Tag: Gary Numan (Page 17 of 20)

GAZELLE TWIN Interview

19 September 2012 /

In a comparatively short period of existence, the living art of GAZELLE TWIN has made a worthy impression on the electronic music world.

Although originally inspired by the deep tonal experimentation of FEVER RAY, Elizabeth Walling, the lady behind GAZELLE TWIN, differs with her classical vocal training and manipulated soprano stylings providing a ‘Fourth World’ vibe of possible musics like a dark angel of dystopian menace.

With the haunting intensity and unsettling future primitive of debut long player ‘The Entire City’, admirers have included John Foxx and Gary Numan. As well as the spectre of Bjork and the enigma of COCTEAU TWINS, there has also been the influence of acts as diverse as Prince and JOY DIVISION whose songs have been covered on her various B-sides. The origin of the GAZELLE TWIN moniker is that it is an anagram of Elizabeth Walling, save a few letters. But also in an ancient Jewish text ‘Solomon’s Song’, there is a translation where “the twin fauns of a gazelle” are used as a metaphor for a woman’s breasts.

Themes of nature, science and technology exude in ‘The Entire City’ while integrity and a strong intellectual base form the uncompromising aural palette. Great tracks such as the Paganist intensity of ‘Men Like Gods’, the fragile beauty of ‘Changelings’ and the metaphysical idealism of ‘I Am Shell I Am Bone’ are swathed in a sonic cathedral of neo-religious overtones and Sci-Fi choral chants like an act of worship in the 23rd Century.

Conceived in part to be the imaginary soundtrack to JG Ballard novel ‘The Drowned World’, the mysterious sparse nature of the original compositions opened them to the possibilities of remixing. Thus, ‘The Entire City Remixed’ was born, an appendix to the parent album with contributors including ERAS, GHOST EYES, ZEBRA & SNAKE, SCANNER and ENORMOUS SHADOW as well as JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS whose remix of ‘Changelings’ also featured.

Both GAZELLE TWIN’s take on ‘A Falling Star’ and the remix of ‘Changelings’ are included on the new JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS album ‘Evidence’. But Elizabeth Walling’s most high profile collaboration to date is set to be unleashed with her reworking of Gary Numan’s ‘We Are The Lost’, scheduled to appear on his forthcoming remix album ‘Dead Moon Falling’.

In a period of frenetic activity, Elizabeth Walling took time out from completing her new EP ‘Mammal’ to chat to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

What is your own artistic background and how has that shaped the concept of GAZELLE TWIN?

My creative sensibilities started very young, I was always creating, imagining and learning in my own space. I think I spent a lot of time alone as a child, or at least that’s what I remember. I had time and freedom to think and explore. I studied music formally in my late teens and early twenties, but ultimately I consider myself self-taught in everything, in most respects.

GAZELLE TWIN I think, has emerged from a gradual and very natural process of those basic childhood experiences, as well as long-held aesthetic attractions and desires which have emerged as I have grown.

I have always felt different, strange, and found costume very liberating to be free from those uncomfortable moments. That’s what is at the heart of GAZELLE TWIN. As I grow older, it seems to have become my survival kit for everyday life, not just an occasional retreat into a fantasy world.

It may sound intense, but really, this project, as it has grown, has helped me in so many ways with incorporating my own personal experiences (physical, emotional etc) into some sort of concrete entity that I can learn and strengthen from. Without it now, I would be a bit of a wreck.

The visual aura and live presentation of GAZELLE TWIN is very mysterious and enigmatic but there were a few earlier photos which revealed your true identity as it were. What made you settle on becoming more anonymous?

I found there were too many limitations on simply being myself in the context of quite an ambitious musical project and as an artist. Being female, having to wear certain clothes, make-up etc, ie all those routine things I do in everyday life to live as a regular female human… these things relate too closely to fashions, time periods and have so many preconceptions bound up in them. I wanted to eliminate that altogether as well as remove ‘myself’ from the project to allow it to grow and change into something larger than me, larger than the world around me. That is what I was doing with the music initially, it was boundless in terms of vision and scale and it needed a visual counterpart to really work.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK first became aware of you via your cover of JOY DIVISION’s ‘The Eternal’ which was the B-side to ‘I Am Shell I Am Bone’. They make quite an appropriate pairing. How daunting was it to record that bearing in mind the song’s history?

Very daunting indeed. I didn’t approach it lightly. There are some JOY DIVISION songs that should never be touched, let alone covered – ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ is one of them. I would never touch a song like that. It’s too iconic, too well-known. I felt ‘The Eternal’ was perhaps less familiar to people and that it could withstand a new voice, so to speak.

As the second cover song I had ever recorded at the time, I tried to keep the arrangement simple, just focussing on the beat and the ‘atmosphere’. Curtis’ vocal melody is almost Gregorian in that song so I wanted to highlight that too, by removing most of the piano accompaniment. I wanted to be gentle, treating my version like a feint echo of the original rather than a completely new version.

At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve also covered Prince. Is there anyone else you would like to have a go at covering?

Yes, ‘I Wonder U was my first cover. I think the song is strange enough in the first place not to sound too stand-out alongside the rest of my music, so I was playing it safe with that one really. I found it fascinating to break the song down in order to re-record the parts, such as the bass. Actually that was part of the attraction of covering it in the first place… just to work out what the hell was going on there.

I prefer covering songs written or sung by men. Perhaps because it instantly allows me to create a new perspective on it. There are countless Bowie songs that my fiancée always recommends to me which I would love to try out one day. John Foxx’s work lures me constantly for covers and Scott Walker is very tempting also. I doubt it will be long before I do one of his actually.

I do have a new cover coming out on an EP called ‘Mammal’ around November time. It’s a song by WIRE – another legendary band, another iconic male vocalist… Colin Newman. This time I sought the permission and blessing from him directly. That made me feel better about it… he said nice things.

What attracted you to use synthesizers in your work and which artists were your biggest influences as far as ‘The Entire City’ was concerned?

I grew up with electronic music really. We had numerous keyboards and synthesizers in our house which I would always use to learn or write songs, or record on cassette players and so on. I would say they have always been part of my music-making since being a child.

There is a warmth and clarity with synthesizers (especially analogue) which can replicate the same essence and quality of nearly all acoustic instruments such as strings, brass and even reeds.

