Interview: 80s music icon Limahl talks about his cover version of America's A Horse With No Name, wanting to put his and Kajagoogoo bandmate Nick Beggs' bickering to rest and his 33 years of love for partner Steve
Limhal took the plunge and released his first cover song - America's 1971 track, 'A Horse With No Name' - ahead of releasing his first album in 30 years, and he also reflects on his Kajagoogoo days with pride...
Limahl rides again to music after more than a five-year break.
Elements of upbeat, electronic sounds blended with catchy lyrics have caused the 80s icon to capture the hearts of millions of people worldwide and bag platinum sales awards for his work.
The pop supremo has now taken the plunge and injected those electronic beats into his debut cover song - 'A Horse With No Name', originally performed by the rock band America in 1971.
And the good news from the star keeps coming as he has teased his first album in 30 years for either 2026 or 2027.
Contact Music sat down with Limahl over Zoom to talk about his latest project, if he may reunite with his boy band Kajagoogoo in the future, as well as overcoming a few heartbreaks before finding the love of his life, Steve...
Contact Music: ‘A Horse With No Name’ has been in your playlist for years, hasn't it? And, obviously, you've just released your rendition of the hit America track. How proud are you of your version?
Limahl: Oh, I'm so proud! I am so proud! You have no idea of the journey that the production has been through.
I worked on it. I left it. I worked on it. I left it. I worked on it. I left it because, sometimes, you just get to the point where you just can't hear it anymore.
And then my sister and my partner, Steve, were both saying, ‘Well, you've got to release this. You've got to release this.’ And finally, after enough space, I started working on the video. And that really emboldened me. It was so much fun trying to create an interpretation of those bonkers lyrics.
So, how long did it take you to create your cover version?
Oh, on and off, months, because I'm a perfectionist. And, I think out in the web today, there are a lot of DIY projects, fair enough. But, I really believe if I'm good - you know, especially as a sort of named artist.
So my last three singles have all - I think they've been a really good standard with really strong videos, and I feel like I can hold my head up high with those tracks, and it's actually encouraged me to do an album. I've got some really great songs just sitting there waiting.
So in ’26, or ’27, I will be coming back with my first album in, I don't know, 30 years.
What inspires you to continue writing music? Where do you find your ideas for songs? Is it through personal life stories, or what you come across when you're out in public, or a mixture of all that?
Yeah, it can be anything. It can start with a riff, you know, just a melody.
I've woken up in the middle of the night and gone, ‘Oh, my God! I've got to write that down. Record that.’ Grab the phone quick, creep out of the bedroom, or it's in the car. I could be walking down the street, so ideas just spark from anywhere.
My inspiration, really, is music as a passion in my life. When I was 12 years old, my Auntie Irene - this was my mum's best friend at work, and I was about nine, 10, or 11 years old. And she wasn't my real auntie, but we called her Auntie Irene. And it was the sort of upbringing where people left their back doors open, and people just wandered in. 'Lend me a bowl of sugar. Have you got a drop of milk,' whatever it is. And Auntie Irene was throwing out an old record player, a portable one, and, of course, I had two brothers. And it, you know, it's quite competitive, and the ages are quite close together. So suddenly, I had something that belonged to me, something that I owned, that she gave to me. And she gave me six singles. And I remember the fascination just taking that arm and putting it on the vinyl, and thinking, 'How the hell does that sound? - How is? How did this happen?' You know it's just so fascinating.
That's where it started for me, and it's never really left me. I've been a music maniac, really, all my life. The wonderful thing is, I never stopped learning. You know there is. You've got a century - or more - of amazing songs.
Even if you go right back to '78. So the beginning of the 1900s, when all musicians were thrown in a room together, and one microphone up here would record the whole thing. And, of course, the drums would have to be at the back.
What was it about America's track that made you want to do your version? Why is it so special to you?
