The dark mystery surrounding Colin Vearncombe slowly receded as the tall, quietly spoken man sat down beside me. He is Black - in name, not nature. Until recently almost no one in Australia had heard of him. Then came the album, Wonderful Life. Through the UK, Europe and Japan it has sold more than a million copies. Black is poised to explode in Australia - hence A & M Records brought him here for a promotional tour. The tale of how this Liverpudlian rose from a struggling independent performer to major success is, in itself, an interesting example of how the little person can still make it big in the music business. In Brisbane recently, Colin said 12 months ago he would have laughed in the face of whoever tried to tell him his record would sell so well. "It's very encouraging for me because of all the time I was trying to persuade a major record company to take me up for an albums deal - not just one album, I wanted them to take me for two. I figured if nothing happened after two LPs then it was me who was doing something wrong. All the time I was pursuing that I was thinking "even if they take me it's not going to be easy for them. This isn't very easy stuff to sell'. I was listening to the radio and it didn't sound like it fitted in. All of a sudden something seemed to change in the people who were buying records. Maybe they were just older and after something different."
Wonderful Life, the single, was written in 1985 and sold as an British independent release early the next year. It became an independent hit and made the bottom end of the British mainstream chart. Colin said that was when the phones began to ring. "All the people who had rejected the same songs a year before were ringing. A&M, to their credit, hadn't been involved in any of that. They asked for some more stuff, heard it, liked it and we met."
Colin and ex-partner, Dave Dix, who originally made up Black, re-recorded Everything's Coming Up Roses, which became Black's second hit in Britain and Europe. Colin now performs solo but Dave produced the album. The singer says his live performances have surprised people with their impact. "Some people have used the word powerful. It's not my word. I always considered that only half of the LP was 'down' but they were saying it's a very mellow LP. The actual stage show has been much harder. The only brief I gave the band was when it's quiet I want it to be very quiet and when it's loud I want it to really kick."
Light and shade are "as broad and extreme as possible". "A large amount of silence on stage wakes an audience up instead of putting them to sleep. Right in the middle of the set, wham, the level's gone." Colin considers the image of Black in whatever he does. "Clothes are dead simple, I just want something really neutral - I can't stand fashion. I hate the idea that something's in this week and out the next. A suit seemed to me the best way of doing that. I just went into a shop and found a baggy suit. Next thing you know I'm the best-dressed man Merseyside."
Music has been a prevailing interest since Colin's school days. His parents were dead against him becoming a musician. They thought it should only be a hobby for spare time. ""I kind of compromised and went to art school. By the time I had finished I thought I really had to give it a chop. You can be a 60-year-old painter but you can't be a 60-year-old pop musician." Even though Black sounds at times like Ultravox, Human League or Simple Minds, Colin said he never liked any of that music. "They were too electronic. I never wanted to to anything that was a formatted type of music. It's the song, not the way it's dressed. Just give yourself a good melody, try to come up with some interesting lyrics and then sing it the best you can."
Colin makes a point of mixing styles. Much of his music has a strong keyboard base but he throws in great guitar leads and saxophone lines. He plays everything himself, except for the brass. He believes variety is the spice that makes his music just right. "I hated the idea of the audience knowing exactly what the next song would sound like. It might be like a happy tune with sad lyrics or a very loud song with quiet vocals. Juxtaposition of opposites. It's a very Liverpudlian thing to do actually."
In his younger days, Colin disliked those famous Liverpudlians, the Beatles: "At an age when you wanted something to rebel against, they were it."