Everything about Go West Band totally explained
Go West are an
English pop duo, formed in
1982, by
Peter Cox (born
17 November 1955, in
Twickenham,
London,
England); and
Richard Drummie (born
20 March 1959, in Twickenham, London, England). While they've had many successful singles in their native
U.K., they're generally best known in
America for their
hits "King of Wishful Thinking" and "Faithful."
Musical career
Go West quickly had a publishing deal and possessed a
portastudio, but lacked a band or recording company. Cox and Drummie decided, with support from
John Glover, their
manager, to find a
musical producer, and
record just two of their
songs. The tracks "
We Close Our Eyes" and "
Call Me" found Go West developing a
record deal with
Chrysalis Records. The
songwriting duo specialised in
radio friendly, white
soul sounds.
The band's debut
single, "
We Close Our Eyes," was released in 1985 and managed to reach Number 5 on the
UK Singles Chart, and #41 on the
Billboard Hot 100. The
video for the song became an early favourite on
MTV. This helped them to be voted the "Best Newcomers" at the
1986 Brit Awards. The song was part of the
soundtrack for the
Italian low-budget horror
film Demoni, also known as
Demons. The single would prove to be their highest-placing
UK single, and only appearance in the UK
Top Ten.
The band's self-titled debut album was released in 1985 as well. It included "We Close Our Eyes" and "Call Me" as well as "
Don't Look Down," which served as the prequel to what would be the band's first
top 40 hit in the
U.S.. The album itself wasn't only very successful in
Britain but also moderately successful in America. A remix album, titled
Bangs and Crashes was released later the same year.
In
1987, the band released the proper follow-up to their debut,
Dancing on the Couch. Although several singles were released from the album, its success paled in comparison to the first album, particularly in the U.S. Ironically, it did yield the band's first American
top 40 hit with the single "Don't Look Down (The Sequel)," a continuation of the track "Don't Look Down" from the debut album.
In 1990, Go West finally broke through to American audiences in a big way, when they scored a Top 10 U.S.
hit with the song "
King of Wishful Thinking" from the
movie,
Pretty Woman. Unlike many hits from
soundtracks of major movies that are written by outside songwriters and merely performed by a musical artist, "King of Wishful Thinking" was actually written by Cox and Drummie themselves (in collaboration with
Martin Page). In 1991, the song received an
ASCAP award for being one of the most played songs in America the previous year.
In 1992, the band released the
Indian Summer album, which included "Faithful," another big hit in the U.S., peaking at #14. This track later received airplay recognition awards in the U.S. (in both
1992 and
1993) as well.
In
1997, Peter Cox took a break from Go West to release his self-titled first solo album. He has gone on to release several more solo albums into the
2000's. His most recent album,
Motor City Madness was released in 2006.
Go West are touring and rumour has it that a new album will be wrapped up in the studio on 14th May 2008 and released soon afterwards.
Trivia
- Peter Cox was quickly brought in to replace Then Jerico's Mark Shaw on ITV reality TV show Reborn in the USA when Shaw stormed off the series in the first few days of the show's tour. Even though he'd success as part of Go West, he was able to go on the show as none of his solo singles had found success in the United States. He was tipped to be one of the finalists, along with Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet and Elkie Brooks, until he forgot the words to the Norah Jones hit he was singing at the time.
- In February 2006 Drummie went on a charity trek to the summit of Mount Roraima with Spandau Ballet's Hadley and Martin Fry from ABC. He spent most of his free time shopping and whittling a six-foot long branch into the "Drummie" stick. (External Link
)
- Go West guitarist Alan Murphy later joined Level 42, and has been Kate Bush's session guitarist as well.
- Their song "Call Me" was featured in the video game, on Flash FM, and can also be heard in the Malibu Club. It was also featured on the closing credits of an episode of the BBC One comedy, I'm Alan Partridge.
- One of their songs entitled, "One Way Street," was featured on the Rocky IV motion picture soundtrack in 1985. This song was written for the movie, at the request of Sylvester Stallone.
- The "Dancing on the Couch" album was released late as the band's computer system crashed, losing most of the music they'd recorded up to that point.
Discography
Albums
| Year |
Title |
UK |
U.S. |
Label |
| 1985 |
Go West |
8 |
60 |
Chrysalis Records |
| 1985 |
Bangs and Crashes |
- |
- |
Chrysalis Records |
| 1987 |
Dancing on the Couch |
19 |
172 |
Chrysalis Records |
| 1992 |
Indian Summer |
13 |
154 |
Chrysalis Records |
| 1993 |
Aces and Kings - The Best of Go West |
5 |
- |
Chrysalis Records |
| 2001 |
Live at the NEC |
- |
- |
Blueprint Records |
| 2004 |
Tony Hadley vs. Peter Cox & Go West |
- |
- |
Blueprint Records |
Singles
Peter Cox solo releases
1997 Peter Cox - Chrysalis Records UK # 64
2001 Flame Still Burns (EP) - Blueprint Records
2002 Nine Miles High (EP) - Blueprint Records
2004 Desert Blooms - Blueprint Records
2004 Tony Hadley vs Peter Cox & Go West - Blueprint Records
2005 Game For Fools (EP) - Blueprint Recording Corporation Ltd
2006 Motor City Music - Curb RecordsFurther Information
Get more info on 'Go West Band'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://go_west__band.totallyexplained.com">Go West (band) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
