Jeff Wayne - Eve Of The War (Ben Liebrand Remix)

Sorry it's been a week or so since the last post, and with only one year of the 80s left too. Hopefully I can put up a couple of early 90s tracks before this week is out. Before that here's some FUN in the form of Ben Liebrand's'Eve Of The War' remix. The boisterous borrowing of Inner City's 'Big Fun' bass hook and the bleepy middle eights really win it for me.

Jeff Wayne - Eve Of The War (Ben Liebrand Remix)

BONUS FUN: Hadn't heard it for many years but the London Boys 'Requiem' also rools - grandiose and joyous Euro Disco - and derivative as it may be from Cerrone and their own work for Divine and even Hazell Dean, a very enjoyable SAW production at a time when they were running on empty re the likes of Sonia and Jason Donovan.

The London Boys - Requiem

Greg Phillinganes - Behind The Mask

I was quite interested in the story behind this song when I finally discovered that the impressive original was from Yellow Magic Orchestra's 'Solid State Survivor' LP. The version I knew was the more succesful cover by Eric Clapton in 1986. The link between the two is Phllinganes who, as I understand it, did some session work on the track for YMO before then working with Michael Jackson on his next two albums. Phillinganes thought the track would be ideal for Jackson and you can hear why - it would fit very well on 'Thriller' had it only been an original composition. Undeterred, Phillinganes re-recorded it himself with Jacko supposedly supplying backing vocals - if these are the vocoded parts then kudos (the "hee-heees" are surely Greg's own). Clapton took the song on himself when Phillinganes sessioned for him soon after.

While the YMO original is great I find the vocoder voice obscures the lyrics too much. Not a problem here, with Phillinganes belting it out quite admirably. The music itself is, shall we say, 'faithful' to the original but that's also a plus. The song went on to be covered a few more times including by The Human League but I think Greg's version is the best so here it is.

Greg Phillinganes - Behind The Mask

Kiki Dee - Star

It seems widely acknowledged that 1981 was a particuarly fine year for pop music and I had at least six great tracks I wanted to put up here for the inaugural '81 entry, from Family Fodder to Dollar to The Associates and more.

But somehow Bradford's finest, Kiki Dee, with her last top 40 hit ever on her own gets the nod. I think it came from my recent acquisition of a 100 80s Hits compilation spanning five CDs and only already having around a third to a quarter of the songs was actually good odds.

By chance it was cued up just after Kylie's 'Wow' (which I like far more than I probably should do given it's generic approach and yet it's feelgood quality and production actually seem better balanced than many of her other hits, and I'd deny it's any more 'bloodless' than them either) and the cheery piano intros are strikingly similar.



With Disco v1.0 supposedly in it's death throes 'Star' may have felt like a throwback at the time but on the sinking crest of the mainstream wave and sandwiching Fame's film and subsequent TV series it fits like a glove. The production is both spangly and solid. Dee's vocals are cool, confident and carefree but with the chorus, layers of voice conspire to reach a pitch difficult for anyone to hit on their own. And if that wasn't fiendish (or maybe foolish - think of the missed karaoke opportunities) enough there's a marvellous key change towards the end - I guess it was (still) the style at the time. By which point cutesy horns tootle in time to the euphoric affirmation...we're halfway to French House. Perhaps one day some buffoon will get their hands on this for a glitzy 00s chart-smashing revamp but they have and you could do a lot worse.

Kiki Dee - Star

Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus / Lio - You Go To My Head

"Gimme a hoooo, if ya got your funky bus fare..."

Frankie Smith's vocal performance on 'Double Dutch Bus' is roughly as entertaining as what you hear (not being a test) on 'Rapper's Delight' but it's not until the "izz" infix lingo is introduced after 2 minutes that the track really hits the spot. Much sampled over the years since including on Bomb The Bass 'Beat Dis' and Missy Elliott's 'Gossip Folks'. Without this vocal gimmick Smith and Bloom's disco backtrack is fairly ordinary and even feels overlong after only 5 minutes but in it's rightful context kicking off lengthy disco sessions you can appreciate it's feelgood factor a lot more. Too bad they didn't make more use of that steel drum clang at the very beginning, repeating it later on or even incorporating a melodic sequence based on it to ice the cake.

Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus



BONUS: Lio sounds Japanese to me! But this enigmatic Belgian-Portugese girl fronts a rather good disco/pop album in the form of her eponymous 1980 debut. I have yet to investigate beyond this but 'You Go To My Head' is a brief but enchanting number - OMD synths quivering underneath her pleasant if vague romantic tribute while Debussyian strings lap forth occasionally. Short and sweet.

Lio - You Go To My Head