vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 18, 2010 14:46:18 GMT 1
Souled Out (9 May 1992)
You know that intensely annoying tune belted out by the thousands watching the darts on Sky? "Chase The Sun" by Planet Funk? Top five in 2001? Well, the same people were behind Souled Out, amazingly enough. Three Naples-based producers, Sergio Della Monica, Alexandro Sommella and GG Canu. They became Planet Funk after Marco Baroni joined, but originally they were a production-based trio with credits for working with Dee Lewis and later Karen Ramirez before turning into PF. Self-titled compilation album, with new tracks, out now. Be still my heart.
The main element of this track however was Sarah Warwick, who provided the Stansfieldesque vocals. Warwick was also the vocalist for the other Souled Out Eurohit "Shine On", but she was soon snapped up by Almighty Records and had a number of solo hits, including a top twenty with a Dolly Parton cover. Search in vain for that name, though; as a soloist she evidently thought Warwick was not a large or famous enough town, so she was billed as Sarah Washington. Reverted back to the Warwick name, she now operates as a "sound healer" under the Lifesong banner. Her self-composed album "Pure Love" is available.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 18, 2010 16:56:45 GMT 1
Stop The Violence Movement (18 February 1989)
In 1984, Kris Parker, drop-out, street survivor, graffiti artist using the tag KRS-One and occasional marijuana dealer from South Bronx - a location known as Boogie Down in street parlance - met a social worker in a homeless shelter in the Bronx. Scott Sterling however was not the average social worker; in his spare time was Scott La Rock, resident DJ at Club Broadway International. He had attended some of the earliest hip-hop block parties with the likes of DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaata as a boy and had DJ'd throughout school and university.
Sterling decided to try to use Parker's nascent interest in the hip-hop scene to put him on the straight and narrow and invited him to freestyle at the club. Impressed, Sterling formed a rap group, the Celebrity Three, with KRS-One, and when the other members left they became Boogie Down Productions. Their first album two years later, "Criminal Minded", hip-hop influenced by dancehall (KRS' father was from Trinidad), was a critical success - still rated one of the best hip-hop albums of all time - but that success was double-edged. Angered at claims from other rappers such as Marley Marl that hip-hop originated in Queensbridge, BDP directly attacked such claims in songs like "The Bridge Is Over". With a very gangsta cover, it sparked a violent reaction from the Bridge crews.
BDP post-release was aided by a shifting roster of assistants, including human beatbox D-Nice, who soon became involved in a violent feud with his girlfriend's ex. La Rock decided to mediate and drove with D-Nice and some other associates to the Highbridge Projects to meet with Nice's tormentors. Before the car even stopped, he was shot. He was taken to hospital, less than a mile away, but died under the knife.
Not long afterwards a fan was killed at a BDP concert. KRS-One decided that violence in hip-hop had gone too far and he got together a Band Aidesque group of many of the great and good in the East Coast world for a charity record. Stop The Violence Movement featured BDP, Stetsasonic, Kool Moe Dee, MC Lyte, Doug E Fresh, Just-Ice (a former bouncer and murder suspect, the only one who never made the singles charts outside this song, although Kool Moe Dee only did so as a guest with Will Smith), Heavy D, and the biggest names of all, Chuck D and Flavor Flav. You can judge just how successful it was...
KRS-One assembled a similar set of names last year to update the campaign. His feud with Marley Marl was buried as a result of the violence and the two even worked together on KRS-One's album "Hip Hop Lives" in 2007.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 20, 2010 8:29:56 GMT 1
Sunship featuring MC RB (1 April 2000)
Hey, guess what? It's a bleepy electro housey DJ thing from someone who has had lots of singles and mixes but only one chart hit. Albeit another one of those acts that's here as a combo, as both have had chart hits elsewhere.
