Hi folks

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ian (known to his friends as Snash or Snashy) & I am 42 years old. I can't claim to be the oldest member of the forum as I saw a profile of a 43 year old.

I first got into Ultravox back in 1982 & "Quartet" was the 4th album I ever bought. "Reap The Wild Wind" & "Hymn" are the stand out tracks for me.

1984 was the year I went to my first ever gig - Ultravox/Messengers at the Brighton Centre. I still have the t-shirt, ticket stub, programme & tape given away with the prog. I wonder how many other people still have theirs in its original format ie they didn't use side 2 to record on.

My interest in Ultravox over the last decade hasn't been as strong as it used to be but I would always list Ultravox as my all time favourite group & "Lament" my favourite album.

Currently I am unemployed & for the last 22 years I have been a hospital radio volunteer presenting a variety of shows. Currently I present a 2 hour Sunday show on Musicals.

In the mid 80's - early 90's I used to have a number of "pen & paper" penpals, Ultravox & otherwise, from as far afield as France, Germany, USA, Poland, Holland, Norway & Venezuela, as well as several from the UK.

My greatest Uvox moment was meeting Warren Cann at one of the Wembley Flag nights - I think it was 1984.

It would be great to rekindle my interest with some new friends - especially those that have a liking for one or more of the following : Human League, Dead Or Alive, OMD, Transvision Vamp, Kim Wilde, Icicle Works, Big Country & especially A Flock Of Seaguls - the BEST band EVER to come out of Liverpool!! Now THERE'S a controversial subject for debate!!!

Look forward to meeting some new friends

Snashy

Hi Ian and welcome to the forum.

Hi Ian and welcome to the forum.

And, as we all know, 43 is very young......

Greetings, Snashy.

If you go down to page 98 of the "what are you listening to now" thread on the music recommendations , you will find you are not alone with your thoughts on FoS.

Thanks for the welcome Havocman - nice to meet you.

You're quite right 43 is very young.

They say once you're 40 you're over the hill
I say going down the other side is quite a thrill!!

Hi Pete, and welcome to the forum.

I realised a long ambition of over 20 years around 4 years ago of wanting to see AFOS Live. I fulfilled that ambition when I saw them from free in Kings Cross as part of the "Bands Reunited" Sky series. I was interviewed prior to the gig &, although it wasn't used on the programme, they did feature the track I chose as my favourite "I Ran". NB : When Janice Long did a feature on her programme a couple of years back whereby she asked people to suggest songs titles with countries in ie "HUNGARY Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran, I chose AFOS - "IRAN".

Oh dear.

Originally posted by Snashy:

Cool! You're so lucky!

Anyway, a big warm welcome and hello from another Flock Of Seagulls fan.

Cheers

Antoinette

Hi Antionette

Nice to see there are still a few of us AFOS fans around.

Remembering Mike Score & his seagull hairstyle made me think - where did Keith Flint of Prodigy get his harstyle from for the "Firestarter" video?

I met Keith at a Marilyn Manson concert - it was amazing to see a few Gary Numan fans there as well - Keith came across as a nice guy & signed my ticket stub. Although I wasn't a big fan of his music - the guy himself is ok.

Ian

Huumm, AFOS. Now theres something i still hear pretty often.

I know, i know. I was going for another 'Copyright Havocman' joke, but decided on something funny.

I heard you are A Flock of Seagulls fans also.

You should have, it was you that bought the remasters for me.

Theres a lot of fans still around in fact!

For me, the first two albums were their classics, 'AFOS' and 'Listen', sadly the others that followed were IMO 'average'.

I know, i know. I was going for another 'Copyright Havocman' joke, but decided on something slightly funny. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sadly so true!

The AFOS album "Listen" has to be my favourite. I love the tracks "Remember David" - the best on the album, "The Dancer" & of course "The More You Live, The More You Love". Although I have to say I don't like the 12" single version of TMYLTMYL.

Some of their later stuff isn't as good as the earlier stuff, but doesn't that tend to be the case with quite a few artists for example, is anyone going to disagree that "Dare" is the best album Human League ever recorded?

For me "Lament" is the best Ultravox album, but many people would disagree & say "Vienna" is.

By the way, over the last two nights I have indulged in the "Lament", "Uvox", "Ultravox" - my fave J Foxx album - & "Systems Of Romance".

Listen is a brill album. All of the tracks are great but songs like The Traveller, Transfer Affection and The Fall are my personal favourites. I also find that the drumming is pretty cool too (as a budding drummer, I tend to find that sort of stuff fasinating).

At one point, I only heard several songs (not all of them) from the Listen album on YouTube but a few weeks ago, I managed to get a special edition version of Listen on vinyl and play the entire album for the first time. Like I said earlier, it's brill.

Transfer Affection is a fantastic song - surprised it only got to No33 in the charts - I still have a recording of that particular Tommy Vance (RIP) tOP 40.

Hi Snashy. Welcome to the forum.

Not sure about A Flock Of Seagulls being the best band to come out of Liverpool.
Apart from the obvious Beatles, what about Echo and the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, The Icicle Works etc.

Yes. Although I like AFOS they are not in the same league by any measure.

Same for me. 'AFOS' made two classic albums IMO, overall i would go for 'The Icicle Works', though 'Teardrops' and the 'Bunnies' are more famous.

The Icicle Works. That is a band I am not too familar with.

edit: oops, double post :rolleyes:

Just while you're on the subject of Liverpool bands...
What about FLIGHT?

Cool stuff, especially liked the Bowie cover of 'Heroes'

http://www.flight.org.uk/intro.htm

I have to be totally honest Coony - I have never heard of Flight. If they are a band on todays music scene I don't know much about todays bands.

I also totally forgot about one of my fave groups I used to love seeing in the 90's - Lightning Seeds (Ian Brodie who used to be in Care - "Burning Sword" anyone?).

Guess what I heard on the Eamonn Holmes Radio 5 Live programme at 9.10am this morning? A brief clip of AFOS "I Ran". It was on the section where he plays clips from 3 records linked to a sports story of the week. AFOS on 5 Live - who would have thought it!!

Nice find, Piggie. Really like their Ultravox covers, The Voice in particular is quite strong.

Hi Maryann.

The Icicle Works emerged in the early 80s in Liverpool. They were a three piece group fronted by songwriter Ian McNabb. They released great anthemic songs like Love Is A Wonderful Colour,Hollow Horse and Birds Fly Whisper To A Scream - a US hit in '83.They released four albums between '84 and '88 after which the drummer and bassist both left to be replaced by session men for one final album in 1990.

McNabb then embarked on a solo career which allowed him to fufill his Neil Young fixation,even recording an album with Crazy Horse.He regularly releases new albums to critical acclaim but with diminishing sales. He even toured under the banner of The Icicles Works last year performing his old bands material.

Thanks Andy. Will look into them this week.
Not sure of the 'Neil Young fixation' or the 'Crazy Horse' thing though. <img border="0" alt="[Puppy dog eyes]" title="" src="graemlins/sad5.gif" />

I forgot to insert my comment!! How about this for a bit of trivia Snashy....on my way back from a Midge Ure solo concert at Wembley (xmas 1985 I think) I met the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls on the last train back to Lime street, and he was complete with ridiculous hair,not sure if they were the best band to come out of Liverpool though!