Episode 2: Precious Wilson RMN Podcast (Part 1)
The group then relocated to Germany in 1976, and the following year in 1977, while on the road touring in Germany, Eruption was introduced to German producer Frank Farian who booked them to work with Boney M as their backing band, and as their support act on Boney M's first European tour. Frank Farian then went on to sign them to Boney M.'s label, Hansa Records, Farian released the single "Party Party" but it was their disco cover version of Ann Peebles' "I Can't Stand the Rain" from their first album which broke big, giving them a UK No. 5 hit and a US No. 18 hit. After a second album and another hit single with Neil Sedaka's "One Way Ticket" (UK #9), Precious Wilson left the group to pursue her solo career
Wilson's debut single as a solo artist was a cover version of Sam & Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming", released in August 1979. Produced by Frank Farian and set to a funky disco-beat, the single reached No. 45 in the Dutch charts.[2] The song was also included in Boney M's fourth album Oceans of Fantasy[3] which also yielded a guest performance by Wilson on the opening track "Let It All Be Music".
She co-wrote several tracks, including the title song of her debut album We Are on the Race Track, also produced by Farian, was completed during 1980 on Hansa Records. It was released in October, heralded by the single "Cry to Me" which Wilson performed on TV, backed by the band that she created called Sky Train. The single reached number 3 in Switzerland.[4] The album's second single, "We Are on the Race Track", reached No. 11 in Switzerland in early 1981.
In October 1981, she released a cover version of "I Need You" which peaked at No. 6 in Switzerland where her popularity was lingering. In Germany, it reached No. 39. In the summer of 1982, the electro-pop track "I Don't Know" was released, followed by her second album All Coloured in Love. The album was released with a different track selection in the UK, Italy and France under the name Red Light followed by several different single releases in the various territories.
Hot on the heels of the then Aerobic craze and Farian's success with the album Aerobic Fitness Dancing, the theme song "Let's Move Aerobic (Move Your Body)" was rush-released with Wilson's vocals in March 1983. Her third album Funky Fingers, consisting of two side-long medleys of soul standards, was released in December 1983. In 1985, she signed with Jive Records and teamed up with multiple producer teams for the album, including American songwriter, Monte Moir, a musician and songwriter, best known as a member of The Time.
The following year Wilson released several singles; "I'll Be Your Friend" (a U.S. Top 40 R&B hit), the theme song from the Michael Douglas movie The Jewel of the Nile (the sequel to the movie Romancing The Stone), and "Nice Girls Don't Last" ("Love Can't Wait" in the U.S.).
In 1986, she contributed to the charity album titled The Anti-Heroin project: It's a live-in world, singing among others on the title track as well as on "Waiting in the Dark" and a song called "Something Better" with Kim Wilde and Darryl Pandy.[5]
A dance cover of Jerry Butler's "Only the Strong Survive" in 1987, produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.[1]
Precious has toured the former USSR on the invitation of the Soviet Cultural Ministry. The 55 date concert tour was arranged in six Soviet Republics, performing to full capacity audiences at each venue. She was the first black UK based female artiste to have undertaken such an extensive tour in the then USSR in 1988.
As well as having the talent for a variety of television and stage work she astounded theatre land with the hit musical Blues in the Night.[citation needed]
Other performances include shows in Monte Carlo, numerous concert tours in both Eastern Europe including the Kremlin, and continental Europe. She has participated in a Royal Variety Show in the presence of HRH Queen Elizabeth of the UK, and a member of the Saudi royal family.
Over the years she has made guest appearances and associated studio productions with artists such as Paul McCartney, Elton John, James Brown, Boney M, Michael Bolton, Little Richard and she also recorded along with Sir Cliff Richard on The Kendrick Collection by Graham Kendrick.
After another of her co-written songs, was the single "I May Be Right 4U" in 1990. She achieved two small hit singles in the early 1990s with a cover of Sheila and B. Devotion's "Spacer" (a hit single in France, 1992) and a cover of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" (a UK No. 19 hit single with techno group Messiah, 1992). Since then, Wilson has been touring extensively internationally, and also frequently tours as Eruption featuring Precious Wilson.
