When pop stars Hear’Say arrived by limo at a Fife radio station
Twenty-five years ago, this month it was all going well for musical group Hear’Say.
They had just topped the UK singles chart with Pure And Simple for three weeks and would spend 14 weeks in the charts with this. A month later they would release The Way To Your Love, debut album that also became a best seller, becoming the first chart act in history to top the UK singles and albums with their debut releases. All was going swimmingly well for the five piece as they were put together on reality television show Popstars and gaining 10 million viewers.
In my time not many musical guests came in live to Kingdom FM - in fact hospital radio VRN in Kirkcaldy had more showbiz interviews from their converted boiler house in Willow Drive. Perhaps Hear’Say was just too good to miss and although a degree of secrecy was observed a sizable crowd just happened to congregate on that Spring morning at the former Haig whisky building that was home to the station.
Full of enthusiasm, the band members posed for photographs and made their way up the stairs for a live interview with programme director Kevin Brady. After the chat they posed some more and joined a listener for an acoustic version of their colossal hit in the boardroom before leaving in their limo. Everyone involved with the station fed off their energy, and even future Scottish Conservative Leader Ruth Davidson left her post in the newsroom to pose for a souvenir pic.
Kingdom FM would then move to Elizabeth House in Kirkcaldy in October 2016. As for the group Kym Marsh was first to leave, going on to appear in Coronation Street and Strictly. Suzanne Shaw went on to Emmerdale and Dancing On Ice while Noel Sullivan moved to Las Vegas to front Strictly Ballroom then appearing as himself in Gavin& Stacey.
Danny Foster walked away from the business but appeared on The Voice in 2013 when none of the judges turned for him. Myleene Klass MBE has just turned 48 and has released solo classical albums and has presented on Classic FM, The One Show and Loose Women but is probably best known for her scenes on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here where she became runner up in 2006.