vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 25, 2011 18:38:09 GMT 1
Divine
There have been a few of these where the name coincidence is not harmful, or is at least explicable, where the levels of fame (or infame) have been sufficient that the second act need not be aware of the first. But then there are others where you just stare at what has happened and think “how in the name of God did you manage to miss THAT?” The name Divine is one example I still cannot fathom how, in 1998, AOR reps Nathan Garvin and Gillian Manigat – aka Gaman Entertainment – managed to pick the name Divine for their R&B trio, when there had been an outrageously famous Divine active just a few years before…
The original Divine was born Harris Milstead and was most famous for being a drag actor, notable for his parts in John Waters films. Indeed Waters nicknamed Milstead “Divine” in the early 1970s and Milstead used the name ever afterwards. Divine’s film career is pretty well-known, basically playing outrageous lead character roles in films that embraced the bad taste ethic (e.g. being molested by a giant lobster or eating dog crap). Obviously though his most famous role was that of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, and the impact of his efforts have meant that most subsequent portrayals of Edna on stage have been by men rather than women. Having said that, Divine’s bread and butter was as a cabaret act, albeit often in a similar bad taste environment – Divine on stage was foul-mouthed, aggressive and, increasingly, musical. From the early eighties Divine’s own disco (rather than cabaret) songs were an integral part of the act – and gradually became commercially successful out of context. Divine had a number of minor chart hits in the UK throughout the eighties; perhaps Divine’s chart career would have ratcheted upwards (Divine was, sadly, on the SAWmill) had he not died in 1988 at the early age of 43, the week after the release of Hairspray. Tragic that he never enjoyed the fruits of the most successful role he ever had.
So, Divine was a very notable character with a famous name. Surely it would be obvious to miss out that name. Yet when New Jersey teenage vocalists Kia Thornton, Nikki Bratcher and Tonia Tash were put together by Ganam in 1996 they were given the name Divine. They were signed up pretty sharpish to Pendulum Records and their debut single was a number on Stateside; it made little impact in the UK and none of their follow-ups made any impact anywhere. Indeed the name may have been a mistake; they are now found on itunes under the name Devine, so perhaps they just stuck with the “original” spelling until they realized they couldn’t actually use it…by 2000 they were no more. They’ve all remained in the industry, as backing vocalists; Thornton in particular has been active with many of the R&B leading names, brought out a solo album in 2005 and had a go at Pop Idol Factor whatever in 2007.
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 29, 2011 23:23:15 GMT 1
Shaft One of the more popular names for an act, there have been at least eight different Shafts, not counting the Isaac Hayes song. Only 2 made the British charts, both sampling familiar tunes from the past. The first had a hit with “Roobarb And Custard”, part of the short-lived 1991 Toytown techno vogue for remixing kids’ TV themes and turning them into chart hits (q.v. Solo above); one of the first to succeed at this was Mark Summers, with “ Summers’ Magic”, based on the non-Jasper Carrott version of the Magic Roundabout theme. Basically Liam Howlett jumped on his bandwagon. This first Shaft was a pseudonym for Mark Pritchard, Adrian Hughes and Tamsin Elliott, all of whom have recorded under different names; Hughes as part of The Anthill Mob, Pritchard under a bewildering variety of pseudonymry, including Africa Hitech, Harmonic 313, Reload, E621 and half-a-dozen others, and Elliott as part of Breakneck with her other half Pete Parsons (aka Pete Voyager). The only other chart hits that feature Pritchard as anything more than a producer I can find are “ The Way/The Deep” by Global Communication in 1997, a collaboration with Tom Middleton, Pritchard’s current partner-in-work – the two also recorded under the name Chameleon but as there are 20 Chameleons the one that hit the chart in 1996 seems to be a Brothers In Rhythm project. The other Shaft followed with indecent haste. Indeed when “Mucho Mambo” came out in 1999 I assumed it was the same act; after all, it was the same idea, take a well-known tune from the past and give it a euphoric rave twist. This second one was the production duo of Alex Rizzo and Elliott Ireland, studio engineers who had previously recorded as SDP and LT Project, then remixed as Skeewiff, and set up Jalapeno Records when they decided to record their own stuff. The Skeewiff material gained a cult following, and when they signed to Wonderboy for a mambo side-project they used the name Shaft to differentiate themselves from their more house reputation. After the mambo techno fad ran dry they became Da Muttz for the intelligence-insulting “ Wassup!” in 2000 (the only use I can think of that abuse of atoms is if everyone who bought it could be traced and thence removed from the gene pool). Having got that out of their system, they went back to the Skeewiff monicker, and after a few years developed Jalapeno Records further and it is now a flourishing dance indie label. Rizzo and Ireland operate a house night at The Big Chill in London, which has featured as DJs, inter alia, and as if to prove everything is connected to everything else, the abovementioned Tom Middleton.
