Sigue Sigue Sputnik

Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Sigue Sigue Sputnik, 1986.
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	New wave, post-punk, glam punk, electronica
Years active	1982–1989, 1995, 1998, 2001–present
Labels	Parlophone, EMI Records, Sputnikworld Ltd
Past members	Tony James Neal X Martin Degville Chris Kavanagh Ray Mayhew Yana YaYa Bob "Derwood" Andrews John Green Christopher Novak Claudia Cujo

Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a British new wave band formed in 1982 by former Generation X bassist Tony James. The band had three UK Top 40 hit singles, including the songs "Love Missile F1-11" and "21st Century Boy".

The band was formed by Tony James, who had just left the band Gen X, and Neal X (Whitmore), who recruited "post-punk drag queen" Martin Degville. Degville was a clothes designer and supplied the band's wardrobe, and YaYa, the store where he worked, became the band's base. Their first gig was in Paris, supporting Johnny Thunders, with James' former Gen X colleague and then drummer for Thunders, Mark Laff, on drums.

Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash, worked with the band as live sound engineer, helped manipulate their sound, and appeared with them when they opened for New Model Army. Fachna O'Kelly, manager of The Boomtown Rats who had provided much of the band's equipment, provided the band with the name Sigue Sigue Sputnik, as a supposed reference to a Russian street gang and supposedly meaning "burn, burn satellite". The band's sound was, according to James, arrived at by accident, when he inadvertently mixed elements of film soundtracks with their demo track "Love Missile F1-11" while putting together a video compilation from his favourite films.

Interest in the band increased sharply in 1984 after James was interviewed by the NME, with several record companies sending representatives to their next performance at the Electric Cinema in London, and they were invited to perform on The Tube. The band were signed by EMI, with the band themselves claiming in the press that they had signed for £1m, though in actual fact revealed to be £350,000. The band's first single, the Giorgio Moroder-produced "Love Missile F1-11", was released in February 1986, and reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart, number 2 in South Africa and was a major hit in several countries in Europe and Asia. Its popularity was boosted by its inclusion in the John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The samples used in the single had not received copyright clearance, and were replaced in the US version. The follow-up, "21st Century Boy" reached number 20 in the UK and, despite largely negative reviews, the album that followed, Flaunt It, again with Moroder at the controls, went top ten in the UK, and also reached number 96 in the US. The album included paid commercials between tracks, James stated prior to its release that they would sell 20-30 second advertising slots for between $2,500 and $7,000. He explained this by saying "commercialism is rampant in society. Maybe we're a little more honest than some groups I could mention," and "our records sounded like adverts anyway". Advertisements that did sell (including spots for i-D Magazine and Studio Line from L'Oréal) were complemented by ironic spoof ads including one for the Sputnik corporation itself claiming that "Pleasure is our Business". A subsequent tour was characterised by poor ticket sales and crowd violence.