Down The Dumper – The 90s Part 15.

This is another singer who was briefly a big deal on the pop music scene. Finley Quaye was born in Scotland and was claimed to be a relative of Tricky (not the CITV animated dragon thing), who denied this, but I presume he was related to someone. Finley had a rather distinctive soulful voice, and we first came across this in the summer of 1997 with “Sunday Shining”, influenced by the Bob Marley song which would be a big hit for Funkstar De Luxe as well in remixed form a couple of years later.

This was followed by his first and only Top Ten hit “Even After All”. In October 1997 the debut album “Maverick A Strike” was released, which soon ascended the chart and made the Top Ten too. There were then further hits with “It’s Great When We’re Together” and “Your Love Gets Sweeter”. This led to Finley winning Best British Male at the 1998 Brit Awards.

Also around this time he gained some headlines for some rather bizarre behaviour including turning up at a film premiere not wearing a shirt, or whatever it was, among other things. In August 1998, “Ultra Stimulation” reached only no. 51, although this low placing could be more of a case of a successful album being milked somewhat for several singles.

After this, Finley went on to have only one further hit single in the 2000s decade with “Spiritualized”, which I remember Chris Moyles on BBC Radio 1 seemed to like because there was a reference to “Persian rugs“. His follow-up albums “Vanguard” and “Much More Than Love” were definitely not big-sellers by comparison though. His seventh and most recent album “Faux Naïf” was released in 2019, but this didn’t chart at all.

I also remember once that Mike Mason on Bid-Up said that he was a fan of Finley too. I took of notice of this, because Mikey is a fan of his music, so to get an endorsement from him would definitely be impressive. And this was also just about the last time that I remember anyone ever referencing Finley, which was rather a long time ago now. I hope that wherever Finley is now he has finally got a shirt long with his rugs.