Chart entered : 18 June 1983
Chart peak : 1
Number of hits : 21
This entered the chart the week of my last A Level exams and so marks the end of the music of my school days.
Paul Young was born in Luton in 1956. He started as an apprentice in the Vauxhall works. He was originally a bassist in his early bands but graduated to lead singer in one called Kat Kool and the Kool Kats. His main idol was Paul Rodgers and he explored blues and soul music on the Free singer's recommendations. He was soon poached by the London-based group Streetband.
Streetband were a straight down the line rock band who wanted to sound modern but eschewed punk moves; perhaps The Motors or City Boy are the best comparison. They got a record deal in 1978 and were set to record with Blockhead Chas Jankel. He came down to see them at a gig where their rhythm guitarist broke a string. It took some time to replace so the band played around with a little jazz rhythm while Paul rapped about the first things that came into his head which happened to be toast. When they got into the studio Jankel insisted they record the "song" which became "Toast" and featured on the B-side of their first single "Hold On", a reasonable attempt at Hall and Oates-ish pop soul marred by over-use of the Heil Talk Box . Kenny Everett on Capital Radio heard the flip side and started giving it heavy play. The record company Logo promptly reissued the single with "Toast" as the A-side against the band's wishes and it became a hit reaching number 18 in November 1978..
Now as then , I find it irredeemably irritating and the band's mugging on Top of the Pops made it seem worse. It absolutely screamed "one hit wonder" - as the band were probably aware - and so it proved. Mind you the follow up "One More Step" is dull pub rock and didn't need "Toast " to scupper its chances and the parent album "London" is over-produced and generic. The third single "Love Sign " is a pretty good Hall and Oates impersonation but the drumming is a bit pedestrian.
The second album "Dilemma" released the same year is a bit more supportive of the idea that they were unjustly dismissed by the success of "Toast". The band took a more determinedly AOR direction with a louder harder sound and some lengthy guitar solos. That said, the songwriting is much better and the two singles "Love Sign" , a lush Doobie Brothers pop-soul number and "Mirror Stars" a bright New Wave-influenced song about bedroom dreaming could both have been hits in different circumstances.
At the end of 1979 Streetband threw in the towel. Paul and two of the other guys decided to try and take advantage of the Mod Revival , acquired a horn section and became a soul revue act, Q-Tips. They soon attracted a sizable live following and a record deal with Chrysalis but famously their record sales didn't match their reputation. Part of the problem was that they were perceived as a covers band; while contemporaries Dexy's Midnight Runners were putting out strikingly original material, Q-Tips played it safe with versions of "Tracks of My Tears" and "Love Hurts". Though their only studio album "Q-Tips" actually has seven originals to four covers, two-thirds of their singles were other peoples's songs. With no record sales the septet had to tour near-constantly and that of course took its toll.
The Q-Tips deal ran out in 1982 and with no group deal on the table and Robert Palmer making commercial headway, Paul's manager persuaded him to sign a solo deal with CBS in early 1982, bringing Q-Tips to an end although keyboard player Ian Kewley would continue to work with him.
Given Q-Tips' commercial failure , Paul was anxious that his solo material should sound as different from them as possible so in came drum machines, synthesisers , fretless bass and a couple of feisty female backing singers, the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts. He engaged Laurie Latham, a studio engineer then best known for co-producing Ian Dury's New Boots and Panties , to mastermind the transformation. His first single release as a solo artist was a staccato version of an obscure Booker T and the MGs song "Iron Out The Rough Spots " released in November 1982. With a clunky xylophone riff, brutalist Linn drums and screechy synths it certainly achieved the aim of breaking from his past but there was no instant reward.
Help was at hand though. Both the girls and new bass player Pino Palladino had been part of ex-Squeeze keyboard player Jools Holland's new outfit , the Millionaires who had previously supported Q-Tips. Holland was now presenting Channel 4's new music show The Tube and had some influence on artist selection so when Paul released his next single , a rather lumpy version of Nicky Thomas's "Love of the Common People" in January 1983 , he got a more than generous slot on the programme given his current status. He took the opportunity to showcase his critic-baiting cover of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart as part of his set. It still wasn't enough to get the single into the chart although it reached number 2 at the opposite end of the year when re-released.
Paul then got another publicity boost when Weller protege Tracie Young, at the height of her allotted fifteen minutes , started gushing about how Q-Tips and how he was her favourite singer. Number One magazine ambushed her by bringing him along to an interview. All it needed now was the right song.
The Popular link to this song is here. I think it covers everything.
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