Eruption (British band)

Eruption were a British disco, R&B and soul recording act in the 1970s and 1980s. They are best known for their covers of Ann Peebles's "I Can't Stand the Rain" and Neil Sedaka's "One Way Ticket", which were big disco hits in 1978 and 1979. The group changed the name to Eruption in 1974. Precious Wilson joined the band in 1974 as a backing singer and a year later in 1975, they won the RCA Soul Search contest and their first single "Let Me Take You Back in Time" was released. The group did not find a singer who could replace Lindel Leslie so backing singer Precious Wilson became the lead singer. Their manager signed a contract for several concerts in Germany. In 1977 they went on the road in Germany where they were discovered by Hans-Jörg Mayer who worked as a talent scout for Frank Farian (the producer of Boney M.) Farian signed the group with the Germany-based Hansa Records and the band was the backing band and the support act for Boney M's first European tour.

Their 'comeback' single "Party, Party" did not well in 1977, but their cover of "I Can't Stand the Rain" released in December 1977 was an international hit, reaching No. 1 in Belgium and Australia, No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart The band decided to continue and singer Jane Jochen stepped in. A new recording, a cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway" was released in December 1980, and peaked at No. 21 in the German charts. After a compilation album in the spring of 1981 and the single release of "You (You Are My Soul)" from Fight Fight Fight, the band signed to Ralph Siegel's Jupiter Records.

By now, without the lead vocals of Precious Wilson, success was drastically diminishing, and the singles from their fourth album Our Way received little notice. In 1983, the drummer Eric Kingsley left Eruption, and Andi Weekes Barbados joined the group to play drums during last two years of the band's activity. In 1985, Eruption disbanded. In 1988, a new version of "I Can't Stand the Rain" was released. In 1994, Farian released the CD Gold – 20 Super Hits which featured five remixed and two original Eruption titles and 13 tracks from Precious Wilson's solo album. The new version of "One Way Ticket" was released as a single in the same year to promote the compilation. In 1997, Wilson became the legal owner of the trademark Eruption. She continues to tour promoting her solo projects, and also as Eruption with her new group, but none of the band's original members perform in the latest line-ups.

Band members

Greg Perrineau (guitar)
Morgan Perrineau (bass)
Gerry Williams (keyboards) (1975–1985) (died 14 May 2020)
Eric Kingsley (drums)
Lindel Leslie (Leslie Johnson) (lead singer 1975–1976) (died in August 2015)
Precious Wilson (lead singer 1974–1979)
Kim Davis (lead singer 1980) (died in 1980)
Jane Jochen (lead singer 1980–1985)
Andi Weekes Barbados (drums 1983–1985)

Discography

Studio albums

{| class="wikitable"

!rowspan="2"|Year

!rowspan="2"|Title

!colspan="5"|Peak chart positions

!width="30"|AUS

!width="30"|NOR

!width="30"|SWE

!width="30"|US

!width="30"|US R&B

!width="30"|AUS

!width="30"|BEL

!width="30"|GER

!width="30"|IRE

!width="30"|NLD

!width="30"|NOR

!width="30"|US

|rowspan="4"|1978

|"Computer Love"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|"Party, Party" (re-release)

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|19

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|16

|style="text-align:center"|—

|rowspan="2"

|"Love Is a Feelin'"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|"Leave a Light"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|43

|style="text-align:center"|—

|rowspan="2"|Leave a Light

|1979

|"One Way Ticket"

|style="text-align:center"|9

|style="text-align:center"|10

|style="text-align:center"|1

|style="text-align:center"|2

|style="text-align:center"|7

|style="text-align:center"|13

|style="text-align:center"|5

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|8

|style="text-align:center"|1

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|30

BPI: Silver

|rowspan="2"|1980

|"Go Johnnie Go"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|12

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|8

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|10

|style="text-align:center"|—

|Fight Fight Fight

|"Runaway"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|21

|style="text-align:center"|—

|rowspan="2"|The Best of Eruption

|rowspan="2"|1981

|"You (You Are My Soul)"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|style="text-align:center"|65

|style="text-align:center"|—

|"In a 1000 Years"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|Our Way

|rowspan="2"|1982

|"Up and Away"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|"Joy to the World"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|rowspan="2"|Our Way

|rowspan="2"|1983

|"I Can't Help Myself"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|"Sophisticated Lady"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|rowspan="3"

|1985

|"Where Do I Begin"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|1988

|"I Can't Stand the Rain 88"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|1994

|"One Way Ticket (Remix '94)"

|style="text-align:center"|—

|Gold – 20 Super Hits

| colspan="17" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

References

External links

Eruption at AllMusic
Eruption at Discogs
Eruption at Rate Your Music