The definitive history of Passion Spent – by Patrick (the parrot)
PART 12: ‘We know the rules of the game….’
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One obvious possible (perhaps, even, ‘traditional’) route to success for any upcoming entertainer, musical artist, rock band, or pop group is the ubiquitous ‘talent contest’. Indeed, as the promotional material circulated to potential participants by the organisers of the following talent competition had uniquely pointed out, ‘the Carpenters and Lenny Henry’ had achieved major success after appearing in such competitions.
In September 1984, after appearing at the club for the first time on 7 July, Passion Spent participated in the Wm. Jackson & Son PLC Recreation Club’s (Jacksons) ‘Top of the Bill’ Talent Show, sponsored by Samuel Websters Brewery. The promotional material for the contest included:
“ANNOUNCING THE MOST IMPORTANT TALENT SHOW SINCE OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS”
THE JACKSON’S CLUB ‘TOP OF THE BILL’ SHOW WITH A FIRST PRIZE WORTH £890
Part of the attraction for the band was the following reassurance from the organisers:
‘The prizes top £1,000 and you don’t have to appear in endless heats to win them. All you have to do is to appear in one Sunday evening shown and then if chosen, the ‘Grand Final’ Show.
Also promoted as Jackson’s ‘International Talent Show’, the competition’s preliminary Sunday evening shows began on 2 September, and took place on consecutive Sundays through to the last heat on 7 October. The rules for the heats stated that there would be a judging panel of four, with marks out of ten being awarded to each act. Any act that received a total of 30 marks or more from a maximum of 40, the rules stated, would be invited to take part in the ‘Grand Final’ to be staged on Friday 12 October.
Passion Spent—who at that time consisted of Ben (bass), Dave (guitar), Gav (drums), Ian (keyboards), and Jim (vocals)—took part in the heat of 9 September, alongside Kevin Woolley, Lesley Jane Moore, Rudi Boyce, Brahms & Liszt, Danny James, and Willis. The band were placed 2nd, after comedian Danny James. Magician Kevin Woolley and the Essex-based Barbadian vocalist, Rudi Boyce also proceeded to the ‘Grand Final’.
The promotional material for the contest stated that the ‘Grand Final’ was to be recorded by Radio Humberside, and would be judged by four separate juries, each of which would allocate 100 points between the artists taking part. The act with the highest score would receive a holiday for two to the value of £890 (or £600 in cash), second place would receive £100, and third place would receive £50. Each artiste would perform a 15 minute spot and all participants in the ‘Grand Final’ show would receive a ‘Top of the Bill’ trophy. The audience would not be allowed to dance whilst the acts were performing. Each show was produced by the venue’s resident MC and superbly versatile performer, Kevin Campbell. Musical backing for the solo artistes for all the shows was provided by the club’s resident band, Malibu, which, if I remember correctly, consisted of Julie Kinsey on keyboards and vocals, Graham on the bass, and Wayne on the drums.
In their heat, Passion Spent were the first act of the evening. Compere Kevin Campbell introduced the band by saying: This particular group appeared at the Jackson’s Club only about a month ago. I believe they are Hull’s number one band. Then Jim introduced the first song, a cover of Fiction Factory’s 1984 hit single, ‘(Feels Like) Heaven’. This was followed by covers of two further 1984 hit singles, Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ and Nik Kershaw’s ‘I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ before the band finished their brief set with a fourth cover song: Haircut One Hundred’s ‘Favourite Shirts’ (1981). At approximately 14.5 minutes, the band kept their set within their allotted time of 15 minutes.
In the final, on 12 October, Passion Spent appeared 9th in the running order, and took to the stage more or less as scheduled at 10:05; after Stanley Bovett (9:30) and Danny James (9:45), but before Kevin Wooley (10:20) and Paul Emmanuel (10:40). First, the band performed their cover of Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’, before Jim announced:
When we first entered this competition, you know, we decided that if we did get through to the final, we’d try to show you what we could do as far as writing and arranging and performing our own songs. So, these next two numbers that we’re gonna do were both written by ourselves.
The band then performed ‘Paper Moon’, followed by ‘Living in a Picture’ (which Jim introduced as being ‘for disillusioned lovers everywhere.’) The final song of their set was a cover of Tom Jones’s ‘Delilah’, a choice that was decided upon when the band were preparing for the show.
Unfortunately for the band, they appeared later in the show than Stanley Bovett (‘A talented young man that sings and looks like Tom Jones’, as the programme noted) who had also performed the Les Reed and Barry Mason classic in his set; and one of the judges commented afterwards that it was quite improper for the band to have performed a song sung by an artiste earlier in the show, and that they should have replaced it with a different song. The band’s inexperience and lack of ‘cabaret club’ etiquette in this regard let them down on that particular occasion.
