Chart entered : 3 September 1988
Chart peak : 8
Number of hits : 16
This is where house started mutating into techno, ushering in a rash of acts whose music just leaves me cold although, ironically, many of them were inspired by the early eighties synth stuff that I love.
Inner City were the brainchild of Detroit ( although a New Yorker by birth ) producer Kevin Saunderson ( born 1964 ). At Belleville High School met up with Derrick May and Juan Atkins ( of the group Cybotron ) who encouraged him to make his own music. Both of them worked on his debut single "Triangle of Love" released under the name Kreem . Kevin was a huge fan of English electronic acts like Depeche Mode and New Order and the track is heavily influenced by Blue Monday.
Kevin then started work on a backing track in 1987 for which he needed a female singer and lyricist. Another producer friend Terry "Housemaster" Baldwin suggested his friend Paris Grey. Paris ( real name Shanna Jackson ) was from Illinois and had been the featured vocalist on his single "Don't Lead Me" a fearsomely tuneless banger. Baldwin then wrote and produced "Don't Make Me Jack" which was released under her name and is more of a song than the title would suggest and shows her cool vocal style to better advantage. Their third collaboration "Reach For Your Dreams" was written by Paris itself but is little more than a repetitive chant. All these records were released in 1987 and she also found time to feature on a single "Don't Want It" by Kenny "Jammin" Jason & Fast Eddie , an anti-drugs track with some nifty keyboard work that is actually pretty good.
Paris accepted Kevin's invitation and flew to Detroit. She came up with some lyrics and constructed a song around his music. Kevin then sat on the completed track for a few months until Neil Rushton , a veteran of the Northern Soul scene working for Virgin , came looking for some music to put on a compilation of Detroit techno music for the UK market. Kevin handed over "Big Fun" and was soon persuaded to release it as a single. Kevin chose the name Inner City for his collaboration with Paris.
Although it quickly became a universal party anthem "Big Fun" is actually about sex, Paris stringing together a series of fairly obvious metaphors for the act. Though it obviously worked its magic in the clubs, I find it repetitive and boring , an unremarkable juddering bass line supporting an indifferent song with no real chorus. The middle eight with its synthetic piano solo doesn't hit the mark for me either. However the song was a hit all over Europe and the one-off collaboration became a hitmaking duo.
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