China Crisis were a British pop group who came to fame in the 80s

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000026GLV.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


-- BIOGRAPHY --

Gary Daly - Vocals, keyboards
Eddie Lundon - Guitar, vocals
Garry "Gazza" Johnson - Bass guitar
Kevin Wilkinson - Drums and percussion
Brian McNeill - Keyboards
Dave Reilly - Percussion

Founded in Liverpool, England by Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon. The two started working together in 1979 after leaving school.

China Crisis debuted in 1981 with the single "African and White", then followed another single "Scream down at me" in 1982. Both these releases were on a small Liverpool independent label, Inevitable Records.  The band was then signed by Virgin Records who re-released "African and White", which then became a minor UK hit, reaching number 45 in the singles chart.  The debut album "Difficult shapes and passive rhythms, Some people think it's fun to entertain" surfaced in late 1982 and hit the number 21 spot in November. Production credits were shared by Pete Walsh, Steve Levine, Gil Norton and Jeremy Lewis. At this stage the band consisted of Gary Daly (vocals, synths and bass guitar), Eddie Lundon (guitar and vocals) and Dave Reilly (percussion).  The album spawned two more singles "No more blue horizons" and "Christian", the latter peaking at number 12 in the UK singles chart.

In 1983 the singles "Tragedy and mystery" (UK no. 46) and "Working with fire and steel" (UK no. 48) preceeded the second album, "Working with fire and steel, Possible pop songs volume two", this time with Mike Howlett behind the wheel. The album was released in November.  At this stage Kevin Wilkinson (drums) and Gary "Gazza" Johnson (bass) had joined the band.  The third single from the album, "Wishful Thinking" became China Crisis' biggest hit, reaching number 9 in the UK and charting all over Europe. It was voted most popular song of the week on the swedish radio show "Poporama" in the spring of 1984. Later in the spring "Hanna Hanna" reached no. 44 in the UK charts.

With a growing reputation after the success of "Working with fire and steel", China Crisis attracted the interest of Steely Dan founding member, Walter Becker who came to produce their third album "Flaunt the imperfection", released in april 1985. The album was to be the bands greatest success to this date, reaching no. 9 in the UK charts and sending them on an extensive tour.  Featured singles are: "Black Man Ray" (UK no. 14), possibly their best song. "King in a Catholic Style" (UKno. 19) with a very entertaining video clip to back it. "You Did Cut Me" (UK no. 54) and "The Highest High". At the time of the release of "You Did Cut Me" (September 1985) a video, "Showbiz Absurd", was released, including the promo clips for "Christian", "Working with Fire and Steel", "Wishful Thinking", "Hanna Hanna", "Black Man Ray" and "King in a Catholic Style".

With Brian McNeill (keyboards) having joined the band, they recorded "What Price Paradise" with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley producing. The album was released in November 1986 and reached no. 63 in the UK. The album is in my opinion the bands best to this date, sadly underated by critics and the public.  "Arizona Sky" (UK no. 47, november 1986) and "Best Kept Secret" (UK no. 36, early 1987) was the only singles from this album.

After a lengthy absence from the limelight, China Crisis resurfaced in May 1989 with the single "Saint Saviour Square". The single's lack of success didn't help rocket the following album "Diary of a Hollow Horse" to any commercial heights. With Walter Becker back as main producer (8 of 11 songs) and recorded on Hawaii, in Los Angeles, New York and London it has the scent of summer and Steely Dan! In retrospect a very good album.  Mike Thorne produced the remaining tracks including both singles off the album "Saint Saviour Square" and "Red letter day".

In August 1990 the first China Crisis compilation album was released, "Collection, The very best of China Crisis". Featuring almost exclusively singles, a lot of essential material is left out from this offering. Though, this compilation was released also as a limited edition double CD featuring some of their best B-sides on the second disc. This double compilation is a truly wonderful sum up of their career from 1981 to 1989. A remix of "African and White" preceeded the album as a single. This remix by Steve Proctor gave the song a completely new flavour, excellent!

"Diary - a collection" from 1992 features a few more album tracks and B-sides and is a more interesting compilation than the first one. This one also has some nice liner notes.  After Virgin wanting only Daly and Lundon to stay on the paylist, China Crisis left Virgin since the band was so important to the members after playing together for eight years. The band actually split at this point in time because of financial reasons, being a pop band without a contract didn't pay any bills for the five family men.

