Kimberley Rew
* Kimberley Rew – The Bible Of Bop. (First released 1981).
* Katrina & The Waves – Shock Horror. (First released 1982).
* Katrina & The Waves – Katrina & The Waves. (First released 1983).
* Katrina & The Waves – Katrina & The Waves 2. (First released 1984).
In summer 2010 uplifting pop’s hardy perennial Walking On Sunshine is set to flower again. Together with some of his old Katrina & The Waves band mates, the group’s guitarist and chief songwriter Kimberley Rew has recorded a new, African-flavoured version with the ever-inspiring Soweto Gospel Choir.
“That charge you get from 30 people belting it out - it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck”, says Kim. That the BBC is set to feature the Soweto version of Walking On Sunshine in their coverage the 2010 FIFA World Cup makes sense – if it’s a feel-good, back-of-the-net vibe you’re after, what tune could be better?
Walking On Sunshine’s success story kick-started in spring 1985 when Katrina & The Waves’ scored a Top Ten hit with it on both sides of The Atlantic. “It just seemed to give people that ‘here comes summer’ feeling”, smiles Kim. “None of us had any money when I came up with it, though; it was simply a question of keeping going!”
The record soon became a staple of drive time radio, and, great happy songs being thinner on the ground than great sad songs, WOS has kept on keeping on. Dolly Parton recorded a bluegrass version in 1996, and in an episode of the Matt Groening-created cartoon series Futurama entitled Jurassic Bark, lead character Fry teaches his dog Seymour to bark Walking on Sunshine’s melody.
Each year breathes new life into the tune – US TV show Glee recently aired it as a mash up with Beyonce Knowles’ Halo - yet for all Walking On Sunshine’s visibility, the writer of the song, Kimberley Rew, has tended to operate off-radar. Modest and retiring, Kim is a fine guitarist, an extremely capable songwriter, and one of English post-punk’s best-kept secrets. His other notable achievements include playing guitar on The Soft Boys’ neo-psychedelic classic, Underwater Moonlight, writing pop gem Going Down To Liverpool, later covered by The Bangles, and helping Katrina & The Waves to win the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest for the UK with his own composition, Love Shine A Light. Maybe it’s time we took a closer look at the life and times of Kimberley Rew?
Kim was born in Bristol. His father’s company rep job later took the Rew family to North London, where Kim attended Harrow County grammar. Like most youngsters at that time he was much enamoured with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and he got his first guitar in 1964. Tutored by an uncle and the then-ubiquitous Bert Weedon Play In A Day book that was also a rite-of-passage for the likes of George Harrison, Kim began to make progress. By 1966, though, he and his schoolmates had begun to discover albums such as The Yardbirds’ Five Live Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. “Those records felt like they were coming from another planet”, says Kim. “I had no idea how it was possible to make those sounds.”
It was after completing an archaeology degree at Cambridge University that Kim had his first “decent” band, an early incarnation of the then Katrina-less Waves. It was his tenure in The Soft Boys, led by the Robyn Hitchcock, though, that first got him noticed. “Robyn was the leading-light of the Cambridge music scene, a very charismatic man who had a musical style all of his own”, recalls Kim, the second prong of the group’s twin-guitar attack. “I was thrilled to be asked to join and I remained a devoted member of The Soft Boys until Robyn decided to disband the group and go solo in 1981.”
It’s perhaps worth noting that, in April 1998, Mojo magazine ran a piece on The Soft Boys’ 1980 album Underwater Moonlight in its self-explanatory Buried Treasure section. “Rew is majestic, swapping stylistic crowns swaggeringly”, wrote Joe Cushley of Kim’s contributions to the record, while Hitchcock himself describes Kim as being like “Hendrix on sulphuric acid… or in sulphuric acid.” By 1980, sounds from another planet were clearly well within Kim’s grasp.
It was drummer Alex Cooper, Kim’s old Waves band mate, who introduced him to Kansas-born singer Katrina Leskanich and (eventual) Katrina & The Waves bassist Vince de la Cruz. Hard to imagine now, but the group was born into a climate that left traditional ‘guitar’ bands somewhat marginalised. Sure, certain important indie bands such as REM and The Smiths were on the rise, but synthpop and the emerging New Romantic movement were the dish du jour.
Initially, Kim and Katrina Leskanich shared lead-vocal duties between them, but when Kim started writing songs specifically for his co lead-vocalist, The Waves became Katrina & The Waves. The self-titled record they recorded at their own expense in 1983 eventually gained a Canada-only release via Attic Records, but in reality the group was still relatively unknown.
Once again, the catalyst for change came from overseas, this time from the so-called ‘Paisley Underground’scene which thrived in Los Angeles in the early / mid 1980’s. Bands such as Rain Parade, the Three O’Clock - and crucially for Katrina & The Waves, The Bangles - loved pyschedelia, garage rock, and the vocal harmonies of 1960’s acts such as The Byrds. As English keepers-of-the-flame, Kim’s old band The Soft Boys were also influential on the Paisley Underground. This somehow led The Bangles to Katrina & The Waves first album – and a cover of Going Down To Liverpool that would change Kim and co.’s fortunes.
“Yes, I think The Bangles recording that song was what swung it for us when we got our major deal with EMI”, notes the guitarist today. “I wrote it during those early 80’s days of mass unemployment in the UK, so it was kind of unusual for me in that it had a semi ‘serious’ message.”
“We eventually hooked up with The Bangles when we played at The Palace, their local club in Hollywood. They got up to join us for our encore, which at that time was a cover version of Do You Love Me by Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. It was a bit of a dream team - and a lovely way to meet the girls.”
We’re now back where we came in, readers. Katrina & The Waves embarked on a US club tour in spring 1985, Walking On Sunshine became the feel good hit of the summer, and the band’s major label debut – again titled Katrina & The Waves – reached Number 28 in the UK. Six more studio albums were released between 1986 and 1997, and that same year the band won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK at The Point in Dublin.
They did so with Love Shine A Light – another Kim composition that he’d originally penned for charity organisation The Samaritans. The song was the competition’s run-away winner - ten countries awarded it the maximum twelve points – and it went on to reach Number 3 in the UK. “It certainly swept us away at the time”, says Kim with a wry smile, “but with hindsight that was us signing-off. Katrina took the opportunity to go solo and so began a new phase.”
Kim, for his part, took the opportunity to continue making some fine pop music on three solo albums: 2000’s Tunnel Into Summer, 2002’s Great Central Revisited (on which old pal Robyn Hitchcock guests), and 2004’s Essex Hideaway. With many artists exploring his songs, moreover, (Celine Dion, for example, recorded That’s Just The Woman In Me for her 2007 album Taking Chances) Kim’s music continues to find a new audience.
He has also been working with Cambridge based singer, songwriter and bass player Lee Cave Berry, and it’s a measure of his continued love for music that, when not hill walking or indulging his passion for historical fiction novels, he still steps out in with his local pub-rock covers band, Jack, just for the fun of it.
Kim has also taken a look in the rear-view of late, hence 2010 will see the re-release of four cherishable albums from the early 1980’s, all of which feature previously unreleased tracks. These are his 1981 solo album The Bible Of Bop, The Waves’ 1982 album Shock Horror, and from 1983 and 1984, respectively, the first two, self-titled, pre major-label albums by Katrina & The Waves.
“One thing I really like about all of those records is that there’s nothing too dark or moody there”, says Kim. “It’s passionate, life-affirming stuff, and it was great for me to be reminded of this youthful energy that I don’t always have now!”
