I've got hold of some videos, so let's revisit Deuce again shall we? The cult group, who were ever so slightly before their time, were formed by Tom Watkins (hello again) in 1994 and released one pop gem of an album before triumphantly disappearing off the face of the Earth. Tom set the band up after his work experience assistant Kelly O'Keefe (b. 1977) handed him a demo tape. He teamed her up with her classmate from The BRITs School in Croydon, Lisa Armstrong (b. 1978), and held auditions to find two guys - they ended up picking Nottingham-based actor Craig Young (b. 1976) and Liverpudlian Paul Holmes (b. 1979). They spent the last few months of 1994 building a fanbase for themselves by appearing on the Smash Hits tour, but they were unfortunately pipped to the title of "Best New Act" at the Poll Winners' Party by Boyzone.Below you can see their very first TV performance from Christmas 1994 on the best Saturday morning telly show of all time, Live & Kicking. This was during those crazy six months where everyone wore tartan for some unknown reason.
They released their debut single Call It Love in January 1995, which worked its way up the charts 21-19-15 before peaking at an annoying number 11. It did, however, sell an impressive 150,000 copies. Not sure what the music video was all about - they've all been put in giant baby cots. Very strange. Does anyone want to "deconstruct" it for me? Keep an eye out for 2wo Third3 and Tony Mortimer! Also check out their two TOTP performances HERE.
The second single I Need You qualified for Song For Europe, but unfortunately we will never know whether it would have won Eurovision as the public chose Love City Groove as our representative. Pre-empting the revival of the TV talent show, in the music video they perform in front of judges who all gave them 10 points. I'd have given them 12. The single entered the chart at #10 in April 1995. I've uploaded two performances from TOTP here.
Their third single On The Bible, with the lyric "if you eat my apple I'll eat yours" being written by Kelly herself, which she was ever so keen to point out to anyone who would listen, debuted at #13 in August 1995. It was accompanied by a great video filmed in a church with all four of them getting married - though they are nearly stopped by their furious manager who tries to stop the wedding as they are breaching the no marriage clause in their contract. The girls duly turned up in their wedding dresses for their appearance on Top Of The Pops.
Tom Watkins decided it was better to not renew the recording contract with London Records, and got them signed to Stock and Aitken's Love This Records, saying "it's much better for us to be associated with a hit-making label rather than one that doesn't want a pop act on its roster." Kelly was replaced with a similar looking girl called Mandy Perkins. The single No Surrender could only make it to #29 on release in June 1996 and it was the last we heard of them in the UK.
However, they plodded on for another twelve months, scoring a #27 hit in Australia in February 1997 with On The Bible, and they released this dance version of No Surrender as well as a re-packaged version of the On The Loose album.
After that, they sadly decided to call it a day. Lisa became a make-up artist, and of course went on to marry Ant McPartlin, Craig appeared in Sky One's Dream Team and more recently U.S. show Lost, and Paul became a songwriter. But what about Kelly?
Post resurrected from 16/08/07.
8 comments:
Ah, Kelly.... Sadly, she went a bit mad and had a nervous breakdown due to the 'pressures of fame.' Amanda, who replaced her was quite bland and ultimately very rubbish.
Keep up the excellent work, fella!
Hi, I'm new here. I was so excited of "Rock The Disco" mp3 but isn't it broken? I can't listen to it...
To slippydisco,
Oh kelly went mad?! That's a shame...
Wasn't Rock This Disco first on Dontstopthepop? Perhaps ask them for a working version ;-)
Do you have the WAND mix of On the Bible as an mp3? It pisses all over the original!
At the time of the London split, it was reported everywhere that it was London Records that was dumping Deuce, not the other way around. In fact, from what I recall, London Records notified the band like a week before the shooting of their fourth single... or after the video was completed (one of those two). It was then that Kelly bolted. From what I read, London had the band on a salary, apparently the same amount an employee of Mickey D's was making at the time.
Poor Amanda, she is the Jacqui O'Sullivan of Deuce. Whatever happened to Amanda?
Yeah I wondered if it was more likely they'd just been dropped. Bastards :(
I loved Deuce. They were a great band and very much deserved to have been around longer.
It's a shame if it's true about Kelly. She was gorgeous.
More information about Deuce on Wikipedia here.
Yes, kelly left when Tom Watkins managed to piss off London Records & they dropped them There was no point staying after losing london's support as Tom was such an egomaniac - it was him that had them on a miniscule wage with no prospect of ever earning any more. Remember Bros and why were east 17 never millionaires?? Tom kept it all himself. you had to be pretty stupid to stay (another day).
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