According to a release from the March Exposé Fan Club Newsletter, Gioia has apparently recovered from her ailment.
The fan club is selling a single of hers called "Make That Move", under the moniker of G-Spot. (I assume this means Gioia in the Spotlight, though the name does carry another, more risqué connotation--then again, so does Exposé. This could also be a band she's formed and is vocalist of. <Single Format> The release in on a label called Mayday Records.
If you don't know what G-Spot is, it has a sexual meaning. Gioia did not pick the name, apparently she did a favor for Lewis Martinee.
They never announced that Gioia recovered, so one theory on this is this could be a project she had done earlier but just released now... and that she can't sing. But according to one third-hand source (who told fan club member Michael Soto), she's supposedly performing right now in a Miami nightclub, though I have no real confirmation of this.
I don't know what this entails for Gioia and Exposé. I'm not certain if she's coming back to Exposé and this is a side project for her, which other artists have done in the past. (Personally, I'd like to see her return and Exposé become a quartet). I'm pretty certain that Exposé would welcome her back if she recovered, based on what both the ladies and Pantera have said in the past. (Though I'll admit that Arista is the big unknown x-factor in this type of decision--based on the action which I made the focus of my last editorial, they might see her as a liability. Who knows?).
I still wonder if the others would have welcomed her back. And to this day I still think everybody owes her a little bit of an apology for the whole Manilow video snub.
Gioia may have decided to pursue a solo career herself--perhaps she wants to pursue different goals (all members of Exposé have stated that they want to do solo work sometime, having different musical interests, and for her it would be a good opportunity). She might like the dance genre better than the others and dislike the new "AC" direction Exposé's been heading in.
From what I now understand, Gioia is not as heavy into dance as much as she is into vocal-oriented rock. She has told me that she did not think Exposé went in the best direction with their third album.
The G-Spot name might be an attempt to fight prejudice from the Dance community, who might be less inclined to play Gioia if they recognize her as the "woman from Exposé", since some DJs tend to be prejudiced towards dance acts that go for mainstream markets.
Very Important Note: The news I gave in the last issue of the magazine may have been in error. In August of 1994, in an on-line conference on the GEnie computer network, Lewis Martinee had specifically stated that Gioia had opened a Dance Studio in her home town in Florida. Here's the portion he states it in:
<[L.Martinee] INVEST-RT.1> As for Gioia...
<[L.Martinee] INVEST-RT.1> She opened her own dance stuido, in Ft. Lauderdale...
<[Florence] F.BRESNAHAN1> Good for her!
<[John R.] J.TROY> Really? Tell me more about that!
<[L.Martinee] INVEST-RT.1> It doesn't seem like she'll be able to sing anymore in the near future.
<[John R.] J.TROY> Gioia, I mean.
<[Sylvia] GERMANY2.RT> How come?
<[John R.] J.TROY> Throat problems. I think she was permanently damaged.
<[John R.] J.TROY> Lewis knows more about that.
<[L.Martinee] INVEST-RT.1> What John said.
Though I do note that Lewis hasn't much direct contact with Gioia, I assumed his statement was reliable. Perhaps he misspoke and meant music studio, or perhaps Gioia does have a dance studio.
In truth, it turned out she did have a dance studio. The busy woman was working on several things at once.
Also, in reading this, I've been reminded of the GEnie network. While this is more of an aside, I found out that GEnie, which today amounts to a woefully outdated BBS connected to the Internet, will be shutting down, since the software is not Year 2000 compliant and will fail come Jan 1st. While this is not unexpected, I felt I should just say that I am greatful to what they once did for me and this newsletter.
In any event, expect further news and coverage of this event when I have more details. If this is a full-fledged effort to pursue a solo career, expect as many details of it as I can to be printed in these pages!
But...G-Spot????
The date of the new Exposé album, the greatest hits compilation, has been moved back from Spring to Summer. Arista's best guess is a release in July. No further information is available. (This comes from Bill Wilson of Arista records, an on-line representative of the company serving CompuServe).
This is a status quo at Arista. The label tends to dislike firm release dates for albums, preferring to wait until it's "done right". This probably means Exposé is both recording tracks, as well as having them judged by Arista to see if they "pass muster" with them. They may also be waiting for the optimal time to release the album, since competition today is fierce.
Arista can really scrutinze an act. Sometimes an Album can be delayed a few years while undergoing tweaking and manipulation. The Exposé album was actually supposed to be out in Fall 1994, but we had to wait a whole year for it to come out.
Hopefully, this album will be out by summer.
In 1994, Ann Curless expanded her role in the music industry outside of Exposé.
First of all, Ann has been shopping songs around to other acts and groups. While Arista has not seen fit to allow her work to be used with Exposé, for various reasons not in this author's opinions related to the quality of the work, she had co-written a hit for the British Dance Group "Degrees In Motion", best known for their hit in the US "Do You Want it Right Now". This single went to #8 in the UK back in the first half of 1994. I don't believe this was released in the US, and I'm not sure what album this would have been released on.
Fan club member and Epistle subscriber Amy Green reports that Ann had stated in an article that one of the songs she had written was called "I'll Be There", and is a three-part Acapella Harmony song.
Secondly, Ann Curless has gotten involved in the business side of the music business. In 1994 Ann, with the help of the National Academy of Popular Music, organized two long seminars for the purposes of instructing new artists about the recording industry and how it works. These seminars were formed by Ann to prevent people from going through the hassles many new artists, including herself, face due to lack of knowledge. From what I've heard, they've been pretty successful.
Special Thanks to Larry Flick of Billboard Magazine for releasing this information through his Dance Column. It's good for Exposé to have friends in the press!
If you read the album notes on Exposé, Ann's special thanks include a big thank you to the creators and members of "The Curless Concept Club". I had asked Gladys Perez what she knew about this organization, and found out Pantera had heard nothing about it. Well, thanks to subscriber Chris Moreira, I've finally found out about this!
This club has been in existence since late 1990, apparently started by Jennifer Robey and Jina Dittle. Jina knew Ann personally and helped form this, so apparently they had a direct link to her. I have obtained a copy of the first issue and it seems to have been a place to find out more about Ann's projects and life, has printed a few photos of Ann (outside of Exposé), and I guess fans contributed poetry and the like.
I do not know if the club is still operating. Jina left to pursue educational goals a few years later, and the last issue of this newsletter came in June 1993. The last reported address I have for the CCC is:
Curless Concept Club
PO Box 6512
Florence, KY 41022
I will attempt to contact the club and see if they are still operating. Perhaps if they aren't, I can get the members to contribute to this one. I'll let you know if I'm successful.
The Curless Concept club is no longer functioning, and attempting to contact Jennifer Robey didn't get any results. The sad thing was Ann pretty much was close to these two girls, but as soon as she moved to New York City she either sort of snubbed them or drifted appart from them.
Most of you know that Gioia got married in 1988 to Joseph Bruno, and had a daughter Brianna. Well, as I reported, she's divorced now, and lives with her daughter. Some of you may not know that in the video to When I Looked at Him, her "boyfriend" was actually her husband. Which is probably why she had the most intimate love scenes. (Tame, yes, but I'd bet she'd have been uncomfortable doing them with an actor)
But, what of the others?
