, whose name was inspired by the 1966 Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs," were formed in England in 1977 by brothers
. By the time they released their self-titled debut album in 1980, the group had become a sextet, adding guitarist
. That album, featuring
without the sneer) was a bigger hit in England, where it reached the Top 20, than in the U.S.
Talk Talk Talk (1981) did better, reaching the U.S. Top 100 and producing two British singles chart entries, one of which was "Pretty in Pink," later also a hit in the U.S. when a new version was used as the title song of a film.
Forever Now (1982) saw the band reduced to a quartet with the departure of
Kilburn and
Morris. The rest moved to the U.S., turned to producer
Todd Rundgren, and scored a U.S. Top 50 hit with "Love My Way."
Ely then left, and the remaining trio of the two
Butlers and
Ashton made
Mirror Moves (1984), the biggest
Psychedelic Furs hit yet.
The film Pretty in Pink helped spread their name further before the release of their next album,
Midnight to Midnight (1987), which consequently got to number 12 in the U.K. and the Top 30 in the U.S. and included the Top 30 U.S. hit "Heartbreak Beat."
Book of Days (1989) marked the return of
Vince Ely, but was a considerable commercial disappointment.
World Outside (1991) also failed to find an audience.
The Psychedelic Furs then folded up shop, and
Richard Butler launched a new group,
Love Spit Love. The band lasted two albums -- 1994's
Love Spit Love and 1997's
Trysome Eatone -- and didn't enjoy the monumental success of
Butler's original band.
Butler kept on. He began writing songs for a supposed solo effort as the '90s came to a close. Those sessions led to new songs with brother
Tim and a subsequent
Furs reunion in early 2000.
With both
Butlers and
John Ashton living in upstate New York, the time was right. They tested the waters and their audience for a joint summer tour with
the Go-Go's, and the reception was warm. A year later,
the Psychedelic Furs -- now featuring
Love Spit Love guitarist
Richard Fortus and drummer
Earl Harvin -- headlined their own club gigs across North America and a classic
Richard Butler was keen to be back in the right place.
Beautiful Chaos, a live album capturing some of the band's greatest hits from the last tour, was issued in November 2001. Their first live album ever,
Beautiful Chaos was a gift for the loyalists. It also introduced their first new song in almost ten years, a somber ballad entitled "Alive."
–
William Ruhlmann, Rovi