From 1979, please enjoy Antipodean power popsters The Sports and their classic post-modern meditation on mass media, "Who Listens to the Radio?"
A terrific song, I think, and one that proves that Van Morrison was a bigger influence on a lot of New Wave acts (or at least the ones with pub-rock roots) than heretofore suspected. In any case, a natural single with a killer chorus, and the Beethoven quote at the end never fails to make me smile.
9 comments:
Sounds a little like Joe Jackson too, no?
Yep, I hear a little JJ in the vocals as well. I've asked this before...where do you FIND this stuff Steve? A killer track I never heard from a band I've never heard of and a stone cold classic to boot.
I totally agree with DeepKarma - outstanding piece! And who ARE - or were - these guys?!?
As they say....that's what I'd like to know.
This was, ironically, actually a big radio hit in '79, at least in NYC.
Anyway, the Sports were pretty big deals in Australia -- this is from their second album, I think.
Dunno what happened to them...
According to Wikipedia, The Sports were active for about five years and broke up. Their discography lists two albums from later than that, but there's no information about them.
"Who Listens To The Radio" hit the top 35 in Australia and peaked at 45 here in the US.
The Sports:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sports
Singer Stephen Cummings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Cummings
Great tune -- never heard it before. Hit Google for a YouTube video of the song.
Tastiest songs that reference the radio? Oh, wait I jumped the gun...
I love the word "antipodean"!
I think this has more of a Graham Parker vibe, but I can sense a bit of Joe Jackson too. Still, a great song I have never heard by a band unknown to me.
This got a fair amount of airplay on the old WHFS in Washington. But I hadn't heard it in at least 25 years. Thanks for posting it!
Marc
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