I only have one album by them, Bite, but it's very good. Contains Don't Talk To Me About Love and Love To Stay.
I Could Be Happy: The Best Of Altered Images (1997), on the Epic/Legacy label, is an excellent compilation:
Agreed that Pinky Blue is their best. That compilation I posted also has the two songs off their debut UK 7" ("Dead Pop Stars"/"Sentimental") from 1981 plus the 7" versions of their hits "I Could Be Happy" and "See Those Eyes", so that's an enticement for completists.
Clare Grogan! One of my first teenage crushes. She was SO cute. Actually she still is, and a very nice person too apparently - a friend of mine worked on the early series of Red Dwarf in which she occasionally featured, and said how sweet she was to everyone, crew, actors, the lot.
The first two albums are the best as they still had a bit of an edge, but bite the record company had removed all that, don't like it much. Dead Pop Stars s a great post punk track, check out the very early version live at the Futurama festival which is on YouTube. They then went much more pop, but the first two albums are good and fun and have plenty of good songs.
Yes! Let's have some photos please! Altered Images have been on the BBC4 Top of the Pops 1981 repeats recently. See Those Eyes was on last week. I haven't heard much by them outside of the hits. I love Dead Pop Stars.
Great band in their early days, but Clare's finest moment will always be as the perfect embodiment of schoolboy love in Gregory's Girl.
I liked two songs on Bite--Don't Talk To Me About Love and a sadly ignored song called Stand So Quiet where she sings her lungs off. For someone who really doesn't have a great voice she really puts her all into this one.
I remember them well. A fun slice of 80s pop magic. Huge crush on the singer. I had a cassette w/ I could be happy on it twice? Or do I remember incorrectly? Need to pickup a good CD compilation by them.
Get it all, they are one of my favorites. They have 3 albums, each very different than the last. The first, Happy Birthday, was (mostly) produced by Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees fame. It's a pretty good album but could have benefited from better production. It has a sort of Goth style, other than the title track which seems fairly out of place, even though I love it. Their second, Pinky Blue, was pure New Wave pop, though very simplistic. The songs all consist of one verse and a chorus repeated. The music is bouncy and upbeat but most lyrics are surprisingly bitter and sung with real charm. Their amusing cover of 'Song Sung Blue' is purely tongue-in-cheek but too many people view it as a failed serious attempt. Really? Their third, Bite, was a response to the backlash Pinky Blue got from the critics. It's very adult contemporary in an effort to be taken seriously. It's continued to grow on me over time and now I view much of it as essential. The extra tracks from that era are the best of the bunch. PS: I'm working with Vinyl 180 on a series of deluxe vinyl reissues of all 3 albums, stay tuned. Here's a very recent interview with Clare (name frustratingly misspelled). She's always fun to watch with an undeniable sense of humor. I adore her:
I have all three of their records, and agree with those who said that Pinky Blue is the best, though the other two have great stuff on them, too. The Love To Stay 12" is crucial for the extended mix (which, I'd imagine, is probably available on some compilation, too). This tune from Pinky Blue is one of my favorites:
The extended version of 'Love to Stay' is the same as the LP version. The single version is an edited version. It's one of my favorite tracks.
Ah, good to know! I first heard that tune on the "Collected Images" compilation, and it was the shorter, single edit. I bought the 12" for the longer version, and never noticed that the version on Bite was the same length as the 12". Ha! I just checked, and you're absolutely correct. Yeah, it's just such a devastating and beautiful song. Love it!
Sadly..... I think "Bite" made them appear more 'serious'.... ruined it! I DO, however, love "Don't Talk To Me About Love":
It's weird... I always thought of her when I started seeing Tina Fey on "SNL": they BOTH have that strange 'quasi-scar' on the sides of their cheek.....
That's why Claire is shot almost exclusively on one side in Gregory's Girl. Very few shots of the left side of her face.
