'A Flock of Seagulls' (also known simply as ''Flock of Seagulls'') are a
synthpop group originally formed by brothers
Mike (
keyboards,
vocals) and Ali Score (
drums), with Frank Maudsley (
bass) and
Paul Reynolds (
guitar). They became notable in the 1980s for their
MTV video for the song "
I Ran (So Far Away)."
Band history
Late 1970s
A Flock of Seagulls was centered around Mike Score and his brother Ali. in 1979 in
Liverpool. Mike, who was previously a hairdresser, played
keyboards,
guitar, and
vocals, Ali played drums and friend, Frank Maudsley played bass. The band took their name from a line in the song "Toiler on the Sea" by
The Stranglers, which appears on their album ''
Black and White''.
[Smith, Steve ''Bits and Pieces: the Penguin Book of Rock and Pop Facts and Trivia''. Penguin, 1988 ISBN 0140107436]
The band added guitarist Paul Reynolds and began writing songs, playing clubs and trying to land a record contract.
The band's
self-titled debut album is a
concept album about
alien abduction. The first song, "I Ran" describes a person walking down the 'avenue' seeing an attractive female and then the alien influences start — "a beam of light comes shining down on you,
Aurora Borealis comes in view"; the remaining eight songs chart a journey through an alien invasion of earth. The last song, "Man Made", chronicles the alien victory over mankind. Four UFOs are on the cover of the album, visible in the window to the left of the TV. Because the United States had deep tensions with
Iran during this time, the US 45-rpm version of "I Ran" was called "I Ran (So Far Away)."
1980s-1990s
Reynolds abruptly left A Flock of Seagulls, leaving the band a trio, and the band continued to tour. The Score brothers wanted to base the band out of
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. With the popularity of the first two albums and the name "A Flock of Seagulls" still having some equity, the band was able to sell out four straight shows in Philadelphia. Mike, Ali, and Frank Maudsley all applied for, and were conditionally awarded, green cards under the O-1 work visa, and the three settled in Philadelphia.
Frank became disillusioned with living in a strange city; he loved AFOS but had no family. Missing the UK, he returned to England. Mike and Ali stayed in Philadelphia and satisfied the terms of the visa. With Frank in Britain and the brothers in the US, it would appear the band was split into two camps. In fact, it was Frank Maudsley who kept the band communicating. Unfortunately, the brothers had a falling out that resulted in Mike remaining as the sole remaining original member of the touring band and Ali going to
Boston. Ali played in a hard rock band and then worked for a computer company in Cambridge once he became a permanent resident.
Frank was the go-between for the brothers during the recording of ''
Dream Come True''. Sources have indicated that Ali played on only three of the album's songs, Frank on four, and Mike on all nine. One of the songs that all three did play on was entitled "Cosmos (Effect of the Sun)". This track was dropped from the album. Because Frank and Ali wanted to drop "Love On Your Knees" and include "Cosmos (Effect of the Sun)", a schism formed between the band members. During this time, two videos, "Who's that Girl" and "Heartbeat Like a Drum", were filmed in quick succession. These two videos were the last time the three remaining members were together in a recording or performance capacity until 2004.
Following the dissolution of the band in the wake of ''Dream Come True'', Mike Score lay low and then resurfaced in a series of new bands with changing line-ups. The band released two singles ("Magic" and "Burnin' Up") and one album (''
The Light At The End Of The World'') which achieved some success. In the late 1990s, the group made a cameo appearance in the 1999 movie ''
The Suburbans'', starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Will Ferrell.
2000s
In 2003 A Flock of Seagulls performed for the unveiling of the Syracuse A-league soccer team's name,
Syracuse Salty Dogs and logo in
Syracuse, New York. The band returned later that year for a performance at one of the Salty Dogs' games at Syracuse's
P&C Stadium.
In November 2003, the original line-up (Mike and Ali Score, Paul Reynolds and Frank Maudsley) reunited for a one-off performance on the
VH1 series, ''
Bands Reunited''. In September 2004, they reformed again and played a small number of live shows in the United States, but broke up immediately afterward. The reunion included a performances at
Nike Run Hit Wonder, a series of 5000 and 10,000 metre road races, featuring popular
one hit wonder bands (including
Devo,
General Public,and
Tommy Tutone) playing along the race course.
Mike Score continues to tour under the band's name with a new line-up, but the other original members have retired from music. The band plans on releasing a new album in 2007, and it should be noted that A Flock of Seagulls t-shirts and other new memorabilia are in production, in preparation for the "comeback."
The band's 2005 lineup was
Mike Score, lead singer, keyboards;
Joe Rodriguez, lead guitarist;
Pando, bassist; and
Michael Brahm, drums. In June 2005, the current line-up appeared on the debut episode of the American edition of NBC's ''
Hit Me Baby One More Time''. Besides performing their hit song ''I Ran (So Far Away)'', they also performed a cover of
Ryan Cabrera's "On the Way Down".
