Imagination – Just An Illusion
#quotefromthe80s
Could it be a picture in my mind?
Never sure exactly what I'll find
Only in my dreams I turn you on
Here for just a moment then you're gone
It's just an illusion (ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ah)
#JustAnIllusion #Imagination
You know, the 80s are often accused of being the decade of the ephemeral, with so many meteors that may have left only one quick mark in the history of music. This may also be true, but very often the careers ended because they evolved, maybe the groups changed name or formation, and often the frontmen of these groups started other careers. In short, apparently things lasted the time of an illusion, but in reality there was a lot of talent and a great desire to always go further.
And speaking of illusion, on February 19, 1982, you can just calculate how much time has passed, one of the songs that left a deep mark in the 80s and also in the following decades was released, and it really spoke of illusions. I’m talking of course about Just an Illusion by Imagination, perhaps the song that best represents the European disco dance of the early 80s.
Imagination formed between 1980 and 1981, when thanks to producers Steven Jolley and Tony Swain they released their first album, which had the same title as the song Body Talk. They had been quite successful, and they were eager to go further. And so, in anticipation of the release of the second album In the Heat of the Night, singer Leee John (with a triple “e” as we know) and guitarist and bassist Ashley Ingram collaborated with the producers to create the new single to launch. They went a little further, because they also created a new image of the group, which in musical TV shows often appeared dressed in tunics and ornaments worthy of ancient Rome. Also with them was drummer and later producer Errol Kennedy.
The song was a resounding success and reached the top of the charts across the continent. It remained in the charts for months and months, and it was really the soundtrack of the first part of 1982. I’m sharing a personal memory: in that spring I was in middle school, and once I finished my homework I used to go down to a small square not far from home to play a few hours of football with friends. Don’t think there was a field: there was a small circular playground with some benches and a slide in the middle. Of course the goals were the space under the benches, and the slide was a nice obstacle to dribble, right in the middle of a semicircular field.
Well, at the end of the games we crossed the street to go to a bar and buy water, and I remember the lady at the bar, when she saw us so sweaty and tired she worried as if she were one of our mothers. But above all, in the bar there were other guys older than us playing early arcade games, especially Lady Bug, and of course there was a juke box. And every time we walked into the bar, what music was there? Exactly, Just an Illusion by Imagination.
The video is in fantasy style, nice, but I must say it was not that famous. After all, in 1982 the TV broadcasting music videos were just at the beginning in Europe.
Imagination achieved such fame and success that they truly became immortal in the history of the 1980s. And for a few years I have to say that they managed to maintain these levels of success with other great songs. Then also for them came the next step, dictated above all by the evolution of the talent of the great Leee John, who became an actor, and then a collaborator of many other artists. If you wonder why he was called Leee with three “e”, in those years there was a story where Leee said that his mother named him with three “e” which stood for Extra-Energy and Excitement! Mum actually simply called him Leslie, but evidently he had a passion for triple letters, because when he met Ashley Ingram, before founding Imagination, they started a group called Fizzz … with three “z”!
Imagination on Wikipedia
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