who’s done all the
arrangements, plays cello, her sister
S O P H I E
E L L I S - B E X T O R
Gita plays violin, her other sister Rosie
plays viola. So I already knew three

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 TIMELINE sophie’s choice cuts
F R O M D A R L I N G O F T H E I N D I E P R E S S T O D A N C E F L O O R D I VA
TRIP
T O F U L L - O N O R C H E S T R A L R E - W O R K I N G S O F H E R G R E AT E S T
THE LIGHT
GROOVEJET FANTASTIC
HITS, WE CHART THE CAREER OF SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR

(IF THIS READ MY LIPS Me And My

AIN’T LOVE) Three years after SHOOT FROM Imagination and a
No.1 in both the Theaudience, in the THE HIP sixth Top 10 single,
UK and Australia summer of 2001 – That ‘difficult second Catch You, were
THEAUDIENCE – and No.3 on the and riding off the album’ was a rather the precursors to
The one and Billboard Dance success of Groovejet more intense affair, solo album three,
only album by Chart – and having – Sophie released save for a cover released in May
Theaudience now sold more her debut solo of Olivia Newton- 2007, though its
(although demos than two million album. It reached John’s Physical more memorable
from a follow-up copies, this was No.2, spawning which appeared singles followed after
later surfaced online) the soundtrack of four singles: Take as a hidden track. release: Today The
was released in the summer 2000. It Me Home, Murder Released in October Sun’s On Us and the
summer of 1998 and was also, fact fans, On The Dancefloor, 2003, only two iTunes-only If I Can’t
went to No. 22. Two the first song ever to Music Gets The Best singles were Dance. Sadly a duet
of its four singles – A have been played Of Me and Get released: Mixed Up with the B-52’s Fred
Pessimist Is Never on an iPod when Over You/Move World and I Won’t Schneider on Hype,
Disappointed and Apple tested their This Mountain which Change You, which which sampled
I Know Enough (I new device with an was a double-A- features, by Sophie’s Kraftwerk’s The
Don’t Get Enough) – AAC of the track a side at the singer’s own admission, her Model, remains in
cracked the Top 40. year later. insistence. least favourite lyrics. the vaults.

girls as really close friends, and then “On the first day of recording
there’s loads of other girls on there as we did Heartbreak (Make Me A
well who’ve been on tour with me. Dancer), Murder On The Dancefloor,
“Normally, when you walk into Groovejet and Catch You. It was like

TRANCE
a studio with an orchestra it’s quite the beginning of an episode of Grand
intimidating. It’s just loads of people Designs, when they’ve started building
you don’t know. But this time I knew and they say: ‘OK, these are our initial
probably three quarters of them when
we started. GOES plans’. They start demolishing but then
they realise: ‘Well, if we’re going do
“So, even though it’s different from
working with a normal band, it’s also ORCHESTRAL. half of the house to this standard then,
really, we’ve got to do the whole house

WHY NOT?
been like working with mates.” to this standard. So the budget is going
It’s the aforementioned cellist Amy to come up double!’
who was the main instigator of this “It did feel like that for a moment.
new project. “The whole album came S O P H I E Or like that scene in Jaws: ‘We’re
E L L I S - B E X T O R
about because of her. Probably about gonna need a bigger boat!’”
four years ago – just before Wanderlust
had come out, but after producer Ed POP PRINCESS DIARIES
Harcourt and I had written Young Blood How does an artist – or anyone –
– Amy was doing a charity event with define ‘Greatest Hits’? In terms of chart
an orchestra at the Union Chapel. She positions? Or in terms of sales, or even
asked if I would like to perform a couple it was quite driven. It just felt a bit the personal meaning they might have
of songs. She had done a string version more brooding, dark and mysterious. for the artist or audience?
of Groovejet, and we also played Young “So that sowed the seed. But at that When Classic Pop met up with
Blood. The song was still new at that time, I wasn’t quite ready to just do Sophie, the tracklist for The Song
time, so I wrote the lyrics down on a bit something orchestral. I wanted to do Diaries had yet to be revealed, so
of paper and stuffed it into the top of my Familia, which ended up being a lot we finished our chat by running past
dress because I was worried I wouldn’t more upbeat. We were approaching her the five songs that would be at
remember them. the 21st anniversary of signing my the top of ours.
“I really liked what she’d done with first deal and I thought it would be It turns out, we were pretty much
Groovejet – she took it quite left-field, quite nice to mark it. on the same page…

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 S O P H I E E L L I S - B E X T O R

FAMILIA
MAKE Produced, like
A SCENE Wanderlust, by Ed
NOT GIVING Sophie originally Harcourt. Musically,
UP ON LOVE planned a Greatest Familia attempted
With Sophie’s Hits after Trip The to combine various
chart positions Light Fantastic WANDERLUST elements of Sophie’s
at somewhat of but sessions for Make A Scene was discography-to-date
an impasse, a accompanying so all-out dance that into a cohesive
collaboration singles were so it clearly signalled whole. Conceptually,
with Armin van productive that a finale for Chapter it was a colourful
Buuren (and the a fresh album One of Sophie’s TRUE FAITH companion piece THE SONG
Nervo songwriting resulted. Alongside discography. Three A cover of the New to its predecessor. DIARIES
duo) resulted in Not Giving Up On years later she Order single for BBC “Familia is the The tracklist is
this massive Euro Love, it featured returned – on her Radio 2’s Sounds Of bolshier, more unconfirmed as we
hit-come-anthem. single collabs own record label The 80s compilation extrovert little sister go to press (though
Released in the with Freemasons – with elements of confirms Sophie’s to Wanderlust,” we did a good job of
summer of 2010, it (Heartbreak (Make indie, folk, baroque impeccable taste in explained Sophie. “It guessing in our main
appeared on both Me A Dancer)) and orchestral and, 70s and 80s pop, sees the Wanderlust feature), Sophie’s
van Buuren’s fourth and Junior Caldera most importantly, having previously girl move away from orchestral take on
album, Mirage, and (Can’t Fight This some of the most released covers of Eastern Europe her greatest hits is
was still hot enough Feeling) alongside delicate and moving Propaganda’s Duel, to the warmer, available as a series
to be included on two immense slices songs of her career Baccara’s Yes Sir, sunnier climate of of special editions
Sophie’s fourth LP, of modern synth- in Young Blood and I Can Boogie and Latin America where from PledgeMusic,
Make A Scene pop: Starlight and When The Storm Has Electronic’s Getting she’s swapped including boxset and
a year later. Synchronised. Blown Over. Away With It. vodka for tequila.” deluxe double vinyl.

● A Pessimist Is ● Music Gets The Best Of Me might have made a little too much of
Never Disappointed Released in 2002, Sophie already had that. But it would’ve sounded pretty, and
“Yes, I’ve included that, because three Top 5 hits, but this was a turning I do like that song. So many songs were
that’s where it all begins for me, with point – the moment where she showed on my initial list until I realised something
Theaudience. I wanted to choose my she could sustain as a pop artist... had to give. I just couldn’t do 20 songs.”
favourite track from Theaudience “Yes, I always liked that one. I’m
era, or the one I thought would be still fond of that, I still sing it, ● Not Giving Up On Love
the most tender to me. from time to time. I think it’s The collaboration with Dutch DJ and
“During the last couple sweet, and I’ve got happy record producer Armin van Buuren is
of tours, I’ve sometimes memories of writing it.” perhaps the ultimate trance pop track,
done it live. And there was which always had a cinematic feel to it...
quite a sweet serendipity: ● Starlight “Yeah, I’ve done that one, too! Trance
the first time I ever set Synth-pop from 2011, goes orchestral. Why not? I felt the song
foot in a professional that still sounds like it’s had such pretty chords, it really lent itself
recording studio was at from the future. But could to an orchestra.”
RAK – the same place it really work in an
where I’ve recorded this orchestral context? ● Me And My Imagination
new album – that was with “Ah, I haven’t got Starlight Our last guess brings us full circle,
Theaudience back when on the album! But I love it! back to the disco style and influence.
I was 18. I think that song would But how has it felt hearing tracks like
“As soon as I walked have sounded beautiful this with a new orchestral vibe? “Oh,
in I was like: ‘Oh, in an orchestral setting. I can’t even tell you... It’s been delightful.
I remember, I’ve But I felt like I had a similar Some of it’s been quite funny, too.
recorded in there colour with things like Today Like when you hear orchestral parts in
before... 20 years ago!’” The Sun’s On Us, Not isolation. Or when someone comes in
Giving Up On Love and to record their flute part. When I was
Sophie will be joining Move This Mountain. recording Me And My Imagination,
the likes of Tears For I’ve got a few songs Ed Harcourt was in my headphones
Fears and Alison Moyet
at the Recreation Ground
that have got that big going: ‘It sounds like Watership Down
in Bath on 26 May for landscape feel, and doesn’t it? Like little bunnies hopping
the Bath Festival I think that Starlight around on the landscape!’”

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 B E H I N D T H E M U S I C

THE PRODUCERS

PHIL
HARDING
FROM BEING STOCK AITKEN AND WATERMAN’S
ENGINEER AT THE HIT FACTORY IN THE 80s,
PHIL HARDING THEN PRODUCED EAST 17, 911
AND BOYZONE IN THE 90s. CLASSIC POP CATCHES
UP WITH A MAN WITH A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE
ON TWO DECADES OF HUGE CHART ACTION
A N D Y J O N E S

P
hil Harding has turned the
experiences of two tumultuous
decades of his life into both a
book and a PhD. The book, PWL
From The Factory Floor, details his
tenure as Stock Aitken and Waterman’s
engineer, while the PhD focusses more
on his time in the 90s when he and
studio partner Ian Curnow stepped up to
produce some of the biggest records of
the day including East 17’s Stay Another
Day and Boyzone’s Words.
“My dominant memories are the
fantastically fast rise of it all,” Phil
recalls of his time at PWL/SAW.
“I don’t think many will agree with
me, but I think 1987 was PWL at its
peak. It was pre-Kylie and we still had
the dance community on our side,
where it all started with the hi-NRG

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 From left: Pete Waterman, Ian Curnow, actress and
singer Connie Stevens with her daughter Tricia Leigh
Fisher (who was recording a self-titled 1990 album with
the team), label owner David Gresham and Phil Harding
scene. But then, and love him as I do,
Tilly Rutherford [general manager at
PWL Records] announced at a dance
conference that ‘with the success of Kylie,
we don’t need the dance community any
more’. When you discard a community
of supporters, well, that was the start of
the fall. Waterman spent the next few
years trying to win them back, hence
all the Kylie dance mixes. We got to
the point where we were doing 12-inch
mixes where there was no sign of it
being Kylie for the first two minutes to
fool the DJs! So yeah, around 1988 or
’89 we sold out although not too many of
the others would agree with that.”
Yet perhaps Phil’s assessment is
the truest. He has, after all, taken an
academic approach to looking back at
that time studying for a PhD in boybands
and pop at Leeds Beckett University,
which has made him reevaluate his
time at PWL.
“I think Waterman’s role was vital,”
he says. “The others still belittle his role
and position but without his leadership
and entrepreneurial spirit, PWL
wouldn’t have been successful. He was
the team leader.”
BECOMING THE A-TEAM
Harding left SAW in 1992 teaming up
with fellow PWL producer and musician
Ian Curnow. “We’d made good money
in the 80s with PWL and Waterman did
80
CP40.TheProducers.print.indd 80
EAST 17 -
STAY ANOTHER DAY
Tubular bells make for a
festive classic, but Brian
Harvey’s not happy...
“It was an original song that Tony
Mortimer brought in as a demo.
That had huge Phil Collins drums
on it and he wanted Ian to go over
the top with the orchestration. Ian
doesn’t need any encouragement to
do ‘OTT’ and the result is there to
hear! The Christmas thing came out
of that as Ian just thought adding
Christmas tubular bells, stuff going
around and around and orchestral
cymbals, would be suitably OTT!
“The vocal process was the same
as Words, all laid out. We had a
fight on our hands to get that vocal
out of Brian, though. His head was
full of 90s R&B and it took two
days to record. Tony told me later
after Brian had finally got the vocal
done, he threw his headphones off
in disgust and said to Tony ‘don’t
ever ask me to sing a shit song like
that ever again’!”
treat us well. We had produced four
tracks on the first Rick Astley album and
that was good payback. So we went into
the 90s with quite a good reputation but,
put simply, we wanted to be an A-Team
instead of the SAW B-Team that we were
at PWL.”
Phil knew, though, that he would need
another ‘team leader’ like Waterman...
“Ian and I jumped out of the frying pan
of working with Waterman and into
the fire of working with Tom Watkins!”
Phil laughs at the subsequent choice
of manager. “He is not a dissimilar
character, possibly an even more
extreme version.
“Tom gave us the East 17 project,
though, a remix of House Of Love, which
became the main version of the song.
Then it got to being a situation where
he knew he needed us and we knew
we needed him, so we made a similar
commitment to him as Mike and Matt
made to Waterman, like: ‘you lead us
and we’ll come up with the music, the
production and hopefully the success.’”
With Tom, both Ian and Phil got
songwriting as well as production
credits and, for a while, they were
both living the dream of being the 90s’
version of SAW.
“We were with Tom for three years
and it was fantastic at the beginning,”
says Phil. “The peak was East 17’s Stay
Another Day being a Christmas No.1 in
10/04/2018 09:45
 P H I L H A R D I N G T H E P R O D U C E R S

BOYZONE - WORDS
Drastic Bee Gees overhaul
hits the top of the charts
“Before Ronan Keating came in we’d already
laid out the production and the arrangement
with a backing vocalist, that way we knew
what we needed to capture from Ronan.
Then we said to the management ‘we’ve
done the backing track so we might as well get the rest of the band in for half a day
and we’ll pick a harmony for each of them to sing’. They’d each then sing along
with the backing vocal harmony part to record it.
“It’s worth comparing it to the Bee Gees Words and noting the drastic
arrangement change. You don’t get to the chorus until two minutes in with theirs,
but we brought the chorus in much earlier.
“I thought we’d hear from the Bee Gees after getting it to No.1 for them, if only
to say they liked our arrangement! When it got to No.1, Louis called me with
the boys in the room with him, ecstatic. I thought that was nice as he realised
how much we’d done. They were all just thrilled.”