In September 1994 China Crisis returned, now with Terry Adams and Mark Phythian being new additions. Kevin, Gazza and Brian no longer with the band. Kevin and Gazza contribute to one song each though and one song, "Hard to be Around", is dedicated to Kevin.  The album, "Warped by Success" is far from their best moments but still a welcome return. A few songs show that they still have the ability to write wonderful pop songs, the only (?) single "Everyday the Same", "Without the Love" and "Hard to be Around" in particular.

Following another change of record company now being with former OMD member Paul Humphrey's label Telegraph Records, China Crisis set off to record a live album, "Acoustically yours".  Released in the autumn of 1995 to critical aclaim, it showed a China Crisis as brilliant as ever, being confident about the power in the songs. Showing that though the sound on some of their earlier offerings are quite dated, their songs are not! Most of their "greatest" hits are here and a some more recent songs all in splendidly revamped versions.  The highlights are "Wishful Thinking", "It's Everything", "Black Man Ray" and "Diary of a Hollow Horse". The album was recorded at the Neptune theatre in Liverpool and a tour followed.

"Black Man Ray" was the single of the album, released in 1996. On the single there was a version from the Neptune theatre show of "Here come a Raincloud" (from "Working...") that features Pete Coyle from The Lotus Eaters on vocals.


-- ALBUMS --

Year 1982 1983 1985 1986 1989 1990 1992 1994 1995

Album Title Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms Working With Fire and Steel Flaunt the Imperfection What Price Paradise Diary of A Hollow Horse China Crisis Collection Diary: A Collection Warped By Success Acoustically Yours

United Kingdom #21 #20 #9 #63 #58 #32 -- -- --

Canada -- #36 #21 #86 -- -- -- -- --

United States -- -- #171#114---- -- -- --


-- HIT SINGLES --

China Crisis never had a hit single in America

Year 1982 1983 1983 1983 1984 1984 1985 1985 1985 1986 1987 1989 1989

Song Title African and White Christian Tragedy and Mystery Working With Fire and Steel Wishful Thinking Hanna Hanna Black Man Ray King in A Catholic Style You Did Cut Me Arizona Sky Best Kept Secret Saint Saviour Square Red Letter Day

United Kingdom #45 #12 #46 #48 #9 #44 #14 #19 #54 #47 #36 #81 #84

Canada -- -- --------#54---- -- -- -- --


-- MUSIC VIDEOS --

Arizona Sky | Black Man Ray | Christian | Hanna Hanna | King in A Catholic Style | Tragedy and Mystery | Wishful Thinking | Working With Fire and Steel

Looks cheezy. I wonder if they're any good?

Looks cheezy. I wonder if they're any good?


A lot of their stuff is very good (not sure about the 'cheesy' factor!), but I suggest you go no further than their '85 efforts...

I love "Black Man Ray"! It's one of my favourite songs! It's just so beautiful and delicate.

The Wikipedia entry for them updates their projects, including a tour with OMD (!) and an art show by the lead singer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Crisis (do people hate Wikipedia now?  I don't know, but they always seem to have interesting bits of info you don't see elsewhere).

My interest for China Crisis has grown quite a bit.  I didn't like it at first, but man!  Their album covers are very interesting, especially the solitariness or starkness of landscapes in "Working With Fire and Steel."  Definitively 80s.  

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c2/China_Crisis_-_Working_with_Fire_and_Steel-LPcover.jpg/200px-China_Crisis_-_Working_with_Fire_and_Steel-LPcover.jpg

Hey, if the moderator took time to post about them, you know there's something there!  Not cheesy - I view them as experimental,   conjuring sparseness ("Arizona Sky") and the ideal of grace/modernity in the New Romantics genre...

Very experimental sounding... remember the 00s Aeon Flux movie...  music for that kind of world?  :)

I'm hoping someone else will share their experiences with C.C. here...

Anyone here care to analyze/discuss the above album cover? Bands often have names that are difficult to discern the origin.  Covers, same thing.

However with album covers - you have to wonder how much input the band has, probably little, maybe a lot! 

I like the contrast of the Working with Fire and Steel cover.  It goes from a soft, wispy image to a very concrete telephoto landscape, the reactors dominate the scene. Then back to soft, wispy.  What effect is the artist trying to achieve?  Is it just abstract, no meaning intended? 

Anyone here care to analyze/discuss the above album cover? Bands often have names that are difficult to discern the origin.  Covers, same thing.

However with album covers - you have to wonder how much input the band has, probably little, maybe a lot!  

I like the contrast of the Working with Fire and Steel cover.  It goes from a soft, wispy image to a very concrete telephoto landscape, the reactors dominate the scene. Then back to soft, wispy.  What effect is the artist trying to achieve?  Is it just abstract, no meaning intended?  


