Walking on Sunshine

June 1985: it is summer, albeit a cool one. “Walking on Sunshine” glances off the backbeat like classic Motown. It was the first (and, for a decade, the only) hit for Katrina and the Waves. It was penned by Kimberley Rew, the guitarist with the Cambridge-based psychedelic rockers the Soft Boys. In 1981, after the Soft Boys parted company, Rew reformed the Waves. This time they had a frontwoman, Katrina Leskanich, an American exile in East Anglia. Two independently released albums flopped. “We were a struggling band until 1985. I probably took things a little too seriously,” says Rew. “Walking on Sunshine” was written almost as self-therapy. “I was trying to find some common ground with Katrina, something that would work for her,” he says. It was produced by Pat Collier at Greenhouse Studios in London and mixed for release on Capitol by Scott Litt. With the backing of a major label, and a catchy hook, it was a favourite at festivals, eventually making the top 10. In a summer of poignant juxtapositions – as Ethiopia’s largest famine-relief camp was cleared and the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior sank off Auckland – it was hard to avoid the Waves’ infectiously upbeat “Walking on Sunshine”. Although the hits dried up as quickly as summer rain, the Waves stuck together. And, eventually, the ultimate sunshine pop event beckoned. The band represented the UK in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, and won, with another Rew composition, “Love Shine a Light”. Rew has since released three fine albums of his own.