Vanilla Ice
Remember this joker? If you were under 25 in the early 1990s, chances are that Vanilla Ice is burned across some deep recess of your brain, never to be removed.
But what happened to the man born Robert Van Winkle after his 'authorised' biography was revealed to be full of outrageous lies about his supposedly ghetto past?
And while we're at it, what became of other music stars of the era we no longer hear about like Rick Astley, Bros, MC Hammer, Chesney Hawkes, and Yazz?.
Lets begin with Vanilla Douche(see above).
Glory years: 1990-1991.
Biggest hit: Ice Ice Baby.
What happened? At first Vanilla Ice was credited with making rap accessible to white audiences, but he rapidly became a laughing stock following a couple of poor film choices, an eight-month relationship with Madonna (he ended up in her Sex book), and particularly the publication of his 'authorised' biography (in fairness, he didn't know what was in it) which made out he'd come straight 'outta da hood' when he was actually a nice middle-class boy from Florida.
Where is he now? Still plugging away. He released Vanilla Ice Is Back! in 2008 (sample review: "an embarrassing endeavor that sounds like it should have stayed locked inside Ice's studio or at the very least leaked on YouTube and passed off as a p*** take"), and has another album called Yesterday Is History, Tomorrow Is A Mystery in the works. Also, somewhat inevitably, he's set to appear in a reality TV show this year.
Rick Astley
Glory years: 1987-1991,
Biggest hit: Never Gonna Give You Up,
What happened? He left the bosom of the Stock, Aitken, and Waterman production team to pursue a more soulful direction. The public weren't having any of it and the hits dried up.
Where is he now? Astley still turns out the odd album (two in the last 10 years) but was propelled straight back to the forefront of pop culture in 2007 thanks to the 'rickrolling' phenomenon, a viral internet hoax in which an estimated 25 million people were tricked into watching the video for Never Gonna Give You Up when it was posted under the name of various other popular video titles. In November 2008, he won the Best Act Ever award at the MTV Europe awards in Liverpool. Perhaps fearing he was being sent up, Astley didn't attend.
Bros
Glory years: 1987-1991,
Biggest hit: I Owe You Nothing,
What happened? Ironically, given the name of their biggest hit, it turns out the Goss twins owed drummer Craig Logan more than a million quid in unpaid royalties after he quit the band in 1989. Thanks to almost non-existent financial management (they once famously admitted to not knowing the difference between 'gross' and 'net'), this all but bankrupted them and they split up in 1992.
Where are they now? Still having the last laugh, Logan has been the head of Sony BMG's RCA Label Group since 2006. In 2008, the Goss twins told the BBC they were looking into the logistics of reforming for a full tour but nothing has come of it to date.
Chesney Hawkes
Glory years: 1991,
Biggest hit: The One And Only,
What happened? The title of his big hit proved to be prophetic because it was pretty much the only one he had.
Where are they now? He currently makes a living on the university circuit, belting out The One And Only to students drunk on subsidised booze and their own hilarious sense of irony.
Cathy Dennis
Glory years: 1989-1993,
Biggest hit: Touch Me (All Night Long),
What happened? She worked out she could make much more money for far less work by writing songs for other people. Starting with the B-side to the Spice Girls' Wannabe (called Bumper To Bumper), she has since written some of the biggest pop hits of the last decade including Can't Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue, Toxic by Britney Spears, and I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry.
Where is she now? Still churning out the hits for other artists (she's working on Britney's forthcoming album) and is rumoured to be releasing her first single, called Killer Love, since 1997.
B*Witched
Glory years: 1998-2000,
Biggest hit: C'est La Vie,
What happened? After huge initial success (their first four singles topped the charts), their second album fared less well. They were dropped by their label before a third was completed and split up in September 2002 after Sinéad O'Carroll left the band.
Where are they now? Lindsay is married to 911's Lee Brennan and sings in a band called Clayton, sisters Edele and Keavy (whose brother is Shane Lynch from Boyzone) now perform B*Witched songs for university crowds under the name Ms Lynch, while Sinead is a presenter on Irish television.
Debbie Gibson
Glory years: 1987-1989,
Biggest hit: Foolish Beat,
What happened? As with so many teen idols, she and her core fanbase grew in different directions. Although she has continued to release moderately successful albums ever since (as well as appearing in musical theatre), she has never recaptured the success of her first two records.
Where is she now? She recently founded Camp Electric Youth, a children's summer day camp for wannabe singers and dancers. She was last seen on stage with Samantha Fox, Tiffany and Rick Astley at the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City, Canada on April 10, 2009. Nostalgia was clearly the order of the day.
Yazz
Glory years: 1988-1989,
Biggest hit: The Only Way Is Up,
What happened? Never the most prolific, she only released one single in 1990 and none at all in 1991. She released seven more singles between 1992 and 1998 but none of them cracked the top 20.
Where is she now? She's a born-again Christian living in Spain.
MC Hammer
Glory years: 1990-1992,
Biggest hit: U Can't Touch This,
What happened? Attempts to toughen up his pop-rap image to appeal to gangsta audiences only made him look silly and he was declared bankrupt in 1996, having blown more than $30 million.
Where are they now? He's still releasing albums, has his own Osbournes-style reality show called Hammertime, and is active in the Christian church.
T'Pau
Glory years: 1987-1991,
Biggest hit: China In Your Hand,
What happened? They split up in 1991 after the release of their third album, The Promise. It hadn't been as successful as the previous two but it still made the top 10, so it's hard to see why.
Where are they now? Singer Carol Decker reformed the group with a different line-up in 1998 and they still play live regularly. Decker herself often pops up on TV shows like Never Mind The Buzzcocks and The Weakest Link.
