James Taylor Quartet

Emerging from the tragic bankruptcy of Stiff Records, James Taylor, founding member of the infamous group The Prisoners - formed The James Taylor Quartet.JTQ's first single,Blow Up was released on the Re Elect The President (Acid Jazz) label in 1985. It was a huge success, immediately attracting the attention of John Peel who championed it; the track appearing in Peel's annual Festive Fifty chart. After an impressive 13 weeks in the Indie Singles Chart, the band decided to start work on a mini album, titled Mission Impossible . This debut, released in '86, was naturally featured around Taylor's Hammon organ sound to produce classic covers of Sixties film themes, and other heavily grooving instrumental punk funk tunes. With JTQ's following growing, the band were encouraged to put out their second album on Re Elect The President. By the time it was released in '87, the band's attentions were being drawn away from their recording career to their now massive live audience. JTQ's emphasis on live 'dance' music has been the key to the band's success, enabling them to establish a solid relationship between them and their fans.With the focus now strongly on being a 'live' band, The Quartet gigged relentlessly, selling out on the London club circuit. During this period, mjor record company interest was aroused resulting in a long term deal with Polydor. The James Taylor Quartet released three albums on Polydor. A number of hit singles were spawned from these such as the acclaimed and well-loved classic "Theme From Starsky & Hutch".With the release of their first live album in 1991, The Quartet moved to Polydor subsidiary Big Life. Featuring guest vocals from Rose Windross of Soul II Soul and Noel McKoy, the album initiated JTQ's introduction to the Soul Market. In 1992, Noel McKoy officially became the Quartet's lead vocalist. In this year alone, the band performed over one hundred and fifty shows in 15 different countries, including destinations as far flung as Thailand, Japan and the USA. The climax of this was headlining in from of 5,000 people at London's Brixton Academy.