Hot Gossip (1974–86) were a British dance troupe who made television appearances and in 1978 backed Sarah Brightman on her single "

I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper", sometimes cited as "(I Lost My Heart to A) Starship Trooper", is a 1978 single written by Jeff Calvert and Geraint Hughes of Typically Tropical and performed by Sarah Brightman and Hot Gossip. It was the ...

Formation

Arlene Phillips Dame Arlene Phillips (born 22 May 1943) is an English choreographer, talent scout, television judge and presenter, theatre director, and former dancer, who has worked in many fields of entertainment. For many years, she was most noted as the c ...

moved to London to learn and teach developing American jazz dance routines. Employed as a dance teacher, she taught at locations including the

Pineapple Dance Studios Pineapple Dance Studios' is a dance studio complex, performing arts school, and associated dancewear, clothing, and eyewear brand, based in London, England. Origin Pineapple Studios was founded by former model Debbie Moore, who had started dan ...

and the

Italia Conti Stage School The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts is a performing arts conservatoire based in Woking, England. It was founded in 1911 by Italia Conti, an actress. The first production at Italia Conti Academy was the play ''Where the Rainbow Ends''. For ...

. In 1974, Phillips started forming the core of a troupe; Italia Conti student actress

Lesley Manville Lesley Ann Manville (born 12 March 1956) is an English actress known for her frequent collaborations with Mike Leigh, appearing in the films '' Grown-Ups'' (1980), '' High Hopes'' (1988), '' Secrets & Lies'' (1996), ''Topsy-Turvy'' (1999), ''A ...

turned her down. Hot Gossip spent two years performing in Munkberry's club in

Jermyn Street Jermyn Street is a one-way street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster in London, England. It is to the south of, parallel, and adjacent to Piccadilly. Jermyn Street is known as a street for gentlemen's-clothing retailers. Hist ...

, London W1, where Phillips and manager/producers Michael Summerton and Iain Burton developed the group's dance act. Phillips, Summerton and Burton continued to work together for eight years, during which time Hot Gossip continued to enjoy wide popularity and success.

Career

''The Kenny Everett Video Show''

Spotted by the British television director David Mallet, he invited Phillips to make Hot Gossip a regular feature of the 1978 ''

The Kenny Everett Video Show ''The Kenny Everett Video Show'' (later renamed ''The Kenny Everett Video Cassette'') is a British television comedy and music programme that was made by Thames Television for ITV from 3 July 1978 to 21 May 1981. Overview Philip Jones, Tham ...

'', which he directed for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. The show ended in 1981 on ITV. Everett then moved to the BBC for ''

The Kenny Everett Television Show ''The Kenny Everett Television Show'' is a comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC1 from 1981 to 1988. It was presented by its main performer Kenny Everett, who wrote the material with Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron. Later in 1986 they were joined by ...

'', which did not feature Hot Gossip except in Season 4 in 1986.

Music

In 1978, during their initial impact period on ''The Kenny Everett Video Show'', Hot Gossip recorded "Making Love on a Phone" and with Sarah Brightman on lead vocals recorded "

", a disco song written by Jeff Calvert and Geraint Hughes, the men behind the 1975 hit record, "

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

". "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper" reached number 6 on 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 ...

. They went on to record an album in 1981 titled ''

Geisha Boys and Temple Girls ''Geisha Boys and Temple Girls'' is a studio album by British dance troupe Arlene Phillips' Hot Gossip. It was released in 1981 and was produced by BEF (former Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh.) Track listing Personnel ...

'', produced by former

Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

and then current

Heaven 17 Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League), and ...

/ BEF member

Martyn Ware Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both the Human League and Heaven 17, Ware was partly responsible for hit songs such as "Being Boiled" and " ...

. A stand-out track called "I Burn for You" was written by Sting.

''The Very Hot Gossip Show''

Produced by Burton and Telecast by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, the one-hour special was a vehicle for Hot Gossip, fresh from their stint on ''The Kenny Everett Video Show''. ''The Very Hot Gossip Show'' was one of the highest rating shows for Channel 4 that year.

