Brilliant

Brilliant were a British pop/rock group active in the 1980s. Although not commercially successful and mauled by the critics, they remain notable because of the personnel involved - Martin Glover aka Youth, formerly of Killing Joke and subsequently a top producer/remixer; Jimmy Cauty, later to find fame and fortune as one half of The KLF; and (prior to the band signing with WEA) Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor. Equally notable was their management (David Balfe), their record company A&R manager (Bill Drummond, the other member of The KLF), and songwriting and production team (Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman known as Stock Aitken Waterman).

Biography

Brilliant first came to life in 1982, as post-punk band Killing Joke was crumbling under internal conflicts. Unsatisfied with his bandmates' following of the occult lifestyle, Killing Joke's bass player Youth decided to call it quits and recorded an angry slandering song against his former bandmates. The song, That's What Good Friends Are For..., an obvious mock of Killing Joke's second album What's THIS for...!, was credited to "Brilliant", which was a name of a Killing Joke b-side and a general 1980s buzzword.

For the first incarnation of Brilliant as a full band, Youth recruited Marcus Myers on vocals and guitar, a second bass player Guy Pratt (who left for the Australian band Icehouse and was replaced by frenchman Stephane "Tin Tin" Holweck), and the two drummers Andy Anderson (The Cure) and Peter Ogi. They released one single, Colours, through Rough Trade Records (with a sleeve by Mark Manning) and recorded a BBC session for John Peel.^[1] Overall through its four years of existence the band hosted a roster of roughly 30 players until reducing to the trio of Youth, Cauty and female vocalist June Montana.

The band released several singles and one album - Kiss the Lips of Life - before splitting up.

Reviews

Trouser Press reviewer Ira Robbins called Kiss the Lips of Life "dismal" and the band "cynical"^[2] and "wretched", adding that "[their] lasting cultural significance amounts to its inclusion of ex-Zodiac Mindwarp keyboardist/guitarist Jimmy Cauty, with whom [Bill] Drummond concocted the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (JAMs)".^[3]

Allmusic were a little more generous, calling Brilliant an initially "promising act: a more soulful take on the aggressive funk-rock of Killing Joke" but added that, after being teamed up with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, they "came up with a generic pop-dance album that fell well short of the original concept". Awarding Kiss the Lips of Life two stars out of five, they added that "What aggression there is comes courtesy of Jimmy Cauty's metallic guitar solos; the sterile synth whitewash of SAW dominates the rest of the mix, and vocalist June Montana isn't strong or distinctive enough to fight through it".^[4]

However, even Bill Drummond - the A&R man who had signed them^[5] - had harsh words to say about the project: "I signed a band called Brilliant, who I worked with, we worked together, and it was complete failure. Artistically bankrupt project. And financially deaf. We spent £300,000 on making an album that was useless. Useless artistically, useless... commercially."^[6]

"We did a record with this band called Brilliant, the reviews were phenomenal and it got to 58 in the charts. I remember saying to the guys, fuck that for critically-acclaimed music, you can't pay the fucking rent with that." - Pete Waterman^[7]

Kiss The Lips Of Life will be released in CD format on the independent U.S. record label, Wounded Bird, on 11 August 2009.

Discography

Singles

• "That's What Good Friends Are For..." (Brilliant) / "Push" (Brilliant), 1982 UK (Limelight Music Lime-7-001) (UK Indie #22)^[8]
• "Colours" (A.Anderson/M.Glover/M.Myer/S.Holweck) / "Colours Monster Mix" - 1983 UK (Risk Records/Rough Trade, RTT105) (UK Indie #11)^[8]
• "Soul Murder", 1984 UK (Food Records) (UK Indie #14)^[8]
• "Wait For It", 1984 UK (WEA/Food Records)
• "It's A Man's Man's Man's World", 1985 UK (WEA/Food Records) (#58 UK Singles Chart^[9])
• "Love Is War" (Youth/Montana/Cauty/Stock/Aitken/Waterman) / "The Red Red Groovy" (Youth/Montana/Cauty) / "Ruby Fruit Jungle" (Youth/Montana/Cauty/Holwick/Le Mesurier), 1986 UK (WEA/Food Records, FOOD 6) (#64 UK Singles Chart^[9])
• "Somebody", 1986 UK (WEA/Food Records) U.S. (Atlantic) (#67 UK Singles Chart^[9])
• "The End Of The World", 1986 UK (WEA/Food Records)

Albums

• Kiss The Lips Of Life, 1986 UK (WEA/Food Records) U.S. (Atlantic) (#83 UK Albums Chart^[9])
• Kiss The Lips Of Life, 2009 U.S. CD (Wounded Bird) Released 11 August 2009

References

• Longmire, Ernie et al. (2005). KLF discography^[10]

Footnotes

External links

• Listen To It's A Man's Man's Man's World by Brilliant [1]