Happy birthday to the big bloke behind the drums, Michael Bowes, have a great day x

The band marked their regrouping after a year apart by working on a 2021 remix of the first single ‘Together’ from the last album. Once again, they worked with the original producer Steve Levine on the remix and he added brass making it fresher & edgier. Together is now bigger, badder and brassier! Available from all major Download platforms April 16th

Update 16/4: now available to download here

Sadly, due to the pandemic & subsequent lockdowns, it’s now exactly a year to the day since the band graced a stage. The last show was with From The Jam in Leamington Spa which beat the first lockdown by a few days. Hopefully, with the gradual easing of restrictions, life can get back to normality very soon and we will have the long-overdue return of live music.
Now is a perfect time to grab your tickets for the autumn 40th anniversary of New Clear Days gigs (or a FTJ show) and details and links are on the left. See you on the road this autumn…

Exactly 40 years ago today, on the 9th of March 1981, the band released their second album ‘Magnets’, a mere nine months after their debut ‘New Clear Days’. The 11 track album was produced by David Tickle, who was best known at that time for his work with Split Enz. The album featured two singles, firstly ‘Spiders’ which had failed to chart and the soon-to-be-released ‘Jimmie Jones’.

The album’s feel was generally darker and less poppy than its predecessor and the lyrics dealt with a range of bleak topics such as mental health, presidential assassinations and a mass murdering cult leader. Sadly, following scant promotion by their new record label Liberty, the album didn’t chart in the UK. The band went out on the road on a huge tour throughout that month under the name ‘Mad March tour’!

As with ‘New Clear Days’, ‘Magnets’ is packed with classic Vapors tracks including ‘Silver Machines’, ‘Live At The Marquee’, Ed & Steve’s ‘Isolated Case’ and the epic title track itself. So, sit back and listen to the album in all its glory on Spotify here

Read what the British music papers thought about the album below (and try to keep calm with the NME one!)

Exactly 40 years ago today, back in 1981, the band released their fifth single ‘Spiders’. It was the first single to be taken from their forthcoming album ‘Magnets’, the follow up to ‘New Clear Days’. The song hinted at the darker feel of the album to come and the shift away from the poppier sound was highlighted by the use of synthesisers. The single release was coupled with the track ‘Galleries For Guns’ on the flip side. For some reason, EMI’s promotions budget didn’t stretch to a making a video and that probably contributed to the single not charting. Listen to the single release on Spotify here