Chart entered : 28 August 1982
Chart peak : 37
While 10cc's disappearance remains something of a puzzle , the reasons for Showaddywaddy's slide are pretty clear. When they emerged in the mid-70s they had the fifties revival scene almost to themselves and enjoyed a string of big hits, topped off by "Under The Moon of Love" reaching number one and almost selling a million in 1976. But their success bred competition. First there was Darts bringing some New Wave vim to the party. Then they got caught in a pincer movement with The Stray Cats breathing new life into rockabilly at one end and Rocky Sharpe, Matchbox, Coast To Coast and , above all, Shaky competing for the same family audience and old songs to cover at the other. In chart terms their decline was mapped out very neatly. In 1979 their singles stopped reaching the Top 10, in 1980 they stopped reaching the Top 20 and in 1981 the Top 30.
This one actually followed a flop single , a cover of Jimmie Jones's "Good Timing" which was their last release on Bell, This came out on RCA. "Who Put The Bomp" was first recorded by its writer Barry Mann in 1961 as a meta-song highlighting the use of nonsense lyrics in doo wop songs. In the UK it was a hit when covered by The Viscounts. Unsurprisingly Showaddywaddy's version isn't much different from the latter though it replaces the brittle martial drumming with a steady beat and instead of the rather camp spoken bit on previous versions , drummer Romeo Challenger does a booming Den Hegarty-like intervention.
This got into the Top 40 by a bit of a fluke. On 2 September 1982 Top of the Pops was given an unusually generous 45 minutes and to celebrate decided to have a "live" show which in practice meant all performance and no videos ( apart from, unavoidably , Survivor who were number one ). This caught out Talk Talk who were in America supporting Elvis Costello and so despite Today climbing 11 places to 15 it wasn't featured and Showaddywaddy down at number 49 got on instead.
They followed it up with a version of "Goody Goody" , written in 1936 but turned into a rock and roll number by Frankie Lymon. Obviously Dave Bartram doesn't sound like a teenager and the horn section sounds very tinny and limp by comparison but otherwise it's close to the original. They got to perform it on Rod and Emu's Saturday Special but only some weeks after the single's release and it couldn't be salvaged. For their next release in January 1983 they departed from rock and roll to cover The Righteous Brothers's "Soul and Inspiration". The results are laughable. The band producing themselves can't replicate Spector and Dave really hasn't got the voice to be tackling this sort of material.
RCA cut them loose after that and the strains of maintaining an eight piece line up with little coming in from songwriting royalties began to show. Drummer and stage choreographer Malcolm Allured, who featured little on the records given Romeo's technical superiority was the first to quit early in 1984 and went into club management. The seven-piece line up appeared on The Krankies , Knees Up and Little and Large in 1984-5 touting a more modern guitar pop number "Out on the Town" but couldn't find anyone to release it.
Guitarist and band treasurer Russell Field was the next one to peel away in 1985 after the rest of the band failed to back him in a financial dispute with an Irish promoter.
In 1986 the band released a remixed version of "Under The Moon Of Love" on the small label Genie. With attendances starting to dwindle at their gigs second singer Bill "Buddy" Gask was asked to leave in the summer of 1987 after one too many drink-fuelled arguments . Later that year they found a new label , Tiger, and released a cover of Jesse Stone's "Why" which they got to perform at the London Palladium.
The band continued to appear on TV in light entertainment shows and released their last single , on President , with Dave's "Rockin and Rollin With Santa Claus" in 1990. The band continued to survive as a touring act throughout the nineties receiving a publicity boost when guitarist Trevor Oakes's son Scott started making a name for himself as a professional footballer with Luton. A concurrent rumour that Romeo was the father of Dion Dublin was false although he was a family friend. From 1996 onwards they started putting out the odd cheap CD.
Towards the end of the noughties time started taking its toll on the original quintet within the band. Bassist Al James announced his retirement at the end of 2008. At the same time Trevor said he needed a break on health grounds but never returned and confirmed his departure a few months later. Three years later Dave decided to retire from performing though he continues to manage the band which now includes just two original members, Romeo and bassist Rod Deas .
On leaving the band Buddy bought a pub and formed a club duo Double Bill. In 1994 he reunited with Malcolm and started performing as "duke's and Buddy's Showaddywaddy but the original band took him to court and forced them to change their name to The Teddys. He stopped performing in 2004 and a couple of years later , in declining health, he moved with his wife to Spain . He was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease at the time of his death in 2011 aged 65.
Malcolm continued performing with The Teddys though mainly in his own clubs, until the end of the noughties.
Russell left the music business to run a gym with his wife before returning to the North East to run a guest house in Northumberland.
Trevor lives in Devon with his partner and daughter and plays guitar in a local band.
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