The Psychedelic Furs

The last time I saw The Psychedelic Furs perform in concert, they were touring in support of their seventh LP 'World Outside'. That was in 1991 and, criminally, they haven't released another full album of new songs since, although front man Richard Butler has put out material under both his own name and Love Spit Love in the intervening years. The band reconvened in 2001 following a prolonged hiatus and continue to tour regularly in the USA. A couple of evenings ago, I caught up with the UK leg of their 'Singles' tour. What I half-envisaged was a perfunctory run through of the hits, but what I got was a band at the top of its game, playing each song as if it was their latest and having a whole heap of fun doing so.

The setlist was confidently laid out in broadly chronological order, so we got big hitters 'We Love You', 'Mr Jones' and 'Pretty in Pink' very early on, while 'Don't Be a Girl' from 'World Outside' and 'House' from 'Book of Days' appeared towards the very end. The band held back a gorgeous 'Heaven' to round off the main set though and encored with an atmospheric 'Sister Europe' and a positively bruising 'India'. My personal highlights of an excellent night out came with the contemporary interpretations of 'Midnight to Midnight' period material. Richard Butler himself has described that particular LP as being 'hollow, vapid and weak' and it certainly hasn't aged too well, but on Monday evening 'Heartbreak Beat' and 'Angel's Don't Cry' were unexpectedly powerful.

They didn't play my all-time favouite Psychedelic Furs song this time around, but then I didn't expect them to - it's a singles tour and the tune in question was never a single. You can find 'Torch' tucked away on their final CBS LP, 1989's Book of Days', a terrific and unjustly overlooked record. 

Psychedelic Furs - Torch

55 From 55 - 1989

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far.

A few words about the title of my business. I was the third (and final) incumbent to run a record shop on the site, the previous two people, both of whom I knew, had plumped for hanging their given names above the door, i.e. Fred's Records. I was keen to break away from the tradition and wanted to call my shop 'something', rather than another '(insert name here) Records'. The business title I'd chosen was 'Rhythm Collision', inspired by the 1982 Ruts DC album of the same name.

Looking sleepy in 1989.

A couple of weeks before I was due to take over the business in 1986, I had a series of meetings with a very helpful small business support company, who provided free advice and contacts for new starters. The first piece of advice they gave me, however, was to ditch my chosen business name, arguing that by putting my own moniker above the door, I would establish an immediate personal identity within the small community. I reluctantly allowed myself to be overruled and '(Insert my name here) Records' it became. They were right I suppose, I did become well known in the town fairly quickly and for a while it seemed that everyone knew my name. Rhythm Collision would've been far cooler though.

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'Torch' is my favourite track from my favourite Psychedelic Furs LP, 'Book of Days', issued in late 1989. If you like the song, try to track down 'House', the only UK CD Single from the album, where you'll find an otherwise unavailable stripped-down version of 'Torch' as one of the b-sides.