Texas Tickets

34 years since they recorded ‘I Don’t Want A Lover’, then watched, gobsmacked, as it reached Number Eight in the charts, Texas, one of the UK’s most loved bands, have gone on to produce ten studio albums, selling over 40 million records worldwide.

There’s the one with The Wu-Tang Clan. The five that were Top 10 singles from one album. The one with Alan Rickman in the video. The one that was an inspired Al Green cover. The two written with diverse titans of American music, Dallas Austin and Gregg Alexander. The one that was remixed by Giorgio Moroder. The une that helped give them their first French Number One album. The segued pair that, according to the woman at the front, makes their live audiences go “absolutely fuckin’ apeshit”. The one with the video directed by Peter Kay. The other one with Wu-Tang Clan. The one that gave them, straight out of the gate, a Top 10 single with their first ever release. The club banger with a killer Donna Summer sample. And the one that ended up the theme song to a top-rating American sitcom…

There’s more screen star power sprinkled across Texas’s back catalogue. The video for ‘In Demand’ features Spiteri’s dear friend, the late, lamented actor Alan Rickman. As for the video for ‘Sleep’, the final single from 2005’s Red Book (and another Top 10), it was made by Peter Kay after the comic and Spiteri bonded at the Live 8 all-star concert in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, across all their albums, Texas were reliably killing it in mainland Europe. 'Jump On Board' (2017) was a chart-topping triumph in France, its ascent aided by the snake-hipped funk of 'Let’s Work It Out', “which literally you couldn't get off the radio in France”. But, again, what an afterlife. Now, when they perform that song live, complete with Spiteri doing the video’s “stupid dance” (her words, not ours), they go straight into ace Hi cut Mr Haze. That dancefloor classic is rocket-powered by deft deployment of a sample of Donna Summer’s 'Love's Unkind'.