FURS AREN'T DEAD

The first bands that a kid likes are usually the same bands that their parents happen to be listening to. Some of the earliest memories I have of music are from the long drive to my cottage to every summer. In the late 80s and early 90s, my parents were still for lack of a better word, "cool." They were no doubt "yuppies" (we had a Volvo, a green one) but they loved great music. Every trip featured mix tapes that my Dad made, from Johnny Winter to the Stones. But it was the newer stuff that really stuck with me. Driving through small town Ontario in the summer might cause some people to reach for a folk or classic rock record, but for me these images bring to mind Billy Idol, Talk Talk, FYC and The Psychedelic Furs.

Years later, when I was in high school, I decided to dig out some old tapes and have a listen. I instantly recognized the dark vocals and panning synths.

There are colors flashing
people wearing stars and stuff
there are engines cracking
there's a way to turn it off
It gets so hard at times
to take it serious
it really gets to be a drag
when all we really need is love


Here Come Cowboys - Here to save us all
Here Come Cowboys - They're so well inside the law






I had no idea who The Furs were, but I wanted to hear more, so I went out and bought "Mirror Moves." Then I got "Forever Now," and pretty soon I was hooked on the band, and their decidedly moody sound. My friends and I all loved what was we broadly termed as "80s music," and every party we had became an opportunity to mine the top 100 charts of that decade and put the results on a CD. As we got further into it however, it became more of a competition to find more obscure bands (at least for a 17 year old in 2001), and introduce them into regular rotation. The Psychedelic Furs quickly became our soundtrack for everything from parties to driving to parties, to returning empties and eating breakfast at the Bloor-Jane diner the next day. Whenever I had a crush, instead of pursuing it (way too shy), I would listen to “The Ghost in You” while swooning in my room. And while most kids were blasting rap or whatever else was big in the early 2000s (I really have no idea), we would roll the windows down and blare “Heartbeat” or “Here Come Cowboys” at traffic lights, or go straight to the stereo at random house parties and put the record on. Immature to be sure, but not only did we like being different (and twenty years too late), we loved The Furs.

And last night, as I watched them play at Lee’s, I felt as though everything had come full circle. I first encountered them as a child, and then rediscovered them a decade later, when “Mirror Moves” was in my Discman more often than not. And now, ten years after that, I’m playing synthesizer in a band that I love, with guys I love, watching Richard Butler sing songs from the record that made me fall in love with synth in the first place. I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

- AP