Retro Acts - Not what they used to be

When retro isn’t as retro as you hope..
Aka the case of the missing band members

Retro music is big business, the various 70’s and 80’s festival do great business year on year. Inevitably a kind of saturation point arrives as the same artists appear year after year, festival after festival, the search then for new “old” artists has mixed results.

With many band having being inactive or disbanded for many years it’s probably unlikely that the likes of Rewind Festival will pay enough to tempt a band back together again. At best you might get just the lead singer – generally acceptable, sometimes very welcome. This is best illustrated in the case of Tom Bailey, ex Thompson Twins, its so good to see and hear those songs sung again but once the excitement has died down, you recall how visual a band the Thompson Twins and just what Alannah and Joe brought to the band, vocally and visually. Watch Tom singing Doctor Doctor last year



The worst scenario those in increasingly creeping out now.. bands performing under a name but not including the lead singer, or in some cases none of the original members at all.

An example of this flashed across my desk earlier today…a press release asking would I be interested in interviewing Hot Chocolate. Now at Just Music and in this blog we don’t mind a bit of retro so we delved a little deeper…we could chat with the lead singer Kennie Simons..

Now hang on wasn’t the lead singer called Errol Brown, he of shaved head and budgie smuggling trousers, thats him on the left..


This is Kennie Simons here on the right

Not entirely dissimilar are they?, now its not for me to suggest that Mr Simons has been stylised to be a lookalike for Mr Brown, I don’t know but will anyone point it out that it isn’t that silky voiced purveyor of You Sexy Thing.  Would you really know when they trotted out that this wasn’t the singer, wasn’t the voice that featured on all those glorious hits. Are you being conned? Should it be far clearer?

Fact is Errol left the band many years ago. Let’s be honest could you picture any other member of the band? In this case the band are actually, more or less, the actual band, would you know, or even care. The casual observer wants the original vocalist or else it’s just glorified Karaoke. Having seen Hot Chocolate at a couple of events, I would dare to suggest that the crowd were sure it was Errol..

Consider Odyssey – they of Native New Yorker, Going Back To My Roots and Use It Up Wear It Out – are also touring this year and take in the Lets Rocks shows around the country. Admittedly its very unlikely anyone will go to these shows expressly to see Odyssey but were I not to know better I would go and see them as they were classic songs of the era.
See Odyssey singing Looking for a way out..

The only trouble is dear reader that you, your mate and I may as well get up on stage and call ourselves Odyssey because the trio that will have nothing to do with the original hitmakers. Unfortunately original lead singer Lillian Lopez died in 2012 and had retired from music some years prior to that. Instead now it’s some bloke Steve Collazo (some family relation I understand) together with two twins (absolutely no relation).  Since 1990 The Flying Pickets have been performing with no original members in the band. Close your eyes and remember Only You, if you are of an age you can picture a couple of blokes surely, the one with the big sideburns and the big bald bloke…  I contend this does matter. OK Odyssey and The Flying Pickets are not the biggest pulls but would you be happy to go see Go West and find a couple of young dancers performing We Close Our Eyes instead? They do it because they can and because often nobody knows or indeed cares.

Its why you see mostly solo artists on these shows, as long as you have the singer you cant go far wrong. Katrina from Katrina and the waves, Clare Grogans Altered Images, the rest of the bands were after all largely just sleeperblokes (sorry for the mid 90’s reference there).

Occasionally legal issues mean you are alerted to the fact this band may not be the complete package. The Straits (who actually called it a day last summer) performed the music of Dire Straits, the name though tells you something is missing, most of the band in fact but predominantly for audiences sweat banded guitar hero Mark Knopfler. The Straits were one former member and two occasional members but at least you couldn’t say you weren’t warned.

It can also get a bit ridiculous.. two versions of skirt ripping Eurovision bothers Bucks Fizz are on the circuit…one is doing a 70 date tour this year…one isn’t.

Cheryl Baker, Jay Aston, Mike Nolan and Bobby G were Bucks Fizz and they had a stack of hits leaving behind their Euro beginnings. Much has happened since but the net effect is that Baker, Aston and Nolan are essentially Bucks Fizz but have to be called (deep breath...) Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Jay Aston formerly of Bucks Fizz. Just so you aren’t in any doubt.. Poor old Bobby it seems would cut off his nose to spite his face as he toddles around in Bobby G’s Bucks Fizz with his wife and two other revolving door singers.

The split in the UB40 camp and subsequent legal issues sees Ali Campbell, the undisputed voice of the band now being legally obliged to be billed as Ali Campbell - The Legendary Voice of UB40 reunited with Astro and Mickey, two other founding members of the band. Again two versions now battle for space on the bills but frankly, if it don’t say Ali Campbell then you aint going to hear those One In Ten and Red Red Wine vocals. Again clarity provided.

Am I too precious about my music, maybe, but I think, when paying what can be big money for some of these festivals we are entitled to authenticity around what and who are seeing and hearing. Some won’t care as I said early.. some just want to hear the songs, close their eyes and be transported back to their youth. Me, I want more than faceless karaoke.