1994. But the more pressure there was
to grow East 17, the more pressure
there was between us and Tom and it got
to the point where we weren’t working
well together.
“Tony Mortimer had written many of
the hits, not shared the writing part, and
the other three weren’t happy, so there
was a band agreement on the third
album to write three tracks each.
“That wasn’t too bad for Brian
[Harvey] who’d started writing but Terry
[Coldwell] and John [Hendry] had never
written anything in their lives – they
didn’t even play any instruments.
“When boybands start making those
kinds of demands, it usually starts falling
apart and we saw them falling apart on
that album.”
Phil and Ian still managed to complete
the album but it marked a split with
Phil has moved away
from twiddling knobs
on a mixing desk
into the world
of academia
Watkins. However, the duo had
already become the target of a famous
Irish manager…
AS ONE DOOR CLOSES...
“As soon as we split with Tom, Louis
Walsh was on the phone asking us
to work with Boyzone,” says Phil and
details the first of the tracks they worked
on, Boyzone’s reworking of the Bee
Gees song Words (see boxout). It
became Phil and Ian’s second No.1
as producers. Phil recalls one incident
where both his 80s and 90s worlds
collided… in a toilet.
“We’d left PWL on good terms and I’d
often go back and mix in my old room
there. We were mixing there in ‘96 when
Boyzone were No.1 with Words. I was
in the toilet there and Waterman walks in
and asks me how it’s going and
I said ‘yeah alright Pete, we’re No.1 with
Boyzone!’ By that point he hadn’t had
any hits for a while so it certainly felt like
I’d turned things around!”
For the next couple of years, Phil
and Ian worked with Walsh on several
projects. “He’s good fun and a lovely
guy but he’s full of mad ideas and things
that don’t work. In ’97 we tried to write
a song for Ronan Keating and no amount
of work got it right and we moved on
after that.
“We didn’t have a No.1 after Words,
although we got close with 911. After
that it started to get tougher for us
without a ‘Tom’ or ‘Pete’ managing us.
We’d become pigeonholed as boyband
writers and producers and the offers we
were getting were yet more boybands,
but from around Europe. I just felt that
after two decades we had nowhere
else to go and I needed to hang up the
headphones, so I started getting involved
in education, doing academic writing
and lectures.”
One of Phil’s proudest moments,
though, must be his rather restrained mix
of Stay Another Day that ended up being
the final version of the Christmas classic.
“I was mixing it and it got to 2am
and I couldn’t get it all to work. So I laid
down a version without the drums and
sent that mix out to everyone before I
went on holiday. When I got back I said
to Tom Watkins, ‘I’ll finish the mix off now
and add the drums’ and he said ‘Phil,
do not go in that studio, do not touch a
thing. Just leave it as it is!’”
● Phil Harding’s book, PWL
From The Factory Floor, is out
on Cherry Red Books while his
next book, Pop Music Production,
will be published by Routledge
in early 2019

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 D A V E W A K E L I N G

OE S
D O U G L A S

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CP40.Beat.print.indd 82
G ONM C P H E R S O N

09/04/2018 16:14
 WITH THEIR MESSAGE OF INCLUSION
Get set for
skamaggeddon! AND UNITY, THE BEAT WERE AT THE
The Beat Starring Dave
Wakeling release FOREFRONT OF THE UK 2-TONE
a new album, Here
We Go Love!, 40 years
BOOM. NOW THE BEAT STARRING
after the band first DAVE WAKELING ARE SET TO RELEASE
came bouncing out of
Birmingham in 1978 A HOTLY-ANTICIPATED NEW ALBUM.
THE BAND’S FOUNDING MEMBER
TALKS WATCHING BLACK SABBATH PLAY
FOOTIE AND THEIR REVOLUTIONARY
APPROACH TO ANDY WILLIAMS AND
SMOKEY ROBINSON COVERS.

usting out of Birmingham in 1978 The Beat,

along with a clutch of other like-minded
disconnected youths from working class West
Midland backgrounds, mixed politics and
pop to provide music with a message.
For an all too brief moment in time the
UK ska revival, which centred around
the independent record label 2-Tone and its
bands on the frontline such as The Specials
and The Selecter, looked like it could change
attitudes around the world – breaking down barriers of
racism, sexism and inequality.
Recalling how The Beat and 2-Tone evolved, the frontman of
The Beat Starring Dave Wakeling, explains: “We would have
these parties with two DJs, one playing punk singles and the
other playing what we called ‘slates’ – instrumental versions
of popular reggae tunes on very thick 12” vinyl.
“We learnt that if you played all punk singles, the
dancefloor would be absolutely packed for about
40 minutes and then everybody would sod off. But
if you played all slates, you’d have people leaning
on the wall nodding their heads slowly – which
we called ‘dancing on the inside’. If you mixed it
up a bit, with one of this and then one of that,
the dancefloor stayed packed until next door
threatened to call the police!
“After one particularly enjoyable party,
Andy [Cox and future guitarist with The
Beat] said: ‘What if you could get the
best elements of both DJs into the same
pop song… what would you have then?’
And that was the lightbulb moment and
the origins of the band.”

HERE WE GO!
The recipe paid off with party-flavoured ska
covers of Tears Of A Clown and Can’t Get
Used To Losing You that, alongside spiky
originals such as Mirror In The Bathroom
and Too Nice To Talk To, made the
band darlings of the 2-Tone boom.
The seeds of The Beat were sown
while Wakeling and Cox were at
college together studying for
their A-levels. Wakeling adds:
“We started writing songs –
fledgling versions of some
of those that ended up on
our first record.”
But before that,
the singer’s musical
upbringing was rather
more conservative.

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 D A V E W A K E L I N G
“Like a good football
we had that balance
youth and experience
“My dad liked Frank Sinatra and he
thought everything else was rubbish,”
Dave says. “My mum liked singing folk
songs to me and she thought that’s how
I learnt to sing.”
“As a young lad, I was a handy descant
singer, which is really high up there, and
I liked singing a lot. I nearly sang for my
local cathedral choir but, when I looked at
the schedule and saw it was a full-time thing
that would take up most weeknights as
well as Saturdays and Sundays, I decided
not to do it. Then, as luck would have it,
Led Zeppelin came out and I could sing
along to them. I would practice my descant
singing and was able to perfect a terrific
Robert Plant impression.”
It was especially inspiring to the young
Wakeling that the Zeppelin boys were
local, as were heavy metal titans Black
Sabbath. “We used to go and watch
Sabbath play football in the street,” he
recalls. “We always hoped they’d pass
the ball to us... but they never did!”
As well as hard rock, the other big
influence on Wakeling was Jamaican ska
and reggae. “We could hear it booming
out of houses late at night,” he says. “Then
they started playing it on the football
terraces at West Bromwich Albion and
Aston Villa to calm the skinheads.”
GOING NUCLEAR
Dave and Andy moved away from the
Midlands to work on the Isle of Wight
for 18 months. “Maybe a third of the
songs that ended up on the first record
84
CP40.Beat.print.indd 84
Music for troubled times... Wakeling
team,
formed The Beat against a backdrop of
of
political unrest, he’s now bringing his
”
band back to shake things up again
– Dave Wakeling
were swimming age scale was veteran saxophonist Lionel
around by then,” Augustus Martin, better known as Saxa,
Wakeling recalls. who had previously performed with the
“We also met likes of Prince Buster and Desmond Dekker.
our bassist David “He was playing covers in the Crompton
Steele on the Isle Arms pub in Handsworth and we would
of Wight. He go there just to watch him,” Wakeling says
turned out fondly. “Like a good football team, we had
to be the Mozart that balance of youth and experience. If
of our band. us younger ones were concerned about
“Before we formed something, the older ones would compare
The Beat, Andy and I were nervous about it to something they’d seen in the past and
performing our songs. Everything we things didn’t seem quite so bad! It worked
listened to on the John Peel show sounded very well for us.”
so much better. So, Andy had the idea that The launch pad for The Beat was a
we would force each other to join a group. Tuesday night residency at the Mercat
“There were numerous ‘musician wanted’ Cross venue. “The pub did terrific business
ads in the Birmingham Mail, so he had me in the daytime but was a bit quiet at night.
join a 50s rock’n’roll revival band where The landlord would try anything, so why
I had to wear leather trousers and sing not a live music night?” Wakeling explains.
Chantilly Lace. To get him back, I made By the end of their 12-week stint, the
him join a cabaret quartet where he had place was packed, with attendees including
to buy a tuxedo. In the end, those two gigs Jerry Dammers of The Specials, who had
became so intolerable to us that we were scored their first Top 10 hit with Gangsters
just dying to do our own songs.” that summer. “ Jerry said: ‘There’s this
With Everett Morton on drums, The Beat group called The Selecter and they’re
played their debut at the Matador pub playing Blackpool on Thursday, would you
in Birmingham on 31 March 1979. It was like to be the opening band?’ Obviously
the same weekend as the Three Mile Island we did the gig and then they offered us a
nuclear incident and they were introduced supporting slot in London. We got to meet
as: ‘The hottest thing since the Madness there and everyone thought we
Pennsylvania meltdown!’ were the bee’s knees or, as we’d say in
Birmingham, the dog’s bollocks.
JUST CAN’T STOP “After the London show, Jerry
The debutantes impressed told us about his record label
‘Ranking’ Roger Charlery, called 2-Tone and asked
the 16-year-old if we would like to do a
drummer of headline single. Of course, we said
act the Dum Dum Boys we’d love to and our single came
who subsequently joined out in October 1979.
The Beat as second vocalist. “The Specials and Madness
At the other end had both topped the charts by
of The Beat’s then and 2-Tone was the big
Early double A-sides
thing. It was such good timing
Tears Of A Clown/ for us.”
Ranking Full Stop For their first release, The
and Hands Off... She’s
Beat chose an inspired ska
Mine/Twist And Crawl
reached No.6 and arrangement of Smokey
No.9 respectively Robinson’s Tears Of
11/04/2018 15:31
 “I THINK PEOPLE WOULD HAVE LIKED FOR US TO HAVE
HAD A FALLING OUT... BUT I WENT AROUND TO RANKING
ROGER’S HOUSE THE LAST COUPLE OF TIMES THAT I’VE
BEEN IN ENGLAND AND IT WENT DOWN FANTASTICALLY”
A Clown. The song had been a staple of Can’t Get Used To Losing You, which
the band’s rehearsals. “When we were reached No.3 in 1983.
trying to find our groove, Everett would say:
‘Why don’t we do a song that we all know WHA’PPEN NEXT?
and then play one of your weird ones. However, by that point, the band
So, we’d play Tears Of A Clown, then was on the verge of breaking up
something like Mirror In The Bathroom, then and would eventually split. Wakeling
Tears Of A Clown again, and so on. admits he had a “green-eyed moment”
“So, we knew it quite well and thought when Cox and Steele formed Fine Young Turn to
it was more appropriate for a Christmas Cannibals with singer Roland Gift and page 91 to
find out what Classic
single than Mirror..., which was all about would achieve massive success with Pop’s Wyndham Wallace
having a nervous breakdown.” their album The Raw & The Cooked and thinks of the new album
The tactic worked, with Tears... hitting songs like the US chart-topper She Drives
No.6 on the chart followed by the double Me Crazy. After a brief stint in Mick Jones’ post-
A-side Hands Off... She’s Wakeling and Ranking Roger Clash band Big Audio Dynamite, Roger
Mine/ Twist And Crawl enjoyed a less conspicuous teamed up with some of The Specials to
(No.9) and Mirror In The career with their new band create Special Beat.
Bathroom, which made No.4. General Public – although Since the early 2000s there have been
The latter releases were their second single, two versions of the band: The Beat Starring
also hits in the US and led to Tenderness, did appear in Dave Wakeling and The Beat Featuring
extensive Stateside touring. several big Hollywood films Ranking Roger. Wakeling, who now
After three albums and several such as Sixteen Candles resides in California, denies the two ever
charting singles, including and Weird Science. fell out. “I think people would have liked for
Save It For Later and The appeal us to have had a falling out. Certainly, there
Jeanette, The Beat enjoyed of The Beat has were times when we got bored or pissed
their biggest UK hit with endured and during off with each other. But I went around to his
a cover of the Andy the 90s, Morton house the last couple of times that I’ve been
Williams favourite and Saxa would in England and it went down fantastically.”
form the International However, he does admit to being a
The Beat’s best-charting Beat and release bit miffed when Roger released 2016’s
singles in the UK were The Hitting Line Bounce album as The Beat Featuring
1980’s Mirror In The
Bathroom (No.4) and
album in 1990. Ranking Roger.
1983’s Can’t Get Used “I had told him of my plans and invited
To Losing You (No.3) him to be on my new record Here We
Go Love! Roger said: ‘Oh, I’m
not sure, let me think about it’,”
Wakeling relates with a wry
R Y chuckle. “That went on for a few
M O
M E
I N O F months, then I started making the
record and wanted to know what
he thought. But he was on tour
and said he would get back to me.
Clearly something was going on,
then Roger was like: ‘Whoa, I’m
bringing out the first Beat album in
30 years!’ It was a little awkward...”
away It’s still possible that a reunion
dly passed
ve te ra n sax man, sa the band’s new of The Beat’s frontmen could take
Beat’s lay on
Saxa, The d couldn’t p his spirit can be place, though. “Next year is the
st M a y, a ged 87, an H o w ev er, But, 40th anniversary of the 2-Tone
la
e We Go Lo
ve! the songs.
album, Her p la ye d hi m some of er w a s bent under thing and a lot of the groups are
a ve says: “I hi s little fing
h ea rd . D jury w h er e sa phone.
xo hich we ha
ve saying let’s do something together,”
a tendon in n’t play the flat on his s for me, w He liked the
because of co ul d tw o so lo Wakeling concludes.
gers, he m but he hu
mmed
orked By N
ow.
his other fin trating for hi o uld Have W f an Irish flavour to it. “So, Roger’s saying that we will
ve ry fr us rk ed It W o
It was ing Wo ds a bit
e is on If Kill think that the solo ad sing together. It just won’t be this
copied. On so n g a n d I D em Call It Ska.” art band, Wakeling
emotion in
the
o f hi m o n the track g in a young
ch
ng for
year – I’ve got my new album to
s a little b it joyed bei n e been waiti of hits’.
Then there’ the older musician en : ‘T his is th e g ro up I’v
h a ve a lo t concentrate on.”
Asked how t met him and will
xa sa id w hen we firs th e to p o f the charts tra ve l. Th e pace was
says: “Sa g straight to then he got too sick to was adamant: ● The Beat Starring Dave
We’re goin nd he
all my life. th ree years a years when Wakeling are touring the
H e m an a g
ed about
ere w er e three or four y convinced of it.”
r him. But th He was utte
rl UK in May and June.
too much fo as going to be a hit!’ Here We Go Love! is
u it w
‘I told yo released on 11 May.

