BLANCMANGE made their welcome return in 2011 after a recorded absence of nearly 25 years with the album ‘Blanc Burn’.
Featuring inventive and quirky tunes such as ‘Drive Me’, ‘I’m Having A Coffee’, ‘The Western’ and ‘Starf*cker’, the collection showed that the creative dynamic which influenced acts such as FAITHLESS, LA ROUX and HOT CHIP was as vital as ever.
A well received Spring tour plus other prestigious summer dates such as Coventry’s Godiva Festival with HEAVEN 17 and MIRRORS showed that audiences still had a taste for BLANCMANGE. However due to illness, Stephen Luscombe was unfortunately unable to join his erstwhile partner Neil Arthur for those live dates. Despite always looking forward, BLANCMANGE have been crossing paths with their past on several occasions since their comeback.
Godiva Festival saw Neil Arthur meeting up with HEAVEN 17’s Martyn Ware, who produced the demos which got them signed to London Records. Meanwhile, Friday 4th May 2012 will see BLANCMANGE headline a special weekend celebrating the legacy of DEPECHE MODE and the Basildon electronic music scene.
BLANCMANGE supported DEPECHE MODE on their early tours and became close friends particularly with Vince Clarke. Of course, BLANCMANGE themselves had their own imperial phase with hit singles such as ‘Living On The Ceiling’, ‘Blind Vision’, ‘Don’t Tell Me’ and the ABBA cover ‘The Day Before You Came’… so that’s where Vince Clarke got the idea for ERASURE’s ‘Abba-Esque’ EP from!!!
With a new tour for May just announced, Neil Arthur got a trifle excited and spoke about BLANCMANGE’s future plans.
How was it touring with DEPECHE MODE back in the day?
We did two tours with them. When we toured with DEPECHE MODE the first time, I hadn’t long left college and I was working so I took time off work to do that. We weren’t signed at that time. On the second tour, we knew Vince was leaving but everybody was keeping it quiet. After Vince left and Alan Wilder joined, we then did Jersey and Guernsey on the 10th and 12th April 1982 with them. We had a swimming competition after the last gig!
I bumped into Alan a few months ago at Sinners Festival in Belgium when RECOIL and BLANCMANGE were playing. We walked out of our dressing rooms and both of us gave out some ‘manly’ screams and went “BLOODY HELL”! We obviously knew we might bump into each other but not opposite dressing rooms… it’s a huge event! Bloody brilliant, me and Alan with KARL BARTOS next to us!! “Eh, who’s been in that toilet?”… the high life of electronic music! *laughs*
What are your key memories of those DM support tours?
It was all in black and white then! My biggest memory is never winning a game of chess with Andy Fletcher! And the amount of cuddly toys they used to get given! That was phenomenal! *laughs*
A very funny thing happened…
When we done those two dates in the Channel Islands with sell out audiences, we were at the entrance to the airport and there were a load of teenagers there with autograph books. DEPECHE MODE walked straight through and the teenagers didn’t bat an eyelid…they were dressed as DEPECHE MODE, they weren’t in disguise! Me and Stephen walked past, nobody battered an eyelid. My girlfriend walked past and they mobbed her! *laughs*
Those kids were Swiss tourists and they knew there were these bands there but they couldn’t figure out who and she looked the most glamourous. So she had to sign all the autographs! There were many funny moments and good times.
You and Stephen spent quite a lot of time with Vince Clarke when he was doing YAZOO. So what was this unreleased track BLANCMANGE did with YAZOO like?
It was awful!! That’s why it didn’t come out I suppose! *laughs*
Me, Stephen, Vince and Alison got together in Blackwing Studios and we started but never finished a version of ‘It Takes Two’…it was abandoned, we basically ended up laughing so much we couldn’t do it! With hindsight, it might have been a good idea to persevere and sort it out but we had a good laugh. I’ve got a copy in the studio but nobody will ever hear it as far as I’m concerned! *laughs*
The difference between my voice and Alison’s voice… Alison’s a singer; I was forced into a position to sing! I didn’t have to do it but one of us had to sing and I was just better at it than Stephen was! *laughs*
How is Stephen at the moment if I may ask?
I saw him the other week. He’s not well; it’s very difficult for him. He’s got to be very careful about activity. But he’s in great spirits and that’s a good thing, we have a good laugh. It’s obviously frustrating from his point of view. He knows BLANCMANGE is in very capable hands… with the other two even if it’s not with me. But he’s very happy for me to be getting on with it *laughs*
I’m sure we’ll do more stuff together; I know everyone wishes him well.
What about THE ASSEMBLY track it is rumoured you did?
