561 Hello Hue and Cry - Labour of Love

Chart  entered : 13  June  1987

Chart  peak : 6

Number  of  hits : 10

There's  a  nice  irony  that  this  sibling  duo , the  textbook  example  of  a  "soulcialist  band"  , entered  the  charts  in  the  same  week  that  their  political  hopes  were  crushed  with  the  1987  election  delivering  another  landslide  victory  to  Margaret  Thatcher.

Hue  and  Cry  were  formed  in  Coatbridge  in  1983  by  brothers  Patrick  ( born  1964 )  and  Gregory  ( born  1966 ) . Greg  was  a  classically  trained  pianist  but  started  out  playing  saxophone  in  a  band  called  Valerie  and  the  Week  of  Wonders  who  released  two  very  obscure  singles  in  1983-4, neither  of  which  I've  heard.  Pat  was  in  a  synth  band  called  Rodeo  who  recorded  a  demo  with  Midge  Ure  that went  nowhere.

The  demarcation  in  Hue  and  Cry  was  clear. Greg  wrote  the  music  while  bookworm  Pat  was  the  lyricist  and  singer. Both  of  them  liked  Prince, Frank  Sinatra  and  Miles  Davis  but  gave  the  press  to  understand  that  otherwise  their  relationship  was  extremely  fractious. They  were  staunch  supporters  of  the  Labour  Party  but  weren't  high  profile  enough  to  get  on  the  Red  Wedge  tours.

In  1986  they  released  their  first  single  "Here  Comes  Everybody"  on  a  tiny  independent  label. Again , I've  never  heard  it  but  someone  from  Virgin  subsidiary  Circa  did  and  signed  the  band  to  the  label.

Their  first  single  for  Circa  was  "I  Refuse" , the  only  record  of  theirs  in  my  collection.  Pat's  lyrics  instructing  a  young  woman  and  then  an  army  recruit to  reject  their  predetermined  roles  are  set  to  a  tight  jazz  funk  tune  with  an  excellent  funky  bass  line  and  embellished  with  strings  from  Sinatra  arranger  Jimmy  Biondolillo. Pat  delivers  a  very  assured  vocal  sounding  like  a  more  soulful  version  of  Level  42's  Mark  King. What  I  don't  like  about  the  record  is  the  loose  jazzy  middle  eight  where  the  tune  disappears  and  that  might  be  the  reason  it  didn't  succeed  although  a  re-mixed  version  reached  number  47  in  1988.

"Labour  of  Love"  was  the  follow  up. Although  constructed  on  similar  lines ,  it's  more  brash  and  funky  and  less  tuneful  than  its  predecessor  with  Pat  working  hard  to  cram  in  his  lines  comparing  backing  out  of  a  relationship  to  going  on  strike. I  didn't  like  it  but  my  view  was  perhaps  a  bit  coloured  by  reading  interviews  with  Pat. I  didn't  take  to  being  lectured  about  socialism  by  a  man  in  a  designer  suit  who  advocated  shoplifting  in  Smash  Hits. Listening  to  it  again  away  from  all  that  nonsense  I  think  it's  aged  pretty  well.