Try to guess what up-and-coming band these words were written about in 1980

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"The American media were taken aback by the semi-spoken, word-heavy, synthesizer-dominated rock. They realised that the material was derivative of absolutely nothing; that no act anywhere in the world was treading anywhere near the same ground, a common sentiment expressed by The Gavin Report tipsheet, which said: 'They sound like they've visited rock music in the '80s and are ready to lead us across the threshold."

-- Glenn A Baker and Stuart Cope, *The New Music*, 1980

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

The Dooleys?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:17 (twenty years ago)

human league, but probably not eh

― rizzx (Rizz), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

I'd assume Kraftwerk.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

Probably the Psychedelic Furs or similar.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

omd then

― rizzx (Rizz), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

nope on all guesses so far

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

joy div

― N_RQ (Enrique), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

probably something really obscure, more obscure than soft cell, maybe a flock of seagulls

― rizzx (Rizz), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

zz top! well, the semi-spoken bit doesn't fit i guess. i was gonna say the fall, but the synthesizer bit is off. was there a fall/zz side project?

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

Heh, probably Yes or ELP now that I think about it.

(It can't be TOO obscure depending on what is meant by 'the American media.')

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

nah, more obscure than a flock of seagulls (or zz or fall), too.
i'd say pysch furs are the "closest" guess so far. but not *that* close

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

depeche

― N_RQ (Enrique), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Suicide?

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Gary Numan or M, actually.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

the stockholm monsters

(yeah right!)

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

nope x 4

well, SORT of more obscure than the fall, and sort of not. these guys did briefly wind up on commercial radio in the states, which the fall didn't, at least at the time (or ever since, really). but i am probably giving too many hints...

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

actually nevermind they were later than 1980 anyway
xpost

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

closest guess so far is now M.

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

when did The Normal singles first come out?

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:31 (twenty years ago)

TRIO

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

Talk Talk

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

The Buggles

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

Sigue Sigue Sputnik

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

Talking Heads

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Nope on all counts, still.

I would guess that their debut album wound up higher on the US charts than any Fall album ever has, though I might be wrong. Albums by Trio and the Buggles may have charted higher, but it'd be close, I bet.

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Devo

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:36 (twenty years ago)

nah, more obscure than a flock of seagulls (or zz or fall), too.
i'd say pysch furs are the "closest" guess so far. but not *that* close

Joy Division

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:36 (twenty years ago)

Oh, whoops, someone already guessed that. Sorry.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

Landscape? Fashion?

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

I was almost going to say early simple minds until those last few posts.

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Some of these guesses are hilarious for chronological reasons. Publication date of quote = *1980*, people.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Ned OTM.

Guesses still zero-for-however-many

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

pulp (chrono may be out, but not by much)

― N_RQ, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

THE AMERICAN FRICKIN' MEDIA WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT PULP IN 1980.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

The Flying Lizards?

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

I was actually thinking that myself, but hard to say a cover of "Money" is derivative of absolutely nothing...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

johnny cougar

― strng hlkngtn (dubplatestyle), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

Magazine? (Probably not.)

I was going to say Flying Lizards, too! xpost

― Ian Riese-Moraine: Let this bastard out, and you'll get whiplash! (Eastern Mantr, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

Ultravox, The Cure, other attempts to grasp at straws

― mike h. (mike h.), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

cab volt

― strng hlkngtn (dubplatestyle), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

flying lizards probably the closest yet, but still no cigar.

and yes, many people on this thread have a very skewed idea of what was getting media attention in the u.s. (or got onto commercial radio there - cabaret voltaire?????) (or even existed) in 1980. (though it's possible the AUTHORS may have a few skewed ideas, as well.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

i was 2 at that time so i'm not gonna bother anymore

psst birthday party

― rizzx (Rizz), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

scritti politti

― some best friend, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

hey man if pil could get on american bandstand...

― strng hlkngtn (dubplatestyle), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

ah the residents, must have had a commercial!

― rizzx (Rizz), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

actually, when i first heard this band in 1979, i thought they might be derivative of dire straits (who i also first heard in 1979), but that was just me. (dire straits on the other hand, seemed derivative of bob dylan, eric clapton, and lou reed, who these fellows did not.)

birthday party = NO AOR airplay in detroit, surprise!!

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

never having heard them, on a crazy whim - hawkwind

― jermaine (jnoble), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

cheap trick

― strng hlkngtn (dubplatestyle), Monday, 19 September 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 112 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I just found this thread. My Flash & The Pan Record is completely broken in two, but I can't bring myself to part with it.

I would have guessed UFO.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

I just went to the Sniff 'N The Tears website to collect my prize and apparently they put out like ten albums! I'm trying to remember if and when that song plays in "Boogie Nights." Is it when they are driving over to the cocaine mansion to watch Al Molina dance around in his bathrobe to the tune of "Jessie's Girl" and then get showered in blood after they fcukup bigtime trying to steal his stash?

