Radio 2 Loves the 80s - Shalamar join Spoony for a chat and to share some tunes!

Feel-good favourites, hidden gems and fresh tunes to make you groove. DJ Spoony serves up a brilliant selection of soulful house, classic soul, disco, RnB, UK Garage, Reggae, hip hop, doo-wop, funk, dance remixes, and much more.

80s soul pop legends Shalamar join Spoony for a chat about the decade that made them. The band was initially formed by Dick Griffey, the talent coordinator for American TV show Soul Train, and the show's host Don Cornelius. Dick set up his own label 'Solar' and the duo created a hit record 'Uptown Festival' using session musicians. The record’s success inspired Dick and Don to replace the session singers with popular Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel who joined original lead singer Gary Mumford. Howard Hewett joined in 1979.

Shalamar's 1982 album 'Friends' featured hits ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’, ‘A Night To Remember’ and ‘There It Is’. Jeffrey was the only band member who could make it to the Top Of The Pops studio to perform 'A Night To Remember', introducing body-popping and moonwalking to UK music fans for the very first time. Michael Jackson became a keen student of Jeffrey's iconic moves, re-naming the backslide as the 'moonwalk' for his appearance at 'Motown 25' in the States a year later. Having left the group in 1983 and 1985 respectively, Jeffrey and Howard (alongside Jody) reunited on Top Of The Pops in 1996, performing 'This Is for the Lover in You’, their collaboration with Babyface and LL Cool J. Carolyn Griffey, the daughter of singer Carrie Lucas and Dick Griffey, joined the group in 2001. The trio continue to perform regularly around the world and delighted fans at Radio 2 in the Park in 2023.

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