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Archive 15
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351 - 375
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Here
you will gain exclusive access to my own personal record collection! I
try to bring you mp3s of rare tracks, deleted material, long forgotten
artists, total flops and down right obscure shit. Often, my choices were
only available on vinyl or were just plain unreleased, the aim being to
indulge an old fan or inspire a new one. I try not to post up
forthcoming releases or anything that's too readily available. Honest,
Gov!
There's a tenuous thread running through the tracks but
your requests are always welcome and I'll try and squeeze them in amongst my
own fancies... eventually.
Do read all the blurb, as there's often links to extra tracks lurking in
there... ; )
Tracks are only available for a 'limited
time' folks (sometimes months!), so get them while you can!
Now for the science bit! To access the music, please click on 'Download' and
you'll be whisked off to those nice people over at Sharebee.
Tracks are ripped at 192 kbps and wherever possible taken from the
highest quality source available. All of the music offered here has been
purchased by myself and is part of my own collection. Tracks are for
evaluation purposes only and wherever possible, purchasing is always
encouraged. If you own any of the material posted here or anywhere else
on this site and are very cross with me, please
email me with threats and such like...
Here
is 'The Queen Of Soul', Miss Aretha Franklin.
From her first hit single in 1967, 'I Never Loved A Man (The Way I
Love You)', through a long string of chart hits which includes
classics 'Respect', '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural
Woman' and 'I Say A Little Prayer',
Aretha has managed to become one of only
three musicians (the others being Madonna
and Marvin Gaye) who have managed to
have a single chart on every position in the US Billboard top ten singles
chart. She has charted more top forty singles, forty-five in all, than any
other female performer. She is the second most honoured female singer in
Grammy history (after Alison Krauss),
winning no less than seventeen competitive Grammy awards.
Aretha has also been awarded the 'Living Legend' Grammy and
the 'Lifetime Achievement' Grammy as well. She has won an unprecedented
eight consecutive trophies between 1967 and 1974, during which time the
category of Best Female R&B Vocal Performance was nicknamed 'The
Aretha Award'. That's quite a career!
Not exactly a career high, the girl group-inspired 'Jimmy Lee'
is taken from her 1986 Arista album, simply titled 'Aretha',
which yielded her first number one pop single in two decades with the
George Michael duet, 'I Knew You
Were Waiting (For Me)'. It also features her cover of
The Rolling Stones' 'Jumpin' Jack
Flash' (which appeared in the Whoopi
Goldberg movie of the same name) and is noteworthy for the
striking cover art which was Andy Warhol's
last work before his death.
George
Michael and Andrew Ridgeley
met at Bushey Meads School in Watford, England. They performed in a
short-lived rock'n'roll band called The Executive
before morphing into pop group Wham!.
Their 1982 debut single, 'Wham Rap!', was
hilariously banned from general release due to the profanity of the lyrics (!)
apparently... October
the same year, their next song, 'Young Guns (Go For It!)',
stalled outside the top 40... but then Wham!
got their break. 'Top Of The Pops' had to fill a gap
created by an act which had pulled out of the show at short notice. Near to
the top 40 mark, Wham! got the gig and a
phenomenon began, the track finally peaking at 3. More hits followed, a
reissue of 'Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)' (8), 'Bad
Boys' (2) and 'Club Tropicana' (4), each song coming
with a memorable music video. Michael
took on the majority of roles and responsibilities within the band;
composer, singer, producer and occasional instrumentalist — but the
contribution of Ridgeley as the group's
image specialist and spokesman was crucial to the band's initial success.
Ridgeley convinced a reluctant
George that Wham!
needed to change their image and sound frequently to stay in favour with the
pop audience. By the end of 1983, Wham!
were rivalling Duran Duran and
Culture Club as Britain's biggest pop act,
gaining notoriety and column inches for their antics with shuttlecocks and
their first album, 'Fantastic', reached number 1. 'A Ray
Of Sunshine' is taken from this album. Legal wrangles with their
label Inner Vision held up proceedings for more than 6 months,
discounting the 'Club Fantastic Megamix' single which the band
vehemently denounced. A new image and sound arrived in May 1984 with pop
staple 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' and later, the parent
album 'Make It Big' rocketed to the number 1 spot. The next
single was 'Careless Whisper', a
George Michael 'solo' release, yet it was co-written by
Ridgeley, his first co-write since their debut
single. Bizarre. The song quickly reached number 1.