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 30, 2011 22:14:23 GMT 1
Catch Stu Allan is one of the few (only?) chart acts to have come from Anglesey, although his chart performance is one of the more vaporous ones; his one charting single, “Free (C’Mon)”, spent one week at number 70 back in 1990. Three years later he teamed up with trip-hop producer Pete Pritchard under the name Clock and had slightly more success – fifteen chart-friendly hits, including a top five with an adaptation of Tag Team’s “ Whoomph! There It Is” (rivalling Da Muttz for brainlessness). It was a bit of a departure for Allan, who started DJing in 1982 and moved to Manchester when his engineering apprentice “real” job vanished. He worked his way up from the bottom to get a residency at the Legend nightclub; he produced mixes for Piccadilly Radio that were so popular he was eventually given a show there in 1986, which he used to promote the new Chicago house sound (think Farley “Jackmaster” Funk). He inadvertently christened one of the acts he influenced – when playing a demo tape he had been sent, he said it came from “ a guy called Gerald”. With all this the Clock persona was a bit of a departure, so, almost to keep his DJ credentials intact he made some deeper remixes of most of the Clock tracks under the name Visa, unsurprisingly none of them charted. Allan still DJs – including having produced the Kiss Mix programme on Kiss FM – and also mixes the Hardcore Nation series of LPs. At least Allan had pretty much given up on the Catch name (only one other single released as Catch) when, in 1999, the other Catch came along. The second Catch was a bit different, an actual pop group; a trio of Toby Slater, Wayne Murray and Ben Etchells, who got caught up as a sort of boygroup as Britpop faded away. The career of Catch was typically boybandically short; two singles, which, because neither reached the top two, meant the album from which they were meant to come remained unreleased and they were dropped. Slater decided to eschew future industry blandishments and formed (and disbanded) various groups in quick measure before touring as a soloist. Murray and Etchells formed Thirteen:13, who were also dropped after their four singles all missed the 75, and Murray sought the safer haven of the Manic Street Preachers, as well as recording as The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Etchells went on to form Ben & The Pimps. So successful that I can't even find the scuzziest of bootlegs on youtube.
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 31, 2011 21:40:57 GMT 1
Laurel & Hardy This is one of the oddest duplicate names in the charts. Odd for two reasons; firstly, that a comedy duo from the 1920s should have a chart hit; secondly, that a musical act would copy their name.
Obviously Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are far too famous to need any introduction. What is less appreciated is how the two of them meshed off-screen. Unlike his slightly more active screen persona, Oliver Hardy was pretty much a jobbing actor; he would turn up, do the script and go home. He didn’t bother with much of the periphery. Whereas Stan Laurel was more of a workaholic, writing scripts, directing and working in the cutting room after the shooting. For all that, he got paid a lot more than Hardy; it is a testimony to the duo’s relationship, and Hardy’s easygoing nature, that that never interfered with their genuine friendship. But as Laurel was the ideas man, it was he who suggested they incorporate musical numbers in some of their screen outings. And as was not uncommon in those days, actors had many other talents. Laurel had come from the music hall, and although he was not a great singer he could sell a tune; Hardy was a singer before becoming a silent screen heavy, so was able to do the technically difficult bits. Heard to great effect in Way Out West, where they sang “The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine”, with its memorable routine (notice how Hardy switches the mallet around before striking Laurel). That was all fine and dandy, until in 1975 United Artists decided to cash in by releasing a cheap compilation of Laurel & Hardy songs. “The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine” was chosen as a single to promote the LP, and it became a gigantic hit…incidentally, Chill Wills – Oscar-nominated in 1960 for his role in The Alamo and one of the Avalon Boys – provides the deep bass; the uncredited female vocal is Rosina Lawrence. Unsurprisingly, they remain one hit wonders.