Sunship is Ceri Evans, who has been releasing material since 1991, although he is most known for his work as a remixer and producer (Misteeq, Naughty By Nature &c). Evans won a MOBO for the "Sunship" album released in 1997 and a fortnight after his one chart occupation under his own pseudonym, Sunship occupied the top two positions in the charts; as a remixer for Craig David's "Fill Me In" and producer for SFA's "Flowers". Still of course active as DJ and remixer; most recent famous track is probably Cheryl Cole's "Fight For This Love".
MC RB is Ricky Benjamin, a mathematics graduate from Brunel University, who, inspired by a DJing uncle, became an MC at age 18. Introduced to Evans by Sunship collaborator Chunky, this song proved to be RB's break into the garage mainstream and got him a radio show, although most of his work seems to have been in collaboration with others, such as C4, Soozy Q and his sister Louise. His only other chart appearance came a couple of years later, with garagistes Just 4 Jokes (who featured MC DT of Masters of Ceremony - the ones who had the hit with DJ Pied Piper), and that only just made the top 70, but even so he properly does not belong here. Still seems to be MCing but is without a label.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 20, 2010 14:05:41 GMT 1
Nearly there now...just a couple more.
Terry, Blair & Anouchka (11 November 1989)
So perhaps fitting that we (almost) finish off with the most successful UK chart act in the list. Terry is Terry Hall of the Specials; two number one hits, a run of seven consecutive top tens, and one of the few people to have hits as a soloist, part of a duo (Vegas, with David A Stewart) and trio (Fun Boy Three and The Colourfield as well as this act). OK, Paul McCartney can match that, and go better as part of a quartet and quintet, but not a sextet (Dub Pistols/FB3 with Bananarama) and septet (Specials).
Blair is Blair Booth, a Nevada native who came to Britain in 1981, and formed the band The Rest Is History; one of her songs for the group ("Heaven Knows") was covered by Robert Plant in 1988 and turned into a top forty hit. Hall was looking for a female collaborator after The Colourfield had split and he had been impressed by Booth's arrangements. After TBA broke up, Booth had chart success elsewhere; in 1993 she reached the top twenty as part of Oui 3, at the same time as she was a fully-fledged member of The Associates; the Oui 3 song "For What It's Worth" would have gone top ten had their label not misunderstood the chart rules and pressed an ineligible CD single, that garnered the majority of sales. Currently runs Peach Productions, which concentrates mainly on film and advert music.
Anouchka is the only real 75 clubber; Anouchka Grose, Australian-born, and currently a psychotherapist and authoress - her debut novel "No More Silly Love Songs: A Realist's Guide to Romance" was released in February. She met Terry Hall via a fortuitous route. In her late teens she earned spare cash as a Kensington hairdresser's model, the hairdresser happened to cut Terry Hall's hair, and mentioned to Grose that Hall was looking for a female guitarist. She applied and got the gig. After TBA broke up she studied art at Goldsmith's and thence psychotherapy.
TBA came very close to making the chart again - the sublime follow-up and almost-album-title-track "Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme" peaked at 77. Shame that if one track with Jerry Sadowitz in the video had to be number one, it wasn't that one...
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 20, 2010 18:44:23 GMT 1
And finally... Niels Van Gogh (10 April 1999) Austin Healey and DS decapotable. Niiiice. Better than the tune, which is, guess what?, bleepy techno stuff. This song was the Augsburg (yes, he's German, not Dutch; his real name is Niels Eiterer) DJ's second vinyl effort, after five years of spinning the tables at various venues throughout Germany (including at Berlin's Love Parade), and immediately had a hit on his hands, reaching the top twenty in Germany, France, the Netherlands and South Africa. He has been a prolific issuer of 12"s, including remixing "Pulvertum" three times (most recently last year, twice in collaboration with Eniac, the producer behind Tomcraft), and has already released three singles under his own name and produced five remixes in 2010 alone. Just two albums though and not a sniff of a follow-up hit in Britain. So, there you go. E&OE, that is your 75 Club. Who will be the next to join? Will anybody get to leave? Keep 'em peeled.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 21, 2010 14:08:51 GMT 1
OK, some statistics.