George contributed to the Band Aid
project the same year, knocking their own Christmas single, 'Last
Christmas', off the top spot. In 1985,
Wham! toured China, the first tour of that country by a Western
pop group, documented in the documentary VHS release, 'Foreign Skies'.
Wham! scored another number 1 with 'I'm Your Man'
and Ridgeley began a romantic
relationship Keren Woodward of
Bananarama (the pair are still together).
Wham! then announced their shock
decision to quit while the going was good and their last single, 'The
Edge Of Heaven', claimed the number 1 spot yet again. They bid a
final farewell to their audience, 73,000 of whom were in attendance, with
'The Final', an eight-hour live event and accompanying double
'best of' album. The band had been together five years, selling close to 20
million albums and 10-15 million singles. Andrew
released a badly received rock-influenced solo album, 'Son Of Albert'
in 1990 and quickly retreated to his rally driving hobby.
George began a permanent solo career which
has gone on to eclipse the Wham!
legacy...
It's
Pepsi & Shirlie!
Helen 'Pepsi' DeMacque (born 10 December 1958, in Paddington,
London) and Shirley 'Shirlie' Holliman
(born 18 April 1962, in Watford, Hertfordshire) had been backing vocalists
and dancers with Wham!. They were to
Wham! what Susan
and Joanne are to
Human League. Holliman's
original singing partner was actually Dee C. Lee.
She left the group after July 1983's 'Club Tropicana' single (speedo-tastic
video
Diane
Sealey, better know as Dee C. Lee,
was a model and a backing vocalist/dancer in pop group
Wham!. She left the group to try her hand at being
a solo star in 1983. Her debut single was 1983's 'Selina Wow Wow',
a poppy track we've posted before, which was a resounding flop. More flop
pop singles followed, including 'Yippee Yi Yay!' and
'Baby Don't Do It' in 1984, but without any success,
Dee took permanent residence as part of the
line up in Paul Weller's new outfit
The Style Council instead.
Dee can be heard on 'Headstart For
Happiness', 'It Didn't Matter', 'The Lodgers',
'Walls Come Tumbling Down' and 'Shout To The Top'
from The Style Council's back catalogue.
Dee can also be heard on 80s jazz pop
outfit Animal Nightlife's releases
between 1983-85, who were signed to the Inner Vision label along side
Wham!. She was married to
Weller (now divorced) around this time and
they have two children, Nathaniel and Leah. Now with new found confidence,
Dee C. Lee re-launched her solo career,
this time going for a smoother, more soulful sound, with the top 3 hit
'See The Day' in 1985 (covered by Girls
Aloud twenty years later, in 2005). The next few singles,
'Come Hell Or Waters High', 'Hey What'd Ya Say?' and
'Hold On' (
Fronted by
handsome Scottish lead singer/songwriter Dr.
Robert (real name Bruce Robert Howard),
The Blow Monkeys formed in 1981 upon
Howard's return to the UK after
spending his teenage years in Australia. The group's unusual name coming from
an offensive term used in Australia, referring to the didgeridoo-playing
Aboriginals. In 1984, the group released their debut album, 'Limping For
A
Generation', but their first breakthrough hit was in 1986 with
smooth jazz-pop classic, 'Digging Your Scene' (from
their second album, 'Animal Magic'). The single reached number
12 in the UK singles chart. In 1987, 'She Was Only A Grocer's
Daughter', the band's third album was released.
Howard's obsessive public dislike of
then-Prime Minister Margret Thatcher was
present in the album's title and many of the tracks ('Out With Her',
'(Celebrate) The Day After You'). The album's biggest hit,
'It
Doesn’t Have To Be This Way', was also a succinct political
statement and reached the top ten in the UK. The same year, a camp cover
version, 'You Don't Own Me' (originally by
Lesley Gore) was contributed to the platinum-selling
'Dirty Dancing' soundtrack. Meanwhile, a growing interest in
dance music saw a new direction to later material, including the singles
'Choice?' and 'Slaves No More'. This track is the
original version of 'This Is Your Life', taken from their
fourth album, 'Whoops! There Goes The Neighbourhood'. The
single was remixed and re-released in 1989 -
Renowned
dance diva Kym Mazelle grew up just
around the corner from one of pop music's reigning dynasties,
The Jacksons, whom she played with in the
neighbourhood. Mazelle sought to become
a singing star herself, initially by studying Opera at the Mundelein college
of music in Chicago, Illinois. Attempts to impose equal discipline upon the
spirit as it does upon the voice, Mazelle
quickly realized that her fun approach to performing would have
to take her on a very different path to singing success. She met up with
producer Marshall Jefferson and the two
formed a collaboration that resulted in the Mazelle's
first two singles, 'Taste My Love' and 'I'm A Lover',
which were big club hits in 1988. Her third release, 'Useless (I Don't
Need You Now)', was rewarded with chart recognition here in the UK.
