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Fact #158695

When:

Short story:

Acclaimed indie dance combo Age Of Chance enter the UK singles chart with a cover of Prince's song Kiss. Although peaking at No50, it will prove to be their biggest hit.

Full article:

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AGE OF CHANCE?

By Johnny Black (Interviews conducted in January 00)

Neil Howson (guitar) : I had formed the band with my friend Steve Elvidge. Our tastes were formed by things like the Pop Group, Josef K, Rip Rig And Panic, and the Zee Records things. It went well for us up to the first album, which was with Fon Records, a little independent label.

It was our cover version of Kiss that attracted attention to us. Virgin America got wind of it, and it was them that persuaded Virgin in the UK to sign us in 1987.

After we signed, I think we started to worry too much about what the record company wanted, rather than sticking to our strengths. We were good at very dynamic, rhythmic stuff, but we started to get too musical. When I think about it, we really weren’t the kind of band that was going to be writing hit singles.

Jan Perry (drums) : We were one of the first indie bands to sign to a major label.

Neil Howson : At that time, once you got to the top of the indie tree, there was nothing to do except sign to a major, and that meant going from completely controlling your own destiny to working within a corporate structure that wanted a big say in what you were doing.

Steve in particular didn’t like the way things were going, so he was the first to leave.
He took off for London, and stayed for a while with one of the Sisters Of Mercy before forming his own band.

Jan Perry (drums) : Really, it was all over when Steve left. What we were about had run its course. I didn’t see him at all after he left, not because we’d fallen out or anything, just that our lives went different ways.

Geoff Taylor (bass) : We put an ad in Melody Maker, and got 600 demo cassettes sent to us from aspiring vocalists, none of which were right for us. Eventually we found Charlie Hutchinson, who had a better voice, astounding vocal presence.

Steve had written the lyrics for our second album before he left, and he let us use them, but I don’t think Charlie’s style really suited them.

Neil Howson : Charlie just didn’t really fit in with the band, and didn’t like singing Steve’s lyrics, so he moved on quite quickly to pursue solo projects.

Geoff Taylor : The real problem though, was that major labels like Virgin didn’t know how to handle indie bands in those days. It was a new development then. One moment that sticks in my mind is when Simon Draper at Virgin called us in to his office and started thumping the table about the sleeve for our second album, Mecca. We wanted to use a barcode, but he felt that was too provocative, and that customers would be confused by it. Also, they’d just closed their dance promotions department, which left us with nobody really pushing our stuff.

When we were dropped by Virgin, it was back to rehearsing in a basement again – a slightly more upmarket basement – but it still felt like we were back where we’d started. We released another indie single, Slow Motion Riot, but we were floundering. The time was past. We had worked it into the ground.

Neil Howson : By the end, we were a three piece, with Jan handling the vocals, and our last show was a rave in Roundhay Park where we played very well. It was a good way to finish.

Geoff Taylor : Since we called it quits in August 1992, I’ve done some DJ-ing and some radio presentation, and I’m the sound consultant for Opera North. I still do music though, spacey hip-hop stuff, under the name Space Pony.

Neil Howson : My dad passed away soon after the band ended, and I did various things, including music licencing, design, freelance writing for The Face, ID and others. My other big passion in life has always been football so, in 1999, I was able to combine that with my existing skills when I was offered the opportunity to work on the Leeds United club magazine. And that’s where I still am, as their Publishing Manager.

Steve Elvidge (vocals) : When I left Age Of Chance, I formed a band called Mad Love, a funky, sample-based kind of hip-hop thing, which did quite well in terms of gigs, but we never got signed. I did a lot of DJ-ing, some production work, and opened a shop called Funky Stuff, selling cool things like chopper bikes and modern furniture. I moved out to a village in the countryside near Harrogate, which is where I’ve lived ever since, and I now have three children – two boys and one girl. I recently started a job on the retail side with the phone company One To One.

Jan Perry : I got a job in wardrobe with Opera North right away, and found I really enjoyed it, and I’m also the wardrobe manager for the Theatre Studies group at Leeds University. I still love making music, and so far I’ve written the books for two musicals, with a composer, Andrew Archer. The latest one, Somewhere In Time, a science fiction thing about boy who escapes into the future, has just been staged by Heckmondwyke Grammar School in Yorkshire.