Obviously, since the Passion Spent repertoire was fairly expansive at that point, an alternative song could easily have been chosen if the band had been aware that this might have impacted the score awarded to them. Nonetheless, the young Passion Spent gave a good account of themselves and eventually picked up the third prize of £50, after Newcastle’s Paul Emmanuel (1st) and Holland’s Stanley Bovett (2nd).
There’s no record in the Passion Spent archives (if it was ever announced, at all) of whether Paul Emmanuel chose a ‘Holiday for two in the USA, flying November 5th’ or the cash alternative of £600. But the general consensus among the band was that he was a worthy winner. Jim tells me that when Kevin Campbell announced the results, he told the audience that Paul Emmanuel’s sound-check consisted simply of saying one or two words into the microphone. Apparently, his previous experience had taught him that he could rely on the PA settings of the resident compere and band who performed at the venue week in and week out! I’m sure there’s an important lesson in there for all of us.
On a slightly different matter related to the band’s performance of ‘Delilah’, towards the end of the song—on the long, high note of the second syllable of the word ‘Delilah’—Jim had a vocal malfunction similar to that which befell Simon Le Bon nine months later when Duran Duran were performing ‘A View to a Kill’ at Live Aid Philadelphia on 13 July 1985. And since the final of that particular Jacksons talent show was recorded on video, and provided to the band by Kevin Campbell, Jim can now re-live that what he refers to as a ‘cringing embarrassment’, whenever he chooses—to remind himself of his own vocal limitations. In fact, he tells me that he had several similar experiences over the years during live gigs, in particular (ironically) with the band’s cover of Duran Duran’s classic, ‘Ordinary World’!
Jim often laments the fact that shortly after Rio first formed, he could fairly comfortably handle the vocal range of Foreigners ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’ whenever the band played it live; but the constant disregard for the wellbeing of his vocal chords (by, for example, not changing the key of songs the band covered to suit his natural vocal range), soon led to the contraction of any range he may have once had. Well, that’s what he keeps telling me, anyway!
Three months after the ‘International Talent Show’, the band were invited to take part in another talent contest organised by Jacksons.
The 1985 talent competition at Jacksons was promoted as the ‘Humberside Festival of Music’ talent contest. This started on Sunday, 6th January, for three consecutive weeks, with the final being held on Friday, 1st February. The main condition for entry was that artistes ‘must live in the Humberside area to take part’. The prize money on offer was: 1st, £250; 2nd, £50; 3rd, £25.
The final for this competition included: Kevin Stocks, Claire Adamson, Ben Burt, Yaketty Axe, and Brahms & Liszt. Passion Spent came second (winning £50) after, as I recall, Brahms & Liszt (who had failed to make it through the same heat as Passion Spent in the ‘International Talent Show’ contest of 9 September the previous year).
As the table of gigs on this website shows, Passion Spent played a total of 10 gigs at Jacksons, including the four talent show gigs covered here.
But another prestigious gig the band played at the venue was the ‘Stan Robinson Awards’ night, held on 27 February 1985 (in a show put together by local clubland legend Johnny Pat), when they won the award for ‘Best Local Group’. (Incidentally and deservingly so, the Jacksons resident band, Malibu, won the category of ‘Best Backing Band’ in that year’s Stan Robinson Awards.)
Passion Spent’s last appearance at Jacksons was on 4 November 1987, in a charity gig organised by Jim’s wife, in aid of Hull’s Dove House Hospice. Julie Orwin had volunteered as her employer’s (WH Smith) Charity Coordinator for the local branch (Prospect Centre, Hull) where she worked, and the gig formed part of her fundraising efforts for her year in that role. Tickets for the event were in high demand, and countless local companies generously donated prizes for the raffle held during the evening to help boost the fundraising.
The Dove House gig was by no means the first charity gig undertaken by the band, and it wouldn’t be the last; but it was the first charity gig organised by someone closely associated with the band.
Perhaps the various charity gigs undertaken by Passion Spent would make an interesting chapter in their own right. Such a chapter would necessarily encompass the six ‘band reunion’ charity gigs of 1996, 1998, and 2006; and take us towards the final gig ever played by the band.
Or perhaps next, a brief summary of the other different talent contests in which the band appeared would be in order. I’ll consider all the options. But you can be sure there will be more in Part 13 – ‘unlucky for some’?
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