Limahl - Early Years and Kajagoogoo

Early Years and Kajagoogoo

Hamill was born in Pemberton, Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester in the north west of England. He attended Abraham Guest High School, in Wigan, before eventually enrolling at the Westcliff-on-Sea Palace Theatre Repertory Company. With aspirations to be an actor, Hamill toured with the company in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 1980, he was given a small role in an episode of the ITV police series The Gentle Touch playing a schoolboy. In 1981, Hamill appeared as an extra in the promotional video for Adam and the Ants' number one UK single "Stand and Deliver".

Although his acting career never really took off, Hamill also had a keen interest in music, forming a short-lived punk band called Vox Deus. Next he joined Crossword, but after a brief period left them to form Brooks with Mike Nolan. He adopted his stage name (an anagram of his surname) at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo, who were then performing under the name Art Nouveau.

The four members of Art Nouveau, the band who were yet to become Kajagoogoo, had placed an advert in the music magazine Melody Maker, asking for a 'front man who could sing and look good'. Hamill attended the audition and subsequently joined the band which was then, after some deliberation, renamed Kajagoogoo. Soon after he had joined, Limahl met Nick Rhodes, keyboardist of the group Duran Duran, while Limahl was working as a waiter at the Embassy Club in London. Rhodes agreed to co-produce the band's first single, "Too Shy".

Limahl later said: "I met Nick Rhodes and it changed my life." Kajagoogoo signed a deal with EMI (who had turned down the group before Rhodes got involved) and the single "Too Shy" was released. It went to Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and made the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band had further hits with "Ooh to Be Ah" (UK No. 7) and "Hang on Now" (UK No. 11), with their debut album White Feathers reaching UK No. 5. Their first major UK tour was attended by 60,000 people, and the final show at the Hammersmith Odeon in London was recorded and released on home video/Laserdisc (the 16-track White Feathers Tour).

In mid-1983, soon after the end of the White Feathers concert tour, the band fired him by telephone. Limahl accused the other bandmembers of being jealous of his prominence as lead singer, and was quoted in the press as saying that "I've been betrayed!", and that "I was sacked for making them a success".

Limahl later said of his sacking: "I was in utter disbelief but the overwhelming emotion was anger, mainly toward the manager at first but later as I mulled over the 'betrayal', I was especially angry at my four professional colleagues who I had viewed not only as friends but almost as family."

The band themselves stated that Limahl had become something of an egomaniac and was becoming increasingly difficult to work with.