Apparently, this has never been reported, but Ann Curless and Kelly Moneymaker are married.
I was always shocked that Ann and Kelly never talked about their marital status--after all, Gioia did! I'm still wondering why they felt a need to keep this fact private.
Ann Curless had relocated to New York City in the 90's, and had a relationship with and ended up marrying George Hess of Arista records. George was once director of Dance Music for the label, being the executive producer of Dance Now!, Arista's foray into Dance Compilation and included the Exposé remix to "Stop Listen Look and Think". (It was originally a promotional club remix single with other remixes of that song by DMC and Lewis Martinee.) Arista dissolved George's position sometime 1991. Yet, George ended up doing something in music: in 1993 he was Exposé's tour manager. And currently, I believe he has his own label for some dance acts. (Likely located in NYC).
Hess once contacted me just to tell me that he was not "canned" from Arista, so I was mistaken. Hess had a strange web site that had no content other than a little "HotJava" icon with a Jackhammer. I never saw anything come from that site.
Kelly is married to a gentlemen named Stewart Mathis, apparently being her husband from before she hitched up with Exposé. Stewart apparently is a person who has knowledge of the music industry and has also served a role for Exposé's tours, being a sound engineer for the group.
Kelly divorced Stewart Mathis, and Married Peter Reckell. I believe she and Stewart still collaborate musically on their projects, since I saw his name in the credits of Like a Blackbird, Kelly's solo release.
Jeanette is, to the best of my knowledge, still unmarried. I believe she has or had at least one steady boyfriend (named Nathan). Reports from a concert hall promoter (Tim Leslie, see transcripts on GEnie) in the midwest have show that she may even suffer from a bit of loneliness on the tour. After all, it's no longer three women on the open road by themselves: While in many cases it's "just the girls", Ann and Kelly can spend intimate time alone with their spouses, and likely do! But Jeanette must end up spending time apart... and, the road can get pretty lonely.
There are reports of Jeanette getting married, but I have no further information on that.
Ann and Kelly at the last report have no children yet. Ann has stated (on the Les Brown show) that they all want to have children, but are worried that it would be hard to care for them and deal with the grueling music industry, where recording and touring take up a lot of time, especially since Exposé has to promote themselves more than other acts with greater "star power".
No news on this at all. It's been 5 years since this was written. I don't think Kelly has had any Children, but with Ann and Jeanette being out of the spotlight for so long, this is anyone's guess.
Return to Table of ContentsThis section deals with news about the direction of this newsletter. It's large right now, but will become much smaller as other articles take priority and everything becomes carved in stone. And, I do tend to be wordy-please forgive me for that. I'll learn to be terse later.
This is the second issue of the Exposé Epistle newsletter, and I wish to now thank all of you who have chosen to subscribe.
Admittedly, I was taking a leap of faith doing this. For a few years now, I've wanted to do this, but because of the fan club's problems in mailings, my Pen Pal list didn't arrive until 1995. Rather than just informing people of a possible newsletter, I created and sent a sample issue of this newsletter to every valid US address on this list, spending some money to do it, knowing full well that this money would be "spent" even if nobody responded.
But it seems that my gambit has paid off. While I had about six "Return to Sender" letters come back, everybody else has received the document, and so far, I have garnered interest, both from Postal subscribers and E-Mail subscribers. A few of you actually were so pleased and thrilled with the magazine you took the time to look up my number and call me. I don't want to encourage that (unless you get prior permission from me), but I'm glad it's moved you to do that.
I do wish to apologize right now for a few things that crept up in issue #1. First of all, I didn't have the preview issue proofread by another person, so some really boneheaded grammar mistakes came out. I want to avoid that in the future. For what it's worth, I had originally designed the first issue as an Electronic Mail and Internet newsletter. I had suspected the Fan Club would never recover and this list would not be distributed, so my only vehicle of communication was this medium, and I wrote my articles as if this was my only medium of communication, and I had started writing some of them in October. When the Pen Pal list finally shipped in January, I now had the "market" for the newsletter... but in my rush to get it out and started, I didn't change all my references to include the postal subscribers, nor did I update some of the articles.
Here's hoping I just keep improving...
In my first issue, I stated the document was available in "The US and Canada.", but I never sent out samples to the Canadian members-or any non-US residents. Right now, I'm avoiding foreign Postal Mail subscriptions since I don't have much knowledge of the postal rates right now, and it'd be a little difficult for me to cash International Checks right now. This may change in the future. I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this caused.
Exposé achieved a Gold Certification in late 1994. I knew this, but didn't update the Extra Extra article to reflect this.
Bill Wilson is an Arista Representative on CompuServe. When I provided you with his address, I was intending for you to write a message to Clive Davis via him if you wanted to send it via E-Mail.
I may have not communicated some facts in my first issue, and a few people have had questions on some points, so I'll deal with them now.
To receive and participate in the magazine, you need to formally subscribe to the Epistle-free if E-Mail, for $12.50 by postal mail in the US. I regret that I can't give free postal issues to contributors at this point. I need the subscription money to pay for mailing costs for each issue and overhead for the newsletter. Right now it's pretty small, and this definitely does count towards making this work. I can't afford to operate this "in the red"-my income is fixed right now. Only a select few people get postal issues for free-the members of Exposé most notably.
This was my worst problem. A few people loved the newsletter but did not take a chance to subscribe. I had one person say the newsletter was "awesome", but he never subscribed. I had another who didn't want to subscribe because I wasn't official. People should realize I was not trying (and didn't) make a profit on any of this. It all went for paper and stamps.
I have a requirement for any information contributions. I can accept copies of tapes and articles, of course. If you're speaking solely from memory, however, I need the statement in writing. In other words, I can't accept information conveyed orally. I need a paper trail for my publishing purposes and quoting-in part to have a record where I got it from, and also to aid the memory. For instance, one person told me about a song Ann Curless wrote over the phone, and I can't remember the name of it. I hate it when that happens! The only way I have to tape it if it was a phone call, and that's not something I wish to get into right now.
I don't want people to think that I am the ultimate infallible source of knowledge for Exposé. Like I've freely admitted, I wasn't here from the very beginning, and there are gaps in my knowledge. I don't have a direct contact with a member of the group like a few of you have. I do have a few reliable sources, but even they may have gaps in their information or a different perspective. I see my main role in this newsletter as a Chef for Stone Soup, the only differences being I have some important ingredients already. Though to make it a great soup, I need more stuff. And, as people are sending in stuff already, and that will enhance my knowledge of the group.
But I can make mistakes, and occasionally, so do my few sources. I just want to make that clear. A lot of my information tends to focus more on the business side of Exposé (regarding their producers and agents) rather than the personal side, and I recognize that. And note that, while I am willing to take up all your suggestions, I can't promise I'll fulfill them all. I can't please everybody, and there may be some things you disagree with in my direction. But then again, I'm the one doing the work, taking the risks with this, and since it is a labor of love, I must be true to my feelings and perspectives.
