Clock

Clock was a dance music project/act created by Stu Allan with Peter Pritchard in 1993. It had a number of front personnel over its seven year life span including, during its most successful period, Dancer/MC ODC and front lady Tinker but at all times decisions and direction was taken and devised by Stu and Pete with everything starting from recorded tracks in the Media records studio in Clerkenwell, London,England. Clock had an evolution from a one off 12” dance track to a top of the charts Pop/Dance cross over act. This is the background and story of the creators and the music. What happened, when it happened and why it happened.

The birth of Clock.

Back in the Early 1990s Stu Allan was already a legendary radio and club Dj in the North West of England. He had probably the most important Dance radio show in the UK outside of the Friday evening BBC Radio One competition. However the Radio One show was Nation wide and Stu’s show on the Manchester station Key 103 wast the North West and was aired on Saturday and Sunday evenings. This was still a huge catchment area including the cities Manchester and Liverpool but covered a population in millions. Stu also DJ’d far and wide at a time when Djs were just emerging as artists in their own right. Indeed Stu had already made some records and was always on the lookout to do more. One other thing to remind ourselves of was Stu had one of the broadest genre sonics of any show anywhere. He at some time went from soul through to hardcore rave later on the Sunday night show ( a genre Stu and Pete linked to Clock through their VISA mixes). Its fair to say the Radio one show also was broad but was becoming less so and Stu managed to appeal to the vast majority of clubbers in the Northwest over a weekend worth of shows, representing the genres and sounds that were to be found in the venues of those towns and cities. There really was very little like Stu’s show else where.

Pete Pritchard had recently set up the UK office and Studio for the hugely successful Italian House label Media Records ( emanating from Brescia in Northern Italy ) utilising his skills as both a writer/producer and business and management. One key element of the Media Records ethos was pitting great Djs with Great producers. Pete at the time was the only producer so looked out for Djs to work with. However, prior to this new venture Stu had made a record in Pete’s previous studio after they had met on a promo tour for Pete’s previous venture. They got on well and it seemed a good call to try working on a track for Media UK.
After a stuttering start they quickly created their first creation. Its fair to say it had a mixture of both Pete’s and Stu’s desires and was entitled “ Holding On”. It drew on a number of sources of inspiration that were close at hand but crucially seemed to bridge a North - South production sound divide. Ultimately it set many of the core sonic sensibilities of the Clock sound: elements of rave, a pounding Euro tech kick, some urgent arpeggiated edgy synths, drum loops from heaven and catchy riffs and hooks. There was some similarity with the Italian sound but it was much more anglophile and after being club promoted by Eddie Gordon it shot straight to No 1 in the Club charts and was broadly supported by specialist and club Djs all over the UK. It also sold a lot on 12” ( the only format released) and was a huge initial release for Stu and Pete under the brand “Clock”. The act was born.

Strictly speaking this was Stu’s vehicle. Pete had a huge number of plates in the air as he was also co producing the new Radio One dance mix show “The Essential Mix” with Eddie Gordon and Pete Tong that was regularly mixed live in the Media Record’s Studio in Clerkenwell, London and he was remixing and producing sporadically with the project West End, again with Eddie Gordon and a whole host of creatives. A big club track for Stu was a great boost to both of them and added to Stu’s already spectacular CV. Pete also saw a potential way forward.

1995 : The huge breakthrough.

What came next was an alignment of stars. Media Records Italy was having huge Worldwide success with Capella, a Euro Techno Dance act, at the time these acts were exploding all over Europe. Pete was utilising this success to gain access to the massive American label MCA ( later to become the all conquering Universal Records) who’s UK arm had been floundering for a few years. They needed hits and Pete promised them hits from their catalogue ex Capella ( and as it happened a few other tracks that slipped the net ). Seeing an opportunity he spoke with Stu and said they could almost certainly repeat the success of “Holding On’ or try and go for a more obvious hit or cross over type production. They agreed that that would be the plan. What followed was a couple of stuttering half starts “The Rhythm” and “ Keep The Fires Burning”. These tracks were trying to find the right formula to cross over from club production to mainstream hit. Stu and Pete were also struggling to discover the right artist presentation to broadly appeal to the singles buying market ( mostly teenagers and A LOT of girls). This was never going to be easy. However these did get released through the MCA relationship and as a result had some decent promotional and marketing activity put behind them. They reached 28 and 36 in the UK charts respectively but were not pulling up any trees. The project needed a huge injection of rocket fuel to get it really going.

