Comsat Angels

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Comsat Angels
Origin Sheffield, England
Genre(s) Post-punk
Years active 1978 - 1995
Label(s) Polydor
Jive
Island
RPM
Caroline
Renascent
Associated acts Dream Command
Website Sleep No More
Members
Stephen Fellows
Mik Glaisher
Kevin Bacon
Andy Peake
Former members
Simon Anderson (approx. 1994-95)
Terry Todd (approx. 1993-95)

Comsat Angels were a post-punk band from Sheffield, England, active from 1978 to 1995. They are credited with creating atmospheric and delicate, yet viscerally urgent, music which flew under the radar of popular culture.[citation needed] Their oeuvre is generally cited alongside those of Joy Division, The Chameleons, The Cure, The Sound, and Echo & the Bunnymen. They toured heavily in their native UK and in western Europe, but rarely in the United States. Their influence can be discerned in acts such as Catherine Wheel and Kitchens of Distinction, and 2000s Post-punk revival bands such as Interpol, Engineers and Editors. Their music has been extensively reissued and recompiled since 1995 by various record labels, but the band has not reformed.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Named after the J. G. Ballard short story The Comsat Angels, the foursome's core lineup (lasting 1978-1992) consisted of:

They debuted with an EP, released in 1979, named "Red Planet". This release attracted Polydor A&R man Frank Neilson and the band signed a three-album recording contract. These three LPs, Waiting for a Miracle (1980), which included the single "Independence Day", probably their best known song, Sleep No More (1981) and Fiction (1982), are critically regarded as their best, but only sold modestly.

In their early years, the group shared live stages with bands like Siouxsie & The Banshees, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Depeche Mode, U2 (an 18-date tour in 1981), Captain Beefheart, The Sound, Wall Of Voodoo, and Gang Of Four. In 1982, they performed two songs on BBC Television's Old Grey Whistle Test television program. A U.S. tour in 1982 had to be cancelled after a week, due to Bacon contracting appendicitis.

[edit] Jive years

Having failed to live up to Polydor's expectations with the three first albums, the record label let the band go. After this, they went on to sign with Jive Records and recorded Land (1983), delving into a more commercial, new wave-oriented sound. As its title indicated, fifth album 7 Day Weekend (1985) also followed a more pop-oriented trend. However, it also failed on the charts, resulting in the band being dropped by a second record label. Their poppy single "I'm Falling" was featured in the movie Real Genius with Val Kilmer. The movie never released an official soundtrack, but that song's notoriety has caused the band to be viewed by many as an 1980s pop one-hit wonder.

[edit] Switch of record labels

The band found a fan and supporter in Robert Palmer, who was enjoying the height of his popularity at this point in the '80s. Palmer saw to it that the Comsat Angels were signed to Island Records, and he co-produced their next album, Chasing Shadows (1986) and even sang on one song. This album's more substantive music is viewed as the band's return to their dark, brooding roots.

The U.S. based Communications Satellite Corporation threatened to take legal measures against the band for supposedly plagiarizing their name. Because of this, the band were renamed C.S. Angels in the United States.

[edit] Dream Command album

For the follow-up, they talked Island into letting them build their own studio. The band decided to try for AOR radio with their next recording, Fire on the Moon (1990). The group changed its name to Dream Command for this record, succumbing to the pressure from the Communications Satellite Corporation and their record label.

Neither the band nor their label were happy with the album, which was released (in the U.S. only) in small quantities. It featured short songs with chart-worthy hooks, but few people in the UK even knew about it, until The Comsats were mentioned in Q magazine's "Where Are They Now?" section. Around this time they recruited local guitarist Nick Robinson to bolster their live sound. (He appeared on "I Wanna Destroy You", released on a later compilation.) This was another turning point for the band, as they set about writing and recording new material on their own terms and finally hooked up with RPM Records (and with Caroline Records in the U.S.), who then released The Comsats' Radio 1 (BBC) sessions from 1979 to 1984 as Time Considered As A Helix Of Semi-Precious Stones. (The title was taken from a Samuel R. Delany short story).

Shortly afterwards, RPM released a new Comsats single, "Driving", and album My Mind's Eye, in 1992. (The album was released in the U.S. on Caroline Records, under the band name C.S. Angels, with two bonus tracks.) The music press praised the album, citing several current shoegaze-type bands (e.g., Swervedriver, Catherine Wheel, Ride) who were influenced by The Comsats' sound. Melody Maker's review stated:

"My Mind's Eye could easily have been recorded by ghosts, such is the dexterity of the Comsat's approach and the haunted nature of their anguished restraint... Every snapping bassline and icebound guitar fragment has a place, a purity and a passion that chills... At the heart of their hurtling hailstorm lies Steve Fellow's punishing baritone. The man sounds like he's singing from a carriage on the soul train to hell, all sweat and worry as the songs rage around him like they've come for a debt."

