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I have a theory that most of the music I'm interested in today was 'seeded' into my mind in 1989. It just seems that way - Queen, Kirsty MacColl, Cyndi Lauper, The Beautiful South... all were of passing interest to me during that year, only to re-emerge as fairly major likes a decade or more later. Following this logic suggests that I'm alarmingly about to start buying Technotronic albums and worshipping D-Mob, which only goes to show that every theory can be taken too far. It's still often fun to re-kindle the tunes of one's youth in all their dated, unashamed glory, however. And so it was that I stumbled across a song called "Requiem" by the London Boys the other year. My other half absolutely loved this euro-disco, heavily camp hi-energy stomper of a tune of course. Who could not? And you know, I'd completely forgotten about Dennis and The Other One, the London Boys. Have you ever got that? Where you think of something that once rested fairly predominantly upon your thoughts, but which hasn't even touched your mind for years and years? The London Boys were two jolly, quite old looking German gentlemen who danced about and did somersaults in what now looks like deeply homo-erotic Village People-esque gear. "Requiem" itself, and it's identikit follow-up "London Nights", proved a fleeting moment of fame for The Boys. There wasn't much room in pop for many more arm-waving, dark, thumping slices of pop as good (or, more accurately, exactly the same as) this. So sadly Dennis and The Other One were soon gone, and Pop Music moved on. The End. That was all a long time ago. "Requiem" and "London Nights" soon became favourites after being re-discovered recently, although we completely failed to find anything on the 'net about The London Boys or what they were up to now, probably because I couldn't for the life of me remember their names. Searching for "London", "Boys" and "Dennis" did little to rake up any facts, the Internet only being a wonderful tool if you know exactly how to search it. But we figured they were probably out there, touring somewhere in small bars in Hamburg, as is how we like to think these people live out the twilight years of their success. We got quite a shock when we eventually DID find out what became of The London Boys. Dennis and Edem died in a car crash on January 21st, 1996. They were traveling through the Austrian Alps and were involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle. Both the London Boys died in the crash, along with Edem's wife, and tragically both left behind young children. Suddenly the story of the London Boys didn't seem so jolly any more. We read on and learnt more, about how the duo had been childhood friends, and stayed together even after their initial flush of success had faded in the early nineties. It's funny, but when we found out about all this, it had all long since happened. Even though we'd not known, Dennis and Edem had been gone for almost ten years. I couldn't help but think quite hard over the next few days about what had happened, and that somewhere out there the Boys' poor kids were still trying to cope without Dads. Then it suddenly seemed very fitting that we had re-discovered them, and in our own way were celebrating this joyous, throwaway, music. They look faintly ridiculous in the videos, they always did (hence their appeal to us now I suppose) and yet, you know what? They look like they were having a whale of a time doing it, being famous and touring the world. I bet it was such an adventure for them, doing it together having grown up as best friends as well. I bet they had such fun. That's life for you though - not everybody makes it. And there's two sides to delving into the past and finding out what happened to everybody - most are still soldiering on, gigging somewhere to reduced enthusiasm. Some weren't so lucky. Now I feel it's up to us to keep smiling at those ridiculous, happy, GREAT songs and appreciate that they are there to help us enjoy ourselves. Just as Dennis and Edem did so well all those years ago.
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