Red Box - a view on the mid 1980s Pop scene

Tonight on BBC4 the repeat of an edition from 1985 of Top of the Pops features a performance by Red Box of their Top Ten hit Lean On Me (Ah-Li-Ayo). They would have a further hit with For America, a scathing commentary on American Politics. After that they slid Pop into osbcurity. There was 20 year gap between their second album 1990's Motive and their third Plenty. To promote the release of Plenty singer Simon Toulson-Clarke gave an interview in 2010 to the Youtube channel of Cherry Red Records who were releasing the record. In the interview Toulson-Clarke talks about how he get started, the changing nature of the music scene, why Red Box had limited success and the reason for the long gap between albums. One highlight is when Toulson-Clarke talks a performance of For America on kids TV game show Cheggers Plays Pop in which the band performed among kids waving the Stars and Stripes thereby giving a contrast between the song's lyrics and the visuals on show.

You can see the interview on Youtube