Ultimately, I'm doing The Exposé Epistle because I care deeply for the members of Exposé, and the project is primarily reflecting what I'd like to see in a newsletter for Jeanette, Gioia, Ann and Kelly. Hopefully it'll be something you enjoy as well.
I do wish to make it clear that I am not attempting to be a replacement for the Official Exposé Fan Club, or to subvert away their membership, but rather as a supplement to them or as an alternative to those who wish to try another source of information. Personally, I still belong to their fan club, and I think you might want to stick around with them in addition to me. I can't do everything they're capable of doing, such as forward mail to the members or sell merchandise. They likely have a larger volume of mail, and please remember that the director of the fan club gets paid for her services. I doubt that I could handle all of these tasks by myself. One of my goals here is to actually help the fan club improve via competition. I hope that's what happens.
So everybody knows, I will not attempt to "play favorites.", and I treat all Exposé members equally. If I seem to give more coverage of one member opposed to another, that's just because I may have more information about one member than another. For instance, Ann Curless has done a lot of the print interviews for the group, seemingly acting as "spokesperson", thus my choice for "Ann-isms". It's not meant as favoritism. These are gaps in my knowledge. For instance, I have precious few quotes from Gioia available, but "Deep Throat" knew more about her since she actually took time to talk to him more than the others. Both Kelly and Jeanette have done audio interviews which I have, but haven't spoken a lot in print interviews. I hope you'll understand that I can't provide as much coverage if I don't have enough facts. I do try to balance coverage: for instance, my editorial on Gioia is now balanced by a Spotlight on Kelly. Please be patient, and understand I can't always divide "equal coverage" within each issue.
A few High Exposed have offered to provide me with photos. Right now I can't really publish them. My printer is a nice inkjet, but I doubt it would flatter photos well-the resolution is too low. Maybe I'll change that view in the future, but right now, it will just be text. I could get a line sketch scanned and printed, so if any of you are good artists, feel free to send me a sketch.
Some people might be wondering why I'm being so formal with stuff like copyright language and the legal indicia on the front page. That's done to be careful. I have to make sure to separate my opinions and statements with other's so as not to be blamed for other's mistakes or be hit with libel suits-and I also have to make sure Exposé isn't blamed for anything I or others say. That's standard for many fanclubs out there or magazines.
The copyright laws are something I'd like to obey in any event, but I have specific reasons for being careful about them. First of all, unlike a lot of other fan clubs, I am or have plans to place this magazine on some sites at the Internet, the "Information Superhighway". This gives me access to a wide audience-it will be out there for anybody to get should they seek it out or stumble over it. The government and businesses have been noticing what's out there and have started to crack down on the copyright violations, more closely than they ever had before. I want to make sure my magazine doesn't get anybody's ire up.
There are certain things I'm prohibited from doing. Much as I'd love to do them, right now Lyric sheets aren't allowed-they have a lot of rules against that, there's some formal "no more than 11% of a song" can have lyrics published. I'd love to provide them to you, but I have to be careful...music publishing is a very powerful force, and getting permission from all the songwriters would likely be tough to do. (Exposure was fine since Lewis wrote them All and the Fan Club worked for Lewis' company-but I suspect the Fan Club can't get them for the third album because of this reason.) Promotional photos of Exposé are apparently protected under the copyright laws-photographers and management agencies have some rights to these, so I can't put them in my magazine. (I could publish photos that were taken by fans, however). This is part of the price you pay for being "Unofficial".
This doesn't mean that I'm powerless to reprint everything. Some transcripts may be legal. I believe I can publish a transcript of local radio shows-Not the syndicated stuff like Casey's Countdown or Hit Line USA you might hear, which are expressly copyrighted works-but rather the interview they did at a station with a local DJ. I'll be printing one from a local station soon. Some printed works aren't copyright and are in public domain-such as other fan club newsletters, though I will likely paraphrase rather than directly quote. A "fair use" doctrine allow brief quotations from any copyright source, provided it's done properly. I'm still learning about this, so bear with me. See below for more on this.
I see this newsletter as developing in four phases or stages. These are loosely defined and may overlap-there's no strict sequential/chronological order to them, they may overlap. They are as follows:
Phase One is what I'm currently in right now. This just involves me writing all the articles myself, such as Extra Extra, EX-Files, articles and editorials. This is perhaps the hardest phase, because I have to write and prepare everything, and because I'm not an endless fountain of knowledge, and could run out of things to write about if I am the sole writer. That's one reason why I serializing articles such as the EX-Files, so I don't peak and run out of articles too early.
It's a good thing I did this. With low subscription rates and (relatively) little input, I ran out of things to say about 11 issues into things.
Quite Frankly, writing is hard work. Doing the whole thing alone is pretty grueling, even though this is a relatively small project. That's why I'll be implementing the following phases to supplement this.
Phase Two involves publishing information from other sources. In some cases, while I can go over the events and quote some lines from these articles in Extra Extra and other articles, you have to see the real thing to get the full impact of some of these. I will publish articles and transcripts that I feel are in the public domain, which are few right now. Most of the written articles from newspapers and magazines have express copyright notices prohibiting publication of them.
What I intend to do for those articles is contact the publishers or broadcasters and get written permission to have them published in this newsletter. I'm not certain how successful I would be at this-it all depends on the company I'm dealing with, whether or not they want a fee, what kind of bureaucracy I have to deal with, etc. I think if I explain what my mission is, and my readership, they'd grant me a waiver. What the heck, I can only try and find out.
I had trouble getting Phase 2 off the ground. Just going through all of that took time. As I got busier in life, I had less time to devote to this type of search. I might pick up the gauntlet again in the future.
Phase Three will depend on all of your involvement. I'm hoping for creative contributions of the sort listed in issue #1. I've been looking over sample issues of a few other fan clubs, just to see what they're like. In most cases, letters to the editor are published, as well as creative works like poetry and personal recollections like a concert experience. I will be publishing one of these-an Exposé concert I saw-and hopefully that will provide you with a sample of what I'm looking for.
I am grateful to all of the members for what they did. If we had more people in the group, I bet it would have done a lot better. Sadly, with only a dozen people involved I think I was the only "writer" in the group.
Phase Four will be the hardest to achieve. I eventually want to get the members of Exposé involved directly with this magazine. I'd like to be trusted with forwarding mail directly to the group from their fans. I'm also hoping they will be willing to be directly interviewed in the future. From what I've seen, outside of stuff done for syndication, there hasn't really be a good, long, "meaty" interview with the group that would be akin to what "Rolling Stone" does. Usually, they're short, not released in their entirety (such as with Syndicated shows), or they have to share the limelight with others. Preferably, I'd love to be able to interview each member independently.
This would be pretty difficult for me to achieve though. I may have to go through a bunch of red tape to do it. It all depends upon the cooperation of their management and record company, their bureaucracy and their view of me. I think, for instance, I'd able to get Gioia more easily than any of the others, since she seems to be undertaking a solo career "from scratch", and likely has less red tape than the others have with the major label and established career.
