The ILM Very Uncool but Actually Not *That* Bad British Disco-Pop 1977-1883 Compilation

I was looking for a compilation of this stuff, but it seems there isn't one out there.
This stuff was HUGE, but it seems like everyone is too embarrassed about it (I mean, think about what else was going on at the time) to revisit it.
Going to post some obvious hits to get started.

Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KsK1ybDZ44

(Sorry to the I guess 70% of people looking at this thread to whom all of this is completely unforgivable shit)

I expect all of these to be classics tbh, Liquid Gold definitely is

Kelly Marie - Feels Like I'm In Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wz_9dVJ-Ew

Also classic, I can hear the syndrum hits in my head even tho I'm stuck at work

Pretty sure there's at least a couple of Nolans joints that'll fit here

Beat me to it with Kelly Marie, pride of Paisley.

(Feels like a bit of a troll to include this but it's not, I do like it, no comment on their other hits)

Bucks Fizz - The Land of Make Believe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6DOGITIfAY

Probably need to stretch to this too

Dollar - Mirror Mirror

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqkI2VBiLgg

Gonna avoid the obvious massive hit and choose this one instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4HoyI-aw9w

Wonder if this is a bit too good? Maybe not.

Tina Charles - Dr Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNZhpklucFM

Only discovered this 1979 "space disco from HULL" last year but in fact it's far too good for this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDU6P01yvnU

Trying to think about what the boundaries are here - reckon Linx, for example, are probably too credible to be included.

Yeah that Silicon Chip track is also probably too classy. There needs to be a detectable whiff of the summer season at Rhyl.

This surely fits the aesthetic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpj3lwqQLog

Some problematical lyrics which I’d forgotten about.

Does Beggar & Co - Somebody Help Me Out count?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OU18GGY-rs

big soft spot for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjYgLIicqus

Marshall Hain ‎– Dancing In The City

Tina Charles and 5000 Volts to thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iFXrFIx5Go

Gonzalez - Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet

This doesn't fit because it's 1975 and it's not really disco but it's so great it has to be done. I've almost certainly posted it in the Singing Drummers thread before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjtD8A-MWBc

... definite summer season at Rhyl aesthetic going on there though!

Yes, Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet is exactly the aesthetic!

Has just occurred to me that Heatwave and Hot Chocolate are both UK acts, reckon both are also way too cool to be here, though Hot Chocolate had a few moments which could be borderline.

Yes, should extend back to 75, 77 is too late a start date.

Sweet, I doubt I would ever have come up with the name of the band who recorded "Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet", or known it was a British record.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Panic-At-The-Disco-The-Best-Of-UK-Disco/release/2603503

written and produced by gloria jones! xp

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Panic-At-The-Disco-The-Best-Of-UK-Disco/release/2603503

― Thus Sang Freud, Friday, February 26, 2021 1:15 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nice! Will investigate the ones I haven't heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxfB0b9Ix9o

Hot Gossip - I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper

Are you like a droid, devoid of emotion?

Brotherhood Of Man - Lightning Flash

very uncool but not *that* bad imitation of Super Trouper/The Visitors era ABBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ-PmVU43Hs

Lena Zavaroni - Dance All Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8jP0EJgKCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk5gaMnSQhs
Jimmy James & The Vagabonds • I'll Go Where The Music Takes Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ndG0lS7Ids
Jimmy James & The Vagabonds • Now Is The Time

(both 1976)

and yes, of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fRsnhrvW8
5000 Volts • I'm On Fire

...which jumpstarted Tina Charles solo career:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHbk-hOVyg0
Tina Charles • You Set My Heart On Fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMnns_iIB2M
Tina Charles • I Love To Love

(this is '75 going into '76)

Electronic Ensemble - It Happened Then

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgf82hF3qj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_MSi0MhM_c

Arthur Mullard & Hylda Baker - You're The 1 That I Want

the two Tina Charles tracks I posted were produced by Biddu (of "Kung Fu Fighting" fame), possibly the first UK disco producer.

...and how does Barry Blue factor into this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHb60K2RLx0
Barry Blue • Dancing On A Saturday Night

(that's from 1973, very proto-proto, still a lot of glam there, but he would go on to produce most of those Heatwave classics and the Brotherhood of Man track posted above, among many others, AND co-write the non-UK classic CJ & Co's "Devil's Gun" - as I just learned, like, now)

Does this Alan Hawkshaw penned, superhero themed cheesy disco-pop banger count?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuOPGT2F1e8

xp

oops, not that BoM track I don't think, I meant this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxD3Mbp50YY
Brotherhood Of Man • Kiss Me Kiss Your Baby

(from 1975 - these early ones live in a mixed garden zone with Philly soul, the Abba of "Honey Honey" and what have you)

please, no Arthur Mullard on the thread

lol!

