history / burned down days

On Being in the Furs

by Roger O'Donnell, 2001

It was mid-Summer 1986, and I was living in Ottawa, Canada with my Canadian girlfriend. I'd left the Thompson Twins in January 1985, and was starting to wonder whether I'd ever be on stage again, when I got a call from D'arcy, The Furs' production manager who I'd met some time before, can't remember where. Anyway, he asked me if I was interested in auditioning for The Furs. I jumped at the chance and went to the local mall to buy all their albums and learn a few songs. The guy in the store told me the new one was due in a couple of months.

I drove down to Woodstock, where they were finishing Midnight to Midnight, from Ottawa. I'd managed to get through my career without auditions until then so I was a little nervous, I shouldn't have been. They were set up in a barn which was part of the studio complex. I didn't know much about The Furs; where they were from, who they were, etc., etc., and when I got there I was met by Mars and Paul and Marty, who all sounded American and who all seemed pretty pissed off, haha, which they did pretty much all the time anyway. So we sat around talking and Richard walked in, "Is that an English accent I hear?" he said. "Yes", I said. "Right, you've got the job!". Richard immediately struck me as somebody with a "star aura" , he had a certain intagible quality which I've only felt a few times when meeting artists, weird but he certainly had something...

We ran through a few songs that I'd learnt and it sounded OK. Tim was really nice and friendly, I don't remember John from that meeting, and Richard was just fed up with having Americans in the band and was happy I was English. I went back to Ottawa and packed up my stuff and moved back to Woodstock for a months rehearsal. Nobody knew the keyboard parts, so I had to do my best and work them out from the records, which is never easy. I really liked Ed's parts, but obviously he'd left under something of a cloud and wasn't about to stay and show me how to play his parts.

I loved the older stuff, especially Mirror Moves which is so keyboard based. I wasn't that sure about the new stuff, it seemed like they were going after a more rock audience in a flat-out attempt to break America, which sadly didn't pay off.

I stayed in the barn with Paul Garisto, Mars Williams and Marty Williamson, who wasn't American...he was Irish. I became very close friends with Paul and also Tim. And there started a year of non-stop touring. We started off touring on the back of the re-release of "Pretty in Pink" and then went on to a full-blown production of the Midnight to Midnight album. I remember Alex was the lighting designer and the set had huge stars on it. I also remember Paul Dalen who was the sound engineer, of course my roadie who was called "Filthy" as was I ... "Hello Filthy", "Hello Filth". "How are you?", I guess you had to have been there! And of course how could I leave out Martin "Coiler" Cole, our tour manager, hated and loved in the same breath.

It's funny, I never realised what a great band The Furs were when I was in them. It was about six years ago when I was telling somebody that I'd been in The Furs and they remarked what a great band they'd been, and I thought to myself, "Yeah, they really were a great band." Shame that you can't see the wood for the trees, it was however a trying time for the band. I don't think they were ever really well managed, and they really should have been huge.

After I left the group in 1987 I didn't see any of them for years. Tim came to Wembley in 1989 to see The Cure I think, but I hadn't seen Richard since the day I left until 1997 when Love Spit Love were on the same radio festival bill as us in Philadelphia I think. It was great to see him. Robert, who was a big fan, and I watched from the side of the stage, and when Richard came off we hugged. I was a little wary of how he would receive me; after I left The Furs I said some pretty stupid things in the press about them which I regretted, but I guess enough time had passed (ten years).

I was really happy to hear last year that The Furs had re-formed, but disappointed they hadn't asked me to play with them, hahah. If any of them read this, I'd give anything to do a show or a song at least. I have some great memories, not all good, but things rarely are all good.

OK, these memories will probably mean more to The Furs, but here goes... Ronald McDonald driving the bus, Richard driving the bus, Frankenstein bolt pens (that one's for Richard), pink guitars, big hair, wine and cheese parties (that's for Paul), push starting my Midget (thanks Tim), ahhhh too many memories to go on...