Howard Jones

Howard Jones (born John Howard Jones, 23 February 1955, Southampton, Hampshire, England.In October 2006, Jones released "Building Our Own Future" as a podsafe track, as one of several established artists looking to use podcasts as a new means of promoting their music and tours. The song debuted at #1 on the PMC Top10 on 29 October 2006 and spent four weeks at the top of the chart. Howard's track "Revolution of the Heart" spent five weeks at #1 on the PMC Top10 during 2007 and finished the year as the #2 song in their annual countdown.Jones embarked on an acoustic tour of Australia in 2007, beginning in Brisbane and concluding on 5 April in Perth. The Revolution Remixed & Surrounded album was followed in November by Live in Birkenhead. Jones performed another acoustic set, with other 1980s acts at the Retrofest, on 1 September 2007 at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland. Jones also went into the studios with The Young Punx to record vocals for their summer 2008 release, "And The Feel Goes On".Jones is a member of Sōka Gakkai, and is musical director of its choir, the Glorious Life Chorus. The chorus performes some of his songs in its repertoire, including "Building Our Own Future" and "Respected". He returned to Australia again in 2009, this time accompanied by vocalist Laura Clapp and music technologist Robbie Bronnimann. On 26 February 2009 Jones was at the UK premiere of Roland's new V-Piano in Bristol and performed "Hide and Seek". He continues to tour, and will be playing the 'Big Hair Affair 2009' on 1 August 2009 at the Ryedale Arena, Pickering.His next album 'Ordinary Heroes' will be released in late 2009, and he will be touring London, Cardiff and Manchester with a string section and Welsh male voice choir, as well as performing the new album.

Kajagoogoo

Kajagoogoo are a British pop band, best known for their first single, "Too Shy", which reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart (#5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100) in 1983.Kajagoogoo announced a UK tour (their first as a five-piece since 1983) for September 2009.

UB40

UB40 are a British reggae pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has placed more than 50 singles on the UK charts, and has also achieved considerable international success. Their #1 hits (which are all covers) include "Red Red Wine", "Can't Help Falling in Love", and "I Got You Babe".On 24 January 2008 it was announced that Ali Campbell would be leaving the group after 30 years. It was originally stated that this was in order for Campbell to concentrate on solo projects, but Campbell later said he was leaving due to "management difficulties". The remaining seven members released a statement saying: “Ali made a very simple decision, he chose to pursue and put his solo career over and above continuing to work with UB40 after February 2008, it’s as simple as that". The news that a second original member was leaving the band as a result of "management trouble" came on 19 March 2008. Keyboard player Michael Virtue followed Campbell, and also launched an investigation, with Campbell's legal company, into the financial dealings of the group.It was reported by some Birmingham newspapers on 13 March 2008, that Maxi Priest would be the new lead singer of UB40 and had recorded a cover of Bob Marley’s "I Shot the Sheriff" with the band, based on information from an unnamed "source close to the band." Priest had joined UB40 on tour in 2007, culminating in sell out shows at the NEC in December. Another local newspaper reporting that Maxi Priest would be the new UB40 frontman, also included a statement from band spokesman Gerard Franklyn which contradicted this claim: "Maxi is collaborating with the band to record material but there is no decision been made to replace Ali Campbell with one definitive singer. The reports are half correct he will be appearing with them for this new recording." In April 2008, the BBC reported that Campbell was to be replaced in the band by his brother Duncan, with reggae singer Maxi Priest also bolstering the line-up on tour.The band's new album, Twentyfourseven, UB40's last with the original lineup, was a free insert in The Mail on Sunday's 4 May 2008 issue. The full 17 track version was released on 21 June 2008, but failed to go top 75 in the UK. This is a first for UB40, as all the official albums have previously gone Top 50 on the UK Albums Chart.

