The rest as they say is history......'Too Shy' went to no' 1 in the UK which was soon mirrored in charts all over the world including no'5 in the all important USA and culminated in 'Kajagoogoo' winning the prestigious ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) award for having written one of the most played songs on American radio that year (1983). The lavish London award ceremony was presented by Hal David who was one half of the legendary songwriting duo Baccarach & David.

Four and a half million global single sales later, it really was a proud acheivement......at one point in the UK, EMI could not manufacture enough copies to keep up with the demand of 30,000 orders a day and it wasn't long before we were presented with various 'gold' and 'platinum' sales award discs from all over the world.

It was tremendously exciting......we appeared on 'Top of the pops', 'The Kenny Everett Show' (which was huge then) and the 'Children's Royal Variety Performance' in the presence of Princess Margaret whom we met afterwards in the artist line-up..

As the single took off overseas, there were countless appearances to be done, it was a constant whirl of interviews, tv, press, radio and for a while it was literally, crazy with daily flights to international destinations for yet another promotional trip. It was a weird concept arriving in a country you'd never been before but be recognised by people......such was the power of the 'pop video'.

It was during this hectic haze that I also met many people I had admired like Freddie Mercury at a private party after their huge Wembley Stadium concerts, Princess Diana at a fashion charity event at London's 'Hippodrome Club' and last but not least Elton John who invited me to his 40th birthday party thrown by his manager - Elton's birthday present was a brand new Ferrari which had been wrapped in a huge pink ribbon on the lawn in front of the house, rock and roll eh !!

Two more worldwide chart hits followed with 'Ooh to be ah' & 'Hang on Now'. Kenny Everett also had a cameo role in the 'Ooh to be ah' video, he was a big fan of the band, I was very sad when he died a few years later.

Everything was really in overdrive, we were already writing and planning the follow-up album as we toured the UK and Europe to sell out shows and in August we performed at a huge outdoor festival in Finland to forty thousand people,.

The next day after the Finland concert, the band called me out of the blue and said that they wanted to part company with me.

After only eight short months in the public eye it was over - I was completely shell shocked and confused. Officially they blamed it on "musical differences" but I later discovered that they thought that I was to blame for the band becoming teen idols which was distracting from the music.

A fair point I suppose - but a more experienced manager would have advised them the obvious: Many bands started as teen idols like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Osmonds, David Cassidy, Duran Duran, Wham, Take That, etc and they all survived the initial teen adulation to have long careers. Your fans grow up with you and perhaps don't scream so loud then other people start to finally hear the music.

Continued......

see more pics in the Kajagoogoo photo gallery