Wang Chung Aired 03-16-2026

0:00time now for our musical tidbit for the day. We are talking about an English new wave band formed in London in 1980 by Nick Feldman, Jack Hughes and Darren Costan. They chose the name Wang Cheng. It is Chinese meaning yellow bell in English and it's the first note in the Chinese classical musical scale. The band found their greatest success in the United States with five top 40 hits there, all charting between 1983 and 1987. Jeremy Ryder, known professionally as Jack Hughes, lose lead vocals and guitar, Nick Feldman played guitar, and they would eventually form the core of Wang Cheng. They first met when Hughes answered Feldman's advertisement for musicians in the classified sections of the weekly British music magazine Melody Maker in 1977. They were joined by Bud Merrick on bass and Paul Hammond,

1:06who is an ex-atomic rooster member who atomic rooster by the way was formed by members of the crazy world of Arthur Brown, organist Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson Lake and Palmer on drums. They ended up forming a group that they called the intellectuals. In less than a year that band broke up, Hughes and Feldman then joined up with future Wang Cheng drummer Darren Costan, bassist Lee Gorman, keyboardist Simon Campbell and vocalist Glenn Gregory to form a group called 57 Men. This band, as well, lasted only about 18 months before breaking up again. Gorman would go on to play bass in Adam in the Ants. Gregory went on to become a lead vocalist for the group Heaven 17 and Gorman later played in Ba Wow Wow. Wang Cheng released their studio album Mosaic in 1986 and this album spun off their biggest hits. Everybody

2:11have fun tonight, which was number two in the U.S. Billboard and number one in cashbox. Also the song Let's Go is a number nine hit in the United States. Everybody have fun tonight features the lyrics Everybody Wang Cheng tonight and also has a music video directed by Godly and we're virtually every frame featured a jump cut during some U.S. dates in the summer of 1987. They were the opening act for Tina Turner during her break every rule world tour. Well, during the 1990s Feldman joined up with drummer John Moss of Culture Club and they formed the band Promise Land and subsequently released their cell title debut album Promise Land in 1992. Also in the 90s Hughes worked on various film soundtracks including the Guardian in 1990. He was signed to a solo deal by Sony Records in the early 1990s but his intended debut solo

3:17studio album The Anatomy Lesson was shelved by the record label and it still remains unreleased to this day. Hughes later teamed up with Tony Banks of Genesis to form the one-off group Strictly Inc which released a self-titled studio album in 1995. In 2024 Wang Cheng had lined the abducted by the 80s tour with 18 dates across the U.S. and Canada with fellow 80s act men without hats the motels and naked eyes. In March of 2025 Wang Cheng had lined the 80s mania festival tour across Australia which also included groups like Katrina and the Waves, the Escape Club for their first Australian tour, Scott Kern from Kids in the Kitchen, Brian Menex from Uncanny X-Men and a retrospective two-disc compilation album called Clear Light Dark Matter,

4:19Greatest Hits and Near Misses by Wang Cheng about some of their music right here on WMEX.