Fashion!
The band that's never ever mentioned in Eighties nostalgia / New Pop discussions
I remember liking this when Peel and other night-time Radio One deejays played it, for the effect on the voice and the sidling synth-melody
Originally called Fàshiön Music !
From Birmingham, contemporaries of Duran Duran ... signed to IRS, did the album Product Perfect
Fashion then dropped all the accents and the "Music" at the end and they also de-Futurist-ised themselves, becoming sort of rockfunk outfit. Signed to Arista, made the album Fabrique
The music press took against them because they had a sleazoid image with songs that appeared to be celebrating drugs ("Whitestuff") at a time (1982) when that was very much frowned upon -- the group were deemed rockist reptile throwbacks with lemon-sucking cheekbones
Sonically quite appealing, the missing link between the less orchestral side of Lexicon of Love ("Date Stamp" say) and Clock DVA's Advantage, maybe. Perhaps that is to oversell it: there is also a fair bit of Wang Chung and the Fixx in there.
Produced by Zeus B Held
Reverting to the Fàshiön Music phase of their existence -- on this early song sounds like a bit of Specials/Beat influence has crept it -- New Romantic Ska! -- perhaps owing to Fashion being from the Midlands
1 comment:
Funny, because I had something prompt (can't recall what) to remember of them some months ago. Maybe it, as you mention, was something in the context of "bands from the 1980s that have completely fallen through all the revivalist cracks"? Dunno.
But yeah, I remember when they made the soul/funk move. It's when they began to turn up a little (very little) on American radio. I recall "Something in Your Picture" receiving light rotation on some AOR rock stations.
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