Eight years later, Laurel & Hardy returned to the chart, but this time as a reggae duo from Battersea; Paul Dawkins and Anthony Robinson, who had originally been called Reverend T and Pope Paul (with a female singer called the Virgin Mary, they were hardly going for the subtle route). As Laurel & Hardy they adopted the same shmutter as the originals. Their indie-released debut single (a ten incher) saw them get a Peel session, a tour of universities (supported by Benjamin Zephaniah) and a CBS deal, but after their second major label single missed the chart they were dropped. They continued sporadically making music over the next couple of years, but the novelty nature of their hit meant they could not regain credibility and after ever diminishing returns they called it a day. They did however set up a studio to work as sound engineers – no idea if this is still going.
Bonus track - and another reggae artist taking their name from a charting film star:
Clint Eastwood got a share of a chart credit as the AA-side to Lee Marvin’s execrable “Wandrin’ Star”, although as nobody bothered playing his track it was removed from the chart listings before it became a number one single.
In 1984 another reggae artist taking a filmstar name (born Robert Brammer) teamed up with General Saint to have a minor chart hit. After years apart they reunited late last year and are recording again with a view to putting out an album.
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 1, 2011 20:45:45 GMT 1
Quick addition to the above post...whilst Laurel & Hardy (the original) were in the top ten, the Band of the Black Watch were just nudging the top 40 with "Dance Of The Cuckoos". Familiar song?
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 2, 2011 20:25:01 GMT 1
Honky Great name for a band. I remember Jimmy Savile introducing them on TOTP for their one hit saying that they could go all the way to number one. They peaked at 28. I don’t know much about them, other than they were from Southampton; their one hit was produced by Ken Gold, who wrote the chart-topper “You To Me Are Everything” for The Real Thing, and written by the band’s guitarist Trevor Cummins. For some odd reason their one album didn’t include either of their singles, which maybe contributed to their failure. No idea what happened to them thereafter. The second Honky was a representation of that rare beast Doncastrian hip hop. Producer Matt Elliss and vocalist Kye Wright, who came together when Wright went to Ellis’ studio to lay down some demos; Ellis was intrigued enough to work with Wright under the name Club St Louis, but Wright – who had sung on the one single released – decided his future lay more in rapping. With dancers (Wright’s sister and a couple of friends) added, they recorded a demo that saw a bidding war, won by Trevor Horn’s ZTT label. Nevertheless, the boat was missed; the De La Soul-esque wry, insidious comment had peaked about five years earlier and after their one album they were dropped. After a couple of harder-edged singles and album for Sony imprint Higher Ground they ended up dropped for good. Ellis ended up as a producer for lots of soft, chart-friendly, ear-unfriendly R&B acts like Honeyz and forgotten honkies like Louise and Supersister. Wright gave up on music for ten years, before recording the odd demo, at Axis Studios, run then and now by Elliss.
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 3, 2011 20:10:02 GMT 1
The Heartbreakers One of the unusual ones; a genuine case of two acts hitting on the same name at the same time. And indeed a slight cheat, as the better Heartbreakers only ever made the album chart. Yet they had such an important part in music history it is churlish to overlook them. Who created punk? There are a number of candidates. The strongest would be The Sex Pistols, who went through the music scene like a menthol whirlwind. But nothing can come of nothing. They had their progenitors. The MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, pub rock, garage rock. And, most strongly, Malcolm McLaren’s dream band. The New York Dolls. The Dolls are the link between glam and punk. The US never got glam rock (their loss, whilst we had Slade at number one they had Debby Boone) and the Dolls’ deliberately androgynous and ambiguous performances never clambered above cultish. After a complex series of manoeuvres McLaren ended up their manager after a while, and he dressed them as Communists, but the NYDs made it clear they were playing a part; a level of metatheatre McLaren wasn’t happy with. So he came back to Britain and used those ideas as part of the image of the Pistols. In 1975, the Dolls’ guitarist and drummer, John Genzale, aka Johnny Thunders, and Jerry Nolan left the band because of “artistic differences” and started The Heartbreakers. By coincidence Richard Hell had been eased out of Television the same week and they brought him in; and dismissed him shortly after as he tried to take over lead vocals from Thunders. Their only official album was 1977’s “LAMF”, that hit the chart briefly, and the band largely based themselves over here, as they rode the punk wave (and even dissed the Pistols in “ London Boys”). Despite this Thunders recorded a solo album in 1978 with Cook and Jones of the Pistols, plus Phil Lynott and appearances from the likes of Chrissie Hynde. Thunders and Nolan continued recording and touring on and off, in between drug problems, until