I've got three singles by them: Gypsy Girl/Blues Blues Blues, Hong Kong Swing/Drunken Uncle John and I'll Do The Talking/Hollywood Hong Kong Swing/Oceans. All from approx 1985.
With the exception of "I'll Do The Talking" which is a relatively lame ballad, every song is a mad pop shredathon, sort of like the really good stuff that Silver Sun did later.
So where I ask, where is the love?
― everything, Monday, 9 May 2005 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 9 May 2005 23:15 (twenty-one years ago)
― everything, Monday, 9 May 2005 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)
I have this one, on a 12-inch from 1983 I bought for 99 cents at Siren Records in I guess Doylestown PA a decade or more ago! It's great, but who the hell are they? I never heard of them; just bought it because they look like Haysi Fantayzee wannabees on the cover. Did they have hits in England? Or (more likely) somewhere else??
― xhuxk, Monday, 9 May 2005 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)
Gypsy Girl and Hong Kong Swing scraped the lower reaches of the UK Top 40. Something like one week at number 47 or something like that. I recall a bit of evening airplay on BBC Radio One (Janice Long, probably) and the video for Gypsy Girl on The Tube, which is why I bought these.
I just turned up a website for them: http://www.cruelladeville.com/. The guy who put this together has managed admirably with pretty scant material.
Surprising factoids:
1. Roy Wood was their co-producer2. They only had one other single other than those listed above, "Those Two Dreadful Children", which was played by Dr Demento.3. The female lead singer was Sting's P.A.4. Kick-ass guitar shredder Colum "Colin" Muinzer moved to Canada and got lost!5. Molly Neumann of Bratmobile wanted to start a band with this name.
― everything, Monday, 9 May 2005 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)
― everything, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)
― Andy Broome, Monday, 29 May 2006 11:43 (twenty years ago)
Woah, I guess I missed the revival of this thread last year which is too bad as I'm sadly a big enough Cardiacs fan to be impressed by someone who used to be their roadie. Anyway, the story now goes that the drummer stole the masters of the great lost Cruella de Ville album as produced by Roy Wood after some kind of band conflict, which is pretty shitty.
However, maybe they will show up one day but so far nothing by this band has ever shown up on cd, not so much as a single track on some kind of dodgy 80s sampler. I wish would at least compile the existing tracks onto a disc.
At least one little clip of them has shown up on Youtube. Here they are in all their ridiculous glory
― everything, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 19:29 (eighteen years ago)
Okay, apparently there is word out that the master tapes of the Roy Wood-produced lost album have been, or are about to be located. They were in possession of minor Radio Ulster DJ Mike Edgar (the ex-drummer), who was threatened with legal action by the ex-band members and is apparently giving them up. So maybe this will come out after all.
Meanwhile, they have a youtube channel now with most of their songs in some format or another. Here's a video for their first single on the Good Vibrations label, Drunken Uncle John. They don't look so wacky here - possibly because this was before EMI got their mitts on them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVjE1MpP78A&feature=related
― everything, Thursday, 16 July 2009 22:03 (sixteen years ago)