RetroPop Magazine - Issue 1

2021 REVIEWED

Our TOP 20 albums of the year ranked

RETRO REVIVAL

Ones to watch

08

PREVIEWS

ABBA

Sweden’s bestloved supergroup embark on their biggest journey yet as we get the scoop on their ‘Voyage’ residency

David Bowie

Marking the late Starman’s 75th birthday, the Bowie estate unveils pop-up locations, reissues and new music

Janet Jackson

Damita Jo gets up close and personal with a documentary special on her life and career

Madonna

10 11 12 14 15

The Queen of Pop launches a career-spanning reissue campaign as she celebrates 40 years atop the charts

Steps

Claire, Faye, H, Lee and Lisa have the summer of all summers planned to mark their 25th anniversary

Bananarama

There’s no sign of a cruel summer with girl group royalty Bananarama looking back on four decades of hits

16 20

New Music

A look at what’s to come from Bryan Adams, Gabrielle, Avril Lavigne, Gary Kemp, Róisín Murphy, Waterboys and more...

Tours

A return to live music from Anastacia, Melanie C, Elton John, Gary Numan and more...

RETRO: REVIVAL

REVIEWS

90 94

Albums

Our verdict of new albums from David Bowie, Gorillaz, JLS, Matt Goss, Belinda Carlisle, Tears For Fears and Starsailor

DVDs

The lastest DVD releases and collector’s box sets from Saint Etienne, Depeche Mode and Cliff Richard

Ones To Watch

See who’s going to be lighting up the charts this year: BAYLI, Darin, Zella Day, Yola and more...

Little Boots

With a new album on the way and a spot in the ABBA ‘Voyage’ band, Little Boots has plenty to look forward to

PROFILES

Get to know rising stars Aimée and Asher Monroe via the tracks of their years on pages 81 & 89

Westlife

Ireland’s premier boyband are flying into a new era with their 12th studio album ‘Wild Dreams’ and summer tour

Tears For Fears

Tears For Fears are stronger than ever with their long-awaited comeback LP ‘The Tipping Point’

22 26 42 48 54

Matt Goss Former Bros heartthrob Matt Goss goes back to his with his new album ‘The Beautiful Unknown’ Soft Cell Soft Cell have something to say with their first album in two decades, ‘*Happiness Not Included’

Kim Wilde

Pop don’t stop for ‘80s icon Kim Wilde, as she digs deep in her musical vault for her new ‘Greatest Hits Tour’

7082 60 64

Marcella Detroit

From Shakespears Sister to solo superstar, Marcella Detroit looks back on a life in the spotlight

The Fizz

Four decades on from their iconic Eurovision win, The Fizz are planning to celebrate

RETRO POP

CREDITS

2022 Preview Special • Issue 1 Irresistible Ltd., 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE

Retro Pop

Established April 2020 retropopmagazine.com

@RetroPopMag

Editor

Connor Gotto connor.gotto@retropopmagazine.com

Designer Matt Dettmar magazinedesigner.co.uk

Contributors

Sarah Bull Christian Guiltenane Ross Mondon

Cover Images

ABBA © ABBA Voyage

All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected.

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Media packs available on request. Please direct enquiries to ads@retropopmagazine.com

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All contents © 2021 Irresistible Ltd. or published under license. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Irresistible Ltd. (company number 13729328) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, accurate at the time of going to press. Irresistible Ltd. cannot accept any responsibilities for errors or inaccuracies in such information.

LINER NOTES

‘Music makes the people come together,’ Madonna sang on her 2000 hit single – a statement that’s become more significant than ever over the past two years...

From Friday nights at Sophie EllisBextor’s Instagram Live Kitchen Discos to rediscovering classic albums over on Twitter with Tim Burgess, the power of pop has brought fans closer than ever before.

During unprecedented times, stars worldwide masterminded new ways to connect – via social media, livestreams and virtual gigs – and in September, the focus was on London as ABBA launched one of the most successful comebacks of all time: ‘Voyage’.

Along with their first album in 40 years, the group announced a revolutionary concert experience at the ABBA Arena in east London, beginning May 27, and it’s so exciting to have their incredible ABBAtars cover our launch issue. Aren’t they stunning!

They lead our 2022 preview as we look forward to the next 12 months and exciting new campaigns celebrating true icons – David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Bananarama, Steps, to name a few – along with plenty of new music and a return to the live stage.

If life begins at 40, then there’s surely lots to come from Tears For Fears, Soft Cell, Kim Wilde and The Fizz – all of whom are celebrating the milestone – as we catch up to look back over their extraordinary careers and preview their new projects.

While embracing the past, Retro Pop is a celebration of the enduring influence of pop music, and in this issue we preview the ones to watch in 2022 that are bringing classic sounds bang up to date and keeping the spirit of pop music alive.

Who better to catch up with than Little Boots? Having rocketed into the charts in 2009 with her monster hit Remedy, the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is preparing to release a brand new album while rehearsing as part of ABBA’s band for their live shows – of which she offers a very special insight.

It’s so exciting to finally share this debut issue with you. Retro Pop started life online in April 2020 out of a love for pop music and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s come on board and joined us over the past 18 months. Your support means so much to all of us and I hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Now, let the voyage begin!

A NEW BEGINNING

ABBA stopped the world in its tracks with the announcement of ‘Voyage’, the band’s first new music in four decades, from the observation deck of the ArcelorMittal Orbit at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, and fans worldwide will once again look to the city when, in the spring, they premiere the ‘ABBA Voyage’ digital concert experience.

“We were in London three years ago, I said to Björn, ‘So you think it’s very clever if we try to tour this thing?’ Because it’s technically, immensely complicated,” says Benny Andersson. “It’s the screens, the sound, all the lights...

“I said why don’t we do it here? ‘Well there’s no arena,’ we said – and I said, ‘We can build one. London is the town.”

ABBAtars

The groundbreaking venture is the work of Industrial Light & Magic, the company founded by movie mogul George Lucas, and will feature digital recreations of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

“People have often talked about whether you can create either people who have lived in the past, or people when they were younger, and we actually create ABBA in their prime, 1979,” says ILM’s Ben Morris.

“We are creating them as digital characters. We will then be using performance capture techniques to animate them and perform them and make them look perfectly real, and that stuff starts first of all with the present-day ABBA. We did some performance capture on them and that’s formed the basis for the whole of the project, the backbone.”

The group reunited for five weeks in London to record footage for the shows, sporting motion capture suits and performing each song in the set in front of 160 cameras, “capturing every mannerism, every emotion, the soul of their beings”.

“They performed every song in this show to perfection,” says Benny’s son Ludvig Andersson, who serves as producer on the ‘ABBA Voyage’ show. “That becomes the great magic of this endeavour –that when you see this show, it is not a version of, or a copy of, or four people pretending to be ABBA. It is actually them.”

The Final Voyage

It’s a massive undertaking and the first of its kind, with four of ILM’s international studios –between 500 and 1,000 artists – collaborating on the project.

Producer Svana Gisla explains: “The challenge has always been merging the digital with the physical, to make digital ABBA come into the physical world, and for the boundaries between those two worlds to disappear.

“Our director Baillie Walsh had to crack that code, and as simple as it sounds, he did it with light. Light is the connector, light and audio and this environment is going to be a unique space to be in, which is neither digital or physical.”

Ahead of the release of their chart-topping ninth album, Benny and Björn confirmed ‘Voyage’ will be ABBA’s final full-length project, as the group closes the book on its recording career for good.

But with a concert that can play for decades to come, ‘ABBA Voyage’ adds yet another chapter to the band’s incredible legacy and signals a bright future for Sweden’s best-loved supergroup.

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC

Little Boots has assured us that “no one will be disappointed” by the ‘ABBA Voyage’ setlist.

The singer-songwriter aka Victoria Hesketh will play keyboards/synthesizers and provide backing vocals as part of the show’s 10-piece live band, also starring Klaxons guitarist James Righton, and she’s offered a teaser of the “revolutionary project”.

Insisting the group’s selections will “please everybody,” she beams: “There are two songs that are some of my absolute favourites that I wouldn’t expect them to include, but they are, so that’s really exciting!

“They definitely are going to tick all the ‘ABBA Gold’ boxes as well, so I don’t think anyone will be disappointed.”

Two songs from the ‘Voyage’ album – I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down – have been confirmed for the gigs and James previously revealed four of the songs rehearsed by the band which will likely make the set: Voulez-Vous, Knowing Me, Knowing You, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) and Eagle.

Few more details of the setlist have been confirmed, however Victoria admitted there’s one omission she “had a big gripe with” –but wouldn’t name the track in question.

All will be revealed when ‘ABBA Voyage’ opens on May 27, 2022 at the ABBA Arena in Stratford, east London.

Photos © ABBA Voyage & Baillie Walsh

JANET JACKSON MILESTONES

Janet Jackson

40th Anniversary

Released: September 1982

Control: The Remixes

35th Anniversary Released: January 1987

The Velvet Rope

25th Anniversary Released: October 1997

MS. JACKSON IF YOU’RE NASTY

When Janet Jackson debuted with her understated self-titled album in September 1982, no one could predict the coming storm.

It wasn’t until ‘86 that her chart domination truly began, but the youngest Jackson made up for lost time with her game-changing ‘Control’ album.

The record spawned seven hit singles and marked Janet’s first collaboration with production heavyweights Jam & Lewis, who helped propel the singer to superstardom across follow-ups ‘Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814’, ‘janet.’, ‘The Velvet Rope’ and ‘All For You’.

Now, the global sensation is looking back on a life in the spotlight with her eponymous four-hour documentary, set to premiere on the Lifetime and A+E networks.

Billed as an intimate, honest and unfiltered look at the untold story of one of the biggest artists in music history, it follows Janet as her family navigates the loss of her father, Joseph, the patriarch of the Jackson dynasty who passed away in ‘18.

‘JANET’ delves into the most talked-about moments of her life, including her ‘04 Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake, her reaction to the death of her brother Michael and becoming a mother.

“This is my story, told by me. Not through someone else’s eyes,” she says. “This is the truth. Take it or leave it. Love it or hate it. This is me.”

Alongside the documentary, Janet is poised to return with her 12th album, ‘Black Diamond’, after the project and its accompanying tour were delayed in ‘20.

David Bowie, Madison Square Garden, New York, 1997

David Bowie fans worldwide are gearing up to celebrate the Starman’s legacy in conjunction with his 75th birthday on January 8.

The legendary musician and performer, who passed away from cancer in 2016, two days after he turned 69, is being feted with two pop-up locations in London and New York.

Situated in the heart of Soho at the site of the earliest confirmed Ziggy Stardust sighting and in Bowie’s adopted hometown where his final album ‘ ’ was created, the venues run through January and offer an immersive insight into his life and career.

Developed in collaboration with 360 Reality Audio, using Sony’s spatial sound technologies, it’s an opportunity to experience Bowie’s legendary catalogue for the first time in immersive sound.

The stores play host to hours of video content, including previously unseen and rare footage from the ‘Heathen’ and ‘Reality’ eras, along with fine art photography and gallery installations documenting his many iconic eras and personae. For sale are limited-edition releases of exclusive Bowie apparel and collectables, as well as limited-run LPs and CDs.

Included among the releases is the ‘lost’ album ‘Toy’, offering fresh takes on Bowie’s earliest recordings, reimagined following his iconic Glastonbury set in 2000.

Bowie entered the studio with his band to record new interpretations of songs he’d first recorded from 1964-1971, intending to cut the tracks with a live band, choose the best takes and release it in as short a time-frame as possible.

The “surprise drop” concept was years ahead of its time and ‘Toy’ fell to the wayside in favour of Bowie’s 22nd album ‘Heathen’, featuring all original compositions, but the original recordings have been unearthed and will be released commercially for the first time.

Of the collection, co-producer Mark Plati says:

“‘Toy’ is like a moment in time captured in an amber of joy, fire and energy. It’s the sound of people happy to be playing music. David revisited and re-examined his work from decades prior through prisms of experience and fresh perspective – a parallel not lost on me as I now revisit it twenty years later.

LONDON

14 Heddon Street

Monday to Saturday 11am – 8pm Sunday 12pm to 6pm.

NEW YORK CITY

150 Wooster Street

Open seven days 11am – 7pm

“From time to time, he used to say ‘Mark, this is our album’ – I think because he knew I was so deeply in the trenches with him on that journey. I’m happy to finally be able to say it now belongs to all of us.”

‘Toy:Box’ – featuring the original album plus alternate takes and remixed versions – will be released on ISO Records via Parlophone on January 7, with Plati and Bowie’s ‘Toy’ era bandmates Sterling Campbell, Gerry Leonard and more to appear at the New York Bowie 75 store for a celebratory launch that evening.

“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.”

THE QUEEN IS BACK

Madonna is celebrating 40 years at the top of the charts with a massive career retrospective reissue campaign beginning this year.

The undisputed Queen of Pop has returned home to Warner Music Group (WMG) – the label on which she launched her career in 1982 with debut single Everybody – which has acquired the rights to her entire recorded music catalog.

Celebrating four decades of pop perfection, the deal commences an extensive, multi-year series of catalog releases that will revisit the groundbreaking music that made her an international icon.

It encompasses Madonna’s complete Sire/ Maverick/Warner recordings, from 1983 release ‘Madonna’ through to 2008 album ‘Hard Candy’ –including classic albums ‘Like a Virgin’, ‘True Blue’, ‘Like a Prayer’, ‘Erotica’, ‘Ray of Light’, ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ and more – plus singles, soundtrack recordings, live albums and compilations.

Among the iconic hits set to be celebrated are UK chart-toppers Into the Groove, Papa Don’t Preach, La Isla Bonita, Vogue, Frozen, Music, Hung Up, Sorry and 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland).

It’s also set to spotlight Madonna’s Oscar-winning movie career, with soundtrack LPs ‘Who’s That Girl’, ‘I’m Breathless’ and ‘Evita’ included, along with the remix record ‘You Can Dance’ and compilation releases such as ‘The Immaculate Collection’, ‘Something To Remember’ and ‘Celebration’.

Madonna will personally curate expansive deluxe editions for many of her landmark albums and introduce unique releases for special events as part of the ongoing celebration of one of the most successful pop artists of all time.

As of 2025, the deal will also cover ‘MDNA’, ‘Rebel Heart’, and ‘Madame X’ – Madonna’s three most recent studio albums, which were released via Interscope after she signed a three-album deal with the Universal Music Group company in 2011.

MADONNA MILESTONES

Who’s

That Girl

35th Anniversary Released: July 1987

You Can Dance

35th Anniversary Released: November 1987

Erotica

30th Anniversary Released: October 1992

GHV2 21st Anniversary Released: November 2001

MDNA

10th Anniversary Released: March 2012

“Since the very beginning, Warner Music Group has helped bring my music and vision to all my fans around the world with the utmost care and consideration,” said Madonna. “They have been amazing partners, and I am delighted to be embarking on this next chapter with them to celebrate my catalogue from the last 40 years.”

The commencement of the new campaign comes after Madonna returned to screens in 2021 with her Paramount+ and MTV documentary concert special ‘Madame X’, which was shot in January 2020 at her concerts in Lisbon, Portugal at the Coliseu dos Recreios. The special was accompanied by a live album – featuring tracks from her 14th studio album and reworks of her biggest hits, adapted for the show – and ‘Madame X Presents: Madame Xtra Q&A’, which saw her answer burning questions from stars including Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and Lil Nas X.

Photos © WMG & Ricardo Gomes

STEPS

MILESTONES

The Last Dance

20th Anniversary

Released: November 2002

Light Up the World

10th Anniversary

Released: November 2012

Tears on the Dancefloor

5th Anniversary Released: April 2017

SUMMER OF STEPS

Steps are back from the future to celebrate their 25-year legacy in style.

Hot off the heels of their ‘What The Future Holds Tour’ in support of their double album campaignwhich spawned the hits Something in Your Eyes, Take Me For a Ride and Heartbreak in This City (feat. Michelle Visage) - Claire Richards, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Faye Tozer, Lee Latchford-Evans and Lisa Scott-Lee are planning a summer packed full of Steptacular surprises.

Leading the festivities is the first set of dates for the group’s ‘25th Anniversary Tour’, with stops at the Back 2 and Kubix Festivals, along with Carfest North and South and Birmingham Pride, with more on the way.

The group’s latest gigs mark their first outdoor shows since their 2018 tour and they’ve teased exciting projects to commemorate the career milestone.

“There’s plenty in the pipeline that’s new,” says Lisa (via Daily Star). “Big plans are already in place for that. I can’t say that much or I’d get in trouble.

“[But] it’s nice to keep a bit of mystery, but we like to keep it fun and give back to our fans who have been so loyal over the years.”

Lisa’s dream of hitting the festival circuit looks set to come true and she’d love to organise a one-off Steps-themed festival for fans to immerse themselves in planet pop.

“We’ve never really done festivals. I’d love to do one so maybe we will get a chance to put on our own,” she hints. “Who knows!”

It’s 10 years since Steps reunited for ‘The Ultimate Collection’ - a 20-track compilation of their greatest hits - and there have been calls for the band to revisit some of their best-loved numbers with musical director Steve Anderson, off the back of his dazzling work on their live shows.

During their most recent tour, the band performed alternative versions of some of their most popular hits, including a Motown-influenced rendition of After The Love Has Gone, and mash-ups of 5,6,7,8 / Groove is in the Heart and Better the Devil You Know / Vogue.

After the group named classic track Never Say Never Again as a song from their catalogue they’d love to bring back into their set, fans have also suggested they hit the road with a series of intimate ‘Anti-Tour’ dates, featuring deep cuts from the band’s seven studio albums that don’t make it into their regular live shows.

And long-time devotees will no doubt be calling for Steps’ classic series of albums - ‘Step One’, ‘Steptacular’ and ‘Buzz’ - to be reissued across formats, including a long-awaited vinyl debut sure to catch the eye of fans and collectors alike and sit pretty alongside the various editions of their most recent releases.

Whatever the future holds, it’s sure to be a non-stop pop party as long as Steps are around.

YEAH BABY THEY’ VE GOT IT!

Bananarama’s achievements speak for themselves. Since their 1982 breakthrough with Fun Boy Three collaboration, It Ain’t What You Do... – a ska-influenced recording of jazz classic – Bananarama earned a Guinness Book of World Records placement as the most successful female band worldwide with the most charting singles.

They’ve had 32 Top 40 UK hits, along with international acclaim, including four US Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles and a No. 1 with their cover of Shocking Blue’s Venus, while their 11 albums have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

It’s a testament to Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward and Siobhan Fahey’s talent, drive and determination to succeed on their own terms – even after their debut single Aie a Mwana – a demo recording of the Swahili song – stalled at No. 92 in the UK charts.

Still, they pushed forward and landed a deal with London Records, after which Fun Boy Three returned the favour by appearing on Bananarama’s Really Saying Something – their fresh take on The Velvelettes’ classic – scoring the group a second hit and paving the way for their debut album, ‘Deep Sea Skiving’.

What followed was an ascent to mega-success worldwide with hit albums including ‘84’s self-titled, ‘True Confessions’ in ‘86 and their ‘87 opus ‘Wow!’.

Following a turbulent period of line-up changes, Sara and Keren cemented themselves as the pop duo we see today on the ABBA-influenced ‘Please Yourself’, and now they’re preparing to enter a new phase of their career and look back on a lifetime of pop perfection.

After reuniting with Siobhan for ‘The Original LineUp Tour’, which played across the UK in 2017 and hit the US and Europe the following year, they’ve been more active than ever, releasing their 11th album ‘In Stereo’ – Bananarama’s highest-charting LP since their Stock Aitken Waterman late-’80s masterpiece – and memoir ‘Really Saying Something’, which was named one of The Sunday Times’ Best Music Books of 2020.

Embarking on a new chapter to mark four decades of hits, the duo already has a series of live summer dates booked, including two Heritage Live shows in London and West Sussex, along with Kew Gardens’ annual Kew The Music concert series, with more gigs to be announced.

