EASTERN PROMISE

A string of subtly sublime pop confections ensured Liverpool duo China Crisis were regular fixtures in the mid-80s charts, yet critical acclaim was thin on the ground. Jack Watkins feels history has unfairly neglected them, and he meets the still-gigging Scousers' Gary Daly to set the record straight

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During a rapturously received show at London's Cadogan Hall last spring (May '25), China Crisis' Gary Daly joked about playing outdoor 80s pop festivals, often billed below bands of arguably inferior quality.

“Still,” he chirped to an understanding audience, “you know you're at an 80s festival when you hear the opening bars of King In A Catholic Style drifting over the fields.”

Many maintain that China Crisis, founded by Daly and schoolmate Eddie Lundon in Kirkby, Merseyside in 1979, were the most underrated band of their generation. Superficially, the boyish-looking pair fitted the early 80s electro zeitgeist, with catchy hooks and a disdain for rockist posturing. Today, their biggest singles — Christian, Wishful Thinking, Black Man Ray and the aforementioned King In A Catholic Style — set the head spinning with their lush immaculacy.

CC's music was based on classic lines, with thoughtful, albeit elusive, lyrics and a rare sense of melody. They were not synthpop purists. As key to their sound as the piping keys were Daly's gossamer croon, Lundon's light, sparkly guitar and a funky bass. Arrangements sometimes incorporated oboes, flutes, trumpets, saxes or strings.

Currently, they’re one of the hardest-gigging bands out there. Indeed, they're just back from a sellout coast-to-coast tour of the States on a 10-band 80s nostalgia package with the likes of A Flock Of Seagulls, General Public and The Vapors. But when Daly takes time out for a chat, it’s at a soundcheck at Pizza Express Live’s 120-seater basement venue in High Holborn, central London. There, they'll perform as a quartet, slimmed down from the seven-piece of bigger occasions. Daly and Lundon are backed by regular sidemen Jack Hymers (synths) and Eric Animan (woodwind), central to the success of the recent Top 10 album, China Greatness, which adds new orchestrations to some of the band’s best-known songs.