A graduate of the London College Of Printing, photographer Peter Ashworth created some of the most iconic images from New Romantic and beyond.
His photographs adorned albums covers such as the debut long player by VISAGE, SOFT CELL ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, ASSOCIATES ‘Sulk’, EURYTHMICS ‘In The Garden’, DEAD OR ALIVE ‘Sophisticated Boom-Boom’, ADAM & THE ANTS ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ and many more.
Meanwhile, his memorable portraits have included artists as varied as FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, ERASURE, ULTRAVOX, THE THE, THE CLASH, THE CULT, THE ART OF NOISE, SWING OUT SISTER, PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED, THE LIGHTNING SEEDS and SPACE while his photos of BLANCMANGE, EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL and THE CULT appeared in ‘Smash Hits’.
But it was his image of Annie Lennox in a mask and an ironic strong arm pose for ‘The Face’ that was to become his best remembered shot; the visually powerful statement was then used on the cover of ‘Touch’, the third album by EURYTHMICS.
At a time when image was critical to how an act and their music were perceived, record covers were the first port of call for any potential fan. Thus Ashworth’s eye was ideal as he worked mostly with large square format Hassalblad cameras, so there was never that dilemma of what might be cropped out in a landscape format shot. Having already debuted the ‘Mavericks’ exhibition in Liverpool, the London variant was specifically adapted for the Lever Gallery in Islington. In Ashworth’s own words: “the prints have deep colours, strong graphics, and are beautifully printed”.
Ashworth loved to create extravagant sets for his backgrounds like The Jungle Of Desire for various formats of FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasure Dome’ or the kaleidoscopic horticultural menagerie for ASSOCIATES to inhabit on the cover image of ‘Sulk’. What Ashworth helped to reinforce was the element of artifice in music of this period, which ultimately allowed the listener to embark on a truly escapist adventure.
So it was a total honour and privilege for ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to have Peter Ashworth personally guide around his wonderful ‘Mavericks’ exhibition and to hear the stories behind his iconic photographs.
Many are now time capsules of fashion and popular culture like his dressing room photo of TRANSVISION VAMP which adorned their ‘Velveteen’ long player, capturing a time before mobile photos when bands would pass the hours away before showtime reading books about THE VELVET UNDERGROUND and sex movies!
Interestingly, Ashworth confessed to rarely listening to the artists he was photographing so that he could focus on the best visual presentation possible.
Meanwhile, he also admitted he wasn’t really a fan of anybody except perhaps the late German producer Conny Plank and that his favourite type of music was deep house.
Though his cool portrait of Bryan Ferry dragging on a Marlboro has been popular with many casual observers, Ashworth’s own favourites are actually of two lesser known New Romantic personalities Ronny and Peter Godwin.
The former was a French protégée of Rusty Egan who cut a striking figure androgynously suited in Anthony Price, while the latter released two singles ‘Torch Song For The Heroine’ and ‘Images of Heaven’ which featured members of ULTRAVOX. Although never having a hit in his own right, Godwin hit paydirt when David Bowie covered ‘Criminal World’ by his previous band METRO on the ten million selling ‘Let’s Dance’ album.
A regular visitor to The Blitz Club, Ashworth was a natural choice for the eponymous debut VISAGE album cover image in 1980. Shot in the actual club itself, he had titled the photo ‘The Swing’ thanks to the dancing pose captured of Steve Strange and model Vivienne Tribbeck in front of three silhouetted jazz musicians, one of whom was the soon-to-be famous milliner Stephen Jones. The eventual artwork was actually hand tinted by Iain Gilles, so it was fabulous to see the original photo which to be honest looks better!
One of the acts most closely associated with Peter Ashworth has been SOFT CELL and he took many photographs of Marc Almond and Dave Ball during their career, as well as being an occasional drummer in Almond’s MARC & THE MAMBAS venture. The ‘Bedsitter’ image highlighted Ashworth’s use of props which in this case were a number of kitchen utensils. But the duo’s tense facial expressions can be explained by the fact that the props kept falling off the wall behind them!