85

CP40.Beat.print.indd 85 11/04/2018 15:31

 HAVE ORDER
YOU MISSED AN ISSUE?
BACK ISSUES
ONLINE TODAY!

FROM
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CP40.BackIssues_p86.print.indd 86 10/04/2018 09:51

 C L A S S I C P O P M A G A Z I N E

R E V I E W S

NEW RELEASES p89 LONG LIVE VINYL p100

Our round-up of new singles plus The Undertones, The Cure, Erasure,
new albums from Sting & Shaggy, Duran Duran, Madness, P!nk, Frankie
Chvrches, Gaz Coombes, Gizmo Goes To Hollywood, Eurythmics,
Varillas, Alison Moyet, Plan B, The Streets and U2
The Beat Starring Dave Wakeling, DVDS & BOOKS p104
Twin Shadow, Jennifer Warnes, Jake Shears, Pamela Des Barres,
Foreigner, James Bay, Belly, The Magic David Buckley on Elton John, Margo
Numbers, Beach House, Anne-Marie, Jefferson on Michael Jackson
Mamas Gun, Boys, Steve Ellis,
Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders LIVE & EVENTS p110
Erasure, Morrissey, Paul Weller and
REISSUES p94 Lloyd Cole
John Foxx, New York Dolls, Brian Eno,
The Human League, Kid Creole and the
R A T I N G S
Coconuts, Matt Bianco, Cockney Rebel,
Hollywood Beyond, Gomez, Oleta
EXCELLENT
Chvrches return Adams, Chicago, Marlena Shaw,
with their third Hazel O’Connor, Bram Tchaikovsky VERY GOOD
studio album, Love AVERAGE
Is Dead. Turn to
COMPILATIONS p99
© Danny Clinch

Various Artists – Revamp and PATCHY

page 90 for
our review Burning Britain POOR

CP40.ReviewsOpener.print.indd 87 12/04/2018 15:45

 S I N G L E S

KYLIE MINOGUE REEF FEATURING

STOP ME FROM FALLING
This new, stripped back, quirky
Kylie has been received very
warmly. Again she eschews the
pop princess shtick and we have
a tremendous, tambourine-heavy,
super-catchy ditty that does pick
up a dancefloor beat but remains
drizzled with musicianship. Her
kooky vocal is excellent.
SHERYL CROW
MY SWEET LOVE
Bumpkin rockers from the joyful
90s recruit the ever-impeccable
Sheryl Crow on a sugarsweet bit
of folky fluff, with the game further
upped by a brilliantly bluesy
solo in the middle. Their album
Revelation defines ‘long-awaited’
– it’s their first for 18 years.

SNOW PATROL JAMES BAY

MATTHEW RUDD DON’T GIVE IN
Few do mournfully earnest quite
THE HOST OF FORGOTTEN 80S ON ABSOLUTE like Snow Patrol, and they are
80S RADIO CHECKS OUT SOME RETURNS precisely that within a thoughtful
piece of acoustic pop. A few
TO THE POP FRAY FROM THE LIKES OF KYLIE choice expletives are included
MINOGUE, KIM WILDE, CRAIG DAVID AND which, as usual in these instances,
feel utterly unnecessary, but it’s a
A SURPRISINGLY SWEARY SNOW PATROL sturdy work that fans will lap up.
PINK LEMONADE
The former Critic’s Choice at the
BRITs is at the top of his game
on this new single. A vocal that
menaces in the verse and rages in
the chorus, a brooding, powerful
rhythm section and even some
gospelly backing vocals. Lovable,
amiable, immaculate stuff.

ALEXIS TAYLOR KIM WILDE CRAIG DAVID UB40 FEATURING

OH BABY
Hot Chip’s head honcho with
an offbeat electronic love song,
as conventional and enjoyably
sappy in its lyric and tone as it
is eccentric in its quizzical,
bleepy instrumentation which
has a Buggles-esque feel,
although that might just be
because of the spectacles.
KANDY KRUSH
The rejuvenation of an 80s pop
princess as a self-deprecating
rock goddess rings so true,
helped by her modesty when
discussing it. This follows a well-
trodden formula but rises way
above rock-by-numbers, thanks to
the voice and personality at the
front – and a great melody.
MAGIC
A chap of such talent, but after
almost 20 years his songs have
never really taken him anywhere
beyond a fuzzy, slightly twee,
sentimental corner of snappy
pop rescued from blandness only
by a genuinely great voice. He
should expand, free himself up,
explore more.
ALI, ASTRO + MICKEY
HOW COULD I LEAVE
The importance the original UB40
possessed in the early 1980s
feels like several worlds ago
now, especially with the present
long-standing deadlock between
original members. This song is
pleasant but nothing they couldn’t
have done in happier times.

88

CP40.singles.print.indd 88 10/04/2018 09:38


M A Y 2 0 1 8
CLASSIC
BEST NEW RELEASE
STING & SHAGGY
44/876
POLYDOR RECORDS
STARFISH AND COFFEE, MAPLE SYRUP AND JAM. NOW YOU CAN ADD STING & SHAGGY
TO THE LIST OF IMPLAUSIBLE COMBINATIONS THAT MAY NEVER BE FORGOTTEN…
seem preferable – but to do
so is no more unlikely than the
idea that such a collaboration
might work. And Cage is right:
anything can happen, has
happened, and no doubt will
continue to happen. All we can
hope is that what happens is as
entertaining as this seemingly
absurd partnership has turned
out to be. Because, against the
odds, there’s endless fun to be
T
found here.
he world is teeming,” The title track sets the tone
John Cage once said. from the start, Shaggy toasting
“Anything can happen.” about how the duo first hooked
The minimalist composer up. “Mi get a call from the
might be an unlikely English man,” he recalls, “say
person to turn to when him waan come hold a vibes”,
faced by a Sting and before Sting himself explains his
Shaggy collaboration motivation: “I’m trying to free
– though his legendary, my mind, and live a life stress
silent 4’33” might free/ But the politics of this
CP40.reviews.print.indd 89
country are getting to me.”
Not only is the exchange
likeably humble, but Sting’s
voice is particularly well-suited
to the setting.
Furthermore, 44/876 –
named for their respective
dialling codes – could indeed
be helpful for those looking to
unwind, unless your cynicism is
so ingrained that you can’t see
past the concept.
Partly, this is because it
isn’t so great a leap from
Sting’s early work with The
Police. That’s especially true
of Dreaming In The USA,
a delightful celebration of
immigrants’ roles in American
life that’s only a fraction
too upbeat and glossy to
have slotted onto Outlandos
d’Amour, and Waiting For
N E W R E L E A S E S
Getty Images
Xxxxxx
The Break Of Day, in which,
against tasteful piano and
organ licks – and in the face
of politicians’ lies – comfort is
found in romance.
The charmingly tasteful 22nd
Street dials down the reggae for
something slicker and sparser,
while Sad Trombone heads in
the other direction, turning its
laughable title into something
genuinely poignant.
In truth, the first fruit of their
association – the laidback,
soulful Gotta Get Back My
Baby – is perfectly indicative of
what’s to be found here, so take
a shortcut if you must. But, rest
assured, some things have to be
tried to be believed. Anything
can happen, and 44/876
defies expectations.
Wyndham Wallace
89
11/04/2018 16:51
 CHVRCHES
LOVE IS DEAD
VIRGIN RECORDS
“I’ve been waiting for my
whole life to grow old,” sings
Lauren Mayberry on Graffiti,
the first track off Chvrches’
third album, “and now we
never will.” It’s a brave, regal
claim to immortality, but fair
comment: Love Is Dead sounds
like the work of a band stuck
in permanent adolescence.
Difficult questions are asked,
simplistic answers proffered,
and the mood is broadly
exuberant (except for inevitable,
unpredictable outbursts).
GAZ COOMBES
WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN
HOT FRUIT / CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL
Listening to Gaz Coombes’ third
solo album, it’ll come as little
surprise that he’s managed by
the same team as Radiohead.
The former Supergrass
frontman’s songwriting has
become increasingly refined,
given to intriguing production
details and quirky – but never
ostentatious – twists: the
spiky guitar riff that provides
the foundation for Walk The
Walk and the malfunctioning
keyboard that tops off In
Waves. Furthermore, though the
latter boasts a guitar sequence
90
CP40.reviews.print.indd 90
In the three years since Every
Open Eye, they don’t sound like
they’ve matured even slightly.
By now, you’ll know how
the Glaswegians operate. Two
Top 10 albums, a bundle of
awards, and a host of TV and
video game placements have
seen to that.
Admittedly, they’ve sought
to tweak their formula, bringing
in producer du jour Greg
Kurstin (Sia, Adele, Liam
Gallagher) for nine tracks,
and another hitmaker, Steve
Mac, to add his sparkle to
Miracle. In the end, though,
it still sounds like Chvrches –
massive, richly textured synths
meshed with intermittently tinny
or booming programmed beats
– but now with added steroids
to boost chart performances.
That, and added input in the
form of The National’s Matt
Berninger, who adds affectedly
nonchalant vocals to the moody
and restrained, My Enemy, on
worthy of Blur’s Song 2, its
bassline’s inventiveness recalls
Colin Greenwood’s, and its
atmospheric intro is worthy
of A Moon Shaped Pool...
Coombes and Radiohead have
more in common than Oxford.
Nonetheless, Coombes
occupies his own world. His
last album, 2015’s Mercury-
nominated Matador, confirmed
how far he’s come and World’s
Strongest Man continues that
journey. The record’s title track
appropriates a lazy hip-hop-
flavoured beat for a falsetto-
fuelled anthem, and Shit (I’ve
Done It Again)’s regret-laden
melancholy is worthy of an
adult Disney movie.
There’s also the fierce Deep
Pockets, whose krautrock
rhythm propels it towards a
thrilling finale, the unhinged
paranoia of Vanishing Act and
the stately decorum of the lovely
Slow Motion Life.
This rooster’s definitely
mansize now. WW
which Mayberry sounds like
an infatuated schoolgirl trying
to impress a teacher.
Despite few signs of
development, Chvrches do
this well, offering monstrous
choruses and owning the
sound like they invented it.
But there’s another
shortcoming in how little they
challenge themselves or their
audience, most notably in
lyrics peppered with immature
banalities like on Forever’s
“I told you I would hate you
GIZMO VARILLAS
DREAMING OF BETTER DAYS
MUISCA RECORDS
It’s true the title of London-based
Spaniard Gizmo Varillas’
second album is perhaps
a little positive for these
cynical times. This is Varillas’
methodology, though – to
offer some sort of peaceful,
harmonious reassurance with
quietly uplifting songs that
recall Paul Simon as much
as José González.
Not that he’s so optimistically
idealistic, he’s just unfamiliar
with melancholy.
Like its predecessor El
Dorado – one of Classic Pop’s
© Danny Clinch
till forever”. That’s not to
mention a little clumsy on
Heaven/Hell: “Am I real if I’m
a broken record/ Selling you
what you don’t need?”
Even Deliverance’s
promisingly provocative:
“Careful when you’re swimming
in the holy water/ Drowning in
your own beliefs” provokes only
the observation: “You better
hold on to what you love… You
better give up on giving up.”
It’s really time for Chvrches to
grow up. WW
Albums of the Year in 2017 –
Dreaming Of Better Days
is sometimes seeped in a
lazy Southern European
wistfulness, rarely more than
on the title track.
Here he exhorts his audience
to “let the light in your heart,”
his voice almost cracking over
an understated pitter-patter of
a beat as though dependent
upon others to help make this
plan work.
It’s hard, however, not to feel
the consoling positivity in Lonely
Heart’s lilting sway and its
wilfully innocent lyrics: “Think
of all the times we spent/ Side
by side like ninjas in disguise.”
There’s also exotic pleasure
in his switch to Spanish on
Camino Al Amor, and when
the tropical African sound of
Through The Hourglass kicks
in, you’ll think all your holidays
have come at once.
So do as this unassuming
gentleman advises: let the light
in your heart... WW
11/04/2018 16:51

