Hot Gossip

Hot Gossip
1977 publicity photo
1977 publicity photo
Background information
Years active1974–1986
Labels
SpinoffsSponooch

Hot Gossip was a British television dance troupe and recording group.

Formation

Arlene Phillips moved to London to teach American jazz dance routines, working at Pineapple Dance Studios and the Italia Conti Stage School. In 1974, Phillips started forming the core of a troupe; Italia Conti student actress Lesley Manville turned her down. Hot Gossip spent two years performing in Munkberry's club in Jermyn Street, London W1, where Phillips and manager/producers Michael Summerton and Iain Burton developed the group's act. Phillips, Summerton and Burton continued to work together for eight years.

Career

The Kenny Everett Video Show

British television director David Mallet invited Phillips to make Hot Gossip a regular feature of The Kenny Everett Video Show (Thames Television, 1978–1981). Dancers in this version of Hot Gossip included:[citation needed]

Everett moved to the BBC for The Kenny Everett Television Show (1981–1988), which featured Hot Gossip only in Season 4 (1986).

Recordings

In 1978, during their initial impact period on The Kenny Everett Video Show, Hot Gossip, featuring Sarah Brightman on lead vocals, recorded "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper", a disco song written by Jeff Calvert and Geraint Hughes. The song reached number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1981, the group recorded a cover version of Suzanne Fellini's "Love on the Phone", and the same year released the synth-pop album Geisha Boys and Temple Girls, produced by former Human League and then current Heaven 17/BEF member Martyn Ware.

The Very Hot Gossip Show

Produced by Burton and Telecast for Channel 4 in 1982, this one-hour special was one of the highest rated shows for Channel 4 that year.[citation needed]

Film appearance

The group appeared in the film The Golden Lady (1979). Members of the group appear in several scenes performing dance sequences in the Pet Shop Boys' 1987 Jack Bond-directed feature film It Couldn't Happen Here.

Style

Hot Gossip were noted for the risqué nature of their costumes and dance routines, designed and choreographed by Phillips, especially considering the early evening timeslot for The Kenny Everett Video Show.

Sponooch

In late 1979 Mark Tyme, Dom Wood, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Carol Fletcher, Lyndsey Ward, Donna Fielding and Lee Black left Hot Gossip to form Sponooch, which was featured in the BBC TV shows Friday Night Saturday Morning (1979) and Dancing Girls (6 January 1982). They signed to EMI and released two singles, "Crime Buster" and "Lady Dracula".

List of Hot Gossip members

  1. ↑ Not to be confused with the actress of the same name.
  2. ↑ Not to be confused with the actress of the same name.

References

  1. ↑ Nick Curtis (6 January 2010). "Lesley Manville's six degrees of success". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 10 January 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Craig, Olga (29 November 2008), "Sarah Brightman's hot gossip days are over", The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 3 December 2008, retrieved 4 May 2010
  3. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 78. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  4. ↑ "Arlene Phillips' Hot Gossip – Geisha Boys And Temple Girls". Discogs. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  5. ↑ "Searching for "Sponooch" on Discogs". discogs. Retrieved 26 July 2014.