After Dinner Speakers: Shakatak, Michael Parkinson, Darren Day

This UK group were one of the original benefactors of the early 80s UK jazz/funk boom (alongside contemporaries Level 42). The group comprised Bill Sharpe (keyboards), George Anderson (bass), Keith Winter (guitar), Roger Odell (drums), Nigel Wright (keyboards, synthesizers) and Gil Seward (vocals). Between 1980 and 1987, Shakatak had 14 UK chart singles. Since their chart debut with "Feels Like The First Time" on Polydor Records (a long-standing partnership), other notable hits have been "Easier Said Than Done" (1981), "Night Birds" (UK Top 10 - 1982), "Dark Is The Night" (1983) and "Down On The Street" (UK Top 10 - 1984). This understated group proved their reputation as one of the finest purveyors of classy jazz/funk with the successful K-Tel compilation The Coolest Cuts. The latter half of the 80s showed Shakatak leaving behind the demands of instant pop chart hits and allowing themselves to mature, honing their jazz influences - most evidently on the 1989 set Turn The Music Up, their first studio effort in almost five years. In addition to releasing a solo album in 1988, Sharpe collaborated with Gary Numan on the one-off single "Change Your Mind", in 1985. On reaching the UK Top 20, it was not until four years later that the duo released a full album, Automatic. Sharpe also collaborated with producer Don Grusin on the Latin-jazz project State Of The Heart, a 1998 release that featured saxophonist/flautist Gerald Albright, bass players Abe Laboriel and Brian Bromberg, drummer Alex Acuna, and vocalists Jeffrey Osborne and Pauline Wilson.