Tag: Blancmange (Page 14 of 16)

BLANCMANGE Semi Detached Interview

11 March 2015 / electricityclub

Following ‘Blanc Burn’ in 2011 and a 21st Century rework of their debut ‘Happy Families Too’ in 2013, BLANCMANGE are back with their fifth album ‘Semi Detached’.

A brilliant title, Neil Arthur’s tremendous wordplay does it again with a phrase that acts as both a commentary on English suburban aspirations and the fact that this new long player is Arthur’s first of new material recorded without his long time partner-in-crime Stephen Luscombe. Sadly Luscombe has been unable to work due to illness since BLANCMANGE went back on the road in 2011, but with Arthur’s notable dry Northern humour, he manages to put joy into despair with just those two words.

Filling in the void though is producer Adam Fuest along with guitarist and long-time collaborator David Rhodes whose other credits have included Peter Gabriel, JAPAN and NEW ORDER. His whirring E-Bow is a particular highlight on the ‘Heroes’-esque ‘Useless’, but Neil Arthur’s own six-string textures make their presence felt on the sombre closer ‘Bloody Hell Fire’, concluding the bitter sweet journey that is ‘Semi Detached’.

In some ways, this is BLANCMANGE’s technostalgic album and beginning with eight minute opener ‘The Fall’ which actually references Mark E Smith’s cult combo, ‘Semi Detached’ is Neil Arthur’s personal recollections as an art student set to a midlife narrative. The first single ‘Paddington’ features some of the Middle Eastern aesthetics that BLANCMANGE became known in the mainstream for with hits like ‘Living On The Ceiling’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me, but the raw backing and Neil Arthur’s endearing drawl keep things very English and minimally contemporary.

As the first act in the history of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to be interviewed for a fourth occasion, Neil Arthur kindly chatted about BLANCMANGE’s latest opus…

‘Semi Detached’ is your first album of new BLANCMANGE material without Stephen Luscombe and the title appears to be a reference to this?

It could be… but there’s an ambiguity in there like in much of the lyrics so they can be taken in more than one way and that goes for the title. It can mean many things and of course, that definitely crossed my mind. Since we finished ‘Blanc Burn’ in 2010, Stephen hasn’t worked with BLANCMANGE and you haven’t seen him live, but the project goes on with his blessing. Sadly, he’s not well enough to work. So musically, I’ve driven it forward the last 4+ years and ‘Semi Detached’ is me writing and recording it.

Looking back, was reworking ‘Happy Families Too’ a busman’s holiday to prepare you for ‘Semi Detached’?

It took a bit of rearranging but I didn’t have to do any writing *laughs*

‘Happy Families Too’ and ‘Semi Detached’ were very different animals. Interpretation is a very different thing so what I did do was go into the minutiae. That was a strange journey going back to ‘Happy Families’ in such depth and understand what it came from beyond the embryonic memories of what happened 30 years ago. It was actually analyzing data. When I was programming the very early stages of the new versions, it unlocked a few memories that I completely forgot about.

When you come to writing a new album, you don’t have that. But you take on board the experience and one of the things was the technicalities… I always try and learn something from doing any project whether it’s film or doing a new album so that I can learn and say “I won’t make that mistake again”. I’m not a trained musician so you’re kind of cobbling it together… and you think you’re gonna get found out! *laughs*

On the subject of looking back, I remember you saying to me in 2012 that you weren’t interested in doing nostalgia events like Rewind, but you relented and played it in 2013. Why was that?

There’s two answers here; one is, and I’ll basically be honest, I was offered a fee… like everybody else, I have to earn a living and there’s certain things you will do and things you won’t. An offer came in and I knew I was in the process of putting together ‘Happy Families Too’. And in that process, I also did a load of other stuff as well, like things with ‘Blind Vision’ that may not actually ever come out. It made sense to take it a little bit further to understand some of the things we’d done in the past. One of the great things about that is I was creating a lot of sounds for us to be able to manipulate live. When we were offered Rewind, it fitted in perfectly. We’ve been offered things like that since, and I’ve decided not to do them because I want to concentrate on ‘Semi Detached’ and the future of that.

How was the various collaborative processes this time compared with ‘Happy Families Too’ and previous albums?

With ‘The Fall’, that started off as an instrumental groove that Graham Henderson, who’s played live keyboards with BLANCMANGE, had. Then I had another song from a project called AWP1 which Pandit Dinesh played in sometimes. I was listening to this other track called ‘Sequence’ and I had these lyrics and it took me on a journey… I don’t sit around with notebooks waiting for something to come, it tends to mull around in my head and then it just ends up being there. 70-80% will just come out! I wrote these things down and then with these two songs, which are very different songs, I decided to play one on top of the other to see what happened and it just sounded nice. So that’s a kind of collaborative thing!

‘Useless’ is brilliant, it’s quite ENO circa ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ meets LCD SOUNDSYSTEM. Is it about anyone in particular?

Well, yes and no! It’s about anyone who thinks they might be Useless… I take it as a compliment about ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’, it’s one of my favourite albums and I really do like LCD SOUNDSYSTEM. This song is about that whole idea that we’re all flawed and you’re “useless as you are”… there are just times when you think “f*cking hell, I couldn’t organise a p*ss up in a brewery” or that whole thing about confidence. Whatever they think is their failing, irrespective of that and with it, “useless as you are, everybody loves you”… I thought that line just deserved to be in a song. Once I got those lyrics together, I had this trip down memory lane in terms of melodies and cheap synth sounds, and put them all together, cliché upon cliché really. And then I thought, how can I make it slightly odd without anyone noticing, so I took a bar out of the song… if you listening to it, instead of being four or eight, quite often it’s three and seven, just to be awkward! *laughs*

How did ‘Paddington’ come about?

I don’t live in London anymore, much as I love it. I spent 34 years of my life in the city, it’s a part of me. No disrespect to Paddington, but it’s not the prettiest place to disembark into… I love the station but do you know what I mean? But what I absolutely loved when I came in that way was how people bumped into you, everybody is going about their business and you’re anonymous. I’m not joking about this, but I have kissed the ground at Paddington because I love London so much. So many memories and there’s so much future there and I enjoy aspects of it.

It conjured up this idea of this journey of tiny snippets, like looking at a cutting room floor for bits of memories… I just patched all those bits together, turned it round and played with words. For example, “tank top, bus stop”, it was just good fun and fitting them into an electronic groove. Quite a bit of it is ad-libbed but then weirdly, I’ve just had to write it all down which is interesting. That made me look at things like ‘Feel Me’, ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘I Can’t Explain’, they’re all ad-libbed… then you’ve got to try and remember the words! Quite often, the fans know the words better than me! But it’s my prerogative, I wrote them so I’m entitled to ad-lib it again! *laughs*

I decided to use a different sequencer, I’d been using Logic for years and I wanted to use a different digital audio workstation. I used Ableton for ‘Paddington’, then transferred it across to Logic and it ended up in Nuendo! A lot of the songs, I took to Adam who has a studio up in Wales to mix it. We’ve worked together since my solo album ‘Suitcase’ and he comes out on tour with us controlling the sequencers on stage.

