Boo Forever (Patreon)

Same origin - a write-up for an (American) poll. I found I was having to do so much basic explanation of who Boo is that I did the whole thing in Guardian Pass Notes style.

Betty Boo!

I’m sorry, you startled me. But my name’s not Betty.

No, Betty Boo - the album you’re about to vote for in the 1990 LP poll.

Betty who?

That’s someone else.

I mean, Betty Boo who?

There there, she’s not been eliminated yet.

For god’s sake just tell me who Betty Boo is!

That’s easy. She’s Britain’s great lost pop star and she made Boomania! - the 1990 LP that captures the joyful vibe of 1990 London.

Weren’t there riots that year?

Wellll, OK, but some of it was joyful. Britain’s snooty club scene had been transformed by ecstasy and house music. Daisy Age hip-hop was turning listeners on. Trashy, catchy teenpop ruled the charts. Even the indie kids were finding out what their hips were for.

I hope they kept it to themselves. What does that have to do with this Boo?

Well, imagine a pop star who wrapped all that stuff up in one street-smart bubblegum package and you have Betty Boo.

She had hit records?

Loads! Well, three Top 10 hits on this record. There’s “Hey DJ/I Can’t Dance To That Music You’re Playing”, a hip-house cover of the Motown song. That’s a Beatmasters single but she was the featured rapper.

A UK rapper in 1990 - I don’t know about this…

She raps, she sings, if you’re a rockist - and hey, no kinkshaming in this DC - she writes most of the tracks solo too. She’s kind of the late 80s/early 90s equivalent of Ms Dynamite, she got her start in the London hip-hop scene and she’s one of the few people around at this point who can rap well in a London accent. Boo’s like a faster, cheekier Neneh Cherry and that’s how she comes across on “Hey DJ”.

OK - but then she sold out and went pop?

And she was amazing at it. “Doin’ The Do” and especially “Where Are You Baby?” are irresistible hip-house pop songs, Boo having the time of her life playing the wronged woman in both tracks, with house piano riffs and hooks to burn. The life-changing video for “Where Are You Baby?” has her posing in kitsch sci-fi outfits…

Life-changing??

Ahem. I was a straight 17 year old boy.

Hmm. But this is an album poll - the rest of it’s all filler I bet.

Not at all! The quality control on Boomania is very high - Alison Clarkson ended up a professional songwriter and won an Ivor Novello Award, she knows her way around a tune. The worst thing on it is probably the 4th single “24 Hours”, which involved William Orbit and a mildly ill-advised funk direction but it has its admirers. Most of the rest sticks closely to the winning style of the singles - gorgeous liquid basslines, house piano and Boo sticking it to no-good men. Some of the slower tracks work really well - “Leave Me Alone” is haunting and “Shame” anticipates the lazy vibe of Saint Etienne, who were needless to say big fans. I don’t think there’s a more consistently great UK pop album all decade, to be honest.

So how come nobody outside the UK knows it? Typical Brit hype!

She cut her pop career short after the second album - also very good! - as her Mum got cancer, and like I say ended up a songwriter. But her influence was huge - she was the admitted template for the Spice Girls in terms of looks, attitude and to some extent sound. You can hear her more directly in All Saints, and from those two groups of course the Boo DNA lives on in pop through the 00s and beyond. But her own tracks are more fun than any of those. VOTE BOO NO MATTER WHO (she’s against)

Who is she against anyway?

The Black Crowes.

OK you win.