Published in Sounds, 29th May 1982
Modern English | Gig Review | Venue 1982 | MOST REVIEWS begin at the beginning, I know, but to do the first two bands any justice I’ve got to begin with Modern English.
To those of you who haven’t heard their second album ‘After The Snow’ yet, I say — forget whatever the words ‘Modern English’ have previously conjured up in your minds — get yourself a copy — closet yourself in a room with it and let it gently blow the misconceptions away.
It is as far an advancement from ‘Mesh And Lace’ as Einstein was from algebra.
Half of Colchester seemed to be there (one of the supports, Troops For Tomorrow, are also from that city) and they got the concise powerpack of forceful songs they’d come all this way for. Songs like ‘Someone’s Calling’, ‘I Melt With You’ and ‘Tables Turning’, need no frills and flounces of decoration —they stand, unaided, as representative of the more progressive trends in modern music.
Modern English | Gig Review | Venue 1982
But for me it’s Robbie Grey’s delivery of ‘After The Snow’ and ‘Life In The Gladhouse’ that reaffirms and solidifies my opinion of this band as being potential platinum . . . how can slush like ABC and Duran Duran get so much airplay to the exclusion of dynamism like this? Listen kids, you don’t know what’s about to hit you!
I hate to make comparisons — everyone’s music must stand alone when under scrutiny, but it’s one of the best ways I have of putting this music into perspective for you. The vibrancy and depth of feel of one or two songs, ‘I Melt With You’, for example, remind me, in an intangible rather than particular way, of U2.
And it’s so nice to see people actually admit to enjoying their music . . . don’t you just get tired of the hip, po-faced ‘We take our music sooo seriously’ types (the Passage for one example) who think that smiling on stage might be taken as some admission of the superficiality of their music?
Modern English don’t need to worry about things like that, their relaxed and party atmosphere serves only to represent their confidence in themselves and their work.
Modern English | Gig Review | Venue 1982
Even ‘Black Houses’ — a track from the misconceived ‘Mesh’ album — is injected with a new adrenalin tonight. I don’t know who was on the sound controls, but they did an A1 job.
So there you are, talking about the supports comes now as a bit of an anti-climax, suffice to say that Troops For Tomorrow were a rather deflated mix of syntho-pop, with singer attired in dainty sailor-suit, and Gene Loves Jezebel were loud and raucous so I went upstairs, and if I do them an injustice I’m sorry. (Helen Fitzgerald)
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