The Communards
Encyclopedia
The Communards were a British
pop
duo active from 1985 to 1988. They are most famous for their cover of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
' song, "Don't Leave Me This Way
" as well as "Never Can Say Goodbye
".
left his earlier band Bronski Beat
to team up with classically-trained musician Richard Coles
. Though mainly a pianist, Coles played a number of instrument
s and had been seen previously performing the clarinet
solos on the Bronski Beat hit "It Ain't Necessarily So". They were joined by bass player Dave Renwick who had also played with Bronski Beat. Somerville was well-known for his falsetto
singing style, and that he was openly gay
during a period of increasing socio-political debate and conflict in the UK regarding homosexuality.
The band had their first UK Top 30 hit in 1985 with the piano-based #30 single "You Are My World". The following year they had their biggest hit with an energetic cover version of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' soul
classic "Don't Leave Me This Way
" (in a version inspired by Thelma Houston
's cover) which spent four weeks at number one and became the UK's biggest selling single of 1986. It also made the US Top 40. It featured Sarah Jane Morris
as co-vocalist, taking advantage of the contrast between Morris' deep and rounded contralto and Somerville's soaring falsetto. Morris performed both backing and co-lead vocals on many of the Communards' other recordings, and appeared in group photos as an unofficial third member.
Later that year The Communards had another UK Top 10 hit with the single "So Cold the Night," which reached number 8. In 1987, they released an album titled Red, which was partly produced by Stephen Hague
. Red featured a cover version of the Jackson 5's hit "Never Can Say Goodbye
" (in a version inspired by Gloria Gaynor
's cover), which the Communards took to Number 4. Their last released single was "There's More to Love" in 1988, which reached Number 20 and was, consequently, their final Top 20 hit.
They split in 1988 and Somerville began a solo career. Coles followed his Christian leanings and, after periods as a journalist for the Times Literary Supplement and Catholic Herald, he was ordained in the Church of England
, spending time as the curate of St Botolph's (The Stump) in Boston
, Lincolnshire
. He is now the assistant priest at St Paul's Knightsbridge and Chaplain to the Royal College of Music
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
duo active from 1985 to 1988. They are most famous for their cover of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes were an American singing group, one of the most popular Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. The group's repertoire included soul, R&B, doo-wop, and disco...
' song, "Don't Leave Me This Way
Don't Leave Me This Way
"Don't Leave Me This Way" is an R&B/soul/disco song written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert. First charting as a hit for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, an act on Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1975, "Don't Leave Me This Way" was later a hit single for both...
" as well as "Never Can Say Goodbye
Never Can Say Goodbye
"Never Can Say Goodbye" is a song written by Clifton Davis and originally recorded by The Jackson 5. Released as a single in 1971, it was one of the group's most successful songs...
".
History
The Communards formed in 1985 after singer Jimmy SomervilleJimmy Somerville
James William Somerville is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter. He had considerable success in the 1980s with the pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards, and has also had a successful solo career. He is known in particular for his falsetto singing voice...
left his earlier band Bronski Beat
Bronski Beat
Bronski Beat were a popular British synthpop trio who achieved success in the mid 1980s, particularly with the 1984 chart hit "Smalltown Boy". All members of the group were openly homosexual and their songs reflected this, often containing political commentary on gay-related issues...
to team up with classically-trained musician Richard Coles
Richard Coles
Richard Coles is a musician, journalist and Church of England priest. He is known for having been the multi-instrumentalist who partnered Jimmy Somerville in the 1980s band The Communards, who achieved three Top Ten hits, including the Number 1 record and best-selling single of 1986, a Hi-NRG...
. Though mainly a pianist, Coles played a number of instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s and had been seen previously performing the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
solos on the Bronski Beat hit "It Ain't Necessarily So". They were joined by bass player Dave Renwick who had also played with Bronski Beat. Somerville was well-known for his falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
singing style, and that he was openly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
during a period of increasing socio-political debate and conflict in the UK regarding homosexuality.
The band had their first UK Top 30 hit in 1985 with the piano-based #30 single "You Are My World". The following year they had their biggest hit with an energetic cover version of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
classic "Don't Leave Me This Way
Don't Leave Me This Way
"Don't Leave Me This Way" is an R&B/soul/disco song written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert. First charting as a hit for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, an act on Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1975, "Don't Leave Me This Way" was later a hit single for both...
" (in a version inspired by Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She scored a number-one hit in 1976 with her cover version of the song "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.-Early life & career:Houston is the daughter of a cotton picking mother...
's cover) which spent four weeks at number one and became the UK's biggest selling single of 1986. It also made the US Top 40. It featured Sarah Jane Morris
Sarah Jane Morris (singer)
Sarah Jane Morris , is a pop music, jazz, rock and R&B singer and songwriter.In 1982, Morris joined The Republic as lead singer. A London-based Afro-Caribbean-Latin band with leftish tendencies, they received enormous publicity from the music press including cover stories with NME and City Limits...
as co-vocalist, taking advantage of the contrast between Morris' deep and rounded contralto and Somerville's soaring falsetto. Morris performed both backing and co-lead vocals on many of the Communards' other recordings, and appeared in group photos as an unofficial third member.
