In 1982 (give or take a year), a friend got a job that took him to Los
Angeles for a few months.  While staying there, he periodically
dropped a tape into his boom box, pushed Record, and taped a radio
show (off of KROQ, I think) that was playing new music. He then mailed
those tapes back to those of us in the hinterlands (okay, central
Wisconsin), where we poured over them, marveling at the great new
music being played.  One of those songs was (I believe) by a group named
"Visitors" or "The Visitors" and had a tribal beat and a refrain where
they chanted "V! I! S! I! T! O! R! S!" repeatedly.  I have searched
far and wide for that song in the intervening 20+ years, to no avail.

My question is:  What was the artist and the song, and what release
(LP, single, etc) was it available on?  And (ideal, but not required)
where can I obtain a copy of that release today?

snowdog --

Information on the song that interests you is very, very sparse, but I
am confident that I can name it and the artist.

The song must be "V-I-S-I-T-O-R-S '81," as performed by a short-lived
Australian rock group, "The Visitors," and released on an LP entitled
"Visitors," which was released" in the U.S. by Montage records in 1981
(Montage 72000) and in the U.K. by RCA in 1982 (RCA 6010).  The album
has apparently never been released on CD.

This album was released at just the right time for it to be featured
on a radio program featuring new rock music.   More important, the
song list for the LP clearly indicates -- by the hyphens between the
letters -- that the title of the song in question is comprised of the
letters in the word "Visitors" and not the word itself.   This is
confirmed by the presence on the same LP of a track entitled
"A-E-I-O-U."

Here is a link to a Web page that contains a "brief history" of the
group, as well as a complete discography and a track list of the LP
containing "V-I-S-I-T-O-R-S '81":
Rockets: Related Artists (click on the "Visitors" link near the top of
the page (or scroll down) to go to the relevant information)
http://www.geocities.com/lesrockets/E_a.htm#V

Unfortunately, I was unable to locate a copy of this obscure recording
for sale online.  I have found two Eastern European sites that purport
to have the "V-I-S-I-T-O-R-S '81"  track available for free
downloading as mp3s. However, I do not read Rumanian or Russian, and I
can't vouch for these Web sites.

Here are the links:
JobList.ru
http://3mp3.ru/it/song/69806/Visitors-81-Visitors

Tut.by
http://www.bymp3.com/get/172992

In any case, the complete catalog information at the Rockets site
linked above should help in eventually finding a copy, should you wish
to pursue that route.


Additional Site:

Here is a link to the page from the All Music Guide that is devoted to
the Visitors album containing the track in question:
All Music Guide: Visitors
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70401052156582526&sql=A3a90s32ba3vg


Search Strategy:

I began with the Allmusic.com and found listings for several artists
who called themselves "The Visitors," none of whom provided a good
lead.  Here is a link to that list:
All Music Guide: Artist Search Results: The Visitors
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll

I then performed a "song search" at that site using "visitors" as the
search term, and came with this list:
All Music Guide: Song Search: Visitors
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll

On that list was the song "Visitors '81," which linked to the
following page pertaining to the album called "Visitors," which
contains the track in question:
All Music Guide: Track Search: Visitors
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70401052156582526&sql=A3gl67u50h0jf#TRACK

This was not sufficient for me to conclude that I had found the song,
however, because the track listing in the All Music Guide is simply
"Visitors '81" without the tell-tale hyphens.

I then conducted Google searches aimed at getting more information
about the album and the song.  These searches uncovered no more
information, with the one exception noted above in my answer.   That
information was critical, though, since it revealed the hyphenated
spelling of the track that interests you.

The Google searches that I employed included the following, among others:

"visitors '81" rca lp
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22visitors+%2781%22++%22rca+%22+lp

"visitors 81 mp3"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22visitors+%2781%22++mp3


I am confident that this is the information you are seeking, and I was
happy to be able to provide it for you after your 20 years' search.  
If anything is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating
this answer.


markj-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by snowdog-ga on 27 Jan 2004 12:23 PST

(Not actually a request, but I couldn't find a way to post a comment.)

Thanks for the quick answer, markj.  A few additional details that I
turned up, based on the info that you unearthed:

The Russian site you mentioned that purports to have the song in MP3
form also has an interface in English, at:
http://3mp3.ru/eng/song/69806/
(Unfortunately, their registration system appears to be broken at the moment.)

There is another Russian site that offers the song in MP3 form:
http://rockets.medialt.ru/visitors.htm
(The sample link works, but the link to the full version was refusing
connections when I tried it.)

And finally, I think The Visitors were actually a French group, as the
information I could find about the members indicated that they were
living in France at the time.

Thanks again for the answer!

---

Clarification of Answer by markj-ga on 27 Jan 2004 13:58 PST

snowdog --

That's good sleuthing on your part.  The All Music Guide link I
provided to you describes the group's genre as "Aussie Rock,"  and I
neglected to try to confirm that.  The Guide's confusion (and
ultimately mine) seems to result from the fact that there was indeed
an Aussie group by the same name that was active at the same time. 
Here is a link to the All Music Guide's pages about them:
All Music Guide: The Visitors
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70401052156582526&sql=Bucd9keptaq7x

I apologize for the mistake, but I'm happy that at least I was able to
find you the right song.  And good luck getting an mp3.

markj-ga

Excellent work in quickly digging up information on an obscure song,
although a few of the minor details supplied in the answer turned out
to be incorrect.

I was thinking about this group earlier today and wnated to get some
info and came across this thread.
Since I have the album in front of me...here is some info:
It was recorded at Studio J. Jaures, Paris.
and the fan club was in Paris. So I assume it is not the short lived
Australian Band.

This website has samples of the songs on the album.
http://rockets.medialt.ru/visitors.htm
The album was released by Montage records in the US

This website has further info. Unfortunately I can't read it.
http://digilander.libero.it/rockets/I_a.htm

Hope this helps.