ALISON MOYET
THE OTHER LIVE COLLECTION
COOKING VINYL
“Are you sure about this?”
Alison Moyet recalls her
manager asking as they
examined the dates assembled
to promote last year’s
tremendous Other album.
At 59 shows, the tour would
be her longest, and – given
she told Classic Pop last spring
how: “I make records with no
expectations” – it doubtless felt
ambitious. Moyet, though, was
certain. “I wanted a marathon,”
she wrote, looking back at
2017 in a New Year’s Eve
PLAN B
H EAVEN BEFORE ALL
HELL BREAKS LOOSE
ATLANTIC RECORDS
Since his 2006 debut Who
Needs Actions When You’ve
Got Words, Ben Drew’s
earned a reputation for
being outspoken, and his
fourth album’s opening track
maintains that policy. “What
the hell have I got to be grateful
for?” he demands, weighing
up earthly and spiritual prizes
on the moody Grateful, which
he decorates with gospel
flourishes, while recent single
Guess Again takes articulate
aim at political hypocrisy:
CP40.reviews.print.indd 91
blog. “Sing while I know I can,
and well.”
The gigs underlined how
ready she was. Other was one
hell of a comeback, earning
Solo Artist Of the Year status
from readers of this publication
and runner-up in the Album Of
The Year category. That it finally
secured Moyet’s place as a
‘national treasure’ can be heard
in the response with which this
document ends.
As Whispering Your Name
rattles towards a close, the
crowd, who’ve clapped along
heartily since it began, erupt
into affectionate roars of
approval, Moyet herself bowing
out with unmistakable gratitude.
This climax is the culmination
of a transformation signalled
by I Germinate, which opens
both Other and this collection.
As bold as a Shirley Bassey
James Bond theme tune, its
chorus – with its dramatic
declaration of intent: “I’m
“We don’t bow down to no
terrorists/ So why we gonna
kneel for the politicians/
When we see ’em go on
so treacherous?”
But being outspoken doesn’t
have to mean shouting and for
too much of Heaven… Drew
insists on bellowing like he’s
a male Florence Welch.
There are moments on Pursuit
Of Happiness where he sounds
like he’s being repeatedly
goosed while impersonating
Jamiroquai, and Stranger could
be Mick Hucknall squeezing
out a heavy meal. Given just
how soulful his voice can be
– Queue Jumping provides a
reminder – this is a shame, as is
the realisation Heartbeat sounds
like a late-90s Moby track
fronted by a talent show runner-
up. Still, the acid nostalgia of
Mercy is refreshing and It’s
A War exploits its breakbeat
in an effective fashion. It’s not
all over, bar the shouting. WW
© Steve Gullick
here!” – will tear any room’s
roof off, and Moyet underlines
her determination, hanging on
to that last syllable.
Such intensity is maintained
throughout, though it’s rarely
dependent on volume: Beautiful
Gun may sound vigorously
malevolent, but a gorgeous
version of The English U, her
touching paean to both her
mother and English grammar,
sounds as good as anything
off Björk’s Vespertine, while
a brave, bare version of
THE BEAT STARRING
DAVE WAKELING
HERE WE GO LOVE!
ABSOLUTE
This, it’s been announced,
is the first new studio album
from The Beat Starring Dave
Wakeling since 1982. What
about Bounce, you ask, The
Beat’s album that was reviewed
in these very pages two years
ago? Well, glad you were
paying attention, that was
The Beat Featuring Ranking
Roger. So who is this? Well,
that depends on whether...
Ah, forget it – go back and
read the interview on page 82.
Let’s focus...
N E W R E L E A S E S
Other itself, a song described
as: “The essence of what I am,”
is especially poignant.
She turns to her back
catalogue, too, with Ski, from
2002’s Hometime, showcasing
her jazzy tones, and Only You
a welcome reminder of how
this all started (even if, like All
Cried Out, it feels slightly out
of place here). The tour may
have been a marathon, but
so has her career been, and
one senses that she’s about to
emerge a winner. WW
Dave Wakeling’s return to
the recording studio is cause
for celebration. Here We Go
Love! finds him in typically
acerbic form, calling for
the establishment’s fall on
the brilliantly titled If Killing
Worked It Would Have Worked
By Now, deriding a “stupid
little arrogant fucker” on The
One And Only, and, on the
energetic title track, digging
even deeper into Viz’s
Roger’s Profanisaurus.
Musically, however, the
tone is more in keeping with
The Love You Give Lasts
Forever’s sentiments: rough
ska-punk edges are smoothed,
something underlined by You
Really Oughta Know By Now’s
Madness-like buoyancy.
Still, those looking for the
sound of 70s peak Beat can
turn to Dem Call It Ska and
the joyous, accordion-fuelled,
How Can You Stand There.
What’s in a name anyway? WW
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 TWIN SHADOW
CAER
WARNER BROS. RECORDS
Having complained his work
had become too elitist by
2015 – a smart strategy for
sidestepping sell-out accusations
after switching from 4AD to a
major label – George Lewis Jr.
announced he was going to
pursue a more contemporary
sound for his third album.
Things being how they are,
that meant the sound of the
80s, of course, and such
influences permeate much
of his latest, too. These are
integrated into the crisp sound
MAMAS GUN
GOLDEN DAYS
CANDLELION
If your life lacks the polished
sound of 80s soul, London’s
Mamas Gun have the answer.
Kicking off with You Make My
Life A Better Place, whose
sentiment and sound suggest
an impressive familiarity with
Marvin Gaye’s later work, their
fourth album features an array of
backroom types who’ve worked
with the likes of Joss Stone and
Incognito, including former Wall
Of Sound act Shawn Lee on mixing
duties. It’s immaculately performed,
if more of an homage to their
inspirations than a work in its own
right, and, at its best, as on London
Girls, sounds like Jamiroquai
taking on Curtis Mayfield instead
of Stevie Wonder. WW
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CP40.reviews.print.indd 92
of today’s charts, while Lewis
also displays a familiarity with
underground styles.
So opener Bombs Away
takes James Blake’s intimacy
to the masses, adds guitars
one imagines being worn over
high-waisted, pastel trousers,
while hinting at the lo-fi magic
of London O’Connor’s O∆.
Saturdays adds Haim to the
mix, its nod to Born In The USA-
era Springsteen so transparent
he even sings of a “dance
in the dark”, and Obvious
People’s disconcerting groove
somehow successfully welds TV
On The Radio to Pet Shop Boys.
At times – as on the chart-
bound Too Many Colors,
which lacks its own hue, and
Runaway, whose spoken
word meets soul leads to a
slow-burning but ultimately
unfulfilling climax – it’s
frustrating. But the haunting,
Little Woman alone confirms his
imaginative powers... WW
STEVE ELLIS
BOOM! BANG! TWANG!
SONY
Some 50 years after Steve Ellis
topped the charts with Love Affair’s
stone-cold classic Everlasting Love,
Paul Weller provides him with
two new songs and co-produces
this welcome return to the studio.
Lonely No More sounds like classic
Style Council and Cry Me A River
finds him hollering over a dirty,
organ-dominated blues, while
there’s also a faithful, if pedestrian,
rendition of William Bell’s I Forgot
To Be Your Lover. He sometimes
sounds like Rod Stewart on a
cold day, as on the reggae-tinged
cover of Jimmy Cliff’s Sitting In
Limbo, but this only improves the
final lament, Oh Death, while
Glory Bound could pass for
Steve Winwood. WW
JENNIFER WARNES
ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE
BMG
Poor Jennifer Warnes: the
world recalls her 80s peaks
– as Joe Cocker’s partner on
the chest-heaving Up Where
We Belong and Bill Medley’s
(I’ve Had) The Time Of My
Life – and yet it forgets she
was a serial collaborator with
Leonard Cohen, whose songs
she covered for 1986’s Famous
Blue Raincoat, while her 1972
album Jennifer was produced
by John Cale.
Perhaps Another Time,
Another Place, and its return
FOREIGNER
WITH THE 21ST CENTURY
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
& CHORUS
EARMUSIC
As Ane Brun’s recent, revelatory
cover of I Want To Know What
Love Is proves, Foreigner know
how to write tunes. But adding
118 singers and musicians was
never going to curb their tendency
for bombast, so the appeal of
this document of two 2017 Swiss
shows depends on your tolerance
of that. Sceptics will struggle with
Overture, but Waiting For A Girl
Like You will always be a classic,
however much Lou Gramm’s
replacement, Kelly Hansen, insists
on emoting. Sadly, though, short-
lived choral introductions to songs
like When It Comes To Love are the
most appealing elements here. WW
to earlier habits – even Roscoe
Beck, Leonard Cohen’s bassist
and musical director, is present
– will help remind folk of those
achievements. Almost entirely
shorn of the polish of 1992’s
The Hunter and her last album,
2001’s The Well, as well as of
blockbuster histrionics – apart,
perhaps, from Freedom, and
here she still closes proceedings
like a nightingale – it finds her
singing with Alison Krauss’
grace and tenderness.
This is most notable on Just
Breathe, an unpretentious,
pastoral Pearl Jam cover, and
Why Worry, whose guitar lines
quietly recall Mark Knopfler.
So Sad’s mellow pedal steel
sound is similarly appealing,
while the low-key, Norah Jones
cabaret of Tomorrow Night
and the dreamy I Can See
Your Face Before Me provide
a revelatory reminder of how
seductive Warnes’ voice is
when she reins things in. WW
BEACH HOUSE
7
BELLA UNION
Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally’s
intentions for their latest may have
been “rebirth and rejuvenation”,
but these apparently crystallised in
lengthier recording habits rather
than the songs’ atmospheres. Still,
the duo’s sonic modifications are
always subtle, and this is no bad
thing: 7 remains full of dreamy
indie pop, as first imagined by
Mazzy Star, to which Beach House
lend their misty haze. Dive sounds
like Spaceman 3 (whose Peter
Kember helped out) reinventing
The Carpenters, and Black Car
builds a hypnotically drone-y
universe around what might be
the world’s gentlest ringtone. Dark
Spring sparkles like dew-mottled
flowers by night. Lucky 7. WW
11/04/2018 16:51

