Kajagoogoo had a quick rise to fame in 1983 on the strength of their signature hit “Too Shy” and their charismatic and good-looking frontman Limahl. But it all seemed to disappear almost soon after it all began. The media wrote the band off as teeny boppers – an image attributed to the boyish charm of Limahl by the band’s management. This resulted in the frontman being sacked from his band which eventually led to the “nail in the coffin” for the band. Given that the original formation of Kajagoogoo ceased to exist before my third birthday, I had no choice but to discover this band retroactively (in the late 90s to be precise) and the natural instinct was to give their signature hit “Too Shy” a spin. The fact that the song was produced by Duran Duran’s keyboardist Nick Rhodes definitely triggered my curiosity even more. When I heard the song, I remember thinking of the track as being intrinsically tied to the 80s in a way that it would not be relevant beyond that decade. Needless to say, I was not impressed, and I wrote off Kajagoogoo as “just another 80s band” that rode the new wave period and had nothing to offer me musically. This was in the late 90s.
I recently received a pre-release submission for Radio Creme Brulee’s 24/7 broadcast of a new single by the reunited Kajagoogoo (Limahl included) titled “Death Defying Headlines”. Given my experience with Kajagoogoo, I cannot say I was necessarily excited about the prospect of listening to the track – until I actually listened to the track. I remember thinking that these guys had actually succeeded in making something that was “new wave at its core” and yet modern and fresh. A part of me hopes that this song triggers a wave of more bands that make music like this. It also reaffirmed my thought that bands that formed in the 80s have a unique and powerful grasp of songwriting – even if they did not actually reach their full potential in the 80s. Needless to say, we are giving this track 4-5 plays a day on Radio Creme Brulee right now. It also rekindled my curiosity with regard to the band. Maybe I was too harsh in judging the band purely on the basis of “Too Shy”. Yet, instead of digging through their catalog, I chose to watch VH1’s “Bands reunited” episode which featured an orchestrated reunion of the band for a one-off gig in London back in 2003 and caught a snippet of a track towards the end of the show that sounded rather promising.
That track was “Hang On Now” – the first of what I hope will be a series of “80s flashbacks” that we showcase via this blog. This song definitely falls into that category of music that defines “pop perfection” – a beautiful and addictive melody, and the cool, breathy, suave, and smooth vocals of lead singer Limahl floating over slick new-wave style production. Apparently, this song was released as the follow-up single to “Too Shy” and unfortunately it tanked miserably on the charts (it was a top 20 hit in the UK though). This is just another example of American music listeners having terrible lapses in judgment when it comes to great pop music. This song definitely reminds of what is missing in a lot of today’s music. We barely hear any actual musical instruments in a lot of today’s music. With this song, you can actually hear each instrument contribute to the overall texture of the song.
Given that “Hang On Now” was released back in 1983 on Kajagoogoo’s hit album “White Feathers” at a time when MTV was its peak, it is hard NOT to talk about the song’s music video. Featuring a love story between a guy (Limahl) and a girl (that looks visibly underaged if I may say so!), the video seems to reiterate that odd mix of style and simplicity that the 80s seemed to capture the essence of very well. It leaves the viewer with a sense of escapist longing for that period – especially for people like me that are convinced we were born a decade late. Hence, without further ado, I present to you the music video for Kajagoogoo’s “Hang On Now”:
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I purchased the White Feathers LP in 1984 when I was 11, on the strength of “Hang On Now.” In LA, we had about seven music video shows and one played it semi-often, but it was rarely on radio. The lush synth chords and guitar riff still grab me. It is indeed one of my favorite songs of ALL time in any genre.
The girl in the video is underaged for a reason. It is told from her perspective as she injects herself into romantic movie scenes as the object of the matinee idol’s affection-something all girls that age do. It’s pure, innocent teen girl fantasy. The first scene evokes “Casabalnca.” But in the era of “To catch A Predator,” we get skittish when any adult male is juxtaposed with a minor female, without regard to context.
