- the inscrutable Wang Chung.

Wang Chung are a London based three-piece signed to Geffen Records and comprising Jack Hues, guitar and keyboards, Nick Feldman, bass and second guitar, and Darren Costin, drums and percussion. I spoke to them at Nick's flat before they left for a promotional visit to the USA. Over some excellent home-made fruitcake and a pot of tea (sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, indeed!), Nick told me how they began. "We started as The 57 Men. Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) was the singer and our bass player was Lee Gorman of Bow Wow Wow".

The Arista-crats

The 57 Men ground to a halt and Jack, Nick, Darren and saxophonist Dave Robinson formed Huang Chung and started gigging around London, releasing two singles on Rewind. A contract with Arista followed in 1981. Nick "I remember Jack saying at the party Arista threw when they signed us up, 'this is probably going to be the happiest time of our association with Arista', which it proved to be." Jack. "They signed us up very much on the strength of one song and that was 'Hold Back The Tears' and when it didn't prove to be a megahit, they panicked. By the end of the deal, we'd taken a bit of a battering and whilst we hadn't lost our desire to write pop music, we weren't exactly 'top of the world'".

At this point, with an album behind them (that they now largely disown) and the departure of Dave Robinson, the band changed their name to Wang Chung, which, Nick informed me, Jack had got out of a book on Chinese music. "'Huang Chung' is Chinese for 'cosmic groove' (!) and Wang Chung is a corruption of that, because people didn't know how to pronounce the original spelling".

"We're under a certain obligation to write songs that appeal to people but we want to do that anyway, otherwise we wouldn't be playing pop music."

A Fresh Start

"We had a great reaction in the States to the new stuff we'd done — just about every major record company over there was interested and Geffen was the best of all of them, so we went with them. They're sort of small in the sense that there's not many people working for them that have real power, so we can work closely with a few key people, right up to David Geffen. The great thing about the deal is that we're writing what we want to write and they encourage it. Obviously, we're under a certain obligation to write songs that appeal to people but we want to do that anyway, otherwise we wouldn't be playing pop music."

Fear Of Flying

On the road Wang Chung use a PPG Wave 2.2, Novatron, Prophet 5, MC4 and Jupiter 8. "We use the MC4 and Linn because we don't want to use backing tapes but it's a very delicate system with the Linn and MC4 triggering various synths, so you've got to be careful but so far the actual gigs we've done have been fine but the soundchecks have been absolute disasters. It's like the early days of flying!"

Darren uses an acoustic kit with Simmons toms and snare and a Linn Drum for percussion, "'cos it gives me more versatility". Nick favours a Gibson Les Paul whilst Jack uses a Fender Stratocaster and another custom guitar.

Writing And Recording

I asked them what their approach was to writing and Nick showed me his Fostex A-8 eight-track and 350 mixing desk on which most of the new album was demoed. Nick owns a Prophet 5 and this turned out to be the only synthesizer the band possess, any other keyboards being hired as and when they are required. "Jack comes up with finished songs, bit of songs sometimes, and Nick does the same. I've only just started writing in the band", Darren explained, "so I normally come up with an idea or something which Jack or Nick develops".

"We use the MC4 and Linn because we don't want to use backing tapes, but it's a very delicate system... the actual gigs we've done have been fine but the soundchecks have been absolute disasters. It's like the early days of flying!"

The album 'Points On The Curve' was produced by Chris Hughs (Tears for Fears, Adam, Dalek I Love You) and Ross Callum and all of the band were enthusiastic about their contribution. I asked Darren about their approach to recording; "The songs were more or less complete when we went into the studio — the textures were what we took time over".

It took seven to eight months to complete the LP and it was recorded on a 48-track machine although usually only 36 of the channels were used. "We play everything ourselves, unless we want, say, sax or a brass sound. That's why we're a three-piece, 'cos anyone else that we need, we just bring in for that occasion and then that's it — they're just session people".

The Future

Wang Chung are currently supporting The Romantics and Huey Lewis And The News in the States, where the US single 'Don't Let Go' is attracting a lot of airplay and rapidly climbing the charts. They've just finished a video for MTV, the music cable channel, and will be back in Britain later this month. Poised to leave, I asked Jack whether they would be touring in the UK; "We'll be doing a few dates but I don't think we want to be an extensive touring band".

With 'Dance Hall Days' the hit Wang Chung so richly deserved and 'Don't Let Go' and the album 'Points On The Curve' already on release, it looks like this time Wang Chang are set to make a real impact.