4. Bizarre Inc – I’m Gonna Get You
I played my first gig in the autumn of 1992. Myself and my fellow bandmate Karina told our army of loyal fans (Helen, Emma, Helen and Emma’s little sisters, and Helen and Emma’s little sisters’ two mates) to assemble at the edge of the playground by the netball court post at afternoon break. Our audience waiting with baited breath, we plunged into our first* number: ‘Eskimo’. An insightful ballad regarding the plight of the Inuit it was not. It was in fact a rendition of Bizarre Inc’s highest charting hit sung near-verbatim, with the odd shout of “Ehhhh-skeee-mo-oh-oh-oh” over the instrumental parts, and the phrase “I’m gonna get you yes I am” replaced with “I’m gonna get you ESK I am“. We had rehearsed our dance moves all through morning break and lunchtime, and managed to hold the attention of a gaggle of seven-year-olds for at least three minutes.
It seems we weren’t the only small children inspired to emulate the Inc. Here’s a clip of Britney and the Mickey Mouse Club giving it some ballet. Their performance may be more choreographed than mine and Karina’s playground effort but we managed to do ours without the backing track, IN YOUR FACE Disney.
Amid a sea of sampled-vocal dance, Bizarre Inc stuck to their formula (‘live’ but still repetitive vocals, insistent man shouting a daft sentence every so often, as few different musical sections as possible) – and by getting in Angie Brown to up the general meaty yelling levels on ‘I’m Gonna Get You’, they successfully ignited the musical spark within two hitherto innocent schoolchildren.
Understandably I overplayed this track a lot when I first received Rave ’92 some months later, and took to thinking less fondly of the opening few bars as a result. However, patience pays off and as soon as the intro backing drops out, the “Yo-DJ-Pump-This-Party!” call to arms instantly restores one’s faith in warm, string-heavy piano house. The extra slice of pop silliness is as rave as anything, and earns Bizarre Inc a place on this compilation.
Watch Bizarre Inc’s (sadly truncated) TOTP performance of ‘I’m Gonna Get You’ on Youtube
*Our second song was a version of ‘Gypsy Woman’ by Crystal Waters, but with “la da dee la da da” changed to “la da poo la da poo-poo“, whilst doing victory-V signs to show that we were genuine hippies. This hilarious interpretation alas caused Emma’s little sister to run off and tell the teacher that we were ‘swearing’, and our set was criminally cut short by the authorities.