Heatwave way too classy for this by virtue of Rod Temperton's involvement

i think the worst record i own at the moment is Blonde On Blonde's disco cover of Whole Lotta Love but it's way too shit to post

oh I agree, Barry Blue is a player of some significance in this scene too tho.

xp

I was wondering if there was any Welsh language disco, and a group called Bando (featuring Caryl Parry Jones) released two albums in the early 80s, both of which are on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lUcIkGpeNZqDgdCNoOxxRumz87GriIdzs

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nNig4G4RB7lxwkoLtzWJEHKwSR7aGXG5s

I guess 'bwgi' is welsh for boogie?

wrong thread!

Slight tangent, but fell down a Hazel Dean YouTube rabbithole yesterday as a result of this thread and came across this early 80s Kentish banger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O4lYGM2edI

Great thread. Kinda shocked that almost nothing posted is familiar, with the exception of that Jigsaw masterpiece, plus the Sarah Brightman, vaguely. (I guess few would have lingered on radio even if they did chart over here while I was baby.)

Buggles --- er I mean CHROMIUM "Caribbean Air Control"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdMJbjEvSq8

I mean...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwuotKrDv4

More Horn/Downes deliciousness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0W5SSlNe0M

"The most excellent and lamentable tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, newly corrected, augmented and amended."

Alec R. Costandinos And The Syncophonic Orchestra ‎– Romeo & Juliet (1978)
(released in France, but recorded in London with such stalwarts as Alan Hawkshaw, Herbie Flowers, Peter Van Hooke, Sue & Sunny)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_QNkOvNvLM

A lot of good French disco stuff was recorded in London with hoary old British session lags.

Didn't know Trevor Horn had worked with Dusty. He was also involved in this too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPbwbPh5xoY

HI DERE. I was just led to thread by a Tina Charles recording of “Halfway to Paradise.” That is all for now, thanks.

Now making my way through her greatest hits.

As well as the hit with 5000 Volts. And read about her association with Trevor Horn on a Frankie Goes to Hollywood thread.

Thanking you for this Sunday afternoon diversion.

That Marshall Hain song doesn't belong on this thread - far too not uncool. For the rest of these tracks, there's a sharp dividing line between 'if this had been released in 1976-77 it would have been fine' (Kelly Marie, Dusty Springfield) and 'flat out garbage' (Liquid Gold, Brotherhood of Man).

that liquid gold video is incredible

I wonder if the band realised that Liquid Gold is a) a brand of poppers, b) potentially a urolagnia reference.

think if you are not down with that Liquid Gold video then this thread is probably not for you.

My favourite bit is the rib xylophone

* how much trouble for a 5-second gag?
* it's a piano not a xylophone
* just an excuse to get his shirt off
* finishes halfway through the xylophone solo

Also the way he gestures to the crowd, "come on now, look at me, rib xylophone! what am I like?!"

i feel like he would have had his shirt off anyway. i covet those green shorts tbh.

Four years later...

https://www.mixcloud.com/centuries_of_sound/butlins-rollerdisco-1982/

0:00:00 Kelly Marie - Feels Like I'm In Love
0:02:51 Chromium - Caribbean Air Control
0:05:17 Gonzalez - Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet
0:09:16 5000 Volts - I'm On Fire
0:11:58 Linda Jardim - Energy In Northampton
0:15:06 Maxine Nightingale - Right Back Where We Started From
0:18:14 Mick Jackson - Blame It On The Boogie
0:22:05 Dollar - Mirror Mirror
0:25:21 Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
0:29:06 Jimmy James & The Vagabonds - I'll Go Where Your Music Takes Me
0:33:54 Biddu - Summer Of ’42
0:37:06 Basil Kirchin - Silicon Chip
0:40:56 Hazell Dean - Medway...You’re The One
0:43:16 Brotherhood Of Man - Lightning Flash
0:46:22 The Real Thing - Can You Feel The Force
0:49:41 The Nolans - I'm In The Mood For Dancing
0:52:26 Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip - I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper
0:56:19 Jigsaw - Sky High
0:58:52 The Dooleys - Wanted
1:02:04 Hot Chocolate - Put Your Love In Me
1:07:01 Tina Charles - I Love To Love
1:10:01 Bardo - One Step Further
1:13:01 Bucks Fizz - The Land of Make Believe

how can you have this thread without "silly love songs" (i know it's 1976)

That looks like a great mix!

This comp is pretty great but covers the 70s as a whole (so only some is 77 and after).

Right Back Where We Started From (Female Pop And Soul In Seventies Britain).

https://www.discogs.com/release/16164124-Various-Right-Back-Where-We-Started-From-Female-Pop-And-Soul-In-Seventies-Britain?srsltid=AfmBOorK6PaF1DVyQBwM-V_7Oy7e4BwiNu1a98YuOgGweNz9Zae2jqGE

And thanks to CaAL you are a wonderful creator of gateways to new worlds

That Bardo Eurovision song worms its way into my head at regular intervals, I can't seem to shake it off