Nostalgia will no doubt be at the forefront of the festivities and the group even threw it back to French & Saunders’ iconic Lananeeneenoonoo sketch with a studio selfie captioned: “I’m a bit toppy Ian.” They’ve been embracing their legacy in their concert setlists too, digging out fan favourites like Every Shade of Blue, Movin’ On, Love Don’t Live Here and Feel For You in recent shows, along with their original version of Last Thing On My Mind, which they debuted live last summer.

There also looks to be new music on the way, after Sara and Keren hit the studio with longtime co-writer and producer Ian Masterson – who also worked on their most recent albums ‘Drama’, ‘Viva’ and the ‘Now or Never’ EP – and hinted there’s “new music on the horizon” during an Instagram Live stream.

With four decades of hits and a lifetime of friendship under their belt, there’s never been a better time to be a Bananarama fan.

Photo © Nell Campbell

LET THE MUSIC PLAY

The charts are in safe hands as the biggest names in pop return to soundtrack 2022.

Shakira Conjures Pop Magic

Shakira’s back on the dance floor with infectious new music.

The Latin superstar offered a taste of her latest project with lead track Don’t Wait Up – and there’s more on the way.

“Songs will continue to come out throughout this year that will end up on an album that I think will be available next year,” she tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.

Don’t Wait Up was co-written with Ian Kirkpatrick and Emily Warren, who penned Dua Lipa’s global smash Don’t Start Now.

“[It’s] a song that I’ve been waiting to write for a long time,” she adds of the single. “It has been in my mind and it has already existed for a while inside of me.

“When we were at the studio, we were just feeling the instant chemistry and the magic happening.

“And we were looking at each other saying, ‘Oh my God, this is something really, really special’.”

It comes after Shakira celebrated the 20th anniversary of her global breakthrough ‘Laundry Service’, featuring the smash hits Underneath Your Clothes, Objection (Tango) and the massive Whenever, Wherever.

The new ‘Washed and Dried’ edition of the record features four bonus tracks and is available on double opaque yellow vinyl, due January 7 on Sony.

Photo © Jaume De Laiguana

Nothing Can Stop St. Et

Saint Etienne are planning more new music for 2022.

‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ –the group’s cinematic 10th album and visual experience – scored the band their first UK Top 20 placement in three decades.

According to Pete Wiggs, the next album was their original idea but plans changed when the trio was forced to work remotely.

“We were actually recording a different album and we decided we’d better pause that because we couldn’t get in the studio,” he explains. “I think we’ll carry on and resume when we can.

“It’s a totally different sound, so we need to regroup, as it were, and hopefully there’ll be another album out next year.”

‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ saw Saint Etienne experimenting with samples from the late ‘90s and Pete reveals the new album will see a shift in direction.

However, he’s hesitant to pinpoint exactly what’s on the table: “There’s always some interesting chord progressions and things that make you extract emotion; key changes and things like that.

“Melancholy is a big thing. But it can be fun and melancholy at the same time, hopefully.”

Saint Etienne will celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary with a limited green coloured vinyl edition of the classic debut album ‘Foxbase Alpha’, shipping midJanuary via Heavenly.

Will Revisits All The Hits

Original ‘Pop Idol’ Will Young is celebrating two decades of music.

After shooting to fame on the inaugural series of the TV singing contest, Will scored smashes with Evergreen, Leave Right Now, Jealousy and more.

They’re all set to feature on ‘20 Years – The Greatest Hits’ – his latest retrospective release –alongside choice cuts selected by Will himself from his eight Top 3 albums.

To coincide with the LP, he’ll hit the road in October/November for a string of tour dates across the UK.

Will’s most recent record, ‘Crying on the Bathroom Floor’, peaked at No. 3 on the UK charts last year.

‘20 Years – The Greatest Hits’ is due May 27 via BMG on CD and vinyl.

Gabs Is Ready To Rise Again

Gabrielle’s last album ‘Do It Again’ was just a “taster” of what’s to come.

Fresh off ‘The Masked Singer’, the R&B diva dropped her brilliant covers album, but it was new cuts, Stop Right Now and Can’t Hurry Love, that really caught our attention.

They originated in sessions for a planned album of new material and Gabrielle intends to keep working on the project.

“Let’s just say, I don’t think we’re going to be waiting too long for the next album…” she hints while celebrating the 20th anniversary of her classic album ‘Rise’.

“The days of waiting for me for like 11 years are over. My kids are grown. I’m more selfish as opposed to selfless.

“I’m happy to walk out the door and say, ‘See you later guys’. So I’m excited and I can’t wait. I’m just loving the opportunities that are coming my way to be able to release new music.”

Photo © Uzo Oleh

Photo © Elaine Constantine

Xtina Doubles Down

After taking a break from the studio, Christina Aguilera is busy putting the finishing touches on two new albums.

The Genie in a Bottle singer is simultaneously working on an English record and the follow-up to her debut Spanish album, ‘Mi Reflejo’.

“I’m a perfectionist and want to give everything my best –especially because of the soulsearching I’ve done over the past year and the new perspective I have,” she tells Health magazine.

“I am reinspired and have reconnected with myself. I’ve fallen in love with music all over again, which is a really big thing to say, having spent my entire career in music.”

Two singles have been issued from the Spanish-language project – Pa Mis Muchachas with Becky G, Nicki Nicole and Nathy Peluso, and Somos Nada – offering a flavour of what’s to come.

Waterboys Tease Otherworldly Album

The Waterboys return with their latest album ‘All Souls Hill’.

The “mysterious, otherworldly, tune-banging and emotional” record is a collaboration with producer Simon Dine.

“Its nine songs tell stories, explore dreamscapes, and cast a cold but hopeful eye on the human drama,” says frontman Mike Scott.

Lead single The Liar is “a comment on recent and still-current events” and is accompanied by a haunting image by satirical collagist Cold War Steve, taking aim at Donald Trump and the lies and deceit that infest those in power.

‘All Souls Hill’ is due April 22 via Cooking Vinyl on CD, LP and cassette.

KM16 Is Coming

She may still be living her disco fantasy, but Kylie Minogue’s secretly making plans for her next album.

The pop icon is switching things up after smashing UK chart records with ‘DISCO’ – her third No. 1 record in three years – with a brand new sound.

She tells Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2: “‘Fever’ just had its 20th anniversary, perhaps it’s going a bit more electropop.

“Don’t quote me that […] but that’s what’s on the boil at the minute.”

Someone get Cathy Dennis on the phone!

Gary Gets Ahead Of The Game

It took him 25 years to revive his solo career, but Gary Kemp isn’t waiting around for his next LP.

His critically acclaimed comeback ‘INSOLO’ stalled outside the UK Top 40, but the singer-songwriter is already pushing forward with new music.

“I still had one foot in Spandau Ballet world and it’s always much harder writing for someone else to sing, rather than writing for yourself,” he says.

“Once I’d let go of that and stepped away from that shadow of possibility, I felt free. And I’m already halfway through writing the next album now.”

Photo © Denys Dionysios

Photo © Barry McCall

Photo © Jaume De Laiguana

Bryan’s So Happy To Be Back

Bryan Adams is ready to rock again with his 15th album ‘So Happy It Hurts’.

The record “touches on many of the ephemeral things in life that are really the secret to happiness.”

“The pandemic and lockdown really brought home the truth that spontaneity can be taken away.

“Suddenly all touring stopped, no one could jump in the car and go,” he explains.

“The title song So Happy It Hurts is about freedom, autonomy, spontaneity and the thrill of the open road.”

Bryan will embark on a 12-date headline tour of the UK in support of his first album in two years throughout spring.

‘So Happy It Hurts’ is available March 11 via BMG on CD and LP.

Re-Introducing:

Gwen Stefani

She already gave us b-a-n-a-na-s – now Gwen Stefani is ready to add a little extra sauce to her fifth album.

The No Doubt frontwoman is going back to her reggae roots on the project, featuring Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Busby, Greg Kurstin and Mozella.

She also worked with newcomers Ross Golan and Luke Niccoli on her most recent single Slow Clap, along with her brother Eric, with whom she last collaborated on No Doubt’s ‘Tragic Kingdom’ album, for which they co-wrote her megahit Don’t Speak

Hey Hey! You You!

Avril Lavigne’s going back to her punk rock roots for her first album in five years.

The former teen sensation found herself atop the US Christian Charts with her previous effort ‘Head Above Water’, but it’s a feat she won’t be repeating this time around.

After signing with Travis Barker’s DTA Records, she promised to “f**k s**t up” with her new music.

“It was just time to rock again, and I have a feisty side to me,” she tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “Travis is producing, we’re writing together and we just had such a blast collaborating in the studio.”

It’s 20 years since Avril released her debut album ‘Let Go!’ and she can’t believe tracks like Complicated and Sk8er Boi are hitting the milestone.

“I’m stoked that pop-punk music, it’s coming back around right now and people are falling back in love with it,” she beams.

“And it’s almost in a weird way, it feels like bigger than ever right now.”

Clare Grogan’s Altered Images

Altered Images have recorded their first new music in four decades.

The group’s last album ‘Bite’, featuring the Top 10 hit Don’t Talk to Me About Love, was released in 1983 - the year they separatedbut they’re back with a new LP on the way.

“Yippee! It’s official I have recorded a new #AlteredImages album after 38 years with more than a little help from my fiends [sic],” tweeted frontwoman Clare Grogan, adding, “As you can imagine I am super excited.”

The new album features a refreshed iteration of the band, including her husband, multiinstrumentalist and original Altered Images member Stephen Lironi, plus Bluebells singer Bobby Bluebell and Bernard Butler.

Production was delayed after Grogan came down with “a crazy flu thing,” but she finally finished recording in October.

The record is due on Cooking Vinyl this year.

Dance Floor Diva Róisín Returns

Just months after dropping her ‘Crooked Machine’ remix project, Róisín Murphy is “not far off” releasing new music.

Hot off the back of her fifth outing ‘Róisín Machine’ and its alternative counterpart, the exMoloko vocalist is readying new tracks with DJ Koze.

Calling the next stage of her career “the most interesting” yet, she tells Buds Digest: “It could get tossed out the window, who knows, we’ll see…

“I need complete freedom now. Anything could actually happen. I need total control over what it is I’m doing and not doing.”

Photo © Adrian Samson

LIVE AND KICKING

“I’ve been working on that for years and trying to find a way of making that work no matter where you sit, and it’s very tricky.

“I’ve been working on some things and this might be the time to give that a try.”

The Are ‘Friends’ Electric? hitmaker’s new album is the latest in a string of successes for the star, who insists that – despite the overwhelming love for his extensive catalogue of hits – he won’t stop looking to the future.

Shadows And Light

Gary Numan promises a light show spectacle when he tours his latest album ‘Intruder’.

The Tubeway Army star scored another hit with his latest offering, packed with moody electronic tunes like I Am Screaming and Now and Forever that are sure to cause a frenzy when played live on his world tour.

The electronic pioneer has dates planned across the UK, Europe and North America through 2022 and, after debuting tracks from the dystopian set during a livestream special last summer, he teases a new kind of show when he hits the road next.

“From a lighting point of view, I always do as much as I possibly can,” says Numan. “I’ve long been thinking about asymmetric light shows; huge towers running on one side and something very, very different than the other.

“I’ve learned to be more proud of my legacy. But I’m still interested in what I’m doing next,” he adds.

“I’m not really that interested in what I’ve done, but it’s good that I’m proud of it now, and I can look back and say, ‘Yeah, that was that worthwhile.’ But I still don’t want to dwell on it.

“Even though I’m happy with it, I don’t want to dwell there – I’m interested in what I’m gonna do tomorrow.”

‘The Intruder Tour’ begins February in the US and hits the UK in April.

I’m Outta Lockdown

Anastacia is back and ready to rock as she finally breaks free with her ‘I’m Outta Lockdown’ Tour.

After wowing fans Down Under with her stint ‘The Masked Singer Australia’, on which she took home the crown following a stellar stint as The Vampire, she’s back with a celebratory new show.

The run was originally meant to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of her 2000 debut hit, I’m Outta Love, in 2020, but will finally commence in September.

During the jaunt, the Left Outside Alone hitmaker will make her way across Europe, beginning in Switzerland on September 18, before heading to Germany, Italy, Austria and The Netherlands.

The UK leg includes a stop at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on November 8, along with shows in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and more.

The gigs are sure to be brimming with hits and there’ll no doubt be a few surprises too.

The ‘I’m Outta Lockdown’ Tour begins September 18 and hits the UK on October 30.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Ronan Keating

Twenty Twenty

Begins: January 17 (UK)

Genesis

The Last Domino? Tour

Resumes: March 7 (Europe)

Celine Dion

Courage World Tour

Resumes: May 25 (UK and Europe)

Queen + Adam Lambert

The Rhapsody Tour

Resumes: May 27 (UK and Europe)

Coldplay

Music of the Spheres World Tour

Begins: July 2 (UK and Europe)

Michael Bublé

An Evening with Michael Bublé

Resumes: July 6 (UK)

Live music is back with a bang and, as venues fill with eager fans, here are the big ones to watch out for over the coming months.

Farewell Yellow Brick Road

Elton John will finally return to the road this year as he resumes his last-ever concert tour.

The singer, whose start-studded comeback LP ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ recently topped the UK charts, was mid-way through the trek, which began in 2018, when he was forced to shut down the gigs in March 2020 after an extended run in Australia and New Zealand.

After almost two years away, he’s set to resume the shows in January with a North American leg before returning to Europe in the summer.

Included in the run are two stops at Watford FC’s Vicarage Road stadium on July 3 and 4, with Elton – who became Watford FC’s chairman in 1976 and is still Honorary Life-President – insisting he “simply had to” book a duo of homecoming shows.

“My relationship with the club, with the fans, the players and the staff over the years have meant the world to me,” he beams. “Through the good times and the bad, Watford have been a huge part of my life. I love the club so dearly, and have had some of the best days of my life in those stands – these shows are going to be so incredibly emotional, and to spend them surrounded by my fellow Watford fans will be wonderful.

“We’ve been on quite the journey together. Come on you ‘Orns!”

The ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ is due to run through summer 2023.

One More Sleep

Leona Lewis is sure to land a spot on the nice list when the holidays come around, as she books in her first-ever festive tour across the UK.

Having recently reissued her modern classic, ‘Christmas, With Love Always’, the singing superstar is taking the album on the road for a magical evening of seasonal standards along with a selection of her greatest hits.

“I couldn’t be more excited to announce my UK headline tour for 2022,” says Leona. “After such a challenging year I can’t wait to celebrate with my fans and experience that feeling of togetherness again”

The jewel in Leona’s Christmas crown will no doubt be One More Sleep, the song that saw the diva break the record for the most Top Five hits for a British female solo artist back in 2013, while smash hits like Bleeding Love, Better In Time and Run are sure to make an appearance.

Don’t be surprised if there are a few new songs in the mix too – Leona recently revealed she’s back in the studio and working on tracks for her first album since 2015’s ‘I Am’.

The ‘Christmas With Love 2022’ Tour commences November 30 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Zig-A-Zig-Ah

Melanie C will finally hit the road in support of her stellar self-titled solo album this year.

Fresh off the ballroom after a Stateside stint on ‘Dancing With the Stars’, the Spice Girls legend is ready to celebrate her latest release as she takes the album to venues across the UK.

Kicking off on February 12 in Glasgow, Melanie will play shows in Manchester and Birmingham, before wrapping the jaunt on February 16 at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Although an extended run of dates across Europe has been called off, the superstar plans to turn the energy up with a selection of her latest tracks – such as Who I Am, Blame It On Me and Into You – and Spice Girls classics like 2 Become 1 and Who Do You Think You Are.

It’s not the first time she’s performed the new material –Melanie went global in 2020 with her virtual ‘Colour And Light Stream’ show, which featured live renditions of each of the album’s 10 tracks.

Her performance was impressive and things are sure to heat up as she brings her unbeatable brand of girl power back to the masses.

Melanie C’s tour kicks off February 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

For more news, visit retropopmagazine.com

Photo

© Gregg Kemp

WILD DREAMS COME TRUE

From boyband teenyboppers to suave pop stars: Westlife are living out their wildest dreams as they return with their most ambitious project yet!

Words: Sarah Bull

Photo © Matt Holyoak

Westlife’s two decades atop the charts is the stuff of dreams. From the moment they burst onto the scene with their 1999 debut Swear It Again, the Irish boyband won legions of fans with their irresistible charm, stellar vocals and unfaltering run of hit singles. In the years that followed, they’ve undergone line-up changes, a break-up and a reunion, but the group has weathered the test of time and they’re set to embark on their most ambitious chapter yet. Alongside their smash hit album ‘Wild Dreams’, Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily and Kian Egan will hit the road this year for a summer run of stadium dates followed by a series of arena shows across the UK and Ireland, as they strive for bigger and better than ever before. But the journey to where they are today was far from plain sailing and, celebrating the launch of the project, the band admits the challenges of remote recording via Zoom and other amazing new technologies pushed them to tap into their creativity and look towards new beginnings with their music.

“This album… like the whole world at the moment, has been so difficult, in many ways. And that’s why we did an album – it wasn’t planned,” Nicky explains. “But we’d been locked down with everybody working from home [and] we found a way. We got the mic for the studio, laptops, we linked on Zoom and different things. And we were able to hook up with producers and songwriters around the world and start getting our creative juices flowing.”

Recording ‘Wild Dreams’ became their work-fromhome project, with Nicky adding that they might “write every day” or “once next week and five times the week after”. “We kind of got the creative juices flowing as a band, probably the most on this album for the first time, because... it was behind closed doors, nobody knew what was going on,” Shane explains. “Nobody knew we were starting to kind of write songs and work with all these people. And there was no time limit.

“We didn’t know when the album was going to come out. We didn’t know what our timeline was. But we got to kind of just experiment and the experiment worked.”

The result is that “three-quarters of the album is, for the most part, from the whole band [...] So it’s a very proud album,” he smiles. “It’s a very, very personal album. Lots of different songs: good and bad, uptempo, ballads. Sad, happy... we just tried to go to our happy place for it.”

But not everyone was a fan of the unique way of recording, and Nicky admits the set-up “wasn’t all

roses”. “I mean, if we’re being really honest, it wasn’t [perfect]. It can’t be, because you’re not together. You’re not going into the pub at the end of the recording session, not going for dinner... You’re not saying, ‘You try that verse, you take this,’ so that brings problems in itself and you have to deal with that.

“We actually do get on better when we’re together,” he says, with Shane nodding in agreement: “The one thing we say is that, when we’re together, we get on unbelievably well. When we’re apart it’s more difficult because we have to make decisions all the time and they’re always life-changing decisions.”

Their ability to maintain friendships amid the business side of the group sets Westlife aside from their peers and has ensured they’re still going after 20 years together. But in their early days, the boys had no idea they would become as big as they have – especially when they had straight-talking Louis Walsh as their manager.

“The first time we met Simon Cowell – Simon Cowell wasn’t the TV personality he is now,” Shane recalls. “He was a record exec that was coming to Dublin to see this new band that Louis Walsh had. I was out late the night before. But yeah, we did an audition. And I didn’t perform well.”

They sang Backstreet Boys’ Quit Playing Games (with My Heart), but Shane – who was battling the mother of all hangovers – let the group down and faced the wrath of Louis, who told the singer exactly what he thought of him once the audition had ended.

“I remember like it was yesterday,” he laughs. “I came out of the room, and Louis slapped me in the face. He literally slapped me in the face. He was like, ‘I was counting on you. What were you doing? You’re letting me down.’”

At the time he thought his “life was over”, but Shane jokes the music mogul would be “put in jail” if he hit him today, and three months later, they returned and performed another audition for Simon – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Their success continued and Westlife’s career rocketed, with the band amassing seven consecutive UK No. 1 singles, recording hit collaborations with the likes of Mariah Carey and Diana Ross, and selling out 10 Wembley Arenas. But the boys have done their utmost to maintain level heads – so much so that they fear they may have missed out on some things because of their determination not to let their success get the better of them.

“For the first year and a half we didn’t have time to [indulge] – as you said, we had seven number ones in a row,” Shane muses. “So we didn’t have time to think about anything. As we were working, we did 104 days straight – 104 days without any day off, leading up to that Christmas No. 1. So we were just working and working and working... We announced our first tour and we did ten Wembleys. You know, it was just mental stuff. So we didn’t have time to process it.

