I know, I know! Last time I ran this section --- which was the first time --- I mentioned at the end that the next time out I’d be looking at British band Jigsaw, and I wanted to, but to be brutally honest I was unable to track down enough of their music to make it worthwhile. I tried all my usual haunts --- I would even have
bought the music! Honest to god! I would have shelled out my own cash! --- but no dice. So I’m afraid you’ll just have to contain your disappointment and accept that Jigsaw have receded so far into the mists of musical obscurity that even a tenth-level Musomancer like me
(nerd alert! Nerd alert! RPG reference!) is unable to bring them back. They’re dead, and staying dead.
So who am I going to feature instead? You know, I’m really glad you asked that question, because if you hadn’t then this wouldn’t be much of a section would it? If I didn’t have a backup plan what would be the point? What
is the point anyway? Well, never mind that: the plan is that we leave the seventies behind for now and fast-forward to the heyday of new wave, the 1980s, and look at the somewhat brief but for a short while successful career of this man
Oh come on! Don’t tell me you don’t recognise him? If I sang “Imagination … can make a man of you … Imagination … could make me love you too….”? No? Well that was one of his big hits --- one of two I believe, and though he was never any Howard Jones or Nik Kershaw, or attained the fame and general adulation of the likes of Wham! or even Pet Shop Boys, he carved out his own little niche in the early eighties and his albums did sell, for a short while. Still no clue? No, it’s not Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17. Nor is it Billy Idol’s previously undiscovered popster brother. All right then, give up? I’ll tell you. It’s
Belouis Some
Ah, now you remember don’t you? You don’t? Well I’m not that surprised really, as he hardly set the charts alight before disappearing from public view. Let me just refresh your memory, see if any of this rings a bell.
Of course, it’s very unlikely anyone is born with a name like that --- the forename is one I’ve never heard before or since, and I’ve never heard of any family called Some --- and indeed he wasn’t. Born Neville Keighley he released his first album in 1985. I know what you’re thinking (apart from
“Why am I bothering reading this? The last thing I remember is the smell of chloroform and next I’m staring at this bloody webpage! How did I get here, and how do I get out?”) --- that’s very little information on the guy. But truth is there seems very little and even my usual source, Wikipedia, has a woefully skimpy entry on him. I don’t know much about him so I’m going to have to just jump right into his albums and figure him out from there. Okay with you? What? No you can’t take the gag off! Now just sit back and relax and you’ll soon be home unharmed, and all this will be just a fading memory, I promise. Roll the sound effects! Action!
Some people --- Belouis Some --- 1985 (Capitol)
See, that’s the downside of trying to write about obscure artistes. Sometimes there’s very little information to go on, and I’m not about to join the Belouis Some Fan Club (no doubt called Some People Who Like Belouis!) in order to get the information I need, nor am I going to buy his biography, surely called “Some guy called Belouis”. All right, enough making fun of the guy’s name. But really? Belouis Some? Doesn’t even make sense! Gary Glitter, okay. Sting, sure. Even Mad Destroyer on Steroids gives an idea of what you might expect from a singer so named, but Belouis Some? Didn’t he realise he was inviting ridicule with a name like that? And I’ve never been one to turn down an invitation….
Okay, okay! Leave the guy alone! For all I know he now lives in a bedsit and works as a bank clerk, supplementing his meagre income by attending nostalgia nights, performing his hit singles. But back in 1985 he was hot property, and this album, his debut, gave him what were his two biggest hit singles, although he had to wait for “Imagination” to be re-released the following year before it was a hit in the UK.
It’s his first hit though that opens the album, and it’s also the title track. Starting with a deep, growling synth it soon warps into a sub-Yazoo style synthpop song with a upbeat tempo, decent female backing vocals and indeed very catchy. Nice bit of funky guitar running through it, you probably know the song if you’re my age or thereabouts. He has a good voice, though definitely the kind of feeling that he wouldn’t be around for all that long: this has one-hit-wonder written all over it, though he did as I say have another hit after this. It’s a good dance record, sort of mid-paced with a nice rhythm but I never found it anything that special. It’s followed by “Stand down”, which is a little faster and with a very reggae/Caribbean feel to it, thick echoey bass and some nice keyboard work.
The other big hit is up next, and you can see a world of difference in this. A sweaty, sultry creeping funkster which really showcases Some’s almost Bowie-like vocal, again supported by great female backing vox, and the addition of a slowburning sax that just oozes passion. By all accounts the original video was banned, featuring as it did full-frontal nudity, though whether male or female I don’t know, and don’t care enough to check out. The sax work is great on this though, coupled with some sort of whistling, breathing sound on the synth. Very nice. Not something I can say of “Walk away” though: very throwaway, by-the-numbers pop song, though with some decent keyboard antics. Chorus is okay if simplistic. Somewhat more almost of a rocker is “Aware of you”, with a big hard guitar and a sense of Ric Ocasek of the Cars in it. Possibly a mixed-race-romance morality tale if you listen to the lyric, though again I’m not interested enough to confirm that, sorry. Still, other than the singles if I have to choose a favourite track on the album so far then this is it. There’s even a guitar solo, despite the usual overpreponderance of keyboards and synths, and the tune works very well.
