Time Uk - 'One More Time' - Jan 2003
In early 1983 the first member of The Jam to emerge from the ashes that had become of that legendary English band, was drummer Rick Buckler.
His first decision, after their farewell tour, was to start looking around for songwriters to work with. Not that this was too difficult as unsolicited demo tapes dropped through his door on a daily basis. One of these came from Ray Simone who in turn suggested his Master Switch band mate Jimmy Edwards. This wasn't the first time the singer had been recommended so Rick asked Ray to arrange a meeting.
Until this time Jimmy had been working with bands such as The Pretenders, Sham 69 and the song writing duo Godley & Crème, who had assisted his solo career. Edwards and Buckler formed an immediate bond, agreed to put a band together and Time UK was created. The following few months were occupied by song-writing, the search for professional representation, a record deal and the small matter of finding the required remaining band members. Word went out and the subsequent auditioning process brought in Danny Kustow from the Tom Robinson Band and Nick South of both the Yoko Ono Band and Steve Marriot's All Stars. Later, guitarist Danny returned to TRB and was replaced by Fletcher Christian.
In April 1983, Rick & Jimmy took the band out on a minor tour and the reviews were very good. So good that they were approached by Red Bus Records who offered to release debut single The Cabaret. Unfortunately a mix up by the promotional team lead to a prime time TV appearance being aired three weeks after the record had slipped out of the charts, denying the band vital promotion that may have lead to a top ten debut single. This, coupled with Rick being refused access to The Jam Fan Club, led to hundreds of thousands of would be fans not even knowing about the release. As it was, nearly 60,000 copies were sold, enough these days to take it to number one, but not quite enough in 1983.
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Despite the setbacks, the success of The Cabaret alerted the attention of major record label Arista who signed the band up and released their following singles, the Tony Visconsi produced Playground of Privilege and You Wont Stop. Moderate success followed, particularly on the live scene, but as public interest in New Wave type guitar bands & sounds gave way to the New Romantic synthesised movement, so popular in the mid 1980's, band members started pursuing other projects. Fletcher moved to a New York studio after finding work as a sound engineer and Nick emigrated to Los Angeles, marrying the daughter of former Labour Chancellor Tony Crossland in the process. Ray Simone moved into the merchandising side of the business, Rick bought Arkentide Recording Studio's in Islington, North London, and Jimmy Edwards had a studio built in Surrey which he used helping under privileged children and producing charity records. In 2001 the missing master tapes were recovered and Rick & Jimmy were persuaded to release a compilation album of all Time UK recordings. Digitally remastered by Phil Collins' technical assistant & studio engineer Geoff Cunningham, the rights were quickly snapped up by Detour Records leading to the release of this complete Time UK collection, One More Time. |
Each of the three singles, The Cabaret, Playground of Privilege and You Won't Stop appear in chronological order immediately followed by its corresponding B side. Things We Love the Best, originally flip side to You Won't Stop appears here as Further From Heaven. Sunday Mood has turned up on several Mod compilation albums and the remaining three, Nora's Diary, In This Land and Two Sides, all popular live tracks, are released for the very first time.
The final four tracks of this compilation, Sunday Mood, Entertain Me, So Say Hurrah & The Next Generation were recorded at Rick's new studio, after most of the original band members had embarked on new projects, by a trio made up of Jimmy, Rick and his former rhythm section partner Bruce Foxton. These recordings were released at the time as a limited edition under the band name Sharpe but are included here as they are essentially Time UK songs.
So sit back now and enjoy one of the last of the great New Wave bands from the mid 1980's.
Graham Willmott - October 2002
TRACKLISTING:
1. The Cabaret
2. Remember Days
3. Playground of Privilege
4. Puppets Don't Bleed
5. You Won't Stop
6. Further From Heaven
7. In This Land
8. Nora's Diary
9. Two Sides
Sharp.....
10. Sunday Mood
11. Entertain Me
12. So Say Hoorah
13. Next Generation