The Jonas Brothers were an American pop rock band. Brothers Joe, Kevin and Nick Jonas formed in early 2005. After being signed to Columbia, the brother considered the name ‘Sons of Jonas’ before settling on the name ‘Jonas Brothers’. After several tours, opening for artists like Backstreet Boys, Kelly Clarkson and the Veronicas, their debut album ‘It’s about time’ was released in August 2006. It was a limited release of only 50,000 copies. Because Columbia weren’t interested in further promoting the band and the album, the Jonas Brothers switched labels a year later to Hollywood Records. In March 2007, their song Kids of the future, a version of Kim Wilde’s Kids in America, was released on the soundtrack album of Meet the Robinsons. The Disney Channel actively promoted the band throughout the year, whereas their second self-titled album (also including ‘Kids of the future’) was released in August 2007. The Jonas Brothers kicked off their ‘Look me in the eyes tour’ on January 31, 2008 in Tucson, Arizona. They performed several new songs on the tour that were slated to be on their third studio album, ‘A little bit longer’, released in August 2008.

In the summer of 2008 they also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock and its sequel, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. They also starred as Kevin, Joe, and Nick Lucas, the band JONAS, in their own Disney Channel series JONAS, which was later re-branded for its second season as Jonas L.A. The show was eventually cancelled after two seasons.

Their fourth album, ‘Lines, vines and trying times’ was released in June 2009. After a hiatus during 2010 and 2011 to pursue solo-projects, the group reconciled in 2012 to record a new album, which was announced in early 2013 with the title ‘V’. On October 9, 2013, the group cancelled their highly anticipated comeback tour days before it was slated to start, citing a “deep rift within the band” over “creative differences”. Three weeks later, the group confirmed that they had split and ‘V’ was not going to be released, although some tracks were actually made available to fans as part of an album that also featured live tracks.

This band’s initial line-up featured Calvin Hayes (born 1963; keyboards/drums), Mike Nocito (born 5 August 1963, Wiesbaden, Germany; guitar/bass) and Clark Datchler (vocals/keyboards), the son of former Stargazer Fred Datchler.
The connection between all four was RAK Records. The label was owned by Hayes’ father, Mickie Most. Thornalley co-wrote the original single, ‘Me and my foolish heart’ that failed in 1986, but he could not front the band as he was producing Robbie Nevil. Hayes brought in ex-Hot Club team-mate Datchler. ‘Shattered dreams’ (the Datchler-penned follow-up) was a UK Top 10 hit during 1987 and also fared well in the USA. Three further Top 20 hits followed during the next year: ‘I Don’t Want To Be a Hero’, Turn Back the Clock and ‘Heart of Gold’. The group’s first album topped the UK charts.

Calvin Hayes was also responsible for drums on Kim Wilde’s debut album, and they’ve been good friends eversince. In 1988 they developed a relationship that went on for a couple of years. Rumours that Calvin Hayes was to marry Kim Wilde in 1989 soon proved to be unfounded.  Some sources even stated that Calvin spread the rumour himself in an attempt to save his band.

This attempt failed, because Johnny hates Jazz could not overcome the departure of frontman Datchler. He was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Phil Thornalley (born 5 January 1964, Worlington, Suffolk, England; vocals/guitar). The band’s second album, ‘Tall stories’ was released in 1991. Kim Wilde, who had done backing vocals on Turn Back the Clock, was recruited for backing vocals on the tracks Your Mistake and Closer. A month before the release of the album, the group was involved in a car accident. Calvin Hayes was in a body cast for a year, and was only able to play music in 1995. By then, the group had disbanded as a result of a lack of commercial success of the album.

Calvin Hayes got into freelance production and real estate. Mike Nocito produced the Katrina and the Waves 1997 Eurovision hit ‘Love shine a light’ and Phil Thornalley had a lot of success when he wrote ‘Torn’, a worldwide hit for Natalie Imbruglia.

Johnny hates Jazz eventually reformed as a duo (Datchler and Nocito), to release the album ‘Magnetized’ in 2013. After a re-release of ‘Turn Back the Clock’ (featuring newly recorded acoustic versions of the songs on the album), the album ‘Wide Awake’ was released in August 2020.

Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers were an 80’s novelty pop music act. Jive Bunny’s three number one hits were ‘Swing the mood’, ‘That’s what I like’ and ‘Let’s party’. All three songs used sampling and synthesisers to combine pop music from the early rock and roll era together into a medley. The results were somewhat like the earlier act Stars on 45, who actually hired ‘sound-alike’ singers and musicians to recreate the music from scratch.
Each song used a sampled instrumental theme to join the songs together, in much the same way as dance music megamixes. ‘Swing the mood’ used Glenn Miller’s famous ‘In the mood’ (a recording dating back to 1939). It was no. 1 for 5 weeks on the UK singles chart in 1989.
‘That’s what I like’ featured the theme music from the television police drama Hawaii Five-O, while ‘Let’s party’ used ‘March of the Mods’ (also known as the Finnjenka Dance). Both these tracks made number 1 in the UK as well.

Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers were in reality a father and son DJ team from Hetton near Sunderland in South Yorkshire. The original idea was from Les Hemstock on the DJ-only Mastermix DJ service. Andy Pickles (the son) then became the front man largely on his own. John Pickles (the father) was never actually in the band, but the owner of the label and effectively the manager. They have continued to work under the name, but with less chart success. Andy Pickles later went on to found hard house record label Tidy Trax with fellow DJ Amadeus Mozart.

The album ‘Ultimate 80s party’ (2001) contained their version of Kim Wilde’s Kids in America.

Kim about Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers

When asked whether Jive Bunny was allowed to do a cover version of one of her songs, Kim Wilde replied: ‘I would protest against that. Jive Bunny is just out to make fun of everybody. I don’t feel I should be part of that.’ (1)

Interview source

(1) Kim Wilde seeks contradictions In: Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium), 1990.

Jean-Claude Petit was born in Vaires-sur-Marne (France) on 14 November 1943. After accompanying jazzmen in his childhood, Petit went to the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied harmony and counterpoint. He did the string arrangements for Mink DeVille’s Le Chat Bleu album, as well as orchestrating the backing parts to some French pop singles in the mid-to-late 1960s, including those of Erick Saint-Laurent and yé-yé girls Christine Pilzer and Monique Thubert. In 1973 he composed ‘La Leçon de Michette’, a short song which became famous in Italy after having been used for the soundtrack of a well-known TV ad from 1973 to 1976.

Besides releasing many albums under his own name, he also performed with the so-called Jean-Claude Petit Orchestra, releasing several volumes of ‘Dance and mood music’ during the Seventies, and the LP ‘Stars’ in 1981. That album featured a synth-based instrumental version of Kim Wilde’s Kids in America, as well as several other hits from that year.

Born as Michael Joseph Jackson, 29 August 1958, Gary, Indiana (USA). He started performing at the age of four, and joined the Jacksons, together with his brothers, at the age of 11.

The Jacksons

The Jackson Five were signed to Motown Records at the end of 1968; their early releases, including chart-toppers ‘I Want You Back’ and ‘I’ll Be There’, illustrated a remarkable maturity.

Solo

Michael Jackson’s first release as a solo performer was the aching ballad, ‘Got to Be There’, a major US and UK hit. A cover of Bobby Day’s rock ‘n’ roll novelty ‘Rockin’ Robin’ reached the top of the US charts in 1972, while the sentimental film theme ‘Ben’ repeated that feat later in the year.

As the Jackson Five’s sales slipped in the mid-’70s, Michael’s solo career was put on hold, and he continued to reserve his talents for the group after they were reborn as the Jacksons in 1976. He also played a starring role in the film musical The Wiz, collaborating on the soundtrack album with Quincy Jones.

Off the wall

Their partnership was renewed in 1979 when Jones produced ‘Off the Wall’, a very successful album which introduced the world to the adult Michael Jackson. The album topped the charts in the UK and USA, and contained two number 1 singles, ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’ and ‘Rock With You’.

Thriller

In 1982 ‘Thriller’, Michael’s second album produced by Quincy Jones, was released. In purely commercial terms, no other album has ever made such an impact on the record industry, it remains the most successful album of all time, having sold more than 100 million copies. It produced a run of enormous hit singles, each accompanied by a promotional video that widened the scope of the genre.

