Love is Fire
John Oates joins Parachute Club and has some fun
I hear this on the radio at work every once and a while and coupled with my great love for the vocal stylings of John Oates, I needed to talk about this one. I’m adapting from my post about the song on my Facebook page from Feb 1, 2019.
Parachute Club was an unique band. It came into being as a one-off for the launch of the Festival of Festivals (later renamed TIFF)., pulling in people from a variety of Toronto bands. They were so successful that they were offered management and a contract and became known for being one of the first mainstream pop bands to use Caribbean styles in their songs. There were a lot of changes in the lineup over the years (they were a 6-piece) but the core was Lorraine Segato and the late Billy Bryans. Members came and went and the band officially broke up in 1989. This is a good summary of the history of the band.
After putting out 5 albums in 5 years, plus the subsequent touring, Daryl Hall & John Oates were taking a break. Oates used some of that time to produce a lot of the tracks on Small Victories, the fourth and what proved to be the final Parachute Club album. He co-wrote this song with the women in the band and also sang on this track, which was their final top 40 hit. I remember there being a lot of press at the time about how he came across the band but the internet is failing me in finding out now.
The video is Segato and Oates having fun sharing a mike in the studio, intermixed with shots of the band and footage of them along a lake shore.1 What I love most about this video is just how much fun the two singers are having. You can feel their mutual respect and joy in working with each other. I also love the beach section - Lorraine looks majestic, John walks powerfully, and the band look like keepers of a sacred place.
This won them a Juno for Video of the Year for director Ron Berti in 1987. Here’s Berti and Segato accepting the award. And check out the hair! (Stu Jeffries is so young!)
Enjoy your song of the day!
I haven’t been able to find out where it was shot.
Amazing history and flashback to that brief moment when Parachute Club had an anticipated album. People forget that “Rise Up” was not a one-off. And I never knew about the Oates tie-in.