We went in the studio and had a pfaff around with stuff… we started something, but it didn’t work out and just moved on. We were busy with our stuff at the time. What I do remember from that time is cracking those Extra Strong Mints in the dark to see if they let any light out!! Me and Vince in a cupboard, cracking mints! You’ve gotta try it! *laughs*
How did you feel about the reaction from fans and press to BLANCMANGE’s return and ‘Blanc Burn’ in particular?
I was very pleased with the way it was received… compared to reviews I can recall from years ago, the reaction has been very positive and that’s lovely. Having said that, when it came out, I didn’t read a review; it’s only recently that I’ve done that. At the time, I thought it was more important to get on with the work. Reviews are great if they’re good but after all these years, you just get on with it. We’ve made plenty of mistakes in public and just carried on…if people decide it’s a mistake, that’s their prerogative. If it’s something that people really like, they can have their opinion on it and I go “thank you every much indeed”.
The other thing is, we’re not with a big record company, it was only licensed and the whole thing was recorded in our studios and mixed at a friend’s place. It wasn’t done how like the old albums were put together…that’s what I thought was the interesting thing because the end product probably appears from the outside to be very similar. The actual process was very different. There were some excellent reviews, some good ones and I’ve read a few that don’t get it but that’s fine.
In terms of how the audience have reacted to us, it was humbling. I hadn’t been on a big stage for a long time and I didn’t know what it was going to be like. At Glasgow, it was like stepping into a void. But as soon as I put my foot on the stage, I knew exactly where I was and I knew what I wanted to do…things kind of trigger and come back. And it was made easier by the most partisan crowd I could just imagine. It was fantastic and meeting people afterwards, that was the humbling bit. It was absolutely brilliant hearing their stories and inspirational things I found out from people. Great!
I saw you at Koko and it has to be said you’ve aged much more gracefully compared with some of your contemporaries, what’s your secret?
It’s very kind of you to say so… how close did you get? *laughs*
Everything in moderation and some of it never in moderation! I love running and football, I play football regularly. I enjoy swimming too, my whole family was into that at a competitive level. It put me in good stead! I’ve actually been out cycling today with my old mate David Rhodes who used to play with us, JAPAN and Peter Gabriel! We did a great run though the Cotswolds. I don’t know, he’s older than me and he was beating me on every hill! And we weren’t racing either!!
You were doing a few of the old Tai Chi moves on stage…
I’ve been doing Origami as well, I can fold a piece of paper in half just like that! I’m a black belt in Origami! *laughs*
Pandit Dinesh must have the largest ever exotic percussion collection ever seen at a pop concert?
He’s a great man, great friend…sometimes he says he’s going to start off on one instrument and goes onto another one! He’s full of surprises and some of the songs were twice as long as they should have been! *laughs*
Your daughter and son came to some of the shows, what did they make of it all?
Obviously, they didn’t know dad did that…“oh, you get a bit intense up there don’t you dad?!” Better out than in! They told me they were proud… I’d like to think they were honest! *laughs*
Of course, my better half, who signed the autographs I mentioned earlier, had seen it all before!
You haven’t done ‘The Day Before You Came’ at any of these shows, was there any particular reason for that?
No, it was just that there were a lot of songs to do and I was really keen to do a mixture of new and old. I mean, we didn’t do ‘That’s Love, That Is’, ‘Lose Your Love’ or ‘What’s Your Problem?’. I just made a decision… funnily enough ‘The Day Before You Came’ may well appear and ‘Lose Your Love’ too, but I’m also keen on doing new stuff and moving it forward! I’m very interested in the future.
I do understand that we have some kind of a legacy and I realise people who do come to see us would expect to hear those old songs. We enjoy doing songs like ‘Feel Me’ and sneaking in ‘Running Thin’. It was great fun doing old stuff like that with the new ones.
So what’s the background of new track ‘Come On Now’?
‘Come On Now’ was done in the same period as ‘Blanc Burn’, but what we did first was to see how we would get on because me and Stephen hadn’t worked together for a long time. What was nice was that we had both been doing music during that time for films, TV and adverts. Funnily enough, the roles had changed because I do a massive amount of programming… that’s what I do but years ago, it was a different thing with synthesizers and sequencers. We ended up with a load of songs and of course, some went on the album, some didn’t. Whether this stuff will ever come out, I don’t know because we don’t have to release it. There’s a bizarre version of a CHIC song that might surface… we don’t often do covers but when we do! *laughs*
The version of ‘Come On Now’ that is now was one of the last tracks we mixed but it was one of the first songs we recorded together… I’d written this basic song with these lyrics and we started mucking around with it. We just decided not to put it on the album.
You are very much into the future, so how are you resisting offers to do things like Rewind Festival and Here & Now?
