Eastenders Music Connections

Eastenders eh, its musical fruits possibly outweigh any of the other soaps, yes Morrissey may have appeared on the Brookside spin off, South, yes Richard Fleishman may have appeared on and won Soapstar Superstar, but for musical high points and low points, cockernee soap, Eastenders is the master.



Morrissey glumming it up on South.

You knew from the off that their stall was set out when cafe working crusty Rod, rocked up wearing a Neds Atomic Dustbin t-shirt, somehow the likelihood of Ena Sharples sporting a They Might Be Giants hoodie was nil. Rod incidentally was played by Christopher McHallem, who was in the post punk band The Transmitters, notable for Tim Whelan and Hamilton Lee, who formed Furniture and later, Transglobal Underground.

In those Rod years the cast had valiant attempts at pop stardom with Nick Berry anthem for the underdog, Every Loser Wins, the female Brian May, Anita Dobson warbling some made up words to the theme tune in Anyone Can Fall In Love, the ending notes weren’t dum-dum-du-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum!!!



Every Loser Wins by Nick Berry

From that early period we managed to believe that Kelvin and Sharon and Ian Beale could actually be popstars in The Banned, well Britain it seemed believed them and Something Out Of Nothing was rather incredulously, a hit.



Something Outta Nothing by Letitia Dean and Paul Medford

The Fowlers have a deep vein of musicality running through their permanently frown ridden lives, Pauline, matriarch and chief misery was the vocalist on the 1960’s number one with Mike Sarne, Come Outside, she ended up on the cutting room floor when she appeared in a Beatles film though. Arthur Fowler and his embezzling ways merely attracted the attention of north eastern chancers who took it upon them to name themselves Freearfa, you see what they did there.



Come Outside by Mike Sarne and Wendy Richard

Pete Beale, cheeky chappie that ran the fruit and veg stall he had a stab at the charts, 1986, and he releases dreadful football record “Can’t get a ticket (for the world cup), he also appeared as a bouncer in the shit film , The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, two crimes that are ultimately forgiveable.
Move forward a few years and Corrie have Quo gracing their cobbles, and a young Davey Jones of the Monkees may have pressed the flesh in Weatherfield in the 60’s, but Eastenders bought a bona fide popstar to the square in Martin Kemp in the 90’s, Steve Owen was a club owner and the only man for the job would be ex Spandau Ballet man and carpet and furniture salesman Martin Kemp. He didn’t sing much, but he was a dab hand with an ornamental ashtray.



Martin Kemp

Lets talk briefly about cameo appearances, Robbie Williams, now that is brief, Robbie Williams graced our screens for 2 seconds on a phone many years ago, he may have uttered “was gahin on”?
Manchester based indie band Pullover once tried to put across just how hacked off they were by telling us that they felt “as miserable as shell off eastenders”. Eastender is rather depressing, but the sunshine was bought into proceedings momentarily by the release of The Eastenders Singalong album, a musical highlight of 1985, and guaranteed to have a right old lahndan knees up.
As we come up to more modern times, feisty blonde vixens Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell have both had their brushes with music, in young Roxy, AKA, Samantha Janus AKA Samantha Womack, she was our 1991 Eurovision entry with a message to your heart, it got 47 points, not bad really.
As for Roxy, my favourite of them Mitchell girls, her uncle is Alan Sugar by the way, but Roxy, well Rita Simons, she was in a girlband, Girls@Play, who amongst other delights covered Mel and Kim’s Respectable.



Airhead by Girls@Play

Finally we have Preeya Kalidas, she who plays Amira, although not charty and all that, she was in the dreadful Lloyd Webber musical, Bombay Dreams and performed on its most famous track Shakalaka Baby, you know that?

Thats Eastenders then, currently celebrating its 25th year of depressing the nation. I prefer Corrie.