Teaming up with The Blow Monkeys frontman
Robert Howard (AKA
Dr. Robert),
Mazelle recorded 'Wait', reaching number 7 in the
UK singles chart. This is the 12" version. After touring Europe performing
backing vocals for Ten City,
Kym released two further solo efforts,
'Got To Get You Back' and 'Love Strain', which
appeared on her debut album, 'Crazy', in 1989. The 1990's saw
many collaborations with top dance producers including
Soul II Soul, C+C Music Factory,
Steve Hurly and
David Morales, all of which helped to establish
Mazelle as a global dance diva. 1994 saw
the release of a pair of campy dance hits, with the aid of old friend and
fellow diva, Jocelyn Brown -
Barbra Streisand and
Donna Summer's 'No More Tears
(Enough Is Enough)' and ZZ Top's
'Gimme All Your Lovin'. Mazelle
was also featured on the highly successful soundtrack to
Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film, 'William
Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet', with another cover version, this time
Candi Staton's 'Young Hearts Run
Free'. In 2005, she participated in the UK version of the reality TV
show, 'Celebrity Fit Club', where she lost 1 stone and 10
pounds during the course of the programme. Still recording and performing
today, Kym Mazelle has established
herself as the first lady of Chicago House and among the cream of disco
divas alongside Gloria Gaynor,
Sylvester and
Loleatta Holloway.
Easyworld
were an indie rock trio from Eastbourne, consisting of
Dav Ford on vocals, guitar and piano,
Jo Taylor on bass and
Glenn Hooper on drums. The band achieved
limited prominence on the indie scene in the early 2000s, releasing a mini
album, 'Better Ways to Self Destruct', on Fierce Panda
in 2001, and a full length follow-up on major label Jive Records in
2002. The group's second and ultimately their last album, 'Kill The
Last Romantic', was released in February 2004. The album showcased a
more mellow, piano-led sound than on previous releases and housed the
singles '2nd Amendment' and 'Til The Day' (their
most successful charting at 27). The album lacked both the critical acclaim
afforded to their debut ('This Is Where I Stand') and the
commercial success anticipated by the Sony/BMG (owners of the
Jive imprint). As a result, the label requested a third single should
be a new offering, as there were no other 'hits' on the album they deemed
suitable for release. This led to the release of the band's final single,
'How Did It Ever Come to This?', and one of the B-sides was this,
a great cover of Candi Staton's disco
hit, 'Young Hearts Run Free'. The track was also recorded by
Kym Mazelle for the soundtrack to 1996's
'Romeo + Juliet'. The pressure from their record company
brought about a split in 2004 and the group played their last public
performance on the second day of 2004's V Festival in Staffordshire.
Ford went on to release a solo album in
2006.
The
Cardigans are a Swedish band formed in the town of Jönköping in
1992 by former heavy metal musicians Peter Svensson
and Magnus Sveningsson. Adding drummer
Bengt Lagerberg, keyboardist
Lars-Olof Johansson and lead singer
Nina Persson, the band's musical style has
varied from album to album, their early material inspired by twee '60s pop
mostly. Debut album 'Emmerdale' landed in 1994 gave them a
solid fan base in their home country and enjoyed some success abroad,
especially in Japan. Their breakthrough came with second album 'Life',
in 1995, which made an impact on international audiences, critics responding
with rave reviews. The U.K. version was actually a compilation of tracks
from both 'Life' and 'Emmerdale' and included
their top 40 hit, 'Carnival'. This version is a striped down
acoustic take, from the 'Sick & Tired' CD single. The band is
perhaps best known for their later international hits, like 'Lovefool'
(included on the soundtrack of 'William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet'
by director Baz Luhrmann),
'Erase/Rewind' and 'My Favourite Game'. During the
break that followed fourth album, 1998's 'Gran Turismo',
Nina released an album as
A Camp and The
Cardigans recorded a cover of Talking
Heads' 'Burning Down The House', with
Tom Jones. The
Cardigans returned in 2003 with 'Long Gone Before Daylight',
a quieter, more mellow collection of songs mainly written by
Persson and Svensson. It
became one of the best selling albums in Sweden in 2003, with sales over
120, 000 (2x platinum). Sixth album, 'Super Extra Gravity',
was released to major critical acclaim in 2006 and went straight to the top
spot on the Swedish album chart. It has so far been certified gold, with
sales over 40,000! The recording of the band's seventh album is scheduled to
take place in 2008 and Persson has
announced work has begun on a new A Camp
album.
