Mr. Mondo

Don't be, as that is a great record with a great vocal from Nick Beggs.

Yes, though not very 'PC' these days.

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 14. ‘Limahl’ and ‘Kajagoogoo’ Yesterday night I watched a programme on ‘Channel 4’ called ‘Celebrity Wife Swap’ which featured Pete Burns (from the ‘electro-goth’ pop group ‘Dead Or Alive’) and his husband Michael. Now, you may be wondering what does this fact have to do with ‘Limahl’ and ‘Kajagoogoo’, apart from being both were ‘Number One’ hit making artists of the 1980s. Well, the reason why I have mentioned this has less to do with music and chart positions and more to do with hairstyles and mannerisms, as it seems that Pete Burns has got married to a ‘Limahl’ look-a-like with the same tone of voice and two-tone haircut. Now having been a student in the Britpop obsessed 1990s it is quite amazing to think that such an iconic bad mullet from the 1980s has, in the last few years, become very fashionable, especially on many of the patrons you see going down to ‘the Village’ in Manchester. I cannot remember if, in the ‘mullet spotting’ games of student past, a ‘Limahl’ was more or less points than a ‘Michael Bolton’ or a ‘Mike Score’, though maybe it will have been a high score as he was always portrayed as a figure of fun. This obsession with bad 1980s hair creates a slightly unfair view of the recordings of both ‘Limahl’ and his former band ‘Kajagoogoo’. It is true that ‘Limahl’ has been the type of act that will turn up on cheaply produced albums singing his re-recorded hits, along side ‘Dr and the Medics’ and David van Day’s ‘Bucks Fizz’, and it is true that he has played up on his image by using a ‘Wiggy’ style ‘frightwig’ at his student gigs and PA performances. However I think that ‘Limahl’ and ‘Kajagoogoo’ released some great records in the 1980s, and records that should be listened to without any thoughts or ‘references’ to the ‘fashion crimes’ of the day. Like many early 1980s pop albums, the first album ‘White Feathers’ may have included a fair share of filler such as ‘Ergonomics’, but it did include the pop-funk perfection of ‘Hang On Now’ along side the ‘Number One’ hit of ‘Too Shy’. The second album was better, though your verdict of this may depend on whether you liked Nick Beggs vocals as much as (the recently departed) Limahl’s, whilst my favourite album by the band is actually the third album, which was called ‘Crazy Peoples Right To Speak’. This album included some great songs such as ‘Do I’, ‘Rivers’ and the single ‘Shouldn’t Do That’, which should have done much better in the charts. By this time the band had not only lost another member, becoming a three piece, but also had lost part of their name, becoming the more ‘grown-up’ sounding ‘Kaja’. It is a pity that this album failed as it was a great piece of mid 1980s pop, though Nick Beggs next album (with the band project ‘Ellis, Beggs and Howard’) was some consolation. 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 12. & 12A. ‘2wo Third3’ & ‘J-Pac’ 12. ‘2wo Third3’ “I want to be alone, completely on my own”, “Like a mad dog, I could bite” ‘4th Child’ vocalist Lee Thomas was first teamed up with the songwriter ‘Biff’ Standard in the early 1990s Tom Watkins managed electro-boyband called ‘2wo third3’ (Two Thirds). Unlike many ‘boybands’ of the time, such as ‘Take That’ or ‘OTT’, ‘2wo third3’ were very much more of a ‘high concept’ act with an image not to dissimilar to some of the concepts for the 1993 ‘Pet Shop Boys’ album called ‘Very’ (an act that Tom Watkins also managed for a time). Throw some 80s style ‘synth-pop’ into the mix and a great deal of promotional ‘Elastoplasts’ (stamped as always with a cartoon representation of Biff’s head) and then you had electro-pop heaven. Whilst ‘Biff’ stayed anonymously in the background, Lee was joined in the group by Danny and Victor (who could be best described as ‘John Hendy times two’), backing dancers and ‘keyboardists’ who were always dressed in identical outfits. The band, like all good ‘boybands’, were another manufactured group, though originally ‘2wo Third3’ would be more ‘open’ like ‘Bronski Beat’ and not surrounded in the usual innuendo and coyness that managers expect of their ‘squeaky clean’ pop acts. However, by the time ‘2wo Third3’ made it into the pages of ‘Live & Kicking Magazine’, this ‘openness’ was missing from the mix, with the band falling in line and being marketed to the same young audience as ‘East 17’ and ‘Take That’. Actually, I think that this band’s ‘electro-pop’ was slightly before their time. I think that, as a concept, ‘2wo Third3’ may have worked better in the pop charts of 2007, rather than back in the mid 1990s, especially when acts like ‘Girls Aloud’ have a similar electro-pop style and ‘2wo Third3’ released some great ‘synth-pop’ records back in the day. If you don’t believe me and think that ‘2wo Third3’ are not worthy of respect, than all you need to do is get hold of the CD digipack single of ‘I Want The World’ and play track 4, which is an alternative version of ‘I Want To Be Alone ’. Nearly 7 minutes of greatness, a mix of electro melancholy that should have been edited down and released as the next single mix rather than the more syrupy pop edit that I think got to number 29. I say number 29 though I might be getting mixed up with Now 29, where you will find ‘I Want The World’ sitting snugly next to the iconic ‘Sparks’ and their song ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’. Also in addition to these records you might know of the debut ‘Hear Me Calling’, a record where the innuendo of ‘Bronski Beat’ meets the heavenly pop of ‘Depeche Mode’. 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 12A. J-Pac “Nutter, everybody knows he’s a nutter”. Another Tom Watkins’s pop act but this time a duo. If ‘East 17’ were supposed to be the rough version of a boyband like ‘NKOTB’ or ‘Take That’, then this duo were an even rougher duo with songs about people who were ’nuttahs’ and life on the rock n roll (dole – “u-be-forteeee”). Even though they were supposed to fit into the pop spectrum next to ‘East 17’ they now remind me more of a dry run for acts like ‘the Streets’, ‘Audio Bullys’ and ‘Fierce Girl’. 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007

