Boys Don't Cry

The lineup that would become Boys Don’t Cry had previously logged session and band work with Sad Café, Andy Brown, Jackson Heights, Byzantium and Mike Oldfield. Nick Richards, Brian Chatton, Nico Ramsden, Mark Smith and Jeff Seopardi had already performed together under the name Jazz Sluts. Because Richards owned Maison Rouge studio, the musicians enjoyed unrestricted recording access; their first release, the 1983 single “Heart’s Bin Broken,” emerged from those sessions. In the mid-80s the group signed with Profile Records in the United States, where the single “I Wanna Be A Cowboy” became an instant success. Its video, which included a cameo by Motörhead’s Lemmy, climbed to number 12 on the Billboard chart in 1986. The follow-up “The Cities On Time” did not match that performance. After issuing one album that entered the charts, the band moved to Atlantic Records, yet later singles such as “Who The Am Dam Do You Think I Am?” could not restore their commercial momentum. Eventually the musicians resumed careers as session players.