Although their reputation has suffered over the years—largely a self-inflicted wound if you ask their original legions of fanatical fanboys like me—and they’ve been no more than an oldies act for decades now, you still cannot beat the first two Psychedelic Furs albums. Both are among the very, very best albums of the post punk era—I’d easily rate their debut in my top three albums of all time, it’s a masterpiece—and both urgently need to be rediscovered by a new generation (for their sake, not the band’s). Their third album is also pretty great. The Furs were such an important, popular even heroic group of the early 80s, but you’d never really know that in 2019 unless you were around at the time. Seen from the vantage point of nearly 40 years after their arrival, today they’re recalled as one-hit wonders of the “New Wave” era who will always be closely associated with a certain Molly Ringwald movie.

Once they were one of the coolest, most underground groups around, today they’re the opening act for the Go-Gos, Blondie or the B-52s when their wives want them out of the house. We all get old, but the Psychedelic Furs have, let’s face it, sucked pretty much since “Love My Way.” I still love those first three albums, but I can’t credibly stick up for them after that.
 

 
But never mind any of this disappointed fanboy bullshit, here is an absolutely stellar live set from the Psychedelic Furs taped for Germany’s Rockpalast show in 1981. The band are in top form here and there were no signs at that point of a John Hughes teen flick soundtrack or those goofy wannabe Billy Idol haircuts in their near future. In terms of live early Psychedelic Furs footage, this is undoubtedly the best there is, so savor it.

At points during this show, the band achieves the power of a Mack truck barreling through a brick wall at a high speed. They were at this point still a sextet with the classic line-up of Richard Butler (vocals), Tim Butler (bass guitar), Duncan Kilburn (saxophone), Vince Ely (drums) Roger Morris (guitars) and the amazing John Ashton (guitars).

There’s a killer “India” at about the 45-minute mark. Great versions of “Fall” and “We Love You” come right after that.
 

 
Psychedelic Furs singer Richard Butler turns 57 today, June 5th, 2014, and we at DM wish him a very happy birthday!

The Psychedelic Furs made a deft transition in the ‘80s, from spiky (but highly appealing) sax-enhanced post-punk to a pop sound that made them darlings of MTV and even mainstream radio. Their self-titled debut album is as strong a statement of purpose as you’ll ever hear from a new band, and their second, Talk Talk Talk, is absolutely essential, as it’s the home of the fantastic song “Dumb Waiters.” (That album also provided the theme song and title for a John Hughes movie with the wrong ending, dammit.)
 

 
After their third LP, Forever Now (which featured Turtles/Zappa singers Flo & Eddie on backup vox and Todd Rundgren on synths), their music became increasingly polished and more broadly appealing, though still of high quality—their 1988 single “All That Money Wants” is among the finest songs they ever made. They disbanded in 1991, whereupon Butler and his guitarist brother Tim formed the band Love Spit Love, who released two kinda decent albums in the ‘90s. The Furs have since been resurrected as a touring act, but not a recording one. All of Richard Butler’s newer songs have been released under his solo imprimatur. And it’s really good stuff, I recommend seeing him on tour if you haven’t yet.

Here’s some great footage of the Furs on that amazing Spanish TV show La Edad de Oro, from 1984. It’s broken up into a playlist so you can skip around between songs.
 

 
Previously:
Psychedelic Fur Richard Butler talks painting
The Psychedelic Furs before that Molly Ringwald film and those Billy Idol haircuts, live 1981

 
These days Richard Butler, the seemingly ageless front man of the Psychedelic Furs, considers himself more a painter who sometimes sings with a rock group and not so much a singer who paints.

As you can see from the work, he’s not “dabbling” in art. I’ve seen some of Butler’s paintings in person and he’s quite accomplished. They look great even on a computer screen, but in person they’re really dazzling. He’s perhaps the only rock/art crossover of high artistic merit to come along since Don Van Vliet (unless of course you rate Ronnie Wood or Paul Stanley as painters).
 

 

 

 
Imagista’s Michael Williams interviewed Butler in his home studio in Beacon, New York for this delightful video portrait. Click thru to Imagista for Rob Howard’s photos of Butler and his work space.

Richard Butler’s “ahatfulofrain” show will run from April 18 - May 25 at the Freight + Volume gallery in New York City.