Trivia
★ The punk band
Bowling for Soup covered
I Ran, which was used for the opening theme for the anime
Knights of the Zodiac (originally
Saint Seiya).
★ In , Austin dismisses the 1970s and '80s as little more than "a gas shortage and A Flock of Seagulls".
★
I Ran (So Far Away) was the lead theme used in commercials for the
videogame . It was also featured in the game itself in 2002 as part of the
New Wave radio station
Wave 103.
Space Age Love Song was also featured in the prequel, . The song was used in a 1983 advertisement for the
Opel T-car based
Daewoo Maepsy and for a
Kia commercial in 2002. The song was used in the sitcom "
That '70s Show" in a hypothetical flash forward to the 1980s, and it was covered by the
Texas pop-punk band
Bowling for Soup and by the band
Hidden in Plain View.
★ "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)" was covered by The Honeytraps, the girls-pretending-to-be-boys band formed as part of Channel 4's reality show
Boys Will Be Girls in 2006.
★ The band were one of the first signees to the Jive label, which was founded just a year before the band's debut album was released. Interestingly enough, Jive's reputation is now that of an urban/teenpop label, neither of which are labels that one could use to accurately classify A Flock of Seagulls' music.
★ In a celebration of early
electronic music,
digital radio station
BBC 6 Music compiled a chart of its listeners' favourite
synthesiser riffs in
November 2006.
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) came second in the list to the
Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army single
Are 'Friends' Electric?.
★ On an episode of ''
Malcolm in The Middle'', the family is having trouble with the garbage man, so when
Hal is playing poker with his friends, they complain about the pile of garbage out in his lawn. Abe (Hal's best friend) says that they should stop, but then he says "I got a good one, look I can see my favorite band out there, A Flock of Seagulls".
★ I Ran (So Far Away) Music video was parodied on
Comedy Central's
Let's Bowl where Steve "Chopper" Sedahl mentions that he was in the band and says the band's name wrong, (''The'' Flock of Seagulls) and shows Steve acting just like Mike in the parodied music video of the song.
★ On TV Land, "I Ran (So Far Away)" is sometimes used as the music for the "on tonight" schedule screen.
★ I Ran was featured in the show
Everybody Hates Chris, the episode called: "Everybody hates the last day".
★ Their song "I Ran (So Far Away)" was confirmed to be a playable song in the
Playstation 2 video game and
SingStar 80's
★ "I Ran (So Far Away)" was briefly used in a commercial for XM Satellite Radio.
Hairstyle
Mike Score's distinctive hairstyle has been mentioned, copied, and parodied many times in the media, most notably in the American television sitcoms ''
Friends'' (by
Chandler and
Ross, during their college years, when they joined a new wave band) and ''
That 70's Show''. It has also been referred to in movies such as ''
Pulp Fiction'' and ''
The Wedding Singer''.
A
Diet Pepsi commercial shows a man telling us that he wants to feel young again, then it shows a montage of the man with Score's hairstyle while the song "I Ran (So Far Away)" plays, but finding out it's a bad idea. In the song "
Albuquerque" by
"Weird Al" Yankovic, the song's main character encounters a hermaphrodite with a "Flock of Seagulls haircut".
In a
Supercuts commercial, a man enters a hair salon under the impression that it is just like "Supercuts." After a few moments he notices that the only hairstyle given is Mike Score's famous haircut. (In the background, the sound of seagulls can be heard.) In an ESPN Commercial some anchors are standing around talking about Johnny Damon's new haircut when they flashback to the days when they didn't have the dress code, It shows one of the anchors with the trademark hairstyle. The anchor also says "He Ran he ran all day and so far away"
When
Danny Pintauro came out of
the closet, ''
The Daily Show'' blamed the Flock of Seagulls haircut on ''
Who's the Boss?'' as the instigator of his orientation.
In the film ''
The Wedding Singer'',
Adam Sandler's character approaches an air steward who is sporting a Mike Score hairstyle. The steward says "Do you like Flock of Seagulls?" with Sandler's reply, "I can see you do."
In the TV show ''
Family Guy'', the 80's
Peter has the haircut and jacket.
In a beginning of psych episode the main characters as kids are shown running to i ran
Videos
In
1984 a
VHS video was released called "''Through the Looking Glass''" which was only released in the
UK and not very many copies were sold. It had their songs from 1981-1984 with brief interviews with one of the Flock members before the music video started. It is an extreme rarity today.
Discography
★ ''
A Flock of Seagulls'' (1982) #10 US, #32 UK, #26 Germany, #32 SE
★ ''
Listen'' (1983) #16 US, #16 UK, #14 Germany, #44 SE
★ ''
The Story of a Young Heart'' (1984) #66 US, #30 UK, #31 Germany
★ ''
Dream Come True'' (1986)
★ ''
The Light at the End of the World'' (1995)
Singles
See also
★
1980 in music
References
External links
★
Fan Club
★
The Airborne Division
★
Paul Reynolds
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