Wondered If You Were Dreaming And, If You Were, What Were You Dreaming?

Last Saturday's 80s Weekender feast offered up Flesh For Lulu, who I had - and retain - a deep love for.

My brother had their 1984 self-titled debut album on cassette and, crucially, the 12" of 1986 single Idol, which I thought was fantastic.

I went on to buy as many of their 12" singles as I could find and although as the 80s progressed, Flesh For Lulu seemed to be transcending their Goth associations and charting a similiar Stateside/MTV/pop rock trajectory as The Psychedelic Furs, I had absolutely no problem with that.

Take Postcards From Paradise, their single from 1987. Listening to it again, I would have sworn that it featured in a contemporary movie soundtrack. Right band, wrong song, as it happens: that year, I Go Crazy featured in the John Hughes-scripted Some Kind Of Wonderful.

Postcards From Paradise is unashamedly pop and I love it.

I've discovered a wonderful clip from Canadian TV show Fashion Notes, circa 1988, where presenter Erica Ehm bursts in on Nick Marsh and James Mitchell in their hotel room, looking for fashion tips and instead finding Nick's self-described "mingy" pants and Batman T-shirt and James' "serious psychedelia" shirt made from the "most horrible, vile material" he could find. Yes, YT is full of crap, but also wonderful gems like this.

Flesh For Lulu never enjoyed huge commercial success in the UK, despite some great singles. Even so, I was surprised that just one single made the Top 100, literally one week at #100, which was their debut Roman Candle in November 1983.

Official videos for early Flesh For Lulu singles are few and far between, so I won't be featuring Idol today. However, I have found a live performance from the Camden Palace in London on 21st March 1985 (I think the whole set is also available online).

Subterraneans opened side two of my brother's cassette and was just instantly mesmerising, that dirty bass, the growly vocals and squeaking, creepy guitar sound. This live performance echoes the intro of the Metro Mix on the 12", just Nick and a guitar strum to begin, before the rest of the song comes crashing in. Glorious.