With apologies for those of you who have followed this and the old blog for a long while as this will be far from the first time I’ve featured this songs.
I would so love to be able to offer anything other than Abandon Ship in any look back at April Showers. But it is an impossible task.
For those who don’t know, April Showers were a short-lived Glaswegian pop duo comprising Jonathan Bernstein and Beatrice Colin. They released just one single on Big Star, a subsidiary of Chrysalis, in 1984. And it’s a tremendous, timeless piece of pop thanks in part to a wonderful production from Anne Dudley of the Art of Noise.
It’s a very rare and hard to find piece of plastic, in both its 7″ and 12″ format, with collectors being asked to fork out from £50 and upwards for the 12″ on the basis that it also has an otherwise unavailable instrumental version of the a-side.
My copy of the song comes courtesy of its inclusion on the compilation album 10 Years Of Marina Records.
mp3 : April Showers – Abandon Ship
Jonathan Bernstein is now a succesful author and screenwriter over in the USA. Click here for a past review of one of his works.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Hey that’s nice. Never heard of them before…
Love both the song and the book but never connected the two before
No apologies needed. Love when you pull this one out.
I remember hearing this song back in 1984 on probably the Anne Nightingale show on Sunday nights. I loved it from the first time I heard it and when I was in Cardiff the next week managed to find the 12″ which I still have today. I was AMAZED when I added it to my Discogs account two years ago and saw what it was selling for, not that I ever would sell it.
Hi JC
Hearing via Love and Money that sadly Beatrice Colin has died
She had become a successful author & university lecturer
http://www.beatricecolin.co.uk/about.htm
Sad news…
Nev
Thanks Nev…..I heard the news yesterday from a friend who tought beside her at Strathclyde Uni. Very sad news indeed.
JC
I have the 12’ version of their song April Showers and have always wondered why it never sold. Such a great song. Are they still together singing?
Just read the rest of the comments and seen that Beatrice passed away back in early 2019! That’s very sad. She had a great voice. That song still resonates a long in my head, is so good. I’ve never heard it on mainstream radio but was given the 12’ single by someone who worked at the BBC. Still have it stashed away in my collection. Will have to get it out to play. RIP Beatrice!