Prefurential Treatment

He is gifted with perhaps one of the most distinctive voices in rock and pop but yet mention the name Richard Butler and the response is a blank one from even the most ardent and self-professed of music fans.

To tell the truth I had forgotten about him for quite a few years until my teenage children started to watch the American teen tv show “Charmed” in the late 1990’s through to 2006. 

I was a bit confused as the opening bars were a rendition of The Smiths great hit, “How soon is now?” and yet it was not Morrissey singing but a very familiar gravelly tone that was strangely familiar. 

Rather than wait for a dial up tone on our pre-Millenium home PC I just sat the show out and waited for the credits to roll. 

Sure enough, there appeared the name, Richard Butler.

That caused me to dig out of my CD collection the albums of his former band, the sporadically prominent but un- appreciated Psychedelic Furs. 

They were late into the punk scene in Britain albeit in the first commercial wave in 1977 but soon attracted a cult following amongst the new wave movement. 

Their debut album came out in 1980 self- titled and in almost successive years they released Talk, Talk, Talk (1981), Forever Now (1982) and Mirror Moves (1984) arguably their most enduring work.

That cluster of years coincided with my away from home student education and the Furs were, as they say in cliched speak, an essential part of my personal soundtrack either on the Walkman, ghetto blaster and even on vinyl.

The adoption by the 1980’s main exponent of coming of age movies of one of the Furs 1981 tracks represented a huge step in the promotion and recognition of the band. 

It was "Pretty in Pink" and the producer was John Hughes who in that decade did not disappoint his financial backers in Hollywood with a string of blockbusters.

Unfortunately that record seemed to define the Psychedelic Furs in the United States as a preppy college outfit which did no justice to their evolution from their punk roots to industrial art rock, a bit of new romantic new wave and onto a heavier guitar driven rock sound. 

I had really liked their harder sound as found in President Gas and could accept a softer, more melodic output as in Love My Way and later releases such as Heaven and The Ghost in You but Pretty in Pink marked the end of my patronage.

The Furs disbanded after their 1992 tour but had a bit of a regrouping in 2000 and I understand that they do make appearances on occasion even now. 

I do regret no having seen them live in what was their peak era up until PiP but who knows, they might just turn up in a venue near me some day soon.