Big Fun were a British

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

that was active between 1988 and 1994. The band consisted of Phil Creswick, Mark Gillespie and Jason John (a.k.a. Jason Herbert). Their album was produced by

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, though many tracks on the album were produced by other PWL members.

Career

Before they were Big Fun, Creswick and John were in another regroup of

Ian Levine Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer, DJ, and prominent Doctor Who fan. A populariser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has co-written and co-produced records with sa ...

's boy band Seventh Avenue with Mark Long. The other member of the group at that time was Steve Crawley who provided lead vocals for the group, and sang live at nightclub appearances across the UK. Other original Big Fun members include Keith Davies from Stretford in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. Their only album, '' A Pocketful of Dreams'', was released in 1990, and reached the top 10 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. Singles released from the album include " Blame It on the Boogie", a cover version of

The Jacksons The Jackson 5, later known as the Jacksons, are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was formed in Gary, Indiana in 1964, and originally consisted of brothers Jackie, Ti ...

' 1978 hit, " Can't Shake the Feeling", and " Handful of Promises". "I Feel the Earth Move" was intended to be their first single (and promo copies were circulated), but its release was cancelled in favour of "Blame It on the Boogie". The band were dumped by

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

in 1990, despite achieving a top 10 album and two top 10 singles over the prior 12 months. Creswick said the band never made any significant money from their hit records, claiming the band were "screwed" by the music industry, with only their record label and producers benefiting financially from their success. Their final single, " Stomp!", was issued on a small label in 1994, under the name 'Big Fun II', as Jason John had left the band. Although this failed to obtain the commercial success of their earlier work, it reached the dance

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 ...

in the United States. All three members of the band were gay and had been advised by

Pete Waterman Peter Alan Waterman (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, and television personality. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterman production and songwriting team, he co-wrote and co-produced many UK hit singles. An av ...

to keep their sexuality quiet, as he believed it would ruin their careers. After disbanding, Creswick became a painter and decorator; he was convicted of drug supply and possession. John returned to being a model booker and music manager; he died in Brazil in 2019.GRO Index: HERBERT, JOHN JOSEPH b. 1967 Reference: DOR Q2/2019 in WESTMINSTER (258-1A) Entry Number 518870346
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Members

Personnel * Phil Creswick (born 12 October 1965) - backing vocals *Mark Gillespie (born 16 November 1966) - lead vocalist * Jason John (born 18 March 1967; died January 2019) - backing vocals * Keith Davies

Discography

Albums

*1990 – '' A Pocketful of Dreams'' – UK No. 7, GER No. 39

Singles

Video

* 1990 – ''A Pocketful of Dreams – The Video Hits''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Fun (band) 1988 establishments in England 1994 disestablishments in England English dance music groups English pop music groups Dance-pop groups English boy bands English LGBTQ musicians Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 English musical trios Jive Records artists British Eurodisco groups