Floy Joy (band)
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Floy Joy was an English group formed in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
, England, who recorded two albums and had minor success with several singles.


History

Floy Joy was formed in Sheffield in 1982 by brothers Michael (horns) and Shaun Ward (keyboards, bass and guitar). With Elana Harris as the vocalist, the band's debut single, "Answer Through Me", was released in May 1983 through
Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...
. It was produced by Andy Hernandez. Harris left the band in 1983 and the Wards continued working on material together. Although they recorded with a few English producers, the output was shelved as they were not satisfied with their working relationships with the producers. The Wards admired the work of American musician and producer
Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was (), is an American musician, record producer, music director, film composer, documentary filmmaker and radio host. Since 2011, he has also served as president of the ...
and were interested in working with him. They travelled to America to find the producer and, after tracking him down to a hotel in New York, played their demo tape to him. He responded favourably to the material and agreed to produce them at his studio in Detroit. The recording sessions for '' Into the Hot'' were carried out over the course of around nine weeks. After the backing tracks were recorded and the Wards returned to England, they set about looking for a new vocalist and
Carroll Thompson Carroll Thompson is a British lovers rock singer, best known as the "Queen of Lovers Rock" Biography Thompson was born in England and is of Jamaican descent. Thompson undertook classical piano training on the piano and sang in school and chur ...
joined the band after she was introduced to the brothers through Virgin's A&R department. Was then came to London to record Thompson's vocals. Shortly after this, Floy Joy recruited Desy Campbell on percussion and backing vocals after seeing him perform with another Sheffield band. ''Into the Hot'' was released by Virgin in September 1984, but it was not a commercial success. It was preceded in July 1984 by the single "Burn Down a Rhythm", which also failed to chart. The second single, "
Until You Come Back to Me "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" is a song written by Morris Broadnax, Clarence Paul, and Stevie Wonder. The song was originally recorded by Stevie Wonder in 1967, but his version was not released as a single and did not a ...
", was released in October 1984 and reached No. 91 in the UK Singles Chart. The third and final single, "
Operator Operator may refer to: Mathematics * A symbol indicating a mathematical operation * Logical operator or logical connective in mathematical logic * Operator (mathematics), mapping that acts on elements of a space to produce elements of another sp ...
", was released in January 1985 and reached No. 86. In 1985, Thompson departed the band and embarked on a solo career under Virgin. She felt she had no input in the band's decisions and became disillusioned with Floy Joy. Shaun Ward also left to pursue other musical projects. Campbell then became Floy Joy's lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Rob Clarke joined the group. In January 1986, the new line-up released the single " Weak in the Presence of Beauty", which reached No. 85 in the UK and No. 29 in Australia. The song became a big hit in Europe and Australasia in 1987 when covered by
Alison Moyet Geneviève Alison Jane Ballard (; ; born 18 June 1961), formerly known as Alf, is an English singer. Noted for her powerful bluesy contralto voice, she came to prominence as a member of the synth-pop duo Yazoo (band), Yazoo (known as Yaz in Nor ...
and released as the second single from her album '' Raindancing''. Floy Joy's second album, '' Weak in the Presence of Beauty'', also produced by Don Was, did not achieve commercial success, and neither did its second single " Friday Night in This Cold City". Floy Joy disbanded soon after. In 1990, Campbell and Shaun Ward formed the band
Everyday People "Everyday People" is a 1968 song composed by Sly Stone and first recorded by his band, Sly and the Family Stone. It was the first single by the band to go to number one on the Soul singles chart and the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It hel ...
with Lloyd T. Richards. They worked with producer
Stewart Levine Stewart Levine (born 1946) is an American record producer. He has worked with many artists such as The Crusaders, Minnie Riperton, Lionel Richie, Simply Red, Hugh Masekela, Huey Lewis and the News, Patti LaBelle, Sly Stone, Boy George, Oleta Ada ...
on their album '' You Wash... I'll Dry'', which spawned five singles, including "
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" and " I Guess It Doesn't Matter".


Members

1983 * Elana Harris – vocals * Michael Ward –
horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (anatomy) * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * Horns (novel), ''Horns'' (novel), a dar ...
* Shaun Ward – keyboards, guitar 1984–85 *
Carroll Thompson Carroll Thompson is a British lovers rock singer, best known as the "Queen of Lovers Rock" Biography Thompson was born in England and is of Jamaican descent. Thompson undertook classical piano training on the piano and sang in school and chur ...
– vocals * Michael Ward – horns * Shaun Ward – bass, keyboards, guitar * Desy Campbell – percussion, backing vocals 1985–86 * Desy Campbell – vocals * Michael Ward – horns * Rob Clarke – keyboards, bass


Discography


Albums


Singles


References


External links

* {{Authority control English jazz ensembles English funk musical groups Jazz-funk musicians Musical groups from Sheffield Musical groups established in 1983 Musical groups disestablished in 1986 Virgin Records artists