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Free Concert by Wang Chung with Naked Eyes at Fremont Street Experience July 23

“Nina Blackwood’s Absolutely 80s” music festival at Fremont Street Experience will feature Wang Chung and Naked Eyes on Saturday, July 23 at 9 p.m. So everybody come to the 3rd Street Stage and Wang Chung Tonight.  

Wang Chung
Wang Chung is an English New Wave musical group who became part of the contemporary culture of North America. Jeremy Ryder, known professionally as “Jack Hues” and Nick Feldman would eventually form the core duo of Wang Chung. The group found their greatest success in the United States with six top 40 hits, all charting between 1983 and 1987. In late 1982, they became the second UK based band to sign with Geffen worldwide and spent most of 1983 recording their album Points on the Curve. This album yielded two hits, “Don’t Let Go” and “Dance Hall Days” which charted in the US in the top 20. Wang Chung also started working on soundtracks and was approached by director William Friedkin to score the 1985 film To Live and Die in L.A. The result was the group’s third album, and is recognizable as one of their mainstream works. It went to the top ten on the U.S. Billboard chart for soundtracks. They also recorded “Fire in the Twilight” for the 1985 John Hughes film The Breakfast Club.

Wang Chung released their fourth album, Mosiac, in 1986. This album featured the bands biggest hits: “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” and “Let’s Go!” “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” contains the now famous line “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight” which saw the invention of a new verb: ‘to Wang Chung.’ Icons such as Homer Simpson and Frasier Crane used the line and it was even used as a punch-line in The Spy Who Shagged Me. Their final US Top 40 single, “Hypnotize Me” was also featured on the soundtrack of he 1987 film Innerspace. Wang Chung broke up in 1990 but started touring together again in the 2000s. Beginning in 2009, Wang Chung was part of the Regeneration 80s Tour.

Naked Eyes
Naked Eyes are a British New Wave band that first became popular in the 1980s. After leaving the band Neon that included future members of Tears for Fears, childhood friends Peter Byrne and Rob Fisher formed Naked Eyes. Their first hit single was in 1982, a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” which exploded onto to Top Ten Charts in the U.S. This was followed up in 1983 with the self-penned “Promises, Promises” and “When the Lights Go Out.” The back to back to back hits resulted in massive radio airplay and an almost constant presence on MTV. The next album produced yet another hit “(What) in the Name of Love.” Soon enough, the duo was asked to begin work on yet another release, but, rather than continuing what was becoming a never-ending cycle, Byrne and Fisher decided to walk away and leave Naked Eyes as a project to be continued. By 1999, Byrne and Fisher decided to pick up where Naked Eyes had left off and started work on a third album. Sadly, it was tragically interrupted when Fisher passed away from complications of surgery that summer. Left to carry on solo, Byrne decided that the best course of action was to start where it had all begun all those years ago back in England. In 2005, he put the band back together and has been regularly touring ever since. In the summer of 2008, Naked Eyes completed a U.S. tour along with Belinda Carlisle, ABC and The Human League.

About Fremont Street Experience
Fremont Street Experience is a five-block entertainment complex located in historic downtown Las Vegas. Fremont Street Experience features Viva Vision, the world’s largest video screen which is 1,500 feet long, 90 feet wide and suspended 90 feet above the urban pedestrian mall. Viva Vision features nightly spectacular light and sounds shows with 12.5 million LED lights and a 550,000-watt sound system. Fremont Street Experience is a one-of-a-kind venue which includes free nightly concerts and entertainment on two stages. With direct pedestrian access to 10 casinos, more than 60 restaurants and specialty retail kiosks, Fremont Street Experience attracts over 17 million annual visitors. Fremont Street Experience can be found online at www.vegasexperience.com.