If people want to do that, then it’s fine. BLANCMANGE have been asked and I’ve even been asked on my own… I don’t really want to do it, it’s not my bag! You have a band playing in the background who you don’t know, and you go on and sing your hit… it’s not me! Last year, we did Godiva Festival with MIRRORS and HEAVEN 17. I’ve got a lot of time for MIRRORS… they look great, I love the sound and the way they do it. And then after us were HEAVEN 17.
So it was really nice that there were electronic acts all together but one was a new band, two of them weren’t. I thought it was a fantastic idea. Do they do that at Rewind? I don’t think so. And when we came back, most of the set was new songs! If you didn’t know us, you’d have been thinking “what are these old gits doing up there playing new songs?” It was really good fun, and nice meeting Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory again, I hadn’t seen them for a while.
When we were doing festivals before, you’d go on stage, come off and Rory Gallagher would go on. It’s a bit different now and there’s a load of them!
Any DEPECHE MODE or YAZOO themed tribute planned?
You’ve just given me a great idea! I went round to Vince’s years ago, he got out one of those holographic records and we tried it with the headphones on. With me, it was like having your haircut with a swarm of bees round your head! Maybe I’ll recreate that moment *laughs*
We’re looking forward to it but we’ve got a heck of a drive! I looked at our tour schedule, we’ve got Newcastle-Glasgow-BASILDON!!! You’re asking me if I’ll do a tribute? You’ll be lucky if I’m standing up… I might have to sit down doing the whole bloody set!! I think that night, I’ll play keyboards and you can hear somebody else singing! *laughs*
What next for BLANCMANGE and yourself?
We’re thinking of putting out an EP, perhaps on a USB stick, but also we may do a limited edition of our first EP ‘Irene & Mavis’ which is not around anymore. We’ve had it digitised. We’ve got festivals coming up. We had some really good times at Sinners in Belgium last year. That was good fun, they really looked after us so I’m looking forward to all that. There’s talk of us going out to America.
I know we’ve talked about this retro thing but I think in the Autumn, we’re looking at doing a classic album in its entirety which might be ‘Happy Families’. They’re looking at doing a short tour of that and I think it would be good fun to do. I quite fancy doing ‘Mange Tout’ to be honest, but I have a feeling we’ll probably do the first one and see where it goes. We’ll certainly take that to Germany as well.
I’ve got a side project I’m working on with FFINCE & ODDGER. I was talking to the lads from KOMPUTER about doing something. I’m also looking at having a chat with CAGE & AVIARY who I love. You got to get their new album Migration, there’s some great dubby and four-to-the floor stuff going on there. I was speaking to John Luongo who we did ‘Blind Vision’ and the second album with the other day, he wants me to go and see him in America.
I’m sure they’ll be another BLANCMANGE album but I’d quite like to do some remixes. A really interesting thing happened, I came across a tape from 1980 and it’s got songs that nobody’s ever heard. The only one that ever came out was the original ‘Sad Day’ which went on the ‘Some Bizarre Album’. They’re recordings on a 4-track. We’ve had that digitised, it’s on the computer and it might get some attention.
There’s things like ‘I Would’ and the original versions of ‘Waves’, ‘I Can’t Explain’ and ‘I’ve Seen The Word’ minus a verse!! It’s got a verse missing while there’s no histrionics on ‘Waves’! There’s a bit of ‘Waves’ that I’ve always had difficulty with. I remember somebody said “why don’t you do that bit, you don’t sing it like you used to?” and I said “I don’t have to, it’s my bloody song!”… I said to Stephen the other day that I wished we’d never written it! *laughs*
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Neil Arthur
Special thanks to Stuart Kirkham at 9PR
BLANCMANGE’s 2012 tour includes:
Newcastle O2 Academy (2nd May), Glasgow ABC (3rd May), Blackburn Darwen Library Theatre (9th May), Liverpool O2 Academy (10th May), Leeds Brudenell Social (11th May), Leamington Spa Assembly Rooms (18th May), Birmingham O2 Academy (19th May), Wolverhampton Slade Rooms (20th May), Milton Keynes Wavendon The Stables (21st May), Oxford O2 Academy (24th May), London Islington Academy (25th May)
The two day Short Circuit Presents Mute extravaganza at The Roundhouse culminated in what was billed as ‘ERASURE + Special Guests’.
However, as the hour long set progressed, it panned out into something else. Together as ERASURE, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have been one of the most consistent UK pop acts ever. In 1985, fresh from brief stints with DEPECHE MODE, YAZOO and THE ASSEMBLY, Clarke placed a small ad in Melody Maker that said “Versatile voice wanted for established songwriter”.