I experiment most with rhythm which is one of the most important elements of my creative process – so using electronics allows me to explore some really complex and unusual ideas quite easily. I love working to a mechanical pulse.

There are many influences on that first album; people often like to remind me of what seem to be the most obvious but actually the least strongest ones – The Knife, Fever Ray etc – but actually my influences go way back to early music, classical, early 20th century composers such as Varese and Stockhausen to contemporary artists such as Louis Andriessen and soundtrack composers of the 80s like Vangelis, Carpenter and Brad Fiedel. I’d say choral music has influenced me more than any other music in my life as I spent the largest part of my life so far listening solely to that.

I can hear elements of JON HASSELL’s avant textures in your music, is that a coincidence?

Yes it must be, because I have never heard of him until now. I will check him out.

The album has this other worldly atmosphere and is very unsettling in places, almost like music for horror movies… ‘Bell Tower’ was used in a viral video for ‘Prometheus’. Has cinema inspired you musically and have you had any offers of soundtrack work?

Yes. Film is the bedrock for many of my compositions in the past and now – although just as much in the thematic sense as the musical.

I grew up listening to plenty of film soundtracks by composers like Morricone, Williams, Goldsmith, Herrman etc who were all inspired by the Gods of Western music: Shostakovich, Beethoven, Wagner etc. That’s a good influence to have had, even if I hadn’t studied composition formally later on in life. It really stuck with me. I’d love to work on films and even video games one day, that was always my impetus for writing.

So far there have been no commisions, but the ‘Prometheus’ short film you mentioned (which I still haven’t actually seen yet) was a great thing for me, albeit very small scale. Eventually I hope to delve into film composition as my career develops. I’ll probably prefer to be a behind-the-scenes writer than a performer at some point anyway. I tire quite easily of all that already.

Some observers might consider your work difficult to listen to. How would you encourage them to persevere with it?

I wouldn’t try to encourage them. There would be no point. I don’t mean that to sound dismissive, but I’m not one to explain or justify my work to anyone, least of all try persuade someone to persevere with it if they don’t already have the desire to do so. Why should they? It should be a natural thing. There’s a lot of music I don’t give much of a chance to on first listen – I think gut reaction counts for a lot and of course that’s completely different for everyone.

‘The Entire City’ won quite a few notable admirers including John Foxx who you later supported. He and Benge reworked ‘Changelings’ while you did ‘A Falling Star’. What do you think has been brought to each others’ songs via your reciprocal treatments?

John and Benge have been wonderfully supportive to me, not just forthcoming with praise but actively involving me in their projects. I am very grateful for that kind of respect and time. It’s very rare to have that, I can tell you.

I loved working on the remix for ‘A Falling Star’, it’s already such a beautiful song with lots of space. I found it hard to approach initially. It was also my first ever remix so I put myself under a lot of pressure to take care with it. I decided to just highlight John’s voice which actually works amazingly well completely on its own. But I added my own vocal to replace some of the synths.

John and Benge’s remix of ‘Changelings’ was really delicate and elegant. It’s one of my favourites of all the remixes because it doesn’t alter the song much at all. I love the addition of John’s vocal in there too. It was perfectly suited. I am so flattered that they chose to put both of the remixes on the new ‘Evidence’ album. It’s really special for me.

You have remixed Gary Numan now too. On first impression, it would appear his rockier sound of today might have less in common with your music than with say John Foxx’s. So how did you respond to the challenge?

I would tend to agree generally, however not with the song I was asked to work on as it happened to suit me really well. It has a middle-Eastern melodic style that is not too far away from my own palette, particularly in ‘Men Like Gods’. I also loved the textures in the beat and was really excited to get working on bringing that to the forefront.

I wouldn’t say it’s the most radical remix I have done – sometimes a song is so right to be set in one style that it’s hard to take it further or add more, so really I just tried to strip it down and highlight what I liked most about it. I also added a few higher vocals to the mix to deliver a subtle feminine element.

Remixes are a major part of GAZELLE TWIN with the recent release of ‘The Entire City Remixed’ collection. What inspired that and which were your favourite reinterpretations on it?

It was primarily to give the original album a boost as well as open up a few opportunities to work and connect with other artists I admire such as John and Benge, Scanner and others. Some of the remixes were from requests out of the blue before I had even decided to do the album, so it was good to be able to offer them a place on an official release. My favourites on there are ‘Nest’ by FLINT KIDS, ‘Changelings’ by JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS and the BERNHOLZ remix of ‘Bell Tower’.

The neo-tribal remix of ‘Men Like Gods’ by GHOST EYES is quite superb…

Yes I really liked that remix too, especially when they took the time to attach it to a bizarre Betty Boop video which really works.

What next for GAZELLE TWIN? How is the new album shaping up and will you be pursuing any different musical avenues?

I’m working on making as much material as possible and putting as much out as I physically can over the next few years. I’ve been working on some other commissions and collaborations away from GAZELLE TWIN which is very enlightening and enjoyable, if only to get a break and some distance from my own work.

When I write an album it’s a bit like doing a thesis, there is a lot of research, learning, exploration and cataloguing of ideas and themes before I set about writing any music. I consider every experience and everything I come across as potentially relevant and useful to my work. That takes up quite a lot of my life.

Would an audio visual element like IAMAMIWHOAMI’s ‘Kin’ be of interest in your future artistic vision?

I am interested to see how far extreme abstractions like IAMAMIWHOAMI can survive in a pop context once they become better known… It’s hard to maintain anonymity and mystique for very long. This is something I am still figuring out too. I hope it can last.

The music side of that project is not quite as off-the-wall as the visual side which is a shame, but that’s just my own personal opinion.

I love Jonna Lee’s vision, her focus and defiance is strong. I’m envious that there is a budget and support behind it too – for those ideas to really be realised in full, cinematic glory and a vast viral campaign. I definitely wish I had some of that from time to time! I think most big ideas do require money, unfortunately.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Elizabeth Walling

GAZELLE TWIN ‘The Entire City’ and ‘The Entire City Remixed’ are released by Anti-Ghost Moon Ray Records. The ‘Mammal’ EP is scheduled for release in November.

JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS ‘Evidence’ CD which features GAZELLE TWIN on remixes of ‘A Falling Star’ and ‘Changelings’ is released by Metamatic records on 24th September 2012 and available exclusively at the John Foxx Store via Townsend Records

http://www.gazelletwin.com

http://iamshelliambone.wordpress.com/

http://soundcloud.com/gazelletwin

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
19th September 2012

Introducing EVOKATEUR

1 September 2012 /


EVOKATEUR are Sarah and Hector Villaraus, a duo who blend electro gothic cinematics and mechanised beats with emotive melodies.