“But we didn’t have time to realise how big it was and Louis was reminding us, going, ‘It could be all over tomorrow. It could be all over if you do one wrong thing.’”

However, Mark admits: “I wonder sometimes if we went too far into the ‘Let’s not get big-headed. Let’s make sure not to ever…’ Because some of the things, we kind of suppressed it so much that we maybe lost or didn’t enjoy some of those moments as much as we should have, because we were so worried about getting big-headed.”

Not only loved for their perfect harmonies, Westlife also became synonymous with the “standing up with key change” moment, for which they credit Simon, who “said one day to us, ‘Guys I think you should stand up with the key change’.

“So this was our seventh single, and it was the first major, major key change because, if you notice, Swear It Again doesn’t have a key change, Flying Without Wings doesn’t have a key change, but My Love had a key change,” recalls Shane. “But we had this moment where we were in rehearsals and Simon actually said to us, ‘Why don’t you stand up at the key change? I think this could be amazing.’”

It became a staple of the band’s performances and, while they openly admit the trope led to them being mocked, Nicky insists the jibes were made “fondly”.

Following their huge success, Westlife announced plans to disband in 2012 – a decision that they had to make to end on good terms. And it was during their time apart that the memories of their former success took hold.

“You would be at football matches with your kids,” Nicky reflects, “and Westlife had been, let’s say, not around for a while and something would jump into your mind. Like, meeting Whitney at a party, or I always remember when we recorded with Mariah. We were in her recording studio in Capri and we’re in the vocal booth, but Mariah was co-producing the record, so you’d be doing a vocal and then Mariah would be like the engineer, going, ‘Can you give us one more of those? Thank you.’ And then Claudia Schiffer and Uptown Girl. Then we sang with Diana Ross… You do have those moments where you go, ‘Am I living a different life now?’”

The group reunited in 2018 and, after releasing their comeback album, ‘Spectrum’, the following year, had been due to head out on tour in 2020 – plans that were axed as the live entertainment industry shut down. Now, things are looking brighter and the boys are already anticipating the intense emotion that will come with their return to the stage.

“I think that moment will feel just as big,” Kian explains. “And not just because of Westlife being on stage for us or for our fans – but just for the world to be back. The last two years that we’ve all had has been pretty crazy. And being at a concert and playing live music again... I don’t know, there’s just something about that. Because it’s the last thing, right? It’s the last thing that’s going to happen for everybody because it’s so many people in one big room.

“I think it’s gonna probably break us all. Everybody. No matter what show it is that you go to see, I think we’re going to be emotional wrecks.”

Whatever the next year brings, Westlife are sure to ride high on a wave of love as fans reunite to celebrate a bold new chapter in the group’s enduring legacy.

‘Wild Dreams’ is out now via East West. ‘The Wild Dreams Tour’ kicks off in July with shows running through December.

“Being at a concert and playing live music again... I don’t know, there’s just something about that.”

TOP 20 OF 2021

From the dawning of a new disco era to the renaissance of the singer-songwriter, the pop gods have shone down over the past 12 months and delivered some truly spectacular records.

18

DEBBIE GIBSON The Body Remembers

StarGirl

Debbie Gibson delivers pop perfection on her long-awaited comeback, ‘The Body Remembers

Arriving 20 years after the star’s last original LP, the teen charttopper hits every beat on this collection of dance floor anthems and sweeping ballads.

Single One Step Closer is a banger while, on the brilliant Runway, Debbie declares, ‘My life’s a runway / And I’m the star’.

Echoing the seminal ‘Electric Youth’, she balances

WILL YOUNG Crying On The Bathroom Floor

Cooking Vinyl

Will Young celebrates his favourite female artists in style on his latest album ‘Crying on the Bathroom Floor’.

His goal to “occupy” the gender is an intriguing concept that translates across the 10song set, exploring a plethora of emotions through an alternative gaze.

The pairing of Will and producer Richard X is a dream and, three albums into their working relationship, the unity

GABRIELLE Do It Again

BMG

Gabrielle’s ‘Do It Again’ is one of the R&B icon’s most compelling album’s to date.

Her masquerade as Harlequin on ‘The Masked Singer’ may have quickly been rumbled by fans at home, but it inspired the soul sensation to hit the studio for her first covers collection.

Classics like Smile, Teardrops and I’ll Be There sit alongside recent hits from Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Rhianna for a timeless recording.

between the vocals and music has never sounded stronger.

Will makes each track his own, with Everything but the Girl’s Missing, Lykke Li’s I Follow Rivers and title track, MUNA’s Crying on the Bathroom Floor, instant highlights, while his take on Clare Maguire’s Elizabeth Taylor is a standout from his career.

‘Crying on the Bathroom Floor’ is a triumph and offers up a fresh blueprint for covers albums going forward.

all-out pop (Love Don’t Care, Girls Night Out, What Are We Gonna Do) with more intricate, laid-back moments (Legendary, Red Carpet Ready, Me Not Loving You).

It allows the record to breathe and, amongst the glitter and neon lights, is a winning formula that translates into one of her strongest releases yet.

35 years since her debut, there’s no doubt it’s an exciting time to be a Debbie Gibson fan.

Among the tracklist are two original compositions – Stop Right Now and Can’t Hurry Love – both of which were issued as singles.

Closing the record is a cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car – the song Gabrielle originally sampled on her debut single and breakout hit, Dreams.

It makes for a poignant listen and paves the way for a brand new era, as Gabrielle prepares to celebrate 30 years since her musical debut.

16

PRINCE Welcome 2 America

NPG

Prince turns prophet as he looks to the future with his posthumous release ‘Welcome 2 America’.

Originally recorded in 2010, the album was scrapped and went unreleased for a decade, and sees the star tackle several cultural issues in a hard-hitting examination on the state of the US.

Look no further than opening cut and title track Welcome 2 America; a spoken word piece painting a picture of a country

DEAD OR ALIVE

Fan The Flame (Part 2) The Resurrection

Demon

Dead or Alive’s unreleased ‘90s album ‘Fan the Flame (Part 2)’ gets new life thanks to this carefullycurated revival project.

Five years after the death of frontman Pete Burns, the record has been restored from the original multi-track tapes by engineer and frequent collaborator Craig Hardy.

The result is a curious concoction of their work between ‘Fan the Flame (Part 1)’ and ‘Nukleopatra’ –

BONNIE TYLER The Best Is Yet To Come

earMusic

Bonnie Tyler revisits her ‘80s heyday on the rocking ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’.

It’s a bold statement from the Welsh powerhouse, but one she lives up to across 12 tracks that come alive with pulsing synths, electric guitar riffs and sing-along choruses.

Lead single When The Lights Go Down holds its own alongside Bonnie’s best power ballads, while

obsessed with celebrity, sex, hedonism and excess.

There are greater enemies afoot, with Running Game (Son Of A Slave Master) calling out the exploitation of Black culture for commerciality and Stand Up and B Strong a fitting anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement.

‘Welcome 2 America’ is brimming with influences, exploring pop-rock, gospel and soul while maintaining Prince’s trademark funk sound.

That’s the genius of Prince; his drive to combine artistry with activism never compromised

the quality of his work and, on ‘Welcome 2 America’, it resulted in one of the best albums of his latter years.

which features completed versions of several cuts from the new release.

The lead track Tonight… appears to have influenced The Right Stuff, and there are early versions of Sleep With You, retitled I Want 2 B With U, and International Thing, now U Were Meant 4 Me.

Covers of Lloyd Cole And The Commotions’ Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? and Barry White’s I’m In Ecstasy (When You Lay Down Next To Me) are given Pete’s unique stamp, reinforcing his status as one of pop’s all-time greats.

Dreams Are Not Enough and

Hungry Hearts were built for sold-out arenas.

Feminist anthem Stronger Than A Man is a statement piece that wouldn’t sound out of place in Springsteen’s catalog.

The record is split in two halves; Side A is packed with megaanthems, while a more mellow B-side offers a stripped-back, intimate selection, allowing Bonnie’s vocals to shine.

If the best really is yet to come, we’re ready to be blown away.

DAVE GAHAN & SOULSAVERS Imposter

Columbia

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahn revisits the tracks of his years on his latest Soulsavers collaboration, Imposter. Featuring numbers from across genres and time periods, Gahan dissects and reassembles 12 meticulously chosen songs for an alternate listening experience.

The original tracks couldn’t be more different – classics from Neil Young and Bob Dylan sit alongside cuts from PJ Harvey,

LAURA MVULA

Pink Noise

Atlantic

Laura Mvula shimmies back to the ‘80s on her slick electro-pop set ‘Pink Noise’.

The soul star’s sublime vocals stand out against a sea of lush synths and beats encompassing the best of the classic era.

Kicking off with the dreamy Safe Passage, the album segues through Prince and Michael Jackson references, with Phil Collins-esque drum arrangements and flairs of Chic and Nile Rodgers.

Laura teamed up with the disco legend on their 2016

GARY KEMP INSOLO

Columbia

Gary Kemp rediscovers his voice on ‘INSOLO’ – a triumphant comeback after 25 years away.

Worlds apart from the pop-rock of his Spandau Ballet days, the singer-songwriter’s sophomore effort is crammed with influences like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, reaffirming his status as one of Britain’s elite songwriters

Beginning with its title track, Gary’s 11 songs each tell their own story and offer a deeper insight into the man behind the music.

Charlie Chaplin and Mark Lanegan – but with the help of Rich Machin, they’re transformed into a cohesive body of work.

Much of the LP has a confessional quality; the classic Lilac Wine is an early showstopper, while a take on Roland S. Howard’s Shut Me Down, with haunting female backing vocals, is chilling.

Closer Always On My Mind – a downtempo interpretation of Pet Shop Boys’ classic ‘80s anthem – becomes a stunning ballad steeped in meaning.

It’s rare for a covers album to reveal so much about the artist, but Dave’s latest solo endeavour has us already anticipating his next move.

collaboration Overcome and ‘Pink Noise’ pushes that sound further, resulting in a treasure trove of electronic gems.

Ballad Magical sends shivers, with sweeping synths and powerhouse vocals, while title track Pink Noise defies you ‘give in to the feeling’ and let loose.

Before The Dawn revives the dreamy soundscapes of Safe Passage, bringing Laura’s ‘80s chapter full circle.

Wherever her journey takes her next, we’re on board for the ride.

Lead single Ahead of the Game is the most commercial –a ‘70s-inspired, guitar-driven pop track with an earworm chorus to boot – while radio hit Too Much muses on the pressures of daily living.

Oftentimes nostalgic, Gary finds comfort and optimism in the past, and on Waiting For The Band rediscovers his love of live music while reminiscing on his early experiences at Bowie gigs as a wide-eyed teen.

Spandau Ballet may have had its day, but Gary’s solo career looks just to be dawning.

TOYAH Posh Pop

Demon

Toyah hits new highs with her lockdown project ‘Posh Pop’.

Inspired by a state of global uncertainty amid unprecedented times, the punk legend’s first album in 13 years was produced from her home with husband Robert Fripp and collaborator Simon Darlow.

The result is an eclectic 10-track collection - underpinned by a pandemic - that speaks directly to a moment in time while remaining timeless.

TEXAS

BMG

Texas embark on a musical journey through their ‘90s roots on their 10th album, ‘Hi’.

The record began life when Sharleen Spiteri and co. revisited their ‘White on Blonde’ demos, which inspired the group to resume that classic sound on a set of new tracks.

Single Mr. Haze samples Donna Summer’s disco smash Love’s Unkind and is one of the earlier compositions, which the group polished off and completed two decades on.

DONNA SUMMER

I’m A Rainbow (Recovered & Recoloured)

Driven By The Music

Donna Summer’s ‘lost’ 1980 album ‘I’m a Rainbow’ gets new life with the help of an all-star ensemble of producers.

Revived from the original recordings, the LP features 10 tracks from the sessions with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, reimagined by Junior Vasquez, Le Flex, Figo Sound,

Opener and lead single Levitate deals with forced confinement and leads a call to rise above the uncertainty, while Space Dance and Rhythm In My House offer a moment’s respite.

Other tracks tackle poignant issues head on; The Bride Will Return speaks of an explosion in Beirut in August 2020, while Zoom Zoom calls for fans to lead change and keep connected via technology.

The album’s most poignant cut, Barefoot on Mars, recalls Toyah’s experience of losing her mother.

Included are 10 self-funded, directed and produced music videos, proving Toyah’s hotter now creatively than she’s ever been.

Segueing seamlessly from disco to hip-hop with the Wu Tang Clan collaboration Hi, there really is no agenda here – just Texas doing what they do best.

Tracks like Just Want to Be Liked and Look What You’ve Done – a duet with Clare Grogan – are uptempo earworms, while Unbelievable is a rare ballad spotlighting Sharleen’s lush, layered harmonies.

More intimate than many of the group’s releases, ‘Hi’ reads as Texas – as they are now –communicating with their younger selves, for a nostalgic trip back to their heyday.

Jean Tonique, Ladies On Mars and Oliver Nelson.

Opening ballad I’m a Rainbow showcases the purity in Summer’s voice, before the dance floor ready I Believe In You and funk driven Back Where You Belong turn up the heat.

There’s plenty more toappreciate; Sweet Emotion, with its electronic R&B edge, is infectious, while an amped-up revision of fan-favourite Romeo is perfection.

When it comes to music icons, Donna Summer is among the elite, and ‘I’m a Rainbow (Recovered and

Recoloured)’ is a fitting celebration of her incomparable legacy.

8

DAMON ALBARN

The Nearer The Mountain, More Pure The Stream Flows

Transgressive

Damon Albarn’s mystical offering ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’ is a thing of beauty.

The album – inspired by his adoptive home of Iceland – features a combination of slow burners and jazz-influenced numbers, and began as a commission from a French arts festival.

After an extended development period, he emerged with a fully-

7

formed follow-up to his 2014 solo album, ‘Everyday Robots’, derived in part from the John Clare poem ‘Love and Memory’.

6

STEPS What The Future Holds

Pt. 2

BMG

Steps deliver wall-to-wall pop precision on their musical sequel ‘What The Future Holds Pt. 2’.

A direct follow-up to their 2020 release ‘What The Future Holds’, the album echoes the ‘one foot in the past, one foot in the future’ formula of its predecessor, and is packed with timeless pop melodies laced with up-to-date production.

The retro influence is apparent from the extended intro of Take Me For a Ride, reuniting the group with Topham & Twigg, the duo behind

SAINT ETIENNE I’ve Been Trying To Tell You Heavenly

Saint Etienne’s latest album ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ takes them back in time to the ‘90s.

Across eight tracks, the group dissects pop music from 19972001, for a concept piece that explores “memory, how it works, how it tricks you and creates a dream-like state”.

‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ is intrinsically cryptic; lead track Pond House features the refrain ‘here it comes again’ – the subject of which remains a mystery – while

classic hits like One For Sorrow, Deeper Shade of Blue and Stomp. They also reteam with Thomas G:son, who penned 2020 smash Something in Your Eyes, for two tracks – A Million Years and new cut Living in a Lie – and Savage Garden’s Darren Hayes is on hand with A Hundred Years of Winter. Closer The Slightest Touch – a cover of the Five Star classic –embodies the ‘What The Future Holds’ era and cements its legacy as one of Steps’ all-time best.

Title track The Nearer

The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is one of the more conceptual pieces, but it’s not long before things pick up pace; electronic drum sequencing runs through The Cormorant, while single Royal Morning Blue is as close to radio friendly pop as the album gets.

Saxophones add another musical layer to The Tower of Montevideo and closer Particles is particularly cinematic. It all makes for a stunning LP that transcends trends and instantly feels timeless.

Fonteyn’s ‘and you call to me’ is evocative and eerily hypnotic.

The album defies conventional song structure and the execution of the concept is impressive – from the music, to song titles, tracklist and the choice of samples.

Alongside the album is a film directed by photographer and longtime collaborator Alasdair McLellan, echoing his own nostalgia for the ‘90s, inspired by the music on offer.

It’s an album to be played in full, front to back, with each experience unique, individual and deeply personal.

5 3

DURAN DURAN Future Past

BMG

Duran Duran celebrate four decades of hits on ‘Future Past’.

Co-produced with Mark Ronson, Giorgio Moroder and Erol Alkan, the band’s 15th outing features collaborations with Tove Lo, Ivorian Doll, Japanese rockers Chai, and Mike Garson.

Blur’s Graham Coxon serves as guitarist and the refreshed line-up offers up Duran Duran’s strongest album in years.

Lead single Invisible – with its robotic opening, building melody

KYLIE MINOGUE

Disco: Guest List Edition

BMG

Kylie Minogue leads a VIP list of collaborators on her shimmering ‘DISCO’ reissue.

The ‘Guest List Edition’ of her record-breaking 2020 LP features four new collaborations with Dua Lipa, Years & Years, Jessie Ware and Gloria Gaynor, alongside the original 16-track album.

On A Second to Midnight, Kylie teams up with Olly Alexander for a partnership made in pop heaven, while the long-awaited collaboration with Jessie, Kiss of Life, is worth the

ABBA

Voyage

Polar

ABBA’s first album in 40 years is a nostalgic ‘Voyage’ through time.

The group’s ninth LP opens with I Still Have Faith in You, ABBA’s first sinlge since 1982’s Under Attack.

The keys may have been lowered to accommodate Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s matured tones, but as they declare, ‘We do have it in us / New spirit has arrived,’ it’s a comforting reassurance that all is well.

and Simon Le Bon’s ageless vocals – blends contemporary sounds with timeless pop sensibilities. Looking to the future, the group draws from the past; Anniversary is brimming with Easter eggs referencing their biggest hits while marking 40 years atop the charts.

Moroder lends his disco expertise to two cuts – Beautiful Lies and Tonight United – both of which are instant highlights.

‘Future Past’ opens new musical possibilities for Duran Duran and paves the way for what’s sure to be an exciting new chapter.

Magic, Real Groove and fanfavourite Dance Floor Darling, with Initial Talk, F9, Syn Cole and Purple Disco Machine offering an array of sounds, from late-night club beats to Stock Aitken Waterman style throwbacks.

wait. Can’t Stop Writing Songs About You – with ‘70s icon Gloria –is sublime.

Seven remixes offer alternative takes on singles Say Something,

There’s more; physical editions come with a CD, DVD and Blu-ray of the ‘Infinite Disco’ livestream special, while a limited vinyl release features extended versions of the original ‘DISCO’ album.

One year after opening its doors, Kylie’s disco is still going strong and shows no sign of simmering down anytime soon.

‘Voyage’ is as varied as ABBA’s classic offerings, with the Irish-influenced When You Danced With Me segueing seamlessly into delicate Christmas ballad Little Things, into Don’t Shut Me Down – the group’s latest UK Top 10 and Swedish No. 1 single.

Fans of upbeat ABBA will gravitate towards ‘VoulezVous’ outtake Just a Notion and stadium-worthy No Doubt About It, while the tender I Can Be That Woman and Bumblebee showcase the beauty in Benny

Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ songwriting partnership.

Close your eyes and ‘Voyage’ will transport you back to the ‘80s like the past four decades never even existed.

JACK SAVORETTI Europiana

Universal

Jack Savoretti takes a musical voyage through the soundtrack to his childhood summers on ‘Europiana’.

Inspired by his early years in mainland Europe, the album is led by the Nile Rodgersproduced Who’s Hurting Who, showcasing the singer-songwriter’s signature raspy vocals over Chic-style beats.

That inspiration runs through the collection, which touches on Jack’s love of 1970s Italo disco and the sounds that shaped his musical instincts, through to his career today.

Secret Life, with its infectious rhythm and sweeping synths, laments the freedom of anonymity, while Dancing in the Living Room deals with life’s simple pleasures over a funky bassline.

Most impressive about ‘Europiana’ is its narrative; reflective opener I Remember Us features the chant of a children’s choir, and the album closes with a full circle moment on War of Words, blending the young vocals with Jack’s unmistakeable tone.

