Howdy all, and welcome to this week’s Pop Essays. I pre-scheduled this ahead of my week off that I’m currently on, but the niche retro music shenanigans carry on regardless. So, to this week, and to a solo project from one of the biggest British boybands of the 00s…
- Artist: Simon Webbe
- Song: Lay Your Hands
- Released: 22/08/2005
- Writers / Producers: Simon Webbe / Matt Prime / Tim Woodcock
- Highest UK Chart Position: #4
- Chart Run: 4 – 6 – 9 – 16 – 21 – 31 – 38 – 49 – 56 – 57 – 63 – 74 – 64 – 58 – 69 – 71 – 78 – 85 – 86
When Blue took a break to pursue solo projects in 2005, following the release of their greatest hits album, it was not unfair to assume that not many were focusing that intently on what Simon Webbe was doing.
Almost all of the clouds of hype and attention were circling around the two band members who were the fan favourites and who were most often in the tabloid media; namely, Lee Ryan and Duncan James. In fact, they had been the ones to go first with material of their own.
Duncan had got to #2 with opera star Keedie on “I Believe My Heart”, a song from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Woman In White, in October 2004. Lee meanwhile, hit #3 in July 2005 with his debut solo single, “Army of Lovers”.
However, both then experienced what was, even for the mid 00s, an immediate decline in success with subsequent singles, that failed to make the top 10 or even the top 30. And things weren’t much better for Antony Costa, whose one and only single, the Bryan Adams leaning rock of “Do You Ever Think Of Me?”, stuttered to an in-out #19 debut in February 2006, before he pivoted to a career in theatre and acting.
Simon, who was the only member of the band other than Duncan to remain signed to Innocent Records, the Virgin offshoot that had been Blue’s home from the beginning, should, by proxy, have therefore not had much in the way of fanfare.
And indeed, after the way some of the other solo albums had fared, the label accordingly adjusted their own expectations, with advance orders of only 30,000 copies of his debut album, Sanctuary, reasoning that what must be true of the rest of the band would be the same for him.
Except they did so without reckoning on Simon ultimately having the solo career that would connect with the widest audience outside of Blue. And a lot of that was because of the musical direction he pursued.
Looking at his position in the band – he was often lead on their more sensitive numbers like “If You Come Back” or putting in a choice rap break on “All Rise” or “Fly By” – and also his activities outside of it (he had set up his own music label and management company, Love4Music, with artists including VS, a five piece co-ed pop R&B group he’d put together, featuring a pre-fame Marvin Humes, as well as Transatlantic girl group L.A.D.E, who’d guested on their top 10 hit “Bubblin'”) suggested he’d keep down the R&B and hip hop route.
So it was little wonder that “Lay Your Hands” caught many people by surprise; not least of all Radio 1 listeners, who were invited to guess who was the voice behind the song, with guesses ranging from Seal to Lionel Richie before it was unveiled as Simon. One of the great sonic signifiers of an awesome record – a vinyl crackle sound effect – opens on to a looped, sped up, unidentified sample of a vocal over a string track: “Ooh, what you do / What you say, what you feel / Ooh, what you do / Lay your hands, let me heal”.
As the acoustic guitar and beat kicks in, it actually sets off down a slight country route, but is offset by ad libs and record scratches to keep it rooted in pop, whilst possessing soulful vocals in the vein of Bill Withers. The lyrics are almost meditative, as Simon reflects on finding strength from loved ones in tough times: “Sometimes life can be a burden / Trying to stay one step ahead / I feel the world upon my shoulder each time / I’m standing out on the edge / My hopes have all deserted me / Like they’ve washed away in the sand / And it’s hurting my pride, trying to survive / But I know that I stand a chance, when you lay your hands / Oh yeah / Cause it’s the only thing I have that still makes sense”.
And the chorus, when it arrives, is one that just has the ability to capture you right when you least expect it if you’re in a certain mood: “(Oh baby when I’m calling out) / Give me love and affection, keep telling me, showing me the way / (Oh if you see me falling down) / Lift me up from the shadows, will you take me away to a better place? / (And when I’m in my darkest hour) / Be by my side, to turn the tide until the suffering fades / When life is getting me down, getting me down, I’m close to defeat / Come and lay your hands on me”.
The video also neatly reflects this; there’s a sense of vulnerability running throughout the visuals, as a great sea of hands quite literally reaches out to hold Simon, as he falls backwards many times off a high plinth in a large warehouse. It certainly set him apart and gave him a more distinct persona from how he was presented in Blue.
“Lay Your Hands” was released in a very busy chart week at the end of August 2005; with no less than six new entries inside the top 10. It debuted and peaked at a very respectable #4, spending over four months on the UK charts, and also did very well at radio, peaking inside the airplay top 20.
The success then also continued on into the second single, “No Worries”, released ahead of the album that November, which also reached #4, spending ten weeks inside the top 20 as well as becoming a major hit around Europe, peaking in the top 5 in the Netherlands and Hungary, going onto become the biggest selling solo single by any member of Blue.
It was this which helped drive sales of Sanctuary in the UK to over 300,000 copies, and a peak of #7 following a third and final single, “After All This Time”, which became another top 20 hit in February 2006, and saw Simon embark on his own sold out solo tour.
But “Lay Your Hands” was ultimately the perfect choice to get him established as a solo artist; confounding people’s preconceptions and letting the music speak for itself absolutely paid off which, for us, makes it one of the best examples of launching an individual project away from a successful pop band.
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