Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Red Box - For America

A number of the songs posted here were forged in my memory, not because they were huge hits but because they were played on a number of UK mid-80s music shows. Red Box are a good example: they only ever had 2 chart entries - this track followed their 1st (barely) hit 'Lean On Me' - but were featured continuously on 'The Chart Show', a presenter-less music video programme (a precursor to 'Pop Up Video' if you will).

Red Box were one of those obtuse mid-80s indie groups that a major label (in this case WEA) decide to try and make big. Their shtick was synth-pop tracks mixed in with a little world music and visuals containing semaphore, phonetics etc. Needless to say, they did not set the world on fire and apparently 'For America' was written as a riposte to a request from their record label to write something that would appeal to mainstream American radio!


Bonus Clip: Here's 'Lean On Me'

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