@Ty: A HUGE thanks for the comment! I got home after a long day last night and kept listening to “Hang On Now” on repeat. I am an absolute slave to those lush synth chords.
Thank you so much for providing the context around the fantasy scenes. I have to admit I did not understand the relevance of the cartoon bits but it all makes sense now that you mention it. The girl is actually the daughter of the director or his friend. Limahl told me this about two weeks ago when I interviewed him. The juxtaposition of a minor female with Limahl makes absolute sense given that she is injecting herself into romantic love scenes. People at that age rarely visualize another minor being a part of the imagery. Thank you so much!!! It is a shame this song did not get its due in the US although it was a chart hit in the UK. I do hope you enjoy our radio station and the selection of music we feature.
I was thinking how the american people attributed progressive sounding music such as this with the catch all term “new wave ” to music of this era usually recorded with some computerised elements and being fashion oriented in the uk.
From a uk point of view, it must be said from a posthumous point of view also, that to us things were and felt very different.
This music is not new wave to us, or those of us old enough and actively involved, new wave for us ended around the early summer of 1981, new wave actually meant to uk people, a late 70’s and very very early 80’s post punk sensibility. Bands such as xtc, boomtown rats, squeeze etc thats really new wave to us, but that trend and vibe really ended when british bands and producers started to produce music made with say? Linn drum or simmons drum, fairlight and emu samplers and began being heard middle of 81 for us,
As this way of making music and being highly trendy in the way of sound shaping, and a bit earlier than most record buying markets because ethnic influences also began to start to be sampled, sound wise into music in our pop charts by 82, all this was quickly wide-ening the sound pallette, i use the term sampling because this is what producers started to make normal in the uk from mid 81 onwards, as they would sample ethnic textures and oriental real sounds into our music, so the word “fairlight” and “emulator” appeared everywhere, as kids we knew what it all was,, but older people were totally confounded by this new audio revolution and terminology, my mum just couldnt get it until news at 10′ featured a man called dave stewart (not of eurythmics fame) in early november 1981, he with his partner barbara gaskin were having a no 1 with the soundscaped version of “its my party” the old leslie gore song.
Well he used an emu sampler, he explained and demo’d the newish teqnique of sound sampling to a wide audience, he’d explained the church bells sample, sliding by pitch bend, and how and why he sampled barbaras gasp! And seagulls were sampled as were other sounds for dramatic effect, they had recorded this as early as the first week of june 1981, but had to wait until october to release it as it was felt by stiff records head,, unsure how people would take this, but there had suddenly been a massive shift in a three month period of really new even weird but brilliant records released amongst the dross like medley crap that was going on over that summer rendering this style they’d created as normal so people like the human league hit with “love action”, Dollar, had a hit with “hand held in black and white” produced by trevor horn, Soft cell hit with “tainted love” a song they used the ned synclavier on for sampled strings etc, Aneka hit with “japanese boy” emu used for some ethnic oriental sounds as well as vocal sampling textures on the extended version, notably the song uses a tape loop of drums from lipps incs “how long” Visage hit with “visage” a song they’d actually recorded a year earlyier in 1980 using the fairlight sampler and newly developed simmons drum kit because richard burgess of Landscape was producing the fairlight on Visage’s album and he was co creator of the simmons hexaganol drum kit,, Toyah hit with “thunder in the mountains” a song recorded again much earlier in early may of 1981 released late september, but utilising emulator for the strings and sequenced string arrpegios and the big snare drum, a great dramatic evocative song that still slunds fab today.
These were all very polished music pieces , not to everybodys taste, and just a small snap shot of then very new music, we cant under estimate the changes that these pieces of 4 minute pop rang in to the wider pallette of music being made in the uk and indeed the world at that time, as rap was still not mature enough at that time and yet to take advantage of burgeoning technology and had a bit of a 70’s discoish ring to it, this kind of music that happened in the uk in 81′ truely transcended many things and had a bigger influence for years to come, i’d guess this would be why new wave term, was hever applied here in the uk..
