Right Said Fred _320
Emma Johnson finds out what Right Said Fred have been up to since their chart success in the 1990s
THERE are some songs that refuse to fade away. They never date and are recognised down the generations. They always come on at weddings and pop up in television adverts.
I’m Too Sexy is one of them.
The track – the opus of singing trio Right Said Fred – was a smash hit in the 1990s, only held off the top spot in the UK by Bryan Adams’s record-breaking Robin Hood single, Everything I Do.
Then, with little fanfare from the British press, the song topped the Billboard Charts in the US and stayed there for three weeks, making them the first British act to do that with a debut single since The Beatles.
Some 17 years later, the Fairbrass brothers – now minus original member Rob Manzoli – fall into the "remember them" category here in the UK.
That is not to say they have not been busy making music and, more importantly, money, elsewhere.
Following in the footsteps of David Hasselhoff, the boys have made a tidy living in Germany, scored a number one in Japan and in 2006, played the opening ceremony of the World Cup at the Brandenburg Gate.
The lower profile in their home territory is of little concern to Richard and Fred, though, who take a rather philosophical approach to the music business.
"You have to go where the love is," explains lead vocalist Richard. "The UK is a very unpredictable and weird market, it loves and hates in equal measure.
"What Fred and I have been thinking is," he adds, tongue firmly in cheek, "to increase our profile and to get more press we have both decided to become crack addicts. It seems to work for Pete Doherty and everybody else. We think we should become drug addicts. It would make us much more interesting as people."
The brothers may be happy to poke fun at themselves, but their laid-back attitude is built on the security of hit singles.
As well as I’m Too Sexy, they had a UK number one with Deeply Dippy and two other top 10 hits.
And their popularity is on the rise again in America.
"When we went to number one in the States, we got almost no press in this country and we were there for three weeks. Since then, artists have gone to number one for one week and are on the front pages," says Richard.
"We have long since given up analysing what went on there. But Sexy is still A-listed on radio stations in America, and a more recent track we did, called Stand Up for the Champions, was picked up by the NFL for some of the football teams there, so our profile has been going really well in the States."
To date, I’m Too Sexy has shifted in excess of 18m copies, and RSF have topped 20m in album sales.
You would think the guys would be kicking back counting their money, but their diary is packed with gig after gig from Moscow to Dubai, with a couple of dates at Butlin’s thrown in for good measure.
"Counting our money would be very, very easy; I could do that in an hour," laughs Richard.
"Fred and I are both thinking about moving out of London, but I think, after about three or four months of just putting our feet up, I would get bored.
"I still really enjoy doing shows.
"I don’t enjoy the bull---- that is the music business but I do enjoy showbusiness. We keep going because when we write new stuff we think it is good and we want to get out there and sell it.
"If we didn’t think the new stuff was any good, I would be the first to buy a house in Brighton and retire.
"But we have got an album ready to go, and I think it is the best stuff we have done for years and want people to hear it."
Hard as it may be to believe, Richard is now 54 and Fred 51, although they both look a couple of decades younger. Richard puts it down to good genes.
The pair were already well into their 30s when they first tasted success after years of slogging their guts out on the road.
"We had been trying to get a record deal for so long, we had all but given up," Richard recalls. "All we wanted with Sexy was to hear it on the radio."
Over the years, the pair with their light-hearted lyrics and high camp image, not to mention the bald heads ("If I were to grow my hair now, not only would I be out of a living almost overnight but I don’t think even my mum would recognise me," Richard jokes) have not had an easy time with the music press.
But, with two Ivor Novello Awards on the mantelpiece, they couldn’t give too hoots about all that.
Says Richard: "There’s a part of me would like to be the tortured soul in the attic turning out turgid tracks about unrequited love and misery, and there’s a part of me that would like to be band of the year on some inky corr newspaper. But you are what you are and you have to live and hang by it.
"And anyway it’s music, we’re not curing cancer here. A lot of the bands we grew up with, like David Bowie and The Beatles, all made silly records from time to time.
"I think, in recent years, we have just got used to a band ploughing one furrow, which to me is extremely boring. We just do what we do and get on with it."
On Monday afternoon, the brothers make their debut at the Mathew Street Festival, in Liverpool, on the Diva stage which is hosted by Garlands nightclub.
"It’s a while since we have been to Liverpool, but we are looking forward to it," says Richard. "Also, I can do a show and be in bed by half past eight. How cool is that?"
* RIGHT Said Fred play the Diva stage, on Water Street, at 2pm on Monday.
* "IT WAS camp and silly." Listen to Richard, from Right Said Fred, talk about keeping his whites whiter than white and why they couldn’t resist doing the Daz adverts at www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/audio
