Chris Larkin played keyboards for the most prominent line-up of Kenn Kweder’s Secret Kidds in the late 1970s (the one that recorded the “Man on the Moon” 45), was in a short-lived jazz fusion group called Snow, played in a duo with Kweder as “Tom & Jim,” did some producing (including Kweder’s 2nd 7″, and some tracks by The Impossible Years), was a keyboardist, singer and songwriter for electropop trio The Vels, who recorded for Mercury Records, and in the late 1980s played bass for Mikey Wild and the Mess. Chris passed away due to complications from pneumonia & liver failure Thanksgiving Eve. He was 55.
Chris co-wrote this song with Alice from The Vels. He sings on it, too, but does not appear in the video. The Vels were a prominent fixture on the Philadelphia music scene of the early 1980s [1]. Their notoriety grew to the point that they caught the attention of Mercury Records and were signed. In 1985 and 1986, The Vels toured the world as the opening act for The Psychedelic Furs. The Vels released five albums under the Mercury label, but disbanded in 1987.
TEXT BY JAY SCHWARTZ & GEORGE MANNEY
EDITOR’S NOTE: The ’80s really did look like that, kids. Sad but true.