Like 'Nothing's wrong', 'Horse race' is taken from Mo's final album Stop Staring, released in 1984. Apparently a 12" single of 'Asia' was released a few months ago, but it is now impossible to find a copy. After all these years, the band hasn't been forgotten.
My collection: 7" single no. 7286
Found: Plato, Leiden, 15 August 2024
Tracks: 'Horse race' / 'In love there's pain'
After their second single 'Fred Astaire' reached number 18 in the Dutch Top 40, attention for the Dutch synthpop group Mo was growing. They do a tour around the country, with mixes responses from the audience.
The Dutch synthpop band Mo, it has been written on here many times before, was sadly underrated. It has become some sort of mission for me to hunt down their singles, and 'Asia' is the latest victory in that search.
The sleeve of this single proclaims that the songs are being performed by 'The Mo'. They were a new band at that time, but later they would be known as 'Mo'. As you can see, this is a rather simplistic sleeve. The 'Back Door' image comes from the record label, and on the back there's only an advert for starting bands to send their demos to Back Door.
Although the Dutch band Mo released a dozen singles during their career, only two of them made the Dutch Top 40. This was the second one: 'Cheese', a short upbeat synthpop song. It was the first single of Mo with new personnel. Drummer Harm Bieger was the only original member. He recruited Linda Bloemhard, Ton van der Meer and Hans Nieuwint after the original band split up after the release of just one album (and three singles).
Mo released the title track of their second album 'Ha Ha the sound of laughing as the second single from that album. It met with muted response from audiences and critics alike. While the previous single 'Cheese' managed a low position in the Dutch Top 40, this single flopped entirely. 'Cheese' would prove to be their last chart success by the way: all the singles that followed didn't chart either.
The first single by Mo I ever bought was this one, the ballad 'Old friend' taken from their second album 'Ha Ha! The sound of laughing'. Contrary to most of their singles, this one was a ballad. The single version lasted three minutes and was one minute shorter than the album version, in an attempt to make it radiofriendly. Despite this, 'Old friend' didn't make the Dutch Top 40.
'Fred Astaire' was the Mo's biggest hit in the Netherlands. It was released in January 1981 and reached number 18 in the Dutch Top 40. It was taken from the self-titled album 'Mo', which reached number 10 in the albums chart.
The first incarnation of Mo consisted of Clemens and Huub de Lange with Harm Bieger and singer Heili Helder. The group split up in 1981, but Harm Bieger set up a new line-up, consisting of himself, Hans Niewint, Ton van der meer and Linda Bloemhard. The second line-up released two more albums and a handful of singles.
