Founded in 1977 by the brothers Butler in their parents living room, The Psychedelic Furs were way more than just the classic hit Pretty In Pink. Hard to define, with thoughtful lyrics, an instantly recognisable vocal and complex music, they never quite got the recognition they deserved. After a significant break, the band are back and working on a new album, plus they’re heading to Norwich to play all their hit singles. I had a lovely chat with bass player Tim Butler about Pretty In Pink the film vs the song, the origins of the band and the state of the music industry in 2017.
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“Is the Norwich Boogie House still open?”
ou’ve been in the band from the beginning in 1977. What
led you and your brother Richard to start the band? We went to see Te Sex Pistols at the Hundred Club and were blown away by the passion and the power of them. One night Richard and I were sitting by our parents’ fire talking about forming a band and he said “Do you want to form a band?”, and I said “OK”. He said “What would you like to play?”, and originally I wanted to play drums but a whole set would have been too expensive. I wanted to be on the rhythm section so I chose the bass. Te fact that we’d seen the Pistols, and saw that you didn’t have to be a prog rock guitarist to get out there and say something at that time was really important. Music at that time was really stodgy, mammoth bands playing half hour guitar solos. Te Pistols came along and kicked the music business up the arse. We decided we wanted to be a part of it. Tere were so many music genres around at that time, punk, new romantics, new wave etc. How did you develop your own unique sound? Punk merged and became new wave and alternative
but when we picked up our instruments we were bored by the music we heard, and it was the tail end of punk. Once Te Sex Pistols broke up it was pretty much done although it carried on on life support with bands pretending to be the Pistols. We didn’t really know how to play at the beginning, and we’d go onstage and jam around a song like We Love You or Imitation Of Christ sometimes for 20 minutes! People were ready for a change, they’d got tired of jumping up and down to three minute songs with nihilistic lyrics. I think our more thought out lyrics that you had to think about changed things. Richard’s lyrics are down to personal interpretation by anyone who listens to them, and make people think more. Tat led to us making more alternative, slower, more thoughtful music but with the passion of punk. How did your song Pretty In Pink become involved with John Hughes’ film of the same name? Molly Ringwald was a fan of the band and that song. She played it to John Hughes and asked him to write a film around the song. He came up with the movie Pretty In Pink, and I’m not sure if he
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OUTLINEONLINE.CO.UK
misinterpreted the lyrics or didn’t think a movie about that would be good for the teen market! Te song’s actually about someone being naked and beautiful, which isn’t necessarily suitable for his target audience. You can hear the influence of the Furs in many modern acts. Who do you listen to these days, and who have you seen live that’s impressed you? Te Killers. Tey’re fans of ours as well, and actually asked us to play at the Hollywood Bowl and Benicassim with them. At the Hollywood Bowl Brandon asked us not to do Pretty In Pink in your set, and do it with us instead? So they started a song, Jimmy Kimmel came out and did a ‘Kanye’, interrupted Brandon singing, and then we all came out and we all played the song together. It was really cool, it’s on YouTube. Tere is music out there I like..I’ll hear things and think it’s cool, but not be able to find out who it is which is annoying! So you’re working on new Furs material – how’s it going? It’s going really well I think we have more than enough songs for an album. Richard’s still at the lyric writing stage so hopefully we’ll be recording at the end of the year when our touring calendar’s finished
and it should be out next year. How’s it been writing songs together after a long break? It’s always been easy for Richard and myself to work together, but now we have some fresh blood in the band as well so it’s even easier. We have been entrenched in the old Furs writing style which isn’t bad, but it’s great to have some new input. Have you played in Norwich before? I have a question for you – is the Norwich Boogie House still open? In the 1980’s, the only other time we’ve played in Norwich was at the Boogie House! How I remember that I don’t know.
LIZZ PAGE Read this interview in full at
outlineonline.co.uk
(Ed’s Note: Te Boogie House, previously Peoples Nightclub was a basement club located where the old MacDonalds was on Westlegate. Squeeze, Te Specials, Te Cure and Iron Maiden also all played at Te Boogie House before it closed down.)
INFORMATION The Psychedelic Furs play the LCR on 11th September. Tickets available from
ueatickets.ticketabc.com
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