‘Europiana’ is more than an album; it’s a snapshot of a moment in time, preserved in words and music, capturing the youth and early loves of one of Britain’s premier musicians.

AGNES Magic Still Exists

Universal

Agnes conjures a slick disco fantasy on her triumphant comeback ‘Magic Still Exists’.

The superstar celebrates a sweet 16 years since finding fame on Sweden’s ‘Idol’ with her first album in a decade and scores our pick of 2021 with a non-stop collection of dance floor perfection. Opening instrumental Spiritual Awakening segues into XX – an anthem forauthenticity that defies you to lose yourself in the beat and live your best life.

The energy continues with singles 24 Hours, Here Comes the Night and Fingers Crossed, while new tracks Selfmade and Love and Appreciation are consistently strong.

Pieced together via a series of interludes that feed off the music, Agnes shares a proud message of love and acceptance, declaring, ‘It’s time to set yourself free / Let go of everything that holds you back / The soul has no gender’.

It’s a poignant narrative that comes to a head on the album’s closer and title track; a rousing piano ballad that urges listeners to, ‘Free your mind and free your body’, and surrender to the music.

‘Keep believing that we’ll stay forever young / Keep believing that we’ve only just begun / No, we don’t have to close our eyes and make a wish / With you, I know that magic still exists,’ she sings, as a welcome offering of hope and escapism.

All rise – a new Queen of Disco has been crowned.

FINDING BALANCE FEATURE: TEARS FOR FEARS

MAD WORLD

Tears For Fears’ epic catalogue soundtracked the ‘80s and scored them international acclaim, but working on new album ‘The Tipping Point’ – the band’s first in 18 years – almost tore Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith apart in the process.

Words: Connor Gotto

Tears For Fears’ career has been an exercise in finding balance. The group achieved early success in 1982 with Mad World, the synth-led new wave hit inspired by pioneers of the movement Duran Duran, before a transition to mainstream pop took them global with Shout, Sowing the Seeds of Love and their signature anthem Everybody Wants to Rule The World hitting the charts worldwide.

It’s a move that cemented their legacy and earned them icon status, but making plans for the future with the band’s first since LP since ‘04 release ‘Everybody Loves a Happy Ending’ saw Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith surrounded by collaborators who were preoccupied with the past.

“When we first started this record, we did that thing called ‘speed dating’, where you get together with a lot of writers and producers,” Roland recalls. “There’s no real sense of ‘Well, what do you want to say?’ It’s more often like they’re saying, ‘Well, you’ve had a hit before and it sounded like this…’”

It was an exercise that continued for “six or seven years” and initially sparked creativity, resulting in the single I Love You but I’m Lost – co-written with Bastille’s Dan Smith and producer Mark Crew –from their greatest hits LP ‘Rule the World’. But as the sessions progressed, something was off,

and things came to a head when a dissatisfied Curt threatened to wash his hands of the record altogether.

“We got to the point a few years ago where I certainly wasn’t happy with what we were doing,” he admits.

“Myself and Roland sat down and I said, ‘Look, if this is what you want to do, then you go ahead and do it, but it’s not for me.’ That ended and we didn’t know what we were going to do. It was sort of up in the air.”

It’s not the first time disagreements threatened the lifeblood of the group; following the release of their platinum-selling third album, ‘The Seeds of Love’, in ‘89, an acrimonious split saw Roland retain the band’s name for his solo project, which spawned two albums – ‘Elemental’ and ‘Raoul and the Kings of Spain’. The result was distinctly different to Tears For Fears’ previous output and the latter failed to break the UK Top 40.

Photos © Frank W. Ockenfels 3

Back then, it took a decade for the longtime friends to set aside their differences and regroup, but this time around they were able to rise above the growing tensions and pinpoint the cause of the discontent. “[We were being] pushed in various directions –not only by our past management but also a record company we were signed to,” Roland says. Curt adds of the original album: “It was just a lot of attempts at trying to make a modern hit single… And we’re crap at making modern records!”

Initially, they set the project to one side and focussed solely on live work, but it was a tragedy that reignited their creative flair and pushed the pair back into the studio, when Roland’s wife Caroline passed away a decade after a difficult experience with menopause sent her into depression and alcohol misuse.

He candidly recalls the heartbreak: “I can be quite honest about this, because my late wife and Curt and I used to hang out when we were 14 [or] 13, in Snow Hill flats in Bath. Obviously, the older you get the more people you lose. And then you kind of think, ‘Hang on, I’ve known him all my life, almost.’ So when I had my medical emergencies in 2018, the first person I thought about ringing was Curt. I was thinking, ‘Am I going to get through this?’ Get Curt on the phone! ‘You can have my guitars. You can have my clothes!’”

That poignant moment reopened the lines of communication between the pair and compelled them to reconvene and reassess their direction, with a view to pushing forward with a body of work that was mutually fulfilling.

“Roland said, ‘Look, let’s sit down and talk about this. What do you feel?’ And I said, ‘I think we have some good songs. But I just think that the recordings really aren’t right. They don’t sound like Tears for Fears – they sound like us trying to be someone else’,” Curt remembers. “I think he’d come to the same realisation, having taken time away from it... So we sat down and plotted a path forward of how we could finish an album that we were both happy with.”

Back on the same page musically, the pair blocked out the external influences and reverted to a method of working they’d not embraced since their teens – on acoustic guitars, in Curt’s house. “That was the first time we’ve done that since we were 18,” he smiles.

The result was album opener, No Small Thing, which begins as an acoustic ditty and flourishes into a full band moment, and it became a “catalyst” for ‘The Tipping Point’ as we know it today.

It’s a story the pair are all too happy to share and one that’s woven into the narrative of the album; its title track, Roland says, comes from “a specific time in my life when my first wife wasn’t very well”.

“I was essentially watching her die. That’s where the lyrics come from. It’s an image of a hospital room where you are just looking at someone and waiting for the point when they are more dead than alive. That’s the tipping point, and it’s almost like part of you is willing to cross that threshold because you are in that purgatory while they’re in purgatory.”

It was the obvious choice as lead single, not only due to its personal significance but also because it references two of their biggest hits: Head Over Heels and Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

“That was Charlton Pettus, who desperately was trying to do something that was self-referential,” Curt says. “So he put a Head Over Heels piano motif over a shuffle beat, which is Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

The result is classic Tears For Fears and a track that, in a world where ‘80s music is as popular as ever, is simultaneously current and classic.

Curt and Roland are fully aware of what constitutes a Tears For Fears song and, while they take calculated risks, the collection feeds into their discography and caters to longtime fans and new listeners alike. When it comes to their own preferences, however, the pair couldn’t be more dissimilar. The dilemma: “He adds rhythm to things I do and I tell him not to shout as much,” Curt laughs.

Although the pair washed their hands of many of the early recordings, they couldn’t resist addressing their struggles on the drum-driven Master Plan, which is “a bit of a dig” at their ex-manager. “It’s about when someone in your life has ‘the master plan’ – at least that’s their job. And the master plan for our last manager was not to make any records because, ‘It’s a waste of time’,” says Roland.

Consequently, the pair stopped trusting themselves and came to a creative standstill. “There are certain periods in a long career that are not going to work for you, so you might as well go home and do nothing. Then, the tide turns. All of a sudden, you’re floating back to shore at a very fast pace.”

Some would question their determination to push forward with an album at all; Curt admits they “don’t get paid fairly” by the major streaming companies and, as a band that makes “an incredibly good income playing live,” the personal and financial exertion seems counter-intuitive.

So why did they? He laughs: “Self-gratification more than anything, I think. We can go out now for six weeks and make as much as we would make in a year back then. And that was when we were hugely successful. So you’re not doing it for money, you’re doing it for personal satisfaction.

“I was essentially watching her die. That’s where the lyrics come from. It’s an image of a hospital room where you are just looking at someone and waiting for the point when they are more dead than alive. That’s the tipping point.”

“We got to a stage playing live, which we do enjoy a lot. Especially with the band we have now. But we were playing the same things all the time. Obviously, we have a big enough catalogue where we can change it around, but you know, you are limited, there is a finite amount of material. So we just sort of felt the need for new songs, primarily for us to go out and play live and still enjoy it and still find it fresh.”

The group credit their live band for much of their career renaissance – calling the collective “ the easiest people to play with and great musicians” –and the ensemble rallied around when it came to getting ‘The Tipping Point’ back on track.

Roland explains: “My new wife is acutely aware of the struggles we had early on making the record and working with all sorts of people. She scratched her head one day and said, ‘Why don’t you write your songs with your own band? Because they’re amazing.’ I said, ‘Well, not a bad idea’.”

Keyboard player Doug Petty teamed up with Charlton to work on an instrumental, which they handed over to Roland at the start of the pandemic, when the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum Stateside following the killing of Minnesota man George Floyd at the hands of cops. The result is Rivers of Mercy – an ambient track inspired by his experience of living through a cultural revolution through the lens of a TV camera.

“It felt strange because during lockdown #1, I was in the West Country of England, and it was beautiful. Then you turn on the TV or your computer and there is absolute chaos,” he recalls. “The narrator in Rivers of Mercy is a person almost desperate to go back to a time when this chaos isn’t happening. This song has that idea of redemption through the river, like in Take Me To The River – that notion of redemption or baptism. That’s probably my favourite song on the whole album.”

It’s ironic that Roland’s pick of the bunch is more aligned with what Curt would typically produce and perhaps a sign that the pair are more similar musically than they would admit. Curt nods: “It just becomes a natural process in the end. There are times where it’s out of balance – we’ve used this word a lot. This album was about trying to find a balance: that’s a balance between old and new, that’s a balance between me and him, and a balance between songs where they have a flow.

“So not everything is one thing. You need to tell a story and the story has to be balanced and has to have a beginning and an ending. That was the struggle with this record,” he muses, as Roland chimes: “Which is why we don’t make records very often!”

Much has changed in the music industry since Tears For Fears released their previous body of work, with streaming giants like Spotify and Apple Music taking a stronghold over the charts, and although they present myriad issues Curt is optimistic they could work in the band’s favour this time around.

“More and more people have access to our music. So whereas when I was younger, I wasn’t going back and listening to my parents’ 78s. There was nowhere where you could get instant kind of, ‘If you like this, then you might like this.’ And no instant, ‘I want to hear that song’ – because you’d have to go to a record store and buy the album or the single. Now you can just find it online in a second. So in that sense, people have more access to older music.”

It leads to a discussion surrounding the group’s legacy and, in particular, the 40th anniversary of Tears For Fears’ first chart success. Will the milestone be celebrated in the group’s forthcoming world tour? “Well, no plans for it to come into it right now – other than, thanks for making me feel old,” Curt laughs.

“No, I mean, we’re very aware of it, but whether we plan something... It’s a weird one, because it doesn’t really happen ‘til the end of next year. If you see what I’m saying: Mad World was released at the end of ‘82, ‘The Hurting’ was at the beginning of ‘83. So, we’ll see…”

However, nothing’s off the table, and after wrapping the international trek, which takes Tears For Fears across the US and UK, there’s time in the latter half of 2022 to look back. And when it comes to the future, the pair are more than happy to see where the muse takes them.

“I learned a long time ago that planning more than six months to a year ahead is sort of pointless because anything can happen,” he insists. The problem [with ‘The Tipping Point’] was there was a plan: work with these modern producers and songwriters and make this modern-sounding album. It was a plan, then we got into it and realised, ‘I don’t like this’. And then the plan goes up in smoke.

“We’re far better off, it would appear, going into the studio and bluffing our way through it until we get to a point where we find something we both like,” he affirms, leaving the book open for the band to write the next chapter in Tears For Fears’ enduring pop legacy.

‘The Tipping Point’ is out February 25 on Concord Records. Tears For Fears kick off the US leg of their tour in May with support from Garbage, before hitting the UK in July with Alison Moyet.

This album was about trying to find a balance: that’s a balance between old and new, that’s a balance between me and him, and a balance between songs where they have a flow.”

DIVING INTO THE BEAUTIFUL UNKNOWN

Matt Goss is back and he’s doing things his way, with a brilliant new solo album and plans for an “outrageous” Bros comeback in the works...

Words: Connor Gotto

Matt Goss has recently returned to the UK after a decade in the United States.

“I’ve come back a lot. I’ve done a lot of shows; obviously The O2, Wembley, the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve done a show like that every year since I can remember,” he reflects, insisting now is the time to get back to his roots.

The move is permanent – well, sort of... He’s planning to split his time between London and Los Angeles and, as we catch up via Zoom, Matt reveals he’s been viewing property and admits his homecoming has “a very different feel to it”.

It’s hardly surprising; the last time Matt lived in the UK, the iPhone was on its second iteration, Instagram hadn’t been invented and Madonna was in her ‘Hard Candy’ era.

The city may have changed, but he insists: “The time is right for me. I’d had enough of being in one place, I’d had enough of over abusing my voice. I didn’t want to touch the piano. I didn’t want to touch my guitars. I definitely didn’t want to sing.”

Photos © Amanda Demme

Matt, who earned teen heartthrob status as the frontman of the group in the late ‘80s, set up base Stateside in June, 2009 after landing a residency show at the Palms Casino Resort. An instant success, he later moved the concert to the iconic Caesars Palace in January, 2010 and began touring the spectacle worldwide.

Early in the run, Matt was living in LA and commuting to Sin City for up to 120 shows each year, but following the devastating loss of his mum Carol to cancer in 2014, he made a more permanent set-up in Vegas. The move was only part of the upheaval, as the singer’s mental health began to suffer following the heartbreak, leading to social anxiety and panic attacks, which he links to his gruelling flight schedule.

“I needed to get into a place where I could still do what I love but not necessarily be around so many people,” he recalls, insisting that Vegas was the perfect place to keep his career in the spotlight while dealing with his personal issues behind closed doors. Returning to the stage gave Matt a focus and he was thriving on the momentum of his packed schedule, but when the Strip shut down in 2020 Matt found himself reevaluating his life choices and facing tough decisions about his future.

“I think that this time has forced us into a place of self-reflection. I don’t know one person that hasn’t drilled a hole in themselves,” he muses, insisting, “You’re either going to get crushed by this wave, or you’re going to get on top of it and ride it all the way to the shore. I just made a decision that, if I want to see the world again, in a way that I am used to seeing the world, then the one thing I know how to do is write music.”

It was from that realisation ‘The Beautiful Unknown’ was born; an 11-track collection that sees Matt return to the pop sound of Bros’ biggest chart hits – I Owe You Nothing, Drop The Boy, Too Much and, of course, When Will I Be Famous? – and territory he hasn’t explored in decades. The result is an “aggressive pop record,” but buried beneath the surface is the story of his experiences over the past 10 years: “There’s a lot of stuff that’s in there that I wanted to address; from toxic relationships and my grief, to the intimacy of technology...”

However, he’s cautious not to “overly explain” the record: “There is such solitude in writing. You’re really trying to dig into yourself and, if you really want to tell the truth, you’ve got to talk about stuff that you might not want to talk about. You know, never waste good agony…

“I remember being in a very isolated and somewhat oppressive environment and, all of a sudden, that experience gets transformed into something that’s very public and very open and alive. That’s the intoxicating part of being a musician; you have this very inward, pensive, vulnerable place, which turns into a very joyous place, that is interpreted differently by different people.”

Matt’s lyrics are both personal and open – take lead single Somewhere to Fall, in which he seeks refuge and comfort while working through his heartache: ‘I will be strong / A mother’s son / Gotta let go’.

There are moments of vulnerability – ‘No one should feel like they’re an island / Surrounded by the sea’ (Feeling High) – juxtaposed with the triumph of overcoming adversity – ‘Raise a glass to the beautiful unknown / Be prepared to undress your soul’ (The Beautiful Unknown).

Buried among the lush metaphors are more striking lyrics sure to capture fans’ attention –‘We’re making love over FaceTime / My words are pictures in your mind’ – but, judging by the glimmer in his eyes as he discusses “phone sex” track Making It Rain, Matt knows exactly what he’s doing.

His passion for music is infectious and it’s refreshing to speak to an artist who, 30+ years into his career, is both totally grounded and genuinely humbled by the positive response to his latest work.

He grins: “Last night, I was on the phone doing interviews in Australia. I’m definitely going to Australia and that’s because of the 11 songs that I wrote. They’re already taking me to the other side of the world. It’s quite an extraordinary thing, if you think about it, that even after all this time of writing records, music can still take you to amazing places.

“When you’ve been in music for a while, you realise that music isn’t just about chart positions. It’s about the journey that music takes you on. It’s extraordinary where music is taking me – we wouldn’t have enough time to explain where music is taking me…”

Chart positions are nice though, surely? “I think you transcend that kind of success. If you spend the day with me, you become a person that everybody

says ‘Hello’ to. You become a person everyone wants a selfie with. It transcends that brief moment of fame.”

And yet, when it comes to his celebrity, Matt remains as popular as ever; after touching down at Heathrow Airport in September, he was greeted by adoring fans celebrating his long-awaited homecoming. Less than 24 hours after his return, he was already making headlines.

“Many things haven’t changed; there are still fans downstairs the hotel, I’m still doing interviews all over the world. It’s not as mad as it was – there’s definitely a pace at which you can observe a bit more, then there are moments where you just go, ‘If people f**king knew what I’m experiencing right now, there’s no way they would even fathom’.

“When you’ve got secret service around you and you’re playing for Joe Biden, because he’s asked you to. Or you’re playing one song for the owner of the biggest football team in America and he wants you to sing that song for him. Or you’re in St. Barts on an 800-foot yacht and there’s every single A-list person from Hollywood on that boat.

“It transcends hit records. It transcends chart positions. The thing I’m proud of is that you become less concerned just with the chart positions because that alone doesn’t pay the mortgage. It becomes a journey. I know it’s cliché, but it really is about the journey, not the destination.”

‘The Beautiful Unknown’ is a testament to Matt’s commitment to his craft and, when it came to gathering tracks for the LP, he approached the project with the view that “every song could be a single”. “If there was a song that was nice but I didn’t feel like it was current, or it didn’t feel

like I could hear on the radio, I just scrapped it. I was pretty brutal writing this record.”

A self-professed perfectionist, Matt admits he can be particularly hard on himself in the studio – a habit he shares with twin brother and Bros bandmate Luke and one that fuelled the volatility of their working relationship. To this day, they still “do not speak each other’s musical language”.

“I love pop and soul, and Luke loves more of the rock side of things,” he shrugs. “It’s pretty easy once we’re in the studio to figure it out, but can be quite tumultuous… We’re both perfectionists.”

This time around, Matt’s biggest critic was himself, as he endeavoured to create a record that spoke to a current audience and sounded contemporary yet classic. Although influenced by the sounds making waves in today’s commercial charts, however, our conversation soon turns to the revival of electronic ‘80s and ‘90s house music.

The irony isn’t lost on Matt: “I’ve heard certain things and I think there were some influences that might have come from me,” he laughs. “The Weeknd and stuff like that, that sound... When you hear the keyboards that he’s using, they’re without question from the ‘80s and early ‘90s. It’s all coming back.

“If I’m being brutally honest, I’m hearing this music and I’m thinking, ‘Well, I was part of that original movement.’ It’s something I really understand –so why not take advantage of that?!”

It’s inevitable, then, that along with the modern influences comes an equally-impressive list of veteran inspirations for the record: “Duran Duran, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, George Michael, Prince, Michael Jackson, they’re all on this album.”

Nicks and Fleetwood Mac have the most profound impact on ‘The Beautiful Unknown’, with a cover of her song Landslide, from the group’s 1975 self-titled ‘White Album’, closing out the record. For Matt, it’s his way of “saying thank you for all these wonderful influences”.

“I’d never really heard a fella sing that song, but it always moves me for some reason,” he says. “It moved me when I was 19 and it moves me now. So to close the album out with it, out of respect for an artist I also love, and put a little bit of soul in there, is a way of saying it’s not all about me.”

Matt’s humility shines through and, as we wind down our chat, he reflects on the full-circle moment of returning to London and how far he’s come over the past decade, as he prepares to embark on a bold new chapter, both personally and professionally.