Bucks Fizz

Bucks Fizz are a British pop group, formed in 1981 to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest that year. They won with "Making Your Mind Up", which is still their best-known song. The group was initially made up of four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston, whose gimmick was that they were all blond. The group went on to have a successful career around the world, although their biggest success was in the UK where they had three No.1 singles and became one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s. Worldwide their record sales exceeded 15 million.In December 2004, G, Nolan, Baker and Preston reformed briefly after 15 years to be part of 'The Here and Now Tour' of the UK. To distinguish this line-up from G's other group, they renamed themselves The Original Bucks Fizz (despite Preston not being an original member). Due to prior commitments with the current lineup of the group, G could not make all of the dates played, but did appear at some shows. Following this, Nolan, Baker and Preston subsequently performed more shows together as a three-piece under the same title and featured in the Congratulations show, the 50th Anniversary of Eurovision in Copenhagen. In September 2008, Preston, Baker, Nolan and Aston reunited for a makeover show Pop Goes the Band for Living TV, which was screened in March 2009.In April 2009, Preston announced that she was leaving The Original Bucks Fizz due to other commitments. Soon after it was announced that original member Jay Aston would be joining Baker and Nolan in the group for live shows - the first time she has been a part of Bucks Fizz since 1985.

The Buggles

The Buggles was a New Wave band formed in 1977 consisting of Trevor Horn (bass guitar, guitar, percussion, and vocals), Geoff Downes (percussion and keyboards) and Bruce Woolley.In June 2005, Geoff Downes faintly hinted on his blog at an arrangement with Trevor Horn for a new Buggles album to coincide with MTV's 25th birthday, although the blog has not been updated for a while, and an album has not materialised. With the expected worldwide re-release of Adventures in Modern Recording by Horn's own ZTT Records however, there is still a sign of Buggles activity.Horn's current band, The Producers, have covered Video Killed the Radio Star at all of their performances so far. A clip of one of these performances at Camden Town can be seen on the website for ZTT Records.

Sandie Shaw

Sandie Shaw (born Sandra Ann Goodrich, 26 February 1947, Dagenham, Essex, England) is a British singer. She was, as described in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, "the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s".

This distinctive vocalist, who has a 41 year UK chart span, was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest.The new millennium saw Shaw not only set up her own official website, but also embark on a legal battle to establish ownership of her entire recording catalogue. She succeeded in 2002 and began working with contemporary acts and producers, reworking much of her 1960s and 1980s material.In 2003, Shaw licensed her recording catalogue worldwide to EMI, continued to develop her Arts Clinic, and began executive coaching and mentoring. Meanwhile, EMI released compilations of her French and Italian recordings, and the following year released similar compilations in Spanish and German. Newly-remastered versions of Reviewing the Situation and Hello Angel also were issued with bonus tracks, and toward the end of the year a 4-CD box set entitled Nothing Comes Easy was released, containing all the 'A' and 'B' sides of all her UK singles, plus rare and unreleased tracks. All songs were digitally remastered, and some were heard in stereo for the first time. The set was accompanied by a booklet with a track-by-track commentary from Shaw.

Also in 2003, actress Ashley Williams portrayed Shaw on an episode of the American television series American Dreams, performing "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" on American Bandstand.

EMI continued to release Shaw's material and in 2005 issued The Very Best of Sandie Shaw — the first ever compilation to feature the original versions (digitally remastered) of all of her biggest hits from "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" to "Nothing Less Than Brilliant" on one CD. All of Shaw's original studio albums (with the exception of Choose Life) have since been released in digitally remastered format on CD with bonus tracks. During this decade, she reneged on previous declarations of hatred for the Eurovision Song Contest and announced that she was proud of her Eurovision past on the BBC show Making Your Mind Up. She also briefly sat in for Brian Matthew on his long-running BBC Radio 2 Saturday morning show Sounds of the 60s in December 2006.

On 26 February 2007, in honour of her 60th birthday, Shaw released a new version of "Puppet on a String" on her website. The re-tooled version, called "Puppet's Got A Brand New String," had a complete overhaul in sound and vocals under the supervision of her friend Howard Jones and mixer Andy Gray. The schlager style of the song was replaced with a calmer melody.

In August 2007, Shaw revealed that she had had corrective surgery on her iconic feet, which she described as "ugly" - the surgery left her immobile until October 2007.

