Artist · chart history
Motors
Band London United Kingdom Active 1977–1981
Motors formed in 1977 in London, United Kingdom and was active until 1981. Motors has 6 chart appearances on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 1977–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Dancing the Night Away”, which appears on 3 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Motors most often is John Peel (BBC Radio 1), with 5 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1977.
The Motors were a London pub rock band that set its sights on something bigger. Nick Garvey and Andy McMaster had done time together in Ducks Deluxe, and in 1977 they teamed up with drummer Ricky Slaughter and guitarist Rob Hendry, who gave way to Bram Tchaikovsky that May. McMaster handled bass, keyboards and vocals, and between them they could write a hook that stuck to the ceiling.
Their debut album, 1, came out on Virgin in 1977 and it's pub rock with its sights set on the arena: power pop crunch, new wave nerve and choruses built to be bellowed back. "Dancing the Night Away" is the monster, a surging, hypnotic slab that keeps building and building, and "Emergency" came off the same record.
The big British hit came the next year, when McMaster's "Airport" climbed to number 4 on the UK singles chart in 1978, a lush, soaring pop song that showed they could do tender as well as loud. "You Beat the Hell Out of Me" and "Bringing in the Morning Light" also found their way onto the countdowns, but the run didn't last long, and the band came apart in the early '80s.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Motors on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dancing the Night Away | 3 | #1 | 1 | 1977 | |
| 2 | You Beat The Hell Out of Me | 1 | #3 | – | 1977 | |
| 3 | Emergency | 1 | #18 | – | 1977 | |
| 4 | Bringing In The Morning Light | 1 | #56 | – | 1977 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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