During the recent podcast I mentioned that I am enjoying some great music from artists who had successful careers as part of a band back in the 80’s who then went on to have less commercial solo careers. Their star may have waned as the decade ended but their talent blossomed into the 90’s and beyond. I’m currently really enjoying “Realms Of Gold” by Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys. Made in 1994 it’s beautiful thing. He’s also made more albums as The Blow Monkeys. All of which deserve a listen. I can think of plenty of others but as this is now a forum I’ll put it out for discussion. 80s pop princes and princesses who put the glitter away and got serious when the 80’s ended…
When 80’s front men or women went solo….
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Stephen Duffy – Founder member of Duran Duran, Top 10 single in 1985.
The Lilac Time was better …
The Lilac Time at their best are better than anything.
One of their early gigs was in the refectory of the teacher training college associated with the university. I did the sound. There were only about 10 people in the audience, as Reading was full of cloth-eared idiots. I spent my ‘fee’ by taking them to the local chippy.
….and scraps for all.
I saw the them at Staffs Poly student union not long before Return to Yesterday came out. They were brill, probably not much more than 10 people there then either!
I’ve seen Duffy in concert more than any other artist (I’m a Duffy obsessive), and on several occasions there have been only a handful of people there. Yet Ed Sheeran packs out football stadiums?? When I saw him last year in Nottingham there were about a dozen of us watching him, so he asked us if there was anything we wanted him to play. I suggested Julie Christie, and a few songs later the bugger started it, and then stopped halfway through the first line saying it’s all he could remember!
Now … thinking about where the Student Union is at Reading Uni, the local chippy would probably be down Erleigh Road – the finest chips in the local area (or were) and the Chinese Take Away wasn’t bad either
Other way was I think only an Indian, but the Kebab Van out front was plentiful, greasy and cheap
It was in the canteen at Bulmershe teacher training college in Woodley, which merged with the university the following year. If you were thinking of making a pilgrimage, it’s not there any more, having burned down in 2013.
I’m pretty sure I took them to Mr Cod at Cemetery Junction.
A fine choice – the Mr Cod Chicken Fillet Burger is as good as KFC at half the price.
Used to work opposite in Berkshire Cycles – that was my Saturday and Sunday lunch sorted.
I virtually lived in the Granby Tavern for 3 years. Live music and beer, what more does a man need?
I’ll give that a listen… Thanks RD
Yes, Astronauts is one of my favourite albums of the 90s
Could never understand why The Lilac Time never became bigger, but then they were somewhat out of time in the late eighties and early nineties, not being an typical eighties “big drums” sounding band or indie enough for those that were into that sort of stuff. The albums are fewer and further between these days but they’re always worth hearing and there are many treasures to be found amongst them.
It’s a crap name. I never bothered with them as I assumed they were a sort of limp effete evolution of New Romantics. Probably wrong and totally unfair.
Try Keep Going. Or Looking for A Day In The Night. Or No Sad Songs. Or….anything.
You’re right about the name, and putting a monochrome picture of a shagged-out bungalow on the cover of their first album didn’t help. Not exactly meeting us half-way.
@twang – have a listen to this one.
As Hilary mentioned on the podcast – Alison Moyet!
Definitely. I do need to investigate her solo stuff.
Essex is great. The album – I can’t speak for the place, I’ve only been to Stansted.
Essex – only 9 of our 12 districts are in tier 3 (11 of 14 if you include the unitaries)! Maybe not the best slogan, but I’ve lived in Essex for more than 20 years and it’s a more varied, more historic, and more scenic place than it often gets credit for.
This. It’s the north bank of the Thames, roughly south of a line starting at Brentwood (TOWIE Central), that gets Essex its bad rap. It actually has the longest coastline of any county in Britain, although admittedly most of it’s mud.
No, that’ll be Cornwall surely..? 1,086km followed by Essex (905km) and Devon (819km).
Wikipedia says ‘by some measures’, there are gazillions of creeks and inlets. So it’s probably people who have walked through all the mud who measured it.
This was demonstrated in a Royal Institute Christmas Lecture a few years back. If you measure the circumference of GB with a yard stick, you get one mileage. Measure it with a foot-long ruler, you get a bigger mileage. Measure it in inches and it is even bigger. Keep going and it becomes infinite.
It’s like a fractal.
Does that mean the boundary around anything you care to name is infinite because you could never stop finding smaller distances to add the measurements you already have? Woahhhhhh!
