Tag: David Bowie (Page 4 of 6)

A Short Conversation with MARTYN WARE

Synth trailblazers HEAVEN 17 recently won the title of ‘Sheffield’s Greatest Band of All Time’ following a public online poll conducted by local newspaper The Star.

Despite competition from DEF LEPPARD, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, ABC and ARCTIC MONKEYS, the combo founded by Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh and Glenn Gregory hung on to come out victorious. Although Marsh left the fold in 2007, HEAVEN 17 are still going strong 35 years on from the release of their debut album ‘Penthouse & Pavement’. Ware and Gregory will commemorate the occasion this October with a concert tour featuring a new electronic version of the acclaimed long player.

HEAVEN 17 initially began as a pop subsidiary of BEF, the production umbrella of Martyn Ware; he would go on to release an ambitious three volume series of technologically enhanced covers albums with guest vocalists. Entitled ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction’, each featured assorted favourites from Ware’s own record collection with the 1981 ‘Volume 1’ reinterpretation of ‘Ball Of Confusion’ sung by Tina Turner effectively reviving the career of The Soul Queen. As a special treat for this 2016 tour, there will be a BEF live set in the second half of the show.

Among the guest singers will be ‘Miss Beehive’ Mari Wilson, SEX PISTOLS’ Glen Matlock and Peter Hooton from THE FARM, while Glenn Gregory will also indulge in a cover or two.

In the middle of rehearsals for assorted HEAVEN 17 and BEF shows in the lead-up to the tour, Martyn Ware kindly took time out for an enlightening chat about a variety of topics including new HEAVEN 17 material, David Bowie, the pros and cons of crowdfunding plus how the major record labels are still up to their old tricks, despite (or because of) changes in the marketplace…

You’ve promised a new electronic version of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ for this tour. What style are you going for?

We’ve been doing new versions of stuff from ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ for a while. The last time we did it in 2010 was with a full band, so as much for economic reasons as anything, we are doing it with a more stripped down electronic format.

So we’ve tried to reapproach a few of the songs in the style of the new stuff we’re writing and it will be a unique insight into where we are at the moment, kinda retro-futurist…

You said 2013 was the last BEF show, but the brand was revived and you came back at Rewind in 2015. What prompted the change of heart?

Rewind approached me and I said “over my dead body” because it was a pain in the neck organising it all. With all the artists that would be involved, I didn’t think we could make it work financially. But Rewind very kindly said “we’ll make it worth your while” so I had a change of heart. The last BEF shows in 2011 and 2013 made no money and whilst I love contributing toward the cultural health of the country, I’m not so keen on doing it at my own expense. So the change of heart was down to economics really. The production values of Rewind are very high and I like them, so if I was going to do it, it had to be at the highest level and they delivered.

Having M’s Robin Scott perform alongside his daughter Berenice, who is in the HEAVEN 17 / BEF live band, must have been a special moment?

It was amazing, what a lovely man! It was a very strange thing because it was the first time he’d performed ‘Pop Muzik’ since the 80s and its one of our all-time favourite pop songs, it’s almost the perfect pop song to be honest; we were very honoured to have Robin doing it. In the latest BEF show, Glenn is singing it.

So how did BEF end up being part of this upcoming tour?

Our agent Jack Gray, who is also our manager, asked if we’d like to do a BEF element to this year’s tour and I said I’d rather just do a HEAVEN 17 tour. He said the promoter was very keen to do it, but I wondered how we could make it work. Jack asked some people, did the sums and this is where we’re at.

Will there any BEF guests that will be specific to each night on the tour?

The nature of the tour is a specific production and won’t really mix with a support act, the BEF element will be provided by Glen Matlock, Peter Hooton and Mari Wilson. But there’s a little bit of flexibility, so we can potentially have an additional guest singer at some of the venues.

H17-pray

‘Pray’ has been an extremely well-received new HEAVEN 17 track. Can you tell me about its genesis?

We started off with doing something that was reminiscent of early HUMAN LEAGUE and wanted the beginning to sound like it could conceivably come off ‘Reproduction’ or ‘Travelogue’ instrumentally. Meanwhile, the lyrical content emerged from what was on our minds… like with ‘Five Minutes To Midnight’ on ‘How Men Are’, we were obsessed with cruise missiles and us all getting blown to smithereens.

