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Beyond Tiki, Bilge, and Test / Bilge

Blue Rondo A La Turk

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TM

....were a band that almost made it during the 80's. They were formed by two clubhounds and designers named Christos Tolera and Chris Sullivan, who were regulars at the famous "blitz" club in england that was the birthplace of what some called "new romantic" music. The house bands were Visage (Lead by Steve Strange, the manager and doorman of Blitz, and several members of Ultravox) and Spandau Ballet. Regulars at the club back then were Billy Idol, Sade, Boy George and many others. Famously, Steve Strange even banned Mick Jagger one night! When David Bowie shot "ashes to ashes", he recruited Steve Strange and several other club goers to appear in the video. Christos was very photographed back then, as he had the "look" and was in fact a male model. He is mentioned in darn near every autobiography from these newro musicians back then...

Anyway, the band exploded on the scene and then all but disapeared, with no CDs available, only vinyl...

what I loved about them is that they actually were one of the first neo-lounge bands. Many bands copied their look and sound. Unfortunately, they faded from the scene and morphed into a band called Matt Bianco which featured a then unknown Basia as the singer.

Until now. Seems they are currently remixing their tracks to re-release them on CD. I had been badgering Christos to reform the band (probably a lot of others did as well) and now it looks like it might be happening!

Here are some newly remixed tracks from the original tapes...

https://soundcloud.com/chris-sullivan-3/klacto-instrumentalist

https://soundcloud.com/chris-sullivan-3/me-and-mr-sanchez-remix-2012

I recall them having a big media push, appearing in lots of mags, but they never caught on. I thought they were good.

Just out of curiosity, was there a connection to Dave Brubeck's jazz classic "Blue Rondo a la Turk" from his "Time Out" album?

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