Terrorvision 'Tequila'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

Party anthem 'Tequila' was a No. 2 hit for Yorkshire band Terrorvision in January this year... A departure from their usual rock style, the single was given a funky re-working by dance outfit Mint Royale.

Yes, to be clear this is the Mint Royale Shot mix: the original version, produced by Edwyn Collins, features an excerpt from the Champs hit of the same title, so at least having a hit with the remix meant they kept all the publishing royalties. As I mentioned on their one previous appearance, Terrorvision had four Top 20 hits out of four from the Regular Urban Survivors album, so they must have been as disappointed as I was when they reappeared in 1998 with the Number 23 hit 'Josephine'. I bought it on pink vinyl, but not many other people did. On the other hand, I didn't buy this one and it went on to become the biggest hit of their career, so maybe it's my fault.

I've never drunk tequila in my life and indeed never been a big fan of drunkenness, so perhaps I wouldn't have liked the song so much had I not been kindly disposed to the people involved already. But as I mentioned before, Terrorvision were fun in a way that most hard-rock bands of the time weren't, and Tony Wright had proved himself an entertaining minor celebrity. Mint Royale had already come to my attention through their remix of Kenickie's 'I Would Fix You' (some fans suggested after 'Tequila' that the remix should have been the A-side) and their own single 'From Rusholme With Love' so I thought we were in good hands here. And they do succeed in making this song sound like a party, picking up the atmosphere and even leaving in some background chatter. What helps for me is that the song is about a man's love-hate relationship with the drink, in the tradition of old folk songs, rather than being a straightforward celebration. It's all very good-natured and whilst it has the same external problems as the previous track; it got overplayed and overshadowed the act's other work, I could never bring myself to dislike this.

Also appearing on: Now 33
Available on: Whales And Dolphins - The Best Of [Explicit]

Terrorvision 'Perseverence'

Chart Peak: 5

Youtube

Terrorvision are Shutty, Tony, Leigh and Mark - four down-to-earth blokes from Bradford... 'Perseverence' crashed into the Top 5 on 25th February 1996 following previous hits such as 'Oblivion', 'Middleman' and 'Alice What's The Matter'.

In fact, their previous album had produced an impressive run of five hit singles, each of which peaked between 21 and 25. So they were primed for an even bigger breakthrough, and third album Regular Urban Survivors, with its brilliant Bond-film pastiche artwork, supplied that with four Top 20 hits, of which this was the first, the biggest and the only one to make it onto a Now! album

As you'll see, the album was so outstanding that even I bought one, not a common occurrence as I'm pretty much a metal sceptic. There again, I tend to think of the relationship between them and metal as similar to that between, say, Madness and ska: it's obviously the music they loved and wanted to make together, but they have their own take on it, which isn't watered-down exactly so much as it's filled with other influences and an ear for a great pop hook. For a while this style was called Britrock and whilst the name didn't stick, there is something in the distinction: Tony Wright's Yorkshire vowels immediately mark this out as a product of the UK, and whilst those crunchy guitar chords set it apart from the typical Britpop repertoire it shows some kinship in its openness to lightheartedness, far from the earnestness of grunge or modern hardcore bands but also from the worst of hair-metal machismo. Pulling out the album again for the first time in a few years, I was impressed at how much of it I knew off by heart, and by the fact that 'Perseverance' isn't even the strongest track although its breathless energy and the neat use of low-pitched brass makes it a logical choice of lead single. They sound like a band who enjoy being a band and want you to enjoy it too, and that's enough for now.

Although the band have, like most of this era, reunited for sporadic tours and recordings, Tony Wright now has a secondary career doing letterpress printing.

Also appearing on: Now 42
Available on: Regular Urban Survivors