279 Goodbye Marmalade - Falling Apart At The Seams

Chart  entered  : 21  February  1976

Chart  peak : 9

From  the  middle  of  1975  the  onward  march  of  disco  was  evident  in  the  way  it  was  picked  up  and  assimilated  by  white  pop  acts  of  the  day   with  The  Bee  Gees, Leo  Sayer  and  Mud  to  name  just  three  who  jumped on  the  bandwagon. Here  it  provides  a   last  comeback  hit  for  Marmalade  who'd  been  off  the  charts  since  April  1972  so  when  this  came  out  I  assumed  they  were  a  new  band  rather  than  sixties  survivors. Actually  I  wasn't  far  wrong  as  the  band  had  spent  the  past  five  years  doing  precisely  what  the  title  suggests and  this  record  was  made  by  an  almost  completely  different  line  up  to  their  first  hit.

The  disintegration  started  in  1971 when  guitarist  and  songwriter  Junior  Campbell  quit  to  study  at  the  Royal  College  of  Music. He  was  replaced  by  Hugh  Nicholson  from  The  Poets   a  Glaswegian  band  who  were  big  in  Scotland  but  never crossed  over  to  the  rest  of  the  UK . After  enjoying  another  Top  10  hit  with "Cousin  Norman", Hugh  persuaded  the  rest  of  the  band  to  sack   drummer  Alan  Whitehead  and  replace  him  with  hid  friend  from  The  Poets  Dougie  Henderson. Alan's  response  was  to  go  to  the  News  of  the  World  with  lurid  tales  of  the  band's  sexual  adventures   with  underage  fans  which  didn't  do  their  reputation  any  favours  and  according  to  Dean, broke  up  his  marriage.

After  their  last  hit  before  this  one,  "Radancer",   bassist   Pat  Fairley  quit  playing  to  run  their  music  publishing  company  then  Hugh  decided  he'd  be  better  off  forming  a  new band  which  became  Blue. He  was  replaced  after  an  interval  by  a  Welsh  guitarist  Mike  Japp.  The  band  got  a  new  deal  with  EMI  but  after  their  first  single  flopped their  other  bassist  Graham  Knight  quit  leaving  Dean  Ford  as the  last  original  member. With  little  enthusiasm  for  playing  the  nostalgia  circuit  the  band  ground  to  a  halt.

In  1975  Graham  and  Alan  got  together  as  "Vintage  Marmalade"   to  tour  the  hits  with  Sandy  Newman  ( vocals/ guitar)  and  Charlie  Smith  ( guitar ). On  realising  that  Dean  had  no  interest  in  continuing  the  name  they  dropped  the  prefix    and  signed  with  Tony  Macaulay's Target  label.

"Falling  Apart  At  The  Seams"  was  a  Macaulay  tune  which  had  originally  been  offered to  Tony  Burrows. It  was  actually  my  favourite  song  in  the  charts  at  the  time  but  I  haven't  heard  it  since  so  I  was  interested  to  see  how  well  it  held  up.  And on  its  own  terms  it  does,  a  disco-inflected  pop  tune  with  a  Day  Before  You Came  lyrical  premise ,  tight  harmonies  and  a  strong  chorus  ramped  up  further  by  Sandy's  falsetto. The  disappointment  is  that  there's  an  interesting  guitar  riff  building  in  the  intro  which  gets  cut  off   and  then  isn't  revisited.  The   record  is  a  late -blooming  flower  for  seventies  studio   pop -  although  Macaulay  had  one  monster   hit  to  come -  and  may  not  have  been  a  hit  at  all  twelve  months  later.

