If you gotta go...

GOO NOW

AFTER TWO squirts of expensive cologne, Limahl is ready to face the day. Dressed in singlet and tight shorts, Kajagoogoo's most famous face turns the girls' heads as they line up for autographs and kisses outside the Brummie Holiday Inn.

"It gets awfully sweaty travelling and I don't want to arrive at places hot and tired", he says.

"We're off to Liverpool in the band's luxury coach. The yellow paintwork is covered in saucy graffiti like, "I'm not too shy if you're not too shy." The coach has a bar, a toilet and a selection of videos, but the lads prefer to watch 'Superman II' rather than 'Mad Max'.

"We're not a group who like a lot of blood," says guitarist Steve Askew. "I like the old black and white horror films, a lot of these new movies are just sickening."

"I cried twice in Superman II," says Limahl. "The love story between Lois Lane reminds me of one of my own affairs. Oh, it was just one of those things, you know, things didn't work out. I can be very vunerable."

But for all that, he's had to be pretty tough as well. Kajagoogoo might look like a five minute success story, but just listen to this.

"I was expelled from school and I left home at 16", says Limahl. "I didn't bite the teachers or anything like that. I just used to talk at the wrong times and that kind of thing, so in the end they decided to get rid of me. "

"I came from a very poor family, my father was a miner and my brothers bullied me. I always wanted to sing. My parents had to drag me off chairs, because at the first opportunity I'd be up ther trying to entertain people. I used to dream about being a proper singer all the time."

"We were so poor that we couldn't afford records. I used to go around the neighbourhood and trim people's hedges for 10 pence a time. I was very popular."

"I was so crazy about buying records that I even used to spend my bus fare on them. If my sister and I couldn't get home I got up and sang in record shops and people would pay me. Somebody rescently wrote that my voice is very natural and I hope that's still true.

"When I left home and had to cope with day to day life, I had to forget about singing for a bit. For a time I thought it was just going to be a dream."

Limahl had a job giving out leaflets on a Spanish beach. He's been in pantomime and he's had a part in The 'Gentle Touch' where he played a young person who's caught watching blue movies . Then one historic night, he wondered into a South London pub.

"There was a trio on stage playing to an audience of five people. Somebody said, 'Is there anybody out there who can get up onstage and do a turn ?' I got up and sang and it was wonderful. I realised the magic was there. I gripped my friend Paul by the arm and said, 'Paul, I can sing, I can sing'.

"No, it wasn't Paul Gambaccini, although we are very very good friends.

Limahl went on to join a short-lived band called Crosswords and then put an ad in a paper advertising himself.

"It read something like, 'Good looking 22 year old singer with talent needs four musicians'. I got lots of obscene phone calls.

But the ad was also read by Nick Beggs, who was so convinced that Limahl was right for Kajagoogoo that he rang his flat for two weeks. Limahl had decided to go on a holiday to America.

"Something told Nick that I was the right person. When I heard Nick's stuff I ran around by bedroom, I was so excited. At that time there was so many stale bands around -Kajagoogoo sounded really exciting.

From Pub entertainer to one of the most photographed faces in Britian, Limahl can't even pop down to his local Sainsbury's without being pestered for autographs.

"I do feel very pleased by it all. The trouble in this business comes when your nerves get worn, it's then when you can't cope. Whatever you find in the pictures of me is how I really am. I have to have rules. I eat the right amount of vegetarian food and I make sure I get the right amount of sleep. I feel great!.

In fact all the Kaj's look like they've come straight off a health farm rather than a two week tour without a break from screaming fans.

"On average we have 40 girls fainting at each of our gigs", says bass player Nick Beggs.

"We were very upset the other night at Aylesbury, because one girl collapsed and had to be given mouth to mouth resusitation. I don't think we are abusing our position, we're not encouraging young girls to be immoral or anything like that. We just want everyone to have fun.

"My girlfriend was at the back at one of our shows and she said there were a lot of old people dancing to our music. It seems the wheel comes full circle. When you're young you're capable of enjoying things innocently and when you're old you recapture that feeling. In between, there's that awful feeling of cynicism.

"I hope I am never going to become cynical and I want to try to hang onto innocence. I'd love to become some kind of Peter Pan. It's easy to get lost in this business. It's so large you never really know who's at the top. In a way it's like being involved with the Mafia.

At this stage of the game, you would think that Kajagoogoo would have more money than they could handle with the blistering success of thire singles. But Nick says that each member of the band earns a straight £40 a week and despite selling out everywhere, the tour is losing £30,000.

"Everybody is equal in the band. We couldn't work any other way," says Nick.

"I don't believe in fate,it was no coincidence that Kajagoogoo came together. I believe it was a gift from God and his grace. I'm a Christian and I put that first whatever I do."

Nick has been invited to join up with a group of Christian superstars including Cliff Richard, and he feels very proud.

"I sometimes go to church, but I often meet with friends and those meetings become our chuch."

As we steam closer to Liverpool, Nick shows me the bruises and callouses on his hands caused by his aggressive bass playing technique.

"When your hands start getting knocked around in different places the you know you're not playing the same old runs.

"The bath is a good place to write new songs and I think up the melody lines there when I'm having a soak. I sing into my walkman and it's good because my voice echoes really strongly all over the place. Our music is basically electronic pop with a touch of funk. Our next single 'Hang On Now' is a good pop song. It doesn't have a message."

The local police in Liverpool are pretty apprehensive about the Kaj's playing there and the local riot squad is out on the streets. When Kajagoogoo made a public appearance in the city after their first single took off , excited fans ruined a van and brought chaos.

There is no privacy for the band. At the hotel girls climbed on the roof of another building to look into the boys' bedrooms, and when they go for a swim fans hammer on the windows screaming.

No Liverpool firms will hire out a plush van to Kajagoogoo, so they have to travel to the gig in a beaten old number huddling on dirty rags in the back. The vans draws right up to the backstage entrance and the band are inceremonously dumped out in a sea of grabbing hands.

"I kissed his back, I kissed Limahl's back," screams one excited fan, eyes alight with passion.

Kajagoogoo's show isn't the wimpy sort of set you might expect. It's a full, beefy sound topped off with a hugh lighting rig. These guys have to be loud to be heard amongst all the shrieking.

The opening scenes of swirling dry ice remind me of the preliminaries for a Black Sabbath gig and then Limahl does his war dance across the stage. Kajagoogoo play well and Limahls voice holds up, although he must feel like a fried egg standing on his special stage with lights beaming up underneath him.

"In the old days people used to say we were silly playing working men's clubs and now they ask us if we feel silly because we play to little girls,"says nick after the show.

"I wish they would appreciate the depth and range of our music. There's so much in it. If we worshipped the devil or something like that, we'd probably be more popular.

Written by Robin Smith for Record Mirror 4th June 1983