steve nicol jane eugene and carl mcintosh came together in london england to form the british
soul band loose ends in 1980. the group was founded by steve after he left the guildhall
school of music and drama he would meet jane at a party and together they decided to create a band
that at one point had nearly a dozen members in it throughout the process they also looked for a
bass player they tried out numerous musicians but none of them quite felt like the missing piece of
the puzzle that they were looking for until they met carl mcintosh it was a no-brainer that he was
the one they signed their first record deal with virgin records the next year under the name loose
end no s the name came from a hair salon that steve and jane just happened to pass by one day
while walking down the street the following year they debuted on the scene with their first single
in the sky it didn't chart nor did the couple of singles that came after then came a name change
but a very subtle one the band went from loose end without an s to lose ends with an s in 1983.
the reason for the change was a typical one record producer pete waterman had a
production company called loose end productions some may also recognize his name as part of the
english songwriting and record producing trio stock aiken and waterman naturally pete didn't
like the fact that a music group was calling themselves the same name as his company so he
tried to bring the long arm of the law down on them the addition of an extra letter ended up
solving the problem quite nicely loose ends would be off and running and finally get some love on
the charts with the release of their next several singles tell me what you want emergency dial 999
and choose me rescue me all three came off their debut album titled a little spice which dropped in
may 1984. the next year their seventh single would indeed be very lucky for the group hanging on a
string contemplating included on the us version of their debut album as well as their follow-up
so where are you released in the summer of 1985 would go on to become their biggest hit ever
it reached number 13 on the uk chart and captured the number one spot on the u.s billboard r b chart
this tremendous accomplishment made loose ends the first black british band ever to top that chart
80s music lovers will hear the obvious similarity in the baseline of hanging on a string
with the 1984 song no one's gonna love you by american funk group the sos band even though there
wasn't a legal case for copyright infringement the use of that roland 808 machine caused
major friction between loose ends and jimmy jam and terry lewis the mega successful songwriting
and record production duo who wrote the sos band song and produced the album it's featured on
carl insists that there wasn't any malice intended when the group chose to use the sound that the duo
had popularized loose ends were in fact huge fans of jimmy and terry's work nevertheless
when lucenz later reached out to them wanting to work together they not surprisingly said no
then to add insult to injury a song that lucenz was hoping jimmy and terry would give to them was
given to their labelmates british pop group the human league that song was the 1986 number one hit
human two other singles off the album magic touch and a cover version of david bowie's golden years
didn't do as well as hanging on a string but they did plays on the uk singles chart loose
ends would continue to experience great success in the us especially over the next few years
their third album zegora released in may 1986 produced another number one hit for the group on
the u.s r b chart called slow down two years after that the track watching you off their fourth album
titled the real chukkaboo just missed the top spot peaking at number two again on the usrnb chart the
behind-the-scenes recording experience on this particular album was a little different than
on previous projects at the time jane was having some issues with her voice and didn't want to sing
she also claimed that her vocal teacher told her to rest her voice of course that posed
a major problem in the studio and steve and carl became fed up the work had to get done
so another vocalist was brought in british soul group soul to seoul's lead singer karen wheeler
she can be heard on the lead single of the album mr bachelor perhaps that experience was warming
up the members for what was about to come since the following year loose ends would go from three
members down to one stephen jane left the ban in 1989. the reason why depends on which story
you choose to believe the most popular version that circulated was the proverbial creative
differences explanation however carl spoke about what he calls the real reason for the group split
in a 2015 interview with ntr network he revealed that steve was more focused on his production work
and jane had a solo deal on the table in the u.s she also felt according to carl
that him and steve were trying to take over the production of the ban which had always belonged
to american record producer nick martinelli jane considered nick the fourth member of the group
and the main ingredient to their success that didn't sit well with her and began to cause
a rift among the trio in addition a couple of years later carl went into further detail about
the mindset of each member in a 2017 interview with red bull music academy it gave a little more
insight into why things ended up the way they did in carl's opinion steve and jane lost focus
they got comfortable with their success and preferred to enjoy the money homes and cars
instead of doing what carl thought they should be doing which was focus on the music and the future
of the group in that same interview carl also touched on the interesting fact that loose ends
garnered so much more success in the us than their homeland he touched on how eye-opening it was
to go from not getting any airplay in england to having a number one hit in america he attributed
the disparity to the simple fact that they were essentially doing american music not english music
in the early 80s when the band came together there really wasn't a uk soul scene even though radio
was king at that time you'd be hard-pressed to hear any black uk artists being played
there was a very limited amount of time slots and when a song did get played it was always an
american artist loose lucenz ended up taking elements from various genres such as reggae
soul r b and dance to carve out a new niche for themselves in 2019 steve did an interview
with gruva delica podcast where he touched on their very hectic and tiresome work schedule
for many years on end the band spent every waking moment either in the studio performing or on tour
they even released albums back to back it no doubt took its toll mentally and physically
steve and jane were ultimately replaced by singer-songwriters linda carrier and sinead sulman
both new members made their debut on lucen's fifth album look how long it would turn out to be the
band's final studio album it featured what would be their last successful single don't be a fool
a top 20 hit in the uk and a top 10 hit in the u.s carl then went on to write and produce for
various other artists including karen wheeler 5 star phyllis hyman d'angelo and angie stone after
their departure from the group both steve and jane separately moved on with their solo careers
jane moved across the pond to los angeles and continued performing in the u.s using the name
loose ends she wouldn't be able to do that forever though according to lucen's official website carl
is now the legal owner of the brand name copyright and trademark throughout the us asia uk and europe
it also states that anyone found using the name illegally would be dealt with legally
in 2021 carl announced that loose ends with band members linda carrier and christine levin were
back they had signed a new record deal and are currently working on a new album in late 2021
loose ends began their quiet storm tour and already have confirmed dates scheduled
in the new year thanks for watching please like share and comment also don't forget to subscribe
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