Thunders’ death in New Orleans in mysterious circumstances in 1991. The cause of death was put down to an overdose, but an autopsy confirmed the levels in the body should not have been fatal. However, any claims of murder were dented by the revelation that Thunders was suffering from leukaemia. Nolan did not survive much longer, a stroke later in the year putting him into a six month fatal coma. A bit different to the other Heartbreakers, the band fronted by Tom Petty. Originally called Mudcrutch, they reformed themselves as The Heartbreakers in 1975, just as the other band got going. They were unusual in that they had success in the UK before their native US; indeed in a reverse T’Pau it was the UK buzz that promoted them Stateside. The rest is rather dull history. A dozen albums, culminating in last year’s “Mojo”, their most successful in the States to date. Nevertheless, in over 35 years of recording, Petty and his band have had less influence than the Heartbreakers did in their 35 minutes…
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 4, 2011 20:14:03 GMT 1
Peaches In some cases acts sharing the same name are not dissimilar; both groups or singers or whatever. Even though both Peacheses are singers, I doubt anyone could possibly confuse them… Peaches number one only ever sang with Herb. Well, Peacheses one to six. Although there was just one Herb. Sounds like Ready Steady Cook. The original Peaches was singer Francine Barker, a member of vocal group The Sweet Things, who had a rather sweet single produced by Van “The Hustle” McCoy. Barker’s voice gave McCoy an idea; he was also producing for a male vocalist, Herb Feemster (known as Herb Fame), and McCoy thought they’d work well together. Peaches 1 retired from touring, in 1970, after five years of being together, but remained Studio Peaches whilst Touring Peaches was Marlene Jenkins of The Jaynetts. Then Fame became a policeman and retired himself, ending the duo. He then left the police (not the Police) in 1976 and recorded again with Peaches; touchingly their big hit single (in the States and UK) was called “Reunited”, to celebrate the coming back together of Peaches & Herb after years apart. Except it wasn’t a reuniting. This was a new Peaches, Linda Greene, so she was Peaches 2 on record, 3 on tour. Greene was Peaches for both UK hits; by 1983, the hits dried up, Fame went back to the police force and Greene to recording gospel music and working for charities. Fame returned to music in 1990 and has gone through another three Peacheses since then, although only one album has resulted (in 2009). There is one Peaches that Herb has not sung with though. A shock Jewish-Canadian performance artist called Merrill Nisker from a wealthy family. She came somewhat late to music, compared to most; before her career got underway in her mid-twenties she was a music teacher. Indeed her early stuff was somewhat folky, as part of the trio Mermaid Café, but in 1995 she started a GWAR-esque band with Chilly Gonzales called, well, let’s say the filter won’t allow it. For her own daft pseudonym she chose Peaches from the Nina Simone song “Four Women”. In 2000 Peaches performed a concert in Berlin that proved to be so enervating that she was signed to an album deal by Sony. And was soon dropped, as Sony couldn’t handle her extrovert sexuality, obscenity and political controversy. Wusses. Nevertheless, there’s a market for her work, and she’s recorded another couple of marginally successful albums since. So, there you go. There's a mashup challenge for you.
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 5, 2011 19:35:45 GMT 1
Fergie Robert Ferguson had been DJing since he was a teen in his native County Antrim. One night in Portrush he met Tony De Vit, who invited him to look him out should he get to London; he did and the two enjoyed a joint residency at the Trade nightclub. Ferguson parlayed that into a steady DJ career, under an obvious nickname, with residencies in various Balearic hotspots, plus prestige venues such as Godskitchen and Privilege. He held a Radio 1 slot for a few years in the early 2000s, when he had three chart hits. Fergie is still in demand as a DJ and writes a column for Mixmag. And I don't want to be judgmental or anything, but...who in the name of God actually LISTENS to this stuff? A bit later, came Stacey Ferguson, Wild Orchid, Black Eyed Peas, well fit, yada yada yada. I would have written more, but frankly listening to these acts just saps all the spirit from me...
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Post by Earl Purple on Aug 7, 2011 15:30:00 GMT 1
You're getting quite obscure now. There is a Peaches who had singles out between 2004 and 2007: Lose You, Downtown and Kick It (with Iggy Pop). Is that the same one?
Maybe Gonzalez then? That was the name Chilly Gonzalez (whom you just mentinoed) recorded under originally, at least in the early 2000. And there is also the disco out of 1979 (I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet).
There are two artists called Beulah and their careers have coincided. One is an American band (Emma Blowgun's Last Stand being among their songs), the other a female singer (recorded Sweet Kinda Something). It has confused some of the download sites in that if you search for Beulah you get music from both acts. (And my chart of the the 00s went and combined them too, I should rename one of them myself to resolve the ambiguity).