Even in “a dark world of ashes”, one needs hope in moments of despair. Melancholic they maybe but doom merchants they are most certainly not… Sarah’s vocals provide a dreamy contrast to the occasionally post-apocalyptic soundtrack. Time Out have called them: “Sinister mecha-pop”.

Their first single ‘Wolf Girl’ released in March 2011 launched their stark but accessible sound. But the single’s B-sides also showed an appreciation of the darker side of the Moog with a sinister remix of ‘Wolf Girl’ by Gary Numan and Ade Fenton plus a beautifully resigned cover version of TEARS FOR FEARS ‘Mad World’.

From their first EP ‘Crow’s Wedding’, the lovely ‘Wildflowers’ was glittery but tinged with sadness, while there was also the slightly more dance laden ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’. The duo’s accompanying grainy self-made video certainly added a gone to earth aura. Meanwhile, ‘Same As You’ was pretty modulating synthpop, up there with the Nordic influenced crystalline demeanour of QUEEN OF HEARTS. ‘Undone’ though adopted a more unsettling shade but despite the drones and distorted noise, it was carried off without being dour or resorting to witchery.

Their new six-track release ‘Chime Hours’ is the second in series of three EP releases which will gradually form an album’s worth of material. From it, ‘White Horses’ is laced with Eurocentric grandeur and angelic beauty. It is perhaps has hints of SCHILLER’s ‘Playing With Madness’ but with grittier overtones.

‘1684’ ups the tempo and is almost like MEDIAEVAL BAEBES meets DEPECHE MODE, while the moodier ‘Post’ adds operatics and swirling neo-theremin. Continuing their downtempo excursions, ‘How Long’ is held together by a sparse framework with minimal percussive elements that build for some chilling breathy atmospherics.

EVOKATEUR do dark but they do pop as well, although the spectre of LAMB’s ‘Gorecki’ does loom. It sounds very promising so their development will be observed with interest.

The ‘Crow’s Wedding’ and ‘Chime Hours’ EPs are available as downloads via iTunes and Amazon

http://www.evokateur.co.uk

http://soundcloud.com/weareevokateur

Text by Chi Ming Lai
1st September 2012

Machine Music: The Best of GARY NUMAN DVD

15 May 2012 /


We’re In The Building Where They Make Us Grow…

When Gary Numan broke through in 1979 as the world’s first ever synthesizer pop star, it was not only musically that he made an impressive impact.

The unsmiling, pale faced ‘Machman’ cast a striking visual figure.

In the age of post-punk paranoia, he unwittingly represented the fears of an alienated youth facing minimal prospects and unemployment under the spectre of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ while the government gave out booklets on how to ‘Protect & Survive!

Now a newly released DVD entitled ‘Machine Music: The Best of Gary Numan’ captures the one-time Mr Webb throughout his career from his early innovative promo videos right up to the present day, plus the added bonus of TV appearances and live highlights which have helped shaped the myth and occasional ridicule of Gary Numan.

Numan’s first promo ‘Cars’ is still truly iconic. Having phased out the band moniker TUBEWAY ARMY, he was out on his own but the video featured close-ups of the Polymoog and his 1979 backing band RRussell Bell, Billy Currie, Paul Gardiner, Chris Payne and Cedric Sharpley.

All dressed in uniform black suits but subtly wearing their own unique colour of tie, the significantly importance of this video was it conjured a communal tribal mentality… the message was “do you want to be in my gang?”

In fact, many people did as ‘Cars’ went to No1 and his magnificent ‘Touring Principle’ became the hottest ticket in town. The accompanying video of that show beat BLONDIE’s ‘Eat To The Beat’ into the shops as the first album length video costing around £40 in 1980!

The ‘Complex’ promo featured the band again but this time, sans Currie who was now back with ULTRAVOX but this video hasn’t aged as well, all Dr Who fuzzy effects and Thames TV lighting. These early productions were directed by the pioneering husband and wife team of Derek and Kate Burbidge.

Considering how today’s technology allows pop promos to be made on an iPhone, they did very well with the equipment available which at the time was prohibitively expensive. But this was a forward thinking period where you learnt as you went along. So everything got back on track with ‘We Are Glass’ featuring another iconic image, this time the ‘Telekon’ jump suit. Numan felt the wrath of the all important Children’s TV shows though due to producers considering his smashing up of television sets with a silver truncheon just too violent for the kiddies!

‘I Die: You Die’ featured Numan’s beloved Corvette Stingray but after that, the promos became a bit more ham as poor Gary tried to be James Cagney. The Julien Temple directed ‘She’s Got Claws’ from 1981 is a case in point, while the gangster storyline of ‘Music For Chameleons’ is unintentionally comedic.

The rare ‘Love Needs No Disguise video’ with his now solo band going under the name of DRAMATIS gets away with this St Valentine’s Day Massacre look by being a live performance piece but by this time, Numan was starting to struggle musically. His hobby of flying inevitably started creeping in his videos such as ‘Warriors’ and ‘I Can’t Stop’ (absent from this collection) as he lost interest in his music.

Photo by Ed Fielding

This coincided with a downturn in his financial fortunes so there simply wasn’t the budget for promo videos anymore, hence a huge gap in the time frame of this compendium. But with critical reappraisal in the 21st Century and the huge advances in technology, promo videos such as ‘Dominion Day’ and ‘Rip’ have been forthcoming with ‘The Fall’ in particular being a fine filmic representation of the music with equal measures of unsettlement and paranoid gothic metal atmosphere.

‘The Fall’ brings the Numan visual story up-to-date, but the best thing about ‘Machine Music’ is the collection of treasures to be found on the second DVD of rare and live TV appearances from around the world.

That memorable performance of Are ‘Friends’ Electric? with the young Numan swathed in white light on Top Of The Pops is all present and correct, while there is also the influential ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance (featuring then new band member Denis Haines “bricking it”) which sold electronic music to America …everyone from Trent Reznor to Afrika Bambaataa was watching that night and thus industrial rock and electro hip-hop genres were effectively born.