So with ‘Pray’, conceptually it was about politics in the broadest sense of the word, but specifically feeling lost and hoping that something better is going to come along.

The second half of ‘Pray’ reminds me of ‘Young Americans’ era Bowie, particularly ‘Fascination’…

Yes, that was deliberate…

Recent events must have brought to mind when DAVID BOWIE came to see THE HUMAN LEAGUE play at The Nashville and chatted to you afterwards?

Yes, he’s been like a spirit that’s guided me.

In the wake of his demise, I put together an idea for a Bowie exhibition which I’ve since presented to The V&A and The Barbican.

It seems to have stalled a bit, but the idea is to have an exhibition based around the meaning of Bowie’s lyrics and his work in general called ‘Bowie Decoded’. The one failing as far as I could tell about the V&A show ‘David Bowie Is…’ was it was a bit shallow in some respects. It didn’t go into what I regard to be the conceptual depth of Bowie at all, it was all about the artefacts.

So I thought somebody, somewhere should do one about what Bowie means to people and how deep that connection is. Everyone has their own personal journey because Bowie left so much room for interpretation. His ideas, philosophy and artistic intention were so strong that he has been a constant presence in my life and I thought that could be articulated. So I put together a team of people who do interaction and physical exhibition work.

One of the key ideas was to create an online presence both on an app and the web where we could create a database of crowdsourced meaning for his lyrics, so making people empowered to contribute their interpretation of his songs. I don’t think it’s been done before. It would be combined together with a traditional exhibition that would tour, but there would be mechanisms for people to leave their thoughts. These things take time… The Barbican for example plans 2-3 years in advance anyway, but I’m hoping to restart this again.

‘Life On Mars’ occasionally is part of a HEAVEN 17 encore. You’re no stranger to Bowie related covers. Any more you’d like to attempt, either as HEAVEN 17 or BEF?

That’s a good question. At the recent BEF performances at Rewind, we’ve done ‘Ashes To Ashes’ with Peter Coyle from THE LOTUS EATERS singing. I’m so proud of it, it’s the best cover version we’ve ever arranged.

I honestly think if Bowie had been in the audience, he’d have loved it. We love it so much, I think we’ll do it as part of the BEF show on this tour.

With Glenn busy with HOLY HOLY and you working on the 3D commissions etc, it must be a challenge to get any new HEAVEN 17 material recorded?

Yeah, to put it bluntly! We’re never in the same place at the same time. Ideas and creativity are not an issue. We’ve recorded the next single after this one that we’re going sell on the tour. This new single is a AA side 12 inch, one side is called ‘Captured’ and the other side is ‘Unseen’.

They’re coming from the same vein as ‘Pray’, similar kind of sound and vocal palette. It sounds like HEAVEN 17! We’re happy to put our names to them, and there’s a certain kind style emerging, which wasn’t planned. It’s high production values, but incorporating the System 100 sounds together with contemporary stuff. It’s a hybrid of stuff and back to intellectually rigorous lyrics.

Are you going down towards the traditional album route?

This album is just going to be a compilation of all these AA sided 12 inchers essentially, although it might have a bonus track or something. We like the idea of keeping it to about the same length as a traditional album so it will be around 40 minutes, which means probably 10 tracks.

Both myself and Glenn have gone right off packing out a 70 minute CD for the sake of it. The quality is much more important than quantity. So we’ve got 6 tracks done, we’ve just got another 4 to write… easier said than done though. The ironic thing is though, when we do manage to write and record together, it’s quite quick because we know each other so well and trust each other’s judgement; we just get on with it.

The working title is ‘Not For Public Broadcast’, an ironic take on us not wanting to release it digitally. Actually, Glenn wants to go one step further and ban it from the radio as well, but I don’t think we’re gonna let him do that! *laughs*

Have you considered crowdfunding as an option for the new album?

We looked into this… There’s something about crowdfunding that makes both me and Glenn feel uneasy. The existing companies that do it, it’s not an immoral thing but there’s a fine line between giving fans special stuff, and milking them… if we could do the mechanism ourselves where fans support making the record in return for getting their name on the album, that simple thing could probably work for us.

But it’s this thing about “with this package, you’ll also get a piece of pubic hair and with another one, you get to sleep with the artist!”! I’m not having it… if money ties in a passion for a subject, I don’t really like it! But it’s horses for courses, people can do what they want.

