Black

In 1980 the Liverpool pop outfit Black came together in England, serving chiefly as the platform for singer and songwriter Colin Vearncombe, who had first appeared at sixteen fronting the punk unit the Epileptic Tits. The group’s initial lineup paired Vearncombe with a roster of unnamed session musicians and introduced itself through the single “Human Features,” issued on the local Rox label. That pressing sold out almost immediately, attracting the attention of the Eternal imprint run by fellow Liverpudlians Pete Wylie and Wah!.

Once ex-Last Chant keyboardist Dave Dickie and bassist Jimmy Sangster joined the fold, Black coalesced into a functioning band and released its second single, “More Than the Sun.” WEA subsequently financed the third single, “Hey Presto,” yet the track failed to register; an orchestral treatment of “More Than the Sun” met the same fate, prompting the label to drop the act. Dickie remained involved strictly as producer and withdrew from live duties, casting the band’s future in doubt. Roughly eighteen months of writing and contract negotiations ensued before the modest Ugly Man label contacted Vearncombe and issued the minor hit “Wonderful Life.”

A&M soon extended a deal, resulting in a U.K. Top Ten placing for “Sweetest Smile” in 1987; a reworked version of “Wonderful Life” followed with comparable success. The debut album, also titled Wonderful Life, surfaced late that year and found favor throughout Europe. The Robin Millar-produced sophomore set Comedy arrived in 1988 but could not equal its predecessor’s impact. After a lengthy hiatus and several personnel adjustments, Black resurfaced in 1991 with a self-titled album featuring guest spots from Robert Palmer and Sam Brown.

Leaving A&M, the band enlisted producer Mike Hedges and released Are We Having Fun Yet? on its own Nero Schwartz mail-order label in 1993. Three further Nero Schwartz albums appeared after the turn of the millennium: Between Two Churches (2005), Water on Stone (2009), and Blind Faith (2015). Colin Vearncombe died on January 26, 2016 in Cork, Ireland, at age fifty-three, from injuries sustained in a traffic accident earlier that month.