The onset of the ICA World Cup earlier in the year saw this long-running/never-ending series shift away from the regular Saturday slot, and when I reached The Gyres in April, I thought it would make sense to ice it for a while and come back fresh with the first singer or band with the letter ‘H’.
H2O were just about one-hit wonders. A pop band from Glasgow, formed out of the ashes of a punk band, they hit payola in May 1983 with the synth driven and Vince Clarke-influenced I Dream To Sleep which spent three months in the chart and reached #17. A follow-up single, Just Outside Of Heaven scraped into the Top 40, but a debut album and two further 45s lifted from it sold poorly and within two years the band had broken up.
The singer, Ian Donaldson, embarked firstly on a solo career and then was part of other groups later on in which he was backed by ex-members of Big Country and Simple Minds, but with no real commercial success. He’s solo again and released a new album earlier this year.
H2O have occasionally popped up across the Glasgow scene over the years, with many fondly remembering the single….but don’t count me among them as I found it just too electro-twee for my liking at the time, and still do. Oh and it has an annoying Spandau Ballet type sax bit too…..
mp3 : H2O – Dream To Sleep
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 