Some years ago, when the U.S. was freshly mourning its lost innocence and bad music filled our airwaves, four lads from England arrived with offbeat haircuts, a look that was endlessly copied, and a sound we hadn’t heard before on the radio.

I speak, of course, of A Flock of Seagulls.

I saw A Flock of Seagulls (calling them just “The Flock” or “The Seagulls” won’t do) in a daylong show at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium in the early 1980’s. They were opening for Robert Hazard and the Heroes, who were opening for Blondie, who were opening for Elvis Costello, who was opening for Genesis. In other words, they were the last-billed act. They stepped on-stage in the bright daylight, started their first number, and were immediately pelted with bottles. I couldn’t understand why — sure, they looked (and sounded!) different, but what was wrong with that? And it was a good different. A few short weeks later, “I Ran (So Far Away)” lit up the singles charts and dance floors — even of the formerly disco clubs — and everyone loved them and said they always had.

Tonight, for the first time in about 25 years, I’m going to see A Flock of Seagulls, along with other (almost as-) cool members of the Regeneration Tour: The Human League, Belinda Carlisle, ABC, and Naked Eyes. To say that I had — and have — CDs by most of these bands is a given.

One thing hasn’t changed. Despite their innovative look and sound, A Flock of Seagulls still can’t get any respect. On the box-office window of the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal Studio (where the show is, tonight), and on the tickets themselves, the billing is as follows: “Regeneration Tour: The Human League / Belinda Carlisle / more.” Still, that’s somehow fitting. Twenty-five years later, A Flock of Seagulls is still more.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.