Sigue Sigue Sputnik are available @ their official website.

by Walter Price

Back in 1986, you were totally alternative. You stood out from all your classmates as you jammed New Order, Love and Rockets, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Hüsker Dü. Face it, you were an underground elitist. A bit smug knowing more than the dayglow clad minions walking the school halls. Until one day, you heard a song that would flip your black died hair up in awe. The song was from a very foreign space-aged band called Sigue Sigue Sputnik and the song that would change everything was called “Love Missile F1-11”. It was it was all kinda beautiful weird.

You found yourself in a record shop later that day asking for this outofthisworld song. Via the stoner know-it-all clerk, you’d learn that this band was formed from the ashes of the fabled Generation X. A band that also counted as a former member punk legend has gone pop star, Billy Idol…your world was expanding. You took the cassette titled Flaunt It’ and your Walkman went bananas.

Was it New Wave, post-punk, glam-rock? Yes! And your jaw dropped as you heard the commercial ads between songs. Were you being swindled? No, and yes. SSS founder Tony James explains, “commercialism is rampant in society. Maybe we’re a little more honest than some groups I could mention,”…oh, shoving societies greed back into their, err, our faces. Whatever…this music rocked!

This song and the entire album would burn up your Blaupunkt for the next couple of years. But sadly, the mass public doesn’t really remember the powers. Even though.this Giorgio Moroder single had appeared in a top end teen truancy film and does pop up in random conversations now and then. Alas…

But don’t worry, you are not the only one who loved the uniqueness of what James and Co laid down so many years ago. Below I have curated three cover versions that pay the art of Sigue Sigue Sputnik forward.

David Bowie

Pop Will Eat Itself

Danny McEvoy

SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK

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