THERE ARE SEVEN LEVELS
Once we’ve stuck it up Johnny Foreigner, we can go back to measuring our infinitely gritty, jaggedy, Great British coastline in links and rods, as nature intended, and not in pesky smoothed-off rounded-up Eurometres.
I love the place. I notice the “reputation” isn’t keeping hordes of people wanting to move to where I live.
Don’t go there…full of the virus according to Matt Hancock
I used to often find myself in the same lunchtime Post Office queue as Dr Robert. We used to talk music. I was always too polite to discuss the Blow Monkeys.
Here’s one 1980s front-person (Eddi Reader, ex-Fairground Attraction), singing a song written by another (Boo Hewerdine, ex-The Bible). I have some very talented friends.
“Tsk, Dr Robert” you could have said. “These queues are dreadful, you know it doesn’t have to be this way….”
“Here we are again, Wait!-ing”
She was only a sub-postmaster’s daughter.
But she knew a surprising amount of stuff about fish too
I’ve seen both the Blow Monkeys and Dr Robert live in more recent years and they were both superb. In fact the Blow Monkeys might have been better than in their late eighties heyday.
They were one of my favourite bands back in the 80s/early 90s and they were one of the bands that I obsessively collected all their records, promos and everything. Alas, I flogged it all when I switched from vinyl to CD…sigh!
Does Mick Anker still do that wobbly head thing when he plays his bass? I saw them in Liverpool once and between songs Dr. Robert picked up a guitar and played a note perfect intro to Purple Haze, before saying to the audience “I bet you never expected that from a puff in a pop band, did you?”
Great story. He’s clearly a talented guy. During a Style Council listening party on Twitter he casually dropped in that he played fairlight on one of the albums as he was the only one who knew how to use it…
“Wild River” was my favourite discovery this year. Managed to find a blue vinyl copy on ebay for a tenner….
One of their albums since they reformed was released as a special edition with a bonus disc of Dr. Robert playing acoustic versions of some of their best songs. I think it’s Feels Like a New Morning.
Back in about 87 or 88, when I was well into collecting everything they’d released, I could only get hold of the reissued Limping For a Generation album that came out in 87. I never came across a copy of the original 84 release anywhere in the record shops of Barnsley or Sheffield (my stomping ground was very limited in those days, but there were plenty of record shops/stalls back then). Then a mate of mine told me he had joined the record library within Barnsley library. I think you had to pay a nominal amount to lend an album, 10p or something, but then you could take it home and tape it. So I filled my boots up. I very quickly owned tapes of all the Pink Floyd albums for starters.
But on about the 7th or 8th visit, and it was small enough for you to look through every album in 10 minutes or so, I saw it. The album I had been searching for, the original issue of Limping For a Generation!! After first considering whether I could peel the little stickers off and substitute it for my reissued version (it wasn’t in great condition and had writing on it, so I wouldn’t have been happy with it) I started to wonder firstly why on Earth the library had a copy of what, even only a few years after its release, was a pretty obscure album, but mainly how come I’d never noticed it before. I went through every rack every time, so I won’t have missed it. The only answer could possibly be that it was the most popular album at Barnsley library. Or that a bloke borrowed it and kept forgetting to take it back, one or the other. It was several years before I got my own copy though, so it continued to puzzle and annoy me for some time yet.
Feels Like A New Morning is a fabulous album and might well be my favourite. I think they are possibly even better in their more recent reformation stage than they were first time around. I discovered them supporting Lloyd Cole and The Commotions at Hammersmith Palais in Dec 84 and was definitely interested but they really have just got better and better.
Yes, Mick Anker’s head was still a bobbing! I also didn’t realise what a good guitarist Dr Robert is. Very impressive.
By the way the Eddi Reader tune is really lovely
Edit: I went and searched Patience of Angel’s as something told me Justin Currie had covered it. Well he was there when Boo did it.
Patience of Angels is so culturally significant, it had a Radio 4 documentary made about it.
It’s an alternative National Anthem in Cambridge.
Love that song and love Eddi Readers voice but prefer Boo singing it.
Have to agree. Eddi is great but Boo’s own version of that song is a notch higher.
The Bible were a top band how they never broken through and became successful is beyond belief. The debut album is beautiful.
As is this
The album is called Walking The Ghost Back Home
InterestingDull story. The remastered & expanded version of WTGBH recreated the original track listing on the first vinyl disc. That is to day, ended side 2 with ‘Red Flag’, a song so bad that it quickly became a standing joke.Nobody could find the master tape of Red Flag, so that one track on the remastered LP was cut from my spare, unplayed, original 1986 vinyl. I blew the fluff off the stylus, first. Any lingering crapness is down to the song.
David Sylvian, of course.
This is so utterly brilliant:
There’s a Twitter group I engage with with a couple of huge Sylvian fans. He completely passed me by so he’s going on my to do list..
There’s no artist whose musical career has fascinated me as much as Sylvian’s. Tin Drum, Dead Bees On A Cake, Flux & Mutability and Blemish are my particular favourites.
Thanks. Who needs new when I have so much untapped old…
Just had Gone to Earth on last night. So many of his albums feel like diving into a deep pool – total immersion. They seem to go on for ever (in a very good way).
Does James Grant count: front man for Love and Money, later a rather more cerebral experience. His only problem being only room for one Jackie Leven….
Of course he counts. Another one that escaped my small circle of reference but I’ll give him a go thanks.
From the same album, Does It All Add Up To Nothing?
Feeling weepy? You will be.
Bill Drummond’s album anyone? I like it.
Nick Heyward has done some belters.
Ah Nick. The loveliest man in pop. So many great dolo albums. I recommend “The Secret Garden” with India Dupre it’s one if his best…
Spot on about Nick, just a great pop songwriter
I was going to suggest Nick Heyward. His solo albums have been consistently excellent.
As for Drummond’s album, it’s wonderfully eccentric isn’t it. Julian Cope is Dead is just brilliant. And Goin’ Back in his Scottish accent has to be up there with Dusty and The Byrds. But I reckon he could have had a hit with I Want That Girl.
I’m a big fan/collector of Drummond/The KLF and only this morning I received a Blu Ray that I didn’t know existed until yesterday. It’s called Best Before Death: A Film About Bill Drummond. It’s a feature length documentary with about three hours of extra stuff. I think it’s just about his more recent artistic adventures/crackpot ideas, rather than a full biography, but I’m expecting it to be entertaining, cos he’s never anything less.
I think the drude wot did Peggy Suicide and several more crackers merits more than a passing mention on a post about his ex-manager, so I say let us salute Julian H Cope..
As has been said, some excellent albums amongst Nick Heyward’s catalogue but From Monday To Sunday is easily my favourite and although I liked the first solo album a lot when it came out its sound feels slightly dated now. Despite all that, both albums still get a lot of play in my house.
Terry Hall’s Laugh and Home albums are diamonds in the 90s rough.
I think the two albums you mentioned are the best albums of his career. As much as I love the singles by The Specials, I’ve never really been that bothered about their albums. Home, produced by/co-written with Ian Broudie, is one of my favourite albums. Broudie wheeled him out for the encore at a Lightning Seeds gig at the Concorde in Brighton in 94 or 95, to sing Sense, and it was terribly exciting!
Home is fantastic. Great songs with a non-fussy production. He had Les Pattinson, (Bunnymen) Craig Gannon (Aztec Camera, Bluebells, Smiths) and Chris Sharrock (Icicle Works, La’s) in his band too at that time. For some reason I never brought Laugh, must rectify that.
Laugh’s great as well, but not quite as good as Home. Forever J is one of my absolute favourite songs. I was excited when I learned that Stephen Duffy co-wrote the best song (according to me!) on Laugh, Sonny and Her Sister.
I saw Bruce Foxton & The Rhythm Sisters at Seale Hayne college in either 1988 or 1989. I don’t recall much at all about the performance. Audience would have been 100-200 tops. We didn’t get many high profile acts there.
As mentioned by @retropath2, no list, no category is ever completer without a reference or link to Jackie Leven, there maybe have been better but I’ve yet to come across them..
“yes I am lying in the ground but my lips are still moving” Osip Mandelstam
Sylvian it is then. He seems to be the only candidate. @Gary. The first day is the most group thing he’s ever done. No?
Not quite sure what you mean, Mr B. He’s always a-collaborating. I’d suggest this as perhaps his very best song:
I tracked down all Sylvian’s collaborations a couple of years ago. Some are sublime, others are amongst the worst things I have ever heard!
I thought I’d add a couple more of mine as I’m going to make a Spotfy playlist (sorry Mr Bellows). First up Roddy Frame. He really found himself again after Aztec Camera lost their way. Surf is beautiful
The genius that is Roland Orzabal was technically solo when he made “Raoul and the Kings of Spain”. It contains some belters. This is “Sorry”
This thread uncannily has brought together a load of my favourite artists who occupy the same shelf on one of my CD cabinets! Another on there that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Chris Difford.