Precious Wilson appeared on Channel 4, First Dates (6 June 2017).
In 2018, Wilson was one of 12 co-authors of a book titled Mission Critical Messengers: How To Deliver A Difference.
00:00:00 - I sold my soul, a prostitute of my talents, for R.M.N.
00:00:18 - Yeah, that's right.
00:00:20 - And George.
00:00:23 - I'm really well inspired of everything going on around us, you know, I'm happy to say that I'm doing great. How are you doing?
00:00:51 - I'm a bit like yourself it's it's crazy times just now but I mean we're trying to keep up beat trying to keep the music going and trying to get the positive message out there for sure you know so that's that's that's the thing now listen I mean you're a I mean we're about to cause an absolute eruption here because not only excuse the pun but I mean exactly I mean but I mean I mean your voice is incredible. I mean I've heard some good singers but you can sing sing. I mean you know I was talking to it to all the other sort of engineers and producers that I work with and you know before anything you know I got this little clip of an acapella of your voice and I
00:01:43 - I said, wow, I mean, who is that?
00:01:47 - And, you know, it was just that little second and because at the time, it was just a tiny little flash of it.
00:01:54 - What a voice.
00:01:55 - Now you started out in Jamaica, is that right?
00:01:59 - You started out in, and so, I mean,
00:02:01 - I wanna get your whole story and how you got into the music business and all of the elements of it.
00:02:06 - So you started out in Jamaica, is that where life began?
00:02:10 - Well yes that's where I was born. I was born in Jamaica and I guess I'm one of those, if anyone's familiar with British history, I'm one of those Windrush children in that at the time way back in the 60s you know the UK were looking for a lot of people to come over from the Caribbean islands to come over and help to you know work on the transport in the hospital kind of like and really built up the whole economy, so to speak.
00:02:44 - And because Jamaica was a British colony, my mom was very ambitious, even though in Jamaica she had a store, her own little grocery store, but she wanted to give it a go, so she came to England to check it out, and then came back for me when I was seven.
00:03:00 - She came to England, found a job, got somewhere to live, and after about a year came back for me.
00:03:06 - I was seven at the time,
00:03:07 - And so I've lived in the UK since the age of seven.
00:03:10 - So I am Jamaican by birth, but very much like I've been placed in England a little bit in Germany, which I'm sure you'll come to.
00:03:20 - So yeah, so originally it was Jamaican with all the scale music.
00:03:25 - My mother was a great lover of music, because most Jamaicans are.
00:03:28 - In fact, to be honest, most Jamaicans can sing, you know?
00:03:31 - So how I ended up in Spain was like, you know, as a Korean was a big shock.
but I think my only thing being exposed to a variety of music was probably the foundation of my passion and inspiration as the years went by.00:03:49 - So I mean, let's zoom over to the UK then.
00:03:53 - You're in the UK and you know, so what was your first taste of recording or your first thing that you did that sort of inspired you to get into music as a profession or to do it as a, you know, a living.
00:04:11 - What was the first thing?
00:04:13 - Well, as I said, ever Jamaican could think.
00:04:17 - So my mum didn't really think that, you know,
00:04:20 - I mean, I was going to say, she didn't think it was a proper job, but I wouldn't go by that because it's actually my biggest supporter when we eventually drove in the truck with our equipment in the back to Germany.
00:04:32 - But I think it was, when I was a teenager,
00:04:36 - I used to attend these after schools, an after school project, to learn about performing arts.
00:04:42 - And I was attending this, this was when I was about 15, 16 and my friend and I, Debbie, my best friend at the time, the lesson was canceled.
00:04:53 - So Debbie said, oh no, what should we do?
00:04:55 - If we go home, our parents are not gonna allow us out.
