Eighties revival lasting longer than the decade

CLARE Grogan has happy memories of Rewind.

The Altered Images singer was performing at the Henley pop festival in 2010 when her five-year-old daughter, Elle, ran on stage.

The little girl was at the side of the stage with her father Stephen Lironi, a fellow member of the band, when she escaped his clutches.

Clare says: “Stephen said to me afterwards, ‘Honestly, Clare, she just leapt out of my arms’ and it was either rugby tackle her to the ground before she got to me or just let her go on.

“I’ve just got some lovely photos of Elle clinging on to my leg and looking out at the crowd. She looks like she’s thinking, ‘Well, I haven’t thought this through’. It’s just so funny, it really is. It’s a great memory to have except Elle’s mad that she can’t remember it.”

Clare, who will be back at Rewind South next month, lives in London with Stephen and Elle, now 19.

The Glaswegian was an actress when she first found fame in the early Eighties. Her new wave band had six top 40 singles, including Happy Birthday and I Could Be Happy, and three top 10 albums.

Now 62, she is proud of her the songs and delighted that they are finding a new audience via Rewind, an unashamed celebration of music of the era.

She says: “When I first got involved in doing these shows again, it had been very long time and I literally hadn’t listened to the songs in about 18 years.

“Then when I did, I thought, ‘Oh god, I love these’, you know?

“There is something really lovely about that and thinking, you know, ‘I co-wrote these songs, what an opportunity to be able to go and sing them in front of such big audiences again’. It was like reclaiming it all in a funny sort of way.

“For a lot of young bands, things did not end as well as they could have, shall we say, so it was just nice to be able to celebrate the songs again. I always say to people that the Eighties revival has lasted longer than the decade. I suppose I became really aware of it when Elle would have her friends over. There was always a point in the evening when I heard them listening to those Eighties classics, you know, belting out Kids in America and stuff, and I just thought, ‘God, this really resonates with them’.”

Clare, who starred in the 1981 film Gregory’s Girl with John Gordon Sinclair and Dee Hepburn, has continued acting as well as singing and songwriting.

She played Lister’s girlfriend, Kristine Kochanski, in the BBC comedy Red Dwarf and has appeared in EastEnders, Doctors, Waterloo Road, Father Ted, Taggart and Meet the Richardsons.

She wrote a children’s book, Tallulah and the Teenstars: The Adventures of Tallulah Gosh, in 2008 and is currently working on a new album.

Clare met Stephen when there was a change of line-up in the band and they were married in 1994.

She says: “Stephen came in at the third stage of the band, as I call it, for the Bite album.

“When I first met him he just seemed like a nice guy and he continued to seem like a nice guy throughout the time we worked together.

“When the band broke up and he became a friend, he was so supportive and lovely to me in the aftermath of this kind of almost impossible situation, where I felt like I couldn’t play with anyone anymore and I was fed up trying. That’s when we really got to know each other.

“I really thought I’d be a bit more Elizabeth Taylor about romance and on my fourth divorce at least by now. Stephen ruined it all by being lovely.”

Her songwriting began almost by accident when she first joined the band.

Clare says: “In the early days of new wave in Glasgow, there would be a tribe of young people that would go to the shows and I guess we just all found each other.

“The boys very much started the band — they were all at the same school and were looking for somebody who would sing and I got volunteered by my big sister.

“I turned up and for ages I would just be in the corner, going: ‘Oh, I don’t know what to do’.

“Then Johnny McElhone, who kind of started Altered Images, and went on to do Hipsway and Texas, was like, ‘Clare, you’re going to have to get involved in writing the songs’.

“I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t write songs’.

“And then he went, ‘Well, you’ll have to leave the band if you’re not going to help write the songs’.

“What a joy he created for me in my life because I love writing songs. I had no absolutely no idea that I could and here I am, you know? So in many ways it was a bit of a happy accident and the most incredible run of luck.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Clare and Stephen began working with former Suede musician Bernard Butler and their friend Bobby Bluebell from the Bluebells, which resulted in Mascara Streakz, the first Altered Images album in almost 40 years.

She says: “Stephen and I found ourselves at home together. Having watched everything on Netflix and every box set known to man, we thought, ‘What are we going to do next?’ and we naturally fell into writing it.

“Bernard is our neighbour and I’ve always had a huge appreciation of his work and I just plucked up the courage to ask him to get involved.

“Bobby is an amazing songwriter and we were just having a bit of fun, really.

“Then it really took over my head. I suddenly started really obsessing about what Altered Images would be now. It became this compulsion to create something.

“It was very much influenced by my daughter being the same age as me when I started out, so for me there was like a kind of symmetry to it all.

“We did really well with it — I never imagined in a million years that we’d chart or anything so it was great.”

Elle, who was adopted as a seven-month-old baby, sang some backing vocals.

“She has actually got a really beautiful voice and I’m not just saying that,” says Clare. “But she’s not remotely interested in using it or doing everything with it.

“When she was a wee bit younger I managed to persuade her to come on stage and do backing vocals now and again but she’s absolutely over that. She’s like, ‘No way, Mum’.

“She’s got an apprenticeship in early years education and wants to be a teacher and we’re delighted — we failed our parents in getting proper jobs.”

• Altered Images will play Rewind South at Temple Island Meadows on Saturday, August 17. For more information and to book tickets, visit south.rewindfestival.com