Dream Into Action - Howard Jones

Somewhere between my infatuation with ABBA and my brief flirtation with Madonna there was a spell where I was obsessed by the pop synth maestro Howard Jones. He was a pop genius, and there was no persuading me otherwise.

This reached a peak in 1985 when we went on a two week family holiday to Wales. As well as the usual summer trip paraphernalia; shorts, t-shirts, sun cream and the like, I was also accompanied by a cassette of this album. It had been released earlier that year and by the time the annual holiday came around I was well and truly obsessed by it. I knew every track inside out - words, notes, beats, synth flourishes.....everything. I must've listened to it hundreds of times so how on earth could I be parted from it for a whole two weeks. TWO WEEKS!! Impossible. I can't comment whether my long suffering parents or sister appreciated the Synth Wizard (TM) but I don't think they had a choice to listen to it at least once or twice during those two weeks.

It was an eventful holiday for other reasons. One particularly sunny day we decided that we wanted a barbeque, an unusual choice given that my dad was, and still is, a vegetarian. Anyway we happened upon a local butchers and got the last few sausages from his shop - apparently the Welsh summer had arrived and, keen not miss the one day of sunshine, the rest of Wales had had similar thoughts. Although they had been on display in the window all day we were assured that they were absolutely fine..........have you ever seen two children with sausage induced food poisoning? No, neither had my Man until we both started vomiting profusely during the following night and most of the next day. I think I might've also been presented to a local doctor in desperation to try and stop me from projectile vom........ well I think you get the picture.

When I loaded up this album I thought I was going to hate it - other than the odd song here and there, I've not heard it for over twenty years. But I have been pleasantly surprised - despite the obviously dated 80s production there are some top pop moments and some well crafted songs. Yes there are some clangers but you would be hard pushed to find better 80s pop songs than 'Things Can Only Get Better', 'No One Is To Blame' and 'Like To Get To Know You Well'.

I'm not sure why my infatuation with Mr Jones ended, or why unlike ABBA and Madonna, I've not played any of his songs on regular basis - on the strength of this listen perhaps I should have. But maybe not - towards the end of the album I did start to feel a little nauseous - either this is a coincidence or perhaps, just perhaps, those sausages were having the last word.....