A hopeless New Romantic styled pop band consisting of two boys and two girls, all suffering the signs of major hairspray abuse. They sit excitedly as they play their not very good demo tape to a passively unimpressed corporate record company executive.
The song with its immortal couplet “Alien invasion… what on earth are we gonna do?” rather resembles THE HUMAN LEAGUE meeting GARY NUMAN down at the Crazy Dystopian Disco. The band’s leader suddenly proclaims “This is the best bit…” before a hysterical scream blasts from the ghetto blaster!
The bemused record company man, played by actor Gavin Richards who found fame as Terry Raymond in ‘Eastenders’, calls time with one of the UK’s favourite chocolate wafer snacks. He looks at the group and snorts: “You can’t sing, you can’t play, you look awful…YOU’LL GO A LONG WAY!” before allowing himself a wry smile. He poignantly gives off the aura of a modern banker who has just awarded himself a huge bonus despite having just run his organisation down to the ground!
This famous Kit Kat TV commercial entitled ‘Pop Band’ was produced in 1984 and a spot-on satirical observation of how modern fashion and popular culture was being perceived by the ordinary citizen.
All good skits have scarily authentic reference points so thanks to the flamboyant and aspirational (although many would say vapid and greedy) nature of the period, this amusing ad is still remembered and quoted whenever the latest pop wanabee steps into town.
In their prime, BERLIN only actually recorded one mini-LP and two albums with the nucleus of Terri Nunn and John Crawford. Although not the original vocalist, Nunn joined multi-instrumentalist Crawford to become partners in life and music with BERLIN.
Although DEVO and OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING had featured electronics in a more artful fashion, BERLIN’s 1982 independent mini-LP ‘Pleasure Victim’ was one of the first occasions of an American pop act embracing the synthesizer which had changed the face of music in Europe. It led to a deal with Geffen Records and notoriety with the deviantly fuelled breakthrough single ‘Sex (I’m A…)’. At this point, mainstream USA was still getting excited about macho rock posturing like JOURNEY, TOTO or John Cougar (as the man born Mellencamp was then known)!
BERLIN’s brilliant songs such as ‘The Metro’ and ‘Masquerade’ with their motorik drum machines and Teutonic pulses were a far cry from the way instruments made by Sequential Circuits, Moog and their sisters were being used Stateside. “We were first inspired to create our sound from a couple of European bands ULTRAVOX and KRAFTWERK that were using these new kinds of keyboards that created very different sounds than those of a standard keyboard or piano.” said Nunn, “It created a whole new dynamic that we fell in love with”. Meanwhile, the title track with its pretty synth melody showed how emotive such instrumentation could be, even in songs that were perceived to be AOR ballads.
Featuring an expanded line-up including David Diamond (keyboards and guitar), Ric Olsen (guitar), Matt Reid (keyboards) and Rob Brill (drums) plus an array of devices such as the ARP Quadra, Memory Moog, Prophet 5, Pro-One, TR808, OBX-a, DX7 and Fairlight, Nunn and Crawford delivered their first full-length album together in 1984 called ‘Love Life’.
With this, BERLIN enhanced their reputation and planted the seeds that led to them becoming household names for a short while. Produced mostly by Mike Howlett who had worked with OMD, A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, BLANCMANGE and MARTHA & THE MUFFINS, he brought his interest in German experimental music and experience as a seasoned musician with GONG to combine Eurocentric electronics with a Trans-Atlantic flavour that was perfect for the MTV generation. The revenge themed ‘Now It’s My Turn’ was the ultimate culmination of that, a mysterious monochrome verse counterpointed by a belting chorus that sounded like HEART’s Ann Wilson fronting ULTRAVOX.
Opening number ‘When We Make Love’ soared vocally and accompanied by some rousing modern backing, provided the cinematic mood for the rest of the album which was dressed in a sleeve picturing Nunn as a vintage film starlet. ‘Touch’ had a similar feel but was slightly more frenetic with synths and guitars blending to produce a unique sound for the time. However, despite starting side two, ‘Pictures Of You’ was really just a pedestrian rock retread of ‘The Metro’.