“It’s beautiful to have a residency for over 10 years. Certainly at Caesar’s Palace – arguably the most famous casino on the planet – I’m proud of succeeding in that town and the accolades I got in that town. I will always be grateful for Vegas. It taught me so much,” he says. “But I was designed to see the world…”

A big part of his desire to leave Las Vegas and seek out new experiences is the opportunity to reconnect with fans worldwide, outside of an environment which, he admits, is “becoming very corporate”.

“There’s something beautiful about having that connection,” he says of his MGA aka Matt Goss Army. “I know for a fact the fans would not be with me if I was some arrogant a**ehole that didn’t care about people and didn’t care about compassion and didn’t genuinely care about civility. I guess we’ve got this necessity of civility that drives us as a little army that we are.”

That authenticity, he says, is vital for anyone living out their life in the spotlight and something he’s come to appreciate especially since reuniting with Luke onstage in 2017 for their 30th-anniversary gigs at The O2 – the band’s first live shows since 1989 – which played out in the documentary ‘Bros: After the Screaming Stops’.

The shows were an instant hit; tickets for the first night sold out in a record-breaking seven seconds, leading to the pair adding a second date, but the behind the scenes feature shone a light on the duo’s often-faltering personal relationships.

Looking back, Matt admits it was a breakthrough moment for the siblings: “I don’t think the documentary was nostalgic. I don’t think it was a fluff piece. I think it probably changed the way documentaries are made. It was so honest and, if you’re not that honest now, I think it’s going to be very noticeable. I think there are some documentaries out there that aren’t as honest and, as a result, they’re not as interesting.”

To coincide with their reunion, Bros returned with Love Can Make You Fly, their first new single in 25 years. It remains a standalone release. But after Luke recently revealed the pair were planning to work together on “the definitive Bros album,” we couldn’t not get an update on the project.

“It’s definitely on the cards,” he nods. “My brother’s in love with art right now. We’ve both had a massive illumination of what feels right and what we needed. We let go of certain things in our life, certain people in our life. Also, we realised the people that really, really loved us.”

He adds: “Luckily, we are the closest we’ve ever been. Once I’m done with this record and Luke is done with the next phase of his art, we absolutely want to do an outrageous record together.”

With that in mind, I ask whether Luke has heard ‘The Beautiful Unknown’? Matt smiles: “He loves it.”.

‘The Beautiful Unknown’ is out February 4 on Lewisham Records.

“I know for a fact the fans would not be with me if I was some arrogant a**ehole that didn’t care about people.”

BRUISED ILLUSIONS

Synth-pop pioneers Soft Cell return after two decades with their hard-hitting comeback ‘*Happiness Not Included’

Words: Connor Gotto

Twenty years since they last released music, Soft Cell still have plenty left to say. The duo return with their fifth studio album, ‘*Happiness Not Included’ – an 11-track collection of electronic musings on the progression of the human race and the attitudes and behaviours that have created the world we live in today.

“In this album, I wanted to look at us as a society,” says Marc Almond, “a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others.”

It strikes a fine balance between light and shade – a dichotomy often found in the group’s tracks, which dive deep lyrically over infectious, often uplifting beats – and analyses the world through the gaze of the singer and lyricist, who took the reins on Dave Ball’s instrumentals as the pair worked remotely to complete the project.

Across the impressive set, he explores the disappointment of a future that never materialised and shares his disillusionment at the modern media landscape, via his own experiences as a celebrity – at Andy Warhol’s New York studio The Factory – and as a human being.

“I’m always surprised and he didn’t disappoint,” says Dave of the end result. “Normally, we’d probably get into the studio together at some point. Not all the time, but I’d go over and see what he’s doing with the vocals.

“Luckily, he had all the sound files. So, he could go into a little studio down Dean Street [in London] and do the vocals without me being there. So it worked out OK. It was a completely remote way of working. But we’ve kind of done that since day one when I used to make Marc cassettes. That’s how we did our early stuff.”

Times may have changed, with the wonders of technology allowing the pair to exchange recordings digitally – “I can now send him a finished multitrack, that he can work on in another studio, so you get the actual real masters,” he explains – but the advancements don’t make up for the shortcomings that influenced the pair to return to the studio for the first time since 2002 release ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’. For Soft Cell, the space between recordings isn’t uncommon – that record was the follow-up to their 1984 release ‘This Last Night in Sodom’, some 18 years in the making – but for Marc and Dave, “the conditions seemed to be right” to reunite and create new music.

“I think our music has always had a slight, gritty reality to it, which obviously comes with the lyrics, but it’s also a subject matter that’s close to my heart,” Dave explains of the deeply political offering. “Regardless of the pandemic, a lot of it reflects the dreadful government we have at the moment and the levels of hypocrisy and incompetence. I think it’s very much reflective of what’s going on in the world. The fact we had someone like [Donald] Trump in power.

“We’re not in a very good place globally. Whatever your political beliefs are, the state [of the world] isn’t too good. And obviously, with all the global warming and all that sort of stuff going on, it’s not fantastically happy times.”

It’s a heavy subject matter for a pop comeback 20 years in the making, but the pair excel at spreading the message with a subtlety that makes for a pleasurable listening experience. The move is intentional, with Marc explaining that innate to the album is “a belief that there is a utopia if we can peel back the layers and understand what really matters.”

“I think it’s quite reflective and looks back as much as it looks forward, really,” Dave says. “When we started out [in our careers], obviously you’re looking forward. But as you get older, you’re looking back and forward. He’s written some really kind of wise sounding lyrics. Some of it’s jaded, but some of it’s still optimistic.”

That notion is encompassed in the album artwork, which features photos from the funfair at Pripyat, Ukraine, which was due to open just days after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and has remained abandoned since. The visual also forms the backdrop for the pre-release track Heart of Chernobyl, on which Marc sings: ‘All I have to say, the news has made me this way / Another horror every day / So on your knees and pray.’

“When I wrote the music to Heart

Like Chernobyl it was at the height of lockdown and I had been alone for about six weeks,” Dave explains.

“I was feeling a bit Joy Division and recalled their track Isolation. I played, programmed and recorded the track digitally in my home studio – Kitchen Sink Drama. The track title was Marc’s idea, as was the subject matter.”

It extended beyond just one song and became synonymous with the state of the world today, harkening back metaphorically to Marc and Dave’s respective upbringings in the seaside towns of Southport and Blackpool.

“We both have a sort of background of coming from seaside towns with funfairs,” Dave muses. “When you’re young, it’s all great fun and it’s all a laugh, but as you get older, it’s not so fun anymore.

“We’ve got these clowns in charge, but it’s not funny. It’s kind of like a funfair where there’s no fun,” he quips, before laughing: “Maybe we’re just getting a bit old and cynical.”

When talking about his formative years, Dave name-drops another Blackpool-born star – Pet Shop Boys’ Chris Lowe – and reveals he used his musician pal as a sounding board for ‘*Happiness Not Included’. He was so impressed, in fact, that the ‘80s legends are now planning to work together on a collaboration.

“We’ve known each other for years and there’s never been a rivalry,” he says. “They’ve obviously been a lot more successful in terms of pop. They would probably readily admit they are more pure pop than we ever were; we were much more dangerous and challenging things a bit more, whereas the Pet Shop Boys always had an excellent, very pop sensibility.

“I was talking to Chris Lowe backstage about the possibility of a Pet Shop Boys remix and he said, ‘I love that track, The Purple Zone.’ So that’s a possible contender.”

The song – an airy pop number that contrasts uplifting sonics with Marc’s darkly doomed lyrics –is one of the most commercial on the album, sitting between Heart Like Chernobyl and Bruises On My Illusions, which is “one of [Soft Cell’s] darker cinematic pop moments with a classic Marc Almond lyric.”

According to Marc, the track is “a mini film noir Soft Cell story about a disillusioned character with everything against him or her who still has hope for a better future, despite the odds. A darker Bedsitter. Dave’s ominous yet punchy defiant chords inspired the song.”

Another cut that encapsulates the themes of the album, New Eden, directly addresses the passing of time: ‘All those plans we made in the ‘60s… Seem naïve now we’ve grown older / Leaving we’re leaving looking for the New Eden.’

It’s impressive that Soft Cell’s latest offering is so forward-facing considering the group’s most-recent career milestone – 40 years since the release of their debut, full-length album, ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, featuring their iconic cover of Northern soul classic Tainted Love, which topped the charts in 1981 and went on to sell more than one million copies. It’s a pivotal moment in pop history and one the pair couldn’t let go by unnoticed.

“Marc’s always been a great one for celebrating certain anniversaries,” Dave admits, as we touch on their recent week of celebratory shows, featuring all of their best-loved material – including songs from the new record – followed by the classic album, played front-to-back, during the second half of the evening.

“We just signed a deal for a new album with BMG and they said, ‘Are you going to do any shows?’ We hadn’t really thought about it,” Dave recalls.

“You don’t want to just do a show where you’re just gonna play the entire new album, because that’s really hard on an audience… So we thought, ‘Well, we could do a few new tracks…’ Some old favourites and some that we’ve not played before that people always ask for, like Kitchen Sink Drama. Then, we decided to do the second half as the entire first album, because it’s the anniversary.”

The shows were eye-opening for the duo: “There were certain standout numbers – and it wasn’t Tainted Love, because everyone’s so bored with that. But things like Bedsitter, Chips on My Shoulder, Seedy Films –they seemed to go down a storm.”

Yet the demand for Soft Cell’s classic hit remains as strong as ever, with a commemorative pink vinyl reissue of the track – featuring a new, five-minute edit from Dave, which uses previously-unheard studio parts from the original recording sessions, plus remastered versions of the original 7” coupled with its B-side, Where Did Our Love Go – whipping fans into a frenzy when it went up for pre-order earlier this year.

It seems that hitting the road for an alternative style show worked well for Soft Cell, with Dave admitting a similar style gig in celebration of its follow-up, ‘The Art of Falling Apart’, is an option. “We’ve not got a massive catalogue, but there’s enough stuff that the fans regard as classic,” he says.

It’s true: ‘*Happiness Not Included’ is only Soft Cell’s fifth studio album, but Marc and Dave’s legacy –both as a duo and off the back of their solo projects – stands the test of time and secures their status as bonafide pop icons. And despite their decades in the business, they still have a great time playing live and connecting with fans around the world.

For Dave, touring is fine “when it’s organised properly”. “That’s why this was really great, because everything was sorted out properly…”

However, he did have one complaint: “There were a few issues, like the distance from the hotel room to the bar! [...] When we played in Glasgow, we couldn’t actually get a room because of the [COP26] climate change conference. So we ended up staying at this golf club in Edinburgh – it’s probably where Biden and stayed a few days before! It had two full-size golf courses and a tennis court, this massive lowrise sprawling mansion place – and it was about a quarter of a mile away from the bar!”

In search of a drink, Dave found himself getting lost in the grounds – but ever the resourceful one, he tracked down a porter who drove him – via golf buggy – to finally quench his thirst. “The guy said to me, ‘Come outside, I’ll take you on one of the buggies.’ So I got on a golf buggy and he took me around the outside. There was an exit near my door – it was fantastic!”

When it comes to touring the new album, however, he’s not sure whether the pair will get round to hitting the stage during the campaign because of current global events. “We’ve probably been lucky to get that week in when we did,” he says of the recent jaunt, insisting they don’t want to book shows and let fans down. What’s more, the demand for concert venues, he says, makes it near impossible to plan anything in the immediate future.

Now 64 and 62, respectively, Marc and Dave are realistic when deciding their next move and, although studio work is adaptable, the duo have accepted the fact that their days performing live shows worldwide are numbered.

“We’re not going to be touring for years and years now. If we do many more shows, they’re going to be in the next few years,” Dave insists. “Because of our age and our physical health, you know. I don’t know how long I’ll be good enough physically to do it.

“I’m not in great shape. Marc’s probably a lot fitter than I am and he runs around. I’m pretty static because I have terrible back problems and stuff,” he adds. “It’s all those years of Northern Soul dancing – my hips have gone. I’ll have to have a hip replacement!”

However, if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Soft Cell it’s that they follow their muse and don’t have their careers dictated to them by anyone but themselves. “We’ve always been like that though,” Dave insists. “When we felt like doing something and conditions seemed to be right, then we’d do something. Marc does a lot of other stuff that he enjoys doing and needs to get off his chest. And I’m the same. I do a lot of other projects with The Grid and various other people...”

Case in point: the group’s 2018 gig at The O2 in London – dubbed ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ – was billed as their final UK performance, and here we are catching up after they wrapped their latest string of headline shows across the country.

So although Marc and Dave might be considering winding down on work in the not-too-distant future, don’t be surprised if in a couple of years, once the new album has been unleashed into the world, the inspiration hits and drives them back into the studio to create more Soft Cell magic.

‘*Happiness Not Included’ is out February 25 via BMG

“A lot of it reflects the dreadful government we have at the moment and the levels of hypocrisy and incompetence. I think it’s very much reflective of what’s going on in the world.”

BORN TO BE WILDE

Ahead of her hotly-anticipated ‘Greatest Hits Tour’, ‘80s icon

Kim Wilde talks Madonna, touring with Michael Jackson and marking her impressive 40 year musical legacy.

Words: Christian Guiltenane

Kim Wilde has never been enticed by the fame game.

“I was never a mad popstar – I was the girl next door,” she asserts with a deadpan laugh. “One minute I’d be singing Kids in America on ‘Top of the Pops’ or on stage somewhere, the next I’d be home helping mum changing my kid sister’s nappies.”

The single took her around the world and made her an industry darling, but Kim remained humble and continued living at home with her mum, along with rock star dad Marty and brother Ricky, who co-wrote her breakthrough hit.

While her success meant performing to thousands of adoring fans and appearing on huge TV shows, she never lost sight of who she was or what she was doing. “Music was always the motivational factor,” she maintains. “It’s always been at the heart of who I am. Fame itself was never something that never really sat well with me. But it was fun.”

Photos © Sean J. Vincent

Whether she liked it or not, Kim admits she “had a public life,” but “felt comfortable that that was the bed that I was in. I was just grateful that my career was so exciting and enabled me and my brother to work on our songwriting and see where it took us. It gave us the chance to do what we wanted to do. And having Ricky there with me made everything so much easier.”

Flash forward four decades and the pair’s bond is as strong as ever, as the siblings celebrate Kim’s latest career milestone. Coinciding with her 60th birthday, the pop icon marked 40 years of her charttopping success by unleashing ‘Pop Don’t Stop –Greatest Hits’ – a comprehensive 5CD/2DVD box set featuring her singles, deep cuts, B-sides, remixes and music videos, plus exclusive new interview content. Among the highlights are delicious pop gems like You Came, Cambodia, Four Letter Word and You Keep Me Hanging On, plus two new cuts – Shine On, a sublime ballad with Boy George, and You’re My Karma with singer-songwriter Tom Aspaul.

This year, she’ll hit the road with ‘The Greatest Hits Tour’, promising a night of wall to wall hits and fan favourites, like Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love) and Million Miles Away.

Despite the ambitious retrospective project, Kim has a habit of downplaying her success, but it’s impossible to dismiss the impact she had at the time, with a string of hit albums including ‘Select’, ‘Teases & Dares’, ‘Another Step’ and ‘Close’ proving so successful that, by the end of the ‘80s, she’d been named the most successful British female artist of the decade.

Kim took the accomplishments in her stride, but that’s not to say she didn’t happily throw herself into the wild pop star party lifestyle. ”I got invited to so many parties and events,” she recalls with glee. “But the one that sticks out was a really fancy Elton John party that was just wonderful. I had always been such a huge fan of his so to be invited by him to one of his parties was just mind-blowing to me. I remember I bought him a vintage robot as a gift because he’d recorded a song called I Am Your Robot and I thought it was quite a clever idea. I remember he gave me a big hug and treated me like I was the star! It was an amazing party! Everyone was there – George Michael, Boy George, everyone you could imagine. It was such a starry night.”

At the height of success, Kim was branded a sex siren by the press and her stunning looks weren’t lost on her showbiz peers, who also took a shine to her.

“I had my fair share of offers from some celebrity men along the way,” she giggles. “I went on a few dates with Adam Ant. He took great care of me. He took me to very expensive restaurants. I was still living at home at that point. He would always make sure chocolate mousse was on the menu even if it wasn’t, because he knew I liked it. Sadly there wasn’t that chemistry that has to happen between two people for it to be long lasting. I guess on paper Kim Wilde and Adam Ant looks good. But we just didn’t have that going for us.”

He wasn’t the only Prince Charming whose eye Kim had caught – she also attracted the attention of Highlander actor Christopher Lambert. She’d reached out to him via his people to ask him to appear in one of her videos then received a latenight phone call from the Hollywood hunk himself. “He called me up to say he didn’t want to be in it and explained why. But then he asked me to meet him in Paris for a date. Sadly that ever happened.”

As Kim was smashing up the charts, a new star was shocking her way to the top, with her own brand of pop coupled with a highly sexualised image. Her name was Madonna and, while the two couldn’t have been more different, Kim was impressed by the Material Girl’s burgeoning success.

While Madonna was setting a sexual agenda that many popstrels would emulate in her wake, Kim was never encouraged by her record label to take her on at her own game. “I never felt the pressure to be anyone other than me,” she insists. “I was never the sexually explicit person that Madonna was. She had created this public persona that was very sexual. I would never have felt comfortable about putting it out there like

“I guess on paper Kim Wilde and Adam Ant looks good. But we just didn’t have that going for us.”

she did. My sexuality was and is much more private. I would never have considered sharing it with the public. But I genuinely find her fascinating. I don’t know what motivates people to be that sexually explicit but I am most definitely a more of a cards-close-to-my-chest kind of person when it comes to sexuality.”

While she may not share her thoughts on sexual liberation, Kim is mighty impressed that, to this day, Madonna continues to reign over the charts and is ageing “disgracefully”.

“Madonna’s high calibre music was and still is really inspiring,” she says. “She has really raised the bar so high over the years and that was good for everyone. I think ageing disgracefully – as you put it – is actually inspirational. She’s doing what makes her happy, she’s still pushing herself and she doesn’t seem to care what people think about her regardless of her age.”

Kim’s record label may not have pressured her to sex up her image, but they were keen for her to break America – particularly after her cover of The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On topped the charts Stateside.

“The label wanted me to do more there,” she recalls. “They thought I had a lot of potential in America, and wanted to pitch me as a second Blondie. There was a lot of discussion between the label and my own camp and it was hard as when you’re offered a carrot that big you want to bite it. But I was having big success in the UK and Europe and so I decided that that was more important for what I wanted to do musically. To be honest, I didn’t fancy going to America – it’s a long way to go. It would have been a big commitment to do promotion across the US, especially live. Touring the country in a bus is hard work. It worked for Depeche Mode. But I’d rather be performing in Munich or Berlin.”

While she opted out of a big US tour, that didn’t stop her label from continuing to push her in the direction of the US – a move Kim resisted.

“After You Keep Me Hangin’ On, I had a battle with MCA about the next single Say You Really Want Me,” she reveals. “It was a track that had been found by the label which I wasn’t feeling because it didn’t feel like me. It was obviously a track geared toward the American audience. We asked MCA to change their mind and told them we didn’t think it would work in the UK, but they went ahead with it. We were right in the end, but we had fun with it and even made a saucy video that was banned from kids TV.”

Looking back at that time and what could have been, Kim has no regrets that she “didn’t smash America” – she’s just glad to have an enduring fanbase in Europe and that she can “still pitch up to Berlin and have a great show”.

“I was never that ambitious,” she confesses, refreshingly. “I am when it comes to writing a song. I really want to write the best song. But I’m happy with my lot.”

Kim resisted international domination, however she didn’t turn down every lucrative offer that came her way and, when she was handpicked by Michael Jackson to join him on his ‘Bad’ tour, she packed her bags and hit the road – following a typical “Kim moment” of hesitation, that is...

“Touring with Michael happened at a great time for me as my album ‘Close’ had just been released and was doing really well,” she says.

“Then when I got asked to join him on a 33date tour – I just couldn’t believe it! I was like, ‘How could I possibly open for Michael Jackson?’ My confidence evaporated the minute my management told me. When I told my mum that I couldn’t do it she gave me one of those mum talks every kid needs and said to me, ‘You’re just as good as he is’. I didn’t buy into it, of course.”