You have David Rhodes again working with you on ‘Semi Detached’?

Yes, but on ‘Bloody Hell Fire’, Adam and David voted for my guitar to stay from the demo… they rib me about my guitar playing and say “we wouldn’t have it sounding like that”; but that’s why it works because I’ve gone for the tinnier sound. It wasn’t intentional, it only fitted there. It’s a crappy sounding guitar but they feel it works. Why bother with six if two will do!? I think what influenced my playing initially was punk, YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS and T-REX, they used to have fantastic sounds but quite minimal at times. But I talk a lot more than I play! *laughs*

What’s are the main differences between ‘Semi Detached’ and ‘Blanc Burn’?

I’m collaborating with myself mainly, battling my way through programming synths up and taking it to Adam’s and doing the lead vocals. One big contrast with ‘Blanc Burn’ is I decided I would have a number of backing vocals on.

On ‘Happy Families Too’, I had post-it notes around and one of the things was “minimal – stripped back” to remind me it didn’t have to be over produced. I kept that in mind when I was doing ‘Semi Detached’. One of the things about having more space was to have fun with some backing vocals. There are lots of backing vocals, my family did backing vocals, my daughter sang on it, one of my son’s mates came and sang on it. And then I got the neighbours in and some other friends on ‘I Want More’! I think everyone and the dog’s on that one!

What inspired you to cover CAN’s ‘I Want More’?

The work was done for me but I’ve always enjoyed CAN. I first did a demo of that with David McClymont and Malcolm Ross from ORANGE JUICE back in 1987-88 when we were working on a project post-BLANCMANGE with Dennis Bovell. We went to a studio down the Old Kent Road and that was one of the tracks we did. Funnily enough, we approached CAN to produce our second album, so it could have been even more of a story but we ended up working with John Luongo and Peter Collins.

You’re back doing instrumentals again with ‘MKS Lover’, what is that referring to and why did that not end up with a lyric?

It would never have had a lyric, it’s like ‘Sad Day’… but it isn’t like ‘Sad Day’ in sound. ‘MKS Lover’ was the working title and it was as simple as this; it was all done apart from the 808 rhythm unit on a Roland MKS80 which is a Super Jupiter, and not to be confused with a Jupiter 8.

Overall, you’ve kept the sound of ‘Semi Detached’ quite stripped back and raw with vintage drum machines. Was that deliberate?

Well, it’s all I’ve got! *roars of laughter*

I’ve still got my original 808 and that gets used… with a struggle on some of it, I ended up using the MKS80 with the MPG80 programmer to replicate some of the percussive noises, plus there are some VSTs in there. I’m quite awkward, I put VSTs through amplifiers and god knows what to get I want. The thing for me is I tend to work with a limited palette, because if you’re confident enough to let the line breathe on its own, it doesn’t really matter what it is. I will use anything, I really would… there’s no kazoo on this one, but there was definitely kazoo on the album before! *laughs*

CHIC’s ‘I Want Your Love’ has also been covered and is on the deluxe 2CD edition. What’s that like?

I first did a version with AWP1, the band is basically two acoustic guitars with noises and percussion. We tried to play as little as possible to support the song. Our manifesto was “less is best”… I once fell asleep during one of our songs in rehearsal, I’m not joking! I thought ‘I Want Your Love’ would lend itself to an electronic version and it is absolutely not a dance track, it is a ballad, stripped down… it’s a bit dirty and seedy actually, very sad and menacingly desperate. So it’s a tad darker than the CHIC version which I do love! *laughs*

What else makes up the bonus CD on the deluxe version of ‘Semi Detached’?

I had a pool of about 20 songs and it ended up with 16 being recorded. I didn’t want 2 covers on the final album so we split them. ‘I Want More’ ended up on the album and ‘I Want Your Love’ didn’t… very similar titles actually! There’s a couple of other songs ‘Silk Sea’ and ‘That Worm’ which we thought would be good to go on the deluxe 2CD, but a track called ‘Cactus’ that might come out in the future, I didn’t put on at all. And then we added alternative mixes including a very long version of ‘I Want More’ plus extended versions of ‘Paddington’, ‘Like I Do’ and ‘Useless’.

With the upcoming shows at Red Gallery, are you likely to extend it as a tour and have you decided what to play? Are you going to do all of ‘Semi Detached’?

I did a working setlist the other day and it starts with ‘Irene & Mavis’! So that’s because I did it in chronological order. The shows are obviously to launch ‘Semi Detached’ so there will be a number of songs from it… so you might get to hear ‘Useless’ and join in on the chorus! My dream is for that to become a football terrace anthem: “EVERYBODY LOVES YOU! USELESS AS YOU ARE!” *laughs*

I think people will be disappointed if we they didn’t get something from what we did in the 80s, and maybe we’ll have some things that haven’t had an airing for a while. I think I’ve put ‘Murder’ and ‘See The Train’ on the list… maybe we’ll do ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘Feel Me’ if someone twists my arm! My manager Steve says “if you don’t do ‘Living On The Ceiling’, you might have a problem!” so we’ll probably have to do that!

‘Living On The Ceiling’ has almost turned into a terrace chant live now…

…it’s a singalong, I can almost just leave it up to the audience. And ‘Starf*cker’ might get an outing. I wasn’t originally thinking about taking ‘Semi Detached’ out on tour, but it may well happen because it’s being discussed. I wanted to do something very different which is why the Red Gallery shows happened. I wanted to do something special and not just do the conventional tour. But we may be able to find the right venues for people to be able to come and see it further afield, we’ll wait and see. For now it’s just those two shows I’m concentrating on.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Neil Arthur

Additional thanks to Steve Malins at Random PR

‘Semi Detached’ is released by Cherry Red Records on 23rd March 2015 in CD, limited edition deluxe 2CD, vinyl LP and digital download formats. Pre-order at http://blancmange.tmstor.es/

BLANCMANGE will be appearing at The Red Gallery, 1-3 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3DT on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th May 2015. Support on both nights will be provided by BERNHOLZ

https://www.blancmange.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Hana Knizova
11th March 2015

25 SYNTH SINGLES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HITS

3 January 2015 / electricityclub

Statistics can often not be a good indicator of quality and so it is that sometimes, a great single never actually attained the sales recognition it deserved. This could have been due to timing, lack of interest from a fickle music buying public or even a saturated market.

While some of these lost singles do get forgotten, many become live standards and firm fan favourites. So here are 25 singles from predominantly established acts or collectives featuring figures who are now well known in the music scene, that did not reach the UK Top 40 singles chart. Due to the sheer numbers of songs that are eligible, a cut-off point has been made for when CD singles started to become the norm around 1990.