Taking the pace down, ‘Beg Steal or Borrow’ was BERLIN having fun in the vein of ALTERED IMAGES gone electro while ‘In My Dreams’ was melancholic but dreamy pop. With its atmospheric sweeps and chiming guitar lines, ‘For All Tomorrow’s Lies’ recalled A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS’ ‘Transfer Affection’ before the album closed with the lovely John Hughes’ movie romance of ‘Fall’. The end product resulted in BERLIN sounding neither entirely European or American, walking an enjoyable fine line between FM rawk and New Romantic. Despite the US Top 30 success of ‘Love Life’, the band fragmented, leaving only Nunn and Crawford plus Brill to continue…
By way of a musical prophecy, the album’s Top 30 US hit single ‘No More Words’ was to be the undoing of the close if tempestuous bond between Nunn and Crawford. That song and another album highlight ‘Dancing In Berlin’ were produced by Giorgio Moroder and the blueprint of the Linn driven synth / rock fusion later developed further on his album with THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Philip Oakey.
Moroder and Nunn got on very well during the sessions so he asked her to sing on a song he had written with his Ferrari mechanic Tom Whitlock entitled ‘Take My Breath Away’. It had already been demoed by Martha Davis of cult new wavers THE MOTELS who had a couple of US Top 10 hits including ‘Only The Lonely’. The Oscar winning ’Take My Breath Away’ became a No1 around the world in 1986 having been featured in the film ‘Top Gun’ but the success was bittersweet. While it was the ultimate guilty pleasure, the song was unrepresentative of BERLIN’s previous work, especially as it only featured Nunn with no input from Crawford who had been the band’s main songwriter.
Despite an extensive tour supporting FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, the accompanying rock oriented album ‘County Three & Pray’ (produced largely by Bob Ezrin) did not sell well despite the inclusion of ‘Take My Breath Away’ and another great single ‘You Don’t Know’. With confusion over their musical direction and deteriorating personal relationships, BERLIN fell apart, ironically three years before the actual city’s wall did!
The majority of the ‘Love Life’ line-up including John Crawford were persuaded to reform for VH1’s ‘Bands Reunited’ programme in 2004 but today, only Terri Nunn remains, touring regularly under the BERLIN name having bought the name from Crawford and occasionally recording. Sadly, their original Geffen back catalogue is difficult to obtain outside of North America and inferior re-recordings appear on various ‘Greatest Hits’ and ‘Live’ CDs.
It’s a shame because although they were plagued by the legacy of a massive hit song they didn’t write, BERLIN are worthy of recognition as American electronic pop pioneers for a sound that had been alien to most of their countrymen pre-MTV. For this reason alone, their work from this imperial period deserves to be heard.
Following their triumphant reunion in 2009 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their ‘classic’ incarnation with the ‘Return To Eden’ tour, Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann have recorded a brand new album as ULTRAVOX, entitled ‘Brilliant’.
Produced by Stephen J Lipson, ‘Brilliant’ captures the power and glory of their imperial phase when they scored 12 consecutive Top 30 hits in a highly competitive era and produced a series of classic albums in ‘Vienna’, Rage In Eden’, ‘Quartet’ and ‘Lament’.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK caught up with the Jimi Hendrix of the Synthesizer Billy Currie to talk about his career and the new ULTRAVOX album.
What first attracted you to the synthesizer?
When I was in a band, I found that hiring a string synth like an Elka Rhapsody could put the track in a different world. A new world! So when I got the chance to buy an ARP synthesizer in 1977, it was to further that quest. It also cut like a chainsaw. It was nice to be heard. It was exciting to make my own softer sounds that would help the song by lifting it. I enjoyed making counter melodies to the vocals. Weird sounds could completely change the feel of a track.
Was it love at first sight with the ARP Odyssey? What made it so special for you compared with say, the Minimoog?
