Biography
Though often misidentified as a synth-pop group or remembered chiefly for placing a track in Real Genius, the Comsat Angels ranked among the strongest outfits of the post-punk and new-wave years. Their early recordings—Waiting for a Miracle in 1980, Sleep No More in 1981, and Fiction in 1982—offered abstract pop constructions built on lean arrangements that conveyed persistent bleakness and emotional distress, sharing the somber tone of Joy Division yet avoiding its theatrical scale. Those releases maintained an atmosphere of unbroken melancholy while remaining consistently absorbing. Commercial expectations later pulled the group in conflicting directions for several years. During the 1990s they returned with two forceful albums that extended the approach of their initial period before disappearing once more.
The Sheffield quartet that eventually became the Comsat Angels had already passed through multiple line-ups and titles as Radio Earth, featuring guitarist and vocalist Stephen Fellows, drummer Mik Glaisher, keyboardist Andy Peake, and bassist Kevin Bacon. After supporting Pere Ubu in Newcastle, the musicians recognized how thoroughly the headliners’ concentration and unpredictability had overshadowed them. They adopted the name Comsat Angels, drawn from a J.G. Ballard story, and borrowed funds from Glaisher’s father to record and issue the Red Planet EP in 1979. BBC DJ John Peel received a copy, requested additional pressings, and invited the band to record one of his Peel Sessions.
A modest Polydor contract enabled three remarkable albums and repayment to Glaisher’s father, yet the label proved uncertain how to promote them and most prominent critics remained distant, even as the notices that did appear were strongly favorable. Only “Independence Day” from the debut reached the U.K. charts. Although the albums saw no American distribution, the group toured with Gang of Four on selected 1982 dates and encountered an unexpectedly warm response generated by college-radio airplay.
Leaving Polydor for Jive, the band released Land in 1983, produced by Mike Howlett, as a deliberate attempt at mainstream success; the effort failed. Two years later 7 Day Weekend, overseen by James Mtume, the funk-pop producer and former Miles Davis associate, met still weaker results. (The outcome resembled a hypothetical fourth Wire album closer in spirit to Level 42 than to Wire.) Island issued Chasing Shadows in 1986, assembled with assistance from admirer Robert Palmer; though less compromised than its predecessors, the album remained secondary to the first three, and the band nonetheless regarded it as their fourth proper release. Fire on the Moon, completed in 1987 yet held until 1990, marked their weakest work, a generic hard-rock set issued under the name Dream Command.
Recognizing that attempts to satisfy executives and audiences had yielded nothing, the Comsat Angels signed with RPM/Thunderbird in the U.K. and Caroline in the States, issuing the 1992 album My Mind’s Eye, a hardened return to the 1979–1982 sound. It attracted little commercial interest and mixed critical response. Kevin Bacon, already producing other artists, departed after the record; Terry Todd replaced him on bass while Simon Anderson joined as second guitarist. The 1995 album The Glamour proved the Comsats’ most aggressive statement and their final one.
Fellows issued a 1997 collection of ambient guitar instrumentals and later managed Gomez. Bacon produced further acts, among them Finley Quaye, Longpigs, and Ziggy Marley, and assembled his own electronic projects. Glaisher and Peake collaborated occasionally. The original members reunited briefly for several concerts in 2009. From the mid-1990s into the mid-2010s every album received either first-time or renewed CD release; RPM (1995), Renascent (2006), and Edsel (2015) each expanded Waiting for a Miracle, Sleep No More, and Fiction, while Edsel also paired Chasing Shadows with Fire on the Moon.
The Sheffield quartet that eventually became the Comsat Angels had already passed through multiple line-ups and titles as Radio Earth, featuring guitarist and vocalist Stephen Fellows, drummer Mik Glaisher, keyboardist Andy Peake, and bassist Kevin Bacon. After supporting Pere Ubu in Newcastle, the musicians recognized how thoroughly the headliners’ concentration and unpredictability had overshadowed them. They adopted the name Comsat Angels, drawn from a J.G. Ballard story, and borrowed funds from Glaisher’s father to record and issue the Red Planet EP in 1979. BBC DJ John Peel received a copy, requested additional pressings, and invited the band to record one of his Peel Sessions.
A modest Polydor contract enabled three remarkable albums and repayment to Glaisher’s father, yet the label proved uncertain how to promote them and most prominent critics remained distant, even as the notices that did appear were strongly favorable. Only “Independence Day” from the debut reached the U.K. charts. Although the albums saw no American distribution, the group toured with Gang of Four on selected 1982 dates and encountered an unexpectedly warm response generated by college-radio airplay.
Leaving Polydor for Jive, the band released Land in 1983, produced by Mike Howlett, as a deliberate attempt at mainstream success; the effort failed. Two years later 7 Day Weekend, overseen by James Mtume, the funk-pop producer and former Miles Davis associate, met still weaker results. (The outcome resembled a hypothetical fourth Wire album closer in spirit to Level 42 than to Wire.) Island issued Chasing Shadows in 1986, assembled with assistance from admirer Robert Palmer; though less compromised than its predecessors, the album remained secondary to the first three, and the band nonetheless regarded it as their fourth proper release. Fire on the Moon, completed in 1987 yet held until 1990, marked their weakest work, a generic hard-rock set issued under the name Dream Command.
Recognizing that attempts to satisfy executives and audiences had yielded nothing, the Comsat Angels signed with RPM/Thunderbird in the U.K. and Caroline in the States, issuing the 1992 album My Mind’s Eye, a hardened return to the 1979–1982 sound. It attracted little commercial interest and mixed critical response. Kevin Bacon, already producing other artists, departed after the record; Terry Todd replaced him on bass while Simon Anderson joined as second guitarist. The 1995 album The Glamour proved the Comsats’ most aggressive statement and their final one.
Fellows issued a 1997 collection of ambient guitar instrumentals and later managed Gomez. Bacon produced further acts, among them Finley Quaye, Longpigs, and Ziggy Marley, and assembled his own electronic projects. Glaisher and Peake collaborated occasionally. The original members reunited briefly for several concerts in 2009. From the mid-1990s into the mid-2010s every album received either first-time or renewed CD release; RPM (1995), Renascent (2006), and Edsel (2015) each expanded Waiting for a Miracle, Sleep No More, and Fiction, while Edsel also paired Chasing Shadows with Fire on the Moon.