About Shakatak

Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 by Bill Sharpe, Nigel Wright, Roger Odell and Keith Winter. Following an initial white label release, "Steppin", the band's name was derived from a record store in Soho, London Record Shack with the name created by Les McCutcheon, Passion records label owner and Northern Soul DJ Kev Roberts, It was they who first showed interest in the initial single.

Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" and "Down on the Street" , plus a further 12 entries in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. The group is still active and popular throughout the world, particularly in Japan and the Far East, and generally produce a new album every two years on JVC Records.

From their first release in August 1980 , and their first 1981 album, Drivin' Hard, the band's singles and albums have entered the charts regularly.

It was the release of the 1981 single "Easier Said Than Done" that gave the band the radio exposure needed for their first top-twenty hit. This record introduced their instrumental-unison vocal sound to a much wider audience, and the track stayed in the UK Singles Chart for seventeen weeks. The follow-up, "Night Birds" , was their first single to reach the top ten and it also peaked in Australia at number 92. The album of the same name gave Shakatak their first gold album, entering at number four and remaining in the charts for twenty-eight weeks. Jill Saward became their sole lead singer to make Shakatak's fifth album, Down on the Street .

The band gained a huge popularity in Japan, were they released a series of largely instrumental albums such as Da Makani exclusively for the Japanese market. Manic & Cool, featuring the night club and chart hit "Mr Manic & Sister Cool" was released internationally in 1988.

In the 1990s, the band achieved success in the US when their 1992 album Open Your Eyes went to No 1 in the contemporary jazz charts. The 1997 album Full Circle expanded their sound with hip hop-beats.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Shakatak", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.