Back To The Beginning
It’s highly appropriate that the Psychedelic Furs should be ending the 80s touring America in support of their seventh album, “Book of Days”, Back in the spring of 1980, The Furs were on the road in America in support of their self-titled debut album, and in between, they have released five albums and toured the States just as many times. Led by charismatic vocalist/lyricist Richard Butler, The Furs are the archetypal 80s British band, having been initially embraced by a small, but loyal legion of fans only to reach the American Top 40 in mid-decade and then drop back down into the cult status, Always a hard-touring outfit, the group will be performing at the Cleveland Agora Theatre this Friday December 18th.
For Furs’ bassist Tim Butler, “Book of Days” marks a new beginning in the 12-year group's history "We're very happy.” Butler, the younger, said by phone from the group's London office a few weeks back. "After “Midnight To Midnight” and the compilation album (“All of This and Nothing”) released earlier this year), we realized how far we'd drifted away from our original sound and attitude, So we decided to go in and...not with the idea of making a very commercial album, just one that we could be proud of in years to come which I think we've done.”
Part of the reason for the furs return to their original sound was drummer Vince Ely rejoining the group. Ely had left following the 1982 “Forever Now” Tour and was replaced by former Birthday Party drummer Phill Calvert. This was at the peak of the Furs popularity in America. With "new music" formats popping up all over the country, the Psychedelic Furs had a major hit with "Love My Way.” With Ely back in the fold however, the Furs were back to their old tricks. “That was the intention.” Butler explained "Now that we have our original drummer back it helps us to get that sound. As soon as we started work Ing together again, it just clicked back into gear.”
The way the original lineup, which also includes guitarist John Ashton, got back together is as normal as running into an old friend at the grocery store. "We were looking for a drummer,” Butler recalled, "and he just happened to be in our office one day, just visiting with nothing to do. So Richard asked him if he'd come and sit in. He did, and immediately got along again.” “Book of Days” opens with “Shine” a Furs-type ballad, But elsewhere on the album the group dishes up healthy portions of powerful, atmospheric tunes that hark back to their brilliant debut album and “Talk Talk Talk”, their second album. The first single, "Should God Forget”, has already been getting extensive airplay on alternative stations and college radio, and the group has just released a video clip for the next single, "House."
But it still remains to be seen if the Furs will regain the level of popularity in America that they achieved after John Hughes used “Pretty In Pink”, a song from “Talk Talk Talk.” A film of the same name released in the spring of 1985, stared Molly Ringwald and other members of the Brat Pack and was a box office smash. Suddenly, suburban America loved the Furs music, or at least, what it thought was their music. "That was very flattering.” Butler said of the “Pretty In Pink” phenomenon, "But we tended to get a bit angry when people would come to see us that had only heard of us because of that movie and didn't know any of our previous catalog or songs.”
Tim Butler's sincerity is unquestionable when one considers his track record in helping other bands get signed to major labels Tim's wife, Peggy, is a native of Boardman, Ohio and attended Boardman High School with Bernie Kosar. A few years back, Peggy introduced Tim to a Columbus band, The Toll and Tim helped them record some demos. Eventually, Tim personally shopped the demos around to the record companies in New York and got them signed to Geffen Record. The Toll's debut album got rave reviews in such national publications as Rolling Stone and Musician, and Tim, a virtual one-man A&R department, found it personally rewarding to see the Toll's modest success.
"It was great to help someone get signed,” he said, "Bands out of the Midwest tend to have a really hard time getting signed and getting the attention they deserve. In fact, I've just done some demos with another band. They're from Boardman, and they're called Figure Ground. They're really young, about 19 or 20. They're pretty good. I'm shopping their tape around to record companies in New York. It's fun to help out other bands," he added, “because I know what it's like. I'm just paying back what lots of people did for us in the early days.”
With a new album climbing the charts and a world tour still ahead of him, Tim Butler waxed philosophical about the Furs present state. “Culminating with “Book of Days," he said, "We've sorted out a lot of inner tensions that were pulling us apart. At times, we used to think that we should try and be commercial or try and really go for that Top 40 market. I think now we're content with our niche in music. I think it's a very individual sound that we have. We're happy just to expand on that."