Despite trekking across Europe with Michael, she barely caught a glimpse of the megastar and, when she did manage some face-to-face time, it was fleeting and she was left flummoxed.

“It was incredible to be able to hear his greatest hits every evening,” she recalls.

“We met once and he was very sweet, very tall, very down to earth and just a lovable, open guy. Unfortunately, I was just too impressed with him when I was around so I could never find the right words. He was a very private person.” But Kim reckons the superstar’s introverted nature was his way of “managing his safety”:

“Seeing the way the fans were around him, I was glad I didn’t have that kind of devotion. I liked the fact I didn’t need security to go to the local Tesco. I loved the down to earth nature of having a famous life, the best for my mental health. I would have felt isolated.”

Following her massive success, Kim sensed her career was beginning to slow down at the start of the ‘90s and doubts about the future entered her mind. “I’d gone through times when I’d been chased by paps and then there were times when no-one was remotely interested in me,” she laughs. “I had endured the ups and downs every popstar experiences. I came out of the chaotic success with an ambivalent approach to perceived success or failure. We all come to terms with our own life. I felt that I didn’t have any more challenges to overcome.”

It was when she turned 30 that Kim realised she wasn’t happy with her lot and, following the release of her ninth album ‘Now & Forever’ in ‘95, she decided to retreat from the world of music to focus on herself. But away from the limelight, Kim experienced a deep low as she came to terms with a life no longer ruled by her usual showbiz itinerary and, just six months later, she signed up for a run in the West End production of Tommy. “Doing a musical meant I could be in one place for a year,” she explains. “I took time to look at my life to see who else I could be.” And she did just that as, during her spell in the show, she met and fell for Hal Fowler, whom she married six months later.

Looking back, she considers her decision to move away from music a canny one. “If you have the courage to close the door on something you’ve outgrown, you’ll be surprised to see how many doors suddenly open,” she muses, adding that she had never really considered fame to be the be-all-andend-all of life. “Having been around intensely famous people like Michael Jackson, I was never under any illusions that fame would answer all of life’s questions. If I was to grow as a person I would take myself away from it and see who else I could be.”

Kim resurfaced in the early ‘00s to join the ‘Here and Now’ tours and found inspiration to record again with ‘Never Say Never’ – her first album in over a decade – dropping in ‘06, featuring new tracks and re-recordings of her classic hits. Four years later she released ‘Come Out and Play’ and the following year dropped the covers album ‘Snapshot’.

Kim focussed on the European market for years, but it was a viral video of an impromptu drunken performance aboard a packed train at Christmas that pushed her back into the limelight in the UK and inspired her festive album, while her next LP, ‘Here Come The Aliens’, became her highest-charting in 25 years and was inspired by a close encounter she had with a UFO in her garden.

“I know it sounds a bit ridiculous but actually it made a huge impact on me and the people who saw it with me and also on the local community,” she explains. “It made the local newspaper and a lot of people around here also saw something extraordinary in the sky that night too. So yeah, I’m a firm believer that they’re here, that they’re visiting, they’re around, they’re not sure whether to give us some more time here to mess things up or maybe they’ll just come and take matters into their own hands.”

Who did your favourite cover version of Kids Of America?

I was chuffed when Nirvana and the Foo Fighters covered Kids In America. Dave Grohl really does seem to like pop music. He was eulogising ABBA recently. So far he hasn’t been in touch with me to perform together, but he did that performance with Rick Astley a while back, so who knows?

I’m lucky! Kids in America is an incredible song to have in your arsenal!

While keen to make extraterrestrial contact in the future, Kim’s immediate focus is to reunite with fans, when she finally gets out on the road with ‘The Greatest Hits Tour’ this spring. “When we started planning the show, we plunged into the back catalogue, so we had fun putting as many of the songs into the set as we could,” she teases. “It’s going be the best of the best. I have had costumes made which are waiting in the wardrobe.”

Kim’s passion for her career is infectious and, as she looks to her contemporaries like Boy George, Duran Duran and Bananarama, she applauds them for still producing fresh material and looking as chipper as ever.

“Time has served us old ‘80s stars well,” she smirks. “It’s proved to everyone the enduring commitment we gave to pop music back then. We weren’t just playing around with it, it came from deep inside. That energy is endless. That energy is not going anywhere. It’s powerful, which is why I am left a quivering wreck when I hear that song in the new John Lewis advert as I tuck into my fish finger sandwich with tomato sauce. It’s lovely to hear a song that was a hit when I was around doing so well now. These songs last forever.”

‘Pop Don’t Stop – Greatest Hits’ is out now via Cherry Red Records. ‘The Greatest Hits Tour’ kicks off in Europe in April and hits the UK in September.

“We plunged into the back catalogue, so we had fun putting as many of the songs into the set as we could.”

GOING FOR GOLD

Words: Connor Gotto

Marcella Detroit has enjoyed an extraordinary career. The singer-songwriter began working in the music industry in the early ‘70s as a backing vocalist when she was just a teenager. She later joined a band of recording and touring players for Eric Clapton, with whom she soon started co-writing and duetting, and collaborated with artists like Aretha Franklin, Alice Cooper, Johnny Lee and Robin Gibb. All this before recording her first solo album in ‘82.

Now celebrating 50 years in the industry, Marcella is still able to pinpoint the exact moment she dedicated her life to music. She was just 18 when she found herself strumming her guitar in a park in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

“I was playing and it was making me feel so much better – as usual – and I remember looking up at the sky and saying, ’This is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life’.”

It marked the beginning of a career spanning five decades for a musician who’s lived many lives in the spotlight: “I’m probably on number six now, as far as nine lives go.”

Her latest venture is ‘Gold’ – a brand new 20-track album of original compositions, conceived over the past 18 months as Marcella’s usual touring and performing commitments ground to a halt and the world went into shutdown. But from isolation came inspiration as she set to work crafting new music –originally as part of a publishing deal for film and TV – which eventually became her latest solo LP.

“They gave me some things they wanted me to write but, as I was writing for them, I realised that I was also writing a record for myself,” she says. “After a while, I just started to pursue that more.”

Shakespears Sister launched Marcella Detroit to the top of the charts, but the duo is just a chapter of her incredible life story...

Despite celebrating a major career milestone, ‘Gold’ is strictly contemporary, with chart-worthy dancefloor numbers sitting alongside lush ballads showcasing Marcella’s ageless vocals, which remain as powerful, emotive and distinctive as ever.

Connecting with her muse was easy: “I was just writing about life and writing about the pandemic and how it was affecting everybody… Life inspires me, wherever and whenever, at any given moment.”

Its two singles – Vicious B**ch and Alien 2 Me –are both inspired by global shutdowns and showcase the very contemporary inspirations and references that informed her latest work. Of the former, she explains: “There was this girl, Sofi Tukker, who did some music that I first heard on this TV series that we were watching called ‘The New Pope’ [...] and it kind of stayed in the back of my mind. I thought, ‘I want to try and write something like that’.”

Alongside the album, Marcella has also penned her memoir, ‘My Love Affair’, and the project allowed her to look back through the years and recover her earliest musical memories. As a child, she would often duet with her dad, who played the ukulele and with whom she learnt the art of harmony at a young age. “He wasn’t a musician – he was an artist. A fine artist. But he quit that,” she explains, “because he had to take care of the family. And there wasn’t really any money in it. But he was incredibly good at what he did.”

Still, there was “always music going on in the house, in the way of the radio or records,” and the constant soundtrack sparked a drive within the aspiring musician to hone her craft and master the art of songwriting.

“I was always creating and writing poetry and then I started writing songs when I was about 11. And I never stopped really. Going through my early teens, it was the way to cope with life. During the angst-ridden teenage years, I would just lock myself in my room and play my guitar and sing. And I always felt so much better after that.”

Some songs she held onto and can still recall today: “One of them better than others. But it wasn’t until my late teens that I really started writing seriously.”

That came when Marcella left Detroit to start a new life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she’d relocated at the bequest of drummer Jamie Oldaker and keyboard player Dick Sims.

“When we started writing together. I realised, ‘Oh, okay. This is really what I love to do,’ and then it became a viable thing,” she remembers of her early band. Despite being “the big fish in a little pond,” Marcella admits, “a lot of notables would come in and see us and I’d be doing my original songs and people loved it. I was like, ‘Oh, wow! It was fun for me to write these, but people are enjoying them. They’re dancing to them.’ And that was very cool.

“That’s when I realised that this is something that I will continue to pursue, something that I really love and also that I need to do. I need to be expressive.”

The drive was always there, but convincing those around her that she’d make it was another story. “When I used to have Leon Russell’s albums all over my wall, my mother would laugh at me. I said, ‘I’m gonna sing with him one day,’ and she goes, ‘Oh, that’s nice honey.’ And I made that happen.

“A few years later, I was singing with Eric Clapton in front of over 100,000 people. You have dreams, but I never imagined they were gonna get that big.”

For most musicians, touring the world and playing front-and-centre with artists like Clapton and Russell would be the pinnacle of their career – but Marcella’s star propelled to dizzying new heights in the late ‘80s when she teamed up with ex-Bananarama star Siobhan Fahey on her rebound project, Shakespears Sister.

Fresh out of the girl group, Siobhan threw herself into her latest venture with the support of then-husband, Eurythmics musician and songwriter Dave Stewart,

and enlisted Marcella – who was working as a session singer while pursuing a solo career – to record vocals for the project. But Dave and their mutual friend Richard Feldman had other ideas and urged the pair to hook up more permanently – although convincing Marcella and Siobhan to commit to one another was no easy task.

“I don’t know if Siobhan really wanted to be in a band with me. In fact, she didn’t want to be. I remember her saying, ‘I don’t want to be in another girl band’,” Marcella recalls. “And I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to be in a band with her, simply because I was busy pursuing my own career.”

They began working together in 1987 but, despite appearing across debut LP ‘Sacred Heart’ as a vocalist and co-writer, Marcella insists she was merely a “hired hand” for Shakespears Sister’s first outing and only became a “50 per cent” member of the act for its second record, ‘Hormonally Yours’. To this day, it remains one of her favourite projects: “That whole album is tremendous and I’m very proud of it.”

As the duo shot to the top of the charts with international mega-hit Stay, the pair’s time together came to an end; according to Marcella, Siobhan wanted to take a break from the act to spend time with her family, while she began working on a solo album – a project she had written into her Shakespears Sister contract.

“She was the one who made that happen. It wasn’t me saying, ‘Now that Stay’s a hit, I’m making a solo record’ Not at all… She said from the beginning, ‘I want to take a break and be with my family after the life of this record’. So once I got that news, I started writing.”

However, things turned sour when, at the ‘93 Ivor Novello Awards, Siobhan’s acceptance speech for their Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection win saw her bid farewell to her musical partner and wish her “all the best for the future” – a gesture Marcella didn’t foresee.

The breakup was brutal, but did any part of her relish the opportunity to commit her full attention to her solo career? Marcella insists: “I didn’t just join the band to do my record. I thought we were gonna do more records.”

Out of the group, she bounced back with her Top 20 album ‘Jewel’ and continued carving a successful solo career with follow-up ‘Feeler’ – both of which she cites as career highlights – and various live recordings and EPs, while Siobhan continued working on Shakespears Sister solo. It was 25 years before Marcella and Siobhan met again, following her stint with the reunited Bananarama on their ‘The Original Line-Up Tour’, and going into the meeting in July ‘18 she “didn’t really know what to expect”. “I was in London doing some shows – I joined Clapton on stage at the BST Hyde Park festival – and Siobhan was there as well. My husband and I were having lunch with Siobhan and her manager and he said, ‘Why don’t you guys try to write together? See if you still have that connection and that magic…’”

Cut to October and, after reuniting in the Joshua Tree desert, the pair wrote their first song in almost three decades together: All The Queen’s Horses.

The “Spaghetti Western-Americana” track became the lead single from the pair’s retrospective release ‘Singles Party (1988–2019)’ and later featured on the ‘Ride Again’ EP – along with Dangerous Game, Time to Say Goodbye and C U Next Tuesday.

The latter was their first pick as the single from the record, but when she and Siobhan presented it to their management, they quickly dismissed the idea “because they were so worried a bit about the offensive meaning – I was rolling my eyes about that!”

“Meanwhile, Cardi B can talk about her ‘wet ass p**sy’ and we can’t say ‘see you next Tuesday’,” she scoffs. However, with a smile, she says: “I’m proud of those songs. I’m proud of what we did. She and I wrote them together. I brought my little laptop along and I recorded all those songs and all our vocals and my guitars and everything.

“I’m really proud of the work that we did together and that we were able to resolve our differences enough to work together and create this whole new thing for our fans to enjoy. I know they loved it as well. And I’m grateful for that.”

Right now, the duo has nothing set up for the immediate future – “I heard from her manager [who asked], ‘Would you want to do some more writing?’

And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ But I’ve not heard much” – but Shakespears Sister’s legacy lives on: “It was the birth of grunge, the birth of that rebellion – and we were part of that. It was a short time – it was only five years. I met her in ‘87 and we were together until the end of ‘92.”

Looking to the future, Marcella insists she’ll never stop working. Right now, she doesn’t “feel really safe” to hit the road with a full-blown tour, but “may do some shows” in the near future. But she reveals some new career directions: “I’m talking about doing another clothing line – a capsule collection with my friend who’s in Australia. He has a line called Hoodedwept and we did a collection a few years ago back in ‘17. So I’d like to do that some more. And maybe I’ll continue writing as far as novels... who knows?

“I’ll always be involved in music and being creative. You know, that’s who I am. It’s in my DNA.”

Marcella’s album ‘Gold’ and autobiography

‘My Love Affair’ are out now.

“I’m really proud of the work we did together and that we were able to resolve our differences enough to create this whole new thing for our fans to enjoy.”

BACK TO WINNING WAYS

Pop icons The Fizz look back on the world they left behind as they prepare to celebrate their 40th anniversary with their best album yet!

Words: Connor Gotto

“If there’s any ultimate goal in music, it has to be winning the Eurovision Song Contest,” beams Bucks Fizz legend Cheryl Baker, revealing her other aim in life was to be an Olympic gold medallist.

While the latter may still be pending, she realised her musical dream 40 years ago when the group –also starring Mike Nolan, Jay Aston and Bobby G – rocketed to international success after winning the 1981 edition of the annual extravaganza with their chart-topping entry, Making Your Mind Up, and a skirt-ripping routine to boot. It marked the beginning of a four-decade-long musical soap opera that’s still playing out today and, after rebranding as The Fizz and pushing forward as a trio, their popularity is unwavering.

Since returning to the studio with music legend Mike Stock in 2017 for their comeback LP, Top 40 hit ‘The F-Z of Pop’, Cheryl, Mike and Jay have gone on to release two further albums – festive offering ‘Christmas with The Fizz’ and their most recent collection ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ – with a fourth on the way.

Their career is undoubtedly one of Eurovision’s greatest success stories and, as we look back on their humble beginnings, their lifelong love affair with the Contest pre-dates Bucks Fizz’s win.

For Cheryl, the process was all too familiar; three years before topping the leaderboard, she represented the UK at the ‘78 Contest at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France with Co-Co, where the group finished in 11th place with The Bad Old Days. It was, as Cheryl recalls, “the worst the UK had ever done at that time – I thought I’d let the Queen down!” However, she remained in the Eurovision bubble and the following year recorded the demo for The Nolans’ ‘A Song For Europe’ entry Harry My Honolulu Lover.

In ‘80, she entered again as a member of The Main Event with the song Gonna Do My Best, but during the selection, they were beaten by new band Prima Donna, which starred the writers of The Bad Old Days – Stephanie de Sykes and Stuart Slater – and Lance Aston, who represented the UK the year before sister Jay lit up the Eurovision stage. Looking back, she credits his participation for compelling her to sign up: “I saw what happened with Lance – if you’re going to Eurovision, it’s either life or death, isn’t it? If you come last, it’s definitely not good, but if you win, it can change your life like it has done for us for the last 40 years.”

Mike, meanwhile, was a huge Eurovision fan but a member of another group – Brooks – alongside Chris Hamill, aka Limahl, of Kajagoogoo up until ‘80, when he had himself dismissed from the band and freed from his contract after becoming dissatisfied with the setup. With the help of two of his bandmates, the trio caused havoc in rehearsals until eventually, “we got this letter in the post with a cheque, saying, ‘You’ve all been fired from the band. Here’s a month’s money’.”

At that time, he had no plans for the future, and when he received a call from songwriter Nicola Martin, who alongside partner Andy Hill was working on establishing a group to enter their

latest track into ‘A Song For Europe’, with the promise that he could perform the song if they got through, he wasn’t sold on the idea.

“My answer to that was, ‘No. I don’t want to be in another band. Definitely not. But I’ll come and do the demos for you anyway’,” he recalls. But when Making Your Mind Up was accepted, she managed to persuade him to return to the spotlight for what was sure to be “a one-off thing”.

“She said, ‘Listen to me [...] We’re never going to win it, and when it’s over at the end of March, you’ll be out of your contract…’ 40 years later, we’re still in it.”

Having remembered Cheryl from her Co-Co days, Nicola implored her to join the band, while Jay and Bobby were recruited from auditions to form the original Bucks Fizz line-up, and after months of rehearsals and performing the track “hundreds and hundreds of times,” they finally made their TV debut.

Bucks Fizz’s ‘A Song For Europe’ victory was a curveball; they were up against already-established disco act Liquid Gold, along with Hill and Martin’s own group, Gem, but came out on top of the public vote and danced their way to the ‘81 Eurovision Song Contest grand final at the RDS Simmonscourt Ballsbridge in Dublin, Ireland. On the night, their iconic skirt-ripping routine went down a storm

“There’s something that unites you, which is an experience - good and badand no one else can bring you that.”

and the group came out on top of the leaderboard, narrowly beating Germany’s Lena Valaitis by just four points. “I didn’t dream that we would win. And I didn’t realise the power of velcro,” Cheryl laughs.

Returning home to the UK, the band signed with RCA Records and began work on their self-titled debut album, turning around its 10 tracks in just four months for release in July of that year. The group had intended to release The Right Situation as its first single, but the record company had other plans and sought to steer them away from the novelty sound of their breakthrough. Subsequently, Piece of the Action was issued and scored the group a second Top 20 hit, while the album itself achieved similar success.

If their debut was a hit, follow-up ‘Are You Ready’ launched Bucks Fizz to stratospheric new heights with another pair of chart-topping singles – The Land of Make Believe and My Camera Never Lies – along with the Top 10 ballad, Now Those Days Are Gone, cementing their status as icons of the decade.

The singles remain staples in the band’s live shows, which feature a mix of classic recordings and new tracks from their more recent releases, with the trio determined to keep the group’s creative legacy alive despite being forced to adopt another moniker.

But the name change remains a sore point and, looking back, Jay calls the squabble “a testament

to what happens with bands” and speculates the writing was on the wall from early in their career, through the ‘Hand Cut’ and ‘I Hear Talk’ eras, based on the “internal politics” at play.

It was after the group’s horrific coach crash in December ‘84 that she decided to exit the line-up. The incident left Mike with severe, life-threatening injuries, Cheryl broke three vertebrae in her spine and Jay was paralysed. The trauma, she says, compelled her to walk away from it all.

“I knew I had to get away from it because it was so negative at that point. And I think it’s like a survival instinct, literally, where you’re just like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here’,” she admits. “There’s all this bickering going on. We’re all nearly dead. We all nearly died for music. And then there’s all this infighting. It’s like, ‘This is inhuman, I’ve got to get out of here’.”

Her departure coincided with the release of the band’s planned comeback You and Your Heart So Blue and, although they continued to push the track, Mike and Cheryl were still recovering from the aftereffects of the crash and returning to work plagued their experience of the next chapter in Bucks Fizz history. Even now, Mike admits the memories of the period get in the way of him enjoying the music: “I don’t like that song. We did the video of that after the accident and I just have horrible, horrible memories of it. That’s why I hate that song.”

