Modern English -

Modern English are a U.K. rock band that emerged on the 4AD label with the 1981 post-punk album Mesh & Lace. Their 1982 second album After the Snow features “I Melt With You,” a defining Eighties hit. In 1984, they scored a second hit with “Hands Across the Sea” from Ricochet Days, the last album by their original lineup.

Members: Robbie Grey (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Michael Conroy (bass, 1979-91), Gary McDowell (lead guitar, 1979-86), Stephen Walker (keyboards, 1979-86), Richard Brown (drums, 1979-86)

Background

Modern English evolved from The Lepers, a Colchester punk trio formed in 1977 by singer Robbie Grey, guitarist Gary McDowell, and bassist Michael Conroy. With the 1979 arrivals of drummer Richard Brown and keyboardist Stephen Walker, they changed their name to Modern English.

They played their earliest documented show on May 20, 1979, at Chancellor Hall in Chelmsford, followed by a May 28 triple-bill with the UK Subs and Security Risk at London’s Music Machine.

First Single

On September 28, 1979, Modern English debuted with the single “Drowning Man” (b/w “Silent World”) on Limp Records. The single features Steve Walker on the Wasp Synthesizer, a short-run compact analogue unit known for its yellow/black scheme and buzzing sounds.

A. “Drowning Man” (3:45)
B. “Silent World” (5:03)

Modern English cut both sides at First Light Studios with producer Mike Marsh. “Drowning Man” was the only Limp release apart from “Rock ‘N’ Roll Discharge” by Deep Throats, a one-off punk band.

Group associate Peter Partner designed the sleeve, which shows a logo formed by screen cracks (front) and a twelve-point star of credits (back). Partner later appropriated Marilyn Monroe’s likeness for a pair of singles by Distant Drums, a Colchester minimal wave combo.

Modern English plugged their single with an October 1 show at St Andrew’s Hall in Norwich, supporting The Undertones.

1980 Singles

On March 13, 1980, Modern English opened for Bauhaus at London’s Rock Garden. On April 1, they headlined London’s Moonlight Club, supported by In Camera and Spasmodic Caress, an unsigned Colchester band.

Modern English signed to the fledgling post-punk indie label 4AD, which issued their May 1980 second single “Swans on Glass” (b/w “Incident”).

A. “Swans On Glass” (4:35)
B. “Incident” (2:38)

Modern English co-produced “Swans on Glass” at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge, with proprietor/soundman Mike Kemp, who engineered recent records by the Soft Boys, Swell Maps, Mandy Morton and Spriguns (Magic Lady), and Gary Numan‘s Tubeway Army (Tubeway Army).

The picture sleeve depicts a Swan Lake ballerina, backed with titles and credits; cross-slanted, Bauhaus poster style.

In mid-September, Modern English played the Futurama 2 Festival, a forty-act event at Queens Hall in Leeds. The two-day festival featured sets by Artery, Athletico Spizz 80, Blurt, Classix Nouveaux, Durutti Column, Flowers, Frantic Elevators, Hazel O’Connor, Psychedelic Furs, Soft Boys, Vice Versa, and Young Marble Giants. Modern English performed on Day One (Saturday the 13th), which also featured Altered Images, Clock DVA, Echo & The Bunnymen, I’m So Hollow, Soft Cell, U2, Robert Fripp‘s League of Gentlemen, and headliners Siouxsie & The Banshees.

Modern English self-produced their second 4AD single (third overall): the October 27, 1980, release “Gathering Dust” (b/w “Tranquility of a Summer Movement (Vice Versa).”

A. “Gathering Dust” (4:20)
B. “Tranquility of a Summer Moment (Vice Versa)” (7:02)

“Gathering Dust” reappeared on Natures Mortes – Still Lives, a 1982 4AD comp with cuts by Bauhaus (“Rosegarden Funeral of Sores”), Birthday Party (“Mr. Clarinet”), Dif Juz (“Re”), In Camera (“Die Laughing”), Mass (“You and I”), Rema-Rema (“Feedback Song”), The The (“Controversial Subject”), and the Wire spinoff Cupol (“Like This for Ages”).

On November 11, 1980, Modern English cut a session for BBC Radio One DJ John Peel, whose 11/25 broadcast aired rough takes of three songs earmarked for their debut album (“A Viable Commercial,” “Black Houses,” “16 Days”) and its missing title-track “Mesh and Lace,” a later b-side. That month, Modern English played multiple double-bills with Wasted Youth, including four shows at London’s Marquee Club.

On January 18 and March 3, 1981, Modern English played shows at London’s Moonlight Club with newcomers Felt.