After much deliberation, it was decided to leave out the work of ASSOCIATES as a number of their songs that would have been contenders for this list were featured in ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s own Beginner’s Guide To Billy MacKenzie. There are of course, several other notable omissions, but this list could go on forever…

So with a restriction of one single per artist moniker, the list is presented in chronological order by year, and then alphabetically…

THE HUMAN LEAGUE Empire State Human (1979)

It seems strange now that this extremely catchy single failed to be a hit in an era when synthesizers were being accepted by the wider record buying public. After all, both SPARKS and TUBEWAY ARMY had entered the Top 20 with their Moog assisted ditties. In hindsight though, Colin Thurston’s production did sound comparatively thin next to ‘The Number One Song in Heaven’ and ‘Are Friends Electric?’. Despite a timely re-release in 1980, ‘Empire State Human’ only reached a high of No62.

Available on THE HUMAN LEAGUE album ‘Reproduction’ via Virgin Records

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk

LORI & THE CHAMELEONS Touch (1979)

THE CHAMELEONS (not to be confused with the cult Manchester band) were actually Zoo Records supremos Bill Drummond of THE KLF fame and country house resident Dave Balfe who played keyboards with THE TEARDROP EXPLODES. On the beautifully sequenced ‘Touch’, art school student Lori Lartey innocently told of her holiday romance in Tokyo. It spent one week at No70 when re-issued on Sire Records. There was to be just one more single entitled ‘The Lonely Spy’.

Available on the compilation album ‘North By North West’ (V/A) via Korova Records / Warner Music

http://www.penkilnburn.com/

JAPAN Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980)

After three albums with Ariola Hansa, JAPAN decamped to Virgin Records and reached No60 with ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’, their first single release on the label. But much more was expected as the band were already playing huge venues such as The Bukodan in Tokyo. It would not be until Autumn 1981 following a cash-in release of ‘Quiet Life’ by their former label that David Sylvian and Co. were to become regular singles chart fixtures.

Full length version available on the JAPAN album ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ via Virgin Records

http://www.nightporter.co.uk

ROBERT PALMER Johnny & Mary (1980)

Robert Palmer took an interest in synths having become a fan of Gary Numan and JAPAN. ‘Johnny & Mary’ was a beautifully world weary number that hit a high of No44. He later had massive success with a more rock flavoured sound while his bank balance was enhanced when the song was covered for the ‘Papa et Nicole’ Renault adverts. Bryan Ferry’s reinterpretation with Todd Terje exposed a twilight years scrutiny on the lyrics which sadly, Palmer himself was never able to do…

Available on the ROBERT PALMER album ‘Clues’ via Island Records / Universal Music

http://www.robertpalmer.com/

SIMPLE MINDS I Travel (1980)

SIMPLE MINDS were signed to Arista Records between 1979-1980 and like JAPAN, they were met with indifference by their label. ‘I Travel’ was their penultimate single at Arista who threw in a free blue flexidisc featuring ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Film Theme Dub’ as a sweetener to early purchasers. But despite airplay at The Blitz Club where its futuristic frenzy was highly welcomed, ‘I Travel’ did not make any chart impact.

Available on the SIMPLE MINDS album ‘Celebrate: The Greatest Hits’ via Virgin Records

http://www.simpleminds.com

ULTRAVOX Passing Strangers (1980)

Things were heading in the right direction for the Mk2 line-up of ULTRAVOX following ‘Sleepwalk’ getting to No29 in the UK chart. Built around a more synth rock structure, ‘Passing Strangers’ had a great chorus and a sympathetic environment in which THE HUMAN LEAGUE and DEPECHE MODE were also managing to break through. But the single stiffed at No57 and it would take the massive surprise success of ‘Vienna’ in early 1981 to truly establish ULTRAVOX as a chart force.

Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘The Collection’ via EMI Records

http://www.ultravox.org.uk

OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING Lawnchairs (1981)

New York’s OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING were one of the new synthpop acts to emerge from across the Atlantic and their best known song ‘Lawnchairs’ was a frantic mechanised combination of OMD and Gary Numan. Despite gaining regular radio play in the UK, its chart summit was No49. The trio later re-recorded ‘Lawnchairs’ with a more conventional live drum sound, but this template totally took the charm out!

Available on the OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING album ‘Nightlife – The Collection’ via EP Music

http://www.synthpunk.org/odw/

SOFT CELL Memorabilia (1981)

Produced by Daniel Miller, ‘Memorabilia’ borrowed heavily from Cerrone’s ‘Supernature’. Released as a 12 inch single but relegated to B-side on the edited 7 inch with ‘A Man Could Get Lost’ as the A-side, Almond recalled a list of trashy souvenirs that were also metaphors for stalking. Dark yet danceable, despite not being a hit, ‘Memorabilia’ would later becitied as an influential proto-house classic.

Available on the SOFT CELL album ‘The Very Best Of’ via Phonogram / Universal Music

http://www.marcalmond.co.uk

BLANCMANGE Feel Me (1982)

If Ian Curtis had joined TALKING HEADS, then it might have sounded like this. “I always thought it was more David Byrne than Ian Curtis but, there was never any intention” recalled Neil Arthur in 2013, “We hired a Roland Jupiter 8, an ARP sequencer and a Korg MS20 plus a Linn LM-1 which Stephen Luscombe and I programmed up”. Reaching No46, ‘Feel Me’ always had untapped hit potential as FAITHLESS’ reworking using Arthur’s vocals proved.

Available on the BLANCMANGE album ‘Happy Families’ via Edsel Records

http://www.blancmange.co.uk

THOMAS DOLBY Europa & The Pirate Twins (1982)

With its thundering Simmons drums and glistening synth riff, ‘Europa & The Pirate Twins’ was based on a real life romance of Dolby’s: “I had a girlfriend and we used to fantasise that after the apocalypse, wherever we were, we would meet up on this beach in East Anglia where I grew up… I always thought she’d end up being this big movie star or something”. The song was not a Top40 hit, but entered the wider consciousness when it was used as the theme to BBC Radio1’s ‘Saturday Live’.

Available on the THOMAS DOLBY album ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ via EMI Records

http://www.thomasdolby.com

HEAVEN 17 Let Me Go (1982)

Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware often cite ‘Let Me Go’ as their favourite HEAVEN 17 song. Propelled by a funky Roland TB303 Bassline before it was hijacked by Acid House, ‘Let Me Go’ had hit written all over it, but stalled at No41. But in a competitive Autumn ‘82 for new releases, later international hits like Thomas Dolby’s ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ and EURYTHMICS’ ‘Love Is A Stranger’ (on its initial release) were having difficulties getting into the UK Top40.