00:04:59 - So let's just go and listen to this band down in Clapham Junction. Yeah, let's do that. So, we went down to Clapham Junction and the guys that were playing, because I think she knew the bass player, were the guys that ended up when I joined them being your option, but initially we were just there listening to them and it was only because they said, oh, alright, so I hear you guys are doing musical theatre, you know, over in Tootin, in London, what can you sing that we might know the chords to?
00:05:26 - So we went through a list of songs, eventually we found something, and so Debbie and I
00:05:29 - I started singing backing vocals just for a laugh.
00:05:32 - And so months went by, then we went to ask our parents, oh, you know, there's a bag.
00:05:38 - Can we go down for a Saturday and just join in?
00:05:41 - And that's what we did.
00:05:42 - And we started getting local peaks because we weren't the lead singers.
00:05:47 - I wasn't the lead singer then.
00:05:49 - There was the, because interruption, the face player, the car player were problems.
00:05:54 - And the other problem was the lead singer.
00:05:57 - But anyway, this went on for a while
00:05:58 - And we heard about a talent competition, which was run by the independent radio stations up and down the UK.
00:06:05 - And in London at the time, was this radio station called Capital Radio.
00:06:09 - And they were brand new, and they were sponsoring this talent competition.
00:06:15 - About four, five hundred groups entered, and we were lucky enough to represent Capital
00:06:19 - Radio.
00:06:20 - Miraculously, we won, because we couldn't believe it, because when we finished at
00:06:25 - Hammersburg Pallet in London, as it was called then,
00:06:28 - La Pallet, I think it's now called, if it still exists, because there's so many places that's shutting down.
00:06:33 - But that's how we won our recording contract, because, yeah, that's what started it.
00:06:41 - And so, what age were you around at that time, precious?
00:06:45 - I was, I was 17.
00:06:49 - Wow.
00:06:50 - Yeah, I was 17 years old, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:06:54 - Okay so now you're in this position and so I mean did it take courage to go from shall we say you know back in singing or whatever to to to becoming the lead singer did what was the transition between that movement or?
00:07:13 - Well after a while we had a vote because we were very democratic in the band Debbie left because she broke up with the bass player they started going out together so I was left as the one backing singer. But the lead singer, you know, people started complaining that he was singing out of tune. And so we had a vote and we decided to sacks him, you know, so he got fired. And then we tried, I know, we tried auditioning all these other new people. And we just couldn't find it, but we found this one guy called Lindell, who was fantastic for the rest of his life because he's passed away now.
00:07:51 - But because he was so much older than that, and he was really good, he was a bit like a James Brown, you know, but he would always show up late, so we had to have a vote again and we decided to sack him, but we had these gigs coming up, and so all of a sudden I had to learn all his songs in the meantime until we thought, you know, an audition replaced me with somebody else. But the point was having one of the talent competition, RCA didn't do very much for us. So we were starving. I was lucky I was still at school and the sixth ball but all the other guys in the band were older than me and the record company had said right you're professionals now you've got to give up your day jobs but we weren't getting enough work and so this was how we nagged our manager and he got these things for us to go to Germany and at
00:08:39 - But at that same time, we still hadn't found anybody as the lead singer, so we went to Germany as the lead singer, still hoping that we'd find somebody.
00:08:48 - So there was no confidence or courage necessary because I always thought it was a temporary post and that somebody was going to come along and I'd just revert back to being the backing singer.
00:08:59 - Life is so amazing.
isn't it I mean so you get to Germany you get to Germany and at this point in time you know I mean I take it the band even though they're getting gigs in00:09:11 - Germany the band are not big at this time I mean there's not there's not any
00:09:15 - I mean this is this is you guys beginning to make it or beginning to so so so where was the first break then I mean you're in Germany at that time I mean Germany had a lot of a lot of different artists were getting produced in Germany at that time and and there was certain producers so so how did you get the break how did you get that moment well because the bed and breakfast where we were staying helps us out because we got the gigs because we're supposed to go there for two weeks and the agent we didn't know that he was ripping us off taking 50% of money and and so we fulfilled the contract for most two weeks gigs and our throats broke down and so we couldn't do any gigs to get any money, so the bed of breakfast started making food for us, you know, and we were struggling but fortunately there was a bass player staying at the bed of breakfast, an Austrian guy, he was very famous in German time called Kurt Hohenstein, he had a band called Supermax, so Kurt said to the guy, hey there's a studio down the road, why don't you guys go down there and see if he gets some work. Just so happened, it's one of those things. Right plays, right time, met the right person. For us, it was Germany, 1976. And the studio, a guy called Farion, Pony M's producer, was using the studio to produce Pony M's first singles. And so we were introduced to him. And at that time, he wanted a backing band for them to do their first European tours. So we auditioned and got the job.
