Limahl
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| Limahl | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Christopher Hamill |
| Also known as | Limahl |
| Born | December 19, 1958 |
| Origin | Wigan, Greater Manchester, England |
| Genre(s) | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Vocalist |
| Instrument(s) | Singing, Keyboards |
| Associated acts | Kajagoogoo |
| Website | Limahl's Official Website |
Christopher Hamill (born December 19, 1958) is a British pop singer. He is better known by his stage name Limahl (an anagram of his surname), and was the lead singer of the 1980s pop band Kajagoogoo before embarking on a briefly successful solo career.
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[edit] Early years
Hamill was born in Pemberton, in Wigan, United Kingdom. He attended Mesnes High School, in Wigan, before eventually enrolling at the Westcliff-on-Sea Palace Theatre Repertory Company. Despite some success touring with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, he formed a short-lived punk band called Vox Deus. Next he joined Crossword but left to form Brooks with Mike Nolan. He adopted his stage name at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo.
[edit] Professional career with Kajagoogoo
An advert was placed in music magazine Melody Maker asking for a “front man who could sing and look good.” Soon after he had joined, the group released their first single "Too Shy" which went to Number 1 in the UK charts and the Top 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. This success was relatively short-lived, however, leading to the notorious Viz comic satirising him as “Limahl, whose hit includes "Too Shy".”
Limahl's relationship with the other band members was reportedly always tenuous, and in mid-1983 the band fired him after an acrimonious dispute. Defenders of Limahl claim that the band struggled with fame and Limahl’s prominence as the lead singer of the band was proving too much of a diversion from the music. Limahl accused the others of being jealous and was quoted in the press as saying “I’ve been betrayed!” and that "I was sacked for making them a success". Defenders of the band, however, stated that Limahl had become something of an egomaniac following the band's success and was both unprofessional and difficult to work with. Neither view has ever been conclusively proven.
[edit] After Kajagoogoo
After leaving the band, Limahl launched a solo career, achieving hits with "Only For Love" and "NeverEnding Story", the title theme from the film of the same name. His solo success was brief though and his début album Don't Suppose was a commercial failure, charting even lower than Kajagoogoo's follow-up album (Islands) - their first without him. He hit hard times after 1984, and in the late 1980s, he was photographed coming out of a job centre. The pictures were published in a Sunday newspaper, highlighting a story of how the once mighty can fall.
He still released two more albums to little fanfare: 1986's Colour All My Days and Love Is Blind in 1992, as well as a one-off single, "Tell Me Why" in 2006, subsequently added on a 2007 re-release of a variously titled compilation of a re-recorded selection of his and his former band's best songs (depending upon the different territories, basic titles such as The Best of or The Hits of are followed or preceded by the title of the single which was more successful or best known in the given country). This greatest hits album, first out in 1999, also contained two then previously unreleased tracks, "Rhythm of Love" and "Lost in Love", the latter making a double A side single with "Love That Lasts", credited to Tina Charles and Limahl, respectively, in 2002.
When the boom for ’80s nostalgia began, Limahl began to wear an orange wig identical to his original Kajagoogoo hairstyle and started playing gigs, performing the hits he had with the band and by himself.
In 2004, Limahl took part as a contender in musical reality show Comeback on German TV (Pro7). A year later, he appeared in a similar UK show Hit Me Baby One More Time (ITV). Ironically, the episode of Hit Me Baby One More Time in which Limahl appeared also featured Howard Jones who had enlisted the services of Kajagoogoo bass player Nick Beggs to support him during his performance.
[edit] Personal life
Although now known to be gay,[1][2] he once shared a flat with disc jockey Paul Gambaccini during his heyday, leading to rumours in the tabloid press that the two were lovers, a claim which both denied at the time. Gambaccini also wrote the first official biography of Kajagoogoo in 1983.