Of course, the music of Gary Numan was often best experienced live so the 1980 ‘Teletour’ has been captured on this set with ‘This Wreckage’ and ‘Remind Me To Smile’, while the even bigger Wembley show as captured on ‘Micromusic’ is represented by ‘Down In The Park’, complete with sinister robot car!

The special ITV clip of ‘Metal’ is the prize of ‘Machine Music’. A brilliant promo video in its own right with Numan’s sneering dystopia appropriately set in an electricity sub-station, ‘Metal’ is indeed the great Numan track that really should have been a single.

The version of ‘I Die: You Die’ from The Kenny Everett video show in 1980 is the one David Bowie controversially had removed from the original 1979 Christmas edition, so threatened The Dame felt about the rising young upstart from Wraysbury. It was shameful diva-ish behaviour which Bowie has since nominally retracted by saying “Gary Numan has written some of the finest things in British pop” in Q Magazine some years later.

‘Machine Music’ is a wonderful visual document which to his credit, Numan has allowed to be an almost warts and all visual assessment of his career. The Top Of The Pops specials of ‘We Take Mystery’ and ‘White Boys & Heroes’ filmed in New York and Los Angeles respectively are a bit cringey to watch now, while Numan’s own views about ‘The Man Who Lost It All In Monte Carlo’ red bow tie look in ‘Your Fascination’ and ‘Call Out The Dogs’ are well documented.

But this is what Numanoids love about their hero and why they’ve stuck with him through all his highs and lows. Now, if only more artists were able to be as frank and honest…

‘Machine Music: The Best of Gary Numan’ DVD set is released as a limited edition of 3000 and will be available during his forthcoming UK concert tour. Any remaining copies will be on sale via the Official Gary Numan online shop at Townsend Records.

DVD Tracklisting:

Disc 1 – PROMO VIDEOS

1 Cars
2 Complex
3 We Are Glass
4 I Die: You Die
5 This Wreckage
6 She’s Got Claws
7 Love Needs No Disguise (with DRAMATIS)
8 Music For Chameleons
9 We Take Mystery
10 Warriors
11 Berserker
12 Your Fascination
13 Call Out The Dogs
14 Dominion Day
15 Cars (with FEAR FACTORY)
16 Rip
17 Crazier (with RICO)
18 In A Dark Place
19 Healing (with ADE FENTON)
20 The Fall
21 My Machines (with BATTLES)

Disc 2 – TV, LIVE AND RARITIES

1 Down In The Park (Micromusic)
2 Are ‘Friends’ Electric (Top Of The Pops, 1979)
3 Cars (Saturday Night Live, 1980)
4 Praying To The Aliens (Saturday Night Live, 1980)
5 Metal (ITV, 1979)
6 I Die: You Die (Kenny Everett, 1980)
7 Remind Me To Smile (Live Teletour 1980)
8 We Take Mystery (Top Of The Pops promo film, 1982)
9 White Boys And Heroes (Top Of The Pops promo film, 1982)

GARY NUMAN plays his first ever singles tour featuring everything from the punk debut ‘That’s Too Bad’ to his first electronic release ‘Down In The Park’ and the hits including ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’, ‘Cars’, ‘Complex’, ‘We Are Glass’, ‘I Die: You Die’, ‘This Wreckage’ and ‘Berserker’ plus later Top 30 successes ‘Rip’ and ‘Crazier’.

The ‘Machine Music’ Tour includes:
Leicester O2 Academy (22nd May), Glasgow O2 ABC (23rd May), Newcastle O2 Academy (24th May), Sheffield O2 Academy (25th May), Dublin Button Factory (26th May) Bournemouth O2 Academy (28th May), Bristol O2 Academy (29th May), Cambridge Junction (30th May), Birmingham HMV Institute (31st May), London HMV Forum (2nd June), Cardiff Coal Exchange (2nd June), Brighton Dome (3rd June)

For more details on the DVD and tour, please visit the official website at www.numan.co.uk

Text by Chi Ming Lai
15th May 2012

GARY NUMAN Back Stage – A Book Of Reflections

24 March 2012 /

Featuring Interviews with RRussell Bell, Chris Payne and Tim Dry

Lifelong Numan fan Stephen Roper has devoted the last three years to compiling ‘Back Stage – A Book Of Reflections’. The book focuses on the years 1979 – 81, when Gary Numan was at the peak of his fame and commercial success. It features first-hand accounts of those who were closest to him at the time including band members, record company executives and friends such as John Foxx, THE SKIDS and DEVO plus support acts OMD, SIMPLE MINDS and NASH THE SLASH. The foreword is provided by Numan himself while he also contributes a chapter. The result is a fascinating and often humorous insight into the eye of the storm, during which Numan was making headlines and topping the charts worldwide.

Numan’s rapid ascent to stardom took him by surprise as much as anyone else, and by his own admission he wasn’t fully prepared for the consequences. As former band member Chris Payne recollects, while ‘Are Friends Electric?’ was still at No1 and the media frenzy was in full force, Gary invited Chris to come on holiday… to a caravan in Weymouth! Chris agreed to go because “it sounded like a bit of a laugh”, but inevitably they were mobbed by fans and the press, and ended up cutting the holiday short.

During this three year period Numan toured extensively, both in the UK and worldwide. The Numan tours were famous for their jaw-dropping stage sets, culminating in the spectacular farewell shows at Wembley in 1981. As sound engineer Alan Morrison says in the book, “Gary needed at least three forty foot lorries to get his point across… but what an emphatic way to do it!”

Also included are the original tour itineraries (all produced on a manual typewriter) and sketches of stage sets, together with handwritten estimates for the productions. It is this level of detail and authenticity that makes Back Stage a compelling read for anyone with an interest in Numan’s glory years.

The ‘Back Stage’ launch party took place on a Saturday night in Westminster, and brought together several of the book’s key contributors including Chris Payne and RRussell Bell from the Numan band and latterly of DRAMATIS, Tim Dry of SHOCK / TIK & TOK, Steve Webbon from Beggars Banquet and of course Stephen Roper himself.  There was a packed house of Numan fans all keen to meet these key figures and have their books signed.

All of the book’s contributors gave their time generously, signing books and chatting freely to guests. With a soundtrack of Synth Britannia classics playing, there really was a party atmosphere! The only poignant note of the evening was the absence of Ced Sharpley, the legendary drummer from the Numan band who was sadly taken ill just days before the event. Many guests wrote personal messages on a drum skin to be presented to Ced, in the hope that he would make a speedy recovery.