I just liked that honky mad sound. The LFO was in a good position for me. Just moving a slider up and down, forward and back. It felt right. The Minimoog was all knobs, it did not seem as agile. They were both incredibly spacey to use. Very different though. They were abstract times. You came, eventually, to a sound, used it and never got it back again quite the same way. A Minimoog that had to have the panel upright did not look cool for me but it had to be up to play it properly though. The ARP had a lighter keyboard action which I preferred.
Chris Cross had a Minimoog which obviously suited his role in the band and Warren Cann bought his Roland TR77. Was there a particular moment or influence as to when ULTRAVOX Mk1 decided to utilise more electronics?
Our electronic sound started to creep in while making the ‘Ha! Ha! Ha!’ album.
My ARP, Warren playing more fours-on-the-floor like in ‘The Man Who Dies Every Day’, John Foxx’s vocals painting pictures, high synth helping with the pictures and Chris with the repetitive, still, bass guitar at that time, and robotic parts. In 1977, recording ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ was a milestone.
You’ve mentioned in the past that when you were asked to join VISAGE, you had ideas stockpiled from before ‘Systems Of Romance’, “things that John Foxx and I argued about that we didn’t use”. So what songs on that first VISAGE album started off as ULTRAVOX ideas?
‘Mind Of A Toy’ and ‘Tar’. Another became ‘I Remember (Death In The Afternoon)’ by ULTRAVOX and one was used as the melody on ‘Kissing The Shame’ by me on ‘Push’.
Photo by Brian Griffin
When the ‘Vienna’ album was released, ‘Astradyne’ was the perfect opener and a glorious statement of intent. How was the track conceived, especially with all that interplay and the way the final section starts on that unexpected lift?
It is hard to remember now. Midge started with that strong melody, Chris’ bass was also a very strong feature. I played a piano counter melody behind. The track was so strong that we felt at ease to lengthen it with a long textural piano bit that is sort of bell-like with the metronomic bass drum beats and the violin tremolo solo. We even start it with the spacey piano bit.
Midge came up with that final section lift taking it out of the long ARP solo. I double it! It is a very good strong keyboard part. I used to say at the time: “Only a guitarist could come up with that!” I meant that as a good thing! It is very celebratory at the end. Definitely some LA DÜSSELDORF entering the rehearsal studio.
The ARP Odyssey was as good as gone by ‘Lament’. But ULTRAVOX were early adopters of digital synths with the PPG Wave 2.2, Yamaha GS1 and DX7…
I loved the PPG. It was hard to programme though. I loved that glassy sound. It could also be crisp and metallic! I changed from turning a knob or a slider to moving numbers or letter increments in a window. A bit like getting your money from the HOLE IN THE WALL at the bank, not a very expressive action.
How were you finding the transformation from analogue synthesis as a player and how it was affecting your creativity?
It was tedious! The DX7…I had a rack of eight, it was good for ending all creativity and causing a severe headache! Good sound though when stacked up. With MIDI, I found myself mixing the more boring DX7 sounds with Oberheim or PPG. That was fun. All my synths seemed to be connected by a MIDI cable, like a washing line, round the studio. I could have five or six different synths linked together to get one sound. That got a bit silly though.
What was the most disappointing synth that you’ve used, the one that didn’t quite meet up to expectations and why?
Prophet T8. I got it thinking it would be a competitor to the Yamaha CS80 but the action was always far too heavy. It was the only other synth that had a totally polyphonic touch-sensitive keyboard. It was about £4000… a bargain!
‘Quartet’ and ‘Lament’ had less obvious violin parts than previous albums. Were there any reasons for that?
No, but ‘Systems Of Romance’ had no violin on. Sometimes, keyboards are so consuming, especially when there are lots of very interesting changes going on in technology. There certainly was in 1982 to 84. To flag up your question about the change from analogue to digital, that was what was going on then. I sort of forgot about the violin.
