The Outfield

Hailing from humble beginnings in Manchester - the Old Trafford area, to be precise - The Outfield were a genuine sensation back in the eighties, right across the globe, and were one of the few new wave bands who showed a real willingness and desire to expand their sonic outlook beyond the confines of that particular genre. Just a quick look on YouTube today is enough to show you the lasting success of their top ten U.S. single ‘Your Love’; introduced to a new audience by the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, it has in excess of fifteen million views on the site. The band’s 1985 debut, Play Deep, went three times platinum, and their legacy is a lasting one, despite the fact that their career - which has continued uninterrupted to this day - has never quite scaled the heights of their eighties heyday since. The group’s most recent album, Replay, was released in 2011, although a lack of live activity around the record was largely believed to be due to guitarist John Spinks’ battle with liver cancer. Spinks passed earlier this summer, with new material he recorded before his death now in limbo; if remaining members Tony Lewis and Alan Jackman do decide to continue, doing Spinks’ legacy justice will be their priority.