This one was an absolute joy to do. I knew from the start that I wanted this to reflect a classic movie poster, while also capturing just about everyone I thought about when reflecting on the series. DuckTales is one of my absolute favorite cartoons, and I wanted to do it justice. Maybe it's arrogance, but I think I did just that.
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I started making my way through A Flock Of Seagulls albums in 2023, with my Retro Spin Post of their self-titled debut. However, things quickly took a back seat. Frankly, the only other album I had from them at the time was Listen, and I had no interest or plans to obtain their final two 80's albums. Oh, how things change.
If you ever wondered where the crazy hair for band leader, Mike Score, came from, that would be from his background of being a hairdresser. He bought a Korg MS-10 synthesizer in 1979, and invited friend Frank Maudsley, and brother Ali Scott to form a band. Willie Woo joined shortly thereafter, bringing Mark Edmondson to replace brother Ali - There first of many falling outs throughout their career. Shortly after, both Edmondson and Woo left, making way for Ali to return, along with new member, Paul Reynolds. The brothers, Maudsley, and Reynolds would become the classic lineup of A Flock Of Seagulls.
But, what about that crazy name? Where could they have possibly gotten that from? Well, they got it while taking in a concert of The Stranglers. While performing, Toiler on the Sea, singer Hugh Cornwell shouted out, "a flock of seagulls!" Mike Score recalls being in the front row at the concert and feeling like Cornwell was looking right at him when he shouted it. Score took it as a sign. Score would go on to say that with the name change it made the group more popular. Perhaps because it sounded so strange that people wanted to come see what they were all about.
The band went to work playing live shows around the area, and eventually got notice by Jive Records, who signed them in 1981. After releasing a couple singles, with each outperforming the last, they recorded the EP, Modern Love Is Automatic, which was released in the USA. It featured the hit singles, Telecommunications, and I Ran (So Far Away), the latter becoming their breakthrough. The music video would become one of the earliest for MTV, who ran it in consistent rotation, bringing the band even greater success in the process.
Back to the studio they went to focus on, and release a full album, their 1982 self-titled debut. It too would feature the track, I Ran (So Far Away), and also Space Age Love Song. Though the hits wouldn't end there, as it also packed in the previous hits, Telecommunications, and Modern Love Is Automatic, as well as their last single, D.N.A., the latter winning a Grammy Award in 1983 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Mind you, there were more songs on the album that just those.
A Flock Of Seagulls, the album, certified in numerous countries, reaching gold in the USA, and New Zealand, platinum in Canada, and silver in the UK. I Ran and Space Age would also hit the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine and thirty, respectively.
In 1982, the band released their sophomore album, Listen, and with it finally came success in their home country with the single, Wishing (I Had A Photograph Of You). The song was inspired by an actual romance which singer Score had with a fan while touring the US. When the relationship ended, he wished he had a photograph of her to remind him of how she looked. To date, it appears he never has found her again.
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Listen stays well rooted in its synth pop genre, delivering solid tracks, all enveloped by harmonic keyboards, solid guitars, and a great mix of varying drumbeats.
The album starts out with the aforementioned hit, which I think if pressed, I'd say is my favorite from the band. It's followed by the unique, but still enjoyable, Nightmares.
Though all things were on the up and up for A Flock Of Seagulls, as they say, what goes up... A change in direction, drug abuse, and the loss of a member would see all their efforts start to crash fast. But, we'll get into that tomorrow.
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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.As the week ticked by, and we finished our visits with friends and family, my girl and I finally got around to opening our Christmas gifts under the tree to each other.
Truthfully, him making it through the Christmas season was the best gift we could get. He's not only considered to be an older dog, but his diabetes has his overall health constantly up and down. This isn't helped by the cataracts which have formed in his eyes, and growths which consistently impact his ability to walk, all of which are more side effects from the diabetes. We thank Jesus for each day we get with him.
Just watching his face light up as he opened package after package, his or ours, was a much needed joyful time.
My girl got me a lot of great gifts, focusing most of it on items for our Fallout (and red themed) Kitchen.
Jones periodically releases sodas based on the Fallout universe, and this year they released a Nuka Grape, and Sunset Sarsaparilla. As an added bonus, they re-released their Nuka Quantum. For those fortunate enough to find them, Costco had a really cool limited box which contained several bottles of the drinks in a unique case. I tried to track these down, but alas, they were sold out virtually everywhere. Online places that did have them, while reasonably priced for the sodas, but after shipping, it simply wasn't worth it. Still, I really wanted them, and my girl knew this, so she tracked them down.
She also got me the Amazon exclusive 4k steel book of season one of the television series.
With all the gifts opened, we settled in to watch the remaining episodes we were behind on for Stranger Things, while the dog played with one of his many new toys.
