As the singer for the New Wave band Kajagoogoo, Limahl became internationally famous with the 1983 single “Too Shy,” then continued his success as a solo artist with the hit “The Neverending Story” (from the 1984 film of the same name). Those songs have recently been used in television shows such as Stranger Things, American Horror Story, and Black Mirror to instantly evoke 1980s nostalgia. Limahl isn’t all about the past, though: he has just released a new single, “One Wish for Christmas.”
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“One Wish for Christmas” is actually a reworking of Limahl’s previous single “London for Christmas.” In the original song, released in 2012, he sings about a couple spending a romantic holiday doing all the things England’s capital city has to offer. In this new version, the song takes a more wistful turn.
“The lockdown gave me the time to do it,” Limahl says of “One Wish for Christmas,” during a call from his London home. “I don’t think I would have done it [otherwise]. In April and May, I was twiddling my thumbs, thinking, ‘What am I going to do with myself this year? Then I thought about the lyrics of “London for Christmas” and how they talk about all these great things that we can’t do at the moment: go to the theater or cocktail bar, [boat] trip on the Thames, the London Eye, all this stuff. So I called up the co-writers, Jon Nickoll and Ian Curnow [who produced it], and I said, ‘Guys, why don’t we revisit the song?’”
The updated song that Limahl and his collaborators created – with all recording done remotely in their respective home studios – came out with a classic-yet-modern vibe: “I wanted to do something that sounded old school but with a contemporary lyric,” he says. As for making the lyrics about London, he says that part was inspired by songs from the Great American Songbook that are set in specific cities, such as “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
“I live in London; I’ve lived there most of my adult life,” Limahl says. “I have lots of important and poignant memories in London. So I always, on my songwriter bucket list, wanted to write a song about London because I thought it was as good a city as any to use as a backdrop for a story. I can think of so many songs about New York, but not that many about London, so I thought I could redress that balance a bit.”
Writing a song about Christmas was also on Limahl’s wish list – though he admits that when he and Nickoll first sat down to write a song in 2012, he wasn’t sure doing a holiday song was actually feasible. “I kind of joked and said, ‘Well, it’s impossible to do anything about Christmas because it’s all been done’ – but using London as a backdrop gave us a new angle into Christmas.”
Limahl credits Nickoll – who is the pianist at the famed Savoy Hotel in London – with helping him achieve his goals for both “London for Christmas” and “One Wish for Christmas.” He says that working with Nickoll, Curnow, and others throughout his career has been one of his favorite aspects of songwriting. “I love to collaborate because it’s just more fun. It’s too solitary otherwise. It’s nice to have someone to talk to on the tea break!” he says with a laugh.
“It’s like a cake mix or something,” Limahl says of co-writing. “You put it in the oven and you don’t know what’s going to come out. I find that fascinating. I love the fact that you’re never quite sure. I have sat down to write songs many times, and you might end up with eight bars but it doesn’t go anywhere. Sometimes an idea can translate to a song, and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s why it’s exciting and scary every time because, ‘Is this going to work today or am I just going to look at a blank wall and nothing comes?’”
Setbacks such as writer’s block have never dissuaded Limahl from pursuing his artistic ambitions. He credits his upbringing in the north of England for giving him the desire and determination he’s needed to succeed in his career. “We had no money, my family, so I had to go out gardening or delivering bread and save up my money.” He says he used his earnings to buy albums. “Then I’d take my record like a trophy down to the local youth club on Tuesday and Thursday nights. That’s never left me, really. I’m still as passionate.
“I was just driven about music, and I can’t really explain that,” Limahl continues. “I always fancied being a singer. I was always singing along to the records. When I left home, I entered a few talent contests. They were quite useful because I got to learn about communicating with a band, the kind of sheet music I had to turn up with, finding songs in the right key, what works for me vocally and what didn’t, watching other performers, all of that.” Instead of performing under his birth name, Christopher Hamill, he took the stage name Limahl (an anagram of his last name).
Limahl’s career really began when he moved to London, where a friend introduced him to a theater agent. “Next thing, I was auditioning for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I got the part of the youngest brother, Benjamin,” he says, “and it went on from there. Suddenly I wasn’t just loving music, I was actually involved in performing.” After that show, Limahl was cast in another major production, Godspell.
Even when he was doing musical theater work, Limahl never lost sight of his original plan to be a lead singer. After joining and leaving a couple of groups, he auditioned for a band named Art Nouveau. He got the job, and they renamed themselves Kajagoogoo. “I went to live with the bass player and his girlfriend; he had a spare bedroom,” Limahl says. “We wrote songs and recorded demos and bought some synthesizers and really worked hard at it for about eight months to a year.”
A pivotal moment came when Limahl, working as a waiter at The Embassy Club in London, met and befriended Nick Rhodes, the keyboard player for Duran Duran, then one of the most popular bands in the world. That led to Rhodes producing Kajagoogoo’s song “Too Shy.” “That just changed everything,” Limahl says. The band had further hits with “Ooh to Be Ah” and “Hang on Now,” but “Too Shy” remains their most beloved song to this day. When Limahl struck out on his own in 1984, he found similar chart-topping success with “The Neverending Story.”
Until the pandemic hit, Limahl has continued performing frequently, and he says he never grows tired of playing those hit songs because he recognizes what they mean to fans. “People associate certain records with important memories that never leave you,” he says, adding that he often hears from people that his songs were playing during their first kiss, wedding dance, or other significant event. “I think because “Too Shy” and “Neverending Story” are 37 years old, I’m part of people’s lives. That’s what keeps it fresh for me, when I see the smiles on people’s faces, I see them holding up their phones because they feel it’s an important moment and they’re filming it, or when I meet them and they want selfies.”
Now, even if the holiday season is more difficult to celebrate this year, Limahl hopes that “One Wish for Christmas” will give his fans another song that will become the soundtrack to more happy memories.
