It is safe to say no ‘80s music compilation would be complete without A Flock of Seagulls. The Grammy-winning band sealed their place in music history with “I Ran (So Far Away),” “Telecommunication,” “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You),” “Space Age Love Song,” “(It’s Not Me) Talking,” and “The More You Live, the More You Love.” In addition to the music, the band is often referenced in pop culture visually by Mike Score’s iconic hairstyle. Fortunately for us, the Lost at Sea ‘80s Beach Party will have the actual Mike Score in person, and while he no longer has the recognizable hairstyle, he does have the songs we love.
Working as a hair stylist in 1980, Score created the band with brother Ali, fellow hairdresser Frank Maudsley, and Paul Reynolds. Thanks to the new video channel MTV, the new romantic band received worldwide attention and within two years, they had two hit albums, a Grammy, multiple successful singles, and were touring constantly.
With that immediate success though, the band struggled with direction and members over the new few years. Score remained the constant and continued to tour and release music as A Flock of Seagulls and a solo artist.
Despite the line-up changes in the past, the original four reunited in 2018 and 2021 to record new versions of their albums, this time with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. With 2018’s “Ascension” and 2021’s “String Theory,” we received orchestral versions of their classics, and even some new videos.
After the band released “Ascension” in 2018, there was such a positive response, they decided to do another orchestral album. Last year, Score told us he was so excited about “String Theory.” “I did everything I needed to do for it,” he said. “It went to the orchestra. I’ve heard a few rough mixes of it and it sounds better than the first one if you ask me. We are always looking for new ways to keep people interested in us and keep it interesting for us.”
Will they do more orchestral versions? We can’t say for sure. But way back in early months of COVID in 2020, Score told he had between 100 and 200 songs he was working on. After spending lockdown with his home studio, there’s no telling how many hundreds he has now! He also told us, “Apart from writing new songs, we’ve got to look back at what we’ve done and say does it still stand up, and of course you want it to stand up all the time. A song like ‘I Ran’ should stand up forever and ‘Space Age’ should stand up forever. And ‘Wishing,’” he explained. “We try and just doctor them a little bit without going too far away from the original. People can kind of go, ‘Oh I never thought I’d hear it like that’ which is the orchestral version or maybe a stripped down version or a heavier version. Sometimes we like to play it live, heavy and sometimes we like to play it a bit lighter and a bit more airy.”
So what will we see in Catalina? Hopefully you have your tickets and are ready to go! In addition to A Flock of Seagulls, the weekend will have sets by English Beat, Missing Persons, Oingo Boingo Former Members, Dramarama, Wally Palmar of The Romantics, The Untouchables, Annabella’s Bow Wow Wow, Tommy Tutone, Stacey Q, Kon Kan, Josie Cotton, Shannon, Naked Eyes, Musical Youth, Burning Sensations, and Trans-X.
If you can’t go to Catalina, you can still catch A Flock of Seagulls on select dates of the Lost ‘80s Live 20th Anniversary Tour which is traveling across the US and includes multiple SoCal shows.
