It was 1984. The year of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Two Tribes , Prince's When Doves Cry , and Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go Go .
And there was another sound that lit up that blazing summer - the smooth pop sophistication of a band hailing from Seaham, in County Durham, called the Kane Gang. The trio - David Brewis, Paul Woods and Martin Brammer - had grown up in the town as mates and music fans.
They scored a huge hit with the luscious, self-penned Closest Thing To Heaven , and followed it up with another - a stomping interpretation of the Staple Singers' classic Respect Yourself . (Both, I can vouch from personal experience, were big nightclub favourites at the time).
READ MORE: Tyneside in the 1970s - 10 photographs
There were television appearances on the likes of Top Of The Pops , The Tube , The Old Grey Whistle Test and even the housewives' staple, Pebble Mill At One . There were high-profile live appearances - and a mooted US tour, which managed to fall through at the last minute. And there were two fine albums - The Bad and Lowdown World of the Kane Gang and Miracle , both spawning notable single releases - which gained critical and commercial success in the UK, Australia and in the States.
It was a time when the band were label mates with Prefab Sprout, Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, and others on Newcastle's renowned Kitchenware Records during what was a hugely positive period for North East music. But the Kane Gang would enjoy a relatively short lifespan.
Paul Woods, originally a journalist by profession, was one of the band's two vocalists - alongside Martin Brammer. He recalls working on what would have been the band's third album at a studio in Newcastle, and deciding to call it a day before the record was finished. "It was a really drawn-out, depressing experience. I even remember rats running around outside at one point. What had been something I loved was now a negative influence in my life. And that was it."
The three would stay in touch and on good terms, Woods returning to journalism and working on the Sunderland Echo and Shields Gazette newspapers, Brammer expanding into music management, and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brewis working on a host of musical projects.
Paul adds: "There was talk of a possible reunion six or seven years ago, but nothing came of it. Dave and I would regularly meet in the pub, and I ended up adding some vocals to a solo album he was working on. That was about four years ago. The next thing we knew, we were working together again and that was the beginning of Autoleisureland.
"There was so much enthusiasm in the writing and it's been such a fruitful period. The songwriting came easy. It's not always like that, but this time it was. Compared to the Kane Gang, I'd say this new work is lighter and we took a more considered approach. We're older and wiser now."
The pair's album Infiniti Drive is slated for release in the late summer, and if its first two recently released tracks - Autoleisureland and Fade Out - are anything to go by, it will be worth the wait. The songs bear the perfectly crafted hallmarks which characterised the Kane Gang, but have an added 21st century twist.
The title Autoleisureland, with its strong American imagery and irresistible clavinet flourishes courtesy of David Brewis, is somewhat amusingly inspired by a former Wearside retro car mart of the same name. The upbeat Aha-like electropop of Fade Out charts Woods' observations on a music industry that has changed profoundly since the 1980s.
"Back then," recalls Paul, "the record company would give you three weeks to make an impact - and then pull the plug if you didn't. Now, we're in it for the long haul. We're just pleased to have it out. We've had some good radio play around the UK and the promise of TV publicity. Hopefully it will spread by word of mouth too. We're just going to keep pushing it and see what happens."
- Autoleisureland are David Brewis and Paul Woods. The new album I nfiniti Drive is due out later this year . Check out the band's website here, and their YouTube channel here.
READ NEXT:
- The Rolling Stones in Newcastle 40 years ago - the city's biggest ever rock concert
- Newcastle's Noble Street flats - last stand of a notorious housing estate
- Newcastle's World War II VC hero, Adam Wakenshaw, was killed in action 80 years ago
- 'Thunder Thursday' 10 years on - in 20 photographs
- Images of Whitley Bay in the 1980s
