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Some Not So Great Albums By Some Great Acts

While opinion is totally subjective and in the mind of the beholder, in the same way that a footballer can occasionally fluff a shot, then a musician can also score their equivalent of an own goal. The less than impressive albums on this list have generally been derided by both fans and critics. In most cases, these recordings were made by established acts with sure-fire reputations at the height of their career; or they were part of a much vaunted comeback.

But as can be expected with the highs and lows of the music industry, a number were produced during difficult periods in an artist’s creative dynamic following personnel changes or record company pressures. So in hindsight, poor results were often predictable and inevitable. However, based on the standards of their strongest work, most of the talents mentioned here should have known better.

But even in the face of informed criticism, some musicians can be terribly stubborn and unrepentant. Reacting to negativity surrounding his infamous ‘Metal Machine Music’ double album of feedback and electronic screeching, Lou Reed famously snorted: “if they don’t like it, they can go eat rat sh*t”! Oh well, would you like fries with your rat sh*t?

Inspired by the Q Magazine article ‘Can I Have My Money Back?’ from 1996, here are 20 of the better known creative blips, in alphabetical order. It should be noted that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK actually bought all but 5 of these albums, so make of that what you will!


KARL BARTOS Electric Music (1998)

Proof that pioneering geniuses lose their way once in a while. Following his ‘Esperanto’ album in 1993 with Lothar Manteuffel of RHEINGOLD under the moniker ELEKTRIC MUSIC which many accepted as a KRAFTWERK record in all but name, Karl Bartos went to work with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr on ELECTRONIC’s ‘Raise The Pressure’. He found the experience liberating and on his return, adopted the guitar for his next ‘Electric Music’ album.

Speaking in 2005, he said that when he started playing music as a teenager, it was in his bedroom with his guitar pretending to be Chuck Berry and this album was him getting back to all that. ‘Young Urban Professional’ was actually a song originally written for KRAFTWERK, but is turned into THE SMITHS’ ‘Hand In Glove’ with vocoder! ‘Sunshine’ is typical of the clumpy rock that marred NEW ORDER’s 2001 comeback ‘Get Ready’ while the rest of the album is pretty much the same. Only ‘Call On Me’ possesses any kind of spark as a song. Bartos himself described ‘Electric Music’ as an “exploration of the sound of the sixties – guitar pop out of the computer” and thanks Johnny Marr in the credits! Luckily, Bartos returned to synths and was back on form with 2003’s ‘Communication’, delivering a collection that showed his former cycling partners over at Kling Klang a thing or two.

Best track: ‘Call On Me’

‘Electric Music’ was originally released by SPV Records

http://www.karlbartos.com/


DEPECHE MODE Sounds Of The Universe (2009)

Following a return to form with ‘Playing The Angel’, much was expected of ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ when the band’s biggest world tour to date was announced in 2008. Unfortunately, the lacklustre ‘Exciter’ from 2000 appeared to be the musical template and the tracks that leaked were not particularly promising. The resultant album lacked spark, dynamics and creative tension. It was dreary mid-paced electro blues that dominated on this turkey.

The outstanding track from the sessions ‘Oh Well’ was a spicy uptempo Moroder-esque collaboration between Martin Gore and Dave Gahan but only appeared in the 4CD deluxe box set while the fact that the two best tracks on the main feature were a ballad voiced by Gore and a short instrumental said it all! But this became rather trivial when Gahan was diagnosed with a life threatening illness while on out on the road in Athens!

Best tracks: ‘Jezebel’, ‘Spacewalker’, ‘Oh Well’ (deluxe box set only)

‘Sounds Of The Universe’ was originally released by Mute Records

http://www.depechemode.com


DURAN DURAN Thank You (1995)

This covers album was recorded at the behest of EMI Records who were strangely impressed by DURAN DURAN’s rather strained cover of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s ‘Femme Fatale’ from ‘Wedding Album’ and eager for a quick cash-in on their 1993 renaissance. Among the songs attempted were ironic takes on ‘White Lies (Don’t Do It)’ and another drug dependency tale ‘Perfect Day’, as well as songs by Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Sly Stone!

The covers of Iggy Pop’s ‘Success’ and THE DOORS’ ‘Crystal Ship’ were actually quite enjoyable but among all the ham reinterpretations of established standards, the band actually covered themselves in a new version of ‘The Chauffeur’ entitled ‘Drive By’! Often regarded as one of the worst albums ever recorded, this disaster was dubbed “No Thank You” by many fans! Worse was to come for DURAN DURAN though as John Taylor left the band and EMI UK then refused to release their 1997 album ‘Medazzaland’. It would take a reunion of the classic line-up in 2004 to get them back on track and it wasn’t until 2011’s ‘All You Need Is Now’ album that they fully recaptured their former artistic glories.

Best tracks: ‘Success’, ‘Crystal Ship’

‘Thank You’ was originally released by EMI Records

http://www.duranduran.com


ERASURE Loveboat (2000)

In a poor period for Andy and Vince, this was a close run thing with their covers album ‘Other People’s Songs’ but at least with the latter, there were quality songs on show even if some of the versions left a lot to be desired. The problem wasn’t just the emphasis on guitar driven dynamics, it was also severely lacking in the usual ERASURE charm. Andy Bell admitted how shocked he was when he heard how “weird and indie” Rob Kirwan’s final mix sounded.

Despite production by Flood,  it was all very muddy. And even the album’s one potentially great song ‘Moon & The Sky’ was missing an uplifting chorus which was only later added to the Heaven Scent Radio Re-Work version that was released as a single. The redeeming consequence though was that despite these tough times creatively, ERASURE took to soft synths and made one of their best albums in 2005 with ‘Nightbird’.

Best tracks: ‘Freedom’, ‘Moon & The Sky’

‘Loveboat’ was originally released by Mute Records

http://www.erasureinfo.com


HEAVEN 17 Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho (1988)

‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’ were the affectionate nicknames given by Terence Trent D’Arby respectively to HEAVEN 17’s Martyn Ware, Glenn Gregory and Ian Craig Marsh. The conventional sounding ‘Pleasure One’ released in 1986 had been given a lukewarm reception, while Martyn Ware’s success as a producer for artists such as Tina Turner and Mr D’Arby himself may have started to spread his creative energies just a little too thinly.

Whatever, when ‘The Ballad Of Go Go Brown’ was released as lead single and Glenn Gregory appeared on the album cover wearing a Stetson and cowboy boots, the writing was on the wall. A lot of the album features the blue eyed soul of the times but with younger acts like WET WET WET, AZTEC CAMERA, HUE & CRY and even PERFECT DAY (featuring a certain Mark Jones of Wall Of Sound fame!) gaining the public’s attention, HEAVEN 17 then went on hiatus for the next nine years before returning with the electronically driven triumph ‘Bigger Than America’.

Best tracks: ‘Big Square People’, ‘Train Of Love In Motion’

‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’ was originally released by Virgin Records

http://www.heaven17.com


THE HUMAN LEAGUE Crash (1986)

Work had started on ‘Crash’ in 1985 with producer Colin Thurston but the results were not deemed suitable for release by Virgin Records. To overcome the creative block, THE HUMAN LEAGUE were despatched to Minneapolis to record with top producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Here, they became part of the manufactured R’n’B conveyor belt that had already seen success for Janet Jackson and Alexander O’Neal.