00:10:56 - Wow.
00:10:57 - Got the job at Boney and Support Act and they're back in band.
00:11:00 - What a coincidence. What a major quiz. I mean, I mean it's not, you know, I mean, I mean
00:11:06 - Boney M, wow. I mean, I mean, I mean, but we actually did, actually did a podcast with
00:11:12 - Boney M not that long ago and, and we were chatting. That is amazing. I mean,
00:11:19 - So Frank is over there and he's in the studio anyway, you guys go in and do the addition.
00:11:26 - So but then it leads to a kind of hit record of your own sort of thing because...
00:11:34 - Yeah, but even that took a while because he just wanted to do the backing band.
00:11:38 - He wasn't looking to produce another group.
00:11:41 - But what happened was as we were touring, people started to think, oh who's that group?
00:11:46 - They were really good, thank you, you should give them a recording contract!
00:11:50 - So, luckily for us, we recorded a first track, not a lot of people know this, unless you really know the history of Reruption in Precious Wolves and Scurry, but there was a song called Party Party, was the first song popular, but it didn't really get very far.
00:12:08 - And it wasn't until we did the cover version, we've got a copy of the single I Can't Stand the Rain, a very slow, bluesy rendition of it, and somebody said, one of Frank's guys actually, a guy called Hans York Meyer, who actually, not a lot of people know, was the guy behind a lot of this, but you know, he wasn't a producer, he was just a good spender with a good ear. So Hans York Meyer brought us this track of I Can't Stand the Rain, and we thought, oh, that's quite a touching hook line so we thought why not speed it up so we took the tempo up got it into this disco beat because you know this was what was happening at the time and made it a very fast production but put some little effects on like the thunder crashes at the beginning and just fast voice there you go good rhythm and after about six months of touring with Boney M and that song was released about six months before it started moving up up the chart because you have to remember in those days it was physically people had to go into a store and buy the vinyl it wasn't you know 10,000 downloads and you were number one you had to physically go out and people had to go out and buy the record so that's what started it for us I can't stand the rain so so doing that I mean what was your experience
00:13:32 - I mean you're touring with Boney M and opening up for them and you're doing this I can't stand around but I mean what kind of gigs were these at that time precious I mean were these I mean how big was Boney M at that time were they massive or oh my gosh I mean we went from little local bars and restaurants to suddenly being on tour only and doing venues. Not only
00:14:05 - Germany because Germany loved disco music. And as you know, I guess a lot of artists were springing up at the time. I mean, Don Sommers was born in Munich. We were more based around the
00:14:17 - Frankfurt area using studios in Wesson, more in that location. But there were big venues,
00:14:25 - They were like sports hall, you know. Yeah. Huge, huge venues for us because we hadn't experienced that before. And people underestimate Sonia, actually. I had to say this, but people said, oh yeah, that group, you know, they were European, German, but they were on the same level as ABBA. I guess the only difference was that ABBA actually wrote their own music, but in terms of popularity, Sonia was massive because they had a string of hits. By the time we started work with them. I think they heard about number one is in Germany, you know? It was huge venues.
