Slik were a Scottish pop group of the mid-1970s, most notable for their UK number 1 hit " Forever and Ever" in 1976. Initially

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

, the band later changed their style to

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

bubblegum Bubble gum (or bubblegum) is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble. Composition In modern chewing gum, if natural rubber such as chicle is used, it must pass several purity and cleanliness tests. However, ...

. It was the first band with whom singer and guitarist

Midge Ure James "Midge" Ure (; born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, ...

began to experience musical success, before joining new wave band

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which wa ...

History

Slik were formed as the

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

based band 'Salvation' in June 1970, comprising brothers Kevin McGinlay (vocals) and

Jim McGinlay James Anthony McGinlay (born 9 March 1949 in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, Scotland) is a Scottish bass guitarist who formed along his elder brother Kevin a hard-rock band called Salvation, in Glasgow, which after numerous line-up changes included M ...

(bass), Nod Kerr (drums), Mario Tortolano (keyboards), and Ian Kenny (guitar). Brian Deniston replaced Ian Kenny in December 1970 and Nod Kerr departed in May 1971, followed by Tortolano and they were replaced by Matt Cairns on

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s and Robin Birrel on keyboards. Deniston left shortly after this change and they were forced to continue as a four-piece outfit for almost a year, with Kevin McGinlay taking up guitar duties. Birrel and Cairns then left in March 1972 and they recruited

Kenny Hyslop Kenneth John Hyslop (14 February 1951 – 15 September 2024) was a Scottish drummer. Life and career Hyslop was born in Helensburgh, Scotland, on 14 February 1951. He joined the band Salvation with Midge Ure, which later became Slik and, afte ...

on drums,

Billy McIsaac Billy McIsaac (born William McIsaac, 12 July 1949 in Rothesay, Scotland) is a musician, who played mainly keyboards since his early days with different pop bands. Biography Previously, he worked as a telephone engineer and played with a band ca ...

on keyboards and Jim "Midge" Ure on guitar. They reverted to a four-piece band when Kevin McGinlay left in April 1974 to pursue a

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity * Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), a ''Star Wars'' character * Napoleon Solo, fr ...

career, with Midge Ure becoming the band's lead vocalist. They changed their name to Slik in November 1974, and linked up with the pop songwriters Bill Martin and

Phil Coulter Philip Coulter (born 19 February 1942) is an Irish musician, songwriter and record producer from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009. Coulter ha ...

, who were also writing for the

Bay City Rollers The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity, as a band in the 1970s. One of many 70s acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles", they were called the "tartan teen sensations fro ...

. Now signed to

Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

, the band members all adopted pseudonyms - Midge, Oil Slik (Kenny Hyslop), Jim Slik (Jim McGinlay) and Lord Slik (Billy McIsaac). These were dropped after the failure of " Boogiest Band in Town", their debut

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

(which was also on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of the film ''Never Too Young To Rock''), and their suits were exchanged for baseball shirts. A change of

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, ...

also saw them signing with

Bell Records Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benn ...

. This was followed by their greatest success when their single " Forever And Ever" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in February 1976. As a result of the single, readers of ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' newspaper voted Slik the best new band of the year. The song formula was repeated with their next single, "Requiem", which made the UK top 30 but failed to repeat the success of "Forever and Ever". Ure was injured in a

car accident A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

shortly after the release of the single, resulting in the cancellation of television appearances and a planned UK

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

. "Requiem" opens with the first chords of

Joaquín Rodrigo Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquess of the Gardens of Aranjuez (; 22 November 1901 – 6 July 1999), was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist. He is best known for composing the '' Concierto de Aranjuez'', a cornerstone of the classical g ...

's "

Concierto de Aranjuez The ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' (, "Aranjuez Concerto") is a concerto for classical guitar by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the ...

", which had been a number 3 hit just two months before in the UK for

Geoff Love Geoffrey Love (4 September 1917 – 8 July 1991) was a prolific British arranger and composer of easy listening and pop versions of film themes, famous in the late 1950s under the stage name Manuel and the Music of the Mountains. Early years ...

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, billed as 'Manuel & the Music of the Mountains'. Following the "Requiem" single, the band's self-titled album was released but this was a commercial failure, peaking only at number 58 in the UK. Subsequent Slik singles failed to chart. In March 1977, Jim McGinlay left the group and was replaced by Russell Webb, a university drop-out, who continued for the final Slik gigs.

PVC2

Shortly after Webb joined and a last tour, the band decided to change both genre and name. They chose to call themselves PVC2, and play

punk music Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

which was growing in popularity at that time. In the latter half of 1977, PVC2 released "

Put You in the Picture "Put You in the Picture" is a song written by Russell Webb, and performed by his group PVC2. The song was released on 30 August 1977 by Zoom Records, in an EP which was the last recording of Midge Ure with the remaining members of Slik, who lat ...

", on

Zoom Records Ray Lindstrom is an American entrepreneur known as the father of the infomercial industry. He has been referred to as "Mr. Infomercial," creating more than 100 businesses and selling through television-only spots during the 1980s. Lindstrom als ...

, a song which joined the repertoire of the

Rich Kids Rich Kids were a short-lived new wave band from London, founded in 1977 by Glen Matlock following his departure from the Sex Pistols. The band also included teenage guitarist Steve New, former Slik and future Ultravox member Midge Ure and R ...

, Ure's next band. Slik/PVC2 disbanded in September 1977. Following Ure's departure, Webb, Hyslop and McIsaac added Alex Harvey's cousin

Willie Gardner Willie Gardner is a Scottish musician, who formed part of various pop and rock bands in the 1970s and 1980s, playing guitar. He was a cousin of Alex Harvey. His earliest known band was The Hot Valves, formed in 1976. The band was influenced b ...

to their next band, called

Zones Zone, Zones or The Zone may refer to: Places Military zones * Zone, any of the divisions of France during the World War II German occupation * Zone, any of the divisions of Germany during the post-World War II Allied occupation * Korean Demilit ...

; they released some singles and an album, ''

Under Influence ''Under Influence'', released by Arista Records on June 1, 1979, is the only album of new wave band Zones, an offshoot of Midge Ure’s pre-Rich Kids Scottish pop outfit, Slik. The album is described in ''Trouser Press'' as the band "try a l ...

'' (1979) (which credited Midge Ure among the collaborators), but went their separate ways shortly afterwards. Webb and Hyslop joined

The Skids Skids are a Scottish punk rock and New wave music, new wave band, formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Tom Kellichan, Thomas Kelli ...

, and McIsaac retired from the

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

scene. In the 1990s he formed the Billy McIsaac Band.

Discography

Albums

*''

Slik Slik were a Scottish pop group of the mid-1970s, most notable for their UK number 1 hit " Forever and Ever" in 1976. Initially glam rock, the band later changed their style to soft rock/ bubblegum. It was the first band with whom singer and g ...

'' (

Bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

, 1976) — UK number 58, AUS number 54 *''The Best of Slik'' (

Repertoire Repertory or repertoire () is the list or set of works a person or company is accustomed to performing. Whether the English or French spelling is used has no bearing, but it was the French word, with an accent on the first e, , that first took ho ...

, 1999) *''Forever and Ever'' (

Rotation Rotation or rotational/rotary motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as an ''axis of rotation''. A plane figure can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise sense around a perpendicular axis intersect ...

, 2000) (Netherlands-only release)

Singles

List of songs

The following is a sortable table of all songs by Slik: *The column Song list the song title. *The column Writer(s) lists who wrote the song. *The column Time shows the length of the title. *The column Album lists the album the song is featured on. *The column Producer lists the producer of the song. *The column Year lists the year in which the song was released.

Cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s

Slik songs covered by others

Band Members (Salvation/ Slik/ PVC2/ Zones)

* Kevin McGinlay — lead vocals (June 1970-April 1974), guitars (mid 1971-March 1972) * Ian Kenny — guitars (June–December 1970) * Mario Tortolano — keyboards (June 1970-May 1971) *

— bass, backing vocals (June 1970-March 1977) * Nod Kerr — drums (June 1970-May 1971) * Brian Deniston — guitars (December 1970-mid 1971) * Robin Birrel — keyboards (May 1971-March 1972) * Matt Cairns — drums (May 1971-March 1972) *

— guitars, backing vocals (March 1972-September 1977), lead vocals (April 1974-September 1977) *

— keyboards, backing vocals (March 1972-late 1979) *

— drums (March 1972-late 1979) * Russell Webb — bass, backing vocals (March-late 1979) *

— guitars, lead vocals (late 1977-late 1979)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:22 PlotArea = left:80 bottom:80 top:0 right:05 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Alignbars = justify Period = from:01/06/1970 till:01/10/1979 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1971 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1971 Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 Colors = id:v value:red legend:Vocals id:g value:green legend:Guitars id:k value:purple legend:Keyboards id:b value:blue legend:Bass id:d value:orange legend:Drums id:a value:black legend:Studio_releases LineData = at:15/07/1976 layer:back color:black at:01/07/1979 layer:back color:black PlotData = width:11 textcolor:black align:left bar:SALVATION from:start till:15/11/1974 color:tan1 bar:SLIK from:15/11/1974 till:15/06/1977 color:tan1 bar:PVC2 from:15/06/1977 till:15/10/1977 color:tan1 bar:ZONES from:15/10/1977 till:end color:tan1 bar:Kevin McGinlay from:start till:15/04/1974 color:v bar:Kevin McGinlay from:01/07/1971 till:15/03/1972 color:g width:3 bar:Ian Kenny from:start till:15/12/1970 color:g bar:Brian Deniston from:15/12/1970 till:01/07/1971 color:g bar:Midge Ure from:15/03/1972 till:15/10/1977 color:g bar:Midge Ure from:15/04/1974 till:15/10/1977 color:v width:3 bar:Willie Gardner from:15/10/1977 till:end color:g bar:Willie Gardner from:15/10/1977 till:end color:v width:3 bar:Mario Tortolano from:start till:15/05/1971 color:k bar:Robin Birrel from:15/05/1971 till:15/03/1972 color:k bar:Billy McIsaac from:15/03/1972 till:end color:k bar:Jim McGinlay from:start till:15/03/1977 color:b bar:Russell Webb from:15/03/1977 till:end color:b bar:Nod Kerr from:start till:15/05/1971 color:d bar:Matt Cairns from:15/05/1971 till:15/03/1972 color:d bar:Kenny Hyslop from:15/03/1972 till:end color:d

References

External links

Slik biography Slik were a Scottish pop group of the mid-1970s, most notable for their UK number 1 hit " Forever and Ever" in 1976. Initially glam rock, the band later changed their style to soft rock/bubblegum. It was the first band with whom singer and gu ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{Authority control Scottish glam rock groups Musical groups established in 1970 Scottish pop music groups Rock music groups from Glasgow Polydor Records artists Bell Records artists Arista Records artists Epic Records artists