Funboy Five: new releases

Save The World (2014)
Radio Free Asia (2015)

Vipers Of The Commonwealth (2016)
And seven other new songs (2018)

the Funboy Five just won't stop happening

funboy five

revived

Proving that there actually is life after death, the Funboy Five marked the about 34th anniversary of their celebrated first single with a second one: 'Save The World'/What Did You Do With The Body?'* which also marks a revival of the Cool-Cat-Daddy-O record label.

(*A completely new take on the song originally released by Milkshake Melon with extraordinarily fiddly bits at the start and in the middle.)

The 2014 single featured original members John McRae and Mick Sinclair (pictured below) joined by Dawn From Next Door and Kiri (not from next door). An expanded percussion dimension being provided by a can of WD40.

funboy five

In a limited edition of 500, the single was released in August 2014 and in vinyl form is still available only by mail order. The single is also available as a digital download.

It looks like this:

And sounds like this (sung to a backing of mutant organ and ironic twists on classic rock cliches):

"I can feel time just slipping away

Same four walls day after day

Government worker, Department of Thing

Across the desks, the telephones ring..."

'Save The World' was described in Record Collector magazine (November, 2014) as 'a bonkers contest to play In The Mood without actually playing it. If it came out in post-punk '80, you wouldn't have batted an eyelid, it's that dated. Which is a good thing.'

In 2015, marking approximately the nine-month anniversary of their second single, came the Funboy Five's third single, 'Radio Free Asia'/'Radio Free Asia (Part Two)'.

With Dawn from Next Door no longer being next door, John McRae and Mick Sinclair were joined by the voice of Hannah Saunders. Musicologists will take particular delight in noting that the song has only one chord, albeit one strummed furiously throughout. The single (which includes the chill-out b-side 'Radio Free Asia (Part 2)') also marks the Funboy Five's first use of a vibraphone.

The single is currently only available as a digital download.

It looks like this:

And Hannah looked like this when handling the lyrics:

Coinciding by chance (or possibly by subconscious design) with the US Presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders and the revelations of the Mossack Fonseca 'Panama Papers' leak, the Funboy Five in April 2016 released 'Vipers Of The Commonwealth', one of very few songs combining anti-capitalist sentiment with a madly catchy chorus:

"Vipers of the Commonwealth!

Vipers of the Commonwealth!

They're vipers of the commonwealth."

The verses are slightly more wordy. Again, the release is only as a digital download.