Meanwhile, Ced’s bandmates RRussell Bell and Chris Payne took the opportunity to make a very special announcement – that DRAMATIS have reformed and that, after a gap of over 30 years, their second album is imminent. This news should delight fans who still enjoy their first album ‘For Future Reference’. What will that creative partnership come up with? Watch this space!

‘Back Stage’ is a remarkable achievement and Stephen Roper should be commended, not only for tracking down the key characters involved, but for collating their contributions into a beautifully presented book that will delight many a Numan fan. Stephen’s enthusiasm for the project showed through at the launch party, as did the positive energy and goodwill of all involved.

Chris Payne and RRussell Bell kindly spared some time to talk about the Numan years, DRAMATIS and that big announcement…

RRussell, you were the last to join the band. So did the others put you through any initiations on ‘The Touring Principle’?

RRussell: No, I saw them on Old Grey Whistle Test and thought “what a brilliant band!” but I thought “that guitarist don’t look much”. I heard on the grapvine they needed one so I phoned up Beggars Banquet to see if they wanted another guitarist… but they said they knew nothing about it! Then I saw an advert in Melody Maker and I went along for the audition, there were four or five blokes there…in fact, Chris auditioned me although he says in the book that I was the only one to turn up! *laughs*

Chris: I’d like to jump in here…obviously, it was a bit of a joke but the reality is that there were twenty guitarists auditioned over a two day period and RRussell was by far the most interesting, innovative and outstanding. That’s what should have been in the book! *laughs*

RRussell: That’s what we like to hear! The first thing I did was this TV in Holland, we were staying in a ‘Boatel’. We got taken out by the record company and we were heading back in about five cars. I’d just nicked this big plastic lobster from the restaurant and got in this car with this Dutch bloke. After about a hundred yards, we crashed into a parked car! I’d smashed my face on the windscreen and was virtually unconscious when this guy shouted “QUICK, GET OUT! RUN!” because if you get caught for drunk driving in Holland, it’s mandatory prison for a week! So I jumped out and I’m running down the street with a lobster in my hand! From thence on, we used to nicked lobsters from everywhere…I’ve got a big collection of plastic lobsters! *laughs*

Chris: That was just a bit of fun! They were really good and had some great songs. But I just had this thing in my head that there’s a tape recorder there in place of musicians… that’s just Chris Payne being his altruistic self!

So I put the brake on it at the last show at Hammersmith Odeon. Andy McCluskey would come out and say “I’m Andy, this is Paul and this is Winston”…

RRussell: …me, Chris and Gary were behind the curtain tossing pennies at them and they went to turn the tape recorder on but because we’d put the brake on, nothing happened!

Chris: We were just p*ssing ourselves! At the end of a tour, there are always comedy moments… OMD were a really good support band, the best support act you could have got for the time actually! Fantastic!

RRussell: SIMPLE MINDS weren’t bad…

Chris: …yes, but that was later in Europe. They were phenomenal, one of the few bands to tour with us because we had people like NASH THE SLASH, HOHOKAM who were solo or two guys. Who else did we have? Oh yes, SHOCK!

Legend has it that Gary Numan only booked SHOCK for the Wembley shows because he fancied one of the girls… who was it?

Chris: Probably all three!!

RRussell: It was Carole Caplin funnily enough! To be honest, there was a line of people who fancied Carole… she was so fit! *laughs*

Ah, she wore that gold cone bikini during ‘Trois Gymnopedies’…

Chris: …she got on really well with my sister! *laughs*

RRussell: I don’t like the way this is going! *laughs*

RRussell, you got quite adept at multi-tasking with guitars, violin, synths, tambourine, electronic percussion…

RRussell: …bass pedals, saxophone! I could play violin already and I was ok on keyboards but sax, I had to learn and did a crash course. I can only play about four things on it! I had to do Mick Karn’s solo on ‘She’s Got Claws’ at Wembley… to this day, that’s about the only thing I can remember how to play. Funnily enough, I got booked to do a session with this jazz band and I walked in with my guitar, but they said they wanted me to play sax! Thankfully, it was a short little bit but I had to phone a mate who played sax to ask him how to play F# as I’d not done that before!

When you did ‘She’s Got Claws’ on that final night at Wembley (and it’s immortalised on the ‘Micromusic’ DVD and ‘Living Ornaments 81’ CD), you all got out of synch with the backing track…

RRussell: That can happen…

Chris: …you’ll probably find that the backing track got out of synch with me!! *laughs*

RRussell: Basically, if you can’t hear the sequencer part… one of the problems at Wembley was there was a massive bounce back from the wall and it was an awkward delay. As you walked away from your monitor, you’re hearing almost half a second delay so you get slower and slower. But at the end of the day, we followed Ced cos he had cans usually.

Chris: You’ve got to bear in mind that monitors were absolutely crucial for the configuration, these days you have ear pieces but then, you were playing a wide stage…

RRussell: …it was 80 feet wide!

Chris: And I was completely cocooned from the other keyboard player and I couldn’t see the drummer or anything! So you were totally reliant on the monitor and if that went down, you were totally stung!

You mentioned Ced Sharpley who is very much in our thoughts…

RRussell: …yes, the three of us were so tight. We were best mates for ten years, really close.

Chris: And we were the mainstay of DRAMATIS…

RRussell: …we were DRAMATIS!!! *laughs*

I understand you have an announcement?

RRussell: Yes, DRAMATIS is back together and releasing the second album, we’ve recorded most of it including tracks that we played live in 1982… ‘Sand & Stone’, ‘Every Night & Day’. The rest of it is new. It’s sounding really good.

Chris: This could be a Guinness Book of Records, the longest time taken for a second album release ever! 31 years!

Ced’s got this status of a legendary drummer who’s influenced the Hip-Hop community, did you see that coming back in the day?

RRussell: If we had, we’d have done it ourselves! *laughs*

Chris: Well, it doesn’t surprise because he’s a great percussionist and brought that to his drumming.

A lot of GARY NUMAN’s stuff was kind of mechanical, it had to be for the nature of the music but Ced brought that extra little thing because of the way he drums. He wouldn’t just play very KRAFTWERK type rhythms, he’d add something to the pieces.

When you were touring America, were you aware that the urban street kids were getting into GARY NUMAN?

