In the late 1970s, a revolutionary musical — and cultural — movement swept across the United Kingdom.
Angry, leather-clad young men were playing fast and loud while screaming about rebellion and anarchy.
“Punk was supposed to be three chords and the truth,” said Jack Hues. “I really never bought into it, though.”
Hues — a guitarist/singer/songwriter — was a fan of funk artists like Chaka Khan and Chic, progressive American rockers such as The Tubes and Todd Rundgren and also adored the music of The Beatles.
None of that was very fashionable at the time.
Hues, though, was able to find a musical soulmate when he responded to an ad posted by Nick Feldman in the British music magazine “Melody Maker.”
“We hit it off almost immediately,” Hues said of Feldman. “Nick wanted to create a punk band, but he was also into Frank Zappa and he was writing these songs that had slightly jazzy and funky chords to them. So, I found it very natural to work in that medium, which a lot of guitar players in London didn’t understand at that time.”
Feldman and Hues created their own unique sound.
And more than four decades later, their band is still delighting audiences with a collection of timeless hits.
Wang Chung is the featured band on the 17-date Abducted By The 80s Tour, which is currently criss-crossing the country. The line-up also includes The Motels, Naked Eyes, Men Without Hats and Animotion.
The tour is set to hit Oak Grove, Kentucky on Friday, May 24 and Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, May 25.
“If you are an 80s fan, it is a great program to see and it’s great to be able to do these shows,” Hues said.
The bands on the line-up have combined for 28 Top-100 hits, including eight Top-10 songs, during their careers.
“I’m so excited to be reunited with Wang Chung and Naked Eyes this year,” said Martha Davis of The Motels. “Nick, Jack and Pete (Byrne) are some of my favorite people, not to mention amazing musicians!”
The Motels had two Top-10 hits in the U.S. during the 1980s — “Only The Lonely,” and “Suddenly Last Summer.” “Always Something There To Remind Me” and “Promises, Promises,” put Naked Eyes on the charts in numerous countries.
In 1983, Men Without Hats had a huge international breakout with “The Safety Dance.” The song has become one of the most recognizable of the decade.
Animotion had two Top 10 hits in America, “Obsession,” and “Room To Move.”
The line-up for the tour varies depending the venue.
For more info, go to abductedbythe80s.com
“We wanted to put together a tour with bands we like, bands we get (along) with, but not too many bands,” Hues said. “That way there’s more music and less change over (time). In addition, the bands get to play a bit more in depth. All these bands certainly have more than one hit.”
Hues, Feldman and former drummer Darrin Costin formed Huang Chung (which means “Yellow Bell” in Mandarin Chinese) in 1980. The band later changed the name after being signed to Geffen Records.
Their initial release on the label, 1983’s “Points On The Curve,” which was recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, produced the “Dance Hall Days,” which reached No. 16 on the U.S. Billboard Charts.
Wang Chung’s fourth album, 1986’s “Mosaic,” produced two top-10 hits — “Let’s Go,” and the iconic “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” — which reached No. 2.
The band disbanded in the 1990 as the music scene experience another monumental shift.
“By the time we were making our last album with Geffen, they had signed Guns N’ Roses,” Hues said. “The transition was under way and Wang Chung was certainly out of step with what was going on. It was a rejection of the glitz and the glamour of the 1980s for something, supposedly, much more real.”
Wang Chung’s music really never went away, though.
The band has toured with some regularity for most of the past 20 years — especially in America — and songs like “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” and “Space Junk,” have been used in television shows — like “The Walking Dead” — and several movies.
“Dance Hall Days” has been played more than 150 million times on Spotify.
“The upside of streaming (music) is the incredible access to all kinds of music,” Hues said.
And the band is still producing new music.
Wang Chung released “Tazer Up!” in 2012 — which featured the song “Abducted By The 80s.”
Five years ago, Hues and Feldman teamed up again for a unique project. They worked with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra to re-record some of their greatest hits for an album called “Orchesography.”
“They originally approached us about just doing a couple of songs and we told them we would be interested in doing a whole album,” Hues said. “The process of arraigning the songs for orchestra took a long time, but once you’ve got the arraignments, you put the music in front of the players and they just play it. So, the whole album was really recorded in one day.”
The Abducted By The 80s Tour kicked off last week in Texas. Wang Chung is set to play its first dates in Kentucky in more than 20 years this coming weekend.
“I am happy to play ‘Dance Hall Days’ for anyone who wants to listen,” Hues said.
And as long as people keep listening, Wang Chung will keep on playing.