‘Mavericks’ is a must see exhibition for anyone remotely interested in pop music and its visual presentation. There is also the opportunity to purchase a quality greeting card set of six iconic Peter Ashworth images which because they measure 6″ x 6″, four can fit perfectly into one of those album artwork frames available in HMV or Fopp… so guess what ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK did???
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thank to Peter Ashworth
‘Mavericks’, a photographic show by Peter Ashworth runs at the Lever Gallery, 153 -157 Goswell Road, London EC1V 7HD until 20th December 2018 – entry is free and open Tuesday to Sunday or by appointment
Midge Ure needs no introduction as one of the UK’s most highly regarded songwriters and musicians.
Best known for his involvement in ULTRAVOX’s ‘Vienna’, voted “the UK’s favourite No2 of all time” in a BBC Radio2 poll in 2013, the diminutive Glaswegian first found fame as the front man of SLIK. Their single ‘Forever & Ever’ became a UK No1 in 1975 and turned Ure briefly into a teen idol while the band had their own comic strip in Look-In magazine.
Luckily, SLIK could play their instruments and write their own material so in 1977 under the name PVC2, they released ‘Put You In The Picture’ on Zoom Records, a punkish single that sold more than anything by SIMPLE MINDS during their tenure on the label.
Having become fascinated by KRAFTWERK when they hit the UK charts with ‘Autobahn’ in 1975, he purchased his first synth, a Yamaha CS50 in 1977. So when Ure joined RICH KIDS and met drummer Rusty Egan, it was to change the course of his career when he subsequently founded VISAGE and joined ULTRAVOX.
VISAGE had been started in 1978 by Ure and Egan as a project to make up for the shortage of suitable European styled electronic dance music to play at The Blitz Club where the latter was the resident DJ. Needing a front man, they turned its doorman Steve Strange to act as Pied Piper to the colourful clientele who were later to be dubbed the New Romantics. Ure would subsequently help to deliver the movement’s signature song ‘Fade To Grey’.
Others involved in VISAGE included MAGAZINE’s John McGeoch, Dave Formula and Barry Adamson but also crucially Billy Currie, taking a break to heal his wounds from a recently fragmented ULTRAVOX following the departure of leader John Foxx. At the suggestion of Egan, Ure joined the band and the rest is history.
Photo by Brian Griffin
The classic ULTRAVOX line-up of Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann had a run of twelve consecutive Top 40 hits singles in the UK before they imploded due to good old fashioned musical and personal differences, in the wake of Ure’s parallel solo career and his charity work with the Band Aid Trust.
But Ure was always been happiest in the studio and during his first ULTRAVOX phase, he also produced tracks for FATAL CHARM, MODERN MAN and MESSENGERS as well as Ronny, Phil Lynott and Peter Godwin, all while working on the second VISAGE album ‘The Anvil’.
The last ten years have been particularly busy for Ure. A regular on the live circuit with his endearingly intimate acoustic gigs featuring career highlights in stripped back form, he also undertook a number of key musical collaborations with European producers. But his most high profile project was the reformation of the classic ULTRAVOX line-up in 2009.
Following the winding down of ULTRAVOX after an arena tour opening for SIMPLE MINDS in late 2013, Ure returned to the acoustic format for two live tours backed by INDIA ELECTRIC CO. But Autumn 2017 sees Ure returning to synthesizers and electric guitars with his BAND ELECTRONICA tour.
