From:EURweb 8.23.04

O'NEAL / SOS BAND TALK ABOUT THE HITS

Both have 'best of' packages in stores tomorrow.

*There can never, EVER be too many
greatest hits CDs from 80s ladies man Alexander
O'Neal and the funk-soul outfit the S.O.S. Band.
Both acts release new best-of collections tomorrow,
courtesy of Tabu/EMI Records.
But if we're to believe what record labels and
concert promoters are telling O'Neal and S.O.S.
Band trumpet player Abdul Ra'oof, there aren't
enough fans out here to justify the backing of
any new studio material - much less an
all-out concert tour.
"The industry is for the young," says Ra'oof,
on the phone from Atlanta. "They want 'em younger
now. If you ain't Lil Mo, or Lil This or Lil That, ain't
nobody hardly getting no contract."
The frustration with today's youth-oriented music
industry is echoed by O'Neal, who gave up on trying
to get U.S. labels and promoters to get behind him
once again. The singer left American shores and
spent seven years living in the U.K., where old
school R&B cats are embraced with open arms.
"I talk to a lot of different artists from my era
and they have the same problems as well," says
O'Neal, 54. "A lot of those guys are coming over
to the U.K. I've been doing a lot of different shows
with people like Howard Hewitt and Freddy Jackson
and the fans have been very, very supportive. I enjoy
performing there and I get the love that I should be
getting here at home. They've been in my corner
for the last 20 years, so I thought why not [move
there]."
If they only knew how hundreds of thousands
of us in the states can remember when we heard
"Take Your Time (Do It Right)" for the first time,
or how many of us are instantly taken back
to another time upon hearing "Saturday Love,"
or "Weekend Girl," or "Criticize," or "High Hopes"
- all of which are included on the new greatest
hits packages.
"Bottom line with S.O.S., we're performing,
we're doing the things we've been blessed to
accomplish in the past," says Ra'oof, who says
the group is putting together a new studio album
and live CD. "We're getting rewarded doing many
concerts."
Both Ra'oof and O'Neal thank old school radio
stations for keeping their material in rotation, but
frustration sets in when any new material offered
to radio is met with a strong stiffarm.
"Unfortunately they appreciate your old stuff
more than they do the new stuff," says Ra'oof.
"There aren't many record companies that'll sign
groups like us. There are few here and there that
do, but you have to wait on the right situation.
The longer you wait, the better radio becomes
because when we started doing this stuff, we
didn't have even classic soul stations, old
school, etc. They're everywhere now."
"If we didn't have those stations, I think
we'd be in big trouble," says O'Neal, a native
of Natchez, Mississippi who currently makes
his home in Minneapolis. "It seems like the
industry has looked over all of our accomplishments.
It's pretty frustrating, but I don't sit back and worry
about it. I'm doing the same things I've been doing
all the time - working and taking care of my family
and that's most important. I really want to show
the U.S. what I can do and what I've accomplished,
but it seems like it's very difficult to get some
consistency with promoters and those
types of things."
O'Neal's latest album, "The Saga of a Married
Man," was released in Britain in 2002 via Eagle
Rock Records. Produced by Bobby Z from the
Prince camp, the album is considered by
O'Neal to be his best yet.
"It's a great album. It's very consistent with
Alexander O'Neal and the things that I do," he
says. "But we're not getting the support of radio
because it's not a major [record company]; it's
a lot of different variables there."
With the conkaline now out of his hair, the
heavy-throated crooner spends these days tending
to his eight kids (aged 11 and older) and performing
here and there. He also starred in a play in Detroit
recently, and says he still does regular gigs with
his "Saturday Love" and "Everything I Miss At
Home" homegirl, Cherrelle. He also re-recorded
the chorus of his song "Sunshine" for former
Lost Boyz member Mr. Cheeks, who covered
the O'Neal classic for his 2002 solo album.
As for ever working with producers Jimmy
Jam and Terry Lewis again, O'Neal says: "There's
always a chance of getting back with them. That
relationship has always been preserved and I think
it's about timing. When the time is right and we
have something solid, I figure it'll be a great
thing to come back for a collaboration."
Of course, Raoof and the rest of the S.O.S.
Band - and a snowstorm in Atlanta - are partly
responsible for Jam and Lewis being in the
position to eventually work with O'Neal.
"They were cutting our album when they
were touring with The Time," remembers Ra'oof.
It snowed in Atlanta and they couldn't fly out to
make the next engagement, so they were fired
by Prince. I remember that day clearly, what
happened when they came back in the studio.
We were at Master Sound recording studio
and they walked in and looked at each other
and said, 'Well, we're on our own now bruh,
we gotta make it happen.'"
The band were in the midst of "Just Be
Good to Me" and "Tell Me If You Still Care"
for their third album "S.O.S. III."
"They had already written 'High Hopes'
for us, a song we selected from Leon Silvers,"
Ra'oof continues. "Silvers Spoon Productions
was producing us. Jam and Lewis submitted
that song to Leon. They had been submitting
different songs to different record companies
and we chose that song to record. Then
Clarance Avant (owner of Tabu Records)
decided to let them produce the next
album, and it's been history from that
point on."