Prefab Spout
After reading English at Newcastle, minister's son Paddy McAloon formed
Prefab Sprout with his girlfriend Wendy ("Smithy") and his
bass-playing younger brother Martin. The trio produced a flood of
extraordinary songs that drew on sources as diverse as The Beatles,
Steely Dan and George Gershwin.
On their first album, Swoon
- recorded in 1983 for just £5000 - tracks like Cruel,
Technique and Elegance were wry and sparkling
explorations of loss and desire that made everyone except Morrissey and
Elvis Costello look like the peddlers of inanity they truly were.
Prefab Sprout released a second CBS album, Steve McQueen,
in 1985, at which point McAloon mischievously announced that he was
"probably the best writer on the planet". Produced by pop
boffin Thomas Dolby, the record almost bore the challenge out - a
collection of songs even more swoonworthy than Swoon.
Disappointingly, major mainstream success eluded the group after
several attempts to hype the lovely When Love Breaks Down into
the Top Twenty failed, but consolation perhaps came when Steve
McQueen made the NME's list of the best hundred
LPs ever made.
McAloon developed serious problems with his eyes - a condition
where the retina spontaneously detaches and washes off the eye. The
condition, and subsequent treatment and operation (understandably)
slowed down his creative output in the 90s and the band released only
two albums - Jordan (1990) and Andromeda Heights
(1998).
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