Ian Burden in particular was considered surplus to requirements by the producers. Disconcertingly, the album’s two strongest numbers ‘Human’ and ‘Love Is All That Matters’ had no songwriting input from any of THE HUMAN LEAGUE themselves… but then, they weren’t involved in the album’s two stinkers either! The David Eiland composed ‘Swang’ was horrible while ‘I Need Your Loving’ surely had to have been a Janet Jackson reject? Eventually, Oakey and co went home leaving Jam and Lewis to finish ‘Crash’. ‘Human’ was an American No1 and helped keep THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s profile up Stateside while the album’s end results sounded nothing like them with Phil Oakey’s voice left exposed as it was not really suited to the dynamics of soul. It would take almost ten years for them to regain momentum with 1995’s ‘Octopus’.

Best tracks: ‘Human’, ‘Love Is All That Matters’, ‘Money’

‘Crash’ was originally released by Virgin Records

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk


JAPAN Rain Tree Crow (1991)

This was the much heralded reunion of David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri aka JAPAN, a band who many considered had broken up before their time following the highly acclaimed ‘Tin Drum’ album in 1981. However, the split was due to personal rather than artistic differences when Karn’s girlfriend Yuka Fujii left him for Sylvian. Time eventually healed wounds and the quartet gathered together in France.

Under the Sylvian inspired Native American moniker RAIN TREE CROW, the idea had been to compose and record as a group through improvisation as opposed Sylvian being sole songwriter and studio dictator which had previously been the case during the JAPAN days. However, Sylvian’s stubborn imposing character led to a return to old ways. Supported by a huge budget from Virgin Records, unbelievably it was exceeded. So Virgin gave them an ultimatum where no more money would be forthcoming unless the project was presented under the name of JAPAN. The others agreed but Sylvian refused. Walking off with the tapes to mix the album under his own finance and supervision, he refused to let any of his bandmates in on the sessions! The result was an unfocussed set consisting of progressive avant jazz and self-indulgent ethnic instrumental pieces tha sounded unfinsihed. Only the magnificent single ‘Blackwater’ bore any kind of relation to JAPAN’s brilliant legacy. The quartet never worked together again and with Mick Karn’s sad passing, never will.

Best track: ‘Blackwater’

‘Rain Tree Crow’ was originally released by Virgin Records

http://www.nightporter.co.uk


JEAN MICHEL JARRE Sessions 2000 (2002)

It is always going to end in tears when an artist embarks on a jazz odyssey! And so it was when Jean-Michel Jarre came up with what appeared to be an attempt to break his then recording contract with Sony Music. ‘Sessions 2000’ contained six tracks named presumably after the days they were composed. Recorded by Jarre with collaborator Francis Rimbert, all had deliberate chill-out lounge jazz undertones and unfortunately, a distinct lack of melody.

‘June 21’ just plods along aimlessly for over six minutes while ‘September 14’ aims at the atmosphere of ‘Twin Peaks’ but does nothing in its excruciating nine! Haunting piano and detuned tones colour the Ryuichi Sakamoto influenced ‘May 1’ but any potential is unrealised. Only ‘March 23’ has any kind of musical shape with a distinct rhythmic pulse textured with synthetic brass and slide guitar samples but is far too long. Jarre eventually got back up to speed with the improved but still laid back ‘Geometry of Love’ and the dance driven ‘Teo & Tea’.

Best track: ‘March 23’

‘Sessions 2000’ was originally released by Sony Music

http://www.jeanmicheljarre.com


KRAFTWERK Tour De France Soundtracks (2004)

The first new material from KRAFTWERK since the disappointing ‘Expo 2000’, this was Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider’s opportunity to reconsolidate their position as electronic godfathers. However, it was also 14 years since the departures of percussionists Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos, and it showed. One of the weakest links in ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ was the rhythm programming which lacked punch and neither encouraged excitement or dancing.

Ironically, for an album about cycling, ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ was strangely pedestrian. Everything was tightly sequenced and structured but noticeably absent was the humanity and humour which were two of KRAFTWERK’s strongest suits, even on tracks like ‘Sex Object’ and ‘Boing Boom Tschak’ from 1986’s lacklustre predecessor ‘Electric Cafe’. The reworkings of the original 1983 ‘Tour De France’ track are the best things on here while Karl Bartos’ ‘Communication’ album, which happened to be released a few weeks later, was infinitely superior.

Best track: ‘Tour De France’, ‘Tour De France Etape 1’

‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ was originally released by EMI Records

http://www.kraftwerk.com


NEW ORDER Waiting For The Sirens’ Call (2004)

NEW ORDER’s musical strength was fusing the spirit of punk into electronics and dance. However, with keyboardist Gillian Gilbert leaving the band on their recorded return, Messrs Sumner, Hooky and Morris filled the void with a bunch of stodgy rock numbers on 2001’s ‘Get Ready’. For the next album, the trend towards rock continued although there were marginally more synths this time although the array of producers involved confused matters.

As possibly the worst song NEW ORDER have ever recorded, ‘Who’s Joe?’ had none of the spirit of their best guitar numbers. Even the lead single ‘Krafty’ was uninspiring NEW ORDER by numbers while its follow-up ‘Jetstream’ featuring SCISSOR SISTERS’ Ana Matronic was terribly lame despite being produced by Stuart Price. Only the title track and ‘Dracula’s Castle’ have any flashes of their classic brilliance. Legend has it that when Peter Saville was commissioned to design the sleeve, he was so unimpressed by the quality of the album that he decided to send an ironic message to warn any potential punters!

Best tracks: ‘Waiting For The Sirens’ Call’, ‘Dracula’s Castle’

‘Waiting For The Sirens’ Call’ was originally released by London Records

http://www.neworder.com


GARY NUMAN Warriors (1983)

Things had looked promising with Gary Numan returning to the live stage after retiring in 1981. Bill Nelson was slotted in to produce ‘Warriors’, but the pair fell out very early on in the sessions. Nelson then had his more trebly cutting mixes wiped by Numan so asked for his name to be taken off the credits! With the alien embracement of jazz and funk influences, ‘Warriors’ ended up a well played if confused, characterless body of work.

The use of some top flight session musicians was a major part of this mess. Dick Morrissey played saxophone solos whether they really ought to have been there or not, while Joe Hubbard’s slap bass was at times self-indulgent and wholly incongruous with the Numan sound. Although there were a couple of good tracks like the dreamy ‘The Iceman Comes’ and the synthetic THIN LIZZY of ‘My Centurion’, this was the start of a creative dip that Gary Numan wouldn’t truly recover from until 1994. In between, he appeared far more interested in flying than his music career.

Best tracks: ‘The Iceman Comes’, ‘My Centurion’

‘Warriors’ was originally released by Beggars Banquet Records

http://www.numan.co.uk


OMD Liberator (1993)

Following the success of ‘Sugar Tax’ in 1991, remaining sole OMD founder Andy McCluskey was on a commercial roll and decided to continue this well trodden poptastic path. As a result, ‘Liberator’ featured lots of busy modern dance effects. “It was an album for kids” lamented McCluskey later to Jens Lindell on Swedish radio in 1996. But by the time of its release in 1993, Da Kidz were worshipping acts such as TAKE THAT and EAST17 who were closer in age to the intended demographic.

An album of C-sides, ‘Stand Above Me’, ‘Everyday’, ‘Love And Hate You’ were all painfully poppy and not exactly the strongest songs in the OMD canon. Meanwhile, opinions are still divided about the synth MOR tune ‘Dream Of Me’, based on LOVE UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA’s ‘Love’s Theme’. The confused schizophrenic nature of the album’s concept was compounded by the pure genius of darker, more traditional OMD numbers like ‘King Of Stone’ and ‘Christine’. The muted reception to ‘Liberator’ led to the brave but conventional and ultimately doomed ‘Universal’ in 1996, before McCluskey retired the OMD brand. Bruised, he then set his sights on launching ATOMIC KITTEN! And that is a story in itself!

