The place for great and not-so-great nearly forgotten videos from the decade of Miami Vice, mullets, and acid wash jeans. All praise to the bands, YouTube, and the original posters of these videos.
The story of XYZ begins in Lyon, France - not exactly a hotbed of successful rock acts. However, Patt Fontaine (bass) and Terry Ilous (vocals) hail from Lyon, though they moved to Los Angeles in 1984 in search of fame and fortune.
Fontaine and Ilous soon put a band together and by 1986 XYZ was playing on the Sunset Strip as the unofficial house band at the Whisky a Go-Go. A self-financed EP followed, as the band slowly gained a following in the LA hard rock scene.
In 1989, Enigma records signed them, and they cut their self-titled debut album, which Don Dokken produced. The album ended up as a small success, reaching #99 on the charts, and the videos for "Inside Out" and "What Keeps Me Loving You" both picked up a bit of airplay on MTV.
Unfortunately, the 1991 follow up (Hungry) did not do well, and the band was dropped by the label. XYZ broke up in 1993, although they have re-formed in the early 2000s, and appear to be active as of this writing.
For the blog, we went with the video for "Inside Out," an excellent time piece from 1989. Hair, girls, and a sharp guitar hook - it's enough to make one wonder why these guys didn't do better.
While Billy Ocean may have seemed like an overnight success, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, he had been in the music business for 15 years prior to his rapid ascent to stardom.
Born as Leslie Charles in Trinidad and Tobago, Ocean moved to London as a child, and quickly became immersed in music (his father was also a musician). By the late 1960s, Ocean was trying to make a go of it as a professional singer, which led to a name change -- Ocean supposedly comes from the Oceans 11 football team in Trinidad and Tobago. He scored his first album in 1976, and had a few minor hits over the years, but few would have predicted his successes in the 1980s.
Ocean's fifth LP - 1984's Suddenly - blew up, and for several years Ocean was a bona fide star. Between 1984 and 1989, he had 3 Top 20 albums, and 11 top 40 singles - including 3 #1s and 2 #2s. Wow.
"Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)" was the song that started the run. The lead single off the Suddenly LP, it hit #1 in the U.S. (and #6 in the UK). The video is pretty standard fare, but this is some well-crafted pop.
While Ocean's star faded somewhat after his 1980s heyday, he remains active in the industry as of this writing.
Note that the cool, and very weird video for Billy Ocean's "Loverboy" was posted on ERV in October 2021, as part of our annual All Hallows Even celebration.
Huge in the UK and Europe and relatively unknown in the U.S., Ultravox were an influential band that helped lay the foundation for synth pop. The group formed in London in 1973, and was originally called Tiger Lilly. The name was changed to Ultravox! when the act signed with Island Records in 1976, and the ! was dropped a few years later.
For all practical purposes, there were two versions of the band. From the early days until 1979, Ultravox was led by John Foxx, and had an artsy synth-rock sound (to my ear, the sound is in the same genre as Devo). Foxx left in '79 to start a solo career, and was replaced by Midge Ure, who pushed the band's sound in a lush, artistic direction.
The revitalized Ultravox would go on the have significant success in the 1980s in the UK, with 5 top 10 LPs and 16 top 40 singles, led by "Vienna," which hit #2 on the UK charts. However, they made barely a ripple in the U.S., where only one album broke the top 100, and no singles reached the top 40.
I don't recall seeing the video on my favorite video music channel, but it is quite strong, especially for an early clip. Influenced by the 1949 movie The Third Man (which takes place in Vienna), it was mostly shot in London, primarily at Covent Garden. Interestingly, the band paid for the video, as their label at the time (Chrysalis) didn't think it was worth it. [How things would change a few years later.]
As previously mentioned, Ultravox was successful through the eighties in Europe - and Midge Ure even co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas." However, artistic difference led the Ure leaving the band in 1988, and the group broke up a few years later. They did re-form (with Ure) in 2008, and played until 2017, but appear to have disbanded for a second time as of this writing.
Cool trivia fact "Vienna" was the 135th video played on MTV's first day.
As many readers will know, sometimes The Universe calls out and makes a request. Often times these are serendipitous events, but some of the time they are sad - and that's ok. We've been processing the passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart, and were unsure at first whether to put a post up. Then, we heard "Tom Sawyer" on the radio, reminding us of all that is great about Rush and rock and drummers. Even better, the video is somewhat rare.
"Tom Sawyer" was the second single off Rush's breakout 1981 LP, Moving Pictures. ("Limelight" was the lead single.) The song only reached #44 on the U.S. charts, but was a mainstay on FM rock radio in the 1980s. The album rose to #3 and eventually went 4x platinum, making it Rush's best selling LP in the U.S.
The video was shot in Le Studio in Quebec, Canada during a cold Canadian winter. With the exception of a quick outside intro shot, the rest of the clip is the band playing in the studio - note that these were the last few years before MTV, and we suspect the video was something of an afterthought. As a plain vanilla video, we don't recall seeing it on MTV; perhaps it picked up a bit of airplay in the early days.
The song is particularly noteworthy in our book due to the front and center nature of the drum line. This is the stuff that drum heroes are made of, and true to form, Rush drummer Neil Peart quickly established himself as rock's greatest living drummer.
Rush would go on to have significant success throughout the 1980s, and continued to record and tour through 2015.
Cool trivia fact: Rush is a one hit wonder, only 1982's "New World Man" broke the top 40 (at #21).
Cool trivia fact #2: Rolling Stone ranks Moving Pictures at #379 on their list of the greatest 500 albums ever.
