It seems like every band that have ever had any success in the past (and in some cases there wasn’t even much success to begin with) are reforming. Yesterday, I wrote about the forthcoming Sonics gigs but another surprise reformation is that of the mostly-forgotten The Pale Fountains. The Pale Fountains existed in the early to mid 80’s, made a couple of albums influenced by 60’s pop, most obviously Love and vanished in a haze of drug addiction and tragedy. They suffered from that common problem of the record company trying to mould them into something they were not and dressing them up in ‘of-the-moment’ clothing which didn’t particularly suit them or the music. But it’s the music that is important and they are behind some of the best 80’s guitar pop and in ‘Pacific Street’, they are the makers of one of the truly under-rated lost classics. ‘Pacific Street’ is a beautiful album, bursting with great pop tunes but I have never once seen it listed in any ‘Great Albums List’ or even mentioned anywhere, to be honest. The only reason I am aware of it is because I bought it in a secondhand shop several years ago on the back of who was involved with the band.
The Pale Fountains is where Michael Head and his brother, John Head started out. Later on, they formed the also under-rated Shack and Michael Head made a truly beautiful record in the Nineties’ called ‘The Magical World of The Strands’. Shack had a brief flirtation with minor-scale fame around the time of their HMS Fable record though they’ve made much better records than that. But it would be extremely interesting to see The Pale Fountains when they play two gigs this weekend coming – Saturday February 2nd in Liverpool and in London on the 3rd. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to either but I’ve a feeling it could be a very special occasion.
Check out ‘You’ll Start A War’ from ‘Pacific Street’ below.
GraveyardshiftShane 