The Snowmen | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Novelty/children |
| Years active | 1981–87 |
| Labels | Stiff Records |
| Past members |
|
The Snowmen was a novelty band created by Stiff Records in 1981.
In 1981, Ian Dury left Stiff for Polydor Records. [1] As a cash-in for the Christmas market, Stiff commissioned session musicians to record a version of the Hokey Cokey with a Dury-soundalike vocal from Martin Kershaw, whose credits included guitar on "Kung Fu Fighting" and "Dance Yourself Dizzy", [2] and playing banjo on 120 episodes of the Muppet Show . [3] The other musicians on the recording were Nick Portlock, Jonathan Miller, and Bob Butterworth. [4]
Stiff enigmatically refused to confirm the identity of the genuine vocalist, [5] leading to speculation that it actually was Dury. [6] For more implausible deniability, Stiff created an antonymous sub-label, called Slack, with a logo based on a pile of nutty slack, on which to release the single; Kershaw and Portlock co-wrote the b-side. [7]
The recording reached the top 20 of the UK and Irish singles charts. Stiff press officer Nigel Dick, with other staff from the Stiff offices, donned snowman costumes for a video [8] [9] (shot in Brimpton, Berkshire) and appearance on the 17 December 1981 edition of Top of the Pops . [10]
Kershaw re-emerged with a medley single in 1982, [11] this time on Kershaw's own Solid Records label. [12] The Snowmen's final single came in 1986, with a version of the nursery rhyme This Old Man, by which time Dury himself was claiming to be involved, saying he "did it as a joke". [13]
| Year | Album | UK |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Hokey Cokey Party: The Album | – |
| Year | Song | UK [14] | RoI [15] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | "The Hokey Cokey" | 18 | 17 |
| 1982 | "Xmas Party" | 44 | – |
| 1986 | "Nik Nak Paddy Wak" | 80 | – |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||