I always liked it.  Wasn't too pleased of the 'Working With Fire and Steel' CD cover though as it only has the middle image surrounded by alot of white.

http://www.multinet.no/~jonarne/Hjemmesia/Favorittartister/chinacrisis/album/working_with_fire_and_steel.jpg

Anyone here care to analyze/discuss the above album cover?


To me, the wispy images in the top and bottom shots sort of look like blades of grass. So as images of nature, I think they show a contrast with the human-made, industrial reactors in the middle frame. The images go from natural to artificial and back to natural.

My interest for China Crisis has grown quite a bit.  I didn't like it at first, but man!  Their album covers are very interesting, especially the solitariness or starkness of landscapes in "Working With Fire and Steel."  Definitively 80s. 


"Fire and Steel" (as a phrase) has been used to describe the Industrial Revolution since before it was known as the Industrial Revolution.  (I poked around, found countless early 20th century references, and one - regrarding warfare - that dates back to Napoleon.)

So I can't be much more definitive than that, other than to say that if I knew Russian (or whatever the spoken words are in the first 10 seconds of "Working with Fire and Steel"), I'd probably have a better answer.  (Paging MaxwellSmart, there are also references to Workers and Reds in the song, heck, depending on who you hung out with in college, you might recognize the Russian :)

As for the album cover, well, my take on it is that's what the Industrial Revolution was all about.  A pastoral agricultural society, a little fire and steel, and you've got the cooling towers of nuclear reactors on the horizon -- fundamentally no different than the coal-fired steam engines of the Steam age, or the coal-fired generators of the Electric age.  Just a hotter kind of fire, and some fancy kinds of steel to keep the fire inside.  When all is said and all is done, it's still built by human minds and - with a nod to the Workers, which was presumably China Crisis' intent - human muscles.

LOVE IT guys!


I now realize my emotional reaction to this is tied to vivid kid memories.  

Maybe a place I once saw on a rural road.  We rounded a curve and standing very stoically on a hill was this small plant with no description, such a drastic contrast to the landscape with its manmade and rigid geometry,  but sand in color and somewhat blended to the environment.  So impenetrable. An Area 51 to the visual imagination.  

I also liked pushing the boundaries of my neighborhood then, riding around with my friends, looking for... "Would this place make a great fort?" Lived kind of near an Interstate, you'd crest a hill and look down and see a forest below that was out of reach, separated by two big highways and barbed wire.

On a different trip, my friend's parents took us to the western shore, where a large power plant dominated the eye.  Have you ever walked toward a large building or marker and after a few minutes felt that you weren't any closer?  A lot of areas in Michigan, the cold, suggest "hinterland" to me, and I think the lack of clear name plastered on the front of these places (and the size) really made me daydream.

So ...  China Crisis - 80s - think this album was pre-Chernobyl, post Three Mile Island...  

Fun for me to reflect - thanks.

Yeah China Crisis were excellent. Really liked "African and White" as well as "Wishful Thinking". Great example of the kind of good music emanating from the UK around mid-80's

Amen to that.  

C.C. isn't even one of my top ten favorite bands, it's their light and airy uniqueness and RELATIVE obscurity that makes me want to know more.  Ambitious name, had heard of them before, why not.  I don't want to make them into something they're not or come off like they've moved me into thinking they're the best "quieter" band ever.  What I like is that they didn't run around with hubris after their successes but rather continued enjoying making music.   In fact, my entire fascination of late with C.C. is about curiosity - background on them has been hard to find and it's been a fun pasttime.  In comprehension, they have been a complete enigma to me,  first, why their musical style?  At first, I did not care for their blend (I hate to say it, but "elevator music" from a different age is what I was thinking), but now my happy realization is that what typifies all I've seen to date on them is subtle yet powerful.  From there, why the name?  Interest in the other hemisphere?  Distaste with China?  What influenced this?  Finally, now that they've grown on me (kind of like the kid in class or person you never thought you would end up liking, but did), what is thematic to them?  Is there any unity of theme among their covers?  Among their songs? 

Found this trivia page recently:  http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/3059/trivia.htm#poster  Again, I think they were just of the mind to make music.  They rejected "African and White" being interpreted as a political statement.  In a different review, they experimented with layering:  flute over trombone over keyboards and continued other innovations.

This guy is obviously a huge fan by the amount of memorabilia he collected.

