5000 Volts is the name of a British
disco
Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
recording act that achieved success throughout Europe during the 1970s. The
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
consisted of vocalists
Tina Charles and Martin Jay, with a changing group of
session musician
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
s.
Career
They released several
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
in the mid-1970s, but did not achieve success until
radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
s began playing the
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
to their 1975 single, "Bye Love". The song, "
I'm on Fire", was released in its own right and became a major
hit throughout Europe, peaking at number 4 on the
UK Singles Chart;
and at
number 1 on the German
Top100 Singles chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
and the
Swedish chart and also number 10 in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
. It was also a major top 10 hit in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
and
charted in the United States where it reached number 26, competing against
Jim Gilstrap
James Gilstrap is an American singer and session musician. He is best known for his 1975 solo hit single " Swing Your Daddy", as well as singing co-lead to the theme from the TV series ''Good Times''.
Career
Gilstrap was born November 10, 1946 ...
's version of the song, which hit number 78.
Although
Tina Charles provided the
vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
, she was not publicly acknowledged as the group's singer and for the band's 1975 appearance on
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
's ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...
'' they were fronted by singer/actress
Luan Peters.
In 1975, the group was expanded by
record producer
A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...
Tony Eyers into a permanent five piece, with the inclusion of Martin Cohen (bass and vocals), Kevin Wells (drums) and Mike Nelson (keyboards). Subsequent singles failed to attract widespread interest in the UK, although the group became popular in South Africa and
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Charles left the group after a dispute with the
record label
"Big Three" music labels
A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
and continued with her solo career.
She was replaced by Linda Kelly.
The next single "
Doctor Kiss Kiss" reached number 8 in the United Kingdom,
and number 6 in South Africa, but the band struggled to maintain public interest. The group disbanded in 1978.
Martin Jay launched a solo career without success, before returning to his earlier role as a session musician, working for bands such as
Enigma,
Tight Fit in 1981 and the
UK Mixmasters in 1990.
In 2012, Tina Charles and Martin Jay reunited to re-record some of their hits. The album ''Reunited'' was the result of their reunion.
Discography
Albums
*1976: ''5000 Volts'' (Philips Records 9109-215) –
SWE #30
*1997: ''5000 Volts'' (Rem!nd Records 5300211 - The Netherlands, compilation)
*2012: ''Reunited''
Singles
References
External links
"Doctor Kiss-Kiss" lyrics
{{Authority control
British disco groups
British dance music groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1977
Philips Records artists