Tears for Fears: C or D?

yes to young and confused plus also throwing whatever instruments they'd learned as kids into the mix, just cos it seemed like a good idea at the time

some more footage here that has them sounding somehwere between xtc, secret affair and madness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTuFviRPwzc

“Elvis Should Play Ska”. A light jab at Elvis Costello, after the famous rocker took a swipe at the genre, the track is filled with the up-strummed chords, a spiky guitar solo and some fantastic drumming. No horns, but the track is so bouncy and catchy they aren’t really needed.

Wonder if this song was written before 2 Tone took off. The skank of "Detectives" and "Chelsea" seems an odd thing to object to.

The album is pretty good IIRC but then I like this sort of thing.

Elvis Costello, after the famous rocker took a swipe at the genre

Wait, what? At the least EC was pretty tuned in to and in tune with 2 Tone.

kind of interesting that Mark Hollis started out making fairly similar music in The Reaction as their careers maybe followed somewhat similar paths through the 80s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlxZ8FW2q8g

xp I took it as a bad choice of words and what they meant was Elvis having done skaish tunes

more like "took a stab" perhaps?

They sound more like XTC than anyone else tbh. The mod connection seems like a bit of bandwagon jumping.

would imagine that xtc's influence was pretty strong in that part of the country

Indeed!

was actually living somewhere between bath and swindon at that time, but would've been too young to have recognized the pungent scent of partridge in the breeze

That I know or have known numerous people who went to school with TFF is one of my not-at-all-claims-to-fame-but-I-like-mentioning-it

were they too visible from westbury white horse?

watched this live a couple weeks back, Curt Smith performing Mad World at a temple here in L.A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAFYGHvEhA

xp Probably not - Beckford's Tower is the main spot in Bath to see the horse

my username is v. shit but that's what I get for making an account here about eight years before I began posting

I read "ocarina" as "cocaine"

― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

the legend of zelda: cocaine of time

Trying to remember the Chris Morris quote about Sowing The Seeds Of Love.

Really had no idea Orzabal and Smith had made music like this. I always thought "kick out the Style, bring back the Jam" was a weird line because TFF are closer to the Style, but now I'm rethinking things

The album is pretty good IIRC but then I like this sort of thing.

What sort of thing is it though?

Tuneful jerky new wave+power pop hinterland

There was this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBq6pBhyNq8