A 21 year old ex-butcher Andy Bell was one of the many applicants and was audition #36. As highlighted by producer Flood in his fascinating talk earlier in the day, what set Bell apart from the others was that he was the only candidate who hit falsetto during the audition piece ‘Who Needs Love (Like That)’, thereby impressing not only with his vocal technique but range too. So in neo-X Factor style, the judging panel of Clarke, Flood and Daniel Miller declared Andy Bell as the winner and ERASURE were born.
Although success was not instant with debut album ‘Wonderland’ and its lost hit single ‘Oh L’Amour’, the chemistry between Clarke and Bell possessed that special spark both musically and personally. ERASURE toured the college circuit and built up a loyal fanbase, eventually hitting chart paydirt with Sometimes. Further hits such as ‘Victim Of Love’, ‘A Little Respect’, ‘Stop!’ and ‘Blue Savannah’ followed, while albums such as ‘The Circus’ and ‘The Innocents’ confirmed they were more than just a singles act.
ERASURE scored their only No1 with their EP of ABBA covers entitled ‘Abba-Esque’ in 1992 which was supported by a spectacular theatrical show entitled the ‘Phantasmagorical World Tour’ as immortalised in ‘The Tank, the Swan and the Balloon’ DVD.
While fortunes have been mixed for Clarke and Bell both creatively and commercially in the last fifteen years, in 2005 they took to soft synths and delivered their best album ever with ‘Nightbird’, proving that if you’ve got it but have lost it, you can get it again back if you keep trying.
However, before the main ERASURE set, an additional treat came beforehand in the shape of a DJ set by DEPECHE MODE’s Andy Fletcher, followed by a very svelte Alison Moyet taking to the stage with Vince Clarke.
In what was being touted as possibly the last ever live performance by YAZOO, it started appropriately enough with the tremendously emotional ‘Nobody’s Diary’.
Such a short set needed some intuitive choices and ‘Ode To Boy’, Moyet’s own personal tribute to Clarke, provided recognition of the fact that Mute’s initial commercial success came on the back of his songcraft.
Ending with a beefy ‘Don’t Go’, Moyet savoured every moment before handing the microphone over to Andy Bell. With so many of the ERASURE faithful present, Bell and Clarke used the occasion to air some lost fan favourites from the twosome’s back catalogue at the start.
‘Hideaway’ is ERASURE’s own ‘Smalltown Boy’ while ‘Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day)’ is possibly their most under rated hit single. The duo’s second single ‘Heavenly Action’, whose rare Yellow Brick Mix 12″ pressing once fetched £75 on the collectors market, sounded like the hit single it never was.
After that trio of pleasant surprises, it ERASURE reverted to doing what they do best which is brilliantly catchy hit singles. ‘Always’ and ‘Ship Of Fools’ eased the crowd in while ‘Victim Of Love’ and ‘Chains Of Love’ got everyone dancing including Mr Bell himself. ‘Breathe’ was the token 21st Century entry, while the electro ROY ORBISON of ‘Blue Savannah’ is one of their greatest moments. Of course, no ERASURE set would be complete without ‘Sometimes’ or A Little Respect’. Clarke casually strumming his six string while Bell wowed the audience.
As Andy Bell gave his thanks to all, he talked of Vince Clarke’s impeccable taste in vocalists. First he mentioned Alison Moyet, but then there were gasps of excitement as the name Dave Gahan was announced and everyone looked to the sides of the stage.
But it was not to be, as Bell announced the arrival of THE UNDERTONES’ Feargal Sharkey to close the evening’s set. The lively Sharkey announced that he hadn’t sung live for 20 years and that Vince Clarke was the only person he’d have returned for.
And so THE ASSEMBLY’s only single ‘Never Never’ got a very rare outing with Sharkey providing his distinctive warbling lead, as Bell counterpointed on backing vocals. It was a most wonderful sight to bear witness to.
Short but sweet; this celebratory set was a reminder of not just how good ERASURE really are but also, what a glorious talent that man Vincent Clarke truly is. And in a weekend that also saw performances from RECOIL, NITZER EBB, THE RESIDENTS and LAIBACH, it was a perfect demonstration of Mute Records’ brighter side and its marvelous pop sensibilities.
ERASURE’s ‘Total Pop’ tour featuring special guest Sophie Ellis-Bextor includes:
Suffolk Thetford Forest (10th June), Kent Bedgebury Pinetum & Forest (11th June), Dublin Olympia Theatre (13th – 14th June), Cork Live at The Marquee, (15th June), Nottinghamshire Sherwood Pines Forest Park (17th June), Gloucestershire Westonbirt Arboretum (18th June), Staffordshire Cannock Chase Forest (24th June), North Yorkshire Dalby Forest (25th June), Berlin Zitadelle, (27th June), Hamburg Stadtpark (29th June), Cheshire Delamere Forest (1st July), Guildford Guildfest (17th July)
History Will Repeat Itself and the HEAVEN 17 renaissance continues…
Following a well received collaboration with LA ROUX for BBC 6Music and not one, but two TV specials featuring the triumphant concert at Sheffield Magna and ‘The Story Of Penthouse’ and Pavement, Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware are about to embark on a full UK tour celebrating their landmark debut album after a successful European excursion earlier this year.
