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The Reynolds Girls, Linda (born in 1971) and Aisling (born in 1973), were a pair of sisters from Liverpool, England. They became a one hit wonder in 1989 with a dance pop track that started out as a response to critics who ignored the younger Pop acts in the UK at the time.
It was in 1988 that Pete Waterman became critical of how radio was ignoring the newer talent, including his acts on the PWL roster, in favour of established or adult-friendly acts. That was until producer Matt Aitken came up with a track that would answer that response.
Enter siblings Linda and Aisling (pronounced Ash-ling) Reynolds, who had given Waterman a demo after pestering him during his radio show. He was not interested at first, but changed his mind after he heard it and signed them to the PWL family. He also thought that they would be the perfect act to record the track that Aitken had written.
That song would become "I'd Rather Jack". The song, which poked fun at how older and more established acts got better treatment on the airwaves than their younger peers, became a Top Ten hit in the UK pop charts in March 1989 (UK #8, AU #43). Despite the criticism, it did get airplay time in England. In 1993, the older DJs of BBC Radio 1, such as Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis, Bob Harris and Alan Freeman, would depart from the station, in a series of reforms (instigated by new controller Matthew Bannister) which seemed to directly answer the criticisms put forward in "I'd Rather Jack", and admit that they were, at least partially, correct.
But just as they were about to go into the studio to do their first full-length album, the duo split from PWL over creative differences (Waterman later stated that they refused to cancel a pre-booked holiday in order to record and promote their second single, a move he felt was arrogant). They later put out a follow up, "Get Real", but the title alone wasn't enough to convince fans to buy it or get any airplay, and the two would fall off the music radar for good.
After the failure of 'Get Real' Linda went back to Ireland and received a call from a friend from the 'Hitman' days who persuaded her to join a group called 'HYPE'. She became the female lead singer of this 7 strong group and proved her talent as a beautifully soulful singer. The group had quite a following and toured the UK nightclub circuit and made an album. They also supported 'Take That' in the early days of their career taking off. Other members of the band included a male singer called David, a rapper called Antoni and 4 dancers (2 girls and 2 guys). The music was real pop/funk and their live shows were a lot of fun.
There is a video featuring Linda called 'Building The Hype' which features 3 of their songs, 'We Call It HYPE', 'What You Wanna Do To Me' - (written by Aisling) and 'Crazy' and interviews with the band and their fans, they also made an appearance on BBC2's Reportage programme, but this appearance was just before Linda joined the band. The band had interest from record labels (especially Polydor), but the band split up before they released a single. Linda moved back to Ireland for family reasons and the other band members went their separate ways.
After the two disappeared from the music scene it was reported in later years through several websites that one of the Reynolds girls may have died during childbirth, but that story would turn out to be false. Both girls are still alive, both happily married with Aisling the mother of two young boys, and Linda the mother of one boy and twin girls.
Although the sisters may be out of the spotlight, they have achieved somewhat of a cult following due to "I'd Rather Jack" despite the cheesiness of their hit song. The song and the video can be found on the "Stock Aitken Waterman Gold" CD & DVD compilation, which was released in November 2005 in the UK. A video for "I'd Rather Jack" can be found on YouTube.
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