A Flock of Seagulls

by James Bonisteel

Sometimes when you think of some of the artists you used to listen to when you were younger have you ever thought hey what happened to them. Surprisingly enough alot of them seem to still be around, just a lot of us do not realize that. Here for example is a band that has been touring around for the past 8 years or so without ever putting out an album since they were popular in the eighties.

"Why?" you ask, Who knows? But A Flock Of Seagulls has now put out a new album called "The Light At The End Of The World". If you ever liked this band, then you should really enjoy this new album. It still has the original sound that they had in the eighties. One night after one of their shows, I was able to talk to Mike Score, the original lead singer and also the only remaining original person in the band. This is what he had to say:

RAD: After seeing you in concert tonight, I was impressed by the fact you still have not lost that "Flock of Seagulls sound".
AFOS: We're out to enjoy it, not to plow into the ground. Sometimes I don't enjoy it so much when it becomes kind grueling, and I think I'm going to give this up. Then I don't do it for three months, and I end doing it agaid doing it again.
RAD: What has been your Drive to continue on.
AFOS: I just never felt when the original band split up that this band had done everything it could do, and I didn't want it to go and stay huge. I kind of look at it like we've had our time. I mean we have been some of the luckiest guys in the world. We're at the top and then it went down. If you expect anything more than that, then you are getting greedy. So I am still glad to be in a band, still playing and enjoying it, going out getting drunk, having a great time, doing what most people in bands do and luckily, making enough money without staying proffessional. That to me is a godsend.
RAD: You were on a label recently, what happened to them?
AFOS: You mean the small label. It was started in Orlando, Florida. This guy wanted to us sign up and do a lot of things for us. In the end, he just couldn't do it, so he started to do really stupid things. I only licensed the album to him, so I just took the license off. I am starting my own record company to re-release it. The album itself has been getting really well-received. That is why I put it on a small label because I really did not want to go out and say, "Well, look this is a big album" a nd have it fail. I just wanted to put it out because we have been playing live for the last eight years with no album out and have been getting really good crowds. People haeople have been saying, "We like the new songs. When are you going to make a new album?" I just wanted to wait until I could do it properly and produce it myself. I'm really pleased with it. I think it's a good step toward where we should be.
RAD: So what do you think about people kind of getting into the Retro thing here in the states?
AFOS: Well, if the retro leads them to our new stuff I think that's fine. It's kind of like a lot of people who like old cars. Nobody spits at them because they love old cars. Old things have a class of their own. New things may be faster, zippier and more modern, but it doesn't mean that the old stuff is being negated if you like it.
RAD: So how many people in this band are from the original lineup?
AFOS: I am the last original. I have all new guys with lots of energy. They are into the eighties thing - you can tell by seeing them onstage. They love playing and have enjoyed playing to crowds all over the country! Even if it goes nowhere for them, it has been a great experience.
RAD: Where did the name A Flock Of Seagulls originally come from?
AFOS: I was into the book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I just read that book, and it reminded me of how I felt about things that I thought I were against me. You know, everything I did seemed to be unconventional. I used to think I was like a fish swimming upstream insstream instead of down so that book basically showed me that I wasn't alone. I wanted to start a band and get other musicians that felt the same - they were like going against the grain. We were at the time and we broke through and had a blast. In a way I think we changed the face of music!
RAD: Well, you did have a few hit songs out there for a while!
AFOS: I think right at that time it was allowed. With me, my crazy hairdo, and doing my crazy music that know one had ever heard before, I think a lot of kids realized that you could be freer with yourself and then that was just like doing your own thing. You didn't have to be a heavy metal rocker or you didn't have to be a James Dean lookalike. I think punk started that and we kind of expanded from that. I wasn't a punker. I wasn't spittin' crazy flea-bitten punk; I was always a nice kid but of course I had my crazy side. That was my release. I wasn't into violence and stuff like that. I am glad that punk turned into a style and not really a lifestyle. I thought it was a bad lifestyle but a great looking style. But you know things move on.
RAD: What inspired you to want to write music, or who inspired you musically?
AFOS: Ultravox, very early Ultravox, and a lot of bands that we saw in Liverpool. Howard Devito - they called them punks back then but they really weren't punks. We saw Simple Minds before anybody had ever e ever even heard of them. They were just playing the clubs in Liverpool with nine people in the band, and they were inspiring because they had one of the first synthesizers that we ever saw. We were like "we have to get one of those no matter what it costs" and it was a lot of money to us at the time. We knew a guy that sold them, and he said, "Just take it. If you like it, you can buy it over a year." We were into a music scene. In Liverpool, it was kind of different, there was a pre-gothic scene going on and all of our friends were into that. We were totally against them. I mean they were our friends, but we didn't want to wear all black and dye our hair black. So we did the opposite and dyed our hair blonde. It was just a wild time so we did wild things.
RAD: So how does the future look for this band?
AFOS: We're going to make more albums. The one we have now, we are going to re-release and we're going to keep playing live. It's the thing we enjoy most. I can't say we are going to go out there and end back up in Madison Square Garden. We just hope we keep a fan base, build it up, and just try and enjoy it. When it runs out and dies, then we'll bury it.
RAD: So what does everyone else now do that used to be in the original lineup of A Flock Of Seagulls?
AFOS: Well, my brother Ali doesn't do music anymore. Paul, the original guitarist, still works with Frank on someon some projects. Frank lives in Liverpool and he's a happy boy. I'm running around doing my thing and that's the name of the game - four happy boys that make lots of money.
RAD: From hearing your new album, it's sounds pretty good, almost like you are trying to keep the eighites sound still?
AFOS: Well, one thing with that is it would have been easy to go out and try to sound like of Alice In Chains or something, but we decided to make it like if A Flock Of Seagulls would have sounded if they never stopped. To me, this would have been the next album and the other album will be another step forward. I love the new bands, like Alice In Chains and all the good stuff that has been coming out. There are some great songwriters out there like Oasis. They're cool - it's good stuff and I would not put them down. I'm sure they are influences in a way, but I don't want to stomp on their ground. I wouldn't even try to be like one of them because it's cool that they just do it. I just think it's cool that we do what we do. When we we're a young band, we used to kick the old bands' butts, and they can kick ours now, it's fine.

This is a band that was very nice to see. They had a habit of bringing back a lot of old memories. Please do yourself a favor if they ever come around into your area go see them. They really put on one great show!!