Nostalgia remains the same, David Belcher finds as he catches up with
the Rubettes.
IT was the elongated falsetto shriek that lured you in, I think. Two
parts Frankie Valli to one part street-corner newspaper vendor.
Eeeee-yaaarrr ooo-arr-arr-arr-ee-arr dooby doo-waaa-ee-aaaarrrr. The
rest of the lyrics possessed a certain primal naffness, too.
How did the rest of the song go? Come on, baby, do the jukebox jive.
Just like they did in nineteen sixty-five.
Ah yes, Juke Box Jive by the Rubettes. Right in there alongside
Showaddywaddy at the start of the great British pop nostalgia boom.
Lastingly lamenting the demise of nineteen sixty-five in
nineteen-seventy-five. And in nineteen eighty-five. And, well . . . this
year as well, actually.
Aye, it's a funny old game, pop. As if to underline the fact that
nostalgia remains what it used to be, the Rubettes will tonight be
inviting Edinburgh folk to do it like they did in nineteen sixty-five,
again, in nineteen ninety-five.
Modest head-Rubette Alan Williams never thought it would last for 20
years. He and his cohorts weren't even a proper band at the time they
recorded their first big hit, Sugar Baby Love.
''We were a clique of sessions musicians, a studio rhythm section
who'd had success by playing on No 1 hits like Carl Douglas's Kung Fu
Fighting, Lynsey de Paul's Sugar Me, and Dancing On A Saturday Night by
Barry Blue. We recorded Sugar Baby Love as a demo for other artists to
listen to, and thankfully for us no-one wanted it.''
The Rubettes' chart dominance was brief, the band having been forced
into dormancy between 1979 and 1984, but they are now on their third
major UK tour during the past five years, and they have continued to do
well on the continental nostalgia circuit. Nostalgia -- is it hard to
accept that your future resides in the past?
''We're simply happy still to be in the music business at this mature
stage in our lives, still touring, still making records. If we're not
actual pop stars, we're making a living in music -- and that was my big
ambition when I started.
''But just yesterday our current British single, Believe In You, with
a French singer, Nathalie L'Hermitte, went into the British country
radio chart at 20, so we might have a surprise hit on our hands out of
nowhere. And after having recorded nothing new for a while, we've an
album, Making Love In The Rain, released next week on the label that I
run, Dice.''
It makes the bad times worthwhile. Giving up the pop high life to
start a not wholly successful business making and designing exhibition
stands in his Essex homelands. Thankfully, Alan managed to hang on to
the most tangible reward from his top 10 days: his own plane, which he
pilots himself.
''I've a Piper Aztec twin-engined six-seater. We'll be flying to
Scotland in it. We're all about five minutes from Southend airport so
it's been handy lately for nipping over to do daytime TV stuff in Europe
and then getting back for gigs in the evening.''
Sounds better than being a journalist, which is what the Rubettes'
original guitarist now is, on a local newspaper in Burnley. Their first
drummer is a Hare Krishna devotee. Otherwise, the same Rubettes seem
likely to be doing the jukebox jive in two thousand and twenty-five.
All together now: Eeeee-yaaarrr ooo-arr-arr-arr-ee-arr dooby
doo-waaa-ee-aaaarrrr.
* The Rubettes appear tonight in Edinburgh's Usher Hall, assisted by
vintage popsters the Tremeloes, Mungo Jerry, and Marmalade. Three weeks
later, the tour wends its way back to Scotland with gigs in Perth City
Hall (February 27), Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall (February 28), and
Aberdeen's Capitol Theatre (March 1).
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