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New Wave

Three voices out of the Specials

Fun Boy Three

Fun Boy Three were formed in 1981 by Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, the three singers who walked out of the Specials, the 2 Tone band that had grown out of Hall's Coventry Automatics. They cut the ska sound down to percussion and voices, signed to Chrysalis and released The Fun Boy Three in March 1982. It reached number 7 in the UK and went gold. Along the way they helped get Bananarama started, with the two groups singing on each other's records. Waiting, produced by David Byrne, followed in February 1983, and a six-piece backing band with cello and trombone let them play live. After touring the United States the trio split. Hall formed the Colourfield in 1984 and died in December 2022, aged 63.

Sheffield synth-pop since 1977

The Human League

The Human League started as a Sheffield synthesizer band, formed in 1977 by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. Singer Philip Oakey joined, and they took the new name in early 1978. After two albums for Virgin, Reproduction in 1979 and Travelogue in 1980, Ware and Marsh left to form Heaven 17, and Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright kept the name. At the Crazy Daisy nightclub in Sheffield, Oakey found Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, two 17-year-old best friends, and took them on tour. With producer Martin Rushent the new line-up made Dare in 1981, which went to number one in the UK and stayed on the chart for 77 weeks. Since 2017 the band has been just that trio, and they are still touring.

XTC meets Gang of Four, 1981

Shriekback

Shriekback formed in Kentish Town, London, in 1981. Keyboardist Barry Andrews, just out of XTC and Robert Fripp's League of Gentlemen, joined up with Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen and guitarist Carl Marsh. Their funk-based version of new wave and post-punk drove Care in 1983 and Jam Science in 1984. Marsh left while they were making Oil and Gold in 1985, and Andrews took over lead vocals. Michael Mann used their music in Miami Vice and in his film Manhunter. Allen left after Big Night Music, the band broke up after Go Bang! in 1988, and Andrews brought it back in 1992. Andrews, Martyn Barker and Marsh have kept putting out their own albums, most recently Monument in 2025, the year Allen died, aged 69.

San Francisco to Brussels

Tuxedomoon

Tuxedomoon formed in San Francisco in 1977, out of the Angels of Light collective, around Steven Brown and Blaine L. Reininger, who had met in an electronic music class. For them, anything that sounded like anyone else was taboo. Bassist Peter Principle, performer Winston Tong and filmmaker Bruce Geduldig came in, and Half-Mute was released on Ralph Records in 1980. After a period in New York and the film Downtown 81, Reininger left early in 1983. The band moved to Europe and, after some months in Rotterdam, settled in Brussels. They made Holy Wars for Crammed Discs in 1985 and played on the soundtrack of Wings of Desire in 1987. They returned to record with Cabin in the Sky in 2004, then lost Geduldig in 2016 and Principle in 2017.

The Collection