Chris: Not at all…

RRussell: …not at that time. I remember Gary’s dad Tony came up to me and told me AFRIKA BAMBAATAA got in touch and wanted to do a collaboration with Gary and I said “BRILLIANT” and Tony said “who is he?”. I said “Tell Gary to do it” and Tony went “NAH!” *laughs*

Chris: How cool would that have been?

RRussell: It happened much later, but not then!

Were there any ‘Spinal Tap’ moments like getting lost trying to find your position on the massive stage sets or the crew playing practical jokes?

RRussell: There was one classic where the production was being built to Gary’s specs and there was supposed to be this square cage that came with him in from a truss…

But they done it in metres instead of feet so it was like the size of a shark cage! He went “I can get the whole f***ing band in this!” It was supposed to be two feet square, not two metres!

So it’s the opposite of ‘Stonehenge’?

RRussell: YES! EXACTLY! *laughs*

Chris: There was also things like you’d play Glasgow Barrowlands which had this roller skating rink and the stage was configured in such a way that you couldn’t get everything in. So me and the other keyboard player were hidden and all you could see was the top of my head!

RRussell: I had a platform and to get on it, I had to climb up a ladder and then crawl through this hole to get on stage… it was like potholing!

Chris: On ‘The Fury’ tour, we all came out in dry ice and this thing rose up and we all came on stage. Gary went “GO! GO!” and we were just covered in dry ice and I walked straight into a pole and smashed my head! I was totally disorientated, walked to wrong set of keyboards and for the first couple of numbers, I could barely play!

RRussell: We used to do this dance like THE SHADOWS on the last track of one shows and one of the crew taped my ankles together… and one of the crew, Archie came on stage in New Zealand with a tray of drinks completely naked!

The Teletour had those steep ramps? Did you ever go a*se over tit?

RRussell: Yeah, we used the same ramps at Wembley and we had diving boots on just to get some grip… but you had to take a run at it!

I usually used a radio pack but at this Wembley show, I was using a lead on my guitar so I came running down the ramp for this big guitar solo; Brian May and Jimmy Page were in the audience, and my roadie had put a short lead in the bloody guitar and it pulled out… I was looking round as if to say “can you plug me in again?” and he was sat there reading! *laughs*

You used to do this funny dance during ‘M.E.’

RRussell: I signed up as a guitarist and having to do all this other stuff… it wasn’t a dance, I was trying to destroy those bloody pie-tins! I had four Synare3 syndrums and used to break all of Ced’s drumsticks on them! I thought “If I break them, I won’t have to play them and they can put it on a sequence”… so I used to hit them as hard as I possibly could! It was hate really, pure emotion! God, they’re bloody tough things, they’re still working now I think! I thought I could either tap them and look like a w*nker or thrash the s*it out of them!

What keyboards were you using and how were you finding setting the sounds up, especially when the lights went down?

Chris: It was a nightmare, I think on one tour I had over eighteen keyboards, some were never used as they were back-ups… two Polymoogs, two Minimoogs, an ARP Odyssey…

RRussell: …I was the guitarist and I had five synths!! I had a Polymoog, two Minimoogs, Moog Taurus pedals, Synares and a Roland guitar synth!

Chris: Everything could breakdown, they’d go out of tune…

Was there any particular device that you never looked forward to playing?

Chris: A bit later on, the Prophet5… nightmare!

RRussell: I had this thing called The Clap!! It made a sound like a bunch of people clapping and it had a foot pedal… I thought if I just stand there, everyone will think I look bored so I picked the pedal up and ‘clapped’ it…I hated that! *laughs*

Now for a trip down memory lane, we have the 1981 Gary Numan Yearbook! You’re all pin-ups here… RRussell, you look like the fifth member of KRAFTWERK. Can you remember what your ambition was?

RRussell: Yes, to play the first gig on the moon! What a memory eh?

Are you still working on that one?

RRussell: Yes, but it’s not going great! *laughs*

Can you remember who was your favourite female singer?

RRussell: In those days… Kate Bush? LeneLovich? Julie London? Ah, Pat Benatar!

Yes, Pat Benatar…

RRussell: …she was quite hot as well!

Chris, can you remember who your favourite singer was at that time was?

Chris: Kate Bush?

No, it was Marie Osmond!!! *everyone laughs*

Chris: I think I might have been making that one up!

RRussell: Nothing he says in this ‘Back Stage’ book is reliable, you’ve seen what he’s like! I rest my case! *laughs*

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK also chatted to Tim Dry aka Tik, one half of TIK & TOK but also, a member of New Romantic dance troupe SHOCK who supported Gary Numan at the three farewell Wembley shows. He subsequently worked with him on the ‘Warriors’ tour and two tracks for TIK & TOK’s debut album ‘Intolerance’…

How did you get invited by Gary Numan to do the Wembley Shows?

Tim: SHOCK did a show at The Embassy Club in London and there’s Gary Numan, standing there on his own clutching a can of coke so we went up to say “Hi”. He said “I really love your show, I’ve got these gigs at Wembley, would you be my support act?” and we thought “Yeah! Right!”. But he was serious so we went down to Shepperton Studios to rehearse and that was the first time I actually felt the power of the music. It was monumentally loud.

One funny story was that Gary came along to see us later at this tiny gig in a horrible club out of town, somewhere going north. He’s watching us unrecognised doing our show. So we’re all in the dressing room afterwards and he’s sitting there with us when this fan bursts in and goes “HEY! I’ve heard GARY NUMAN’s in here” and he pans round the room, passes Gary and says to me “Are you Gary Numan?”, I said “no” so he walked off!

How was it at Wembley?

Tim: We’d come back from New York performing to maybe three hundred people in a club which was in your face. But coming out on stage in the blackout with the dry ice going and we started doing this weird movement, you couldn’t see the audience. It’s only later on in the show when the lights come up that bloody hell, there’s all these thousands of people! We did a forty minute set and the deal was that the three girls in SHOCK would do ‘Trois Gymnopedies’ when Gary went off to change his cossie while Sean and I would do our robotic thing to one of his numbers. But we came out on the wrong number cos we were so nervous! We said sorry to Gary but he said “Brilliant, do the same tomorrow night”.

You supported him on the’ Warriors’ tour as TIK & TOK…

Tim: Normally a major star support act gets short shrift… the audience normally go to the bar but for us, they were there. It was several weeks on the road and we always used to help his mum with her cases, she was such a sweetheart making sure we ate properly.

How do you look back on working with Gary Numan?

