AccuRadio Song Of The Day-New Fast Automatic Daffodils

Artist:New Fast Automatic Daffodils

Song:Fishes Eyes

Album:Pigeonhole

The British band New Fast Automatic Daffodils (NFAD) were part of the Madchester sound of the late 80s but not as successful as bands like Happy Mondays. The main criticism of NFAD is they were too similar to Happy Mondays. The band was formed in 1988 by Dolan Hewison on guitar, Justin Crawford on bass, Perry Saunders on drums and Icarus Wilson-Wright on percussion. They were students at Manchester Polytechnic. They found lead singer and songwriter Andy Spearpoint at a local drama school. The band name came from a poem by Adrian Henri that was used in an ad for DAF Trucks. Spearpoint has said that all the other Madchester bands had short names and they wanted to be different. They later shortened the band name to New FADS. NFAD released the 1989 single Playtime on the Scottish label Postcard Records. It was followed by a 1990 EP. Then they signed with the Belgian label Play It Again Sam (PIAS) who had an office in London. They were on Mute Records in the US with Elektra distribution. Fishes Eyes is from their 1990 debut album Pigeonhole. The album was written and produced by FADS. Pigeonhole is available as a budget CD. The band had a good reputation as a live band. But it didn't convert to record sales or radio airplay. PIAS brought in outside producers like Martin Hannett (Joy Division) and Craig Leon (The Ramones, Blondie). And of course the band name was shortened to New FADS. But nothing seemed to work and NFAD split up in 1995. Spearpoint attempted to return to acting. But he is now living in Ireland and has self released music. Hewison is managing director of an ad agency. Wilson-Wright has had success as a percussionist with the electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. Crawford is one half of the DJ duo Unabomber and he records solo as Only Child. Saunders was doing remixes. But he doesn't seem to be in the music business anymore. The lesson to be learned is bands need to have names that are easy to remember. Even the record label saw that which is why the name was shortened. Here's the video for Fishes Eyes by New Fast Automatic Daffodils.