Happy 45th Anniversary to Hi-Tension’s eponymous debut (and only) album Hi-Tension, originally released October 20, 1978.
[Editor’s Note: ‘Hi-Tension’ is not currently available in authorized form via major streaming platforms, hence the absence of embedded audio/video in this article.]
Top of the Pops began on January 1, 1964 when Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want To Be With You” was beamed into living rooms across the UK. From that point, until the moment Snow Patrol performed “Chasing Cars” on July 30, 2006, it occupied a unique place in British culture and was hugely influential on the music industry.
Its place as an iconic show owed much to the general broadcasting environment of the time. A long time before satellite and cable TV and even longer before streaming, the British TV schedule consisted of three channels and TOTP stood proudly occupying half-an-hour on a Thursday evening on the most popular one, BBC 1.
Despite going through revamps and changes to its format and policies, it remained a keystone of British cultural life for much of its duration. At times, most acts mimed or lip-synced (though you wished they hadn’t), while at other times it was a live performance program (though sometimes you wished they’d had mimed). As a kid growing up in a semi-rural area, TOTP was almost the only access I had to music. Sure, in more urban areas there might be pirate radio stations and for those with enough money across the country there may even have been the birth of MTV to gawp at endlessly but for me, TOTP was it.
Even now, looking back at the repeats that play on a Friday night on BBC4, the sheer variety of acts that made it onto the show is mind-boggling. Genres as far apart as day and night rubbed shoulders during the half hour that the show occupied the front rooms of the nation when they first aired. Hand in hand with Radio 1, it had the power to make and break records and, therefore, careers. So, when a new group made it onto the show, it was a big deal. In fact, it was a huge deal.
On May 4, 1978, a young Black British group performed and in doing so, provided a musical movement with its birth on a national scale. Paul Phillips, Jeff Guishard, David Joseph, Paul McClean, Patrick McClean, David Reid, Paapa Mensah and Leroy Williams had initially formed as Hot Wax, but a legal technicality resulted in a change to Hi-Tension.
The group had formed in Willesden Green, NW London and were part of a grassroots movement of young Black musicians who were often the first-generation offspring of Caribbean people who had come to Britain in the wake of the Second World War as part of the Windrush generation. Promised jobs and the hope of a better life, they were met with indifference at best and outright racism at worst.
But the music couldn’t be denied despite the systemic racism that sought to blunt it. Supported by DJs like Greg Edwards and Robbie Vincent, a movement informed and influenced by US acts found life in these children of the diaspora. Albums like Donald Byrd’s Places and Spaces (1976), produced by the genius Mizell Brothers, blurred the lines between jazz and funk, while keeping half an eye on the burgeoning disco dancefloor.
And, thus, Brit Funk was born from the grim London of the late 1970s. The political landscape was one of turbulence and discontent and the racism that had greeted the Windrush generation showed no signs of abating, but Hi-Tension and others like Light of the World, Central Line and Freeez created one of the first uniquely Black British musical movements (emerging at the same time as Lover’s Rock). Buried in the loose grooves of Hi-Tension are the seeds of many an act that followed them.
Take one listen to the album and it becomes clear that the beginnings of New Romantic bands like Spandau Ballet, whose “Chant Number 1” featured Beggar & Co, and the sophisticated soul of Sade lie in the uniquely British version of jazz funk. Beyond that, other exponents of the Brit Funk sound demonstrated a willingness to take the genre and bend it to more commercial sounds. Level 42, powered by Mark King’s thunderous right thumb and Mike Lindup’s delicate keyboard lines started as Brit Funk and soon morphed into some level of global pop success.
But what of Hi-Tension? The self-titled debut single that lured Chris Blackwell into signing the group to Island Records peaked at #13 in the wake of their ground-breaking appearance on Top of the Pops. This was followed by an even better outcome for second single “British Hustle” that reached #8. So, the scene was set after two top 10 hits to push on and make it big. Only it never happened.
Instead, the group split up soon afterwards, seemingly torn between a harder funk sound and a poppier iteration of the music that had proved successful. But, as ever, there were deeper issues surrounding the group because of their color—a piece in Beat Instrumental magazine in 1978 suggested they experienced “credibility issues” because of the music they played and the color of their skin. In a tale as old as time, the group were dismissed in some quarters because the legitimacy of a Black British group playing funk music was doubted.
The Real Thing from Liverpool faced the same issues just a year earlier. They’d had massive chart success with “You To Me Are Everything” written for them by Ken Gold in 1976, but when they put out the socially conscious 4 From 8 (1977) album a year later, that success vanished on the breeze. Ask any Black British soul or funk act of the last 40 years and they will have a tale of racism playing a part in their career—whether it was overt or otherwise.
Hi-Tension is one of those albums whose cultural importance can, at times, outweigh the quality of the material on offer. Both the aforementioned singles are fine examples of jazz funk grooves, but the slower tracks are a little underwhelming. Opener “You’re My Girl” lacks album opening pizzazz and “Autumn Love” is pleasant enough, but hardly vital.
But the more uptempo tracks shine as great examples of the nascent genre and demonstrate the way forward for others like Incognito to follow. There’s more than a hint of Earth, Wind & Fire to “If It Moves You” and there’s a youthful exuberance that runs through “Unspoken.”
And that’s the point here. Not all of this is wholly convincing but this is the birth of a movement created by young, inexperienced artists with a world of cynicism and a racist industry designed to thwart them at every turn. It is energetic, filled with ebullience and a glimmering slice of hope for a first generation of immigrant families. When their contemporaries and peers saw them on Top of the Pops that Thursday evening, it was the birth of a million dreams. Dreams that would be fulfilled by those who followed Hi-Tension.