Not so much a new band, as a continuation of a previous one, Famous Names was essentially the same line-up as Writz. The core of the band is husband-wife duo Steve and Bev Fairnie. They had begun earlier in the 1970s as Fish Co. doing folk-pop not too dissimilar to a lot of Jesus Music of the day, before heading into a distinct punk/new wave direction in the late 70s as Writz. However, they had to change their name due to an American pop group of the same name.
Famous Names picks up where Writz left out, though further distancing their sound from punk and moving headlong into quirky new wave territory. They could almost be seen as British counterparts to The B-52s with the male/female lead vocal tradeoffs and their quirky sounds and song structures.
The group only released 2 singles, both in 1980, for a total of 4 songs all together (not including an Israeli re-pressing of the Writz full-length as The Writz Album under the Famous Names moniker in ’81). The band wouldn’t keep the name long before changing again into the synth-pop Techno Twins (who would change names two more times as Techno Orchestra and The Technos, respectively).
