1. art and entertainment
2. music
3. recording industry
4. record labels

Steve Jenkins
Sample
Stormbooks.biz
This is a work of non-fiction. All names and characters aside from deliberate references to
public figures, products or places are non-fictitious and are not intended to refer to any
specific persons save in a biographical personal opinion based context setting nor to disparage
any company's products or services
© 2012 All Rights reserved Steve Jenkins
CHAPTER 16
Impulse - The UK’s Number One Popular Music Promotion Company - 1986
New ideas and concepts:
1986 would be the year when the Impulse Group of Companies’ success and influence would
surpass all other promotion companies in the history of the UK record business. The main
competitors, Bullet Promotions and First Strike would capitulate under the increasing pressure
and growth of our company.
Impulse expanded once again in 1986 and although we failed to sell to the major companies our
first idea of a van sales company that had the working title of Impact, our second idea did work.
We began the Impulse Weekend Team, which was a team of part time reps that joined the
company and worked for two days a week on Friday and Saturday. Our Impulse team members
recruited the new people who were individuals that wanted to be reps in the record business.
So the Impulse Weekend Team became a training ground for new reps taught ‘on the ground’
and monitored by our experienced reps. The Weekend Team were further employed when our
main reps took their holidays, and this meant that we covered two fifths of our call pattern
twice a week with over twenty reps working on Fridays preparing for the weekend sales and ten
weekend reps working on Saturdays when no regular reps worked. It also meant that Impulse
were never off the road due to holiday entitlement, something no other company could
guarantee. This team was the final nail in the coffin of our competitors and was tremendously
well received by all the record labels, vitally determined as they were to influence their discs’
chart positions at the weekend. Another ‘dead bang winner’ of an idea and another successful
arm to The Impulse Group.
We opened 1986 quickly with hit records. If You’re Ready Come Go With Me was a Number 30
hit for Jonathan Butler and Ruby Turner. It was produced by Billy Ocean and was a major priority
for Jive Records as it made Jonathan and Ruby viable artists. They had further hits thereafter
and they started to sell albums. Our first Number One of the year came in February: When The
Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Going by Billy Ocean was a worldwide hit and cemented Billy
as a major global star. I had first heard the record, produced by Mutt Langer, just before the
previous Christmas, and from the opening bars it sounded like a Number One. The video to the
record was the icing on the cake and made sure of its huge international success. Michael
Douglas the famous Hollywood actor, and a huge music fan, was on top of his game at the time
and while he was making the movie The Jewel Of The Nile he contacted us to see if we could
come up with a song that would fit the film and help promote it. After hearing ‘Tough’ we
suggested that Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito appear in the video as
Billy’s backing singers, which they all agreed to do. The original video was a masterpiece and
included Danny DeVito miming the saxophone solo in the middle of the song. For this piece we
found the biggest saxophone we could get, one that was almost as big as Danny, and it was a
brilliantly funny scene. Sadly the American Federation of Musicians made us edit out that very
segment because Danny was not playing but miming, and so the general public were denied one
of the greatest mimed solos of all time. The backing vocal sections were included and prolonged
to include a backing vocal dance, which is also good, but Danny ‘playing’ the sax was
outstanding. Even so, regardless of the Musicians Union, When The Going gets Tough.... went to
Number One.
At the same time, Impulse also claimed the Number Two record for Rainbow Records after Bill
Kimber had brought us a single from Su Pollard, a national star from a TV series about a holiday
camp. The disc was called Starting Together, and to this day Bill claims that I stopped Su
reaching Number One by working Billy’s record harder, as I was associated with both Billy and
Jive. This is not true and I would have liked to have that much influence over the UK public! Billy
won the race fair and square, and we were delighted to work on both records. We took a full
page advertisement in Music Week showing both records with their Number One and Two chart
positions and a strip line underneath saying ‘Impulse - The Number One and Number Two
Promotion Company’. That advert was an arrow in the hearts of our competitors, and especially
as both Jive and Rainbow were considered small independent labels.
