Absolute (5)

Absolute was a band formed around 1982/1983 by three teenagers, John Thomas, Colin Taaffe (Taf) and Paul Johnson, starting doing covers of Depeche Mode. In late 1983 they went into a local studio and recorded a track called “Face up” which was the first thing they ever wrote together. In mid 1984 they contacted Eric Radcliffe to have record deal and soon in November 1984 the band recorded two demos with John Fryer at the controls. Absolute met Vince, and Vince suggested that “T.V. Glare” would make a good single and meet him after Christmas to do the pre-programming at his house in London. They recorded “The Merry Go-Round” a track for "Electronic Sound Maker” a computer music magazine on June 1985. T.V. Glare was recorded in a week at Blackwing and released in September 1985. “T.V. Glare” was not the hit that Vince or Eric had expected and in spite of extensive radio play and T.V., and even a bit of national press. Vince said during a session that he was going to be working with a singer called “Dinger” (Andy Bell’s nickname at the time) and disappeared towards the end of 1985 leaving Eric to deal with Absolute who were demoing with John Fryer. John Thomas left in early 1986. Vince were played these demos and decided that a track called "Can’t You See" would be the next single and in summer 1986 they regrouped to record the single. Nobody was happy with the finished version of "Can’t You See" which sounded like it had come off Erasure’s "Wonderland". John Fryer was given the job of re-recording of the single along with completing Absolute’s album during winter 1986. Can't You See was released on May 1987, Eric Radcliffe put out the single with no promo or marketing whatsoever which turned out to be a complete waste of time and money. In late 1987 Absolute wanted to do some live shows and thankfully with Eric’s funding did new backing tracks with John and rehearsed in a real rehearsal rooms with Karen Dobie, they had cultivated a far more powerful sound with John’s influence and played approx. 12 shows around London. With the Reset deal winding down, EMI had become very interested in Absolute, Eric wanted to sell the album to EMI, Erasure we’re on the up, and had released "Sometimes" and recorded "The Circus" and Vince was never coming back. EMI wanted Absolute to re-record a track called Take Her Away which was a particular favourite with everybody and they booked and paid for them to go into Blackwing with John for a week. The finished result was an atrocious Hi-NRG track which bore no resemblance to the original and was a direct result of everyone pulling in the wrong direction and compromising themselves in the vain attempt to manufacture a commercial sound to have a hit. Absolute met with RCA (Who ironically licensed Reset) and were in talks about a new deal and RCA were willing to fund demos with a view to potentially signing them, but Taf and Paul had not written anything together for months, nor did they even have enough equipment of their own to achieve this as they did not earn a single penny. At a time they should have been writing together and producing good songs and getting better, they had drifted apart, now lived in different parts of London and spent hardly any time together. The final split was over a phone call to Paul from Taf, splitting up on December 1987, leaving the album unreleased.