Mel & Kim were one of Stock, Aitken & Waterman‘s prime movers, having first been introduced to the now infamous music producers by their then label – Supreme Records. 1986 saw their debut single ‘Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend)‘ finding its way to no.3 in the UK music charts and pretty soon becoming world famous, with number one hits across Europe, while doing the same in the US Dance charts. SAW’s ‘Hit Factory’ as it has been dubbed had already made music stars of artists from 1984, and will no doubt have touched your musical listening, one way or another whether you were aware of it or not. The Appleby sisters became a name that is now intrinsically etched into the very fabric of the late ’80s / early ’90s and with this 7 CD box-set, will wrap up their part in a very well presented archive.
A 7 CD box-set! I can hear you exclaim. In a career that only saw one album released and the girls only working with 2 labels, how is that possible? Well bear in mind that this was at a time when remixing of records had gone into overdrive, so here we find 7 singles and their B-sides, collected together, presented with many mixed versions in a worthy box-set, that acts as a fitting memory to the sadly passed ‘one half’ of this duo, Mel Appleby.
This reeks of 80’s excess and nights spent at the rather tacky discos that passed as a good night out back then. But laced heavily with sub-bass and hi-hat, like it or loathe it these are just as much part of the time as the decline of the Coal Industry or the birth of the Wind Farm.
Across these 7 discs you will find 72 tracks with various reworkings of their singles ‘Respectable‘, ‘FLM‘, ‘I’m The One Who Really Loves You‘, ‘That’s The Way It Is‘ and ‘More Than Words Can Say‘, as well as the earlier mentioned. All this accompanied by a beautiful booklet, which features a personal commentary by Kim Appleby, as well as rare unseen photos, lyrics, discography, memorabilia, and new sleeve notes. Everything to tie up a history of the act is here. This may not be your thing, but historically I found this as every bit as valid as any of the box-sets I own.
The Singles Boxset is out now on Cherry Red.
