Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Sigue Sigue Sputnik are a British New Wave band who became famous in early 1986 with the song Love Missile F1-11. They created a unique style of New Wave music filled with sound effects and with futuristic lyrical themes of war, sex, and dehuminisation that rarely seem to make obvious sense.
Led by former Generation X bassist Tony James, the original line-up also featured Martin Degville, Neal X (Whitmore), Chris Cavanagh, and Ray Mayhew. While searching for members, in 1983 Tony James invited Andrew Eldritch from the then up-and-coming The Sisters of Mercy, and tried out Annie Lennox, unfamous back then. "She had a brilliant voice but I didn't want a girl singer. One of the songs we jammed together surfaced years later as a huge hit for the Eurythmics", remembers Tony James.
The band was also known for their outlandish appearance, which included towering, multicoloured mohawk hairstyles, and multiple piercings, as well as gender-bending clothing made of plastic, rubber, fishnet, chains and other materials. Unsurprisingly, they were nicknamed "Sick Sick"
The band famously auctioned for advertising spaces between the tracks on their first album 'Flaunt It!' (released in 1986). Advertisements that did sell (including spots for iD Magazine and Studio Line from L'Oreal) were complemented by spoof ads.
The group split soon after the release of their second album, Dress for Excess. "We couldn't sustain this pretend bastardized version of Sputnik", explains Tony James who also blamed media for bands fall from grace.
Tony James went on to become a member of The Sisters of Mercy in 1989-1991. Chris Kavanagh went on to Big Audio Dynamite.
Tony James reformed the band twice, albeit without all the original members: once in the 1990s and once again in 2001 with Martin Degville and Neal X releasing Piratespace. They continue to play live, and have also produced a number of remixes of other artists' work.
Discography
- Flaunt It -- 1986
- Dress for Excess -- 1988
- First Generation -- 1992
- First Genereation - Second Edition -- 1997
- The Ultimate 12 -- 1998
- Sci-Fi Sex Stars -- 2000
- Pirate Space -- 2001
- 21ST CENTURY BOYS -- 2001
- Blak Elvis -- 2002
- Fin de Siecle - This is what I Like -- 2003
- Ultra Real -- 2003