In
1998, Marie,
Amit, Dhani and
Sara were musically united as the
ABBA Teens. However, at the request of
Björn Ulvaeus and
Benny Andersson, of the legendary Swedish group
ABBA, the group's name was changed to
A*Teens to avoid further dispute. This change came in handy when
the group strayed from ABBA covers and
released their own original songs. It has been reported that the band had
sold 5 million albums worldwide, although the group's U.K. releases were
delayed due to the failure of their debut album, 'ABBA Generation',
here. When 'Upside Down' (appearing here in it's camped-up
Almighty mix form) was released here in
May 2001, it gave them their one and only U.K. top ten hit. The next single,
'Half Way Around The World', and album, 'Teen Spirit',
were both delayed and not released until late October. As a result, the
single barely made the top thirty and the album did not chart in the top 75.
After six successful years in their native Stockholm, Sweden, the band
announced they would take a break in 2004 and released their 'Greatest
Hits' album, with each track from it being a top 20 hit in at least
one country around the world. The split of the band hasn't been officially
announced so there may well be more to come from
A*Teens, despite them no longer being teens, but the band members
have all started to pursue solo careers anyway...
Army
of Lovers were the brainchild of eccentric composer and producer
Alexander Bard. Formed in 1987,
Bard had already experimented with the
short-lived trio Baard (one single,
'Life in a Goldfish Bowl', from 1985) and
Barbie, his drag popstar persona which built up an entourage
which included hairdresser Jean-Pierre Barda
(alias Farouk),
Yazmina Chantal and model
Camilla Henemark (alias
Katanga). Babrie
issued 4 singles and an album (now impossible to track down). Mutating into
Army Of Lovers, the group, armed with
designer and stylist Camilla Thulin,
created an outrageously campy image, their wardrobe drawing heavily on
religious imagery, history and folklore. 1988 saw their debut single,
'When The Night Is Cold' released, followed by the more
dance-orientated 'Love Me Like a Loaded Gun'. After scoring a
1989 hit in Sweden with 'Supernatural', the following year
they issued their debut album, 'Disco Extravaganza'. 1991's
'Massive Luxury Overdose', however, was their breakthrough album.
Promoted with a pair of lurid videos for the singles, 'Crucified'
(
Camilla
Henemark is better known as La
Camilla, member of flamboyant day-glo Euro-poppers
Army Of Lovers. She was born in
Stockholm, to a white Swedish mother and a black Nigerian father. She
started a successful modelling career when she was a teen and later had
her own modelling agency. Her career in music began when she joined
friend Alexander Bard in his insane
Barbie drag-pop
project, using the name Katanga.
As Barbie evolved into
Army Of Lovers, recruiting
hairdresser-turned-vocalist Jean-Pierre Barda
along the way, La Camilla became the
face of the group. After two albums, 1990's 'Disco Extravaganza'
(AKA 'Army Of Lovers' in the US) and 'Massive Luxury Overdose'
in 1991, Camilla had several public fights and a massive falling out
with the other two lovers, leading to her getting fired/leaving to begin
a solo career. She released several singles ('Everytime You Lie'
(
Johan
Renck is a Swedish musician, photographer, painter and music
video director. He makes dance records with his band
Stakka Bo that fuse hip-hop with
house and pop, sort've like a Swedish Stereo
MCs if you will. You might remember Stakka Bo were responsible for one of the 90s best singles,
'Here We Go' (
Titiyo
Jah is the daughter of jazz trumpeter
Don Cherry and so her siblings are Neneh
and Eagle-Eye Cherry. She grew up in Solna, Sweden and like the
rest of her family, she was destined for a musical career.
Titiyo discovered her own singing
abilities when Neneh invited her
younger sister to sing along on sessions for her debut album with her at
a studio in London. No further training required it seemed as by 1989,
Titiyo had her first hit in the
Swedish charts with her single 'Man In The Moon'.
