Comments on: HOT CHOCOLATE – “So You Win Again”

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:57:51 +0000

Not the best-remembered of Hot Chocolate’s many hits, but still really exciting: http://drunkennessofthingsbeingvarious.blogspot.com/2011/01/hot-chocolate-dont-stop-it-now-1976-no.html

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:27:51 +0000

Hot Chocolate didn’t release an album until 1974 – four years after their first hit! Cicero Park starts with the dark title track – “life is dying out, in Cicero Park it’s dying out” – and is followed by the super-minimal, strings and siren-led Could’ve Been Born In The Ghetto. The first time I played it I thought, well, here’s a lost masterpiece. It doesn’t keep up this standard (at least one weak ballad), but it’s still well worth picking up. I think Cherry Red have been re-releasing their albums.

By: Chelovek na lune

Chelovek na lune — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:55:12 +0000

This thread has really encouraged me to go through the Hot Chocolate back catalogue – and really appreciate what a very fine band they were, and in fact what a range of styles and moods they had. (Had never heard “Mindless Boogie” before: and allfra I can say to that is: wow).

As a kid (very late 70s/early 80s) I recall seeing them frequently on TV variety shows; and sometimes I found them a bit scary, almost too primal, too sexual (the kind of smug satisfaction, hinted at above, in that line about “GIVING IT TO ME”, may have been part of it too). But aged seven I found people wearing deely-boppers on Top of the Pops terrifying, if not verging on the satanic. Perhaps I was a strange child.

But, wow, weren’t they great (and I agree that is not their finest moment) – they really deserve some reappreciation, as apart from a couple of songs, they seem to have been rather overlooked or forgotten.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:24:53 +0000

Who could forget Legs & Co’s typically literal interpretation of “Bank Robber”?

By: Mark G

Mark G — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:23:45 +0000

Darn, could have gottim there….

JStrummer did ‘appear’ when “Should I stay” made number one, and the performance was represented by a live film version.

As opposed to a Legs and co performance.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:06:30 +0000

“England’s Glory”? That was a Max Wall record (on Stiff)! I meant “England’s Irie” *sigh*…

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:54:54 +0000

That’s a single which I sometimes think that I’m the world’s sole advocate of. “We live in a land of crass hypocrisy. I’m gonna win the National Lottery. Eee-I-adio, I don’t think so”, “My wife’s lactating and I’m spectating. It’s a football thing”, etc

It’s a precise evocation of what life in England in the summer of 1996 was actually like.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:50:52 +0000

The Black Grape/Strummer thing would have been “England’s Glory,” their Euro ’96 song, and I believe the only time Strummer ever appeared on the show, miming the football commentary samples very badly indeed.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:48:46 +0000

Clunk click every dive…

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:44:48 +0000

I can remember an incident in about 1983, when – following a Madness video – Jimmy Saville warned viewers not to play electric guitars in swimming pools.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:24:50 +0000

Another favourite Pistols-on-TOTP moment – the video for “Somethin’ Else” showing Sid Vicious motorbikin’ down the Queen’s highway in his punk leathers, standing up on the pedals and looking as surly as possible. Cut to Jimmy Savile saying “of course dear old Sid wasn’t wearing a crash helmet, guys and gals, which you should always do on your motorbike…”

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:21:44 +0000

TOTP Watch: Of course, I’d forgotten, The Sex Pistols did eventually appear live in the Top Of The Pops studio, on the edition of the 28th of June 1996! They performed ‘Pretty Vacant’ and ‘New York’.

Also in the studio that week were; Everything But The Girl, The Divine Comedy and Black Grape (featuring Joe Strummer, oddly enough), plus a live performance from Toledo, Spain by Shampoo. The host was Gina G.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:56:38 +0000

A second chart-topper of for Russ Ballard, then – his first being as a member of Unit 4+2 (although he didn’t compose “Concrete & Clay”). Not a patch on Colin Blunstone’s “I Don’t Believe In Miracles” or the aforementioned “Since You Been Gone”, though.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:13:26 +0000

#75 – Mavis Smith! ‘part from that, yep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Chocolate

#77, I guess he wouldn’t sing “So you win again” though.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:53:11 +0000

Didn’t Marvin Hagler tour with them at about the time he beat the living shit out of Tony Sibson?

“It Started With A Fist…”

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:36:48 +0000

DJP – according to this:
http://www.trust-thamesmead.co.uk/folder.cfm/id/469/folderName/Hot%20Chocolate
- Errol Brown left in 1986 and the singer for the past 13 years has been one Greg Bannis.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:31:09 +0000

And they were christened as such by John Lennon since they approached him (because they wanted to make some minor changes to the lyric) and I think Lennon even arranged for their version to come out on Apple.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:29:34 +0000

of course, they started off their existance with a cover of “Give peace a chance” under the name of “Hot Chocolate Band”

.. and not “The Plasic Ono Band” as my old copy of Look-in magazine had it.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:28:20 +0000

Is Errol actually still in Hot Chocolate?

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:15:58 +0000

If you’re interested in seeing what covers Hot Chocolate do these days, get along to the Thamesmead Community Festival tomorrow (12 July) in Birchmere Park, where they’re on stage at 3.50. Also on the bill: Jaki Graham, Michelle Gayle, Booty Luv and the bloke who did Lionel Richie in “The One and Only” on BBC1!

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:27:43 +0000

The one non-compilation Hot Chocolate album that I possess has got two misjudged contemporary cover versions on it (‘Walking On The Moon’ and – bizarrely – ‘Green Shirt’) possibly indicating a desire for rock credibility. Was this sort of thing a regular feature?

By: mike

mike — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:04:10 +0000

Thinking more about HotChoc – despite their long-running TOTP residency, I guess I’ve always thought of them as outsiders in some sense. Never part of any particular scene or genre, no common cause with any other acts, never a band to “define an era” in any way – they just pootled along, changing their style to fit the times, and yet not really being part of any time at all. And I guess I’ve never had any strong feelings about them, either – they were part of the pop landscape before I started paying attention, and it just seemed as if they had always and would always be around. They were never anybody’s favourite, or even fifth favourite band, were they? Did anyone ever meet a Hot Chocolate fan? Did we ever get to read about them in the pop mags? Did we know what made them tick? Could we pick out anyone other than Errol in an identity parade? Did we know anything about them at all?

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:52:25 +0000

No. “I Wanted To Call It Off”

By: Mark G

Mark G — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:22:31 +0000

Would that be her “I’ll take a tango” which a friend told me was actually written by Alex Harvey?

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:14:10 +0000

If the reference book is to be trusted, Mike is correct. Pistols then Hot Chocolate was the climax of that week. Cilla appeared immediately before the Pistols, and immediately following the promo for ‘Give A Little Bit’ by Supertramp – Would that have nonplussed her?