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?"
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Howard & Roland & Curt
Collapse
X
-
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.
-
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.
Comment
-
Originally posted by WOM View PostYeah, Nik Kershaw was totally Howard Jones Lite in my book. You know...not all the weighty gravitas of Howard Jones.
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.
Comment
-
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.
Comment
-
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 ;-)
Comment
-
- Jan 2015
- 9580
- Wrexham... ish
- R. + R. McReynold's Travelling Circus, The Jurgen Klopp Farewell Tour XI, Page's Boys
- Ginger Nut
Originally posted by G-ManI think Roland & Curt copped massive flak not for their music but for their pretentiousness.
There's some decent stuff there (particularly on Elemental) but bloody hell, it ain't half outweighed by a load of pompous, grandiose twaddle.
Comment
-
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.
Comment
-
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.
Comment
-
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.
Comment
-
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
Comment
Comment