Gina X Performance

Last updated
Gina X Performance
Origin Cologne, Germany
Genres
Years active1978–1981, 1984
Labels
Past members

Gina X Performance (commonly abbreviated as GXP) was a German dance-rock/electropop project from Cologne, Germany, consisting of singer and lyricist Gina Kikoine and writer and producer Zeus B. Held, accompanied by various studio and live musicians.

Contents

The band has released four studio albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and were frequently played in North American and European dance clubs at the height of their popularity. Their best-known songs are the singles "No G.D.M." (covered by Erasure as the B-side to their single "Blue Savannah"), and "Nice Mover".

Biography

Zeus B. Held had previously been a member of the rock band Birth Control since the early 70's, before splitting in 1978 to record on his own, and worked on two solo albums before meeting Gina Kikoine [1] the same year. Their collaboration bore their first fruits in 1978 with the release of the single "No G.D.M.", dedicated to the English writer Quentin Crisp, whom Kikoine knew in person. The song was a great success, and allowed them to perform in Vienna in front of a crowd of 14,000 people in a concert at a festival where they shared the stage with Boney M, among others. [2]

GXP then released their first album, Nice Mover, in 1979. This "robotic soul" release [3] combined disco-inspired rhythms with colder and more experimental sounds, thanks to Held's choice of keyboards, such as the Minimoog, the ARP 2600 and the use of vocoder.

The second album, X-Traordinaire, was released in 1980, soon after the single "Strip Tease". X-Traordinaire has a warmer and more conventional sound than its predecessor, although it touched upon deeper issues in tracks like "Nowhere Wolf" or "Ciao Caruso", dedicated to the famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (the song included a sample of Caruso himself singing "O Libiamo Ne` Lieti Calici", from La Traviata) and the Andalusian poet Federico García Lorca. This album and associated single "Do It Yourself" were met with a mixed reception from the critics.

Then came a period dedicated to personal projects, during which Gina Kikoine sang with Billy McKenzie on "The Best of You" (before being replaced by Annie Lennox) and Zeus B. Held published his third solo album and collaborated with the English funk group Fashion (for whom Gina Kikoine would later contribute vocals on "Love Shadow"). In 1981, the band released Voyeur, the third and last album by GXP, a lot more radical, minimalist and provocative than the previous albums, both musically and visually. [4] No single would be released for this album, but GXP went on to perform a series of promotional concerts in various European cities.

Three years later, Gina Kikoine and Zeus B. Held reunited one last time to work on Yinglish, simply credited to Gina X this time. Accompanied by J. J. Jeczalik on the Fairlight CMI, the band adopted a more accessible sound and image than on any of the preceding Gina X Performance releases. The associated singles were covers of The Beatles's Drive My Car, and Brigitte Bardot's Harley-Davidson.

Following the poor commercial results of their last album, Gina Kikoine went back to the Cologne art scene as a writer and event organiser. Held stuck to music production as well as his solo career. His productions include musicians and bands like John Foxx, Dead or Alive, Nina Hagen, Win, Die Krupps, Spear of Destiny, Transvision Vamp and Udo Lindenberg.

Various tracks from "Nice Mover" have since appeared on genre compilations such as Andrew Weatherall's The 9 O'Clock Drop and DJ Hell's Music From Hell. "Vendor's Box", a track from the album X-Traordinaire is included in a 2020 80's synth pop compilation entitled "Music, Musik, Musique".

Discography

Albums

TitleAlbum details
Nice Mover
  • Released: 1979
  • Label: Crystal Records/EMI Electrola
  • Formats: 7″ record
X-traordinaire
  • Released: 1980
  • Label: EMI Electrola
  • Formats: 7″ record
Voyeur
  • Released: 1981
  • Label: EMI Electrola
  • Formats: 7″ record
Yinglish
  • Released: 1984
  • Label: Statik Records
  • Formats: 7″ record

Related Research Articles

Bon Jovi American rock band

Bon Jovi is an American rock band formed in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey. It consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarist Phil X, and bassist Hugh McDonald. Original bassist Alec John Such quit the band in 1994, and longtime guitarist and co-songwriter Richie Sambora left in 2013. The band have been credited with "[bridging] the gap between heavy metal and pop with style and ease".

The Durutti Column English post-punk band

The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England. The band is a project of guitarist and occasional pianist Vini Reilly who is often accompanied by Bruce Mitchell on drums and Keir Stewart on bass, keyboards and harmonica. They were among the first acts signed to Factory Records by label founder Tony Wilson.

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are a British glam rock band from the early 1970s from London. Their music covers a range of styles from pop to progressive rock. Over the years they have had five albums in the UK Albums Chart and twelve singles in the UK Singles Chart.

A Certain Ratio are an English post-punk band formed in 1977 in Flixton, Greater Manchester by Peter Terrell and Simon Topping, with additional members Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop, Donald Johnson (drums), and Martha Tilson (vocals) joining soon after.

