WHEN you go to the windows of hell and look in, you begin to see the ugly reality of pain. And if you're fortunate enough to escape that gravitional pull out of there and come back into reality, then you can begin to philosophize on'what is real and what is not real."It gives you the strength to persevere — to go ahead — and I was fortunate enough to be drafted by The Spinners right away and that, within itself, did not allow me to
Former Spinner, U.S. marine and man about music, G.C. Cameron reflects, remembers and considers future activities. Scott Taylor tunes in wallow in the pity and the sorrow many of my comrades did who had time on their hands.  

IT'S been three years since her last album . . . but now she's back! "Watch Out" is the title of the new album and single and judging by the response so far, both will be big sellers. Yes indeed, Patrice Rushen has returned with a vengeance. The album, incidentally, is all her own work except for three tracks ? "Somewhere", "Anything Can Happen" and "Long Time Comin'" ? and the project is a direct cross between dance and ballad.

WHILE, as a family group, Mason have that fact in common with the likes of the Jacksons, Pointers and Isleys, they have one further common factor with the Wilson Brothers, a.k.a. the Gap Band. Both families hail from the unlikely city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

IF predictions were my line, Motown's newest signing Stacy Lattisaw could, in time, become a serious threat to the likes of Teena Marie and Janet Jackson. She was, to all intents and purposes, quite a surprising addition to the Motown family because prior to this, very little had been heard about the nineteen year old singer.

  Amazon.com Widgets 
"It proved to be a first-rate idea and now I'm getting to really like the place — it's certainly been a lucky city for me. Now I'm getting to know the place real well I'm enjoying it even more." This time round, Eugene was in town on a short promotional visit, laying the ground for what he hopes will be a big breakthrough with British audiences.

NOW working mainly out of Philadelphia, where he records, Eugene is a native son of Miami, a city which, in its mix of peoples, is not dissimilar to London.
    "One thing I like about both places is that even in the so-called ethnic areas you find a complete mix of races — Latins, Blacks, Whites, Chinese and so on.
    "It suits me because I'm a real mixture myself. I've got cousins in Colombia and there are also Puerto Ricans, Bahamians, and Chinese in our family. Oh yeah, and I'm part Cherokee Indian and part white foo! Then, of course, there's the African connection!" 25-year old Eugene is one of eight children (five boys and a girl) and was bom on December 6, 1961.
    "My father was a professional R&B singer years ago and mum is a gospel keyboard player. I'm child number-six and those ahead of me were already well into music when I started out. Seriously though I can't remember ever not playing music. We are all very close, with ages ranging between 20 and 30 and we are all in the business still.
    "I learned drums, keyboards, bass, guitar and even trumpet — but I gave up 'cause it hurt my lips! We'd all teach each other and we grew up with all types of music — soul, gospel, jazz, rock 'n' roll and so on.
    "The family group had been working professionally for quite a time before I joined, at age 11. We'd do lots of talent shows, 'battle of the band' type things, and we'd play support to acts like Betty Wright and Jimmy Bo Home, or even play in their backing bands.
    "We cut quite a few demos and worked under a variety of names. The problem was that we'd choose a name then find it was already being used by someone else! We've been the Chevrons, the Shades of Brown, Exquisite Jive, Life, La Voyage, Broomfield Corporate Jam — Broomfield's our real family name — and so on.
    "Tight Connection was one of our best names and we cut a song called 'Do What You Wanna Do' only to find that a group from the Bahamas had called themselves T. Connection, recorded a song called 'Do What You Wanna Do' and landed a deal with TK in Miami."