Best tracks: ‘King Of Stone’, ‘Christine’, ‘Best Years Of Our Lives’

‘Liberator’ was originally released by Virgin Records

http://www.omd.uk.com


PET SHOP BOYS Release (2002)

With pun totally intended, ‘Release’ was marred by the input of THE SMITHS’ famed guitarist Johnny Marr  who had already used his influence to fill the last ELECTRONIC album ‘Twisted Tenderness’ with harmonica, getting Bernard Sumner rock out again in the process and even inspiring Karl Bartos to use guitar on every track of his ‘Electric Music’ album… note the irony with both band monikers!

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe meanwhile attempted a collection of understated songs which were not only free of club derived beats but also of hooks and melodies! ‘Release’ certainly had none of the quality of their other understated album ‘Behaviour’. ‘I Get Along’ comes over like a camp version of Oasis while the worthiness of ‘Here’ wasn’t revealed until PET SHOP BOYS’ own dance remix for ‘Disco Vol3’. ‘The Night I Fell In Love’ is a lyrically amusing narrative about Eminem having a gay fling with a fan, but apart from the uptempo ‘The Samurai In Autumn’, this album is mostly plodding six-string led numbers devoid of any of the mastery that made them great. They were wearing someone else’s clothes and they didn’t fit. Ironically, ‘Release’really was PET SHOP BOYS ‘Being Boring’! And did you know that Johnny Marr in French (J’en Ai Marre) means “I am fed up”?

Best track: ‘The Samurai In Autumn’

‘Release’ was originally released by EMI Records

http://www.petshopboys.co.uk


SIMPLE MINDS Street Fighting Years (1989)

Lambasted for embracing stadium rock, one thing though about 1986’s ‘Once Upon A Time’ was that it was an enjoyable uptempo synthetic rock record that successfully exploited its commercial possibilities with its sharp radio friendly outlook. However, when they took the album out on the road, Jim Kerr and co persisted with overlong, pompous arrangements and hectored the audience with tiresome repeated shouts of “show me your hands” and “higher”!

For the ‘Street Fighting Years’ album, the band retreated to the tranquillity of rural Scotland to inspire a more earnest, political direction… unfortunately, the overlong, pompous arrangements remained! Instrumentally, the bombast and synths were replaced by brushes, rootsy bottleneck guitar and Hammond organ flourishes that were ubiquitous of the period. But the songs meandered along formlessly at over six minutes at a time. Their only UK No1 single ‘Belfast Child’ outstayed its welcome by at least four and a half minutes! Even the production skills of Trevor Horn and Stephen J Lipson, who were recruited because Jim Kerr was a fan of PROPAGANDA’s ‘A Secret Wish’, couldn’t save this one!

Best track: ‘Wall Of Love’

‘Street Fighting Years’ was originally released by Virgin Records

https://www.simpleminds.com/


SPARKS Terminal Jive (1980)

Following the success of the singles ‘The No1 Song In Heaven’, ‘Beat The Clock’ and ‘Tryouts For The Human Race’ from the Giorgio Moroder steered album ‘No1 In Heaven’, SPARKS were despatched by Virgin Records to record a swift follow-up. Although Moroder was still nominally at the helm, ‘Terminal Jive’ was more ‘Hot Stuff’ than ‘I Feel Love’. Harold Faltermeyer of ‘Axel F’ fame took up a large part of the production duties as Moroder started to lose interest.

The songs were mostly lethargic synth assisted FM rock numbers. ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll People In A Disco World’ seemed to reflect the confused direction both lyrically and musically. Ironically, despite featuring more guitars and therefore a more American friendly sound, ‘Terminal Jive’ was the only SPARKS album that wasn’t issued in the US on its original release. The highlights were ‘When I’m With You’ which was a massive hit single in France and the satirically pervy ‘Young Girls’. However, the lack of quality material, as summed up by the inclusion of the instrumental version of ‘When I’m With You’, was the real problem. Disillusioned, SPARKS left Europe and returned to the States where they attained some varied domestic success having been previously ignored by their compatriots. They wouldn’t be seen much in Europe again until 1994 when the brilliant ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’ became as smash and gave them an unexpected career renaissance.

Best tracks: ‘When I’m With You’, ‘Young Girls’, ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’

‘Terminal Jive’ was originally released by Virgin Records

http://allsparks.com


TANGERINE DREAM Cyclone (1978)

So this was a great idea, a TANGERINE DREAM album with vocals and flute! Featuring Steve Jolliffe on those said two colours, the first 13 minute track ‘Bent Cold Sidewalk’ came over like GENESIS and JETHRO TULL with its mystical lyrics and Hobbit vocal delivery. The uptempo ‘Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender’ actually sounded like ULTRAVOX, but unfortunately in their Foxx-less and Ure-less ‘Ingenuity’ guise fronted by the best forgotten Sam Blue!

The progressive rock overtones took a breather on the more traditionally cosmic instrumental ‘Madrigal Meridian’ which saved the show, but most TD fans had probably headed down to the second hand stores by the end of side one. Although not well received, such was Messrs Froese and Franke standing at the time, ‘Cyclone’ was TANGERINE DREAM’s sixth best-selling album in the UK.

Best Track: ‘Madrigal Meridian’

‘Cyclone’ was originally released by Virgin Records

http://www.tangerinedream.org


TEARS FOR FEARS Everybody Loves A Happy Ending (2004)

‘Everybody Loves A Happy Ending’ saw TEARS FOR FEARS’ original nucleus of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith reunited for the first time since the tedious ‘The Seeds Of Love’ album from 1989. Friends since childhood, Orzabal’s domination of those sessions proved too much for Smith and it would be many years before they would even speak again. However, the reunion was already in trouble when Arista Records, who had signed the duo, pulled the comeback album.

But it was easy to see why… the album consisted of dull derivative compositions with little flair. The title track was another attempt at THE BEATLES pastiches from the last time Orzabal and Smith recorded together. Americana was one of the main templates with ‘Call Me Mellow’ basically a retread of THE LAs’ similarly influenced ‘There She Goes’. Eventually released on Gut Records after a year’s delay, only the original closing track ‘Last Days On Earth’ had any redeeming features but even that sounded like The Isley Brothers. As further a sign of their lack of creative juice, the duo even took to using Gary Jules’ arrangement of ‘Mad World’ from the ‘Donnie Darko’ soundtrack when performing the song live! Anyone who expected the sixth form synth angst of ‘The Hurting’ or even the MTV friendly rock of ‘Songs From The Big Chair’ was going to be disappointed.

Best track: ‘Last Days On Earth’

‘Everybody Loves A Happy Ending’ was originally released by Gut Records

http://www.tearsforfears.net


ULTRAVOX U-Vox (1986)

Also known by fans as “The Dreaded Pink Thing”, the signs had not been good when drummer Warren Cann was booted out of the band for preferring to use computer generated percussion while in the wake of his successful solo career, Midge Ure was dictating a more back-to-basics approach. Paradoxically though, soulful backing vocalists, funk bass, orchestras, brass sections and sax solos all entered into the equation, resulting in a totally unfocused sound.

