Introduction5518
A joke or a parody? The Mike Flowers Pops rose to fame almost as quickly as they disappeared. I bought the A Groovy Place album for the cover of Prince‘s 1999, but it was Wonderwall that made the group famous.
The Mike Flowers Pops
In 1993, The Mike Flowers Pops (also known as MFP, The Pops or The Mike Flowers Pops Orchestra) was founded by Mike Flowers (real name Michael Roberts). The group regularly performed on stage with more than 10 members and played easy listening and/or lounge renditions of contemporary music, as well as classics, supplemented with original material.
After one of the band’s concerts, a BBC producer hired the group to perform/record covers of “Hits of ’95” as part of the program of BBC Radio 1 DJ Greening. The idea was to transform several contemporary hits into easy listening versions. The first song was Wonderwall, the major Oasis hit taken from the bestselling album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, the band’s second album.
After hearing the song, the easy listening version of Wonderwall was named “single of the week”. It was also announced that The Mike Flowers Pops version was supposedly the original version of the song. When the single was released on December 18, 1995, the Oasis version was still in the charts. Within two weeks of its release, The Mike Flowers Pops’ version reached number 2 in the British charts, just like the Oasis original had done a month and a half earlier.
When asked if Lou Reed had ever heard anything by Oasis, he replied: “Not that I would know. Oh, Wonderwall? The one I know is the Mike Flowers one. That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Following the success of Wonderwall, The Mike Flowers Pops became hugely popular and the band graduated from small venues to concert halls such as Wembley Arena. The success of Wonderwall was followed up with a full-length album.
The Mike Flowers Pops – A Groovy Place
A Groovy Place
On June 24, 1996, the first (and only) album by The Mike Flowers Pops was released. It contained 3 original songs, 5 covers of classic tracks, and 2 contemporary covers, including Wonderwall. The recordings took place between November 1995 and April 1996. The album achieved moderate success and also introduced The Mike Flowers Pops to an international audience.
Review
Well, how seriously should a project like this be taken? The fun — and at times genuinely hilarious — aspect is that the group keeps the act going seriously throughout the entire album, which gives it a consistent feel.
The performances are professional and sound fantastic, but the joke works once, maybe twice at most. After that, it starts to become a bit too much.
I initially bought the album to complete my collection of Prince covers. 1999 gets an enjoyable treatment and is lyrically mixed with Eye No and Alphabet St., both taken from Prince‘s masterpiece Lovesexy. Once again, it is certainly entertaining.
The Mike Flowers Pops – A Groovy Place – Singles
Singles
The album produced two singles, both released before the album itself.
- Wonderwall
(released on December 18, 1995) - Light My Fire
(released in May 1996)
The Light My Fire single also included a live-recorded David Bowie Medley, featuring the songs Ashes To Ashes, Rebel Rebel, and TVC 15.
Songs
All songs written by Mike Flowers unless otherwise noted.
- A Groovy Place
- Wonderwall (Noel Gallagher)
- The “In” Crowd (Billy Page)
- Light My Fire (Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, John Densmore)
- Please Release Me (Eddie Miller, Robert Yount, Dub Williams)
- Venus As A Boy (Björk)
- Crusty Girl
- The Velvet Underground Medley (All Tomorrow’s Parties / Venus In Furs / White Light, White Heat) (Lou Reed)
- Freebase
- 1999 (Prince)
Musicians
- Mike Flowers – vocals, guitar; bass on Light My Fire; organ on Crusty Girl
- Ian Thompson – bass on A Groovy Place, Venus As A Boy, 1999
- Graham Rix – organ on A Groovy Place, Venus As A Boy, 1999
- Dicky Wahr – bass, guitar on Please Release Me
- Geoff Gascoyne – bass on Crusty Girl
- Adam Day – piano on The Velvet Underground Medley
- Glyn Owen – drums except on Crusty Girl
- Ian Thomas – drums on Crusty Girl
- Gary Hammond – percussion except on Light My Fire
- Jason Holling – percussion on Light My Fire
- The Sounds Superb Singers (Yvonne Bainton, Lynn Cooper, Juliet Morel) – vocals on Venus As A Boy, Freebase; backing vocals except on Wonderwall, Venus As A Boy, Crusty Girl
- Ryan Martello – backing vocals on Wonderwall, The “In” Crowd
- Juliet Morel – backing vocals on Wonderwall
- John Cuthbert, Peter Rollinson, Simon Elms, Ken McGregor, Richard Edwards, Karina Townsend, Colin Smith, Andy Busg, Adrian Lane, Steve Hamilton, Lisa Grahame, Mike Flowers, Sue Gee, Shabby Paquito, Mike Kearsey, Nigel Barr, Chris Caldwell, Chris Caldwell, Lisa Graham – brass section
The Mike Flowers Pops – Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
Aftermath
At the end of 1996, the band toured with Gary Glitter and released the single Don’t Cry For Me Argentina in December of that year, which became a modest hit. Also in 1996, The Freebase Connection was released, a collaboration between The Mike Flowers Pops, The Aphex Twin, and others. In 1997, the band contributed the cover Call Me to the soundtrack of the first Austin Powers film.
After this, little to nothing was heard from The Mike Flowers Pops. The only permanent band member, Mike Flowers, went on to compose music for television, film, and music documentaries under his own name. In 2018, he released his first (and so far only) book, How Art Made Pop And Pop Became Art.
In closing
A highly entertaining one-hit wonder, but what do you think of The Mike Flowers Pops? Let us know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Easy listening with The Mike Flowers Pops. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