I just feel like it's been in my life as long as I can remember, and it's been a friend, you know. I think I’ve escaped into certain things throughout my life. I was bonkers for the 'War of the Worlds' album by Jeff Wayne. I was bonkers for the 'Alien' movie series, the initial ones. I was bonkers for 'Star Wars'.
And this track has always intrigued me, you know, these crazy lyrics. And, of course, in doing my research, I've realised it's not - as a songwriter myself, it's not something I would have written, because, you know, the writer, Dewey Bunnell, his father was stationed in an Air Force base near the two big deserts; so the New New Mexico desert and the Arizona desert.
I'm from Wigan. There are no deserts! I probably would have done a song about rain!
How did you go about getting permission from America to do the track?
Well, when a song is out there in the public domain, you don’t need - if you're not playing around with the arrangement, per se, you know, you're not sampling, then you need permission from the writers. But, I contacted Warner Chapel, the publishers, and I said this is what I want to do with it, and they said, 'That's fine. That's just a cover version. And we have a license that will cover that.'
So yeah, it's a fairly straightforward process. Once a track is already out in the public domain, so to speak.
You hear about all these hurdles some artists have to get over to get approval for some songs.
It might be if you're doing Bowie or Queen, I don't know. It depends on what the contract is between the writer and the music publisher.
Have you heard from America? Have they given their reactions to your cover version?
So, I've just enlisted the service of a lady in New York, who is helping me with this radio play company, and she knows one of the band members.
So, I said, 'Do you think we might get you know, something?' So, I'm working on that. I'm not pushing it too hard. I think she feels like me; it might be good if they find it organically, rather than have it plonked on their desk.
It would be absolutely fantastic if one of the band members calls up either Warner Chapel or gets in touch with me via social media, and just says, 'Wow!' You know, that would be the icing on the cake.
What would their reactions mean to you?
Well, out of respect for a fellow artist, fellow creators. It would mean everything.
And, I think I've been fairly loyal to the song. There are a few very subtle differences. For example, I start with the La Las, which is not in the original. There's also a key change in my version, which is not in the original. And then, finally, the two main vocal motives, and the 'I've been through the desert on a horse with the name' crisscross each other at the end, akin to a choir again absent on the original.
So, they may hate that. I don't know. They may have a they may have a phobia about key changes. I don't know. We'll have to wait and see!
Do you have a bit of fear hanging over you, like, 'Oh, God! What if I do this and they don't like it?' when covering an artist or band's song?
Yeah, there's always a risk, I mean, if you're tackling a classic - but I've never actually done a cover before. That's the first thing, and I keep saying to friends, 'There are no new songs to write,' because you've got 120 years of popular song, whether they're in films, or musicals, or rock, or rap, or pop.
Is there a new lyric? Is there a new melody? There are only eight notes in a scale.
And I think, even in the Quincy Jones documentary ['Quincy'], that I saw on Netflix a few months ago, he said the same.
But - and this is a big but - if there's a if there's a copyright infringement case in court, they bring in someone called a musicologist.
And the musicologist will tell the judge and the jury whether he thinks that these five notes, because I think copyright consists of five consecutive notes.
But are they that important in the popularity of this song? Do they fall in the verse? Do they fall in the chorus? Is it exactly the same rhythm? Is it the same beat?
You mentioned that this is your first cover. So why has it taken you until now to cover a song?
Well, I've always loved the journey of having this spark here.
And from nowhere. And then suddenly, in three months, I'm listening back to something that started here. And I'm going. 'Wow, wow! This is exciting.' Or, 'Oh, that's terrible! On the shelf with that!'
I suppose it is the originality that you like - writing your music, creating it by yourself.
Yeah. But you know, there is a challenge in doing a cover. And, you know, one of my favourite singers of all time, Luther Vandross. He was a great songwriter. But when he did covers, OMG, they were so good, he did a cover of Karen Carpenter's song, 'Superstar', and he brought his own stamp on it.
