The Records

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The Records

The Records were an English power pop band in the late 1970s. By fans of the genre, they are considered one of the most seminal British power pop acts of all time. As the All Music Guide notes, they are often referred to as "The British Big Star". [1] They are best remembered for the hit single and cult favourite "Starry Eyes".

[edit] History

The Records formed out of the ashes of the Kursaal Flyers, a pub rock group featuring drummer Will Birch. In 1977, John Wicks joined as a rhythm guitarist. Birch and Wicks quickly started writing songs together, Wicks as composer, Birch as lyricist. After the Flyers dissolved just three months after Wicks joined, and he and Birch continued to write songs together with the hopes of starting a new four-piece group with Birch on drums and Wicks on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. Birch soon came up with a name for the formative band: The Records. The group's lineup had crystallized by 1978, with Huw Gower (lead guitar) and Phil Brown (bass) now on board. Like Birch and Wicks, Gower and Brown were music veterans. Gower had played with the "hippie" group Magic Muscle and a later band called The Ratbites From Hell, which also featured future Only Ones guitarist John Perry. Brown had been the bass player for The Janets.

The new group was heavily influenced both by British Invasion bands like The Beatles and The Kinks and early power pop groups such as Badfinger, Big Star, and The Raspberries. Power pop was experiencing a renaissance on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks in large part to the burgeoning punk/new wave movement. Although most power pop groups were less amateurish and sported cleaner images than their punk contemporaries, they found inspiration in the stripped-down, straight-forward aesthetics of the movement, a sharp departure from the rock music that was prevalent in the early-to-mid '70s.

They were hired to back Stiff Records starlet Rachel Sweet on the "Be Stiff" Tour. The Records opened the shows with a set of their own. Birch and Wicks would also write a song for Sweet entitled "Pin a Medal on Mary". The songwriting duo also penned "Hearts in Her Eyes" for '60s Liverpool legends The Searchers, who were making an unexpected and highly acclaimed comeback with their power pop-oriented album The Searchers on Sire Records.

Based on demos, later released as Paying for The Summer of Love, the band was signed to Virgin Records in 1979. Their debut single, "Starry Eyes", has become their best-known song and an oft-covered power pop standard. With its ringing chords, piercing leads, soaring harmonies, insistent delivery, and caustic lyrics about a former manager, the song is commonly considered among the very best power pop records ever. The All Music Guide calls it "a near-perfect song that defined British power pop in the '70s" [2]. Unsurprisingly, due in part to their traditional American power pop influences (Big Star, The Raspberries), the song was a bigger hit in the US than in the UK; it would peak at #56 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The group went into the studio with producers Mutt Lange and Tim Friese-Greene and released their debut LP Shades in Bed in 1979. The album spun off another single, "Teenarama", their second-best known song and considered another classic by many power pop aficionados. The release was issued in the USA as The Records with different sequencing and the hit single version of "Starry Eyes" replacing the re-recorded album version that appeared on the UK edition. The album was a major American hit as well, peaking at #41.

Unfortunately for the group, that would be the pinnacle of their success. Citing "musical differences", Gower, looking for a harder sound, left to join former New York Doll David Johansen. Jude Cole, a 19-year old American, who had been in Moon Martin's backing group The Ravens, joined for the album 1980's Crashes. The album was not a hit and did not yield any successful singles, and record company support for the band dried up during the Crashes tour. Cole stayed in the USA, while the core of Birch, Wicks and Brown returned home to England.

The trio expanded into a quintet with guitarist Dave Whalen and lead singer Chris Gent. Previously, most of the songs had been sung by Wicks, but with other members frequently taking lead vocals for individual songs. Birch has since declared that the decision to recruit a lead singer was made "perhaps unwisely" [3]. This line-up recorded a third album for Virgin, 1982's Music on Both Sides. Like its predecessor, the album was not a hit, but unlike Crashes was not even appreciated by diehard fans or critics. (The album is the only one of The Records' releases that has yet to be released on CD.)

After this, the band effectively broke up. Birch turned to producing and writing, while Wicks has held on to The Records' name. The original band reformed in 1991, recording "Darlin'" for the Brian Wilson tribute, Smiles, Vibes and Harmonies. Wicks has continued to release music in a power pop vein as John Wicks and The Records and is now based in the United States.

[edit] External links

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