Gone but not forgotten ... vanished musicians

[Gerrit]

Do you guys also sometimes dig through old records from your youth, wondering what became of the artists that had a short-lived period of fame, or the one hit wonders?

I heard "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo on the radio the other day and, having been a teenager in the nineties, I got nostalgic straight away. But I was quite shocked when reading Jas Mann relocated to India for charity work and has delayed plans for a second album for about 7 or 8 years already now!

This made me look back ...

Who remembers Army of Lovers? They were the European nineties version of the Scissor Sisters with the camp and kitsch but it somehow worked. After two or three albums they vanished in anonimity without ever officially announcing a split-up.

Does anyone remember Gala? Was the queen of dance music in the mid nineties and one of the few artists in the genre with meaningful lyrics, but she as well vanished after having scored some global hits. I heard she even nearly died ...

Ace of Base anyone?? Last release was years ago but they seem to occasionally perform and not have called it an end officially... However, few will remember them.

If we go a bit further back in time to the eighties ... Sisters of Mercy never officially broke up but have not released any new material for 2 decades.
Culture Club idem dito.

Does anyone remember Sinéad O'Connor? Also not have heard anything new for years...

The Cranberries ... Never officially split up but if a hiatus lasts for years, can we still call this a hiatus rather than an unofficial break-up?

MC Hammer, apparently became a priest but got involved in gambling scandals?



Anyone else who has musical memories wondering where the bands that coloured their teenage years are now? Maybe these guys now work in a supermarket, or in a dusty office ... Or maybe they're living in a squat in a slum after bankruptcy? Or ... ????

 

[Michelle]

Ace of Base anyone??
Culture Club idem dito
Sinéad O'Connor?
AMC Hammer

Memory lane Taipal? Lots of others I could mention

I loved sinead's song .. Even thought after a drink or two I could sing it

 

[johname]

boy george then and now

 

[andr69]

Maybe I don't understand something, but I can't realize fascination of music style like this.

 

[johname]

Vanilla Ice then and now

 

[Gerrit]

Heck, what's the guy been doing? Is he still a celebrity or does he work in some local gas station?


PS: who remembers Mark Wahlberg used to be a rapper releasing some tracks as Marky Mark? I believe his brother was in a long vanished boy band New Kids On The Block.


Just read that Jas Mann of Babylon Zoo was very close to releasing new material but changed his mind in the last moment, opting to direct films and do film soundtracks instead for now ...

 

[labrocca]

I saw SoM perform here in Vegas a couple years ago. It was terrible too.

Ace of Base were one-hit wonders.

Sinead O'Connor destroyed her career in one move.
YouTube - Sinead O'Connor-War

She looked like a crazy radical on national TV. Bad move.

Boy George had a fantastic solo album. He is actually an amazing singer. He never reached a solo success probably because of his odd sexuality.

 

[johname]

Stanley B (MC Hammer) then and now

Tooo funny:

 

[Gerrit]

I saw SoM perform here in Vegas a couple years ago. It was terrible too.

Ace of Base were one-hit wonders.

Sinead O'Connor destroyed her career in one move.
YouTube - Sinead O'Connor-War

She looked like a crazy radical on national TV. Bad move.

Boy George had a fantastic solo album. He is actually an amazing singer. He never reached a solo success probably because of his odd sexuality.

His sexuality was never odd (the nr of gay artists is countless), only his appearance was a bit special ("odd" has such a negative undertone). I agree he does have a great voice and knows how to write a pop classic.

Ace of Base were no one hit wonders in Europe, at least not in all countries. In my native Belgium they had a three or four hits with Linn as a singer (All That She Wants, Wheel of Fortune, Happy Nation, Never Say I'm Sorry) and the Flowers album did quite well also in charts. I am not sure though if they were equally popular in other countries. Once after Flowers, their next releases never charted or never reached any position that brought them back into the attention of the crowds.