Samantha Fox:
Jive were now beginning to deliver more records that had the quality to become big hits. We
had signed Samantha Fox after the David Cassidy picture disc had proved there could well be a
music market for the country’s favourite Page Three girl. In fact the way this happened was very
much in accord with the idea behind Jive Records itself, which was built on the concept of Berry
Gordy’s Tamla Motown. Our publishing company signed what we considered to be good up and
coming writers and then gave them a project like Samantha Fox in which we individually
challenged them to come up with a hit single for the act. That process delivered Samanatha’s
debut single Touch, which climbed to Number Three in England and began to sell around the
world. It is often thought that Sam just sold records in England, and this is not true at all. She
sold records and had Number Ones in America, all over Europe, India and the Far East, also
selling thousand of albums everywhere, and as time went by she would sell more records
abroad than in England. The rest of the world saw her as a recording artist that you could find
topless pictures of, and yet at home Sam was perceived as a topless model who had a few hits. I
was amazed a year or so later when I arrived in Los Angeles to see posters of Samantha all over
Sunset Boulevard. She had already become a big star in America. I got to know Samantha and
also her parents very well and I liked her a lot. She is a great professional and real hard worker,
and we would spend the next few years working on her records together and counting her as a
good friend.
The Real Thing - again:
Life goes round and round and sometimes the past becomes the future. PRT Records, which
were formerly Pye Records, organised themselves again, after a lull, into becoming a major
distributor and record label, and Impulse became their promotion company. I had worked with
The Real Thing way back in my days at Barbarella’s in Birmingham and was delighted that they
had achieved success after years of trying in 1976 through to 1979. PRT decided to remix and re
issue their great hit single You To Me Are Everything and they brought me in to do the
marketing. I loved the idea and met up again with Chris and Eddie Amoo, Ray Lake and Dave
Smith. Our relationship was still so good that they greeted me with ‘Oh no not him, it’s all over
now, we thought we were making a comeback, we’re finished before we’ve started.’ You To Me
Are Everything was to do it all over again, selling over two hundred thousand copies and peaking
at Number 5. I loved it when they had to present me with a silver disc for my efforts. We then
decided that maybe Can’t Get By Without You, originally their second hit in 1976, was worth a
try. It was: the remix of Can’t Get By.... would be a hit again and peak at Number 6. Following
this I was involved in getting the boys signed to Jive and we tried our luck with a new single
Straight To The Heart, which was a good record, but our luck had run out and it only became a
minor hit. The Real Thing had been part of the tapestry of my life and whenever those records
come on the radio today I remember our times together with great fondness.
Number One, Number One, Number One:
Impulse hit the Number One slot for the second time in 1986 in March with Rock me Amadeus
by Falco. Howard Berman at A & M Records, always one of my favourite labels, had brought us
the record, and although originally I was not so sure about it, Shaun King was very enthusiastic
and later used to dance around the office singing it in a very strange voice after it had become a
Number One. It just goes to show that no matter how many hit records you have, you can
always miss a big one. Fortunately because of Shaun we did not miss Rock Me Amadeus. March
also brought the first big hit for Champion Records. We always knew that our system for
Champion using Impulse Club Promotions, Prime Time telesales and then Impulse as the strike
force would sooner or later bring big hit records, it was only a matter of time. (Nothin’ Serious)
Just Buggin’ by Whistle was a Number 7 single in the UK and the band flew in to do Top Of The
Pops and attend an Impulse monthly team meeting at The Holiday Inn, Swiss Cottage. The
following day we all rejoiced: this little idea and company was undeniably effecting everything in
the UK popular music record business.
Impulse would hit the Number One spot another seven times during 1986. In April we made it
with George Michael’s A Different Corner for John Aston at CBS Epic. In May our hit was Spirit In
The Sky by Dr and The Medics for Steve Tannett at IRS Records. July brought us both The Lady In
Red by Chris DeBurgh for Howard Berman at A & M Records and I Want To Wake Up With You
by Boris Gardiner for Revue Records. In August we scored with Don’t Leave Me This Way by The
Communards and Sarah Jane Morris for Colin Bell and Roger Ames at London Records. October
brought us Every Loser Wins by Nick Berry, then of Eastenders fame, which was our first hit with
BBC Records. I had worked hard to build a relationship with BBC Records as I could not
understand why the BBC did not take their label seriously. Simon Cowell had helped me get ‘in’
with the BBC by recommending us, and just a few weeks before we had brought BBC Records a
Number Four single with Anita Dobson. Anita, who would later marry Brian May of Queen, I
found charming. She was very excited to have a hit single, as she had always wanted to sing and
make a record, and Anyone Can Fall In Love fulfilled many of her ambitions. And then our final
Number One hit in this bumper year of 1986 came at Christmas when we worked Reet Petite by
Jackie Wilson for Anne Plaxton at Scratch Records. Reet Petite,The Sweetest Girl In Town had
been a Number Six record in the UK in 1957, and now for the reissue we accompanied it with an
ingenious video of a plasticine man continually changing shape, which ensured we made
Number One, where the record stayed into the New Year, making it also our first Number One
of 1987. It was one of my two favourite Number One’s of 1986, the other being Billy Ocean’s
When The Going Gets Tough.
