In 1980, Lisa Coleman replaced Gayle Chapman in Prince's touring band on keyboards and piano, and she was also asked to contribute vocals to several tracks over his next few albums. In 1983, guitarist Dez Dickerson left the band over religious conflicts, and Prince invited Wendy Melvoin (Lisa's girlfriend at the time) into the band as they began to record the 'Purple Rain' album. The film and album turned Prince and the newly named Revolution into superstars, and his personal life also became intertwined with Melvoin's when he began dating her twin sister Susannah. After 'Purple Rain' was released in 1984, Prince and the Revolution recorded 'Around The World In A Day' in 1985, and then 'Parade' the following year, alongside the soundtrack to his film 'Under The Cherry Moon'. In interviews, Coleman and Melvoin felt they were not getting the recognition and credit they deserved, despite their growing contributions to Prince's work, and so feeling spurned and as a result of these comments, he had already decided he would dissolve the Revolution once the tour was complete, and so in October 1986, Melvoin and Coleman were dismissed by Prince.
Signing to Columbia Records as a duo, the pair released their first album, simply titled 'Wendy And Lisa', in 1987, and although three singles were issued from it, neither 'Honeymoon Express', 'Waterfall' nor 'Sideshow' hit the top 40 on either side of the Atlantic. The follow-up album, 'Fruit At The Bottom', was released in 1989, and when 'Satisfaction' was issued as a single it gave them a top 40 single in the UK. In 1990, the duo signed with Virgin Records in the US (which was already their label in Europe)' and released 'Eroica', but this only achieved minor chart success, and so in 1991, Virgin UK released the remix album 'Re-mix-In-A-Carnation', a selection of club mixes from the first three albums as remixed by producers like the Orb, William Orbit, and Nellee Hooper. In the mid-1990's Wendy & Lisa worked on several movie projects with record producer Trevor Horn, and subsequently decided to record an album with him. The project was completed but famously shelved due to creative and personal disputes between the artists and the producer, which according to them revolved around Horn and his wife Jill Sinclair's alleged homophobia. As Horn retained the rights to the recordings, they have remained locked away in his valult, but because the album never saw an official release, it has circulated among Prince and Wendy & Lisa fan communities as a highly prized bootleg. Following the scrapping of the 'Friendly Fires' album - named by fans, as it was never given an official title - Wendy & Lisa's next solo effort was the the 1998 album 'Girl Bros.', which was independently released, as were all their subsequent albums.
Track listing
01 The Guise Of Love
02 Drive All Night
03 I'm In Love Again
04 Lower
05 Friendly Fire
06 Viste
07 Diggin' To China
08 I Wanna Get On
09 The Give
10 So High
11 Madmen Swim Upstream
