Rock Music Imagination

The "Wizards of Oss" …exploring the ends of the rock universe since 1999 with their first studio album Son of A.P.Lady released in 2000. Their music can be described as stoner rock with a very strong space rock flavor, and is characterized by heavy guitar riffs, funkadelic grooves and lengthy psychedelic instrumental soundscapes mixed with weird samples and spacey electronic sounds.

Jack Hamilton challenges the racial categories that distort standard histories of rock music and the 60s revolution.

After discreetly having pre-release album cuts played on the UK’s pirate jazz-funk and soul stations, IMAGINATION, with their charismatic lead singer, LEEE JOHN, burst onto the scene in May 1981, when their debut single ‘Body Talk’ entered the UK Charts at #68, with it peaking at #4 on 18th July 1981, having gained momentum after their momentous and unforgettable debut performance on BBC One’s Top Of The Pops on 4th June. In the period 1981-1983, IMAGINATION had hits in almost 30 countries around the world, with very high popularity across Europe, especially in France, Italy, Benelux and Germany, whilst also appearing in the Billboard US Dance and R&B Charts on a regular basis in the throughout the ‘80s. They really were a internationally successful British group, earning numerousPlatinum, Gold and Silver discs, for hit singles ‘Flashback’, In And Out Of Love’, the much-sampled ‘Just An Illusion’ and ‘Music And Lights’, ‘New Dimension’, ‘State Of Love’, ‘Looking At Midnight’ and ‘Thank You My Love’ and albums BODY TALK, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, SCANDALOUS, NIGHT DUBBING, CLOSER and LIKE IT IS.

After discreetly having pre-release album cuts played on the UK’s pirate jazz-funk and soul stations, IMAGINATION, with their charismatic lead singer, LEEE JOHN, burst onto the scene in May 1981, when their debut single ‘Body Talk’ entered the UK Charts at #68, with it peaking at #4 on 18th July 1981, having gained momentum after their momentous and unforgettable debut performance on BBC One’s Top Of The Pops on 4th June. In the period 1981-1983, IMAGINATION had hits in almost 30 countries around the world, with very high popularity across Europe, especially in France, Italy, Benelux and Germany, whilst also appearing in the Billboard US Dance and R&B Charts on a regular basis in the throughout the ‘80s. They really were a internationally successful British group, earning numerousPlatinum, Gold and Silver discs, for hit singles ‘Flashback’, In And Out Of Love’, the much-sampled ‘Just An Illusion’ and ‘Music And Lights’, ‘New Dimension’, ‘State Of Love’, ‘Looking At Midnight’ and ‘Thank You My Love’ and albums BODY TALK, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, SCANDALOUS, NIGHT DUBBING, CLOSER and LIKE IT IS.

Rooted in rhythm-and-blues pioneered by black musicians, 1950s rock and roll was racially inclusive and attracted listeners and performers across the color line. In the 1960s, however, rock and roll gave way to rock: a new musical ideal regarded as more serious, more artistic-and the province of white musicians. Decoding the racial discourses that have distorted standard histories of rock music, Jack Hamilton underscores how ideas of "authenticity" have blinded us to rock's inextricably interracial artistic enterprise.

Amazon Review by Tim from Surrey
All the Imagination albums in one collection, together with some bonus tracks.Imagination took the music world by storm with the debut hit of "Body Talk", and the hits continued with 'Just an illusion', 'looking at midnight' and so on. Sadly, with the release of 'Scandalous', and the first single from the album 'new dimensions' the fortunes of Imagination began to change, and they never returned to the top ten again. By the mid-1980s, they just faded away. This collection is definitely a wonderful 5 CD set, and is absolutely superb value.