Available on the HEAVEN 17 album ‘The Luxury Gap’ via Virgin Records

http://www.heaven17.com

THE TEARDROP EXPLODES Tiny Children (1982)

THE TEARDROP EXPLODES may not have been a synthesizer driven group, but this marvellously haunting ballad was layered in Prophet5 courtesy of Dave Balfe while Julian Cope sounded like a distressed little boy, lost in his sunshine playroom. Mercury Records probably thought ‘Tiny Children’ would be a hit following the success of JAPAN’s ‘Ghosts’ but released in June 1982, the sonic chill was not what people were wanted as they prepared for their summer holidays!

Available on THE TEARDROP EXPLODES album ‘The Greatest Hit’ via Mercury / Universal Music

https://www.headheritage.co.uk/

TEARS FOR FEARS Suffer The Children (1982)

When TEARS FOR FEARS first appeared, they were trying to emulate OMD. ‘Suffer The Children’ took inspiration from Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal de la Quintana’s interest in Primal Scream therapy while musically, it recalled McCluskey and Humphreys’ ‘Pretending To See The Future’ but with more guitar. The child-like refrain by Ozabal’s wife within the bridge and coda would have actually sounded like an OMD hookline had it been played on synth.

Available on the TEARS FOR FEARS deluxe album ‘The Hurting’ via Mercury / Universal Music

http://tearsforfears.com/

VISAGE Pleasure Boys (1982)

In Autumn 1982, VISAGE were in a state of limbo following the departure of Midge Ure. But with John Luongo who had remixed ‘Night Train’ on board, the remaining quartet of Steve Strange, Rusty Egan, Billy Currie and Dave Formula plus new bassist Steve Barnacle explored New York electro. ‘Pleasure Boys’ was hard and aggressive with lyrics full of hedonism. But the New Romantic audience had moved on and sales were only enough for it to get to No44.

Full length dance mix version available on the VISAGE album ‘The Face – The Best Of’ via Universal Music

http://www.visage.cc/

DEAD OR ALIVE Misty Circles (1983)

Have courted the major labels, DEAD OR ALIVE finally settled on Epic Records and unleashed this vicious slice of electro gothic disco in ‘Misty Circles’ as their first single release for them. Featuring guitars from a soon-to-be-sacked Wayne Hussey, who went on to join THE SISTERS OF MERCY and then form THE MISSION, ‘Misty Circles’ had a highly unusual sound produced by Zeus B Held that was darker than the romping Hi-NRG that DEAD OR ALIVE were later to have hits with.

Full length version available on the DEAD OR ALIVE album ‘Evolution’ via Epic Records / Sony Music

http://www.deadoralive.net/

JOHN FOXX Endlessly (1983)

By 1983, JOHN FOXX had moved away from pure electronic music and was now listening to both SIMPLE MINDS and U2. His third solo album ‘The Golden Section’ took on a more pop oriented slant under the auspices of producer Zeus B Held ‘Endlessly’ was initially released in 1982 as a moody Linn drum heavy psychedelic romp and failed to chart. But for the new version, thundering sequencers, Simmons drums and a danced up euphoria were added… however, it still failed to be a hit.

Available on the JOHN FOXX album ‘The Golden Section’ via Esdel Records

http://www.metamatic.com

OMD Telegraph (1983)

‘Electricity’ would have been a hit had its sales not been spread over three separate releases with different recorded versions between 1979-80. ‘Telegraph’ was an angry metaphoric attack on religious fundamentalism in the USA, but considered to be the most commercial track on OMD’s brave but critically panned nautical adventure ‘Dazzle Ships’. With an infectious synth melody, what was there not to like? But OMD’s audience had diminished by this time and it only got to No42.

Available on the OMD album ‘Dazzle Ships’ via Virgin Records

http://www.omd.uk.com

TALK TALK My Foolish Friend (1983)

Produced by Rhett Davies who was best known for his slick touches on ROXY MUSIC’s ‘Avalon’, ‘My Foolish Friend’ was the last TALK TALK song to feature contributions from their original keyboardist Simon Brenner. Released between ‘The Party’s Over’ and ‘It’s My Life’ albums as a single, Mark Hollis was in wonderfully miserable mode over a dramatic synthesized backdrop. The single became lost when it only reached No57 and was not included on the ‘It’s My Life’ long player.

Available on the TALK TALK album ‘Asides Besides’ via EMI Music

http://www.spiritoftalktalk.com

THE BLUE NILE Tinseltown In The Rain (1984)

A classic song that sounded like THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS fronting OMD, ‘Tinseltown In The Rain’ is regarded as THE BLUE NILE’s signature tune. Released as part of a deal with hi-fi manufacturer Linn Products to showcase their flagship Sondek LP12 turntable, the gorgeous melancholy of ‘Tinseltown In the Rain’ had an understated quality that ensured the trio’s sporadic releases over the next 20 years were eagerly anticipated by the musical cognoscenti.

Full length version available on THE BLUE NILE album ‘A Walk Across The Rooftops’ via Virgin Records

http://www.thebluenile.net

CHINA CRISIS Arizona Sky (1986)

CHINA CRISIS are probably the most underrated band of their generation. Lyrically inspired by an artificially assisted gondola ride in Venice, ‘Arizona Sky’ was one of their many singles which deserved greater recognition. The nucleus of Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon usually managed at least one hit per album but with ‘Arizona Sky’, it was not to be. It settled at No47 despite the song’s brilliant singalong chorus, infectious synthesized textures and catchy “bop-bop-be-doo-dah” refrain.

Full length version available on the CHINA CRISIS album ‘Wishful Thinking: The Very Best Of’ via Universal Music

https://www.facebook.com/pages/China-Crisis/295592467251068

ERASURE Oh L’Amour (1986)

“Why are they doing a DOLLAR song?” someone was overheard at their first visit to an ERASURE concert. And this ultimately sums up why ‘Oh L’Amour’ should have been a massive hit. Its now highly collectable ‘Thomas The Tank Engine’ cover had to be withdrawn due to copyright infringement and wouldn’t have helped availability. However, it should be noted that the original artwork actually features two incidental characters from the Reverend W Audrey’s famous books…

Available on the ERASURE album ‘Always – The Very Best Of’ via Mute Records

http://www.erasureinfo.com

NEW ORDER Bizarre Love Triangle (1986)

One of NEW ORDER’s best loved tunes, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ only reached No56 in the UK singles chart. However, the version released was an irritating, dance enhanced remix by Shep Pettibone which took all the subtlety out of the song with its collage of overdriven percussive samples. Far better and much more commercial was an at-the-time unreleased remix by Stephen Hague which later formed the basis of the ’94 version on ‘(the best of)’ compilation.

Available on the NEW ORDER album ‘Singles’ via Rhino Records

http://www.neworder.com

ACT Snobbery & Decay (1987)

It was the height of Thatcherism and the Synclavier driven theatrics of ‘Snobbery & Decay’ were a sharp observation by Claudia Brücken and Thomas Leer on the state of the nation. However, the UK were not yet ready for an Anglophile German to tell them about its political decline… “No sadly they didn’t” remembered Claudia Brücken in Summer of 2010, “perhaps it was just not the right moment for this song… Thomas does think that perhaps we were ahead of our time”.

