About China Crisis
China Crisis are an English new wave and synth-pop band formed in Kirkby, near Liverpool, Merseyside in 1979 with a core of lead vocalist/keyboardist Gary Daly and guitarist/vocalist Eddie Lundon. Initially a politically charged post-punk band influenced by Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, China Crisis soon crossed over to a more commercial sound and had success in the United Kingdom in the 1980s with ten top-50 singles, including the top-10 hit "Wishful Thinking", and three albums charting in or just outside the top 20, including Working with Fire and Steel and the top-10 entry Flaunt the Imperfection, that both received a gold certification.
Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon grew up in working-class families in Kirkby and met at the Roman Catholic St Kevin's School for Boys. Sharing an affection for Steely Dan, David Bowie and Brian Eno, they started playing together in their teens with Lundon on guitar and Daly on bass guitar. They then played with various Knowsley post-punk groups including different lineups of the band the Glass Torpedoes before Daly and Lundon continued on their own. Around 1980 they obtained a synthesizer and a drum machine and began writing songs; Eno's ambient soundscapes were influential on the group's musical trajectory, as were synth-pop acts like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Depeche Mode. Initially, Daly and Lundon shared synthesizer duties on the group's albums, but Daly began taking on the lion's share of synthesizer/keyboard parts as the group's popularity continued to rise.
Daly also cites Talking Heads and post-punk band Magazine as early influences. Eventually joined by drummer and percussionist Dave Reilly, they released their debut single "African and White" as China Crisis on the independent record label Inevitable in 1981. Initially the band's main interest was in studio recording, but they also performed a few live gigs. On 31 December 1981, they performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London along with Haircut One Hundred. In March 1982, they recorded a four-song Peel session for the BBC. In April–May 1982, they played their first UK tour. In June 1982, they backed Tom Verlaine of Television at The Venue in London. In September they performed at the Futurama 4 Festival, followed by a late 1982 UK tour.
The band signed a recording contract with Virgin Records in April 1982, and released a single, "Scream Down at Me", in May. A Virgin re-release of "African and White" was their first success, reaching No. 45 in the UK Singles Chart in August, followed by the less successful "No More Blue Horizons " in October. Recorded over a long period of time with different producers, they released their debut studio album, Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain in November 1982. From it, the single "Christian", made UK No. 12 in early 1983 and brought them to national prominence. By the time of this success, Reilly had left the band, but had remained with the band long enough to co-write and perform on "Christian", along with session musician Steve Levy playing oboe and saxophone. The album peaked at No. 21 in the UK Albums Chart. During this period the band toured supporting Simple Minds on their New Gold Dream tour augmented by bass guitarist Gary "Gazza" Johnson and Steve Levy.
Again augmented by Gary Johnson , Steve Levy , and Waterboys drummer Kevin Wilkinson, in January 1983 the band premiered three new songs, including "Wishful Thinking", in a BBC Peel session. Adding Johnson and Levy as full members of the line-up, China Crisis recorded a second studio album in Liverpool and at The Manor Studio, Oxfordshire with producer Mike Howlett and Kevin Wilkinson on drums. In May, the single "Tragedy and Mystery" was released and peaked at number 46 on the UK Singles Chart. The arrangement of the song with prominent use of Levy's oboe and flugel horn marked a noticeable change from the band's previous synth-pop sound.
Preceded by the title track "Working with Fire and Steel", which reached number 48 in the UK, and was a hit on the US Dance Club Songs chart at number 27, the album entitled Working with Fire and Steel – Possible Pop Songs Volume Two, was released in October 1983. The arrival of Steve Levy and drummer Kevin Wilkinson into the band's line-up, along with the introduction of more session musicians, gave the album a markedly less synthetic sound than its predecessor. While the band made use of the then latest technology such as the emulator, they notably incorporated brass, woodwind and string instruments to their sound.
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