Warwick - Let's Get The Party Going/ How Does It Feel

 

Chinnichap tap into the Beach Boys sound and make it stomp

Label: RAK

Year of Release: 1975

By 1975, glam rock had entered into a period of decline. A couple of years previously radio and the listening public couldn't get enough of the crunching, stomping sounds, but the template was limited and leant itself poorly to progressive interpretations. The survivors of the genre were those who were always about far more than hard stomping heels and glitter from the WH Smith stationery department; the Roxys and the Bowies always had a flexibility and inventiveness which eluded the sweet old rock and rollers.

The net result of this is that quite a few solid glam records were issued in 1975 and 1976 which struggled to get a sniff of attention. This is without question one of them. Warwick were pulled together as a quick session group to record ex-Tangerine Peel member Warwick Rose's probable hit "Let's Get The Party Going", with Mike Chapman of Chinnichap productions (also an ex-member of the Peel) fronting the song and Nicky Chinn flying solo in the producer's chair. 

Tangerine Peel were one of those late sixties groups who released scores of records across multiple labels, all with a strong pop flavour, but none rewarding the labels who signed them with any hits. "Let's Get The Party Going" excels the quality of their output from that period by a country mile. If The Beach Boys had assembled in RAK studios to record a glam rock single, this is pretty much exactly what you would have got - thrilling close harmonies, and a Californian chorus doused in Party Seven lager and filled with thumping beats and sweet twanging guitar lines. 

It really should have been a hit, and while Chinnichap's dominance of the pop scene had faded somewhat by 1975, this can probably be regarded as one of their few high tide failures. There are also pointers here to the alternative direction glam could have gone in - less emphasis on the rock and roll riffs and thunder, and a closer, smarter attention to the vocals and melodies on top. 

Following its failure, Warwick Rose seemed to disappear from view, but the Chinnichap team pressed ahead, with Chapman perhaps concluding that he wasn't going to be a pop star in his own right after all.

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