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One Of The Great Misfires, Now Enhanced By Tragedy

S. Nyland | Six Feet Of Earth & All That It Contains | 11/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is with great sadness that I write that Flowered Up vocalist Liam Maher was found dead in his London flat on October 20, 2009, bringing the story of this remarkable band to a tragic conclusion. He was a father and an artist and a remarkable visionary who had a really keen idea for a rock theater act that became Flowered Up. They weren't so much a rock band but a stage performance that took the form of a rock show, but underneath it was a concept about music and performance that was quite out of step from the mainstream.



The band had four consecutive top five hits in the UK but never made a dent in North America. I happened upon them by chance of a freebie record store promo and was instantly hooked. Fans & critics of the day may have harped on this album for not being the crackling, raw exercise in aggression that was their live act but that was sort of the point of recording an album. Which by the way was produced by one of The Clash's old accomplices. This is far from a bad record no matter how you slice it and actually got better with time.



In 1991 I would have regarded them as a British dance-rock party band like Happy Mondays or The Farm. While the music may have taken the form popularized by those and many other of the Madchester indie house rock kind of scene, Flowered Up comes across as more of a stage act with Liam Maher providing an autobiographical human reference point while the band & resident Bez clone Barry Mooncult did their thing. Mooncult was great, dressed up in a derivation of Peter Gabriel's "Flower Pot Man" from the "Supper's Ready" years. Couldn't sing a note and prone to destroying musical instruments, Barry danced and reportedly whipped up sold out ecstasy fueled nightclub crowds into a frenzy as the regular house band of London's most happening nightclubs.



That frenzy may not carry over onto the CD, partly for the obvious reason that you're missing out on the stage antics, light show, visual cues, theatrics, and mayhem that swept up the live shows. By contrast the album is crisp, precise, sounds rehearsed, professional, calculated, and a little distant. But my, these songs still sound incredible, even better if possible: The Pink Floyd meets disco opener "Sunshine", "Take It"'s ode to the party life at any cost & no matter who you have to gruel it from, "Crackerjack"'s insane high of energy and broughish blather that is probably be best sonic equivalent of an MMDA rush as I have ever heard.



And of course "It's On", their trademark up all night partying anthem, though in a sped-up pop friendly form here that is missing the raw angst of the slower single mix (definitely time for a Flowered Up box set, Mr. Record Industry Executive). "Silver Pan" and "Hysterically Blue" come across as speed-freak mayhem but you can tell that they meant it. The apocalyptic hippy love-in of "Egg Rush" marvelously juxtaposed against "Mr. Happy Reveler" and the sadly under appreciated "Phobia" which in my book edges out even Happy Mondays' "Loose Fit" as the ultimade Madchester era come-down song, complete with every negative vibe in the book, and Flowered Up wasn't even from Manchester. Then "Doris ... Is A Little Bit Partial" closes off the album proper with a string of guitar riffs by Liam's brother John that prove the guy really knew how to play. They all did, the instrumentation is tight if somewhat unimaginative, but then again that was the modus of the day.



Far more imaginative is the bonus track from this re-issuing, crassly titled "The Best of Flowered Up", in the form of their complete 13 minute unedited studio rendition of "Weekender", an opus like song that helped to slam the door on the face of the whole Madchester thing by summing it up as it was. It is a chaotic, mesmerizing piece of music that has the rawness that perhaps is missing from the bulk of the "Life With Brian" recordings. The band broke up within months of its original release, burnt out themselves by the very scene which had created them. Aside from keyboardist Tim Dorney drug addiction and obscurity would eventually swallow them all. And now it apparently literally has swallowed Liam, who was a dear man and a brave talent who simply couldn't deal with it all. We all have days like that.



In any event I cannot recommend the CD highly enough, and now with the tragedy of Liam's passing it's kind of a monument to what could have been. Properly managed and produced by someone who was both sensitive to Maher's artistic vision for Flowered Up's theatrics and maybe some experience in helping addicts deal with their addictions, they really could have been one of the pop/rock powerhouses of the 1990s. David Bowie comes to mind as a possible example of who I mean. As it was their management burnt them out by encouraging the frenzy and chaos that would eventually drive them apart, and now with Liam's death the saga is very sadly over.



Until his "Greedy Soul" material from the early 2000s is packaged for consumption and some of their old 12 inch and B side treasures resurrected from the ashheaps, this is all that there is to speak for Liam Maher's legacy. Fortunately it's a kick-ass album, you won't regret springing it one bit. And please, get a CD. MP3 downloads get deleted, I know all too well, and it sucks."