He is also a vegetarian.[3][4]
[edit] Discography
- See also: Kajagoogoo
[edit] Solo albums
- 1984 - Don't Suppose (EMI) (UK #63, U.S. #41)
- 1986 - Colour All My Days (EMI)
- 1992 - Love Is Blind (Bellaphon/Jimco) [Germany/Japan only - Japanese version includes 2 bonus dub versions]
[edit] Solo singles
- 1983 - "Only for Love/Over the Top" (UK #16, U.S. #51, D #8))
- 1984 - "Too Much Trouble" (UK #64, D #26)
- 1984 - "The NeverEnding Story" (UK #4, U.S. #17, D #2, I #2)
- 1985 - "Tar Beach/The Greenhouse Effect (Live)" [Germany only] (D #30)
- 1986 - "Love in Your Eyes" (UK #80, D #28, I #22)
- 1986 - "Inside to Outside" (remix) (D #57)
- 1986 - "Colour All My Days" [Spain only]
- 1992 - "Stop" [Germany/Japan only]
- 1992 - "Maybe This Time" [Germany/Japan only]
- 1992 - "Too Shy '92" [Germany/Japan only]
- 1992 - "Love Is Blind" [Germany/Japan only]
- 2002 - "Love That Lasts/Lost in Love" (Limahl/Tina Charles double A side single) [Germany only]
- 2006 - "Tell Me Why" [Germany only] (D #96)
[edit] Main solo compilations
- 1996 - The Best of Limahl (Disky Communications)
- 2003 - All the Hits plus More (Silver Star)
- Same collection released in different years, with different sleeves and different titles, on two different labels, compiling 8 songs out of 11 from Don't Suppose except "Oh Girl", "Tar Beach" and "The Greenhouse Effect", and 8 songs out of 10 from Colour All My Days except "Love Will Tear the Soul" and "For My Heart's Sake".
- 1999 - Limahl (Laser Light Digital)
- 1999/2007 - The Best of Limahl (Brilliant NL)
- Same collection with different titles but similar sleeves, on two different labels, released in the same year, in different countries, including 2 brand new songs, "Rhythm of Love" and "Lost in Love"; and compiling 5 songs out of 10 from Love Is Blind plus 3 singles from Don't Suppose, as well as Kajagoogoo/Kaja's first 7 singles, including the 4 post-split tracks he didn't originally sing on, here all (the 3 pre-split singles too) completely re-played, and resung by himself, i.e. "Big Apple", "The Lion's Mouth", "Turn Your Back on Me" and "Shouldn't Do That". The 2007 edition also includes his latest single, "Tell Me Why", eventually making it a 17-track compilation. It must be finally noted that more than 20 different versions actually exist of this greatest hits album, all of them following two alternative track listings only, corresponding to those as in the two representative compilations mentioned above. As for their various titles, see the "After Kajagoogoo" chapter above.
- 2002 - Never Ending Story (Best of) (Disky Records)
[edit] Kajagoogoo/Kaja/Limahl joint compilations
- 1993 - Too Shy: The Singles and More (ERG)
- Includes Limahl's "Only for Love", "Too Much Trouble", "The Never Ending Story", "Love in Your Eyes", "Inside to Outside" (7" remix), "Only for Love" (12" mix), "The Never Ending Story" (12" mix).
- 1996 - The Best of Kajagoogoo & Limahl (Disky Communications)
- Includes Limahl's "Inside to Outside".
- 1996 - The Very Best of Kajagoogoo (EMI Gold Collection)
- Includes Limahl's "The Never Ending Story", "Only for Love".
- 1998 - Premium Gold Collection Kajagoogoo & Limahl (EMI)
- Includes Limahl's "Too Much Trouble", "The Never Ending Story", "Love in Your Eyes", "Inside to Outside" and "Tar Beach".
- 2000 - Best of the 80's Kajagoogoo & Limahl (Disky Communications)
- Includes Limahl's "Don't Suppose", "Only for Love", "Too Much Trouble" e "The Never Ending Story".
- 2003 - The Very Best of Kajagoogoo and Limahl (EMI)
- Includes Limahl's "Only for Love", "The Never Ending Story", "I Was a Fool", "Inside to Outside", "Your Love", "Shock", "Love in Your Eyes", "Too Much Trouble", "Tar Beach".
N.B. In all the joint compilations above, obviously, Limahl also sings on Kajagoogoo's tracks from their 1983 debut album White Feathers.
[edit] References
- ^ The L of my alphabet of gay, lesbian & bisexual people
- ^ Limahl
- ^ Limahl - Biography
- ^ Limahl -Factfile
- Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice, Jonathan Rice (1993), British Hit Singles, Guinness Publishing Ltd.
- Paul Gambaccini (1983), Kajagoogoo
- Kajagoogoo | Billboard.com: Biography & Discography
- Stuck in the '80s | tampabay.com: Archives
