Black Lace are no more

Paul_C

Colin Gibb has fallen, so they'll be singing Agadoo in heaven tonight.

CaseOfAce

I found Black Lace absolutely astonishing.

Occupying a hinterland of their own completely ignored by mainstream media there is a hell of a story to be told here of how a eurovision UK entry / northern club circuit band achieved mega chart success.

Part Benidorm, package holiday trips to Spain, kid's parties and granny passed out on her mobility scooter on her 2nd gin and tonic with a hint of Roy Chubby Brown and Rita,Sue and Bob Too thrown into the mix. And that's before you get to the hits - Agadoo, Do The Conga and Superman - and they were hits back when such things really existed - europe wide.

I mean they REALLY leant into it. And the fashion choices - black leather trousers, multi-coloured specs, the mullets and earrings. 

I can't think of another act who went that far. Bucks Fizz always stepped back from the precipice. Quo veered dangerously close in the late 80s, early 90s. But none were ever quite as close to the edge as The Lace...

Say what you will about them - they've had more of a musical career than a good 97% of the members of this forum.  and were in their own special way uniquely British.

Benm39

Creme Brulee, but it's a shit business...

Philly_Q

Oh no!  I remember Black Lace pre-"Agadoo", when they sounded like a Smokie tribute act and represented the UK at Eurovision in 1979 with "Mary Ann".

And then, weirdly, Alan Barton went on to replace Chris Norman in Smokie.

RIP Colin Gibb.

Shrews

Did something like this in Benny Hills Magaluf '86. Good old Bennies!  Thanks for the cheesy 80's tunes Black Lace. RIP Colin Gibb

ICBM

The worst and the best of cheesy British pop music. Awfully brilliant… or brilliantly awful, I have no idea which!

Couldn’t stand them, personally. But they gave a lot of joy to a lot of people. The world would be a duller place without them.

RIP Colin .

hollywoodrox

Are they both gone then?  Very sad , awful at the time but nostalgically looking back would that summer caravan park bar in Skegness have been the same without agadoo playing even if you hated it . RIP 

thermionic

He’s somehow managed to keep the suspended sentence he received in 1986 out of the obituaries (and the google results)…

bloodandtears

thermionic said:

He’s somehow managed to keep the suspended sentence he received in 1986 out of the obituaries (and the google results)…

The Times have it... Gibb was fined and received a suspended prison sentence, according to a 2009 memoir by Black Lace's drummer Terry Dalton...  liked 'em young allegedly...

RIP

Keiko

How did they get away with the song 'gangbang', on an album for young kids?

Philly_Q

thermionic said:

He’s somehow managed to keep the suspended sentence he received in 1986 out of the obituaries (and the google results)…

I don't think he's managed to do that.  He's dead, he didn't have any say in the matter.

Gilly

Can’t they just replace him with another singer and do a comeback album called Back in Black Lace?

thermionic

Philly_Q said:

thermionic said:

He’s somehow managed to keep the suspended sentence he received in 1986 out of the obituaries (and the google results)…

I don't think he's managed to do that.  He's dead, he didn't have any say in the matter.

When I read about this story yesterday, there was a suggestion that he'd used Article 17 of the GDPR to remove any references to this appearing in google results.

Philly_Q

thermionic said:

Philly_Q said:

thermionic said:

He’s somehow managed to keep the suspended sentence he received in 1986 out of the obituaries (and the google results)…

I don't think he's managed to do that.  He's dead, he didn't have any say in the matter.

When I read about this story yesterday, there was a suggestion that he'd used Article 17 of the GDPR to remove any references to this appearing in google results.

Wow, I take it back then.  Although it seems he wasn't 100% successful.

Emp_Fab

bloodandtears said:

thermionic said:

He’s somehow managed to keep the suspended sentence he received in 1986 out of the obituaries (and the google results)…

The Times have it... Gibb was fined and received a suspended prison sentence, according to a 2009 memoir by Black Lace's drummer Terry Dalton...  liked 'em young allegedly...

RIP

Hang on.....   are we to understand Gibb received a prison sentence (suspended) for noncery ?  Is that what is being said here ?

EricTheWeary

I’ve said on here before that Agadoo would be on my Desert Island Discs as it takes me back to the package holidays we went on when my sons were young, there would be a kid’s disco every night in the hotels and every night they would play Agadoo. 

I remember watching a TV show about diet quite a few years ago and Gibb was on it. He’d put on a lot of weight and, as people seem to, could only lose it when followed by a camera crew. But he seemed to have done alright for himself is what I noticed and was still doing Black Lace gigs (from looking at Wikipedia he would have been living in Tenerife where Black Lace had some kind of residence). 

The offence is in the Guardian obit as well “he thought she was in here late teens or early twenties but it turned out she was fifteen.” £200 fine, doesn’t mention a suspended sentence. He would have been about 33. Make of that what you will. 

thermionic

https://x.com/alankelloggs/status/1797933320409592147?s=61&t=mdCC3gguRakOO6aDppWu_Q

Also, this is quite creepy:

https://x.com/karenlnhollis/status/1797649761648205995?s=61&t=mdCC3gguRakOO6aDppWu_Q

Emp_Fab

Why did he change his surname from Routh to Gibb ?

EricTheWeary

Emp_Fab said:

Why did he change his surname from Routh to Gibb ?

He was the hard man of pop and wanted people to know that he was Routhless. 

Philly_Q

Emp_Fab said:

Why did he change his surname from Routh to Gibb ?

The world of showbiz is full of people who don't use their given names.