In 1982 Mike Scott, "the founder and only permanent member of The Waterboys," recruited saxophone player Anthony Thistlethwaite, drummer Kevin Wilkinson, and bassist Nick Linden to record songs for a new project that he named after a line in the Lou Reed song "The Kids." The songs would become their first album.

"A Girl Called Johnny," a tribute to Patti Smith, had been released both as a seven inch and as a twelve inch single in March of 1983, preceding the album by four months. The album also includes the songs "December," "I Will Not Follow," and "Savage Earth Heart."


The Waterboys went on to release the exquisite This is the Sea in 1985 and captured the heart of this writer. The band "are one of the most fascinating and unpredictable bands the British Isles have ever produced. A mighty musical train powered by the twin fuels of rock'n'roll and celtic soul, The Waterboys have consistently challenged critics and audience alike, busting musical boundaries and creating a motherlode of cracking music along the way."


Quoted material: wikipedia.org & midlandsmusicfestival.ie $#$

The fifth album by The Police, Synchronicity went to #1 in the US, "ending the reign of Michael Jackson's Thriller for a while." Synchronicity won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1983.

"The album's title was inspired by Arthur Koestler's The Roots of Coincidence, which mentions Carl Jung's theory of Synchronicity. Sting was an avid reader of Koestler, and also named Ghost in the Machine after one of his works."

The first record that Waist High recalls purchasing with her own money, and still in her possession, Synchronicity was the last full-length studio recording from The Police, and their greatest success. "Every Breath You Take," released before the album, went to #1 on both the US and UK charts, and "King of Pain," and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" made it into the US top ten.

Synchronicity is "a collection that creates and sustains a mood in the sensitive listener, a feeling that remains after the last note has died away. A benchmark album from a tremendously influential band, it will stand the test of time as a genuine classic."

In February 2008, The Police announced that once they are finished touring, with their final show in New York City, they will break up again. According to Sting, "There will be no new album, no big new tour, once we're done with our reunion tour, that's it for the Police."


Quoted material: wikipedia.org & Al Massa via amazon.com $#$

One of the great songs of 1983, "Belly of the Whale" received heavy rotation on MTV and became one of their top 10 videos during their "fledgling" start up period, and yet the song may have been more beloved on the west coast, thanks in kind to Waist High, and to massive play on Pasadena's KROQ.

The short lived Los Angeles band Burning Sensations was formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987. After departing the Motels, Tim McGovern formed one of the first "world beat bands," whose discography was brief. Burning Sensations released Belly of the Whale, Burning Sensations, and was featured on the Repo Man Soundtrack in 1984.

Of "Belly of the Whale," Andrew Chalfen had this to say: "The calypso/Latin infusion, the gentle digital reverbed synths and guitars floating out over the bay where the sea and sky melt together in a silvery thrum, the big-fish story of the lyric, it's all there, man." He also added that "Belly of the Whale" features "amazing sounds, melody lines, and hooks, and an absolutely killer chorus."

Call me biased, but "Belly of the Whale" really is one of the greater tunes to come out of the much hated "new wave" genre.

Tim McGovern is currently fronting the Pacific Northwest band Knucklehead, and if you click here and scroll to the playlist you can hear their cover version of the song.



Material: www.knuckleheadlive.com/bio's & Andrew Chalfen via littlehits.com/blog $#$

EAGERLY AWAITED JOY DIVISION DOCUMENTARY RELEASED IN THE UK.


"Joy Division was directed by Grant Gee, previously responsible for the acclaimed Radiohead OK Computer tour documentary Meeting People Is Easy.

The new documentary follows hot on the heels of Anton Corbijn's movie Control, which was released in 2007, and concentrated its story on the band's tragic frontman Ian Curtis, who committed suicide in 1980."

"Featuring the unprecedented participation of all the surviving band members, Joy Division examines the band's story as depicted through never-before-seen live performance footage, personal photos, period films and newly discovered audiotapes. With poignant narratives from Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, as well as accounts from Throbbing Gristle musician Genesis P. Orridge, late legendary Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, iconic Factory Records graphic artist Peter Saville, photographer/filmmaker Anton Corbijn, Belgian journalist Annik Honore (speaking for the first time about her relationship with Ian Curtis) and others, the film is a fresh visual account of a unique time and place.

From director Grant Gee and producers Tom Atencio, Tom Astor and Jacqui Edenbrow, Joy Division chronicles a time of great social and political change in England and lays bare the untold story of four men who transcended economic and cultural barriers to produce an enduring musical legacy."