Available on the CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN album ‘ComBined – The Best Of’ via Salvo / Union Square Records

http://www.claudiabrucken.co.uk

KRAFTWERK The Telephone Call (1987)

The last single featuring the classic RFWK line-up, ‘The Telephone Call’ was the most immediate track on the disappointing ‘Electric Cafe’ album. Featuring lead vocals from Karl Bartos, despite the abundance of digital synthesis and sampling, ‘The Telephone Call’ still had all the usual Kling Klang hallmarks such as pretty melodies, syncopated rhythms and slightly off-key singing to make this to ‘Electric Cafe’ what ‘Computer Love’ was to 1981’s ‘Computer World’ opus.

Available on the KRAFTWERK album ‘Techno Pop’ via Mute Records

http://www.kraftwerk.com

CAMOUFLAGE The Great Commandment (1988)

Today, DEPECHE MODE influenced acts are common place but in 1988, this was highly unusual. Taking ‘Some Great Reward’ as their template, CAMOUFLAGE developed on the industrial flavoured synthpop of ‘Master & Servant’ and ‘People Are People’ which DM had all but abandoned from ‘Black Celebration’ onwards. ‘The Great Commandment’ was probably the best single DM never recorded but while it was a hit in Europe and the US, it made no impression in the UK.

Available on the CAMOUFLAGE album ‘The Singles’ via Polydor Records / Universal Music

http://www.camouflage-music.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
3rd January 2015

HEAVEN 17 + BLANCMANGE Live at Bedford Corn Exchange

15 November 2014 / electricityclub

Following the success of their joint gig at Manchester Academy earlier this year, two of Synth Britannia’s best loved combos HEAVEN 17 and BLANCMANGE have been doing the rounds on ‘The Tour Of Synthetic Delights’.

In 1984, former HEAVEN 17 member Ian Craig Marsh declared to Smash Hits that BLANCMANGE were his favourite band while a link was first forged back in 1981 when Martyn Ware produced the demos that eventually got BLANCMANGE signed to London Records.

BLANCMANGE arrived on stage in their current live trio incarnation all clothed in lab coats with front man Neil Arthur staring at the crowd like an eccentric but cool university professor. Opening with ‘Game Above My Head’, he waved a telescopic inspection mirror like a golf club as if to substantiate the impression! The set comprised predominately of crowd pleasers such as ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me’ while ‘Living On The Ceiling’ appeared midway through and was effectively turned into a terrace chant as the audience sang the main theme.

But best of all was an emotive ‘Waves’, now reworked and sounding even more like early OMD than ever before. A nod to BLANCMANGE’s most recent album ‘Blanc Burn’ came with the groovy ‘WDYF’. Meanwhile a charismatic Ian Curtis meets David Byrne intensity made its presence felt on blistering ‘Happy Families Too…’ versions of ‘I Can’t Explain’ and ‘Feel Me’. In all, it was a synthetic delight from the lean and mean Mr Arthur to warm up the evening’s proceedings.

HEAVEN 17 began their part of the bargain with ‘Circus Of Death’, an old HUMAN LEAGUE song from Martyn Ware’s days in the band. Always known for varying their setlists regularly with assorted League numbers and cover versions, one of the attractions of this particular H17 jaunt was the promise of new material, the first since 2005’s ‘Before After’.

On a likely direction, Martyn Ware said in May 2013: “it’s still in the birthing stage but I think we want to make it very electronic and stripped down… we always start off with this intention but it always ends up epic!!” In Spring 2014, Glenn Gregory added: “At the moment, it’s fairly loose… I’m doing that deliberately, the drum tracks are very basic and I’d say as guide, the tracks are more like the electronic side of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ than ‘The Luxury Gap’ or ‘How Men Are’” – the first of the new tunes aired was ‘Illumination’.

An electro funk groove in the vein of ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ developed into a FULL FORCE / LISA LISA / CULT JAM romp. And with a fabulous Stylophone styled solo to boot, it was as if THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘Crash’ album had gone right! The second new song ‘Pray’ began like early HUMAN LEAGUE, its metronomic avant first half transforming with slap bass runs and rhythm guitar via ’Young Americans’ era Bowie into that synth soul hybrid which HEAVEN 17 have been known and loved for.

Of course, the hits were present too like the still sadly relevant ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, ‘Let Me Go’ and ‘Come Live With Me’ plus a pleasant surprise in the newly revived 1984 ode to nuclear apocalypse ‘Sunset Now’. And the glamourous soul sistas Billie Godfrey and Rachel Mosleh gave their all to a wonderfully extended and exuberant ‘Temptation’… yes DEPECHE MODE, this is how to breathe new life into your best known song and it doesn’t involve tedious drum solos!

To finish, there was a cover of Bowie’s ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ with Ware adding some mad Eno-esque squelches via his Roland V-Synth. Meanwhile during ‘Being Boiled’, live keyboardist Berenice Scott maintained her position as “possibly the sexiest lady ever to have got behind a synthesizer” when she left her stand to almost come to the front of the stage with her Roland AX keytar and demonstrate the beauty of the synthesizer.

The Bedford leg of ‘The Tour Of Synthetic Delights’ was a fantastically entertaining evening that proved heritage events with key acts from the Synth Britannia era can be both nostalgic and credible if the line-up is right. Promoters take note… it doesn’t have to be a cheese fest like ‘Here & Now’!

HEAVEN 17 ‘Illumination’ b/w ‘Pray’ is available as a limited edition 12” vinyl single from www.heaven17.com

https://www.facebook.com/heaven17official

BLANCMANGE ‘Happy Families Too…’ and ‘Blanc Burn’ are available on CD from www.blancmange.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai
15th November 2014

25 SONGS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SINGLES

19 February 2014 / electricityclub

The concept of the single in the past has been to present an artist’s most immediate work for mass consumption and appreciation, often as a trailer for an album or compilation.
Like it or not, many acts’ best songs have been released as singles. They often reach an audience who would not normally be interested in the tribulations of a much longer journey.

Looking back throughout pop history, many pinnacles of a group’s career have been exclusively single releases; THE WALKER BROTHERS ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’, THE BEATLES ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ and THE JAM ‘Going Underground’ are a number of examples.

Today’s culture of individual track downloading now makes virtually every song in existence a single. However, a fair number of recordings which have become standards within live sets and have become a key part of a band’s history have never been accorded a single release. Such were some bands’ standings in their heyday that many were potential hits.

So here are 25 synth friendly songs which ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK felt should have been given singular status. Listing tracks not released as 45s or CD singles in the UK with a limit of one song per artist moniker, they are arranged in chronological and then alphabetical order.

