1982 Singles # 48 A Flock of Seagulls

 

'You Flock of Seagulls...'

From Survivor to A Flock of Seagulls. A continuing discussion of things musical and American in 1982. It wasn't very pretty over there to be honest. The US singles chart couldn't hold a candle to the UK one at that point in time. This was where the genuinely credible stuff was happening.

If you were pretty uncool and British in 1982, you or your record company or both generally decided it might be a good idea to go to America. It often worked. It worked for The Fixx, it worked for Wang Chung, but most of all it worked for this lot.

They were a pretty unprepossessing bunch. Not particularly oil paintings. Sorry and all that, but you'll admit that it is something of a factor when it comes to Pop Music. They didn't particularly give good press either. I seem to remember one interview about them being hairdressers, (not the best career decision given lead singer Mike Score's actual haircut), and having seen actual UFOs, (yeah lads, a likely story).

They hailed from Liverpool and there sound was probably 80%  OMD's and 20% theirs. They never made much oof a mark in the UK but became almost immediately huge across the pond. They arrived at pretty much the same time as MTV and the two were born for each other. Shallow, catchy, immediate, colourful. They became the Mid West's idea of cool, sold massively in the US for several yearsand still pack them in on nostalgia circuit tours even now. Good luck to them.

This single, their breakthrough only got to # 43 in the UK. It doesn't even get as high as that here. But it made # 9 in the US, # 3 in France, and wait for it, # 1 in Australia. There was something about A Flock of Seagulls that appealed more to Johnny Foreigner than us Brits.

This was probably because 1982 was probably the breakthrough year  here for bands that were a bit like A Flock of Seagulls but much better than them. Associates, Soft Cell, Human League, Simpke Minds, Japan, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, Blancmange. Hey even Duran Duran. A Flock of Seagulls didn't sulk though. they did the sensible thing and in fact probably had the last laugh. As for me, I think it's alright.