Sunday Synthpop Brunch: The Korgis

James Warren and Andy Davis first worked together as members of the Beatle-esque U.K. cult outfit Stackridge -- one of those bands that seem to promise incredible things but only winds up in miserable debt from being too clever by half. Remarkably, while Stackridge never managed to chart in their homeland, a 1974 compilation album Pinafore Days managed to briefly surface at the bottom end of the Billboard albums chart in early 1975, "peaking" at #191.

Bassist Warren and drummer Davis had drifted apart even before the inglorious demise of Stackridge, and it took the ascension of the new wave movement four years later to get the Warren's creative energies sufficiently fired up to the point where he decided to contact his old band mate Davis by mail to discuss if a new collaboration was possible. Davis was interested in the idea, and the reunited duo began writing and recording in early 1979 under the name The Korgis (the lineup of which would eventually expand to include guitar player Stuart Gordon and keyboardist Phil Harrison).

The terms "new wave" and "quirky" have always gone hand-in-hand, but right from the release of their charmingly offbeat first single "Young 'N Russian," The Korgis initially seemed hell-bent on raising the bar in the oddball songwriting department. Furthering this tendency, the whole of their self-titled debut album played like a strange tug-of-war between two bands: one captivated by breezy, 60's pop-indebted harmonies straight out of The Hollies with a modern, synth-lined production sheen not unlike that of Supertramp (see "Dirty Postcards") and another interested in the fractured influences and slightly-screwy lyrical stylings of new wave.

What eventually gave The Korgis a commercial leg up on their competition at the time (hello, New Musik!) was Warren's multi-tracked, pop-friendly vocals (as heard on songs like "I Just Can't Help It") and retro-flavored songwriting style, which could be as unashamedly pop-leaning as any “mainstream” act of the time period when the occasion called. With that in mind, it didn't take long for success to start coming the way of The Korgis as the band's first hit single, the summery, sugar-sweet "If I Had You," made the Top 20 of the UK singles chart in the summer of 1979 (this track, incidentally, featured the accompaniment of future Depeche Mode / Recoil member Alan Wilder). Encouraged, The Korgis immediately set about work on their follow-up release, which appeared in shops the following year.

Dumb Waiters saw The Korgis in a far-more explicitly pop vein than their first album; with the band's more riskier tendencies pushed aside for the time being (though tracks like "Intimate" and "Silent Running" kept that tendency on a low simmer). The emphasis on accessible songwriting worked wonders on the band's career, as the album managed to break the UK Top 40 in the late summer. Ratcheting upwards the sweet quotient with such confections as "It's No Good Unless You Love Me," "If It's Alright With You Baby" and "Love Ain't Too Far Away" (not to mention the dancefloor-aimed "Drawn And Quartered"), The Korgis made a play for the public’s heartstrings and finally cooked up a worthy smash with the ballad "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime."

The centerpiece of Dumb Waiters' success, and the song that The Korgis will always be remembered for, "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" is one of those songs that exists outside of the standard pop plane: it sounds more like a four-minute contemplative swoon than anyone’s idea of a hit single. Floating almost lighter than air on delicate beds of shimmering synths like a highly-polished revision of 10cc's "I'm Not In Love," "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" propelled The Korgis into the Top 5 on their homeland's hit parade, while also giving them their one-and-only charted record in the U.S., as it reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 right at Christmas, 1980 (Dumb Waiters performed much more modestly on these shores, reaching #113 right around the same time).

Having finally tasted real success at last, The Korgis then found out just how quickly fortunes can turn around in the music business. "If It's Alright With You Baby" was chosen as the follow-up single to "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" and quickly crashed and burned at #56 later that summer, stopping their momentum on a dime. A third album, 1981’s Sticky George, which leaned more towards the 60's influences and away from the synth textures (without completely forsaking them), disappeared virtually on release, and ended The Korgis’ tenure with their label, Rialto Records. The band broke up soon afterwards with little fanfare.

Following the utter apathy that greeted the release of his 1986 solo album Burning Question (I guess he might as well have reformed Stackridge), James Warren elected to give The Korgis one more shot. With Davis back on board, “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime” was re-recorded and released again in 1990 to hardly any notice at all outside of the nostalgia circuit, which is also the same response awarded to their reunion album, 1992’s This World’s For Everyone. Following that debacle, The Korgis disbanded again, this time apparently for good.

Buy The Best Of The Korgis from Amazon.com.