Later that year The Communards had another UK Top 10 hit with the single "So Cold the Night," which reached number 8. In 1987, they released an album titled Red, which was partly produced by Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. He was an influential figure in the synthpop movement.-Early career:...
. Red featured a cover version of the Jackson 5's hit "Never Can Say Goodbye
Never Can Say Goodbye
"Never Can Say Goodbye" is a song written by Clifton Davis and originally recorded by The Jackson 5. Released as a single in 1971, it was one of the group's most successful songs...
" (in a version inspired by Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits; "I Will Survive" , "Never Can Say Goodbye" , "Let Me Know " and "I Am What I Am" .-Early career:Gaynor was a singer with the Soul...
's cover), which the Communards took to Number 4. Their last released single was "There's More to Love" in 1988, which reached Number 20 and was, consequently, their final Top 20 hit.
They split in 1988 and Somerville began a solo career. Coles followed his Christian leanings and, after periods as a journalist for the Times Literary Supplement and Catholic Herald, he was ordained in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, spending time as the curate of St Botolph's (The Stump) in Boston
Boston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. He is now the assistant priest at St Paul's Knightsbridge and Chaplain to the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
.
Studio albums
| Year | Album | UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Communards | 7 | 90 |
| 1987 | Red | 4 | 93 |
Live album
| Year | Album | UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Live In Italy (Picture Disc LP) | - | - |
| 1988 | Storm Paris (3x12" single set) | - | - |
Compilations
| Year | Album | UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Heaven | - | - |
| 2001 | The Very Best of Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards The Very Best Of Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards The Very Best Of Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards is a compilation album covering Jimmy Somerville's career in Bronski Beat, The Communards and as a solo artist... |
- | - |
| 2009 | For a Friend: The Best of Bronski Beat, The Communards & Jimmy Somerville For a Friend: The Best of Bronski Beat, The Communards & Jimmy Somerville For a Friend: The Best of Bronski Beat, The Communards & Jimmy Somerville is a 34-track, 2-CD greatest hits compilation and career retrospective by Jimmy Somerville, featuring his work as a solo artist, as well as with Bronski Beat and The Communards... |
- | - |
Singles
| Year | Song | UK Singles UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
US Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Dance |
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SWI Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
AUT Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
FRA France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
GER Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | "You Are My World" | 30 | - | - | - | - | - | 16 | - | Communards |
| 1986 | "Disenchanted" | 29 | - | - | 47 | - | - | - | - | |
| "Disenchanted (Remix)" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| "Don't Leave Me This Way" (Communards with Sarah Jane Morris Sarah Jane Morris (singer) Sarah Jane Morris , is a pop music, jazz, rock and R&B singer and songwriter.In 1982, Morris joined The Republic as lead singer. A London-based Afro-Caribbean-Latin band with leftish tendencies, they received enormous publicity from the music press including cover stories with NME and City Limits... ) |
1 (4) | 40 | - | 1 (8) | 2 | 19 | 6 | 5 | ||
| "Don't Leave Me This Way" (Gotham City Mix) (Communards with Sarah Jane Morris Sarah Jane Morris (singer) Sarah Jane Morris , is a pop music, jazz, rock and R&B singer and songwriter.In 1982, Morris joined The Republic as lead singer. A London-based Afro-Caribbean-Latin band with leftish tendencies, they received enormous publicity from the music press including cover stories with NME and City Limits... ) |
- | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 14 | ||
| "So Cold the Night" | 8 | - | 25 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 14 | ||
| "So Cold the Night" (Remix) + Multimix | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1987 | "You Are My World '87" (Remix Remix A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song .... ) |
21 | - | - | 23 | - | - | - | 59 | |
| "Tomorrow" | 23 | - | 2 | 31 | 23 | - | 32 | 25 | Red | |
| "Never Can Say Goodbye Never Can Say Goodbye "Never Can Say Goodbye" is a song written by Clifton Davis and originally recorded by The Jackson 5. Released as a single in 1971, it was one of the group's most successful songs... " |
4 | 51 | 2 | 3 | 12 | - | - | 6 | ||
| "Never Can Say Goodbye Never Can Say Goodbye "Never Can Say Goodbye" is a song written by Clifton Davis and originally recorded by The Jackson 5. Released as a single in 1971, it was one of the group's most successful songs... " (Remix) |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1988 | "For a Friend"/"Megamix" | 28 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 35 | |
| "There's More to Love" | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 34 | ||
Video
| Year | Title | Details | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | The Video Singles | Compilation of music videos from 1985–1986 | VHS |
| 2006 | Live At Full House Rock Show | Live TV concert from Hannover, Germany (10/2/87) | DVD |
See also
- Banderas - Communards offshoot featuring backing musician Sally Herbert
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart