From Disco to Green Day – Hit Me Baby One More Time, Episode 4 by Carrie
It’s finally hit me who Vernon Kay reminds me of – Tom Welling. An older, British, slightly off kilter version of Tom Welling.
Anyway, tonight we’re going to be entertained by the musical stylings of Greg Kihn, Club Nouveau, Glass Tiger, Billy Vera (sans Beaters), and Thelma Houston. But before we get to them, host Vernon tells us what we already knew – the viewing audience disagreed with the studio audience last week, selecting Howard Jones as their favorite. No kidding. And apparently (according to some insider info) The Fixx was originally scheduled to appear this week, but for one reason or another didn’t make it. Darn.
And now on with the really big shoo. The Greg Kihn Band had a couple of hits in the 80’s, including “Jeopardy” (which later got the Weird Al treatment) and “The Breakup Song”. Tonight they’re performing “The Breakup Song”.
Greg Kihn looks like himself, but older and wider. And the man can still churn out a good rock tune, that’s for sure. The band is tight and together, and Greg’s voice is strong. A great performance to kick off the evening. They’re going to come back and hit us with Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.
Next up is Club Nouveau, which was a by-product of The Timex Social Club (anyone remember them?). They redid Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” in 1986, which became their biggest hit. They’re back tonight to perform this one for us.
As the music starts, singer Jay King says he wants to “hear everyone wave their arms” – is that like the sound of one hand clapping? All pettiness aside, this one just didn’t work for me. The harmony was way off, the voices got drowned out by the music, and the only person who actually sounded like a professional was the guy who did the chorus. It’s an old feel-good tune that should have worked, but didn’t. Club Nouveau are going to give Dido’s “Thank You” a go later on in the show.
Glass Tiger is act #3. They did very well here in Canada in the 80’s, and had a few chart hits in the US as well including “Someday” and “Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone”. Alan Frew, the lead singer, is a local celebrity here and shows up all the time at sporting events to sing the national anthem. And let me take a moment here to give a shout out to anyone who saw Glass Tiger at Gage Park in Hamilton in the summer of (I believe) 1985 – what a great show that was.
Moving on … Glass Tiger comes out, and most of the original lineup is there. Props to them for that! Alan Frew looks good – in fact they all do. And the song comes out sounding natural and just as good as it did back then. Absolutely loved it, and I didn’t miss Bryan Adams’ background vocals at all. The audience seems to like them too; could we possibly be looking at tonight’s favorite act? We’ll be treated to Glass Tiger’s treatment of Vertical Horizon’s “Everything You Want” in a little while. Sounds good to me!
Now it’s time for Billy Vera to take the stage. Most folks remember Billy as a one-hit wonder, but he had been recording for twenty years before his song (credited to Billy Vera and the Beaters) “At This Moment” shot to #1. It was actually recorded six years before becoming an overnight sensation, after being featured on the show “Family Ties”.
Billy is performing with his piano and a small backup band – no Beaters in sight. The song is smooth as silk, and Billy doesn’t wimp out on any of the high notes. This is a class act, and it was very enjoyable to watch. Billy Vera is coming back with Ryan Cabrera’s “True”.
Bringing up the rear this week is Thelma Houston, who had a huge disco hit with “Don’t Leave Me This Way”. It’s one of those songs that, even if you didn’t grow up listening to disco, you still know and occasionally get stuck in your head. It’s been featured in many movies, commercials, and compilation albums.
Thelma looks adorable in a little fluffy blue dress and kick-ass hairdo. And I have to give her credit, because she can still sing with the best of them. She’s got a timeless voice that outshines the divas that have come after her, and the song is just plain fun. She’s going to cover Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’” at the end of the show.
Round Two
Now we move on to the cover songs, and catch up with each artist to see what they’ve been doing since making it big.
Greg Kihn is a radio personality and author of five novels. He says that he’s had to reinvent himself several times since the 80’s, but is enjoying life to the fullest. His son is a guitarist and is featured as part of Greg’s band tonight, and he’s really quite good.
They’re back to perform “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, and it starts out pretty good. But no one can do Green Day like Green Day, and Greg Kihn is no exception. While his vocals were decent and the music was excellent, it lacked the insanity of a real Green Day performance.
Jay King and Valerie Watson of Club Nouveau are enjoying life and their kids. Jay says that he can’t imagine having any other type of job, because he really enjoys the freedom to play with his kids when he wants to. He’s also some kind of domino master, and claims to be the world champion of dominos.
Their cover of “Thank You” is better than their first song, but Valerie glosses over the high notes and there’s some guy who looks like a Bono wannabe who is endlessly annoying in the background. Not horrible, but there’s no way they’re winning this one.
Glass Tiger is still together, making music and touring. Alan Frew and his wife have a ten-month-old son, and Mrs. Frew has created a line of salad dressings. So she splits her time between being mom, a rock ‘n roll wife, and hawking her vinaigrette. Interesting.
On their return to the stage, Glass Tiger definitely sounds like a band that still enjoys being together. Alan Frew is dressed in an old “Thin Red Line” tour shirt and shiny jacket, but his vocals are flawless. They do “Everything You Want” really well, and the audience eats it up. I’m convinced they’re going to win.
Billy Vera does voice-overs for money, and restores and compiles old recordings for fun. He’s got a collection of “10-15,000” records – very impressive! He seems like a down-to-earth guy.
Billy stands alone at the mic to sing “True”, accompanied by two musicians. It’s simple and lovely, and even if he missed a lot of the high notes, I have nothing bad to say about this guy. He has a lot of talent and the performance is fantastic. The only thing that took away from it was the thick cloud of artificial smoke on the floor, covering his legs and making Billy look a bit like Dorf.
Finally we catch up with Thelma Houston. She creates and sells clothing through her website apparently, but I was unable to find anything about that at www.thelmahouston.com (although there’s a nice pic there of Thelma and American Idol’s Kimberley Locke). She’s also still performing and likes to keep herself busy.
Thelma’s version of “Fallin’” is lively and brilliant. She’s got a lot of personality, and it comes through in her music. Suddenly I’m not so sure if Glass Tiger can pull off the win now – traditionally the audience has voted for the R&B/Hip Hop party-type songs, and this one is pretty darned good.
It’s time to find out what the audience thinks, and they’ve decided that Thelma Houston is indeed the best performer of the evening. Her charity is the Minority Aids Fund, so $20,000 will be donated on her behalf thanks to AmeriQuest.
Next week is the season finale, and we’ll get to hear Animotion, Juice Newton, Missing Persons, Shannon, and one more act that is yet to be announced. Vernon also promises some surprises for the final show.
See you next week!
Your comments have been great fun and I've enjoyed sharing thoughts on this show! Send 'em along to me at carrie@realityshack.com.
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