Chart entered : 24 October 1987
Chart peak : 56
Shakatak had established themselves as one of the most reliable chart acts in the first half of the eighties. I remember Paul Gambaccini explaining their popularity with Radio One in that they were "very programmable" , you could slip a couple of minutes of their latest smash in a gap before the news without missing anything. Their biggest hits were "Night Birds" in 1982 and "Down On The Streets" in 1984 which both reached number 9. There had been changes in the line up. In 1981 bassist Steve Underwood was replaced by George Anderson . A year later keyboard player Nigel Wright quit as a performer to concentrate on his second career as a producer. In 1983 singer Jackie Rawe left . Neither of the latter two had permanent replacements.The band were very popular in Japan and made some records exclusively for the Japanese market as was the case in 1986.
"Mr Manic & Sister Cool" was the lead single for the forthcoming album "Manic & Cool" which would be their first UK LP in nearly three years and was produced by Nigel and Les McCutcheon. I actually think this is one of their better singles. Bill Sharpe's trademark tinkling piano work is there of course, as aimless and soporific as ever, and the lyrics are pure fluff but I like the Frankie Goes To Hollywood keyboard interjections and the house rhythm. It fits Gambo's theory by having nothing more to say after the first two minutes but there were worse things around.
They took two more singles from the LP , "Dr ! Dr! " which I haven't heard and "Time of My Life" which continues their flirtation with synth pop. There's hardly any piano and it's a passable attempt at Shalamar -ish pop disco although Jill Saward's soulless vocals don't really sell it. Neither single charted, suggesting their fanbase wasn't happy with the change in direction.
After a couple of Japan -only releases their next album in the UK was 1989's "Turn The Music Up ". The title track was the lead single and is a contemporary pop dance track with melodic similarities to Odyssey's Use It Up Wear It Out. The follow up "Back To The Groove" has a more urban feel with its sledgehammer beat and vocoder interjections.
Two more Japanese releases followed before "Bitter Sweet" in 1991. The only single was the title track, a drab, forgettable house track. When that failed, Polydor called time on their contract and subsequent releases were on smaller labels.
Their next UK release was 1993's "Street Level" . The single "One Day At A Time" had contemporary beats but restored Bill's tinkling to the front of the mix and sounds much more like "classic" Shakatak than their last few releases. There don't appear to have been any singles from a second LP "Under The Sun" that year.
1994's "Full Circle" contained the single "Brazilian Love Affair " which added Latin percussion and M-People organ stabs to the mix. This was the last LP to feature guitarist Keith Winter. He had to quit the band when a rare nerve disease left him unable to play. Since he left the band has consisted of the core quartet of Bill, Jill, George and drummer Roger Odell plus touring musicians.
They returned with the album "Let The Piano Play" in 1997. The title track is a slice of contemporary R & B with the piano playing a fairly secondary role to the beat and background chatter. It's reasonable but they were never going to break into that market. 1998's " View From The City" contained their last attempt at a hit with "Move A Little Closer" a languid move into Lisa Stansfield territory.
That seems to have been their last single but the band have continued and seem happy to be regarded as a jazz act these days. They play prestigious jazz festivals and release an LP pretty much every other year, the most recent being this year's "Times And Places". In addition, George has released a couple of solo LPs and Bill a couple with jazz pianist Don Grusin. Roger also does gigs with his own jazz trio.
I now realise Nigel should have had a post of his own after making the connections that a number of chart acts were really just flags of convenience for him. His second career as a producer was originally based on taking advantage of the medley craze and he'd enjoyed two hits as Enigma and one each as This Year's Blonde and Mojo before Shakatak had cracked the Top 40 with "Easier Said Than Done" in 1982. His most successful guise was Mirage and he had seven hits under that name with house medleys including the number 4 hit Jack Mix II/ III . The Jack Mix medleys didn't bolt together snippets but integrated short phrases from recent pop / dance hits into a ubiquitous house rhythm track. in the nineties he enjoyed three more hits under the name "UK Mixmasters". As a producer rather than artist Nigel has worked with Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Take That, Boyzone, Cliff Richard and many others and of course continued to produce Shakatak themselves. He's also had a long association with Andrew Lloyd-Webber as the producer for all his cast recordings since 1991 and musical director for his talent-spotting programmes on BBC 1. He's also been music director for the live heats of The X Factor since 2004.
Steve has recently been playing with white soul singer Angela Lewis Brown.
Jackie became a busy session singer and a performer on the gay club scene. She became associated with the Almighty Records crew recording a lot of cheap covers for them often under different names. She also made some recordings under her own name.Her 1985 single "I Believe In Dreams" is a popular track on the Hi-NRG scene. In 2004 she put out an album "My Truth " which is described as "Neo-Soul" but I haven't heard any of it.
Happily Keith's condition has drastically improved in the last three years and he was able to do a gig with Roger's band last year.
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