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COMSAT ANGELS - LAND
C. S. ANGELS - 7 DAY WEEKEND

Another case of a great band following the 80's road paved with Gold only to find out that it stopped suddenly and turned into a mud trail.

Year: 1983 and 1985
Genres: Big Waves That Fell Hard/Alternative Promotional Mega-Fail (Read on and see why)/Rejected by "The Machine"
Label: Jive (Parent Label: Zomba)/Arista
C/O for 7 Day Weekend on the top right hand side...possibly a Demo, but it had to have had wound up in those bins.

Just imagine you're a Alternative kid in 1983-5 in the US without any real information center to go by may it be in print (In The US, the UK weeklies were hard to find and more so the monthly and seasonal pubs), radio (Many of the New Wave stations were changing format by that time), nor fanbase (The New Wave kids of the day were already going College Rock or taming out to more mainstream fare and the Hardcore kids wanted nothing to do with music that was not fast). Knowing your stuff by being one of the few that actually bought the UK weeklies and catching the very few radio shows that hardly anyone else around you heard, with memories of songs from Sleep No More going though your brain at times, you pass by an album by "The C.S. Angels" knowing damn well they are The Comsat Angels, but a band forced to alter their name due to problems with the Communications Satellite Corporation. Understanding that, you notice that they moved to Jive Records, a label at the time not really known for their Alternative bands besides a Flock of Seagulls and better known later for a mountain of garbage of Boy and Girl Groups, and that they tried to sell the Angels through an album called Land back in 1983 that fitted nice with the New Wave sounds of the day even with a remake of their legendary "Independence Day", but still with the band looking a little stiff and uncomfortable with their new surroundings, with the fans already concerned with what was happening, with a production credit to Mike Howlett being a slight word of warning.

Do you "Run So Far Away" from the album, or do you have that curiosity to hear what the band in their new clothes sound like? It was not a bad fit, but you knew there were batter days before.

From Land, "Will You Stay Tonight", complete with Rockamerica typeset at the start, the source of a lot of rare 80's music videos (including one by the second chapter of Specimen!). It was a small College Radio hit in The US, and it's a nice tune, but also one that had others leaving them. You, however, were still standing by these sounds thinking that maybe at least this would have case of having a hit and getting more leeway with your own sounds...but it was not a hit, even with likable vocals by Stephen Fellows, and it only made the forces that be only cave in more.



In 1985, the "C.S. Angels" album 7 Day Weekend was released, and you take a look at the contents and even the message on the back (more on that later), and although the title is something to do with unemployment (a fact one hardly knows unless a major follower or reading a review way post-fact), many just possibly see it as a title that screams fun, in a way I'm sure Jive saw it (I can imagine the suits saying "GREAT title! Never mind the real meaning, it screams FUN!!! It will sell in The States!!!") - Hell, there were cheesy films called Weekend Pass that sold to the Drive Ins through the years, so why not sell something as a 7 Day Weekend, right (note sarcasm)? To continue the Stateside Sell, a film called Real Genius featured their sounds, choosing "I'm Falling", one of the singles from the album. Still, for some reason, you might have caught a video of that single on some low-rated Cable show that was still trying to fly the New Music flag high, maybe shown on a public access channel, and finding it very lacking with Synth flutes peppering it up almost like those annoying Outback Steakhouse commercials many years later...nice tune, but not like the classic days, and something you don't even show to the elitist Goth friend who will possibly make fun of you for owning anything with the Jive label on.

...Produced by James Mtume, as well...



Fans today side by the band thick and thin, and even serious listeners understandably try to see what was good about the infamous Jive era and their standing up with a brave face although knowing that things were not going as they should have. Sometimes the band re-heckled crude hecklers in concert (One that had a beard shouting "Sell outs" was spotted and called out...the Angels never had beards!), in interviews they admitted that it was better than being a struggling band trying to find work, and that I can say was at least something as even the liner notes on 7 Day reading "We started this group five and a half years ago mainly because we enjoy playing and making a noise, also as an alternative to being on the dole". Still, with an album like Sleep No More in a band's history, it's pretty tough to convince older fans that it was either this or The Dole, but some understood well enough.



Think about this, at least it was with some push from the label itself - Jive released FOUR singles from 7 Day Weekend, but all fading possibly into the remnant bins and remaining unsold at the College record store in the hipper ares of the US. The production featured some WTF decisions including one using James Mtume (On a Comsat Angels record?!!!) producing two, the other one being "Forever Young". The album's history was plagued with forced backing vocals "Courtesy of RCA Records" (Jive was part of RCA Music), possibly forced guest musicians not credited, many arguments in the recording studio, but at least a tour that showed they were at least mature about what was happening around them. Even with a front cover photo with a good amount of makeup used (that cropped off the thinning hairline of Bassist Kevin Bacon!), it went nowhere fast, with only "I'm Falling" scraping the UK chart below the 75. In the end of the decade, it was another example of where the New Pop went sour by the Mid 80's.

Still, at least there were two CS Angels Produced songs, with some help by Chris Tsangarides, one leading the album.



You could not blame The Comsat Angels for trying to go for the 80's Gold, just as I also say that for all of the other bands that went that way - some succeeded with some great music, others fell by the wayside with either notable failures or outright junk, although thankfully here is a case of the notable failure that had shades of their sound compromised by business decisions that were so ill fitting. After three classic albums with Polydor that only achieved cult fame but very little in the way of breaking through, they were faced with a decision to move on with their music in a very competitive time. Some avid fans are also not to blame to say that they should have went Indie by this time as the majors all know that there was a big sales force in The US called MTV that was the deciding factor in molding their musicians into camera-ready forces, but after reading interviews from that time, you could see their willingness to get into some kind of fame possibly after seeing many of the Indie based bands usually compared to their sound fall into areas that would be found at the better stocked stores buried in some hard to find section of the place and playing smaller clubs that had shows complete with the few and devoted but not in the numbers to continue the admittedly expensive direction in life.

Seriously, this should have been the first Mtume-produced single. No Synth Flutes, just a good solid 80's Pop. In sounding like a Johnny come way too late, THIS should have been the first of the four singles...instead of the last.



Damned if they did, damned if they did not, they decided to sign on the paper to Jive Records, then home to A Flock of Seagulls, who were fading fast. It's possible that Jive wanted another Flock, but what they got was something more special that was forced to compromise. This was one of many examples of The 80's where a great band decides to move into the big league only to find tough times and ill fitting images: Think of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry trying to fit with Beggars Banquet trying to sell it's bands in the US through it's deal with RCA for a comparison to this case. Still, after the clearing of the damage, there are at least a few good memories to remember this era by that may have not been classic Comsats, but at least decent enough Pop music that was better than the norm of the day, especially in an era where things were going into overproduction and over-hype.

Thankfully, a move to Island provided temp relief with the 1986 album Chasing Shadows before their 1990 album as Dream Command stopped a lot of progress to crawl out of the damage done with their two Jive albums. They soldiered on until 1995 with only Fellows and Bacon from the main line-up by 1993, and then reformed on occasion.

Yes, to those wanting to know about how great The Comsat Angels are, the first three albums are really the perfect place to go to. The 4'th and 5'th albums may not be as great )Out of the two, get Land first), they at least have some pleasing moments that were good examples of those 80's Pop fumbles due to the fact that they were a damn good band who knew a good tune when they heard it despite the Producer Sheen that was applied on.