Eighth Wonder were an English pop band, formed in 1983 in London, initially composed of singer/model/actress

Patsy Kensit Patricia Jude Kensit (born 4 March 1968) is an English actress and was the lead singer of the pop band Eighth Wonder in the 1980s. Beginning her career as a child actor, Kensit gained attention when she acted in a string of commercials for Bird ...

, her brother Jamie Kensit,

Steve Grantley Steve Grantley (born 8 March 1962) is an English rock drummer who plays for Stiff Little Fingers, and formerly the Alarm and RTZ Global. Between 1982 and 1987, he played drums for Jake Burns and the Big Wheel. He has also worked with Alicia K ...

, Geoff Beauchamp, Nigel Davis, Jake Walters and Lawrence Lewis. The band first enjoyed major success in Japan and Italy in 1985–87, before finally breaking through in the UK and across Europe in 1988, thanks to their hit single "

I'm Not Scared ''I'm Not Scared'' ( it, Io non ho paura, ''I Am Not Afraid'') is a 2003 Italian crime mystery thriller film directed by Gabriele Salvatores. Francesa Marciano and Niccolò Ammaniti wrote the script, basing it on Niccolò Ammaniti's successful ...

Biography

Early years

Eighth Wonder's roots are with a band called Spice. In 1983, Jamie Kensit auditioned his sister

, then aged 15, for the vacant job of lead singer in his new band. The line-up consisted of her on vocals, Jamie Kensit and Geoff Beauchamp on guitar, Lawrence Lewis on bass, Jake Walters on drums and Nigel Davis on percussion. Spice made their live debut in autumn 1983, and then spent the next year playing further gigs, hoping to gain some attention from

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

s. In late 1984, Davis left to start the band 'Slipstream' and keyboard-player Alex Godson joined the band. They renamed themselves Eighth Wonder and Patsy Kensit began to

write Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

songs for the band. Their first gig as Eighth Wonder was in November 1984 in

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

and further gigs followed, including at Queen Elizabeth College in Kensington. It was at one of these that Stephen Woolley, co-owner of Palace Films, and director

Julien Temple Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953) is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll ...

offered Patsy Kensit the role of 'Crepe Suzette' in their 1986 movie musical '' Absolute Beginners''. Eighth Wonder contributed a song to the soundtrack.

Success in Japan and Italy

In April 1985, Eighth Wonder was signed by

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

and began

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

in London, working around Patsy Kensit's filming on ''Absolute Beginners''. In October 1985, with the filming completed, Eighth Wonder's first single "Stay With Me" was released and achieved success in Japan, where it reached No. 1 and Italy, where it peaked at No. 4 in early 1986. It charted only at No. 65 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. Shortly after, Lewis and Walters left. The band then started using drum machines and using keyboards for their bass sound. In August 1986, they went to Los Angeles to record new tracks for their debut album, ''Fearless''. There they worked with producer

Mike Chapman Michael Donald Chapman (born 13 April 1947) is an Australian-American record producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including The Sweet, Suzi ...

, best known for his work with Blondie. They were also approached by many songwriters, including Dave Stewart of the

Eurythmics Eurythmics were a British pop duo consisting of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. They were both previously in The Tourists, a band which broke up in 1980. The duo released their first studio album, '' In the Garden'', in 1981 to little succ ...

(although the song was eventually not used) and

Billy Steinberg William Endfield Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits " Like a Virgin" by Madonna (1984), ...

and Tom Kelly, writers of many hit singles including

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

's " True Colors",

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...

's "

So Emotional "So Emotional" is a song by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released as the third single from her second studio album ''Whitney'' (1987) on October 12, 1987 by Arista Records. The song was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. It ...

" and

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's " Like a Virgin". In February 1987, one of the Chapman-produced tracks, "Will You Remember", was released in the United Kingdom but only reached number 83 - though it reached the Top 10 in Italy, after a memorable performance at the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...

, when a wardrobe malfunction caused Patsy to expose one of her nipples, live on TV. In Japan, the band achieved another No 1 hit with another Chapman production, "When The Phone Stops Ringing", which was written by

Holly Knight ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

and longtime

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

collaborator

Bernie Taupin Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English songwriter, singer and visual artist. He is best known for his long-term collaboration with musician Elton John, a songwriting partnership that is one of the most successful in history. Tau ...

. The song was also a Top 30 hit in Italy. "Will You Remember" was successfully released as a follow-up single in Japan. This was in turn followed by ''Brilliant Dreams'', a Japanese exclusive mini album containing the singles and

b-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

Success in the UK

Whilst completing their first album, the band had another line-up change, with Godson being replaced by drummer

. They worked with

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

, mixer and producer Pete Hammond, with the exception of one track, "

", co-produced and written by the

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...

and Phil Harding. Chosen as the next single for release in Europe, it was greeted with media and

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

enthusiasm. "I'm Not Scared" became a Top 10 hit in almost every country in Europe, achieving number one in Italy, number 2 in Switzerland and Portugal, number 3 in Spain, 4 in Greece, 5 in Germany, 7 in the UK, 8 in France and 20 in Austria. Pet Shop Boys recorded their own version of the song for their album ''

Introspective ''Introspective'' is the third studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 10 October 1988 by Parlophone. It received generally positive reviews from critics. Background The album was unusual in that it reversed the typi ...

''. May 1988 saw the release of another single, " Cross My Heart", which proved to be almost as successful chart-wise as "I'm Not Scared" (#6 in Switzerland, No. 10 in Italy, No. 13 in UK, and France, and No. 56 in the US - where it was their only Top 75 single). Eighth Wonder's album ''

Fearless Fearless or The Fearless may refer to: Psychology * Lack of fear * Courage or bravery Film, television and audio Film * ''Fearless'' (1978 film), an Italian film directed by Stelvio Massi * ''Fearless'' (1993 film), an American drama directed ...

'' followed in July 1988, and by October it had achieved almost 500,000 sales internationally. However, the follow-up single "Baby Baby" only got to number 65 in the UK Singles Chart and would be their last hit in Italy, peaking at No.13. They had one more hit in Japan with "Use Me" in 1989 and, shortly after this, the band parted ways and Patsy Kensit began to focus on her marriage and acting career,In 1988, Hong Kong singer Elvina Kong covered "Baby Baby" in Cantonese.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

References

External links

Allmusic.com biography AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{Authority control English pop music groups Musical groups established in 1983 Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Musical groups from London Sony Music artists