Synth-Pop Britannia

THE FARMER'S BOYS     The best thing to emerge from Norwich since Sale of the Century! The Framer's Boys may be "In the Country" but they're no country bumpkins, having combined to reap a harvest of good songs during their brief time in the farmyard.. 

1983       48         6          The Farmer's Boys - Muck It Out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5IsrHJKDE

1983       66         3          The Farmer's Boys - For You - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGAfl1W7xVM

1984       44         5          The Farmer's Boys - In the Country - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy_47WBfI1Y

1984       59         3          The Farmer's Boys - Phew Wow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCS5H4fwLLQ

FATAL CHARM      The best Synth-Pop band ever to emerge from Nottingham, or far more likely, the ONLY Synth-Pop band ever to emerge from Nottingham. 

FICTION FACTORY      A Scottish New Wave band who were once bestsellers all over Europe with their signature hit record "Feels Like Heaven", but reports that they now only perform the song at friends' weddings and funerals are Another Story altogether and may be pure Fiction. 

1984          6           9             Fiction Factory - Feels Like Heaven - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQBoeBgb0uk

1984         64          2             Fiction Factory - Ghost of Love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oneGVgkAPXc

A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS      A Liverpool band led by former hairdresser Mike Score, famous for having the most distinctively coiffed hairdo in the flamboyant history of Synth-Pop, which could easily provide a nest for a seagull. His eye-catching blond mane of hair has variously been described as looking like a dead racoon, or like cascading waterfall bangs, although he's as bald as a proverbial coot these days, bless him. Here's Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of Mike Score, or something to remind me of him back in his heyday - like a video for instance). 

A Flock of Seagulls at the Rock Pop Music Hall somewhere in Europe in 1985.

FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD      A Liverpool band who gained notoriety by having their sexually-suggestive single "Relax" banned by Auntie Beeb, which inevitably, led to it going straight to number one in the charts and staying there for five weeks. Rumours that there's a Scottish version of the band called Frankie Goes to Holyrood are unfounded. 

Relax - it's just another wild night out in the Blue Oyster Club of Police Academy fame. 

1983         1           52           Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yem_iEHiyJ0

1984         1           21           Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO1HC8pHZw0

1984         1           12           Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtdRv6GT9Zg

1985         2           11           Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzOGLKTmeuY

1986         4            7            Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Rage Hard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9AXDPCWics

1986        19           8            Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Warriors (of the Wasteland) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEHFGMwfqNA

1987        28           6            Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Watching the Wildlife - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js_bi9Xz4wY

My sound system's okay. I'm just not a big fan of Frankie Goes to Hollywood that's all. The only Pleasuredome I've ever been in was at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach, but that's another story. 

FREUR      A Welsh Synth-Pop band who sound remarkably like Japan, although there's no known connection. Sayonara. 

1983         59           4            Freur - Doot Doot