Yes they had 2 #1s in Ireland. I have a feeling they did a load of single signings at a time when you didn't need to sell very many to get to the top.
Donal is now a successful TV chef. Sometimes appears on This Morning.
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Mixed Pop Groups & Duos Rate • WINNER ANNOUNCED
- Thread starter Doodvid
- Start date
Yes they had 2 #1s in Ireland. I have a feeling they did a load of single signings at a time when you didn't need to sell very many to get to the top.
Donal is now a successful TV chef. Sometimes appears on This Morning.
Can we vote for either of these versions?
Because that will substantially change my score for it!
(sorry, that should be the original No Surrender video first but it's blocked)
Because that will substantially change my score for it!
(sorry, that should be the original No Surrender video first but it's blocked)
he/him
Hmmm - it’s tricky...because basically any additional points for Deuce are always welcomed - I was hoping we’d rate the original UK released version but then I know that the Ace Remix was the official edit released in Australia.
Argh! Erm. You choose! That’s not helpful is it?!
he/him
Ah, The Mighty Deuce! (as they were referred to by this very site nearly 20 years ago) In a blitz of day-glo lycra and kitsch plastic ephemera, they came, they saw, they (very nearly) conquered, they disappeared, they unknowingly created the template for most of their Mixed Pop Group descendants for years to come. SHODDY EVIDENCE ALERT: Steps, Scooch, Fast Food Rockers - each of these groups featured a male performer with a blonde ‘curtain-style’ haircut which were distinctly similar to that sported by Deuce-member Craig in 1995. COINCIDENCE?!
Look up Deuce online and once you’ve scraped together whatever morsels of content you can find for this sadly pre-internet foursome, you’ll invariably read missives from gays of a certain age (mainly me) bemoaning the fact that this group were in fact in totally the right place but at totally the wrong time. A year or so shy of the massive pop renaissance ushered in by the Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’ (which Deuce infamously dismissed as “very soft, a bit limp” in a Smash Hits Magazine singles review in 1996), the group were already fighting an uphill battle against Britpop and boybands, and sadly never really gained the success they deserved.
The brainchild of pop supremo Tom Watkins, (Pet Shop Boys, Bros, East 17) Deuce were conceived to be Ace Of Base but with more attitude, described at one point as ABBA-meets-Whigfield. 2 girls and 2 boys, 2 blondes and 2 brunettes - it was an obviously manufactured set-up from the start but with the difference being that Deuce were seen to be revelling in their slightly naff aesthetic. Indeed the marketing catchphrase was ‘Kitsch Goes Klassic!’ - and with this group, it was all about music dovetailing with a hyper-colourful, over-the-top package cultivated by the sleek design team Form (responsible for the wonderful Girls Aloud ‘What Will The Neighbours Say?’ era artwork amongst many others) Their manager Watkins himself described the girls Kelly and Lisa as being “camp as old knickers” which kinda says everything you need to know.
After a false start with a line-up we never heard material from, Deuce as Kelly, Craig, Lisa and Paul hit the music world in late 1994 with material penned and produced by PWL collaborators Harding & Curnow. They dented the charts in early 1995 with possibly their most well-remembered song, the debut single ‘Call It Love’. The follow up ‘I Need You’ failed to be chosen as the UK Eurovision representative, and ‘On The Bible’ stalled at #13.
Despite heaps of tours with the likes of Boyzone and East 17, and lots of appearances in pop magazines of the time (extracts of which can be found in the PJ Song Contest I hosted here), something wasn’t clicking with the public. ‘Rumours’, a live favourite and included in this rate, was originally pencilled in as the 3rd single, but was eventually released on the group’s album ‘On The Loose!’ in September 1995.
The album peaked at #18 but sank shortly after, spending just 3 weeks in the UK Top 100 albums (I’m sure that third week was down to my Dad buying the cassette for my upcoming 15th birthday!) It was clear the group was haemorrhaging money and suddenly everything went wrong at once.
A planned 4th single, the Christmassy ballad ‘Let’s Call It A Day’ was cancelled, the demo for the unrecorded 2nd album’s lead single ‘Rock The Disco’ was put on hold, co-lead vocalist Kelly quit the group just as they guested on the charity single ‘The Gift Of Christmas’, they lost their deal with London Records, a replacement blonde singer called Mandy was shipped in to mime to Kelly’s vocals on tour and TV. It seemed impossible they’d survive this.
Well - long story short, they didn’t. ‘No Surrender’, their comeback single with Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, tanked. The world had moved on, and Deuce with a new look and a new sound just wasn’t required. Despite whispers of a never-recorded future single called ‘Party For The World’, Craig quit and participated in a scathing interview with Smash Hits Magazine where he ripped into the whole experience. The group experienced a bizarre late ripple of popularity in Australia shortly after this and, in 1997, Deuce toured down under to promote a re-release of ‘No Surrender’ with a new member replacing Craig. It inevitably came to nothing and they finally went their separate ways.