I will have to think long and hard about this one.

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 11. ‘Sunsonic (Juno Reactor/ the Flowerpot Men)’ “It’s a kind of loving, Push I keep shoving” Comprising of Ben ‘Juno Reactor’ Watkins and Adam Peters, this duo, which you might also know from the mid 1980s when they were ‘the Flowerpot Men’, could be described as sounding like a late 80s/early 1990s ‘Bodyrockers’, in the way that some of their records sound like a cross between ‘INXS’ and ‘the Beloved’ to me. Actually I guess the comparison would be nearer to ‘the Beloved’ especially since ‘Kind Of Loving’ was very much like ‘The Sun Rising’ and a record like indie-dance stomper ‘Roll My Body’ was similar to ‘Hello’. Unfortunately, I suppose in pop there’s only room for a ‘relatively small’ number groups to get noticed by the masses and ‘the Beloved’ were the ones who were ‘chosen’ to became famous, but that’s not to say that ‘Sunsonic’ were not as good as Marsh and Waddington’s records, they are both equally as great in my opinion. However, when ‘The Bodyrockers’ failed to follow up their massive Top 10 hit I hoped that they too had a copy of ‘Melting Down On Motor Angel’ as tracks like ‘Crazy’, ‘Driveaway’ and the aforementioned ‘Roll My Body’ would have given them another hit as Sunsonic’s sound seemed to have paved the way for their records almost 17 years latter. 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007

My family had a golden ‘Metro’ back in the 1980s, and it was a good little car. At the time only cheap small cars could be given away as the top prizes as there was a limit on the amount of money that could be given away by game shows. I remember that ITV licensed the format of the ‘$64,000 Question’ for a show with the comedian Bob Monkhouse and at the time this show broke the monetary barrier for quiz shows because it gave away an unprecedented £6,400.

Buy the album. His new album is superb and, after all that has happened to him, it is great to see him on the way back to his full health.

I think the record that I am thinking about is the ‘Fidelfatti And Ronnette’ release. I think the record cover was similar to Janet Jackson’s famous ‘Janet’ posse and I think ‘Fidelfatti’ had a bad mullet, though I might be getting mixed up here with Peter Slaghuis of ‘Hithouse’.

It is hard to say as that comment seems to be making a view about the most popular music of the era, whilst this is a ‘Forgotten Gems’ thread about records that are not as mainstream.

No, just ‘Northern’. I think there was some scandal involving Barry ‘Chuckle’. I think it was reported that he is a bit of a ‘ladies man’ and was having an affair with a married lady. Also I believe that there are about nine ‘Chuckle’ brothers and one ‘Chuckle’ sister in the family.

Did you used to watch the ‘Best of The Word’ show with Mark Lamarr, at about 6pm on weekdays? I think it ran a few nights a week, maybe Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The show was only about half an hour long and in addition to showing the ‘best bits’ of that weekend’s show, the show would also feature an unsigned bands slot. I think it was the ‘Luke I Love You’ that became a running joke on the show and would terrorise Mark at ‘unexpected’ moments. I think the song’s ‘lyrics’ went something like “la la la la laaa la,‘la la la la la, luke I love you”.