Style

Hot Gossip were noted for the risqué nature of their costumes and the dance routines, all designed and choreographed by Phillips, especially considering the early evening timeslot that the ''Video Show'' was broadcast in. The male athletic dancers were handsome and black and the female members were attractive and white, which caused pulses to race for various reasons. It is said that the antics did nothing to improve race relations, but all the same was the height of entertainment. They are often credited as one of the UK's early television dance troupes, continuing a trend which started with the Go-Jo's and

Pan's People Pan's People were a British all-female dance troupe most commonly associated with the BBC TV music chart show ''Top of the Pops'', from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. They appeared on many other TV shows in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and al ...

on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

.'' The group was once spoofed on ''

The Benny Hill Show ''The Benny Hill Show'' is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV (from 1969) between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody ...

'' as Hot Gossamer, with references to the Hot Gossip routines 'Supernature' and 'Walk on the Wild Side'. Some former Hot Gossip dancers appeared on the show, notably Jane Colthorpe and Lorraine Doyle were members of Love Machine. Then later Lorraine Doyle featured heavily in sketches as well as part of the Hill's Angels dance troupe.

Original Kenny Everett TV group members

*Males: Mark Tyme, Roy Gale, Floyd Pearce *Females: Dominique Wood, Donna Fielding, Carol Fletcher,

Perri Lister Perri Lister (born 10 April 1959) is an English former dancer, singer and actress. She was a dancer with the British dance troupe Hot Gossip which appeared regularly on '' The Kenny Everett Video Show'' in the late 1970s – early 1980s in the Uni ...

, Lyndsey Ward, Sarah Brightman and Lorraine Whitmarsh.

Dancers who performed with Hot Gossip

*Amanda Abbs *Heather Alexander *Debbie Ash *Debbie Astell *

Bunty Bailey Therese "Bunty" Bailey (born 23 May 1964) is an English former model, dancer and actress. Bunty started her career as a dancer in the dance group '' Hot Gossip'' in the early 1980s. She became known as the girl in the music videos of a-ha's singl ...

*Elvis Baptiste *Lee Black *Richard Bodkin * Sarah Brightman *Bonnie Bryg *Kathy Burke †† *Lindsay Cole *Titian Deakin *Lorraine Doyle *Annie Dunkley *Penni Dunlop *Sandy Easby *Mark Elie *Yvonne Evans (Voyd) *

Donna Fielding Donna may refer to the short form of the honorific ''nobildonna'', the female form of Don (honorific) in Italian. People * Donna (given name); includes name origin and list of people and characters with the name * Roberto Di Donna (born 1968), ...

*Carol Fletcher *Alan Forgie *Debbie Fox *Judey Ford *Julia Gale *Roy Gayle *Donnette Goddard *Heavon Grant *Virginia Hartley *Alison Hierlehy *Nicky Hinkley *Laura James *Lavinia Lang (Hudson) *Kim Leeson *

*Richard Lloyd King *Madeleine Loftin *

Erin Lordan Erin Lordan (8 November 1963 – 26 February 2005) was a British singer and dancer who had hits in the UK with BBG, Bamboo, Ascension and Shut Up and Dance. She was a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip. Erin was also "The Bride" in the Elto ...

*Barry Martin *Jayne Melville *Sarah Miles † *Johanna Kate Morley *Jane Colthorpe *Trudy Pack *Floid Pearce *Tristan Rafael * Sinitta Renet *Heather Robbins *Wanda Rokicki *Heather Seymour *Sonia Talbot *

Bruno Tonioli Bruno Tonioli (; born 25 November 1955) is an Italian choreographer, ballroom and Latin dancer, and Television personality. He has appeared as a judge on the British television dance competition '' Strictly Come Dancing'' and American adaptatio ...

*Mark Tyme *Lyndsey Ward *Susie Waring *Lorraine Whitmarsh *Chrissy Wickham *David Wilkins *Phillipa Williams *Frances Wingate *Dominique Wood * Penny Kendell * Michelle Gail Fellows * Libby Rose * Cherry B † Not to be confused with the

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

of the same name †† Not to be confused with the

of the same name

Sponooch

There was a spin-off group from Hot Gossip. Late 1979 Mark Tyme, Dom Wood, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Carol Fletcher, Lyndsey Ward, Donna Fielding, Lee Black left Hot Gossip to set up 'Sponooch'. They were featured in a BBC show called ''Dancing Girls'' on 6 January 1982 and they were featured several times on a TV show in 1979 called ''Friday Night Saturday Morning'' on BBC One. They also were signed to EMI and recorded two singles, "Crime Buster" and "Lady Dracula".

References

External links

Hot Gossip discography
on

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

{{Authority control Dance companies in the United Kingdom British dance music groups