Tim: Gary is the most open, self effacing guy I’ve ever met. After the tour, we were making an album and asked Gary if he would play on a track called ‘Show Me Something Real’. He came to our studio with a Polymoog and Prophet5, plays these synth lines in one take, goes into the booth to do a backing vocal and then he’s off.

And then he said: “I’ve got this song ‘A Child With The Ghost’, would you like to record it?”… he’s giving us one of his songs to record!! So we did it. It was quite difficult for me to sing because Gary has a very kind of strange inflection timing wise but I managed to get it right and we had this girl Tessa Niles sing backing vocals who then went off to work with Gary as well. I remember thinking this was a profoundly beautiful song he written for Paul Gardiner. How generous is that? Not pretentious in any way, shape or form.

Dedicated to the memory of Ced Sharpley 1952 – 2012

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to RRussell Bell, Chris Payne, Tim Dry and Stephen Roper.

Additional thanks to Kit Vaughan and Amanda Roper

‘Back Stage – A Book Of Reflections’ is available now as an expanded download book from https://back-stage.dpdcart.com/cart/view#/

Chris Payne’s solo CD ‘Between Betjeman, Bach & Numan’ which features classically influenced reworkings of ‘Down In The Park’ and ‘Fade To Grey’ is released by Coverdrive Records on 23rd April 2012

http://garynuman.com/

Text by Steve Gray
Interviews by Chi Ming Lai and Steve Gray
Launch Party photos by Richard Price
Archive photos courtesy of Melvin Hurd, RRussell Bell, Nick Robson and Stephen Roper
24th March 2012, updated 16th JUne 2023

2011 END OF YEAR REVIEW

30 December 2011 /

The Year Of Capacitors

It was a year which saw classic and new stand side-by-side as comrades in arms for the synthesizer. In possibly the event of the year, April’s ‘Back To The Phuture ­- Tomorrow Is Today’ at London’s Troxy saw godfathers Gary Numan and John Foxx supported by the best new UK synthpop act for many years, MIRRORS.

The Brighton quartet reappeared in the summer over on the South Bank when the Vintage Festival Electronic Phuture Revue gave us a celebration of synthpop cool with performances by ONETWO, RECOIL, HEAVEN 17 and Thomas Dolby. Speaking of the latter, they premiered ‘The Luxury Gap’ at The Roundhouse in 3D sound no less while their production alter-ego BEF presented ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction Live’.

Meanwhile, Mute Records celebrated their influential legacy with a weekender also at London’s Roundhouse featuring ERASURE, YAZOO and THE ASSEMBLY in the same set, plus acts such as RECOIL, NITZER EBB and LAIBACH. With an electro documentary weekend before Easter on the Sky Arts TV channel featuring Gary Numan, DURAN DURAN, NEW ORDER, Jean-Michel Jarre and the late Rorbert Moog electronic music’s cultural legacy was being recognised the world over.

Indeed, Gary Numan’s Inspiration Award from Mojo magazine finally acknowledged those trailblazing Synth Britannia years. There were complaints by one well-known blog however about wrinkly electropop but without these pioneers who changed music, where would we be today? As KRAFTWERK’s Ralf Hütter said: “From all over the world comes inspiration. We have been very lucky, because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction and electro is everywhere”.

Shouldn’t the imperial phase of Synth Britannia and its earlier Germanic influence therefore be celebrated in the way that senior blues musicians have been revered within the world of rock ‘n’ roll? Missing from the Mute evening’s proceedings as a collective were DEPECHE MODE who gave the world a U2 cover and a second instalment of their remix collection as part of their year’s work.

One rework that provoked enormous debate was Alan Wilder’s improved rework of 2009’s ‘In Chains’ which added speculation as to whether he would be rejoining the band. Certainly, it would induce some much needed creative tension that has mostly been missing from DEPECHE MODE since the start of the noughties.

But one act truly excelling in the darker side of electronic based music was IAMX who continued to conquer Europe while remaining largely ignored in the UK. Martin Gore could seriously learn from Chris Corner about how to make melodic, accessible music that doesn’t compromise artistically and retains a gritty edge. Meanwhile, Gore rekindled a working relationship with Vince Clarke on a techno project under the banner of VCMG.

Monday 21st March was an interesting day as it saw the release of albums by DURAN DURAN, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and John Foxx. As concert celberity Mr Normall amusingly recalled in his Facebook status “this is 2011, not 1981”! At least two of those albums were the best and most immediate bodies of work from those artists for many years. The bar has certainly been raised for acts such as ULTRAVOX and VISAGE who both announced forthcoming new albums. BLANCMANGE made their welcome return with Neil Arthur’s sense of humour as sharp as ever but sadly, he was unable to be joined for the live shows by his bandmate Stephen Luscombe due to illness. One hopes Stephen is making a good recovery.

MIRRORS showed their promise and delivered the superbly seamless long player ‘Lights & Offerings’. While the band themselves admitted it may have been a touch derivative, it was enjoyed by a small but loyal fanbase who embraced their whole intelligent pop noir aesthetic. However, just as they were about to make a breakthrough, a second high profile tour supporting OMD in Germany was cancelled along with an appearance at Bestival.

Then founder member Ally Young announced he was leaving the group. The situation has been likened by some observers to when Vince Clarke left DEPECHE MODE. Of course, the end result of that was both parties mutated into highly successful acts and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is hopeful something similar may occur here. Certainly an excellent new darker tune called ‘Dust’ from the remaining trio indicates MIRRORS are not finished yet!

The similarly smartly attired HURTS continued their domination of Europe and while not as adored in the UK, they still did the business touring wise with sell-out shows at Somerset House and Brixton Academy with Kylie Minogue making a surprise guest appearance at the latter.

Of the ladies, Beth Ditto went superbly electronic with her debut solo EP while Claudia Brücken went jazz for the soundtrack of ‘LA Noire’, but not before celebrating the electronic part of her career with a fine retrospective Combined and a fantastic show at The Scala which saw a three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA plus special guests ANDY BELL and HEAVEN 17.

Another acclaimed German chanteuse Billie Ray Martin returned with her new project THE OPIATES and an album ‘Hollywood Under The Knife’ while LADYTRON released a definitive Best Of ’00-10′ and a new album ‘Gravity The Seducer’. The latter was a glorious, lush masterpiece of aural subtlety which was not universally embraced by their fanbase but is likely to become a cult favourite in the future.