The chart became a top 75 on 13 May 1978. It took a full two years for an act to peak at 75, and even then it was for two weeks. The first act to peak at 75 for one week was Angel Witch on 7 June 1980. The initial 104 week gap is longest wait for a 75er.
The longest between 75ers is 94 weeks, between Dayton (10 December 1982) and Michael Lovesmith (28 September 1985); the shortest is 1 week, between Jhelisa (1 July 1995) and Kreuz (8 July 1995). Not likely to get any shorter...we need a joint pair of 75s to beat that. Three weeks later Depth Charge joined the club, making three in one month - also a record.
Since 1980, the only years lacking a 75 club member are 1981, 1984 and 1997, although the last five years have had one each and are susceptible to change. Only one year has had more than four - 2002, with Cenigonerz, Ils, 4Vini, Goldfinger and Mr Scruff.
Although July 1995 had three members, only one other has joined in July; the commonest month for 75ers is June, which has nine. The only members joining in October are Fish & Tony Banks, and given their success outside that duo then the tenth month is the most un75ish one. Probably a fluke, September and November have seven each.
Of the 64 acts, 31 of the acts are groups, if you include Simone in that number; on top of that there are two "one man" groups (Baby June and International Airport). There are 4 duos, two both male, one mixed and one female. There are ten solo vocalists split evenly between the sexes, and 16 are DJ acts. The remaining act is a medley.
As far as nationalities go, 30 are British and 19 American. There are two Anglo-American acts (including Calibre Cuts, a British cut-up of American artists), and one Anglo-Australo-American. Three other acts are part-British, the other part being Italian, Canadian and South African. Germany is represented by two acts and Australia, Brazil, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland by one each.
64 acts in 1,666 weeks. A neat average of one every 26 weeks. Two per year. We are therefore due another one around the last week in August...
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Post by ManicKangaroo on Apr 22, 2010 20:34:57 GMT 1
Nearly there now...just a couple more. Terry, Blair & Anouchka (11 November 1989) Great track from a great album but the video embedding is disabled
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 23, 2010 9:40:28 GMT 1
OK, there's a bit of it here:
A kids' TV show, which featured on it Status Quo, The Beloved Transvision Vamp. You wouldn't see them on telly nowadays at all...
The video for "Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme" used to be on youtube, it seems to be awol now, unfortunately. I think that's an even better song.
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Post by blondini on Jul 22, 2015 17:46:03 GMT 1
The Bellrays had some good stuff. "Campag Velocet (19 February 2000) Another band influenced by A Clockwork Orange, to the extent that, like Heaven 17, Moloko, The Droogs, Devotchka and Korova Records, they took their name from the book. They went further as their debut single was called "Drencrom Velocet Synthmesc", a drug seen on a list in the film. " Great single. Johnny Clegg - the original was better. He/they had some great albums. Depth Charge had some good tracks. Not that one, though! Was weird how Expose failed here. Point Of No Return (UK #83) was a minor classic. But US girlgroups tended to struggle back then as i don't think UK radio was as on board with the more r and b sound. It took reissues to get NKOTB in the higher reaches and that was only because of persistent marketing to young girls on the likes of Saturday morning TV. They didn't know how or didn't want to promote US girl bands over here. "George Fenton & Jonas Gwangwa (2 January 1988) The only Oscar nomination in the list, and if it doesn't give you goose pimples you are dead. George Fenton is a film score composer, and Oscar-nominated for Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Dangerous Liaisons and The Fisher King; he won Emmys for his scores for The Blue Planet and Planet Earth. Jonas Gwangwa is a jazz musician who collaborated with Fenton on the soundtrack for Cry Freedom. The single that made the charts was the song used for the funeral of Steve Biko in the film of his life. Gwangwa produced and conducted the choir, Fenton the musicians; although the song was credited as "Funeral" it is actually the hymn "Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika" (God Save Africa), written by Enoch Sontonga in 1897 and now national anthem of South Africa. If you want to see it in situ, there's an extract here." Wasn't this a double-a side? The Funeral was credited to Thuli Dumakude. The Fenton track was called Cry Freedom. That's how chart books have listed it for years. OCC credits it as just The Funeral www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/the%20funeral/I would have thought this more upbeat track was the promoted lead (despite being a "b side" on the vinyl) and the one most responsible for it charting. www.discogs.com/George-Fenton-And-Jonas-Gwangwa-Cry-Freedom/master/487878The Like - June Gloom Adored them - great songs and gorgeous looks - i only now notice that the most recent Virgin singles book has omitted them. Disgraceful! Lead singer Z Berg is now in supergroup Phases with members of Phantom Planet and Rilo Kiley (formerly Jjamz with a Maroon 5 member who has now left). Self Destruction was a great thing - KRS One was a pioneer who deserved more success. I liked the Terry, Blair and Anouchka project. Here's a new link for Missing. Here's a new link for the great Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme provided by Blair herself: Missing - ironically enough - is missing the Blair and Anouchka credit in the last Virgin book and is listed under Terry Hall. There is the disclaimer "sleeve credits... but not label" in the Guinness Hit Singles and Albums book from 2005. Though OCC site has credited the act - without a separating comma making it look like Terry Blair is an artist! www.officialcharts.com/artist/25773/terry-blair-and-anouchka/
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Post by Earl Purple on Jul 23, 2015 16:03:32 GMT 1
You need a 50-club topic, for the period 1960 to 1978.
Several of them have shown up in my retro-chart with "Night Of The Vampire" by the Moontrekkers being the biggest hit so far by one, very close to reaching #1 but just fell short, with two spells at #2. There a possible chance that the Cookies or someone else will make it to NM #1. We'll have to wait and see.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 11:58:44 GMT 1
Heartbeat Country (31 December 1994) It took Celine Dion nearly three years; it took Nana Mouskouri 23 years. But Bill Maynard took nearly 38 years from his Eurovision debut to his chart debut. Indeed his son had been a Eurovision entrant before Maynard made the 75... Walter Williams had been on stage since he was a nipper, but when an adult had to change his name as his agent said Williams was too common. Bill saw a billboard for Maynard's Wine Gums and voila. As part of his variety act had developed something of a expertise, which, in 1957, got him invited to perform a candidate song for Britain's debut entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. Not a contest between singers, per se, in those days, but between songs; the song he performed in a semi-final (alongside Bond girl Shirley Eaton) was eliminated but each song had to be performed twice in the final in differing arrangements, and Maynard was invited to perform "Don't Cry Little Doll". It came fourth. Sandwiched by chart-toppers Lita Roza and Ronnie Hilton, incidentally. Obviously Maynard has television credits coming out of his ears, but his musical career is suitably esoteric; a one-off single extolling the virtues of stock car racing, a 1975 comedy single about the pheasant plucker's son, singing a track on a Wurzel Gummidge EP with Jon Pertwee and Una Stubbs, and finally this cash-in on the TV series, released under the name Heartbeat Country. And indeed in a very country-folky style. I do remember seeing the pub-based video, but can't find it in the usual places. So if you dare listen, click on the download. Since then, he continued with acting until a heart attack put him on the shelf for a few years, but he still does bits and dabs. And his chart career is better than his son's; Maynard Williams' band Ryder struggled to 98 with their Eurovision entry.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 11:59:25 GMT 1
Interesting thread this
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 12:05:58 GMT 1