I mean, we are selling VIP tickets on this tour, people get to meet us and have photos… we’d always done that for free in the past, but everybody was saying we were stupid. Because to make ends meet, we need to do this stuff, and that I’m afraid is what we have to do now to cover the cost and expense thing of a tour. That makes me feel a little bit uneasy but if people want to pay it, there’s nothing wrong with that. What I don’t like is getting people on a hook and milking it ‘til they’re dry, it’s not right!

The public generally aren’t aware of the financial traumas artists go through…

I got stung a little bit by the third BEF album… that was a big wake-up call! I put a year of my life on-and-off into doing that and then in the end, there was no money in it at all. I don’t think I wasted my time because I’m proud of the album, but there’s no money in that stuff anymore. We just have to find another way of releasing stuff from a financial point of view.

As you know, Universal Music now own our back catalogue and I’m not a big fan of them, because of this five album compilation that’s come out. It has the first three albums but also ‘Pleasure One’ and ‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’ which have been out of print for a few years; so it has some commercial value, albeit limited. We had suggested about doing a proper boxed set including all the later albums as well for a definitive HEAVEN 17 career boxed set, but Universal turned it down saying they couldn’t make any money!

But, they then sent us an email notification, not asking what we thought, but telling us about this five album compilation and actually saying in the email “this is for your information only”, ie this is happening whether you like it or not! And it’s been put out at a price of £12 for FIVE albums! Basically, if something is released as a reduced price compilation or something, under the terms of our old contract, we get paid only 60% of the royalties that are due!

So not only are they charging too low a price for our legacy, we also don’t even get paid the right amount for it! I’m not happy at all! That’s why me or Glenn haven’t been mentioning or publicising this compilation through any of the official channels!

How do you think HEAVEN 17 / BEF are covered by the mainstream and independent media now?

I think people are generally very kind to us, but there’s two sides to this. We don’t have a record company so we don’t have any access to resources like press officers. So everything we do has to come through me and Glenn. We don’t even have anybody working on our social media, me and Glenn don’t have time to service it properly but we do our best.

We can’t afford to be spending money on getting lots of mainstream press. We have some very kind people who are willing to do radio promo for virtually nothing, but we feel guilty about not paying them. So it’s difficult to get stuff in the mainstream press but what we do get is complimentary, as is our coverage online. So I’m very happy with it in general. What’s more important to us is credibility than spreading the word. It’s all about artistic freedom and control over how you’re presented to the public, we are willing to trade large scale commercial success for that.


ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Martyn Ware

HEAVEN 17 + BEF October 2016 tour includes:

Liverpool O2 Academy (20th October), Birmingham Town Hall (21st October), Glasgow O2 ABC (23rd October), Gateshead Sage (24th October), Sheffield City Hall (25th October), Manchester O2 Ritz (26th October), Bury St Edmunds Apex (28th October), Basingstoke Anvil (29th October), London Shepherd’s Bush Empire (30th October)

http://www.heaven17.com/

https://www.facebook.com/heaven17official/

https://www.facebook.com/BritishElectricFoundation/


Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
15th August 2016

BRIAN ENO The Ship

Brian-Eno-The-Ship

“Humankind seems to teeter between hubris and paranoia: the hubris of our ever-growing power contrasts with the paranoia that we’re permanently and increasingly under threat … Paranoia leads to defensiveness, and we all end up in the trenches facing each other across the mud.” Brian Eno

‘The Ship’ is the first solo Brian Eno record since 2012’s wonderful ambient suite ‘Lux’. Highlighting Eno’s political and social concerns, it is inspired by the historical records from the sinking of the Titanic and the First World War; Eno of course has history in the former, having produced Gavin Bryars’ modern classical work ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’ released via his own Obscure imprint in 1975.

The title is a significant metaphor for today’s Western powers… declaring themselves unsinkable, they are now sinking. Of his reluctance to use his voice in his own music, Eno said to Sound-On-Sound magazine in 2005: “Song-writing is now actually the most difficult challenge in music”. But moving on from his ten song collection ‘Another Day On Earth’, ‘The Ship’ consists of four tracks of varying lengths and is the first possibly to combine his ambient instincts with a vocal presence.

