don't call them new jill swing

when new jack swing started to falter, a new influx of girl groups, including swv, appeared circa 1992, along with mary j blige, and were hailed as 'new jill swing'. see what they did there?

this was in fact a misleading label as the music these girls were making wasn't a feminised new jack sound. it was in fact far grittier, and more likely to take its cues from naughty by nature than guy. another labelling hiccup occurred when, logically, since their names begin with a 't' 'l' and 'c', you guessed it, that was to be the group's name before the eventual tlc beat them to it within a matter of weeks.

most of these girl groups, in order to compete in the g-funk era, were forced to dress and act like men. gone were the lyrca minidresses and heels. in with the homegirl persona and lumberjack shirts. swv didn't go down this route. maybe because they were still in high school, and hadn't developed the right kind allure to carry it off. they were far from ugly, but its fair to say swv would never have been accused of possessing looks over talent.

coko, lelee and taj may have been young, but i had no idea at the time. they sang like women, in contrast to left eye's cute rapping for tlc. they dressed older than their years, unlike jade, who appeared to still be hanging out with the underage street crowd. they weren't too cool, which made them real. years later, their songs sound fresh.

their accessibility saw them enjoy huge success until their split in 1998. coko then embarked on a solo career, to lukewarm success. taj married a dallas cowboys footballer and currently has a reality show amusingly titled 'i married a baller'. lelee recently revealed that the group received little financial reward for their work and that she's been struggling to stay afloat since the group split. sound familiar?

twelve swv essentials - download here

right here

their most famous track has many versions. the most ubiquitous is definitely the michael jackson sampling human nature mix, but this g-man mix is probably lesser known and proves there was more to the song than good sampling.

i'm so into you

again, there were several versions of this track - the original and allstars mix are widely available, but this teddy riley mix featuring wreckx-n-effect bumps along nicely. the first swv track i ever bought.

weak

the original ballad is nice, but this remix is perfect midtempo 90s jeep music. it had stuttering beats before timbaland invented them and twittery, electronic background vocals. should be on every chillout playlist.

anything

again, the original is ok but this remix, featured on above the rim, with the wu-tang clan, is something else. i defy you not to dance if you hear this in a club.

can't cope
an unreleased track which sounds early 90s to me so probably a leftover from 'it's about time'. nice production, this has become one of my favourites.

all night long
featured on the waiting to exhale soundtrack, this is one of swv's best slow jams.

use your heart
this version is a duet featuring rome. a young pharrell williams produced this, and several other tracks on swv's second album 'a new beginning'.

mystery
another unreleased track, very unusual arrangement and I'm wondering why this failed to get past whichever album session it was recorded in.

can we
from 1997's booty call soundtrack, this is one swv's most popular tracks.

tell me how you want it
another soundtrack contribution, this time from the money talks soundtrack.

rain
i'm not sure many people realise this is actually a cover of an 80s vesta williams track. this is one of those rare times when the cover is better.

where you are
a jackson five cover for the hav plenty soundtrack. i prefer this version to wacko's pre-teen squeaking.

80s brit soul - big hair, smooth grooves

uk soul artists in the 80s were not obviously from these shores on first glance. sure, if you listened carefully or read smash hits you would find out soon enough that they were from basildon or wigan rather than minneapolis or atlanta. they didn't go out of their way to represent britain, maybe because the music wasn't as distinct as it is today. they dressed like their us counterparts, sounded like them and some even had as much success across the pond.

many of these acts embraced jheri curl soul in all its aesthetic glory, and so visually you probably wouldn't realise say, that loose ends and midnight star were from different parts of the world. they wore the same metallic suits and piled their hair high on one side (the girls, mostly).

others, well they just did their thing and some endeared themselves to the american record buying public more than the home crowd. critics often believe british artists make cynical attempts to crack the us market by adopting a us-style persona and sound, and that this is the secret of their success. the truth is, they stick out like a sore thumb over there.

what the british acts did have though, despite copycat images and sounds, was a certain sweetness and honesty that shone through their lyrics. most preferred to sing about relationships and avoided the overconfident posturing that captured the essence of the soul glo genre so well.

ten brit soul classics from the 80s - download here

loose ends - hanging on a string (1985)

loose ends are still held up as shining examples of 80s soul - both here and across the atlantic. this 1985 hit from their second album 'so where are you' was one of their many chart successes. one time vocalist trish lewin's daughter, lisa roxanne, has carried on the family pop legacy in recent years.

royalle delite - i'll be a freak for you (1983)

not that much is known about this group, although they had several other club hits which I don't remember but would love to find. great squelchy bass, nonchalant vocals and stop-start percussion.

princess - say i'm your number one (1985)

princess was part of the saw stable...but a million miles from kylie, jason and er, big fun. in 2005 she resurfaced on 'hit me baby one more time', miming. vernon kay barely hid his disgust...wish i hadn't seen it. this was my jam and i nagged my way to a '1' earring like she had in the video. even though it would be another 5 years (of rows) before I was allowed to get my ears pierced.

mica paris - my one temptation (1988)

mica was only 19 when she released her debut album 'so good' in 1988 inlcuding a duet with will downing. never quite hitting the big time, her sound heralded a more sophisticated late 80s, like the aural equivalent of a glossy coffee table book, an ideal background to dinner parties and wine bars nationwide. don't get me wrong, i like mica, but i've never been as surprised at her lack of lasting crossover success as she seems to be.

