Pearly Gates was born as Viola Billups in Alabama, and joined siblings Earnestine, Betty and Shirley Pearce for the group The Gypsies back in 1964. Betty left the group and they changed their name to THE FLIRTATIONS and had various singles releases on the Josie and Festival label.
By 1967, they went to England and were signed by WAYNE BICKERTON of Decca Records. He took them on to Deram Records by the late 60s where they had a smash hit with "Nothing But A Heartache" which along another hit single of theirs, "Stronger Than Her Love", remain huge favourites on the UK's Northern Soul scene.
By 1973, Viola left the group and debuted as a solo artist on Polydor with the single "Sad Old Shadow" (co-written by Lynsey de Paul) which she put out under her nick name VIE. For her next release, "Johnny & The Jukebox" (1974), she adapted her artist name PEARLY GATES.
More singles followed, and by the late 70s Pearly transformed into a disco chanteuse, releasing such dance favourites as "Burning Love" and "Fandango Dancing", the latter produced by BIDDU, the hit-maker of Tina Charles' "I Love To Love" among many others.
By late 1979, Pearly teamed up with producer IAN LEVINE and recorded her first album "Fading Into The Night", this time under the pseudonym COBIE JONES. Unfortunately it fell victim of the disco backlash by the turn of the decade and sat in the can for several years until the title track and "No Two Ways About It" (both running a full 10-minutes!) came out as collectable 12" singles on the label Nightmare Gold in 1987.
In the meantime, Pearly bounced back in 1985 with her biggest hit single "Action" which was a smash on the Hi-Energy scene - written by GEORGE HARGREAVES. It was followed by a new Ian Levine track, "Third Time Lucky" in 1986. In 1989, she re-joined the Flirtations for the a new track on Ian's Nightmare label, "Back On My Feet Again", plus she put out a new solo single, a Hi-NRG cover of the 5th Dimensions' "One Less Bell To Answer" which was backed with "The Race Is On" from her lost disco album.
By 1995, Ian and Pearly teamed up again. Ian was compiling a "Best Of"-CD series of his artists and finally had a chance to put out all 5 tracks from the unreleased 1979 album, once and for all, plus his 80s singles with Pearly. In addition to this, Pearly recorded a new version of "Action" plus five new songs, including "Thrill In Me", co-written by Ian and Motown-singer Billy Griffin (the two had also written Take That's hit single "I Found Heaven") and featured here with a video, and the ballad "Stand Up And Fight", co-written by Ian and Clive Scott & Des Dyer, formerly of UK hit pop group Jigsaw (of "Sky High" fame).
Since then, Pearly has occasionally performed with The Flirtations but more recently, she's working as a manager for her own company Viemanagement, where she's launching the new boy band DYYCE. Still Ian got her back into the studio for a new Northern Soul album, NORTHERN SOUL 2007, cutting the tracks "For Crying Out Loud" as a solo track, and "Resist The Temptation" with The Flirtations- Pearly and The Flirtations have also done two new tracks for Ian's album DISCO 2008, "Days in New York" and "Run To The Exit", plus a sensational cover of the Miquel Brown classic "He's A Saint, He's A Sinner" for the album YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW (2008).
November 2008: Pearly releases the new tracks "One Time Too Many" (including a fabulous remix by Laurent Schark) and "Stop For Love" for Night Dance Records' album THE PLAN. Furthermore, both Pearly and The Flirtations contribute tracks to the upcoming Centre City album SOULSTEPPERS