00:15:00 - I mean, I mean, Boney M, for me is, you know, I do a comparison all the time. I mean, I mean, way back in the 90s, I was one of the production team with Ace of Base and,
00:15:14 - I mean, they were massive, I mean, all over the world and so on and so forth. And we constantly made comparisons to the Boney M thing because Boney M were I mean I mean even to this day I mean Boney M or Turin albeit not the the exact original lineup but but they're Turin and and and still popular to this day all over the place and and and when you look at the hits and they go and sing Daddy Cool and you know and all these kind of songs and you're like like this is incredible, this is, this is, but, but you know, and it is, but I mean Germany for some bizarre reason, and I was actually speaking to some other artists about that, but for some bizarre reason, Germany went through a real purple patch with fantastic, producing fantastic pop records for a while, and all kinds of artists, I mean, there was Snap, there was Technotronics, there was Captain Hollywoods, there was Boney M's, there was
00:16:20 - The Weathergirls, I mean there was all kinds of acts coming out. But Boney M were really the first big pop kind of thing that came. So what happened then? I mean what was your relationship good at that time with the Boney M thing or how did that how did that all pan out the day it helped you out? I mean it was a huge I mean even recently Liz Mitchell the lead singer from Boney M had her 50th celebration in you know her career and I was asked to make a speech on the video to congratulate her and I had to let her know how significant her role because her voice recorded most of the hits and the group itself how much it was it just helped me on my journey you know because I don't know what would have happened had we not gone to Germany and met fine but yeah it's significant and there was actually a time when when I was thinking of leaving Eruption because we're moving in different directions creatively as a band that I was offered the role to join them. But the thing is, they are my friends even to this day.
00:17:40 - I mean, obviously, Bobby had passed away in our Congress this whole, but to this day,
00:17:44 - I'm still in contact with the three ladies, original ladies, because as you said, there are so many versions of William out there. And it's quite sad, really, because I guess if they'd stayed together, they would be reaping the rewards now, even if they would place or be with somebody else. But there are a lot of tribute ones and some were very convincingly because you know being accepted as original because sadly the years have gone by and people haven't noticed that no that's not the same person. Yeah yeah no I agree I agree I mean I mean this this is the thing I mean I mean you know it's it's that whole entire commerciality thing I think you know where when someone sees it and then you know there's a lot of bands a lot of acts right now that I mean I think I saw a show quite recently just before COVID started and
00:18:41 - East 17 were on the bill for example the band from the boy band from London and they came on stage and there wasn't one not one single member from East 17 original line up and you're sitting there and you know so basically you've got four guys on stage that are singing the songs but you know I don't know how they get away with it. I know it's sad and then the original members are probably at home not singing. This is the power of the music though isn't it? People especially in with Boney M, they just want to hear the song.
00:19:21 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:19:23 - No, no, this is it.
00:19:24 - I mean, there is that, and I mean,
00:19:27 - I think the thing with Boney M, as well, is that when you look at the music that they did, and the whole conceptual thing of it, it was so uniquely different compared to anything else at the time.
00:19:43 - I mean, there was, and even actually, to be fair,
00:19:47 - There's not much that's came out because it was fun music.
00:19:52 - It wasn't serious.
00:19:56 - You need to sit down and listen to this.
00:19:58 - It's like, you can have fun, you can clap your hands, you can sing, you can dance.
00:20:03 - And a bit like The Drifters did way back when, you know, it was like, you can sit and sing every single song of The Drifters and you know every single lyric and it was fantastic, you know, but the Boney M thing was like, this is party music, and like you say, it's the disco thing, but unlike any other disco act,
00:20:22 - I think Boney M had this thing where they had this kind of fun side to them.
00:20:27 - And even Bobby, as you said, I mean, Bobby, the way he used to dance on stage, and I mean, it's never been, it's never been repeated ever.
00:20:36 - No, it's unique.
00:20:38 - And you know, so we were lucky in the band Eruption to have arrived at the time to be produced by the producer who had, that was his style.
00:20:49 - You see, at the time, Frank Farron, the producer could not speak English.
00:20:53 - His thing was, if a song, if a German person couldn't sing along with a song and couldn't speak English and they couldn't sing along with a song, he was not interested in this song.