JAMES BAY
ELECTRIC LIGHT
VIRGIN EMI
As if fearful of further
association with Ed Sheeran,
Hitchin’s James Bay – no doubt
encouraged by producer Paul
Epworth and regular co-writer
Jon Green – has tossed his
acoustic guitar to one side
almost entirely on his second
album, the follow-up to the
massive Chaos And The Calm.
It’s a wise decision: muscular
tracks like the riff-heavy Wasted
On Each Other and recent,
rockin’ single Pink Lemonade
reveal him to be far more
THE MAGIC NUMBERS
OUTSIDERS
ROLE PLAY RECORDS
The Magic Numbers’ fifth takes
its title not only from the band’s
own status but that of their songs’
subjects: doomed romantics in The
Beach Boys harmony-drenched
Dreamer, biker women in Ride
Against The Wind – which starts
like The Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be
Adored beat, then transforms into
a brassy Eagles jam – and the
“damaged goods” of Runaways, in
which Michele Stodart’s harmonies
steal the spotlight from brother
Romeo’s lead vocals, perhaps
explaining his closing Crazy
Horse-style guitar solo. There’s
more Neil Young flavours on the
rowdy Sweet Divide, while The
Keeper nods to T. Rex. Come back
inside, folks... WW
CP40.reviews.print.indd 93
than another 21st century
troubadour. Vocally, too, he
sounds less over-earnest, as
though he’s realised how much
fun being one of the country’s
biggest pop stars can be.
Electric Light consequently
boasts a smattering of gospel
flavours, employed most
successfully on the playful In
My Head and understated
future funk of I Found You,
if less enjoyably on Us – an
overblown ballad where he
mistakes hamming it up for
a convincing display of soul.
More persuasive is the final
trio of tracks: the slinky groove
of Fade Out, the confessional,
closing piano ballad Slide,
and Stand Up, which slowly
burgeons from little more than
the auto-tuned voice effects
favoured recently by Bon
Iver to an immense orchestral
finale. For those willing to look
beyond the hat and hair, there’s
irrefutable talent... WW
JACK LADDER &
THE DREAMLANDERS
BLUE POLES
SELF PORTRAIT / TERRIBLE RECORDS
Australia’s having a moment:
from The Chats’ punk to Cut
Copy’s electronica and Tame
Impala’s psychedelia, it’s the
country’s turn in the spotlight. Jack
Ladder’s already made friends
with international stars like Father
John Misty, so perhaps his fifth
album, and its enviable influences,
will bring his baritone croon –
somewhere between David Byrne
and Tindersticks’ Stuart Staples – to
a wider audience. Expect hints of
Eno’s Before And After Science in
I.N.M. and Dates, of Talking Heads
in Can’t Stay, of Bowie in Tell It Like
It Is, of Scott Walker in Merciful
Reply, and Leonard Cohen’s I’m
Your Man in Susan. WW
BELLY
DOVE
PLEDGE MUSIC
Mirroring her former band The
Breeders, Tanya Donelly has
taken the reformation of Belly
up a notch by marshalling the
troops into the recording studio.
Although they reconvened in
2016 for a smattering of live
dates, Dove is their first album
of new material in 23 years.
Less spiky than The Breeders’
visceral attack, Belly take up
where they last left off with
tuneful 90s indie rock. Three
standout tracks in particular
wholly justify the reunion, Shiny
BOYS
REST IN PEACE
PNKSLM
Never judge a book by its cover,
so don’t judge Boys by their label,
Punk Slime, nor the fact that
they’re actually one woman, Nora
Karlsson. Her half-hour debut is,
in fact, an adorably puppy-ish
journey through the 22-year-old
Swede’s late teens. The sweet
intimacy of its melodies and
production is offset by occasional
cacophonic outbursts: soothing
Omnichord arpeggios interrupted
by distorted keyboards in It Is Silly,
explosive guitars disturbing the
innocent, C86 peace of Love Isn’t
On My Mind. Rabbits, meanwhile,
sounds like early Saint Etienne on
a limited budget, and My Baby
could be a tipsy Julee Cruise at the
Twin Peaks Bang Bang Bar. WW
N E W R E L E A S E S
One, with its killer earworm
chorus, the incisive Suffer The
Fools, which picks away at the
sore of a failing relationship,
and the surprisingly country-
tinged pedal steel lilt of Artifact.
The acoustic Heartstrings offers
a nice change of pace, too.
The chugging, crunchy guitars
of Mine may point towards a
band that have no intention of
moving the stylistic goalposts
for their comeback, but another
precision-tooled chorus at least
suggests their songwriting
chops remain intact. Human
Child is the epitome of build-
it-up and break-it-down 90s
alt-rock, and recalls the vocal
mannerisms of The Cranberries’
Dolores O’Riordan in places.
The odd anonymous track
fails to catch alight – we’re
looking at you, the overly polite
Girl, generic Stars Align and
lightweight Quicksand – but
mostly this Belly collection is
well rounded. Steve Harnell
ANNE-MARIE
SPEAK YOUR MIND
MAJOR TOMS/ASYLUM
It’s the overwhelming feeling of
familiarity that’s Speak Your Mind’s
undoing. It’s not the comforting
familiarity an old hit brings, nor the
emotional tug vague recognition
offers, just the sense this has
all been done, countless times,
and better before... compare,
as an extreme example, Noga
Erez’ Dance While You Shoot to
Anne-Marie’s Trigger. Ciao Adios’
melody is certainly gravity-defying,
but when an album’s most intimate
revelation is: “Sometimes I wake
up late and don’t even brush my
teeth” – from the auto-tuned Perfect
– perhaps it’s unfair to expect
innovation, especially when Ed
Sheeran’s involved, as he is with
2002’s gibberish. WW
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 M A Y 2 0 1 8
CLASSIC
BEST REISSUE
JOHN FOXX
M E TA M AT I C
METAMATIC RECORDS
38 YEARS AFTER ITS ORIGINAL RELEASE, THE FUTURE FINALLY CATCHES UP WITH
JOHN FOXX’S DARK MASTERPIECE WITH THIS 49-TRACK, 3CD DELUXE EDITION
was born Dennis Leigh in
Chorley, 70 years ago, has
always been a pop pioneer.
It seems fitting that Metamatic,
his debut solo album after
quitting Ultravox, was released
in January 1980: a salvo from
the dawn of the decade that
changed everything.
Fascinated by the anonymity
of cities, the automation
of industry and the bleak
P
dystopias of J.G. Ballard,
eople said I was Foxx was intent on inventing
copying David the future. His twitchy mission
Bowie,” Gary Numan informed every bleep of his
recently told Classic tinny synths, spindly and
Pop, remembering his insecure while also urgent and
musical early years. needy: his disembodied, robotic
“I kept saying, ‘No, vocal style sold a thousand
I’m trying to copy black trench coats.
John Foxx!’” Brittle yet beguiling, a
He wasn’t the only brooding symphony of ARP
one. Foxx, the visionary who Odyssey synths and Roland
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CP40.reissues.print.indd 94
drum machines, Metamatic
sounded ultra-modern even
as it retreated into its own
distracted, futurist mind-bubble.
Skeletal tunes blinked and
twitched into half-life; electronic
beats faded in and out of view
like shadows under Foxx’s
austere auteur’s gaze.
He took his inspiration
for the album’s title from
metamechanics, a school of
kinetic art founded by Dadaist
Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely,
and his own aims were equally
ambitious and deconstructionist.
The album’s opener, Plaza,
found him seeking romance
amidst Ballardian horror:
“I remember your face/ From
some shattered windscreen...”
At times, his dream-tunes
were so slight that they were
hardly there: Metal Beat drifted
Getty Images
© Getty Images
by in a heartbeat, a mere
techno-murmur. Yet Foxx knew
how to craft a killer chart-
friendly chorus: the ebullient
No-One Driving, was one of the
album’s surprise hits.
An album out of, and ahead
of, its time, Metamatic went
Top 20 and signposted a
musical future in which Foxx,
contrarily, played very little
part. Yet this 3CD deluxe
edition is a delight for devoted
Foxx-hunters.
Assiduously compiled from
original studio tapes, it comes
meticulously packaged in
Foxx’s handwritten lyrics and
illustrations. Close to 40 years
on, this masterclass in sheer
proto-electropop is a salutary
reminder of just how thrilling
Foxx’s vision of the future was.
Ian Gittins
12/04/2018 10:27

© Getty Images
NEW YORK DOLLS
PERSONALITY CRISIS:
LIVE RECORDINGS &
STUDIO DEMOS 1972-75
CHERRY RED
PLAGUED BY UNSYMPATHETIC PRODUCTION, THE DOLLS’ STUDIO ALBUMS LACKED THE
POWER OF THEIR LIVE SHOWS – THIS 5CD BOXSET LOOKS TO REDRESS THE BALANCE
promised aural fireworks but
Todd Rundgren’s conservative
production rendered it a damp
squib. The following year’s Too
Much Too Soon was little better.
Kindred spirit and fellow wild
child Shadow Morton was a
more natural fit as producer but
the band themselves came up
short, too wasted to produce
much original material and
forced to resort to ropey covers.
T
No, live was where the New
he New York Dolls York Dolls truly made sense.
were a Roman candle Their glittering stardust frontman
of a band who never David Johansen took Mick
found their spark in Jagger’s simian strut on to
the studio. The sleeve a whole new dimension of
of their eponymous camp while the fabulously gone
1973 debut album, guitarist, Johnny Thunders,
showing the group machine-gunned out scabrous,
as an androgynous filthy riffs. It may be a cliché to
riot of lipstick, ripped call the Dolls, managed by a
stockings and stack heels, had pre-Pistols Malcolm McLaren,
CP40.reissues.print.indd 95
the first punk band but, like
most clichés, it’s true.
On stage was where the
Dolls – the roughest of rock
diamonds – shone, which is
why this 5CD boxset should be
a fantastic idea.
The first two discs gather
together studio demos and
outtakes. They show the
problems that Rundgren and
Morton faced. Narcissistic
showmen, the Dolls’ attention
spans were always way too
short for the tedium of the
studio – boredom and ennui
seep through cursory run-
throughs of the likes of Jet Boy
and Human Being.
The other three cherry-pick
the best moments of 1973-
74 Dolls gigs in locations
as various as Paris, Detroit,
Denver and NYC. Anybody
R E I S S U E S
Getty Images
lucky enough to have seen the
Dolls live, even in their sober
21st century reincarnation,
knows they were a showy,
splashy glam-bam blast of a
band, yet it’s hard to bottle such
alchemy. With their sound man
apparently sharing their rough
‘n’ ragged ethos, Paris-gig
tracks like Bad Girl appear to
have been recorded through
a wet sock.
Inevitably, with such an
in-your-face group, there are
moments of brilliance here:
the Detroit Michigan Palace
rampage through Personality
Crisis is truly incendiary.
Ultimately, this homage
captures only tantalising
glimpses of one of glam-punk’s
greatest ever live bands. With
the New York Dolls, it seems,
you just had to be there. IG
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BRIAN ENO
M U S I C F O R I N S TA L L AT I O N S
UMC
STRIKING NEW SET COLLECTS MUSIC FROM VARIOUS ENO AUDIO-VISUAL
INSTALLATIONS AROUND THE GLOBE FROM 1986 UP TO THE PRESENT DAY
I
f you think of music as
a moving, changing
form, and painting as a
still form, what I’m trying
to do is make very still
music, and paintings that
move,” says Brian Eno.
“I’m trying to find in both
of those forms, the space
in between the traditional
concept of music and the
96
CP40.reissues.print.indd 96
traditional concept of painting”
– let’s rock!
Given his meticulous eye for
form and detail, a Brian Eno
boxset was never going to be
a casual, offhand entity, and
Music For Installations is one
audacious artefact indeed.
In a standard 6CD boxset,
6CD super deluxe limited-
edition boxset and 9LP super
deluxe edition vinyl, it collects
music from various Eno audio-
visual installations around the
globe from 1986 up to the
present day. Much of the music
is previously unreleased or has
been available only on a very
limited basis.
So far, so Eno, but it’s worth
wading through – or, indeed,
embracing – the packaging
and the pretention to get to
the music showcased within.
Originally premiered at an
exhibition in Tokyo in 2006,
77 Million Paintings finds
aquatic samples ebbing and
flowing beneath gentle electro-
tones in a beatific glow.
In its very conception,
Eno’s music has always been
immersive, long before that
became the critical buzzword
de jour. His I Dormienti piece,
first heard at a 1999 London
installation by an Italian
sculptor, is all tentative ghost-
tones and abstracted gasps,
a distant reverie.
The music seems to be
working towards a serene
stillness. Kites I, first heard in
Helsinki in 1999, is all febrile
textures. Lightness, premiered
at a State Russian Museum
installation, is best described
as a whiteness in freefall.
Getty Images
© Getty Images
The Making Space CD
showcases music such as
Delightful Universe (Seen From
Above) that was previously only
available at Eno installations
and via lumenlondon.com.
The final disc, Music For
Future Installations, contains
previously unheard pieces such
as the narcoleptic Surbahar
Sleeping Music.
Your levels of tolerance
for Eno are likely to shape
what you are willing to pay:
the super deluxe CD edition,
including a 64-page Plexiglas-
bound book of rare photos and
a new Eno essay, is retailing for
upwards of £300 on Amazon.
But it’s not every day you get
to inhabit the space between
the traditional concept of music
and the traditional concept
of painting. IG
12/04/2018 10:27

