Steve Miro and the Eyes – Up and About / Smiling in Reverse

Steve Miro and The Eyes – Up and About // Smiling in Reverse (Object Music) 1978. Hot on the heels of The Yachts, Steve Miro was one of the founders of Object Records, a very cool Manchester independent label that released some very cool stuff in the late 1970s / early 1980s. The most well-known band on the label were the almost unclassifiable and gender-bending Spherical Objects, whose founder Steve Scrivener (Solomar) was another co-founder of Object Music and had played in early punk bands with Mr Miro who also recorded an experimental album as the Noyes Brothers with Scrivener. Confused yet? How about this…Topping this all off, Steve Miro was also a key driver of the Manchester Music Collective. OK, that’s enough background. How about the tunes? This early single by Steve Miro and his backing band The Eyes, showcases his style quite well, which musically is very similar to The Yachts with its farfisa driven garage rock. However, where Yachts singer John (J.J.) Campbel traded in ironically detached witticisms, Miro prefers a more honest while abstract approach to lyrics. Although sounding nothing like Graham Parker vocally, his music often reminds me of Parker. The lyrics have that same mature bite to them. Also like Graham Parker, Steve Miro was quite prolific, releasing three records and a string of singles during his short career. Unlike Graham Parker, few (outside of Manchester) have even heard of Steve Miro and that’s a shame because there is a lot of great stuff on his albums. If you like this single, may I suggest hunting down his first album Rude Intrusions. You won’t be disappointed.