By the way, I see to recall that there was an old band called Oasis that featured Mary Hopkin?
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 7, 2011 15:49:07 GMT 1
The Truth This is a not uncommon name for acts, indeed David Lewis Gedge of the immortal Wedding Present was part of one band under that monicker, but only two have made the British charts. Not counting The Undisputed Truth, or even The Unbelievable Truth. The first Truth was a sixties duo who took their name from a Ray Charles song, made up of the singer Frank Aiello and his barber (!) Steve Gold, one hit wonders, that hit being “Girl”, a Lennon/McCartney composition that featured on “Rubber Soul”. They were spotted supporting Crispian St Peters - the Beatles survived saying they were bigger than Jesus, St Peters' career careered after he said he was better than the Beatles - and teamed up with existing songs by contemporary writers rather than the songwriter production line, their considerable live reputation being deemed sufficient to overcome the lack of originality (ironic given that Gold became a staff songwriter). Unfortunately, there's too much damn deeming, and their talent wasn't enough - their other four singles all missed the charts. Aiello went on to musicals and fronted the Cozy Powell [see Rainbow]-led band Bedlam) and Gold who later moved into the northern soul scene under his real name Steve Jameson. Gold/Jameson had another nom de disque, taken from the 1920s music hall star Nosmo King, and had a top 40 hit with “ Goodbye Nothing To Say” (and if you click on the link you will hear it sounds EXACTLY like a subsequent hit, and Jameson indeed got a successful lawsuit out of it). Whereas Aiello works for London Transport and only occasionally is enticed out for gigs, Gold/Jameson/King is now a comedian, as the Jewish Alf Garnett Sol Bernstein. The other was an eighties Mancunian band, formed around the core of ex- Nine Below Zero man Dennis Greaves and ex-Stowaway Mick Lister. They had a smattering of hits in the early eighties, before hitting the US charts in 1987; one of a number of acts (e.g. Kissing The Pink, Love & Rockets) who had margined some success in Britain at the start of the decade and had an unexpected Indian summer Stateside in the later part. Throughout the eighties Lister had written soundtracks for films and TV series, particularly Stateside ones, and took advantage of his musical connexions to tap into the US market. Since then he’s written for acts as varied as Nik Kershaw and S Club (dunno which one, frankly I don’t care). They have stochastically reformed this year and are planning another album.
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 9, 2011 20:59:33 GMT 1
Twenty 4 Seven So, US rapper goes to Germany with the army, taps into the club scene and masterminds a series of hits. Turbo B? No, Captain Hollywood. Tony Dawson-Harrison was recruited by Dutch DJ Ruud van Rijn to have a go at the Eurodance market, along with barely teenaged Nance Coolen, whom van Rijn had spotted in a disco. Would have been an interesting conversation with the parents. It worked; “ I Can’t Stand It” was a top ten in the UK and a top five in Sweden, Austria and Germany. However, after a couple of years Hollywood fell out with van Rijn and set up his own Captain Hollywood Project, which had, initially, even more success; “ More And More” reached the very top of the German charts. However, by 1996 CHP’s hits had dried up, and van Rijn, who had retained the name Twenty 4 Seven and had gone through half-a-dozen vocalists, didn’t last much longer. Even then they had both had eight years of Eurohits that hadn’t sniffed the UK charts. Coolen is now a television host; both Hollywood and van Rijn have recently resurrected their dance acts. CHP released an album 18 months ago, van Rijn has teased a new Twenty 4 Seven single for a couple of years, but no news as yet. Then there’s the other act, which, perhaps because of the pre-existing Twenty 4 Seven, changed its typography to Twen2y 4 Se7en. Oh God. One hit wonder boy band who had the unenviable task of supporting McFly and W***life and therefore delaying expectation to a hormonal audience with a collective IQ of sixteen. Most noteworthy for being one of the few acts to have an international peanut hugger in their ranks. In his 10th match for Scotland, against Wales, Thom Evans seriously injured his neck; the injury being sufficiently serious to force him to retire from the game a couple of years later. Now more known as the beau of Kelly Brook. As for the others, pfft.
