{"id":38725,"date":"2018-07-31T11:36:21","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T10:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=38725"},"modified":"2019-09-16T16:43:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T15:43:07","slug":"high-flying-birds-a-flock-of-seagulls-bassist-frank-maudsley-on-the-return-of-the-1980s-fab-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/07\/high-flying-birds-a-flock-of-seagulls-bassist-frank-maudsley-on-the-return-of-the-1980s-fab-four\/","title":{"rendered":"HIGH FLYING BIRDS – A Flock of Seagulls’ Bassist Frank Maudsley On The Return Of The 1980’s Fab Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their futuristic sound and frontman Mike Score’s outlandish haircut, A\u00a0Flock of Seagulls were as synonymous with the eighties as yuppies, ET and DeLorean cars.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

They achieved rapid fame – perhaps too rapid in retrospect, burning brightly but briefly – the original quartet releasing just two albums before imploding in a whirl of breakdowns and inter-band rivalries.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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A Flock of Seagulls clockwise: Mike Score, Ali Score, Paul Reynolds and Frank Maudsley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But now, having first been brought back together by VH1<\/strong>‘s\u00a0Bands Reunited<\/strong><\/a> in 2003, A Flock of Seagulls have returned with\u00a0Ascension<\/strong><\/a> a series of orchestral re-workings of some of their most famous songs, along with a brand new title track.<\/p>\n

For bassist\u00a0Frank Maudsley<\/strong>, however, the band’s revival has been bittersweet, coming not long after he was diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening heart condition.<\/p>\n

Happily settled back in his beloved Liverpool, he’s determined not to let a little thing like\u00a0hypertrophic cardiomyopathy get in the way of the band’s comeback tour.<\/p>\n

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Very much the joker in the pack, Maudsley, is in typically mischievous mood in his chat with EP, challenging our writer\u00a0Matt Catchpole “<\/strong>to ask us something really daft”.<\/p>\n

Pausing every now and again to play a flourish of chords on his baby grand piano, he outlines the band’s rollercoaster rise and fall, his fondness for “the dark side of the Seagulls” and the happy accident that led to the creation of that legendary bonkers barnet.<\/p>\n

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A photograph of you – Maudsley in his ’80s heyday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

News that Flock of Seagulls were getting back together came as something of a surprise to Maudsley who had thought he was “done with being in a group”.<\/p>\n

Although delighted to be back with his old mates again, it was something of a double whammy following the diagnosis of his heart problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m finding everything very emotional,\u201d he admits, \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an incurable condition, in which a portion of the heart becomes thickened without an obvious cause. This results in the heart being less able to pump blood effectively.<\/p>\n

Maudsley has been fitted with a defibrillator, which restarts his heart when it stops pumping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just die suddenly all the time,\u201d he explains matter-of-factly. \u201cAnd this thing in my chest wall shocks me back to life.<\/p>\n

“And now we’ve got this fucking album coming out!,” he laughs.<\/p>\n

With a tour in support of the album set for the Autumn, Frank admits his excitement about being on the road again is tinged with some trepidation.<\/p>\n

He concedes his condition is likely to make for more sedate performances than in the band’s early years when he’d “be running all over the stage”.<\/p>\n

“You had to be very athletic,” he explains. “We would be playing festivals to 200 or 300 thousand people a night and it would be a big stage to cover.\u00a0I may have to ask for a stool on this tour, but I might be a better musician for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The orchestral arrangements on the album were performed by the\u00a0Prague Philharmonic\u00a0<\/strong>and Maudsley is hugely enthusiastic about the recordings.<\/p>\n

“It’s a massive dream, it’s incredibly humbling,” he says before pausing to pick out the melody to ‘Wishing (I Had A Photograph Of You)’ <\/strong>on his baby grand.<\/p>\n

The band released ‘Space Age Love Song’<\/strong> from the new album in June, with ‘Ascension’ <\/strong>the only track written solely for the album due to follow soon.<\/p>\n

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