689 Goodbye Brother Beyond - The Girl I Used To Know

Chart  entered :  19  January  1991

Chart  peak : 48

And  so  we  move  into  1991, a  transitional  year. It  was  the  last  year  in  which  vinyl  singles  were  mass  produced , most  of  them  THAT  bloody  record. Everything  I  Do  ( I  Do  It  For  You )  had  a  double-edged  effect. It  got  people  talking  about  the  charts  again   but  also  highlighted  how  weak  the  competition  was  that  nothing  could  shift  it  for  so  long.

There  were  also  big  changes  in  the  music  press. In  March  Record  Mirror  and  Sounds  became  victims  of  the  early  nineties  recession. The  former  had  a  big  effect  on  me  as  I'd  been  buying  it  regularly  for  a  decade. More  to  the  point  I'd  taken  out  a  subscription  for  it  the  previous October . It  didn't  disappear  entirely ; two  features  survived, Alan  Jones's  excellent  Chartfile   and  James  Hamilton's  in-depth  analysis  of  the  week's  dance  records  ( a  section  I'd  usually  skip anyway) , and  became  a  little  insert  in  the  deadly  dull  trade  magazine  Music  Week. As  compensation,  I  was  sent  that  for  the  remaining  six  months  of  my  subscription. I  pulled  out  the  chart  pages  and  the  insert  and  threw  the  rest  of  the  paper  away. When  the  deliveries   ceased   in  September,  so  did  my  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  chart.

Two  other  developments  occurred  which  both  have  a  relevance  to  the record  we're  discussing. One  was  a  major  consolidation  of  the  major  record  labels  through  acquistions  and  mergers. Well-known  labels  like  MCA vanished  overnight  and  artists  now  found  they  were  dealing  with  complete  strangers  who  had  no  personal  stake  in  their  fortunes. The other was  the  crumbling  of the  Stock,  Aitken  and  Waterman  empire  as  the  public  tired  of  their  ubiquity.

Brother  Beyond  had  their  biggest  hit  in  1988  with  the  SAW-penned  "The  Harder  I  Try"  from  the  album "Get  Even"  which  contained  7  hit  singles. The  band  then  decided  to  go  it  alone  and  their  1989  album "Trust"  was  entirely  self-written  bar  a  cover  of  Three  Degrees'  "When  Will  I See  You  Again".  It  didn't  work  out, the  three  singles  taken  from  it  were  only  minor  hits  and  the  album  stalled  at  number  60.

Surprisingly  perhaps.  EMI  America  still  had  faith  in  them  and  invited  the  band  over  to  record  a  couple  of  new  tracks  before  they  released  the  album  there.  "The  Girl  I  Used  To  Know" was  written  by  producers  Carl  Sturken  and  Evan  Rogers  who'd  masterminded  Donny  Osmond's  recent  comeback. The  track  has  a  sledgehammer  beat  and  a  new  jack  swing  arrangement  with  dated  Fairlight  keyboard  sounds. It's  an  indifferent  song  and  Nathan  Moore' s  wispy  vocals  don't  sell  it  that  well. With  the  aid  of  an  Anton  Corbijn  video,  it  was  a  sizeable  hit  in  America  in  the  summer  of  1990  reaching  number  27.

Sturken  and  Rogers  also  wrote  the  follow  up  "Just  A  Heartbeat  Away"  a  wimpy  ballad  with  gospel  backing  vocals  that  steers  the  band  into  Glenn  Medeiros  territory. It  didn't  chart  making  the  band  one  hit  wonders  in  the  US.

Over  here,  EMI  seem  to  have  released  "The  Girl  I  Used  To  Know"  at  the  beginning  of  1981  to  test  the  strength  of  their  fanbase. A  number  48  placing  was  not  satisfactory  and  the  band  came  back  from  touring  America  to  hear  they'd  been  dropped. They  split  up  immediately.

Nathan  was  soon  handed  a  huge  tax  bill  and  had  to  declare  himself  bankrupt. He  did  not  attempt  a solo  career  but  got  a  very  lucky  break  in  1994  when  he  was  invited  to  join  Simon  Cowell's  boy  band  Worlds  Apart  as  replacement  singer. Their  five  UK  hits , mainly  shite  covers, were  all  scored  before  he  joined  the  band. However  they  were  massive  in  Europe  and  Asia  particularly  in  France  where  Nathan's  first  album  with  the  band  "Everybody"  went  to  number  one  and  spawned  four  hit  singles . Their  success  lasted  for  6  years  before  interest  started  waning  at  the  turn  of  the  millennium. They  went  on  hiatus  in  2002  and  Nathan  returned  to  the  UK  although  he's  been  involved  whenever  the band  have  got  back  together. In  2004  he  pleased  guilty  to  kerb  crawling  in  Soho. At  the  time  he  was  managing  some  reality  show  also-rans  without  any  conspicuous  success. Since  then  he's  kept  his  head  above  water  on  the  nostalgia  circuit  with  Worlds  Apart  in  Europe  and  performing  Brother  Beyond  material  here. He's  appeared  on  both  Hit  Me  Baby  One  More  Time  and  The  Voice  

Drummer  Steve  Alexander  resumed  his  session  career. In  1995  he  joined  Duran  Duran  as  a  hired  hand  and  stayed  with  them  until  original  drummer  Roger  Taylor  rejoined  the  band  in  2001. He  returned  to  session  work  but  also  plays  in  a  part-time  band  The  Fabulous  Lampshades  who  do  gigs  for  cancer  charities.

What's  most  interesting  about  the  band's  subsequent  careers is  that  the  two  members  who  wrote  their  original  material  are  the  ones  who  no  longer  make  music . Guitarist  David  White  went  to  St  Martin's  College  in  London  and  now  makes  a living  as  an  artist. Keyboard  player Carl  Fysh  now  works  for  public  relations  agency  Purple  PR  whose  clients  include  Goldfrapp, Coldplay  and  Adele.