Apparently the first ever soul record to become a hit there,
Titiyo became one of the first
successful black singers in Sweden. Back in the UK, she charted with
three singles in total; 'After The Rain' (60) and 'Flowers'
(71) in 1989 and 'Tell Me (I'm Not Dreaming)'
(45) released in 1994. Pretty much a non-event in the UK, I find this
cute pop track, produced by S'Express
member Mark Saunders, and
it's accompanying artwork, suspiciously similar to that of her sisters
at the time, don't you? Anyway, even in Sweden her success was
short-lived, decreasing towards the end of the nineties. She had a
daughter, Femi, in 1992 with her now ex-boyfriend and producer of all
her albums, Magnus Frykberg.
Neneh
Marianne Karlsson Cherry began performing after dropping out of
school aged 14 and moving to London, where she joined the punk rock band
The Cherries. She worked her way through
several bands, including New Age Steppers,
Rip, Rig & Panic (briefly marrying
drummer Bruce Smith in 1984) and
The Slits, whose singer
Ari-Up became a close friend and house mate. She met up with
Burt Ford (popstar aliases
Cameron McVey and Booga Bear) in 1985 and turned up singing on the B-side of his
single, 'Looking Good Diving' (credited to
Morgan McVey) in 1986. This recording would
later morph into her first smash hit single, 'Buffalo Stance' in 1988. Her debut album 'Raw Like Sushi' was a critical and
commercial success, earning her the outrageous tag 'the black
Madonna'. A run of hit singles between
1988-1990 (including 'Manchild', 'Kisses On The Wind',
'Inna City Mama' and her dramatic reworking of the
Cole Porter song, 'I've Got You
Under My Skin' for the 'Red, Hot + Blue' AIDS
fundraising album) kept her profile high in the media eye. She was then
absent from the music scene for almost two years after being diagnosed as
suffering from Lyme disease, which kept her out of action until 1992. 'Homebrew', her second solo offering, coming 4 years after her
debut, was proceeded by the single 'Money Love'. Not as
commercially successful as its predecessor, it never the less brought
Cherry great critical acclaim and
'Buddy X', the second single lifted from it, found some success on
the dance chart. Guests on the album included
R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and a
contribution from Gang Starr. 'Seven Seconds' saw
Neneh collaborating with
Youssou N'Dour and
was a huge international hit in 1994, staying in the charts for almost 6
months. This was followed up with 'Love Can Build A Bridge',
an unlikely collaboration with Chrissie Hynde
and Cher for 1995's Comic Relief single. A long solo drought ended with 1996's
'Man' album,
featuring 'Woman', one of her finest moments which sampled
James Brown's classic 'It's A Man
Man Man's World'. and returned her to the UK top 10. Since then,
Neneh has divided her time between
numerous side projects and collaborations with other artists, of particular
note are recordings with brother Eagle-Eye Cherry,
Gorillaz, Groove Armada and
Speech. Neneh is currently part of musical troupe
CirKus (
Morgan
McVey were a pop duo comprising of musician Cameron McVey (AKA
Booga Bear)
and singer Jaime J. Morgan. Their sole
release, the single 'Looking Good Diving' in 1986, is rather
interesting if you turn it over and play it's B-side. Produced by
Stock, Aitken & Waterman, 'Looking
Good Diving (With The Wild Bunch)' on the flip features
Neneh Cherry and as the title suggests, is
an early embryonic version of Cherry's huge
number 3 hit, 'Buffalo Stance', from 1988, some 3 years after it's
appearance here. Cameron was actually
Neneh's then-boyfriend and eventually became
her husband, the pair meeting up initially en route to Japan whilst fashion
models as part of London Designer Ray Petri's
'Buffalo Posse'. The couple now have two children together and are
both member of music collective Cirkus.
Under the alias Booga Bear,
Cameron wrote much of the material that would comprise
Neneh's 'Raw Like Sushi' debut
album from 1988. The new version of 'Looking Good Diving', now
titled 'Buffalo Stance', was redone by Tim Simenon ("Bomb The Bass - rock this place!") who stripped
away the heavy SAW production and brought a
funky freshness to the track. The lyrics, "Looking good, hanging with the
Wild Bunch", are a reference to the collective of DJs and engineers from
1980s Bristol, out of which came Massive Attack
and other characters synonymous with the Trip-Hop scene.
Cherry employed Mushroom from
Massive Attack to appear in the video for
the 'Buffalo Stance' single and he also turned up miming the ad
libs on her legendary performance on 'Top Of The Pops'...