Anekas was the fun one though lol.
We often here how turgid old tracks like blondies “rapture” were really ahead, i’m sorry but it wasnt, it was dated late 70’s disco with a faux white rap, thats not to say some folk did’nt enjoy it in the uk, but up against what we were hearing and putting out at the time, this truely paled in compariso and had nothing to say. i have to say we laffed at blondie, i’m sorry but it just sounded ded old fashioned to our ears at the time, we had depeche mode, adam ant, shakatak, abc, martin rushent trevor horn etc etc all pushing forward thankfully,, but your tom tom club “wordy rappinghood” was special and totally eclipsed blondie in every way possible, performed with verve style inventivness, and really ear and mind catching.
So america you did contribute greatly and talking heads was another fabulous example of music thats elegant and timeless,, devo were a lot of fun and ahead and inventive.
America we love you! And always felt thankful and grateful for your contributions to music, for we know that without you there would not have been what gifts we have been given all along and we’d never had had the opportunity to forge musical paths that opened up a world we may never yavd known if it wer’nt for you.,, Elvis! Need i say more.
Stevie wonder another of your brilliant excellent american artistes had truely pioneered sampling in pop music in 1979 on his “secret life of plants” album with brilliance and pathos he was far ahead and thanks to him, he led the way in modern recording that still resounds today if given a chance.
By 1983 in the uk, this was an every day thing it really affected all music made, the police “every breath you take” snare was a fairlight sample as was the bass, david bowie was at it with “lets dance” were he took a drum pattern originally recorded by the uk band “the associates” song “thirteen feelings” and used it as the main rythmn , but it was the likes of kajagoogoo who along with many others who quietly pionered digital recording in a commercial sense to very little fanfare in the main, as did most uk bands at that time.
The point is……. perception was changed forever about how we’d make music from 1981 onwards and along with the synthesizers used also in this field, all this changed the way we in the uk thought of commercial pop music for ever back then.
That is to say,, very quickly we were bombared with very new types of pop music very quickly, we didnt go for what you would term “adult contemporary” to us that was a bit staid and 70’s but there were exceptions from time to time, so american journalists would often, out of hand lol,, deride uk music for its fresher less mor pop sensibility and america resisted a lot of what we took for granted initially regarding all of this. Of course you had fantastic forward thinking musicians too.
British producers favoured highly polished sequenced drum machined, sample playback produced music pieces, with subtle or bombastic ethnic flavours and all usually all dance infused, recorded using new digital technology of that time etc, and there just wasnt a name we could put on it, the other side for us was indie music and brit and jazz funk infused music flavored with more natural instruments but with a more contemporary feel than what came before.
So for us in the uk, the term “new romantic” stemming from the rather serious but somewhat interesting yet po faced under ground club scene,, ended up the short term umbrella term for electronic music circa 1981 1982, until early 83 when past its peak, even brit funk could get wrongly labled by lazy journalists, but some of the artists were none to pleased of the new romantic name and wanted the terminology dropped quickly.
So us young folk in the uk had no name or real umbrella term by late 82′ except most of us actually referred to this music and the broader field quilloquiolly, as “trendies” we would, if asked of our music and fashion tribe estetic, and if asked what it was? We’d reply “i’m a trendie” so we never ever thought of this music as new wave, i still don’t as do many of my friends etc.
Example,, the human league were wrongly given the label new romantic, obviously they despised this and iterated that in fact, they were futurists! until around late 83, when style tribes in britain started to ebb away. With only old mods and skin heads remaining for a few short yrs more. Certainly in the uk by 1985 there were no new romantic new wave type styles around no matter what anybody retrospectively may think, in 1985 i thought 1981 was 20 yrs ago type of thing lol, because i and my friends were young, everything just arrived at what was refferred to as “street style” or “street”, by then in the uk, it all became main stream and commercially tied together into a trendy blandness as such with no real term other than street.
