Seona Dancing Demo Tape (lost unreleased Ricky Gervais synthpop album; 1982)

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Seona dancing 2.jpg

Seona Dancing was: Ricky Gervais (Left) and Bill MacRae (Right)

Status: Lost

Tags: music lost audio


Seona Dancing were a British synthpop duo formed in 1982 by Bill Macrae and a then-unkown Ricky Gervais. After recording a 16 song demo tape, they were signed to London Records, where they released the singles "More To Lose" and "Bitter Heart". Despite promotion with a music video for "Bitter Heart" and a live performance of "More To Lose" on the ITV syndicated children's television show Razzmatazz. However, they failed to break the top 40, with "More to Lose" charting at number 117 and "Bitter Heart" at number 79 on the UK Singles Chart. Due to their lack of success, the band broke up in 1984.

In 1985, DWRT-FM (then known as 99.5 RT, now 99.5 Play FM), a radio station in Metro Manila, Philippines, started playing a song billed as "Fade" by Medium (also billed as "Medium" by Fade). DWRT-FM deliberately misnamed the artist and song title to prevent anyone from finding the record and playing it themselves. Additionally, to stop other radio stations from recording it and playing it, DWRT-FM inserted a station ID midway through the track. A year later, another radio station, DWXB-102, revealed the true identity of the song as "More to Lose" by Seona Dancing. The song became a major hit at clubs, radio stations, and high school dances, and became known as a teen anthem to the Filipino youth. AllMusic critic Michael Sutton wrote that the track was "the theme song of angst-ridden New Wave youths in the Philippines" and "an '80s anthem as ubiquitous as Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes', but with the eternal hipster cool of Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'."

The demo tape sent to London Records has never surfaced. When asked about Seona Dancing in various interviews, Ricky Gervais has spoken ill of it, so it is not likely he would ever share the demos. Bill Macrae's whereabouts are unknown.