Clare Grogan has opened up on Altered Images’ breakup in the early 1980s.
The group hit the charts in 1981 with their single Happy Birthday and went on to score success with follow-ups I Could Be Happy, See Those Eyes and Don’t Talk to Me About Love.
But after three albums, they called time on their recording career – with Clare admitting the gruelling schedule began to take its toll.
“I probably just needed a really good holiday,” she tells Retro Pop’s September 2022 issue. “We’d lived in each others’ pockets for five years and it was so intense. As a lot of bands say, it was great fun until it wasn’t fun anymore.”
Four decades on, they’re back with the brand new album ‘Mascara Streakz’, which came to life when Clare and her husband and bandmate Stephen Lironi began collaborating on tracks during lockdown.
“It started with one song called Colour of My Dreams and no intention to do more,” she insists. “I wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m going to write an album of songs,’ but it grew and grew from there.
“I kept thinking about all the people who have come to the shows and said to me afterwards ‘You should write some new music’. I thought the best thank-you I could give to all those people who keep turning up would be to do just that and give them some new songs.
“Once I got started again I couldn’t stop.”
Read the full interview in the September 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store or use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist.