00:21:05 - All the songs that Bonyam and Eruption, the songs that were recorded which became popular were all because they had a catchy chorus, catchy hook, a catchy refrain. And a melody that you could whistle easily. You didn't have to sing easily. You didn't have to be able to have three octaves or sing jazz. You could just chime in and anybody from age eight to 80 could sing along. And it had these tempo as well was quite important. The tempo, kind of like a march tempo, which is what was great about the disco music. You could easily walk to it, you know, dance to it.
00:21:43 - And you know that's one of the most important things I think that any artist that I've interviewed has said because I'm a music producer and that's where I come from in the bit.
00:21:54 - I mean I was an artist originally as a young kid but I became a music producer and what you just said there is exactly what I teach to all the music students around the world is that when you listen to Madonna for an example and you hear her sing in one of records for me and when the sun goes down and she sings that Spanish lyric that
00:22:19 - Spanish lyric is there to a place to the Latino audience around the world and so therefore they buy the record and when Abba sang last night in Glasgow everybody in Glasgow goes that's great and they go and buy the record and and and so these familiarities and what you're saying about the melody I mean
00:22:40 - And that's just, it's amazing that you're mentioning that because it's so true and so many artists, you know, so when you listen to Ace of Bass, all of Ace of Bass records have actually got an underlying whistle of a human whistle, someone actually whistling in the background of every single record that went out.
00:22:59 - So there's actually a subliminal whistle there.
00:23:03 - And that whistle there was for that reason and that is amazing that you're talking about that because that is so many producers today have missed out on that fact that it's like the Eurovision Song Contest if you watch it and sometimes a country will come on you don't understand the language but you think that's an incredibly hooky song and it just catches you you know it just gets you and and and and that's the thing it's so so
00:23:30 - Frank was right you're right and Frank's right I mean that that is amazing that you brought that up, that is incredible.
00:23:36 - Yeah.
00:23:37 - So, you know, and so go ahead.
00:23:39 - No, no, no, no, on you go, I'm sorry.
00:23:41 - Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know,
00:23:43 - I'll just agree with you again to saying that, you know, you love a song and you don't know why you love it, but essentially it's that human element about it, you know, where it can connect and resonate with you.
00:23:53 - And another way that I've actually seen it demonstrated is that when I taught Soviet Union back in the day, as one of the first black UK-based vocalists doing 55 concerts, all squeezed into seven weeks.
00:24:07 - Oh my God, that's a choice of youth.
00:24:09 - I don't know if I'll do that today.
00:24:11 - But again, Russian audience, their first language wasn't English, but again, the songs still communicated.
00:24:21 - So much so actually, when I think back that the audience sometimes got into trouble because the music kind of made them want to get up and dance and they weren't allowed to stand up in the concerts back in those times.
soldiers come along just you know give them a look or drag them down back into their seats other things but um yeah if it's something that breaks through all the borders all the political stuff all the language barriers when you get the songs right and that's what you know I must say I've had the privilege of having some really great songs that have done that. So let's go let's get back to the so you the I can't stand the rain and and you're in that that stage in that environment, you're touring with Boney M, you've got to, when did the first hit of eruption happen? When did that kind of, when was the first big track that kind of defined this this is a different direction maybe or something you know you've kind of breaking into your own mold if you like?00:25:24 - Well I think I think it started with I can't stand the rain because so much so that we, you know, people started, record companies started saying it's not fair but one group is trapped behind the other one, you know, they said, well let's cut loose, let's get
00:25:39 - Sonya and their own new set of musicians so that eruption can go off and promote their song.
00:25:45 - I
00:25:52 - Can't send the
00:25:58 - Bringing back sweet memories
00:26:07 - Because he's not here with me
00:26:10 - Hey window
00:26:12 - Do you remember?
00:26:16 - How sweet it used to be
00:26:21 - When we were together
00:26:25 - Chibi for Part 2
00:26:28 - R.M.I.
00:26:30 - R.M.I.
00:26:32 - R.M.I.
00:26:34 - R.M.I.
00:26:36 - R.M.I.
00:26:38 - R.M.I.
00:26:40 - R.M.I.
00:26:42 - R.M.I.
00:26:44 - R.M.M.
