590 Philip Jap

First  viewed  : 4  January  1983

Here's  the  little  epilogue  to  The  David  Essex  Showcase.

To  recap  from  the  earlier  post, the  overall  winner  of  the  talent  show  was  Bowie-fixated  singer  Philip  Jap  and  the  prize  was  his  own  TV  show.  I  bet  they  didn't  tell  him  his  35  minute  showcase  would  be  stuck  in  a  graveyard  slot  - 22.45pm  on  a  Tuesday  evening  just  after  Christmas.

Philip  got  to  perform  his  two  minor  hits of  1982 , Save  Us  and  Total  Erasure   plus  tracks  from  his  forthcoming  album. Peter  Powell  who'd  championed  him  on  Radio  One  ( almost  invariably  the  kiss  of  death  for  any  aspiring  artist ) acted  as  his  MC  on  the  show. Kenny  Lynch, Simon  Ward  and  Fiona  Richmond  - an  eclectic  bunch  to  be  sure- were  the  other  guest  stars  playing  parts  in  his  pseudo-videos. I  only  watched  a  few  minutes  of  it, Jap's  music  being  resoundingly  derivative  and  mediocre  however  much  gusto  he  put  into  its  physical  performance.

The   never-repeated  ( there's  a  surprise ! ) show  had  zero  impact  on  Jap's  commercial  fortunes. His  next  single  and  the  album  that  followed  bombed  completely. To  his  credit  Jap  accepted the  verdict, gave  up  on  being  a  singer   and  went  behind  the  scenes  as  a  composer  and  arranger  with  his  own  production  company,  Audiofield.. He  wrote  the  music  for  a  series  called  The  Glory  Boys  in  1984 and  many  commercials. He  also  wrote  for  briefly  successful  singer Leilani  in  the  late  nineties.