Londonbeat

Londonbeat came together in the English capital long after three founding vocalists had already built reputations as soul performers. Throughout the seventies Jimmy Helms and Jimmy Chambers issued solo recordings on Pye and Cube, while George Chandler—formerly of Olympic Runners and Gonzales—appeared on RCA and Polydor releases. Completing the original quartet was songwriter and producer William Henshall, known professionally as Willy M. The group signed with Anxious Records, the label run by Eurythmics member David Stewart, and issued its first album, Speak, in 1988. Although the set fared better in the Netherlands than at home, the track “9 A.M. (The Comfort Zone)” still climbed into the U.K. Top 20. The 1990 successor, In the Blood, achieved wider commercial success on the strength of “I’ve Been Thinking About You,” which topped charts across multiple markets including Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands. Momentum proved fleeting thereafter. Two further Anxious releases, 1992’s Harmony and 1994’s Londonbeat, did little to revive or prolong the band’s profile. Following an appearance at the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest the original members went their separate ways, yet a revised lineup emerged in 2003 and began recording for Coconut. That chapter yielded the albums Back in the Hi-Life (2003) and Gravity (2004). About ten years later Londonbeat supplied two tracks to Deodato’s The Crossing, and the act continued performing through the final years of the 2010s.