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/3059/chinacr.jpg


My favorite songs:

9.Red Letter Day
8.Blue Sea
7.Good Again
6.No More Blue Horizons
5.Wishful Thinking
4.African and White
3.Arizona Sky
2.Here Come a Raincloud
1.Soul Awakening

O.k., now we know a little more about the name:

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/3059/eddie_smashhitscollection.gif

Definately NOT cheesy.  Not even a little bit.

They composed some subtle masterpieces during the 80's, and were just one of a number of brilliant bands that were on the edge of the radar screen like so many others playing second fiddle to the smash hit stars such as Duran, Wham! and Madonna.

They remind me a little bit of The Dream Academy, in some respects.

Favourite has to be 'King In A Catholic Style'.  Genius.

Great group - somewhat unknown in the US.  My favorites are:

Working with Fire and Steel
Arizona Sky
Wishful Thinking
King in a catholic style

It's a shame - the biggest (hands down) C.C. memorabilia site on the web has gone bust, probably due to Geocities going under this month.  http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/3059/eddie_smashhitscollection.gif  That's why links to some of the images in my posts are broken.  I'll have to try the Wayback when it comes back up. 

Was looking for remixes tonight and FYI - They put out a 2007 release, "Rare and Fine China."  It's available for download. Pretty exciting to hear.  They don't seem bashful about adding more synthy or taking creative liberties in altering their music here and there.

Fine And Also Rare China
2007
CHINA CRISIS
Eddie Lundon(v/g), Gary Daly(v)

Track Listing
1. African And White (Home Demo 79/80)
2. It's Over Now (Home Demo 96/97)
3. Northern Skies (Home Demo 88)
4. Real Tears (Home Demo 93)
5. Seven Sports For All (Home Demo 79/80)
6. Christian (Home Demo 79/80)
7. Song 4 Andre 3000 (Home Demo 92)
8. Thank You (Home Demo 93)
9. Wishful Thinking (Live Liverpool 85)
10. Slow Houses (Home Demo 84)

Just wondering if the UK was really this bucolic in the '80s?  That's what the music makes it seem... when I went on ebay a minute ago I felt like I was in some kind of antique store.

I never ventured into China Crisis because "Working With Fire and Steel" reminded me too much of Re-Flex and "The Politics of Dancing."  In other words, I thought they were being cheeky with political themes rather than being a political band.  Later, when I had access to a bunch of their records I did some more listening, but I just couldn't get down with their musical style. 

For political bands I had The Clash, Front 242, Gang of Four, Nitzer Ebb, and the Dead Kennedys, and of course, Midnight Oil with their slick pop sensibilities -- such as on "When the Generals Talk."

Great post, Maxwell! Enjoyed the video too, had no idea that was Midnight Oil.  SOme wild cover art on that one too (from the vid).  Gang of Four: forgot about them - going to have to look them up.

Back to C.C.:  If I ever figure out the lyrics to African and White's chorus, it'll be a great day.  They never put it on any of the lyrics websites.

"L-i--i-i-i-fe, is a fever in Israel.  Li-i-i-i-ife is a fever in Israel."  What the hell...

I never ventured into China Crisis because "Working With Fire and Steel" reminded me too much of Re-Flex and "The Politics of Dancing."  In other words, I thought they were being cheeky with political themes rather than being a political band.  Later, when I had access to a bunch of their records I did some more listening, but I just couldn't get down with their musical style. 

For political bands I had The Clash, Front 242, Gang of Four, Nitzer Ebb, and the Dead Kennedys, and of course, Midnight Oil with their slick pop sensibilities -- such as on "When the Generals Talk."


(I'm with you on China Crisis, despite their fire-and-steel reference that's obvious in 20-20 hindsight, as being as apolitical as Re-Flex.  Just good dance music.)

Most of your bands I think you got right, but I always saw F242 as apolitical.  They just pointed at the craziness and laughed, rather than trying to change it.  Was Headhunter about genetic engineering, the job market, or both?  Was Circling Overland about how the West being somehow morally equivalent to the Warsaw Pact for spying, or about how awesome it must have felt to be one of those fortunate enough to be invisible and silent, circling overland... or both?

Half the fun of EBM was in figuring out whether the bad was poking fun at the right, the left, both, or neither.

Now you've got me wondering if F242 knew about the U-Men as contemporary Seattle punkers, or if the song was about something completely different.  It predates the comics by decades.  (I remember reading something about a cult, but can't find it at the moment.  Seriously, WTF was that track about?)

(I'm with you on China Crisis, despite their fire-and-steel reference that's obvious in 20-20 hindsight, as being as apolitical as Re-Flex.  Just good dance music.)

