Flesh for Lulu - Plastic Fantastic

From the annals of What Could Have Been I present Flesh for Lulu's 1989 release Plastic Fantastic. This wasn't my first exposure to the band. I first heard them on the radio back when CBC Radio in the dark hours would feature Brave New Waves and expose people to indie and alternative music the mainstream eschewed. I'm racking my brain trying to remember the song that caught my interest. It's probably a false memory at this point but I'm inclined to think it was "Baby Hurricane" from Big Fun City / Blue Sisters Swing. At the time when I found the CD I figured it was a collection of two releases, but there was no internet so I was never sure. It was a rough, raw and pretty cool collection. I will also admit that I thought "Laundromat Kat" was awesome ... and yes it is two of their 1985 releases repackaged in 1986.

A few years later I stumbled upon Plastic Fantastic, and this time while the songs were still raw there was also a polished sheen to many of the songs. This was way more accessible than the earlier album I had and I remember being enamoured with "High Wire" and to a lesser degree "Time and Space" two songs that sounded like they belonged on a John Hughes soundtrack.

I also recall Plastic Fantastic didn't spend a lot of time in the CD changer. I played it through a couple of times and grabbed the songs that immediately caught my ear and put them on a mixed tape. As I have the object permanence of a cat with a head injury once I had put the album away I don't remember playing it again. Oddly though if I ever thought of cool bands inevitably I'd think of Flesh for Lulu, which is odd but sort of how my brain works so I'm not really complaining. I'll take what I can get.

Fast forward a bunch of decades, and it really does feel like a fast forward, I found an absolutely pristine copy of Plastic Fantastic and I didn't hesitate. I didn't pass go, I went straight to the counter and bought it. Where I added it to the pile of records that was getting bigger and bigger ... it sat there for a long time and the other day I had a hankering for something I couldn't put my finger on. 

I pulled out Plastic Fantastic, and in my mind's eye I heard a little poof, and tiny miniature versions of Lou Todd and Andy Pipkin appeared, one on each shoulder. Andy's wheelchair seemed to be precariously balanced and Lou looked concerned and said, "What a kerfuffle." Andy was peering at the album in my hand almost falling off my shoulder. I craned my neck to get a better look and our eyes locked. "I want that one." I nodded, and then with a small poof that smelled faintly of methane they were gone. They were probably never there. Didn't matter, I too wanted that one.

I'd not not thought about Flesh for Lulu in a long time, and from the opening track "Decline and Fall" I found my memory at odds with what I was hearing with fresh, albeit sixty mumble mumble year old ears. Good gravy this was so good. There were times it was slick, sometimes raw, other times dreamy. There were times there bits of INXS, other times a hint of Billy Idol. Nick Marsh had one of those great new romantic voices that called to mind Simple Mind's Jim Kerr and Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler. I only mention them as a point of reference. There was an absolute swagger and confidence in Nick's delivery that seemed to give the songs more weight and conviction than they actually had.

Reading through the credits of the albums sometime after Big Fun City / Blue Sisters Swing Nick Marsh, Rocco, Kevin Mills and James Mitchell added guitarist Del Strangefish (D. Greening according to the writing credits) who had contributed four of the album's twelve tracks, including the two songs I'd pulled off way back for mix tapes. 

The one song I sort of remembered as being like the old Sesame Street "One of These Things" song was the title track. "Plastic Fantastic" stylistically is still out of place here, but there's also something really infectious about the song and it just gets better and better.

The whole album has been a lot of fun getting back into, and frankly I've spent way more time listening, I mean really listening to this now than I did back when I was a kid. It's too bad this wasn't just a little earlier. By 1989 their once hot contemporaries like Simple Minds, INXS and even The Psychedelic Furs had more or less peaked by '87. It's almost unfair that this wasn't their debut album as it would have put them in the same class as The Stone Roses who dropped their debut in '89. Instead, Flesh for Lulu were already considered an established band and unfairly or not they were part of another era.

Time of course blurs the lines, and taking this at face value Plastic Fantastic is one of those albums that certainly had the goods. Still my reaction at the time, was likely the reaction of many casuals who found the record enjoyable for what it was an them moved on.

Of course this was the late '80s and hair was as important as the music (not really). So much hair, and so much product. The guys in the band were self aware enough to actually address this in the credits: flesh for lulu use ozone-friendly hair products!  

Oh what could have been but wasn't.

After I'd listened to the record a few times I started looking up more information on the band, and it is bittersweet. Nick Marsh, who fronted the band passed away back in 2015 from cancer. Cancer sucks, he was only 53.

For those who want to read up on the band's history and anecdotes about the recording of this album there's a great article on Louder Sound written by Scott Rowley. It's long, but so good.