With his noted embracement of all things avant garde, the album has been conceived as a musical novel. Eno said: “On a musical level, I wanted to make a record of songs that didn’t rely on the normal underpinnings of rhythmic structure and chord progressions but which allowed voices to exist in their own space and time, like events in a landscape”.

Originally derived from experiments using 3D recording techniques and comprising of two distinct but interconnecting parts, the album opens with the 21 minute title track. Embroiled in a haunting sea bound atmosphere with drifting sweeps, signal swoops and coarse strings, after 6 minutes Eno’s treated low slung larynx provides a ghostly presence for an unsettling ambient sea-chant. 13 minutes in, snatches of radio broadcasts and robotic voices enter the ether as the piece slowly sinks into a poignant “wave – after wave – wave – after wave…”

While the first half of ‘The Ship’ could be considered abstract, the second half ‘Fickle Sun’ is more direct, comprising of three nominally song based movements. Beginning with shades of ‘Neroli’ before an uneasy setting of synthetic strings and bass layer in, the lengthy title piece outlines the despair of warfare as Eno’s baritone pitched narrative contemplates how “the dismal work is done”. There are haunting echoes of DAVID BOWIE’s ‘Subterraneans’ from ‘Low’ while midway through, a dramatic cacophony of brass and percussion punctuates a deathly mood as “all the boys are going down” when “there’s no-one rowing anymore”.

Photo by Shamil Tanna

In a modern take on William S Burrough’s famous cut-up technique, the second movement ‘The Hour Is Thin’ features a poem created by Markov Chain Generator software, using text sourced from accounts of the Titanic’s sinking and First World War soldiers’ songs. Read by ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ star Peter Serafinowicz, the solemn lines are poignant and resonate while accompanied by mournful piano.

The spoken piece blends into the beautiful final movement, a serene cover of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s ‘I’m Set Free’. The Velvets were possibly Eno’s biggest musical influence, with him once stating while their debut ‘Banana’ album “only sold a few thousand… everyone who bought it formed a band”. The song itself originated on VU’s eponymous third long player and was their first without John Cale, who Eno would later collaborate with. This Lou Reed penned composition and its simple chord construction wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Another Day On Earth’ and makes for a perfect closing chapter.

Sad, broken and forlorn, ‘The Ship’ however, does not impose. Yet it reflects on the worst of human condition, while also adopting Eno’s much heralded philosophy of producing environmental music to “to induce calm and a space to think”.

While this blurred nautical journey is more vocal than Eno has been for a while, it acts as entry point to his ambient work. Via the upcoming art installations that ‘The Ship’ will accompany, the overall effect is likely to be even more profound.


WARPCD272‘The Ship’ is released by Warp Records in collectors CD, standard CD, double clear vinyl LP and digital variants

https://warp.net/artists/brian-eno/

http://brian-eno.net/

http://www.enoshop.co.uk/

http://enoweb.co.uk


Text by Chi Ming Lai
1st May 2016

It’s Better This Way: The ASSOCIATES Legacy

The timely release of ‘The Very Best of ASSOCIATES’ featuring their hits ‘Party Fears Two’, ‘Club Country’ and ’18 Carat Love Affair’ creates an opportunity for the work of Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine to be re-evaluated and re-discovered.

With a partnership covering a period of just three albums, this anthology is only a part of the story. It’s an artistic legacy that has influenced the likes of Claudia Brücken and Björk, along with HEAVEN 17, A-HA, and SIN COS TAN.

Thus, the new 2CD slipcased deluxe editions of the MacKenzie / Rankine era ASSOCIATES albums ‘The Affectionate Punch’, ‘Fourth Drawer Down’ and ‘Sulk’, supervised by bassist and silent partner Michael Dempsey, delve even further with a treasure trove of previously unreleased tracks, accompanied by 28 page booklets featuring extensive sleeve notes, unseen photos and rare memorabilia.

With Billy MacKenzie’s otherworldly four-and-a-half octave range on top of Alan Rankine’s intricate instrumentation, ASSOCIATES were a majestic and outlandish new pop take on Weimar cabaret in a newly emerging electronic world. But MacKenzie’s eccentricity could make him difficult to work with and led to the pair eventually parting ways in late 1982. MacKenzie continued sporadically with the ASSOCIATES name and as a solo artist, but always a troubled soul, he sadly took his own life in 1997 a year after the death of his mother.

