— Mike Soutar
Needless to say, the majority of pop groups don't make it. Most aren't even close. Lowest on the totem pole is your typical hopeless high school band, a foursome who play just the once at an end of the school year assembly and then fold up shop due to creative differences (i.e. the girls didn't throw themselves at them following that first "gig"). Then, you've got your respectable workaday band that plays around their hometown, develops a bit of a following but aren't able to cut it any further. It's still a bit of a climb before record labels begin to pay attention and, even then, there's still no guarantee of the pop charts.
This blog has seen some less-than-household names. Many were still feeding off the D.I.Y. energy of punk, were on tiny labels and didn't stand much chance of a hit single. As the eighties progressed, however, the big record companies began to reassert their dominance and they put considerable funds behind their signings. Some paid off but lots of others didn't.
The way out for many groups was to have a hit elsewhere, especially those lucky enough to do so in the US. Breathe couldn't snag themselves a Top 40 placing back home to save their lives but as soon as their, well, breathy ballad "Hands to Heaven" got released on the other side of the Atlantic, it flew up the Hot 100. The British, for their part, acted suitably and the single became a belated hit. The same thing happened with Chris Rea, Dire Straits, Danny Wilson and Waterfront, of all people. Yet, it would often prove a band-aid situation: American success might remain but the hits back home would quickly dry up, as Breathe themselves experienced.
Brother Beyond didn't have the luxury of foreign charts, even though they initially did well in Italy, where they were known as 'Brother Behind'. Four flops came and went and the promising young group looked finished. Their early work isn't bad though and it isn't difficult to imagine them all cracking the charts had their luck been going for them. (This is even brought up in two different singles reviews with both Barry McIlheney and Ro Newton suggesting that Nathan Moore putting a hat on backwards — just like Ben from Curiosity Killed the Cat — was all that was stopping them from hitting it big) To their credit, however, they didn't have that easy answer ballad in their back pockets to give them that elusive hit.
Then came Stock Aitken Waterman to the rescue. To help raise funds for the Young Variety Club of Great Britain, SAW auctioned off their services. Record label EMI made the highest bid and one of their struggling acts would be gifted with a composition and studio time. Brother Beyond were selected and their fortunes would soon change.
SAW referred to themselves as a 'Hit Factory' but this label wasn't yet accurate. Assembly line writing and production for cookie cutter acts only really began as their work diminished in quality over the course of 1989 with the abominable trio of The Reynolds Girls, Sonia and Big Fun. Rewind back a year and they were still craftsmen, piecing together songs and sounds with various acts in mind. Bananarama had been around a bit and came across as kindly older sisters giving advice to younger siblings. Mel & Kim were a pair of tough sisters from hardscrabble east London who'd been through a lot. Rick Astley was a sensitive lad who tried to do what was right for his sweetheart. Kylie was the ultimate girl next door. SAW's best stuff for each of these acts reflects these roles.
Brother Beyond were not a part of the SAW sphere for long enough to get themselves boxed into playing a part but I'd argue that some thought had been put into what they shouldn't be like. Bros had begun dominating the charts in 1988 with hits such as "When Will I Be Famous?" and "I Owe You Nothing" and what set them apart was a sort of angry confidence. While there had been traces of humour in their first hit, subsequent singles were deadly serious affairs and they would prove to be no different in real life interviews (but more on that in a few weeks). The 'Yond weren't exactly shy themselves — Moore smiling, chiseled features made him an instant pinup but "The Harder I Try" displays a newfound vulnerability that contrasted nicely with the Goss twins and the other one. Matt Goss wasn't about to put up with any of your nonsense, girls; Nathan Moore, by contrast, will not stop hoping.
With a Northern Soul/Motown feel, "The Harder I Try" may have seemed like a throwback but it was a fresh sound compared to much of the British blue eyed soul that had been all over the charts for the past two years. Matt Stock and Mike Aitken have admitted to giving "Never Gonna Give You Up" an old-fashioned pop sound but they perfected the art here. It's a little more casual that what Brother Beyond had done before but still very much in keeping with what they were interested in doing. As Mike Soutar notes, it's recognisable SAW but not drowning in their cliches. Sure, it opens with their patented bit-of-the-chorus-in-instrumental-form and has those cooing female backing singers that they used to death but, otherwise, it isn't the most SAW thing around at the time.
The 'Yong are now described as a 'boy band' (notably, a term no one used back then) and it was likely their Top 10 hits with SAW compositions and connection to Bros that earned them this label. This is something I hope to go into in greater detail in an upcoming entry but I will say that it may be possible that their breakthrough smash became their undoing. The songs that band members Carl Fysh and brothers David and Eg White had written didn't go anywhere but they were suddenly big with a track created by the biggest songwriting/production team in the land; how they would fare without that safety net is a whole other matter.
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Also of some cop
Fairground Attraction: "Find My Love"
Soutar reckons this follow up to the number one hit "Perfect" is "rather basic" but I beg to differ. He only really hears guitar and bass but there's also an accordion in there too and it's a nice touch. And there's even a mandolin! Instrumentation aside, "Find My Love" is superior to its better known predecessor. I always associate it with visiting a windswept seaside town on the coast of Ireland during February half-term break. There's a photo that my dad took of the rest of us (my mum, sister and myself, as well as my aunt and cousin who were visiting from Canada) and you can see I have my headphones on. I'm listening to "Find My Love" and it's a perfect mix of location and song. Yes, it's much more typical of Fairground Attraction but that's no bad thing. Fortunately, it managed to give them another Top 10 hit but Soutar ultimately isn't wrong when it comes to the pop ride coming to an end, as we'll see soon.
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