Squeeze, as everybody knows, have released loads of fantastic singles, but album wise I far prefer Difford’s solo albums to any Squeeze album. If you haven’t heard them and you’re a fan of Stephen Duffy you’ll love them, as some of the songs are very similar to Duffy songs in structure and vocally. In fact, I played a couple to my wife once and she thought it was Duffy.
I saw Difford do an excellent show at a small social club in Farsley last year. It was. A tiny little venue and I was sat about two feet in front of him, so when he finished I asked him if there are any more solo albums in the pipeline, but he said all the focus was on Squeeze for now (I imagine he normally gets asked the other way round!). But if you like this song you should have a listen to his solo albums, cos they’re fab. Start with The Last Temptation of Chris, of which this is the first track. He released a boxed set of his solo albums a couple of years ago, which also features contributions from Boo Hewerdine and Gary Clark (from Danny Wilson), both of whom also fit the OP’s bill).
I can attest that Chris Difford’s solo albums are indeed fab.
Glenn Tillbrook’s are pretty good ‘n all.
But nothing by either is better than any Squeeze album.
Oh, I dunno – I’d say only East Side Story and Some Fantastic Place are faultless Squeeze albums. And Singles 45s & Under, if comps are allowed.
Those two are certainly the best, but the only ones I regard as substandard are Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti, which is stymied by a horrible, dated 80’s production job, and Domino, which suffered because Difford and Tilbrook were by that time not on speaking terms (mostly due to Chris’s drink problem).
Chris Difford’s first solo album might be my favourite but The Last Temptation is excellent too. I think they might be better than Squeeze albums too, except Ridiculous from about 1996 or so is brilliant.
This 80s frontman did some decent tunes when he went solo. I wonder what became of him?
“Chapter 6: James dons a high-vis jacket and pisses on a war monument”
He became … no, as you were, was always … a racist, but, to be fair, his groups’ 20 U.S. No. 1 singles, the top 5 45s in one single week on Billboard, and 17 U.K. No. 1 singles … oh wait, I got the wrong group with no hits from a shite generation.
I ask you, what are the chances!
Oh DD, where were you back in the days* when I actually needed something to set my watch by?
(*the 80s, funnily enough)
Maybe not an 80s Pop Prince with all the glitter, but The Chords did manage a couple of Top Of The Pops appearances.
Chris Pope strove out on his own under both his own name and the re-badged Chords UK.
Small audiences in small venues? Yes.
But still making a glorious noise
I’ll do the obligatory “I can’t believe we’ve got this far and no-one’s mentioned” comment.
Mark Hollis.
Or Ian McNabb.
Thing he’s going through one of his Facebook bans at the moment.
Oh Ian McNabb…so fantastic as a singer, such a git of a human being. I have to admit he’s become more and more of a dilemma…what’s the latest social media spat about then? Doesn’t he have a manager or someone to say, “Ian mate, reign it in a bit…”
@nick-l
I don’t know what he’s done this time but you are right…he’s an arse.
Just had a quick look at his facebook and dear oh dear, he’s an anti-vaxxer. Of course he is.
There really is a list of Arsehole Characteristics that such people work their way through, carefully ticking each box.
Eg the DUP. It’s not really necessary for them to have any sort of position on climate change, but of course they’re deniers.
“Have you thought this through? Looked at the evidence?”
“No, it’s just the sort of thing that people like us are supposed to think. Consistency is everything. No surrender… except to global warming”
He is. Ridiculous.
Last time I heard he was living with his Mother so I doubt a Manager is an option.
Great musician.
Complete TWAT on social media.
I was just scrolling down and thinking I’d mention McNabb about 2 seconds before getting to your comment. We spoke about McNabb on another thread a couple of weeks ago, but for anybody that didn’t see that, and just know him for his arseholeness, don’t let that put you off and go and listen to Truth or Beauty, Head Like a Rock or Merseybeast immediately. or even his most recent album, Our Future in Space.
@paul-wad
I’ve not listened to Truth and Beauty in years. Loved it on release.
If you like Dr Robert’s music you might enjoy the three “Monks Road Social” albums.
http://monksroadsocial.com/
Or Paddy McAloon. Although he seemed to realise some years later that his solo album (I Trawl The Megahertz) was actually a Prefab Sprout album all along.
