Ian was gracious with his time which left Simon and John spellbound and slightly emotional with his Passion for music.
Ian formed Pele in 1989 along with Dally (drums), Robbo (Hammond), Nico (violin) and Jim McCallister (bass).Signed by Michael Levy, Baron Levy in March 1991 to M&G Records/Polydor, the band went on to release two studio albums (Fireworks & The Sport Of Kings), one live album and six singles. Pele’s singles never reached the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart, with it being often remarked that Pele sold more of their famous primary colour T-shirts than they did records.[citation needed] However they scored a number one single in South Africa with “Megalomania”, and had other hits in Holland, Portugal and Belgium. After nine tours of the UK, including those with Del Amitri and The Pogues, they split in 1996 due to problems with the record company whose efforts to make Prowse record as a solo artist were resisted by the singer.[citation needed] Prowse celebrated the 25th anniversary of first album Fireworks with a UK tour in the early 2017 with a 25th anniversary of The Sport of Kings tour announced for 2018.
Ian went on to form Amsterdam in 1999 with former Blow Monkeys drummer Tony Kiley and cousin Johnny Barlow. It was not until September 2004 that the band managed to secure a record deal in the form of London-based Beat Crazy. They released one album The Journey in February 2005 and three singles, “The Journey” (which hit number 32 in the UK Singles Chart) and “Does This Train Stop on Merseyside” also hit the lower reaches of the chart. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in 2006.
The band then signed to The Stranglers’ management company and released their next album Arm in Arm on CIA Recordings in 2008.
“Does This Train Stop on Merseyside” regularly elicited an emotional response from Radio 1 DJ John Peel. Peel’s widow Sheila Ravenscroft gave a Radio 1 interview after the DJ’s death and confirmed that ‘He was not capable of playing it without crying’. The song itself got a further lease of life in 2009 as one of the centre pieces of Christy Moore’s album Listen, which spent five weeks at the top spot in his home country.
During this time, the band struck up a friendship with Elvis Costello who used them as his backing band on the Jonathan Ross television show as well as support act on several occasions. Prowse also performed a duet with Costello for EMI Records with a cover of The Searchers’ 1964 hit “Don’t Throw Your Love Away” for the Liverpool Number Ones Project in 2008. He also picked up a musical icon award on Costello’s behalf at Liverpool’s Titanic Hotel in November 2014.
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