Naked Eyes

Not to be confused with Naked eye.
Naked Eyes

Rob Fisher and Pete Byrne of Naked Eyes
Background information
Origin Bath, England
Genres New wave, synthpop
Years active 1982–84, 2005–present
Labels EMI, Parlophone, Oglio
Website Naked Eyes homepage
Members Pete Byrne
Past members Rob Fisher

Naked Eyes is a British new wave band[1] that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Originally a duo, the band is known largely for its four US top 40 singles.

The first, a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me". The band had subsequent hits with their own compositions, "Promises, Promises" (not to be confused with the Bacharach/David musical number), "When the Lights Go Out," and "(What) In the Name of Love."

History

Naked Eyes was formed by two college friends from Bath, England. The band features Pete Byrne on vocals and Rob Fisher on keyboards. The two had formerly played in a band called Neon, which also featured future members of Tears For Fears.

Naked Eyes was one of the first bands to make significant use of the Fairlight CMI sampling synthesizer on a recording. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had used the instrument on prior efforts, but the usage had been far less than Naked Eyes would employ on their debut effort.

The debut album Burning Bridges was produced by Tony Mansfield, along with the follow-up album Fuel for the Fire, which also featured two titles produced by Arthur Baker. Their second and third singles, "Promises, Promises" (the 12" mix of which features vocals from Madonna) and "When the Lights Go Out", were also hit singles.

Following the release of the band's second album, Byrne moved to California and immersed himself in session work. He performed on Stevie Wonder's "Part-Time Lover", sang backgrounds with Rita Coolidge and Princess Stephanie among others, and wrote and produced for the Olsen twins. Fisher also explored other projects, doing sessions in London and forming Climie Fisher with Simon Climie.

The group never toured because in the early 1980s technology was not advanced enough to reproduce their multi-layered, multi-synthesizer sound in concert. According to Denis McNamara, who was the program director at New Music station WLIR during the band's heyday, this has led to a "curiosity" about the group over the years.[1] Rob Fisher died on 25 August 1999, aged 42, following surgery.[2]

Byrne released a solo album The Real Illusion in 2001, which featured some of the last tracks he wrote with Fisher for a proposed third Naked Eyes album. In 2005, Byrne put a band together to play some Naked Eyes shows and has been touring regularly since. In 2007, Naked Eyes released Fumbling with the Covers, an acoustic album which consisted of covers of Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Elvis Costello, among others, along with the Naked Eyes hits.

In the summer of 2008, Naked Eyes completed a U.S. tour along with Belinda Carlisle, ABC and The Human League. In the summer of 2014, Naked Eyes did a U.S. tour with The Go-Go's, Scandal and The Motels.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Year Single Chart Positions Album
US US
Dance		 US
AC		 CA AU NZ[3] UK[4]
1982 "Always Something There to Remind Me" 8 37 31 8 7 2 59 Burning Bridges/Naked Eyes
1983 "Voices In My Head" – - - - – - -
1983 "Promises, Promises" 11 32 19 13 – 15 95
1983 "When the Lights Go Out" 37 - - - – - -
1984 "(What) In the Name of Love" 39 35 - 77 – - - Fuel for the Fire

References

  1. 1 2 "All Eyes on Pete Byrne" Newsday 15 October 2013
  2. ↑ Michael Anderson. The Ultimate 80's Music Book. p. 24.
  3. ↑ Steffen Hung. "Naked Eyes - Always Something There To Remind Me". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  4. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 387. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
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