Chart entered : 24th September 1988
Chart peak : 36
This one's taken me by surprise a bit; I'd have thought Kirk Brandon and co would have maintained their run of minor hits up to Britpop but obviously not.
Their chart peak was actually quite late with "Never Take Me Alive" reaching number 15 in the summer of 1987 . It was a triumph for Virgin who'd picked the group up after being dropped by CBS. The band's attempts to capitalise on its success were stymied by Kirk contracting Reiter's Disease, a condition related to arthritis which left him unable to walk for a year. This was their only other single to breach the Top 40.
Spear of Destiny's line up changes during their hit run were as follows
1983 : Out : Chris Bell ( drums ), Lascelles James (sax)
In : Dolphin Taylor ( drums ) ( ex TRB ) ; Alan St Clair ( guitar ) ( previously worked with Howard Devoto ), Neil Pyzer ( keyboards ), John Lennnard (sax ) ( ex Theatre of Hate )
1984 : Out : John
In : Micky Donnelly ( sax ) ( ex- Fischer Z and The Blockheads )
1986 : Out : Stan Stammers ( bass )
In : Steve Barnacle ( bass )
1987 : Out : Dolphin , Alan, Neil, Micky
In : Pete Barnacle ( drums ) ( ex -Gillan and Girl ) , Marco Pirroni ( guitar ) ( ex Adam and the Ants ), Volker Janssen ( keyboards ), Mick Proctor ( guitar )
1988 : Out : Marco, Mick, Steve
In : Alan ( rejoined ) Chris Bostock ( bass ) ( ex-JoBoxers )
"So In Love With You" is a beefy slab of piano-led guitar rock in the vein of U2's The Unforgettable Fire . It's addressed to some celebrity dying in mysterious circumstances . possibly Monroe, with Kirk professing his devotion in his customary wobbly baritone snarl. There's nothing too wrong with it but there's no real chorus and it sounds like an album track rather than a single.
It was the lead single from the band's fifth album released a month later, "The Price You Pay ". It's not exactly laden with potential hits ; the follow -up "Radio Radio" has the semblance of a hook but is entirely vacuous and couldn't make it out of the "Bubbling Under" section in December. Elsewhere , it's ponderous stuff , like a poor man's Cult with only "View From A Tree" having that over-the-top quality that characterises Kirk's best work. It was their last album to chart reaching number 37.
With Virgin no longer interested in sustaining them , Kirk first put the band to bed in 1989. Two years later he reunited with Stan and started touring with him sometimes as Theatre of Hate, sometimes as Spear of Destiny . He resurrected the Burning Rome label and put out a new Spear of Destiny album "Sod's Law". It's obscure and I've only heard the one track "Babylon Talking" which edges into My Bloody Valentine territory. It didn't chart and the band dissolved again. Kirk married a Danish girl Christina in 1994 shortly before going bankrupt
Kirk and Stan relocated to Philadelphia where they toured under a number of names including Theatre of Hate, Elephant Daze and 10; 51. In 1995 they released an album "Stone In The Rain" as Kirk Brandon's 10;51. Taking on board U.S. alt-rock influences, it's something of a return to form with "Europa" and the single "Children of the Damned" as good as anything that went before.
Despite that, it raised little interest and when Stan withdrew from the band in 1996, Kirk returned to the UK. He started work on a new Spear of Destiny album but soon hit the headlines for other reasons. It had long been public knowledge that Kirk had lived in the same squat as Boy George in the early eighties but in his 1995 autobiography Take It Like A Man, George claimed they had had a passionate affair. He followed up the revelation with a track on his latest album called Unfinished Business which made an explicit reference to Kirk's marriage and mocked his macho image. Kirk decided to sue for libel and the case came to court in 1997. It didn't go well for Kirk. I remember my solicitor friend saying at the time that once he'd conceded that they shared a bed he was done for and that proved to be the case, Kirk having £200.000 worth of costs to add to his financial woes.
The album "Religion" later that year didn't ease the situation. It was recorded at The Levellers' studio in Brighton where Kirk was living. I've only heard four tracks - the rueful "Mile In My Shoes " is very good, the other three not so impressive.
For the past 20 years Kirk has toured incessantly as Spear of Destiny, Theatre of Hate, a solo artist and in punk supergroup Dead Men Walking. There have been five more Spear of Destiny albums pushing Kirk's singular vision but no one's listening. In 2008 he sued GlaxoSmithKline over the side effects of an anti-depressant drug and three years later had heart surgery, He's also done some teaching at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music.
Chris moved on to underachieving Goth rockers Gene Loves Jezebel and played on their biggest hits in the UK ( "The Motion of Love" , 1987 ) and the US ( "Jealous" , 1990 ). Since the band split in two, he's played with Jay Aston's UK version. He's also played with veteran Goths The Specimen and has been the regular drummer for Hugh Cornwell since 1997.
Lascelles has ploughed his own furrow in trying to blend jazz and reggae and made an album "Tomorrow Never Comes" available on download in 2007. He's also toured with Dennis Brown.
Dolphin was picked up by the reforming Stiff Little Fingers and stayed with them until 1996. The following year he was a partner in setting up the music production company Extreme Music selling music for soundtracks and ad campaigns. In 2005 it was bought by Viacom for $45 million making Mr Taylor a rather wealthy individual.
Alan went on to an obscure band called ATR and recorded some demos with Alex Gifford from Propellorheads but soon switched to making guitars rather than playing them. He is now based in Portugal where he designs bespoke furniture.
Neil now plays sax in Pauline Black's Selecter.
I've no information on what John has done subsequently.
Micky briefly joined The Armoury Show then became a sax player for hire , touring with Swing Out Sister, Stevie Wonder, Britney Spears and most recently Lisa Stansfield. He also does some music tuition and has a twenty piece big band in his native Middlesbrough,.
After leaving Spear of Destiny, Stan formed post-punk outfit Crazy Pink Revolvers who released a couple of LPs in the late eighties. They sounded like PiL on the first one "First Down " in 1987 ,on which Neil played keyboards. On the second one," At The River's Edge" in 1988, on which Micky played sax, they incorporated reggae influences. Neither got much attention and Stan quit the band for life in Philadelphia with girlfriend Lisa in 1989. He set up his own studio, Babylon Sounds and formed a new band Boy Boy Nova who never got a deal. After his second stint in Spear of Destiny he set up a similar music production company to Dolphin's , Plastic Eater Sound , based in New York. He also works as a session musician.
Steve went into session work and then re-emerged in 2012 as part of Visage until the death of Steve Strange in 2015.
Pete relocated to Japan and played with a group called Soldiers of Fortune in the early noughties. He now teaches English there.
We've covered Marco in the Adam and the Ants posts.
Volker has played with Daryl Read , Billie Ray Martin, The Who, Dexy's and Paul Young. He's currently in a covers band The Groove Warriors.
Mick turned up in 2011 when his old band Nato8 reformed after 30 years apart.
Chris became a session bassist but was also a member of Dave Stewart's side band The Spiritual Cowboys in the early nineties.
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