Very much Bowie fans, ASSOCIATES opened their account with a not particularly good cover of ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ in 1979, released not long after the original. MacKenzie was very much into reinterpretation and despite this lacklustre debut, history has shown he could be highly adept at it.

On the second CD of extras, an unreleased take on Barry Ryan’s ‘Eloise’ explores heavier rock templates and points as to where ASSOCIATES could have headed instead of the kaleidoscopic sound they became known for. Poignantly, ‘The Very Best of ASSOCIATES’ includes a live cover of ‘Gloomy Sunday’, a suicide song composed by Hungarian pianist Rezső Seress in 1933 and said to have cursed every artist who has ever performed it.

ASSOCIATES’ first long player was the guitar dominated ‘The Affectionate Punch’ with its great ‘Low’ pitched title song opener on Fiction Records. But the duo were quickly dissatisfied with it, so they requested to end their deal and reworked a number of tracks for its subsequent 1982 re-release; this reissue campaign reinstates the original 1980 album.

Aspiring to expand their sound with a wider palette, the first musical signs of a fascination with European electronic music came with the funereal pulse of ‘White Car In Germany’. The swirling electronics were intended to sound as un-American as possible and accurately captured post-war tensions under the spectre of the atomic bomb. It was part of a singles deal with the Beggars Banquet subsidiary Situation2 which eventually formed ASSOCIATES’ second album ‘Fourth Drawer Down’ in 1981.

Also featuring the almost out-of-tune ‘The Associate’, the quirky instrumental showcased their sense of fun with MacKenzie’s distorted screaming making its presence felt. Meanwhile ‘Q Quarters’ and ‘Tell Me Easter’s On Friday’ were produced by a young Flood, later to work with DEPECHE MODE on ‘Violator’ and ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’. The resultant press exposure led to a deal with Beggars Banquet’s distributor WEA.

Throughout this period, Rankine and MacKenzine were almost holding themselves back, fighting against the poppier instincts that had come from their love of early ROXY MUSIC, SPARKS and Philadelphia soul. In the interim, they produced yet another cover ‘Kites’ for RSO Records, under the pseudonym of 39 LYON STREET with Christine Beverage on lead vocals. Originally recorded by SIMON DUPREE & THE BIG SOUND, it featured a more post-punk disco template and prepared for ASSOCIATES’ brief entry into the big league alongside fellow Scots SIMPLE MINDS in Spring 1982.

With its iconic jangle piano line, ‘Party Fears Two’ was the first time that many had heard the neo-operatics of Billy MacKenzie. Dealing with the perils of schizophrenia, it also kick started the brief imperial phase when ASSOCIATES subverted the UK charts with an outlandish approach that fitted in with the concurrent New Romantic movement. They felt a slight affinity with The Blitz Club crowd, but noting the scene’s vacuous nature, MacKenzie and Rankine opted to attack it in the magnificent ‘Club Country’.

Produced by Mike Hedges, the parent ‘Sulk’ album, featuring different versions of ‘Party Fears Two’ and ‘Club Country’, was a triumph. From the frantic instrumental ‘Arrogance Gave Him Up’ to the chromatic overtures of ‘Skipping’ to the evocative drama of ‘No’, the music had the basis for being more accessible, but was still challenging and inventive. Although MacKenzie’s more bonkers instincts couldn’t be masked on tracks like ‘Nude Spoons’ and ‘Bap De La Bap’, the brilliant ‘It’s Better This Way’ was art and pop in perfect unison.

Associates+BW

Photo by Sheila Rock

ASSOCIATES’ imperial phase closed in the summer of 1982 with ’18 Carat Love Affair’; it was their most commercial offering and described by MacKenzie as their “quasi-Neil Sedaka” song. While the narrative was subversive in the extreme, being about a gay affair that MacKenzie was trying to hide, Rankine was uncomfortable with its overt poppiness.

So unhappy was Rankine, that the song was instrumentalised to become the ‘Sulk’ album closer ‘nothinginsomethingparticular’. Whatever, ’18 Carat Love Affair’ possessed one of the greatest synthesizer riffs ever. Released as single, after it charted, it was eventually flipped for the B-side, a joyous art funk cover of disco-era Motown standard ‘Love Hangover’ which Rankine was more satisfied with.