Bad

After ‘Thriller’, Michael Jackson seemed unable to come up with new material. A few years of silence was finally ended by the release of his third solo album ‘Bad’ (1987), his last collaboration with Quincy Jones. It produced seven Top 10 singles, among them the title track. The album still sold many millions of copies, but couldn’t be as successful as Thriller. Michael Jackson undertook a lengthy world concert tour to promote ‘Bad’, utilizing stunning visual effects to capture the atmosphere of his videos. The European leg of this tour featured Kim Wilde as opening act. Kim, who was having her own substantial success with the album Close, appealed to a whole new audience which won her even more fans. The video for You Came was shot during the tour, with some scenes filmed during her live performance in Berlin.

Dangerous

In 1989, Jackson published his autobiography, ‘Moonwalk’, which offered little personal or artistic insight; neither did the alarmingly expensive feature film which accompanied it, and which only emphasized his otherworldly image. The long-awaited new release ‘Dangerous’ came in 1992 and it was another big success. Up until 1992 his refusal to undergo in-depth interviews has allowed the media to portray him as a fantasy figure, a hypochondriac who lives a twilight existence cut off from the rest of the world. He attempted, and succeeded to a degree, with a carefully rehearsed interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1992. The televised programme was shown all over world, during which, viewers saw his personal funfair in the back garden, and watched as Jackson spoke of his domineering father.

History

Michael Jackson continued to be one of the best selling artists in the world ever, although by this time his image has been damaged by continuing rumours of sexual abuse with children, triggered by a near-lawsuit in 1994 when the son of a dentist who was apparently in financial troubles testified to having been harassed by Jackson. This matter was settled out of court, which made rumours worse. Jackson hit back at vicious press reports with some songs on the ‘History’ album, a combined set of one compilation CD and one CD of new songs. A remix album called ‘Blood on the Dancefloor’ was released in May 1997.

Invincible

After a silence of a few years, the album ‘Invincible’ followed, but this album didn’t achieve the level of success its predecessors had. Michael’s career was further hindered by repeated allegations of child abuse. This resulted in a high profile court case in 2005. Jackson was acquitted by the jury from all ten charges.

This is it

In July 2008, after three years out of the spotlight, Jackson announced a series of concerts at London’s O2 Arena. Seventy-five thousand tickets sold in four hours when they went on sale in March 2009. Entitled ‘This is it’, the set of concert would span 50 dates between July 2009 and February 2010. However, the concerts would never actually take place. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Jackson died on 25 June 2009 from cardiac arrest in his house in Los Angeles.

Kim about Michael Jackson

It happened in Germany. Just after my concert some people from the crew asked me whether I would like to go to Michael’s dressing room. Of course! I went in for five minutes. Michael was very sweet and said he was happy to meet me. I thanked him for the opportunity he gave me and he put my arm around me. That was all. After that he went on stage and did a fantastic performance. (1)

I have rarely met him. The control, the lack of access, it has all worked deterring on me. I was impressed by the professionality on stage, nothing was left to chance. Privately Michael is really a normal person: very courteous, nice, but reserved. I got the impression that things get on his nerves. I wouldn’t like to swap places with him. (2)

I just get really upset when I read all this crap in the newspapers about me being snubbed by Michael Jackson. I have met him and he’s really sweet. We haven’t sat and had an in-depth conversation or anything, but I hope that I’ll get to see a bit more of him during the rest of the tour. I really won’t hear a bad word said about him. The adverse press I read about him I find personally very repulsive. All I can say is that the person I met was very sane, very normal, very sweet and very lovely. He had a gorgeous smile and you can tell a lot about a person by the way they smile. (3)

Some people have said I wasted the opportunity, that if I had played my cards right I could be over in Los Angeles recording with him. But it wasn’t like that. And it wasn’t my intention. We never even got to know each other properly. Why should we? It often happens that artists tour together without their paths crossing. (4)

About Jackson I mainly remember that he totally closed himself off from the world. And another thing: my little brother and sister were visiting me when we played in Rotterdam. They spent over two hours with Jackson in his dressing room, whereas I almost didn’t see them. Jackson apparently only felt at easy in the company of children. (5)

Interview sources

(1) Kim about her Jackson adventure, Hitkrant (Netherlands), 20 August 1988
(2) Snapshot: Kim Wilde, Popcorn (Germany), 1988
(3) Kim Wilde, Smash Hits (UK), 1988
(4) Wilde child, Sunday Mail Magazine (UK), 1 August 1990
(5) The Michael Jackson experience of Kim Wilde, De nieuwe Panorama (Belgium), 2 November 1995