GARY NUMAN Metal (1979)

With Minimoog riffage in abundance, ‘Metal’ would have made a perfect follow-up to ‘Cars’ and in hindsight, been less of a public anti-climax than the brave, but misguided release of ‘Complex’, as great a song as it is. Full of dystopian resignation with references to “liquid engineers” and chilling vox humana courtesy of the Polymoog, ‘Metal’ was Sci-Fi musicality at its best. Even NINE INCH NAILS covered it and nearly 35 years later, it is still part of the Gary Numan live set.

Available on the GARY NUMAN album ‘The Pleasure Principle’ via Beggars Banquet Records

http://www.numan.co.uk/

JOHN FOXX A New Kind Of Man (1980)

“I want to be a machine” cried JOHN FOXX as far back as 1977 on the first ‘Ultravox!’ album. Starting off side two of ‘Metamatic’, the former Dennis Leigh realised his mechanised JG Ballard inspired electro theories and went up to the next level with ‘A New Kind of Man’. Is it about genetically modified humans or homo superiors? Who knows? But the chilling Elka string machine and frightening detuned synthetics made it a distinctly new kind of song in a brave new world.

Available on the JOHN FOXX album ‘Metamatic’ via Edsel Records

http://www.metamatic.com/

JAPAN Swing (1980)

JAPAN found a refuge at Virgin Records who released their fourth album ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’. One of its best numbers was ‘Swing’ which combined David Sylvian’s muzak travelogue with Richard Barbieri’s Oriental synth textures. It was probably one of the last times JAPAN were fully as one. Guitarist Rob Dean made a full contribution before being forced out while the rhythm section of the late Mick Karn and Steve Jansen were amazingly fluid over the drum machine bossa nova.

Available on the JAPAN album ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ via Virgin Records

http://www.nightporter.co.uk/

JOY DIVISION Isolation (1980)

OK, so JOY DIVISION never took singles from their albums but what if they had? This would have been a contender. Featuring an ARP Omni and an early version of the Simmons drum synthesizer, ‘Isolation’ was the most electronic track JOY DIVISION ever recorded although Hooky’s bass ensured there was a gritty punk rock edge. When NEW ORDER reformed for the first time in 1998, a drum ‘n’ bass flavoured rework of ‘Isolation’ was part of the live set.

Available on the JOY DIVISION album ‘Closer’ via WEA Records

http://joydivisionofficial.com/

THE HUMAN LEAGUE The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (1981)

Optimistic and aspirational, ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’ is the key song from ‘Dare’ and was a metaphor for THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s then pop ambitions. Gloriously spacious and delightfully catchy, each synthesizer voicing has its place while Phil Oakey gives full justice to Adrian Wright’s shopping list of life’s pleasures to a perfect Linn Drum clap track. It certainly deserves to be played live more often… “New York – ice cream – TV – travel – good times”

Available on THE HUMAN LEAGUE album ‘Dare’ via Virgin Records

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk/

KRAFTWERK Computer World (1981)

Hooky, catchy and futuristic, ‘Computer World’ with its Speak & Spell voices and infectious four note theme was an ideal KRAFTWERK single if ever there was one. However, the perky and novelty laden ‘Pocket Calculator’ was chosen to trail the parent album. It is unlikely ‘Computer World’ could have hit the top of the charts like ‘The Model’ did, but such was the song’s popularity, the native variant got released as a limited run remixed maxi-single in Germany.

Available on the KRAFTWERK album ‘Computer World’ via Mute Records

http://www.kraftwerk.com/

OMD She’s Leaving (1981)

It was a tricky call between ‘She’s Leaving’ and ‘Radio Waves’, but the North-by-North West melancholy of the former won over the upfront Germany Calling salvo of the latter. A wonderful synthetic cross between JOY DIVISION and Paul McCartney, ‘She’s Leaving’ was pencilled in as the fourth single from OMD’s huge selling ‘Architecture & Morality’ but was vetoed by the band. However, when ‘She’s Leaving’ did come out as a single in the Benelux region, it flopped.

Available on the OMD album ‘Architecture & Morality’ via Virgin Records

http://www.omd-messages.co.uk/

SOFT CELL Secret Life (1981)

As proven by their covers of ‘Tainted Love’, ‘What?’ and later on during their 21st Century comeback ‘The Night’, SOFT CELL always had a love of the UK’s Northern Soul scene. Its influence would seep into their own compositions like ‘Secret Life’. Marc Almond’s narrative on a philanderer’s hypocrisy was an apt reflection of suburban life while Dave Ball’s solid use of keyboards provided a suitably accessible but gritty sub-Tamla soundtrack.

Available on the SOFT CELL album ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ via Universal Music

https://www.softcell.co.uk/

DURAN DURAN New Religion (1982)

The perfect balance between art and pop, ‘New Religion’ was a key highlight from DURAN DURAN’s ‘Rio’ album. “A dialogue between the ego and the alter-ego”, Simon Le Bon’s conflicting schizophrenic voices added tension in the bridges before a classic Duran chorus. With an ambient intro that JAPAN would be proud of, it then moved at breakneck speed through the quintet’s other influences like Bowie, Roxy, Moroder and Chic with speed being the operative word.

Available on the DURAN DURAN album ‘Rio’ via EMI Records

http://www.duranduran.com/

SIMPLE MINDS New Gold Dream (1982)

A huge song with two drummers drumming as well as lashings of Jupiter 8 and a marvellous bass engine, ‘New Gold Dream’ and its parent album highlighted an ambitious streak in SIMPLE MINDS akin to their Virgin label mates THE HUMAN LEAGUE when they released ‘Dare’ the year before. Already six minutes in length, an extended mix was released as a 12 inch single in Italy while as a sample on URSURA’s ‘Open Your Mind’, ‘New Gold Dream’ became a club hit in 1993.

Available on the SIMPLE MINDS album ‘New Gold Dream’ via Virgin Records

http://www.simpleminds.com/

VISAGE The Anvil (1982)

With its heavy metronomic beat sans hi-hats, ‘The Anvil’ was Steve Strange’s tale of a night out in New York’s notorious club of the same name. But that wasn’t all, Billy Currie’s screaming ARP Odyssey and Dave Formula’s brassy synth riff completed the excursion. Rusty Egan said: “For me, ‘The Anvil’ was the lead track, ‘The Anvil’ in German (‘Der Amboss’), the 12-inch remixes, all that which I did with John Luongo was for me, the single. But the record company didn’t support that!”

Available on the VISAGE album ‘The Anvil’ via Cherry Pop

http://www.visage.cc/

YAZOO Midnight (1982)

Showcasong one of the best Alison Moyet vocals, Vince Clarke’s minimal programmed backing gave her plenty of space to let rip with raw emotion on ‘Midnight’ . Back in those days, Mute Records usually only took two singles from an album so with ‘Only You’ and ‘Don’t Go’ already accorded singular status from ‘Upstairs at Eric’s’, a 45 was never likely. But it sort of belatedly became a single when it was sampled and manipulated by REX THE DOG for ‘Bubblicious’ in 2008.

