Following on from Groove Armada, this is yet another British dance production group, who released plenty of hit singles that definitely got many a dancefloor wiggling. Basement Jaxx are Felix and Simon (bid etc), who formed in the mid-90s. As they have had a rather large number of hit singles, I have decided to pick out some of the highlights.
Although their first hit single was in May 1997, it was in May 1999 when they really became noticed, when “Red Alert” became the first of their five Top Ten hit singles in the UK. When people played this one, there was no doubt that it was party time. In August 1999 “Rendez-Vu” reached no. 4, to become their highest-peaking single on the chart.
And they rounded off a successful year in November 1999 with “Jump ‘N’ Shout”. I remember the video to this being one of the first things that I recorded off the terrific digital channel UK Play. Did I eventually get rid of the tape? Yes. Am I daft for doing this, losing a lot of would be rather now rare archive? Yes. And their album was also doing well around this time.
In June 2001 “Romeo” made the Top Ten, and somebody went on to do a “mash-up” of the vocal of this, with the instrumental of The Clash’s “The Magnificent Seven”, which is one of the best that I’ve heard. “Jus 1 Kiss” and the rather popular “Where’s Your Head At” went on to do well in 2001 too, and in 2002 they won the first of their two Brit Awards.
Their only hit single in 2002 was “Get Me Off”, which was another good one. In 2004, they had hits with “Good Luck”, and “Plug It In”, which featured a guest vocal from the guy in NSync who wasn’t Justin Timberlake. This was followed by a re-release of “Good Luck” just six months on. This was because this had been adopted by the BBC as their theme to coverage of that year’s European Football Championships, and made the Top 20 for a second time.
Also in 2004, they won another Brit and a Grammy too. In March 2005, “Oh My Gosh” became their final Top Ten hit single. Later that year, although this had already been around for a few years, “Do Your Thing” became a hit in rather odd circumstances. This had been used to soundtrack a special trail to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ITV, where lots of people managed to interact with stars from years earlier, which was mildly creepy.
In July 2009, “Raindrops” would become their final hit single, but unfortunately this was all but ignored as this entered the chart in the same week that Michael Jackson kicked the bucket and a huge amount of his hits swamped the Top 40. Since then, Basement Jaxx have concentrated on their remix work, although a lot of their more recent singles have flopped, and they have made six acclaimed albums.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 