Kim Appleby, vocals
A few years before Respectable, Mel had done some glamour photos. Obviously, the photographer who took the pictures saw that we’d had a hit with our debut single, Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend), and bang, the pictures started to surface in the tabloids.
Our record label – and Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, who wrote Respectable – thought we’d be embarrassed, turn up in tears or hide under a rock. But we were streetwise girls from Hackney; we had dealt with far worse than that. And you know, Mel was beautiful and she had a beautiful body. So we just said: “Well, it’s out there and it is what it is.”
I remember turning up to the studio, Mel and I, and we looked up on the screen in the control room and there was this title that said Respectable. And we all just fell about laughing, because we knew immediately what the song was about. The boys had written a track around what happened, because they couldn’t believe how unperturbed we were.
Like all demos, Respectable started out sparse, but it already had a really groovy bassline. Mel and I were both in the vocal booth together singing our parts. There were a lot of “tions” to remember in the lyrics: “Recreation is our destination”, “It’s our occupation, we’re a dancing nation”. Mike would banter with us from the control room, asking questions. That very dirty laugh you hear on Respectable, that’s me.
The dance for Showing Out had been very DIY: we’d choreographed it in my council flat. With Respectable, it all went to another level. On the day of the shoot, they’d created this set that looked like a New York alleyway. I remember us asking: “But why does it look so clean?” Because where we came from, after the market closes for the day, there’s litter all over. That video cost 70 grand and won an MTV award – you could make it on your iPad now.
Respectable topped the dance chart in America, too, and exploded in Australia. On a trip to Paris promoting the single, we were walking over a bridge and there were 60 Japanese teenagers walking towards us. All of a sudden, they just started screaming.
When Mel passed [in 1990], it touched everyone. The organisers of the 80s festivals had tried for years to get me to play, but I was apprehensive to revisit all that because it was a reminder of not a nice ending. But I did succumb in the end, a few years ago, and I thought people had maybe forgotten us. But I looked out to the crowd and there were big banners – “Mel & Kim, We Love You!” – and people dressed as us. It was very emotional.
Respectable gives you permission to be who you are, without making apologies. It’s anarchic, a middle finger up to the establishment. It’s a great “up” pop song that makes you feel amazing, but the message is actually: “Screw you, this is who I am.”
Nick East, MD of Supreme Records
The moment Mel and Kim walked into Supreme Records, they were just effervescent. Mel was laughing, they both had this energy and big smiles. I liked them instantly. When our promotions guys managed to get the Showing Out video on The Chart Show, it all kicked off.
Pete Waterman was a larger-than-life guy who had no fear receptors – anything was possible. When he first played me Respectable, I loved it, but I was worried it was too commercial, bordering on cheesy, with the “tay-tay-tay” vocal. I asked for those bits to be taken out but Pete said: “Argh, you’re wrong!” That night, I flew to Rotterdam with Mel and Kim and they were playing in front of 6,000 kids. By the second chorus, these kids were all chanting: “Tay-tay-tay!” I immediately rang Pete and said: “Leave them in!”
The Respectable lyric summed them up: “Take or leave us, only please believe us, we ain’t never gonna be respectable.” Mel & Kim weren’t this nicey-nicey girl band. You’d look at photos of them in their hats and they could have been Paris fashion models. Then you’d hear them in an interview and they’ve got these East End accents. People loved it.
Respectable was the obvious next single. It was released in 1987. The economy was starting to work and people were building businesses again, buying their council houses. I think the attitude of Respectable fitted in with all of that. Suddenly, everyone in the world wanted Mel & Kim. The first time I realised they were famous was when we popped into a McDonald’s on Kilburn High Road and were surrounded by all these kids. From then on, we always had security. Then the fans found out where they lived and started showing up at their mum’s house in Hackney.
That single did three-quarters of a million sales in the UK alone, and in one day, we sold 60,000 copies. The demands were so huge we had to get the singles manufactured in six different plants.
They had already exploded in Europe, and there’s no reason why that wouldn’t have transferred around the world. But we had to cancel the tour in Japan and Australia because Mel got sick. If what happened hadn’t happened, the potential was unbelievable. Their success would have mirrored the Spice Girls. They were unique.
• FLM by Mel & Kim, limited edition 12in, is out now on Cherry Pop.