Available on the YAZOO album ‘Upstairs At Eric’s’ via Mute Records

http://www.yazooinfo.com/

BLANCMANGE Game Above My Head (1983)

Originally the B-side to ‘Waves’, ‘Game Above My Head’ signalled the more disco based direction Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe later trod on ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘That’s Love, That It Is’ with American producer John Luongo. Merging the busy Linn Drum patterns that characterised BLANCMANGE’s debut ‘Happy Families’ with a funkier outlook, ‘Game Above My Head’ was included on their second LP ‘Mange Tout’. Today, the song remains a constant in the live set.

Available on the BLANCMANGE album ‘Mange Tout’ via Edsel Records

http://www.blancmange.co.uk/

HEAVEN 17 Five Minutes To Midnight (1984)

HEAVEN 17’s most underrated track and referencing The Doomsday Clock, ‘Five Minutes To Midnight’ followed on from ‘Let’s All Make A Bomb’ to highlight the absurdity of Mutually Assured Destruction. Using and abusing the Fairlight CMI, the ‘Protect and Survive’ styled civil defence announcements, deathly whoops and a doomy orchestral crescendo bring a frightening finality as the song suddenly stops… “Hot as a furnace – wing to wing contact! AARGH!”

Available on the HEAVEN 17 album ‘How Men Are’ via Virgin Records

http://www.heaven17.com/

HOWARD JONES Equality (1984)

‘Equality’ exploited new MIDI technology like the Prophet T8 and Yamaha DX7, combining it with a Jupiter 8 and Pro-One; “it was one of those ones that really suited my live rig” said Howard Jones With its poignant human rights message, whether ‘Equality’ would have made a better single than ‘Pearl in the Shell’ is a moot point, but the song was released as a single in South Africa as a commentary about Apartheid.

Available on the HOWARD JONES album ‘Human’s Lib’ via Cherry Red Records

http://www.howardjones.com/

ULTRAVOX White China (1984)

Despite their use of synthesizers, it was rare that ULTRAVOX went the whole sequencer route. They did so with this song about the impending 1997 handover of the British Colony of Hong Kong to Red China. The lyrics captured a sense of pessimism over a bouncy electro disco soundtrack influenced by ‘Blue Monday’. Slated for release as a single in the UK, ‘White China’ had a special extended mix prepared but Chrysalis Records preferred the more obvious ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’.

Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘Lament’ via EMI Records

http://www.ultravox.org.uk/

A-HA Scoundrel Days (1986)

A-HA were perceived as a teenybop group in their heyday, but their Nordic melancholic depth was apparent even on their only UK No1 ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’. “Cut my wrist on a bad thought” is a superb piece of second language expression that no native speaker could have come up with. Morten Harket veers from a semi-spoken growl to a full voice salvo for the terrific chorus while Pål Waaktaar’s twanginess adds some edge to Magne Furuholmen’s glacial synthetic atmospheres.

Available on the A-HA album ‘Scoundrel Days’ via WEA Records

http://a-ha.com/

PET SHOP BOYS Tonight Is Forever (1986)

Mistakenly announced as a new single on ‘The Tube’, ‘Tonight Is Forever’ is one of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s best early compositions. From its blipping intro with an odd starting snare drum to the magnificently euphoric chorus, it captured the excitement of a fleeting romance on a night out in clubland. With its sombre synth brass riff and a wonderful middle eight, it was later covered by Liza Minelli in an orchestral arrangement for her PET SHOP BOYS produced album ‘Results’.

Available on the PET SHOP BOYS album ‘Please’ via EMI Records

http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/

NEW ORDER Mr Disco (1989)

‘Your Silent Face’ may be one of NEW ORDER’s best songs, but it was unlikely to have got radio play as a single with its “why don’t you p*ss off?” quip! Meanwhile, ‘Mr Disco’ was the club friendly Mancunians in their Italo prime, complete with holiday romance lyrics and tongue-in-cheek syndrums. Some fans were dismayed by its resemblance to PET SHOP BOYS, but Bernard Sumner went and founded ELECTRONIC, aided and abetted by Messrs Tennant and Lowe!

Available on the NEW ORDER album ‘Technique’ via WEA Records

http://www.neworder.com/

DEPECHE MODE Halo (1990)

One of DEPECHE MODE’s greatest moments, Alan Wilder said: “From memory, the drums were sampled from LED ZEPPELIN’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’ (but secondhand from a rap record)… For the end choruses, there are some string samples which I think were derived from Elgar. One of my techniques is to find sections of classical strings and transpose / stretch these, then add my own samples, in order to formulate new and unusual arrangements”.

Available on the DEPECHE MODE album ‘Violator’ via Mute Records

http://www.depechemode.com/

ELEKTRIC MUSIC Kissing The Machine (1993)

Undoubtedly, ‘Kissing The Machine’ is Andy McCluskey’s finest song without Paul Humphreys as an OMD band mate. It also featured one of Karl Bartos’ greatest melodies. Recorded for his first project after leaving KRAFTWERK, Karl Bartos said “He suggested we do something together and I was up for it… We picked some cassettes and finally I found the opening notes of ‘Kissing The Machine’. A month later he sent me a demo…He wrote the whole song and the lyric and the robo voice”

Available on the ELEKTRIC MUSIC album ‘Esperanto’ via SPV Records

http://www.karlbartos.com/

ERASURE Because You’re So Sweet (1994)

The closing track on the ‘I Say I Say I Say’ album produced by HEAVEN 17 and BEF’s Martyn Ware, ‘Because You’re So Sweet’ was a pretty ballad representative of the maturer approach taken by Andy Bell and Vince Clarke for their seventh long player. Featuring ERASURE’s trademark sequences, there was also the self-imposed restriction of no drum machines being used, so that all the album’s percussive templates were created using synths and driven by sequencers.

Available on the ERASURE album ‘I Say I Say I Say’ via Mute Records

http://www.erasureinfo.com/

MOBY First Cool Hive (1997)

There were eight singles from 1999’s ‘Play’ but for 1995’s ‘Everything Is Wrong’, Mute Records were more restrained with just five! Surprisingly, this vivid instrumental missed out on singular distribution. One of the highlights from the genre hopping MOBY long player, the looping bass sample of ‘First Cool Hive’ was like an update of ‘Empires & Dance’ era SIMPLE MINDS while female voice samples and beautiful synth strings gave it a mysterious ENIGMA-tic touch.

Available on the MOBY album ‘Everything Is Wrong’ via Mute Records

http://www.moby.com/

LADYTRON Discotraxx (2001)

‘Mu-tron’ may have opened the LADYTRON debut album ‘604’ but the pulsating salvo at the start of ‘Discotraxx’ signalled the album’s intent… the return of the synthesizer as an instrument of value and integrity, not as a novelty to mock the past. From the moment Mira Aroyo deadpans in Bulgarian and Helen Marnie’s sweet but resigned voice kicks in about “the boy I know”, a new dawn is heralding for electronic pop.

