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    Howard & Roland & Curt

    I am 46 years old. Like most of you, I was music-aware from an early age, but it wasn't until I was 15 or 16 that I became one of those people with opinions. So I really liked some bands without knowing whether they were cool or not. I know a few of you are a bit older, and of a similar bent, so what I'm asking is, "how were acts like Howard Jones, Tears For Fears, and The Thompson Twins seen outside the Smash Hits crowd?"

    #2
    No idea what the Smash Hits crowd is, but I'd say that Howard Jones and Thompson Twins came in for a significant degree of scorn, both then and now (despite both being rather popular). Tears were significantly better regarded, I'd venture both then and now.

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      #3
      Someone on here - possibly GO - saw the Thompson Twins when they were an edgy, nine strong, post punk collective, rather than the slimmed down trio that bothered the charts.

      FWIW (as an old lag of 48), my memory of TFF is that they were fairly well respected around the time of their first album but that regard dissipated with their second, partly because the breakout singles were inescapable enough to become grating. Howard Jones was bracketed with Nik Kershaw as pop fluff rather than seen as a serious proposition.

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        #4
        Yeah, Nik Kershaw was totally Howard Jones Lite in my book. You know...not all the weighty gravitas of Howard Jones.

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          #5
          I've always been a sucker for Thompson Twins, by the way. And I think it was Wyatt Earp rather than GO, Benjm. But I could be misremembering.

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            #6
            Originally posted by WOM View Post
            And I think it was Wyatt Earp rather than GO, Benjm. But I could be misremembering.
            I was slightly concerned that I had remembered it at all. Some fuzziness on the details might even be reassuring.

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              #7
              Originally posted by WOM View Post
              Yeah, Nik Kershaw was totally Howard Jones Lite in my book. You know...not all the weighty gravitas of Howard Jones.
              What did Kershaw know of mental chains? I'll tell you; nothing, that's what.

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                #8
                Originally posted by WOM View Post
                Yeah, Nik Kershaw was totally Howard Jones Lite in my book. You know...not all the weighty gravitas of Howard Jones.
                On his albums at least, Jones strives for weighty gravitas.
                He was a big fan of the Tao te Ching and loads of his songs were based on mangled Eastern philosophies.
                That's not to say he achieved his aim. But it's difficult to imagine your Kershaws or your Harketts writing songs about animal cruelty/vegetarianism or the creation of the universe or people who can't move on to the afterlife.
                He was a terrible prick, obviously.

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                  #9
                  Oh and Tears for Fears' Songs Form the Big Chair is one of the best albums of the 1980s.

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                    #10
                    I think they were all piss-ripped at some time, but I think if they all did one of those 80s tours together, along with Nick Heyward, Marc Almond, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and Adam Ant, we'd all come away smiling.

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                      #11
                      Nick Heyward wasn't exactly commanding great respect back in the day. He has been properly rehabilitated, and rightly so. I doubt that Kershaw or Jones are rehabilitable. hobbes is right about Songs From The Big Chair; though I think Roland & Curt copped massive flak not for their music but for their pretentiousness. I would suggest that The Thompson Twins had a few catchy pop songs, which was their remit. I don't think the arrangements have aged well, but the tunes are decent pop music.

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                        #12
                        I remember Thompson Twins gigs (when they were a nine piece) being very entertaining before they got popular and often ended with band induced stage invasions....I went off them soon after they trimmed up.
                        Nick Heyward's then girlfriend studied Microbiology at the same time I did Haematology at Harrow College of Education - I agree, he was a Smash Hits front page waiting to happen so bypassed my back-combed 4AD-heavy leanings.
                        Howard Jones was 'in and around' the Aylesbury area where I lived and did a few local gigs including supports at Friars - we saw his dancer up front and close and bought his cassettes -- ditto Thompson Twins...dropped him like a hot one once TOTP came along...

                        Music snobbery at its height, I fear.

                        Reluctant Stereotypes anyone?....I never dropped them ;-)

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Benjm View Post

                          What did Kershaw know of mental chains? I'll tell you; nothing, that's what.
                          A bit of a riddle in fact.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by G-Man
                            I think Roland & Curt copped massive flak not for their music but for their pretentiousness.
                            I'd say the pretentiousness was nearly all Roland judging by the albums released between The Seeds Of Love (where you could already hear his excesses get the better of him on most of the tracks - it's not an easy listen in the slightest if you don't skip any tracks) and Everybody Loves A Happy Ending.
                            There's some decent stuff there (particularly on Elemental) but bloody hell, it ain't half outweighed by a load of pompous, grandiose twaddle.

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                              #15
                              I tell ya what, though. I dragged L, kicking and screaming, to see Tears (at a fucking casino) about six years ago and they blew her away.

                              I've told this before, but in first year university, I lived in a rooming house with a schizophrenic guy who'd play The Hurting (on cassette) on continuous repeat for about 4 hours each night. He'd sit right in front of the player and just....listen. Marty the ex-con and I went out and bought a ten-pack of cassettes and dubbed him all our favorite albums so he'd have something different to listen to. I don't think it had occurred to him that there was more than one album kicking around.

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                                #16
                                Tears for Fears were my favourite band in the world when I was 9 years old and I still have a strong affection for their first 2 albums. The Seeds of Love on the other hand was an overbloated mess.

                                Howard Jones did two good songs (Pearl in the Shell and Things Can Only get Better) but the rest of it is rather forgettable and he really did have a ridiculous haircut.

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                                  #17
                                  I recall my younger sister being into all of these, along with Paul Young and Nick Heyward, consequently I thought they were mostly shite, with the possible exception of TFF.

                                  Nik Kershaw popped up on BBC's Back in Time For School just the other week, banging out one of his hits to a bunch of 'starstruck' youngsters transported back in time to the 80s. They seemed impressed.

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                                    #18
                                    I have a lot of time for Nick Heyward, both as a musician and a (seemingly) pretty decent guy. Kershaw's probably lovely, but just a bit average musically.

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                                      #19
                                      Howard Jones and the Thompson Twins were definitely pop.

                                      Tears for Fears did have a bit more heft to them. Nik Kershaw's later stuff (like Radio Musicola) was more experimental but didn't sell as well.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                        I have a lot of time for Nick Heyward, both as a musician and a (seemingly) pretty decent guy. Kershaw's probably lovely, but just a bit average musically.
                                        I'm absolutely considering going to see him at the Bury Met in April.

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                                          #21
                                          Yeah, I'd be down for that.

                                          Also, on April 9 The Good Lovelies are playing. I'd recommend taking a flyer and going to that. They're Toronto gals and we just saw them again in December.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                                            Nik Kershaw's later stuff (like Radio Musicola) was more experimental but didn't sell as well.
                                            When A Heart Beats was comfortably his best single.

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                                              #23
                                              Come to think of it, Kershaw wrote The One and Only (for Chesney Hawkes), which must have made him a fair wedge.

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                                                #24
                                                Thompson Twins and Howard Jones had several nice tunes but were marketed as kiddie pop*, which made them out of bounds for indie consumers. Tears For Fears - 'Pale Shelter' and 'Mad World' have kudos but stuff like 'Shout' sounded like stadium rock, similar to the Simple Minds route.

                                                *Saturday Superstore regulars IIRC

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                                                  #25
                                                  I bought the Haircut 100 album when it came out, much to the sneering of some indie chums.

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