The Lucy Show was formed in South London in 1983 by Mark Bandola and Rob Vandeven, who had left their native Canada for England in the late 1970s. Bandola was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba and lived for six years in Calgary where he became high school friends with Vandeven (born in Olds, a small Albertan town). Bandola moved to the UK in 1978 and attended art school in London. Vandeven moved to London in 1979 after an extended holiday visit to England.
Vandeven composed the lion's share of The Lucy Show's early-recorded work, although the songwriting was later evenly split with Bandola on the group's two albums. But this early period was fruitful for both songwriters with Bandola's "The Twister" (later recorded for 1985's .undone) and Vandeven's "Melody" (later recorded for 1986's Mania) being their first ever Lucy Show compositions.
In 1983 the band released its first single, "Leonardo da Vinci," on Shout Records (b/w "Kill the Beast," on which Barraclough sang lead vocals on his lone Lucy Show creation). On the strength of this debut single, the buzz surrounding The Lucy Show grew fast around London. John Peel was playing the song on a nightly basis and crowds at The Lucy Show's gigs got bigger and bigger. The quartet performed at venues like the Ad-Lib Club (Kensington), Rock Garden (Covent Garden), Tunnel Club (Woolwich), Half-Moon (Putney), Camden Palace (Camden), and Dingwalls (Camden).
The Lucy Show signed a multi-album major label deal with A&M UK on 21 March 1984 and proceeded to release the next set of Lucy Show singles. The Electric Dreams 7" (b/w History Part I) came first, in 1984, and was produced by Richard Mazda (Wall of Voodoo, The Fall, The Pastels).
Then in 1984 came the four-song Extended Play EP, produced by the band. Extended Play hit 1 on the U.S. college radio charts, featuring "Price of Love" a dark, dance-pop piece with driving eighth-note pulsations and a rousing chorus. "See It Goes" (b/w "Resistance") was simultaneously released as a 7" single, and "Resistance" would later be remixed for the band's 1985 debut album.
A busy year that began with a major label contract ended on another high note for The Lucy Show. After sending R.E.M. a cassette of their music, The Lucy Show was personally invited by the band to support them on their 14-date Fables of the Reconstruction tour of the UK.
In 1985 A&M released Ephemeral (This Is No Heaven), the first single off the upcoming .undone LP. The 7" single was backed with "The White Space" the first Lucy Show song to inaugurate comparisons to Seventeen Seconds era The Cure. The Ephemeral 12" also included a newly recorded (and longer) version of their first hit "Leonardo da Vinci."
A&M generated even more anticipation by following Ephemeral with the Undone 12", featuring the forthcoming album's upbeat, catchy title track (b/w "Dream Days" the layered, frenetic .undone album closer).
The eleven-song .undone LP was released in 1985, produced by Steve Lovell (Blur, James, Julian Cope, Railway Children) and Steve Powers. At this time The Lucy Show began filling to capacity London venues like the Marquee Club and the Lyceum Ballroom. Across the Atlantic, the record became a big hit for the band: the record landed at 1 on the U.S. college radio charts and a tour across America soon followed.
Despite the great success of The Lucy Show's debut album in America, an administrative shake-up of the top brass at A&M UK left the band without their original core supporters at the record company. By the end of 1985, A&M UK decided not to pick up their option for a second Lucy Show record. This news came as a shock to A&M in the U.S. who were quite pleased with The Lucies (and the tens of thousands of records .undone had sold for them).
Unphased, The Lucy Show marched on with new material. The new songs, Vandeven and Bandola's most multifaceted to date, were ultimately recorded without the financial assistance of a record label. They did have the assistance, however, of one of the world's most acclaimed producers fellow Englishman John Leckie (New Order, Stone Roses, Radiohead, Trashcan Sinatras, XTC, Felt, The Fall, Ride, Verve, Simple Minds). Bandola and Vandeven had been particularly impressed with Leckie's production of The Fall's The Wonderful and Frightening World Of. album. Vandeven approached Leckie with a simple cassette of their new music and the producer was so impressed he wanted to record The Lucy Show right away without a contract.
Leckie's talent for building a dense ambience through layers and layers of instrumentation and effects made for a stark contrast to the generally sparser production and arrangements on .undone. Leckie brought his own unique techniques to the recording, such as mic-ing up unplugged electric guitars ("Shame"). He also suggested arrangements to the band, such as the Hammond organ on "A Million Things" and Bandola's piano on "Sad September." It was a studio experience the band would treasure, and it yielded them a rich, opaque album in which deliciously penned melodies carved a path through a maze of reverbed, shimmering guitars.
The Lucy Show recorded thirteen songs in 1986, ten of which would comprise their second album, Mania. The band eventually elected to sign with the American wing of Australia's Big Time Records for the release of the album in North America. By the mid-1980s Big Time was a particularly promising independent label home to artists such as Love & Rockets, The Dream Syndicate, Redd Kross, Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, Dumptruck, Hoodoo Gurus, and Alex Chilton. Big Time released the record as both an LP and a CD (with two extra tracks: "Jam In E" from the A Million Things 12" and "Invitation" from the New Message 12").
"A Million Things" was the first single released off Mania, and the song scored The Lucy Show a major college radio hit in the States, and its lively video received significant MTV airplay. "New Message," Mania's second single, closes the album on an incredible high.
Mania, like its predecessor, was a big hit on American college radio, topping the charts at 1 in 1986. The Lucy Show also embarked on a successful nation-wide U.S. tour in late 1986 and early 1987 to promote the album.
In 1987 the band opted to release Mania on the UK wing of Big Time Records. "New Message," which had been re-recorded in 1986 for the US 12" with drummer Dave Ruffy (Aztec Camera, The Waterboys), replaced the original mix to close the UK version of the LP. Ruffy and guitarist Steve Spear (The Lotus Eaters) toured with the band in America and the UK for the album's promotion. In support of Mania, The Lucy Show recorded a 30-minute Radio 1 session for the BBC in 1986 as well as a Janice Long session in 1987.
That summer The Lucy Show also performed at England's famous Reading Festival, but by 1989 The Lucy Show officially disbanded, after eight singles, one EP, and two stellar albums. The band had played scores of shows across America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany alongside the biggest acts of the decade New Order, R.E.M., Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, 10,000 Maniacs, and Love & Rockets.
In 2003 Words On Music contacted The Lucy Show with the aspiration of reissuing the band's recordings a catalog that had unbelievably been out of print for more than fifteen years! In Autumn 2005 Words On Music inaugurated this labor of love with the reissue of Mania. Words On Music's re-release remasters all 10 album tracks, plus seven additional bonus tracks (five of which have never been commercially available). The re-release also includes the video to their MTV hit "A Million Things."
The new association with The Lucy Show is quite heady for the Words On Music proprietorship, whose musically formative years in the mid-1980s were shaped in part by hundreds of spins of Lucy Show records. Words On Music therefore extends its genuine gratitude to Rob Vandeven, Mark Bandola, and Dave Margereson of Mismanagement Inc. for turning a daydream into a reality and for helping to present The Lucy Show's recordings to a new generation of music enthusiasts.
Eric Ostermeier Words On Music