And that's what I've tried to do with Horse. Put my own stamp on it. initially. I thought, ‘Well, I can't use a guitar, because a guitar drives the original. So I'll go. I'll sort of start electronic. I'll go contemporary electronic, and we'll see how that goes.’
You're sticking to your 70s and 80s roots, obviously with Kajagoogo and being a solo artist. And people love nostalgia, don't they? So it's nice to get that element in as well, but also respecting what America did back in the 70s.
Yeah. Again, nothing was guaranteed. So I started this organic process with these synthesisers. And, I used a synth called a Jupiter 8, which is in the 'Too Shy' video with Kajagoogoo. We actually have a physical Jupiter 8 in the music video It was a fantastic keyboard full of faders and knobs to twiddle. It was like Christmas Day when we got that.
The sounds were amazing. But of course, nowadays that's available as a plugin.
Do you think it is sad that it is available as a plugin now?
Well, there are pros and cons. I mean, it's very convenient. It's a bit like the streaming sites. If you went away on holiday, or you were going on a trip somewhere in the old days, you would always - a box of records would be incredibly heavy, and you'd be quite limited.
And now you've got this technology where everything you've ever loved musically is in this tiny unit, your mobile phone. So, the synthesiser as a Plugin is not such a bad thing. I mean, it's very convenient. I think it's wonderful that new creators of music can access those toys that inspired us so much. Back in 1980, 81.
Do you think it still lacks the true, authentic sound? Or do you think it is relatively similar?
For a really trained ear, I can hear an analogue. I think, maybe I’m blowing my own trumpet about my ears, I think my ear can spot an analogue recording and the difference between - there’s a warmth. I can only describe it as a warmth that I hear in analogue recordings. And digital recordings seemed to be missing that when it all went digital in the late 80s, early 90s.
And then, of course, the manufacturing companies introduced a plugin called analogue emulator or valve. So, there was a thing about valves.
I remember the ‘Too Shy’ producer, Colin Thurston, who did the first three Duran Duran albums, when we were recording - in those days, you’d just pick up the phone and the hire company would send over a bit of equipment which, of course, came out of your recording budget. You’d had to pay it back. But, yeah, Colin got on the phone, and he wanted some valve analogue, and a piece of equipment turned up, and he put it on the base drum. And he really added something. He really knew what he was doing.
Do you ever get fed up, to an extent, of performing ‘Too Shy’ or ‘The Never Ending Story’? Or do you still love performing those songs after all these years?
Well, I never listen to them unless I’m actually working. That keeps it fresh for me. I find it hard to be anything but 1,001 per cent respectful for the songs because they’ve been so good to me over the years. They’ve taken me to all corners of the globe, performing in weird and wacky scenarios. And, also, I’m in the work where you never quite know how each year is going to unfold. Later this year, I’m going to be in Iceland for the first time in Reykjavik, doing a big retro line-up festival event. I’m going to be headlining at Pride in Cologne in Germany, in July. In December just gone, I didn’t know about these things. So, it, kind of, keeps it interesting and fun and fresh.
Where is the most bizarre place you’ve heard ‘Too Shy’?
Boots Chemist! Recently, I put it on my socials. The store was closing, there was about 10 minutes to go, and I was just walking out with my partner, Steve, and we both went, ‘Is that?’ The speaker was in the ceiling and it was fairly quiet. But when we stopped and really concentrated there, it was. So, I quickly got the mobile out and filmed myself dancing to my own song!
I heard it in a supermarket in America when I was touring there in 2018, like at a Walmart or something, it was. I’ve been driving when I’ve heard it.
Do you feel embarrassed when you hear your songs in public, or do you embrace it?
Oh, I love it! The other thing that happens is if any of my friends and family hear it somewhere, they text me, ‘You're on Radio 2 now, you're on Heart 80s,’ or whatever it is. Yeah, it's great fun.
I've got a funny story. I always say to my friends, ‘Once you've met me, you'll never get away from me,’ because my music will turn up somewhere and remind you.
