Eurogliders In 1980 Villepastour and another Perth musician, Bernie Lynch, formed a band. They named it Living Single. Villepastour was to be the keyboardist; Lynch would be the songwriter and guitarist, and would also perform vocals. The two musicians advertised for other band members. They recruited Crispin Akerman as a second guitarist, Don Meharry as
bass player and Guy Slingerland to play drums. The following year, Lynch's then girlfriend,
Grace Knight, became the lead vocalist, John Bennetts replaced Slingerland as drummer, and the band's name was changed to
Eurogliders. There was a shortage of studio time in Australia; Knight's autobiography states that Manila was chosen "for budgetary and timing reasons". The band planned to record the album, and then relocate its home base from Perth to Sydney to begin an assault on the eastern states market. However, the recording session had its challenges. According to Knight: Ultimately the band re-recorded some of the songs and remixed the whole album, which was named
Pink Suit Blue Day. Released in June 1982, it peaked at No. 54 on the Australian
Kent Music Report album chart. The debut single, "Without You", was released simultaneously, and entered the top 40 singles chart; Knight later wrote that the preferred shots by cameramen of the band included Villepastour on keyboards. In 1983 Eurogliders replaced Rosenberg with Scott Saunders. In July of that year, the band travelled to the UK, replaced Saunders with
Ron François, and recorded its second studio album,
This Island. Canada and the USA. Once again, Villepastour starred in the audiovisual presentation of the single: this time, she 'played'
tubular bells, and was also the keyboardist, in the
Countdown video. The official video of the fourth and final single from
This Island, "Maybe Only I Dream", followed suit, with another depiction of Villepastour playing both levels of a two manual synthesizer. Meanwhile, Eurogliders toured extensively, in Australia, the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Japan and New Zealand. In early 1987 Villepastour, Bennetts and Francois all left the band. At the time, Lynch and Knight claimed, and it was reported in the media, that the departures had been voluntary. Whatever might have been the reasons for the 1987 line-up change, it did not improve the band's popularity. Eurogliders' fourth album,
Groove, peaked at only No. 25 in April 1988, and only one of its singles, "Groove", reached the top 50. In 1989, the band broke up, although Lynch and Knight have since reformed it on several occasions, without ever including any of the other 1983 to 1987 line-up members. Her first such collaboration was with
Tim Finn: she played synthesizer on his 1983 debut solo album,
Escapade. That album peaked at No. 1 in New Zealand and at No. 8 in Australia.
Renée Geyer's
Sing to Me (1985) and
Mondo Rock's
self-titled album (1986). She also toured Australia and New Zealand with Tim Finn in 1986. Shortly after leaving Eurogliders in 1987 Villepastour relocated to the UK. Her first gig there was with the
Thompson Twins, with whom she toured the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada that year. and worked on its follow-up,
Shiver (1989). In 1990, she toured the UK, Europe and Australia with Morris, supporting
Prince. Further touring followed, with
Gang of Four in the UK, USA and Canada in 1991, with
Billy Bragg in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in 1992, with
Black in the UK and Turkey in 1993, and with
Yazz in the UK in 1994. Villepastour also played keyboards on Billy Bragg's album ''
Don't Try This at Home'' (1991).
Return to academia In 1995 Villepastour made her first trip to Africa. Her intended destination had been Nigeria, but due to the execution of
Ken Saro-Wiwa, she was diverted to Ghana. Under the inspiration of that trip, and a chance encounter soon afterwards with
Robert Farris Thompson's book
Face of the Gods (1993), she decided to study ethnomusicology at a postgraduate level. When the museum officially opened in April 2010, the
Phoenix New Times reported that Villepastour and the museum's other four main curators had gone into the field to acquire instruments for the museum's collection. While visiting Africa on field trips, Villepastour had endured hardships including twice losing luggage at an airport and embarking on a 350-mile road trip in a four-wheel-drive vehicle that would not shift into fifth gear. But some of the instruments collected for display in the Africa and the Middle East galleries had never previously been seen publicly. According to Villepastour: Soon after the museum's opening Villepastour returned to the UK, and took up a position as a lecturer/researcher at the
School of Music,
Cardiff University. , she was a Reader at that School. Her field work, including as a Curator at the MIM, has taken her to about a dozen sub-Saharan African countries, especially Nigeria, and also to Cuba. From 2012 to 2015 Villepastour was Chair of the
British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE). Since 2015, she has been chair, Study Group for African Music (UK Branch) of the
International Council for Traditional Music. In 2018, her CD
Ilú Keké: Transmisión en la Erita won the Special Award for Musicological Research at the
Cubadisco music awards. ==Publications==