Sales of ‘Sulk’ meant a demand for touring and a nine-piece live band featuring notable musicians such as Martha Ladly and Stephen Emmer was assembled by Rankine for a world tour. But in the cocaine frenzy that was now seriously affecting the partnership, MacKenzie pulled out of the tour, disillusioned by the expectations of success.

The duo reconvened in 1993, demoing six songs including ‘Stephen, You’re Really Something’, MacKenzie’s response to THE SMITHS ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’. But any label interest came with the pre-requisite of live shows; for MacKenzie, that was unacceptable and sadly that was that.

ASSOCIATES’ strength and weakness was their refusal to play the record industry game, but it led to both triumph and tragedy. In that respect, the most tearful moment in this series of deluxe reissues is the previously unissued instrumental of ‘Party Fears Two’ found on CD2 of ‘Sulk’… while the marvellous subtle layers of Rankine’s arrangement are now more revealed, what ultimately is missing is the voice of Billy MacKenzie 😢


Dedicated to the memory of Billy MacKenzie 1957-1997

With thanks to Stuart Kirkham at Hall Or Nothing Independent Publicity

‘The Very Best of ASSOCIATES’ is released by Union Square / BMG as a 2CD digipak set and download

The expanded deluxe edition reissues of ‘The Affectionate Punch’, ‘Fourth Drawer Down’ and ‘Sulk’ are released on 6th May 2016 in a variety of formats

A 500 edition green vinyl 7 inch version of ‘Party Fears Two’ backed with ‘Australia’ is available for RSD2016

https://www.facebook.com/theassociatesofficial/

http://www.billymackenzie.com/


Interview by Chi Ming Lai
9th April 2016

DAVID BOWIE 1947 – 2016

DAVID BOWIE sadly passed away at his home in New York on 10th January 2016 after an 18 month battle with cancer.

An artistic maverick who continued to push boundaries right until the end, albums such as ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Young Americans’, ‘Station To Station’, ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Scary Monsters’ influenced a generation and thus the majority of the acts that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has ever featured.

When GARY NUMAN first appeared with his mysterious Sci-Fi synth songs, he was dubbed ‘The New Bowie’; the clientele at The Blitz Club originally came together for a ‘Bowie Night’ and from it spawned VISAGE, SPANDAU BALLET and CULTURE CLUB; SOFT CELL and DURAN DURAN emerged from similar scenes in cities north of London; and if Dave Gahan hadn’t been heard by Vince Clarke singing along to “Heroes” in a scout hut back in 1980, would he have been asked to join COMPOSITION OF SOUND, the band who eventually became DEPECHE MODE?

“He was a brilliant songwriter and an amazing creator, he gave us all a goal to run towards” said MIDGE URE, “No-one could top him in terms of creativity”. MARC ALMOND added: “It’s not often I truly cry at the loss of an artist but I’m devastated. He meant so much. Goodbye David Bowie and our youth. We loved you. X”

Bowie’s passing sent shockwaves across the world as his illness was kept secret; his new album ‘Blackstar’ had only been released a few days earlier.

The album had been trailed in late 2015 with a striking video of the 10 minute title track; very avant garde in its nature but also very melancholic, many at the time talked of the return of an artistically driven Bowie. The album has now gained further poignancy as a musical document of his decline in health.

Bowie’s musical legacy on its own made him an icon, but his charisma and striking visual presence also resonated with those who were seeking something out of the ordinary. For many, seeing Bowie put his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson during ‘Starman’ on ‘Top Of the Pops’ in 1972 was a pivotal life changing moment. It opened doors for pop stars to not have to play the machismo game.

His first hit was ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969; the song featured a Dubreq Stylophone and tied in with the first Moon landing, but was considered a novelty record at the time. The futuristic rock of ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ in 1970 showed ‘Space Oddity’ was not a fluke, but it wasn’t until the assured theatrics of the ‘Hunky Dory’ album in 1971 that Bowie began making headway.

An attempt at composing an English version of ‘Comme D’habitude’ (the Claude François song that became ‘My Way’ via the lyrical intervention of Paul Anka) was the seed to the magnificence of ‘Life On Mars’. A song that was classic, yet ahead of its time, it became a hit in 1973 on the back of his success with ‘The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’.

