A flock of Seagulls - Futuristic sound

More than any band of the eighties, Liverpool's A flock of seagulls have come to epitomise a period in pop that was quite unlike anything seen before. The 'new romantic' period was widely ignored by many as they were not seen as credible as the whole punk thing had passed and the idea of synths and heavy bass just wasn't real.

However, it could be argued that the new romantic period lasted longer than punk and was a steady influence of up and coming bands such as depeche mode. The new romantic period restored the importance of the dancefloor and with this more and more bands realised this importance.

As in previous blogs the whole period started in London and quickly reached new audiences in the big cities in the UK. The futurist period reached Liverpool where hairdresser Mike Score was intrigued and fascinated by the images that was leaving London.

He soon began to experiment and created his own unique hair style (never to be seen again!), he recruited his brother Ali to play drums and fellow hair crimper Frank Maudsley on Bass and finally guitarist Paul Reynolds came on board after numerous auditions held in Liverpool. the name was taken via a lyric on a Stranglers Album From Jonathan Livingston Seagull and thus the band was now up and running.

With Mike score individual haircut and styling, the band was associated with the whole futurist movement and there success coincided with a boom in Liverpool music where bands like Wah! Heat and Echo and the Bunnymen were making huge strides. The band came to the attention of Bill Nelson who released there first single Its not me talking and followed by Telecommunications. The band was being compared to the early version of Ultravox with similar space age fascinations.

Following this Jive signed the Flocks and a run of singles would cement there place in difficult place called the USA. with there Avant Garde Videos and sounds they were a popular hit on MTV and were proving to be more popular in America than in the UK. Songs such as space age love song and I ran had limited chart success in the UK but it wasn't until they released Wishing (I had a photograph of you) that they hit the top ten and an appearance on Top of the Pops.

That single Wishing proved to be there peak artistically and commercially as audiences were turning towards the likes of depeche mode and new order, although subsequent albums such as Listen did well there time had gone. It is with irony that one decades futurism can become anothers nostalgia but there image and the tunes they produced still hold relevance.


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