Marmalade  quickly  came  back  to  earth. The  identikit  follow-up  "Walkin  a  Tightrope"  ( also  penned  by  Macaulay )  flopped  despite  airplay  and  a  wild  card  appearance   on  Top  of  the  Pops. Sandy  wrote  their  next  single "What  You  Need  Is  A  Miracle"  a  soft  rock  smoocher  with  some  great   guitar  work  but  it  didn't  get  heard. Their  fourth  single  of  1976  "Hello  Baby"  is  a  feather light  pop  number  somewhere  between  The  Rubettes  and  The  Dooleys.
Macaulay  wrote  their  next  single  in  February 1977 , "The  Only  Light  On  My  Horizon  Now"  , MOR  schmaltz  which  might  have  been  aimed at  his  new  cash  cow  David  Soul . After  that  Charlie  decamped  to  Blue  and  was  replaced  by  Garth  Watt  Roy.

Marmalade  soldiered  on  with  "Mystery  Has  Gone"   in  July  1977  a  pleasant  America-style  strum  but   horribly  out  of  date  for  the  UK  market. Their  final single  for  Target  was  Roger  Cook  and  Bobby Wood's  "Talking  In  Your  Sleep"  in  January  1978  , a  good  song  but  they  had  to  do  battle  with  a  rival  version  from  Crystal  Gayle   and  they  cancelled  each  other  out. Gayle's  version  was  a  hit  later  in  the  year  after  its  US  success  and  her  more  intimate  take   nails  it   for  me.

More  line  up  changes  then  took  place  with  Watt  Roy  decamping  to  the  Q-Tips  and  Alan  going  into  mobile  discos. They  were  replaced  by  Ian  Withington  and  Stuart  Williamson  respectively. They  found  a  new  home  on  Sky  Records  and  released  "Heavens  Above"   in  November  1978  which  sounds  like  Smokie . Somehow  they  were  back  on  EMI  for  "Made  In  Germany"  in  October  1979 , reborn  as  a  New  Wave  act  with   the  synth  pulse ,  treated  vocals  and  quirky  rhythms  sounding  very  much  like  After  The  Fire.

Graham  and  Sandy  ploughed  on  through  the  eighties  and  nineties  with  a  revolving  door  of  supporting  members  releasing  product  on  ever-smaller  labels  which  makes  it  hard  to  track  them. They  released  a  single  "Heartbreaker  in 1984  which  is  the  dullest  AOR  plod  imaginable. From  1987  onwards  they  started  working  intermittently  with  Dave  Dee  and  seem  to  have  accepted  their  status  as  a  nostalgia  act. In  2011  Graham  decided  to  retire  breaking  the  last  link  with  their  sixties  hey-day  so  the  current  touring  line  up  includes  just  one  member  who  played  on  just  one  hit. Nothing  daunted  Sandy  and  the  lads  went  into  the  studio  to  record  a  CD  "Penultimate"  for  their  2013  tour  which  had  re-recorded  hits  , sixties  covers  and  half  a  dozen  new  songs  which  I  haven't  heard  but  am  told  are  in  a  country  rock  vein.

So  what  happened  to  the  others. Junior's  solo  career   got  off  to  a  good  start  with  two  Top  20  hits  "Hallelujah  Freedom"  and  "Sweet  Illusion"  in  1973  but  he  wasn't  able  to  build  on  it.
His  next  single  "Help  Your  Fellow  Man"  was  adopted  as  the  theme  tune  for  a  US  pirate  radio  station  "The  Voice  of  Peace"  which  broadcast  for  20  years. That  didn't  help  it  here  where  energetic  white  soul  wasn't  cutting  it  in  the  age  of  glam.  His  next  one  "Sweet  Lady  Love"  hedged  its   bets  with  Neil  Sedaka  piano  ballad  verses  before  the  gospel  chorus  and  "Ol'  Virginia "  sounds  like  he  was  demo-ing  for  The  Three  Degrees  ( although  John  Phillips  might  have  been  interested  in  the  provenance  of  the  melody  ).  Those  were  his  last  singles  for  Deram.

