Thursday 19th August

No prizes for guessing the lyric, but I wonder how many will know it.  It is actually from Prefab Sprout, the song – Desire As, the album – Steve McQueen.  Of course the title of this piece should have been P – is for Prefab Sprout, but I love this line so much; complex and erudite and sheer poetry.  Prefab Sprout is really Paddy MacAloon, an incredibly talented writer and musician who formed the band in the mid-eighties; he is the composer and lead singer.  They had a few hit singles and their albums were brim-full of gorgeous lyrical pop-songs.  They were part of that brief mid-eighties bloom that included ‘Beautiful South’ and ‘Deacon Blue’ and ‘Everything but the Girl’ before the charts got overtaken by heavily produced dance records featuring people you had never heard of and never would again….hahaha.

And Prefab Sprout, despite the silly name, were always special.  Paddy suffers from hearing problems and I suspect some form of depression.  He releases records rarely these days, though rumours abound of whole lost albums he was displeased with in some form or other. His songs are always beautiful, rounded, polished to a pop-brilliance but with that sometimes whispery but always heartfelt voice. plaintive and yearning.  I love his/their songs, they take you back to some timeless period of pop perfection where songs last forever and never fade.  I hope that Paddy continues, despite his problems and continues to write and record his lovely music.  Well worth a listen…