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Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue Number: 260
Release Date: January 1985
Highlights
Today marks the end of my journey with ABC. It's a band that has been hit or miss, in terms of gems to add to the old shuffle list. However, in general, it's been a pretty good listening experience. Hands down, The Lexicon Of Love is their most superior album, and frankly, I don't think that's going to be topped.
ABC had redeemed themselves with their 1987 release, Alphabet City, returning to chart success with their biggest hit to date, When Smokey Sings. With that album also returning the (now) duo to gold certification, things seemed on the rise again. Then they returned to the studio, completely changed their style, and released, Up (1989). It would become their first album to not hit the top forty in the UK, and from there would usher in an era of continued dwindling sales, the departure of Mark White, and effectively solo albums for Martin Fry, released under the guise as ABC.
Well, that doesn't set expectations very high, now does it?
As soon as it starts up, I got the sense that this wasn't going to be for me. House music is generally not a genre I visit. Not that I don't like the style, I'm just not that big into dance music. I prefer my albums to sooth my ears, not full-on assault them with pounding beats.
I let the album run its course, but never really came across anything that screamed, "I'm a great song!" All and all, it was fairly mediocre, and pretty uninspiring. I dare say I won't remember any of these songs by this evening. In fact, I've relatively forgotten them already.
Personally, it's a pretty poor note to end the era on, but I've said that before about a lot of artists. It just makes me reiterate what I've said before. The 80's kind of follow the timeline of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Between 80 - 82 it's an okay start, but nothing really exciting. 83 the potential starts to shine through. 84 - 86 you get the classic era. 87 still has a lot of good stuff, but there's some questionable things starting to show up. 88 - 89 things start to head on a downward trajectory.
Martin Fry and Mark White would collaborate one final time for 1991's Abracadabra. However, by the end of it, White was tired and had enough. He retired from music, seemingly closing the chapter on ABC. That is until 1997, when Fry returned to the studio to record and release Skyscrapping. Though released as an ABC album, it was effectively a solo project for the singer.
In 2004, VH1's Bands Reunited saw host Aamer Haleem pounded the pavement in search of original members, Martin Fry, Mark White, Stephen Singleton, and David Palmer. While he was able to track them all down, only Fry and Palmer would end up reuniting. This would lead to the two collaborating on a new ABC album, 2008's Traffic.
No information seems to be available as to why Palmer departed a third time, but by the time Fry returned in 2016 for The Lexicon Of Love II, he was essentially a solo act again. These days, Fry continues to tour under the banner of ABC, with his most recent shows being a collaboration with Howard Jones in 2025.
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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution. |
| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS December 28, 1985 |
Title: The Amazing Spider-Man Annual
Issue Number: 18
Release Date: December 1984
Highlights
In hindsight, it baffles me that ABC's previous album, How To Be A...Zillionaire! wasn't better than I thought it would be. When I first heard it, I wasn't all that impressed, which was disappointing to me since it has my favorite tracks from the band. Apparently, this wasn't an opinion limited to me, since the album would break their streak of sales certifications.
After a brief hiatus, and concerned that it would be their final album, Martin Fry and Mark White began work on what would become Alphabet City. Fry would say of it, "It's a record where we sort of caught up with ourselves. For a while we were making records that just seemed to confuse people. It was necessary for us to work from a firm foundation and in a way, we figured Alphabet City might be the last record we ever made anyway, for a lot of reasons. So, we figured, let's just make it a statement of our work that drew on all the other records we've made."
The efforts paid off, rewarding the band with a gold certified album in both the UK, and Canada. It also garnered them their highest charting Billboard Hot 100 achievement, with When Smokey Sings, peaking at number five.
Upon its release, Alphabet City took full advantage of CD technology. While the LP and cassette versions featured eleven tracks, the CD added four additional tracks. However, two of these are just remixes of songs already included.
Unlike my previous listening session of The Lexicon Of Love, Alphabet City isn't what I'd call a perfect album. Truthfully, it has what I think is one of their weakest songs, the aforementioned hit, When Smokey Sings. It was never one of my favorites, and simply got added to my collection for the sake of checking a box.
With that said, it is a song that's grown on me a little. Additionally, I did find some other gems hidden about. These included, Think Again, and Rage And Then Regret.
What I also noticed is that some of the songs sounded familiar with previous material produced by the band. For example, you could easily fit the lyrics of Be Near Me over the music for Rage And Then Regret. Perhaps it's because of this that I like the latter, since Be Near Me is my all-time favorite from them.
ABC would release a final album in the decade, 1989's Up, which would coincidentally also be their last with Polygram Records. I'll dive into that one tomorrow.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS December 27, 1980 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS December 27, 1986 |
A couple packages arrived at the house throughout the month of December, either from friends or family. These promptly got tucked into a corner, and set out of site, out of mind for Christmas. Between late last night, and this morning, I got the opportunity to open them.
