News 29 Dec 2021

The Bad and Lowdown World of The Kane Gang

1985 debut reissued on green vinyl

By Paul Sinclair

The Kane Gang’s 1985 debut, The Bad and Lowdown World of The Kane Gang, is to be reissued on coloured vinyl early next year under the ‘Gary Crowley’s Lost 80s’ banner.

Originally issued on the Kitchenware label, the album spawned four singles, ‘Small Town Creed’, ‘Gun Law’, ‘Closest Thing To Heaven’ and ‘Respect Yourself’. The latter was a top 30 hit, and ‘Closest Thing To Heaven’ peaked at number 12 in August 1984, rubbing shoulders with Queen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, George Michael and Cyndi Lauper!

The album as produced by Pete Wingfield, and featured P. P. Arnold and a young Sam Brown as backing vocalists. The Kane Gang consisted of vocalists Martin Brammer and Paul Woods, plus multi-instrumentalist Dave Brewis and despite having a short career of only two studio albums (Miracle was issued in 1987) Gary Crowley remembers them well:

“I am absolutely cock-a-hoop that it’s is being given a vinyl re-release under our GC Lost 80s umbrella because it’s an album that I return to regularly. Signed to the uber-cool Kitchenware label, they were an under-rated band in my opinion whose distinctive sound saw them taking their cue from a raft of Soul Funk greats, and you can clearly hear that love right across the album. It is chock-a-block with singles but there are also other songs that also stand out for me. The Chic guitar driven joy of ‘How Much Longer’ and the dreamy, shimmering ‘Crease In His Hat’ being two cases in point. The band would later go on to enjoy success on the American Black R&B chart (which must have thrilled them to bits)”
Gary Crowley

The Bad and Lowdown World of The Kane Gang is reissued on 140g translucent green vinyl on 25 February 2022, via Demon Records.

The Kane Gang