Blue Rondo a la Turk

  • Blue Rondo a la Turk
  • The Heavens Are Crying (UK Diable Noir/Virgin) 1981 
  • Chewing the Fat (UK Diable Noir/Virgin) 1982 
  • Blue Rondo
  • Bees Knees and Chickens Elbows (UK Virgin) 1984 
  • Too Soon to Come (UK Virgin) 1986 

It shows you how far and fast new wave traveled: five years earlier, Chris Sullivan might have been screaming lyrics in a punk band; in 1980, he could have been skanking in front of some neo-ska bunch. But in 1982, he was singing in a quasi-salsa/cool-jazz group wanting, in his words, to bring back show biz.

Using a number of big name producers (Langer and Winstanley, Godley and Creme, Mike Chapman), the multi-ethnic London-based ten-piece turns in solid performances on Chewing the Fat. But why bother settling for imitations when you can get the originals? (Sullivan did paint an attractive neo-Cubist album cover, though.)

[Jim Green]