It’s not something I expected but sometimes searches on the blog alert me to things I wasn’t aware of. It happened the other week when I came across a search on “Comsat Angels Glasgow ABC.” That in turn led me to discover the fact that the Comsats had reformed for a gig in Sheffield in April (which I’d missed) but also that there will be 3 further dates in London, Manchester and Glasgow in October.

There’s something appropriate in discovering this news because one of the first things I ever learnt from the internet was that the band had split in around 1997. A reunion has been hinted at before and the irony is that I must have carried out one of my periodic checks on the Sleep No More site for news of a reunion just before the announcement was made of the Sheffield gig.

It seems to be a good time then to do a long planned retrospective on the Sheffield band. If you’re looking for an excellent post punk band who are somewhat off the beaten track, then the Comsats could well be the answer.

Their first two LPs, ‘Waiting For A Miracle’ and ‘Sleep No More’ are bona fide classics. There’s a strong sense of alienation about the records (which have been reissued twice on CD, most recently here), particularly the latter which is quite a harsh record in places. The two albums were both well received but were never likely to make the commercial jump that contemporaries like the Bunnymen did.

Album 3, ‘Fiction’ was an attempt to reach a wider audience and whilst it’s a good album with some of their best songs, something was undoubtedly lost along the way. Dropped by Polydor, the Comsats spent the next few years scrabbling around for commercial success on Jive with disappointing results.

There was some evidence that their songwriting hadn’t completely deserted them on LPs ‘Land’ and ‘Seven Day Weeekend’ but they were ill served not just by attempts to graft the latest contemporary pop stylings to their songs but also the excessive attentions of some of the 80’s wackiest hair stylists. Maybe not many, but there are some truly awful things on these records.

Another change of label led them to Island, at the time also hosts to the Triffids and the commercially resurgent Julian Cope. With the patronage of the late Robert Palmer, ‘Chasing Shadows’ was the sound of a band trying to recapture a sense of their own identity with some success. However it wasn’t commercial at all and, with a few exceptions, in truth it wasn’t a strong album.

After years of apparent inactivity (although they recorded an LP under the name ‘Dream Command’ in the interim) they re-emerged in 1992 with their best album in 10 years. Musically ‘My Mind’s Eye’ was an almost complete success and illustrated that they had learnt the lessons of the last decade of struggle with a record that was bristling with energy and melody.

Its follow-up in 1995, ‘The Glamour’, was a dense, tangled beast yet nonetheless a rewarding experience. It was also the band’s final release as they finally succumbed to the apathy of the wider record buying public.

The 2009 reunion focuses on the band’s 3 Polydor LPs. That’s somewhat surprising since, although the trilogy have long been fan favourites, singer Steve Fellows had always resisted the notion that those 3 records necessarily represented the pinnacle of the band’s achievements. And I’d have to say that the strength of the last 2 records offer a fair degree of support to that view.

Nonetheless I’ll be making the Comsats my second 1980s reunion of the year (after Magazine). The shows are to be in far more modest surroundings than Devoto and cohorts but they are something I am looking forward to.

From the debut LP, a fan video for ‘Total War’ -

and from the Sheffield reunion show ‘After The Rain’ from Fiction.

Buy the Comsats reissues here.