He said on his website: “I want to revisit some material that I’ve not really been able to perform with the recent acoustic line-up, so you can expect to hear songs that haven’t been aired for a while as well as the classics and a couple of surprises! I’ve really enjoyed touring with a band and now I want to expand back to a four piece and return to a more electronic based format”
With that in mind, here is a look back at the career of Midge Ure and his great adventure in electronic music via this twenty track Beginner’s Guide, arranged in chronological order and with a restriction of one track per album / project…
RICH KIDS Marching Men (1978)
Ousted from THE SEX PISTOLS, Glen Matlock offered Ure a place in his new power-pop combo RICH KIDS. An anti-Fascist anthem produced by the late Mick Ronson, ‘Marching Men’ was notable for Ure’s first use of his Yamaha CS50 on a recording, much to the dismay of Matlock. The band imploded with Matlock and Steve New thinking guitars were the way to go, while Ure and Rusty Egan felt it was electronics.
The first VISAGE demo of ‘In The Year 2525’ attracted the attention of producer Martin Rushent who wanted to release the collective’s music via his Genetic imprint through Radar Records. ‘Tar’ was a cautionary tale about smoking dominated by John McGeoch’s sax and Billy Currie’s ARP Odyssey. Alas, Radar Records had funding pulled from its parent company Warners just as the single was released, stalling any potential it had.
Available on the VISAGE album ‘Visage’ via Spectrum
It was testament to Conny Plank’s faith in the band that he continued to work with ULTRAVOX after John Foxx left. On ‘All Stood Still’, Ure put his live experience with THIN LIZZY to good use on this barrage of synth heavy metal about a nuclear holocaust. Driven by Chris Cross’ triggered Minimoog bass and Warren Cann’s powerhouse drums, the interplay between Ure’s guitar and Currie’s ARP Odyssey was awesome.
Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘Vienna’ via EMI Music
German music formed a large part of the music at The Blitz Club and even Irish rocker Phil Lynott frequented it. ‘Yellow Pearl’ was a LA DÜSSELDORF inspired co-composition with Ure, while Rusty Egan later played drums on the remix which became the ‘Top Of The Pops’ theme. A VISAGE track in all but name, ‘Yellow Pearl’ was so draped in the involvement of Ure and Egan that it was almost forgotten that this was the frontman of THIN LIZZY!
Available on the THIN LIZZY album ‘Greatest Hits’ via Universal Music
Nottingham combo FATAL CHARM supported ULTRAVOX and OMD in 1980. Their excellent first single ‘Paris’ was produced by Ure and their sound could be seen reflecting the synth flavoured new wave template of the period. Singer Sarah Simmonds’ feisty passion gave a freshly charged sexual ambiguity to the long distance love story written in the days before the Channel Tunnel. Instrumentalist Paul Arnall said: “We were able to use Midge’s Yamaha synth which gave it his sound”.
Available on the FATAL CHARM album ‘Plastic’ via Fatal Charm
Co-produced by Conny Plank, with the Motorik thrust of NEU! and a marvellous symphonic pomp, ‘The Voice’ highlighted the creative tension that had now emerged between Ure and Chris Cross on one side, and Billy Currie on the other. Characterised by the swimmy Yamaha SS30 string machine, a magnificent ARP Odyssey solo and piano run was the icing on the cake. The song took on a life of its own in a concert setting with an extended closing percussive barrage.
Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘Rage In Eden’ via EMI Records
It seemed business as usual with the second album ‘The Anvil’ and its launch single ‘The Damned Don’t Cry’. Very much in the vein of ‘Fade To Grey’, it was full of synthesized European romanticism. But with Steve Strange and Rusty Egan now finding success with their club ventures and ULTRAVOX becoming ever more popular, it was unsurprising that ‘The Anvil’ lacked the focus of its predecessor. Internally, things had gone awry and tensions with Egan led to Ure bidding adieu to VISAGE.
Available on the VISAGE album ‘The Anvil’ via Rubellan Remasters
MIDGE URE & CHRIS CROSS Rivets (1982 – released 1984)
Midge Ure and Chris Cross’ involvement in ‘Rivets’ came about when Levi’s® were about to launch their expensive new TV advertisment… an executive, unhappy with the soundtrack shouted “What we need on there is ‘Vienna’”! The campaign was a successful one and Ure was commissioned to submit music for the next commercial entitled ‘Threads’; however his ’633 Squadron’ inspired electronic tune was subjected to demands for rewrites by the paymasters so tired of the politics, Ure withdrew the track… that piece of music became ‘Love’s Great Adventure’. Levi’s® sponsored ULTRAVOX’s ‘Set Movements’ tour and ‘Rivets’ was part of a cassette that came with the souvenir programme!
Originally released on ULTRAVOX ‘Set Movements 1984 Interview’ cassette, currently unavailable
‘After A Fashion’ was a blistering sonic salvo that crossed the best of JAPAN’s rhythmical art muzak with ULTRAVOX’s ‘The Thin Wall’. However, it stalled at No39 in the UK singles charts and sadly, there was to be no album. But Mick Karn later played on ‘Remembrance Day’ in 1988 and Ure briefly joined JBK, the band formally known as JAPAN sans David Sylvian for an aborted project in 1992. Sadly Karn passed away in 2011 after losing his battle against cancer.
Available on the MIDGE URE album ‘No Regrets’ via EMI Gold
Glaswegian duo MESSENGERS were Danny Mitchell and Colin King whose only album ‘Concrete Scheme’ as MODERN MAN in 1980 was produced by Ure. The pair toured with ULTRAVOX as support during the ‘Quartet’ tour, as well as joining them on stage to augment their live sound. MESSENGERS’ debut single ‘I Turn In (To You)’ was also produced by Ure but criticised for being ULTRAVOX lite, although the song held its own with its dramatic widescreen passages.
Originally released as a single via Musicfest, currently unavailable
An electro Celtic melodrama in four and a half minutes, the magnificent ‘Man Of Two Worlds’ was the highlight from ULTRAVOX’s self-produced ‘Lament’ long player. Featuring an eerie female Gaelic vocal from Stock Aitken & Waterman backing vocalist Mae McKenna, the doomed romantic novel imagery capturing a feeling of solitude with haunting synths, programmed Motorik rhythms and manual funk syncopation was an unusual template, even for the period.
Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘Lament’ via EMI Music
‘No Regrets’ had been a big solo hit in 1982 so with ULTRAVOX on break, Ure took a busman’s holiday and recorded his first solo album ‘The Gift’. A song demoed by Danny Mitchell of MESSENGERS for their aborted long player, while there was a big anthemic chorus and vibrant string synth interludes, ‘If I Was’ was a very different beast from ULTRAVOX in that this was a love song. Featuring LEVEL 42’s Mark King on bass, it became a UK No1 single.
Available on the MIDGE URE album ‘The Gift’ via EMI Music
Ure went back to basics with his ‘Out Alone’ tour in 1993 which featured acoustic renditions of his own songs and covers assisted by a pre-programmed keyboard. One song was Peter Green’s ‘Man of the World’, a bittersweet song about a man who has everything he wants, except love. A live recording ended up as a bonus track on the ‘Guns & Arrows’ single, but a studio version appeared on 2008’s ’10’ covers album.
Live version available on the MIDGE URE double album ‘Pure + Breathe’ via Edsel Records
For Jam El Mar and Mark Spoon’s attempt at a ‘pop’ album, the German dance duo featured vocals on all the tracks and among those recruited were Dolores O’Riordan of THE CRANBERRIES and SIMPLE MINDS’ Jim Kerr. For his return to full blown electronica, Midge Ure’s contribution ‘Something To Remind Me’ was big on beats. Recording coincided with the ‘Sampled Looped & Trigger Happy’ tour which saw Ure use a more technologically driven format for live shows.