Brotherhood Of Man

As the 2000s dawned, the group went into semi-retirement and cut back on touring. However, in 2002, they devised a new live show based on their roots in the 1970s. Entitled The Seventies Story, the show comprised a trip through the decade, with the group performing well-known songs from each year along with a narration of contemporary events. The group returned to the studio and recorded an album of the show's songs. Again, this album was not released in shops, but was available on CD at the show's venues. The tracks did get a general release later on however on various compilation albums. In 2004, the first Brotherhood of Man DVD was released, featuring TV performances of many of their singles.To date, the group still do occasional shows with both The Seventies Story and with their own material. Most recently they have teamed up with the current incarnation of Bucks Fizz and together they perform as a two-part show. They frequently play to sold out houses, The Seventies Story being particularly successful in receiving good reviews.Brotherhood of Man still find themselves in demand on both the Nostalgia and gay circuit. They have appeared a number of times at London's G-A-Y theatre and regularly appear on TV both in the UK and abroad, mostly around Eurovision time each year. In 2006, they appeared at the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest gala held in Denmark, where they were voted in the top 5 Eurovision songs of all time - the highest of any UK entry.

Black Lace

Black Lace were a British pop group from Ossett in West Yorkshire. They first came into the public eye after being selected to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 in which they finished in 7th position with the song "Mary Ann". They went on to have success with a number of lightweight Europop party anthem style hits such as "Superman" "Agadoo" and "Do The Conga".

On March the 30th 2009 Dene Michael released a new mambo version of Agadoo being joined in the new Black Lace line up by a former Merseyside pub singer, Ian Robinson. Bruce Jones, who played Les Battersby in the UK TV soap opera "Coronation Street" , directed and played a cameo role in the video which was filmed in a single day. Comedian Roy "Chubby" Brown and another former Coronation Street actor, Kevin Kennedy, who played Curly Watts in the soap opera also made cameo appearances in the video, as did serveral members of the cast of the ITV sitcom "Benidorm". The video, filmed on location in Spain, features the present lineup of the band, devoid of the bleached blonde mullet style hairstyles which were a trademark of Black Lace in its 1980s incarnation, driving a red Alfa-Romeo GTV Spider along a promenade whilst being followed by a procession of mostly middle aged people performing the actions to the famous "Agadoo, push pineapple shake the tree" dance.

Jason Donovan

He was Scott to Kylie's Charlene in the Aussie soap in the 80s, and later her boyfriend in real life. In 1990 he won Best Male Solo Singer and Worst Male Solo Singer at the Smash Hits Awards. 2008 he has a new CD out; 'Let It Be Me' is Jason Donovan's first album in fifteen years. This latest offering sees the former soap star coveringa selection of timeless classics from the fifties and sixties. In 2009 Jason stars as Tick in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in London.

Musical Youth

You must remember Musical Youth of the 80's. You will know Musical Youth for their massive hit “Pass The Dutchie”, which was selling major numbers at the end of 1982 and in the beginning of 1983. Well as of 2009 they are still going, albeit in a different form. In July 2004, a new release by Musical Youth saw the light of day: “Pretty Woman” by Pato Banton & Musical Youth was released by Numious Music. Musical Youth played Butlins, Bognor Regis on 11th October 2008 and Butlins, Skegness 12th October 2008.

Denise Pearson

2008 was Five Star 25th Anniversary, Stedman and Denise had agreed to do a few PAs at Butlins. March 29th was the first gig with Stedman and backing dancers whilst Denise is at work Songwriting in Sweden. October 2008 Denise would return to join Stedman and the backing dancers for gigs at Butlins over October and November 2008. Stedman Pearson appeared on Celebrity Scissorhands on BBC1, for Children In Need 2008. Doris and Lorraine interviewed on radio to talk about their life in the group and what they are all doing now. Denise made her West End debut, performing in Thriller - Live, at the Lyric Theatre on 2 January 2009. She continued to appear in the show until April 2009. 'Five Star'; Lorraine, Doris, Denise, Delroy and Stedman, would be performing some gigs later in 2009, in association with with their father and manager Buster Pearson.

Welcome

Hello, you have come to the right place. This is where soon you will see that the site will be tracking the has-been stars, the flash-in-the-pan folk and those celebrities who were simply too annoying during their 15 minutes of fame... or those you fell in love with for their talent and just wondered where they are now.