Maybe not one of the “greats” but someone who had a big impact on British pop culture and on every man in the country of a certain age. Even though the routines were sometimes a bit silly, Flick and the girls only had the time between the Tuesday when the new chart came out and the Thursday when TOTP was filmed to pick a song and work out a dance routine so they did a pretty great job considering. She probably didn’t need to work so hard though, most of us would have been happy to have watched them standing there opening tins of baked beans as long as they wiggled a little bit while they were doing it.
Before she went behind the scenes Flick was also a member of Pan’s People herself, she’s the blond wearing the orange hot pants in this routine (I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed typing the words “orange hot pants.”)
I had tickets to see him at the Town & Country Club back in the 80s but the concert was canceled at the last minute because of “illness.” At the time I had no idea that the man who wrote songs like “The Bottle” and “Angel Dust” had addiction problems of his own and shows often didn’t happen as a result. His death is doubly sad because it seemed like he had put his troubles behind him and was making a comeback.
A lot of obits have been referring to him as the “Godfather of Rap” which seems very reductive and not true to the real depth of his talent, to me he was a brilliant songwriter and a really wonderful soul singer with a gorgeous, smoky voice. And judging by this track he was storming live too, pity I’ll never get the chance to see for myself now.
The sentimental musings of an ageing expat in words, music, and pictures. Mp3 files are up for a limited time so drink them while they're hot.
Contact me: lee at londonlee dot com
