Birds Fly (Whisper To A Dream)

A-Side: Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)
B-Side: Reverie Girl

Record label: Situation Two SIT 22
Producer: Hugh Jones

Released: 10/06/83
Purchased: 1983

In which The Works go all conceptual. “Birds Fly” is something of a joyous pop song, full of wondrous open-eyed optimism. (Smash Hits, 1983)

I think that’s a great pop tune . . . . the chorus is lovely. Very nice. It’s a bit hyperactive but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Hit. I haven’t heard an absolute freak out one yet but that and John Rocca are very near. (NME, 1983)

Julian Cope couldn’t have done it better. The teardrop implodes. (Record Mirror, 02/07/83)

Latest from Liverpool – the Icicle Works

The life of the Icicle Works is spent dossing on people’s floors and going up and down motorways.

“If we play down in London, then we all pile into the van afterwards and drive back home – it’s too expensive to stay down there,” says group leader Ian McNabb. “After a gig you’re really exhausted, and the last thing you want is to drive 250 miles.

“For that reason, it’s very tempting not to gig until you’ve got a record deal. I suppose there’s lots of fun to be had, but at the end of the gig you’re too knackered to do anything.

“A gig in London for us starts at nine o’clock in the morning and finishes at three o’clock the next morning, and it makes it an anti-climax when you do play.”

The Icicle Works are yet another Liverpool group who look like they’ll be breaking through soon. Already they’ve fixed up a heavy publishing deal and their single “Nirvana” is getting played on evening radio.

Like their contemporaries from the North West, the band don’t see themselves as part of the Liverpool scene, but are proud of their city and their roots there.

“There’s definitely a scene in Liverpool, but it’s not as exaggerated as it appears from outside. You get these DJs coming up and saying there’s all this great music and there are all these wonderful bands, but 75 per cent of them are run of the mill pub rock groups you get anywhere.

“I think we’ve got a mini-country here, and there is more stimulation in Liverpool than you might get elsewhere.

“There’s so much competition in Liverpool from other bands who are making it, and it’s all focused on one place, the Warehouse. That’s where everybody goes. We all feel we are part of the pop scene, and better than a lot of bands who have made it.”

Pure pop is the Icicle Works’ game. Like Wah! Orchestral Manoeuvres and The Teardrop Explodes, their songs are simple, but offbeat.

Ian McNabb has been writing pop songs and playing around the city since 1976, and the Icicle Works are the final stage of his series of groups.

“I guess everybody says that they can’t be categorised. Basically what we’re trying to do is get across forceful, emotional pop which is simple, but different lyrically, and just a little fantastic,” he explains. (Record Mirror, 16/04/83)