Mesh & Lace

Modern English released their debut album, Mesh & Lace, on April 10, 1981, on 4AD.

Mesh & Lace features eight group-written originals, including “Move In Light,” “Just a Thought,” and the Peel-previewed songs “Black Houses” and “A Viable Commercial.”

Musically, the songs blend the 4AD goth-rock sound (Bauhaus, Mass) with harder-edged post-punk elements (Killing Joke).

1. “16 Days” (4:33)
2. “Just a Thought” (4:08)
3. “Move in Light” (4:45)
4. “Grief” (6:28)

5. “The Token Man” (6:32)
6. “A Viable Commercial” (4:24)
7. “Black Houses” (5:44)
8. “Dance of Devotion (A Love Song)” (5:51)

Sessions occurred in late 1980 at Jacobs Studios, a converted Georgian farmhouse near Farnham, Surrey, with a 16-track console and eight guest bedrooms. Modern English self-produced Mesh & Lace, which veteran soundman Ken Thomas engineered in sequence with titles by 23 Skidoo, Au Pairs, Bush Tetras, Malaria, and The Modernaires.

Mesh & Lace features framed cover imagery of robed and bound subjects by 23 Envelope, the 4AD in-house design firm of graphic artist Vaughan Oliver and photographer Nigel Grierson. The inner-sleeve features monochrome pics of Modern English separate (shirtless and painted) and grouped (coiffed and stylized).

Modern English ushered the release at London’s Lyceum Theatre as part of an April 5 multi-bill with Cuban Heels, The Photos, and Thompson Twins. After an April 12 Marquee showcase, they played another Lyceum multi-bill (4/19) with the Mo-Dettes and John Cale. In May, Modern English played a triple-bill with Theatre of Hate and The Birthday Party (5/1: University of London Union) and opened for Japan on a UK tour that hit Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Nottingham.

“Smiles and Laughter”

On September 4, 1981, Modern English released their fourth standalone single: “Smiles and Laughter” backed with “Mesh and Lace,” titled after (but absent from) their recent debut album.

A. “Smiles and Laughter” (3:12)
B. “Mesh and Lace” (4:19)

Modern English co-produced the single with Robin Mayhew, an erstwhile Vibrators soundman who once played in The Presidents, a Sixties beat group on Decca. Mike Kemp engineered “Smiles and Laughter” amid 1981 indie singles by Bad Actors, Drinking Electricity, Die Mekons, The Limit, Nuclear Socketts, and the debut album by NWOBHM hopefuls Dark Star.

“Smiles and Laughter” reached No. 16 on the UK Indie chart.

On October 7, Modern English cut their second Peel session for the DJ’s 10/13 broadcast, which aired rough cuts of two songs slated for their second album (“Someone’s Calling,” “Face of Wood”) and the exclusive “Being Peeled,” a pun on the host.

After the Snow

Modern English released their second album, After the Snow, on May 3, 1982, on 4AD.

After the Snow features eight group-written songs, including “Face of Wood,” “Carry Me Down,” “Dawn Chorus,” and the singles “Someone’s Calling,” “Life in the Gladhouse,” and “I Melt with You,” an Eighties classic.

Snow is their first of two albums with veteran soundman Hugh Jones, who plays additional keyboards. Bassist Michael Conroy doubles on violin. A Belgian flutist named Faith guests on “Carry Me Down.”

1. “Someone’s Calling” (4:01)
2. “Life in the Gladhouse” (4:38)
3. “Face of Wood” (5:56)
4. “Dawn Chorus” (4:45)

5. “I Melt with You” (4:11)
6. “After the Snow” (3:51)
7. “Carry Me Down” (5:25)
8. “Tables Turning” (4:33)

Modern English released an extended version of “Life in the Gladhouse” (5:55) as a 12″ single backed with the lengthy non-album track “The Choicest View.“

B. “The Choicest View” (11:40)

Sessions occurred at Rockfield Studios, a lavish facility in Monmouth, Wales, where Hugh Jones produced and engineered After the Snow in sequence with 1981/82 titles by The Damned, Echo & The Bunnymen, Monsoon, Simple Minds, and The Sound.

The 23 Envelopes cover design depicts horses stamped on crumpled paper.

Modern English greeted After the Snow with a May 18 show at The Venue, London, with Gene Loves Jezebel and Troops for Tomorrow. They returned to The Venue on August 10 with openers The Room, a Liverpudlian quintet.

“I Melt With You”

On August 13, Modern English lifted “I Melt with You” backed with “The Prize,” an exclusive b-side.