First up was from my high school buddy, Rob. He sent me four classic stories on tape, which were his originals from his childhood. While they didn't include the accompanying books, the tapes are definitely rad. They included, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Transformers: Sun Raid, Masters Of The Universe: Skeletor's Revenge, and The Amazing Adventures Of Pac-Man.
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Title: Marvel Team-Up
Issue Number: 148
Release Date: December 1984
Highlights
I've touched on a couple albums from ABC, and even went into a little bit of their history while playing through their sophomore album, Beauty Stab. However, what I hadn't done up until today, was play through their highly successful debut, The Lexicon Of Love. So, it's time to jump in our Delorean, and head back to 1982.
The album entered the UK charts at number one, going platinum. It then exceeded expectations further by going gold in the US, led by Billboard Hot 100 singles, The Look Of Love (Part One), peaking at number seventeen, and Poison Arrow, peaking at number twenty-five. Since then, The Lexicon Of Love has been repeatedly listed as one of the best albums from the 80's.
Well, that excited me! Let's get into it!
Things kick off with Show Me, a song I'm unfamiliar with, but which definitely has found a new home in my shuffle list - you know, for the IPOD I still can't find. It's followed by the hit, Poison Arrow, a song which I admittedly didn't like back when it was first released, but which has grown on me considerably.
While I thought things would taper off with the slow starting, Many Happy Returns, the tempo quickly picked up, making it another solid entry for me. ABC, I found, was a solid rock group. I was really digging the drum and bass work, and the overall smooth vibe coming off of each track. The word, "groovy" kept coming to mind. Almost like a Kool & The Gang vibe, one that continues with Tears Are Not Enough.
Look, at this point I could keep going track by track, professing how great this album is, but that's just going to be sentence after sentence of me stating the same thing over and over. Basically, what we have here is another contender for the faux third row of wall albums. The Lexicon Of Love is a fantastic album from start to finish. No fillers. Just hit after hit of carefully crafted tracks. Granted, I'm not shocked considering the involvement of Trevor Horn (The Buggles) as producer. The man consistently delivers solid music.
An interesting after thought aspect about the album was the work contributed by Gary Langan, J. J. Jeczalik, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, who would all go on to create the band, Art Of Noise.
As for ABC, as noted above, I've already listened to a couple of their albums for a Retro Spin: Beauty Stab, and How To Be A...Zillionaire! So, my next stop for them is on the tail end of the 80's with 1987's Alphabet City, and 1989's Up. I'll be diving into those over the next couple days.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS December 26, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS December 26, 1987 |
Slow and steady, that's the name of the game.
While cooking dinner, I surprised my girl with a month of ad free Netflix. The reason, so that we could watch the final season of Stranger Things, catch up on season 2 and 3 of squid games, three seasons of The Great British Baking Show, and for myself, the final season of Cobra Kai, and the new Karate Kid movie. All of this, while juggling season 2 of Fallout on Amazon Prime.
For dinner, I made a pork roast and served it with a bit of maple bacon aioli. My girl made her fabulous mac and cheese to accompany it, and the rest of the sides were handled by a jar of beets, a can of cranberry sauce, and some heat and serve rolls. Not bad, if you ask me.
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The Christmas pudding came out of pre-made bowl, which just needed to steam for thirty minutes. The sauce, however, I made with one can of condensed milk, 1/4 cup of water, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 1/2 a stick of butter. Traditionally, the British would pour a brandy over the top, and light it on fire, but I'm not big on alcohol.
From there, we opened our stockings up.
With Christmas day coming to a close, we still haven't touched the gifts under the tree, and I also have a few more to open from friends and family. But tomorrow's another day, and I'm off the rest of the year, so there's no reason to rush through it all. Christmas comes but once a year, but that doesn't mean it has to end in twenty-four hours.
We finished the evening off watching her son open his stocking gifts and stuff under the tree, while also giving the dog a couple more. Mainly because he wasn't having it watching people open stuff and having nothing for himself. Her son also gave us a gift, which for me was another ebay gift card - Score!!!
All and all, it was a great day!
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I caught up via telephone with my brother this afternoon to take some time to wish Christmas bests, while also opening up our respective gifts. We got him an ebay gift card to help in get those elsuive (and expensive) Nintendo Game & Watch handhelds that he's been ravenously collecting. He also took an interest in the various Nintendo related Lego sets, so we grabbed him the Mario Cart.
For us, he sent a gift cards, Old Navy for my girl, and ebay for me. However, he also sent us an additional Wal-Mart card, and send me a super sweet signed / red stamped Spider-Man issue 1!
Oh well. At least he's happy.
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