AS La Voyage, the Broomfield family cut an album titled "Never Looking Back Again". Explained Eugene: "It was never released commercially but was essentially a demo album which we used to get work. It landed us a 15-week South American tour which took us to Peru and Colombia. That trip was a real eye-opener. They have these massive, lavish night clubs down there like we don't even have in the States.
    "There's a lot of poverty but those who've got money have real money and they are the ones who go to the clubs." With their name by now changed to Simplicious, the group sent a copy of that demo album to Philly World Records. "They liked our sound but didn't think the material was strong enough so with Mickie Horton, who is still my co-writer some two-and-a-half years later, I wrote a song called 'Let Her Feel If and Philly World released it.
    "I sang lead and the record did fairly well for us. The rest of the family had so much happening back home in Miami — they are now all in different groups doing different things — that they encouraged me to go solo, though when I get back to Miami my next project is to get the family together again for another record."

THOUGH essentially written in London, Eugene's debut album, titled simply "Eugene Wilde", was recorded at Philly World's Alpha Sound Studios in Philadelphia — "Which is where I've made all my records" — and from it the debut solo single "Gotta Get You Home Tonight" shot to the top of the American black music charts, earning Eugene the accolade of the year's "Top New Male Artist" from both Cashbox and Billboard, the two influential music trade papers.
    
Lifted from his follow-up album, "Serenade", the single "Don't Say No (Tonight)" was another R&B chart-topper. Now he's looking forward eagerly to album number-three.
    "I've just finished a seven-week tour and then a round of promotional dates and I'm about to fall flat on my face," he confided. "I'll take a week off to recuperate then get back to my songwriting and hopefully come back over here to do it.
    "Yeah, on my first album all but one cut, which was written by my younger brother Vince, was penned here in London." For production, he'll be sticking with the Donald Robertson and Michael Forte team which has served him so well up till now.
    "They've handled allmy productions, except two tracks on the first album which were produced by Bunny Sigler. I hear that Bunny is now working with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff again."

As for live dates here in Britain, well, that's something for the future but, in the meantime, it seems Eugene Wilde will happily commute across the Atlantic in search of inspiration for his songs . . . and that's no small tribute to our country and its atmosphere. (B&S 463)

They've been acknowledged as two of the most well-known 'voices' in black music: between them, these men have sung on some of the true classics in popular music ? "My Girl", "Just My Imagination", "I Wish It Would Rain" ? the list is impressive by anyone's standards.
After the reunion tour with their former colleagues, The Temptations, at the start of the Eighties, David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks (he dropped the 's' a few years back) hooked up with John Oates and Darryl Hall for a special night at the famous Apollo Theatre in New York.

The group name Slave has been with us a long time but not necessarily so the new personnel and the new direction. However, latest recruit Keith Nash explains why the 'new' Slave are ready to carry on the tradition.

"{safm}Peabo Bryson{/safm} was far more involved with this album than he was with "Take No Prisoners". That was a successful album but he felt his biggest successes have always come on his own. I think that my songs best reflect my personality and that's when I fell the most comfortable.

Charlie Singleton has finally stepped out of his Cameo role and become the Modern Man he always wanted to be. As cryptic as that may seem, it is, in fact, pretty much the scenario of the career of the singular Mr. Singleton thus far ? one that took off when he became an integral part of the Cameo set-up at the turn of the decade, registered a false start for his solo career with his debut album for Arista and is now truly a force to be reckoned with as his second album, this time for Epic, begins to bite hard.

With a succession of specialist radio and club anthems ("Keep Your Body Working". "Get Tough"' "Intimate Connection" etc. having made Kleeer one of the most consistently acclaimed American funk outfits on the thriving early eighties UK soul scene,

AFTER a long hiatus and a label change, Steve Arrington is back in the land of the recorded living! The ex-front man for Slave marks his switch from Atlantic/Cotillion to Manhattan with what most critics feel is his best and, even more importantly, his most commercial effort yet "jam Packed".

With "Love Or Physical", a splendid new album for Capitol Records, that perennial love duo Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson are definitely back in gear. After a couple of years absence, during which time the couple (who have been married now for over fourteen years) gave birth to a daughter, Asia, Nick and Val are feeling great about their new product, especially since the first single, I'll Be There For You" is giving them one of their biggest U.S. hits in years.