Meanwhile, the spectre of FEVER RAY’s Karin Drejer-Andersson lurked, both musically and politically, within several darker female fronted combos such as AUSTRA, THE HORN THE HUNT and GAZELLE TWIN. The brooding unsettlement of this Hauntronica (or witch house as it was sometimes referred) won favour with some while John Foxx named GAZELLE TWIN’s ‘The Entire City’ as his album of the year. However, this fairly uncompromising strain of electro wasn’t for everyone although it was definitely more preferable to dubstep, the trendy new dance form that even the usually club friendly Chris Lowe of PET SHOP BOYS was having trouble embracing!

But Nordic influences weren’t just about tonal gloom and witchery. Greek maidens MARSHEAUX adopted some FEVER RAY styled percussive moods on their only song of the year ‘Can You Stop Me?’ but remained synthpop while American duo NIGHTLIFE borrowed Sally Shapiro’s sweeter template.

Over at The Finland Station, producer Jori Hulkkonen’s PROCESSORY project delivered an 18 track electronic Sci-Fi concept album entitled ‘Change Is Gradual’. TIGER BABY from Denmark returned with the dreamy single ‘Landscapes’ while from Sweden, both THE GIRL & THE ROBOT and Emmon delivered enjoyable new material. There was also the mysteriously kooky IAMAMIWHOAMI but best of all from the region were THE SOUND OF ARROWS with the cinematic crystalline pop of their debut album ‘Voyage’.

At the pure pop end of the spectrum, Lady Gaga plotted her next move into world domination with new album ‘Born This Way’. With religious lyrical imagery were very much in evidence throughout, this was her ‘Like A Prayer’ with a Eurocentric sound being very much the dominant factor in the music. With her ear firmly on the inventive UK music scene, GOLDFRAPP, HURTS and MIRRORS were commissioned to deliver remixes of ‘Judas’.

LITTLE BOOTS returned with a bouncy house number called ‘Shake’ while SUNDAY GIRL had her album delayed again and didn’t appear to know whether she wanted to be a singer or a fashion designer. Her pop thunder has now potentially been stolen by the similar raspy timbres of Lana Del Rey whose pair of remixes by NIKONN became favourites with many electro enthusiasts. Embracing couture but with her head fully focussed on the music, QUEEN OF HEARTS brought some intelligent sparkle to electropop. With mentions in The Guardian and The Times, her superb EP ‘The Arrival’ realised the potential that was apparent in her earlier girl group days.

Several acts introduced by ELECTRICTYCLUB.CO.UK in 2010 gained prestigious supports slots as a sign of their steady progress. SHH were billed with former BLACK BOX RECORDER vocalist SARAH NIXEY, THE VANITY CLAUSE opened for a solo ANDY BELL performance while Electro Weimar songstress KATJA VON KASSEL did the same at two of ERASURE’s shows in Germany.

VILLA NAH were due to play the biggest gig of their career with DURAN DURAN but Simon Le Bon’s illness, which also caused the postponement of the entire UK tour in May, unfortunately put paid to that. So it could be said that “Synthpop’s Alive” and this was exemplified by Essen based American act MAISON VAGUE who gave the world probably the best wholly independent release of the year.

Clark Stiefel’s wonderful cross of Gary Numan and DEVO was the work of a man brought up in the avant-classical world with hands-on experience of vintage Moog and Buchla modulars. Using the concept of “living in a dream since 1983”, despite the vintage influences, it was electronic music as imagined by the eccentricity of Oscar Wilde crossed with the thoughtful demeanour of late classical composer Franz Liszt.

Over the year, American based electronic acts were starting to come to the fore with XENO & OAKLANDER, SOFT METALS, HIGH PLACES, THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND and Tara Busch all gaining notable acclaim.

A question that has to be asked though is whether there is too much synth based music at the moment? Interestingly, Thomas Dolby and Sarah Nixey moved away from the electronic world and released new albums that had a more personal, organic quality. Some observers were complaining about “synthpop by numbers” and “Synth Britannia throwbacks”, but as OMD’s Andy McCluskey once said on that very programme, if there was a magic button for a hit single, he’d have pressed it more times than anyone else.

While improvements in technology have made it much easier for the public at large to make music and interesting noises, not everyone has the ability to write proper songs. Not only that but the iPod/notebook generation have been listening to compressed mp3s on tinny speakers for such a long time now that they have no grasp of dynamics. This has hampered many new acts who have taken to doing everything themselves and as a result, produced some average pieces of work.

There is nothing like a second opinion and creative tension to help a new piece of music along. And it is this willingness to understand the cores of songwriting, production and arrangement that ultimately separates the good from the bad, and ultimately the outstanding from the good.

ELECTRICTYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings of 2011

MIKE COOPER

Best album: MUERAN HUMANOS Mueran Humanos
Best Song: VELVET CONDOM Rouge City
Best Gig: KRAFTWERK at Die Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Best Video: LADYTRON Mirage
Most Promising New Act: MUERAN HUMANOS

STEVE GRAY

Best album: GARY NUMAN Dead Son Rising
Best Song: TENEK What Do You Want?
Best Gig: Back To The Phuture – Tomorrow Is Today at The Troxy, London
Best Video: DURAN DURAN Girl Panic!
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS

CHI MING LAI

Best album: MIRRORS Lights & Offerings
Best Song: VILE ELECTRODES My Sanctuary
Best Gig: Back To The Phuture -Tomorrow Is Today at The Troxy, London
Best Video: TIGER BABY Landscapes
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS

NIX LOWREY

Best Album: SANDWELL DISTRICT Feed Forward
Best Song: JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Summerland
Best Gig: KRAFTWERK at Die Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Best Video: LADYTRON Mirage
Most Promising New Act: MUERAN HUMANOS

RICHARD PRICE

Best album: MIRRORS Lights & Offerings
Best Song: JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Shatterproof
Best Gig: HEAVEN17/BEF Weekender at The Roundhouse
Best Video: QUEEN OF HEARTS Shoot The Bullet
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS

JOHAN WEJEDAL

Best album: AUSTRA Feel It Break
Best song: MIRRORS Into The Heart (Greek Girls Are Not Easy extended remix)
Best gig: AUSTRA at Stockholm Debaser Medis
Best video: EMMON Ghost Dance
Most promising new act: LOUISE (ex-THERMOSTATIC)

Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st December 2010

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