Electroqueer

EQ Retro Rewind : Mr. Mister

Remember these guys? Mr. Mister were at the top of their game in the 80's but only lasted for about 3 hits in the way of 'Is This Love', 'Kyrie' and the hugely successful electronic rock ballad 'Broken Wings' which is immortalized in the YouTubage below. We thinks someone needs to resurrect this song. Someone whose voice we like but perhaps has rubbish pop songs, like perhaps Ronan Keating? Wouldn't it be great if Andy Scott-Lee did this song and someone cool gave it a good electronic face moisturinzing body scrub and a facelift? I smell a hit. Anyways, until that happens, enjoy the vid-e-o and all it's mullet hair happiness.

Oh and by the way, the neon coloured blog stylings known as Retro Remixes has a great set of Mr. Mister remixes available too! You might even find some classic Madonna shizz there too...

EQ Retro Rewind : Michael Damian

OK, it was the hair that made us swoon. We were curious to find out what the heck happened to Michael Damian the other day, as we used to listen to his album 'Where Do We Go From Here' over and over again in our youth.

Come to find out, he's starred as Joseph in a rendition of 'Joseph And The Amazing Techincolor Dreamcoat' and more recently, put out a Christmas album. Not exactly the makings of EQ coolness, but none the less, his tracks 'Rock On' and 'Cover Of Love' are worthy of an EQ Retro Rewind today, so here they are, dug up from YouTube. Enjoy.

Rock On

Cover Of Love

Doesn't 'Rock On' still sound fresh! Download it - and play it LOUD. And if you really want to take a trip down Retrotastic Lane, go and rent 'Dream A Little Dream' starring The Coreys. Ahhh, now that takes us back!

Electroqueer Retro Rewind: The Jets

Easily one of my favourite pop bands of the 80's...say hello to The Jets.  In America they were somewhat famous for their family-brand of pop in which arguably they were the best family band to come along since, let's say...The Jackson 5.  I have no clue if they were big in England, but I can't be bothered to research that today...

Most famous for their smash hits 'Crush On You', 'Make It Real' and 'You Got It All', The Jets were one of the funnest, slickest and colourful bands that kept on entertaining me immensely in the late 80's.  Their concert in Yakima, Washington was one of the first concerts I ever attended (where my sister sat on my shoulders to get a good view).  I SO wanted to be in the band, but since the main requirement was that you had to be a member of the Wolfgramm family, my dreams were crushed.  So sad.

Nevertheless - take a retro trip to pop-ville today and re-visit some of The Jets classic pop hits in our little video vault below.  What is my favourite Jets song of all time you ask?  Well, 'Rocket 2 U' tops the list followed quickly by 'Cross My Broken Heart' - it has those drum machine and synths that remind me of some of the Madonna songs of that time like 'Who's That Girl' and 'Causing A Commotion'.  'Rocket 2 U' was ahead of it's time - funky basslines, little electro synth bits dropped in and the costumes in the video are just as fresh today as they were back then...check it out. 

Rocket 2 U	Crush On You
You Better Dance	Cross My Broken Heart
Make It Real	Private Number
I Do You	You Got It All

And if you were a big fan of The Jets, you will remember that Eugene left the band briefly to form 'Boys Club' with some cute dude who I can't remember the name of...Anyways...Boys Club even had a hit with 'I Remember Holding You' which you can see here...ahhh such retro goodness.

I Remember Holding You

Thompson Twins Retro Rewind Part I

Awhile back we posted about one of our favourite 80's bands, The Thompson Twins and as yesterday seemed to be a big day in Thompson Twins appreciation with Modern Fabulosity's excellent post on them and an Official Thompson Twins page cropping up on MySpace (which is very good), we'd thought we'd kick off our little retrospective on the band today. 

Above is one of our favourite photos of the band in their hayday and I first remember seeing this photo in Smash Hits magazine way back in 1985.  The Thompson Twins album 'Here's To Future Days' was one of the first cassette tapes we bought right next to Wham!'s 'Make It Big' and Madonna's 'Like A Virgin'.  It was then that a young EQ got attached to the outrageous hair, outfits and brilliant electronica the band consistently put out. 

It kinda eerks me that The Thompson Twins perceive themselves as a failure now.  Or at least that is the perception I get from watching the 'where are they now' specials that find our way onto our tellys.  I would never consider them a failure by any means - they were to me one of the most influential pioneers in electronic-based music in the 80's.  Surely when Joe Leeway left the band and Tom and Alannah went on to create Babble, well yes...that never really sat well with me - but I will never think of The Thompson Twins as a failure - ever.  They have an extensive back catalog of hits that are begging to be covered and they are prime candidates for a proper reunion these days when electronic music is being recognized and welcomed again in today's techno-savvy world.  We're begging the band to get together - at least for one show in London. 

So as a first part to our retrospective, let's take a little look at some of their early and slightly strange videos that still sound fresh in my humble opinion.