My memory's faulty, but I *think* it may've been used to accompany some montage-type scene halfway through. It's not a song I can definitively link to a scene like "Sister Christian" or "Do Your Thing" but it's definitely in the film. (LOVED that movie!)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

Not out of the question, both being Aussies and all. (A couple months ago I came up with the theory that Men At Work might have been inspired by the Little River Band. Flash and the Pan make as much sense as them, I guess!)

I'm sure Men at Work heard Flash & the Pan and the LRB, but in terms of influence, I'd sooner cite the Police.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

Well, yeah, obviously the Police, that's totally a no-brainer Alex. But we're talking about their additional AUSTRALIAN influences.

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Dang it, I found this thread too late! I might be the only one here who bought the Flash & The Pan record when it was new (used to play "Hey St. Peter" on my high school radio show)

I used to confuse "Driver's Seat" with "Radar Love" by Golden Earring.

Oddly enough, both songs are used as bumper music on the Art Bell show.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

for years my flash & the pan record was right next to my sinceros record ( i don't alphabetize), so every once in a while i would play hey st. peter and then take me to your leader (i love take me to your leader) and then i would put them back again.it was a tradition of sorts.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 19 September 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

> I might be the only one here who bought the Flash & The Pan record when it was new<

Nope, you're not!! (But I might not count.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

My best friend in junior high school bought it too! But I guess he's not here.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

fabulous poodles -vs- the romeos

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

Bought mine new too.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

There's this whole radio/rock/pop era from 1979 to 1981 in America that I suspect is deeply underrated.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

Like The Records! Starry Eyes rules.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Starry Eyes YESSSS! Rhino's DIY resuscitated this lost gem for me a few year back. Now I cover it and none of the "kids" know it's a cover...

― declan zimmerman, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

I bought a Flash & the Pan album in 1986.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

Also had something like "Lights in the Night" by F&tP on some radio-taped cassette. Always tho't it cool (at 16 or so) but never enuf to seek out a record...

― declan zimmerman, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

"There's this whole radio/rock/pop era from 1979 to 1981 in America that I suspect is deeply underrated."

well, a lot of the major label u.s. stuff was just powerpop/sunshinepop/beachpop stuff heavy on the organ and wearing a skinny tie. made by people who had probably been in bar bands for a zillion years until the cars and "new wave" hit it big. it was more 60's-ish than the u.k. major label stuff that was coming out at the same time. not as punk as 999 or alternative tv or the vibrators or the buzzcocks (though those bands were plenty poppy.) a lot of the stuff from down under was bouncy like that too. heck, even 50's-ish really.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure you could dig up something that nobody has fully appreciated yet, but I'm not sure who has underrated it up to this point.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

>powerpop/sunshinepop/beachpop stuff <

"No Surf in Cleveland" by the Euclid Beach Band, for instance!!

What's cool about American pop music of all stripes circa 1979/1980, I eventually figured out, is that, whether you were in a new wave group or a metal group or a disco group, chances are really good that, 15 years earlier, you'd been in a garage-rock band. That helped!

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

the brits were covered in gloom and over here rhino was still putting out big daddy records.(i am oversimplifying like crazy cuz i'm a simpleton.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

although the brits were the first people to fully realize the genius of the stray cats.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

The Records were british I think.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

I never even heard of big daddy until last year!

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

A few years back I heard the telltale tinny sound of too-loud headphones, but then it coagulated into an actual

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

guitar line, which was the solo from "Starry Eyes" which I verified with the guy who was getting off at 47-50th Street, presumably at Atlantic Records.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

to go to work at

must...control...caffeine...intake

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

Why did I post this? The Records? Yeah, I believe they were British even though they had a song (I assume is) about a record store on Bleecker Street in NYC, "Girl In The Golden Disc." Will Birch was the main guy. I think one of the songs on Dave Edmunds' Trax on Wax 4 is one of his- "A1 On The Jukebox."

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Bought mine new too.

bought mine new, too. (one of the first albums i ever bought.) bought the followup new, too!

wbcn in boston played three songs off the debut album back in the day. it was a hit up there!

and though perhaps they never influenced no one ever, lcd soundsystem should cover "walking in the rain."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

The Ronettes song?

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:47 (twenty years ago)

Oh, sorry, I got confused because of the Little Steven thread. Fcc, you should check in over there.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

i saw the little steven thread and decided to steer clear of it 'cause it would get me all wound up and i don't have the time!

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

I really dislike Glenn Baker. I'm not surprised he would write this about Flash & The Pan

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

What's to dislike about him, Tim? I've never heard of him before, and his book is actually really fun (though maybe just fun in *retrospect*, since it ably captures a fun moment that isn't very well documented, I dunno.) Any way, what is his other writing like? Is he famous down under? Like the Dave Marsh of Australia or something?

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

Despite that the fact that I've no clue who Flash & the Pan are
-- Joel

I'm not sure if this has been covered upthread (probably has), but most people will know about (Grace Jones's cover of) Walking in the Rain. Also, of course, they were the original and best AC/DC production team of Vanda and Young.

― moley (moley), Friday, 23 September 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

"What's to dislike about him, Tim?"