I saw this in HMV for £15.95. That is very good value for this collection. I thought it would be nearer to £50. I was wondering, however, if ‘ZTT Records’ has anything more to do with the ‘Stiff Records’ label. I was wondering who ‘Union Square Records were, as they are listed as the main license holders for these recordings.

Great news. A fabulous film with stunning performances by Prince, Morris Day and ‘the Time’.

Can you remember any other of his catchphrases apart from the ‘Crush A Grape’ one?

Yes, however it is funny because if we were in the mid-1990s, we would be seen as being very ‘uncool’ for liking any records by ‘Jefferson Airhead’. Great band name nevertheless, decent ‘Boing’ album from what I remember too.

Yes ‘the Tube’ was good, especially when they did their specials such as ‘A Midsummer’s Night Tube’. However, I would love to see a 1986 episode of ‘the Chart Show’ in full again, the one where you had ‘H.U.D.’ on the show. Actually I remember ‘Wired’ better than ‘the Tube’, even though I bought ‘the Tube’ book. I liked that show, especially for the great ‘Stomp’ theme tune recorded by ‘the Yes/No People’.

Sorry as I do not who that is. However as for ‘Creation Records’ I thought that Sony were bankrolling that label for many years since the mid 1990s and in reality it became just another ‘fake indie’ in a way similar to Sleeper’s ‘Indolent Records’.

Was the Fatima Mansions record really 1991? I’ve got that record on ‘Indie Top 20 volume 8’ with the KLF’s ‘Kylie Said To Jason’. I was sure that record came out a few years earlier in the era of ‘Snub TV’.

Lenny Kravitz was alright all those years ago, but personally I preferred Terence Trent D’arby (or Terence ‘Trout’ D’arby as they used to call him back in ‘Smash Hits’ days). Whatever happened to him?

Then again I suppose you would have to be about seven to find them funny in a non-ironic way, if you were to watch ‘Crackerjack’ or ‘Mike & Angelo’ again they would be as painful to watch, where once they would be rated by you as the funniest shows on television.

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 10. 'JC 001' (and ‘Ragga’ Music) “It’s a mix race thing, you’ll never understand but anyone is able if they really give a damn, lets talk true, me and all of you, amounts to much more than any one race crew” “Social Apartheid split it wide and then? No more ‘Nurnbergs’, not now nor never again” “Sick of the moans tell us stick to our own, well I’m already a genetic mixture and tone, a cultural collage, a mixed race in charge against one-colour montage I’m built to barge. Against a protected mentality, protect my family when? Will the fear disappear, never again!”. One time fastest rapper in the world (credited as such by ‘The Guinness Book of Records’ in the early 1990s before the emergence of superstars like ‘Twista’ et al) JC 001 first came to prominence on one of the tracks indie duo ‘Curve’ recorded for an early EP on David A. Stewart’s ‘Anxious Records’ label. After featuring on the song ‘Ten Little Girls’, JC 001 was retained by Stewart’s label for a solo career and joined ‘Londonbeat’, ‘the Starlings’ and the ‘Vegas’ singer Terry Hall on the roster. With the alternative press now focused on his talents, he released the anti-racism smash ‘Never Again’. Based around the brass refrain from The Special’s iconic number one hit called ‘Ghost Town’, JC OO1 rapped at about a million miles an hour on this brilliant record that I think could never be attempted on karaoke. It may have been easy to sing along in time to some of the sentences like ‘Some have stated I’m contaminated. I’m tainted by the tar brush what they must have hated. The way that I assimilated my family done created it’s a fusion picking power thing, they must have fainted’ but after that I guess if you had tried it you would just descend into a style of ‘rapping’ that was not a million miles from John Larkin’s ‘scatting’. After this attack on all of the worlds fascists, JC 001 moved into more romantic territory, well as romantic as you could get in a ragga record, and from using a sample of ‘the Specials’ he moved further back through ska history to base his record on another number one, this time piano melody from ‘Double Barrel’ for his ‘Cupid’ hit record. Did anyone else attempt his raps back in the day, or in fact other artists like ‘Snow’ or ‘Shabba Ranks’? 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007

Perhaps an American or Australian music lover? Re: ‘Wax’. If I am not mistaken I think ‘Wax’ actually featured Andrew Gold who was the original singer of the ‘Undercover’ song called ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’. I think I may have to find my copy of ‘American English’.

Good to see somebody else has that album by ‘The Lover Speaks’. I actually have the CD single for the original ‘No More I Love You's’ recording. As it is such a famous song, I wonder if this would be worth a few pounds now to other collectors.

I cannot think of any famous dance people who may have come from my school as it was ‘Northern Uproar’ rather than ‘Hardcore Uproar’.