At the very least, I will do my best to contact their personal and/or tour managers and try to gain an itinerary of appearances, when the schedule a tour. I'm pretty sure they'll be helpful, since all it does is promote Exposé to the public and an eager audience.
I am still waiting to do Interviews. I should be able to do one with Gioia soon, but have not heard from any other member about this.
This deals with the availability of The Exposé Epistle to the on-line subscribers. If you're not interested in this subject or don't like "techspeak", please skip to the next section.
Obviously, all the "techspeak" is woefully outdated at this time. As this was written in very early 1995, I can't believe just how far and how fast things have changed. It's cool to look at things today and see what has happened.
GEnie is adding FTP, Newsgroups, Telnet, Gopher/WAIS, and Lynx (text-based World Wide Web). This will give me more access and availability to other services. But I have to do some research on these before I add anything else, and can't explore too deeply right now.
I have somebody lined up to place a copy of The Exposé Epistle on a few other on-line services, such as CompuServe and AOL. We'll see. You'd be able to get them in more elegant formats, like RTF and MS-Word. And of course, they'd be there for new people who want to find out more about Exposé. At the very least, you'd have access to all the back issues of this magazine, And you'd be able to view them in a graphic format.
Somebody has offered to provide a World Wide Web page if he can for the Exposé Epistle. I'm not very familiar with those yet, and it will take a while for me to become directly involved. My modem is 2400bps, and the earliest I could get an upgrade is sometime next year. If I do have this done, I want to make sure the page and the files behind it are of the highest quality.
I'd like to provide biographies of the members and perhaps a full version of Extra Extra later in the future to the commercial services and the Internet. And if I get the permission to reprint articles, I'd like to put them on these sites as well. But this will take some time to get arraigned. Be patient with me, and take note in the meantime that this newsletter is a better "preview" of what's to come.
This newsletter isn't mailed from a List server or list processor, it's all done manually by myself. I might try to automate it in the future, but no promises.
Finally, please forgive any strange errors in formatting when I send these documents. I am creating all the articles in Microsoft Word for Windows. I then export them to RTF and ASCII formats, and thus have to play around a bit. I'll try to proof these documents better and get everything handled. I have to focus on the postal subscriptions first, since they are paying money for this, and it's easier for me to re-mail ASCII files than to correct mistakes to an already photocopied newsletter. Just let me know of any problems, and I'll try to fix them.
From time to time, I will try to send out pressing information as a "supplemental mailing". For instance, if I get access to their tour Itinerary and/or list of television appearances, I plan on mailing it every month at least. These smaller ones will be clearly marked "supplemental" mailings, and will not count towards your subscription. In other words, If you get an extra mailing like this, it doesn't count as an "issue" of the Epistle. I planned some of these when planning my costs for this, though I admit an accurate estimation is hard to gauge at times.
Occasionally, I'll announce other information too. The priority of this will depend on how important I think it is. I sent the E-Mail subscribers a brief note about "G-Spot" as soon as I found out about it, since some of them weren't fan club members, but I didn't mail it to the Postal Subscribers, in part because they likely would know about it via the Exposé Fan Club, and why waste a mailing. Cost is an issue here. In short, if I feel it is vital knowledge and it absolutely can't wait for the next issue, I'll mail all the paying subscribers a "supplement".
I still do supplemental mailings from time to time when there is major news so significant I want to communicate to those users who don't have computers, but a lot of the printing process has been overtaken by the quick and easy publishing method of the Internet.
Below was my attempt to create a trading or sort of Exposé. From what I understand, it was pretty successful. Of course, this has now been surpassed by ebay.
Remember my thoughts about starting a "lending library". Well, I don't think I could handle that right now. But, in it's place, I'd like to off a new service. The Exposé Exchange.
The Exposé Exchange will be a form of classified ad service. What people could do here is publish their name and address and a brief note about what they have to offer fans or what they want to get a copy of. Then, other fans would write in and you'd handle the transactions yourself, outside of me. We could also use this as a more detailed "Pen Pal" list, with fans being able to list other interests of theirs out to others.
We have to be careful of laws regarding copying recordings and the like. Bootlegging is frowned upon by record companies-but then again, I don't believe it's illegal for people do copy analog tapes of broadcasts and/or concerts in private. In any event, I can't allow advertisements which offer copies of recordings for sale for profit purposes. It has to be an add with a line akin to "provide me with a blank tape and SASE or X dollars for postage." The exception is of course, the sale of original copies of items-if you are selling your only copy of a 12" single or an autographed picture, for instance. Also, do not advertise offers to copy recordings that are still available to the public: such as the three Exposé albums and Video Exposure-these are still available from Arista records. Copies should be of things you can't buy normally, such as old single released.
To participate in this, just send in the ad copy you want to have printed before the next issue is published. There will be a 50 word limit, not including the address you'll write. I reserve the right to edit this copy, and to refuse ads I don't think are appropriate. Also, just for my records, include separately your full name, address, and telephone number (both Work and Home if applicable), otherwise you can't participate in this. I need access to your phone number in case there is a problem.
Note that I can't be legally responsible for problems you have with an advertiser. But If there are complaints regarding your advertisement...for instance, if you told me John Doe didn't ever send you the tape back, then I may act upon it, or somebody who you give an address or number starts harassing you. Abuses of The Exposé Exchange can be punished, including ban of further participation in the Exposé Exchange, and up to and including termination of the Epistle subscription without refund. Please don't spoil this project for others.
Here are a few samples ads--all fictional:
Sample "Have" Ad
I have rare Video footage of a 1989 concert Exposé did in New York City. Also have an audiotape of various interview snippets from American Top 40 involving Exposé. For a copy, send a blank standard VHS tape and/or a blank 90 minute cassette tape with a SASE to: John Doe, POB 1440, Anytown, HI, or Call 555-555-5555
Sample "Want" Ad.
I am looking for an 8 x 10 glossy of Jeanette Jurado. I'd also like to get either buy a copy of the single of have a copy made of the original version of Point of No Return (by Ale Lorenzo), as well as any remixed 12" singles (on Vinyl) of the group. Please call Jane at XXX-XXX-XXXX if you have any of these.
Sample "Correspondent" Ad
Twenty-Something Fan of Exposé-especially Jeanette Jurado-seeks other fans with similar interests to exchange letters. Loves music by acts like Paula Abdul, Nirvana and Tito Puente. Hobbies include reading romance and mystery, biking, writing, and astronomy. Write to: Richard Roe, POB 1066, Anytown, WA XXXXX-XXXX.
I'm confident that this service will be of use to the fans.
One other thing I could do... while the membership to the Epistle is small, I might be able to mail these requests out to the whole Pen Pal list the Official Exposé Fan Club mails every quarter. They may have something nobody here does, or might want something you have. Right now, membership is small, so overhead is small, and mailing to everybody on the list is costly. I can't make any promises on doing this.
That's it for now.
