Black Lace (band) - Chart Success (1981-1987)

Chart Success (1981-1987)

In 1981, Dobson left Black Lace and joined the Castleford rock band Stormer (formerly known as Method), who had a recording contract with Ringo Starr. Scholey also departed, leaving the band as a duo of Gibb and Barton. It was this line-up that would give the band its biggest chart success.

The duo played the northern clubs using pre-recorded backing tracks. Initially they used the name Lace, but soon reverted to Black Lace and recruited a new manager, John Wagstaff. They released the single "The Birdie Song" under the name Busby in 1981, recorded at Neil Ferguson's Woodlands recording studio in Castleford. However, the record was beaten to the charts by a recording of the song by The Tweets.

Black Lace's 1983 "Superman" single was released on manager Wagstaff's own Flair label, and a promotional video was shot at Casanova's nightclub in Wakefield. One of the hired dancers was the then unknown singer Jane McDonald. "Superman" reached #9 in the UK chart, but an attempt at a follow-up single "Hey You" failed to reach the chart. Black Lace received a silver disc for sales of "Superman," toured Denmark with Danish stars Laban and Snapshots, and secured a product endorsement deal with the Bose Corporation.

The band's biggest success came in 1984 with the single "Agadoo" selling over one million copies worldwide, and reaching #2 in the UK chart. "Agadoo" was also a hit in Europe, South Africa and Australia. Having been presented with a gold disc for sales in the UK, the duo recorded its first album Black Lace at Stuck Ranch Studios in Denmark. Around this time their record distribution company went into receivership, leading to Black Lace and Flair Records losing hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid royalties for "Agadoo".

The band's follow-up single was "Do The Conga", written by Peter Morris, who had also penned the Eurovision song "Mary Ann". "Do The Conga" reached #10 in the UK chart, and their album Party Party - 16 Great Party Icebreakers sold over 650,0000 copies in the first five weeks, reaching double platinum status, and leading to the band doing TV shows in Germany, Luxembourg, France and Denmark.

In 1985, the BBC proclaimed that Black Lace was the world's hardest working band — performing more than 65 shows a month — but the punishing schedule meant that the group's equipment truck was involved in several accidents, and Black Lace chartered a private plane to meet TV schedules. As the strain began to show and rifts formed, Barton, Gibb and the road crew stayed in separate hotels. Another single, "El Vino Collapso" was released, with the video shot at the Happy Days Caravan Park in Skegness. The record reached #42 in UK Singles Chart. Further releases "I Speaka Da Lingo" and "The Hokey Cokey" got to #49 and #31, respectively.

Black Lace also participated in recording of the UK #1 hit "You'll Never Walk Alone" as part of the charity ensemble, The Crowd, to raise funds for the families of the victims of the Bradford City stadium fire.

Black Lace's second album Party Party 2 was released for Christmas 1985, and television appearances included a Black Lace special on the BBC Two rock show The Old Grey Whistle Test, plus on 3-2-1, ITV Telethon, Miss Yorkshire, International Disco Dance Championship, Pebble Mill at One and Top of the Pops Christmas Special, but the band's success led to a tax demand of over £100,000.

In 1986, Dene Michael replaced Gibb who took time out of live work with Black Lace, to concentrate on other projects. During this time, Gibb promoted Party Party with the singer and guitarist John Strike, playing two tours of Germany, after which Gibb disbanded his new act.

Barton was joined by the singer Dene Michael to continue as Black Lace. Another single, "Wig Wam Bam", reached #63 in the UK chart, but "Viva La Mexico", which was released to capitalise on the 1986 FIFA World Cup football competition, flopped when England was knocked out. Black Lace (Barton and Michael) appeared as themselves in the 1986 film, Rita, Sue and Bob Too, which featured "Gangbang" and "Have a Screw", which were recorded by Barton and Gibb the previous year. The band had a UK hit with their album Party Crazy.