Bowie’s journey led to him to America with his ‘Plastic Soul’ period and the excess that ‘Fame’ entailed. Looking to exorcise his dependency demons, he relocated to the divided city of Berlin in 1976. Exploring a “whole new school of pretension” with his new creative muse BRIAN ENO, tracks like ‘Sound & Vision’, ‘Always Crashing In The Same Car’, ‘Warszawa’, “Heroes”, ‘The Secret Life Of Arabia’, ‘Fantastic Voyage’ and ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ captured a tense European aesthetic that was distinct from Trans-Atlantic blues based rock n’ roll.

Co-produced by Tony Visconti, ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’ were augmented with synthesizers and ‘pre-arranged percussion’ as an acknowledgement to German pioneers like KRAFTWERK, TANGERINE DREAM, CLUSTER and NEU! Indeed, Bowie formed a friendship with Florian Schneider (hence the instrumental ‘V-2 Schneider’) while Michael Rother had been the first choice guitarist for the ‘Heroes’ album.

With the sound of the Giorgio Moroder produced ‘I Feel Love’ also omnipresent, the electronic pop scene in the UK was taking shape and Bowie famously dropped in to see THE HUMAN LEAGUE at The Nashville in late 1978, hailing them “the future of rock ‘n’ roll”.

By 1980, the New Romantic movement was in full swing and Bowie featured a selection of The Blitz Club regulars, including the late Steve Strange, in the video for ‘Ashes To Ashes’. Despite this, Bowie couldn’t resist a sly dig at the acts that he’d inspired, using the line “same old thing in brand new drag” on the album track ‘Teenage Wildlife’ from ‘Scary Monsters’.

But as an advert for ‘Heroes’ once said: “There’s Old Wave. There’s New Wave. And there’s David Bowie…”

But even when Bowie himself was consciously aiming at the mainstream with the Nile Rodgers produced ‘Let’s Dance’, he was influential with every act ending up employing a brass section! Bowie returned to more experimental territory with ‘1.Outside’ in 1995, but always able to position himself between two camps, he scored a Top 20 UK chart hit ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ with PET SHOP BOYS.

He remained a live draw, but extensive touring in this period took its toll. After suffering a heart attack in 2004, he largely withdrew from public life, only re-emerging in 2013 with ‘Where Are We Now?’, a surprise single release in early 2013.

The parent album ‘The Next Day’ signalled a return, but with ‘Blackstar’, it is now obvious that Bowie was using his art to bid farewell.

Tony Visconti who worked on this final album said: “His death was no different from his life – a work of art. He made ‘Blackstar’ for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn’t, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry”

www.davidbowie.com


Text by Chi Ming Lai
11th January 2016

RUSTY EGAN vs ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in Düsseldorf


German music formed a large part of RUSTY EGAN’s DJ sets at The Blitz Club between 1978-1981.

The legendary Blitz Club DJ and Chi Ming Lai of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK recently participated in a well-received discussion about how German electronic music influenced the New Romantic movement at the ELECTRI_CITY_Conference in Düsseldorf.

Including other international acts such TELEX, SPARKS, YELLO and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, The Blitz Club‘s soundtrack cocktail was to prove highly influential on the UK music scene and spawned a wider movement that led to the success of acts such as VISAGE, SPANDAU BALLET, LANDSCAPE and ULTRAVOX who formed part of the clientele.

The discussion formed part of a wonderful three day event which co-organiser Rudi Esch said was to “honour the global importance of Düsseldorf’s pop-cultural heritage”

Taking place in front of a live audience, the amusing chat focussed on Düsseldorf, Berlin, DAVID BOWIE, KRAFTWERK and NEU! while Motorik beats and modern DJ culture also formed part of the spirited conversation.

RUSTY EGAN and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK have previously worked on several projects together including a successful 25 week radio show series. Egan’s current radio show Electronic Family Tree broadcasts every Friday night / Saturday morning on internet dance station Mi-Soul Radio.


https://www.mixcloud.com/rustyegan/

https://www.facebook.com/rusty.egan/

https://twitter.com/DJRustyEgan

http://www.electricity-conference.com/en/

https://www.facebook.com/ELECTRICITY.Conference


Text by Kerstin Key
Photos by Tom Steinseifer
4th November 2015

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