![]() ![]() Musically, he says, “I wanted to get back to basics: ‘70s analog keyboards and a raw, stripped-down sound.” With the group’s even newer material, Grey says that he is getting back to the kind of loose, stream-of-consciousness writing that made “Melt With You” possible. “I thought that would fill the holes,” he says, “but I really missed writing lyrics, making music and being on the road.”Įnergized after three years away from the music business, Grey re-formed Modern English in 1995 and last year the group released an album of muscular synthesizer pop, titled “Everything’s Mad,” on the Imago label. He disbanded the group in 1992 and retired from music to travel and pursue a degree in English literature. It was followed the next year by the poppier “After the Snow,” featuring “Melt With You.” The group’s major-label stint with Sire yielded two subsequent albums that were mostly ignored by record buyers.įinally, after 10 years of fronting an underground band in England and attempting to overcome the stigma of one-hit-wonder status in America, Grey felt creatively spent. Its debut album, bearing the new romantic title “Mesh & Lace,” was released by the renegade 4AD label in 1981. ![]() ![]() The group eventually gravitated toward its current home base in London and a New Wave movement heavily influenced by the dark post-punk band Joy Division and the artier Wire. Though Modern English is considered the prototypical New Wave outfit, its original incarnation began in the small southern British town of Colchester as a Sex Pistols-inspired ‘70s punk band called the Lepers. It’s great to put a half-dozen new songs in the set because you can balance it with the ‘Melt With You’ thing, which we’ve played a thousand times before.” “It’s great to watch people enjoying your music,” he says, “but most people know Modern English from ‘Melt With You,’ and the reason we’re on the road is we’ve got a whole new bunch of songs and the new stuff’s excellent. Now touring with an entirely new lineup-drummer Jonathan Solomon, guitarist Steven Walker, keyboardist Matthew Shipley and bassist Ian Robbins-Grey has mixed feelings about the song’s powerful grip on fans. Without any other hits to usurp its catchy, synth-driven appeal, “Melt With You” has remained, to the singer’s chagrin, the band’s singular calling card through six albums, a multitude of tours, several personnel changes and one breakup. But its success has been both a boon and curse to Grey. Though it never broke into the Top 40, the song struck a chord for its gothic, escapist undercurrent and danceable rhythm. ![]()
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