More Canterbury rabbit-hole here, although neither participant here was from Canterbury.
Dave Stewart (not that one) was keyboard wizard with Egg, Hatfield And The North and National Health, while Barbara gaskin entered the scene while a student at the University of Kent, first with Spirogyra, later backing Hatfield as one of the Northettes (having met Stewart's old school friend and bandmate Steve Hillage at Kent).
I suspect I picked this up for a couple of euros in a record shop in Nantes, during a family holiday many moons ago.
The duo (partners in life as well as music) had a surprise / novelty no 1 hit in 1981 with a cover of It's My Party, and the couple's musical journey as switched from the tricky time signatures and oblique phrasings of 1970s Canterbury to re-interpretations of modern classics (and a couple of original songs), with, on this compilation, a very 1980s synth sound and production. Inevitably, some songs work better than others. There's a very different, but effective version of Billy Bragg's Levi Stubbs' Tears, with a quick slice of Reach Out, the aforementioned It's My Party, and an excellent Eight Miles High. Thomas Dolby's Leipzig, also impresses, as does The Crying Game. The duo's version of The Locomotion was well publicised but failed to trouble the charts, and it does feel a little leaden, especially for a world waiting for Kylie to take over. Of the original compositions, Make Me Promises stands out, while the Disney song Busy Doing Nothing is a jolly romp.
Anyone coming to this album looking for a continuation of 1970s Hatfield And The North/National Health will be disappointed - of the four members of Hatfield, Stewart's work after those bands owes the least, and it was unsurprising that when the band subsequently reformed, Stewart was the one who declined, while wishing the others well. But there's a lot to enjoy in this mixed bag.
3* - as long as you're not expecting classic Canterbury prog, there's much to enjoy here.
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