The single stalled at No. 43 in the charts and its follow-up – a cover of John Parr’s Meat Loaf-penned rock anthem Magical – fared even worse, peaking at just 57. But all wasn’t lost and, the following year, the group returned with New Beginning (Mamba Seyra) and earned their first Top 10 hit in three years. It remains a band favourite to this day: “That should have been No. 1, in my opinion,” insists Cheryl, “and it was a new beginning, because Jay had left and Shelley had joined.”

Shelley Preston joined the line-up mid-way through the promotion of You and Your Heart So Blue and, with New Beginning a hit, things seemed to be back on track for Bucks Fizz. However, the song remains their final Top 40 single to date and, looking back on the ‘Writing on the Wall’ era, Mike admits: “I didn’t like the album at all. I hated it. It was all starting to fall apart for some reason. It just wasn’t blending right.”

Across the 10-tracks, he is only credited for lead vocals on one recording – The Company You Keep –and Cheryl suggests the project was too rushed while Mike continued his recovery from the crash.

“Mike was really very slow – not just in the studio, but in his whole life. Everything about him... He took

decades really to get better after the coach crash and so it was easier to just put Bobby in, do a vocal and then put some backing vocals on,” she admits. “He did some good stuff – like Heart of Stone, he did a great vocal on that, and I Hear Talk – but I think the later stuff was too Bobby heavy. The big successes of Bucks Fizz were the two boy, two girl thing. That really worked well.”

It also marked the end of the band’s relationship with longtime collaborator Hill who, according to Cheryl, “was well into his cocaine by then and got a bit bored,” and it’s interesting to hear Jay’s take on the era, having witnessed the band introduce a new member in her place.

“I saw them trying to dress Shelley, who was much younger and looked like she’d just come out of theatre school, like me,” she says. They tried to dress her like me and she continued to try and dress like me quite a bit. But there’s a difference between trying to wear very little clothing – to try and attract interest – and actually having a reason for it, or it being linked for some reason to the song. And I always come from the story of the song, not, ‘Let’s just wear the least amount of costume’.

“It sounds like I’m being a real b**ch here, but the reality was, I knew what I brought to the band. And I could see in a second that Shelley couldn’t bring that to the band. Or maybe they wouldn’t even let her because she was the new girl. And so I think it was very hard for her. Because I knew her influence on the band would be very slight, comparatively. And I knew what kind of a den she was going into.”

The latest incarnation of the group was shortlived and, four years after joining, Shelley departed, followed by Cheryl in ‘93 and Mike in ‘96 – leaving Bobby as the sole original member of Bucks Fizz, under which name he continued performing under various iterations. A brief 2004 reunion saw Cheryl, Mike, Shelley and Bobby perform a series of dates across the UK as part of the ‘Here and Now’ tours as The Original Bucks Fizz – a name that the former three continued to use for live shows for five years until Jay returned to the group for the first time in almost 35 years.

The reunion came about after she agreed to appear alongside her bandmates – and Shelley –on the makeover TV show ‘Pop Goes The Band’, which aired in March 2009. The next month, Shelley announced her departure from the group and, shortly afterwards, Jay stepped in. Reflecting on her return to the fold, she admits: “There wasn’t a day, if I was completely honest, when I didn’t miss being in the band.

“There’s something that unites you, which is an experience – good and bad – and no one else can bring you that. Not even your husband or your partner or even your daughter. It’s something that connects you. We experienced something that was very special, very magical. We travelled all over the world together [...] I felt like I missed a part of my home, which was literally the band and our life in that kind of bubble.”

Now, the group are back in the studio with legendary producer Mike Stock, who’s been working on tracks for The Fizz’s fourth album, the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Smoke & Mirrors’, which scored the band their latest Top 40 album and saw the group hit the Top 10 on the UK Sales chart. Cheryl, Mike and Jay are in agreement that the new material is their best yet and, while details remain under wraps, they confirm 10 tracks have been recorded, including a yet-to-berevealed Paul McCartney cover.

While the group gets the final say on what makes the album, Stock masterminds the project and is taking the group in a “new direction” with “a few different flavours”. And when it comes to hearing the final album, Cheryl’s equally looking forward to the end result – because neither she, Mike or Jay knows which tracks they’ll end up singing lead vocals on, “because he records us all, one after the other”.

“When we heard the last album, ‘Smoke & Mirrors’, he sent through The World We Left Behind and I went, ‘Oh, I’m singing the lead on it!’ And yet we’d all done a vocal, but he chose to make that one my lead vocal.”

In Bucks Fizz, Cheryl performed few lead vocals and, despite tracks like Rules of the Game and Tears on the Ballroom Floor remaining fan-favourites, she’s “quite happy” to take a backseat, candidly admitting: “I don’t like my vocal – I think I sound different. And then I hear myself and I don’t like it.”

However, there’s one exception: “I’m very, very happy to sing lead vocal on Amen. I’m very proud of my daughter for writing it.”

Kyla, aka LAKY, who also penned Storm – plus festive staple So Christmas – has written a track for the new record, which “brings in lines from old Bucks Fizz songs,” Cheryl says, singing a taster: ‘The radio is playing better run for your life...’

As things wind down, we take a moment to look back on the group’s impressive discography as they share their personal favourites from down the years. Cheryl admits she’s “actually pretty proud of all of them,” but, when pushed, she goes for a deep cut: “Twentieth Century Hero – what a great song that is. What a great song.” For Mike, Now Those Days Are Gone is a pivotal moment in their history – although he wishes he’d pushed to sing lead on Golden Days – whereas, for Jay, it’s her contribution to the creative direction of each era that she’s most proud of, because “if you haven’t got that bit down, you’ve only got half the package”.

“Cheryl said to me a few months ago, ‘I wish I had your vision,’ and I said to her, ‘I wish I had your ear for harmonies’,” she laughs. “But within the band, we have various things covered and that’s why it works. It still works today.”

With that, we raise a toast to 40 years of Fizz and avidly await the next chapter in the group’s sparkling legacy.

ONES TO WATCH

The future of pop is looking to the past as the genres that defined music’s greatest decades are coming back into fashion and taking the charts by storm all over again.

Words: Ross Mondon

Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen the likes of ABBA and Elton John re-emerge at the top of their game, with records that remain as fresh and relevant now as they did in decades gone by.

Meanwhile, a new wave of pop superstars –Lil Nas X, The Weeknd, Years & Years, to name a few – are celebrating their influences with a sound that pays homage to the records that soundtracked their lives, infused with a unique flair all of their own.

The result is a world where the idea of ‘genre’ is a thing of the past and artists are taking more risks, diversifying the charts and opening up new realms of possibility for the future of pop music.

As we look to the next 12 months, we’re celebrating the artists set to break through into the mainstream and uncovering the retro influences that inform their sound.

Bronze Avery

Orlando-born up and comer Bronze Avery might defy genres, but he ticks all the boxes when it comes to pop perfection.

The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter is influenced by everyone from George Michael to the Pussycat Dolls, with touches of chart favourites Charli XCX and Banks for a sound that’s nostalgic yet new.

Emerging onto the music scene back in 2017 with debut single Leave Together, the musician has continued to quote his ethos through tracks like Boys and Only You and soars to new heights on his latest work.

Integral to his art is his identity and, whilst coming out as gay to his family was an accident, he’s become a figurehead for the LGBTQ+ community, through both his music and his online presence.

Having built a devoted queer following with his early releases, Bronze Avery – with his energetic, hypnotic tunes and meaningful lyrics – is sure to ascend to new heights over the coming months.

Zella Day

Flying high on the success of her latest EP, ’Where Does the Devil Hide’, Zella Day’s sound sits somewhere between Stevie Nicks and Dusty Springfield, infusing classic influences with a modern twist through recent hits Golden and Dance for Love.

Zella’s earliest musical influences came from her parents’ record collection, including Bob Dylan and Fleetwood Mac, both of which she channels in her career today, which infuses a unique blend of dreamy folk ballads and disco dancehall numbers.

After self-releasing her debut album, ‘Powered by Love’, Zella landed a major label deal, but shortly afterwards she was released from the contract and soon found herself rediscovering her artistic identity.

The Arizona-born star may be compared with contemporaries like Lorde and Lana Del Rey, but she sits in her own lane, with charisma, unapologetic traits and sounds sure to spark global interest.

Now, she looks to round off an extended run of standalone releases with her third full-length project, and we can’t wait to see what she’s cooked up this time.

Photo © Neil Krug

Michael Medrano

Michael Medrano’s rise through the pop ranks may have been a slow-burn, but his infectious blend of disco, pop, and rock has won the attention of legions of fans worldwide.

Arriving on the music scene with his debut track, Be There, back in 2016, he really made an impact with his addictive, electro-pop jam, Fluids, three years later and is ready to cause a stir and hit the top of the emerging talents list with his long-awaited debut album.

With influences ranging from classic disco to Katy Perry, Michael (aka disco dad, aka stache papi – both nicknames given to him by his fans) is continuing to push the boundaries. From a joyous celebration of sexuality to pop escapism that takes listeners away from reality, Michael is taking the reins on his own unique style.

If recent singles Personal Heaven and I Don’t Wanna Talk About Love are anything to go by, don’t be surprised when he rockets into the charts soon.

Agnes

Agnes is leading the disco revival with her latest album, ‘Magic Still Exists’.

With comparisons to stalwarts such as Grace Jones, Róisín Murphy and Kylie Minogue, the Stockholm-based star has gone from her first steps at 16 to worldwide attention, having scored a global mega-hit with Release Me back in 2009

A decade since her last album, Agnes’ latest record births a new era of “spiritual disco,” inspired by classic artists like Sun Ra and Sylvester, with her own pop sensibilities thrown into the mix.

At 11 tracks, the LP is a dancefloor masterpiece, with Agnes calling her foray into disco “both tempting and necessary”.

“Disco is freedom, to express oneself and not be ashamed,” she says. “But the music was also something I needed to do to grow spiritually and strengthen myself. It was an opportunity to take what I have within me, multiply it and play with it.”

Whilst riding high off the back of her triumphant comeback, we are already looking to the future as Agnes becomes one to watch under the shimmering lights of retro dance-pop.

BAYLI

The latest artist to rise from the New York smoke, BAYLI continues to surprise the world as her career goes from strength to strength.

Originally making her musical debut as part of the classic rock band The Skins, BAYLI has routed from one genre to the next as she gathers every inch of life into her artistry.

Mentored by Rick Rubin and influenced by jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, BAYLI moved away from the scope of music she grew up with and stepped out as a solo artist with her debut release, Sushi For Breakfast.

A series of standalone tracks followed –including Boys Lie and Not Safe – before she teased her debut EP, ’Stories From New York’, with the heartfelt single, 16.

The collection is steeped in ‘90s R&B influences, from Aaliyah and TLC to Mary J. Blige, and showcases her love for the icons of the genre.

Now, she’s looking to the future and, with growing attention from BBC Radio 1 and the backing of hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide, BAYLI is sure to keep up the momentum during the next phase.

Yola

Bristol-born and raised Yola’s parents might have discouraged her from music, but after picking up another two Grammy nominations, she shows no sign of slowing down.

Spending most of her early career singing with Duke Dumont and Massive Attack, and forming bands with the local musicians, Yola went from her first solo EP, ’Orphan Offering’, in 2016 to her most acclaimed work to date with her latest album, ’Stand for Myself’.

Whilst Yola’s buzz is beginning to cause a stir in the UK, the American music scene has enjoyed years of disco and soul from the international powerhouse, whose debut LP, ‘Walk Through Fire’, saw her nominated for Best New Artist at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

Now, the Nashville based singersongwriter is ready for world dominance thanks to her timeless blend of harmonic soul and classic pop that’s proven a sure-fire hit. From humble beginnings to global recognition, Yola is ready to reclaim her identity and share the wonders of her work with millions.

Photo © Joesph Ross Smith

Tom Aspaul

A dazzling debut to his name, writing credits for Louise, Little Boots and Kylie, and a pair of collaborations with Kim Wilde, Tom Aspaul is the full package.

After studying for a degree in Architecture and a master’s at Central Saint Martins, Tom pursued his passion for music and made his debut with a SoundCloud demo under the moniker Indiana.

Shortly afterwards, he signed to Little Boots’ label, On Repeat Records, launched a successful songwriting career and began recording his own music – leading to his long-awaited debut LP, ‘Black Country Disco’.

Paying homage to the area he grew up in and inspired by ‘70s/’80s disco, the ten-track project is packed with sass and confidence, rounded off with a futuristic flair.

Not only does he offer up a piece of his heart with his music, but Tom also finds himself on the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest jury and has become a figurehead for the LGBTQ+ community in pop.

With a much-teased second album on the cards, Tom’s star is sure to shine bright throughout the next phase of his glittering career.

Darin

Sweden’s King of Pop Darin marks a new chapter as he prepares to release his first English-language album in almost a decade.

Born and raised in Stockholm under a musical Kurdish family, Darin pursued his dreams at age 14 and shot to fame as a finalist on Sweden’s ‘Idol’ TV series, after which he became one of the country’s best-selling artists.

Now, he’s back with a refreshed sound, with disco-pop summer hit, Can’t Stay Away, and his latest tender ballad, Holding Me More, an indication of what’s to come from his next LP.

The new project is the latest to be released under his own label, Dex Music, with a euphoric new sound celebrating the music that he loves the most.

With inspirations such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and Sade, Darin’s work is classic yet modern and a breath of fresh air to the charts.

With a new direction and approach that “very much represents the person I am today,” Darin’s latest offering looks to be his most authentic yet.

Photo © Koury Angelo

Dublin-born powerhouse Aimée looks set to dominate the charts with her intoxicating brand of pop nostalgia.

After scoring a string of Top 40 hits in her homeland and making waves with Shut Up And Dance, her collaboration with Grammy–nominated DJ Sonny Alvin, the singer-songwriter has her eye on the global stage as she launches into the next era of her career.

Ahead of a year of new music and a return to the live stage, Aimée gets candid on her love of the ‘90s, shares the music that made her into the pop star she is today, and offers a teaser of the tracks she’s been cooking up in the studio.

What’s your first musical memory?

Singing Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On on my fireplace to my family every night before bed.

What was the soundtrack to your childhood?

Five – Keep on Movin’

What’s the first album you bought?

Britney Spears – ‘...Baby One More Time’

What’s the first song you ever performed? In front of a crowd that wasn’t just my family?

Mariah Carey’s Hero

When did you realise you wanted to be a pop star? I don’t ever remember a time in my life NOT wanting to be one!

When did you begin writing music?

I’ve been writing since I was a kid. As soon as I started to learn how to write I was writing songs on napkins, beer mats, diaries etc. I used to want to be an author, so I was always writing.

Which song do you wish you’d written/was yours?

Christina Aguilera – Beautiful

Which musical era would you choose to return to? Late ‘90s / early ‘00s – when NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys were at their prime!

Which artists inspire your sound?

I take inspiration from too many to name. But my biggest ones right now would be: Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child and Ariana Grande.

Tell us about your new single Just a Phase... Just a Phase is the single three-year-old me and 26-year-old me would just die to perform to. It’s a fun, sexy, uplifting nod to my favourite era of music: ‘90s/ early 00s pop.

What can we expect from your upcoming releases?

Energy! My next few singles are just so full of life and energy. I just want to bring the fun back to pop music.

DIY DISCO

From LA hot tub parties with Carly Rae Jepsen to the “fish and chip glamour” of Blackpool, Little Boots conjures magic from the mundane on her shimmering new album...

Words: Connor Gotto

“I wrote that song for Carly Rae Jepsen. I don’t know if she didn’t want it because she didn’t like it… or because I got really drunk at her house one night,” says Little Boots – aka Victoria Hesketh – about her new track Crying on the Inside.

The singer is dialling in from Blackpool, her hometown and the inspiration for her fourth studio album, due this spring.

She tries to move things on, but I quickly revert her attention to her time in Los Angeles.

“It was my first or second night there,” she says, when a friend invited her to the Call Me Maybe singer’s home for the gathering – “it wasn’t a big party or anything” –and Carly was writing tracks for her next album.

“She was talking about how much she loves Fleetwood Mac. I was like, ‘Yeah, you should totally do Fleetwood Mac.’ Carly doing Dreams would be epic” recalls Victoria.

However, things went awry: “I proceeded to just drink all the wine. I was in the hot tub telling her we should be best friends forever. Then at some point, I passed out on a beanbag and woke up in a real daze.”

The next morning, a fresh-faced Carly headed out for a hike and Victoria “woke up with the worst hangover and wine headache” and fled before she returned. Days later, she wrote Crying on the Inside, “thinking about the idea of Carly doing Fleetwood Mac,” and sent the demo to her friend to pass on to her team – but she never heard back.

All photos © Patrick Balls

It’s the only track on the album that originated outside of the project and almost didn’t make it onto the final tracklist; but when she shared a rough cut with her followers on Patreon, “who are just like my sounding board for everything,” she was urged to reconsider.

Victoria joined the platform back in May 2020 as she began work on her fourth full-length record, following a Kickstarter campaign to fund the 10th Anniversary edition of her debut album ‘Hands’, which raised more than £55,000 – a leap from its initial £10,000 goal. The subscription site allows fans to invest as little as £5 per month and follow the creation of the album, with exclusive behind the scenes content, monthly rewards, livestream gigs, and more.

For the pop stalwart, it’s been a game-changer –particularly during a time when regular streams of income from touring and DJing were off the cards –and has opened her eyes to a new way of funding her music.

“I always had to go on tour to make money –whether it was DJing, festivals or whatever,” she muses. “I love going on tour, but there were times where I found myself flying across the world to do one DJ show. Patreon really changed the game for me because I have these guys’ financial support.

“They’ve completely funded the album, so I can afford things that I wouldn’t be able to afford normally. Because I know that money comes from those guys and it’s pretty consistent, I can relax in a way.”

But Victoria is sure to keep her Patreons up to date with how their money is spent: “They are an amazing sounding board! I’ve literally got my own focus group of my megafans, who are always up for telling me what they think. And, more often than not, they’re right.”

The process isn’t too dissimilar to the creation of Little Boots’ first album in 2009; in the early days of social media, she took to YouTube with live versions of tracks like Meddle and Stuck on Repeat from her parents’ house, before they were officially released.

The return to her roots isn’t only reflected in her music, but it’s also intrinsic to the identity of the project as a whole, which is centred on the “fish and chip glamour” of her hometown: Blackpool.

“I spend more time up here than I ever have done. But I really appreciate it in my old age,” she laughs. “When I was younger, I just thought it was such a dive and it’s miserable. But I think that’s where I get inspiration.

“On a bleak northern night where the gales are blowing, you put all your glad rags on and don’t even wear a coat. You just go out and have a great time. It’s transformative, and that musical fantasy can lift you above whatever mundane circumstances you might find yourself in.”

The seaside hotspot serves as the backdrop for the Silver Balloons music video, which sees Victoria – appropriately dressed in a variety of silver looks, including a metallic jumpsuit and sequined dress – explore local attractions from the Pleasure Beach theme park to Palma Cafe, via North Pier and the iconic Blackpool Tower.

It ends with the singer, standing alone on the beach as the tide comes into the shore and the sun sets, letting go of a bunch of silver balloons and watching them float high into the sky – symbolising dreams and plans that fell to the wayside as the world shut down some 18 months prior.

But returning to her hometown gave Victoria hope: “You can kind of put your magic glasses on and take them off and you can see everything in two ways… I always saw the magic.”

Returning to the North West of England was a conscious move to avoid being trapped in a small London flat and forced Victoria into a self-sufficient way of working she’d not explored in over a decade. Not only is she the sole credited writer on the majority of the record, but she also took on production duties.

“When I started out, I didn’t have any producers to work with,” says Victoria. “I didn’t do any co-writing, I just messed around in my mum’s garage on my keyboard – and I somehow got away from that…”

“I’ve literally got my own focus group of my megafans, who are always up for telling me what they think.”

LITTLE BOOTS

That organic approach is reflected in the lyrics throughout the record, which sees Victoria find inspiration in everything from the “blurry faces” she once knew from east London house parties (Back to Mine), to playing mixtapes over the phone with her high school boyfriend (Landline).