Available on the LADYTRON album ‘604’ via Nettwerk Records

http://www.ladytron.com/

GOLDFRAPP Lovely 2 C U (2005)

The surreal concept was Kate Bush does THE HUMAN LEAGUE on this buzzy percussive extravaganza, one of the more under rated songs in Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory’s canon. The sub-TOM TOM CLUB meets PRINCE electrofunk is aided by Charlie Jones’ treated bass runs over the zooming synth hooks and chunky riffs. Interestingly despite its immediacy or maybe because of it, ‘Lovely 2 C U’ has rarely made it into the GOLDFRAPP live set.

Available on the GOLDFRAPP album ‘Supernature’ via Mute Records

http://goldfrapp.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th February 2014

BLANCMANGE Happy Families Too Live in London

16 November 2013 / electricityclub

The concept of an album being revisited and restyled for a live setting is now a regular staple of the professional circuit but can be controversial.

In 2008, GARY NUMAN gave an industrialised makeover to his classic ‘Replicas’ which delighted some but alienated many others, so much so that when Mr Numan undertook his 30th Anniversary tour of ‘The Pleasure Principle’ a year later, it was note-to-note faithful, right down to the absence of guitar as on the original.

Since their return in 2011, BLANCMANGE have been very much about looking forward with frontman Neil Arthur focussing on material from the comeback album ‘Blanc Burn’ during live shows and even daring to omit their much loved ABBA cover ‘The Day Before You Came’. But this year has seen a slight change of heart with Arthur now comfortable with BLANCMANGE’s legacy as shown by a willingness to play at the ‘Rewind Festival’ in Henley.

Tonight, BLANCMANGE journeyed back to their recorded beginnings by airing their highly regarded debut album ‘Happy Families’. But rather than go through the practice of recording the show via the Live Here Now process and issuing it on the night, warts ‘n’ all, Neil Arthur has gone through the unusual process of re-recording the album as a memento for fans attending the shows. Not surprisingly, it’s been retitled ‘Happy Families Too’

Much loved by people unless their name was Julian Cope, the original ‘Happy Families’ album was produced by Mike Howlett and featured then new kit such as the Linn Drum Computer and Roland Jupiter 8.

The Linn in particular was a star of the album with busy digital claps and congas manifesting themselves in a way that a trained percussionist would never have dreamed of attempting. But while ‘Happy Families’ is as a result, an album very much of its time, it also gives it a unique and sparkling charm.

Thus Neil Arthur’s concept for ‘Happy Families Too’ was to realise the starker vision that Arthur and his BLANCMANGE partner Stephen Luscombe had envisaged when writing the songs with more basic approaches. After all, the version of ‘Sad Day’ for the now iconic ‘Some Bizzare Album’, which also launched DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, THE THE and B-MOVIE, was just a Minipops rhythm unit, a borrowed Wasp synth, a battered string machine and Arthur’s countrified guitar.

While Arthur has used VSTs for the sounds to keep it very much in the present, it’s the more minimal approach that has been the key.

Bearded and in a floral shirt, Neil Arthur was as down-to-earth as ever but giving it his all. First up, there was ‘Lose Your Love’, the lost second single from 1985’s ‘Believe You Me’ album. On a mission to ensure the show was not just about nostalgia, highlights from BLANCMANGE’s comeback album ‘Blanc Burn’ formed the initial part of the set. Several of the audience were actually heckling for the more recent material such as ‘The Western’ and ‘Drive Me’, both of which are certainly on a par with the best of anything Neil Arthur and the sadly absent Stephen Luscombe have recorded.

But as well as the newer songs like ‘By The Bus Stop @ Woolies’ (accompanied by archive news reel of Arthur’s hometown of Darwen in Lancashire) and ‘Ultraviolent’, there were also the ‘Happy Families’ era B-sides ‘Game Above My Head’ and ‘Running Thin’. It was particularly nice to hear the latter, a number that has only ever been recorded as a John Peel Session but now to be properly recorded and included on the deluxe edition of ‘Happy Families Too’ slated for 2014.

Focussing on ‘Happy Families Too’ in tracklist order for the second half of the show, ‘I Can’t Explain’ was as enthrallingly ferocious as ever but with the added tension and bite of live guitar. Swapping positions as Neil Arthur’s on-stage straight man with regular percussionist Pandit Dinesh (who only actually played on one ‘Happy Families’ song), it was David Rhodes who was on virtually all of ‘Happy Families’ that returned to the BLANCMANGE fold.

A regular sideman of PETER GABRIEL and JAPAN’s live guitarist on their ‘Tin Drum’ tour, his virtuoso expertise varied from the E-bowed strings on ‘Waves’ to the Spiders/Ronson power chords replacing the Hawaiian zing of ‘Wasted’. Arthur himself took to lead six string for ‘Sad Day’ in a rework that almost returned to the ‘Some Bizzare album’ take, referencing ENO and his ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’ long player, in particular ‘The Fat Lady Of Limbourg’ and the beautiful title track.

‘Living On The Ceiling’ required no introduction and even featured an audience chant-along of its main Middle Eastern motif at the song’s conclusion as Arthur held the mic on its stand out into the crowd. ‘Feel Me’, ‘I’ve Seen The Word’ and ‘God’s Kitchen’ are already enjoyable regulars in the usual BLANCMANGE live set, so positive reaction to those was not to be unexpected.

But the premiere of ‘Kind’ as part of 21st Century BLANCMANGE was highly welcomed, its sub-JOY DIVISION tension and percussive ferocity providing a fitting companion to ‘I Can’t Explain’ played earlier. Returning to encore with the vocoder layered ‘Radio Therapy’ and a stomping ‘Blind Vision’, it was a wonderful evening of post-modern artistry and entertainment that celebrated history rather than pandered to nostalgia.

And as if to make that point further, ‘Don’t Tell Me’ and ‘The Day Before You Came’ were bravely left out of the evening’s proceedings. No-one seemed to mind though as the throng around the merchandise stall to purchase CDs of ‘Happy Families Too’ and meet the big man at the end of the night proved. Yes, it was one big happy family 🙂

‘Happy Families Too’ is released on Blanc Check Records. A deluxe edition will be issued in 2014 featuring a new version of ‘Running Thin’, Vince Clarke’s remix of ‘Living On The Ceiling’ and much more.

http://www.blancmange.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic/

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai
16th November 2013

Tag: Blancmange (Page 14 of 16)

BLANCMANGE Semi Detached Interview

25 SYNTH SINGLES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HITS

HEAVEN 17 + BLANCMANGE Live at Bedford Corn Exchange

25 SONGS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SINGLES

BLANCMANGE Happy Families Too Live in London

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