That superb sax is back for “Target practice”, which starts off all smouldering and atmospheric, and fools you initially into thinking it may be a ballad, but then changes and kicks up the tempo to become a sort of sub-Bowie rocker which isn’t really all that bad at all. Nice hook in the chorus, sort of reminds me of Human League in places, but really is actually very close to “China girl” --- another nice guitar solo, which is always welcome, though the initial sax seems to have faded out which is a pity --- and then continues on into “Have you ever been in love”, which despite the title is far from a ballad.
Another funky dancy number, it’s again pretty throwaway really, the brass on it is particularly annoying, then we’re into “Tail lights”, which starts off with a real smoky sax solo joined by some screechy horn and interesting guitar, making me wonder if this could be something a little different? It certainly develops a swagger along the bassline and measured percussion, with a sort of lower register vocal from our man Belouis, who is definitely from the David Bowie school of singing. No bad thing that: he has a good voice, just maybe not quite distinctive enough. Or maybe he hadn’t the songs he should have had. Did he write the songs on this album? Well yes it seems he did, so maybe he just wasn’t that great a songwriter.
It’s a second decent track I have to admit, with a real sense of identity about it, and the horns here rather than being annoying complement the music, creating the soundscape. We close then on “Jerusalem”, very much a synth-led piece which brings the tempo back down mostly, and features quite a powerful vocal performance from the man. Interestingly, there’s no ballad here at all, which was possibly a brave move for a pop album of the eighties, but the album seems to have sold well and his follow-up was out two years later. I have to say it’s not the worst pop album I’ve ever heard, though it’s far from the best.
TRACKLISTING
1. Some people
2. Stand down
3. Imagination
4. Walk away
5. Aware of you
6. Target practice
7. Have you ever been in love
8. Tail lights
9. Jerusalem
With his debut album in the can Belouis headed off on tour, mostly with chart darlings of the time Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and also increased his public profile by contributing to the soundtrack to the movie “Pretty in pink”, which also featured songs by Suzanne Vega, The Smiths, Nik Kershaw and of course the Psychedelic Furs. Following the success of the movie and his concerts, “Imagination” was re-rereleased and became a hit for him, providing a springboard for the recording of his second album, which would see the light of day in 1987.
Belouis Some --- Belouis Some --- 1987 (Capitol)
My brother has always maintained the theory that Neville Keighley took the name Belouis Some just so that his second album could be titled “Belouis Some More”, however this isn’t what he ended up doing. His debut, as detailed above, was called “Some people”, and while he could I suppose have succumbed to the temptation and named this “Some more people”, he went for a more, ah, original idea, and just called it after his own name. Now, I have a problem with this, which may turn up in a future edition of “My brain hurts”, as if you care.
A band or artiste self-titling their first album is completely acceptable. You’re new, you need to introduce yourself, so your first album is “Blondie” or “Yes” or “Camel” or “Maria McKee”. Nothing wrong with that. What I can’t understand is an established band or artiste, or indeed someone just recording their second album, as here, using their name for the title. It’s confusing to the casual fan, who will probably think this is your first album, and it’s also lazy. I mean, even Genesis did it, something I took a while to forgive them for. Peter Gabriel too, but then all his albums up to “So” were titled the same. Now Dream Theater are doing it. What is the point? Apart from anything else, with a name like Belouis Some this guy could not have been stuck for ideas --- “Some more Belouis”? “Get some”? “Something from Belouis”? The possibilities are almost endless. And yet he went down this route. Don’t get it.
Anyway, enough bitching. Like it or not, this was his second album and failed to be as successful as his first, yielding no hit singles. It would be his last for six years. Let’s get into it. If we can.
Opening on a sharp funky beat almost reminiscent of the great Prince, “Let it be with you” is okay but nothing like the opener from the debut. Nice use of horns and a hypnotic bassline, pushing the keys a little more to the background, the brass giving the song a real touch of soul, but at the same time kind of making it a lighter song. Nice guitar solo, which is a good start, and the female backing vocals from the first album are back to lend a hand. “Stranger than fiction” pushes the horns to the fore again, a little more poppy as opposed to dance, and there’s my mate with the sax again. Still, there’s something lacking: I haven’t found any hooks I can latch on to so far. As the man himself sang in the opener:
”Don’t know what I have to say/ Don’t know what I have to do” --- well, make this a bit more interesting for a start.
We could be on to something now, with what sounds like the first Belouis Some ballad, “Some girls”. Putting me very much in mind of the one-hit wonder from Double, “The captain of her heart” , which had been a big hit the previous year, it has a nice sliding bassline that takes it along in a gentle way with some tinkling piano and soft sax too. Definitely a big improvement but will it be the turning point on the album? Okay, well “Passion play” opens like someone trying to learn chords on their new Casio, but then a big powerful guitar punches in and it sounds like it could be something of a return to the Bowie-like music from some of the better tracks on the debut.