X-PERIENCE Personal Heaven – Desert Dream radio mix (2007)
Thanks to his continued popularity in Germany, Ure was much in demand as a guest vocalist and was persuaded to record a song he had written with HEAVEN 17’s Glenn Gregory by dance production team X-PERIENCE. Duetting with Claudia Uhle, who provided her own sumptuous vocals to compliment the electronics and muted synthetic guitars, the punchy Desert Dream radio mix was particularly effective.
Named after the German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller, Christopher von Deylen’s domestically popular ambient electro project recruited Ure to sing on the dramatically widescreen ‘Let It Rise’; he said: “SCHILLER’s got his very own, very good and distinctive style which is much more of a laid back, trip-hop dance thing”. Ure revisited the track for his own ‘Fragile’ album in a more stripped back arrangement.
Available on the SCHILLER album ‘Atemlos’ via Universal Music
In 2009, the impossible happened and the classic line-up of ULTRAVOX reunited for the ‘Return To Eden’ tour. Things went well enough for a new album to be recorded and writing took place at Ure’s retreat in Canada, Produced by Stephen J Lipson, several of the tracks like ‘Live’ and ‘Satellite’ recalled former glories while with this take on Giorgio Moroder, the percolating sequences and rhythmic snap of ‘Rise’ could be seen a robotic 21st Century update of ‘The Thin Wall’.
Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘Brilliant’ via EMI Music
LICHTMOND is an ambitious audio-visual project led by sound architects Giorgio and Martin Koppehele to “Experience Dreamlike Time”. Very progressive in its outlook with “A magic triangle of electronics, ethno and rock songs”, Ure featured on lead vocals and said on the album notes: “For me LICHTMOND is a unique combination of music, visuals and brilliant imagination. All coming together to make one great big piece of art. Enjoy it!”
Although Ure had been regularly touring and playing festivals, there was a gap of 14 years between the ‘Move Me’ and ‘Fragile’ long players. The ULTRAVOX reunion was the spark he needed to get his sixth solo album of original material finished. The lead single was ‘Become’, a romantic and less abrasive take on ‘After A Fashion’. With a danceable metronomic beat, it had a classic synthpop sound that Ure admitted he was “kind of harking back to early VISAGE”.
Available on the MIDGE URE album ‘Fragile’ via Hypertension Music
‘Glorious’ not only reunited our hero with Rusty Egan but also Chris Payne who co-wrote ‘Fade To Grey’; Ure said: “I liked the music, Chris Payne and Rusty had done a great job but I didn’t think the song / melody / lyrics were strong enough… I stripped the demo down to the basic track, edited it down into a more ‘song like’ format and started working on a glorious melody. I added the main melodic synth line and layered guitars over it, ending with the ‘hopefully’ uplifting solo over the outro”.
Midge Ure’s BAND ELECTRONICA 2017 live dates include:
Frankfurt Batschkapp (Sep 27), Munich Technikum (Sep 28), Cologne Kantine Kulturbetriebe GmbH (Sep 29), Bochum Zeche (Oct 01), Hamburg Gruenspan (Oct 03), Berlin Columbia Theater (Oct 04), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Oct 10), Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (Oct 11), Bournemouth Pavillion Theatre (Oct 13), Guildford G Live (Oct 14) , Milton Keynes Theatre (Oct 15), New Theatre Oxford (Oct 17), High Wycombe Swan Theatre (Oct 18), Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall (Oct 19), Skegness The Embassy (Oct 20), Edinburgh Playhouse (Oct 22), Dundee Caird Hall (Oct 23), Gateshead Sage (Oct 24), Manchester Opera House (Oct 25), Dartford Orchard (Oct 27), Basingstoke Anvil (Oct 28), Sheffield City Hall (Oct 29), Halifax Victoria Theatre (Oct 31), Buxton Opera House (Nov 01), Birmingham Town Hall (Nov 02), York Grand Opera House (Nov 03), Southport Theatre (Nov 04), Blackpool Grand Theatre (Nov 05), London Shepherds Bush Empire (Nov 07), Torquay Princess Theatre (Nov 08), Portsmouth Guildhall (Nov 09), Salisbury City Hall (Nov 10), Truro Hall for Cornwall (Nov 11), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (Nov 14), Eastbourne Devonshire theatre (Nov 15), St Albans Arena (Nov 17)
Tony Hadley is best known the lead singer of SPANDAU BALLET.