Well, I did warn way back that there were a lot of almost indistinguishable bleepy dance acts...and now there's another one. Mr Scruff (14 December 2002) At least the video's quite interesting, and that was drawn by Stockport's Andy Carthy, aka Mr Scruff, himself. His scruffy drawings lent him his DJ persona name. And given his more wide-ranging influences - he was a fan of Madness and Blue Beat before starting mixing - some of his other samples are a bit more eclectic than standard dancefloor fodder. Indeed, his shows are marathon affairs that can go on for six hours to allow him to widen the Northern Soul experience (have a look at his last setlist here - Sergio Mendes, Mr Fingers, Pigbag, Parliament, Fela Kuti...). He started mixing vinyl as a teen in 1987, but was solely a bedroom warrior submitting cassettes to radio stations until he got his first live show in 1994. The lengthy practice must have helped, as he has been in demand ever since. Has a wide range of fans; "Get A Move On" (used on a number of adverts) was one of Victoria Wood's Desert Island Discs. And in the album charts he's the second most successful of the acts on the list. 2002's "Trouser Jazz", third of his six albums to date, reached number 29. Oh, and he also sells tea. An artist who gave one of his tracks to winamp, which you got free each time you downloaded the software.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 12:18:35 GMT 1
Cheryl Pepsii Riley (28 January 1989) Was this a Christmas campaign that peaked a bit late? At the time preacher's daughter Cheryl Riley was a Brooklyn nurse working with handicapped children who sang with a gospel in her spare time, and was talent-spotted by Full Force, which offered her "I Wonder If I Could Take You Home"; she declined, not wanting to leave her group. It became a hit for Lisa Lisa, and her loyalty was repaid when her group dissolved, but Bowlegged Lou of Full Force did not forget and wrote this song for her. They even gave her the name Pepsii based on her bubbly personality. It became a significant hit in the States, reaching the top forty and being the number one R&B single for the week of 26 November 1988. Incidentally, the video was directed by future Oscar laureate Forest Whitaker. Follow-up singles were also about social issues ("How Can You Hurt The One You Love" is self-explanatory), but her label Columbia was taken over by Sony and Tommy Mottola preferred to promote less challenging artistes like, er, his wife. So Riley moved into musical theatre, with a play per year under her belt since 1990. Still an active writer and performer, she has provided film soundtracks, backed J-Lo and C-Dion amongst others on record and Missy Elliot and Mary J Blige on tour. Her last recording appears to have been the self-released "Let Me Be Me" three years ago. Some of the videos posted in this thread have since been deleted by youtube since this started such as this one. Here is a new link
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 12:23:25 GMT 1
Seduction (21 April 1990) It's Rubettes Time. In 1989, producers Robert Clivillés and David Cole - aka C+C Music Factory - broke through with a commercial house sound that struck a chord with the public, and started having hit after hit after hit. One of their major successes was "Gonna Make You Sweat", a US number one, featuring the powerful vocal of Martha Wash, 50% of the Weather Girls and a Ton Of Fun. For some unearthly reason Wash was not in the video, her part lipsynced by Zelma Davis. Who was a model. Thing is, this wasn't the first time C+C had stiffed Wash, so to speak. Earlier in 1990 they had released the tune "(You're My One And Only) True Love", also featuring Wash, to various clubs; it became unfeasibly popular and headed for the charts, so C+C assembled singers to front the non-existent band Seduction. One Hispanic, one white, one black for that authentic multi-ethnic feel. There would have been an Asian one as well but C+C were dissatisfied with the auditions. They discovered club singer Idalis DeLeon, who invited her friend Michelle Visage along to try out, and she also passed with flying colours (ahem). After the failure of various other auditions Cole recruited childhood friend April Harris as the video version of Wash. They ended up with a number 2 hit Stateside with "Two To Make It Right", and "Heartbeat" - a cover of a Taana Gardner disco song, which also provided the hook for Ini Kamoze's reprehensible "Here Comes The Hotstepper" - was also top twenty. It provided Seduction with their one UK chart hit; the vocal abilities of the three front girls are perhaps demonstrated by them appearing on the single cover all somewhat moist and clad solely in bikinis. After their one album, DeLeon, fed up with the infighting between Visage and Harris, left to become a VJ on MTV and followed this up with a decent acting career. A new singer was brought in but the new Seduction did not last long before splitting, Visage joining another C+C project The Soul System before becoming a VJ on VH1 and radio DJ, Harris going to university before re-emerging under the Seduction name with two other stochastic singers (one of whom just happened to have been a beauty queen) to have a minor dance hit. I remember Seduction, didn't realise Michelle Visage (recently on Celeb BB) was one of the group. I have their album on cassette.