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The crazy hairdo — the one that feathered along the sides and swept down low over the brows, complete with a little ponytail in the back — has given way to graying gold locks slowly inching its way back across Mike Score’s scalp.

When he performs, it’s often covered with a ball cap, and the guys on either side of him are striking with their youth. Some barely seem old enough to have been alive when Score’s band — A Flock of Seagulls — conquered MTV, the charts and rock ’n’ roll with a form of synthesizer-driven pop that heralded the arrival of the New Wave movement.

These days, A Flock of Seagulls is a club band, riding a wave of ’80s fondness that’s equal parts curiosity and nostalgia. The band has no label, no tour support, no corporate backing. In fact, Score remains the only remaining original member, the voice behind such hits as “I Ran” and “Space Age Love Song.”

But that’s OK. The good-natured ribbing he’s taken over the years for a look and sound that defined the 1980s is all good, he told The Daily Times this week, as is his place as part of a band that achieved iconic status due to its emergence at a particular weird time in rock ’n’ roll as for the rock ’n’ roll its members played.

“We never expected anything like that when we first started,” Score said, talking by phone. “Occasionally, you go, ‘Wow — people are still talking about us.’ In a way, it’s kind of like KISS — we were just right for the time, and once you establish yourself as an icon, you’re basically there forever.

“We used to jokingly say that we were going to change rock ’n’ roll, but every band says that, I think, and then they fall into a particular genre. We didn’t fall into one; we helped start one, and we proved that if you did it the right way, you could still do what you wanted.”

Score and his brother Ali started A Flock of Seagulls in 1979 in their hometown of Liverpool, England. Joined by bassist Frank Maudsley and guitarist Paul Reynolds, they hit the club circuit, landed a record contract and came to America, where their self-titled 1982 debut topped the U.S. charts at No. 10, thanks to “I Ran.” The band’s popularity would be brief, however — Reynolds left the band, the remaining members obtained green cards and settled in Philadelphia and eventually went their separate ways.

“After we had our big deal and stuff like that, my brother and I moved to the States, and at that point, we’d lived in each other’s pockets for about eight years, and we’d really had enough,” Score said. “I didn’t want to sign a record deal at that point; I wanted to play and to write songs, and see if I could improve on that side.”

Ali Score moved to the Northeast, and Mike based himself out of Philly, often playing under the Flock of Seagulls name. At that point, he said, the changing nature of the record industry prompted him to shun any sort of opportunity to rebuild the band into a big-name entity, and he settled instead on playing small clubs and riding on the coattails of “I Ran.”

“The future of it seemed very much to be lawyers getting involved in it and ruining the artistic side of it, and when I stepped away from that, I was quite happy to just play small clubs,” Score said. “When you make records, it’s somebody else saying whether you’re good or not; not the final buyer. You would spend three years working on a record and one recording it, and then one guy might say, ‘I don’t like it; put it on the shelf.’

“They were the ones who decided whether you were going to do anything with your career. Now, the whole industry has turned around, and with downloads and Web sites and Myspace, you can do what you want. You can put your stuff out there, let people find it and if they like it, they can buy it directly from you.”

While A Flock of Seagulls has never technically disbanded, it’s only been a handful of times that the original lineup came together on the same stage since Reynolds quit back in the 1980s. The first time was in November 2003, when the four reunited for a one-time performance for the VH1 series “Bands Reunited.” A year later, they played a small series of dates in America, but the same old problems quickly drove the wedge between them even deeper, Score said.

“Myself, I said, ‘I’m not going to deal with that stuff again,’ so I stepped away from it,” he said. “It’s like meeting an old girlfriend — you’re glad to see her, but you don’t want to go out with her again.”

Eventually, Score said, he’d like to record new music under the Flock of Seagulls name. He has notebooks filled with completed and unfinished songs and had every intention on starting the process earlier this year before deciding to open up a restaurant called Legends in Cocoa Beach, Fla.

That venture keeps him busy, as do the small tours he undertakes with the new members of A Flock of Seagulls, who will join Score on stage at the World Grotto on Saturday night. It’ll be a set heavy on the hits, but a few new songs will make their way into the list as well, Score added.

“I’m not really playing a song like ‘I Ran’ for myself; I’m playing it because that’s what the fans want,” he said. “I look at doing a show as being able to give them what they want and educating them to what you’re doing now. They come to see what they know, and hopefully you can show them you’re not a dead donkey by playing a new song, and hopefully, they’ll like it.

“Of course, 80 percent of the people come out to see ‘I Ran,’ and that OK. It’s been a part of my life for almost 30 years now, and I think it’s like owning a pair of old jeans. They still fit really nice, and most of the time, you don’t even realize you’re wearing them until you look down and think, ‘They still feel great.’”