Delegation

Delegation was a British musical group with a long career, and an amount of international success. They are generally viewed in the U.S. as a one-hit wonder.

Career

Delegation was formed in the United Kingdom in 1975 by Ricky Balley, Len Coley and Roddy Harris.^[1] Working with record producer/songwriter Ken Gold (who masterminded The Real Thing^[1]), they began releasing a series of moderately successful singles such as "The Promise of Love" and "Where Is The Love (We Used to Know)". But their fortunes changed for the better in 1977 with the release of "Oh Honey," a mid tempo cut that hit the Top Ten in several countries. The accompanying album, The Promise of Love, included the ballad "Mr. Heartbreak", "Where Is The Love (We Used To Know)" and "Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)," which also charted.

More changes occurred when Coley left and was replaced by Bruce Dunbar.^[1] In 1979 Delegation released Eau De Vie, on the Ariola label and had an international hits with "Heartache #9", "You And I" and the "Put A Little Love On Me".^[1] By 1980, Coley and Harris were replaced by Ray Patterson and Bruce Dunbar, and group continued on with lesser success.^[1]

They followed with an eponymously titled album in 1981 and Deuces High in 1982.^[1] All charted in Europe but not in the U.S. In 1984 Dunbar quit and was replaced by Kathy Bryant.^[1] The act recorded a couple more singles, and continued to perform through the end of the decade. It's Your Turn, on Epic failed everywhere but in France, and The Mix on Scorpio Records, a segue compilation of five of their biggest hits also sold poorly.

Balley reunited with Gold to form Euro-Jam Records in the mid 1990s,^[1] to repackage Delegation's earlier recordings into new compilation albums, and reformed the group to release Encore in Europe in 1999, but this was Delegation's final recording.

"Oh Honey" was sampled on Three Times Dope's "Funky Dividends", from 1989's Original Stylin', "When Will They Shoot?", which appeared on Ice Cube's 1992 album, The Predator;on "Glow", a track on Jake One's 2008 album, White Van Music and on "Chillin' Wiv da Man Dem", a track on Dizzee Rascal's 2009 album, Tongue N' Cheek. Whilst "Heartache #9" was sampled by Phats & Small on their 1999 album, Now Phats What I Small Music.

"Heartache #9 was also sampled in the house music song 'back to the funk' by Klusters. Back to the funk sampled the lyric 'I believe its gonna get me this time' although they cut the word time off and the 'be' of so it resulted in the lyrics now sounding like 'this thing thats gonna get me'.

Balley was a guest on the identity parade on series 13 of BBC Television's programme, Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Chart discography

Singles

• "Where Is The Love (We Used to Know)" (1977) – UK #22
• "You've Been Doing Me Wrong" (1977) – UK #49
• "Oh Honey" (1979) – U.S. R&B #6, U.S. Pop #45
• "Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)" (1979) – U.S. R&B #45, (1980) – U.S. R&B #66, U.S. Dance #57
• "Welcome To My World" (1980) – U.S. R&B #50
• "Singing"/"Twelfth House" (1981) – UK
• "In Love's Time" (1981) – U.S. R&B #54

^{[2] [3]}

Albums

• The Promise of Love (1978) – U.S. R&B #8, Pop #84
• Eau De Vie (1980)
• Delegation (1981) – U.S. R&B #69
• Dueces High (1982)

http://www.dance70.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=61

See also

• List of performances on Top of the Pops

References