As so often happens some luck came along. Stu and Pete did a remix for MCA of the theme from Beverly Hills Cops “ Axel F”. It had a low level release in Germany but Stu and Pete thought they could improve upon their effort and make a track not too dissimilar from their debut, Holding On, but with the melody from Axel F replacing the vocal hook. The final result was a much better all round production. It had club chops but was instantly recognisable. Interestingly it wasn’t in any way an obvious “hit” record on paper but after Stu had debuted it at his regular Bowlers rave event in Manchester in front of six thousand ravers they were convinced they had something massive. The club promo seemed to echo this too and MCA geared up for a hit with plenty of love being shown from retailers crucial to top success. There remained plenty of doubt in MCA with the top company staff split but the track debuted at 13 in the UK charts but the chart was missing data so the following week it went up to no 7 entering the UK top 10, a massive milestone and the first huge success for the project.

There was another critical factor during this period that tipped the balance towards chart success. Stu and Pete had experimented with a number of different front people for the various tracks but by Axel F had found a highly charismatic male dancer and MC called ODC MC. He had been out on the road with rave acts all over the UK. They immediately got Clock on the road and for a long while before Axel F was released Clock had been performing to thousands and the hundreds of thousands of punters all over the UK. This was a policy that continued all the way through Clock’s next few years and was part of the cornerstone to the longevity of their success as they almost never had Radio playlists for any of their records.

This period was also the period when Dance Music videos were a major force in promoting to the younger crowd on domestic TV and on MTV ( remember them?). Clock did not make mega expensive videos but their videos now had a clear artistic and Pop/Dance sensibility aping the set up of Capella and 2 Unlimited with and female singer and an MC. This image was perfect for the younger crowd the act was trying to seduce for hit records and with the instant hit of Axel F and a now established act the band had an opportunity.

Axel F was released in early 1995 and by the end of the Summer of ’95 Clock had recorded three top tens and was releasing their debut album. “Whoomph! There it is” and “Everybody” followed quickly in the footsteps of Axel F and having established their blue print sound Stu and Pete felt confident on repeating the formula. They now knew they were hit producers not just dance producers and that confidence allowed them to target both areas. Dance mixes for the clubby crowd ( including the infamous hardcore versions under the VISA monica) and tight classic hit records for the kids and mainstream crowd. It was a perfect balance. Meanwhile with the female lead Tinker firmly established the act was gigging six nights a week, including doing U18 discos to cement the youth vote. The stars had become firmly aligned in a very short space of time and the future looked rosey.

A couple of anecdotes are worth recounting regarding both Whoopmh! and Everybody. After Axel F both Pete and Stu scratched their heads and wondered how they should proceed. Stu suggested Whooph! He said when ever the original Miami Bass version by Tag Team was played in Ibiza bars everybody bounced around and sang it. They also then proceeded to sing it over other songs. They took the hook and inserted into the formula and it just sounded scarily hit like. Remember the Tag Team was huge in the US but had never been a hit in the UK but was well known in clubs. It was ripe. The day Stu and Pete played it to their immediate A&R man at MCA the brilliant Steve Woolf they were petrified they would be laughed out of town. He turned round and just said “ That’ll do” and left. After that it was plane sailing ending up their biggest hit entering the UK charts at no 4 just behind Robson & Jerome with their never ending hot Unchained Melody, The Outhere Brothers with Boom Boom Boom and U2 at no 3. Heady days indeed. As for “Everybody” this was a return to singing and sung melody and Stu suggested a random hook from a classic old 80s club record By Hamilton Bohannon. We set about clearing the publishing, which was done in both the Whomph! case and the Everybody case leaving no possibility of legal problems and the track hit another sweet spot as a recognisable instantaneous hook along with the Clock formula. Even so, Mr Bohannon would find himself calling Media Records office in London from time to time questioning the legality of the record. He was politely asked to speak with his publisher as they would be able to explain.