Cherry was 8 months pregnant at the time -
sorry, I can't find a video clip! : ( She actually gave birth while
Shara Nelson was recording the vocals for
Massive Attack's seminal 'Blue Lines'
album in the same house. Cameron McVey
later went on to produce pop acts like All Saints
and Sugababes and was even
Massive Attack's manager in their early
days. Trivia! 'Looking Good Diving' was recorded and released as a
single by male model Nick Kamen in 1992.
Nicholas
Ivor Kamen, AKA Nick Kamen, is a British male model, songwriter and musician
from Harlow, Essex. He is of course most famous for his 1985 pretty-boy
performance in the Levi's TV ad where he strips off so he can wash his jeans in
a laundrette, waiting in nothing but his tiny white boxer shorts.
'Aint No Big Deal'
is an old
Madonna track produced by
Reggie Lucas. It dates back to 1981 when it was
first demoed along
with early tracks like 'Everybody', 'Burning Up' and 'Stay'. It first surfaced
as the B-side to 'Dress You Up' over in Japan in 1985. It was not officially
released in the UK until 1986, a year later, when it was issued as the
B-side to 'Papa Don't Preach' due to high demand for the Japanese import. In the USA, it
was given a home on the B-side of 'True Blue'. It is by no means a career
highlight but serves as interesting listening. It's quite an amateurish, cute,
soft-pop soul track, not in keeping with anything from the 'Madonna/The First
Album'-era material from 1981-3 and one of the few surviving tracks to document
the move from the shambolic rock sound of Emmy/The Breakfast Club to
Madonna the solo star.
It's also an oddity in that Madonna very rarely treats us with anything
approaching a B-side. It wasn't until 1989's 'Cherish' that we got another
B-side, 'Supernatural', and the few which followed this are 'Let Down Your Guard' ('Secret'),
'Has To Be' ('Ray Of Light'), 'Cyberragga'
('Music')
and 'History' ('Jump'). Three other versions of 'Aint No Big Deal'
have since appeared
on 'Pre-Madonna', a 1997 compilation of old New York City demos originally from
around 1981. The set features an '81 Demo' and two new remixes,
'97 Edit' and '97 Extended', both mixed by
Stephen Bray who oversaw the release. It's now quite a rare find. The
original version posted here is still easily obtained on the German 1990's CD re-issue of
the 'Papa Don't Preach' CD single
John 'Jellybean' Benitez
is a
drummer, guitarist, songwriter, DJ, remixer and music producer of Puerto Rican
descent. He is known for producing the first hits of, and his two year
relationship with, Madonna. Born in New York
City, he grew up with a passion for listening
to music, usually playing his older sister Debbie's record collection. Debbie nicknamed
him Jellybean because he was always eating the
candy of the same name. Dropping out of
high school to pursue his love of music by DJ-ing, Benitez started to remix
singles for other artists. Stephen Bray, then of the group
The Breakfast Club, approached
Benitez for a remix. This led to an important introduction
between John and
Bray's band mate at the time,
Madonna. A romantic relationship developed between
the two (Madge surely sniffing a possible
early step up on her career ladder) and Benitez became involved with producing and remixing a bunch of
tracks on Madonna's debut album in 1983, including
'Everybody', 'Physical
Attraction', 'Borderline', 'Lucky Star' and
'Holiday'. Around this time, Benitez
and Madonna
collaborated on 'Sidewalk Talk', a track written by
Madonna
which
features her on vocals (predominantly in the chorus). The track was issued as a
single in 1984, credited to Jellybean
but
carrying the words 'Written By Madonna'
on the sleeve, and was quite the underground club hit. Now
working on his own stuff, John
released a follow up single ('The Mexican') and a
mini album called 'Wotupski!?!' at the end of 1984. Now a much in demand
producer and remixer, he worked with everyone from
Debbie Harry to
Fleetwood Mac
to
Talking
Heads and several successful film soundtracks ('Flashdance',
'Footloose', 'Top Gun'). In 1987 he finally found the time to continue his own
next project which took
the shape of the 'Just Visiting The Planet' album, a set of dance-pop
productions with guest vocalists including Adele Bertei,
Steven Dante and
Elisa Fiorillo.
'Jingo', 'Just A Mirage', 'Who Found Who' and 'The Real Thing'
were all big hits in the clubs and the single charts. A companion
release, a double
album of 12" remixes called 'Rocks The House' was issued to
capitalise on the success
the following year. For this LP, a new track was recorded, 'Coming Back
For More', featuring Living In A Box
vocalist Richard Darbishire, which
was a further hit. Jellybean's next album,
1991's 'Spillin' The Beans', (featuring, amongst others,
Niki Harris) was less successful and his activity
wound down into the mid-1990s. His early tracks still do the rounds on
electro/hip hop 80's compilation CDs, where he's considered an important figure.
