However, for all of frontman Bernard Sumner’s emotive sincerity, New Order wasn’t deploying the same kind of conceptual dramatics that Seagulls were attempting. While Mike Score has said that their sound was “somewhere between Pink Floyd and punk Floyd,” their closest spiritual cousin was probably New Order, who came together in 1980 from the ashes of Joy Division. On the other end of the spectrum, Reynolds’s playing separated them from acts like Depeche Mode, who didn’t use guitars at all. Duran Duran had both guitars and keys, but frequently featured Andy Taylor’s fret work in a more traditional rock context. Their sound combined Mike’s up-front keyboards and Reynolds’s guitar textures in a way that stood out from their contemporaries. Mike attributed the group’s unusual name to two sources of inspiration one was the 1970’s bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, and the other was the lyric “A flock of seagulls!” from the 1978 song “Toiler on the Sea” by British punk royalty The Stranglers.ĭespite the punk inspiration, A Flock of Seagulls took aim at a different musical direction. After some line-up shuffling put Paul Reynolds on guitar and Frank Maudsley on bass, the classic line-up of A Flock of Seagulls was set. The band was gone a year later (Mike has said he was thrown out), but Mike put together a new outfit he took lead vocals and keyboards while Ali joined on drums. By 1978, Mike was making a living as a hairdresser in Liverpool while he assembled Tontrix, a post-punk band, with himself on bass. Five years later, his brother Mike made his debut. “Tellecommunication” (Uploaded to YouTube by A Flock of Seagulls)Īlister (Ali) Score was born in Beverly, Yorkshire, England in 1952. However, one band checks many of boxes in terms of what the culture chooses to remember about the ’80s, and their debut album dropped 40 years ago this week. With expanded musical delivery options like college radio and MTV, and a widening variety of genres - like hip-hop, heavy metal, and the burgeoning alternative field - getting more popular, it’s harder to pin down which band most epitomizes the decade. When it comes to the ’80s, it gets more complicated. Maybe you also have completely different answers. Maybe you say the Beatles for the ’60s or the Bee Gees for the ’70s. Take a decade and name the band that comes to mind first. A Flock of Seagulls: The “Most Eighties” ’80s Band
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |