5000 Volts

U.K. disco took a sharp turn once the electro-charged two-hit wonders 5000 Volts arrived in 1975. The group originated when veteran session singers Tina Charles, formerly of Wild Honey, and Martin Jay reunited after their earlier stint together in Northern Lights. Working as a duo for producer Tony Eyers, they cut “Bye Love” and paired it with the Eyers-written B-side “I’m on Fire.” Club reaction quickly elevated the latter track, which Philips issued in September after acquiring the master; the label also swapped the sides and changed the act’s name from its initial West German Airbus release on Phonogram to the more dynamic 5000 Volts. The single lingered more than two months on the British charts and peaked at number four.

Its momentum carried overseas, placing the song inside the U.S. Top 20 by late October 1975. Needing both a follow-up and an album, Jay and Charles expanded the lineup with ex-Northern Lights drummer Kevin Wells, bassist Martin Cohen, and keyboardist Mike Nelson, supplying a fuller, harder-hitting disco sound. The revamped band’s next U.K. single, “Look Out I’m Coming,” failed to register, yet “Motion Man” later reached the German Top 30, prompting a 1976 tour of that territory.

While British interest cooled, the lull gave Tina Charles room to resume her solo ambitions. Producer Biddu, impressed by her vocal on “I’m on Fire,” recruited her for two late-1975 sessions; the second, “I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Loves to Dance),” topped the U.K. charts in February 1976. Ongoing disputes led Charles to exit 5000 Volts on the eve of the scheduled German dates. Vocalist Linda Kelly stepped in, and the revised group issued “Dr Kiss-Kiss” in July, which surprisingly climbed to number eight at home yet made little impact elsewhere. The canceled tour damaged their standing, causing overseas licensees to lose interest; further domestic singles and a self-titled album—“Light the Flame of Love,” “Take Me Back,” and “(Walkin’ On) A Love Cloud”—appeared throughout 1976 without commercial traction. One final 45, “Can’t Stop Myself from Loving You,” surfaced in 1977 before the band, still reeling from Charles’s departure, dissolved.

Jay later pursued solo work, releasing singles on DJM through the late ’70s, then joined studio outfits Enigma and Tight Fit in 1981 and UK Mixmasters in 1990.