B. “The Prize” (3:32)

In the UK, “I Melt with You” peaked at No. 18 on the Indie chart. Modern English plugged the song on double-bills with The Fixx (9/13: Paradiso, Amsterdam) and the Cocteau Twins (10/15: Nightmoves, Glasgow).

“I Melt with You” gained surprise traction in the United States, where the song spread station-to-station while the video went into high rotation on MTV during the cable channel’s second broadcast year.

In the video, Modern English mime on a dim-lit, smokey soundstage while a nearby couple slowdances in formal Forties attire. Robbie Grey sings passionately to the camera in a sleeveless shirt and captain’s hat; flanked to his right by a white-suited Gary McDowell, whose platinum side-wave quiff takes prominence in the head-to-head harmonized scenes.

Modern English embarked on a spring/summer 1983 US tour that included double-bills with Berlin (4/5: Graham Central Station, Phoenix), Roxy Music (5/28: Tower Theater, Upper Darby, Penn), and The Ramones (7/2: Asbury Park Convention Hall). On April 23, they played Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego as part of a multi-act bill with Bow Wow Wow, The Flirts, The Stray Cats, and headliners Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

“I Melt with You” reached No. 78 on the Billboard Hot 100 and (more important for its evergreen status) No. 7 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The song plays in two scenes in Valley Girl, the iconic 1983 teen comedy film starring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman. As a mainstay of Eighties pop, rock, and alternative playlists, “I Melt with You” remains one of the 500 most-played songs on US radio.

“I Melt with You” made its first comp appearance on Modern Heroes, a 1982 UK TV Records set with cuts by A Flock of Seagulls (“Space Age Love Song”), China Crisis (“African and White”), The Cure (“Hanging Garden”), Depeche Mode (“Leave In Silence”), Duran Duran (“Hungry Like the Wolf”), Fashion (“Love Shadow”), The Human League (“Hard Times”), Mick Karn (“Sensitive”), Talk Talk (“Today”), Thomas Dolby (“Windpower”), Yazoo (“Don’t Go”), and the David Sylvian / Ryuichi Sakamoto collaboration “Bamboo House.”

Though excluded from the 1983 US Valley Girl mini-LP due to licensing, “I Melt with You” appears on the 1984 UK soundtrack LP along with cuts by Gary Myrick (“She Talks to Me in Stereo”), Men at Work (“Who Can It Be Now?”), The Plimsouls (“Everywhere at Once”), The Psychedelic Furs (“Love My Way”), and Josie Cotton’s notorious prom number “Johnny Are You Queer?”

In September 1983, 4AD lifted “Someone’s Calling” as the third After the Snow single (fifteen months after the album’s release), backed with the prior a-side “Life in the Gladhouse.”

On November 7, Modern English headlined over The Chameleons and Nyam Nyam at The Venue, London. They closed out 1983 with a New Year’s Eve show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, supported by Cook Da Books.

Ricochet Days

Modern English released their third album, Ricochet Days, on February 10, 1984, on 4AD (UK), Sire (US), and Vertigo (Canada).

Ricochet Days features eight group-written originals, including “Blue Waves,” “Heart,” “Spinning Me Round,” and “Hands Across the Sea,” their second Billboard hit.

This was the last consecutive album that group mainstays Robbie Grey, Gary McDowell, and Michael Conroy made with drummer Richard Brown and Stephen Walker.

1. “Rainbows End” (3:06)
2. “Machines” (5:39)
3. “Spinning Me Round” (4:50)
4. “Ricochet Days” (5:12)

5. “Hands Across the Sea” (4:53)
6. “Blue Waves” (4:00)
7. “Heart” (6:58)
8. “Chapter 12” (3:57)

“Chapter 12” appeared in January as an advance UK single backed with the non-album “Ringing In the Change.” The 12″ contains a third track, “Reflection.”

B1. “Ringing In the Change” (4:09)
B2. “Reflection” (4:19)

Sessions occurred at Rockfield Studios with Hugh Jones, who produced and engineered Ricochet Days in sequence with 1983/84 titles by Blue In Heaven, Colourfield, Fiat Lux, Icicle Works, and Rubber Rodeo.

Sire lifted “Hands Across the Sea” as a US single (b/w “Reflection”). In the video, Modern English perform in a white setting, inter-cut with circle-dancing children in folkloric outfits. Robbie Grey dons a red beret and sleeveless blue/orange jump suit while Gary McDowell sports dreadlocks and brown ragdoll attire.

“Hands Across the Sea” reached No. 43 on the Billboard Rock chart.