I knew this guy. I was working with this guy, a musician. His name is Guy, and I'm going back to now, probably, yeah, the mid-90s, and he couldn't find Mrs. Right. He met this girl online, and he flew to Miami [Florida]. Can you believe it? To meet this girl. And he did the long flight, you know, all of that taxi to the hotel, checked in, finally got in the room. He just thought, ‘I've got to just chill out on the bed. You know, it's been a long journey.’ Put the TV on, MTV came on, and ‘Too Shy’ was playing! And he said to me, ‘I can’t f-ing get away from you!
You and the Kajagoogoo guys are 80s icons. You have reunited in the past. Would you be open to doing a possible reunion again in the future?
I always say, never say never. I think it's highly unlikely. I get asked this every week, I say, I always say, highly unlikely. I mean, everybody's moved on to doing very different things. And, you know, we're not youngsters anymore - even though I may look it!
But, the thing is, you know, Nick [Beggs], the bass player, he keeps saying unpleasant things about me. He did an interview, and he said something unpleasant, which doesn't help - ‘Limahl became untenable pretty quickly.' We should leave our bickering. It should be left in the wings. I consider myself a professional entertainer. I started in theatre before Kajagoogoo. I was in a tour of Joseph, I did 'Godspell' and 'Aladdin' panto at the Grand Theater in Swansea and by doing those shows at a very young age, I was 18, 19, and 20, I learned the discipline required; be there on time, look after yourself, so that you can do the demanding two shows on a Wednesday and Saturday. And the responsibility that you feel towards your fellow cast members, the director, the theatre, that's how I feel about Kajagoogoo. I feel this huge sense of responsibility to the audience. For me, that's the way I was trained.
I have a Google Alert for Limahl and Kajagoogoo because, sometimes, I miss interesting things, and I like to share them. It’s a big worldwide web out there. And also, you know, just keep an eye on things, really. I think it's a wise thing to do.
How are you and Steve getting on? Are you both doing well?
Oh, gosh, we’re in our 33rd year. I’m amazed. I feel like we should be given a watch by Rolex, or something. A gay relationship that lasted because before I’d met Steve, it was one disaster after another. And I remember saying to my sister when I was in my early 30s, ‘I’m never going to meet anyone. I’m doomed!’ I had my heart broken a couple of times, which I think, when you’re young, is pretty painful for any of us - great inspiration for a song!
But, yeah, if anyone is going through relationships still, I associated the mistake I think I made, and the wisdom that I could pass on, I thought that love was associated with pain. So, the pain that I felt in the two relationships that didn’t work out, simply because they didn’t love me. And if someone doesn’t love you, you can’t make them love you. It’s as simple as that. But this pain that I was feeling, and trying to make it work.
So, when I met Steve, we were dating for three months, and I didn’t feel this pain, you see, because he was a nice guy, and he wasn’t playing any games.
So, I would say to anybody, straight or gay, going through a relationship, if you think you’re not in love, maybe just stick with it, just in case.
What sort of pain did you go through with the previous relationships?
Oh, they just didn’t love me. I remember one relationship, I’d been away visiting family, or something. I thought things were going really well, I think we’d been dating for about three months. And, he said to me, he just came out with it, he said, ‘I’m really sorry, I’m going back to my ex. I've had a call from my ex, and we’ve decided to give it another go.’ It was so out of the blue. I’d been working so hard at this, I was thinking it had gone really well, and I felt great. It was such a shock, my heart literally sank to the floor. And seeing them together was very difficult. But, it’s fine, it’s all part of life’s journey, isn't it?
Where can people check out the new track?
You can find me on all of the social media platforms - it’s either Limahl or Limahl Official. And then, that will take you to the streaming site. They can either download it or stream it. They can watch the video on YouTube.
Limahl has returned with his first single release in over five years, a reimagining of the 70’s classic ‘A Horse With No Name’ that’s out now via Christopher Music.