jaki graham - round and around (1985)

jaki was perhaps best known for several duets with david grant. the former ub40 backing vocalist had a long run of solo hits between 1985 and 1988, of which this was the first. i can remember making myself sick trying to recreate the dizzying spinning dance she does in the video.

errol brown - your personal touch (1987)

he is of course, known primarily as the lead singer of 70s soul band hot chocolate, and this track was released from errol's first solo albun in 1987. after being somewhat ubiquitous around london in the 90s, charming his way around the club and bar scene, he's now living a more settled life with long-suffering wife ginette in the bahamas.

cool notes - in your car (1985)
this south london group started life as a lovers' rock act in the late 70s, morphing via disco to true eighties jheri soul artistes. their biggest hits were this track and 'spend the night' in 1985, from their much sought-after album 'have a good forever'. band couple steve and lorraine mcintosh are the parents of bradley from s club 7. tsk, it's always a shame when the parents are so much cooler than the kids...

pasadenas - enchanted lady (1988)
the pasadenas were a band that paid homage to 60s/70s soul greats - hence 'tribute' in 1988. despite a lot of covers and straight jacking the o'jays, they were decent songwriters, as evidenced by this 1988 track. ok, one of the reasons i like it is also because it featured in the episode of only fools and horses when rodney and cassandra get it together, in the nightclub under the watchful eye of mickey pearce and jevon.

sade - the sweetest taboo (1985)

sade, whilst a respected and successful artists amongst the soul fraternity, was also a favourite of estate agents and dinner party hosts. especially her first album in 1984 'diamond life'. if it ain't broke, don't fix it - she carried this theme through her next five albums. she also invented (or reinvented) the 'croydon' facelift' ponytail . except she looked good in it. she found her work extensively remixed, covered and sampled in the 90s.

billy ocean - caribbean queen (1984)
lazy 80s music journalists labelled billy ocean the uk's answer to michael jackson. i don't remember this ludicrous comparison but i did always dance to 'caribbean queen' in a line with my friends at school discos after one too many cherryades. hilariously, in current chris rock sitcom, 'everybody hates chris', his younger sister tonya is a huge billy ocean fan, and claims that he invented the moonwalk not wacko, who stole it. it would have been great if that were true.

the uk's answer to the jackson five...??

five star - a family r&b group comprising five siblings - were touted as the uk's answer to the jackson five. in 1985. come on, back then there was definitely a delayed reaction as we responded to musical and cultural missives from across the atlantic, but 16 years?

deniece, doris, lorraine, delroy and steadman were just teenagers when they burst onto the scene in 1984 with their brassy bleached hair (the girls) and jheri curls (the boys). plus braces all round. their first single, problematic, failed to make an impression despite landing the plum performance spot on pebble mill at one. actually maybe that was the problem...

before they enjoyed chart success and proved the old adage that money can't buy taste, five star, despite their tender ages (ranging from 14 to 21) produced classic 80s brit soul a la loose ends. seriously, that good. they had their own label, tent records, and ok, like the jackson five and later beyonce, their dad, buster pearson, was pulling the strings.

the obvious family schtick aside, their careers took off because deniece had a great voice. the others found roles for themselves beyond backup, 'why don't you' style. delroy was the, er, baby. (actually this is sounding more like the spice girls). steadman was the oldest and 'looked a bit like michael jackson'. doris was the choreographer and 'looked a bit like janet jackson'. lorraine, brainwashed by blue peter, felt compelled to make mock ups of their video sets out of old cardboard boxes. and dated eddie murphy, briefly. you can decide which of these achievements is greater.

so their first album, 'luxury of life' was a triumph of slinky mid 80s electro soul replete with bubbling basslines, sweet vocals and summery instrumentation. so much so that an unprecedented seven singles were released, with moderate success right up until the last one, a song about being mechanically manipulated - 'system addict'. someone in a&r (probably buster) had finally noticed that in 1985, we were obsessed with futuristic gadgetry and convinced that by the year 2000, computers would rule the world.

but soon they were bonafide popstars and commerciality struck resulting in the music becoming more hit and miss quality-wise. they bought more cars than their romford home could accommodate and started wearing matching catsuits. yep, including the boys.

so, if you're too young to remember what they looked like, don't look too closely at the image at the top of this page. it'll only put you off, just listen to the music...

ten five star tracks you need to own - download here

hide and seek
lots of people think this is a new edition song that five star covered - in fact its the other way round. this was their first proper single and the dancing in the video is hilarious....

let me be the one
the five star track most likely to be mis-labelled as loose ends if you try to download it from limewire.

all fall down
a big hit stateside and a popular choice to accompany majorettes (remember wanting to be one of those?) and aerobics classes nationwide.

love take over
hmmm. either five star's music videos are intended to have nothing to do with the song or there is a genius undercover message that I can't decipher. five star gatecrash an empty country house and prance about.

find the time
actually, I seem to remember the video for this track had lots of clocks in it, cos of the time thing. there goes my last theory.

if i say yes
another upbeat track that I didn't appreciate at the time. I think partly because in the video they wore awful oversized grey suits and pranced about a haunted house.

show me what you got for me
best track on their second and most successful album, 'silk and steel'. perhaps because as a non-single, it was not sullied by live performances in matching shoulder padded frightsuits with a dance routine in which poor delroy looked increasingly unwieldy, what with him being in the throes of puberty and all.

whenever you're ready
the first single from 1987's 'between the lines' album. more polished, but still good with nice bubbly sound effects.

strong as steel
a great slow jam from 1987 that has been covered by gladys knight amongst others.

rock my world
from their last commercially successful album in the UK, 'rock the world'. different again, but worth a spin.