RPM also issued the Dutch radio sessions collection Unravelled before the final studio album The Glamour in 1995. The Glamour was the first studio album to feature new members Simon Anderson & Terry Todd (who appeared on Unravelled) after the departure of Kevin Bacon, who was now concentrating on production work at the band's Axis studio in Sheffield. No singles were released from The Glamour, although there are unreleased songs from these sessions (e.g., "Hyperprism" and "Evanescent") that have yet to see official release.

[edit] Post-breakup activity

The Comsat Angels disbanded in late 1995 following UK dates to promote The Glamour. Steve Fellows released an instrumental album, Mood X, his first (and so far only) solo release, on RPM in 1997. He also began managing the band Gomez that year after discovering them. Currently, he is said to be working on a more traditional song-based solo album, as well as helping the band Little Glitches. The rest of the Comsat Angels regrouped under the new moniker Soup, with new vocalist Peter Hope, but soon disbanded.

[edit] Latter-day recognition

The band's classic early albums have been out of print for years, but the British label Renascent Records (originally founded to reissue albums by the Comsats' contemporaries The Sound) has reissued the band's first three albums. (RPM CD copies of the Comsats' first three albums were known to sell for $50 to 100 before Renascent re-reissued them in 2006.) In early 2007, they began reissuing the band's 1990s catalog. Fellows' chiming, minimalistic guitar style has been credited[citation needed] as a major influence on U2's The Edge; the two bands toured together in the early '80s and later shared a record label (Island). Martin L. Gore of Depeche Mode covered "Gone" on his 1989 EP, Counterfeit. In 1992, Silkworm covered "Our Secret" as the B-side of their "The Chain" 7" single. Jack Rabid, publisher of The Big Takeover magazine, has been one of the band's biggest supporters since the early 1980s. Mark Kermode, film critic for BBC Radio Five Live, has championed the band when reviewing the Ian Curtis biopic Control (2007 film), stating that Comsat Angels were "the band that Joy Division should have been."

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

  • Waiting for a Miracle (1980, Polydor) (reissued in 1995 on RPM & in 2006 on Renascent)
  • Sleep No More (1981, Polydor) UK #51 (reissued in 1995 on RPM & in 2006 on Renascent)
  • Fiction (1982, Polydor) UK #94 (reissued in 1995 on RPM & in 2006 on Renascent)
  • Land (1983, Jive) (reissued on Connoisseur in 2001) UK #92
  • 7 Day Weekend (1985, Jive) (reissued on Connoisseur in 2001)
  • Chasing Shadows (1986, Island)
  • Fire on the Moon (as Dream Command) (1990, Island) (U.S. & Netherlands only)
  • My Mind's Eye (1992, RPM/ Caroline [U.S.]) (U.S. version has bonus tracks "There Is No Enemy" and "Magonia") (reissued on Thunderbird in 2001)
  • The Glamour CD/ dbl. LP (1995, RPM) (reissued in 2007 on Renascent as double CD)

[edit] Singles & EPs

  • "Red Planet" 7" (1979, Junta) (black and ltd. red vinyl versions)
  • "Total War" 7" (1980, Polydor)
  • "Independence Day" 7" (July 4, 1980, Polydor)
  • "Eye Of The Lens" 7"/ dbl. 7"/ 12" (1981, Polydor)
  • "(Do The) Empty House" 7"/ dbl. 7" (1981, Polydor)
  • "It's History" 7" (1982, Polydor)
  • "After The Rain" 7" (1982, Polydor)
  • "Will You Stay Tonight?" 7"/ 12"/ 12" pic. disc (1983, Jive) UK #81
  • "Island Heart" 7"/ 12" (1983, Jive)
  • "Independence Day" (re-recording) dbl. 7"/ 12" (1984, Jive) UK #71
  • "You Move Me" 7"/ 12" (1984, Jive)
  • "Day One" 7"/ 12" (1984, Jive)
  • "I'm Falling" 7"/ 12" (1985, Jive) UK #90
  • "Forever Young" 7"/ 12" (1985, Jive)
  • "The Cutting Edge" 7" / 12" (1986, Island)
  • "Celestine" (as Dream Command) CD single (1990, Island) (U.S. only)
  • "Driving" 12"/ CD EP (1992, RPM/ Thunderbird)
  • "Shiva Descending" CD EP (1993, Crisis) (Holland only)
  • "Field Of Tall Flowers" 12"/ CD EP (1994, RPM/ Thunderbird)
  • "The Cutting Edge" (version from Unravelled) CD EP (1994, Crisis)

[edit] Compilations and live albums

  • Enz (1982, Polydor) (released only in The Netherlands)
  • Time Considered As A Helix Of Semi-Precious Stones (1992, RPM) (BBC sessions) (Reissued in 2006 by Renascent)
  • Unravelled (1994, RPM) (Dutch radio sessions)
  • From Beyond 2 (2000, Cherry Red)
  • To Before (2007, Renascent)

[edit] External links