Looking to be mane event again

We-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de, we-um-um-a-way... A-wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a wimoweh...

Anyone who thought the 1980s was a decade characterised by meaningless whimsy, people dressed in Tarzan thongs and lions that promised to sleep tonight was, well, half right actually.

Check out our photo gallery above.

The good news is that they - both the 80s and one of the decade's foremost party acts, Tight Fit - are back, with Shropshire playing its part in the return.

It's been exactly 25 years since Tight Fit appeared on Top of the Pops and we saw on our TV screens one lucky-looking fellow wearing next to nothing flanked by two scantily clad ladies, as all three of them sang an exotic jungle song.

In the novelty stakes, The Lion Sleeps Tonight gave The Birdie Song, Shaddap You Face and Agadoo a run for their money and fans bought the single by the bucketload, helping Tight Fit to hijack the charts for 15 weeks.

Now, Tight Fit are hatching a comeback. Not from the glamorous surroundings of a tropical glade but from a small recording studio set deep in the heart of an industrial estate in Telford.

As I pull on to the car park of Scadge Productions in Hortonwood, I immediately know I'm in the right place - the monkey sounds from their best-known single which emanate from the building are unmistakable.

Inside, the jungle vibe continues. The band is hard at work, rerecording "Lion" and a batch of other tracks, and shooting videos for them, with the aim of securing bookings on the thriving club circuit, where demand for nostalgia acts is one uncharacteristic growth area of the music business.

Julie Harris, the only remaining original member of the group, is making a pair of leopardskin gloves and completing last-minute adjustments to her skimpy outfit.

She jokes: "We were known for leopardskin, the jungle gear and the thigh-length boots - but I've to drive home down the M1 in the car in this later."

Julie admits she doesn't take the pomp and posturing of the pop world too seriously. Realistically she expects the reformed Tight Fit to be the soundtrack to party nights for 40 and 50-year-olds.

"It's just fun," she says. "We do lots of animal noises like we used to do on 'Lion' and people put their pints down and do funny noises as well.

"We want to do '80s tours, there's a big demand for it - in clubs people have '80s nights and our videos still play on Sky TV.

"We always do 'Lion' - twice sometimes. People love it."

Singer Dave Duckmanton, who has replaced original male vocalist Steve Grant, wanders around the backstage studio area in his underwear but - unusually for a singer whose character once dressed like Tarzan on an immodest day - his trousers are about to go back on.

He's only taken them off to iron them.

"I'm just going to roll my trousers up and put a leopardskin headband on," he says.

Vocalist Vicky Wright - daughter of Shropshire-born football legend Billy Wright - has replaced Julie's female sidekick Denise Gyngell from the original line-up and uses her Tight Fit trip to Telford to squeeze in an emotional pilgrimage to the home in Ironbridge where her father was born.

She is quick to point out the longevity of "Lion" and how the tune was revived recently on the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

As well as Vicky's county connection, there is another Shropshire link to the new-look Tight Fit. Guitarist Paul Brittain is from Bridgnorth and, as a music producer who has worked with the likes of A-Ha, is credited as the man who got the band back together.

He says: "We have all done our bits of career but we have come back together and found each other. It's great - people love Tight Fit!"

At the moment there are no plans to write and record new material, just to knock out the hits which also include Fantasy Island as well as a few cover versions.

The band talk about the old days but the focus is brought firmly back to what they are here in Shropshire to do - relaunch Tight Fit 2008.

Julie says: "It was quite a small period in time but it's always Tight Fit that you get remembered for."

The group's re-emergence is timely though. Fellow '80s stars such as Duran Duran are enjoying a second youth, as are any number of acts who made it big 25 years ago and who are now playing to packed audiences on nostalgia tours around the land.

Fashions, too, have come full circle. Teen rebels today look like they share the same barber as Simon Le Bon.

Perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised, however, that the escapism of 1980s music is making a comeback. Remember, the first time round the glamour and aspiration was a reaction to the bleak Britain of that decade, a period dominated by high unemployment and low wages, strikes and struggles to survive.

Twenty-five years on, with stock-market crashes, 'credit crunch', a faltering property market and pensions collapses, any lion waking up from a nice long sleep in the jungle might be forgiven for thinking it was still 1982.

And anyway, people of a certain age just like the songs from an era when they were young, foolish and carefree.

"People love the old songs and the old sounds," says Paul. "It's all old material we are doing - if you are going to have the old sounds then you might as well have the old songs as well."

And with that, Tight Fit take to the studio stage for the first time in a quarter of a decade and roll back the years with a roaring version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

It is clear that the Lion isn't sleeping - not tonight - and by the sound of things it won't be sleeping for some time to come.

By Ben Bentley

New Tight Fit male vocalist Dave Duckmanton with

original singer Julie Harris, left and Vicky Wright.

A reformed version of Tight Fit listen back to their rerecording of The Lion Sleeps Tonight with studio engineer Trev Wilkins, front.

Tight Fit on Top of the Pops in 1982, with original member Julie Harris, left.

From left, Paul Brittain, Julie Harris, Gareth Morgan, Dave Duckmanton, Adam Day, Vicky Wright and Jonty.

Guitarist Paul Brittain, with singer Vicky Wright.

Tight Fit in action on the studio stage.