Archive for the new romantic tag

B-Movie: A Letter From Afar

Best known for their single "Nowhere Girl", B-Movie was an '80s new romantic could-have-been, never quite reaching mainstream success. Formed in 1978 in Mansfield, they named themselves after an Andy Warhol painting and trudged their way through the music industry in vain until 1985. The unbelievably detailed and exclamation point-filled biography on their website blames their record labels, management, Soft Cell, former band members, and anyone else they associated with for their failures (and frankly makes the band sound like egotistical jerks).

Too bad anyway, since they wrote some great pop songs that hardly anyone remembers now. "A Letter From Afar" was meant to be their comeback single, produced by pop hitmaker Jellybean Benitez, but it never made a blip on the charts. I'm sure it was all Marc Almond's fault...

Buy B-Movie on Amazon.com
official website

Patrick Wolf: Hard Times + Damaris

Patrick Wolf was born in 1983 to famous musicians Siouxsie Sioux and Adam Ant. Shortly after his birth, he was possessed by the ghost of Klaus Nomi. He currently resides in some sort of weird time warp where he's stuck in mid-'80s England.

Ok, so I don't know that any of that is true. BUT IT'S POSSIBLE. Siouxsie and Adam are old enough and Nomi died the same year he was born. Also, his biography is SO vague: "Patrick Wolf was born in St Thomas' Hospital, South London, into a creative family."
"Creative family"? Mmmhmmm. And what kind of kid is making theremins at 11?! Maybe they just hid him from the press. There's really no other reasonable explanation for this guy's existence.

I present to you two examples that I believe back up my claims:

Both tracks are from his 1985 2009 release The Bachelor.
Buy The Bachelor on Amazon.com
official website

Fiction Factory: (Feels Like) Heaven

A Scottish band of New Romantics, Fiction Factory were best known for their 1984 top 10 UK hit "(Feels Like) Heaven" from their debut album Throw the Warped Wheel Out. They were recognized for writing melancholy pop songs and vocalist Kevin Patterson sounds frighteningly similar to Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory in my opinion.

The song was most recently revived only to be featured in a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups television advertisement. Go figure such a tragic end for such a bittersweet piece of the new wave story. "(Feels Like) Heaven" remains a personal favorite of mine & holds a special place in my dark little heart.

Recommended for fans of Ultravox, Japan & Freur.

Throw the Warped Wheel Out on Amazon