Signing with CBS/Epic

The show at the Venue made a big impression on Winwood, who asked the band to come to CBS studios on June 11th and 12th to demo six songs including Peter’s Groove Baby Groove. Following this recording, Winwood proposed them a four singles/one album contract. That was a big achievement for the band after less than a year of existence, and the following September they were back into the studio to cut their debut EP.

Rare studio pic, taken at CBS studio in 1982
photo © www.facebook.com/TheStargazers

Four songs were recorded: a second version of Groove Baby Groove, Jump Around, La Rock’n’Roll and Red Light,Green Light. The demo version of Groove Baby Groove was considered better than the new recording and that’s this version that appeared on the ep on January 1982. The ep did well in the charts and peaked at number 56 (around 36 000 sales). It would probably have done better but the post office went on strike that same week which meant that the sale figures sent from the charts shops couldn’t have been transmitted. The result was that the following week the Groove Baby Groove wasn’t in the charts anymore and the band that was scheduled to appear on Top Of The Pop was replaced by Robert Palmer who was ten places higher. Had the sale figures been sent, the single would have climbed to number 42.

Before the ep was released, the band kept a busy schedule on the gigging front. In the program of one of the weekender they played that year, one could read “The Stargazers bring a refreshing new approach to swing with a totally authentic presentation from the drums to the clothes to all the microphones. They offer an exciting show which is backed up by good musicianship. Soon to become hot favourites”. It wasn’t rare during these shows to see them play a “Freddie Bell routine”, switching instruments with Danny taking the electric bass and Anders the trumpet. One night, after a show they met another Bill Haley fan called Chris Gardner who came from the Royal College of Music and played piano and clarinet. Happy to meet a like-minded musician, Davenport proposed him to join the band on piano, but Gardner who didn’t want to give up his day job declined.

In October 1981, they played a rather unusual session for London’s Capital Radio series Tales From the Crypt. “We wrote and recorded the music for a radio series, called “Tales from the Crypt”. An edited version was also released on LP. Our manager, a guy called Pete Brown, was a business partner with two well-known comedy stars in the U.K. called Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones, and it was they, along with Andrew Sachs ( who is most well known as the waiter Manuel in the TV show Fawlty Towers) who were the main characters in this programme, which was a comedy detective story, with the Stargazers providing instrumental music in between the scenes and sometimes in the background…” The lp is now very sought after both by fans of the Stargazers and Mel Smith.

In March 1982, our five heroes were back to CBS studio. The idea was to cut a new single and enough material for the forthcoming album. Among the songs recorded were Hey Marie (a cover of the Louis Prima classic), Tonight’s The Night (Bill Haley) and a couple of originals: Scat the Riff (John Wallace), Swingin’ Aye (Danny Brittain), A Little Jump, A Little Swing (Ricky Lee Brawn) Go Go Honey and Rockin’ Rollin’ Home (both written by Davenport). The band had strong hopes in Swingin’ Aye, a song with a catchy hook and solid solos but the label didn’t like it and preferred Hey Marie. The Stargazers weren’t too pleased with that choice as they only saw Hey Marie as an “exercise” to see how close to the original they could sound. “It was a mistake to put it out” said John later. Coupled with Scat the Riff and Go Go Honey, Hey Marie was released on May 22nd 1982. CBS even produced a video for it, shot by Julian Temple (of the Great Rock’n’roll Swindle fame) at the Rainbow Rooms in London. Sadly the single failed to chart (though it did well in Holland).