Welcome to the first installment of a sequential series. The EX-Files is a (mostly) chronological essay on the history of Exposé, from the inital ideas of Lewis Martinee and the early days of the "prototype" Xposed to the end of the third album. It will run for several issues. I will attempt to make this the most comprehensive Exposé biography available, unadulterated by "official" dogma released by record companies and management.
I've always had problems with the fact that record company marketing people can try to be deceptive by covering things up or presenting a white-wash view of things. Journalistic integrity demands that truth be dealt with.
Astute readers will take note the name of this column. I make no lies: I did name it in honor of "The X-Files" television show. Besides being a neat and topical play on words, something about my quest and thirst for knowledge regarding Exposé remind me of Fox Mulder's quest for the truth in all things paranormal. There are parallels: some people don't want you to know certain things about Exposé's past, especially where it could be embarrassing to their management and label. I seek the truth. Additionally, I too have a "Deep Throat" contact, who has guided me in my makeup.
Okay, so a little over-dramatic, but there's some truths involved. Also, as a personal aside, I will note this was written at a time when the X-Files didn't have the massive popularity it did today, at it was, in my opinion, at it's best quality (before writers Morgan and Wong left and the series started getting too self-aware, sinking into parody of itself, and making a complex "mythology" that now contradicts itself).
Deep Throat was Rick Munarriz, a member of a Lewis-produced band called Paris By Air.
Please take note that this is a work in progress. While I have many sources, they are far from exhaustive, and the more information I get, the better I'll be able to weave the historical tapestry. Anything you can do to provide me with more information will be appreciated. My current plans are to write based on the knowledge base I have, and then let the loyal readers provide me with other sources, corrections, and expansions.
Particularly, I'd like newspaper articles or print interviews. Trade Industry ones (Older Billboard, R&R, etc.) would be very helpful. Copies of Audio and/or Video interviews would also be helpful, though I know they may be difficult to provide. I really need to get documentable knowledge for use herin, save if I feel you are a confirmed direct link. For instance, a record company executive for Arista, a person who worked or was working with Pantera (Such as "Deep Throat"), a songwriting partner of Ann.
At the end of each installment, I will have a "updated" section, which will cover any previous errata, new discoveries, or other revelations that change, alter or embellesh the pervious installments.
And in the annotations as well.
Late-joining Subscribers who missed previous installments of the EX-Files will be provided with the previous columns.
The period from the late 60's to the Mid 80's is Exposé "pre-history". During this time, the members of Exposé were having normal childhoods with their families. A few tidbits:
Fate would soon bring them together. But we cannot yet focus on the individual members of the core Exposé, since other forces were at work at it's genesis, independent from their lives. The origins of the group come from very complex, detailed, and even at times shady circumstances. To portray them, we must delve into another area of the past. The formation of the group from the business and production side: So, our focus now goes to Lewis Martinee, Exposé's primary producer and creator.
Born in Cuba, he and his parents moved to the United States when he was 9. Growing up in LA, Lewis spent much time involved with music, playing tunes in Garage Bands for the time. He eventually moved out of LA and got involved being a club DJ. This was the late 70's, the disco era was in full swing at the time, and he worked at some of Miami's most prestigeous clubs.
In the early 80's, as disco waned, the mass public grew wary of that style of dance music, Lewis focused on producing and creating rather than serving the masses in a discoteque. As the dance music moved away from the "disco" style to both crossover from the "new wave" of rock as well the "power" music styles most clubs began playing and radio stations began acknowledging. Lewis' penchant for unique hooks as well as funky lyrics made him a successful producer in the area.
Lewis also got involved with two men, both who were very instumental in the formation of Pantera (The Spanish word for "Panther") Group Enterprises: Ismael Garcia and Franjesco J. Diaz.
Ismael Garcia was a businessman who financed most of Lewis' operations. He was reported to have a sharp tounge and a rather strict, some would say militant, style. He was in short, the manager, the accountant, and the deal-maker of the triax.
Frank Diaz was another matter all together. According to Miami's "deep throat", Frank has been described as being a cross "between Scarface and David Lee Roth". He wore his hair with purple streaks, and would call everybody "Rooster". He loved the Florida night life, was a "girlie club regular", a nightclub hopper, and a music lover. Published quotes have shown him to be a rather crude man, but he had a charisma that would charm many in the recording business, and it was that ability that helped Pantera get a lot of people signed, including Exposé.
Maybe Crude is too harsh, but then again I don't think he had much respect for the individuals.
In 1984, Lewis and the others decided to form a singing trio. The concept of producer-controlled "girl-groups" was nothing new, as Phil Spector had proven back in the 60's. The mid-80's saw a time when track music and dance clubs were both coming into power, and Music Video was becoming a powerful tool. Thus, Pantera took the steps to develop the "Apocryphal" Exposé.
Okay, I know I get a little flack from Laurie Miller because of this, but I use that word since we are dealing with, at least in my mind, two groups. I can't morally recognize both as having equal power, so I gave them the nod as apochrypal, to recognize their sacrifice, but not to recongize them as the core people to care about. It is not meant as a disrespectful term. I know this sounds a bit strange, but people are important.
Back then, the group name was XPosed. The first vocalist to be included to the group was Ale Lorenzo. Lewis and Ale were involved in a relationship--reports on it's seriousness vary--and Lewis asked Ale to be a frontwoman for his project. Ale, who then worked at a Dade County hotel for minimum wage, agreed eagerly.
Meantime, Laurie Miller, the fiancee of Frank Diaz, was recruited to belong as well. Laurie was initially Frank's girlfriend, who allegedly didn't want her in the group to begin with, though softened on it. Reputedly, she was hired in part because Pantera Group felt they could save money on choreography and hairstyling (which Laurie had skills at), but Deep Throat counters that is was what she wanted to do, rather than the above case.
Then came Sandee Cassanas, the final member of the trio. She was brought in to "round out the group", apparently she had a different look than the other two members, and "image" was part of the whole package for this group.
Xposed started small, doing local shows, and were received well. Meantime, "Miami Cool" was coming into vouge with America. The image of Miami was popularized, mostly from movies and shows such as Miami Vice, and the music was coming into play, the "Latin (Cuban) Disco" Freestyle sound coming into power from such acts as Gloria Estefan attracted many to the line-up. This attracted many people into the region, hungry A&R reps looking for the next big thing. One of these men was Dave Jurman.
An A&R man for the Arista label, Mr. Jurman was pleased with the sound of Xposed. He believed that the style of Music Lewis created would be a big success nationally. Pantera Group Enterprises inked a distribution deal with Arista. Arista would distribute the Pantera label releases nationally to dance clubs. The only concession in this case--executives at Arista felt the name XPosed wasn't appropriate. So Lewis and Pantera changed the name of the group to Exposé.
The first 12" release of "Point of No Return" ended being a huge dance hit during 1985-1986, cracking the Top 5 of the Dance Charts and even getting some crossover play on some radio stations. A follow-up, "Exposed to Love", was released, and that was also successful. During this time, the apocryphal group ended up touring to several sites around the country. Touring as a track act, they were well recieved by the legions of happy club-goers. Based on this, Arista recruited Lewis Martinee' to do an album as a follow up to this success.
