Celebrating 21 years since their first hit single THE CHRISTIANS are looking and sounding better than ever ... Soul legend Garry Christian doesn't appear to have aged a day since the groups million selling self-entitled hit album entered the charts at number 2 back in 1987. Just to remind you ... the highly acclaimed album followed the success of their first 3 singles 'Forgotten Town', 'Hooverville' and 'When the Fingers Point' and produced a further two chart hits 'Ideal World' and 'Born Again' not bad for a years work!

The reputation and popularity of the band reached new heights when the group managed (unbelievably) to better the phenomenal Isley Brothers hit 'Harvest for the World' donating all proceeds to charity and confirming their position as a 'socially aware' soul group. The hits kept coming with the release of Colour in 1990 which included the haunting and beautiful 'Words' and saw THE CHRISTIANS packing massive venues such as Wembley with their impressive fan base.

Fast forward 21 years and the hits have travelled well with Garry's voice and crowd-captivating crowd skills reaching their absolute pinnacle. The new band formation which include Joey Ankrah (pitch perfect harmonies & acoustic guitar), Neil Griffiths (vocals and guitar), Lionel Duke (drums) and Cliff Watson (bass) add a fresh and easy dynamic ... making the new set up a well received and positive transition for the group.

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ABC are one of those groups who come along once a decade to effect a paradigm shift in the way music is heard and made, one of those groups who move the music forward, alert us to the possibilities of strange combination's, employ radical ideas yet never confuse arrogance with ambition.

Imagine a band from the alternative/indie sector whose idea of a dream version of pop music includes the metallic foreboding of Iggy Pop circa 'The Idiot' and the symphonic magnificence of Earth Wind & Fire circa 'I Am'; imagine the savagery of The Sex Pistols barely concealed beneath the surface of a Chic sophistication. ABC were (are) that band. They took that idea and they made it happen. Across the hit parades of several continents

This is why ABC were praised to the skies in the eighties and it is why they are still loved to this day. It is not a question of nostalgia, it is a matter of contemporary urgency. ABC are no museum piece; they are an object lesson in how to avoid the obvious. They should be on the curriculum.

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Kid Creole and the Coconuts were born out of the burning embers of the brilliant and legendary Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. August Darnell (Kid Creole) claims to have had a vision of the band in a nightmare while walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City. Born in the Bronx, Darnell is a man of multiple cultures, legends and personalities. For over 27 years Kid Creole and the Coconuts have been entertaining sellout crowds around the world. Inspired by Cab Calloway and the Hollywood films of the 30's and 40's, the Kid fills out his colorful zoot suits with style and grace, dancing onstage with his inimitable, relentless and self-proclaimed cool.

The Kid is suave, smooth, self-centered and secure. A legend in his own mind. His talent for self-adoration, though, is equally matched by his brilliance as a songwriter, social commentator, and lyricist. Occasionally shallow, occasionally deep, occasionally about his... manhood, his lyrics are often misunderstood by critics (but never by the public). Consider this British review of his 80's hit, "There's Something Wrong In Paradise" (a tale of peasants who overthrow their despot ruler only to become the same form of monsters themselves). The reviewer writes, 'Kid Creole has finally sunken to shallow depths of insipidness and plain silliness with lines like, "There's a smell of bird shit in the air..."' The actual lyric is, "There's a smell of bloodshed in the air..." But as Darnell exclaimed in another song, "You can't run away from misery - she want your company!"

The Coconuts, three dazzling damsels of divine dimension, have little tolerance for the Kid and his egotistical, sexist antics. They do not smile and the regularly ridicule the Kid onstage - shaking their hips up-and-down, side-to-side, to taunt him. When they can take it no more they walk right off the stage to console themselves the only way they know how: by a costume change into an even sexier, skimpier outfit.

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HAZEL O'CONNOR and THE SUBTERRANEANS featuring CLARE HIRST on sax

The Godiva Festival 2010 with HAZEL SINGS BREAKING GLASS LIVE

The year was 1980. The UK slid into recession and inflation stood at 18 per cent. Amid the doom and gloom - a film that captured the era precisely and made an unknown singer-songwriter from Coventry into a star. Breaking Glass launched the career of Hazel O'Connor. Now thirty years on, she's about to perform the entire soundtrack from the film live on stage for the first time. Andy Bevan Central Television

Award winning singer - songwriter HAZEL CONNOR teams up once again with THE SUBTERRANEANS and celebrated saxophonist CLARE HIRST (perhaps best known for work with Bellestars, Communards, Maxi Priest and David Bowie among others ). Here celebrating 30 years of Breaking Glass, they open the Godiva Festival with all the songs from this iconic film, live. Melding Hazel's superb vocals with stunning sax, guitars, bass and drums this is the full band sound. Hazel's ageless songs from the soundtrack including Eighth Day, Will You, Big Brother, Monsters in Disguise, Calls The Tune and Blackman, all seem even more relevant in our present times.

Hazel O Connor with her sultry vocals is no stranger to the live scene. Consistently recording and touring, Hazel took to the road with a stage show about her amazing life story, Beyond Breaking Glass. It took Edinburgh by storm in 1998 and again in 2008 and has toured the world. The impossibility of performing classic new wave songs accompanied only by the celebrated Irish harp player, Cormac De Barra, has been wooing audiences since those first shows, all those years ago. Hazel is also currently performing in an exciting new format with The Bluja Project which toured to sell out audiences earlier this year and also features Clare Hirst and the multi-talented pianist Sarah Fisher. Hazel has recorded a studio album every couple of years since Breaking Glass was released in 1980, and several live albums including Eighth Day Live In Brighton a DVD with The Subterraneans

It's all there, that voice, soaring sax, layered drums and textured guitar riffs...timeless...� Glastonbury Festival

Formed in 1998, The Subterraneans are on vocals, Tony Dangerfield (Wonderland), on guitars Mark Roberts (Chris Evans, TFI Fridays) and Andy Shortland (Doctor And The Medics, Cloven Hoof), bass guitarist Kevin Lomas (Wonderland, Roy Wood, 2-Tone Collective) and drummer Steve Tombs who has worked with all of the others at some stage.

The sturdiness and earthy expression of her voice...marvellous Hot Press

BREAKING GLASS NOW - Hazel, The Subterraneans and Clare have recorded all the Breaking Glass songs plus some bonus tracks. Available on download and the old fashioned way. Full details on the websites. Album launch in the West Midlands, of course! Thursday 25th November at The Robin Bilston

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