Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip - I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper

Thanks to one of my TV heroes, Kenny Everett, this is where the Hot Gossip story began. Hot Gossip were a dance troupe that were more sexy with the clothes and moves than what Legs & Co were off Top Of The Pops. Kenny Everett had the dancers on his show and used them in odd sketches and because they were mostly gorgeous women, they became well known and talked about certainly at my school and no doubt loads of other schools around the UK in 1978.

Sarah Brightman was in her late teens when she was in the dance group and also was the one who could sing. To cash in the their popularity and of the disco boom they released this camp single I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper and was written by the two guys who were known in the UK as Typically Tropical who got to number one with Barbados in 1975. The song was a tongue in cheek name checking reference to Star Wars, Close Encounters, Star Trek, Flash Gordon and plenty of innuendo for good measure. The song did well and reached number 6 in the UK charts.

They tried to follow up the single with The Adventures Of The Love Crusader but it didn't do that much. Not long after that Sarah Brightman left Hot Gossip to concentrate on her singing career which was to scale enormous height over the next few years. A great song from an amazing show, here's the single

Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up

Bucks Fizz were chosen to represent the UK in the Eurovision song contest in 1981. They were put together in January of 1981 by the writers of Making Your Mind Up just for the contest and followed the old pattern (after Abba) of 2 boys and 2 girl format. The band members were Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker (who had previous Eurovision contest experience as she was in the band Co-co who were the 1978 entry for the UK), Jay Aston and Bobby G.

The song was released on RCA Records and when the contest was staged the single was already number 2 on the UK charts. Complete with a good tune and a memorable skirt ripping dance routine, they won the contest and the single went to number 1 in the UK. It also was number 1 around several countries in Europe too, but the hardest thing was to continue after the contest without slipping into obscurity which they managed as the next single charted. In all the band were successful around the world, had 3 UK number 1 singles and are still touring today, but as two separate groups after years of legal wrangles. Here's the cover, sorry had trouble loading photo's in for some reason!

Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free

Released in the hot summer of 1976, Candi Staton scored a huge hit with this song which was from the up and coming disco era of the 70's. Candi, originally was a gospel singer who toured the churches before setting out on a solo career. She teamed up with writer David Crawford and hit number 2 in the UK charts with this song. The lyrics may be of a down trodden subject matter but it was set to an upbeat track to dance to. She had another couple of UK hits before disappearing till the early 80's when she scored with a cover of Suspicious Minds and later again in the 90's with the classic dance track You Got The Love. Today she is still touring and singing on the gospel circuit.

Sinead O Connor - Troy (The Phoenix From The Flame)

This could be my all time favourite Trance track, strange concidering it wasn't originally a dance track and I didn't really like the original

The original just simply called Troy was released in 1987 off her debut album The Lion And The Cobra, but never charted here. It would be her next single Mandinka that would make her a popular name (sometimes for all the wrong reasons)

So jump forward into 2002 and dance music is huge thanks to the DJ culture and Trance was still around from the end of the 90's. Someone had the great idea to have the track remixed and brought in German producer Push. He remixed the song to an amazing dance track, complete with echo on her voice and turned it into an awesome track. It got to number 48 on the charts but managed to top some of the club charts. It was released on a CD single and a remix 12'' single. I caught the track by accident one night channel surfing through the music channels. Check it out on Youtube and play loud!