Martyn Ware of course was a founder member of THE HUMAN LEAGUE before leaving with Ian Craig Marsh to form the production company BRITISH ELECTRIC FOUNDATION (BEF). With its pop subsidiary HEAVEN 17 featuring Glenn Gregory, the success of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ and ‘The Luxury Gap’ with its international hits ‘Temptation’ and ‘Come Live With Me’ led to it becoming the priority project over at BEF Head Office.
Simultaneously though, Ware was able to maintain a successful production career which over the years has taken in artists such as Tina Turner, Terence Trent D’Arby and Marc Almond as well as ASSOCIATES and ERASURE. He later founded Illustrious with Vince Clarke to exploit the creative and commercial possibilities of 3D sound technology.
Through Illustrious, he also conceived Future Of Sound, a not-for-profit organisation to provide a forum for the discussion of new and convergent art forms. Among those involved are HEAVEN 17’s guitarist/programmer Asa Bennett and artist Malcolm Garrett, best known for his album artwork for DURAN DURAN and SIMPLE MINDS.
As part of the 30th Anniversary celebrations, the homecoming show at the Magna featuring the ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ album and the extended cut of ‘The Story Of Penthouse and Pavement’ are released as a double DVD package.
Featuring additional BEF cover gems ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Wichita Lineman’ alongside ‘Ball of Confusion’ sang by Billie Godfrey and ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking’ featuring PROPAGANDA’s Claudia Brücken, Strong Films have successfully captured the evening’s vibrant performance including the futuristic LED screen projections where a variety of visual artists were given free reign to interpret HEAVEN 17 and BEF’s music of distinct quality. These digital videos have been included as bonuses along with rehearsal footage to give a unique multimedia insight into this special live presentation.
Also being released is a deluxe 3 disc collector’s edition of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ featuring a CD demos from 1980 with versions of songs from the ‘Pavement’ side predating the Linn Drum Computer. These showcase a unique hybrid funk driven by crashing early HUMAN LEAGUE style rhythm sounds. In addition, there are alternate mixes of ‘Music To Kill Your Parents By’, ‘Uptown Apocalypse’ and ‘A Baby Called Billy’ from the BEF ‘Music For Stowaways’ sessions.
In the midst of a busy promotional schedule for the ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ tour and its related artefacts, Martyn Ware took time out to talk about his career and the resurgent interest in HEAVEN 17.
How was it playing Back To The Phuture night at Bestival in September? I understand you played ‘And That’s No Lie’?
It was an amazing event actually. We did an hour with Elly from LA ROUX on Radio Bestival or whatever, so that was before we even went on stage, that was quite fun. It was in a big top, we headlined that night. It’s kind of a warm-up because the main days are Friday, Saturday and Sunday but there was like 8500 people there. The big top was completely full but more to the point, it was about 90% people under 30 and they all got it. It was not a shock as such but very heartening to see that people were digging it and presumably, most of them weren’t familiar with a lot of the songs!
Elly from LA ROUX joined you on stage for ‘Sign Your Name’. Are there any plans to work together in the studio?
We’re constantly talking about doing stuff. It’s not so much us. Elly, she’s writing a new album and I think she’s trying not to be too distracted. But we are intent on working together. Obviously at some point, we’ve still got an intention of possibly re-releasing ‘Temptation’ with her singing the lead part.
I spoke to your backing singer Billie Godfrey earlier this year and she suggested that ‘Are You Ready?’ from ‘Before After’ might be good as a LA SEVENTEEN collaboration?
She would do cos she co-wrote it! We love Billie. *laughs*
I do like that song; we’ve only performed it live once I think at The Scala in 2005, so we may revisit that. We’ve got seven albums worth of stuff to pick from so you can’t fit everything in, it’s impossible!
You have a UK tour this November playing the whole of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’. Have you arranged anything different for the forthcoming shows?
Me and Glenn were discussing the tracklisting for the new tour and he put a provisional one together. I looked at it and it was two hours long! Even hardened HEAVEN 17 fans would find it a bit wearing! We do have a lot of stuff and we will do a couple of interesting new things on the tour.
Anything you can give away?
Not yet, we haven’t really narrowed it down but we are planning to do at least one track HEAVEN 17 track that we’ve not done before and then another BEF track.
