Images of Peter: Finding Peter Godwin

Peter Godwin: Around the time of my solo work I also did some record production, some of it in Belgium, where I’d had a lot of success in that period. That’s when I first met Dan Lacksman of Telex. I was recording a singer called Réjane (“Reggie”) Magloire and we used two studios in Brussels and one of them was Dan’s. I first met Reggie when she was 17, singing her big hit of the time on Independence Day at Danceteria in New York, where I was celebrating with Billy Idol, a mate at the time.

That hit was “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” and it still gets remixed and played around the clubs. Actually, I was in Riccione on the Adriatic coast of Italy three years ago on holiday and ended up singing that song in a huge nightclub with an American guest DJ, just vamping it over an unrelated house instrumental! Another strange turn of the karmic wheel.

Reggie went on to sing with Technotronic, having hits like “Move That Body.” And recently released a very cool fusion of hip-hop, rap, and opera (all of which she can do very well) on Forbidden Opera.

At the time we were recording two songs. One was a song of mine called “On the Park” (a song about New York this time, which I associated with Reggie: Central Park, of course). The other was a song that we’d been given by Madonna, a demo of hers of a song she didn’t plan to use. The song was called “Into the Groove.” Well, we were mixing it when we found out that she’d changed her mind, and was actually going to use it in a film she was acting in called Desperately Seeking Susan!

I think they say, the rest is history! It later became the b-side (remember those?) of “On the Park.” It’s actually a very cool version, in my opinion, very soulful. I also recorded a third single for Nathalie (Gabay) with Dan—a song I wrote for her called “Don’t Look for Love.” By then her label had started to lose interest in her, even though she was still only 17! I think that’s why it didn’t do as well as our previous two records.

I also met another singer in Brussels at this time and we discussed working together, but for some reason, it never happened. She went on to become a huge singing star in France, under the name (taken from the movie Casablanca) Viktor Laslow. Back in England, I produced a French “chanteuse” who was living in London and we were signed to the same label, Polydor. Her name was Ronny and she was rather like a very stylish, French Marlene Dietrich, with a deep sultry voice which co-producer Georg Kajanus (of Sailor) and I gave an electronic setting. She had worked with Vangelis just before us, who was in some ways in his Golden Age, producing amazing soundtracks like Blade Runner.

I wrote a song for her called “To Have And Have Not,” which is, of course, a lift from the Ernest Hemingway novel and the Howard Hawks movie with Bogart and Bacall (famously, the movie they met on). The song purposely captures a film noir mood and imagery that I associate with the movie, even though it isn’t strictly film noir. I have often used movies to inspire songs—often just as a seed or starting point—but I love that quote from the American composer/poet/artist John Cage: “The best response to a work of art is another work of art.” (Not a big fan of pure criticism, Mr. Cage!) I love that concept. . . from one medium to another. . . criss/cross.

Ronny, Georg, and I wrote a song together for her, which became the b-side of “To Have and Have Not” and in a way is a very apt description of her work and her world. It’s called “Blue Cabaret.” She definitely hearkened back to both the French torch song/chanson and the Blue Angel Dietrich/Brecht and Weill cabaret of 1930s Berlin. . .

As I let slip in the sleeve notes to the Oglio Records Images Of Heaven Peter Godwin compilation, “Rendezvous” was a kind of ’90s “homage” to Serge Gainsbourg—and more specifically “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus,” the version with breathy Jane Birkin (I love breathy vocals, Françoise Hardy’s “Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles”. . . love it) rather than the earlier version with Brigitte Bardot (although I was definitely in love with Bardot as a boy!). . .

So you were right, I do have a soft spot for the French aesthetic, in all its wonderful manifestations!

Click here to read more from Peter Godwin on. . .

Setting The Scene
Influences
Cult Following and Italo-Disco
Benitez, Bowie, and Electronic Music
French and Spanish Inspirations
Producing and Writing
The English and European Aesthetic
Working with Steve Winwood
Off The Map
Working with Others
Forays Into Acting
More On Acting

Introduction:

Cherchez la femme: “Images of Heaven”
Discovering Peter Godwin
Rediscovering Peter Godwin

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