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| Miquel Brown |
| Miquel (pronounced Michael) Brown is one of a handful of artists to have scored in the height of the disco era and then disappear only to reappear in the high energy-era with even greater success. There's very little information known about Brown. We do know that she was born in Montreal and raised in Vancouver Canada. She grew up in an upper middle class family with parents that had aspirations for her to be a doctor. Her grades were apparently good enough, but young Miquel had a wild streak in her and often fooled her parents by sneaking out to local pubs and nightspots. Flush with the excitement she found in the nightworld Brown toyed with the idea of becoming a professional actress. By the time she was in college, majoring in Medicine at D.C.'s famed Washington University, she met and had married a dashing man. She had daughter Sinitta Renet Malone in October of 1966. 20 some odd years later Sinitta would rival mom on the club charts. While on a summer break from college she audtioned for the part of Sheila in the road tour of the hit musical "Hair." Needless to say she got the job and that was the end of her college career. She enjoyed critical acclaim in her role as she toured the entire U.S. in the original road tour. By the early 1970's her touring had led her to the U.K. where she decided to set up house. The young, by then single, mom had few options She luckily landed the role of Miriam in the 1974 U.K. tele-play "Regan." Meanwhile she continued singing in clubs and kicking around England in the hopes of some type of career. She landed a role in the semi-hit musical "Mardi Gras." Spotted by an unknown producer in the musical led to her first record release, "The First Time Around." Not much is know about the song, producer or it's success? This innocent recording didn't lead to international success but it did bring her to the doorstep of Alan Hawkshaw. Hawkshaw, a british musician was no stranger to the studio or success. Earlier in his career he was a member of Emile Ford & the Checkmates and later the Shadows. He would later be an intergral part of Love & Kisses and his own Love Deluxe featuring Hawkshaw's Discophonia. He immediately signed Brown for an album deal. The resulting effort, produced by Alan and Barry Mason, yielded Miquel her first international hit. Thanks in large part to the mix by Jim Burgess "Symphony Of Love" sky-rocketed up the charts in 1978. The album was rich in flavor and spice and included several club favorites. Oddly enough Polydor (who licensed the U.S. version) didn't do a remix/follow-up 12" with the obvious winner "The Day That They Got Disco In Brazil." Perhaps their logic was to sell more albums? Just as quickly as she came from nowhere and shot up the charts, so too did she disappear into disco's blackhole of oblivion. Miquel, with a brief glimpse of fame, retreated back to club and session work and being a working mom. Ian Levine had already achieved success in the late 1970's with Evelyn Thomas, Barbara Pennington and L.J. Johnson. As disco "died" and we moved into the 1980's Levine had trouble getting his music noticed. Gay people disgruntled with rap, hip-hop and what was being offered up craved uptempo dance music. The timing was right for Ian to introduce what would become the next wave of "dance" music...high energy! Ian, who always had a penchant for black female vocalists, and Brown, who had a need for a producer were united in 1983. Ian, along with collaborator Fiachra Trench, assembled six powerful tracks for Miquel to record. The resulting album released on England's Record Shack label (the U.S. version was on T.S.R. Records) saw both Levine and Brown achieve global success. The first 12" single was the gay anthem and historic hit "So Many Men, So Little Time." The song with it's catchy countdown and Miquel's sexy and coy vocals is easily recognizable as one of the all-time classics. The album had three more 12" hits: "Beeline," "He's A Saint, He's A Sinner" and the title track "Manpower." All have that unmistakable Levine imprint and coupled with Brown's vocals became immediate club hits. Sylvia Mason (James) the voice behind Voyage and her own "We Gotta Dance" added backgrounds along with Ian Levine protege's Earlene Bentley and Yvonne Gidden. Miquel coasted along for two years on the success of her first album. Between club appearances here and abroad, coupled with the fact that Levine was busy creating a string of hits with his stable of artists, delayed here follow-up until 1985. The Levine-Trench machine swung into action and whipped up another nine tracks for her "Close To Perfection" album. A solid set of numbers that paled in comparison to her previous release. Their were two...actually three 12" singles released from the album. "Black Leather" was the lead single and despite it's high energy nature it stalled on the charts. Next came "Close To Perfection" but that failed even more miserably. So the powers that be thought a remix would help...and in fact it did. But still the combined sales of the album and it's singles couldn't compete with her prior successes. Despite poor sales and lack of chart success Record Shack and Levine hung in there and stood by Miquel. She had two more 12" singles on Record Shack. In 1986 she released the down tempo number "On The Radio" which is NOT the Donna Summer song. She quickly followed it with the lackluster "One Way Street" and neither restored her to the pantheon of the club charts. In America they released "One Hundred Percent" backed with "Close To Perfection" and "On The Radio" on the domestic version of Record Shack Records. It faired better than the previous import singles but still missed the sales mark. By 1986 Levine had severed his ties with Record Shack and started his own label Nightmare Records. The confident producer took his stable of artists with him. Miquel's first release on Nightmare was "Footprints In The Sand" an excellent record that was sorely overlooked. I know of one more release on Nightmare Records 1989's "This Time It's Real." By the end of 1989 Nightmare closed it's doors. Since then Miquel has once again fallen off the "disco radar." She has however continued to be visble in her acting roles. After 1974's "Regan" she played the "8th reporter" in "Superman: The Movie" in 1978 and then she put acting on-hold while her musical career took off. In 1995 she resumed her acting by playing "the housekeeper" in "Solomon And Sheba." That same year she portrayed "Sgt. Patton" (not that one!) in the Meg Ryan hit "French Kiss." As of recent she can be seen in 2001's "Wit" starring Emma Thompson as "technician #-2." Content with her acting and the occasional personal appearance it seems Brown's musical career is all but over. Still we have the wonderful legacy of her recordings.....and one never knows.....she may resurface in the clubs again. Off hats of to the dynamo whose name no one ever gets right...we love you Miquel! |
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