582 Goodbye Imagination - Instinctual

Chart  entered : 16  Jan  1987

Chart  peak : 62

The  British  soul  trio  had  peaked  early  when  fourth  single  "Just  An  Illusion "  reached  number  two  in  the  spring  of  1982. Thereafter  their  decline  was  very  swift , broken  only  by  "Thank  You  My  Love"  reaching  the  Top  30  early in  1985.  Since  then  they'd  had  five  flops  in  a  row  and  at  the  end  of  1987  drummer  Errol  Kennedy   decided  to  bail  out.

"Instinctual"  was  the  third  single   released  from  their  album  "Closer" ( itself  a  flop ). Errol  plays  on  it  but  was  not  pictured  on  the  sleeve. It  was  one  of  two  tracks  written  and  produced  by  Arthur  Baker  and  his  associate  Paul  Gurvitz  although  Phil  Harding  and  Ian  Curnow  then  polished  it  up  for  single  release. Unsurprisingly  it  sounds  more  American  than  the  hits  of  their  hey-day  with  Baker's  chattering  electronic  percussion  and  Fairlight  keyboard  sounds  replacing  Ashley  Ingram's  languorous   piano. Singer  Leee  John's  unmistakable  falsetto  makes  it  recognisably  them. There's  nothing  obviously  at  fault  with  it, it 's  just  that  their  brand  had  gone  stale  and  in  a  chart  dominated  by  dance  records  it  got  crowded  out  by  the  competition.

They  pulled  one  more  single  from  the  album  in  June   , "Hold  Me  In  Your Arms"  which  the  duo  wrote  with  Preston  Glass.  A  mellower  track,  I  think  it's  a  better  song  with  a  decent  hook  but  it  had  no  impact.

In  1989  they  scored  their  biggest  hit  in  the  albums  chart  when  the  compilation  "Imagination-All  The  Hits" got  to  number  4   However  the  new  track  for  single  release  "Love's  Taking  Over", which  I  haven't  heard, went  nowhere  and  prompted  RCA  to  cut  them  loose.

However  the  band  were  not  quite  finished. They  added  Pete  Ryer  to  the  line  up  and  released  a  new  single  "I  Like  It"  in  1990   which  incorporates  house  rhythms  and  spoken  vocals  in  much  the  same  way  as  Madonna's  contemporary  material  such  as  Vogue  and  Justify  My  Love. They  tried  again  the  following  year  with  the  same  formula  on  "Call  On  Me". Neither  single  made  any  impact  at  all. Both  featured  on  their  final  album  "The  Fascination  of  The  Physical"  which  snuck  out  in  1992, after  which  they  called  it  a  day.

Leee  spent  the  decade  as  a  voice  for  hire  on  dance  records  by  the  likes  of  Baker, Byron  Stingily, Jazz  Voice  and  The  Morne.  There  were  two  solo  efforts  in  this  period , "Mighty  Power  of  Love"  in  1995  and  "Your  Mind, Your  Body, Your  Soul" in  1999,  both  under-produced  and  utterly  generic  UK  house  discs.  Neither  troubled  the  chart.

Leee  returned  to  the  public  eye  in  2003  when  he  was   a  somewhat  bemused  but  likable   contestant  on   the  reality  series  Reborn  In  The  USA. He  came  fifth ( out  of  ten ).

Shortly  after  that  he  formed  a  jazz  quartet  with  pianist  John  Watson. They  released  an  album  "Feel  My  Soul"  which  contained  both  original  songs  and  standards  like  "Strange  Fruit"   and  "Embraceable  You". Leee  acquits  himself  well  vocally  but  it  didn't  get  much  attention.

In  2007  he  recorded  a  track , "Trust  My  Heart " for  Ian  Levine's  Northern  Soul  2007  compilation  which  is  a  decent  facsimile  of  a  classic  Wigan  tune. Since  2010  he  has  been  touring  with  a  new  version  of  Imagination  and  he  also  works  as  an  Ambassador  for  the  charity  S.O.S.  Childrens  Villages.

Ashley, the  musical  brains  in  the  group, gave  up  performing  to  become  a  professional songwriter  for  the  likes of  Mariah  Carey, Beyonce  and  Des'ree.  He  has  invested  some  of  his earnings  in  developing  software  for  helping  people  with  speech  difficulties He  now  lives  in Manila  with  his  wife  and  two  children.

Errol  became  a  drummer  for  hire  and  has  toured  with  Odyssey, Arthur  Baker  , Jamiroquai, Frankie  Knuckles  and  sister  Grace. He  also  has  some  production  credits. He  formed  a  new  version  of  Imagination  a  year  earlier  than  Leee.  Errol  does  the  vocals  himself , not  a  good  move  if  their  single  of  last  year  "You  Can  Be"  , an  otherwise  passable  dance  track, is  anything  to  go  by.