Who were Animal Magnet?

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Animal Magnet's 'Welcome to the Monkey House' ia a curiously undiscussed record here. Pitched somewhere between Martin Rushent's work with Pete Shelley, Yello's latin workouts and Troublefunk it's a really sexy record, with very of the period sleazy overtones. It was one of the total highlights of 1984, and is still one of those records that guarantees 'a what the hell is that?' query from someobe whenever I play it at a party. But I can remember nothing at all about who made it or what happened to them. Anyone know?

― Guy Beckett (guy), Saturday, 11 June 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

Is that the record where the chorus is basically the title followed by weird synthy noises, with a kind of ska feel to it? I love that song, I'd forgotten about it.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Saturday, 11 June 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Yeah that's the one - It does have 'weird synthy noises' and there's a lot of reptition of the title towards the end - but I'd say it's more inflenced by records like Supernature than ska, except for the way it speeds up manically which does have echoes of The Beat...

Lyrically it replays yuppie values as camp innuendo - predating (and perhaps influencing?) Pet Shop Boys - ' we're going to be rich tonight, we're going to be huge'...

― Guy Beckett (guy), Sunday, 12 June 2005 09:38 (twenty years ago)

I'm kind of guessing that their identity remains a mystery?

― Guy Beckett (guy), Sunday, 12 June 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

Not quite!

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Sunday, 12 June 2005 09:48 (twenty years ago)

Great story - thanks for that link. Animal Magent, Haysi Fantayzee and rttp - wow. Was Animal Magnet a band? Supported Duran so must have been I suppose.

― Guy Beckett (guy), Sunday, 12 June 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

When I Googled there were a couple of pics - looked like Top of the Pops, but pretty small and grainy so I didn't bother putting them up. They performed as a full band, anyway.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...

animal magnet were a duo had 2 club hits 1 being welcome to the monkey house fantastic song that a lot of people even from the eighties have never heard of they managed to avoid the charts and one of the duo joined haysi fantazi another 80s duo hope this helps

― laura yeomans, Tuesday, 31 January 2006 17:30 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

er... hello everyone, stumbled on this page by accident, very weird to see you all discussing what I was up to quarter of a century ago. I was one of the two founders of Animal Magnet (but we weren't a duo, there were 5 of us most of the time) and yes, we were very much a live band. Then I started Haysi Fantayzee with my girlfriend Kate, and then... well, it's a long story. Happy to answer questions if anyone's interested. ....Paul

― Paul Caplin (paulcaplin), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

eight years pass...

Hi Paul

I also stumbled on this page, I can see a few years have passed since you posted this but hopefully you will still get this message

I would like to get your permission to release a cover of your song Welcome to the Monkey House, we would not seek to gain any profit and all proceeds would be given to a specific charity.

Best Regards
Peter

― PeterKeys, Monday, 3 November 2014 20:09 (eleven years ago)

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