Through its many services to the record industry Impulse now had relationships with all the
record labels. Only three years earlier my phone no longer rang and I was visiting the dole office
in Walsall. Everything can change, and even when you are in the depths of despair and
depression there is usually a way out. Belief is a major factor, a will to win is essential, and a
‘never say die’ attitude is a must. If you can muster the first two and work on the third, anything
can happen, just as my Mom and Dad always told me.
Tony Calder returned to Impulse during 1986 with a new company that would eventually bear
fruit a couple of years later. He wanted and obtained a twelve single deal with Impulse, and as
always he asked me to go back and work with him full time, something I never did in all the
years that followed. I have always had a great affection and respect for Tony, his work in the
sixties with Andrew Loog Oldham, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, Marianne Faithfull, The
Nice, Amen Corner, Chris Farlowe, Crispian St Peters, to name a few, was exemplary. I have
always felt if Tony could have controlled his incredible mind and brain he would have been one
of the very top record executives the business has ever seen. He would get up at 6.00am and
read all the newspapers ever day, and he had such a vast capacity for retaining information.
It was Rod Duncombe and Tony Calder that gave a club DJ from somewhere called Walsall a
chance in the record business, for which I have been and always will be grateful, and I have tried
my utmost to prove their decision a correct one throughout my years. If Tony Calder wanted a
twelve single deal with my company, he got one.
New York, New York:
In July of this year I made my first visit to New York. The New Music Seminar had begun and
would continue for many years as a similar fair to Midem, in which all the independent labels
gathered in one place to make deals and trade records. I still remember the sharp intake of
breath I felt as New York looms in front of you and you go over the bridge from the airport. I
would make that journey many times over the years but never tired of that sight, especially at
night. My first stay was for six days and The Sheridan City Squire on Seventh Avenue was my
home. At first I was disorientated. New York seemed a scary place, where everyone spoke and
moved at rapid pace and to me appeared to shout at each other in normal conversation. I
originally thought all these people were so stressed and a little bit mad, the speed of the place
was much quicker than London. By the second night my fear increased. It was late and I was in
my hotel room when I heard gun shots. That’s a sound that you never forget, it is not at all like a
firework it is far more powerful and intense: immediately you hear a shot you know the
difference instantly. I went downstairs to the lobby and moved closer towards the entrance, and
about forty yards down the road were police and tape blocking off the corner: someone had
been shot just moments before and only yards from my hotel. I thought ‘this place is still the
Wild West and John Wayne still rules’, and my antenna was up for the rest of that week – I
didn’t know if this was a daily occurrence.
Before I had left for New York, Impulse had advertised in Billboard the U.S trade paper, and I
had also given an interview that was published that week. Our idea was to try and build a base
of contacts in America so that we could work their records in the UK, and we had a dream that
one day we may be able to open Impulse in America. That first trip was organised to try and get
a feel of how everything worked, and I made some contacts who over the next few years would
become friends. Cory Robbins and Steve Plotniki at Profile Records, Freddie Munao at Select
Records, Bryan Turner at Priority Records, Will Shokolov at Sleeping Bag Records, Bo Crane in
Miami, and Carl Strubbe in Boston were all record hustlers and gunslingers of music in those
days, and we were all about the same age, had similar aims and were very passionate about our
work. I began to like America and its record business.
Tommy Silverman of Tommy Boy Records had set up the seminar and we would become friends
and work on many of his records through the years. He took great care to introduce me to a lot
of labels, and he was a big fan of Impulse, our ideas and successes. Mel Medalie and Paul
Oakenfold were also in New York looking for records for Champion, and there were also a lot of
other English people there so I never felt alone. We would all meet up at Peter Stringfellow’s
New York club where we were made very welcome: it seemed like a little piece of England in
New York. As my confidence grew after a few days, Paul Oakenfold, who had spent a year living
in New York, said he would take me around on foot to see the real Big Apple. In some areas Paul
said I must not look people directly in the eye and never stop walking, just keep moving at all
times. I obeyed. I was not going to mess with his instruction. It was a fascinating night, I have
little idea where we went but some of those streets were tougher than I had seen in the east
end of London or Birmingham. In one square, surrounded by high rise apartments, there was a
small patch of green that was a small railed park, and it was patrolled by two police cars that
drove around that it all night long, such was the consistently expected violence. Thankfully we
moved on quickly.
Even The Stone You Trip On Is Part Of Your Destiny (Japanese Proverb):
Impulse was moving into its fourth year and could not have been in a stronger position. I was
beginning to make inroads into Europe and America, we were in a year that would yield nine
Number One records, and life was great. Nothing can go wrong now – can it?? If you decide or
are lucky enough to achieve a career in the record business, show business, the film industry or
professional sport, and you manage to have a long run, you will begin to understand that it is a
rollercoaster ride. My advice would be to treat success and failure, the ups and downs as
similarly as possible. In other words, do not become too high when all is going well and that
feeling of invincibility arrives, and conversely when things are going badly try not to be too
down and lose sight of your goals. Very early in my Impulse career, before we hit the big time, I
was talking to Mutt Langer one day. Mutt has sold over a hundred and fifty million records with
many artists he has produced, and he is a down to earth man. It was Mutt that told me ‘Don’t
bother with the parties, the press and all the show business nonsense, just get up every day and
give a great day’s work. If you do that, eventually it will take care of its self.’ One day at a time
and give it everything you can in those hours, you can then sleep contented with yourself. Mutt
also told me that the market place will move around on you, in other words, sometimes you can
make great records but because the market place has moved and fashion is elsewhere you will
not achieve the hit you deserved, and you must just go back in the studio and do your best again
– eventually you will succeed. This struck a chord with me straight away, and although I learned
many valuable ways to lead my life from John Fruin and Clive Calder, this one piece of advice
from Mutt stuck with me and I have lived my life trying to stay with that principle.
During July Peter Todd became very ill. It had been coming for a while, but I do not think Peter
or any of us realised it was a reality until now. Peter eventually ended up in hospital and
underwent a long recovery process at home. He did not return to Impulse until January 1987,
which was a major loss to all of us at the company, as Peter knew everything about how we
operated – after all he had built it up with me every day from the start. Shaun King, Jane Fisher,
Austin Powell, Justin Lubbock and Kieran Fanning all stepped up their game to cover his
departure, and whereas to the outside world they may have felt little difference in our
operation, internally it took a bit of getting used to. Sue and I had also had problems in our
relationship, and my obsession with Impulse and records must take a lot of the blame. Sue was
in any case never that comfortable in London, and by September she had left to return to
Walsall. Two of the major support scaffoldings of my life had disappeared within a few weeks,
and although I got on with the job, I must admit I had a feeling of great loss. The Impulse Group
however was a juggernaut that would not stop, so all of my days were filled to the maximum,
and parts of my free time were also filled with sport. I was still an avid Walsall Football Club
supporter and would get to as many games as possible. Whenever they played anywhere near
London, I was there, and I also managed home games some weekends as I would visit my Mom
and then go to the game.
Hello Elton John:
Although I rarely went to industry parties I could not pass on the invite to Billy Gaff’s country
mansion for a summer party that year in August. Billy was the famed manager of Rod Stewart,
and his party was the kind that you see in films: there was a hot air balloon going up and down
giving people short rides, a full orchestra playing all night, jugglers and circus show people doing
tricks and acrobatics – I had never seen anything like it. I met Elton John that night and stood
there talking with him for fifteen minutes about records and touring. Elton asked what I did and
listened to my description of Impulse – and three weeks later we were working an Elton single. I
also managed to talk to Rod Stewart, who was one of my favourite vocalists through his days
with The Faces and his solo career.
Another run to Christmas:
In September my sister Helen gave birth to an eight pound baby boy, David. This was great
news. David was born as Impulse was flying, and his elder sister Sally had been born three years
earlier at the beginning of Impulse. Our family was growing in tandem with Impulse.
Champion Records scored another Top Twenty single in September with an artist who would
eventually become a world movie star, a friend for a number of years, and a real hit maker.
