Liquid Gold was an English

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 ...

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 ...

, from

Brackley Brackley is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. It is on the borders with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, east-southeast of Banbury, north-northeast of Oxford, and ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. Their biggest success came in 1980 with " Dance Yourself Dizzy", which peaked at number two on the UK chart.

Career

Liquid Gold was formed by Ray Knott and Ellie Hope, who had met auditioning to play in

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional Baseball in the United States, baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nickna ...

, a group that released four

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s between 1972 and 1975. Both of them worked on the band's last album, ''Kid Stuff''. Ellie Hope also had a modicum of previous success with her sisters in the soul group "Ellie" scoring a notable single "Tip of My Tongue" and also singing on

Mud Mud (, or Middle Dutch) is loam, silt or clay mixed with water. Mud is usually formed after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits hardened over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally cal ...

's hit single " Oh Boy". They then recruited Wally "Eddie" Rothe and Syd Twynham under the name Dream Coupe; after a few shows they signed to Creole Records, a Polo Records subsidiary, and changed their name to Liquid Gold. Their first single, "Anyway You Do It", was released in October 1978. It narrowly missed the

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 41, but resulted in their being transferred to Polo for their next release, "My Baby's Baby". A

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed version of the song was concurrently released by Parachute Records in the United States and became a hit, reaching No. 5 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Dance Club Play The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

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 No. 45 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1979. Despite their success in the US, however, they never toured there. At home, their next single was "Mr Groovy", which did not chart; it was quickly followed with " Dance Yourself Dizzy", which became their biggest UK hit, peaking at No. 2 on the UK chart in 1980. The song also reached No. 26 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart. Their next single, "Substitute", peaked at No. 8 in the UK in the summer of 1980. Their final UK Top 40 entry was "The Night, the Wine, and the Roses", which hit No. 32 late in the year. In March 1981, the single "Don't Panic" was released, and it was also entered into the Song For Europe contest to pick the UK's entry for the

Eurovision Song Contest 1981 The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "What's Another Year" performed by Johnny Logan. Organised by the Euro ...

, but was beaten by Bucks Fizz with "

Making Your Mind Up "Making Your Mind Up" is a song by the British pop group Bucks Fizz with music composed by John Danter and lyrics written by Andy Hill. Released in March 1981, it was Bucks Fizz's debut single, the group having been formed just two months earl ...

", that year's eventual Eurovision winner. The following year saw the release of the singles "Where Did We Go Wrong" (UK No. 56) and "Turn the Tables". In 1983, Rothe quit the band, and Twynham left soon after. With the smaller line-up, they released two more singles before splitting up in 1984. All of their songs were produced,

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestratio ...

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

, and engineered by

Adrian Baker Adrian Baker (born 18 January 1951) is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer. Career Baker made his debut as a singer on Magnet Records/Epic Records in the United Kingdom. In 1975, he released his first solo album, ''Into a Drea ...

, who also played guitar. "Synth and Strings", a 1999 UK chart hit by Yomanda, was based around a sample from "Dance Yourself Dizzy". In 2008, "Dance Yourself Dizzy" remixes were released on a 12" single with bonus CD, and digital download.

Discography

Albums

*1980: ''Liquid Gold'' (UK No. 34)

Singles

Personnel

*Ellie Hope – vocals *Ray Knott – bass *Wally "Eddie" Rothe – drums *Syd Twynham – guitar *Adrian Baker – guitar *Miffy Smith – keyboards/synthesizers

References

{{Authority control English pop music groups English dance music groups British disco groups Casablanca Records artists