THE HUMAN LEAGUE
SECRETS
EDSEL
Well, they undoubtedly
produced some of the most
sheer, glistening musical
miracles in the history of electro-
pop, but that doesn’t mean that
even the divine Human League
couldn’t misfire and give us the
occasional relative dud.
Released in 2001 after a
six-year hiatus, Secrets was
The League’s eighth studio
album, but seldom scaled the
heights reached by its mighty
predecessors. Indeed, listening
to it, it was difficult to avoid the
uneasy feeling that comes when
KID CREOLE AND
THE COCONUTS
P R I VAT E WAT E R S I N
T H E G R E AT D I V I D E /
YOU SHOULDA TOLD
ME YOU WERE…
CHERRY RED
In his early 80s pomp, Kid
Creole was pretty much
the acme of fun, character-
driven cartoon-pop, regularly
sprinkling pop gold dust over
the upper reaches of the chart
via salsa-disco divinations such
as I’m A Wonderful Thing,
Baby, Stool Pigeon and Annie,
I’m Not Your Daddy.
CP40.reissues.print.indd 97
you hear a truly great band
straining for inspiration.
It started relatively
promisingly. Opening track and
lead-off single All I Ever Wanted
reverberated like vintage-era,
Dare-standard League, with
Phil Oakey sounding reliably
magisterial and stentorian over
a lewdly throbbing motorik
pulse. As ever, Joanne Catherall
and Susan Ann Sulley’s
honeyed, girl-group backing
vocals provided him with an
immaculate counterpoint.
Yet the single stiffed, falling
just short of the Top 40, and
little else on the album neared
its seductive charm.
Love Me Madly? was an
edgy curio, with Oakey barking
non-sequiturs about “cocktail set
Atillas” and threatening that he
was “heading for a crack-up”.
Their trademark ideas
were all in place but rarely
coalesced. Unusually for The
League, Secrets sounded thin
The Kid’s creator and alter
ego, August Darnell, was a
sharp and astute songwriter
and musical comedian but
primarily he was a top-quality
showman, turning Coconuts
tours into all-singing, all-
dancing Hollywood revues. Yet
by the time of these two early
90s albums, his fortunes were
in steep decline.
Darnell had divorced his wife
and chief Coconut, Adriana
Kaegi, split and reformed the
band, appeared in movies and
written an off-Broadway play
by the time of 1990’s Private
Waters In The Great Divide.
However, on its release it was
clear that his creative waters
were running dry.
Where Kid Creole’s vivacious
pop had always been larger-
and short of ideas: seven
of its 16 tracks were filler
instrumentals, of which the
nadir was the high-tempo
techno-doodle 122.3BPM.
Secrets was an album that
needed all the help it could get,
then, but instead it was jinxed
from the outset.
Given lukewarm reviews
by usually adoring critics, it
received little help or promotion
from a financially-strapped
Papillon Records: when the
Chrysalis offshoot went bust
© Getty Images
than-life, with hooks to hang
a Panama hat on, now they
were reduced to flimsy, generic
salsa-funk.
The trick up the album’s
sleeve was The Sex Of It, a
song written for Darnell by
Prince. It was a minor hit, but
really the Purple One was
phoning it in, and the Kid’s
paucity of ideas was such that
a superfluous cover of Lambada
made it on to the album.
The following year’s You
Shoulda Told Me You Were…,
included in this 2CD package,
R E I S S U E S
shortly after the record’s
release, its goose was cooked.
Edsel make a decent fist of
repackaging this little-visited
corner of the League’s oeuvre
in this 2CD deluxe edition,
adding an original, non-album-
track B-side in Tranquility, and
gamely compiling a CD of
14 remixes (seven of which,
admittedly, are of All I Ever
Wanted). Yet even for the
most diehard Human League
aficionados, this one is strictly
for completists only. IG
yielded no hit singles and
was a commercial flop, even
if (She’s A) Party Girl saw Kid
working his bug-eyed, mock-
shocked innuendo-laden shtick
as hammily as ever. He was still
big: it was just the tunes that
had grown small.
The 67-year-old Kid still
spasmodically tours with his
latest bunch of Coconuts,
like the old-school showbiz
trouper he is – but if you want
to luxuriate in their full glory
head straight for their
halcyon days. IG
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10/04/2018 09:27
 MATT BIANCO
INDIGO
CHERRY RED
“Hello, Simon Roberts, you’re
through to Matt Bianco.”
“Hello, Matt Bianco. You’re
a bunch of wankers!”
It’s undoubtedly harsh on
Matt Bianco that many pop
fans’ strongest memory of them
is a rogue TV viewer’s call to
a live Saturday Superstore
phone-in one weekend morning
in 1984. However, maybe they
are partly culpable in that little
of their music was memorable.
Formed from the ashes of
Blue Rondo A La Turk, Matt
COCKNEY REBEL
THE HUMAN MENAGERIE/
THE PSYCHOMODO
CHRYSALIS
Beholden to Bowie and yet a true
British pop one-off, Steve Harley
was an art-pop visionary. Fiercely
ambitious, he crammed prog
rock, glam and songs about Marc
Bolan into Cockney Rebel’s 1973
debut, The Human Menagerie,
working with a 50-piece orchestra
while remembering that the trick
was to hit the listener with killer
pop choruses. His follow-up,
1974’s The Psychomodo, found
him mangling vowels, using lead
violin over guitar and unleashing
the hallucinogenic Mr. Soft, quite
the most berserk pop-psychedelia
nugget of the day. He still sounds
glorious – but what a shame this
2CD set doesn’t add Judy Teen. IG
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CP40.reissues.print.indd 98
Bianco were a lightweight
but jaunty presence on the
pop landscape throughout the
80s, regularly infiltrating their
Latin-tinged jazz-pop into the
middle reaches of the singles
chart. At best, they were a
pleasant diversion: at worst,
a nagging irritant.
Named after a fictional
James Bond-style spy hero, it
was their fate to be too chart-
slick to impress Latin music fans
and too resolutely inoffensive to
gather a devoted UK following:
they reeked of white trousers,
and Peter Powell. Nevertheless,
in 1988, Warner Brothers
deemed them ready to break
The States.
The label certainly pulled out
all of the stops, hiring Emilio
Estefan, husband of Gloria
and founder of Miami Sound
Machine, to produce some of
the group’s third album, Indigo.
His sonic fingerprints were all
over the album’s lead-off single,
HOLLYWOOD BEYOND
IF
CHERRY RED
The vehicle for an ambitious
young Birmingham tyro named
Mark Rogers, Hollywood Beyond
enjoyed a Top 10 single in 1986
with the jolting, vaguely exotic
What’s The Colour Of Money?
The lippy Rogers talked a good
fight, declaring this his music
was “pop but not pap, artistic
without being intellectual, vibrant
without being blasé, unique
without being original”, but the
band’s mildly soulful, mildly funky
debut album, rereleased now as
a 2CD set, failed to live up to his
rhetoric. Despite Rogers’s siren
vocal, subsequent singles sank
without trace and Hollywood
Beyond dissolved, destined to be
archetypal one-hit wonders. IG
Don’t Blame It On That Girl,
which even broke into the US
dance chart.
That success was largely
down to the track being
a double A-side with a
seven-minute Estefan-special
production, the house-music-
tinged dancefloor-filler Wap-
Bam-Boogie, but as this 3CD
deluxe reissue of Indigo
reaffirms, there was little else
there to shake up the US.
Funk-driven cuts like Nervous
were slight and anonymous; the
BRAM TCHAIKOVSKY
STRANGE MEN, CHANGED
MEN: THE COMPLETE
RECORDINGS 1978-81
CHERRY RED
Better known to his mum as Peter
Bramall, singer and guitarist Bram
Tchaikovsky cut his musical teeth
with pub rockers The Motors, who
scored a No.4 hit in 1978 with the
ELO-like Airport. Three of his solo
albums – Strange Man, Changed
Man (1979), The Russians Are
Coming (1980) and Funland
(1981) – are now collected here
in a 3CD boxset and confirm
that Tchaikovsky’s forte was, well,
pub rock. At best, as on Sarah
Smiles and this set’s title track,
his rudimentary riffs could evoke
the art-rock menace of The Who.
Mostly, though, he sounded like
Status Quo. IG
anaemic Hanging On verged
on lift muzak.
America remained resolutely
unbroken, awkwardly-titled
follow-up album Samba In
Your Casa flopped and saw
them exit Warners, and Matt
Bianco resigned themselves to
being big in Japan only. Their
Achilles’ heel is evident here:
despite their warm embrace
of Latin and party rhythms,
Matt Bianco never had much
soul. Maybe Simon Roberts
had a point after all. IG
GOMEZ
BRING IT ON – 20TH
ANNIVERSARY EDITION
UMC
It seemed a strange choice when
Gomez scooped the Mercury
Music Prize with their debut album
20 years ago, pipping Massive
Attack, Pulp and The Verve, and
two decades on it doesn’t appear
any more explicable. They looked
like busking Rag Week students
attempting to play Delta blues,
but that hasn’t stopped the band
marking the 20th anniversary
of Bring It On’s unlikely triumph
with an all-singing, all-dancing
4CD boxset of remastered tracks,
B-sides, demos and a live set from
Glastonbury. Nowadays they make
a decent living in America, where
people are far keener on this sort
of thing. IG
10/04/2018 09:27

VARIOUS ARTISTS
R E VA M P : R E I M A G I N I N G
T H E S O N G S O F E LT O N
J O H N & B E R N I E TA U P I N
VIRGIN EMI
Twenty-seven years after
Mercury Records gathered
artists such as Tina Turner, The
Who and Kate Bush to cover
Elton John and Bernie Taupin
songs on Two Rooms, Revamp
repeats the trick.
As ever with such projects,
it’s a curate’s egg. Some
contributors opt for safety-first:
Alessia Cara’s turbo-charged
warble of I Guess That’s Why
OLETA ADAMS
CIRCLE OF ONE
CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL
Oleta Adams was famously
discovered by Tears For Fears’
Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith
performing in a hotel bar in
Kansas City. She went on to sing
on their humongous The Seeds
Of Love album and was awarded
a solo deal by their record label,
Fontana. Her debut, 1990’s Circle
Of One, went to No.1 in the UK,
powered by her cover of Brenda
Russell’s Get Here. Hearing it
again, it’s evident that Adams
was an old-school soul singer
who grabbed her escape route
from the cabaret circuit with both
hands. It’s a 2CD set: the second
disc, featuring eight remixes of the
Orzabal-penned Rhythm Of Life, is
less than essential. IG
CP40.reissues.print.indd 99
They Call It The Blues, Sam
Smith’s clenched croon through
Daniel and Lady Gaga’s
earnest mugging of Your Song
add nothing to the originals.
Coldplay gently mope
through We All Fall In Love
Sometimes, while Ed Sheeran
adds a quirky charm to the
ever-mawkish Candle In The
Wind. Florence Welch goes full
foghorn on Tiny Dancer and
The Killers fall oddly flat on
Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters.
Most successful contributions
come when the artists take
the greatest liberties. Elton,
P!nk and Logic team up to
turn Bennie And The Jets into
stuttering pop-rap, Q-Tip and
Demi Lovato ooze through Don’t
Go Breaking My Heart, and
Mary J Blige’s distorted R&B
take on Sorry Seems To Be The
Hardest Word is a revelation. IG
CHICAGO
VI DECADES LIVE
(THIS IS WHAT WE DO)
RHINO
Chicago were the kind of bloated
US soft-rock behemoth that the
80s synth-pop explosion correctly
defined itself against, yet they were
originally jazz- and classical-
tinged experimentalists before
switching to becoming peddlers of
chart-bothering sickly sentimental
dreck such as If You Leave Me
Now and Hard To Say I’m Sorry.
Their journey from jazzy noodling
at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival
to churning out conveyor-belt
AOR abominations at Caesar’s
Palace is well-represented by this
5CD live boxset – assuming, that
is, that the thought of a Chicago
5CD live boxset doesn’t bring you
out in hives. IG
R E I S S U E S
VARIOUS ARTISTS
B U R N I N G B R I TA I N : A
STORY OF INDEPENDENT
UK PUNK 1980-83
CHERRY RED
The term post-punk misleadingly
assumes that all bands inspired
by the late 70s punk explosion
went on to craft radical,
boundaries-testing music...
Well, they didn’t. A lot of
groups simply slavishly copied
the original punks.
Burning Britain is a 4CD
boxset of the heads-down,
safety-pinned and Mohican-
toting second-wave punks. In
MARLENA SHAW
GO AWAY LITTLE BOY: THE
COLUMBIA ANTHOLOGY
SOULMUSIC RECORDS
One of the great under-celebrated
jazz-soul singers, Marlena Shaw
enjoyed a creative and commercial
purple patch when signed to
Columbia from 1977 to 1980. This
2CD set cherry-picks the best and
most luscious moments from her
three albums for them. Highlights
include the velvet-voiced soul and
sassy comedy of the no-good-man-
dissing Yu-Ma/Go Away Little
Boy, the Blaxploitation funk-hued
theme from 1977 movie Looking
For Mr Goodbar, and a jive-
talking hi-energy disco version
of Diana Ross’s Touch Me In The
Morning that works even though
it really, really shouldn’t. A rare
talent indeed. IG
C O M P I L A T I O N S
truth, you’d need a pretty iron
constitution to get through the
114 tracks all in one sitting.
These raw, rudimentary 1-2-3-4!
thrash-essays are wearingly
samey – who, except for Gary
Bushell, could tell where the
Cockney Rejects, 4 Skins,
G.B.H. or Chaos U.K ended,
and Chron Gen, Infa-Riot,
Septic Psychos or Drongos For
Europe began?
Oi! punk, or UK82 as its
insiders knew it, was a music
that applauded its own lack of
subtlety, but its lowest-common-
denominator ethos could slip
into self-parody. Were there
really tracks called Banned
From The Pubs by Peter And
The Test Tube Babies and Have
You Got 10p? by The Ejected?
“Punk’s not dead!” they used
to claim – but it sounds horribly
embalmed here. IG
HAZEL O’CONNOR
SONS AND LOVERS
CHERRY RED
Hazel O’Connor’s music career fell
off a rather precipitous cliff after
her 1980 debut album and movie
soundtrack, Breaking Glass, which
was a shame as this follow-up,
released the same year, was a
minor masterpiece of commercial
new-wave pop. O’Connor’s spiky,
defiant singing rode the jagged
post-punk rhythms adroitly and
the record did at least spawn a
Top 10 single in the heroically
twitchy D-Days. Additional tracks
on this deluxe CD reissue include a
roustabout 1980 London live duet
of Bowie’s Suffragette City between
O’Connor and some bloke called
Simon Le Bon, singer with her
then-unknown tour support band...
Duran Duran. IG
99
10/04/2018 09:27

