My first thought was “Why the hell have I never heard this band before?”
My second thought was “I need to find their other albums”, which I have now done – but that’s a different story. This one is about a live experience that fits together like one show, even though the songs move across every stage of the band’s career. Vivabeat had a short career, which explains my first thought, but it was a solid one. I was just at the wrong age to have heard this band when they debuted (I was way too busy at the time with bands like Kiss and Pink Floyd), and they were also, unfortunately, one of those 80’s bands that the mainstream skipped. Despite the fact they were discovered by Peter Gabriel and were the first US band signed to UK’s Charisma Records, the New Wave just sort of washed over them … until now.
The songs on this album were captured over a period of four years, moving between the appearance of the original line-up at the Whisky a Go Go, a mid-career show at The Lhasa Club, and the final appearance of Vivabeat from the stage of FM Station. This includes two never-before-released tracks, which adds to the experience. Feel free to seek out 1979’s Party In The Warzone, which Liberation Hall reissued last year, but first – dive into this Wild World. We start with “Jet Set”, the closing track off the debut album. Begin at the end, right? But it works. Sets the tone, the energy. Rough and raw, and rocking. That moment in time where the pop and the punk were starting to mix, finding the keyboard melodics could cut just as sharp as a guitar. Recalling early Elvis Costello, The Only Ones, and maybe Nick Lowe. These nervously edged sarcastic tones roll through a couple of songs, giving you a taste of that phase of the band.
When you listen to the studio versions of songs like “On Patrol”, “Pop Girl” or “Not Dead Anymore” you can hear hints of some strange Devo driven car crash through a Sparks covered wall into a Roxy Music garden, but this crash hits with a little more chaotic dissonance on the live version. The angular vocals of Terrance Robay hit like an anxious Russell Mael, over staccato riffs pulling from the guitars, and pop-punked drums that cover the tin keyboards flourishes. These are the Whisky songs, the garage days of a New Wave band pushing for the 1979 big time. Then we turn and jump into 1984 and the band’s last performance. “Glisse le Rat” (one of those unreleased songs) still holds some elements of the earlier recordings, but you can hear the shift away from the punkier edge towards a more Tom Tom Club / B-52’s groove.
“Angry Red Planet” punches in like some Bow Wow Wow meets Lords of the New Church b-side mash-up, while “Last White Man” slides in with a Duran Duran dynamic. This would’ve been a great show to be at. Then we move into cinematic nostalgia with “The House is Burning”, from a track found in Brian De Palma’s 1984 film Body Double. This one is quirky pop-noir hinting at Gary Numan shadows, with the vocal interplay between Robay and Marina del Ray pulling in a little closer to Soft Cell, as filtered through a forgotten Martha and the Muffins track.
Then we end with “Man From China” recorded live at Lhasa in 1983. This would be the hit of the Vivabeat discography, finding its way into the top 20 charted dance club hits in the early ‘80s, and when you hear it, you might recognize it. Rumor has it that this song also inspired the whistling melody that appears in Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers”. It sounds fantastic live, the production is slick and cool, the vibes are electro-pure.
It’s a little bittersweet discovering a band that no longer exists, but that’s overshadowed by the knowledge that the music lives on and will continue to be heard thanks to releases like this – a great way to find a band that’s finally riding that New Wave.