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 11, 2011 20:28:46 GMT 1
Gun One of those where it is inexplicable how an act used the name of an earlier act. The 1960s Gun – more accurately The Gun – is hardly an unknown act, even if they had just the one hit; but their reputation was carried before them as being far more influential than their chart record would suggest. Interestingly, The Gun were formerly The Knack, which would have provided another entry... (lol at the not so hairy cornflake) The Gun were a power trio (popular in the sixties, think Cream or Hendrix) of the Gurvitz brothers, Paul and Adrian, and Louie Farrell, and thus an important stepping stone into heavy rock. They had their biggest hit with their debut single, but as they moved into more cutting-edge areas of sound their commercial success melted away. Louie Farrell left the industry to run a sweetshop. The bandmate brothers did a bit more. The Gurvitzes formed the Baker Gurvitz Army with Ginger Baker in the mid-seventies, which again proved more influential than successful, and after the death of their manager a dispute with his replacement saw the Army rent asunder. Adrian Gurvitz went solo, although brother Paul played bass and produced his solo output, and Adrian ended up with the biggest hit of any of them – not, as you might think, with his solo single “ Classic”, but as the co-writer of England’s 1982 World Cup aa-side “We’ll Fly The Flag”. Both Gurvitzes became staff songwriters in the States; Adrian formed the girl group No Secrets (not so coincidentally his stepdaughter was a member) and is currently working as a producer, particularly with singer/songwriter Emii in the States. Paul has gone back to recording some solo stuff, “ Sweetheart Land” last year being his most recent release. What I don’t get then is how a hard rock band could not be aware that there had already been a hard rock cornerstone that had already been called Gun... The Glaswegian band went through an astonishing number of members in just a couple of years before scoring their first chart hit, but the kernel was Jools Gizzi (guitar) and Mark Rankin (vocals) – Rankin is the cousin of Sharleen Spiteri who provided some backing vocals for their first couple of albums. By the time they reached their second, they had replaced backing guitarists and drummers (keeping it in the nepotistic, the new drummer was Jim Kerr’s brother) and they had a big hit with an unimaginative cover of Cameo’s “Word Up”. After that they split and reformed with the new name G.U.N. (new drummer, again, this time an ex-Texas one), failed to recapture their success, and split again. They came back together in 2008, this time with another new set of members, and by 2009 even the ever-present Rankin had left to become an A&R rep. Only Jools Gizzi remains of the original Gun line-up.
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Post by suedehead on Aug 12, 2011 0:11:39 GMT 1
CatchStu Allan is one of the few (only?) chart acts to have come from Anglesey, although his chart performance is one of the more vaporous ones; his one charting single, “Free (C’Mon)”, spent one week at number 70 back in 1990. Three years later he teamed up with trip-hop producer Pete Pritchard under the name Clock and had slightly more success – fifteen chart-friendly hits, including a top five with an adaptation of Tag Team’s “ Whoomph! There It Is” (rivalling Da Muttz for brainlessness). It was a bit of a departure for Allan, who started DJing in 1982 and moved to Manchester when his engineering apprentice “real” job vanished. He worked his way up from the bottom to get a residency at the Legend nightclub; he produced mixes for Piccadilly Radio that were so popular he was eventually given a show there in 1986, which he used to promote the new Chicago house sound (think Farley “Jackmaster” Funk). He inadvertently christened one of the acts he influenced – when playing a demo tape he had been sent, he said it came from “ a guy called Gerald”. With all this the Clock persona was a bit of a departure, so, almost to keep his DJ credentials intact he made some deeper remixes of most of the Clock tracks under the name Visa, unsurprisingly none of them charted. Allan still DJs – including having produced the Kiss Mix programme on Kiss FM – and also mixes the Hardcore Nation series of LPs. At least Allan had pretty much given up on the Catch name (only one other single released as Catch) when, in 1999, the other Catch came along. The second Catch was a bit different, an actual pop group; a trio of Toby Slater, Wayne Murray and Ben Etchells, who got caught up as a sort of boygroup as Britpop faded away. The career of Catch was typically boybandically short; two singles, which, because neither reached the top two, meant the album from which they were meant to come remained unreleased and they were dropped. Slater decided to eschew future industry blandishments and formed (and disbanded) various groups in quick measure before touring as a soloist. Murray and Etchells formed Thirteen:13, who were also dropped after their four singles all missed the 75, and Murray sought the safer haven of the Manic Street Preachers, as well as recording as The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Etchells went on to form Ben & The Pimps. So successful that I can't even find the scuzziest of bootlegs on youtube. A bit late but the second catch were a bit like a more raunchy version of McFly weren't they?