He's Australia's first and foremost musicologist, which means he gets drafted in to make comments about music on a lot of TV shows, generalist documentaries etc. He has two schticks:

a) staunchly entrenching canonical choices (e.g. "Good Vibrations" is objectively the best single ever)

b) blithely bucking (a) whenever it comes to the worst Australian music (e.g. John Farnham is up there with Elvis)

To do this of course requires a gymnastic shuttling between registers - SCIENCE and VAGUELY PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTALITY. So gymnastic, of course, that if effectively becomes one register: he is the Sentimental Historian of Objectively Patriotic Musical Home Truths,

... But it's possible a lot of that is because this is precisely what the people who ask him to appear on TV want. Also I've only been aware of him (and most other things in the universe) since about the early-to-mid 90s so maybe he's changed a lot. But the absurd overrating of Flash & The Pan is the kind of thing I can just see a younger version of him doing.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 23 September 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

I get it. Sounds like Aussie rock crit might be a lot like Canadian rock crit, or at least with what pisses off, say, Scott Woods and Phil Dellio about it. Except one thing: Flash and the Pan were great! He didn't so much overrate THEM, I don't think, as overrate THE FUTURE. (Though he did overrate American reactions to them. From this side of the pond, though, that just seems sweet and goofy, definitely forgivable from my perspective. But then again, I don't think most Americans are very good as seeing foreigners as engaging in patriotic sentimentality...to us, that's something mainly other Americans do.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 23 September 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

I mean, raving about Flash and the Pan is just about as staunchly UN-canonical as you can get. But maybe that's the equivalent of, say, all of Dave Marsh's sweet and goofy reviews in the first Rolling Stone Record Guide book, which came out right around the same time...

― xhuxk, Friday, 23 September 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Flash & The Pan is probably the most recent record that Glenn A. Baker has bought in his life! His entire existence since then has consisted of going on TV in a stupid hat to answer OMG trivia questions about Elvis and Teh Beatles, god he's such an expert, how does he keep all that info in his head Jim? I don't know, Sally, he's a national treasure, now to the weather.

Stuart Coupe does an alt-country radio show and has a record label these days, and still writes.

― kit brash (kit brash), Friday, 23 September 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

I'm really sorry I missed this thread, certainly an ILM high point. We should do this sort of thing more often.

BTW, to answer Dan's question, the Records were indeed British.

― There's a Tipsy Ghost on the edge of my couch (Bimble...), Saturday, 24 September 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

i just want to say i like glenn a. baker.

― minna (minna), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

Is this the cover for the American issue of the first album?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d737/d7373460407.jpg

Doesn't seem like I see this record around much. I'm curious to hear it. Didn't know they were people from the Easybeats.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 24 September 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

this is the US cover for the one I bought in '79.

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=flash+and+the+pan/v=2/SID=e/TID=I047_86/l=IVI/SIG=12icgutpc/EXP=1127701023/*-http%3A//www.crabsodyinblue.com/flashandthepanflashandthepan.jpg

All this talk is making me lust for this album once again.

wbcn in boston played three songs off the debut album back in the day. it was a hit up there!

OTM !

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 25 September 2005 02:10 (twenty years ago)

that "the new music" book is hilarious. am i thinking of the right one chuck? with MADNESS on the cover?

― jon dale, Sunday, 25 September 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

fuck we talked about flash and the pan at the fap friday. what other records did vanda & young do in the 70's? did they produce bro angus band acadaca?

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Sunday, 25 September 2005 07:26 (twenty years ago)

did they do tha angels?

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Sunday, 25 September 2005 07:38 (twenty years ago)

>that "the new music" book is hilarious. am i thinking of the right one chuck? with MADNESS on the cover? <

yep!

and the angels are in the australasia chapter (which there is also a thread about, somewhere)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 25 September 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

yeah V&Y did early AC/DC (I think Alex said this upthread) and indeed returned to do a recent album

― kit brash (kit brash), Sunday, 25 September 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

Of course Vanda & YOung wrote most of John Paul Young's material, including ... ladies & gentlemen ... Love Is In The Air

― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 26 September 2005 07:44 (twenty years ago)

i prefer the day that my heart caught fire.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Monday, 26 September 2005 07:48 (twenty years ago)

there's a copy of 'the new music' at a local record store, i should really pick it up, stroll down memory lane and all that. i was actually given that book by one of my brothers when i was, what, 10, 11, or something, and read it cover to cover, over and over again. i blame it for a lot of my subsequent problems.

from recollection the flash and the pan section was quite big wasn't it, with a huge photo of vanda and young? am i recalling correctly? i haven't seen that book for well over a decade...

i heard "hey st peter" at the supermarket last week. it was a traumatic experience.

― jon dale, Monday, 26 September 2005 07:56 (twenty years ago)

I bought "Panorama", the UK only compilation issued in the wake of "Waiting for a train"'s success, on tape in 1984 and loved some of it, but cannot find a track listing to remind myself which ones I liked beyond "Waiting for a train". It must be in my attic somewhere.

― Rob M (Rob M), Monday, 26 September 2005 11:11 (twenty years ago)

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