Ellie Hope and Liquid Gold

Ellie Hope and Liquid Gold

Two of the "disco-era's" biggest hits came from a group that never appeared in America. The U.K. based Liquid Gold consisted of Wally Rothe (drums), Ray Knott (bass), Syd Twynham (lead guitar) and Ellie Hope (vocals).          Ray met Ellie in 1976 when both auditioned as replacements for Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth had four albums between 1972-1975. Ray and Ellie contributed to Babe Ruth's last album "Kid Stuff," before it disbanded.      Ray and Ellie then recruited Syd and Wally to form the Dream Coupe. The four played local bars and pubs doing mainly cover tunes while continuing to write there own material and seeking out a recording contract. Producer Adrian Baker happened to catch the group and was so intrigued by Ellie's vocals that he signed the group to Creole records and a one year contract.      As the newly christened Liquid Gold they played a few shows in London until their first record was released in October 1978. Their first single was "Anyway You Do It." The record was a weak offering and didn't quite make it to the Top 40.      With their promising start they renegotiated their contract and moved from Creole Records to the parent company, Polo Records. American D.J.'s picked up on the b-side of the single and it began receiving club play on the East coast. Casablanca's subsidiary Parachute Records purchased the U.S. rights to the song and brought in Joe Long & Richie Rivera to give it a much-needed remix. "My Baby's Baby" shot to number 5 on Billboard's Club Play charts and a respectable #-45 on the Pop charts in the summer of 1979. With their American success it looked certain that the band was going to do a promotional tour of America. At the time, no one in the U.S. knew what the group looked like. They figured with Ellie's voice she must be black, so the American reps were planning to push the group onto such TV shows as "Soul Train." Sadly though, for some reason (maybe office politics), they never got to America. The closest place they'd gotten to was Mexico, to do some promotional TV appearances in 1980. Though they never played live there either.      Back in England, the group's next single was released in May 1979. "Mr. Groovy" it failed to gather any attention and it looked as if their success was over before it actually started. When Liquid Gold's next single, "Dance Yourself Dizzy" was released in January 1980 it became their biggest hit. It pushed them into the forefront of the pop/disco world at home in the U.K. Here in the States it was almost as big a hit as their first release, it peaked at 26 on Billbaord's Club Play chart. It was not featured on their debut album and nor was their a follow-up album on Parachute Records.      England's Radio 2 held a competition in 1980 to pick Great Britain's entry into the Eurovision song contest. Liquid Gold was chosen to write the winning entry. The song written by the band actually won, though it was not technically performed by them but by an orchestra and conductor.      After "Dance Yourself Dizzy" the group changed management. Their new manager was Barry Collins and he helped guide the group through the rough "death to disco" period well into the 1980's and up to their eventual demise.      Their follow-up single was "Substitute" released in May 1980. From this point on all singles were import-only until 1983. While not as big a hit as their previous ones, "Substitute" was still strong enough to get them back on TV and generate club bookings. Here in the U.S. it received minimal club play.      The next single was called "The Night, The Wine,  And The Roses" released in November 1980, it featured the same infectious groove as their previous records. Probably because of it's similar sound America became bored with Liquid Gold. U.K. and European audiences still clamored for more.      March 1981 saw the release of "Don't Panic," still written by the songwriting duo, Baker/Seago. This song was used to represent Great Britain in the "Song For Europe" contest. Liquid Gold is the only group to have lost the "Song For Europe" contest and yet still have their song chart.      Following this, the group changed writers. They enlisted the services of Steve Most (Mickie Most's brother) and his writing partner Glen Burns. Their new single was called "Where Did We Go Wrong" (August of 1982), but it failed to top the charts.      After this came the single "Turn The Table" which was written by Rob Davies of Mud, who had by now ventured into dance-pop himself. Several other songs were recorded during these same sessions. "Shake," "Lucky" and "Hit The Roof" were all recorded at Rob Davies own studios. Strangely enough in 1983 "Lucky" was released as an Ellie Hope solo 12" single on Quality Records (Canada) and Polo Records (England). The Polo version featured "Shake" as the b-side. These are actually Liquid Gold recordings featuring the original line-up of the group. "Hit The Roof" is still unreleased as of today.      In 1983 Wally was the first to quit the group, followed by Syd, although Liquid Gold did carry on without them. The re-formed Liquid Gold had one more single in 1983. "What's She Got" was released here in American on the Critique label. Thanks to a smashing remix by John Loungo the record was thier best charting record since their Parachute releases. This is the last recorded work of Liquid Gold as a group.      Sadly we may never hear Ellie's unique voice again. We can only hope that someone out there reissues their wonderful recordings on compact disc. Till then...our hats off to Liquid Gold for making us "Dance Ourselves Dizzy!"