Most of your bands I think you got right, but I always saw F242 as apolitical.  They just pointed at the craziness and laughed, rather than trying to change it.  Was Headhunter about genetic engineering, the job market, or both?  Was Circling Overland about how the West being somehow morally equivalent to the Warsaw Pact for spying, or about how awesome it must have felt to be one of those fortunate enough to be invisible and silent, circling overland... or both?

Half the fun of EBM was in figuring out whether the bad was poking fun at the right, the left, both, or neither.

Now you've got me wondering if F242 knew about the U-Men as contemporary Seattle punkers, or if the song was about something completely different.  It predates the comics by decades.  (I remember reading something about a cult, but can't find it at the moment.  Seriously, WTF was that track about?)


Front 242 was political, but more impressionistic than instructive.  They were always a good soundtrack for my paranoia -- such as Red Team.  Whereas The Shamen's "Jesus Love's Amerika" was lyrically guided attack on the hypocritical Moral Majority, "Welcome to Paradise" just reflected the atmosphere of the Corporate-Christian Complex and let the samples speak for themselves.  One would have to be an idiot not to figure out how the guys who wrote that song felt about the Christian Right.  Yes -- it's political. 

Another one of my favorite bands that I always found political was Skinny Puppy,who were political in the same sense that Picasso's Guernica was political.  Descriptive but not overtly prescriptive.  Take a song such as "Assimilate."  Like a lot of Puppy songs, it seems to be a pastiche of scary images strung together, but if you're living a post-industrial crypto-fascist state and you are paranoid and enraged enough, form emerges from chaos and you start to hear the message.  I don't think I got it when I was 18.  I get it now!

ASSIMILATE

oil remove shred and tear radiation vapor
it's the fear so unclear, man in motion going nowhere
in our homes stuck in the face
spread the word to the populace
yellow journal
yellow journal set the pace feel the rage
manifestations of a sort so insidious off the point
simple solution never confusion
sport a gun kill a cop
crazy world of weary thought
so receive me, had enough lock me up
LOCK ME UP!
rot and assimilate
so hot to annihilate
deviation tonic mess
prolonged existence innocence is he who speaks isn't weak
wheelchair virtue so to speak
bubonic plague,  the truth of aids immunity
avoid decay in the trench of pestilence
the bible screams announce your faith
mutterings of death to bring suffocate a newborn thing
degradation of an age venereal it's all sensation
protect design the moral plan infallible as propaganda
completely black with no steps back
hot to assimilate
we'll rot or annihilate
agony profusely stains the inner thinking of the brain
accusations clanking chains experiments with the groans of pain
all prefer no one blames the terror in an animal's screams in cages our future - the answers insane

DEATH
DEATH
DEATH
DEATH
DEATH....

You might break the lines up differently according to your interpretation...and I wouldn't bore you with a point-by-point analysis of my own because it's much more pleasurable for each listener to reach his own conclusions.

Just here to post some news.  C.C.'s on tour in the U.K. in October, even going to Canada and the U.S. in November 2013.  They're also bringing in the frontman for The Lotus Eaters, that's a curious item, I wonder where that connection was made. 

Remasters released this year: http://www.nwoutpost.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33364

Aaaaaand.. drum roll: NEW ALBUM.  http://www.thisisnotretro.com/china-crisis-announce-uk-dates-with-peter-coyle

Descriptive but not overtly prescriptive.


Big Pups fan here.  And in general, a big fan of descriptive-but-not-prescriptive in my music.

For those looking for 80s synthpop instead of 80s industrial, try this on for size.  It's very China Crisis-esque:

"There is a sound - it's underground - moving out for miles around..."

ZKCuoRhROjE
- Red Flag, Russian Radio

"Russian radio, how will we ever believe you?
Radio - now that we've learned to deceive you?"

Did someone have a girlfriend ten thousand miles away, help sneak her out to the West (from one hundred miles away) through the Iron Curtain?  Was it about how the Russkies had wised up to state-controlled media?  Can that chorus be reapplied to a present-day warning against hard-right talk-radio demogogues?  Who knows, who cares?  It had a beat, it captured the zeitgeist of the Cold War, and however you chose to interpret it, you could still dance to it.

I am totally onboard for a CC tour, but I'm too cheap to go and see them lol

Thanks for the Russian Radio vid - I hadn't heard that in a LOOONG time.

As far as the CC tour goes, never spent much time in NYC, and Chicago's a bit of a hike.  I'm hoping to find some tour merch instead somehow & am just glad they're still doing their thing when they can.