Hi nrg music being quite big at that time in the clubs, was the start of the real shift toward dance music being the catch all term,, things in 1980’s uk, just moved so very fast that by the mid 80’s nomenclature for the bigger picture of all that was happening had to just fall away as there was just too much happening until late 86 into 87′, then dance music and house and balieric and rave started to dominate the uk scene certainly by late 87 into 88. If you’d have said new wave to young person by 1988 in the uk we’d have said what? Because it just wasnt a thing to us. Young people now over here erroniously think it was because their influences are Now all american, they hear the posthumous term new wave,, but it has to be explained to them that historically it wasnt a thing over here in the sense american people would use it.
It was really 1987 in our pop culture that the term “dance music” just took over everything!! it had precedence over most everything music wise or fashion wise until recent years actually.
Heavy metal was a thing too , again it was just never referred to or thought of as “hair rock” or “glam rock” over here, the way it was referred to in america, it just didnt occur, but funny cause now i kind of see the ugly yukky hair thing with rock lol,, to us glam rock was an early to mid 70’s movement with suzi quattro, mud, the sweet and alvin stardust etal all good fun stuff.
It was very very different over here for us, so whilst in your country you referred to new wave for a long time, we just heard dance infused pop. And that became our preffered term eventually. Albeit many broader influences in uk music at that time were of course american in origin, jazz, soul, mowtown, rock and roll, its just that the wide variety of technology, y’know changing the sound of music in 83′ felt dance oriented to us in the uk.
It ended up that in the main that we called this music “dance pop” or “polished pop” because by 1983 sampling natural sounds became de riguer and also real instruments along with aforementioned technology, well we felt that it was erronious to generically umbrella everything as ” electronic” the press lazily did refer this way to any thing in britain that way or the vile “disco” which we would mock because dance was a much more modern term then, i mean you cant refer to african bambatta as disco lol?
But they’d do it and we’d be amused.
I just thought i’d point out some differences in how we thought of this music, i hope you don’t mind?, after all, the similaritys between our two cultures are much greater than the differences i feel, but my youth experience was much different in reality, to how it shaped mine and many other peoples thinkings and knowings in the uk.
Cheers.
Susan.
I was always a fan of Too Shy and I assumed that Kajagoogoo had a one hit wonder and disbanded. I was itsy bitsy when they were a thing and only learned of Too Shy when I was probably 8 or 9 and loved it instantly. Of course later in life I learned that Limahl sang the Never Ending Story theme song and learned he was once the frontman for Kajagoogoo. Of course let’s be honest, he was the best looking. Sad the story of what happened, I just learned of this last night watching VH1 Bands Reunited with Kajagoogoo and let’s face it Limahl still looks good. But whatever the case may be it was sad to see what happened to him.
I happened upon VH1 Bands Reunited when looking for a video for Hang On Now as I had just happened upon this song 2 days ago on Spotify on a suggested list based on my listening. I was instantly drawn to the song and LOVE Limahl’s voice in this one. I wish this would have made it farther than it did in the USA because this song surely deserves recognition. Def on my repeat list lately and has become my new fave some from the 80s. I hope that Limahl knows just how appreciated he was in the music world. May this song live on.
@Debee: My apologies for not responding earlier. It is a sore point for Limahl that “Hang on now” somehow got forgotten. He indicated in an interview with us that it is a song he loves performing. It continues to be regularly featured on our radio broadcast (have you tuned into our radio broadcast yet?). Meanwhile, check out our interview with Limahl from 2012 if you get a chance. Thank you for your comment!
I read somewhere that the girl in the Hang On Now video was Limahl’s sister, but I don’t have any proof of this. Maybe other people might do.
@Andy js: Confirming that the girl is not Limahl’s sister. He actually spoke about the girl in an interview that he did with us back in 2012. Here is a link to that interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jN6v5UmaOA&t=843s&pp=ygUZbGltYWhsIHJhZGlvIGNyZW1lIGJydWxlZQ%3D%3D