Your first solo album was ‘Transportation’ in 1988, but why was that released before the material you were working on which ended up as ‘Keys & The Fiddle’?
I started a solo album in early 1983. I expelled much energy but then decided to shelve the music. I had just come off the eight month ULTRAVOX ‘Quartet’ tour and we were soon to start the ‘Lament’ album. VISAGE was breaking up. I had to keep an eye on my energy. I worked with Steve Howe on a couple of the tracks so when I started work on ‘Transportation’ in 1987, I got in touch with Steve again as I loved working with him! ‘Keys & The Fiddle’ was an album that Rob Ayling at Voiceprint wanted me to do in 2001. It was a process of putting out all the music I had in the vaults. So to speak!
You’re working on a new solo record. How far are you with it and have you incorporated any new influences picked up from perhaps working with ULTRAVOX once again?
I have got eight tracks going now. Working with ULTRAVOX has encouraged me to get out my fiddle but I also thought: “Why not get my viola out as well!” – It is quite a dramatic track with impOSCar sounds. Not too fancy. Mostly the violin and viola are in octaves. There’s some very strange violin on another. One violin is straight, the other is very effected! One track is very up with a tempo of 130 BPM.
I’m using Nexus, that is a synth that I used on ULTRAVOX’s ‘Live’ (in the middle solo section) and ‘Remembering’. That could very well be an influence from writing with ULTRAVOX. The album will be released realistically early next year.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Billy Currie
‘Brilliant’ is released by EMI Records on 28th May 2012
ULTRAVOX tour the UK in Autumn 2012. Dates include:
Bristol Colston Hall (21st September), Oxford New Theatre (22nd September), Portsmouth Guildhall (23rd September), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (25th September), Birmingham Symphony Hall (26th September), London Hammersmith Apollo (27th September), Guildford G-Live (29th September), Manchester Palace Theatre (30th September), Southend Cliffs Pavillion (2nd October), Ipswich Regent (3rd October), Sheffield City Hall (4th October), Blackpool Opera House (6th October), Glasgow Clyde Audiotorium (7th October), Gateshead The Sage (8th October)
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. One of the main talking points about ULTRAVOX’s new single ‘Brilliant’ has been Midge Ure’s voice. As one of British music’s most respected elder statesman, his almost whispered tones now possess a fragility and honesty that can only come from battle-hardened life experience.
Ironically, ULTRAVOX never reached No 1 themselves in the UK or Germany and while ‘Brilliant’ is unlikely to reach such heights, the song contains all the ULTRAVOX hallmarks of Billy Currie’s Eurocentric piano and synth embellishments, Chris Cross’ motorik bass arrangement, Warren Cann’s rhythmical syncopation and of course Midge Ure’s layering guitar for a classic track that choruses a cautious optimism.
“No Tomorrow, just today…” Ure sings. Let’s face it; none of us are getting any younger. The message of ‘Brilliant’ could be interpreted as: ‘life is precious…embrace it!’ but Ure says the song is actually “a bittersweet comment on pop culture”.
Continuing ULTRAVOX’s optimistic message of intent, album opener ‘Live’ is ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’ without the imminent nuclear holocaust. The instrumental breakdown, which drops to a magnificent pulsing sequence, piano and lone bass drum before the climax, is pure LA DÜSSELDORF and really is something to be savoured.
Meanwhile, ‘Satellite’ could potentially be sitting up there with the electronic rock of ‘I Remember (Death In The Afternoon)’ and ‘We Stand Alone’ from ‘Rage In Eden’, while the precolating sequences and rhythmic snap of ‘Rise’ could be a 21st Century answer to ‘Western Promise’.
For those youngsters who love MUSE or HURTS, ‘One’ and ‘Remembering’ will respectively inform their aural palettes as to where all that chromatic romanticism originally came from, but quite what long standing fans will make of the soaring stadium pandering to the landfill masses on ‘Flow’ can only be guessed at.
