Berlin, the American band initially ignored by their own people for sounding "too European", will be touring Australia in late November after discovering only two weeks ago they had a following in this country.
"It's a weird feeling knowing your music is appreciated in a place that's so far away", said Terri Nunn, the band's lead singer. "It's a good feeling, though, and we're really looking forward to coming to Australia. We only found out two weeks ago that people in your country liked our music."
Terri, a former Playboy playmate [ed. note - not too sure about this], was speaking from Los Angeles where the band is about to start a tour of the United States and Canada with the Thompson Twins. Berlin have only just completed a tour of the US and Europe where they played to audiences that varied in size from 40 to 12,000. The band has an underground following in Australia with stations like 2JJJ having their EP, Pleasure Victim, and their album, Love Life, on high rotation. Their single, Sex (I'm A), was not picked up by radio stations in Australia and the United States because of its lewd lyrics.
"That didn't bother us", says Terri, "because it was never written for radio."
"We knew that if our music was positive and we had a good feeling about it, it would win through in the end. There was no way we were going to compromise just because radio stations didn't like what we were doing."
"It's the people who decide what they want to listen to and they've given us plenty of encouragement." Terri says the band has had its ups and downs since forming in late 1982, but nothing they didn't expect.
"We're starting to look good now. There's so much further for us to go - so many avenues for us to explore. Love Life represents what Berlin is now. We have a sound, we have an identity and we have an album of ten strong songs."