The Islington quintet were one of the bands to emerge from the vibrant and colourful New Romantic scene at The Blitz Club and went on to great success with albums such as ‘True’ and ‘Parade’. But on their 1981 debut album ‘Journeys To Glory’, they harnessed the pioneering sound of the synthesizer that formed part of the soundtrack at The Blitz Club curated by its resident DJ Rusty Egan.
Hadley has gone full circle and returns to his days at The Blitz Club by contributing vocals to ‘Lonely Highway’, a track on Rusty Egan’s debut solo album ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’. Co-written by Chris Payne who also co-wrote VISAGE’s ‘Fade to Grey’, ‘Lonely Highway’ is possibly Hadley’s most overtly synthpop outing since ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ back in 1980.
Tony Hadley kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK from Copenhagen about this new collaboration and recalled his days at the Blitz Club.
How did the idea for you to record ‘Lonely Highway’ come about?
Rusty sent me a demo of the song and I just thought it had a really great sound and almost a retro feel to it. We then decided to make some slight changes and felt we needed an outro section/ middle eight.
Were there any particular influences with the way you approached the vocal?
The way to approach every song is to connect with the lyric and give it your own interpretation.
You actually recorded the vocal in the studio with Rusty and his producer Nick Bitzenis as opposed to remotely. Do you think this helped with your performance?
To be honest I like the personal approach and having Nick and Rusty there in the studio was just great. This album is Rusty’s baby and we recorded various takes until we felt the song had the right feeling.
‘Lonely Highway’ is possibly the most synthpop thing you’ve done since the early SPANDAU BALLET days. How did it feel to return to that sound?
I love synthpop and still one of my favourite songs is Spandau Ballet’s first release ‘ To Cut A Long Story Short’. I love the approach to ‘Lonely Highway’ and on my album out next year there are several references to that era.
You’re no stranger to collaborations having done ‘Moment’ with Gary Barlow and ‘Dance With Me’ with TIN TIN OUT? How did these experiences differ?
I love collaborating with other artists and have worked on techno tracks with other artists such as MILK INC, MARC & CLAUDE from Germany and CAPAREZZA from Italy. To be honest the writing and recording process is always really relaxed and creative.
Working with Rusty must have brought back a few memories from those heady days at The Blitz…
I’ve known Rusty since I was about 18 and he’s a great guy and a very genuine man. Rusty was there at the start of the whole Billy’s and Blitz scene and that was, an amazing post punk scene! There are lots of fond memories from those days and Rusty has always been a larger than life character.
SPANDAU BALLET did a ‘Blitz’ section on the last tour, is there any material from that ‘Journeys To Glory’ period that you still have affection for?
Our first album ‘Journeys To Glory’ will always be one of my favourite Spandau albums, we were just young excited lads trying to make our mark on the world. There’s a rawness and energy on that album that is impossible to recreate .
The ‘Journeys To Glory’ sleeve notes credit you with “synthesizer”, can you remember what tracks you played on and what instrument it was?
There was only one track and that was the instrumental ‘Age of Blows’.
The synth was a Yamaha CS10 that we bought on hire purchase as we were all pretty broke.
Have you had a chance to hear any of the other tracks on ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’ yet?
I’ve heard a couple of demos and it sounds brilliant, really exciting, so hopefully Rusty will send me an old fashioned CD!
What’s next for you?