A much better biography over
German-born
Adele Marie Bertei is a
New York-based musician and singer. She was the keyboardist in
The Contortions,
a prominent band caught up in the short-lived but influential 'No Wave' music and art
scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their contemporaries
included DNA, Lydia Lunch,
Mars and Suicide amongst others. Working with
Thomas
Dolby on her debut solo venture,
Adele had herself a disco hit with
'Build Me A
Bridge' in 1983. It sounds like it might have been right at home on the
dance floor of New York's Danceteria club or even
Madonna's first album. It is often
sited as one of the first house records, too. She eventually followed this track up in 1985
with synth-pop effort 'When It's Over', this time helped out by
Scritti
Politti main man and friend
Green Garside, who offered backing vocal support. Things went
quiet again until 1987, when Madonna's ex-boyfriend and in demand DJ/Remixer
John 'Jellybean' Benitez hooked up with
Bertei for his 'Just A Mirage'
dance-pop
single. 1988 saw this followed by a solo debut album release, 'Little Lives', which
introduced a more grown up and sophisticated Adele
(and didn't feature her previous recordings). Spawning just one single, 'Little
Lives, Big Love', the album barely caused a ripple and she quickly dropped off the radar
for a few years. Since then, Adele
has teamed up with
Arthur Baker ('Kiss The
Ground (You Walk On)' in 1991) and Junior Vazquez
('Zami Girl' in 1994). Adele
then formed
experimental rock jazz outfit The Anubian Lights in 1995. They eventually teamed
up with old 'No Wave' peer and femme fatale Lydia Lunch
for the exotic 'Champagne
, Cocaine & Nicotine Stains' EP (highly recommended) in 2002 and are still working together today.
A brief surprise live reunion with The Contortions
also took place in 2001. Trivia! Turning her hand to acting occasionally,
Adele Bertei can be seen playing a
prisoner in 'Desperately Seeking Susan' along side
Madonna and
Rosanne Arquette.
Another one man band,
Scritti
Politti is primarily a musical vehicle for singer-songwriter
Green Gartside (real name
Paul Julian Strohmeyer). Born 22nd June 1955 in Cardiff, Wales,
Green formed
Scritti Politti as a left-wing-inspired post-punk group but developed
into a more mainstream pop music project in the 1980s. Early DIY singles ('Bibbly-O-Tek',
'Doubt Beat', 'OPEC/Immac', 'Hegemony' - collected on
Roddy Frame
is, to all intents and purposes, Aztec
Camera. There have been various band line-ups but
Roddy is the only constant member as chief
guitarist/vocalist/singer-songwriter. Originally lumped in with the post-punk
movement, Aztec Camera's music was always
more of a an acoustic pop affair. Postcard Records gave the band their
debut release in March 1981, the 'Just Like Gold' single, backed
with 'We Could Send Letters'. An
acoustic version of the latter appeared on the influential 'C81' compilation
cassette, given away free with the 'NME' in early 1981, which also featured
The Buzzcocks,
Josef K and
Scritti Politti. A second Postcard single, 'Mattress Of
Wire' followed and the band moved to the Rough Trade label for
Aztec Camera's
classic debut album, 'High Land, Hard Rain', released in April 1983. The album was very
successful, critically acclaimed for its fine tunesmithery and buoyant indie-pop.
Lead single 'Oblivious' is a fine example of the album's strength
(
Scottish musician
Edwyn Collins
(born in Edinburgh, August 23 1959) originally fronted
Orange Juice (previously
Nu-Sonics) who formed in 1976 and released several successful
independent singles on Glasgow's legendary Postcard Records. Best known for the
hit 'Rip It Up', their only UK Top 40 single reaching number 8 in 1983,
Orange
Juice disbanded in 1985. Since then, Collins
has pursued a solo career, the peak
of which is undeniably his 1995 hit single, 'A Girl Like You', which was
featured in the films 'Empire Records' and later 'Charlie's Angels: Full
Throttle'. Another of his releases, the retro flavoured 1997 single
'Magic Piper
Of Love', featured on the soundtrack of 'Austin Powers: International Man of
Mystery'. His third solo album, 'Gorgeous George', was recorded in his own home
built studio in London and was released on Setanta Records to great critical reception in
1994. One of the tracks, 'Out Of This World', was given the remix treatment by
Saint Etienne and featured as a B-side to the original
'A Girl Like You' single
release. Edwyn had previously accompanied the band on their
'Sushi Rider' track
the same year. The remix is actually based around a then-unreleased
Saint Etienne track called 'Suburban
Autumn Lieutenant', which eventually turned up on a fan club CD in 1999.
