Working Week

Working Week were a British jazz-dance band active in the 1980s and 1990s.Working Week was formed in 1983 by guitarist Simon Booth and saxophonist Larry Stabbins from the band Weekend, which ended when singer Alison Statton left to become a schoolteacher. The duo released their debut single single "Venceremos (We Will Win)" during the following year. The song was a tribute to Chilean protest singer Víctor Jara with vocals by Robert Wyatt and Tracey Thorn from the band Everything but the Girl. It became the band's sole entry in the UK Singles Chart where it peaked at No. 64. The single included founding members of the London School of Samba, notably Bosco de Oliveira and Dawson Miller. Other early members of the group also performed with the band. The debut album Working Nights was released in April 1985 with vocalist Juliet Roberts added as a member of the band. Initial copies of the LP had a bonus 12" disc with (Jalaluddin) Jalal Mansur Nuriddin (also known as Lightnin' Rod, birth name Alafia Pudin) of The Last Poets. Roberts continued as singer on the 1986 album Compañeros and Surrender, released in 1987, but left the band after that year's single, "Knocking on Your Door". Julie Tippetts returned as vocalist for the 1989 album Fire in the Mountain, and Eyvon Waite was solo vocalist for Black and Gold (1991), the band's final studio album. Working Week appeared on 9 February 1986 at the Royal Albert Hall in a benefit concert for victims of the 1985 Armero tragedy in Colombia.