I’m on a short European tour, next year will be as busy as ever with UK and overseas touring including the US and South East Asia. I will definitely finish my new orchestral album and that will be released at Christmas 2017.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Tony Hadley
Special thanks also to Matt Glover at Blue Print Management and Rusty Egan
‘Lonely Highway’ featuring the vocals of Tony Hadley is included on the Rusty Egan album ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’ released by Black Mosaic in digital formats on 3rd December 2016
Tony Hadley plays Amsterdam Melkweg Oz (27th November), Cologne Gloria Theater (28th November), Bristol Christmas At The Spiegeltent (21st December)
After many years of trials and tribulations, Rusty Egan finally presents ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’.
It’s a collection of thirteen songs that explore a varied range of topics, from the euphoria of clubland to the celebration of musical heroes to personal bereavement. This could have formed the basis of the fourth VISAGE album had Egan not been constructively ousted by the then-puppet masters of the late Steve Strange during its recording; sensing a quick buck on the back of ULTRAVOX’s ‘Brilliant’ but failing to understand anything about the music that made The Blitz Club collective a much loved act of the Synth Britannia-era, the end result was the very disappointing ‘Hearts & Knives’.
Indeed, several of the songs included on ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’ started off as recordings for the rebooted VISAGE. Chris Payne who co-wrote ‘Fade To Grey’ had submitted several compositions, but these great songs remained on the cutting room floor… until now. Also key to this album being fully realised is Nick Bitzenis, best known as NIKONN and one half of FOTONOVELA, the production duo behind MARSHEAUX.
Contributing the album’s opening salvo is Peter Hook with ‘The Otherside’; comparisons with Hooky’s previous band are perhaps inevitable and the song’s melodic basslines again show how much his sound was a vital part of NEW ORDER.
Hooky’s vocals are delivered passionately, but exude a vulnerability that will be loved by some and disliked by others.
Another artist firmly associated with his band is Tony Hadley; but the sublime ‘Lonely Highway’ sounds nothing like SPANDAU BALLET. A prime example of classic synthpop, it begs the question as to how the Islington quintet might have developed had they not been soul boys? The first of five Chris Payne co-writes, Tony Hadley’s booming vocals are perfect for this catchy little tune.
The superb ‘Hero’ featuring the voice of Andy Huntley sees Egan exploiting a dancier groove, but is just a great song featuring the sort of memorable melodies and counter-melodies that are absent from much of today’s music.
Erik Stein from post-punk balladeers CULT WITH NO NAME adds his voice to two numbers with the first ‘Love Is Coming My Way’ being a superb slice of machine pop.
Meanwhile, the second Stein voiced number ‘Ballet Dancer’ is a vocodered eulogy to Egan’s late ex-wife, laced with the most beautiful Polymoog Vox Humana synth lines from Chris Payne.
The air is taken down further with ‘Be The Man’ featuring the voice of Kira Porter; this serene orchestrated ballad with its spacey synth solo could easily have come from Midge Ure’s most recent long player ‘Fragile’.
The pace ups considerably and heads towards clubland with the ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’ title track. Dynamically uplifting, it comes over like GIORGIO MORODER meets DAFT PUNK via THE HUMAN LEAGUE with the track’s root being an interpolation of TENEK’s single ‘Blinded By You’ from their 2010 album ‘On The Wire’.
With a new topline was co-written by Egan with Gerard O’ Connell, The Blitz Club’s legendary DJ said: “’Dancefloor’ is an example of how I have always worked. TENEK had an amazing bassline with synth stabs that grabbed me, but what I could hear was an electro style uplifting track and I wrote this on the roof of the villa in Ibiza … I just looked and thought ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor of THE WORLD’”
The slightly more rock flavoured ‘Evermore’ featuring NIGHT CLUB’s Emily Kavanaugh is another co-write with Chris Payne and features former ULTRAVOX guitarist Robin Simon. The end result comes over feisty and frisky.
