The Drivers were a Pop/New Wave trio from England.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c362/godeltsihw/The-Drivers.jpg


-- BIOGRAPHY --

Vocalist Nick Van Eede began his career as a backing vocalist for artists such as David Essex and Leo Sayer before forming his own band called The Drivers.  Their debut album "Short Cuts" was released in 1983, and though it did not become a success in the US or the UK, it in Canada and the lead single "Tears on Your Anorak" broke the Top 40.  While on a Cross-Canada tour to promote this success, Eede met guitarist Kevin MacMichael of the Nova Scotia band Fast Forward, whom he would later collaborate with on a few demos.  This would eventually lead to the formation of ...


Cutting Crew were a British/Canadian band who became popular in the mid-late 80s

http://www.virginmusic.de/de_images/artists/3251613.jpg


-- BIOGRAPHY --

After rounding out a foursome, Cutting Crew landed a deal with Virgin Records and their debut album "Broadcast" was released to the UK in mid-1986 and in North America in late 1986.  The album produced 4 singles, which all hit the UK chart, three of which broke the US Top 40 including "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" which hit #1.  A follow-up album "The Scattering" was released in 1988/1989 and though it produced 4 singles, the album failed to become a major success, but the band continued on releasing the unsuccessful "Compus Mentus" in 1992 before calling it quits the next year.  In 2002, MacMichael died of Lung Cancer

In 2006, Eede reformed Cutting crew with a new line-up and released the album "Grinning Souls"


-- ALBUMS --

L to R:  Short Cuts <performed by The Drivers> (1983) | Broadcast <international sleeve on left / North American sleeve on right> (1986) | The Scattering (1989)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c362/godeltsihw/The-Drivers-Short-Cuts.jpg http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drc400/c486/c48605b2083.jpg http://www.virginmegastores.co.uk/content/ebiz/virgin/invt/r./w./J./233583/233583_m.jpg http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drc000/c037/c03771r62wn.jpg

L to R:  Compus Mentus (1992) | The Best of Cutting Crew (1993) | Grinning Souls (2006)

http://mogensgallardo.com/music/covers/cd9c9271_1.jpeg http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drf000/f064/f06418zg6bm.jpg http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drh200/h265/h26541h2qe1.jpg


-- SINGLES --

* didn't become hits in North America until 1987

Year 1983 1986 1986 1986 1987 1987 1989 1989 1989 1990

Song Title Tears on Your Anorak <performed by The Drivers> (I Just) Died in Your Arms * One For the Mockingbird * I've Been in Love Before * I've Been in Love Before <remix> Any Colour (Between A) Rock and A Hard Place The Scattering Everything But My Pride The Last Thing

United Kingdom -- #4 #52 #31 #24 #83 #66 #96 -- --

Canada #31 #1 #47 #8 -- -- #54 -- #72 #90

United States -- #1 #38#9-- -- #77-- -- --


-- MUSIC VIDEOS --

(Between A) Rock and A Hard Place | (I Just) Died in Your Arms | I've Been in Love Before | One For the Mockingbird

Just my opinion, but that Drivers track is actually better than any of Cutting Crew's stuff...

Not quite sure if it ever got a release here, tho...

Heh! Before I heard 'Died In Your Arms', I did think that Cutting Crew was the name of a hip-hop band...

Just my opinion, but that Drivers track is actually better than any of Cutting Crew's stuff...


No argument here 8)

It is strange how it never became a hit in the UK.  It's quite rare for a British artist to find bigger success here in Canada than the UK.  It does happen, but not very often 

I have the Short Cuts LP and the 45 for Tears on Your Anorak.
Great brit pop and I've noticed the song showing up on 80's compilation CDs lately....an over looked jem.

I have the Short Cuts LP and the 45 for Tears on Your Anorak.
Great brit pop and I've noticed the song showing up on 80's compilation CDs lately....an over looked jem.


I saw 'Tears on Your Anorak' on some 80s compilation at HMV a while ago.  I was very shocked to see it, but I realized it was a Canadian made CD when I also noticed 'Five Long Years' by Colin James was on it.  It's good to see all these long lost hits coming out of the woodwork :)

Some further info for you.....

There were 3 Nick van Eede solo singles released in the UK in 1978/9.  1) Rock 'n' Roll Fool b/w Ounce Of Sense 2) All Or Nothing b/w Hold On To Your Heart 3) I Only Want To Be Number One b/w Dicing.  All were issued by Barn records and are pretty hard to find these days. (I'm still trying to find the 3rd one after 20 odd years!!)

There were two singles released in the UK by The Drivers.  The first, Talk All Night b/w Sister on the Greyhound label was taken from the Short Cuts LP. The second Things (the old Bobby Darin song) was released on Nouveau records and was intended to be part of a compilation album called 'Boy Meets Girl' but that never got released.  It's b-side ws Stolen Treasure from the Short Cuts LP.  Neither single made any impact on the charts, but I did hear Annie Nightingale play Talk All Night on Radio 1 once!  I have no idea why they decided to go with Talk All Night rather than Tears On Your Anorak, it always seemed to me to be a strange decision.

There was also a Drivers cassette titled 'Under The Circumstances' sold at some of their gigs in c.1984 - it featured a live Canadian radio broadcast, some demo recordings made in London and a couple of live tracks also recorded in London.

whistledog - your Broadcast pictures are the wrong way around!  The grey one on the left is the North American version.  Worth pointing out also that some of the songs on this version were remixed from the original UK/International release (the red one).

Lastly,  The Cutting Crew 'Grinning Souls' album is in actual fact a reissue!!  It was originally released in 2004 with the title Capture and the artist name not as Cutting Crew, but as Grinning Souls.  It was sold exclusively through the Grinning Souls website. Nick decided to revert to the Cutting Crew name after generating some record company interest when he appeared on an ITV 'where are they now' type show called 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'. Sadly Nick didn't win.  There were plans for a single releaase in Feb of this year, but I'm not sure it happened!

If I think of anything else, I'll add it later....

:)

whistledog - your Broadcast pictures are the wrong way around!  The grey one on the left is the North American version.  Worth pointing out also that some of the songs on this version were remixed from the original UK/International release (the red one).


Was the red one the international issue?  I assumed it was the one the US got, cause it's what we in Canada got :)
I had never seen the Grey one before until I did a search for the album sleeve