But a storm was blowing in the wind...
Next Issue: Ali's anxiety, Was Sandee Sandbaged?, Arista's request, the total fall of the apocryphal lineup...and the discovery of Jeanette, Gioia, and Ann!!!
N.B.: A good portion of the above information comes from the "Slaves to Stardom" article, Tropic section, Miami Herald (final edition), Sunday Sept 20th 1987, written by freelance author Meg Laughlin.
The following address from the Pen Pal mailing list are invalid. I'm providing them to the fans to prevent you from wasting stamps, as well as to seek their new addresses if available.
I've erased these names, because a lot of time has bassed, the addresses were invalid, and I wish to respect people's privacy.
Quirky Quotes from the Mind of Ann Katherine Curless
"I'm not going to make myself unattractive...If that turns people on to our music, I'm not displeased."
From "Exposé Reveals it's Pop-Success Secrets", Staff writer Russ DeVault, Atlanta Constitution (Friday, Feb 16th, 1990)
I'm a devoted Exposé fan and have been since the middle of 1990. I received your newsletter recently and thought it was outstanding, better than anything the "Official Fan Club" released over the history that I've been a part of the fan club. I first entered the fan club back in January 1990. Back then I used to get order forms, pen pal lists, and a newsletter with tour dates on it for their "What You Don't Know" tour. Then in 1991-1992, when Gioia was trying to get her voice back to normal again, all I received was the newsletter with the same stuff on it every month...Then when I didn't receive a newsletter for a while in 1992-1993, I thought Exposé folded...Maybe someday you will get a hold of the girls of Exposé and make this the new Exposé Fan Club newsletter.
I like the term "High Exposed", it describes Exposé fans to a "T". I have a recollection for you. I went to see Exposé play at the Club Casino at Hampton Beach, NH on July 26th, 1990. I believe it was their last show before they cancelled the rest of their tour. So I may have seen Gioia perform for the last time with Exposé. It was a great show too. Gioia sang her heart out, but I did notice she couldn't hit the high notes so I had a feeling something was wrong... Although today's popular music is moving towards the grunge, punk and gansta rap styles, there are still the devoted fans of the real groups of the 1980's. Let's hope Exposé still has a long career ahead of them. Good luck with this newsletter.
Chris Moreira
Thanks for the story. At least you were lucky enough to see Gioia in live concert--I haven't. Gioia's voice did seem a little froggy on the Video Exposure interview portions. Of course, now that she's singing again, I guess I will get that opportunity.
You're right about the state of popular music today. It's becoming very segmented, with "narrowcasting" further dividing the market. In the 80's, the Top 40 format had more variety and energy, with soul, dance, rap, modern, and rock all charting at the same time. Now there are dozens of music formats all vieing for an audience, acts are being fit into strict labels, and unless acts appeal to a certain "image" they are ignored. I hope this musical malaise that affects the industry will change in the future.
Thanks for the copy of the Exposé Epistle. I liked reading it. I agree with what you wrote about Gioia: Arista's treatment of her is the record industry at its worst. Kelly is OK but she is not as good as Gioia. I'm enclosing a money order for $13.00 for a year's subscribtion.
I hope that in future editions you'll have a letters to the editor section, or maybe a pen-pal's section. Even if you don't have either one I still like your newsletter.
Bob Nagel
Thanks Bob. Of course, the treatment of Gioia was tame compared to how Pantera has treated all members of Exposé in the past, as you will soon see within The EX-Files. Please remember though that Gioia couldn't sing at the time--though happily she can now! I'm not complaining about the replacement of her, rather, I'm complaining about the really poor treatment Arista has shown her, and the fact that it dilutes their confidence in the other members. You'd think loyal service would be worth something. As far as Kelly is concerned, the most frustrating thing is we have no new material from her as of yet.
As for Letters to the Editor--is this good enough for you? Seriously, I'll actually be depending on all the fans to keep me going. I have enough information for a time, but I truly want this to be a group effort, as I stated. Potpourii will be an important part of this newsletter as time goes on. That is one of the biggest points of contention I have with the Official Exposé Newsletter: while Gladys Perez will answer questions privately, their newsletter currently gives no sense of community. It should be bigger. I did this because I wanted Exposé to have the type of fan club that I would enjoy, and one I thought others would enjoy as well.
The newsletter was very informative. You answered a lot of questions for me.
I've been an Exposé fan since they came out in 1986. Your editorial comments on Gioia were fantastic and I'm glad that you spoke up. I also think it's pretty cold-hearted the way Arista has treated her.
Do you have any info on why she wasn't let back in the group? The reason I ask is I just received Gioia's new 12" single... From what I've read, her new single is a big club hit. The song has an upbeat dance/house tempo--it's all I listen to now. It's great to hear Gioia's voice again. But the big question I have is why isn't she back with Exposé.
Nick Martinez, Jr.
See the news in Extra Extra for my best guesses about Gioia. As for the single being a club hit, unfortunately I've not seen it chart yet on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart--unless it charted a while ago. Are you stating this based on local play, or from word heard from others? I'm really glad you like Gioia's single. Hopefully, other people will pick it up and it will be a success for her. People need to remember that a group is nothing more than the sum of its members, and that individuals are important.
That's why I spoke out against Arista--they started to focus on Exposé as a "unit" rather than a "group of individuals", which I feel is a step backwards, and trying to hide Gioia's presence while plugging the previous hits is just wrong. I'm not saying they had to dwell on it, but rather be comfortable with Exposé's past line to freely mention her, show previous videos, etc. They didn't do that. And I'm here to say that is wrong.
This G-spot thing is such a joke. I think it is an insult to Ann and Jeanette to be selling Gioia's music through the club when they do not even have offers like this for the group itself. They can't even send us merchandise we ordered months ago and they want us to send them more money. Someone is definitely smoking something.
Christopher Martinez
I think you're misdirecting your anger at the Exposé fan club towards Gioia, which you should not do. Granted, the fan club has been pretty poor in the way they've handled merchandise, and I have no explaination for it, but they seem to be stable now.
In terms of music being offered from the fan club, something tells me that Arista Records has forbidden those types of transactions--though the video was available. G-Spot is likely published by a more flexable label. I can't phathom Ann or Jeanette (or Kelly) being insulted by this offer. They're also serving the fans who continue to support Gioia.
I am concerned about this reaction, however, since it is likely that people who have had problems getting their merchandise will react in a similar matter and thus not trust the Exposé Fan Club to follow through on this offer--but since somebody has already found a copy, we know they have it.
Dude, there is so much you don't know about Exposé, it's
funny. I've been a fan of Exposé since the beginning in
1984. I saw the Original Exposé who at the time were called...
XPOSED
and later changed names to Exposé. If you want to hear
more call me please. In Pantera's pen-pal list I'm fan number
#1807--I actually joined the club in 1987. I lost my old # because
I didn't renew on time, I was almost a year late. But guy, you
need to talk to me. I know Jeanette, Ann, Gioia, and Kelly.
