Catch Up with Wang Chung

February 1, 2024

Wang Chung is looking forward to the upcoming sailing of The Ultimate 80s Party, The 80s Cruise! Watch this video to hear Wang Chung speak about all things totally 80s on the upcoming cruise.

For us, “Points on the Curve” is one of the most perfect albums – track to track – of the 80s. The year 2024 marks the album’s 40th anniversary. Any plans to commemorate the milestone?

As die-hard fans will know we have been in the process of rereleasing our back-catalogue for a few years now. A mixture of the pandemic, legal issues and looking for the right home for the project has meant there have been delays, but we are on track to release a very special “Greatest Hits + Rarities” package in the Summer and we hope to do a Deluxe re-issue of “Points on The Curve” later in the year.

No pressure, but our favorite highlight of any Wang Chung show is hearing “To Live and Die in L.A.” – from the movie of the same name – performed live. But we heard director William Friedkin specifically asked you not to write a song with the title in it. That can’t be true.

Our initial contact with Bill Friedkin was a phone conversation with him in LA and us in London. We made the music for the movie on the basis of that conversation, without seeing any visuals. And, in that conversation, he did say he didn’t want a song, he wanted us to jam out some instrumental stuff. However, once we went to LA and saw a rough-cut of the movie the song just came to me… I played it to Nick, he loved it and we did a demo together. We sent it to Billy withy some trepidation, but he, being the true artist he was, loved it and altered the beginning of the movie to accommodate it! I have sometimes found that doing the opposite of what you’re told produces good results! – Jack Hues

What are you looking forward to about joining The 80s Cruise?

Some warm weather! It’s been really cold in the UK recently. Looking forward to hanging with friends from other bands performing on the Cruise and of course playing for the fans. We are excited to play our longer set and apart from the hits, also get to play some songs we haven’t played so much before. 

The 80s Cruise is a celebration of an amazing decade of music, fashion, and world events (some good, some bad). What do you wish would return from that era?

My youth!!

What are you glad we left behind?

My youth!!

Actually, I feel in my old age I’ve grown into myself more than I did in the 80s. Of course it was exciting to have the success we had in the 80s and to penetrate the culture the way we did, to tour the world and to work on the projects we were so privileged to be asked to do, like for example performing the whole score to a Hollywood movie. But we were always in the challenging process of defining ourselves as people and as artists. In my old age, I think in some ways I can appreciate and connect to the whole 80s thang more now than I did at the time. And of course things like The 80s Cruise are a rewarding and fun way of doing that for us.

Anyone in particular you are looking forward to seeing in 2024?

I’m looking forward to bopping to Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg and also checking out Soft Cell. – Nick Feldman