The Fun Boy Three was an offshoot project of ex-members of The Specials; Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple. After The Specials' single for “Ghost Town” peaked at number one on the UK charts, Golding, Hall and Staple left the band to form The Fun Boy Three.
The band had near-instant success in the U.K. with
their first few singles which all reached the Top 20 and their
self-titled debut album which reached the Top 10. The album had a
spare sound with tribal drumming and chanting, Terry Hall's
deadpan vocals and background vocal support from Bananarama. The band
also returned the favor by contributing to Bananarama's “Really
Saying Something” single.
The Fun Boy Three's follow-up and
would-be final album, Waiting , was produced by Talking Head
David Byrne. It featured full-arrangements in a significantly more
classical-pop vein. It features David Byrne on guitar and ex-Specials
trumpet player Dick Cuthell as well. Byrne's production really does
suit the songs well. And the results are a cohesive, satisfying
listen.
There are a few tangos (“The Tunnel
Of Love” and “The Things We Do”) a few socio-political songs
(“The More I See The Less I Believe” and “The Pressure Of
Life”), a few darkly comical autobiographical songs (“Well Fancy
That” and “We're Having All The Fun”), music hall via reggae
(“The Farmyard Connection”) and the bands' arrangement of “Our
Lips Are Sealed”, which was co-written by Hall with Jane Wiedlin.
It's a poignantly darker version of The Go-Go's classic bubblegummy
rendition.
Here's the video review:
