After A Fashion

Dressed To Kill by Fashion popped up on my random music shuffle. My brother had their 1982 album Fabrique on "double play" cassette, with the album on Side A and a slew of remixes on Side B, all produced by German legend Zeus B. Held (Bernd Held to his friends). I was fascinated by the music and the images of the band on the tiny cassette sleeve.

When I started buying music in earnest, secondhand copies of the Fabrique-era 12" singles were added to my collection: Move On, Streetplayer - Mechanik, Something In Your Picture and the mighty Love Shadow, featuring Gina X.

 

I've found a live clip of Dressed To Kill, performed at Alabama Halle, Munich in 1982. The on-stage line-up appears to be missing bassist Martin Recchi, but it's a compelling performance, ironically underpinned by a none-more-80s bassline, and Dee Harris giving a strong vocal up front. The audience seem less enthused, which seems a bit unfair.

A passing mention here, as this warrants a separate post, but this was the third of five iterations of the band, from the band's birth in 1978 as post-punk Fàshiön Music through to Fashion's pop/funk rebirth in 1981 to their demise in 1984. There was a brief reformation in 2009, this sixth iteration of Fashion essentially a solo vehicle for original singer and multi-instrumentalist Luke Sky. 

 

Not long after the 1982 show and ahead of a planned world tour, Dee Harris left the band. I was aware from buying Fashion's 12" singles that Alan Darby replaced Harris as lead singer. I didn't know about the fourth iteration of the band until researching this piece. 

 

Troy Tate was previously in The Teardrop Explodes but I had no idea that he'd also auditioned and been recruited to Fashion as lead vocalist (with Alan Darby on guitar). Less than 3 weeks after Dee Harris quit the band, the new line-up performed on BBC2's The Old Grey Whistle Test and a performance of Move On is available on Troy's YouTube page. I prefer Harris' original vocals to Tate's performance, if I'm honest, but Darby's guitar solo is a thing to behold.

 

This incarnation of the band didn't record or release any material and, in the wake of Troy Tate's departure, Alan Darby stepped up as lead singer and songwriter. From there, my interest waned rapidly, but Fashion's story is a fascinating tale of musical differences and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (if commercial success is victory).

 

Fabrique was re-released as boutique, ultra deluxe edition in 2021 in a limited run of 1000. If you want the low down on this, I point you to the ever-excellent Post Punk Monk, who dissected the box set and contents in an epic 11-part series of posts on it's release, starting here.