Creatively, she’s never been short of inspiration; when her deal with 679 and Atlantic Records fell through, Victoria dusted herself off and launched her sophomore LP, the acclaimed ‘Nocturnes’, indulging her love of dance music through ‘90s house and ‘70s disco influences, via her label On Repeat Records.

Its follow-up, ‘Working Girl’, loosely inspired by the 1989 movie of the same name and her reinvention as her own boss, saw the singer channel the everyday realities of running a company into electronic pop gems like Business Pleasure, Get Things Done and Help Too, and a stylised new look that modernised ‘80s power dressing. It was a conceptual triumph.

For Victoria, writing the album was the easy part, but overcoming her anxiety as a producer was an ongoing struggle that lasted until the moment she presented the 11 demos to her management.

“When I handed the demos in, I was like, ‘When I’m finished writing, we honestly have to go into the studio and re-record all of these with, you know, a proper producer’,” she recalls. “And my manager was like, ‘What are you talking about? I think these are the most produced demos we’ve ever heard. Why would you re-record them?’”

Having heard the album midway through the mixing process, I’m shocked that Victoria a) produced such spectacular demos and b) was ready to axe them and re-record the entire album. “Why?” I ask.

“I always had a bit of a confidence crisis when it came to production,” she sighs. “I just thought I wasn’t good enough, or I didn’t know what I was doing… But I proved myself wrong on this record.

“I was quite shocked that I actually got them to this releasable level without the validation of an older white man. I feel quite invincible now because I’m like, ‘Wow, I can just produce it, I don’t need anyone else, I could just keep making records.’ It’s given me a lot of confidence.”

It’s that confidence that spurred Victoria to book a pair of one-woman shows back in October, during which she mastered keyboards, synthesizers, sitars and dug out her trusty Yamaha Tenori-on – the Japanese looped electronic instrument she frequently played in her early shows – to debut new tracks and reworked classics. The gigs went down a storm.

If that confidence boost wasn’t enough, being recruited to join ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ band was an even bigger honour – even if, as Victoria admits, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was signing up for.

Recalling the phone call from James Righton –ex-Klaxons keyboard player and husband of Keira Knightley, who was asked to select musicians by co-executive producer Johan Renck – she admits the idea of joining her favourite band was mind-blowing – not least of all because the group themselves won’t actually be performing.

“When he first told me about it, I was like, ‘So, ABBA are back – but they’re not, they’re holograms... but they’re not holograms? There’s new music and they’re touring, but it stays in one place…’,” she laughs, admitting the whole situation is “quite mental,” even for an “ABBA nut” like herself.

She debated whether or not to audition for the gig –it would mean blocking out five days per week for the majority of 2022, including time she’d normally spend promoting her latest Little Boots record.

“I kind of was like, ‘Well I’m gonna audition and just see and, you know, probably everyone’s gonna be so s**t hot that I won’t get it’,” she admits, “even though I drove myself insane by doing nothing but playing ABBA for three weeks beforehand!”

But nothing could have prepared Victoria for coming face-to-face with her idols – Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus – who were involved in the production from the very beginning.

“Benny and Björn walked in straight away and were amazing,” she beams, “but I didn’t think they’d be there from the start! There’s a 10 piece band – and, like I’m a good player – but I don’t do things like this all the time. I normally just play my own music.

“They just walked in like, ‘[Swedish accent] Hello, I’m Benny, this is Björn’ and I was just like [gasps]. And he said, ‘Shall we start with Voulez-Vous? 4-3-2-1’.”

The rest is history; the auditions were supposed to be followed by a day of callbacks but, satisfied with what they’d heard, the duo settled on the line-up almost immediately.

Victoria says: “It sounded absolutely magic. Everyone had goosebumps. Straight off the bat, it was first thing in the morning and it was absolutely incredible… There was no doubt in my mind after the audition – I had to do it.”

The shows open May 27, with seven performances over five days per week at the specially-built ABBA Arena in Stratford, east London.

While busy rehearsing for her new gig, however, Victoria remains in charge of her solo career and is actively seeking out ways to revolutionise the way she creates and distributes her music with fans, looking towards NFTs as the next step in her tech-savvy approach to creativity. NFTs – or non-fungible tokens – are unique, non-interchangeable units of data stored on a digital ledger known as the blockchain, which are both tamper-proof and serve as proofs of ownership – like certificates of authenticity.

The format has seen a surge in popularity over the past 12 months, with artists turning to decentralised platforms to share their art – and Victoria believes they have the power to overhaul the music industry.

The benefits are clear: “As an independent artist that’s been through the major label system, that gets delivered my royalty statement nine years later that’s completely made up... This is completely transformative!

“You could literally have all rights written into songs – as smart contracts – and every time those songs are played, everybody involved is written in and gets paid out directly and transparently. And that is game-changing.

“The potential of that could completely overhaul major labels, the whole music industry,” she insists,

as we discuss ways of integrating NFTs into her current campaign, such as advanced sales of singles.

It’s an idea she proposed on Twitter and, although Victoria insists she’ll continue to release music on traditional formats, her post attracted a strong backlash. “Apparently I’m personally responsible for climate change,” she says, brushing off the criticism.

It leads to a debate into the environmental issues related to NFTs, which are at least partially responsible for the millions of tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

As always, Victoria looks at the “bigger picture”: “In the ‘80s, we had huge computers that took so much power – now you can do 1,000 times more on your phone. It’s very, very early days...

“I do believe everybody wants to make this environmentally friendly and I do believe that will come in time, but I think it’s exciting to be in it at this point.”

Her optimism is refreshing and, if there’s one thing to take from Little Boots’ fourth album, it’s her rose-tinted outlook. It comes to a head on Tomorrow’s Yesterdays, which sees Victoria confront the vicious cycle of day-to-day living and vow to take the reins on her life.

‘Hand me the keys it’s my turn to drive / I’ve been a passenger all my life / And out of sight isn’t always out of mind,’ she sings.

“I wanted to write an album that you could just as easily dance around your kitchen to, go out and drive around in the car to,” she says of her current sound. “As a DJ, I’ve been really trying hard to marry the pop songwriting world with the DJ world and do a lot of house tracks... but I just felt like I didn’t want to try and be something I’m not.

“I wanted to be myself for this record and not worry if you could play it in a club or if it would get on a Spotify playlist – I’m just going to do me.”

But fans of classic Little Boots bangers like Remedy and Shake needn’t worry: “The plan is to do a whole remix record, which I think will be great.”

It would be easy for Victoria to slow down as she takes residence with ABBA for the next year, but with a new album and a string of festival dates booked for the summer, Little Boots might just be in for her biggest year yet.

“You could literally have all rights written into songs - as smart contractsand every time those songs are played, everybody involved gets paid out directly and transparently. And that is game-changing.”

Singer-songwriter Asher Monroe is no stranger to the spotlight; he appeared in his first Broadway production at the age of six and landed starring roles in ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Oliver!’ and ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ – plus MGM’s 2009 ‘Fame’ remake. Now, his focus is on the charts, with new single Wanderlust out now and ‘Windows of Time’, a full album of original material, featuring pre-release tracks Midnight Masquerade and Try Me, due in 2022.

In between studio sessions with legendary writer and producer Walter Afanasieff, we caught up with the musician about the songs that soundtracked his life and his journey to becoming one of this year’s most hotly-tipped rising stars.

What’s your first musical memory?

In my bedroom in Fairfax, VA, when I was four or five years old. I had a vinyl player that lit up and I think I only had two records – ‘Lost That Loving Feeling’ by The Righteous Brothers, and I can’t recall the other...

What was the soundtrack to your childhood?

Oldies were always on the radio in the car when I was a kid. I would love to be tested on the spot by someone playing any oldies record and for me not to at least know one lyric or melody.

What’s the first record you bought?

Outkast – ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’

What’s the first song you ever performed? This is kind of embarrassing… Heigh Ho from ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’.

When did you realise you wanted to be a pop star?

I don’t think I ever wanted to be a pop star, it was just a natural progression... But my first official signing to a major label at 19 was my introduction into a different lane of the music industry.

When did you begin writing music?

I was about 21 when I realised I had the gift of writing lyrics. Myself and my now-wife used to joke about some of the original lyrics I wrote and how genius they were. She gave me a piece of paper and pen and within five minutes I’d written this beautiful, funny poem and she was like, “You just wrote this?”

Which song do you wish you’d written/was yours?

Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis (in a lower key). The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals or A Song For You by Donny Hathaway would be on the list too.

Which musical era would you choose to return to?

I jammed to the ‘50s and ‘60s my whole childhood and I also went through an ‘80s phase. I love ‘90s hiphop but my favourite all-time era is ‘70s classic rock.

Which artists inspire your sound?

It’s a real melting pot of everyone from Elton John and Stevie Wonder to Freddie Mercury and Sam Smith. I also love Lady Gaga, Adele, Ed Sheeran and so many more.

Tell us about your new single Wanderlust… My inspiration to write this song was to bring people along with me on this adventurous, wild roller coaster ride of life and open up their eyes to all the limitless possibilities of taking a leap of faith into the unknown and achieving their wildest of dreams.

What can we expect from your new album?

I’m hoping to release it early 2022 and hopefully there will be more new music and some really cool fun immersive experiences before then. I really want my fans to become fully immersed in the world of ‘Windows of Time’ – it’s their record as much as it is mine.

REVIEWS

Dive deep into the latest studio albums, expanded reissues and audio-visual content as we give our verdict on the best up-and-coming releases.

DAVID BOWIE Toy:Box

Released: January 8

Parlophone

David Bowie’s “ghost album” ‘Toy’ comes back to life thanks to this carefully-curated box set encompassing the ‘lost’ era.

Producer and longtime Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti has described the album as being “some of David’s finest work” and the project offers a unique lens on the musician’s own interpretations of his recordings.

Following his iconic Glastonbury set in 2000, Bowie entered the studio to record new takes on songs he’d first cut early in his career, from 1964-1971, with a view to release the collection in as short a time frame as possible.

While a commercial release was ultimately shelved, it sees Bowie reconnect with some of his finest early recordings, with freakbeat single Can’t Help Thinking About Me bringing all the energy of his live shows onto the record.

His selections are choice and, given the concept, it’s only natural to yearn for more, as Bowie hones in on specific moments from his formative years which were inspiring him at that time.

But instead of a cohesive body of work, ‘Toy’ exists more as a soundboard for what would be to come, as it was laid to one side while the icon set to work on his next original album, ‘Heathen’, released the following year.

The album was first issued as part of the ‘Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001)’ box set, but the ‘Toy:Box’ release expands further across three discs, featuring alternate takes and stripped-back recordings from the original sessions.

The brilliance, of course, is that he not only left behind an unreleased album after his death, but also a full expanded edition to be enjoyed for years to come.

2.0

Released: December 3 BMG

It’s a decade since JLS released their fourth album ‘Evolution’ and, after taking time away to work on solo projects, the boys return with their revitalised comeback ‘2.0’.

The boyband, which shot to fame as runners-up on ‘The X Factor’ in 2008 – pipped only to the title by Alexandra Burke – turns to musical heavyweights Wayne Hector, TMS and Lost Boy to bring their winning formula of R&B-influenced pop bang up to date.

To introduce their new direction, the group reunites with Steve Mac – the producer behind their No. 1 debut single Beat Again –who teams up with Ed Sheeran especially to write Eternal Love, the first single from the new album.

It’s a promising sign of things to come and the album is packed with cool midtempos in the vein of classic singles Everybody In Love and One Shot sure to appease fans who’ve stuck around since the group’s original chart domination.

Fear not, JLS soon turn on the heat with a selection of uptempos, which prove instant highlights and will undoubtedly be playlist staples come the summer.

Love Immortal is laden with beats and is a sure-fire hit for the club circuit, while Tango is brimming with an infectious energy that defies you to dance along.

The vocals are rich and harmonies tight on the boys’ comeback which, after years apart from one another, sees them return to the charts closer than ever and ready to dominate airwaves all over again.

MATT GOSS

The Beautiful Unknown

Released: February 4

Lewisham Records

Bros frontman Matt Goss returns to the sounds that made him famous with his long-awaited comeback ‘The Beautiful Unknown’.

The singer-songwriter has spent the best part of the past decade wowing audiences with his hit residency show on the Las Vegas strip, but now he’s ready to hit the road and the charts once again with an all-out celebration of pop music.

Born from a period in which Matt admits he’d fallen out of love with his career, the album takes a deep look inside the man behind the music, tackling subjects such as grief, love, loss and infidelity.

While the subject matter might sound like something from Adele’s latest selection of heartbreakinspired slow-jams, Matt turns the energy up with earworm hooks and anthemic choruses harkening back to his boyband days.

Lead single Somewhere To Fall is an instant radio hit, while the mid-tempo jam Unbreakable is a defiant, self-empowerment anthem to pull him through his darkest days.

Alongside straightforward pop, Matt explores new sounds; The Joke, with its funky bassline and swing edge, is a damning assessment of a one-sided relationship, while Feeling High is a stellar electro-pop moment that holds up alongside his very best.

‘The Beautiful Unknown’ closes with a faithful cover of one of Matt’s favourite songs –Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 ballad Landslide – and serves as a thank you from the musician to the artists that have inspired him since his childhood, through his career today.

The result is a current, varied collection that, through exploring various musical avenues, paints a portrait of Matt Goss – the pop star – as he stands today.

Available on CD, LP and cassette, including limited edition coloured and solo member editions

GORILLAZ Gorillaz (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Vinyl Boxset)

Released: December 10

Parlophone

Celebrating 20 years since the release of their self-titled breakout album, Gorillaz have collated all of their releases from the classic era into one expansive box set.

‘Gorillaz (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Vinyl Boxset)’ features eight discs pressed on black vinyl, covering the original album alongside an impressive array of bonus content, including demos, B-sides, the ‘Laika Come Home’ remix album, and live recordings.

More than two decades since the release of international hit Clint Eastwood featuring Del the Funky Homosapien, the original LP sounds as fresh and inspired

as ever, but the real bonus is the wealth of extra material, documenting the record from its inception through its global success with the virtual group’s live shows.

Clocking in at 60 tracks in total, the collection balances old and new with the ‘Live at the Forum, 2001’ and ‘Demoz’ discs both previously unreleased. While the collection is impressive, it’s disappointing that the celebratory edition is limited to vinyl – and with a significant price tag, it’s sure to rule some out from enjoying what’s on offer.

So, although conceptually stunning, with the records housed in a folio style hardback book with blackbinding with silver hot foiled Gorillaz logo, and packaged with a cache of 27 pages of original drawings and storyboards, plus two Polaroid-style mugshots, a wider release across formats would undoubtedly be a welcome bonus down the line.

BELINDA CARLISLE Live Your Life Be Free (30th Anniversary Box Set)

Released: December 10

Demon

Belinda Carlisle’s feelgood fourth album is brought back to life thanks to a comprehensive new vinyl box set celebrating the era.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the 3LP ‘Live Your Life Be Free’ collection includes the original album, along with B-sides, single versions and remixes, clocking in at 25 tracks in total.

Leading the pack is the album’s title song – The Go-Go’s star’s stellar Rick Nowles-penned anthem – alongside singles Do You Feel Like I Feel?, Half the World, and Little Black Book.

But there’s more to this classic era than just its singles and the box set tells the story of a turbulent period in the singer’s career.

Riding high off the success of her previous effort ‘Runaway Horses’, Belinda’s return to the studio was an altogether different experience as she struggled to earn the backing of her US record label.

“The album does have its moments, but that time period was a difficult one for everybody involved. I didn’t have a lot of record company support in America, and I felt like I was grasping at straws,” she is quoted as saying.

It’s detailed in extensive liner notes, courtesy of Justin Kantor, who goes behind the scenes of the project and dissects its 11 tracks in impressive detail, alongside a glossy selection of photographs from sessions for the album.

The latest addition to the singer’s Decades reissue campaign is a welcome reminder of yet another stellar album and an impressive chapter in her unfaltering legacy.

Available as an 8LP vinyl box set

Available on black 3LP and limited edition green 3LP

TEARS FOR FEARS The Tipping Point

Released: February 25

Concord Records

It’s been 18 years since Tears For Fears released their last album, ‘Everybody Loves a Happy Ending’, but Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith pick up right where they left off with ‘The Tipping Point’.

Preceded by its lead single and title track, the album feeds into the history of the band, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, referencing the pair’s journey to create the record along with key musical moments from their storied career.

Leading the pack, the song, The Tipping Point, harkens back to two of their biggest hits: Head Over Heels and Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

It’s a welcome return from the group whose songs soundtracked

much of the ‘80s, but ‘The Tipping Point’ is far more than an exercise in nostalgia, spanning pop, rock and trip influences for a sonic journey from their teenage beginnings through to the present day.

Opener No Small Thing begins as an acoustic ditty before building into a big band moment, while My Demons is a Muse-style, stadiumsized rocker, showcasing a different side to the band.

Some songs are personal to the duo, detailing Roland’s heartbreak following the death of his first wife Carol (The Tipping Point) and creative conflicts with their former management (Master Plan), while others speak to global issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement (Rivers of Mercy).

Their musical views may be very different, but the common ground between Curt’s singer-songwriter sensibilities and Roland’s rhythm-

led approach to writing has always resulted in magic. With new music and a world tour to look forward to, the future of Tears For Fears looks reassuringly bright.

STARSAILOR Love Is Here

(20th Anniversary Edition)

Released: January 28

Parlophone

Post-Britpop outfit Starsailor revisit their debut album ‘Love Is Here’ for an expanded reissue celebrating its 20th anniversary

Originally released in 2001, the record was a critical and commercial hit, peaking at No. 2 in the UK charts and spawning the hit singles Alcoholic and Good Soul.

Two decades on and the group are revisiting the collection with a new reissue of the LP, which features the original album with a bonus disc full of covers, demos, session recordings, rarities, five brand-new 20th Anniversary Edition tracks and newly written liner notes by the band.

The new tracklist includes re-recordings of Good Souls, Alcoholic, Fever, Way To Fall and the title track, offering “new arrangements and new sounds”.

In the new liner notes, James Walsh writes: “With the new tracks we didn’t want to simply re-record the same versions so we worked on new arrangements and new sounds.

“Way To Fall is much more understated & gentle than the original but it works really well & Good Souls evokes the powerful song it’s turned into after numerous big live performances where it’s had to take on a larger life than the subtle studio recording on ‘Love Is Here’.”

Other bonus tracks include a demo version of Coming Down, a 2006 acoustic performance of From A Whisper To A Scream, plus three cover versions.

It’s a curious approach to an expanded reissue, offering retrospective revisions rather than alternates and outtakes from the original recording sessions, but one that allows the band to explore the music with a fresh perspective.

Still, the lack of archival content is somewhat disappointing – for the 25th Anniversary, perhaps?

Available on CD – including deluxe and super deluxe editions – and LP, including coloured variants

Newly-upgraded reissue of Depeche Mode’s ‘101’ documentary concert film and live album, chronicling the 101st and final performance of the band’s ‘Music For The Masses’ world tour, recorded live at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on June 18, 1988.

Deluxe edition extras include:

z 48-page behind-the-scenes story of the day photo book

z A 20” x 30” replica of original US theatrical release movie poster

z A 16-page Anton Corbijn Photo Mode book as featured in the original album release

z A double CD of the original 20 track 101 concert release

z Access to 4K videos of the film and bonus performances plus 24-bit audios of the 101 concert

Escalade (2021): New Saint Etienne music video directed by Alasdair McLellan

anley and Alasdair

McLellan in conversation (2021) essing only: Booklet with new writing on the film by Jason Wood and unreleased images from Alasdair McLellan

CLIFF RICHARD

The Great 80 Tour

Released: December 6

Spirit

Filmed on October 27, 2021, Sir Cliff hits the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall to celebrate his return to live music with a selection of his greatest hits, some from his latest album, and a few longforgotten deep-cuts from his storied career.

The film was beamed to cinema screens across the UK earlier this year and, in a statement, Cliff said of the tour – which was originally due to run in 2020 but was pushed back – “I shall begin the tour aged 80 and will be 81 when in cinemas – what a great way to celebrate.”

Bonus features include exclusive footage of Sir Cliff in rehearsals.