Missing Persons – The era of Tenax hair gel was upon us.

Missing Persons for this Friday Junior -recorded at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, New York on August 25, 1981 – WLIR-FM.

As the 70s slid into the 80s Punk, which came to define the second half of that decade, did the slow slide into the 80s by morphing into New Wave. Taking a nod from that certain androgyny which marked Glam in the early 70’s it was revisited and somewhat revised and with it came a whole fashion consciousness which would usher in very polished and borderline slickly produced music, in direct contrast to the 3-chord wonder of Punk.

America seemed to take New Wave much more to heart than it did Punk, probably because New Wave more resembled Pop, was more refined and easier to digest on a large scale than it’s spike-haired predecessors. It was also perfect for the fledgling MTV, whose format fairly defined visually evocative artists.

One of those bands which filled the bill nicely was MIssing Persons; a band which came from Los Angeles – were actual alumni of Frank Zappa (his touring band) – all met as members of the Zappa organization and ran off (with Frank’s blessing) to form Missing Persons in 1980.

They scored instant success with the likes of KROQ, who were now touting Rock Of The 80’s as their new format and were featured prominently in the daily lineup of singles on a heavy rotation and made Missing Persons a must-see band around Southern California.

By 1981 (the year of this concert) they began touring, spreading the word-of-mouth to enthusiastic Press in a nationwide tour and via MTV grabbed a rapidly growing audience. It was around this time they signed with Capitol Records and their fortunes only multiplied as the result, for a time anyway.

True to form, their tenure with Capitol was a bumpy one and the band fell apart by 1986.

Although the passage of time brought about a reunion and in 2001, the original Missing Persons got back together until 2003 when they disbanded again and remained that way until 2009 where they have been more or less active since then.

But for a glimpse back to their beginnings and the rise of their popularity in 1981, this set from My Father’s Place, broadcast live by WLIR-FM gives you some idea of what got the audience so excited.

It was the 80s after all.

Crank it up and enjoy.

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