When thinking of the nineties, it was eurodance era... Who remembers these?

U96 - Das Boot (I loathe techno but the strings in this one makes it actually quite good)
E Rotic - Max don't have sex with your ex
Me & My - Dub i Dub / Lion Eddy
Mo-Do - Eins Zwei Polizei
Captain Jack - Captain Jack
Nina - Until all your dreams come true (she did some guest vocals for Captain Hollywood also)
Whigfield - Sexy eyes
Scatman John - Scatman
Scooter - How much is the fish?
Capella - U Got 2 Let The Music


And some that had multiple hits:

Snap! (The Power, The Cult of Snap, Rhythm is a Dancer)
2 Unlimited (No Limit and several others)
Gala (Freed from Desire, Let A Boy Cry, Come Into my Life)
2 Brothers on the 4th Floor (Dreams, Never Alone, ...)
Alice Deejay (Back In My Life, The Lonely One, ...)
Faithless (Insomnia, God is a DJ, Muhammad Ali, ...)



And some non-dance acts that were quite popular:

Savage Garden (I Want You, Truly Madly Deeply, To The Moon and Back)
Army of Lovers (Israelism, Obsession, Crucified, Plage de St Tropez --- I loved that band !! JP Barda was the man!!)
East 17
Take That (hate them...)
Steps



Ah, memories ... and saying I don't even like pop or dance music usually, the memories attached just make it bearable somehow I did like Erasure, Army of Lovers and similar acts a lot.

Oh, and ... when I dance they call me Macarena

 

[RLW]

Savage Garden (I Want You, Truly Madly Deeply, To The Moon and Back)

Awesome some Aussies made your list... but personally I couldn't stand Savage Garden...

As for 90s music... i'd say at least 70% of the music on my iPhone is from the 90s... I guess I'm living in some kind of time warp cos I'm always listening to 90s music...

I remember I loved No Doubt towards the end of the 90s there... They got back together in 2008... but I don't think I could take them seriously after Gwen Stefani's personal musical endeavours in recent years...

 

[johname]

Blondie (Deborah Harry) then and now:

 

[Gerrit]

Well, people age... At least she can still pull off a good show.


Musicplace.co.nr : I will admit Savage Garden was one of my guilty pleasures as a teen ... Nothing to do with the vocalist or so (all my female friends were mad about him) , purely music-wise I thought it ranked amongst the better pop music of the era. "I want you" is a nice song and "Truly madly deeply" is a nice make-out song (too bad I didn't have a girlfriend to make out with ). I sort of lost interest when they split up so unaware of what their solo careers are like.

Australia got some decent bands. As an Aspie, I had to check out The Vines out of curiosity and while it will never be "my style of music" I gotta admit I do like some of their songs to chill out to. But best Australian band by far: THE BIRTHDAY PARTY !!! That was epic stuff! Nick the Stripper, Deep in the Woods, ... Release the bats, bite bite bite!!
And yeah, Nick solo has some good stuff as well. The whole "Murder Ballads" album is good (the "Song of Joy" is one of the scariest ones I ever heard), "Papa won't leave you Henry" is epic as well, ...



My favourite era remain the eighties though. Gutted that I'll never see The Smiths perform together, dito for Siouxie & The Banshees, but I praise myself lucky to have witnessed Morrissey (3x), Bauhaus (2x) and Echo & The Bunnymen (10x) live.

Saw U2 once, to me that will always be an eighties band, as in: their eighties work was epic (Unforgettable Fire, October, Achtung Baby, Joshua Tree ... great albums) whereas ever since the nineties they shifted to rather mediocre stadium rock. The Cure idem dito: everything up to "Wish" was quite interesting and good, once the nineties arrived they became uninteresting IMO.

Oh, are Duran Duran still around? "Ordinary World" is a nice ballad, "Girls on Film" was quite an, erm, interesting video ... Simple Minds still record?? I saw those once and while I didn't know them that well, I was very positively surprised.