Wednesday, October 21, 2009

''a better life''

This is a song i have been meaning to post for a long time now but today's news came as a real stormer and in a really sad way the song found it's way to the blog after all.Liam Maher,the frontman of the legendary London ''baggy'' gang Flowered Up,died this morning.Flowered Up were a band that epitomized the indie dance craze of the early 90's adding their London signature to a sound that was blooming at the time in Manchester.Flowered Up were not just a band that jumped on the ''madchester'' bandwagon like so many bands in the UK did at the time.When the ''sound of the north'' was collapsing to it's foundations Flowered Up were releasing their best material and showed the full potential they had if they were to embark on recording a new album.After the 1992 epic 12 minute hymn to the working class acid hero,Weekender the band produced almost 2 years later a 7'' single called ''A better Life'' which was a showcase of what the band was cable of doing 2 years after the tombstone of the madchester era.The single was limited to a 500 release,as the band split up just before the original release.For a guy like me who grew up recording the Weekender video on VHS from TV and idolized Liam's cockney accent on songs like It's On and Phobia it's a bit of sad day today.''Weekender just make sure what you do makes you happy''.
FLOWERED UP - A BETTER LIFE -INST/TAL

5 comments:

Arthit said...

Gutted!!

Arthit said...

Taken from Boy's Own fanzine # 9, Spring 1990:
"Decked out in Michiko bar Liam (I new that boy had taste) the band gave the ecstatic crowd 3 tunes (don't know the titles). Plenty of Fuck off strobes, a few lobbed beer cans, a bit of this and a bit of that and no-one shouted "London vibe in the area" thank fuck! The general concensus of the band was great, but then if your home fans don't like you, who will?...Flowered Up 1 - The Rest 0"

plaidmusic said...

you are a living encyclopedia mate.your comments are always right on target and have something to add to the original post.btw where are you from?

Arthit said...

Chuffed! Thanks but i wouldn't fancy myself that far. I'm currently based in Bangkok Thailand.

Anonymous said...

dark side of the spoon indeed.
I grew up with the guy on the same RP estate.

R.I.P Liam.