The work of a rock star is never done.
“I signed 600 CDs today,” says David Fenton, frontman of The Vapors.
Fenton has good reason to risk carpal tunnel and a Sharpie-marker high. The Vapors—famous for the kooky, clever single “Turning Japanese” in 1980—have reunited after more than four decades to release their third album Together this Friday, May 15th, just shy of the June anniversary of their debut LP New Clear Days in 1980.
“In 2016 I retired from the Musician’s Union and thought, ‘what shall I do now?’” he reflects. “I called up the band and asked, ‘Fancy trying again?’”
With original members Ed Bazalgette and Steve Smith, Fenton added his son Dan to the lineup, and replaced drummer Howard Smith—who was unable to join—with Michael Bowes. “We got up on stage at Polyfest in 2016 and someone took a video,” he recalls. “It got 12,000 hits!”
That year, they played four club gigs. The next year, they played more. In 2019, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the band made their first appearance in America since the early ‘80s, a multi-night set at New York City’s Mercury Lounge that sold out so quickly a third show had to be added to meet the demand. (Full disclosure: I was at Night Three of the Mercury Lounge gig; it’s one of my absolute favorite concert memories.)
They joined fellow New Wave acts A Flock of Seagulls and Wang Chung on the Lost 80s Live tour, and played a steady stream of packed shows across the UK.
“It took awhile to feel comfortable playing the old albums,” Fenton confides, laughing. “I forgot some of the chords! I have no idea what some of them even are, I just play them. But there isn’t a song on our set that I don’t enjoy playing. They all still sound fresh”
They also began testing new material—including “King L,” “Letter To Hiro” and “One of My Dreams” at their live shows. “If you don’t play it live, you go into the studio with your mistakes,” he explains. “You can resolve some of those issues on stage.”
The twelve songs on Together are all-new, written by the band between 2016 and 2018. “Some of them, like ‘Nuclear Nights,’ sound like love songs, but they are about our fans,” he reveals. “And, of course, it’s a play on New Clear Days.”
It’s not the only reference to their first album. “Letter To Hiro (No11)” completes the pen-pal relationship left dangling in “Letter From Hiro.” “He’s responding, he’s saying that Hiro never told him why we were going to war,” Fenton clarifies. “It’s finishing the story.”
And although the two lead singles “Crazy” and “Together” are bright, sunny love songs, the band that wrote “Jimmie Jones” and “Bunkers” hasn’t lost their edge.
“We got criticized for being too dark on Magnets,” he explains. “But I enjoy writing pop songs, then putting dark lyrics in them. It gives us something to talk about.”
Listen closely to “Girl From the Factory,” Fenton encourages. “It makes me cry. You can hear it. We decided to leave that take in.”
In the studio with Culture Club and The Clash producer Steve Levine, the band voted on the final twelve songs among the twenty they had written, and although “King L” and “Letter To Hiro” made the cut, “One of My Dreams” did not. “We already had one slow song, ‘Girl From the Factory,’ and we thought that was enough,” he says. “It’s still one of my favorites. Maybe a future album.”
The Fentons debuted another lost track, an acoustic rendition of the long-rumored “Red Flags,” on their Instagram in April. “We had that one ready to go years ago, but the record company dropped it,” David said.
The Vapors had 75 shows planned this year, before COVID-19 hit. “We did our original tour with From The Jam, so we were going to do a 40th anniversary tour of that, as well as Lost 80s Live and a tour to support the new album,” he laments.
But fans might not have to wait another 40 years for a new album. “Since we can’t tour, we might as well write some new songs,” he says with a smile.
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