‘Sweet Surrender’ was frankly a bit of a mess while ‘Moon Madness’ didn’t know whether it should have been rock or jazz. Backed by The Chieftains and featuring no synthesizers at all, ‘All Fall Down’ polarised listeners with its Celtic folk roots and anti-war message. But the poor title ‘U-Vox’ summed it all up… a band with something missing! However, ‘The Prize’ was as good as anything TEARS FOR FEARS or SIMPLE MINDS did in their stadium phase, ‘Time To Kill’ retained some European cool despite the acoustic guitars and the epic ‘All In One Day’ was the best thing Scott Walker never recorded.

Best tracks: ‘The Prize’, ‘Time To Kill’, ‘All In One Day’

‘U-Vox’ was originally released by Chrysalis Records

http://www.ultravox.org.uk


VISAGE Beat Boy (1984)

Midge Ure and Billy Currie had both left VISAGE in 1982, leaving Steve Strange and Rusty Egan with the VISAGE name and ownership of a very expensive Synclavier computer synthesizer. Despite the promising edgy electro-disco of interim single ‘Pleasure Boys’, the direction chosen for ‘Beat Boy’ was an ill-advised sojourn into rock with a group of session musicians filling in slots vacated by the former members of ULTRAVOX and MAGAZINE.

Without Ure’s production guidance, Steve Strange’s singing was all over the place. Neither ‘Only The Good Die Young’ nor the dreadful title track knew when to finish, while ‘Can You Hear Me?’ didn’t know when to actually start. And the backing vocals by guitarist Andy Barnett on the gross heavy metal of ‘Casualty’ were truly appalling! The eight tracks that made up ‘Beat Boy’ were all far too long although ‘Questions’ possessed a funky energy while ‘Love Glove’ could have easily come off ‘The Anvil’. However, this poor album led to the end of VISAGE. Rusty Egan went to work for U2 while Strange formed the unsuccessful STRANGE CRUISE and sadly later experienced some well documented personal difficulties.

Best tracks: ‘Love Glove’, ‘Questions’

‘Beat Boy’ was originally released by Polydor Records

http://therealvisage.com/


NEIL YOUNG Trans (1982)

Many of the albums mentioned have had the disaster of synth based acts adopting more conventional colours. This was one which where it happened the other way round. ‘Trans’ was Neil Young’s 1982 excursion into synthesizers, Linn Drum computers and vocoders. Despite the noble gesture of wishing to artistically express the difficulties of communicating with his son Ben who had cerebral palsy, ‘Trans’ didn’t work.

‘We R In Control’ and ‘Computer Cowboy’ both sounded like Metal Mickey fronting THE EAGLES while ‘Sample And Hold’ was an excessively long robotic march. However, there was an almost ethereal ‘Neon Lights’-like beauty in ‘Transformer Man’. Although there were still enough essential elements for ‘Trans’ to be nothing but a Neil Young album, it baffled his fans and was lambasted by the real music brigade. “I could never get anybody to believe that the f***ing idea was any good” said Young looking back, perhaps because it wasn’t in Young’s instinctive musical DNA to effectively use electronics. Indeed, he was later sued by his label Geffen Records for producing “deliberately uncommercial and unrepresentative work”!

Best Track: ‘Transformer Man’

‘Trans’ was originally released by Geffen Records

http://www.neilyoung.com


Text by Chi Ming Lai
18th April 2011

The Amazing Adventures Of MR NORMALL


Those who have attended the recent concerts of ULTRAVOX, JOHN FOXX, HEAVEN 17 and Thomas Dolby may have noticed a striking satorially astute personality in the audience with the make-up and piercing eyes.

Looking like he’s just failed an audition to join SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK for dressing too smartly, that new kind of man is Tapio Normall, concert goer extroadinaire from Finland.

His trips seeing many of the artists from the classic synth and new wave era have been documented on his website The Amazing Adventures Of Mr Normall. His charming photographs with acts as KRAFTWERK, SPARKS, JAPAN, ULTRAVOX, GARY NUMAN, MARC ALMOND, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and VISAGE have become tales of electronic music folklore.

Just prior to visiting London again to see GARY NUMAN, JOHN FOXX, MOTOR and MIRRORS at Back To The Phuture, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK caught up with Mr Normall to reminisce about his travels and meetings with various lumanaries key to the rise of electronic pop music in Europe.

How did you come discover the joys of electronic and new wave music?

I remember that moment very well: I was 15 years old, it was summer and I was sitting in my parents’ car. The radio played ‘Computer World’ and few other tracks by KRAFTWERK. I knew right then that this is my kind of music. I had already tried punk and even a bit of rockabilly, but they weren’t my thing. The first vinyl album I ever bought was ‘Die Mensch Maschine’ by KRAFTWERK.

Who are your favourite acts?

JOHN FOXX, ULTRAVOX, VISAGE, KRAFTWERK, JAPAN, THOMAS DOLBY, HEAVEN 17, DURAN DURAN, SOFT CELL / MARC ALMOND, ASSOCIATES / BILLY McKENZIE, ADAM ANT, SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK, DEAD OR ALIVE and many others.

What was your first concert?

A Finnish band called RATSIA. They started as a punk band but then moved towards new wave. When I saw RATSIA, they already had synth on stage and the guy who played it looked like a ‘rock’ version on Nick Rhodes.

The first non-Finnish band I saw live was CLASSIX NOUVEAUX. This was November 1982.


What inspired you to first journey abroad to see your favourite bands? It is because Finland is often missed out on touring schedules?

There were MARC ALMOND, SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK and DURAN DURAN gigs in London only a few days apart in December 2000. All my big favourites and no chance to see them in Finland. I’m glad that I went to see them because it was the only time I saw the Martin Degville, Tony James and Neal X version of SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK.

There just aren’t many gigs in Finland that I would like to attend. It takes me only few hours more to travel to London than to Helsinki, and you can always find fairly inexpensive hotel in London. There’s no such thing as inexpensive hotel in Helsinki.

When did it occur to you that your travels were now becoming more than a habit?

I think that started summer 2006 when I went to London to see THOMAS DOLBY live at the Scala. The last few years have been like the second (or third or fourth) coming for many of my favourite artists/bands. This time has also been a sort of ‘second coming’ for Mr Normall. My passion for these things was almost lost during ’90s but it all started to come back after 2000 and it’s getting better and better. 2010 was great: THOMAS DOLBY, ULTRAVOX, JOHN FOXX, HEAVEN 17, MARC ALMOND.

You meet a lot of the people from the bands themselves and the ‘handshake’ photo with them has been a regular endearing feature of The Adventures Of Mr Normall. How do most of them react to meeting you, especially with your striking persona?

Heh heh… I believe all of them has seen more peculiar things than me! Actually everyone has been quite nice. Some artists have recognized me, which to me is a funny thing to notice. The internet makes things possible.

Often, you manage to get an invite to the aftershow party. How easy or difficult have you found to arrange this?

I have learnt one thing: it goes easy or it doesn’t go at all. Some aftershow passes I have asked, some have been offered to me and I’m very grateful for that.

Who have been your favourites stars to meet and why?

This question may lead to “Oscar speech syndrome” (just made that up) and I don’t know when to finish. I just leave it to that *laughs*


Tell me a funny story about one of your many meetings…

I don’t know if is this funny but I tell it anyway. 15 years ago – March 1996 – Italian songstress Alice had gig in Turku (Finland) and ex-JAPAN members Mick Karn and Steve Jansen were in her band. My sister Tuula lived in Turku then, so Marjaana and I drove there to visit Tuula and to see Mick Karn and Steve Jansen live.

