Chart entered : 24 January 1987
Chart peak : 36
The most unassuming of eighties pop acts had had a chequered chart career largely due to an apparent split musical personality. Their music divided between synth-led pop ballads and spiky Talking Heads-influenced art pop and the former were more successful in the charts such as their biggest hit "Wishful Thinking" ( number 9 in 1984 ). Their most successful album was 1985's Walter Becker-produced "Flaunt The Imperfection" the only one to reach the Top 10 and yield two Top 20 singles. The departure of drummer Dave Reilly after the first LP reduced them to the core trio of Eddie Lundon and Gary Daly for a time but the band expanded to include bassist Gary Johnson, drummer Kevin Wilkinson and lately keyboard player Brian McNeill. Kevin had previously been with The Waterboys and played on their first two albums. Brian had been playing with Glaswegian rock outfit the David Forbes Band and was classically trained.
Like the previous entry this was a second single trying to revive interest in an album ( "What Price Paradise" ) that had already dropped out of the charts. The lead single "Arizona Sky" had stalled at number 47 despite making the playlist so the warning signs were out there. "Best Kept Secret" is a plaintive romantic song with nice harmonies. Although Becker had been unavailable to produce the current album, they maintain a West Coast feel in a forlorn attempt to interest America ( where they remain hitless ) . Unfortunately, it's also one of their dullest singles, with a plodding bass line and forgettable melody. The attempt to pep things up with a brassy upbeat section in the middle eight just seems out of place. Again, I think it owed its Top 40 placing to the post-Christmas lull.
The band were able to work with Becker ( who had been optimistically listed as a band member on "Flaunt the Imperfection" ) again for most of their next album "Diary of a Hollow Horse" in 1989. It continued their journey towards mellow adult pop, Gary D's sometimes bizarre vocal inflections now the only hint at their post-punk beginnings. It's a decent listen and slightly improved on its predecessor's peak position but there were no singles on it. "St Saviour Square" and "Red Letter Day" were bravely sent out to do battle with Jason Donovan and Brother Beyond but neither made it out of the "bubbling under" section.
The following year a compilation LP made number 32 in the album charts. Another remix of "African and White" failed to attract any attention. For some reason Virgin released another compilation two years later. It failed to chart and band and label parted company.
The extra members were let go and their next album "Warped By Success" in 1994 was recorded as a duo with small contributions from Kevin and Gary J remaining on one track each. There's some acknowledgement of the nineties in the rhythm section but mostly it's business as usual except that most of it is terminally bland. The worst offender is "Everyday The Same" which outdoes its own title in dreariness. Much of the album could sit alongside such coffee table horrors as Des'ree and The Lighthouse Family. A couple of the tracks , "Hard To Be Around " and "Good Again", have some bite but that wasn't nearly good enough. It was their first album to stiff completely.
The following year the three other guys returned to record a live acoustic album "Acoustically Yours" which contained no new material and it too bombed. They left again, Kevin joining Squeeze where we'll pick up his story in due course.
With no label interested Eddie and Gary continued to tour, sometimes as a duo, sometimes with a full band. They played a number of dates in The Philippines. In 2007 Gary put out a limited edition solo album "The Visionary Mindset Experience" which I haven't heard. Eddie meanwhile became a lecturer in music at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
In 2013 Brian, who had kept busy running his own recording studio in Glasgow started playing with them again. At the end of the year they posted a brand new track "Everyone You Know" on the Pledge Music website to attract funding for a new album. It's excellent, their melodic and harmonic strengths boosted by contemporary sounds so that it sounds a bit like Keane.
The album "Autumn in the Neighbourhood" came out last year. I've only heard two tracks in their recorded form so it would be unfair for me to judge it . Needless to say it didn't trouble the charts. Like Heaven 17, they appeared on the 80s Recovered album doing a pretty good version of Carole King's It's Too Late .
Gary J dropped out of the music business and opened a workwear store in Seaforth although he still plays in a pub band at weekends.
Dave cropped up again in another Scouse band Jo Jo and the Real People who put out a couple of singles on Polydor in 1987, a version of "Lady Marmalade" produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman and "One By One". I haven't heard either of them. Dave was replaced before they contracted to just The Real People and achieved moderate success in the early nineties . He married Bonnie Spencer, daughter of former Idle Race drummer Roger Spencer and is currently in tribute act The Backbeat Beatles.
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