The Left Banke American rock band

The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the music press referred to as "baroque" string arrangements, which led to their music being variously termed as "Bach-rock" or "baroque rock". The band's vocal harmonies borrowed from contemporaries such as the Beatles, the Zombies and other British Invasion groups.

Winston Tong is an actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his vocals in Tuxedomoon and for winning an Obie award in puppetry for Bound Feet in 1978.

The Fiery Furnaces American indie rock band

The Fiery Furnaces are an American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago. They are known for their ambitious, highly conceptual releases, which have frequently divided critical opinion.

Raphael Saadiq American contemporary R&B singer

Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group career, he has also produced songs for such artists as Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, TLC, En Vogue, Kelis, Mary J. Blige, Ledisi, Whitney Houston, Solange Knowles and John Legend. Music critic Robert Christgau has called Saadiq the "preeminent R&B artist of the '90s".

Punchline is an American rock band from Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, United States, that was formed in 1998. The band released its seventh full-length album, Thrilled, on December 4, 2015, on InVogue Records.

<i>Fabrique</i> 1982 studio album by Fashion

Fabrique was Fashion's 1982 second album. It was produced by Zeus B. Held. The album included the following UK hit singles: "Streetplayer (Mechanik)" which reached No. 46 in April 1982 and "Love Shadow", which peaked at No. 51 in August of the same year. "Move On" and "Something In Your Picture" were also issued as the first and third singles of the album but failed to chart. The album itself peaked at #10 in the charts, spending 16 weeks on the top 100. The track "Whitestuff" was featured in the television show Miami Vice's two-hour season 2 opener, "Prodigal Son" and "You Only Left Your Picture", in another episode "Evan"

Blue Orchids are an English post-punk band formed in Manchester in 1979, when Martin Bramah left the Fall, after playing on the band's debut album Live at the Witch Trials. Christened by Salford-based punk poet John Cooper Clarke the band recorded for Rough Trade and acted as backing band for the Velvet Underground's Nico before a 25-year period of intermittent activity and fluctuating line-ups.

Poetic Ammo was a Malaysian rap/hip-hop group. It consisted of Yogeswaran Veerasingam, Chandrakumar Balakrishnan, Nicholas Ong, and Sashi Kumar Balakrishnan. Although most of the group's songs were written in English, the group also released tracks in Malay, Tamil, and Cantonese.

LTM Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1983, and best known for reissues of artists and music from 1978 to the present day, as well as modern classical and avant-garde composition. The label is based in Norfolk, England, and is curated by James Nice.

The Names are a Belgian post-punk band from Brussels, Belgium, formed in 1978 around bassist, vocalist and songwriter Michel Sordinia.

Cath Carroll is a British musician and music journalist.

Gimme Some Truth 1971 song by John Lennon

"Gimme Some Truth" is a protest song written and performed by John Lennon. It was first released on his 1971 album Imagine. "Gimme Some Truth" contains various political references emerging from the time it was written, during the latter years of the Vietnam War. Co-produced by Phil Spector, the recording includes a slide guitar solo played by George Harrison, Lennon's former bandmate in the Beatles.

Zeus B. Held German music producer and musician (born 1950)

Zeus B. Held is a German music producer and musician, known for his work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He was involved with several artists of the krautrock, disco, and new wave era, such as Birth Control, Rockets, Gina X Performance, Dead Or Alive, John Foxx, Fashion, and Men Without Hats on their successful album Pop Goes the World.

Zeus (band)

Zeus is a Toronto-based Canadian indie rock band signed to the Arts & Crafts record label. Its members include Rob Drake, Carlin Nicholson, Mike O'Brien, and Neil Quin. The band have released three albums and one EP since 2009. They have also served as the backing band for Canadian musician Jason Collett.

Minny Pops is a Dutch, Amsterdam-based new wave/electronic/art punk band, associated with the Ultra post-punk movement in the Netherlands and the Factory Records label in the UK.

Blaine Leslie Reininger is an American post-punk, new-wave and alternative pop singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, writer and performer. He is known for being a member of the group Tuxedomoon since 1977 after co-founding it with Steven Brown and, latterly, for a notable music and theatre career, both as a soloist and contributor to other artists' recordings, including the Durutti Column, Snakefinger, Anna Domino, Savage Republic, Paul Haig, William Lee Self's Montanablue project, Devine & Statton and Brown himself.

References

  1. Love, Gerard (2019-04-03). "Gina X Performance : nom de Zeus !". LTM Recordings. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  2. "Gina X Performance | Biography | LTM Recordings" . Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  3. "GINA X PERFORMANCE". Le Monde (in French). 1979-04-16. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  4. "Voyeur [LTMCD 2447] | Gina X Performance | LTM" . Retrieved 2020-06-22.