The following ‘Dreamer’ is a track originally written and recorded by Arno Carstens. Appropriated by VISAGE for ‘Hearts & Knives’, the song was initially discovered by Egan while listening Carstens’ set at the Isle Of Wight Festival. But this improved reworking makes a misjudgement in keeping Carstens’ voice; grouchy singer/songwriters do not go well with synthpop! However, a newly composed bridge features Andy Huntley and based on this evidence, he really should have sung the whole song.
Chris Payne reunites with Midge Ure for ‘Glorious’ in a revisiting of the New European ethos that produced ‘Fade To Grey’. Attached to a triplet percussive mantra and Ure’s distinctive fret work, this is a seasoned anthem with gigantic choral pads and an honest vocal from the ULTRAVOX front man. To continue the mood, Anni Hogan contributes ‘Love Can Conquer All’ which includes a marvellously soulful vocal from Nicole Clarke and a cameo from Egan impersonating Dieter Meier from YELLO.
On the squelch fest of ‘Wonderwerke’, Egan reclaims some of his lost history. “I have re-recorded this fantastic electronica I first made in Germany on my trip to Zurich to meet YELLO. In 1982 I first discovered a sampler in the studios of Wonderwerke and away I went.” he said of the track that was appropriated by TIME ZONE as ‘The Wildstyle’, “Now without the samples or the Afrika Bambaataa rap, it’s a fantastic electro beat”. Featuring Egan’s voicing in robotic Deutsch with reprogrammed drums and electronics, the track serves a similar role to ‘Falling Down’ on JEAN-MICHEL JARRE’s ‘Electronica2’.
The wonderful closer ‘Thank You’ uses some ‘Endless Endless’ vocodered stylings and does what it says on the tin. Over layers of sweeping ambience à la MOBY and a gentle metronomic pulse, it is Egan’s list of musical heroes and associated beneficiaries in no particular order. Egan’s tone poem is a touching acknowledgement of that marvellous electronic music history. A simple yet highly effective idea, the beauty is in its realisation. Appropriately, it ends with a poignant “VISAGE… thank you”.
As JEAN-MICHEL JARRE put it recently “Electronic music has a family, a legacy and a future…” and for anyone to think that new electronic acts pop-up out of nowhere without any link to the past is naïve and ignorant.
There are some outstanding songs on ‘Welcome To The Dance Floor’. But despite the title, this is NOT a dance record. To all intents and purposes, it is a SYNTHPOP album! Unfortunately the general public will not listen to electronic stuff unless it is labelled dance, so Egan probably feels this is the only way to sell his product. This is the situation that the club-focussed mainstream music media has sadly created.
But fans of classic synthpop need not worry. Even the album’s club courting title track has its core root in synthpop, thus proving how much the genre is owed by the sniffy dance obsessed electronic music press…
Rusty Egan has successfully united a range of talents to produce a highly enjoyable collection of work, like one of your favourite electronic music compilations, but curated with new(ish) songs. And in the veteran DJ / guest vocalist album stakes, ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’ certainly beats GIORGIO MORODER’s 2015 effort ‘Déjà Vu’ hands down.
Yes, despite 38 years since The Blitz Club, synthpop still rules!
‘Welcome To The Dance Floor’ is released by Black Mosaic and available as a download from the usual digital retailers
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.
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So it was a total honour and privilege for ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to have Peter Ashworth personally guide around his wonderful ‘Mavericks’ exhibition and to hear the stories behind his iconic photographs.
via EMI Music
via Spectrum
via EMI Music
via Universal Music
via EMI Records
via Rubellan Remasters
via EMI Gold
via EMI Music
via EMI Music
covers album.
via Edsel Records
via Universal Music
via Major Records
via Universal Music
via EMI Music
via Blu Phase Media
via Hypertension Music
via Black Mosaic
will always be one of my favourite Spandau albums, we were just young excited lads trying to make our mark on the world. There’s a rawness and energy on that album that is impossible to recreate .
. But despite the title, this is 
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