1980’s Pop music icon Limahl turns 65 today
The singer is mostly remembered for being part of the band Kajagoogoo and for his hit “The Neverending Story”
1980’s Pop music icon Limahl turns 65 today
The 1980’s Pop singer Limahl was born Christopher Hamill on December 19th, 1958 in Pemberton, North West England. He first aspired to be an actor and in 1980 toured with a company in a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. He also appeared as an extra on the music video “Stand And Deliver” by the new wave band Adam and the Ants in 1980. He created his name Limahl from his last name Hamill when he formed a Punk band in the early 1980’s, called Vox Deus. He later joined a newly formed new wave band called Art Nouveau which became Kajagoogoo, as a singer, and soon after he joined, Limahl met Nick Rhodes, keyboardist of the group Duran Duran, while Limahl was working as a waiter at the Embassy Club in London. Rhodes agreed to co-produce the band’s first single, “Too Shy”.which was released in January 1983. It went to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and made the top 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100.The group had further moderate hits with “Ooh to Be Ah” and “Hang on Now”, with their debut album “White Feathers” reaching UK No.5. In mid-1983, soon after the end of the “White Feathers” concert tour, the band sacked him by telephone. Limahl was quoted in the press as saying that “I’ve been betrayed!”, and that “I was sacked for making them a success”. The band themselves stated that Limahl had become difficult to work with as they didn’t share his vision for the band’s future. Soon after Limahl’s departure, bassist Nick Beggs commented that “It was a business decision and not one we took lightly. He wanted the band to go in a different direction to the rest of us. Eventually, we realized we were on a different planet to Limahl.”Guitarist Steve Askew commented “At first…we did everything possible to make Limahl feel like part of the furniture but, you know, his lifestyle is so different from ours. We’re very normal people whereas Limahl likes the bright lights. After leaving the band, Limahl launched a solo career, achieving a moderate hit with “Only for Love” in 1983. In 1984 he did the song “The Neverending Story”, the theme song for the movie of the same name composed by Giorgio Moroder. The song launched Limahl’s solo career as it became a smash hit worldwide and it’s to this day his signature song. The single alone reached the Top 5 in several countries and was number one in Spain, Sweden and Norway, however, Limahl never again obtained the same kind of success or visibility as he did with “The Neverending Story” or the Kajagoogoo hits. What had seem to be a strong career launch, by the late 1980’s proved to be the contrary as his career sunk down and never recovered from it. In late 2003, Limahl briefly reunited with the other members of Kajagoogoo for the VH1 special Bands Reunited (which aired in 2004), but this did not lead to a permanent reunion. Limahl eventually reunited with Kajagoogoo again in 2008. Now reformed in their original five-piece line-up, the band took part in various music festivals in Europe. For the next few years he continued performing live with Kajagoogoo and solo. In 2011, the band released a new track, “Death Defying Headlines”, as a digital single. Limahl as a solo artist released a new single in 2012 called “1983”, but he is still mostly remembered as a one hit wonder for the 1984 song “The Neverending Story”. Limahl keeps an active career and lives with his same-sex civil partner in England; his 1980’s iconic spiked blond hair look has served as inspiration for the look of the Marvel Comics X-Men character Longshot and in 2019 he was briefly featured as a character in “American Horror Story: 1984”, where he and Kajagoogoo are murdered by the serial killer Night Stalker, and return as ghosts performing their hit “Too Shy.”
Look back at the 1984 music video for “The Neverending Story” by Limahl
Watch more 1980’s related videos
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