Named after their second single, Soul On My Boots is a welcome, definitive 5CD collection of the brief but colourful mid-1980s reign of King, the Coventry-based, spray-painted DM-wearing hit makers. The set includes both studio albums by the band, the solo album by their eponymous leader Paul King and an extra couple of discs packed with demos, rarities and an entire Glasgow show.
‘Love and Pride’ was one of those songs that immediately sounded like a massive hit, but like Prefab Sprout’s ‘When Love Breaks Down’ and even INXS’ inescapable‘Need You Tonight’, it surprisingly stalled on its first release, reaching a lowly Number 84 in the Summer of 1984. After ‘Soul On My Boots’ (the single) and the original version of ‘Won’t You Hold My Hand Now’ missed the Top 100 altogether, it was smartly re-launched in the New Year of 1985, and as Wham! and Band Aid’s festive singles inevitably slipped down the rankings, it began a steep ascent all the way to Number 2 and the band were all over TV. Its parent album, Steps In Timefollowed its success and flew into the album charts’ Top 10. That album makes up CD1 with some interesting bonus tracks including the original, more synth-based version of ‘Won’t You Hold My Hand Now’ (a more muscular re-recording features on the album and that version was their second big hit), and the excellent 12” extended mix of that first smash hit. Early live favourite ‘Fish’ was made to be an album opener, its dramatic beginning leading into an anthemic song – it’s no surprise that Paul King notes in his candid and entertaining sleeve notes that the band often opened shows with it.
The singles are definitely the best tracks on the debut, but it’s a solid collection, with‘I Kissed The Spiky Fridge’ and the the dramatic ‘And As For Myself’ being other highlights. With CBS presumably keen to capitalise on the band’s meteoric rise, a second album, Bitter Sweet would appear before the end of 1985, but not before a massive Summer hit in the shape of the excellent ‘Alone Without You’ and the sweet ‘The Taste Of Your Tears’, which showed another, more subtle side of the group. It’s interesting to find that Paul’s preferred name for the record was ‘Platform One’, though he can at least content himself that a track of that name made it onto the album. A third single from the album, the superb ‘Torture’ (brave for any band to call a single that!) would be the fifth and last hit in their career, when it appeared on single early in 1986. The album holds up very well, ‘2 M.B’ and ‘These Things’ are further stand-outs on an album that really deserves more plaudits than it has received over the years.
CD3, the live disc, captures an energetic performance at Glasgow’s Strathclyde University early in 1985 and showcases songs from Bitter Sweet as well as plenty of material from their debut – including two rapturously-received takes on ‘Love and Pride’. Having personally been at what turned out to be the band’s last ever UK show at Birmingham NEC’s Yiva anti-apartheid festival in August 1986, I can attest that King were an impressive live outfit. For long-time fans, CD4 will likely be the one they throw on first, packed with unreleased demos of what would have been the third King record. Their record company wanted a single for the Summer of 1986, and ‘Baby Raven Mane’ , which opens the ‘rarities’ disc, was going to be it. Produced by Julian Mendelsohn, (riding high at the time in the wake of his success working with Pet Shop Boys and Frankie Goes To Hollywood), it’s sad to think that it hasn’t seen the light of day until now – it would have been a worthy addition to the band’s catalogue and surely another hit. The other demos here, (including a take on that aborted single), are a veritable treasure trove – better late than never!
Paul King’s solo album, Joy, makes up CD5 and he is honest enough to admit that he was aiming for the feel of James Brown’s ‘Living In America’, admiring its production courtesy of Dan Hartman, who was as a result brought on board for production and co-writes. This makes sense when listening to the record, which does seem geared to state-side success. ‘I Know’ was its first single, a more soulful sound for Paul, almost a Northern Soul feel in fact, and had it been a Top 40 hit then the album would have likely been more enthusiastically received. Listening to it today, it’s smoother in texture than his band’s two albums, but the material is there. It does sound like a very 1987 album, but that isn’t a criticism – it deserves a chance of re-appraisal; for me personally, it was my first exposure to the album (I bought the others 40 years ago!). It also arguably showcases Paul’s voice more than the ‘band’ records.
King were always a hard band to pin down stylistically – I happily bought their records at the time, while being heavily into the likes of The Smiths, The Fall and Cocteau Twins and if you happen to have written them off, then you might just be pleasantly surprised by this collection. The extra tracks are well worth having – the 12” mixes were always the definitive versions to me and it’s good to have an opportunity to hear all the unreleased material here too.
Soul On My Boots is out now on Cherry Pop (via Cherry Red).
