Yell! (band)

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Yell! was a British pop duo who had a hit single in 1990 with a cover of "Instant Replay".

Overview

Yell! consisted of singers Paul Varney and Daniel James. In 1989 they were put together by manager Jeff Chegwin and were signed by Simon Cowell to Fanfare Records. Their first single, a cover version of Dan Hartman's disco track, "Instant Replay", was produced by Nigel Wright and mixed by Pete Hammond from PWL . In January 1990 it entered the UK singles chart and peaked at No.10, giving the duo instant attention in the pop press and a large teen fanbase. Soon after this however, scandal hit the act as newspaper reports emerged that member Daniel James' real name was Colin Heywood who was in fact 32 years old, rather than the 23 he claimed to be. James at first denied the age claim, but member Paul Varney later admitted this to be true and said it was a mistake to try and conceal the fact.

Their follow-up releases both missed the UK Top 75. "One Thing Leads to Another" released in June 1990 reached number 81, and a cover of "Let's Go Round Again" (produced by Nigel Wright) released in September 1990 reached number 78. The duo recorded an album, Let's Go!, but this only saw a release in Japan in 1991. Soon after this the duo disbanded. Varney went onto release some solo singles which proved unsuccessful, but became a successful songwriter, composing the UK entry for the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest, "Say It Again", which was a UK top 10 hit. James embarked on an acting career.