GREAT MISSES OF THE 80S
How on EARTH this has passed me by until just recently is astonishing. For a start legendary keyboardist Roger Mason is in this band and I was an obsessive James Freud & Freud era Models fan in the early to mid 80s.
Illustrated Man also have the great guitarist Rob 'fucking' Dean and my older brother was soo obsessed with all things Japan including all their side-projects. Dali's Car anyone? So maybe he had this record when he flew the coop in 85 and just never played it to me because he didn't rate it (?!). Have I forgotten? I just dunno. I'm perplexed.
But hang on there's some more... drumming extraordinaire Hugo Burnham from Gang Of Four is also in the band. Hugo was part of funk-rock's greatest rhythm section along with bassist Dave Allen. Gang Of Four's Entertainment (1979) LP may just well be the best record ever made! The only country where it cracked the top 40, I am proud to say, was Australia!
The weirdest thing about Illustrated Man though is the fact that the best ingredient in this super soup of a super group is singer Philip Foxman who was in Aussie glam band Supernaught in the 70s but wait for it...he was not even the singer in that band yet he is the fucking fantastic front man of the Illustrated Man!
Foxman stamps his personality all over this group with his unique vision, striking melodies and exquisite singing style. Oh yeah he also created Burnham's historic second astounding rhythm section by playing stellar bass and helping create impeccable synergy.
How this band got together is beyond me but Mason was playing keyboards for Gary Numan in the early 80s before joining Models as a full time member in 84/5 so I guess they all knew one another and were playing on each others records in the UK but still where does Foxman fit in? I guess I'll find out more in due course as I'm looking into getting an interview with Foxman, Mason or whoever will talk to me.
The Songs. The Music. The Foxman Charisma!
The music while definitely forged in their own originality is as good as anything in this scene like 80s Roxy Music, Simple Minds, The Reels, ABC, Duran Duran, Talk Talk et al. but it also foreshadows the future sounds that Shriekback, INXS & the Duffield-less Models would make.
They were't that generic though were they? I think Just Enough was a near miss or minor hit in some territories but details are sketchy on the web about chart entries. How on earth were these songs not Chartbusting Hits! Surely they cracked the Canadian top 20! They definitely had their own magnificent idiosyncratic anthemic sound. Apparently they were a devastating live act. Just imagine if they went further into the future...even just one more mini-LP or an actual album... they would have been an unstoppable Juggernaut...what could have been...?
Days Without End shows they could go into darker more melancholic territory while still retaining their essence. This is like hearing a parallel 80s. One which should have been part of that retro-licious cannon of pop but is somehow foreign yet a perfectly delectable 80s confection all the same. I'll take both versions of the 80s thanks. I'm happy to be in parallel zones.
Now the absolute killer 80s dance-rock of Head Over Heels is where things get contentious not for Illustrated Man but for INXS. The What You Need (1985) beat/bassline are literally right here.
The guitar line and exact guitar sound INXS used in New Sensation (1988), that is the perfect intersection of funk and rock in fluid circular motion, is here too and it belongs to Rob Dean not Andy or Timmy Farriss. I know INXS loved their Stones-y riffs, Numan, Gang Of Four, disco, a bit of AC/DC, ska and old school funk but come on this is absurd! This is a strange revelation to be having in 2021. How INXS didn't get sued once let alone twice is beyond me.
Anyway who cares I suppose Head Over Heels and its bunch of mixes will have you blissfully elated and in 80s dancefloor Heaven! Rewind!
Yeass but not quite just enough....
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