We had heard a record that Paul Oakenfold had found in Philadelphia. Mel, Ron and I loved it
straight away and bought the rights for the UK. It had been made by two sixteen year olds who
were still at school and they were delighted that their first record was going to come out in the
far off land of England. The band was DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince and the single Girls Ain’t
Nothing But Trouble peaked at Number Twenty in the UK charts, beginning a long career for the
boys. Later, Jeff Townes and Will Smith would sign for Jive Records and we would be
reacquainted and score many more hits together. Whenever he visited the UK after he had
become a blockbuster film star in the 1990s, Will Smith would always remind me of those early
Champion days and his hit record in England during his last year of school.
During October I was invited to EMI Records to have lunch with the Managing Director Rupert
Perry. I liked Rupert and knew that he had worked in Los Angeles for Capital Records before
returning to the U.K to run EMI Records. a position he occupied for a number of years. Rupert
most definitely had class and style. He quizzed me about Impulse for a long time and also about
the future and what I might like to do. Over the coming months we met a couple of times more
in his office and had dinner together. Rupert wanted me to join EMI, but he soon realised I was
committed to Impulse: it was my baby and there was no way I would consider leaving all those
people who had supported me in the building of the company.
Towards the end of 1986, for the first time Impulse suffered a couple of record companies going
into liquidation. Bob England’s Towerbell Records went down owing us £33,000, and Dave
Robinson’s Stiff Records collapsed owing us £15,000. This had not happened to us before and it
was a huge blow: £50,000 gone in a moment. Zomba handled our accounts and we were too
busy dealing with the records to chase the outstanding debts, which was a major mistake and
one that only happens once. I do not blame Zomba or the accountants in this instance. Impulse
was a fast moving company and no-one had ever before achieved our sheer volume of records
and varied clients. This made me into a businessman, and never again would I be unaware of
what bills had been paid or what was outstanding. Impulse would have its own internal
accountant from the start of 1987. Sue Knowles joined Impulse from Zomba, at first for two or
three days a week but very soon in a full time capacity. Sue met with me every week and taught
me a lot about accounts. She became our credit control and when she felt we were running into
a potential problem she would alert me. I would then go in to get the money or stop our
companies working on the labels’ records, usually at a crucial time for them. Never again would
we lose a substantial amount of money and never again would I be unaware of the accounting
position. Sue and I became a strong team together for The Impulse Group of Companies and we
forced all the company’s main players to be aware of the clients’ financial positions with us.
We finally and joyously managed the big hit record So Macho that Simon Cowell and Ian Burton
had been looking for with Sinitta, whose career they had tried so hard to get going. Pete
Waterman along with Mike Stock and Matt Aitken were becoming regular hit makers and
Impulse was working all their hits, such as this one for Sinitta and the fantastic Showing Out with
Mel and Kim (Melanie and Kim Appleby), which were signs of what was to come. Showing Out
was an important hit in November after being one of those records that would not go into the
chart for weeks but also would not die. Pete Waterman, Nick East and I just would not give up
on this single. Initially we could not get into the Top 75, and then it took weeks to reach the Top
40, but when that happened the record took a real grip and catapulted Mel and Kim to national
stardom – short-lived, tragically, when Mel succumbed to cancer little over three years later.
John Fruin had called me to his office in late October, as he did every year regular as clockwork.
‘What are the new plans for next year? How are you going to build the company?’ John never
missed a beat, and by the 1st of December I had to have the ideas and commence work on them.
Meanwhile, 1986 had been a memorable year. Impulse not only had nine Number One singles
during 1986, we also had seven Number Two singles. When I received an enormous dressing
down from Jermaine Stewart’s manager for only making Number Two on the chart with We
Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off To Have A Good Time, I thought he was joking and laughed,
which induced him to lose his mind completely with me – so we never worked with him again,
nor did he have any more hits. We had a great year with Chrysalis Records, Virgin Records,
Supreme Records and Island Records and finally after three years of great effort Jive Records
had a consistent year of hits. Champion Records managed two Top 40 hits and another ten Top
100 and Top 75 hits, all of which were money makers, and the label established itself as a ‘taste
maker’ label and one that DJ’s all over the country had great respect for. I became the regular
breakfast partner for Gareth Harris at RCA Records, which was sometime before that kind of
meeting became popular, and in 1986 we had hits with The Eurythmics, The Blow Monkeys, Five
Star and Daryl Hall, which also kept my relationship with Randy Hoffman and Tommy Mottola in
the US. John Aston at CBS Records kept his faith in me and I was able to deliver some hit records
for him during the year with George Michael, Cyndi Lauper and Big Audio Dynamite. On the back
of the hugely popular vogue for Snooker on TV, we had a Top Ten single Snooker Loopy with
Chas and Dave, reaching Number 6 just two weeks after its release in May, although this was
one of the records we were destined not to be paid for with the collapse of Towerbell Records.
