Vanilla Ice Band
Donahue Granados
The band's first single was "No Way, No Way", released in December 1997 and based on Piero Umiliani's "Mah N Mah N". The song peaked at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart and number 24 in New Zealand. It was later featured on several compilations, including Now That's What I Call Music! volume 39 and Dancemania 8, both released in 1998. The accompanying music video was filmed at Brockwell Lido in Brixton, South London. The clip won the title of "Worst Music Video Ever" on the 1997 ITV Chart Show end-of-year special and was voted number 26 on Channel 4's "100 Worst Pop Records". The follow-up was "True to Us", released in April 1998, which rose to number 36 in the UK. Although mocked on Channel 4's morning programme The Big Breakfast, the group regularly took part in the show's "Vanilla's Thrillers" feature, including making a return for Johnny Vaughan and Denise van Outen's final week hosting the show.
While promoting their two singles with EMI, Vanilla made media appearances, including a performance of "No Way, No Way" on Top of the Pops, and performing a spoof version of "True to Us" on Blue Peter. They also obtained a feature on Men & Motors. They embarked on a tour of schools around the UK and were a minor act on the 1998 Disney Channel UK tour. After their contract with EMI ended, Vanilla continued to perform. They made various appearances at London's PopShow Party events where they played a cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" as well as promotional single "Realise", with temporary member Ashley.
In 2011, Frances appeared on the identity parade segment in Episode No. 25.8 of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, hosted by James Blunt. In 2014, Swart was interviewed for an article in The Guardian about the pitfalls of having a hit novelty record.[2]
Poor Vanilla. Widely considered as being the most awful thing to ever be allowed near a recording studio, their complete lack of talent is legendary. It's not all bad though -- being remembered for being terrible is better than not being remembered at all, right? I'm sure that Made in London, Fem@il, Girltalk and Thunderbugs would gladly give up their hair straightening irons to be in the same position. Then again, maybe not...
Obviously, the people involved in voting have no idea of girlband misdemeanours down through the years. As you can see, this subset of the Official Scale of Girlband Dreadfulness clearly indicates that worse groups that Vanilla existed and some still do to this day. Speaking of which, have Destiny's Child split up yet?
After twenty three (twenty three!) years as a band, notorious Kings Lynn punks Vanilla Pod decided to call it a day in late 2018. They chose to go out with a bang, completing a long run of live dates around the UK, releasing a final farewell EP Goodbye My Love and hosting one final Podstock event as a hometown send off.
The one last goal I had was to go to Japan and play. We finally had the opportunity to do this in April this year so, to be honest, that was the last thing I really wanted to do with it. I had made my mind up that once I achieved that then it would be nice way of putting the whole saga to bed and going out on a high, and hopefully while we still had a little bit of interest in what we were doing.
I also felt that it would be nice to do a few gigs simply to give us the opportunity to say our goodbyes to the many, many friends that we have made over the years. You know we have met some of the most amazing people over the last 24 years and we have enjoyed hanging out and socialising with those people. Without them we would have never been anything so it was a very important thing for me to do it that way, rather than just calling it quits and disappearing into the wilderness.
In February 1995 the band got started by me and original bass player Steve Campion. I had Gary Colman playing drums in my old band, so we all decided to get together. He knew a guy called Paul that would be up for singing a bit so we got started practising together. Paul quickly decided he wanted to concentrate on his college education, so we got a 15-year-old Robert Bunting to come along and give it a go. That was the start of Vanilla Pod as we know it now really.
Not long after, we released Trigger. That was a combination of the demo and some new tracks that we recorded with the master Ian Whetherall in Corby. That sort of pushed us there to being a punk band with an actual record deal. Next up we recorded Faster Disco. Again, where we started to find our sound. That propelled us up there, and off the back of that we toured a lot and managed to get over to Australia and Hong Kong.
With that line-up, we did a lot of touring which included a huge tour with Capdown, Twofold and Antimaniax. The Capdown tour was an incredible achievement, having three UK bands playing academies and 500+ venues every single night of a two week tour. Looking back it was a massive thing.
Eventually, after 12 months in the making, we released Poets on Payday in 2009. It kinda gave us a new lease of life, but not too much. After that Tom moved to Germany and settled there. In 2010 Matt Clarke stepped in then, not long after that, John went away to Uni. In stepped our oldest pal Towie from One Car Pile Up.
In 2015, we went back in the studio and released Seeing Out The Sunrise. We did some touring but kept a lid on it and only did things that seemed like fun. That just about brings us up to our final gig in 2018.
To be honest, I keep in touch with them all, if only briefly. Steve C never really did anything else music wise. Gary, our first drummer, works for the NHS as a systems programmer or something like that. Jon Waterfield who played drums on Poets on Payday went to Uni and became an anaesthetist.
Shout Louder is an online music zine and podcast, which celebrates the UK DIY punk rock community. We interview musicians and promoters, write articles and live reviews, and talk about much more than music.
Care & Cleaning: The individual links are splash proof so may withstand some accidental exposure to water. The metal pins within the links and the metal clasp, however are not designed to be immersed in water so please be sure to immediately clean/dry after exposure to water/moisture, to extend the life of your band.
The Salty Fox acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
More so, Jerry Nolan, a former member of The Turtles and a drummer who later founded the San Francisco band, The Niteflights; Billy Mundi, a keyboard player who had also been part of The Turtles; and Chuck Findley, a former member of The Turtles and a saxophone player.
David Soul and Chuck Findley were former band members of The Turtles. They started playing together in their school band called The Teenagers. After completing their high school education, Soul and Findley moved to San Francisco in 1967 to pursue their musical careers.
Soon the four of them, plus Nolan, decided to form a band. They went to a recording studio to record a few songs they played together. The studio owner liked the sound that they made and encouraged them to perform live, which resulted in the formation of the band Vanilla Fudge.
Pearl agreed to meet with the four at his house, and the band began rehearsing at Pearl's apartment. During the rehearsals, a couple of the musicians left the band, adding Mark Andes as bass guitarist and Rick Marotta on drums.
Mark Andes was a former member of The Young Rascals, and he used to play with a group called, The Bumpkins. He played electric guitar and had to be switched to bass to replace a departing member of the band.
Vanilla Fudge was a band from Boston formed in 1968 by three guys: Jerry McGee (guitar), Chris Bailey (vocals), and Jim Belushi (drums). They had four number 1 hits: "Tell Me Why," "Dream Baby Dream," "Sweet Talkin' Guy," and "I Love You Too." The band released five studio albums.
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His search intensified, as each video he passed excited him. Every video he had flirted with before and he could recall the rhythms that were played, every count and beat of music, the videos' highlights and, of course, every move, twist and contortion of the drum majors on screen.
The videos that he sought were performances of HBCU bands and the styles of their drum majors that he was so familiar with, being the lead drum major at Jeff Davis High School. Those clips were his never-ending study.
This was the first week of December 2019, roughly two months since Heideman went viral on every major social media platform for being a white kid leading an all-black band. That video, posted as commentary by social media personality @PubbyLongway, has since amassed 4.5 million views on Twitter and over 600,000 on Instagram.
The fame that Heideman gained from the video has taken him all over the country, his band has performed at venues both large and small, and the group was even expected to make an appearance on "America's Got Talent" before the coronavirus outbreak.
Now, Heideman and his story with be put on display for four to five years more in Montgomery, as he announced on May 25 via video that he will attend Alabama State University in the fall to play trumpet in the Mighty Marching Hornets band.
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