From Record Collector 11/97

KATRINA & THE WAVES

ARE THE EUROVISION WINNERS STILL WALKING ON SUNSHINE? AFTER A DECADE OF ILL

HEALTH, THE SPIRIT OF PURE POP IS ALIVE AND, THIS YEAR AT LEAST, WELL.

Peter Doggett reports

               Photo copyright CGB Management 1997
 

Whatever happened to Katrina and the Waves? Not a question you need to ask after they won the Eurovision Song Contest this year. But that unexpected comeback ended a decade that Katrina can only call "grim". Feted as pure pop maestros in the mid-8O's for hits like 'Walking On Sunshine" and "Sun street", the band slowly watched their empire recede. By the early 90's, Germany was the only country in the world who wanted their records. In 1995, even the German labels didn't want them.

For a band who'd always put pop before street cred, the lack of an audience was devastating. When "Love Shine A Light" was chosen for the Eurovision shortlist, it offered the waterlogged quartet a final lifeline. "Even the chance to appear on TV again was a bonus," says lead singer Katrina Leskanich.

But the stigma of Eurovision was hard to escape. "At first, we weren't even sure if we wanted to use our name", Katrina notes. "The first time I sang 'Love Shine A Light' on TV, it wasn't with the full band. We used a couple of sessionmen. We were trying to benefit from the success but distance ourselves from it at the same time. But then when Warner Brothers offered to sign us up, they said they wanted the full group to perform it at the contest. They liked the idea of us being a credible band. Plus, we were the people who did 'Walking On Sunshine'. So what's the problem?"

"Everyone watches Eurovision, whatever they say", claims guitarist and songwriter Kimberley Rew. Everybody but one: "I'd never seen it," says Katrina. "It didn't interest me." But neither of them is embarrassed by their success. Nobody could claim that it represents the mainstream of what's happening," Rew admits, "though I did hear a story that Oasis were talking about writing a song for next year. And you can see why people are snooty about Eurovision, because historically Britain has been a powerhouse of innovation ~ But I'm not ashamed of the song, or the fact we won.

For anyone with a sense of rock history, the strangest aspect of the Eurovision win was watching Rew, a former member (alongside Robyn Hitchcock) of the ultimate Cambridge cult band, the Soft Boys, lapping up the applause of the biggest pop audience in the world. Not that he sees it that way. "The apparent cult status of the Soft Boys was purely caused by the band's commercial failure", Rew reckons. "There was nothing intrinsically cultish about the band, anymore than there was about the first Pink Floyd album. But we emerged at the height of punk, so people had a problem with us. We may have given the impression that we were appealing to a small, selective audience, but that's because Robyn didn't get the success he deserved at the time."

Unusually for bands, cult or otherwise, the original Soft Boys remain on good terms. Kimberley Rew is unstinting in his praise for Hitchcock: "Robyn was Robyn, and he was the band. It's like Elvis Costello: sometimes he's with the Attractions, sometimes he isn't, but either way he's the centre of what's happening. The standard of Robyn's work has always been amazing."

When the Soft Boys split in 1981, their U.K. label, Armageddon, offered Rew the chance to make a record - providing he used another band on the roster, American powerpoppers the dB's. "I think they felt the (dB's were our nearest American equivalent," Kimberley explained. "Chris Stamey wasn't around for the sessions, but the other members, Peter Holsapple, Will Rigby and Gene Holder, did play on the record, alongside their producer, Mitch Easter." Stamey left the dB's soon afterwards, and Rew was offered the chance to replace him, but by then he'd already joined a new band: the Waves, featuring two American expats (Katrina and Vince de la Cruz) and two British musicians (Rew and Alex Cooper).

'Kim was originally the lead singer," Katrina recalls, "but he never seemed very comfortable with the spotlight, so he started writing songs that I could sing." It's always been an unusual situation," Rew admits, "because I'm not the singer of the band, or the leader, I simply write the songs. I'm a British man; she's an American woman. I have to be aware of that whenever I'm writing a song. If I end up with something that's not right for the band, I throw it away.

After a few months as the Waves, Katrina's name was pasted on the front, "because it was a time when it was still a novelty to have a girl singer", she says. "We thought that maybe more people would come to see us if they knew there was a 'chick' in the band." When the Waves reached their lowest ebb and were reduced to touring American bases in Britain, the military reacted exactly the way you'd expect: "They shouted everything you could possibly imagine at me- 'get your clothes off', all that stuff. To them, I was that stereotype of a rock chick, so they assumed that the only reason I was there was to show them my body. Plus all they wanted to hear was REO Speedwagon and 'Freebird'. Great audiences...',

Meanwhile, this bunch of expat Americans and homegrown Brits had won a proper record deal - where else but in Canada. "The Soft Boys had been picked up by Attic in Canada," Kimberley Rew recalls, "and I think that the Waves simply inherited their contract. We were really into being this groovy little indie band - except for our music!"