Junior  was  also  writing  and  producing  for  other  acts  , mainly  other  fading  lights  such  as  The  Tremeloes  or  Paul  Ryan  but  he  hit  lucky  with  the  Scottish  singer  Barbara  Dickson , arranging  and  producing  her  breakthrough  album  Answer  Me.  When  Dickson  was  then  offered  the  resident  musical  interlude  slot  on  The  Two  Ronnies  for  a  series  Junior  went  with  her  as  musical  director  giving  him  his  big  break  on  TV.  At  the  same  time  Elton  John  offered  him  a  deal  with  Rocket  which  resulted  in  three  singles , "Carabino  Lady" , "Here  Comes  The  Band"  and  "Baby  Hold  On". I've  only  heard  the  latter  which  is  a  soft  rock  harmony-fest  with  co-writer  Chip  Hawkes , nice  enough  but  not  very  memorable.In  1978  he  popped  up  again  on  Private  Stock  in  1978  with  two  singles  the  Elton-ish  "Highland  Girl"  and  the  opportunistic  "America"  which  again  goes  for  the  layered  harmony  sound. They  were  his  final  singles; he  recorded  some  synthy  stuff  in  the  early  eighties  which  has  been  included  on  compilation  CDs  since  but  was  never  released  at  the  time.

From  that  point  on  he  earned  his  bread  and  butter  with  TV  work  most  notably  writing  all  the  music  for  Thomas  The  Tank  Engine  between  1983  and  2003  when  he  fell  out  with  the  new  owners.  He  seems  to  have  retired  now  and  lives  in  Surrey.

Hugh's  Blue  were  signed  by  Robert  Stigwood's  RSO  label  in  1973. Their  first  single  was  "Red  Light Song "  which  is  not  as  interesting  as  the  title  suggests  but  does  have  a  certain  pull  as  a  lighters -aloft  soft  rock  anthem  and  isn't  a  million  miles  away  from  Embrace. The  follow  up  "Little  Jody"  is  rockier  , benefitting  from  the temporary  sojourn  in  the  band  of  future  Wings  guitarist  Jimmy  McCullough.  To  say  Stigwood  has  a  ruthless  reputation  he  gave  Blue  a  lot  of  rope  , letting  them  release  two  albums  and  five  singles  without  seeing  any  return. Their  latter  trio  of  singles "Lonesome", "Cookie  In  A  Jar" and  "Round  And  Round"  sound  like  Donovan, Johnny  Logan  and  early  Sweet  respectively  and  none  of  them  are  very  good.

In  1977  with  Charlie now  added  to  the  line  up  they  signed  for  Rocket  and  scored  their  sole  hit  ( under that  name -see  below  )  with   the  pleasant  but  unremarkable   "Gonna  Capture  Your  Heart"  which  reached  number  18  in  May  1977  and  may  be  the  decade's  most  forgotten  Top  20  hit. Their  tenure  at  Rocket  was  surprisingly  lengthy  too. The  lumpen  follow  up  "Another  Night  Time  Flight"  killed  their  momentum. The  appositely  titled  "Bring  Back  The  Love"  was  stronger  but  not  for  a  music  scene  that  had  been  turned  upside  down  in  a  matter  of  months. Still  they  soldiered  on  with  another  four  singles, all  produced  by  Elton  and  Clive  Franks. For  the  record  they were  "Women" , "Stranger's  Town", "Love  Sings"  and  "Danger  Sign"  all  fairly  mediocre  and  only  the  latter  with  its  power pop  guitars  acknowledging  the  change  in  the  weather.

Let  go  by  Rocket  at  the  start  of  the  eighties  they  decamped  to  Los  Angeles  and  toiled  away  on  the  club  circuit  to  little  effect. They  released  one  more  single  "Don't  Wanna  Make  You  Cry"  in  1982  which  sounds  like  an  attempt  to  jump  on  the  Beatles  20th  Anniversary  bandwagon   and  can  be  filed  alongside  The  Pinkees  and  Scarlet  Party. In  1987  they  temporarily  re-branded  themselves  as  "Radio  Heart"  to  do  a  couple  of  singles  with  Gary  Numan , "Radio  Heart "  and  "London  Times "  both  of  them  minor  hits   and  OK  if  you  like  that  bombastic  Fairlight  synth-rock  sound  that  plagued  the  later  eighties. They  repeated  the  partnership  in  1994  under  the  pseudonym  Da  Da  Dang  with  the  Celtic- industrial   mash-up  "Like  A  Refugee"  which  is  as   uncomfortable  as  you'd  expect. Numan  was  pretty  washed-up  at  this  point  and  the  record  wasn't  a  hit.  For  their  next  record  "Country  Blue" , which  is  a fair  summation  of  the  content, in  1999,  they  reverted  to  their   usual  name.

