Black  Lace

1976

Black Lace (Alan Barton, Colin Gibb (Routh), Terry Dobson and Steve Scholey) set out as a professional band with manager, Keith Mills. and play first summer season at the ‘'Beer Garten'’ in Skegness, Lincolnshire  

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1977

Summer season at ‘'Butlins'’ Skegness & Filey. Release EP to be sold at shows -Voted Yorkshire ‘band of the Year’ by BBC.

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1979

Black Lace record first single ‘Marry Ann’ for EMI, -Win BBC’s ‘A 'Song for Europe'’ after show ’Blacked out’ by technicians strike- First T.V appearance on BBC ‘Nationwide’ followed the next day by; ‘'Multi-Coloured Swapshop'’ with Noel Edmonds. -First appearance on ‘'TOP of the Pops'’-Represent UK in ‘'Eurovision Song Contest'’ held in Israel, finish in 7th place.- Marry Ann reaches 42 in charts (the lowest position for any Eurovision entry at that time.)

Band secure endorsement deals with ‘Kawie’ guitars, ‘Randal’ amplification and ‘Premier Drums - Release second single ‘'So long Suzy baby’' but due to EMI constantly changing release date, record flops.- Play major festivals: ’'Sopot’' in Poland and ’'Golden Orpheus'’ in Bulgaria, also TV shows in East Germany and Spain.

Black Lace have now played to an International TV audience, estimated at over Two Thousand Five Hundred Million People - Band leave EMI Records.  - Rift between band and manager.

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1980

Tour Denmark supporting Suzy Quatro. - Secure record deal with ‘EMI Denmark’ and record single ‘'Jock McCrae'’ written by band and sound engineer, Stu Duffy. with Danish Eurovision star ’ 'Tommy Seberg'’ during bomb scare at show. Which is a Minor hit in Denmark. - Problems between manager, Keith mills and Black Lace getting worse.

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1981

Major tour of Poland cancelled due to ‘Solidarity Movement’- Band have more problems with Manager Keith Mills, and decide to split.

Alan and Colin form duo, to play northern clubs, using pre-recorded backing tracks (radical at the time) - Use the name ‘Lace’ but shortly change back to ‘Black Lace.- Recruit new manager: John Wagstaff      

  

1982

Reluctantly, Release single '‘Bird dance'’ under the name '‘Busby'’, Recorded at Neil Ferguson's ’Woodlands’ recording studio in Castleford,  but beaten to the charts by the ‘tweets’

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1983

Release ‘'Superman’' (again reluctantly) on John Wagstaff's own ‘Flair’ label- Shoot promotional video at ‘Casanova's’ night club in Wakefield, One of the hired dancers is (then unknown) singer ’Jane McDonald’ - Single reaches No; 9 in charts. -  Follow up single with Flair ‘Hey You’ tipped to be a hit, but fails to reach the charts. - Band get silver disc for sales of Superman. -Tour Denmark with Danish stars ‘Laban’ and ‘Snapshots’  - Secure endorsement deal with ‘Bose’ Amplification

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1984

The release of '‘Agadoo'’ becomes Black Lace'’s biggest hit, selling over one million copies worldwide, and reaches number 2 in UK chart.- Also a hit in Europe, South Africa and Australia.- Presented with Gold disc for sales in UK. -  Record first album ’'Black Lace'’ at ’Stuck Ranch’ Studios in Denmark. -  Record distribution company; '‘Panicle’' go into receivership & Black Lace and Flair records, loose hundreds of thousands in unpaid royalties for ‘Agadoo’

 Christmas hit with '‘Do the Conga’' Written by ‘Peter Morris, who wrote Eurovision song. ‘Mary Ann’ - Record reaches number 10 in UK charts.-— First UK album '‘Party Party'’ storms the charts and sells over 600,000 copies in first 4 weeks, reaching ‘Double Platinum status. - TV shows in Germany, Luxembourg, France and Denmark

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1985

Black Lace have own Summer show on Blackpool's Central Pier theatre.- Proves to be the acts hardest working year playing over 65 shows per month, and BBC announces, Black Lace ’'Worlds hardest working band’' - Bands Equipment truck involved in several accidents, but without any serious injury.  Black Lace find it necessary to charter private plane to meet TV schedules - The strain begins to show, Alan, Colin and road crew now choosing to stay in separate hotels.- Release singles '’El Vino Collapso’' and shoot video at ‘'Happy Days'’ caravan park in Skegness, instead of the first considered location, Spain.- The record is 'Banned' by the BBC in the wake of the Heysel football stadium disaster, due to its reference to 'drinking whilst abroad' and only  reaches number 42 in charts. -‘ 'I Speaker da Lingo’' gets to number 49. and ‘'Hockey Cokey'’  reaches number 31 in the UK charts.- Black Lace also record the charity record ‘'You'll never walk alone'’ with ‘'The Crowd'’ to raise funds for the families of the ‘Bradford City FC disaster.- Second album ‘'Party Party 2' hits charts for christmas - TV shows include; A ‘Black Lace Special’ on BBC 2 Rock show, ‘'The Old Gray Whistle test’'. Plus appearances on; '321' - 'Telethon' - 'Miss Yorkshire Television Contest' - 'International Disco Dance championship' - 'Pebble Mill at One', and 'Top of the Pops Christmas Special'. - Bad Accountants, miss calculate, and Black Lace presented with a tax demand, of over one hundred thousand pounds.

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1986

Colin, takes time of from touring to pursue other business ventures. Including a Black Lace ‘Spin off’ show, ‘'Party Party’' with singer/Guitarist ‘'John Strike’' and play two tours of Germany. However due to Strikes consistently bad timekeeping, and somewhat less than professional attitude, Col soon disbands the act. -  John Strike attempts to continue the show with other musicians but fails - 'Dean Michael' joins Alan, initially as session singer, - Release of single 'Wig-Wam-Bam', which reaches number 63, followed by ‘'Viva La Mexico'’ which flops - Band appear in the film '‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too'’ which features ‘'Gangbang'’ and ‘'Have a screw'’ recorded by Alan & Col the previous year, and initially featured on the flip side of twelve inch DJ singles. - Black Lace have Minor hit with album ‘'Party Crazy'’