the blow monkeys

So in 2020 I finally got to grips with the Blow Monkeys, and I have their first three albums. I am really enjoying them greatly. I am intrigued by Dr. Robert's formative Australian years and the claim that the group was initially inspired by the Laughing Clowns and also that their name came from a song by an 'Aboriginal group' that Robert Howard interviewed when he was a university student (I put that into their wikipedia article). I wonder how much they feel they were a victim of sound and style of the 80s; they seem to have had to bend in a number of different ways in response to the general mood (just like Joan Armatrading did I guess!). I think in the scheme of things the first album is my favourite, but I am keen to investigate their plunge into the depths of forgetting why they were ever in the music business in the first place as they twist and turn to the whims of their record company or whoever. Maybe, once again, I'm guessing about what happened and I'm wrong. I don't know. I do know they split up in the 90s and reformed this century and possibly are still really interesting I suppose I should also pursue that but I think my interest is partly just thinking of them fitting into the period in which they were a top 40 proposition. But their songs about hating Thatcher are cool maybe they have new political songs I wonder I should check.