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 12, 2011 21:11:02 GMT 1
Suppose so, an attempt to have muso cred for a boy band. Coming to the end of this theme...obviously there are fewer candidates than for most...so here's a retro one: The Stargazers Maybe you might overlook the previous Gun. But how could one overlook one of the most popular British groups of the fifties? With a bloodline that was still performing? One of the most warmly remembered radio programmes, with people of a certain generation, is “Sing Something Simple”. The longest running music programme in the world, it ran from 1959 to 2001, and those of you who used to listen to the charts on FM may remember that this was the show being broadcast on Radio 2 when 1 took over the bandwidth. The show’s premise was, er, simple – singers would sing some requested songs. And who were these singers? The Cliff Adams Singers, formed by, er, Cliff Adams for the show. And it was only with Adams’ death that the programme came to an end. Adams was a shrewd choice. Although noted as an orchestral arranger and multi-instrumentalist, he had already had three number one hits under his belt as the singer (and manager and score arranger) of The Stargazers. Who go down in history. First British group to have a number one single, first British group to have two singles; first act to have their first two chart hits reach number one. They were not keen on their second, “I See The Moon”, and only agreed to sing it if the could have some fun with it (Australian singer Marie Benson’s part was so distinctive she ended up with a solo deal). Number one for six weeks, the challenge to its chart supremacy came from the Obernkirchen Children’s Choir’s version of “The Happy Wanderer”; whether by coincidence or not, The Stargazers’ version was released at this time and perhaps took some sales away... The Stargazers had a number of important links with musical history. Early member Dick James became a song publisher (via a couple of solo chart hits); producer Dick Rowe went on to be a director at Decca, where he became famous as the man who rejected the Beatles, although he did sign the Rolling Stones (on the recommendation of George Harrison, who felt bad that the Beatles’ audition for Decca had not been as good as they wished). The Beatles’ songs, incidentally, were published by Northern Music, which was co-owned by Brian Epstein and...Dick James. Even singer Peter Datchler had a later music link – son Clark was the lead singer of Johnny Hates Jazz. By the sixties the semi-novelty singing group had died a death and they split up, Adams forming the Singers for radio as mentioned. Nevertheless, they had left a powerful memory; quite apart from their chart hits, they were voted Britain’s best group five times in the NME polls, provided jingles for adverts ( Murray Mints, too good to hurry mints), had had their own radio series and had backed many of the leading names of the day, up to and including Sinatra. So, given such levels of fame, how the heck did the 1981 band founded by Ricky Lee Brawn and Peter Davenport manage to have the exact same name? Did no-one bother looking this sort of thing up? I suppose it's just about possible that nobody associated with the record would remember the original group. Only their manager was sixties star Muff Winwood and their music was firmly rooted in 1955... They split within a couple of years and members ended up with various stochastic and unsuccessful bands. Davenport probably did the best – for a while he was part of The Comets (yes, the Bill Haley ones, which are still going with a couple of original members).
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 15, 2011 18:54:31 GMT 1
Nearly there now...this is the penultimate one for the time being. Next topic will be in the Charts thread... Double Trouble A doubly tragic entry. The Double Trouble that’s best known this side of the Atlantic is the remix collective of Karl Brown, Leigh Guest and Michael Menson; they were most successful when the Rebel MC (Michael West) fronted their tracks, gaining a top five with the Toots & The Maytals-inspired “ Street Tuff”. Karl Brown went on to perform garage under the name Tuff Enuff, Guest ended up working with Lisa Scott-Lee and Rebel MC moved more into African sounds under the name Conquering Lion. Menson, though, had an horrific fate. After suffering from psychiatric problems he was living in sheltered accommodation when, in January 1997, three men attacked him for looking a bit like someone who had been bothering one of their girlfriends. They set him alight and inflicted burns that killed Menson two weeks later. It took two years for the police to decide it was murder rather than suicide – even though Menson himself had said he was attacked when being taken to hospital – and in 1999 two men were convicted of murder, and one of manslaughter. And the above video is wrong. In that the bassline is NOT taken from the Staple Singers, it's taken from Harry J Allstars' ska classic " Liquidator". The other group is better known in the States – its only incarnation on the British charts was a sneaky week on the album listing – as the backing band for bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan. They had plenty of success on the blues charts in the seventies and eighties, but the run came to a shocking end in 1990 when Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash after a one-off concert with Eric Clapton. The bandmembers (bassist Tommy Shannon, Reese Wynans on keyboards and drummer Chris Layton) worked with other groups and bluesmen for a while before reuniting in 2001 for an album under their own name. As a unit they have worked with Jimmy D Lane and Nuno Mindelis in recent years.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 16, 2011 20:52:39 GMT 1