My idea was to go to the gig venue in the afternoon just in case we could see Karn and Jansen there. We went inside the venue, walked around and found Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Robby Aceto in a small room and they obviously were just killing time waiting for the gig in the evening. They were apparently delighted that they got company and they were so very friendly. Mick Karn asked to show him from a map where we had come and he was astonished at how far north we had drove to Turku.

Before we left the venue – to return there later in the evening – they asked us tips what to do and where to go in Turku. We told them the best known sights there; Turku Castle and few others. It occurred to us later that maybe they actually wanted to go to the Turku city with us (I told them earlier I was there by car). They would have had both a local guide and ride back to venue with us, but we just weren’t able to read between lines. So we left Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Robby Aceto where we found them and went to the city without them. If I had asked, maybe I would have had half of JAPAN on the backseat of my car.

We met Karn and Jansen again in the evening. There is a picture of Tuula, Steve Jansen, Marjaana, Mick Karn and I on my website. The picture is taken by Alice. She was actually the star of the evening but we forgot to take any pictures with her. I didn’t meet Mick Karn again after this.


At The Blitz Club Reunion, I approached someone who I thought was Mark Shaw from THEN JERICO and it turned out it wasn’t? Have you ever had this embarrassment on your adventures?

Yes, but other way around. I’ve been mistaken for Billy Idol, Neal X – those were long time ago – and more recently for JohnFoxx. The latter was last summer on the day of John Foxx’s Roundhouse gig.

I was staying in Camden and at one point during the afternoon I left my hotel to go to a shop. I was wearing black ‘Glimmer – Best of John Foxx’ T-shirt, black trousers and virtually no make-up. Walking down the pavement I heard “Hey John!” but I didn’t realize it was meant for me.

Then a couple of blokes politely stopped me and asked if I could “sign these”. They had several John Foxx 12″ vinyls with them. As far as I can remember I said “yes I can but I think it’s better if JOHN FOXX does it, not me”. That was a good start for the John Foxx themed evening.

Was there anyone you met who perhaps wasn’t as friendly as you’d hoped?

No, not really. Ralf Hutter didn’t allow to have photos taken but he signed me several KRAFTWERK CD covers and chatted a bit. He is a gentleman.

So what do you think of the proverb that you should ‘never meet your heroes’? Can it ever go too far?

I suppose it depends what are your expectations and what you want. I haven’t had big disappointments but instead, the uplifting feeling after meeting an artist I have listened on the records and seen on the music videos since my teen years. That’s the story so far.


You have a friendly, engaging personality but do you ever worry you may be considered by some to be a stalker?

I hope not. To be honest, I don’t have enough interest in anyone particular for that. However, when I travel from Finland to London specially to see live an artist I haven’t met before, it’s not a big sacrifice to wait an hour outside the gig venue to possibly get a few photos taken for my website.

What are the options? Go back to the hotel, shopping, sight seeing, pub… actually a pub doesn’t sound too bad *laughs*

Is there anyone you would still like to meet and be photographed with?

Several people: Adam Ant, David Sylvian, DURAN DURAN, Siouxsie, Pete Burns and – dare I say it – David Bowie. Those names came first to my mind but there’s several others as well.

Is there anyone from history or who is no longer with us who you would have like to have met and why?

Billy MacKenzie – in my book he was the best singer ever. Also meeting Andy Warhol would have been a big thing for me.


Favourite live concert of all time?

It’s too difficult to decide which one is my favourite concert ever. However, if I can expand this to a whole day including pre and after parties and the live concert, then I have the answer: it’s ULTRAVOX at Hammersmith Apollo in April 11th 2010. That was a great day.

Yes, I was there too, what a great gig! So who would you say is your favourite band of all time?

JAPAN.

Your favourite album?

‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ by JAPAN. It is perfect.


ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Tapio Normall

http://www.mrnormall.net/

https://twitter.com/MrNormall


Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
2nd April 2011

2010 END OF YEAR REVIEW

The Year Of Transistors

“Synthesizers can be explored and explored, and the music that can be made with electronic instruments is infinite in its breadth. KRAFTWERK may have said ‘we are the robots’, but anyone need only listen to Trans-Europe Express and compare it to most of the turgid, boring guitar-based rock that has been produced over the last 30 years to realise that electronic music can be deeply emotional. And anyone who says electronic music is not real music is just too simple-minded for our patience I’m afraid!”: MIRRORS

2010 saw the return of the male synthpop act, smart boys with their toys and their nods towards the classic era of Synth Britannia. Leading the way were VILLA NAH and MIRRORS who both fused quality songs with vintage sounds and crisp contemporary percussive frameworks. The two units were obviously pressing the right buttons as both opened as special guests to OMD. As a continued sign of their undoubted potential, both were also were invited to support THE HUMAN LEAGUE; an opportunity which unfortunately neither act was able to fulfil due to prior scheduling commitments.

Coming from Finland, VILLA NAH released one of the best long players of the year in ‘Origin’, while closer to home, Brighton-based MIRRORS’ forthcoming album ‘Lights And Offerings’ is likely to be one of the musical highlights of 2011. Meanwhile HURTS, the enigmatic Mancunian duo who many predicted for major success in 2010, rattled the cages of the style over substance brigade.

Whilst the cinematic grandeur displayed in their best songs like ‘Wonderful Life’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Sunday’ was simply outstanding, they did occasionally walk a fine line with their milder paced material, sounding occasionally like TAKE THAT backed by ULTRAVOX. Despite confusing some listeners, their album ‘Happiness’ was an enormous grower and their live shows won over many new fans, especially on the continent where artful intelligence is a highly regarded attribute.

Interestingly, TAKE THAT themselves released their album ‘Progress’ with Stuart Price aka LES RYTHMES DIGITALES at the producer’s helm. Featuring a strong electronic flavour, there was also a song called ‘Eight Letters’ based on ‘Vienna’ which resulted in the rather unusual credit ‘written by Barlow / Donald / Orange / Owen / Williams / Ure / Cross / Cann / Currie’!

Attracting cult followings in 2010 were DELPHIC and CHEW LIPS. DELPHIC captured the Factory Records aesthetic of the mutant disco pioneered by NEW ORDER and A CERTAIN RATIO, but were unable to attract mainstream recognition probably due to their reliance on grooves and jams rather than actual songs… they can only get better with time.

CHEW LIPS are YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths and while they had several brilliant numbers in their cannon, not all were included on their rather short debut album ‘Unicorn’. This didn’t allow them to play to their strengths on record although this was fully exploited in their live show. Again, they will learn.

And not wishing to get wholly involved in the main skirmish, THE SOUND OF ARROWS maintained a low profile while recording their debut album in London but delivered some impressive concert showcases of their lush Nordic musicality. Their optimistic and aspirational ‘Disney meets Brokeback Mountain’ tone may be the fresh approach to electropop in 2011.

Kookiness was the order of the day with the raven haired beauties MARINA & THE DIAMONDS and EMILIE SIMON. Marina Lambrini Diamandis kept the spirit of SPARKS alive with some fe-Mael intuition on her superb debut ‘The Family Jewels’ while EMILIE SIMON crossed the channel for some ‘one girl and her synth’ shows to fill the gap left by the absence of LITTLE BOOTS in 2010.

As could have been expected after the promotional lash of last year, Victoria Hesketh took a break before starting work on her new album. Hertfordshire’s SUNDAY GIRL could be the next lady-in-waiting providing she can expand on the very promising material like All The Songs and Stop Hey! that was premiered in the latter part of the year.