I even met Jeanette's family, Ann's brother and have spoken to
Ann's mom on the phone. Also, I am fond of the original
Exposé.
I've seen them in 1985, I've seen Alé (Aléjandia Lorenzo) in 1988 and 1989. I've seen Sandeé (Sandia Zeno-Cassanas) in 1988-89-91. I also sang and performed with Sandee as well...
Michael Soto
P.S.--Your letter was pretty good, but you need to call me!
(Editors note: I did call Mike, and we talked briefly. He informed me that there were a group of fans who communicate to each other privately and most of them aren't members of the fan club. [I wish I knew why!] He was concerned I might not know enough, and had told me about G-Spot. I was skeptical at first, but then the fan club sent their letter to me. He wished to see where I was getting my info too.)
First of all, thanks for writing.
In terms of membership number, I wish to state here that whether you're number is 1 or 3000, it doesn't matter to me. There are many fans out there. In my opinion, the number should not be considered a "rank". For all we know, a person who joined later may have done more research than another fan who just subscribed to the regular newsletter. I won't be prejudiced towards anybody based on "their number." You're all equal in my eyes.
Regarding the issue on the "prototype" Exposé, I'm sorry if I've offended anybody who is a fan of theirs. Maybe I should have worded my mission statement better. In terms of what I'm covering here in the newsletter, though, I stand by my statement. While I admit they may have had a career and following, based on the knowledge I have of how they were marketed and handled, I consider them to be a completely different group of individuals. And thus my statement to focus on Gioia, Ann, Jeanette, and Kelly alone.
This is perhaps a personal view, but as publisher it's one I stand by. There has to be a cutoff at some point. Some people follow "the group" rather than the individuals involved, like yourself I assume, but it's not the view I take. I have to cut it off somewhere. By rights, using that logic, I should also include the "temps" who filled in for Gioia at times: Julie Albers, who stood in for Gioia when she was pregnant in 1988, or Sinoa Loren, who stood in for the Barry Manilow video release (which I still think shouldn't have been done at all). What about the songwriters or producers? And if the group gets an all new lineup? No--I have to draw lines.
There's one favor I have to ask. Don't ever start a message with a statement like "Dude, there's so much you don't know about Exposé it's funny." I did know about the name Xposed, for instance. I'm sure you know a lot more in some areas, but that could go the other way too.
Feel free to subscribe to the Exposé Epistle and write in corrections and enhancements to Extra-Extra and other sections. That's where you can help me out.
Okay, I was a little too harsh with Michael. I will admit I was pissed off getting a complaint letter when I saw nobody ever doing anything else.
Kelly Susan Moneymaker was born on June 4th, and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. I am uncertain of her age, but considering all the information, I would estimate she would be in her late 20's. She comes from a family with German roots. The Moneymaker surname is her real legal name, not a stage name despite it's oddness. Supposedly, the name is derived from "Deutsmonger" or some similar name. (I'm not sure of the spelling here).
Her date of Birth is June 4th, 1965.
A beautiful 5'3"(aprx.) brown-eyed brunette, Ms. Moneymaker has a somewhat "exotic" look--she's certainly not a straightforward WASP like Ann. In addition to a confirmed Germanic heritage, she seems to have an Asian makeup, or perhaps some Innuit (a/k/a "Eskimo", being in Alaska). I've not heard any interview where this comes up. Kelly has admitted in concert that she could "pass for Hispanic...I can pass for a lot of things".
As can be seen from her website, she is an odd blend of races and cultures.
Pursuing a career in music, she learned to play the Saxophone and honed her vocal ability. Kelly later moved to Seattle and worked with the Tubes. Later on she moved to California, where she worked with a diverse number of people in the industry, including mega-star and Vegas Vicar Wayne Newton, Rock Guru Todd Rundgren, Singer and Actress Connie Stevens. I believe she performed studio work for them, either as a background vocalist or a session musician. She also is a songwriter, though I have no knowledge of any of her songs being published.
Kelly hooked up with Exposé thanks to an associate who recommended her to Jeanette Jurado. Jeanette was looking for another member for Exposé after they had to go on without Gioia. She immediately bonded with Kelly after a brief time, and they both went to see Ann Curless, who also got along with her, and Arista approved the decision to have her join (Pantera being out of the loop at this point.)
Kelly tends to wear a hat more often than not. At a concert I attended, she made some point about "how her hair parts", and displayed it to the audience. However, I was far away from the stage and can't determine if she was kidding or not. In any event, expect to see her wear a chapeaux both in concert and in many videos. Something tells me there was a mad haberdasher in her family.
Kelly has apparently given up on wearing the hat, which makes me think that it was more or less a fashion statement at the time.
Kelly is an animal lover, owns two dogs and a rabbit, and had stated once (in a local radio interview) that if she could, she'd love to form "a ranch" for pets. She is also a vegetarian, and I suspect it's based on her beliefs towards animals, rather than any dietary leanings. She has stated (in an EFC newsletter bio) that "she believes every living thing should have a high quality of life"
Of course, she probably has more pets now.
While only a High School graduate, Kelly is very well read, her favorite subject being literature and seems to enjoy "the classics" in reading. Her interest and influences in music span a wide range, from classic 60's rock artists like the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, to today's performers like Prince and Annie Lennox, Rock Artists such as Van Halen, and Jazz artists such as the Brecker Brothers and Brandon Fields.
Kelly seems to have a high level of enthusiasm for the job. Perhaps more so than the others. From what I've observed, at two Exposé concerts, she seems more enthusiastic about performing than the other two. Kelly, when performing, has tended to reach out to the fans in the front row, kneeling and giving her hand to those members, something Ann and Jeanette don't seem to do as much. Perhaps Kelly is more of a "touchy, feely" person than the others, but I suspect it's more indicative of her personality. This could also be an indication of her freshman status. While being in the music business herself, Kelly to my knowledge never went on tours or was a "star", thus she is being exposed to this life for the first time, without any possible jadedness that Ann and Jeanette could have.
But there are indications that this may be more than just a innocent's eyes. A local Rhode Island radio station was host to two Exposé concerts in 1993. One thing I noted of the morning crew who interviewed Exposé was the statements they had about Kelly. I don't have the exact quote, but they both seemed "wowed" with Ms. Moneymaker, just liking her based on her personality and charisma. Call it a gut instinct (you have to have heard them speak), but I felt is was more than a general standard compliment.
More importantly, promoter Tim Leslie had reflected on-line what he felt about Exposé. In conversations with him, he's given me a picture of how the women really behave, behind the scenes outside of the spotlight of a concert or an interview, where such artists are on their best behavior. He had mixed feelings about Ann and Jeanette, but really felt that Kelly was a wonderful person and that he wished more artists could be just like her. In short, he feels that Kelly is the most "real" of the three. While this could also come from the enthusiasm Kelly could have "being new", something tells me it's more than just that.
People have noted that Kelly doesn't seem to have the same vocal range as Gioia. I'd have to agree--her octave range is great, but it doesn't have the R&B/Rock style that Gioia's has. (In truth, it's hard to do an accurate judgment of a cover song, and since Kelly doesn't have any songs of her own on Exposé, we have a problem passing judgment.)