Late in ’95 Clock tried the core Whoomph! formula again but now with an original composition but this was almost certainly one track too many as the previous three track s had so firmly filled the catalogue of energetic up tempo British club party monsters. It was fair to say at this time there was also a huge amount of competition from both Europe and the USA. It was time to assess and look forward.

Stu and Pete needed to evolve the formula and quickly if they were to continue with the success of that amazing year, which they wanted to do. They were intoxicated with success and at that moment on top of their World. Its fair to say that the act never quite reproduced the same whirlwind of success again but did continue to have amazing success and the next couple of years reflected the glory established in 1995 but in a more established and mature way. One of the marketing devices Pete had borrowed to enable Clock’s regular hits was direct mailing the fanbase with a postcard on release day. Pete had heard that the pop act Take That had used this method to break through the resistance from UK radio to their tracks and Clock had a similar problem. By gathering the names and addresses of the fans Clock would pretty much guarantee a top 20 track minimum by 1995 so long as it had the right elements. The fan base was country wide but far more skewed to the non South of England. Everything but to be honest. But about 40,000 postcards were sent out on release day and that was a very big deal as they were not reliant on the the very fickle Radio 1 for success. They had their own destiny in their own hands.

1996-1998 The evolution of success.

There was a sudden shift in 1996 from Euro Techno to what could be described as Techno Disco. Tempos dropped, the MC remained along with their raps and old disco was the driving force. The chronology of this is pretty straight forward but with regards to Clock Pete Pritchard found himself in various conversations at MCA and beyond that pointed to this shift. Stu and Pete had to decide if they could make this jump and make it work for their super successful project. This was no easy move to make. Both Stu and Pete had a wide range of personal likes and disco was not something they had any problems with but was a major move from Clock’s roots. The main issue was how to blend it with what had preceded this moment. A publisher recommended the track “ Oh What a Night” a track from the 1970s but not particularly disco. Viewing it In retrospect it has a solid beat and a great piano sequence that fitted some aspects of the Clock sound ( One of Stu’s “sounds” while Djing was called “Scouse House” which always had bright piano riffs!). Nonetheless, it really was a scary step to take even for the producers who had reworked Axel F and Whoomph! They shouldn’t have worried. Once they laid the track down it made sense. Mostly it completely transitioned the act from the club scene to the pop scene, even if it was the pop dance scene. They were never destined to be a bonafide “Smash Hits” pop act just a solid well loved pop dance act.

“Oh What a Night” is a track that never entered the UK Top 10 but hung around 12-20 in the charts for some time gathering fans and favour. Its difficult to explain this but it was a slow burner but never a massive smash. It was more than the core fanbase supporting their faves it definitely spread out beyond. Its entirely possible it found a place in the mainstream high street clubs, pubs and venues and caught an ongoing trade wind of love. Who knows? but the track absolutely reinvented Clock following their stellar year in ’95 and gave a whole new model for Stu and Pete to wrap some old faves around. It certainly offered a more “sung” framework for their particular brand of pop-dance idiom. The big question was, had they lost some of their Euro Techno fans in the process? Well, Stu and Pete always tried to address this with some of their club mixes and anecdotal evidence suggests they still kept plenty of their more clubby fans on board. However, Clock had now moved into what can only be described as a pop phase from which there was no return. Clock was a pop act with Dance origins.

“Oh What a Night” definitely set the tone for the second phase of Clock which was going to be old disco tracks reworked with rap and a 90s Clock production, but with beats slowed down. Even the American rap stars were doing this at the time so it was one of those moments when the whole pop dance world was moving as one to an old beat. This also happened to be the moment that the Euro sound was morphing into what was to be called Trance but briefly left a slight void for this hyper pop version of dance to have its moment in the light. As a historical side this was also the moment that UK Garage was emerging from Jungle and, Hard House was the other genre that was forming from the demise of Euro Techno burn out in the UK.

One thing that perhaps should be said before describing the next few tracks is that Clock never “sampled” other artists, they merely covered and borrowed but always rerecorded the material they were using to create instant recognition on. It could be said that if UK radio had been kinder or they had trod a different path then they may well have made more original tracks but that never happened and each time they tried an “ original” it never succeeded in the way the utilisation of old material worked. In the end it was a question of what worked in order to get the fans into a track quickly. Without radio that was extremely hard and the pop clubs and video and TV was always the solution along with the core fans and the constant gigging of ODC MC and Tinker. The mainstream pop dance World had broadly taken to the act and the act knew which side their bread was buttered.

