Overlooked New Wave bands

[PeterG]

From the late 70s and for almost a decade there was a veritable explosion of New Wave bands, some fantastic and some bloody awful.
However, some of the bloody awful ones became household names and plagued the airwaves for years, while some of the best ones were forgotten. So this thread is a tribute to all those great, forgotten, overlooked New Wave bands. Many of them only had 1 or 2 albums and 1 or 2 singles in the charts. HOWEVER, I'm not talking about making a list of one hit wonders here, like Aneka and her awful Japanese Boy. I'm talking about proper jobbing bands.


Here are a few that I like, that many people seem to have forgotten about:

Durutti Column
Black
Fad Gadget
The Comsat Angels
Gene Loves Jezebel
The Sound
The Mobiles
Visage
Landscape
Icehouse
Martha and the Muffins
Cabaret Voltaire
The Tourists
Department S
Arcadia
Stump
Lords of the New Church
Flesh For Lulu

[at least 100 dead]

I really, really like a lot of the bands you mentioned. Not sure if they're that forgotten, even though e.g. the first three Comsat Angels' CDs are currently out of print (*). Icehouse still gets some airplay now and then in Germany ("Street Cafe", "Hey Little Girl").


(*) EDIT: One amazon seller is actually asking EUR 720,53 (!) for a new copy of Sleep No More!

You might enjoy Random Hold, feat. David Rhodes on guitar:



Or The Chameleons:

[Wounded Land]

The Chameleons were great.

[Nijinsky Hind]

I'll take "The Charlatans U.K. for the win. Love that band!

Then there was Gene loves Jezebel....

[PeterG]

Then there was Gene loves Jezebel....

You did read my list I hope!

[Nijinsky Hind]

Oops... I did, but my tendency to speedread screwed me once again.

[JKL2000]

Shriekback - if you consider them new wave. They've (finally) been releasing a series of remasters, and have a new album due very soon. One of my fave 80s bands.

[JKL2000]

Section 25
Crispy Ambulance

[PeterG]

Now there's a couple of names I haven't seen in decades!!! Shriekback and Crispy Ambulance. Never heard of Section 25 though.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Shriekback is an awesome cult classic band... Great melon twister for progheads.

[JKL2000]

Rather than Section 25 (who I did like some) I MEANT to list A Certain Ratio:

[strawberrybrick]

Fashion's Fabrique is a great album, produced by Zeus B Held

A Flock Of Seagulls had some amazing B-sides, produced by Mike Howlett, Bill Nelson & Conny Plank.

[Supersonic Scientist]

Strange Advance
Red 7
Disturbed Furniture
Soviet Sex
Wall of Voodoo

Not all of these are New wave per se but they are '80's bands that are a bit in the shadows that I still revisit.

[trurl]

I don't know that The Producers ever really qualified as New Wave apart from just happening to come out at the right time. But since they did, and they were an amazingly awesome power pop band... them.

Obviously this is the early 80s Atlanta band, not the one Trevor Horn has put together now.

[at least 100 dead]

Rather than Section 25 (who I did like some) I MEANT to list A Certain Ratio:

Great!

[Staun]

Flesh for Lulu. The Chameleons were so good.

[Progbear]

I forgot about Random Hold. I have one of their albums (The View From Here), but that song is not on it.

Someone else already mentioned Strange Advance, who were like the CanCon version of Ultravox. Definitely check out their Worlds Away album if you haven’t, it’s a real gem of 80s synth.

It always falls on me, though, to mention Dane Conover’s Trees. His Sleep Convention album is just one great synth-pop tune after another, and is very much worth searching out (I never saw another copy after I found mine in a dollar bin):

[gryphs also]

Charlatans UK was my first thought but how about Inspiral Carpets.

[bob_32_116]

You're not from here, PeterG, are you?

Icehouse had a large number of hits in their home country, and are most certainly not forgotten.

I never thought of them as "New Wave", but I really can't argue since I consider that a ridiculously vague term anyway. I'd call them a band with punk roots that evolved into synth-pop - though that description really gives no indication how good some of the music was.

"Great Southern Land" regularly gets voted as best Oz rock anthem.

[at least 100 dead]

"Great Southern Land" regularly gets voted as best Oz rock anthem.

Love that tune to death.

Here are the Suburban Lawns, playing "Janitor":

[arabicadabra]

Missing Persons

Love that someone mentioned Red 7 by the way....

[soundsweird]

Industry, whose forgotten hit "State of the Nation" is unbelievably catchy.

[Onomatopoeic]

Here are a few that I like, that many people seem to have forgotten about:

Durutti Column
Black
Fad Gadget
The Comsat Angels
Gene Loves Jezebel
The Sound
The Mobiles
Visage
Landscape
Icehouse
Martha and the Muffins
Cabaret Voltaire
The Tourists
Department S
Arcadia
Stump
Lords of the New Church
Flesh For Lulu

Even though they were on the Factory Records label, and even though they were originally a punk band before they recorded their first record, I have problems classifying Durutti Column as "new wave" along the lines of the rest of the list above.

They (i.e. -- Vini Reilly) are definitely art rock, or better yet, a new wave of art rock.

[Digital_Man]

These days almost all of them are over looked.

[spacefreak]

Fad Gadget and Cabaret Voltaire are far from forgotten. They are considered classics in their genre.

Few more:
Deep Freeze Mice
Flue
Modern Aeon
Homosexuals
End of Data
Mecano