Happy Birthday Richard Butler

I would like to start this blog by wishing a Happy Birthday to the one and only Richard Lofthouse Butler, born on this day in 1956. Richard is best known for being the vocalist of The Psychedelic Furs but he was also the vocalist for his other band Love Spit Love in the 90s, and in 2006 he released his incredible debut solo album. Outside of music he is an accomplished painter and his paintings are absolutely amazing.

With all my heart I want to thank Richard for everything he did for me. I'm so thankful his music and voice are part of my life, and had helped me so much. I feel like a different person now, and Richard's music made me feel better about being myself, for who I am, and made me feel like I am good enough after all. I'm glad that I discovered his music and I never knew it would leave a huge impact on me. It totally changed my life and I'll always be forever grateful.

Today I give my love, best wishes, and support for Richard on his birthday and I hope he has a fantastic day. Happy Birthday Richard Butler, thank you again for everything. <3

Psychedelic Furs May 20, 1987

On this day in 1987 my parents saw The Psychedelic Furs live at The Forum in Los Angeles, California during the Midnight To Midnight tour. Since Midnight To Midnight is one of my favorite albums, it's exciting to hear how my parents saw The Furs on that tour. But I wondered if the band members had it all under control. On my Beautiful Chaos biography, I read how The Psychedelic Furs hated doing the Midnight To Midnight tour. When they first started, they were fine with it at first but as the tour progressed they suddenly hated every second of it. They hated singing Midnight's songs, wearing the leather jackets and having the big hair, and performing at large arenas which they weren't used to. Plus the tour stressed Richard Butler so much that he became ill. When my parents saw them on that day I hope The Furs were still okay with the tour and not hating it.

I heard a couple things about that concert from my parents. The first thing is that Andy Taylor (of Duran Duran) opened up for The Psychedelic Furs, and he actually got a bad reception. The audience were booing at Andy, ignoring him, were talking to other people in the crowd, and the house lights were still on while Andy performed. Even my dad admitted that Andy Taylor wasn't very good live.

The second thing is that "The Ghost In You" is my parents' favorite Psychedelic Furs song and they wanted to hear it live. But the song didn't even get played at all and my parents were disappointed. Besides that though, they really liked the concert and they enjoyed watching the way Richard Butler performed.


Setlist:

1. Midnight To Midnight
2. Mr. Jones
3. Alice's House
4. No Easy Street
5. Heaven
6. Only You And I
7. All Of The Law
8. Highwire Days
9. Shadow In My Heart
10. Sleep Comes Down
11. Sister Europe
12. One More Word
13. Heartbeat
14. Shock

Encore 1:

15. Heartbreak Beat
16. Love My Way
17. Pretty In Pink

Encore 2:

18. President Gas
19. All Of This And Nothing

Encore 3:

20. India

Featured on my tour programme, the dates for the Midnight To Midnight tour May 16 - June 17, 1987.

My First Psychedelic Furs CD

Recently it occurred to me that in November it will be five years since I discovered The Psychedelic Furs. It doesn't feel like it has been this long, but when you think about it it really is. It just blows my mind how time can pass so quickly. It slips by without you knowing, and when you realize it you don't even believe it. You would think to yourself, "That was that long ago?? Really??"

When I would think about those years, they were definitely one of the best years of my life. After when I got into The Psychedelic Furs' music and seeing them in concert they helped me feel better about being myself and for who I am. The Furs totally made a huge impact in my life and it's amazing to think how music could happen like that. I never got that feeling with Green Day and The Smiths, even though I love them too. But there's just something about The Psychedelic Furs and I'm really thankful that I discovered their music. And because of them I got into blogging and I'm very happy and proud to be the author of this blog. I want to share my support and obsession with The Furs to everyone and give them the recognition they totally deserve.

Today I feel like celebrating the five year anniversary early so I'm going to talk about the first CD that I got of The Psychedelic Furs when I wanted to get into their music. The CD is their 2001 compilation album Greatest Hits.

Greatest Hits was released around the time The Psychedelic Furs reunited and started touring again. The compilation has 17 remastered songs and they were all selected by bassist Tim Butler himself. The artwork for Greatest Hits is similar to the one for The Furs' 1997 two-disc compilation Should God Forget: A Retrospective.

Greatest Hits has the famous songs and other fan favorites but it also has a few rarities. The single version of "Angels Don't Cry" (not the album version from Midnight To Midnight), an unreleased live recording of "Only You And I" (taken from one of The Furs' concerts in 1987), and for the first time ever on CD, the original version of "Mr. Jones" from 1980. The first version has more of a radio friendly sound while the second version from Talk Talk Talk (1981) is louder and rough. The songs are in chronological order so you get to know about the history of The Psychedelic Furs. Greatest Hits has songs from all of the albums except Book Of Days, plus it has "All That Money Wants" from the first compilation from 1988, All Of This And Nothing. Speaking of Book Of Days, I kind of wish its songs "House" and "Should God Forget" were on Greatest Hits. I sometimes wondered why they got left out.

Greatest Hits is a fantastic compilation and I definitely recommend it. This and All Of This And Nothing are both great for different reasons. All Of This And Nothing has the album cuts like "Highwire Days," "She Is Mine," "No Easy Street," etc., and Greatest Hits has those three rarities and the songs from World Outside. Greatest Hits will always have a special place in my heart because after listening to it I became a fan and all of those great things happened. The Psychedelic Furs had totally changed my life and I really can't wait to see them again in August.