Chart entered : 27 April 1985
Chart peak : 3
Number of hits : 10
Oh Lord save us from singing actors ! For every Pinball , there's a dozen Robson and Jeromes assaulting our ears. Why do they do it ?
Jimmy Nail was born James Bradford in Newcastle in 1954. He apparently appeared as an extra in Get Carter but his early career was in criminality and he did time for assault. In the late seventies he was involved in a couple of pub rock outfits that never amounted to anything. His big break came in 1983 when he was picked for the role of drunken moron Oz in Auf Wiedersehn Pet even though he had virtually no acting experience. Despite looking like a grown up version of Pug from the Bash Street Kids and his boorish character having the charm of a wasp at a picnic, Oz somehow struck a chord with the public and made this record possible.
The bad fairies facilitating Jimmy's next crack at pop fame were Richard Branson who offered him a one album deal on Virgin and Queen drummer Roger Taylor who produced , drummed and played synths on the single. His own useless solo material tells you all you need to know about his artistic judgement away from Queen.
"Love Don't Here Anymore " was of course a big hit for Rose Royce just six and a half years earlier. What Jimmy thought he was bringing to the table is anybody's guess. He doesn't have that bad a voice but shows scant regard for the song's melody with the hook line having a different tune each time it comes round. He just comes across as an enthusiastic amateur next to Gwen Dickey's reading. For his part Roger of course dispenses with the memorably primitive syn-drum sounds on the original and gives us hackneyed Phil Collins gated drum breaks instead . Would this have been a hit for an unknown singer from the clubs ? Of course not .
Judging by the state of those trousers, it's a shame Jimmy didn't get caught by a strong breeze on the way to the studio and blown safely away.
ReplyDelete