R E I S S U E S
A N D B E Y O N D
A NUMBER OF 80S FAVOURITES EMBRACED
THIS YEAR’S RECORD STORE DAY WITH THE
LIKES OF THE CURE, ERASURE, MADNESS,
DURAN DURAN, EURYTHMICS AND
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD
ALL RELEASING LIMITED EDITION
COLLECTIONS ON VINYL
I A N G I T T I N S
ERASURE – THE
TWO RING CIRCUS
After a disappointing
reaction to the previous
year’s debut, Wonderland,
1987’s The Circus proved to be
Erasure’s breakthrough album.
Spawning four hit singles, the
record instilled in the Great
British public a love for Vince
Clarke and Andy Bell’s
high-energy disco synth-pop that
has seen the duo maintain a
30-year career that shows no
sign of stalling. It came at the
dawn of the era of the remix
album, and so that same year
Mute released The Two Ring
Circus, a double 12” record
featuring remixes of six tracks,
including a Flood mix of its big
hit, Sometimes, and orchestral
takes on three others. It is
reissued on fetching yellow vinyl.
100
CP40.LLV.print.indd 100
DURAN DURAN –
BUDOKAN
Eighties stars sure came out
in force for this year’s Record
Store Day. Duran Duran chipped
in with this previously unreleased
live album from the Nippon
Budokan. Recorded last September,
as the Duranies ended their
two-year world tour in support of
the so-so Paper Gods record, it
comes in bespoke, highly
collectable artwork by noted
Japanese graphic designer and
artist Tadanori Yokoo. The six-track
setlist of highlights may at first
glance look a little stingy but it’s still
a decent running time as (Reach
Up For The) Sunrise segues into
a lengthy New Moon On Monday
and The Universe Alone builds into
a joyous Save A Prayer. They have
only printed 2,700 copies, so get
your skates on.
THE UNDERTONES –
SINGLES
Record Store Day brought a
plethora of riches this year,
not least this functionally-titled
boxset of 7” versions of all 13
singles released by The Undertones
from 1978 until their split in 1983.
There’s not a dud here: it’s
staggering to reflect that for their
first six singles, the Derry teen-punks
were able to come up with Teenage
Kicks, Get Over You, Jimmy Jimmy,
Here Comes The Summer, You’ve
Got My Number (Why Don’t You
Use It?) and My Perfect Cousin.
In addition to the original sleeve
artwork, you also get the Teenage
Kicks poster single, photos and
notes by the band, and a
track-by-track commentary from
Undertones bassist Michael Bradley.
It would all have been a John Peel
wet dream, frankly.
MADNESS – I DO
LIKE TO BE B-SIDE
THE A-SIDE
Recycling an old song title
by The Style Council for its
moniker (and let’s face it, it suits
them far more), Madness now
release the B-sides to their first
11 singles as a RSD vinyl album.
Their catalogue runs so deep and
rich that their B-sides would make
A-sides for most bands, so this is
a great chance to discover hidden
Nutty Boy gems such as Mistakes,
the B-side to One Step Beyond,
Stepping Into Line, the flip of My
Girl, and The Business, the Mike
Barson-composed backing track
to Baggy Trousers. It’s a joyous
set, wrapped in a monochrome
sleeve of the suspiciously buff-
looking band members larking
around on a diving board at
a 50s-style holiday camp.
THE CURE – MIXED
UP/TORN DOWN
Record Store day also saw
a re-release of The Cure’s
Mixed Up remix album from
1990 that found the band
attempting to engage with dance
and club culture and being largely
– and slightly unfairly – mocked
for their pains. Undeterred by this,
they have returned to the scene
of the crime 28 years later to give
us Torn Down, a double album
of 16 new mixes by Robert Smith.
Given the nature of Cure fandom,
it’s likely a lot of people will
consider these valiant Smith
reworkings of tracks including
Three Imaginary Boys, Shake Dog
Shake, Plainsong and Never
Enough to be an essential
purchase, especially as the whole
pouting package is a 7,750
copies limited-edition picture disc.
P!NK – I’M NOT DEAD/
FUNHOUSE/THE TRUTH
ABOUT LOVE
P!nk can be an acquired
taste, but when the shouty
US arena-filling pop star sheds her
earnestness and goes into full-on
glam cartoon-pop mode, she is
big fun. Here, she is doling out
coloured-vinyl reissues of three
mid-career albums, 2006’s I’m Not
Dead, 2008’s Funhouse and
2012’s The Truth About Love, which
have between them sold more than
20 million copies. I’m Not Dead
yielded the powerhouse, Max
Martin co-written lovelorn single
Who Knew, while Funhouse
produced the irresistible, chanting
thug-pop of So What (also a Martin
co-write), but The Truth About Love,
with its guest appearances from
Eminem and Lily Allen, is probably
the strongest album of the trio.
09/04/2018 16:35

FRANKIE GOES TO
HOLLYWOOD – THE
FIRST 48 INCHES
OF FRANKIE GOES
TO HOLLYWOOD
It’s good to see that Frankie’s
talent for innuendo has not
deserted them, as the title of this
limited-edition RSD boxset suggests.
Featuring the first four 12” singles
from their chart-annexing 1984
album, Welcome To The
Pleasuredome, the set still sounds
sharp, sexy and visceral. This
collection includes the record-
breaking run of three consecutive
start-of-career No.1s – the throbbing
Relax, archly provocative Two
Tribes and the knowingly soppy The
Power Of Love – and the album’s
title track, which stopped short at
No.2, mainly because by then
everybody in Britain had already
bought the LP.
THE STREETS – ORIGINAL
PIRATE MATERIAL/
A GRAND DON’T
COME FOR FREE
When Mike Skinner first
called a halt to The Streets in
2011, the time was right, but it’s
easy to forget how vital these first
two albums were. Bookended by
the stirring strings and gritty urban
majesty of Turn The Page and Stay
Positive, Original Pirate Material
sounds immense on 180g vinyl, the
bass on Has It Come To This? and
Let’s Push Things Forward pleasingly
hefty. A Grand Don’t Come For
Free was a less consistent album,
but it heralded No.1 single Dry
Your Eyes and the entrancing
MDMA swirl of Blinded By The
Lights. These records remain an
essential part of the fabric of
modern British music. Gary Walker
CP40.LLV.print.indd 101
L O N G L I V E V I N Y L
U2 – POP/ALL THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE
BEHIND/WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA
There is a slew of U2 material remastered and reissued on vinyl this
month, although none of it represents the band’s finest work. Pop was
released in 1997 and looked to continue the process of ironic reinvention
they had begun with Achtung Baby and Zooropa, but it always felt a little
undercooked. All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) was the first instance
of U2’s regrettable 21st century habit of delivering underwhelming albums
wrapped in cumbersome titles. Probably the pick of this batch is Wide
Awake In America, the EP first released in 1985 during the Unforgettable
Fire Tour and featuring live versions of Bad and A Sort Of Homecoming.
EURYTHMICS – 1984
(FOR THE LOVE OF
BIG BROTHER)
In the wake of Annie Lennox
recently reissuing Diva and
Medusa on vinyl, Eurythmics also
get in on the act with a RSD release
of their soundtrack album, 1984
(For The Love Of Big Brother).
When the record came out to
accompany the John Hurt/Richard
Burton movie take on George
Orwell’s dystopian classic, Dave
Stewart, never a man to be shy
of a fanciful notion, claimed it was:
“Kraftwerk meets African tribal
meets Booker T & The M.G.’s”.
That was pushing it... what it
sounded like was the Eurythmics.
This comes pressed on heavyweight
red vinyl, and the super-sibilant
Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
remains one of electro-pop’s most
addictive guilty pleasures.
101
12/04/2018 10:48
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 JAKE SHEARS
BOYS KEEP SWINGING:
A MEMOIR
OMNIBUS PRESS
After a wealth of boring, run-of-
the-mill music memoirs, the genre
really is enjoying a new lease
of life thanks to Brett Anderson’s
Coal Black Mornings and
now Jake Shears’ offering. As
you’d expect from the erstwhile
frontman of the Scissor Sisters,
one of the most flamboyant
acts in recent years, Boys Keep
Swinging... is a no-holds-barred
romp (and there is a lot of
romping) through Jake’s colourful
life so far.
DAVID BUCKLEY
E LT O N J O H N
ANDRE DEUTSCH
With Elton John’s mammoth
farewell tour due to kick off
in September, a new tribute
album and a film of his life in
pre-production, the timing couldn’t
be better for the release of this
new biography.
Author David Buckley, whose
Strange Fascination is still one
of the definitive books on David
Bowie, is intent on ensuring that
another essential musical icon
gets the biographical treatment
that has so far been denied him.
After conducting hundreds
of interviews with friends,
104
CP40.Reviews_Books.print.indd 104
From his sheltered childhood
in Arizona, Jake’s story is the
classic tale of a small town misfit
and his quest to find a place to
call home with like-minded peers.
The detailing of his early
life and struggles is particularly
moving – the poignancy with
which he handles his coming
out to his parents will no doubt
be invaluable to some members
of the LGBTQ+ community.
The book straddles the duality
of grafting and good times as he
sets off on his quest for stardom.
The book brilliantly captures
the vibrancy of the music scenes
in Seattle and the drug-fuelled
debauchery of pre-millennial
New York City, and how
the Scissor Sisters went from
underground club freaks to
international superstars.
Funny, sad and deliciously
indiscreet, Shears’ memoir is
a classic in the making.
Mark Lindores
colleagues, collaborators,
journalists and music historians,
Buckley has covered enough
ground to formulate a refreshingly
unbiased portrait.
From Reg Dwight’s
transformation into Elton John in
1967, when he was paid by a
music publisher to pen 18 songs
a year and struck a professional
partnership with Bernie Taupin,
the book details the highs and
lows of an often turbulent life,
detailing the excesses that
plagued the star behind the
scenes of his gargantuan success
in the 70s and 80s.
We also learn much about
his relationship with Taupin, his
complicated love life, tireless
charity work, role as mentor to
younger musicians and his settled
family life.
Even though Elton has
announced his plans to tell his
own explosive story in 2019,
Buckley’s biography is a page-
turningly entertaining portrait of
the man behind the glitz. ML
PAMELA DES BARRES
I’M WITH THE BAND
( U P D AT E D E D I T I O N )
OMNIBUS PRESS
Thirty years after I’m With The
Band: Confessions Of A Groupie
was first published, Pamela Des
Barres’ groundbreaking account
of life as a groupie has seen its
place in popular culture change
irrevocably. Dismissed initially
as a trashy kiss-and-tell, it has
since gone on to be heralded as
something of a work of profound
feminism and will no doubt be
viewed differently again in the
politicised light of the Me Too
and Time’s Up movements.
MARGO JEFFERSON
ON MICHAEL JACKSON
GRANTA BOOKS
In the nine years since Michael
Jackson died, it seems that
everyone who knew, worked
with, was related to, or just
happened to pass him on the
street seemed to have a story
to tell – and they did (even
the doctor that went to prison
for prescribing the medication
that killed him wrote an
autobiography). The sheer volume
of books written about him leads
us to question what there is left to
say that hasn’t already been said.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and cultural critic Margo
However you choose to view
it, this updated version is an
undisputed joy, perfectly evoking
rock’s glory days of the late 60s
and early 70s.
Detailing her dalliances with
the likes of Mick Jagger, Jimmy
Page, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon
and many others, Pamela reveals
the other side of the groupie in
a book which is self-deprecating
and brutally honest.
It is also, surprisingly given its
subject matter, almost romantic
in a tragic way, as the likeable
heroine stumbles from heartbreak
to heartbreak, you can’t help but
be on her side.
The prototype for countless
books of this ilk, I’m With The
Band is still an original voice in
a much-emulated market. It offers
an intimate view into the rock
world, California during the
free-love era, and (briefly) inside
the personalities of those now
considered icons. ML
Jefferson’s new definitive and
dazzling dissection is more
a cultural study of the man
and performer rather than a
meaningless biography.
Delving into Jackson’s lyrics
and music videos, she talks not
only about Michael but uses him
as a symbol to commentate
on what he represents to different
echelons of society – race,
gender, idol worship, child
stardom and freakshows.
As well as his music,
she examines his changing
appearance and explores
his tragic downfall in the
early 90s. She exposes the
“trial by television” media circus
that surrounded him following
the allegations of child abuse
made against him and how they
tainted his career and legacy
in a way that never left the star.
Deep and thought-provoking,
this new study of Jackson offers
a fresh perspective of The King
Of Pop and his status as a
cultural phenomenon. ML
12/04/2018 09:45
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ERASURE
EVENTIM APOLLO, LONDON
23 FEBRUARY
OVER 30 YEARS INTO THEIR CAREER AND THE PIONEERING SYNTH-POP DUO DELIVER
THEIR A-GAME WITH A CAREER-SPANNING SET – LET’S GIVE THEM A LITTLE RESPECT
W
ho’d have thought
that an advert
requesting a singer,
placed by the
creatively restless
Vince Clarke in
a 1985 Melody
Maker, would result
in such an enduring
and much-loved
pop legacy.
Andy Bell, the singer whose
flamboyant style and beautiful
vocals proved the perfect foil
for Clarke’s electronic vision,
remains one of pop’s most
enigmatic performers.
From the off, and the
splendid riff of Oh L’amour,
from 1986’s debut album
Wonderland, Erasure set about
demonstrating their vitality with
a comprehensive 24-song set.
110
CP40.Live_Reviews.print.indd 110
Clarke has now relocated
to New York and put some
distance between them and
this seems reflected in the
stage setup: Vince’s keyboards
are positioned on a balcony
high above Bell. We can only
presume that any similarity
to Alan Partridge’s Knowing
Me, Knowing You set is
unintentional… but you
do half-expect Bell to press
his nose and point to his Glen
Ponder for a cymbal crash –
ba dum tish!
An undeniable synchronicity
remains between the pair.
While his partner does the
heavy lifting, a besuited Clarke
twiddles with computers.
There are shades of Pet
Shop Boys’ Fundamental-era
neon strips, as a stripped-back
Ship Of Fools makes an early
appearance alongside an
elegant Breathe.
Sadly, Mad As We Are,
from 2000’s rather forgettable
Loveboat, fails to compete with
the crowd’s phone-fiddling.
However, the call and
response of Just A Little Love
holds its own and echoes the
electro-gospel of tonight’s
highlight Phantom Bride.
There’s admirable
representation of all their
albums. Bell’s confusion over
which record In My Arms
belongs is laughed off as
the front row correct him –
Cowboy! they scream.
I Love Saturday hits the
Friday night crowd like the
EDM gym anthem it always
threatened to be, but even
© Naomi Dryden-Smith
Getty Images
Clarke’s disco tambourine fails
to distract from it being a bit
of a filler track. We also get
a rather perfunctory cover
of Blondie’s Atomic.
Yet the cold riff of Who
Needs Love (Like That) sounds
as immediate today as it ever
did, as does the effortless
perfection of Stop!
Bell is in fine voice and
wears an all-in-one tattoo suit
for a dreamy Always, before
a rousing Here I Go Impossible
Again and Sometimes set things
up neatly for the crowd-pleasing
encore of A Little Respect.
It might be called the World
Be Gone Tour, but on tonight’s
showing we’re grateful that
Erasure look like they’re here
to stay.
Tom Hocknell
12/04/2018 10:50

