1980 - THE BABYS - UNION JACKS

Union Jacks 1980

The now five piece band leaves their solid rock of the 70ies (unfortunately...) and beats new paths. „Union Jacks“, produced by Keith Olsen, is released in January 1980 and they again score international success with „Midnight Rendezvous“ and „Back On My Feet Again“. „It was great to work with Keith“, John says. „He was the first producer who didn´t interfere concerning the sound. He really let us sound like we wanted to sound on the stage for years.“

„Back On My Feet Again“:
„Interesting story“, John discloses in retrospective. „The record company gave us a song, ‚Yesterday´s Heroes’. They said: ‚Hey, that´s a hit, so go ahead.’ To be honest, we didn´t want that song. I mean, we were fighting for credibility and the last thing we wanted to do is to sound like some yesterday´s heroes! They didn´t get it and we were unwilling to do it but we did. I haven´t even co-sung. I couldn´t sing that, I didn´t wanna know anything about it. But it was almost done and one morning when the recordings were in the final steps I rewrote the lyrics. I drove directly into the studio and the result was a completely revamped song. I didn´t know what the record company thought and I didn´t give a damn. You know, it was a song about THE BABYS, that lost a band member but were capable to survive despite all difficulties and go out to play and are still strong enough to bring out a really good record.
‚Back On My Feet again’ - It has a meaning.
Something like ‚Yesterday´s Heroes’ would have been never written by THE BABYS. I think the record company was pretty pissed that we refused what they claimed but after all it was a huge success in America, together with ‚Midnight Rendezvous’“

„Midnight Rendezvous“, taken over later on for the movie Up the Academy has been originated together with Jonathan by a jam session, as well as „Anytime“. „Many of our songs came into being like this“, John evinces.

In „True Love, True Confession“ some resourceful listeners believe that there is a link to John Waite´s so called love affair with the Swedish actress Britt Ekland, Rod Stewart´s girlfriend for many years. They think John works up some unpleasant aftermath in it. Neither John disclaims these rumors as phantasm nor he confirms it as the truth. All he has to say to that is, to mention the name of the in „True Love, True Confession“ described person means to fall down on the same low level...

„Turn Around in Tokyo“ proves Jonathan Cain´s talent as a singer. It already has proven that he is a capable songwriter, too.

„Union Jacks“ is said as the most accepted and most quintessential work of THE BABYS. Almost a rock opera, the songs passionately tell about rebellion, alienation and redemption. In addition to that it offers quite unfamiliar sounds and profound messages, which probably are the reasons that makes this album so interesting. Sociocritical topics and also the search for truth make pensive and lift THE BABYS up on a higher level. But the Band, however, has to put up with some cutups. A so called... music-critic for instance is wondering what a song like „Jesus, Are You There?“ has to do on this album. Well, THE BABYS can also live with that...

„I think, we´ve put up some basic things that turned ‚Union Jacks’ into something special“, John sums. „We had a lot of magic in the band at that time. For me it was like a battle cry over the Atlantic: ‚Hey! I´m still here! I´m still English... still British! Don´t forget!’
So the title song has been originated more or less by chance one morning when I started to sing onto that tape machine. I´ve never had the idea to write something like a rock opera.“
The music on „Union Jacks“ has nothing in common anymore with the old BABYS. Despite the continual keyboards it sounds altogether more rocky and venturous than the previous albums.
THE BABYS have definitively lost their innocence.

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