Video Look-back

In this month’s edition of the Confetti Clatter, we will continue with our 35th-anniversary theme and look back at the earliest known video of an It’s My Party performance.

In 1987, Jim Morrow became a fan of the group. Jim, at that time, was a property manager who had connections throughout Monroe County. Jim would eventually hire us at the Panorama Outlet Mall in Penfield (now Tops Supermarket) and opened up an opportunity for us to perform at the Penfield Community Center in June of 1988, through his contacts with the Penfield Recreation Department and Lions Club.

An early adapter, Jim always seemed to have a video recorder present at our performances. We owe him a debt of gratitude for preserving some of our early history, including the following clip from a performance at Short’s Bar in Fairport, NY, which took place on Saturday, February 27, 1988.

If you have seen up perform recently, you will need some context regarding the group in the mid to late 1980s. Whereas we currently focus on the girl groups of the ’60s, back then, we also performed music from current girl groups that had the trappings of those older sixties recordings. Something that we are not averse to trying again.

The clip we are sharing today is one of the earliest video recordings of the group. It shows the opening of a set, most likely not the first set, as Jennie announces that we are about to perform a song again. The response from the “peanut gallery” shows how obnoxious a bar crowd can be at times. In truth, we weren’t cut out to be a bar band.

The lineup in the clip is from left-to-right: Charlene, Tricia, and Jennie. Jennie was the newest edition, while Charlene had been in the band since 1986. The girls picked out their matching outfits back then, so you get a good look at what was considered fashionable at that time. Also, a look at the hairstyles would give any current ’80s retro band some helpful ideas.

This performance is the Boomerang version of the song “When Phone Stops Ringing” from 1986. The song was also covered by Eighth Wonder, featuring Patsey Kensit, in 1987. Boomerang was a girl group comprised of three current and former singers of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. On an aside, Kid Creole and the Coconuts were one of the best live performances I have ever seen. They billed themselves as “That international band of renegades,” and it fit perfectly.

Some things to notice are the excessive treble on the picked bass guitar and the use of Simmons electronic drums, two hallmarks of ’80s instrumentation. Jim initially captured this recording on a VHS tape, then I digitally transferred to a DVD, and finally converted to an mp4 file. As a result, there is some skipping glitches here and there, but that doesn’t take away from Jennie’s excellent performance. 

I recently visited Short’s on the 32nd anniversary of this performance; yes, it is still in business with the same owner from 1988. It looked unchanged, save the pool table set up on the elevated stage area. According to the bartender, they rarely have bands performing, though they do advertise karaoke nights, something that Short’s spearheaded in the ’80s.

New Shows Confirmed

Here are some new performances confirmed since our last edition of the Confetti Clatter. You can click on each event to add to your electronic calendar and find directions to the venues through Google Maps.