Meanwhile LA ROUX toured the world and recorded a ‘Stones cover ‘Under Your Thumb’ for the ‘Sidetracked’ influences DJ mix compilation before giving old mate SKREAM the iTunes bonus track Saviour for a dubstep rework as Finally and guesting with CHROMEO. However, Elly Jackson appears to have forgotten that No.1 rule of not biting the hand that feeds you by exclaiming “… I don’t want to make synth music for the rest of my f*cking life!” and declaring the electropop genre “over”!

In the battle of Synth Britannia, OMD released their first collection of new material for 14 years while THE HUMAN LEAGUE delayed their full album return until 2011. THE HUMAN LEAGUE have the backing of electronic music guru Mark Jones’ Wall Of Sound label and thus far have played a ‘less is more’ approach. Despite not having an official website until this year, some clever viral marketing sent interest in their single ‘Night People’ sky high and provided good business for their now almost traditional Christmas UK tour.

While OMD’s ‘History of Modern’ album had several outstanding tracks worthy of comparison with past glories, it was confusingly launched with an Aretha Franklin mash-up that wasn’t on the final tracklisting and a nauseating Britpop pastiche as lead single. Ironically one of the statements made in its sleeve notes was “Modern is not… Oasis”!

It was as if audiences who had traditionally been sceptical of the whole synthesizer axis were now being targeted.

However, electronic pop’s spiritual homeland of Germany welcomed OMD back like one of their own and respectable business for ‘History of Modern’ was generated.

A-HA though are proof that consistently high quality new material is still a possiblity 25 years after your commercial heyday with the focus of their final album ‘Foot Of The Mountain’ very much on their synthesizer roots. In late 2010, they bid farewell with a final tour and a superb double CD compilation called ’25’ which featured not only their hits but the best of their much under valued album tracks.

Photo by Tracey Welch

Among the acts celebrating their legacies, HEAVEN 17 enhanced their reputation no-end by participating in a brilliant BBC6 Music collaboration with “the falsetto from the ghetto” LA ROUX. And if that wasn’t enough, they had not one but two BBC TV programmes featuring their highly regarded album ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ including their triumphant Sheffield Magna gig.

HOWARD JONES didn’t look a day older, proving that a vegetarian diet and a clean living spirituality was the key to eternal youth! He played ‘Human’s Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’ in full for the first time at Indigo2.

Former sparring partners ULTRAVOX and JOHN FOXX played very different types of live shows in 2010. ULTRAVOX almost went back to basics with the retrospective ‘Return To Eden 2’ tour while JOHN FOXX curated an audio/visual extravaganza at the Short Circuit Festival featuring a deluge of analogue synths and some new material to a mixed reception.

DEPECHE MODE completed their ‘Tour Of The Universe’ and capped it all with a special show at the Royal Albert Hall for The Teenage Cancer Trust where Alan Wilder was reunited with the band for the first time in 16 years during the encore of ‘Somebody’. It was an emotional night for many including the band. Does this lay out the foundations for, if not a reunion, at least some future work together?

GOLDFRAPP returned with ‘Head First’, a mid-Atlantic AOR styled electronic romp that had echoes of Laura Branigan and Olivia Newton-John. Some found it uninspiring but what could not be denied was the catchiness of the tunes. Given time, it will become a future guilty pleasure.

Meanwhile LADYTRON prepared a career spanning compilation Ladytron ’00-10′ to reinforce their reputation as one of the key electronic based acts of the last decade but they began the year contributing a pair of excellent bonus tracks to Christina Aguilera’s album ‘Bionic’ in ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’.

Swedish songstress Robyn continued her feisty independent spirit by releasing her ‘Body Talk’ trilogy and the excellent single ‘Dancing On My Own’, while both Lady Gaga and Kylie kept electronically produced pop in the mainstream consciousness.

Across the water, New York’s THE GOLDEN FILTER added a crisp vibe to the electronic dancefloor via some dreamy Scandinavian influences and frantic tribal percussion while their neighbours THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS brought a mechanised twist to new wave on their self-titled debut. And for the perfect after party soundtrack in the Big Apple, ARP provided some gorgeous modern day ambience with the album ‘The Soft Wave’. Meanwhile, another North American based duo LOLA DUTRONIC relaunched their brand of dreamy Gallic flavoured electro-lounge pop with the ‘Musique’ EP.

Elsewhere internationally, the vivacious SHH became the latest in a line of Argentine musicians basing themselves in London for an assault on the UK and European market while Texans HYPERBUBBLE brought their own ‘bionic bubblepunk’ with the impressive ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’. MARSHEAUX had a quiet year, only releasing a cover of BILLY IDOL’s Eyes Without a Face for an Amnesty International compilation.

Promising newcomers VILE ELECTRODES steadily gained fans on the London club circuit with their mix of fetish porn and analogue synths while following some line-up changes, THE VANITY CLAUSE finally released their first album ‘Fractured’. And the quirky Sheffield based duo THE CHANTEUSE & THE CLAW unleashed a superb debut single in ‘Are You One?’.

Overall in 2010, the spark generated by the new generation of synthesizer acts and the willingness of others to incorporate more electronic sounds into their work accounted for yet another productive year with the heritage acts also getting the cultural recognition they fully deserved. Ever supportive, The Guardian even featured a piece on the older incarnation entitled Forgive Us Our Synths which interestingly was almost two years after their prophetic Slaves To Synth article hit the public consciousness.

There were more quality albums and live shows of interest to the electro fan than in many years past with acts such as MIRRORS, VILLA NAH and HURTS fulfilling the role of worthy successors to the classic Synth Britanniageneration. Hopefully, other acts will be following in their footsteps. In fact, despite being ignored by the BBC Sound Of 2011 and New To Q listings which appear to have been locked into some evil parallel universe where good taste does not seem to reside, “… fey, gay, pseudo-intellectual synth b*llocks” still rules!


ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings Of 2010

STEVE GRAY

Best Album: TENEK On The Wire
Best Song: HURTS Unspoken
Best Gig: DEPECHE MODE at London Royal Albert Hall
Best Video: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS


CHI MING LAI

Best Album: VILLA NAH Origin
Best Song: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Best Gig: HEAVEN 17 at Sheffield Magna
Best Video: HURTS Wonderful Life
Most Promising New Act: THE SOUND OF ARROWS


RICHARD PRICE

Best Album: HURTS Happiness
Best Song: OMD History Of Modern (Part I)
Best Gig: THE HUMAN LEAGUE + HEAVEN 17 at Galway Festival
Best Video: HURTS Stay
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS


JOHAN WEJEDAL

Best Album: PAGE Nu
Best Song: POLAROID MILITIA Astana My Hero
Best Gig: PAGE at Gothenburg Synthklubben
Best Video: VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red
Most Promising New Act: THE GIRL & THE ROBOT


Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th December 2010

WARREN CANN Interview

Photo by Brain Griffin

Warren Cann is best known as a founder member of ULTRAVOX. Born in Vancouver, he began a love of electronics and music that led him to moving to the UK to make his fortune as a drummer. He auditioned for SPARKS but didn’t get offered the job.

Eventually though in 1974 via a small ad in Melody Maker, he joined the band TIGER LILY who were later to become ULTRAVOX! Led by Dennis Leigh aka John Foxx, their first two albums ‘Ultravox!’ and ‘Ha-Ha-Ha’ fused the art school spirit of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, ROXY MUSIC and David Bowie with the pioneering Teutonic inventiveness of KRAFTWERK and NEU! Working with producers Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite, Cann became fascinated with the use of guitar effects to treat drums and played around with early rhythm units as ULTRAVOX! started to incorporate more electronics into their work.