How did you find touring Europe in your own right earlier in the year?
Tremendous, it was a lot of fun. It was great touring on a sleeper bus, everyone loved it. Not particularly comfortable, but Glenn liked it because he could hold court and it was like being in his own pub travelling around! Of course, I’ve given up drinking now which is not a good thing when you’re touring.
It’s good fun for us, not a chore and I’m sure we’d think differently if it was like 50 odd dates. A short tour, we look forward to very much. Also, the people we work with are all so professional, a lot of them work with other bands and say they enjoy working with us a lot. It’s a nice vibe. It’s driven by a love of music and everybody gets on. Isn’t that the ideal kind of job to have?
I was at the Cologne show and it was a mad evening that went on for ages due to a few technical hiccups but you really rose to the occasion with Glenn doing a few acoustic renditions. What are your personal memories of that night?
Is that the one where the drum kit fell apart?
Yes, and someone threw some underwear at you!
Oh, I loved that! The underwear was great! The one I particularly remember was Hamburg at Fabric. It was astonishing, just doing loads of encores until we ran out. The reception that we received generally in Germany was just outstanding, we weren’t really expecting it. We thought we’d be well received but as a curious pleasure rather than in some cases, ecstatic! So if we get that kind of response on the British shows, we’ll be very happy.
Photo by Tracey Welch
Which song did you find the most challenging to recreate for the live environment?
‘I’m Your Money’, it’s difficult because it’s such a particular sounding record that. We weren’t writing songs with the anticipation of playing them live so ‘I’m Your Money’ is very… say for instance we waved a magic wand and it was exactly the backing track that we did… we can’t do because we don’t have the original tapes.
But if it was exactly the same backing track as we did in the 1981, I think it would really jar on the ear! It’s incredibly repetitive and monotonous but on record, it sounds great. So you kind of have to back off on the frequencies that really hurt and really make it work in a different way. What’s made it work for us is the brilliance of Julian Crampton on the synth bass; he’s given it all sorts of funky inflections. It’s leaning toward that FUNKADELIC thing which is great. It wasn’t difficult in terms of programming; it was more in terms of vibe.
I’ve noticed Glenn has a habit of missing his cues live. What’s the thing you always hope you don’t do during a gig?
Losing my voice towards the end is a big issue because I do a lot of singing, probably more than people realise. The focus is on Glenn obviously and Billie but when are only touring with one girl, which is what we’re doing with the ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ line-up, what we normally use the second girl for plus all the unison and harmonies stuff with Glenn is me and it’s tough on the voice. What’s particularly tough is the whole monitoring set-up is for Glenn which is fine for him because he’s got in-ear monitoring and he’s the lead singer so he can have what he wants basically… I normally have to put up with what’s left! *laughs*
So you can easily strain your voice if you’re not careful. It doesn’t matter on one-off gigs particularly but on a tour you’ve really got to be careful.
Have you had any voice training or anything?
No, but I know how to breathe and how to achieve what I want economically and when to do chest and when to do falsetto, what my break point is; and I’ve learnt through just literally being streetwise about it, what works and what doesn’t. Like Glenn, my voice has got more powerful over the years… if we were to sing acappella, I’d out-sing Glenn in terms of volume! Also, I’ve got a tendency in winter to get chest infections if I’m not careful so it’s always an issue for me… it’s happened on two tours so far and it’s a horrible thing when you have to sing through that! *laughs*
HEAVEN 17’s profile had been enhanced by the LA ROUX collaboration and the two ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ programmes on the BBC including the documentary…
That was amazing! It’s an endorsement of the idea that you should just do stuff rather than think about it too much because a good friend of ours, Joe Strong of Strong Films had wanted to do proper HEAVEN 17 documentary about that period of our development for a while. He’d heard all the stories when we were out getting p*ssed and thought it would make a good story. So we did it for our own reasons and we were just going to release it on DVD. It was just one of those fortunate coincidences. Joe has a lot of contacts in the BBC and at the time, he mentioned to somebody that he just finished editing and this person said “that’s good because we’re just doing an 80s season on BBC2, would you like to launch it?”.
Originally, the idea was to have two solid hours of HEAVEN 17 on BBC and we were going “this is insane!”, you couldn’t buy that kind of exposure! The only other band that’s got that kind of exposure this year as a legacy act is THE ROLLING STONES! Of course, it cost quite a lot of money to push it though and get it all edited and we’re still trying to make the money back but the point is, if you show faith in quality material and it’s shot well and the story’s interesting, it creates a virtuous circle of people having confidence that you’re doing things for the right reason. That means a lot in the BBC in particular because they’re not so commercially driven, they just want good quality stuff.
