WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Love City Groove

Love City Groove released the single…”Love City Groove”. But having failed to win Eurovision, where did they go?

1995 was a smoking pot of potential Euirovision winners for the UK. Deuce‘s “I Need You” and Dear Jon‘s “One Gift Of Love” could both have brought the Song Contest home for the first time since 1981. But it was not to be and a run of the mill R&B tune called “Love City Groove” was the one that went to Dublin to represent the country that year. The song was the title ‘anthem’ of Love City Groove, a group formed of Stephen ‘Beanz’ Rudden, Paul Hardy, Jay Williams and Yinka Charles, a year earlier. “Love City Groove” itself was written and recorded for Summer release in 1994, but they missed the boat and instead it came to the attention of the Song for Europe team and submitted in January 1995, along with seven other songs.

Deuce came in second on judging night with “Love City Groove” narrowly coming first to represent the country. But on Eurovision night that May, the international jury were less impressed and the song finished tenth, the same as Frances Ruffelle had achieved the previous year. On the singles chart, “Love City Groove” made it into the top ten, peaking at No.7, the best charting Eurovision entry since Bardo‘s “One Step Further” in 1982. Love City Groove released “Soft Spot” and “J.U.M.P.” later in 1995, but both failed to chart as did their debut album, “Hard Times”. The group made one more attempt with a cover of the Fatback band’s “I Found Lovin'” in 1996, but with almost zero sales, they disbanded.

Steve Rudden went on to form the group The Collective and tried again in 1998 to enter Eurovision but was beaten by Imaani. He went on to write music for films and TV series. Yinka Charles continued as a rapper and recording artist. Her most recent release was “I Get Up When I Fall” in 2015. Jay Williams left the music industry and apparently never talks about what he did in 1995! Paul Hardy became a cartoon illustrator, but in 2011, he and Rudden reunited for a new version of “Love City Groove” with new vocals from Haitian singer Ehlie Luna aka Moxiie. A new video for the song was filmed and it was released soon after. In 2016, Hardy entered The Voice under the name of ‘Paul Phoenix’ but never made it to any of the heats.