I do have a theory. I believe that Kelly was picked by Ann and Jeanette not because she matched Gioia's vocal ability, but rather Gioia's charisma and personality traits. In short, a person they could get along with the best, which is very important.
Miami's "Deep Throat" never got to meet Kelly Moneymaker, since Exposé had removed themselves from the Pantera environs. However, he has met the others, and has . Gioia was, in his mind, the sweetest of the three, the one who "took time to take conversations to a second level". His comparisons remind me of Tim's regarding Kelly--he felt people would gravitate towards Gioia, and felt Gioia was a noticeable exception to a sort of blandness the others have in interviews.
Coincidentally, Gioia and Kelly are also born within a week from each other. They also have pretty uncommon names which are their real ones, and share a few interests (such as Hockey), Of course, both women have several differences--backgrounds, skills, interests. But from what I've gleaned, they both seem to have a common core thread: they are very extroverted, sincere people. They seem to be able to keep people in good spirits, including Ann and Jeanette, who seem to be affected by the stress of the job more. And both women seem to have a charisma that charms others in the business.
One other common thing that has occured now is that it's been revealed that both Gioia and Kelly have a lot of pets.
As for Kelly's feelings about Gioia. Well, she had granted me a personal reply to a letter I sent her, in good faith. She wrote "I've not met Gioia but I've heard so much about her I feel like I know her already. We will meet soon and I'm looking forward to it." Something tells me those two get along great!
Sadly, it looks like Kelly only met Gioia once for five minutes. There was no friendship formed.
Occasionally, I get several people asking me the same question, so I'll take time to answer such inquiries in "A to Q".
Is this "Greatest Hits" album from Exposé their last? Are they planning to break up?
Well, I'm not sure, but in the Immortal words of Bugs Bunny eeeeeeeeenh, could be.
I don't like to dwell on the negative, and I'm not attempting to bring the morale of the High Exposed down. But people are wondering what's happening right now, especially since Exposé's new album will be one of the "greatest hits".
Greatest Hits packages are considered a mixed blessing for artists. On the one hand, such albums are a legitimate way of combining all the hits from an established artist or act. And Exposé has 10 Top 40 hits, 8 of them being Top 10 and 1 being a Number 1, so they really deserve this treatment. But, in many cases-not all, mind you-record labels will wait until the end of the record contract to compile one, and it's usually an indication that the label believes the act is at the end of it's career and won't be picking them up again. In some cases, they don't have enough hits to fill the album, so if they don't add new songs like most today do, then they add other cuts which either the artist or the label like.
Exposé was a good album for Arista... but it likely wasn't as big a hit as Arista wanted. It was certified Gold, selling over 500,000 copies, but this is compared to their label siblings, the other pop-oriented acts. Whitney Houston and Kenny G have done 10-20 times the amount in sales that Exposé achieved (The Bodyguard sold over 10 million, Breathless sold over 5 million). Ace of Base and Toni Braxton also have done very well, scoring multi-platinum awards. If you compare Exposé to these artists, they seem to be a weak player for the label.
Furthermore, the new album initially didn't crack the charts, and it took a fierce promotional campaign to promote "I'll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me)" to the public, a 30 week push to get it played and promoted to the Top 10, which did help the album and boosted its sales. It worked, but other acts don't need that kind of push. And the later singles never went into the Top 40... (Please take note I think Arista may be to blame for some of this, but I'll wait for next issue to go into that.)
It may be a case of cost management for the label. "Deep Throat" says that in the case of Exposé, it's likely that "advances and the likes have gone up. It's like a team cutting an older player for a younger player with more potential and smaller salary demands." To that effect, the Exposé track "As Long As I Can Dream" (according to Rick Dees) cost $80,000 to produce and record, with the string section and complex mixing, so having what was considered a "Grammy song" fizzle on the pop charts mustn't have sat well with Arista.
Arista hasn't really answered the question "is this Exposé's last album" directly, probably because they don't know themselves. It will all depend on how well this one sells, and how well the new singles do. Exposé, though, seem very aware of this fact: I note that in the latest print interview I have (taken in 1993) Ann Curless used the term "if we get to do another album". Note the "if" there. A lot of acts don't use that phrase "if", they act with confidence. I also note that Gioia has established G-Spot, so she might be pursuing this path because she may think Exposé as a unit may be waning. Of course, Arista could decide to continue Exposé, especially if they have a solid, core group of supporters and the new hits do well.
If Exposé is dropped from Arista, what happens? This certainly doesn't end the group, but it does cause a possible bumpy ride. Lewis Martinee has control of the Exposé name, and he'd likely be the person they'd have to report to. Whether or not the ladies will want to continue with him is another story. It will depend if Lewis wants more control, or just let the ladies do what they want. There were some bad feelings left between the two, and that may still sting. Exposé still has a contract that gives their management (Pantera and Lewis) 20% of the gross receipts and publishing... so it's likely that the deal they have may not seem palatable. And the ladies all have wanted to do solo projects, and write their own material, and this might be a good chance for them.
But then again, it would be easier to sell themselves as a group in Exposé than establish a solo career-the name recognition has a lot of power, and loosing that can really hurt an act. (Gioia may have a rough go as G-Spot). Other labels may wish to give Exposé a contract, treating them with the respect they deserve. Perhaps Lewis will just leave them alone, allowing them to determine their own destiny. (He's working on other projects).
And, even if they did disband in the near future, it likely will be temporary, and you might see them regroup together a few years from now.
But I can't foretell the future, and all of this is speculation. We can only wait and see. I do hope they have a long, uninterrupted career ahead of them, and I think they have a good chance of fulfilling that hope. They've proven their diversity and longevity, as well as their talents.
Rest assured, I plan to cover the past and the present regarding those four no matter what happens.
I'm taking a little survey on the popularity of Exposé in other areas of the country. I'd like to pose a few questions for you. If you're willing and have the knowledge, write answers up and I'll publish them in Potpourii.
How popular was Exposé in the past on the various station in your area? Which songs got played a lot during their initial runs? Which songs were ignored? (For example: WXKS-FM (Top 40) in Boston, MA played I Wish the Phone Would Ring for about 1 week then ignored it completely. WPRO-FM (Top 40) played the song during its run heavilly, then dropped it after it faded.) WXKS seemed to be the last in the country to add I'll Never to it's playlist. As Long as I Can Dream played extensively on WXLO (AC) during it's run and several months afterwards. Which songs stayed on the playlist for a long time afterwards?
When did they stop playing Exposé? (During the period from 1990-1992 on WPRO-FM, 6 of the 8 Exposé songs from the first two albums--not including Seasons Change and Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue--were in the library of hits and at least one would be played every day. They gradually faded most of them out during the 1993 period).
What stations still have Exposé songs on their playlist. Which songs are they? (For instance, WPRO-FM in Providence, R.I. still has "Let Me Be The One" on its playlist, which comes up every so often.)
Coming sometime in June, 1995