Material: nme.com & The Works via vids.myspace.com $#$

EDDY ARNOLD
1918-2008 $#$

"The first duo of electro pop Soft Cell release a remix album entitled Heat: The Remixes through Some Bizzare/Universal in June 2008.

The double album includes around 25 brand new interpretations of many classic Soft Cell singles, plus key album tracks, b-sides and rarities. All the remixes featured on the album have been reworked by genuine fans of the band, resulting in the respectful updating of a seminal electronic era.

An expanded digital edition, featuring additional bonus remixes not on the CD will also be available, and some of the key club mixes/dubs will also be released on DJ-only vinyl."

Final tracklisting and sequencing still to be confirmed, but key tracks are as follows:

Memorabilia-Cicada Remix, Seedy Films-Richard X Remix, Bedsitter-Manhattan Clique Remix, Sex Dwarf-The Grid Remix, Tainted Love-Paul Dakeyne Remix, Torch-Manhattan Clique Remix, Where The Heart Is-Marcas Lancaster Remix, Numbers-Spektrum Remix, Heat-Yer Man Remix, The Art Of Falling Apart-Atomizer Remix, A Man Can Get Lost-Marcello Remix, Secret Life-George Demure Remix, Surrender To A Stranger-MHC Remix, So-The Grid Remix, Frustration-Punx Soundcheck Remix, Chips On My Shoulder-Mark Moore & Kinky Roland Remix, Entertain Me-Kinky Roland Remix, Best Way To Kill-Nitewreckers Remix, Barriers-Dark Poets Remix, Her Imagination-Monkey Farm Frankenstein Remix

In related news, Some Bizarre Records has plans to re-release the band's albums Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing, and This Last Night In Sodom in expanded packages.



Quoted material: www.myspace.com/softcellremixalbumofficial $#$

Waist High favorite Introducing The Style Council was recorded in Paris in the summer of 1983. The album was initially released only in the United States, Holland, and Japan, and was heavily imported to the UK. "It is a compilation of tracks from the band's first three UK single releases. The band's official debut album, Cafe Bleu, was released the following year. The 'Club Mixes' are exclusive to this release."

The EP features the greats "Long Hot Summer," "Speak Like a Child," "The Paris Match," and "Money-Go-Round," called "a fine British-funk manifesto" by John Floyd of All Music Guide.

The Style Council was formed "in 1983 by ex-The Jam singer and guitarist Paul Weller with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent lineup grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. Other artists such as Tracie Young and Tracey Thorn also collaborated with the group."



Material: wikipedia.org $#$

Just when you thought that all I do is stuff bacon covered maple bars down my throat, and wonder why the world is filled with so many women that are so desperate to be loved, may I now reveal to you my great discovery of this year, the 2000 film Searching for Roger Taylor.

In Searching for Roger Taylor, director Aaron Barnett traveled from the "United Kingdom to the United States, exploring the phenomenon of the new wave movement while searching for his long missing childhood rock idol. The 'search' for Roger Taylor is the central metaphor in a much larger story: the repiecing of the '80s. This was a decade unparalleled for musical milestones."



Material: bitterboyproductions.com $#$

"Modern rock innovators Echo and the Bunnymen will make a triumphant live return to New York's Radio City Music Hall on October 1, where the band will be performing their landmark 1984 album, Ocean Rain, with an orchestra as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. Pre-sale tickets can be had through the band's official website beginning April 26, with tickets available to the general public a week later."

The album, widely considered their best, is #38 on The Observer's 100 GREATEST BRITISH ALBUMS list.

The band will play at Liverpool's Echo Arena on November 27, almost 30 years to the day after they played their first gig at Erics in Liverpool.

The group's current incarnation comprises Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant along with Stephen Brennan (bass), Gordy Goudie (guitar), Nicholas Kilroe (drums), and Ceri James (keyboards). The band will release a new album, The Fountain, this summer. The album will be preceded by a single, "Think I Need Two," on July 14.

In related news, McCulloch is set to publish his memoirs next year.

"Book publisher Transworld recently bought the rights to the singer's memoirs from Mayer Benham, and plans to publish them in summer 2009.

Simon Taylor, editorial director of Transworld, said in a statement: 'The man is a one-off, an iconic figure whose passion for words, music and for his city is utterly infectious.'

