For a while in the early 80s the hot musical talk was all about “soul” and “passion” (especially in the NME) and you couldn’t move for bands adding horn sections to their records and referencing Marvin Gaye. I’m not sure where it came from — Paul Weller? Paul Young? Spandau Ballet? — but there was a definite shift to more classic soul influences which was soon exploited by the Levi’s 501 commercials. It was something of a conservative step backwards from post-punk but I still liked a lot of the records.
Even the indie world was influenced by this trend. The Kane Gang were a trio from Newcastle whose first single “Brother, Brother” came out on the small Kitchenware label (home of Prefab Sprout) in 1983. Like a lot of British blue-eyed-soul it sounds a bit weedy next to the records that influenced it and is more “Indie Funk” than Funkadelic but it has a good groove, especially in this rare longer 12″ version.
Download: Brother Brother (12″ version) – The Kane Gang (mp3)
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I really liked them. Closest Thing To Heaven is probably their best song, but they had good voices. I still love the 80s idea of blue eyed soul, especially the political variety
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All you can still hold against white neosoul is that it was a very early sign that “yesterday” was becoming a richer vein to mine than “tomorrow.”
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Good point. Ironic though that this happened at the time when actual black music was zooming into the future
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They were a blip over here in the States. “Motortown” got a bit of airplay (its political aspects were certainly lost on listeners on this side of the pond, including myself … what did I know about UK factory closures?), but I don’t remember them having any other hits. Heard it in a supermarket a while back … had definitely filed it under forgotten oldies.
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