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
On behalf of The Vapors, their management & crew, we would like to wish the band’s fans around the world best wishes for the festive season and a happy and safe 2021. Despite everything else happening in the world this year, 2020 was also the year that finally delivered the band’s long-awaited third album Together, proving well worth the 39 year wait! Live wise, the year was written off after mid March due to the pandemic, forcing the postponement of both some FTJ gigs and the band’s New Clear Days 40th anniversary tour. Hopefully they can restart gigging in May with FTJ ahead of the NCD tour. See you on the road in the new year, stay safe in the meantime… The Vapors website team x
The From The Jam Setting Sons 40th anniversary gigs that were postponed earlier in 2020, due to the Covid pandemic, have now been rescheduled for May and June 2021. The Vapors are special guests on nine of the new dates and details can be found on the gig listing to the left.
Tickets for the rescheduled dates are on sale now here
In this fan focus, we quiz South coast fan Matt who has been a regular face at gigs since the band reformed and was one of the lucky ones to see them multiple times in the first time around. Over to you, Mr Inskip..
We now have a brand new, limited edition Turning Japanese bandana/scarf available to buy from our merch. The design features the rising sun and can be seen here modelled by Dave & the Fenton’s dog Ziggy. It is made from cotton and costs £10 (inc P&P) in the UK & £12 delivered to the rest of the world.
Please send amount due to vaporsmerch@gmail.com via Paypal Friends & Family (and include your name & address on the payment).
November 20th is National T-shirt day on BBC Radio 6. It was started by Steve Lamacq a few years ago and the idea is that fans post pictures of themselves in their fave band shirt and the lovely people at BBC 6 play a song from that band between 7am and 7pm on November 20th. To take part just post a pic of your self in a band tee and tag @bbc6music and hashtag #tshirtday on Twitter and Insta. Here’s our Lead Singer Dave Fenton in one of our tees. Can we have Turning Japanese please @bbc6music
Come on Vapors fans post a pic of your fave Vapors tee and get tagging and hash tagging.#tshirtday#bbc6music
Dave, Steve and Michael are appearing on Sky TV’s Memory Lane 80s Show with Hayley Palmer tonight. They will be chatting about the band as well as selecting their favourite songs from the decade. The programme screens at 9pm tonight on SKY TV ch. 376, Freesat ch. 516 & Connected Freeview ch. 264. Update 15/11- if you missed it, you can watch it here