So why, amongst pop fans of a certain age, are Deuce still revered to this day? Personally, they represented pure escapism from the traumas of school for teenage me - colourful wacky costumes, always a knowing wink and a tongue pushed firmly into a cheek, sing-a-long disposable pop with a dance edge, slightly awkward dance routines, bright bold design iconography - it was easy to lose myself in their camp sensibility and let my painfully shy, closeted self embrace this extravagant, flamboyant world they embodied, albeit all too briefly.
Anyway, as Deuce themselves once sang “You go on and on and on”, so I’ll end this spotlight here as abruptly as Deuce's career ended...
(except I’ll be making another post with some ‘further listening’ recommendations - sorry!)
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he/him
'I Was Wrong'
From the album 'On The Loose!' - a cute song in the same vein as 'I Need You' and was performed by the group regularly live on tour. Nice plinky plonky synths!
'Rock The Disco'
Once missing for years, this was the demo found by Popjustice legend @mrsleaze (the icon behind Same Difference's 'The Rest Is History' album) via the dance producer Matt Darey. Was due to appear on the never completed 2nd album and was promoted as the new single by the group in a pre-recorded Christmas Day 1995 Radio 1 interview. Very different sound for the group.
'The Gift Of Christmas'
Charity single for Childline that reached #9 in Winter 1995. Kelly and Paul have featured lines in the verses but Kelly quitting the group led to an awkward second Top of the Pops appearance in which she was shuffled off to a dark corner away from the other Deuce members and forced to hang out with pop flop twins Gemini (not of 'Cry Baby' fame)
'Talk To Me'
BANGER.
'Life On The Street'
Bizarre appearance on the 35th Anniversary Album for long-running soap opera 'Coronation Street'. Features spoken word portions from Sherrie Hewson who played Maureen Holdsworth and later became a talk-show panellist on 'Loose Women'.
He/Him
Yeah this is certainly better quality and a bit truer to Lonnie Gordon's awesome (original?) version as well...
I unironically stan Tracy Shaw's Happenin' All Over Again and listen to it more than the original.
Lovely to read the Deuce writeup and see that they were loved by others too. They were such an important 90s group to me and I stanned them hard between 1994 and 1996. They were a couple of years ahead of their time sadly but I adore all of their singles and was lucky enough to see them in concert (I went to the Mizz Roadshow especially where they performed alongside such greats as PJ & Duncan and Clock!).
I also met them at a signing in HMV and they were lovely, they asked what my favourite song on the album was and I said Rumours should be the next single but sadly they didn't listen. To this day my signed CD of On The Loose! is one of my prize possessions. Craig put a little kiss next to his photo which made my day!
It's such a shame I Need You wasn't chosen to be our Eurovision entry in 1995 as Deuce would be so much better remembered today than just a footnote in 90s pop but I will be cheering them on throughout this rate. They were such a brilliant pop group and I love all 4 of their singles. God I miss this kind of music!
Lovely to read the Deuce writeup and see that they were loved by others too. They were such an important 90s group to me and I stanned them hard between 1994 and 1996. They were a couple of years ahead of their time sadly but I adore all of their singles and was lucky enough to see them in concert (I went to the Mizz Roadshow especially where they performed alongside such greats as PJ & Duncan and Clock!).
I also met them at a signing in HMV and they were lovely, they asked what my favourite song on the album was and I said Rumours should be the next single but sadly they didn't listen. To this day my signed CD of On The Loose! is one of my prize possessions. Craig put a little kiss next to his photo which made my day!
It's such a shame I Need You wasn't chosen to be our Eurovision entry in 1995 as Deuce would be so much better remembered today than just a footnote in 90s pop but I will be cheering them on throughout this rate. They were such a brilliant pop group and I love all 4 of their singles. God I miss this kind of music!
Bit of promo for one of my fave songs here, just came across this amazing remix today
he/him
Ah the Sakgra mixes! Thanks for sharing @idratherjack.
Did you ever hear this messy clip?
Sadly not many full-length bootleg remixes of Deuce are out there although DJ Armand Deluxe was once working on updated versions of both ‘Call It Love’ and ‘I Need You’, with the latter sounding kinda like Dario G’s ‘Sunchyme’. There were rumours it was to accompany a potential ‘Big Reunion 2’ reformation which obviously never came about.
Did you ever hear this messy clip?
Sadly not many full-length bootleg remixes of Deuce are out there although DJ Armand Deluxe was once working on updated versions of both ‘Call It Love’ and ‘I Need You’, with the latter sounding kinda like Dario G’s ‘Sunchyme’. There were rumours it was to accompany a potential ‘Big Reunion 2’ reformation which obviously never came about.
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Never heard that before, thanks for posting. If only they had done the Big Reunion!
he/him
The full version can be heard in this mix. Dead Or Alive’s ‘You Spin Me’ into Deuce’s ‘I Need You’ into Madonna’s ‘Erotica’ is quite the rush!
100% this if only for the merch!
Mvnl
Staff member
Any more info on this? Was it really unreleased? (Google tells me it once was on the front page of this site)
Was it an intended single? Does any artwork exist?
Do we know what this guy was called?
I assume he was in the original lineup before Paul replaced him? He's really cute!
I assume he was in the original lineup before Paul replaced him? He's really cute!