The Colourfield

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The Colourfield were a British band formed in 1984 in Manchester when former Specials and Fun Boy Three frontman Terry Hall joined up with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and Karl Shale. Despite the fact that all three members were from Coventry, the band was based in Manchester.

History

1984 – The Beginning

In January 1984 The Colourfield released their first single, "The Colour Field", which just missed making the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. In the summer of the same year, they released "Take" as their second single, which commercially performed less well. Their third single was "Thinking of You", released in January 1985, which reached number 12 in the UK chart, and featured Katrina Phillips accompanying Hall on vocals. Their fourth single, released days before their debut album came out, was "Castles in the Air" which reached the lower reaches of the UK chart.

1985 – Virgins and Philistines

When Virgins & Philistines was initially released in April 1985 it contained twelve tracks in the US release and ten in the UK version – but can now be found with twenty tracks as a Japanese re-release, containing many B-sides and live tracks. It failed to gain a large audience due to difficulty in marketing an album with such a diverse sound—it mixes 1960s and early 1970s pop music with more acoustic based melodies and string arrangements. Virgins & Philistines is often regarded as the direct musical predecessor to the later work of other northern bands The Beautiful South and The Lightning Seeds in the 1990s; Hall later collaborated with the latter in a songwriting role and also provided occasional vocals. Virgins & Philistines reached No. 12 in the UK album charts.