Luton Airport (song)

"Luton Airport"
Single by Cats U.K.
Released 1979[1]
Recorded 1979[1]
Genre Pop
Label WEA[2]
Songwriter(s) Paul Curtis & John Worsley
Producer(s) Dave Dee

"Luton Airport" is a song which reached No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart, and was inspired by the 1977 Campari television commercial in which cockney model and actress Lorraine Chase responds to Jeremy Clyde's romantic line "Were you truly wafted here from paradise?" with the reply, "Nahh, Luton Airport!".

It was produced by Dave Dee at WEA records. The track was written by Paul Curtis, known amongst UK Eurovision Song Contest fans due to his many and varied attempts at writing the UK entry each year, and John Worsley. The writers approached Jill Shirley about finding suitable singers for the group. Shirley had been involved with the UK heats for Eurovision for a number of years and would go on to form Bucks Fizz, Gem and Bardo. The song was also offered to Chase, however she refused it. Finally it was offered to the UK girl band Cats U.K. The lead singer was Bea Rowley who, as a leading TV dancer who had worked with many of the major choreographers of the 1980s including Geoff Richer, Nigel Lithco and Arlene Phillips. The band also included Deena Payne (who coincidentally went on to appear with Chase in the long-running soap opera Emmerdale). Payne, along with two others supplied the backing vocals.

The song made #22 on the UK Singles Chart[2] after being featured in an advert for Campari despite Payne's misquote of reaching #9:

In 1978 there was an advert for a girl group called Cats UK. I auditioned as I was in musical theatre and I got the job - it was to sing Luton Airport. Clearly this song was done for Lorraine, she'd said it in a famous advert for Campari. But Lorraine didn't really want to have anything to do with it [because she objected to not being paid for it]. So Cats UK ended up recording it and went to No 9 in the charts.

— Deena Payne[1]

Cats UK released two further singles, Holiday Camp(1980) "Sixteen Looking for Love" which failed to reach the charts. The group was disbanded.

Both the song and the name of the group likely drew inspiration from the early 1979 Squeeze hit "Cool for Cats," which featured a cockney vocal and similar chord changes and lyrical cadences.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rudden, Liam (11 August 2010). "Interview: Lorraine Chase and Deena Payne, actresses". The Scotsman. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
  2. 1 2 "CATS U.K." The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  3. ↑ "'Luton Airport' (1979) - Cats U.K." The Song ID Blog (songids.blogspot.com). Retrieved 2017-04-11.


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