Whatever happened to the mobiles?

Dateline 31 January, 1982
The Mobiles, a young group from the south coast of England enter the top ten with their debut single “Drowning in Berlin”. It goes on to sell a quarter of a million copies worldwide and overnight they go from playing pubs on the south coast of England to performing to 10,000 people at Wembley Arena and touring Europe.

Dateline 31 July, 2024
Fed up appearing on music quiz shows as the perennial “one-hit wonder” answer, Russ, Chris and David, the writers of Drowning In Berlin, got together with a strong resolve and a hatful of ideas, and in just six months they had over 20 new songs!

Their second album in 44 years ( it’s never good to hurry things!) called Mosaic, has a release date set for early 2026. Apart from a bunch of cracking new tunes there are also two new versions of Berlin - one orchestral that will feature in a TV programme about German art - more on that soon . . .

The other hot news is that the Mobiles 2.0. feature’s the incredible vocal talent that is Hasting’s own Sarah G, completing the new line up alongside Russ, Chris and David.

So whatever happened to 1982's first breakthrough group of the year?

Chris Downtown (guitars, vox) says:
”We all had careers. As I draughtsman, I'd not long finished collaborating on the design of the Lord Heskith motor bike. There were just too many conflicting priorities back then combined with the fact that Berlin was our first record and we just weren’t prepared for the mayhem and maelstrom that followed . The band broke up at the end of that year and while David, Russ and I fully intended to make more records, it's just taken us a little while longer to get to it - well, 44 years to be exact! . . .”

New member Sarah G (lead vox) says:
”I can't wait to get on the road and tour the new Mobiles songs we’ve built up in the recording studio. I have been singing and dancing for 20 years. Now I'm the face and voice of the Mobiles Mosaic album and it’s sooooo exciting”.

David (bass, keyboards) explains:
I live in Madrid and Russ lives in Orkney. We'd both been away for years but by chance we were all in Bexhill at the same time and we all met up. Chris has guitars, keyboard, bass and a digital studio in his house. We did the hugs, drank tea and Chris said why don't we go in my studio. To cut to the chase we wrote three songs in two hours. It seemed like we’d never been apart . . .

Russ (guitar, keyboards) continues:
It was like we were 19 again it was unbelievable! The songs just flowed out and two from that first meeting in yonks are on the new album Mosaic. We just kept looking at each other and saying “Why haven’t we done this before?!” . . .

The band has been working on the songs in both Madrid and in the UK, with legendary music producer Ike Nossel (who has previously worked with the likes of McCartney, Elvis Costello, Paul Young among hundreds of famous industry names) and completed the first four tracks from Mosaic, including Drowning In Berlin 2.O. Ike says:

”Not only are they all talented song writers and performers, they also helped me put some furniture together while in my studio as well bringing in a good supply of coffee and snacks. I loved working on “Untergehen in Berlin” , the orchestral version of Berlin and I’m so pleased to work with The Mobiles and help them realize their new sound”.

The Madrid tracks, including the new version of Drowning In Berlin and the new tune Dangerous Illusion (see the video on the New Music page) were cut in Mpire studios owned by the incredibly talented Javi Ustara.

Drowning in Berlin is much-loved by followers of 80’s electronica and the band have cult status as one of the early bands to develop the sound. The new LP Mosaic will be released in early 2026 but in the meantime, watch out for thr forthcoming EP - The Straw That Broke The Planet’s Back . We hope to see you at the one of our gigs in 2026 too.

Amor Amor! . . .
the Mobiles