Edwyn's other credits include work as a producer with artists
including The Proclaimers,
A House, The Cribs
and Little Barrie.
Collins lives with his long term girlfriend,
Grace, who is also his manager and they
have one son together. In a BBC 6 radio interview on February 18 2005,
Collins stated he felt unwell, but passed
the nausea and vertigo off as food
poisoning. Two days later, he was admitted to intensive care in London's Royal
Free Hospital after suffering a major brain haemorrhage. On February 25, he
underwent an operation, reportedly after suffering a second haemorrhage. The
operation was a success and Edwyn is currently undergoing a programme of
neurological rehabilitation. Get well soon, Edwyn!
The Divine
Comedy is pretty much a pseudonym for one man band and foppish dandy
Neil Hannon, although several other
members/line-ups have come and gone over the years. The band first appeared in
1990 on Setanta Records and are still a going concern, now onto their
10th long player, 'Victory For The Comic Muse' on Parlophone.
It's from this last album, released in 2006, that we pluck 'Party Fears
Two', a pleasant and faithful re-reading of The
Associates hit. A degree of critical acclaim has always been
awarded to the band for their classical and literary references and influences
but commercial success has been more fickle. Early efforts were largely
over-looked in the UK and it wasn't until 'Casanova' in 1996, and
in particular the single 'Something For The Weekend', that the
band had any major success. At around the same time, Hannon also wrote and performed the theme music for the
Channel 4
sitcom 'Father Ted' as well as the song used for the silly
mock-Eurovision entry, 'My Lovely Horse' for one episode (
Dropping
The Associates tag in 1990,
Billy MacKenzie continued to record and perform under his own name. 1992 brought
a brace of singles (this is the B-side to 'Colours Will Come') and a polished 'debut' album,
'Outernational', which found him in the company of
Boris Blank (Yello)
and Pascal Gabriel. Even though the album
garnered favourable reviews in the press and single 'Baby' (
Billy
MacKenzie and Alan Rankine were
synth-pop duo The Associates. They met and
formed in Dundee, Scotland, in 1976 and began their career with a quickly
executed, self-financed single, a cover of 'Boys Keep Swinging'.
David Bowie had only just released his
original a few weeks prior! By 1980 they were touring with
The Cure and secured a deal with Fiction Records, resulting
in debut album, 'The Affectionate Punch'. Moving to the Situation 2
label, a string of singles quickly followed ('Fourth
Drawer Down', a second LP, gathered those), funded unknowingly by a few
major labels who thought they were paying for demos. Coke and speed made sure
each subsequent release became increasingly deranged and experimental.
The Associates signed with
WEA in
1982 where Billy and
Alan immediately scored a string of UK top 20
hit singles. The classic album 'Sulk' made the UK top 10, winning
album of the year awards in the UK music press and containing their big hit and
signature tune, 'Party Fears Two'. The group's drug use was at a
peak by now and the pair's behaviour was becoming somewhat erratic. On the eve
of their biggest ever UK tour MacKenzie
pulled out, loosing them a US deal with Island Records as a result.
Deciding that he couldn't sustain the lifestyle, Rankine
left the group. From hereon in, The
Associates were Billy MacKenzie solo, with different 'associates' for each release. 1984's
'Perhaps' album cost WEA £250,000, taking 3 years and 4 production teams to
record (twice!). The album floundered upon release and Billy
grew frustrated with WEA's lack of support, while they
in turn put the pressure on him to produce something more commercial. 1988's
comeback single, a glorious pop cover of Blondie's
'Heart Of Glass', failed to chart and WEA refused to release the
forthcoming album, 'The Glamour Chase'. With
MacKenzie over a million pounds in debt to the label,
The Associates were dropped. Circa quickly signed
MacKenzie
and in 1990
released 'Wild And Lonely', the last album of original music under
the The Associates
name.... 'Breakfast', originally a
Martin Rushent-produced
single released in 1984, appears here in a unique version only found on the
'Heart Of Glass' 3" CD single from 1988. It's longer by about 1 minute
and is essentially a mixture of the original A-side and it's B-side, 'Breakfast Alone', which was an instrumental version.