The Blow Monkeys

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The Blow Monkeys
The Blow Monkeys' most successful album (She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, released 1987), featuring Dr. Robert on the front cover.
Background information
Origin	United Kingdom
Genre(s)	new wave pop rock dance ballad
Years active	1984-1990
Label(s)	RCA / Ariola / BMG
Website	http://www.drrobert.net/

The Blow Monkeys was a British sophisti-pop band of the 1980s that started out, in 1984, as a new wave-oriented act. They subsequently turned into more commercial pop rock hit-makers, and finally became a dance group, shortly before splitting up, at the beginning of the 1990s.

1 Career
2 Discography
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

Career

Fronted by lead singer,songwriter, guitarist and piano player Dr. Robert (born Bruce Robert Howard, 2 May 1961, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland), the group formed in 1981, upon Howard's return to the UK, after spending his teen years in Australia. The other members were Mick Anker on bass guitar, Neville Henry on saxophone, and Tony Kiley on drums. The group gets its unusual name from an offensive term used in Australia, referring to Aboriginals playing the didgeridoo. In 1984, they released their debut album, Limping for a Generation, characterized by a dark mood, and a mix of pop rock and new wave, but their first hit only came two years later, in 1986, with "Digging Your Scene", from their second album Animal Magic. The single attracted attention for its smooth pop-soul stylings and succinct topical lyrics (dealing with the AIDS-fuelled backlash against gays). It peaked at number 14 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart listing, and number 7 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. In addition, it reached a high of number 12 in the UK Singles Chart, and number 25 in Germany. In January of 1987, She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, the band's third album was released. The album's biggest hit, "It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way", a pop funky track, with a dancey flavour, reached the Top Ten in the UK, although it never charted in the United States. However, it did feature in the film, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol. Another noteworthy track, "You Don't Own Me" was used on the platinum selling "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack. Outside of the group (though actually included on their fourth album, Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood), a successful single release by Robert Howard was "Wait", that featured early Chicago House diva, Kym Mazelle, on female lead vocals. The record was an early British recording in the subgenre dubbed "UK garage". The track reached number 7 in the UK chart. It would later re-appear on the Blow Monkey's first greatest hits compilation, Choices - The Singles Collection, their highest-charting record, reaching Number 5 in the UK Album Chart, in 1989. The band called it quits in late 1990, shortly after the release of their fifth and last album, entitled Springtime for the World (an EP of the same name also came out, collecting all three singles from the album). After briefly recording with Dee C. Lee as Slam Slam, Dr. Robert went solo and still records music. He contributed to Paul Weller's solo debut album, and co-wrote material with both Weller and Lee. On 18 November 2007 the original band members announced the reunion of the Blow Monkeys, as well as a new album and a tour in 2008.

Discography

Singles

"Go Public" (1984)
"Man from Russia" (1984)
"Atomic Lullaby" (1984)
"Wildflower" (1985)
"Forbidden Fruit" (1985)
"Digging Your Scene" (1986) [UK Singles Chart: Number 12; USA Billboard Hot 100: Number 14; USA Dance Club Hot Play: Number 7; Germany: Number 25]
"Wicked Ways" (1986) [UK Singles Chart: Number 60]
"Don't Be Scared of Me" (1986)
"It Doesn't Have To Be This Way" (1987) [UK Singles Chart: Number 5]
"Out With Her" (1987) [UK Singles Chart: Number 30]
"Celebrate (The Day After You)" with Curtis Mayfield (1987) [UK Singles Chart: Number 52]
"Some Kind of Wonderful" (1987) [UK Singles Chart: Number 67]
"This is Your Life" (1988) [UK Singles Chart: Number 70]
"It Pays to Belong" (1988)
"Wait" (1989) Robert Howard and Kym Mazelle [UK Singles Chart: Number 7]
"This is Your Life" [Remix] (1989) [UK Singles Chart: Number 32]
"Choice?" featuring Sylvia Tella (1989) [UK Singles Chart: Number 22]
"Slaves No More" featuring Sylvia Tella (1989) [UK Singles Chart: Number 73]
"Springtime for the World" (1990) [UK Singles Chart: Number 69]
"La Passionara" [Remix] (1990)
"If You Love Somebody" [Remix] (1990)

Albums

Limping for a Generation (1984)
Animal Magic (1986) [USA Album Chart: Number 35]
She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter (1987) [UK Album Chart: Number 20 / USA Album Chart: Number 134]
Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood (1989)
Springtime for the World (1990)

Compilation Albums

Choices - The Singles Collection (1989) [UK Album Chart: Number 5]
Blow Monkeys The Masters (1997)
Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys (2 CDs, 1999)

Trivia

New York band Ivy covered "Digging Your Scene". It was included as a bonus track on their 2001 album Long Distance, as well as on their 2002 album Guestroom.
Their cover of David Bowie´s ´You Don´t Own Me´ appeared on the official soundtrack of Dirty Dancing, which went on to sell in excess of 41 million copies worldwide