And they were Called Yello…
A few too many viewings of the current M&S advert tripped an old memory of a collaboration between Swiss Synthmeisters Yello and Dame Shirley Bassey on the sublime The Rhythm Divine. It’s not quite Bond, but someone should have found a place for it on a soundtrack.
I’ve got one Yello album already, The New Mix in One Go 1980-1985 which is a sort of early greatest hits, and good, a mix of older sounds and rhythms meshed with modern technology, and a large dollop of benign crazy genius.
Yello can be a bit hit and miss, though. Some tracks like Swing, Domingo and Pinball Cha-Cha are just brilliant, whilst others do nothing for me. They have a strong "soundtrack" feel to them, which can conjour up images in the mind.
So, I’m really happy with One Second: Remastered. I’ve only had a few listens, but there’s at least 4 tracks that already stand out, which makes the £6 well spent (The Rhythm Divine, Goldrush, La Habanera and Moon on Ice). And they were good enough to add some remix tracks at the end too.
The one thing that’s missing is Billy MacKenzie’s version of The Rhythm Divine. Billy MacKenzie was the lead singer of The Associates, and possessed an amazing voice, and also did the backing vocals (90 overdubs) for Shirley Bassey as well as writing the lyrics.
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Fully agreed about Billy. You may be interested to know that a tribute to him is taking place at Shepherds Bush Empire on 28th March - the day after what would have been his 50th birthday (and indeed only two months after the 10th anniversary of his leaving us, on 22nd January).
Acts confirmed so far are a reconvened Apollo 440 (for whom Billy recorded his last ever vocal) British Electric Foundation (he guested on both their ‘Music of Quality and Distinction’ albums) and old friend and collaborator Paul Haig (ex Josef K.) Also on the bill are Subterraneans, Electric Soft Parade and Mower. See the website link for more info.