397) Fine Young Cannibals

I assume anyone who picks up an instrument, can sing, and performs hopes that they will be successful. Success can be that you can write a song, perform in a local pub, get a John Peel Session, record a single or an album. If you have done any of these things then you are a success, doesn’t matter if it sold five copies or a million, you still did it.

How about being successful then coming back again and being even bigger. That’s exactly what guitarist Andy Cox and bass player David Steele did. From 1978 to 1983 they both played in The Beat a band with several top ten singles and albums and in 1984 they both returned in Fine Young Cannibals who would have two number one hit singles in America.

If you are extremely young like me, you will remember The Tube on a Friday night who showed a video by an unsigned band. The video was a revelation as a magical trumpet welcomes us in and then then the question has to be how the hell do Cox and Steele concentrate on playing their instruments with their constant dancing, then Roland Gift appears with his beautiful unique voice, no one could make the word Johnny more exciting and watch the video on YouTube when the three of them drop to their knees.  One of the best and most recognisable songs of the 80’s.

Couldn’t Care More is more about Gift’s voice than anything and there is a funk vibe to Don’t Ask Me To Choose with added horns on the chorus and Funny How Love Is a dramatic ballad, perfectly understated with added sax and trombone as Gift raise himself above, more soulful than I remember.

Could anyone record a bad version of Suspicious Minds? I hope not, bringing in Jimmy Sommerville on backing vocals was a genius idea as the band are confident enough with the cover but Jimmy exploding behind them doesn’t distract but elevates, rightly a hit.

Any song having a go at Thatcher I am going to be for but Blue stands on its own, Gift seems more despairing as the song goes on, rightly so, an excellent song but maybe not a follow up to Johnny. We have shimmering guitar for On a Promise and a nice piano break on Time Isn’t Kind.

Like a Stranger starts like their later hit Good Thing and then as it is coming to an end female vocalists come in to belt out the song behind Gift, bizarre, but it works.

This is a solid start, and I preferred this soulful debut to the mega huge The Raw & the Cooked but if they had never released an album, they would have been able to say they were successful with the video they made for Johnny Come Home.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Johnny Come Home