555 Hello Brother Beyond - How Many Times

Chart  entered :  4  April  1987

Chart  peak : 62

Number  of  hits : 10

You  don't  hear  this  lot  on  the  radio  much  but  they  were  briefly  contenders  and  at  least  one  of  their  number  is  still  around  and  doing  alright  for  himself.

Brother  Beyond  were  formed, appropriately  enough . by  two  brothers,  Francis  ( born 1966 )  and  David  White  in  1985.  Francis  played  bass  and  did  the  drum  programming  while  David  played  guitar. Francis  had  been  the  bass  player  in  Yip  Yip  Coyote  and  acquired  the  nickname  Eg, a  terrible  pun  but  it  stuck.  Yip  Yip  Coyote  were  part  of  the  cowpunk  scene  around  1983-4 . They  went  the  full  mile  and  performed  in  stetsons, bootlace  ties, cowboy  boots  the  lot  and  attracted  a  decent  live  following, the  odd  Peel  session  and  finally  a  contract  with  IRS.  They  released  a  couple  of  singles  in  the  UK, "Dream  of  the  West"  and  "Pioneer  Girl"  but  their  LP "Fifi" was  only  released  in  France  and  Japan. They  employed  some  talent  on  the  latter  with  Tony Mansfield  and  Anne  Dudley  producing  individual  tracks  but  in  truth  they  were  polishing  a  turd.  Vocalist  Fifi  Coyote  couldn't  sing,  songwriter  Carl  Evans  couldn't  pen  a  decent  tune  and  their  Theatre  of  Hate  meets  Bow  Wow  Wow  sound   was  already  a  couple  of  years  out  of  date. The  line  up  was  completed  by  keyboard  player  Carl  Fysh  and  singer  Nathan  Moore  who  had  no  previous  recording  experience.

They  got  a  deal  with  EMI  and  released  their  first  single , "I  Should  Have  Lied" , in  August  1986. Produced  by  Don  Was,  it's  a   surprisingly  sophisticated   piece  of   mature   pop  somewhere  between  Chris  Rea  and  China  Crisis  with  a  smoothly  assured  vocal  from  Nathan  and  some  great  synth  work. It's  just  not  immediate  enough  to  work  as  a  single  without  a  generous  amount  of  airplay.

"How  Many  Times"  was  the   somewhat  delayed   follow-up  and  although  written  by  the  same  pairing  of  Francis  and  Carl  it's  dire, the  band  having  veered  off  towards  the  bland  funk-pop  of  Kajagoogoo  or  later  Spandau  Ballet.  The  lyric  reveals  some  interest  in  the  language  of  love  songs  a  la  Martin  Fry  or  Paul  Heaton  but  in  such  a  lightweight  musical  setting  they  were  not  going  to  attract  a  cerebral  audience . The  fact  that  they  were  rewarded  for  going  down  the  lowest  common  denominator  route  was  just  one  more  depressing  aspect  of  the  late  eighties.