The pop act Black Lace might have been designed in answer to the question “how do you define uncoolness?”, but their string of raucous, exuberant party hits may outlast the work of many acts who took themselves far more seriously. The fact that in 2003 a team of music critics from Q magazine declared their best known hit, Agadoo, to be “the worst song of all time” has become a perverse kind of badge of honour for the group’s shamelessly crowd-pleasing antics.
Colin Gibb, who has died suddenly aged 70, a former lift engineer, joined the group – which had previously been known under several names including the Impact and Penny Arcade – in 1976, alongside Alan Barton, Steve Scholey and Terry Dobson, though by the time they recorded Agadoo in 1984, they had been whittled down to Barton and Gibb (the latter, at the time, was still using his real surname of Routh).
The early version of the group had enjoyed success performing in resorts such as Skegness and Blackpool, and in 1979 had been chosen to perform the UK entry, Mary Ann, at the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. They finished seventh. In the early 1980s their manager John Wagstaff brought a tape of Birdie Song back from Tenerife, where it had been popular in bars and discos, and persuaded the group to record a version of it. It was not successful, but the following year Wagstaff brought back another tape, of the song Gioca Jouer.
This had been a hit in Italy and Spain, and Black Lace recorded it as Superman. It gave them a UK No 9 hit in 1983, and consisted of a primitive beat with a list of instructions barked over the top – “Sleep / Wave your hands / Hitch a ride / Sneeze …” Then they struck gold with Agadoo.
Although BBC Radio 1 deemed Agadoo “not credible” and excluded it from their playlist, it reached No 2 on the UK chart, only kept out of the top slot by George Michael’s Careless Whisper. It was also a hit in Australia, Europe and South Africa, and sold more than 1m copies.
Adapted from the French song Agadou, recorded in 1970 by Michel Delancray and Mya Symille, it featured a relentlessly pumping disco beat, steel drums and brass, with absurd lyrics urging listeners to “push pineapple”, “shake the tree” and “grind coffee”. The accompanying video saw Routh and Barton performing with dancers and musicians disguised as huge pieces of fruit, including a banana and a pineapple.
However, the collapse of the company that distributed their records meant that Black Lace were deprived of £70,000 in royalties, while Routh would also be hit with a demand for £100,000 in unpaid taxes. They had a further No 10 hit at Christmas 1984 with Do the Conga, featuring a video depicting conga-dancing milkmen, housewives and railway passengers, and its parent album Party Party – 16 Great Party Icebreakers reached No 4 in the UK.
But more bad luck torpedoed the prospects of their next single, El Vino Collapso. Its release coincided with the Heysel stadium disaster in May 1985 in which 39 football supporters died, and its lyrics about “drinking while abroad” prompted the BBC to ban it from the airwaves. It stalled at 42 on the chart, and subsequent singles I Speaka Da Lingo and Hokey Cokey (1985) failed to break into the Top 30, though the album Party Party 2 reached 18.
Also in 1985 Black Lace were part of the celebrity lineup, billed as The Crowd, which recorded You’ll Never Walk Alone in support of Bradford City FC, following the fire at the Valley Parade stadium that left 56 dead. The song topped the UK chart for two weeks.
Poor chart placings for their 1986 singles Viva la Mexico and Wig-Wam Bam (79 and 63 respectively) signalled that Black Lace’s commercial magic was on the wane, though The Chicken Song, a parody of Black Lace in the satirical ITV show Spitting Image, topped the UK chart for a week in 1986.
Then Routh was forced to step back from the group following his relationship with an under-age girl, whom he had begun dating after the collapse of his first marriage. Routh claimed he thought “she was in her late teens of early 20s”, but it turned out she was 15. Wagstaff dropped Routh from the group, with Dene Michael replacing him. The case went to the crown court and Routh was fined £200.
In September 1987 Routh (now calling himself Colin Gibb) returned to Black Lace, partnering Dene Michael while Barton left to join Smokie. Their chart-busting days were over, but the group were in demand on the club and disco circuit. In 1992 they toured in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, and on 15 August 1997, designated “Agadoo Day”, they played 20 shows in 24 hours in towns including Manchester, London, Leeds and Sheffield. A final show at the Frontier Club in Batley, West Yorkshire, raised £25,000 for Marie Curie cancer care.
In 2002, Gibb moved to Tenerife, where he played in Black Lace shows at hotels and restaurants. In 2006 he performed a season of summer shows on the Costa Blanca. He made a brief trip back to the UK in 2007 to marry his fiancee, Sue Kelly, in Reading.
Last month, he announced his retirement, commenting that “all good things must come to an end”.
He is survived by Sue. Two earlier marriages ended in divorce.