Or at least Universal did…
See also Steve Winwood’s putative first solo album John Barleycorn Must Die. Island had different ideas…
Not many wimmins, it seems. Struggling to find but I guess there’s a need to find some.
Go-Gos produced one decent record from Jane Wiedlin. (And there was the other one, too, the lead singer)
Does Goodbye Mr Mckenzie to Garbage sort of count?
Eurythmics certainly gave Ms Lennox a launch.
Transvision Vamp to Wendy James? (well I liked her Elvis album)
Good point. Natalie Merchant could lead the charge, I guess.
@thecheshirecat was just about to mention Natalie -with 10,000 Maniacs she released one of my favourite albums In my tribe and then solo released lots of excellent albums Ophelia being top of the pile.
Cards on the table…I still really like Jane Wiedlin’s Rush Hour” from about 1988, a zippy pop song that sounded great on FM radio.
It’s ace!
Julianne Regan’s solo Mice project deserved more notice:
I thought I was the only person who bought that!
My fave All About Eve album is Ultraviolet, which must have sold at least 5 copies.
I used to have that as well. Quite a thin album but that is a great tune. A creditable and unjustly unsuccessful attempt to hitch on to the Britpop bandwagon, even to the extent of having a song with Prozac in the title.
I have one of the other four copies then and yes, it’s also my favourite AAE album. “Freeze” is incredible; was very lucky to see them play this at Manchester SU during their brief reunion period.
Oh, deemed essential mention of Lonestar to Maria McKee
Lone Justice.
Whoops, I stand corrected. Elementary error.
Annie Lennox.
Yes. I’ve said it.
For some reason, I don’t quite understand, she doesn’t get the credit she deserves. Touch is a superb, very eighties, album. Solo, she started with Diva, which was putting her in the Aunt Sally role straight away. She took her time, prioritising home life, motherhood and causes close to her heart. Her second was an album of covers. Eight years later, she released her third, and best, called Bare. The cover photo is stark, frankly displaying her as she was at the time, middle aged. The songs are very personal too. At times, it feels too intense.
There is no doubting the woman has a marvellous voice. She is much easier to admire than to love. But she has never been anything other than herself. She gets her priorities right and there is more to her than Pop music. Respect.
I get that Eurythmics sold loads of records but I don’t actually think The Tourists get enough credit. They had a small handful of decent singles. I do think Annie Lennox is hard to love though. The austere, veeeery serious and slightly defensive interview stance probably doesn’t help. I once saw her interviewed and it was just stern, arrogant and dismissive. Very off-putting.
You just have to focus on the music. Interviews are minefields for someone who only wants to sing.
I heard one of her Christmas tunes in a shop recently – she sings too bloody loud.
The Eu’s had some spiffing tunes though.
The EU’s got lots of spiffing tunes? Tell me more!
Is it Ursula von der Leyen singing “I Wish It Could be Brexit Every Year” to the tune of Wizzard’s “I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day”?
Whatever happened to the rather distinctive singer from that bunch of indie losers from some made up volcanic island?
Perhaps she merits a *cough* post?
I suppose distinctive is one word for her…
Yeah…
Strasbourg City Limits
Pass The Tu Schengen Peng
I wanna live like Common Agricultural Policy people…
I’ll get me beret.
Judging by the one and only concert video I once watched, Annie Lennox doesn’t project much in the way of personality live. Despite the kooky costumes of the backing singers etc. it became a rather dull affair after about 3 or 4 songs. A magnificent voice, but strangely lacking in presence.
I’ve often said there are 3 voices I just can’t get past. I could even put this in the 101 thread
Annie Lennox
Freddie Mercury
Michael Stipe
I’ll get my coat…..
Weller is deserving of his place in this thread. After The Style Council he was lost, a busted flush. Not so as he reinvented himself again. I lost interest after Heliocentric but have gone back into his back catalogue (there’s so much) following Gary Crowley pushing “On Sunset” on his Radio London show. It is by a mile my favourite album.of this year and for many years. What a man… This is “More” which sounds like he’s channeling Lou Rawls…
It’s a fine thing. PW has been basically doing what he wants to for years – Heliocentric was probably the point when he said “right this is the sort of stuff I’m listening to at the moment. Let’s make an album like it”
There was a thread a while back talking about late period Weller. Wake Up The Nation is ripe for re-discovery and Sonik Kicks the best he’d done for years