Interest in Perth’s best-known ‘one-hit wonders’ is being rekindled after their song was updated by the Manic Street Preachers.
Fiction Factory reached the UK’s top 10 in January 1984 with their single Feels Like Heaven, which was written by the band’s singer Kevin Patterson and keyboard player Eddie Jordan in Patterson’s bedroom.
Despite being the Fair City band’s sole success, the anthemic track has continued to enjoy widespread airplay down the decades.
Nowadays working in IT, Kevin described learning that Welsh rock trio the Manic Street Preachers had recorded Feels Like Heaven for a new compilation album as “a bit of a Christmas Day moment”.
“It’s nice to be made to feel trendy again but it’s kind of a bit of a shock that they would do a cover of the song,” he said.
“I don’t really know the reasons why they were asked to do it, if it was by choice or if they were given a list and we were one of the more palatable ones on the list.
“I just heard about it through friends and social media. I think a friend had texted my wife to say, ‘I believe this has happened, here it is,’ and I think there was maybe a half-minute extract of the song.
“It was a bit of a Christmas Day kind of a moment I guess, just discovering that somebody as high profile and well respected as that has covered the track.”
The original version of Feels Like Heaven has provided a steady income for its writers down the years, mainly thanks to its continued popularity among radio listeners.
Youtube views of the song’s video have topped 540,000, but father-of-two Kevin admits he has “no idea” how many airplays the record has had.
“When we wrote the song I think I felt there was something different about the song probably straight away,” he said.
The Perth-born 56-year-old said he approved of the Manic Street Preachers’ version of his song, which appears on the album Sounds of the 80s Vol 2 alongside new covers by The Waterboys, Stevie McCrorie, All Saints and James Bay.
After splitting up in 1987, Fiction Factory briefly reformed five years ago for a one-off appearance at the Rewind Scotland festival at Scone Palace.
Kevin became an IT expert after calling time on his music career and now works at Dundee University.
However, he insists he has no plans to return to music any time soon. “It’s quite a commitment to be trying to do that kind of stuff,” he said.
The Manic Street Preachers are expected to play Feels Like Heaven in Scotland for the first time when they appear at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro on Saturday.