The big question is once you have had a really decent solid return to success what is it you do next? Old disco tunes were being reworked all over the World so finding the right track that hadn’t already been made was a challenge. So, a number of tracks were found including a old fave of Stu’s “ It’s Over” a classic 80's R'n'B Soul / Funk track from the British band called the Funk Masters. This was a track that really takes Clock into straight up singalong mid tempo territory and also saw them very briefly return to the UK Top 10, their fourth and final track to do so. That said the track didn’t hang around and didn’t sell like their biggest hits. They needed something that would return them to the very peak if at all possible.

The next rework was a bit left field again and had a very laboured chronology but ultimately ended up being a success. It was 70’s UK pop disco act Hot Chocolate’s “ You Sexy Thing”. Once it was decided to make the track the second challenge was to get the publishing cleared with the very famous old producer/publisher Micky Most, a difficult man to locate. This was achieved but only as a telephone call with his assistant in Hong Kong. The fax confirming it never came. The next thing that emerged was there was a version being made at Warners with Errol Brown, the original singer, on the chorus. The act was a new never heard of girl duo. A lot of legal wrangling ensued and in the end it was agreed that the Warners track would be released first in around June ’97 and Clock would be “cleared” to release theirs in October time. This seemed at the time to be a disaster as they were confident the track had legs but there was nothing that could be done. However, luck happens. The warners version bombed and by the time Clock were to release theirs the film “ The Full Monty” was being released with the original Hot Chocolate track featured prominently. This all resulted in the track entering the charts at 11 and, like “ Oh what a night” hanging around for some time in the top 20. It wasn’t the smash they might have hoped for but it certainly was a decent hit for Clock and by this time their sixth track that had peaked inside the top 13 of the UK pop charts. This was the third mid tempo hit they had had with their new sound it also made the live show a greatest hits show with non stop smashes. This track also really worked well with the basic Clock premise. Fat beats, Singalong, bit of rap - Bob’s your uncle.

The end is neigh.

Clock had two more hits “ That’s the Way I Like It’ and “ Blame it on the Boogie”. Both classic disco hits reworked Clock stylie. Neither set the world alight but added to the cannon of work. It was also during this time that the MC ODC wanted out and left the group. A replacement was found, Ché-gun Peters, but much of the lustre had gone and to a large extent the whole project was going through its well oiled paces by this time. The act continued to gig constantly and Stu and Pete looked for a new way forward but the World was changing again by this time and their time in the limelight was slowly coming to and end.

All the success in the UK had come from Peter’s and Stu’s very good relationship with MCA records in the UK and Stu’s fantastic relationship with his core fanbase. With MCA this was both with head of A&R, Steve Woolfe and with the Chairman, Nick Philips. However, by 1997 both had moved on and Pete’s relationship with the new staff at MCA was straining. There was also yet another shift in the constant evolution of Dance music and particularly what was crossing over into the charts and young people were growing older and new young people seek new acts and new trends. Clock was reliant upon a core fan base and the right track every time and finding the “ right” track was a constant challenge that was made more of a challenge as the trends evolved.

In 1999 disco still had an influence but the beats had moved into funky house beats, probably an area at odds with much of Clock’s traditional fan base. There was the evolution of Trance music but this was a World away from where Clock had moved to. The decision was made to try a funky house cover of “ Sunshine Day’ originally by Osibisa but this ultimately failed and was the worst chart placing of any track since their very first, debuting at no 58. Clearly the magic had gone and the support of the big London label too.

Clock did continue gigging and some extra material was released for their Japanese label, Avex, but the reality was that the ride was over. Prolonging it would have just been merely to keep fewer and fewer people happy and in the end a decision was made to bring the party to an end. It was a remarkable ride from the excitement of making that first Clock track and it’s immediate club success through to the spectacular year in ’95 when little could go wrong to the following two years of constant success. The whole thing started in 1993 and ended in around 2,000. By this time the world of Dance music had moved on and Pete’s label was churning out 80 12”s a year never really seeking the charts and Stu’s DJing career continued apace. Both Pete and Stu made a few more great dance records together but nothing quite beats that heady experience of roller coaster chart success.