THROWBACK THURSDAY: 2 Men A Drum Machine And A Trumpet ‎– Tired Of Getting Pushed Around [1988]

One of the more unusual acts to emerge from the early UK house scene was 2 Men A Drum Machine And A Trumpet – a spinoff group from She Drives Me Crazy songsmiths Fine Young Cannibals.

The ‘2 Men’ in this case are the Cannibals’ Andy Cox and David Steele (also previously in The Beat), with collaborator Graeme Hamilton assuming ‘trumpet’ responsibilities.

The original, released in late 1987, could be described as quirky, pop-friendly house music, in much the same vein as Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley’s Jack Your Body, the smash dance hit of that year.

The group’s Top of the Pops performance was certainly a memorable one – check out the moment at 2:45 where the trumpet player misses his cue… 🙂

A few months later, an up and coming Detroit producer named Derrick May (credited as ‘Derek May’ on the sleeve) got his hands on the track to produce a more club-focused remix, and it doesn’t disappoint (comedy vocal snippets notwithstanding), adding some extra whoomph to the driving bassline of the original.

Sadly, for 2 Men A Drum Machine And A Trumpet, Tired Of Getting Pushed Around was their high water mark, reaching 18 in the UK charts, and their one and only release.

But at least we’ll always have that TOTP performance…

[Kudos to Caliggiasound80 for the YouTube upload]