For their third album ‘Systems Of Romance’, ULTRAVOX (now with no exclamation mark!) found their perfect bedfellow in the legendary producer Conny Plank who had previously worked with KRAFTWERK and NEU! It was Plank who said “I like synthesizers when they sound like synthesizers, not when they sound like natural instruments. I like them to have their own colours. The strange areas of colours that you can do with synthesizers is what’s interesting for me, not just copying an acoustic instrument.”

Despite the newly focused sound, John Foxx departed in 1979 to go solo. Following a brief hiatus during which main synthesist Billy Currie worked with Gary Numan and VISAGE with whom he met Midge Ure, the diminutive Glaswegian then joined Cann, Currie and bassist Chris Cross to become the most commercially successful version of ULTRAVOX. Over a period of four years, they conquered Europe with their brand of symphonic synthesized rock with classic albums such as ‘Vienna’, ‘Rage in Eden’, ‘Quartet’.

Along with the rest of the band, Cann’s continued innovative use of new technology integrated with conventional instruments pushed boundaries and challenged perceptions of how electronics could be used in music. Shedding the sweat and armbands image of the rock drummer, he became the metronomic meister of the rhythm box.

As well as using drum machines, Cann made use of early manually operated electronic percussion such as the Claptrap as heard on ‘New Europeans’, and the Synare III which provided the thunder sound on Vienna’. He developed a sequencer for use in tandem with Chris Cross’ Minimoog which featured on the single ‘The Thin Wall’ among others.

And he was also one of the first drummers to acquire the Linn LM-1, the first programmable digital drum computer. Indeed, Cann had eventually acquired so much equipment that it was all packed into a huge complex next to his drum kit and nicknamed ‘The Iron Lung’ by the rest of the band. At the height of ULTRAVOX, ‘The Iron Lung’ contained the Simmons SDSIII, SDSV and SDSVII drum synthesizers, Roland TR77 and CR78 drum machines, a Linn LM-1, a LinnDrum, the Sequential Circuits Drumtraks and various effects processors like the Roland Space-Echo.

Despite their success and an appearance at Live Aid, ULTRAVOX imploded, with Cann being forced to leave the band in 1986 before recording of what became the disastrous ‘U-Vox’ album and their eventual demise. Continuing to work as a musician but eventually transferring to guitar and keyboards, he moved to Los Angeles where he still resides. Fast forward to 2008 and the classic line-up of Cann, Cross, Currie and Ure reformed to celebrate their musical legacy on the ever expanding ‘Return To Eden’ tour.

While he was in Scandinavia playing festivals with ULTRAVOX during the summer, Warren Cann took time out to talk to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about his innovative career and the current reunion.

During Foxx and Ure eras of ULTRAVOX, you harnessed the development of synthesizer technology and electronic percussion, pioneering its use in both studio and live work. How do you feel about your role in all that?

I’m very proud of it. It was very hard work – at the time, there were so many obstacles between what I wanted to do and what the technology would allow you to do… very frustrating! A lot of ingenuity went into trying to coax the machines to give the results desired as, in those days, the machines hadn’t yet realized they were instruments.

Can you remember what your first drum machine was and what it was like to use?

Of course. It was a Roland TR-77. No memory, no tempo display, no individual outputs, no programmability! It was incredibly primitive by today’s standards but at the time, this was about as high-tech as you could get for a drum machine.

Is it true you wired a volt meter in series with your drum machine and stuck tape on the dial to mark the appropriate tempos for each individual song?

Controllable and repeatable tempo settings are vital when using a drum machine. The TR-77 had no tempo display to tell you the beats per minute (BPM), it only had a fader to control the tempo and the sensitivity was very coarse; you only had to look at it to make the speed jump by a huge amount. Trying to get tempo changes from song to song in a live setting was very hit-or-miss… almost always miss!

To solve this, I had a second potentiometer wired up with the first one to give a ‘Coarse/Fine’ set of controls. This gave a much more useable degree of control. Then, to actually work out what the tempo would be, I connected a volt meter with an LED readout to the clocking circuit… this gave a DC voltage and I could just read the display and make a note of the number – it was an arbitrary voltage, but it corresponded directly to the speed and that solved the problem. If the correct speed of the song gave a voltage reading of 11.45 volts, then I could simply adjust the fader till the clock voltage read that value!

Photo by Brian Griffin

Mr X had its origins in the John Foxx-era of ULTRAVOX but with you on lead vocals and you wrote a fair proportion of the lyrics for the ‘Vienna’ album. When John Foxx left and before Midge Ure joined, was there ever any consideration given to you perhaps becoming the new lead vocalist of ULTRAVOX?

Yes, I wrote about half of the lyrics for the ‘Vienna’ album. No, there was no thought of me being the lead vocalist at that time.

Your acquisition of the Linn Drum Computer must have been quite a revelation? In your opinion, how did this and machines like it change popular music forever?

Yes, I got the Linn LM-1 when I was working with Hans Zimmer on our HELDEN album. While still very primitive, I’d consider it the first true modern drum machine and it was like going from a VW Beetle to a Ferrari. It’s hard to give such a big question a brief answer. Drum machines lent a new dimension to music on two fronts; one, the hypnotic element given by perfect unwavering tempo, and two, the ability to endlessly layer, edit, and re-edit rhythm tracks.

What of your contributions to ULTRAVOX songs are you personally most proud of?

As a band, ULTRAVOX never wrote music unless we were all together in the same room – this is very rare. We would throw ideas back and forth in infinite combinations until we’d achieved what we wanted to hear. We all influenced each other. As such, it’s almost impossible to pick out specific pieces or themes. I’m proud that my ideas and attitudes contributed to making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Still, if I had to pick just one… I’d say when I played the ‘Vienna’ rhythm to the band and said: “How about this?”

ULTRAVOX rhythmically had always been an even mix of real drums and drum machines but on 1984’s ‘Lament’ album, there was noticeably more programmed percussion than on previous albums. Was there any particular reason for this? And did it ultimately lead to the tensions which led to you leaving in 1986 prior to the recording of the ‘U-Vox’ album?

No particular reason, it just worked out that way. And it certainly didn’t lead to the reasons I left.

What did you do after that? Was a solo music career ever a consideration?

I made some demos which were not well received by Chrysalis… they thought the tracks were too much like Iggy Pop which I took as a great, if entirely unexpected, compliment! I did a lot of session work; 7000 Danses by INDOCHINE, lots of television shows for Kim Wilde and produced demos for aspiring bands. I joined a band called THE SONS OF VALENTINO and had a great time, but then I left to play guitar and keyboards for THE HUW LLOYD-LANGTON GROUP. I later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a future in film scoring.

How did you get the call about the 30th Anniversary ULTRAVOX reunion and what was your initial reaction?

Like the others, I received an e-mail from a previous manager, Chris O’Donnell, who was now with Live Nation.

He said it was their opinion at LN that now just might be a good time to consider reforming and playing some shows. To our surprise, we all agreed with him!

The DVD footage of you meeting the guys again for the first time at the rehearsals for ‘Return To Eden’ brought a lump to my throat. How was it all for you?

Yes, it was quite emotional. And very surreal… we were all aware of the many years that have passed, yet at the same time, it was like only yesterday.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

How did you cope with getting back into the rhythm of playing drums again after over 20 years?