And it’s led to all sorts for us. It’s led to a massively increased amount of live work because we’ve just signed to William Morris Agency who are huge. And at the very outset from when we signed to them, we said “there’s no point in getting signed to a bigger agency if we’re going to get lost in their vast slate of artists but we want establish ourselves as credible artists from that period and we want top perform as credible artists, not just some trixy 80’s pop band! That’s where we want to go, can you help us?” And they said “That’s fine, then if you do it properly, we can get you into all sorts of festivals”.
We’ve hardly scraped the surface in terms of festivals across the world, we’ve done a couple in Europe but the rest have been in the UK. We’ve never yet played properly live in America which is amazing frankly seeing as we had a No1 record in the Billboard Dance Charts in the 80s with ‘Let Me Go’.
So we have a vision for the future for the first time in a long, long time. We have a structured plan and we got David Stanbury who’s our new manager… we’re really putting some effort and money into it. For the first six months of this year, we were running at a loss. But now it’s paying back. It’s a big thing to do when you don’t have the support of a record company, much harder.
There’s lots of things you can do that don’t require big time logistic support like ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and lots of other blogs around the world. We’ve put a lot of effort into it, we believe in what we’re doing and we believed what we were doing in the past was really good and we believe that we’re good at performing it. So do fortunately, the audience.
How did you convince Phil Oakey to discuss the break-up of the original HUMAN LEAGUE on the documentary?
What it was, we were going up to Sheffield to perform at a charity gig for a friend of ours Dave Kilner from Radio Hallam who unfortunately died. We’d done some filming when Glenn and James said “can’t you just ring up Phil?” cos we’re mates now. But he’s notoriously difficult to contact, let alone get him to approve anything!
So they kept bugging me and bugging me. I said I’d give Phil a call and see what happens! I said “we’re in Sheffield City Hall… it will take about quarter of an hour, would you come down?”. And he said yes! I couldn’t believe it! So I took my little flip HD camera, set it up on my home tripod… it came out looking like CCTV footage in an interrogation room which I quite like because we didn’t have any proper lighting or anything! But we didn’t have anything planned. He didn’t say “don’t ask me about this”, I just asked him as a mate what he thought and he was very candid.
You’re working a lot with Mark Jones and his Back To the Phuture brand. Of course, his Wall Of Sound label have signed THE HUMAN LEAGUE… you know what I’m going to ask? Any chance of you and Phil Oakey writing or recording together again?
I don’t know, I personally would love to do it. I don’t have any issues left. Some of the best creative work I’ve ever been involved with was writing with Phil, he’s a brilliant lyric and leadline writer. What can I say? The first two HUMAN LEAGUE albums ‘Reproduction’ and ‘Travelogue’ have some genuinely fantastic moments on them. Still ’til this day, I think things like ‘The Black Hit Of Space’ and ‘Marianne’ are unsurpassable in that genre to be honest. I’d love to work with Phil, it might be a bit strange after all these years but I personally would love it.
I understand Phil might be doing a solo album in parallel with THE HUMAN LEAGUE so I don’t know if…
… there’s an opportunity possibly! Yeah, he seems a lot more open to collaboration now. He’s always done a bit before, he did ‘Together In Electric Dreams’ and that stuff with ALL SEEING EYE at one point but it’s good for him to spread his wings a bit because he’s got an iconic voice and songwriting style. It’s not for me to say but there is a possibility he could work in different environments other than THE HUMAN LEAGUE. Sometimes it’s just good to free yourself to do something with no expectations.
So have you got anything going on outside of HEAVEN 17 at the moment?
I’m doing the new BEF album ‘Dark’. I’m a bit nervous about saying which tracks I’m doing in case anyone nicks the idea but I suppose I could tell you one of them… last week I just finished ‘Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time’ by THE DELFONICS. It sounds amazing even though I say so myself, I’m so pleased with it. It’s done in a kind of darker fashion.
Are you able to say who’s singing it?
I don’t know, I haven’t got any singers yet, I’ve just done the backing tracks. I’m still open to suggestions if you’ve got any ideas! But it has to be either established artists or contemporary artists who are quite high profile, that’s the only thing! I’ve got plenty of people suggesting complete unknowns to me and I just haven’t got room for that because I’ve got to sell some albums. Talent we’re not short of but I need to get some famous people on board.
The concept works and I’m really pleased with it. Glenn’s obviously going to do it and Martin Fry from ABC’s agreed to do one. I’ve not asked Elly from LA ROUX but I’d be surprised if she said no… and so on and so forth. There are various people, contemporary singers that I like. I really like the singer from EVERYTHING EVERYTHING, I like his voice a lot. I think he might be suitable for something quite dark. I’m thinking about getting some actors in as well. I quite like the Rod McKuen kind of direction or William Shatner, depending on how you look at it *laughs*
‘Penthouse & Pavement’ is being reissued in a 3 disc package with a CD of demos. How different do these sound compared with the recorded versions? As different as the two versions of ‘Temptation’?
