Shalamar – ‘Our followers would observe us on curler skates unicycles’
Jeffrey Daniel, Jody Watley and Howard Hewett of Shalamar (Image: Getty)
Shalamar offered the soundtrack for a era. Soulful 80s hits like I Can Make You Feel Good and A Night To Remember made international stars of the trio; however founder member Jeffrey Daniel will at all times be finest identified for an additional achievement – being the person who taught Michael Jackson methods to moonwalk.
“I perfected it, I pioneered it,” says Jeffrey, 67, of the bodily demanding dance approach. Only then it was known as the backslide. When I taught Michael Jackson he known as it the moonwalk, despite the fact that there’s no strolling concerned. You can’t take into consideration strolling, it’s important to slide. But moonwalk was a extra business identify and it caught.”
Los Angeles-born Jeffrey had been doing the dance on Soul Train on US tv since 1979. The present, which ran for 36 years, was the TV springboard for American soul and R&B acts.
“It was massive in the States, the epicentre of the soul world,” says Jeffrey. “There was no cable TV, no social media – this was where it was at.”
Dancers didn’t receives a commission, he says. “We got a box of chicken and a can of Coke. They had big stars in the audience. It was the place to be.”
Shalamar acting on This Morning (Image: Shutterstock)
Jeffrey was 17 when he realised Soul Train’s dancers went on, after filming, to Maverick’s Flat, the unofficial after-show nightclub.
“We called it the sweat box,” he laughs. “I was sneaking in, underage. Sometimes I’d climb over the back wall and sneak in through the back door.” Personable and charming, he befriended main dancer Tyrone Proctor and was quickly allowed into Soul Club recordings.
“I was told to sit but when a certain record came on, I ran up there and I danced. The floor manager bawled me out in front of everyone. I shrunk back in my seat…”
But the self-styled “tall skinny guy with the afro” saved going till producers realised his expertise might not be ignored.
“I was influenced by Danny Kaye, James Brown, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy. I was always adding things. I did a handstand on a skateboard, I came dancing down with a mannequin. Once my partner Jody Watley and I staged a fight that looked so real the other dancers rushed to try and pull us apart.”
They turned the present’s best-known couple, and Daniel one of the crucial influential dancers. Shalamar started as a studio group created by Soul Train’s producer Don Cornelius and reserving agent Dick Griffey. The first launch, Uptown Festival – a disco Motown medley on Griffey’s Solar label – was a success, even within the UK.
Founder member Jeffrey Daniel (Image: Getty)
So Cornelius ditched the session singers and constructed a trio round Jeffrey.
“I am the founding member of Shalamar,” he states. “There was no group before me.”
They’d had 4 minor UK hits earlier than A Night To Remember propelled them into the Top Five in 1982. They’d already had a million-seller within the US with 1979’s Take That To The Bank. By then Howard Hewett had joined – creating the traditional Shalamar line-up. Fame hit them like a runaway freight practice.
“I remember landing somewhere and being hungry so the car takes me to McDonald’s. I’m standing at the counter when suddenly school emptied out. There are kids everywhere and they recognise me. They were pulling at my clothes, my ass, touching me everywhere.
“I really couldn’t understand it. Why are you acting like that? And someone said, ‘Jeffrey you’re a star to them’. Fans on tour would follow us on rollerskates, on bikes, on unicycles. It seems bizarre. People were coming up and pulling at me.”
He pauses, smiles and asks, “Who’s going to come pulling at me now? Now it’s just the IRS and tax collectors.”
Live reveals had been “pandemonium”, he tells me. “But we were on stage, so it was cool. UK audiences were different. They’d storm the stage too, but they’d get intellectual with me. They knew the names of the songwriters, they read the credits. I didn’t get that in America.”
Jeffrey credit producer Leon Sylvers III, who produced 5 of their albums from 1979’s Big Fun till 1983’s The Look, for his or her speedy rise. “We were so blessed to have a producer like Leon. He really crafted the songs and coached us. I learnt so much from him.” Jeffrey and Jody left Shalamar simply earlier than The Look got here out, citing points with administration and their label.
“They weren’t paying us,” he says merely. “I formed my own publishing company and they even wanted a piece of that.”
Daniel grew up in LA with a single mom and two elder sisters. As a boy, he solely noticed his father thrice. His late mom, a classical pianist, performed within the household church.
“As the only boy, radio was like my big brother. I was listening to The Dave Clark Five, Motown, James Brown. I loved The Four Tops and The Byrds. You had a wide variety of genres in LA – it was like a big melting pot.”
In 1983 he got here to London, one other melting pot, and settled right here.
Jeffrey taught star Michael Jackson, methods to do the moonwalk (Image: Getty)
“I was filming Paul McCartney’s Give My Regards To Broad Street, phoning home and things weren’t going well, so I stayed until 1988. I didn’t just leave Shalamar I left America.”
But even right here his fame prompted issues. He recollects getting swamped by followers on the Notting Hill Carnival. “We needed the police to get out of there!” Yet the London scene definitely welcomed him. He says he fondly remembers hanging out with Echo & The Bunnymen and Wham in Camden.
“Andrew Ridgeley used to drive me and George Michael home, with George drunk in the front seat. Alison Moyet came to my flat and we wrote a song together. I loved going to the Wag Club and seeing people like Neneh Cherry, Sade, Pepsi & Shirley. It was a very communal environment.”
After creating the position of Electra in Starlight Express and presenting UK TV present 620 Soul Train, Jeffrey went to Japan to work with Ryuichi Sakamoto. “One day he’ll be looked at as a Beethoven or Stravinsky. His string arrangements take you to the ceiling.”
Travelling again right here, Jeffrey stopped over in LA the place Michael Jackson, a fan for the reason that Soul Train days, requested him to co-choreograph movies for his 1987 hits Bad and Smooth Criminal.
“Michael was amazing, the hardest working person; he’d have worked all night if you didn’t stop him. Thriller was already the biggest selling album of all time, but he wanted to outsell it with Bad – he was in competition with himself.”
Shalamar performs on Soul Train (Image: Getty)
Shalamar didn’t do too badly themselves, promoting greater than 25 million albums of their heyday. Jeffrey and Howard reformed the
group in 1999, changing reluctant Jody with Carolyn Griffey, daughter of Dick Griffey and R&B singer Carrie Lucas. They’ve been performing with a seven-piece band since 2001 – “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Grandfather Jeffrey additionally discovered time to guage on Nigerian Idol. “I was a compassionate judge. I tried hard not to break people. I was never brutal.”
Shalamar are again touring, “for the 40th anniversary of our Friends album and the 40th anniversary of me performing the backslide on Top Of The Pops”, he says. “We’re full of plans to take over the world.” Yet tech giants fear him. “We need to pause before we go down the abyss.
“Everything is getting dehumanised. Elon Musk, we liked Tesla and Space X, but putting chips in human brains? That’s scary. Bill Gates owns the most farmland in America. Why? GM food.
“Zuckerberg wants to put us all in the Metaverse – what about the organic universe? Try to keep humanity in your soul. In lockdown, I wrote a couple of songs. One is called Make Love Great Again – shouldn’t everywhere be great?
“The other is Back To The World. We need to get back to the real world and act like humans. It’s upbeat but the message is there as well. That’s my contribution.”