MORRISSEY
A L E X A N D R A PA L A C E , L O N D O N
9 MARCH
ALWAYS LACONIC AND SOMETIMES IRONIC, THE ANTI-MONARCHY MORRISSEY
RULES ALEXANDRA PALACE AS HE LETS THE MUSIC DO THE TALKING FOR ONCE
I
t’s hard to know if
Morrissey courts
controversy or whether it
courts him, but thankfully
last year’s resurgent Low
In High School album
effectively erases memories
of his ill-advised novel List
Of The Lost. If tonight’s
skinheads, suedeheads
and mods are an indicator,
Morrissey continues to provoke
the sort of loyalty more
associated with football teams
than a man who once made
National Health glasses cool.
The mariachi-laced opening
cover of Elvis’ You’ll Be Gone
sets his stall out, as he croons
ever closer to one of his idols.
In open shirt and terribly cut
jeans, he’s half pugilist, half
harried father.
CP40.Live_Reviews.print.indd 111
For an art associated with
rebellion, rock has become
somewhat formalist and
Morrissey’s been criticised
recently for breaking the
conformity of music’s opinion
on politics, but, as with his
vegetarianism, you don’t have
to agree with him. He remains
the boy who never shied away.
His band contains more
people than he claims to have
as friends, and shrugs off
previous muddy pedestrianism
in favour of a clipped lightness
reminiscent of The Smiths,
who get an early look in
with I Started Something I
Couldn’t Finish. Highlights of
the new album stand bold,
with a shimmering I Wish You
Lonely, and the heartbreaking
Who Will Protect Us From
The Police?... “I’m sorry, I just
cannot believe you,”a reminder
of his willingness to confess
what others fear to.
Then it’s: ‘I am the son and
the heir...’ of a mighty How
Soon Is Now?. While it might
be Johnny Marr’s finest moment,
he’s always seemed to struggle
when playing it live and he’ll
be bemused by the irony that
Morrissey has nailed it. It’s
a tremblingly taut epic, closing
with edgy synths refusing to
die – a song that never outstays
its welcome.
The Bullfighter Dies feels
forced, unlike the salvo of the
effortless lopes of Spent The
Day In Bed and When You
Open Your Legs.
His voice is more impressive
than ever, majestic even. You
L I V E & E V E N T S
M A Y 2 0 1 8
CLASSIC
BEST LIVE SHOW
Getty Images
© Naomi Dryden-Smith
hang upon every word. If
you lose him it’s because you
stopped listening.
Jack The Ripper peppers
the crowd with such searing
guitar licks that it’s hard to
imagine Marr taking things
so gloriously carelessly.
Everyday Is Like Sunday
romps past, while the recent
single Jacky’s Only Happy
When She’s Up On The Stage
is even better live – its closing
chant of “everybody’s heading
to the exit” is as uplifting as it
is unsettling.
He’s mastered the art of
ambiguity that most pop
stars never achieve, and he’s
beginning to merge with the
icons he always admired. Just
not as a novelist.
Tom Hocknell
111
12/04/2018 11:08
 PAUL
WELLER
SSE HYDRO,
GLASGOW
25 FEBRUARY
Jam veterans, Brit-poppers and
mods of all stripes shake off
the cold as Paul Weller arrives
on stage. He looks ready to do
business armed with his trusty
Telecaster before firing into I’m
Where I Should Be.
One fan is given short
shrift for being unaware of
the opening few numbers.
“I can’t help ya if you don’t
buy the facking records,” is
his no-nonsense retort. No such
problems with a clutch of songs
from The Style Council, after
declaring that the 80s were
“facking rubbish” he disproves
the point with Have You Ever
Had It Blue, featuring some
beautiful guitar tones from
Steve Cradock, and My Ever
Changing Moods.
Lead vocals are shared with
Weller’s long-serving sideman
during Man In The Corner
Shop, the once teenage Jam
fan looks in his element as the
crowd sing along during the
spine-tingling chorus. Elsewhere
there’s a nod to 1997’s Heavy
LLOYD COLE
P L AY H O U S E , W H I T L E Y B AY
23 FEBRUARY
Lloyd Cole has a downbeat
stage persona with a crafty
line in self-effacing humour
that wins over tonight’s full
house: “I messed up the lyrics
on that one,” he says at one
point. “If you ever witness a
flawless performance of my
material you’ll know it was
a tribute act.”
Following on from a nine-date
American tour, this jaunt across
the UK sees the singer gigging
mid-range venues. Drawing
from his 1983 to 1996 output
with The Commotions and solo,
The Retrospective Tour sees him
playing totally solo.
As he is his “own support
act”, Lloyd gets to pace the gig
well and selects well-known
songs throughout both halves
of the evening. The audience
takes a little time to warm up,
112
CP40.Live_Reviews.print.indd 112
Soul with Up In Suzes’ Room,
a beautifully crafted gem that
has aged well. Friday Street is
greeted like an old pal, while
Peacock Suit is dedicated to
Glasgow’s blue-eyed soul hero
Frankie Miller. Weller’s timbre
tonight summons something
of Miller’s bluesy vocal on the
likes of Whirlpool’s End – a set
highlight which never fails to
bump up the atmosphere.
The band’s chemistry, which
has developed over the past
but by the end of the two-hour
show people are shouting out
requests and swapping quips
with their laconic host.
Lloyd Cole And The
Commotions were a guitar-
based band and that rock’n’roll
edge was a notable absence
here. However, what we got
instead was much more intimate
and direct.
Cole is a thoughtful, artful,
lyricist and without a band
there’s nothing to get in the
way of the words. Perfect
Skin motors along nicely,
Rattlesnakes is a great piece
of reflective observation, and
Lost Weekend, his biggest
hit from 1985, has a killer
melody which rounds off the
main set wonderfully.
Cole is a confident, but in
no way showy, performer –
10 years, gives a collective
feel to a stripped-down
acoustic section of the show.
Weller suggests he might get
“run out of town” for playing
English Rose, before The Ballad
Of Jimmy McCabe, from last
year’s Jawbone score, which
proves to be another recent
track that deserves to sit among
his best. Unfortunately audience
chatter during these more
intimate numbers is a point of
frustration. Steve Pilgrim’s hefty
his strong and melodic vocal
remains undiminished by more
than 30 years of performing.
The subject matter of his songs
may be fiction or drawn from
Cole’s own experiences, but
the audience happily buy into
Lloyd’s world regardless.
© Richard Purden
vocal on Wild Wood
is further bolstered by the
crowd. It’s another much-loved
song in this city, which led
Weller to comment on feeling
deeply moved.
During a final encore of Town
Called Malice they are joined
by Cradock’s son Cassius on
guitar who represents that
eternal teenage Jam fan, which
many here of a certain vintage
will forever relate to.
Richard Purden
© Photoshot
Before Jennifer She Said,
he asks the audience to join in:
“You can help me out, or you
can watch me suffer,” and the
crowd respond by cheerfully
“la-la-ing” along – nobody was
in danger of suffering tonight.
Ian Ravendale
10/04/2018 11:35
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 CLASSIC

© Photoshot/Mike Prior
MOMENTS

No.40
W E L L E R C O N V E N E S
T H E S T Y L E C O U N C I L
7 M A Y 1 9 8 3
After disbanding The Jam at the peak of their popularity in 1982,
Paul Weller unveiled his new soul, pop and funk-influenced group,
The Style Council, at the Festival For Peace CND in Brockwell Park,
London. It initially included just Weller and keyboardist
Mick Talbot – he shared The Modfather’s “hatred of the rock myth
and rock culture”, apparently. The permanent line-up grew to
feature drummer Steve White and Weller’s then-girlfriend Dee
C. Lee. The band went on to score seven UK Top 10 singles and
three Top 10 albums. More overtly political than The Jam, Weller’s
new outfit regularly included lyrical attacks on Middle England
and the incumbent Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Steve Harnell

114

CP40.CPM.print.indd 114 09/04/2018 16:16

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