Tony ‘Gad’ Robinson, bass, keyboards, backing vocals
When the band formed we were just out of the same school and trying to find our way in music. Growing up in England with West Indian parents, we’d listened to the Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart as well as reggae. My first band was a school rock group with some white friends.
Early Aswad were roots reggae. We didn’t have the experiences to sing about Jamaica, so we sang about our lives in London. Our label, Island Records, weren’t aiming for the pop charts initially, but when we were making the Distant Thunder album they asked for something more radio-friendly. They suggested covering Rod Stewart’s The First Cut Is the Deepest or Don’t Turn Around, written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, as a rock ballad.
We recorded both songs but it was obvious that Don’t Turn Around was the one. Tina Turner and Luther Ingram had each recorded versions which hadn’t been hits, but I thought the chorus was wicked. We worked on the new arrangement with Chris Porter, who’d produced George Michael. We recorded our parts manually – to us, in those days, computers were something that only Nasa had!
We’d been around for years without a hit but the song climbed from No 83 to 66, then once it got into the Top 40 it gathered momentum. We needed a video quickly, so we filmed in Spain at a location where they’d made spaghetti westerns. The girl in it was a model, but she had really good interplay with Drummie [Zeb, drummer and singer]. Top of the Pops showed the video at the end of the show, just before EastEnders started, so millions of people who were tuning in for the soap heard Don’t Turn Around. Soon afterwards we went to No 1.
The writers told us they always knew it was a potential hit. Diane Warren said that a man singing “Don’t turn around / I don’t want you seeing me crying” gives it more vulnerability and makes it more potent. I hadn’t really listened to the lyrics before but I started taking notice.
Chris Porter, producer
I was desperate to get into the music business but was still doing small building jobs with some musician friends. After we converted Thin Lizzy singer Phil Lynott’s garage into a studio, he recommended us to [producer] Tony Visconti, who wanted some alterations to his. Tony liked my work and asked if I’d ever considered training as an audio engineer.
It was an amazing offer so I spent all my waking hours in the studio, sometimes sleeping under the recording console. Working with Tony on David Bowie’s Scary Monsters album led to me producing funk band Linx and a long working relationship with Wham! and George Michael.
I’m pretty sure it was Aswad’s programmer Pete Gleadall who recommended me to them. Reggae was a somewhat niche market apart from Bob Marley, and the request was to deliver a crossover hit. I definitely felt some trepidation when I met the boys. I wasn’t part of the reggae scene – I’m a middle class white boy from the shires! – and was probably considered a pop “lightweight”, but we worked well together and had fun in 80s Ladbroke Grove.
Most of the recording took place in Island’s Sarm West studio in west London close to where Aswad lived, where Marley had recorded. I didn’t listen to the previous versions of the song, I just approached it based on the melody and lyric. Computers, samplers and Midi keyboards were another way of moving away from a traditional reggae sound.
I wanted to hear both Drummie and [original singer] Brinsley Forde singing it but in the end chose Drummie’s voice as it was warm and expressive, less reggae, which I thought would help cross over. I realised the chords were similar to the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, so Drummie sang a bit of it on the 12in version to pay homage.
I’d become accustomed to chart success with Wham! but you can’t guarantee a hit – the stars need to align. When Don’t Turn Around came out I was in the US on George Michael’s Faith tour, and arrived back at Heathrow to discover it was No 1. I think some Aswad fans felt the group had moved too far from their roots, but I’m sure the band could put up with any criticism when they were sitting at No 1.
• Aswad’s Live in London album is out now. The band play Hastings reggae festival on 27 July, Uptown festival, London, on 28 July and then tour
