8 The Belle Stars The Belle Stars

STIFF, 1983

You say: “Deftly mixing punky pop with 2-Tone and smooth ’80s production. Sign Of The Times in particular will never date.” Sophie Levine, via e-mail

It wasn’t all hoary old lemon squeezers on Stiff: after the all-female 2-Tone act The Bodysnatchers re-shaped themselves as The Belle Stars, having swapped singer Rhoda Dakar for Jennie Matthias, Dave Robinson was quick to spot their chart potential. Teamed with Dexys producer Pete Wingfield, and with a fine line in originals – namely the jingly soul-pop hit Sign Of The Times and languid Indian Summer – they briefly gave Bananarama a scare; their covers of The Clapping Song and Sugar Boy And His Cane Cutters’ Iko Iko had a pure joie

de vivre that made this selftitled debut sizzle.