There’s a sense of determination and anger about this, which is kind of what this album needed: essentially a kick up the arse, which this song is delivering. Good heavy percussion and stabbing keyboard chords make the song more on the lines of rock than pop, even if the solo is a synthy one; kind of reminds me a little of the late Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to love” in ways. End chorus sounds almost Sisters of Mercy-ish. Another good track for sure. Can it last? Well there’s an almost progressive rock keyboard intro to “Animal magic” and I’m starting to hope, then it slides into a really nice laidback groove, with a relaxed low-key vocal from Belouis, some nice chiming piano, and there finally is the hook I’ve been searching for since this album began. Again it has The Cars’ handprints all over it, and could easily be a track off “Door to door” or maybe “Heartbeat city”, or even one of Ocasek’s own later solo albums, but it’s a good song and keeps up a level of quality which has definitely risen since the third track kicked in.
“Dream girl” is a little more towards the poppy end of the scale, touches of China Crisis in there, but it’s still a good solid track and miles better than anything on the debut. Very Alan Parsons Project-style guitar solo there: Ian Bairnson would be proud. Elements of Mike Rutherford leaking in there too, nice bunch of influences, even if they’re just in my mind. It’s what I hear and that’s all I can report, you know. Generally, I would have worried about a song titled “My body”, had I not been listening to this album through. I would have taken it to be a disco-bop “I’m so sexy” type thing, but now I don’t expect that at all. It is in fact a fairly uptempo almost AOR in places song, with the horns back in full evidence and Belouis channeling Bowie again. Good sharp guitar with more touches of Prince again, quite catchy and I’m actually surprised it wasn’t a hit.
“Wind of change” (not the Scorpions ballad) comes up, as you might expect, on slow wind noises on the keys then has a fairly stripped back melody with a hook that any AOR band would give their collective eye teeth for, and a really nice bit of guitar followed by some lush piano. It’s not the greatest track on the album but it’s well up there with the best of the rest. And all too soon we’re coming to the end, with “What I see”, a nice little low-key piece with the vocal very far down in the mix, some very expressive guitar that reminds me of something but for once I can’t say what, and which kind of serves as the second ballad, a very decent closer.
TRACKLISTING
1. Let it be with you
2. Stranger than fiction
3. Some girls
4. Passion play
5. Animal magic
6. Dream girl
7. My body
8. Wind of change
9. What I see
On the strength of what I’ve heard here I’m actually surprised this wasn’t a big hit for Belouis, a pretty staggering followup to what was in comparison a mediocre debut album, and yet it was “Some people” that got all the plaudits and gave him his chart successes. Maybe it just wasn’t pop or dance enough for the fans who had bought “Imagination” and “Some people”, but I very much prefer this. It shows an artiste maturing very quickly and stepping outside the somewhat confining limits of the dance/electro style of his debut. Very impressive, once you get through the first two tracks, and to be honest, and surprising myself, I’m actually now looking forward to listening to his third, and last album.
If I can find it.
All I can tell you apart from that is that in 1989 he formed some band called The Big Broadcast and toured with them, and that he supported the likes of Queen, Big Country and ageing rocksters Status Quo at Knebworth, which at the time was one of the UK’s premier rock festivals. His final album then, came in 1993, and I suppose given the fact that it was his last it must not have performed or sold very well for him, though I have no chart statistics to back that up. Certainly, I have not heard any of the tracks as singles and I’m fairly sure he had no hits off it.
Ah. No, out of luck. I’ve looked high and low, far and wide, and, just to be sure, in desperation, here and there, but there’s no sign of this album. As I said at the start, the problem with picking obscure music to review is that it’s, well, obscure. Hard to find. I already had to cancel my intended look at Jigsaw because I couldn’t find enough of their music to make it work, and now I can’t get the third album from Belouis Some anywhere. I can’t even buy the damn thing!
So I’m destined I guess never to experience what could have been the final masterpiece, or crapfest, of this singer/songwriter from the eighties. I’ll never know whether he went on from the promising development of the second album and carried that into what would be his last, or if he fell back on the pop and disco tropes of his debut. One thing is for certain though: Belouis Some, for all I laughed at him, had some proper talent and it just seems like it was never recognised after his brief flirtation with the charts, but he had a relatively decent run up to about 1989 or so it would seem.
Maybe he tried to buck the trend, rather less successfully than Kylie break out of the mould and refashion and reinvent himself, and the world didn’t like it, or more properly didn’t care. Whether he remained in music, moved into production as so many artistes do, or got out of the business altogether is a question that will have to remain a mystery, as there is very little written about him out there on the web. I’m assuming he’s not dead, as Wiki lists him as “is a singer” not “was a singer”, and he apparently had a big following in South Africa for some reason, so that’s good. Maybe he even moved there. But I couldn’t say for sure.
Some people, it would seem, don’t merit that kind of coverage. And yet, I find myself, after listening to his second album, more sympathetic towards the man and I do wonder what became of him. I suppose I’ll never know.
Ah, but why should you care? Oh, I see: you've managed to get yourself free and legged it. Very inventive. Must remember to use steel chairs next time...
... when I'll be looking at another guy who flared briefly in the eighties and then seemed to die away. Be interesting to see what happened to him. Who am I talking about? Why,
of course.