Friday, May 1, 2009

FLYING COLOURS-------Art for music's sake.

Did the Beatles invent powerpop? Was it then purloined by the Americans to enliven the seventies? What is the best powerpop song of all time? Is it I Thought You Wanted To Know by Chris Stamey And The DB's? Or I Need That Record by the Tweeds? Or Go All The Way by the Raspberries? Or Teen Line by the Shivvers? Or is it, unlike the aforementioned all American line up, by a British band called Flying Colours? A song with a killer chorus which includes the line "she has a cube instead of a heart" somehow failed to inspire the public to man their paint pots and flourish their brushes. This sister song to My Baby Does Good Sculptures by the Rezillos should have decorated the charts for weeks, instead it sold as many paintings as Van Gogh did during his lifetime. On this ocassion it was the public who had cut their ears off. How could one not be attracted to the tale of a boy who doesn't understand his artistic girlfriend and her penchant for painting green-faced women with purple hair? To him it's a load of Pollocks.

Flying Colours was Tony Love on guitars, John Barton on guitar, Russell Young on bass and vocals and Dave O'Regan on drums. Abstract Art, released in 1981, was their only single and it was backed by a tedious instrumental. Now did the Pleasers invent Thamesbeat? Discuss.

flying colours abstract art.mp3 -

3 comments:

JamesTrash said...

Thamesbeat... what's that? Some journo coined that phrase, didn't they? I was still reading the Beano in late '77 when powerpop kicked off with that NME feature. For all those Beatles comparisons, it's funny that The Pleasers best record was a Who cover.

"Lies" by Pointed Sticks gets my vote for best powerpopper. Wait! ...they're Canadian, is that allowed?

bristolboy said...

ah... great track James!!! for the best allrounder (both sides are excellent) I'll have to go for the BTP folders with "radio/all of a sudden"
but that will probably change tomorrow to something else

Rupert Cook said...

"All Of A Sudden" is a fabulous song. Right up there with the best of powerpop tunes. I've never heard "Lies". Let's not exclude them just because they're Canadian.