A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS
RETROCRUSH INTERVIEWS MIKE SCORE
THE LEAD SINGER OF A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS

In the 1980's you couldn't turn on MTV without seeing A Flock of Seagull's "I Ran" video. The song has become a part of pop culture history and has been featured in Adam Sandler's "The Wedding Singer" and the videogame "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City". The group followed up "I Ran" with two other well loved '80s singles "Wishing" and "Space Age Love Song". On the brink of two upcoming '80s invasion concerts in Stockton & Bakersfield California Mike took some time to speak with us. 

While growing up who influenced you musically?

When I was young I was into the Beatles. I was kind of into the Rolling Stones, but more I was into Brian Jones. His Rolling Stones rather than what they became afterwards. He did "2000 Light years from home" which when I heard it I thought it was the best song ever.

Then I liked Zager and Evans because they did "The year 2525". I always tend to lean towards anything that was sci-fi. When the late 1970’s and 80’s came along I was into Ultravox with John Foxx and a few bands that never became that big, but in England they were having a good time.

It kind of happened by accident. I was a hairdresser. I was very involved in when Punk really started. Then New Wave started. I used to have my hair in a Ziggy Stardust kind of thing. One day Frank, who was an original band player, put his hand on my head and flattened it as we were about to go on stage. I liked the look of it and went for it. It freaked everybody out.

It looked sci-fi. We were into playing sci-fi sounding music. It was one of those things where everything came together at the right time for us. I think for a successful band that is what’s got to happen. Then with MTV coming up and us having that great look and everything. It was like, "Wow, we have this great look and now there’s a TV station that wants to show it off."

All I remember about that is we were at the record company offices and the owner of the record company came up and said, "There’s a new station and they’re going to show clips of bands." I don’t even think they were called videos then. They were just promo clips. He said, "I want you to make one." We had this guy come in and it was made in about 5 hours. The whole idea was just to get something that MTV could show. They probably only had three or four videos, but they showed them all the time.

It was perfect for us because we had an image, we had the space sounding music, and all of a sudden it was put in everybody’s living room. Where as it may have taken us five years of doing gigs around America to get a hit. It took about five months of MTV to get a hit instead.

Oh yea. I’m just sorry it went the way it did now. Game shows and stuff like that. What does that have to do with music television?

I don’t know if you’re into videogames. The same thing has sort of happened with G4. I used to like watching G4 because I was into videogames and you’d immediately go out & get them. Now it’s become like Star Trek. It was such a cool thing when videogames were just becoming good they had a TV station that showed you how to cheat & do all kinds of stuff. I think the same thing happened with music. It was great and ran for a couple of years like that. Then corporate something happened.

I wrote "Nightmares" on the road after watching "Mommie Dearest".

I’ll be sitting on my sofa watching TV with a guitar or keyboard and I’ll just sing about something that is on TV. It might not be a direct correlation. Then I go to record the song properly I’ve changed a few lyrics or I’ve done a few things to it that take it away from its first inspiration.

Frank did that. Frank came up with the concept for the video. He wanted to do that. Frank was always into movies and he wanted to be an actor. We let him have quite a lot of rein in that.

I wouldn’t personally categorize "The Flock of Seagulls". If anything we were progressive pop. I think we just got lumped in with the "New Wave" and "New Romantic" thing. I think Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran were more "New Romantic" than we were. I think we were slightly heavy progressive pop. That’s why we had hits with "Wishing". I mean "Wishing" wasn’t "New Romantic" at all.

When I was young I never use to say, "I like this band and nobody else." I use to be into different songs and I think that’s why I became a songwriter. I would like a heavy metal song and I’d try to write a song that was influenced by that. Maybe the next day I’d hear a country song and I’d have a country influence on one of my songs.

I always liked bands that were more interesting than putting out the same song with a slightly different arrangement and lyrics. For me that’s not what being in a band or being a musician is about. It’s about experimenting with all types of beats. As soon as synths came along I went I have to have one because it was something new to me. I didn’t know it would become my main instrument.

They were totally manual when I got them. You had to do everything on the fly. When we were playing live if you wanted a filter sweep you had to patch it up and turn the knob.

When you’re first writing them that’s when they’re your favorites. For me I always thought "Wishing" was a great song. Even though it says on the album that the song was written by all four of us I did 99% of the writing.

I had a cold when I sang that. Not a really bad one. Even the guy from the record company said, "Your voice sounds real thick on that song." I think the way they recorded it when I had a cold was different. I couldn’t project like I did when I was doing the earlier stuff. I had to hold back a bit. It enabled them to get my voice to sound a bit heavier and a bit thicker.

To me a lot of it sounds the same. It’s like these days as soon as a band has a hit there are 12 bands doing that same song with different lyrics. No one wants to be an individual anymore.

I think that’s why Kelly Clarkson is a hit. She’s doing slightly different things all the time. She started off doing dancey diva sort of stuff, then she moved into rock, and her latest thing is some sort of pop song. She’s not straying too far, but she’s good. She’s doing slightly different things. She’s not just repeating herself.