A title for the singer's memoirs is yet to be decided."



Material: spinner.com & nme.com $#$

Of the first studio album by Big Country, Kurt Loder had this to say on September 15, 1983: "Here's a big-noise guitar band from Britain that blows the knobs off all the synth-pop diddlers and fake-funk frauds who are cluttering up the charts these days. Big Country mops up the fops with an air-raid guitar sound that's unlike anything else around, anywhere, and if their debut album promises more than the four musicians can quite deliver at this stage in their young career, what it does deliver - especially on the Top Ten U.K. hit "Fields of Fire," one of the great, resounding anthems of this or any other year - is sufficiently scintillating to preclude any extended critical carps about the group's occasional lack of focus. At this point, the big picture is clear enough.

Like U2, Big Country has no use for synthesizers, and their extraordinary twin-guitar sound should make The Crossing a must-own item for rock die-hards. Generally dispensing with power chords, the group's two lead guitarists, Scotsmen Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson, whip up skirling, bagpipelike single-string riffs that, on such crackling tracks as "Fields of Fire," "In a Big Country," and the grandly martial "Harvest Home," are a nonstop, spine-tingling delight. The slightly out-of-kilter guitar lines intertwine into a trebly alarm that has all the galvanic urgency of an ambulance careening down a darkened city street - it's really something to hear."



Stuart Adamson would have been 50 on April 11.
RIP.


Material: rollingstone.com/reviews $#$

Simple Minds recently announced plans to perform a number of UK shows to celebrate 30 years in the music business. The band will perform their legendary album New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) in its entirety for the very first time. The second half of the concerts will focus on the bands more well known hits.

An excited Jim Kerr explained that they couldn't let this milestone go by without performing live. "Strangely enough, now that the time has probably come for us to maybe give a nod to the past and the journey that has evolved over three decades, I find that I am enthusiastically up for it."

The shows begin in November at the MEN Arena in Manchester.




Photo & Material: simpleminds.org.uk
Is Waist High just another American music blog posting European tour dates? Guilty as charged. $#$

On the recommendation of our advisors (who are huge Kajagoogoo fans I might add), Waist High has removed all inflammatory posts of late and is taking a brief hiatus.

Seems my advisors don't think evil people should be called out in a blog devoted exclusively to new wave music. Who would have thought.

And like our boy Rick, I will never give you up, let you down, run around, or desert you. $#$

Moving on from all the 40th birthday excitement, I would again like to say thank you for all your birthday well wishes. And if I didn't say it before, 40 isn't so bad.

Please check out my top 36 favorite photos from the over 500 taken during my week long 40th birthday celebration:

Happy 40th Birthday Waist High! $#$

$#$

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I, the now 40 year old Waist High, would like to thank my well wishers across the globe (literally), for not only your grim reminders that half of my life is over, but for all the kind words and curious questions.

As far as 40 goes, it was not something that I wanted to have happen. As far as celebrations go, it was by far one of the best times of my life.

I, along with a close friend of 25 years, took two weeks vacation from work and embarked upon a 7 day culinary tour of the Pacific Northwest.

The journey began at Portland's own Voodoo Doughnut (please watch video of Chuck Palahniuk and Anthony Bourdain having the Voodoo Doughnut experience) with their legendary maple bacon bar, and ended in the lower level of Crave at the Salon of Shame in Seattle's Capitol Hill.

If turning 40 is what it takes to be brought to tears by food so amazing, and experiences so unbelievable that they are not meant to be put into words, then by God drag me kicking and screaming to 40 all over again.

My close friend of 25 years, who I might add experienced ABSOLUTELY NO GUILT WHATSOEVER for choosing this vacation, stated after all was said and done that he had never had a better time in his 40 years on earth, nor had he seen anything more beautiful than the sights we saw on our travels.

I think I am now in good company with the 40 set, the best seems yet to come, and since I believe that age is just a number, I am now choosing to keep mine unlisted.

One of my parents acknowledged my 40th and cut me a check, the other parent behaved just as expected, my coworkers couldn't believe I was only 40, my only living grandparent remembered (sort of), those important to me wished me well, my love interest made sure that I knew that "40 is hot!" the fruit of my womb more than likely spent the day fanning herself with her 57 dollars, and a good friend reminded me that, "Turning 40 is like peeing in the pool. If you're lucky, no one will notice."


To the second half of life!



Photos: The Waist High Collection $#$