New Wave Outpost Forum

Found this in the current issue of CLASSIC POP magazine:

"Sade formed out of the ashes of Pride, a London funk/Latin outfit. When their original singer left, Adu was asked to audition: “They just assumed I could sing because I was black,” she told MTV. .....

Labels were initially reluctant to sign Pride but after Adu became hot property following appearances in style bibles like The Face, they signed the singer and Pride’s Stuart Matthewman, Paul Denman and Andrew Hale came with her as part of the package."

Anyone knows, did PRIDE have any records before contracting Sade?? Discogs does not know anything.

The write up attached to this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKV2prBbFQI

may at least partly answer your question. The band is not listed in 'The International Discography of the New Wave' book which is far more likely to feature even the most obscure demo tape or compilation album appearance than discogs is.

This might help

http://barnetpride.blogspot.com/?m=1

eddie wrote:The write up attached to this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKV2prBbFQI

may at least partly answer your question. The band is not listed in 'The International Discography of the New Wave' book which is far more likely to feature even the most obscure demo tape or compilation album appearance than discogs is.

Never knew about that discography book. Shame it never had more editions. Did it cover synth pop?

It covers more or less everything however tenuously it might be labelled new wave. In context of the time it's put together it is an incredible undertaking. I will try to scan a few entries but I'm sure they will be met by posts of 'it's missing .....' and any one of us could come up with those observations. The pages on mine are quite yellowy now but the book is still intact and comes in at 736 pages so it's going to scan badly. I've seen images of it on the internet but i've never seen another physical copy since the day I bought that in Virgin records.

Maybe best to start another thread though or else we'll be having the protesters marching through again and writing to their mp's/senators to demand we have a book section.

humanracer wrote:Never knew about that discography book.

With Eddie lead, I found a scan of that book in the web,
https://mega.nz/file/dB1EyKoa#CaqT_pZtF ... FhzKLyO9TE

thanks to Eddie and others for your links, quite an interesting story not only about PRIDE, who were found a just another band in a row of a million guitar pop bands, but about a black back singer beauty turning an international pop star.
I liked that "Sadedrummer" scandalous type, who sued her for a million quid and was offered 20K by the band to shut up. Copyright and alike stories are always a nice read.

Uvox wrote:

humanracer wrote:Never knew about that discography book.

With Eddie lead, I found a scan of that book in the web,
https://mega.nz/file/dB1EyKoa#CaqT_pZtF ... FhzKLyO9TE

Absolutely fantastic find. One of the best posts ever made on this forum. And whoever has done it should be getting the Nobel Prize for literature sometime. Without that book there would be no Discogs. It takes sometimes even for short books which have never been digitised. I did these two and loads of magazines a couple of years ago as part of a massive project for, well best not to say who for, and it's easy to go wrong.

Amazing find. The book features bands like Tears For Fears so covers everything. It’s a shame not updated it as could use it to identify some mystery songs.

eddie wrote: Without that book there would be no Discogs.

You mean, Discogs skeleton was initially built on that book?

It's definitely the inspiration.

Though the discogs fanboy will cry otherwise.

Interesting post. I knew of the existence of this band with a very young Sade and as 3 of the members (including her) they would achieve fame much later.
I found this photo on the internet looking for more information.


Long time ago I found a page about how one a Pride former member helped to write the jazzy "Snakebite" and that due to fights with the other Sade band members the appearance of this at the end of "Smooth Operator" was replaced by " Red Eye " with a more Latin flavor. Maybe I am confusing some things since it was more than 4 years since I read that (Snakebite appears on the Sade first 12" single "Your Love is King" as b-side merged with the original Smooth Operator version and the first pressings of the "Diamond Life" Cassette)

Uvox wrote:Found this in the current issue of CLASSIC POP magazine:
"Sade formed out of the ashes of Pride, a London funk/Latin outfit. When their original singer left, Adu was asked to audition: “They just assumed I could sing because I was black,” she told MTV. .....
Labels were initially reluctant to sign Pride but after Adu became hot property following appearances in style bibles like The Face, they signed the singer and Pride’s Stuart Matthewman, Paul Denman and Andrew Hale came with her as part of the package."

They mess things up...Hale was not member of Pride. Ray St. John and Paul Cooke the guitarist and the drummer respectively

PD. I Think Cooke was the composer of Snakebite and like St. John, both of them were kicked out of the band due to Sade Adu.

AJWAVE wrote:both of them were kicked out of the band due to Sade Adu.

Do you know what was the reason?? I would vote for a sex harrassment thing.... a woman who is attractive at her 60s should had been damn attractive at her 20s.............

from Paul Cooke you tube channel (I found it yesterday):
"The singer in October 1983 transferred without my knowledge the rights of the RCA sessions and recordings to CBS on the 19th October 1983. Including songs such as Smooth Operator & Your Love is King.
The producer Robin Millar and his engineer Mike Pela sampled my drums in the RCA sessions and then in November 1983 without my knowledge used a Linn drum and a session drummer to re-create some of the songs such as Cherry Pie et al in isolation from the rest of the band?
In January 194 the singer Sade Adu sacked me from the band and gave me an invoice for work done in the studios sessions as if I was a session drummer. This was in consideration of her contract with CBS Records. Further to this in 1996 I was represented by the record company as a session musician on some of the Sade recordings for Diamond Life?
In 1984 I performed with my former band Sade on the BBC ‘Top of the Pop’s show performing the drums for ‘Your Love is King’. The singer Sade Adu represented the band Sade as five members of the group signed to Epic Records her record company.
In 1985 the record company Epic Records removed my drums on Smooth Operator for the video track. I was replaced on the video by John Rose who was later convicted of drug dealing in the same year. A non drummer. My drums had been re-performed by a session musician called David Early.
In 2001 or thereabouts the band Sade re-recorded Smooth Operator in The USA removing my drums once again and creating a new version of the song that appears on ‘Sade essentials’ product by Sony."

about the original recording of Smooth operator (EMI Studios 1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYO3CsEebXg
"This is one of the first ever recordings of Smooth Operator at EMI STUDIOS 1983. EMI Publishing requested that we demo some songs for them in 1983 a later deal was done with the band Sade in 1984 for at least 500K on the basis of what we did in the studios in 1983 and further to what we produced on the Diamond Life Album in 1984. This is a video of the actual Smooth Operator recording + archive pictures from the time when we created the song Smooth Operator at the Solid Light Studios in Camden London. Music produced at EMI Studios in early 1983, many months before recording the album Diamond Life in Oct-Dec 1983 with Robin Millar at PowerPlant Studios.. The band at the time comprised of myself, Paul Denman, Stuart Mathewman and Helen Adu. The actual music royalty split for this song should have been COOKE/DENMAN/ST JOHN as myself and Paul Denman wrote the bass line and the drum parts, Ray the music. The singer decided in 1984 she would get 50% of the music even though she wasn't a musician? This is the first ever studio recording of the song Smooth Operator along with 'You don't have to say you love me' and 'Spirit' also recorded at EMI Studios at the same time..member Stuart Mathewman. Could have been end game for Sade if SM had been convicted as well "

PD: Some things i remembered were right