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.
I was a little disappointed with this track at the time as I’d loved and preferred the faster, ravier ‘Such A Feeling’ and ‘Playing With Knives’ but it won me over in the end. ‘Took My Love’ is good too (as is ‘Raise Me’ on the ‘Energique’ album). According to Discogs, Mark Archer of Altern 8 was an early member.
It was unexpected when they resurfaced a few years later with a more funk/soul sound – total change of style and pace, less thrilling but still quite poppy. Even odder is that two of the trio became Chicken Lips via a stint as Big Beat purveyors in the late 90s. I don’t suppose they ever topped ‘I’m Gonna Get You’ in a certain respect tho.
I had no idea that Raise Me was sampled in Searching For My Rizla!
If you are no good at or hate karaoke, this song is perfect. Instead of singing use the Ewing brothers style.
A spoken word
“I’m going to GET YOU baby,
I’m going to get you YES I AM”
This can be repeated, with slightly different cadences and levels of threat until your audience
a) pisses themselves laughing
b) runs away in real, actual genuine fear.
Consuming the levels of alcohol needed to achieve this “style” is not medically recommended however.
NB the Radio 1 covers alBUM suggests that the Ewing Brothers method has been highly influential on many of our nation’s major pop stars.
“I believe IN miracles…where ARE you from? you sexy THING”
Angie Brown and her, ahem “larger than life personality” used to be quite a regular on the 1990s gay club circuit – indeed, maybe she still is – and I’ve seen her do PAs on numerous occasions. Her stock in trade was to pad out the instrumental sections of the extended mixes – and particularly “I’m Gonna Get You” – with random vocal quotes from other club hits of the day (“The girls, and boys, are dancing on the floor…”), rather in the manner of the celebrated ILM thread “Y’all ready for this.”
The Todd Terry remix of “I’m Gonna Get You” which appears on the UK 12″ was widely credited as the starting point for a particular sub-genre of dance music, as popularised by London gay DJs such as Malcolm Duffy. I couldn’t give the genre a name, as it didn’t have one.
But that’s exactly why you can give the genre a name.
Well, it was sort of proto-tribal, I suppose.
I name this genre Proto-Tribal!
loveit! I prefer the faster house tracks though.
Hello party people
I want to thank all the DJs for the spins of my single Brass Disk
Yo DJ Pump This Party.
sign
Adolph Dupree: Recording Artist
#3 in the UK charts. Held off by Sleeping Satellite and End of the Road, both records I don’t mind, but would have loved this at #1.