Two Much - Wonderland Of Love/ Mr Money

Male-female pop duo with their less sought-after 45 (sorry kids)

Label: Fontana

Year of Release: 1967

The sixties gobbed out obscure singers by the spittoon load, and the Middlesex based duo Two Much (where in Middlesex? Don't ask me, I'm telling you all I know) were another fairly mysterious pair in the barroom bucket. We know for a fact that they were Andrea and Steve Gerome, but whether they were brother and sister, or husband and wife, remains lost to the record company archives. 

Their second single "It's A Hip Hip Hippy World" is becoming increasingly sought after, though, with record collectors using the shorthand of "It's like Abba gone popsike" (which it is) to shift the single towards high prices. I've been after a copy at a reasonable price or ages and will continue to hunt high and low.

This was their debut 45, and is altogether more straightforward, zingy, stringy pop. "Wonderland of Love" actually sounds a little bit dated for 1967, too wholesome, toothy and cuddly for a world where Sonny and Cher were showbiz's King and Queen. It could just as easily have been released in 1962 without anyone noticing anything innovative and strange, so it's therefore not totally inexplicable that it failed during the summer of love. "Hip Hip Hippy World", on the other hand, would probably have fared better if it had slid out in 1967 and not 1968. Sometimes timing is everything.

The pair obviously decided that a change of name might help, and a few months after "Hip Hip Hippy" emerged Andrea Gerome had renamed herself Anna Hamilton and released the single "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants To Die)" under the credit "Anna Hamilton With Stephen" - so it's clearly also a Two Much single in all but name. 

She then turned up on "Opportunity Knocks" in 1969 and also appeared as a singer in the 1971 film "Lust For A Vampire", and that's the last known reference I can find to either her or Steve. What became of them? Please do let me know if you've any idea.

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