Mirage - 'Pebble Mix [12 Inch Version]' (1988)

Mirage was a studio-based covers project, masterminded by Nigel Wright, usually assisted by Robin Sellars, John Davies and/or Nigel Stock. They used session singers to re-record contemporaneous dance-floor friendly pop hits and mega-mixed them to appeal to DJs (and presumably people with short attention spans). The project actually began life as This Year's Blonde, which was Nigel Wright working with Les McCutcheon on 'Platinum Pop', a medley of Blondie hits set to a disco beat. Issued on Creole Records in 1981, they came close to achieving a top 40 chart hit when it reached #46.
1983-4 saw the first releases credited to Mirage; these were medleys of disco tracks originally by various artists, issued on the Passion label. 'Give Me The Night (Medley)' managed a #49 placing and 'Let's Groove (Medley)' #81. Two Madonna mixes followed, both featuring Tracy Ackerman on vocals; 1985's 'Into The Groove (Medley)' (#87) and 1987's 'Who's That Mix' (#62), which was once more put out under the This Year's Blonde name. This was due to Mirage now beginning to present as an actual group, with Carlos Griffiths, Kiki Billy and Nicos Griffiths fronting the project and appearing on record sleeves, on stage and on video. A fourth member Debbie Fagan was briefly recruited in 1989, too.
Chicago house music was huge in 1987 and Mirage were quick to capitalise on the demand for the "Chicago sound" by issuing 'The Jack Mixes', a series of megamix singles on the Debut Edge label (a subsidiary of Passion and later just Debut Records, owned by Les McCutcheon). Mirage hit #4 with 'Jack Mix II / III' in May '87 and #8 with 'Jack Mix IV' in November '87. They also achieved two top 10 album chart positions for 'Jack Mix 88' and 'Jack Mix In Full Effect' on the Stylus Music label, which both made #7 within 6 months of each other. A third and final album, 'Royal Mix 89', charted at #39 but other singles like 'Serious Mix' and 'House Attack' failed to break the top 40. 'Pebble Mix' was issued as a single in the Netherlands in 1988 for the K West label, but not the UK. It incorporates approx 18 (!) hits from 1987, including Jellybean's 'Just A Mirage', Pebbles' 'Girlfriend', Eurythmics 'I Need A Man', Eighth Wonder's 'I'm Not Scared' and Bananarama's 'I Want You Back'. The last Mirage release was the 'Everybody Dance Now!' single, issued in Germany in 1991 and featuring dance hits by C+C Music Factory, The KLF, Twenty 4 Seven and more.