Here’s a look back at another act who had a brief moment of fame on the chart in the late-90/early-2000s, at the time when I was really interested in pop music, and tried to take in as much as I could when there was a very quick turnover of hits during my teenage years. Raissa (which as well as being the name of the singer, seems to be the name of the actual group too) was born in London.
It seems that they had already been on the scene for a while by the time I first came across them. Their first single was released as early as 1994, their debut album “Meantime” was in 1996, and they had a single that almost made the Top 150 in 1997. But it was in September 1999 when they really caught many people’s attention for the first time with “Walk Right Through”.
Now I really did like this, and I wasn’t the only one, as one critic described this as “flavoursome synth horns and an infectious retro-soul spin”. Raissa did appear on a few shows to promote this, including CBBC’s Fully Booked (which was just about still going), and she even turned up on ITV2’s Bedrock. Now you might remember me saying about this show that I enjoyed in the early days of digital TV, so it was good seeing her take part.
And she even got on to BBC Radio 1 when Mark And Lard seemed to be fond of this, and played this rather frequently. Well they didn’t start making banging or shrieking noises, and they didn’t even play fart sounds all the way through as they did with most of the playlist, which really is a surprise. But once again, a song they that they championed had the “reverse Midas touch” when “Walk Right Through” very frustratingly narrowly missed the Top 75.
Another album was released around this time, but didn’t chart. In February 2000 the next single “How Long Do I Get” was released. There was a video made for this, and it was make or break time now, there was plenty of expectation that this had to be the one to turn them into stars. But this didn’t really happen, although this did reach no. 47, to become their first and only hit single.
Although I must admit that I will always prefer “Walk Right Through”, it was good seeing that her and her group did make the chart, even if it was for only one week. “How Long Do I Get”? It turned out not to be that long really. After this, in more recent years, Raissa has gone on to work on other projects, including The Mummers, who haven’t had a hit, but got her back on the radio.
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