"We were always a pop band," Katrina confirms. -we never approached our records with that indie mentality. We issued two albums on Attic, and it felt like we were pop stars in Canada - hey, we're big in America, even if it was North America. Then we started noticing expensive-looking executive types taking notes when we were playing."

Paisley peppers the Bangles had picked up on Rew's sardonic tune about the joys of life on the dole, "Going Down To Liverpool", and cut it for their debut album. It became an airplay hit on both sides of the Atlantic. -That's what initiated the buzz about the Waves," Katrina says. -That's the reason that Capitol suddenly decided we were worth signing."

Their American major label ploughed through the gem-like pop songs on their two Canadian albums, selected enough for one dynamite LP, and applied some judicious re-mixing and overdubs. - "we thought it was great", Katrina says. -There was no sense that we were selling out: we were a pop band, for God's sake."

Kimberley Rew reckons that it was merely a matter of waiting for the times to change, not their music. "It took us four years to have a hit," he says. "Our material was there from the start, but what people wanted in the early 80s were funny haircuts and synthesizers. We didn't set out to be different to that; we just played the kind of music we liked. 'Walking On Sunshine' was almost a pastiche of the Motown sound, and as soon as we could afford to hire a horn section - the horns from the Rumour, in fact - we put them on. If we'd had the money, they'd have been there from the start."

Duly revamped by future R.E.M. producer Scott Litt with the pop sheen that only dollars can bring, "Walking On Sunshine" became a hit single all over the world. "We'd earmarked that song from the start," Katrina says. "We always knew it would be the one."

Close behind the 1985 "Katrina And The Waves" album came another, with the imaginative title of "Waves". It repeated the sound but not the sales of its predecessor, ensuring that when the band resurfaced with "Break Of Hearts" in 1989, they were on another label, SBK.

"That was our big hair period," Katrina laughs, "when we were trying to keep the United States satisfied. SBK told us that they could see us as a stadium band, Bryan Adams style, and Kim was coming up with this stuff that was perfect for rock radio." A blatant AOR move, then, Mr Rew? "I suppose so. Insofar as it was, it wasn't a very good idea. One thing that's true about Katrina and the Waves is that we've never been successful enough to be immune from the influences of producers and marketing men. The more we fell for those 80s trademarks, the more we diluted the band."

At that point, the Waves fell off the British map, except for club gigs and the round of May balls which required them to recycle "Walking On Sunshine" while inebriated students tried to score and not vomit. "Being an innocent American," Katrina says, "I had no idea what May balls were like. We used to hide out the back until it was time to go on, then rush through our set and clear out as quickly as possible."

Though no one in this country would have noticed, the Waves didn't entirely vanish in the 90s. "Our stock was fairly low," Rew admits, 'but we have issued three albums in Germany." -Pet The Tiger" was on Virgin in 1991, with a title track co-written by Liam Sternberg, composer of the Bangles' hit "Walk Like An Egyptian". Two albums followed on Polydor, "Edge Of The Land" (1993) and "Turn Around" (1995).

"We were slipping down the ladder," Rew concedes. Katrina puts it more bluntly: -we were ignored in droves. The phone did not ring. I was in despair. People would say things to me like, 'Didn't you used to be Katrina?'. I'd be sat at home, watching TV, thinking, 'I know I'm better than this. I've got to get out there and do something.' Every time we did make a record, we'd get our hopes up, and then nothing would happen. It was so insulting to be ignored."

Though their bookings were minimal, the Waves never quite split up. But both Katrina and Kimberley did consider solo careers. "I actually got seven or eight songs into an album with Phil Thornally, who produced the Cure, the Thompson Twins and Sean McGuire", reveals Katrina. "He specialises in picking up projects that need rescuing. And I needed rescuing. Musically, it wasn't what you might expect: it was gloomier, more personal, reflecting a mid-life crisis. You know that movie Groundhog Day? I was trying to deal with every day of my life being the same, and apparently leading nowhere."

At which point the Eurovision Song Contest rose like a talisman in the mist. Second time around, Katrina knows where she went wrong: 'You have to strike while the iron's hot. That's why we're playing all over Europe, anywhere they want us. First time, we thought we'd be big forever. Now we know we have to play the game, and network with all these DJs and TV producers. Otherwise it's the standard music business thing: one minute everyone's telling you that you're going to be huge, the next you've been dropped."

With the release of "Walk On Water" on Warners, Katrina and the Waves have notched up another major label on their CV. The album revives memories of their mid-80's work, with its concentration on the irresistible pop hooks that inevitably spark memories of the 60s. Imagine a blend of Motown, power pop and Aretha Franklin, and you'll get the idea.

"This is a weird and wonderful group," says Katrina. "We're four very different people, and sometimes the teacups fly. Kim's your typical eccentric Ray Davies type; I'm just an American girl trying to make a buck." Kimberley Rew adds: "Our aim is to write and record standards. Most people don't even think in those terms." Their future's in your hands...