Hailing from the UK, The Outfield were an unusual band that managed to find colossal success with the song “Your Love.” The second single from their debut album Play Deep in 1985, it became a top 10 hit and an iconic song from the ’80s. It’s also a song about potential infidelity, but we’ll get into that another time. But there is more to the band’s music that what most people know.
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The group was originally a quartet on their first album (a fivesome in at least one video), but by the time they reached their third album Voices of Babylon, it had shrunk to the core trio of frontman/bassist Tony Lewis (with the soaring tenor voice), guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist John Spinks, and drummer Alan Jackman. Spinks was the talented principal songwriter who wrote most of their tunes. By their fourth album, Simon Dawson jumped in behind the kit for the next decade. The group toured and intermittently released new music into the 2000s, and the classic trio reunited in 2011 for the group’s seventh and final album Replay. Sadly, Spinks died of liver cancer at age 60 in 2014. Lewis would keep touring and go on to record his solo album Out of The Darkness in 2018. He passed away unexpectedly in 2020, leaving Jackman the sole surviving member of that core trio.
Although many people today known them for one big song, The Outfield had way more to offer people. The group excelled at both bright power pop rock, ballads, and some atmospheric excursions, occasionally tossing in a harder rocking number for good measure. Here’s a list of seven truly underappreciated cuts from The Outfield’s catalog.
“Say It Isn’t So” (from Play Deep), 1985
Akin to the other hit on the album (the radiant “All The Love”), this track is a perky number dealing with romantic instability. The guy in the song is pining for a woman who is playing coy and may or may not be available, but he really desires her. (We guess that’s emotional payback for “Your Love” then.) There’s something about Lewis’ vocals and harmonies, Spink’s guitar playing and lean, melodic songwriting, and the energy of that band that gave them a very distinct sound. “Say It Isn’t So” was the band’s debut single and did not chart anywhere, but it got decent radio airplay in the U.S. Today, however, it has 32 million YouTube views and 20 million Spotify streams.
“My Paradise” (from Voices of Babylon), 1989
This is a harder rocking anthem from The Outfield’s third album, Voices Of Babylon, with a wailing guitar break from Spinks. It’s a straightforward ode to a good time on a Friday night and the weekend. Lewis inhabits a simple man in a small town with simple pleasures. But the video interprets the on my left / on my right / this is my paradise line as implying a threesome with two lovely women. When the models appear onscreen, they are shot in POV fashion, although we never see them with the band. You get the sense that someone’s gonna get more than lucky tonight. Rock solid, catchy, and effervescent, “My Paradise” certainly showed that Spinks and the band could rock on the harder side if they wanted to.
“Voices of Babylon” (from Voices of Babylon), 1989
The title track from their third album, this song falls into dreamier territory and a soul-searching lyrical bent. Like this intriguing verse which might be referring to the existential struggles of Gen X:
Hit the message, I can hear you calling
No one’s going anywhere tonight
We conceived a modern generation
It was free but now we pay the price
We’re the victims of our own creation
Chasing rainbows that are painted black or white
Watch the struggle of our temptation
Instincts barely keeping us alive
An atmospheric, mid-tempo single with a rocking and meditative quality, it actually climbed to No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and soared to No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart. Lewis once called this album “sleek and pop-cultured” in comparison to their first two albums.
“For You” (from Diamond Days), 1990
This was the lead single taken from their fourth album. Lewis and Spinks brought aboard drummer Simon Dawson, who stuck with them throughout the ’90s. “For You” is certainly a song that sounds like it could have come right off of their debut album. The flittering guitar line dances ethereally along a very steady groove, and the lush bed of vocal harmonies imbue this somber ballad with an enchanting quality. Given what was going on in rock and pop at the time, particularly with big booming drums, crazy guitar solos, cheesy synths, and overly punchy dance machines, this is a song that certainly stood out in contrast to the mainstream of the late ’80s. It’s also a good track.
“Burning Blue” (from Diamond Days), 1990
Another melancholic tune from the band’s fourth album, “Burning Blue” tries placating the insecurities of a lover by focusing on what’s good about now. Nothing is guaranteed, so you have to take things one day at a time and build a future together. The song is unusual in that what seems like the chorus is really a gentler pre-chorus bridge to the more dramatic chorus. Spinks turns in a short but sweet solo that fits the song. He tended to keep songs in the 3 to 4 ½-minute range throughout the group’s career, a strategy that generally worked well.
“Jane” (from Rockeye), 1992
One of three songs on the group’s fifth outing (Rockeye) to feature Spinks on vocals, which alone stands out in their catalog, this is a rocking mid-tempo number where the guitarist sounds a bit like a more melodic Joey Ramone. Spinks always made a good harmonist for Lewis, who said that his natural vocal range was almost an octave higher than his guitar-slinging bandmate, and the song—seemingly about an original flower child living in modern times, with references to Beatles lyrics tossed in for good measure—has a slightly hazy quality to it befitting the ’60s era the main character still inhabits. Also appropriately, Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee delivers a ripping guitar solo for “Jane.”
“Aladdin’s Cave” (from Replay), 2011
A lush and vibrant mid-tempo track that opens their reunion album, “Aladdin’s Cave” is the kind of atmospheric rock tune that Spinks excelled at writing for The Outfield. Simple in structure, it’s also got a tricky riff variant in 7/4 that, even when repeated, gives a nice off-kilter feel to the middle of the song. You won’t catch up to it. And those dulcet vocal harmonies from Lewis and Spinks feel as potent as ever.
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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
