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Bio:
OMD-styled Electro/Synth-Pop duo of brothers John and Willie Hughes. The Hughes
brothers had been playing since 1967 as young teenagers in Ned Spoone, a
covers band who graduated from playing Beatles songs in the 60s to Black Sabbath in the 70s.
After Ned Spoone split in the early 70s, the Hughes brothers
formed Highway, an acoustic group with an experimental approach.
Highway used cello, lute, tin whistle, indian drums, bells, etc, alongside
more conventional instrumentation, and played for the peace
movement, meditation gatherings, theatre groups and so on. Clearly the product
of hippie, it was not geared to survive the late 70s. They would later
describe Highway in interviews as an interesting project that lacked
focus. "Highway had great intentions, but we lacked a real goal"--Willie Hughes in 1983.
By the early 80s they
concentrated on writing pop songs and attempted to make a name as songwriters,
which led eventually to Minor Detail and an unlikely hit single.
The album is highly polished synth pop with thoughtful lyrics. It features
guitarists Des Moore and Ray Shulman (Gentle Giant) and drummer Paul McAteer.
Minor Detail split in 1984 but returned to live work in December 1986, releasing a
one-off comeback single in RCA. John Hughes later became the driving force behind
The Corrs.
One-time backing band member Morgan Fingleton (keyboards) later fronted his own band
Route 101 who
self-released at least one single on the F&M Records label. He later emigrated to the USA.
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