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 12:30:56 GMT 1
Souled Out (9 May 1992) You know that intensely annoying tune belted out by the thousands watching the darts on Sky? "Chase The Sun" by Planet Funk? Top five in 2001? Well, the same people were behind Souled Out, amazingly enough. Three Naples-based producers, Sergio Della Monica, Alexandro Sommella and GG Canu. They became Planet Funk after Marco Baroni joined, but originally they were a production-based trio with credits for working with Dee Lewis and later Karen Ramirez before turning into PF. Self-titled compilation album, with new tracks, out now. Be still my heart. The main element of this track however was Sarah Warwick, who provided the Stansfieldesque vocals. Warwick was also the vocalist for the other Souled Out Eurohit "Shine On", but she was soon snapped up by Almighty Records and had a number of solo hits, including a top twenty with a Dolly Parton cover. Search in vain for that name, though; as a soloist she evidently thought Warwick was not a large or famous enough town, so she was billed as Sarah Washington. Reverted back to the Warwick name, she now operates as a "sound healer" under the Lifesong banner. Her self-composed album "Pure Love" is available. and of course as Sarah Washington she would become a one-hit wonder in 1993 with a dance cover of a then recent No.1 for Whitney Houston
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2015 12:35:15 GMT 1
Nearly there now...just a couple more. Terry, Blair & Anouchka (11 November 1989) So perhaps fitting that we (almost) finish off with the most successful UK chart act in the list. Terry is Terry Hall of the Specials; two number one hits, a run of seven consecutive top tens, and one of the few people to have hits as a soloist, part of a duo (Vegas, with David A Stewart) and trio (Fun Boy Three and The Colourfield as well as this act). OK, Paul McCartney can match that, and go better as part of a quartet and quintet, but not a sextet (Dub Pistols/FB3 with Bananarama) and septet (Specials). Blair is Blair Booth, a Nevada native who came to Britain in 1981, and formed the band The Rest Is History; one of her songs for the group ("Heaven Knows") was covered by Robert Plant in 1988 and turned into a top forty hit. Hall was looking for a female collaborator after The Colourfield had split and he had been impressed by Booth's arrangements. After TBA broke up, Booth had chart success elsewhere; in 1993 she reached the top twenty as part of Oui 3, at the same time as she was a fully-fledged member of The Associates; the Oui 3 song "For What It's Worth" would have gone top ten had their label not misunderstood the chart rules and pressed an ineligible CD single, that garnered the majority of sales. Currently runs Peach Productions, which concentrates mainly on film and advert music. Anouchka is the only real 75 clubber; Anouchka Grose, Australian-born, and currently a psychotherapist and authoress - her debut novel "No More Silly Love Songs: A Realist's Guide to Romance" was released in February. She met Terry Hall via a fortuitous route. In her late teens she earned spare cash as a Kensington hairdresser's model, the hairdresser happened to cut Terry Hall's hair, and mentioned to Grose that Hall was looking for a female guitarist. She applied and got the gig. After TBA broke up she studied art at Goldsmith's and thence psychotherapy. TBA came very close to making the chart again - the sublime follow-up and almost-album-title-track "Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme" peaked at 77. Shame that if one track with Jerry Sadowitz in the video had to be number one, it wasn't that one... Original linked video was made private, here is another link. I remember this one, loved it. EDIT: I see a new link has already been posted above.
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