A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls are an English new wave band formed by brothers Mike and Ali Score in Liverpool in 1980. They are famous for their international hits “I Ran”, “Space Age Love Song,” “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)” and “The More You Live, the More You Love” – and infamous for the unique hairstyle of frontman Mike Score, which was accidentally created one night as the band was rushing to get on stage.

Originally named Level 7, the members were at a Stranglers concert when the singer looked directly at them and sang the lyric “a flock of seagulls!” They took this as a sign to change their name.

Their 1982 self-titled debut album has been called “a pioneering mixture of angular guitar riffs, skewed melodies and vibrant synths” that found international success including a #10 peak in the US. The single “I Ran” was a massive hit, reaching the top 10 in four countries and making the top 50 in four others. The follow-up single “Space Age Love Song” was also a success, reaching the top 30 in three countries.

“Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)”, the lead single of their sophomore album Listen, reached the top 10 in four countries, their first and only in their homeland the UK. The next two singles performed well in the UK but had sporadic success elsewhere.

A third album The Story of a Young Heart spawned the band’s final hit “The More You Live, The More You Love”, performing admirably in six countries. Their fourth album Dream Come True made no impact outside of the UK in 1986. The band broke up later that year when the Score brothers had a falling out.

Mike Score revived the band a couple years later on his own, moving to Philadelphia and recruiting local musicians. But both a 1989 single and a 1995 album The Light at the End of the World did not chart internationally.

In 2003 the band briefly reunited for a one-off performance on the VH1 series Bands Reunited, followed by a brief tour of the US, but frontman Mike Score later shared “that didn’t work out well for me”. However in 2017, August Day Records approached him to reunite the band again to re-record their songs with an orchestra. He agreed and the four original members were assembled to create Ascension in 2018, re-recordings of their earlier songs with accompaniment by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. A second orchestral album String Theory arrived in 2021.