Allez Allez - African Queen / Repetition - The Still Reflex 7'' / Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement 12''

On the verge of an international breakthrough in 1981, Belgian based funky new wave band Marine, formed around singer Marc Marine, whose debut single ‘Life In Reverse’ was making waves, mislaid their founder member. John Peel had invited the act to perform a session for his show in August 1981; however singer Marc, whilst in London to record the session decided to quit. The band immediately replaced him with vocalist Sarah Osborne, who was at the time singing with London band and fellow label mates, Repetition; Marc eventually assembled a second version of Marine for his follow up single Same Beat.

Repetition, were a post-punk (also dubbed as Belgian post-punk) band which formed in the August of 1979. The band's initial line up was ex SpizzOil guitarist Pete Petrol, Ex Xtraverts drummer Tim Transe, keyboard player A.S.D.H. (Andy Hooper), bassist AWOL (Nicholas), and vocalist Sarah Osbourne. They were signed to Les Disques du Crépuscule after gaining the interest of Annik Honoré in 1979. First single 'A Still Reflex' was released in January 1981 and recorded at Spaceward Studios in Saffron Waldon, most notably produced by Joy Division’s manager, Rob Gretton. Owing to the connection with Brussels based Les Disques du Crepuscule the band toured in Belgium and the Netherlands in 1980 playing at Plan K in Brussels and the Effenaar in Eindhoven and appeared on Generation 80 TV show. Steve Musham joined the band during this period, playing bass initially, and then replacing Osbourne on vocals on the next single, ‘A Full Rotation', recorded at Berry Street Studios in London, in 1980.

Once Sarah Osborne was in place with the remaining members of Marine they promptly changed their name to Allez Allez and recorded their planned Peel session. The band then started to get regular play by Peel in the early 80's. Factoid; Allez Allez are considered to be the first Belgian act to perform a session for Peel's show. In the slipstream of their successful debut-single "She's Stirring Up", the mini-album "African Queen" aroused a lot more interest and became a gold selling record. It even earned them a place at the famous Torhout-Werchter festival in 1982. Allez Allez showed commercial potential, and following their indie mini album ‘African Queen’ the group signed with Virgin. Promises’ was produced by Martyn Ware of Heaven 17/Human League, and was released in November 1982. The album and singles unfortunately were not mainstream hits, and Sarah left the band to marry Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory.

Apart from Heaven 17 the rips presented here all came from vinyl and thankfully are available in MP3 @ 320kbps (for the purists), however I've lost the Marine single mentioned above...tough, enjoy.

Allez Allez; Allez Allez (Mini Album) MP3

A1.  Turn Up The Meter

A2.  Marathon Dance

A3.  She’s Stirring Up

B1.  Allez Allez

B2.  African Queen (Pour La Grace)

Repetition; The Still Reflex 7” MP3

A.     A Still Reflex

B.     Fade Out

Heaven 17; Penthouse And Pavement 12” MP3

A.     Penthouse And Pavement

B.     Penthouse And Pavement (Instrumental)