{"product_id":"dead-famous-people_wild-young-ways_2025_dif","title":"Wild Young Ways","description":"If you are a great music fan but not a Kiwi by birth, you may have discovered the fantastic New Zealand music scene through the beginning of the mesmerizing Kaleidoscope World compilation by The Chills. Within a few years, music by many New Zealand artists was being released by various British and American labels...usually to resounding success and overwhelming enthusiasm. That this happened without any of these bands needing to travel overseas to improve their chances was almost as gratifying as the music itself. The exception was Dead Famous People, who, after a five-track EP for Flying Nun, Lost Persons Area, decided to change hemispheres and try their luck in London. Everything had started well. Three London recordings were added to their Flying Nun EP, released by Billy Bragg's Utility label – a perfect mini-album such as had never been heard. The reaction was positive, more songs were recorded, the band organized a John Peel session and performed frequently, but this somewhat depleted group began to fall apart. Lead singer and songwriter Dons Savage, determined to break through, almost became the lead singer of Saint Etienne during an early recording of their cover of \"Kiss and Make Up,\" and she delivered an excellent performance on The Chills' \"Heavenly Pop Hit\"... but disillusionment set in. Learning of her mother's death, Dons returned to New Zealand and remained low-key for decades. Most of their London recordings were subsequently released in very small numbers by very small labels, but they received little media coverage and sold virtually nothing. Their time had passed, and the band suffered the strange fate of being the least known of the truly brilliant bands associated with Flying Nun. Listening to these \"lost\" songs, it seems incomprehensible that they could have fallen into oblivion. No New Zealand songwriter comes as close to Martin Phillipps' pop genius as Dons. Beyond their wonderfully sweet vocals, delicious harmonies, and sophisticated arrangements, the songs sensitively addressed the universal follies of youth and desire, with an unusual lyrical wink that pragmatically approached their sexuality. This was at a time when \"female music\" was considered exclusive (to be filed in its own drawer, if it ever existed at all) and the Riot Grrrl movement was still light-years away, only gaining popularity later through its radical stances.","brand":"Dead Famous People","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55685690589528,"sku":null,"price":20260220.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0898\/4943\/0360\/files\/0798234006331_460399a4-c029-4757-bd84-82dde17cca10.jpg?v=1768935235","url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en\/products\/dead-famous-people_wild-young-ways_2025_dif","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}