Yazoo- The 25th Aniversary

This year Yazoo celebrates its 25th anniversary. In 1982, they released their biggest hits "Only You", "Don't Go" and the album 'Upstairs At Eric's'. Their 'Bad Connection' site has recently updated and contains new sections and some information which has been added.

http://www.yazoo.org.uk/

Black

Black was a British group which was formed in Liverpool, England in the early 80’s.The main figure of this unit was the singer/ songwriter Colin Vearncombe. In 1987 they would score on of the biggest hits of 80’s music, the “Wonderful Life”.

The first incarnation of Black, consisting of Vearncombe and a cast of anonymous session players, debuted with the single "Human Features" on the local Rox label. The record quickly sold out, and soon Vearncombe was approached by the Eternal label, operated by fellow Liverpudlians Pete Wylie and Wah! With the addition of ex-Last Chant keyboardist Dave Dickie and bassist Jimmy Sangster, Black became a true band, and soon issued their sophomore effort "More Than the Sun".

The trio eventually came to the attention of WEA, which funded Black's third single "Hey Presto". The record stiffed, however, and when an orchestral rendition of "More Than the Sun" met a similar fate, Black were dropped from their contract. Some 18 months of writing and searching for a new record deal followed before Vearncombe was contacted by the tiny Ugly Man label, which issued the minor hit "Wonderful Life." Soon A&M came calling, and in 1987 Black scored a UK Top Ten hit with "Sweetest Smile" the follow-up, a reworked "Wonderful Life," was also successful.
The group's debut LP, also titled 'Wonderful Life', appeared in late 1987, and was well-received throughout Europe. Three years after their biggest hit, the group finally resurfaced in 1991 with an eponymously-titled LP featuring cameos from Robert Palmer and Sam Brown. Black soon left A&M, and after teaming with producer Mike Hedges issued ‘Are We Having Fun Yet?’ on their own mail order label Nero Schwartz in 1993.
After a prolonged hiatus, Vearncombe returned in 1999 to release a string of critically acclaimed recordings under his own name. In 2005 though he returned to the band format and name to release a new recording entitled ‘Between Two Churches’
Update:
The lead singer Colin Vearncombe sadly passed away after being in coma after a car accident. He was 53 years old.

Instant Hit: Informatics- Accident In Paradise

Australian band Informatics released "Accident in Paradise" in 1985 as their second single on Last Chance Records in Germany. The same song was reissued in 2003 by Punx.

Radiohead- In Rainbows

'In Rainbows' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download, and is scheduled to be released on 3 December 2007 as a "discbox" with a second CD of additional material. By the day of its release, In Rainbows had sold 1.2 million copies as digital downloads.

http://www.blogger.com/www.inrainbows.com/

WAW: Kylie Minogue- Two Hearts

Kylie is going to release her 10th album 'X' this Autumn. The single "Two Hearts" is a little warm up for the album. Here some rocky Kylie with some Goldfrapp and Madonna impressions.

Hooverphonic- The President of LSD Golfclub

Hooverphonic have released their sixth studio album 'The President of LSD Golfclub' on 7, October and the first single "Expedition Impossible" was released in September. The album is rumored to contain some of the additional songs composed for 'No More Sweet Music' that did not make it to the final release.

Foreign Press

After the initial explosion of punk, and the cut and thrash of that genre, bands began to find there own direction and, occasionally, a name change would help to disassociate them from their original intentions, Emergency were one of those bands, and early in 1979 changed their name to Foreign Press, (999's single Emergency gave the final push, although as a band name, 'Emergency' lived on, in the shape of a Belfast based punk outfit) the name the band eventually settled on was Foreign Press, and with this name change came a first EP 'Downpour' on Streets Ahead, (SA1) recorded at Rochdale's Cargo Studios and Co produced by Joy Division's Rob Gretton.

Streets Ahead began life as a small record shop in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, (42 Lloyd Street) during the early 70's, owned and ran by Bob and Jane Jefferson, their interest in music was deep, and not just content with selling vinyl, they wanted to be involved in the whole process, initially by promoting gigs for the Youth club night at the nearby Bowdon Vale Social Club, as well as Foreign Press, bands such as Joy Division, The Fall, The Freshies, V2, The Passage, The Fast Cars all helped make the Youth club nights pass into legend. Bob also wanted to get involved with recording, and the unsigned Foreign Press took up his offer to record (the Chiswick label had been making their intents known about signing the band, but their constant stalling prompted the band to sign to Streets Ahead for a single deal)

It was around this time that a couple of the band members invested in a large ALTEC PA, not only for the use of the band, but also to hire out to anyone willing to part with the cash, and as many bands rehearsed at TJD's, the word soon spread, Joy Division took up the offer on more than one occasion, (The above Bowdon Vale gig being a prime example) this kept everyone busy, when not gigging themselves, we were out live mixing for other bands
Foreign Press, as Emergency before them, played the various infamous Manchester Venues of the period, so much so, it was remarked that "Tony Wilson has had Emergency/Foreign Press play the Factory so many times, I thought they were the House band".