To be absolutely honest, far more easily than I’d anticipated! Like riding a bicycle…

Did you have much opportunity to do any of the drum programming for the tour or had that been pretty much completed before you joined full band rehearsals. How did you find using the ‘new’ technology?

I did the programming for the songs that required it during the first week or so of rehearsals, then fine-tuned as necessary. As for the new technology, you have to see it from my point of view; I was merely learning some new software, I didn’t have to learn what was going on – I merely had to learn the eccentricities of a sequencing program I hadn’t used before, the principles are all the same. The greatest benefit was being able to condense and ‘miniaturize’. Instead of having a huge rack of hardware to make noise with, it could all be contained within a laptop.

What probably had the greatest impact was not our ability to streamline the amount of equipment we had to deal with – great as that was – but being able to eliminate the old-style on-stage monitoring system.

Instead of having a smaller version of the out-front sound system pointing at us so we could adequately hear each other, we used the ‘In-Ears’ system of super hi-fi ear phones which gave each of us an individual and repeatable mix for each song.

It cut our soundcheck time from two or three hours to an easy fifteen minutes. It also enabled us, when necessary, to not do a soundcheck at all (most festivals, for example). Fantastic!

And when you finally got on stage, how did you feel about the ecstatic reaction you were getting at the shows? What were the personal highlights for you?

It was amazing! Truly! The personal highlights were going onstage together at the first show in Edinburgh (… another surreal moment!) and playing at Hammersmith in London (we always considered that venue as ‘home’).

What next for you? Will there be further tours from ULTRAVOX or even the possibility of new material?

As I write this, we’re playing concerts in Sweden, Finland and the UK. As for further tours and/or new material… you’ll just have to wait and see!


ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Warren Cann

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

https://www.facebook.com/UltravoxUK/


Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
13th October 2010

ULTRAVOX Live in London


Following their triumphant reunion in 2009 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their classic incarnation with the ‘Return To Eden’ tour, ULTRAVOX came back to the Hammersmith Apollo for the second leg of shows which also takes in a number of European territories.

The line-up of Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Midge Ure, which first came together in 1979, became one of the most successful of the new wave of synthesizer based bands.

Fusing the classical overtones of Bela Bartok with dynamic Teutonic influences such as KRAFTWERK, NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF, ULTRAVOX 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’. During this period, they were a highly stylish outfit who wore their intelligence on the sleeves with their Peter Saville curated artwork, lavish stage sets and self-directed promo videos; all of which possessed a thoughtful continuity throughout.

But an unsuccessful attempt at a back-to-basics sound in 1986 for the disastrous folk / brass / rock / orchestral album ‘U-Vox’ saw Warren Cann unceremoniously fired from the band before recording started and the remaining trio losing momentum before finally splitting.

That these four strong minded individuals are able to even take to the stage together again is a positive testament in itself, judging by the well documented tensions between several members of the group.

At their peak, ULTRAVOX used nearly 30 keyboards and electronic gadgets on stage including ARP Odysseys, Minimoogs, PPGs, Emulators, assorted Yamaha keyboards and Warren Cann’s infamous percussion console ‘The Iron Lung’.

Modern technology has now enabled the live set-up to be reduced to a few workstations and laptops but tonight, it all still managed to sound as grandiose as ever. The LED video screens from ‘Return to Eden’ may have gone but to make up for it, three songs have been added to ‘RTE2’, although the sparse mental breakdown of ‘Your Name Has Slipped My Mind Again’ has now been dropped. Overall, the setlist was as good as perfect, with that paean to futurism ‘New Europeans’ opening proceedings. Now that electronic music is back in favour again, the line “his modern world revolves around the synthesizer’s song” couldn’t have been more fitting for the largely male audience 30 years on.

ULTRAVOX have within their DNA, a very symphonic style of playing which is thanks largely to Billy Currie’s classical training. Jumping from screaming synth solo, electric violin and piano modes, the former Huddersfield Music College graduate was as intense as ever but really enjoying the limelight.

Doubling between bass guitar and his trademark triggered synth was Mr Chris Cross who came to the fore on tracks like ‘We Stand Alone’. At times CC was so cool, he even managed the two functions simultaneously on the brilliantly progressive instrumental ‘Astradyne’!

The mighty Warren Cann’s contribution to the band has often been understated but he did write lyrics to songs such as the amazing synthesized heavy metal of ‘All Stood Still’. Also he was one of the pioneers of electronic percussion; how he had to wire a voltmeter in series to his Roland drum machine and put marks on its dial to be able to set the exact tempo for tracks at early gigs just shows how determined the technological innovation was that lay at the heart of ULTRAVOX.

Meanwhile at the front, Midge Ure was looking very dapper in a dark polo neck and grey suit combo after some of the sartorial mishaps of the previous year. He was in fine voice, hitting most of those big notes but also showing off his renowned versatility on guitar and synthesizer. This was the talent that not only drove ULTRAVOX, but also VISAGE.

It was VISAGE of course that led him to working with Billy Currie in the first place and being invited to take over from the then recently departed JOHN FOXX as lead singer. Incidentally Foxx himself will be featuring some early ULTRAVOX material at his own live retrospective at The Roundhouse on 5th June 2010.

‘White China’, the full fat sequencer number from 1984 about the eventual handover of British ruled Hong Kong to Red China makes a welcome addition to the set. A development of NEW ORDER’s ‘Blue Monday’, it shows the direction that ULTRAVOX could have taken post ‘Lament’. The authentic electronic rendition tonight erased bad memories of the rotten, plodding rock arrangement from the disappointing ‘U-Vox’ tour. Robotic spy story ‘Mr X’ voiced by Warren Cann thankfully remains and is one of those amazing set pieces that mark out why the ‘Vienna’ album was so special.

There are also some brave choices to include moodier material such as ‘Visions In Blue’ and ‘Rage In Eden’. On the latter, 21st Century sampling has allowed the rich Arabic toned “noonretfa eht ni htaed… rebmemer i ho” vocal phrase to be accurately reproduced and fully compliment the atmospheric live version.

‘Hymn’ becomes a singalong anthem while ‘One Small Day’ is a decisively hands in the air rockist statement.

The inevitable ‘Dancing With Tears in My Eyes’ and ‘Vienna’ take their place on the final straight but these are classic songs, part of our popular culture and proud musical heritage. It could only be some fairly dour, unsophisticated individuals who wouldn’t get pleasure out of these two gems! And on ‘Vienna’, Currie amusingly just makes it back to the piano in the nick of time after the violin solo!

As well as most of the singles, a big hit that was missing from last year’s tour makes its appearance at the start of the encore. ‘Love’s Great Adventure’ is glorious, sounding like it’s being driven at full speed by a speedboat engine. Meccanik dancing oh we go but in reality, this one is totally undanceable!

Finishing with the “fun-fun-fun on the autobahn” of ‘Sleepwalk’ and ‘The Voice’, magnificently complete with Ure, Cross and Currie pounding synth drums in syncopation to Cann’s motorik beat, it was a rousing climax!

This bunch of old guys can make a hell of a racket but the sound managed to stay crystal clear throughout. Even the backing vocals which were barely audible last year could actually be heard.

With no new material planned, if this really is the end for this phase of ULTRAVOX as has been rumoured, this was a fitting farewell.


The live DVD/2CD set ‘Return To Eden – Live At The Roundhouse’ featuring last April’s show at The Roundhouse is released by Chrysalis/EMI.

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

https://www.facebook.com/UltravoxUK/

https://twitter.com/UltravoxUK


Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price and Chi Ming Lai
13th April 2010

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