Thankfully, this minor blip is countered by the whirring ARP Odyssey lines on ‘Change’. This also features some majestic widescreen inflections glossed with beautiful ivory runs as the machine led percussive pattern builds, coloured by incessant synth bass and shuffling schlagzeug. At times, it even sounds like a more sedate second cousin to MUSE’s ‘Undisclosed Desires’ but considering how many times the Teignmouth trio have borrowed ‘Vienna’, maybe it’s now time to take some back!
The album ‘Brilliant’ is released by EMI Records on 28th May 2012
ULTRAVOX tour the UK in Autumn 2012. Dates include:
Bristol Colston Hall (21st September), Oxford New Theatre (22nd September), Portsmouth Guildhall (23rd September), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (25th September), Birmingham Symphony Hall (26th September), London Hammersmith Apollo (27th September), Guildford G-Live (29th September), Manchester Palace Theatre (30th September), Southend Cliffs Pavillion (2nd October), Ipswich Regent (3rd October), Sheffield City Hall (4th October), Blackpool Opera House (6th October), Glasgow Clyde Audiotorium (7th October), Gateshead The Sage (8th October)
JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS release a 16 track single CD version of The Shape Of Things which was first available as a 2CD deluxe set on their most recent UK tour.
The collection features starker, reflective material that didn’t fit into the overall pop concept of ‘Interplay’ recorded by Mr Foxx and his erstwhile partner-in-crime Ben Edwards aka Benge. Lyrically, the subject matter centres around feelings of loss over opportunities and lovers missed. Artistically interluded by several instrumental collages with titles such as ‘Modreno’, ‘Psytron’, ‘Astoria’ and ‘Buddwing’, the album is cinematic but in an understated way.
Following the short HASSELL/ENO-esque Possible Musics of ‘Spirus’, ‘Rear-View Mirror’ sunbursts through, the pulsing synthetics of yesterday’s tomorrow combined with reverbed Linn Drum and a strong but swimmy riff. Meanwhile, ‘Talk’ is reminiscent of Benge’s own ‘Twenty Systems’, vaguely minimal with Foxx’s echoing breathy vocals dominating. Matthew Dear’s remix which comes as a bonus track, adds a more industrialised, extended treatment and a deeper, menacing drawl.
The lovely ‘September Town’, originally the B-side of the first JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS single ‘Destination’, sees the sequences and string machines making their mark despite the more stripped down feel. Benge’s intricate craft of working with the limitations of his vintage electronics shines through.
Photo by Ed Fielding
‘Falling Away’ is the big surprise featuring a distorted burst of guitar alongside the sparse rhythm machine accompaniment. ‘Unrecognised’ is perhaps one of the most immediate of the tracks with its pulsing hypnotics sweetened by some emotive synth and piano touches. With more abstract leanings, ‘Invisible Ray’ dovetails treated vocal washes and ambient sweeps while ‘Vapour Trails’ is lively, all subtle claptraps and Compurhythm building.
Fantastically motorik, ‘Tides’ is like an electronic NEU! while the main act closer ‘The Shadow Of His Former Self’ rolls with 6/8 rhythms punctuating the magical overtones of vibrato like a more dystopian take on DEPECHE MODE.
As a final treat, the final bonus track ‘Where You End & I Begin’ featuring kooky Moogstress TARA BUSCH captures the influence of GAZELLE TWIN’s ‘The Entire City’, Foxx’s own favourite album of 2011. Making her presence felt, Busch takes on more witchy tones rather than the Patti Page in space persona of her more recent ‘Rocket Wife’ as it leans to more sinister rumblings.
‘The Shape Of Things’ is very much a grower of an album; much more personal than any of JOHN FOXX’s previous work, it gets progressively satisfying with further, conscientious listens. For many of his followers, this could even turn out to become one of their favourite albums…
With thanks to Steve Malins at Random PR
JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS ‘The Shape Of Things’ is released as a single CD by Metamatic Records on 19th March 2012.
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is available as a CD via Rubellan Remasters at 
is released by EMI Records on 28th May 2012
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