This year had been specially vital not only for the Number One records, Champion’s first couple
of big hits, and our attack on Europe and America, but also because major artists were now
becoming aware of Impulse, its success rate and its high level hit ratio. Elton John, David Bowie,
Chris Rea, The Eurhythmics, Daryl Hall, David Essex, George Michael, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel
Ritchie, Aswad, The Beastie Boys, The Art of Noise, Marc Almond, Genisis, Kim Wilde, Huey
Lewis and The News, Grace Jones, Chris DeBurgh, Cyndi Lauper, The Communards, Erasure,
Ultravox, Debbie Harry, Billy Ocean – the Impulse Group of Companies was known to all these
artists, who made up a roll call of the biggest names in the industry.
The Impulse Group Hit Records 1986
January
If You’re Ready Come Go With Me Jonathon Butler & Ruby Turner Jive Records No 30
Pull Up To The Bumper
Grace Jones
Island Records No12
When The Going Gets Tough
Billy Ocean
Jive Records No 1
February
Do You Believe In Love
Starting Together
Huey Lewis & The News
Su Pollard
Chrysalis Records
Rainbow Records
No 9
No 2
Samantha Fox
Jive Records
No 3
March
Touch Me
So Macho
Sinitta
You to Me Are Everything The Real Thing
E=MC2
Big Audio Dynamite
Diggin’ You’re Scene
Blow Monkeys
Absolute Beginners
David Bowie
Rock Me Amadeus
Falco
Just Buggin’
Whistle
Peter Gunn
Art Of Noise
Fanfare Records
P.R.T. Records
C.B.S. Records
R.C.A. Records
Virgin Records
A&M Records
Champion Records
China Records
No 2
No 5
No 11
No 12
No 2
No 1
No 7
No 8
April
Can’t wait another Minute Five Star
A Different Corner
George Michael
I’ll Keep On Loving You Princess
There’ll Be Sad Songs
Billy Ocean
Tent Records
Epic Records
Supreme Records
Jive Records
No 7
No 1
No 16
No 12
Rockney Records
I.R.S. Records
Virgin Records
P.R.T. Records
Eternal Records
No 6
No 1
No 15
No 6
No 13
Jive Records
No 10
A&M Records
Revue Records
Virgin Records
No 1
No 1
No 6
May
Snooker Loopy
Chas & Dave
Spirit In The Sky
Dr & The Medics
Invisible Touch
Genisis
Can’t Get By Without you The Real Thing
Sinful
Pete Wylie
June
Do Ya Do Ya
Samantha Fox
July
The Lady In Red
Chris DeBurgh
I Want To Wake Up With You Boris Gardener
Calling All The Heroes
It Bites
August
We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off Jermaine Stewart 10 Records
Dreamtime
Daryl Hall
R.C.A. Records
Don’t Leave Me This Way The Communards
London Records
I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight Cutting Crew
Siren Records
Anyone Can Fall In Love
Anita Dobson
BBC Records
No 2
No 28
No 1
No 4
No 4
September
World Shut Your Mouth
Thorn In My Side
True Colours
Showing Out
Julien Cope
Eurythmics
Cyndi Lauper
Mel & Kim
Island Records
R.C.A. Records
Portrait Records
Supreme Records
No 19
No 2
No 12
No 3
Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Champion Records No 21.
October
Every Loser Wins
Nick Berry
Sometimes
Erasure
You Keep Me hanging On Kim Wilde
BBC Records
Mute Records
M.C.A. Records
No 1
No 2
No 2
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records
No 30
No 8
Legend Records
Scratch Records
No 5
No 1
November
All Fall Down
Ultravox
French Kissing In The U.S.A. Deborah Harry
December
No More The Fool
Reet Petite
Elkie Brooks
Jackie Wilson
The Impulse Group Of Companies had hit the big time in 1986. We ended the year with a
confidence we had not had before. The sun was blazing down – at the moment.