And, with frighteningly impeccable timing, I finish this thread (at least till there's another duplicate, or I find one) with this week's number one. NeroIf you’re in Italy, why not go with an Italian theme? That is what The Cabin Boys thought; the backing group for Tommy Steele’s brother Colin, they had an unexpected Italian hit with “ Giddy Up A Ding Dong”, which had featured in an Italian film, so went over there for four months to tour and exploit. In 1960 they finished up their tenure and returned to Britain. Without Colin Hicks, though, he preferred to stay in Italy. So the remainder, with their new, Italian-inspired name (why gladiators would accompany an emperor is beyond me, the latter liked having the former fight to their death for his gratification), got themselves a record deal thanks to their so-called Italian sound (basically an echo). Getting hold of some spare outfits from the film “Quo Vadis” they even looked the part and had a couple of hits. Instrumental, of course, their singer had gone native... The band went through an untrackable number of guitarists, around the core of keyboardist Mike O’Neill - Nero - with his Gladiators, bassist Boots Slade and drummer Joe Moretti (who went on to join Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames), and after the final break in the sixties O’Neill became a session organist. In 1991 re-formed the group with new musicians and toured for the next 14 years. And now there's the dubstep duo of Dan Stephens and Joe Ray, who have reached the acme of the chart with "Promises". They sound a bit retro to me, I could imagine them being a sterner Altern 8 back in the day, but whatever. Would doubtless have fallen into the same obscurity as most other dubstep, save for a token Mercury nomination a la Burial, but they had the good fortune to be part of the BBC Sound Of lists - and the BBC is so desperate to ensure they provide self-fulfilling prophecies that they've playlisted them to death...who says the charts can't be rigged? Next project will be over in the UK Charts forum...
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 30, 2011 22:46:22 GMT 1
SylviaSylvia as a name probably falls between the two somewhere. It’s not common, but not that uncommon. And so Sylvia Robinson has forever been eclipsed by Sylvia Vrethammar through the simple error of not ensuring her full name appeared on the credits. And yet Robinson’s influence on music is enormous. RIP
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 19, 2017 19:56:13 GMT 1
The Other Two
You'd think a name as self-deprecating as The Other Two would only have been used once. And indeed it has only been used once by a charting track; by the New Order Wrecking Crew, Stephen and Gillian, who, when Hooky was off scoring hits with Monaco and Barney with Electronic, decided to spend the time with their own stuff. They thought to have a female vocalist and approached Kim Wilde, which would have been fantastic. But in the end they settled for Gillian, whose vocals are suitably soft and submerged rather than poppy and out there. Works for me.
But there had already been another Other Two in the UK...
...Caroline Attard and Jemima Smith, a beat duo who were well regarded enough to support Chuck Berry on tour in 1964. Don Arden spotted them performing in London and signed them up sharpish, but after this debut single bombed they were surplus to requirements.
Chuck must have put in a good word for them because RCA invited them over in 1965 to have a go at cracking the US market, although neither of their singles for the American label did anything. Not that it was without reward. Jemima met Duane Eddy while over there, and before long ended up marrying him. Caroline also married into rock royalty, but this side of the herringpole or pondy; Andy Bown, who had scored top ten hits with The Herd and who later joined Quo. Caroline herself was the singer of the band Storyteller for much of its existence, before leaving to bring up her children. Sadly she died in 2001.
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Post by vastar iner on May 9, 2018 23:14:02 GMT 1
New EditionI did think about putting it in the That's Not My Name thread, on the basis that Mike Batt had had hits under the name The Wombles and then soloed into the top five with this, but this thread is a bit more, um, threadbare, so here it is. (As an aside, Wellington Womble, aka Chris Spedding, played on this and the one below too.) This single got a boost because it was a television theme tune; to the BBC's Seaside Special, a variety show that travelled around seaside resorts in the latter half of the 1970s. And The New Edition was the regular backing singer/dancer troupe, replaced a bit later by The First Edition, which a fortiori is a very misleading name. They do get a credit on the single, albeit in brackets, and this video is not them hoofing but Pan's People. (Possibly the last surviving routine featuring Babs - she only had 2 more weeks and those programmes are Missing Presumed Wiped.) But they did get to do a Mike Batt-penned single (and, indeed, album) themselves, and even get to perform it on Top Of The Pops. Even though "Sunshine Saturday" did not make the charts. I wonder if it was that Michael Hurll put them together that helped them get this particular showcase...
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