released October 31, 2019
Song written by: A Flock Of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls was started by Mike Score in 1980 in Liverpool. The band's name was taken from The Stranglers song "Toiler on the Sea" and the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, according to Mike Score. The inaugural line-up of the band featured Mike, who was previously a hairdresser, on lead vocals and keyboards, Ali Score on drums, and Frank Maudsley on bass. The band added Willie Woo on guitar; and then brought in Mark Edmondson to replace Ali on drums when the Score brothers had a falling-out. Not long afterwards, Edmondson departed to make way for a returning Ali; and shortly thereafter Woo departed the band and was replaced by teenager Paul Reynolds, who had been a close friend of Edmondson, at the behest of Maudsley; thus creating the band's classic line-up. After practicing above Score's hair salon, the band started playing clubs and eventually got a recording contract.

Lead vocalist Mike Score says that there were two main sources of inspiration for "I Ran (So Far Away)". The members of A Flock of Seagulls would regularly visit Eric's Club in Liverpool, where one of the bands had a song called "I Ran". Score noted that because A Flock of Seagulls would rehearse right after returning from Eric's, the song title and chorus may have gotten stuck in his head. (So they stole it?) Another idea came from a poster at a Zoo Records office. The band had gone there with the intent of securing a recording contract, and they wanted to use the poster, which featured a man and a woman running away from a flying saucer, as the cover for their first album, A Flock of Seagulls in 1982. This depiction also helped spark the song's unusual space-like lyrics.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Iran has stepped in to prevent the ouster of Iraqi Prime Minister Abdel Abdul Mahdi by two of Iraq’s most influential figures amid weeks of anti-government demonstrations, sources close to both men told Strange Mistress.

But in a secret meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday, Qassem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, intervened. Soleimani asked main political rival Amiri and his militia leaders to keep supporting Abdul Mahdi, according to five sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Interesting stuff, Chet.
Now here's Jim with the weather.