Slik formed in the mid-70s from the ashes of a Glasgow (Scotland) heavy metal group called Salvation which contained Jim McGinlay and his brother Kevin.
By 1972, the brothers had decided to drop the other members of Salvation and form a more viable version of the band, to include James Ure (better known as Midge), drummer Kenny Hyslop, and Billy McIsaac on keyboards.
By April 1974, Kevin McGinlay had decided to leave, and a few months later, in November 1974, the band changed their name to Slik and hooked up with songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter.
The first Slik single was Boogiest Band In Town, a Martin/Coulter composition that was used in a teenage pop movie called Never Too Young To Rock (also starring The Glitter Band, The Rubettes and Mud) in which the band had a cameo role.
It was their second single, Forever And Ever (again by Martin and Coulter and originally written for The Bay City Rollers), that shot the group to the top of the British charts in February 1976.
Suddenly, Slik were smiling from the pages of every pop magazine in the nation, dressed in their distinctive American baseball shirts.
The band hastily released a follow-up record, Requiem, (another Martin and Coulter song) in May 1976. Unfortunately, on 20 May, Ure was seriously injured in a car accident. Slik’s forthcoming UK tour was cancelled and the loss of television exposure saw Requiem grind to a halt at a lowly #24.
The band’s eponymous debut album – a three-way split between well-chosen covers, the band’s own material and some of their mentors’ best work ever – spent just one week at the lower end of the British chart and, by the time Ure returned to action, every last drop of momentum was lost.
The next single, The Kid’s A Punk, was not a hit. The onslaught of punk rock in Britain was the kiss of death for clean-cut pop combos like Slik, who were suddenly deemed passé.
They continued recording into the following year, producing the optimistically titled single It’s Only A Matter Of Time.
The band struggled on valiantly, but as Slik folded the various members went off to work on different projects.
Midge Ure and Kenny Hyslop put out a single of their own called Put You In The Picture under the name PVC2. The record sold 12,000 copies, which Ure reckoned wasn’t bad for a group which never existed . . .
Hyslop later played the drums for Simple Minds, while Ure went on to play in The Rich Kids, Visage and Ultravox (who created one of the first great video hits with Vienna), ultimately gaining worldwide acclaim as the co-creator – alongside Bob Geldof – of the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? and the Live Aid concert in 1985.
Midge Ure
Vocals, Guitar
Jim McGinlay
Bass, vocals
Billy McIsaac
Keyboards
Kenny Hyslop
Drums
Russell Webb
Bass, vocals
