Hot Gossip
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Hot Gossip were a British dance troupe most notable for their appearance on the TV series The Kenny Everett Video Show, which aired on ITV in 1978.It was created and choreographed by Arlene Phillips and managed and produced by Michael Summerton and Iain Burton. The sexually suggestive dance routines, moves, gestures and costumes used by the troupe were considered very risqué, especially considering the early evening timeslot that the Video Show was broadcast in. These risqué dance routines and the groups unique style were honed by Phillips over four years before The Kenny Everett Video Show first aired, during the groups early years performing in London night clubs.
Hot Gossip scored a pop hit in 1978 with I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper, a lightweight disco track featuring Sarah Brightman on lead vocal that cashed in on the media hype surrounding the original Star Wars film. They went on to record an album in the early 1980s, Geisha Boys and Temple Girls, produced by the former Human League and then current Heaven 17/BEF member Martyn Ware. The album was a commercial failure.
Phillips, Summerton and Burton continued to work together for eight years during which time Hot Gossip continued to enjoy wide popularity and success.
Dancers who performed with Hot Gossip at one time or another before they disbanded in 1986 included: Amanda Abbs, Heather Alexander, Debbie Ash, Debbie Astell, Bunty Bailey, Elvis Baptiste, Bonnie Bryg, Richard Bodkin, Kathy Burke (Not the actress of the same name), Lindsay Cole, Titian Deakin, Lorraine Doyle, Annie Dunkley, Penni Dunlop, Sandy Easby, Mark Elie, Yvonne Evans (Voyd), Donna Fielding, Carol Fletcher, Debbie Fox, Judey Ford, Julia Gale, Roy Gale, Donette Goddard, Heavon Grant, Robert Gross, Virginia Hartley, Alison Herlihy, Nicky Hinkley, Laura James, Richard Lloyd King, Lavinia Lang (Hudson), Kim Leeson, Perri Lister, Madeleine Loftin, Erin Lordan, Barry Martin, Jayne Melville, Sarah Miles, Jane Newman (formerly Colthorpe), Trudy Pack, Floid Pearce, Tristan Rafael, Sinitta Renet, Heather Robbins, Wanda Rokikki, Heather Seymour, Mark Tyme, Lyndsey Ward, Susie Waring, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Chrissy Wickham, David Wilkins, Philippa Williams, Frances Wingate, Dominique Wood and T.J. Wy.
There was a spin off group from Hot Gossip in 1980 when Mark Tyme, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Carol Fletcher and Lyndsey Ward left to set up 'Sponooch'. They were featured in a BBC show called 'Dancing Girls'.
[edit] The Very Hot Gossip Show
Produced by Burton and Telecast by Britain's Channel 4, this one hour special was a vehicle for Hot Gossip, fresh from their stint on The Kenny Everett Video Show. The Very Hot Gossip Show was one of the highest rating shows for Channel 4 that year.
The group was once spoofed on The Benny Hill Show as "Hot Gossamer". A few real-life former Hot Gossip dancers went on to appear on the Hill show in its last years on the air as part of the Hill's Angels dance troupe.
