Party Fears Three is an acclaimed UK based eighties tribute band comprising three life long musicians with a common love for the innovative music that formed the soundtrack to our youth. Since forming in July 2008, PF3 have quickly established ourselves as one of the more highly regarded UK eighties music live acts through a number of well received headlining shows together with high profile support slots with established eighties acts such as The Beat and Bad Manners.

Generally, we cover what many regard as the classic early to mid eighties period although we occasionally allow ourselves to drift a little either side of this if there's a good tune at the end of it that fits into our set. Typically, this means bands such as Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure, Pet shop Boys, Tears For Fears, Human League, Talk Talk, New Order and A-ha, to name but a few. And unsurprisingly, given Mike and Don's association with Ultravox as members of their official tribute band, the occasional tune or two from their catalogue will find its way onto our set list!

Although there's always plenty of room for the big well known hits of the day in our sets, we make an effort to to broaden our appeal by also trying our hand at songs that perhaps aren't the first choices of other covers bands. this means we won't necessarily always pick the songs that sold the most records back in the day, especially in respect of bands who have a wide range of material to draw from. In addition, we make sure we don't overlook less well established acts - there are some true gems out there, often from acts that undeservedly became one hit wonders and we think it's important to try and breathe new life into some of these great songs if we can. Some of the best feedback we've had from people who have seen our shows so far usually relates to one of these more leftfield choices, often accompanied with comments along the lines of 'wow, I haven't heard that in years!'

And that's where PF3 try and draw a distinction between what we do and what you might expect from typical covers bands. With so many of the original artists out there performing their songs again, many for the first time in decades, there's no longer the same fascination for seeing a bunch of guys simply knock out what effectively amount to straightforward soundalike versions. We need to offer a little bit more – try and make the show something that as lifelong fans of this type of music we would want to come and see ourselves.

Sound, Light, TECHNOLOGY

Choice of songs is a good place to start, but there’s much more - how we go about actually performing them is equally important and it’s here that we apply painstaking attention to both the arrangements and sounds we use to make sure that our versions have fresh appeal.

For example, we spend a lot of time researching the original recording and recreating many of the sounds and techniques used by the artists themselves, using either our own increasingly extensive range of vintage instruments or by seeking out and sampling others. But we do this only to ensure that the underlying character of the song is preserved.

In many cases, key aspects of the arrangements or the sounds get changed, sometimes subtly but sometimes radically - although never to the extent that you won’t recognise what it is once it gets going. It’s all about trying to find the balance between bringing a track up to date but without sacrificing what made it so good in the first place. Re-engineered for the 21st century, as we like to say!

Finally, we also make a special effort with the visual aspect of PF3 gigs - as Gary Numan onced remarked, "people don't just go to a concert to listen to it, they go to look at it". In common with many of the big name acts, our songs are accompanied with specially crafted syncronised video sequences and wherever the venue can accomodate us, we use video screens on stage. In addition we have our own pre programmed on stage light effects, again locked in time to the music, together with copious quantities of dry ice to suit.

All in all, we hope to put on a show that fellow fans of the finer side of eighties music will appreciate and enjoy. If this is you, we hope you can make to one of our gigs soon so you can see for yourself.