The Escape Club

Biography

The Escape Club was a pop rock band based in London, England that formed in 1983. The band consisted of lead singer/rhythm guitarist Trevor Steel, guitarist John Holliday, bassist Johnnie Christo and drummer Milan Zekavica. They're perhaps best known for the two smash new wave influenced singles "Wild,Wild West" and "I'll Be There", the former single becoming a number one U.S. pop hit. In 1986, the band signed with EMI, and they subsequently recorded their first album, White Fields. which was r...

The Escape Club was a pop rock band based in London, England that formed in 1983. The band consisted of lead singer/rhythm guitarist Trevor Steel, guitarist John Holliday, bassist Johnnie Christo and drummer Milan Zekavica. They're perhaps best known for the two smash new wave influenced singles "Wild,Wild West" and "I'll Be There", the former single becoming a number one U.S. pop hit.

In 1986, the band signed with EMI, and they subsequently recorded their first album, White Fields. which was released in 1987. Later in 1987, the group moved to Atlantic Records, frustrated with their energetic mix of hook-filled pop rock with dance music failing to break into the mainstream. Their next album, Wild Wild West, was released by Atlantic Records in the summer of 1988.

The first single, "Wild Wild West" (also known as "Wild,Wild West"), climbed to the number one slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song's distinctive video also received a lot of MTV airplay. According to the Wild Wild West Songfacts, the song distinguished the Escape Club as being the only British group to have charted number one in the U.S. while never charting at all in the U.K.

In 1989, the group released two further singles from Wild Wild West: "Shake For The Sheik", which climbed to number 28, and "Walking Through Walls", which peaked at number 81. Hitting their stride, the Escape Club also had a cover single of The Doors' hard rock track "20th Century Fox" on the multi-artist collection 'The Wonder Years: Music From the Emmy Award-Winning Show & Its Era', which, in addition, meant long airplay on MTV. The band's official website reports that the song was produced by former Doors member Ray Manzarek.

In 1990, the band returned to the studio to record their what would be their final album, Dollars & Sex, which saw a March 1991 release. The first single, "Call It Poison", failed to crack the U.S. Top 40, which did not bode well for the quartet. Just when it seemed they would be considered a one-hit-wonder, Atlantic Records next released the slow ballad "I'll Be There". The group said the song was heavily influenced by the 1990 box office hit movie Ghost. "I'll Be There" reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The group then called it quits in 1992. Frontman Trevor Steel has since worked as a solo singer-songwriter as well as a producer and television commentator. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.