You won’t get very far into any description of A Flock Of Seagulls before you hear something about lead singer Mike Score’s architectural hair. (See, we got it out of the way in the first sentence.) But the coif would have long been forgotten were it not for the songs.
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The British band delivered a series of undeniably affecting 80s singles. In America, “I Ran (So Far Away)” made the band one of the first wave of British New Wave acts to dent the Top 10.
Seagulls Unite
Mike Score worked as a hairdresser before he became a stylist. That partly explains the striking look for which he was initially known. But even while he had that day job, he harbored dreams of music stardom. Like many of his era, he chased those dreams after purchasing a synthesizer for the first time.
Score began assembling a band in 1979. A few years into the project, they adopted the name A Flock Of Seagulls after hearing the phrase at a concert by The Stranglers. In 1981, the band started releasing singles.
Each single did a little bit better than the one before in England. By the time they reached their “I Ran (So Far Away)”, they had secured a record deal. Interestingly, the song didn’t do much on the UK charts. Helped by a memorable video, it rocketed up the charts in the US, making it all the way to No. 9 in the US in 1982.
A Poster’s Message
Mike Score’s love of science fiction fed into many different aspects of A Flock Of Seagulls, everything from their look to their sound. It also helped him craft “I Ran”. He had first been intrigued by the phrase after hearing it as the title of a song played at a show by a local band.
Later, while looking for a record deal, he went into a record label’s offices and saw a poster on the wall of an ominous-looking UFO chasing a woman. He began crafting “I Ran (So Far Away)” as a romantic song with undertones of dread and unease, such as might be engendered by a spaceship flying into one’s airspace.
Not long after Score wrote the song, guitarist Paul Reynolds joined A Flock Of Seagulls. He provided the stabbing guitar riffs that embellish Score’s bed of synthesizers. It made for a harder-edged sound than many of the synth-rock bands at the time could deliver.
Behind the Lyrics of “I Ran (So Far Away)”
“I Ran” uses the imagery of science fiction to help describe a love affair marked by such passion that it’s impossible to escape. This girl’s looks hit the narrator hard. “With auburn hair and tawny eyes,” Score describes. “The kind of eyes that hypnotize me through.”
The girl is framed by all manner of heavenly phenomena, including clouds, shafts of light, even the Aurora Borealis. When the narrator finally realizes he can’t resist her, he tries to touch her but is initially thwarted. Only in the final verse do they unite: “I’m floating in a beam of light with you.”
“I couldn’t get away,” Score sings in the chorus. 80s music fans knew how he felt. We couldn’t escape A Flock Of Seagulls’ “I Ran (So Far Away)”, happy captives to its alluring spell.
Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns
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