From nuclear war love song to COVID theme: Modern English on 'I Melt With You' and more

Tom Conway
·4 min read
Originally scheduled to perform Sept. 4, 2021, at The Acorn in Three Oaks, the 1980s band Modern English instead canceled its entire U.S. tour in an effort to keep itself, its crew and its fans safe. The band now performs June 30, 2022, at The Acorn and will play its 1982 album, "After the Snow," in its entirety.
Originally scheduled to perform Sept. 4, 2021, at The Acorn in Three Oaks, the 1980s band Modern English instead canceled its entire U.S. tour in an effort to keep itself, its crew and its fans safe. The band now performs June 30, 2022, at The Acorn and will play its 1982 album, "After the Snow," in its entirety.

Modern English are playing their 1982 album, “After the Snow,” which contains their most successful song, “I Melt With You,” in its entirety on their 2022 tour, with a show at The Acorn in Three Oaks on June 30.

The English band would be considered a “one-hit wonder” except for the fact that none of their singles ever entered the American Top 40. “I Melt With You,” reached only No. 78 on Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song was featured in the 1983 film “Valley Girl” and was played frequently on MTV, still lives on in any 1980s music retrospective, has been featured recently in television shows such as  “Stranger Things” and “The Deuce,” and prominently closed the series finale of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.”

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It's safe to say that “I Melt With You” has outlived songs that did top the charts in 1982.

But “I Melt With You” is an outlier in the Modern English catalogue, which is more hard-edged post punk than the pop sound of the single.

In an interview with The Tribune, singer Robbie Grey and bass player Mick Conroy talk about “I Melt With You,” still being a band for over 40 years and more.

Q: Was "I Melt With You" intentionally made as an attempt at a pop hit?

Grey: We don’t really know how to intentionally write a song.

Conroy: As far as we were concerned at the time, “I Melt With You” was just another song on the LP.  Admittedly, the general consensus at the time was that it was quite poppy. The last thing on our minds was creating a hit song. Far from it.

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Q: Do you think there is a misconception that Modern English is a pop band because of "I Melt With You?"

Conroy: Many people do only know us for that song in particular, but the album “After the Snow” is quite varied in its outlook, and it did sell quite well. We don’t see ourselves as a pop band at all. Our aim is to keep our music interesting and sometimes challenging to the listener who comes along expecting an ’80s New Wave type of thing. My roots stemmed from music made by David Bowie and early Roxy Music along with what are now termed post punk bands, including Wire and the likes of Magazine.

(Modern English recorded a version of “I Melt With You” during the lockdown in the U.K. with each member filmed playing in their homes.)

Q: The lockdown version of "I Melt With You" was unfortunately apt — "I'll stop the world and melt with you.” Could you have imagined the relevance of the song 40 years later?

Grey: The lockdown version was a lot of fun, all playing from different homes all over the planet. It was weird how the lyrics seemed to fit with the time. It got over a million views and a lot of comments talking about how it had seemed to be relevant. From a nuclear war love song to a COVID lockdown song.

Conroy: The underlying theme of “I Melt With You” always did have a rather dark undercurrent about it.

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Q: Four-fifths of the original band are still in the band. (Grey and Conroy, original guitarist Gary McDowell and original keyboardist Stephen Walker are joined by drummer Roy Martin.) How do you all get on after more than 40 years?

Grey: We tolerate each other easily. You don’t spend all that time together without cutting slack. We are all old friends.

Conroy: We all used to live together when we were starting out, living in squats in Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove in west London. It may sound a bit corny, but we are a bit like brothers, each with his own quirks. The thing is, when we go onstage and play together, something very exciting happens.

Q: "I Melt With You" has earned you a place in music history. What do you consider to be the band's legacy?

Conroy: I would like to think it would be of a band who constantly surprised people with each new record we made … but, in reality, our legacy will be “I Melt With You.”

In concert

• Who: Modern English

• When: 8 p.m. June 30

• Where: The Acorn, 107 Generations Drive, Three Oaks

• Cost: $70-$45

• For more information: Call 269-756-3879 or visit acornlive.org.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: A Q&A with Modern English before show at The Acorn in Three Oaks