It is frustrating that’s it’s basically why people come to see you. You have to take the fact that people come to see you live and hear that song. You have to try and educate them to the fact that isn’t all you are. The thing for me if that’s what people want then they can have it. That’s not what the band is about. The band is not a nostalgia band, although it has nostalgic moments. The band is still progressing and changing. I think of "I Ran" as the thing that brings people into the gig so I’m glad I’ve got it.

It’s a legendary 80’s song you might say.

I tend to find that people first of all get into us because of "I Ran", but they like "Space Age Love Song" and they go, "Oh, but that’s the best song." Then maybe "Wishing", but "I Ran" is definitely the one that brings them to the band.

We went to where Ultravox recorded; the Conny Plank’s studio in Germany. We wanted to be out there and Conny Plank produced Ultravox. It was a completely different studio and atmosphere from what we had when we were doing the first album in Battery Studio in London. It was just strange. We recorded the first album before we were successful. We recorded the second one when we were huge. It was a whole different world for us.

We basically lived on somebody’s doorstep and made them listen to us. He had worked with Roxy Music and he knew Bill Nelson. When he heard a couple of our demos we had done on a four track he took them to Bill Nelson. Bill Nelson said, "Let’s produce up a couple of things."

As we did things, things fell into place. The more you go on with that the more you get confident you’re doing the right thing. When you get that confidence people see it and they come with you. So you go into a record company and they say, "Why should we sign you?" and you reply, "Because we’re going to be huge!" That’s way better than saying, "Because we need 50 quid."

You have to have confidence and you have to show the guy that you mean what you say because they’re going to throw a couple of million dollars at you. They’re not going to do it if you’re some shy, retiring little boy. We met the right people that made us feel comfortable and backed us up.

We came to the states for 3 weeks and we stayed 9 months. In 9 months we’d gone from opening up for Squeeze and playing little clubs to playing stadiums with The Police. It was almost like when we got back to Liverpool people were afraid of us. They didn’t know what to say to us and we didn’t know what to say to them. We had just had this meteoric thing happen in our lives. They were still like, "I’m going down to the pub and having a beer." You can’t relate to it though. When you spend 9 months on the road gigging, meeting people, having a great time and things escalating it’s hard for you to just go sit in a pub and say, "Hey, what’s on TV?"

We’ve had fans that have been in my hotel room or there’s been a knock on my window and I’m three stories up. There’s a girl with an album asking, "Can I get your autograph?" At one time I was in New York and The Go-Gos were playing. I could have seen them backstage, but I wanted to see their show from out front. I kind of sneaked in and stood at the back while they were playing. About 30 people left their seats and came. I’m like, "Hey, you paid to see The Go-Gos so go watch them." They wouldn’t leave me alone so I had to leave and they followed me. They followed me back to the hotel and I was like, "Go away and watch the The Go Gos. I want to watch them too."

The reason we broke up in the first place was because of Paul Reynolds. The original guitar player has got problems. He got into the whole rock and roll thing. He got into drugs and drink. He just couldn’t handle it in the first place. That led to the breakup in the first place.

He was only 18 or 19 when all of that was happening to him. It was hard to deal with. He ended up with problems and he’s had those problems ever since. He’s still got those problems. We basically said we can do the reunited thing if you straighten yourself out. So he did straighten himself out for a couple of weeks. He did the TV show. Then we went to do some gigs and as soon as we were back on the road he was lost again.

We only did like 6 shows and then I said, "You know this isn’t fun. It’s not fun being with Paul like this." You end up babysitting and resenting the fact that you have to look after somebody else. You just want to have some fun really. I told them, "I can’t work with Paul so I’m going back to playing with my American version." I actually had a great time on the "Bands Reunited" thing.

With my brother playing with Frank we had a real good laugh. It was tainted by Paul like I said. If he straightens himself out in the future I’ll give him another chance, but I’m not waiting.

That got blown up. Me and my brother we never really had the same friends in England. We didn’t hang out together so much. When I speak to my brother its like, "How are you doing?" He replies, "How are you doing?" I reply, "Okay" and that is the end of the conversation.

They dramatize it a bit.

Just sci-fi, space, and aliens.

Obviously, I don’t think about it as much as I did then.

Not really, I think it was my influence because I was the writer of the songs. I use to watch all the sci-fi movies. I was into abduction, UFO sightings and stuff like that. That’s what I wrote about. That was my interest.

I would say come out and see us because we have a lot of new songs. The band is really good. I’m happy with it and if you feel like having an entertaining, retro, and a little nostalgia time then come see us.

When I was a little kid I was in love with Julie Driscoll. She sang with the Brian Auger band. They did that song, "Wheels on Fire" later on for "Absolutely Fabulous". Julie Driscoll had the perfect 60’s look. She was awesome.

I’ve got a lot of shows coming up. We’re doing Stockton and Bakersfield. We’re doing a lot with DEVO. They’re show is great and I love watching them. We’ve done a few shows with them in the past. So for me it’s like we can play first and then go out in the crowd.

I’m just glad that after 30 years I still like being in a band.

Come see "A Flock of Seagulls" along with "Missing Persons" and "Naked Eyes" at the upcoming 80's Invasion Concert in Stockton (May 19th) & Bakersfield (May 20th), CA.

Buy tickets for Stockton show
Buy tickets for the Bakersfield show

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