By  some  means  - I  haven't  come  across  a   reference  to  them  working  with  anyone  other than  Numan  and  they weren't  touring - they  were  able  to  challenge  the  boy  band  over  the  name  in  2003. Before  it  went  to  court  Charlie  bailed  out  perhaps  fearing  a  huge  legal  bill  coming  his  way. In fact  old  Blue  did  lose  the  case the  judge  ruling  they were  substantially  differentiated to  avoid  harmful  confusion. They  released  an  album  of Tom  Petty / REM flavoured  pop  rock  "Heaven Avenue"  the  same  year  but  have  been  quiet  since  perhaps  licking  their  wounds  and  counting  the  cost.  

Alan's  had  a  rather  colourful  career  since  he  quit  the  band.  He  started  doing  disco  roadshows  where  topless  girls  were  used  to  bring  in  the  punters; Mel  Appleby  worked  for  him  for  a  time. In  the  nineties  he  pioneered  lap  dancing  clubs  in  Britain. He  has  also  managed  nightclubs  and  artists  though  as  yet  nobody  who's  made  it  big - Shoot  the  Preacher, Fabienne  Holloway , The  Maida  Vales, Joanovarc  anyone ? In  2009  he  appeared  as  a  mature  hopeful  on  Take  Me  Out . A  few  months  back  he  published  the  book  Don't  Shoot  The  Messenger  sharing  his  shamanistic  philosophy  with  the  world.

After  leaving  the  band  in  1974  Dougie  became  a  barman  at  the  Jean  Armour  pub  in  Glasgow  and  was  last  heard  of  playing  in  a  band  called  Blues  Poets  in  2002.

On  realising  the  band's  days  were  numbered  Pat  went  to  America  - without  a  work  permit  until  the  eighties - and  ended  up  running  a  successful  bar  in  California  called  Scotland  Yard.

Dean  got  a  solo  deal  with  EMI. His  first  single  in  August  1975    "Hey  My  Love"  sounds  like  Barry  Manilow  and  is  passable  MOR  fare. I  haven't  heard  the  second  "Cry  Myself  To  Sleep". These  came  from  his  non-selling  eponymous  LP.  In  November  1977  he  had  a  last  shot  with  "The  Fever"  a  Bruce  Springsteen  song  about  teenage  sexual  frustration  done  as  a  downbeat  jazz  piano  number  a  la  Steely Dan. It's  not  bad  actually  but  not  really  hit  single  material. The  producer  on  his  first  two  singles  was  Alan  Parsons  and  he  used  Dean  as  a  vocalist  on  two  tracks  of  The  Alan  Parsons  Project's  third  album Pyramid  in  1978.

After cutting  those  tracks  Dean  followed  Pat  to  California  and  tried  to  cut  a  deal  in  Los  Angeles. After  numerous  rejections  he  turned  to  drink  and  lived  off  his  savings  until  the  mid-nineties. Cleaned  up  after  going  to  Alcoholics  Anonymous   he  worked  as  a  limo  driver  picking  up  celebrities  from  LA  airport. The  use of  "Reflections  of  My  Life"   during  the  referendum  campaign  for  the  Northern  Ireland  Peace  Agreement  in  1998  prompted him  to  start  small  scale  performing  again. In  2012  he  started  working  with  ex-Badfinger  man  Joe Tansin  and  released  the  single  "Glasgow  Road"  a  competent  but  dated  Celtic  pop  number.  Dean's  voice  is  still  in  good  shape  but  he  looks  every  one  of  his  years  in  the  video.

Not  much  has  been  heard  of  Charlie  since  quitting  Blue  though  he  attended  a  Marmalade  gig  in  Hamilton  in  2009.