We were around Mark’s again on Friday evening for another evening of ‘80s rose-tinted sunglass gazing. We did Eurovision 1983 in January, and 1984 in March. With this year’s contest looming on next month’s horizon, our latest travels back in time were to remember talent shows such as ITV’s The Fame Game from 1985, a sort of X-Factor predecessor, but with much more glitter, bad hair, and shiny outfits.
Kate Robbins’ theme tune and an appearance by Morris Minor and the Majors aside, not one act went onto any sort of notoriety (although some are still singing for a living), but it got me thinking about other acts and music from the period. Tight Fit and their immediately likeable 1982 number five hit, Fantasy Island, in particular; I remember recording the song onto a sky blue-tinted clear Memorex cassette, from a box of old 45s that my mum had brought home from a place of work.
Why I recalled this high-camp three-minute piece of sunny pop in particular, I don’t know, but on rediscovering it this weekend, didn’t realise how much like ABBA the British threesome sounded. The girls’ vocals sound just like those of the Swedish super group, which is ironic, because just as Steve Grant, Denise Gyngell, and Julie Harris became overnight stars, ABBA’s light was fading. The song itself was in the Dutch Eurovision Song Contest heats, and followed the group’s more widely recognised number one hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Bright, sunny, and typically ‘80s, the video which accompanied the single was equally of the period, with the trio frolicking on beaches, and zooming around on speedboats, in typically skimpy costumes. That was to be the memory that most members of the record-buying public were to have of the group, however, as the follow-up release, Secret Heart, only reached number 41, and the three went their separate ways soon after, achieving just two years of mild success.