Imagination and Leee John

Funky trio Imagination are one of the late 70s’ and early 80s most successful British (they hail from London) soulful dance acts. Their debut album Bodytalk reached chart success in 1981 and slotted right into the emerging club scene. The band’s follow up In the Heat of The Night not only found success in Britain but charted highly in various countries all over the world. Their disco sound continued with their soon to become well known track ‘This Means War (Shoo Be Doo Da Dabba Doobe)’ yet their follow up album Closer was a departure from synthetic disco and more of a soul album. Leee John of the band created a new line-up for Imagination in 1992 and released Fascination of the Psychical. Since then he has continued to create music under the Imagination name tag and just last year released a single called ‘Krash’ to promote the band’s ‘best of’ which possessed a freshness yet still maintained Imagination’s traditional 70s funk sound that harks back to the birth of the band. Seeing them live, even despite the line-up changes, is, even in 2014, nostalgic of the 80s club scene and is a fantastic opportunity to get a groove on like it’s 1982. When I saw them at Concorde 2 in Brighton in November Leee John and the gang were looking fresh as ever, and bursting with an energy that projected onto the audience before them, initiating some pretty slick (and in some cases not so slick) moves in all four corners of the 600 capacity venue. Imagination are a must see band if you love a good boogie.