SPUTNIK’S JIG IS UP
Rocket men: Sigue Sigue Sputnik (from left) Tony James, Martin Degville and Neal X in 1986.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the MARCH 2 band devised by Tony James of Generation X, peak at UK Number 3 with debut single Love Missile F1-11. The much-hyped band, supposedly signed by EMI for £4 million, have incurred much tabloid excitement and audience hostility with their retro-future rock stylings and media provocations. “They were confronted by the most glamorous person alive and they just couldn’t take it,” singer Martin Degville tells The Sun after being hit in the face by a missile at a gig in Coventry on March 2; aspirant McLaren James declares to Record Mirror, “It’s going like clockwork.” On March 8, the group appear on the cover of NME with the question, ‘Would You Pay ‘£4m’ For This Crap?’