I absolutely loved The Vapors back in the early 1980s. Like most people at the time it was their huge hit "Turning Japanese" that hooked me in. The fact that Vic Coppersmith-Heaven producer of The Jam was producing meant there was a distinct similarity in the sound which I loved.
The follow up single "News At Ten" was probably my favourite song they did. A brilliantly melodic guitar driven sing with a great catchy bass line underpinning the song. The cover of course had to pay homage to the iconic ITV News At Ten clock.
A single I didn't get hold of at the time was "Jimmie Jones". Back in days of vinyl once these singles were deleted it was very hard to get hold of them. In desperation I wrote in to Mike Read on Radio 1 who was doing a feature where lost records were replaced and told a little porky about my copy being pinched at a party. Some months later I received a copy of the record so my story obviously made it onto his show!
Fortunately in the CD and digital age their material has since been reissued and I frequently have The Vapors blasting out on my IPod... The real gem I discovered was the track "Letter From Hiro" a slightly slower song but absolutely gorgeous. My one regret is never seeing this band live...
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