Lies - Extended Version	Love On Your Side
You Take Me Up	Watching

Electropop Pioneers : The Thompson Twins

One of EQ's favorite 80's electro bands of all time is definitely The Thompson Twins.  They were the first band we ever saw live in Spokane, Washington and they have a catalog of legendary electronic pop songs that are begging to be covered.  Their classic electronic ballad 'Hold Me Now' has never received a decent cover version (although many have tried) and their music still transcends very well to today's modern electro/retro listener.  Just revisit some of their smash hits like 'Doctor! Doctor!' or 'Lay Your Hands On Me' and you will understand what we mean!  'King For A Day' was also a the very first 45 record we ever bought, followed by Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go'. 

Some people hold The Pet Shop Boys and Erasure very high on their electro pedestals, but to EQ - The Thompson Twins are right up there with them and are just as important.  With all these 80's bands getting back together - isn't it time for The Thompson Twins to give it another go?

We are going to be covering The Thompson Twins entire career on Electroqueer in the upcoming months so stay tuned!  To get you started, here is a little video about them that aired in the UK which is hosted by Soft Cell legend Marc Almond. 

EQ Retro Rewind: Times Two, Scritti Politti & George Lamond!

So today our brains are officially mush. Yes, like mushy peas. We are on overload. We are about to self-combust. Civilian work sucks big time. So forgive us today as about all we can muster up for you is an EQ Retro Rewind of some bonzer tracks of yesteryear that have been floating around our electro-warped minds lately...

Times Two : Strange But True

Scritti Politti : Perfect Way

George Lamond : Bad Of The Heart

EQ Retro Rewind: Getting Bjork-y with a dash of George Michael and Paula Abdul

Hello EQ's - Here's the retro delight video to 'Violently Happy' by Bjork along with a little serving of Paula Abdul's 'Vibeology' and George Michael's 'Father Figure'. These were some of the first records that we bought when singles were still still made of tape and plastic and they are still sitting in the EQ vault (our closet). You think we could get a few quid from them on eBay?

Note: We did have the new video to Bjork's Earth Intruders but apparently Time Warner didn't want you to see it until Monday...so as soon as it's back up, we'll put it back online here.

Paula Abdul : Vibeology

Bjork : Violently Happy

George Michael : Father Figure

Retro Rewind: White Town, Madonna and Martika!

Hey EQs - we are feeling a little retro today and we decided to dig up a few old school electro/pop gems from White Town, Madonna and Martika that we have been re-visiting and re-loving lately.  All these songs could totally get re-released today and still sound good.  Get lost in our rewind today and get an early start on the Easter festivities!  Don't eat too many chocolate eggs! 

White Town - Your Woman

Madonna - Burning Up

Martika - Love Thy Will Be Done

Electroqueer Retro Rewind: Nu Shooz

Back in the day of Martha Quinn, Starship, Tears For Fears, and Glass Tiger, there was an emerging electronic/dance band that we used to listen to with utter glee called Nu Shooz. Valerie Day and John Smith were the faces of this rather cool collaboration and had two massive US singles called 'I Can't Wait' and 'Point Of No Return' which were firm MTV favorites. Their album 'Poolside' went gold and they even toured with Tina Turner!

Twenty years later, the duo are still together doing more contemporary jazzy and soul recordings but they haven't forgot about the tune that made them famous as they have re-recorded a 20th anniversary single of 'I Can't Wait' that is available to download on US iTunes. So in today's Electroqueer Retro Rewind, we go back to the days of Nu Shooz - one unforgettable act in EQ history.  Check out their MySpace to hear the new re-recording of 'I Can't Wait'!

I Can't Wait

Point Of No Return

Electroqueer Retro Rewind: Milli Vanilli

With the upcoming Milli Vanilli movie being filmed, we thought it would be fun to rewind today and take a look at the grammy award winning (and stripped) duo's first and most famous song 'Girl You Know It's True'. We don't care, we liked Milli Vanilli - it's a great pop song and even though they didn't sing on the actual track - the whole concept and sound kept us dancing at the time. It's actually a timeless pop classic in our books and we hope you can enjoy it again today in our retro rewind.

Electroqueer Retro Rewind : Bros

Today we were listening to Switch22's fab song '1985' and it reminded us how much we absolutley used to love Bros.  'When Will I Be Famous' was such an anthem and we are suprised no one has tried to cover it yet.  Oh how we used to sing those magical words with such passion and hunger when we were a wee young Electroqueer in training.  So sit back, grab that hairbrush and enjoy today's Electroqueer Retro Rewind in the form of tigh-jeaned and bleached-blond boys with attitude Bros...who so need to make a comeback! 

PS - If you haven't checkout out Matt Goss' last album 'Fly' it's really worth taking a listen to.

Electroqueer Retro Rewind

Welcome to the first installment of Electroqueer Retro Rewind.  Enjoy these little retro diddys and let us know if this feature idea is something you'd like to see more of -- theres tons of retro gems hangin around...

Here In My Heart : Tiffany

This is one of the reasons we put Tiffany in such high regards - she's our favourite female vocalist of all time. We used to watch this clip over and over and over on VHS tape in our youth. Now before you comment on the outfit and hair - remember, Milli Vanilli were very influential at the time!

Romeo : Dino

Oh how we used to love Dino - the mullet and the muscles. We wonder what he's up to these days...

Noel : Like A Child

Noel was a New York freestyle house GOD and we used to listen to his cassette tape over and over and over. We thinks someone should re-make this classic with a hot electro skillet.