Remember this joker? If you were under 25 in the early 1990s, chances are that Vanilla Ice is burned across some deep recess of your brain, never to be removed.
But what happened to the man born Robert Van Winkle after his 'authorised' biography was revealed to be full of outrageous lies about his supposedly ghetto past?
And while we're at it, what became of other music stars of the era we no longer hear about like Rick Astley, Bros, MC Hammer, Chesney Hawkes, and Yazz?.
Lets begin with Vanilla Douche(see above).
Glory years: 1990-1991.
Biggest hit: Ice Ice Baby.
What happened? At first Vanilla Ice was credited with making rap accessible to white audiences, but he rapidly became a laughing stock following a couple of poor film choices, an eight-month relationship with Madonna (he ended up in her Sex book), and particularly the publication of his 'authorised' biography (in fairness, he didn't know what was in it) which made out he'd come straight 'outta da hood' when he was actually a nice middle-class boy from Florida.
Where is he now? Still plugging away. He released Vanilla Ice Is Back! in 2008 (sample review: "an embarrassing endeavor that sounds like it should have stayed locked inside Ice's studio or at the very least leaked on YouTube and passed off as a p*** take"), and has another album called Yesterday Is History, Tomorrow Is A Mystery in the works. Also, somewhat inevitably, he's set to appear in a reality TV show this year.
Glory years: 1987-1991,
Biggest hit: Never Gonna Give You Up,
What happened? He left the bosom of the Stock, Aitken, and Waterman production team to pursue a more soulful direction. The public weren't having any of it and the hits dried up.
Where is he now? Astley still turns out the odd album (two in the last 10 years) but was propelled straight back to the forefront of pop culture in 2007 thanks to the 'rickrolling' phenomenon, a viral internet hoax in which an estimated 25 million people were tricked into watching the video for Never Gonna Give You Up when it was posted under the name of various other popular video titles. In November 2008, he won the Best Act Ever award at the MTV Europe awards in Liverpool. Perhaps fearing he was being sent up, Astley didn't attend.
Glory years: 1987-1991,
Biggest hit: I Owe You Nothing,
What happened? Ironically, given the name of their biggest hit, it turns out the Goss twins owed drummer Craig Logan more than a million quid in unpaid royalties after he quit the band in 1989. Thanks to almost non-existent financial management (they once famously admitted to not knowing the difference between 'gross' and 'net'), this all but bankrupted them and they split up in 1992.
Where are they now? Still having the last laugh, Logan has been the head of Sony BMG's RCA Label Group since 2006. In 2008, the Goss twins told the BBC they were looking into the logistics of reforming for a full tour but nothing has come of it to date.
Glory years: 1991,
Biggest hit: The One And Only,
What happened? The title of his big hit proved to be prophetic because it was pretty much the only one he had.
Where are they now? He currently makes a living on the university circuit, belting out The One And Only to students drunk on subsidised booze and their own hilarious sense of irony.
Glory years: 1989-1993,
Biggest hit: Touch Me (All Night Long),
What happened? She worked out she could make much more money for far less work by writing songs for other people. Starting with the B-side to the Spice Girls' Wannabe (called Bumper To Bumper), she has since written some of the biggest pop hits of the last decade including Can't Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue, Toxic by Britney Spears, and I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry.
Where is she now? Still churning out the hits for other artists (she's working on Britney's forthcoming album) and is rumoured to be releasing her first single, called Killer Love, since 1997.
Glory years: 1998-2000,
Biggest hit: C'est La Vie,
What happened? After huge initial success (their first four singles topped the charts), their second album fared less well. They were dropped by their label before a third was completed and split up in September 2002 after Sinéad O'Carroll left the band.
Where are they now? Lindsay is married to 911's Lee Brennan and sings in a band called Clayton, sisters Edele and Keavy (whose brother is Shane Lynch from Boyzone) now perform B*Witched songs for university crowds under the name Ms Lynch, while Sinead is a presenter on Irish television.
Glory years: 1987-1989,
Biggest hit: Foolish Beat,
What happened? As with so many teen idols, she and her core fanbase grew in different directions. Although she has continued to release moderately successful albums ever since (as well as appearing in musical theatre), she has never recaptured the success of her first two records.
Where is she now? She recently founded Camp Electric Youth, a children's summer day camp for wannabe singers and dancers. She was last seen on stage with Samantha Fox, Tiffany and Rick Astley at the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City, Canada on April 10, 2009. Nostalgia was clearly the order of the day.
Glory years: 1988-1989,
Biggest hit: The Only Way Is Up,
What happened? Never the most prolific, she only released one single in 1990 and none at all in 1991. She released seven more singles between 1992 and 1998 but none of them cracked the top 20.
Where is she now? She's a born-again Christian living in Spain.
Glory years: 1990-1992,
Biggest hit: U Can't Touch This,
What happened? Attempts to toughen up his pop-rap image to appeal to gangsta audiences only made him look silly and he was declared bankrupt in 1996, having blown more than $30 million.
Where are they now? He's still releasing albums, has his own Osbournes-style reality show called Hammertime, and is active in the Christian church.
Glory years: 1987-1991,
Biggest hit: China In Your Hand,
What happened? They split up in 1991 after the release of their third album, The Promise. It hadn't been as successful as the previous two but it still made the top 10, so it's hard to see why.
Where are they now? Singer Carol Decker reformed the group with a different line-up in 1998 and they still play live regularly. Decker herself often pops up on TV shows like Never Mind The Buzzcocks and The Weakest Link.
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2 comments:
I actually new about 4 of these "has beens" as people would call them now. :) Good Post Baby! xxxxxxxxxxx
Wow this is a really interesting piece that you did on this blog. My mom had a good laugh too cause she knew all of the bands that you listed.....LOL!
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