Some of them are… some of them are very similar and we just polished them up. But the biggest revelations are the demos that we found that were lost for 30 years literally of ‘Play To Win’, ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ and ‘Soul Warfare’ which are awe inspiringly different and funky. They sound like rare groove versions of HEAVEN 17. Both myself and Glenn had completely forgotten they existed. Just for those three tracks alone, I was so vibing on that… I think that’s worth the purchase price alone. But there’s a whole bunch of half baked/half finished experiments, there’s about half an hours worth of different experimental tracks that never turned into anything which we found as well which was really exciting. That CD is pretty damn good actually, I must say! And it was all made ’round about this time thirty years ago.
With those three ‘Pavement’ demos you just mentioned, can I just ask what you were using rhythmically on those because I’m assuming you didn’t have the Linn Drum Computer at that point?
No, it was just immediately prior to us getting the Linn Drum so those original demos we’d have been using the Roland System 100.
If the whole album had sounded like the ‘Penthouse’ side, then it would have been based on these demos if you know what I mean.
But the guitar and bass playing, this was when we first met John Wilson and there was no pressure on him, he was pouring out… very relaxed playing and super funky! He was a very young guy bear in mind, so we go into a professional studio… he still great on the album but now you can hear the difference. He was very relaxed in Sheffield, kind of loose in that great way but down in Townhouse when we recorded him, he was more pin sharp but not quite as loose.
Can I ask whatever happened to John Wilson?
Yes, you can. He recorded with us for three albums and then he just kind of disappeared. He worked with various people as a session player for a while but he was always incredibly shy, he wasn’t made for the rough ‘n’ tumble of the music business. And I think what happened if I remember rightly is somebody didn’t pay him for a bunch of sessions he did. These are the sort of things you have to roll with the punches or else you’ll never have a music career, disappointment happens on a weekly basis! But he just couldn’t handle it, he was very religious and I think he just thought “I don’t want any of this” and went back to his bedroom… I think! For all I know, he might be out there playing, we’d love to contact him and offer him some work.
Photo by Gered Mankowitz
You were harnessing a lot of new digital technology like the Linn Drum Computer at the time which was one of the distinguishing features of HEAVEN 17 at the time. How did that open up your horizons as to what you could achieve musically for the album?
The Linn Drum became within a day, the new direction… that and discovering John Wilson were the two things that defined ‘Penthouse & Pavement’.
I just got on well with programming it. It appealed to my mentality because you had to approach it from breaking the song down into bars and then at the end of a section you fill, it appealed to the logical part of my brain very much. It got to the point where I could programme really complex stuff in an hour for a 4-5 minute song. That would be the definitive thing, it’s not like “it kind of sounds alright, what shall we do?” because the sounds were very solid and good. They responded to an experienced engineer or producer toughening them up or compressing them.
It was our idea of heaven after subjecting ourselves to desistitudes of live players. Suddenly, we controlled something that sounded kind of real so it was the ideal bridge for us from the purely electronic world to the apparently real world. But it was rhythmic surrealism because there was loads of stuff I could do with the Linn Drum that was physically impossible for a drummer… and that I got criticised by various drummers saying “you couldn’t even play that!” But well, that’s good because then we’re doing something no-one else has ever done before!
So how does Joel McFarland, your live drummer find doing all this stuff?
He regards it as an amazing challenge. He’s got a first class degree in percussion from The Royal Academy of Music, he’s one of these dudes who could do the Evelyn Glennie thing with multiple mallets and stuff. He can play Stockhausen, all that sh*t!
His favourite thing is Linn Drum programming so we’ve got the actual original sounds and we just put them into his Yamaha brain, the central processing unit for his drum kit and we just wind him up and let him go!
What did you use for percussion on the more electronic ‘Penthouse’ side, was it an analogue drum machine?
I think it was all System 100 although we did have a Roland TR606 but the sounds were so terrible! And the only other drum machine we had was a Doctor Rhythm.
The subject matter in ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ is still relevant in the current climate. Musical trends are cyclical but so it seems are politics and economics. What are your thoughts on that?
Incredibly sad! But I’ve got a funny story for you… somebody on Facebook today said “Can’t believe it! Miners are celebrating, Liverpudlians are celebrating! Is Margaret Thatcher dead?” It just made me laugh, it’s very good isn’t it?
I think what is doubly ironic is one of the lines on the first song of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ is “History will repeat itself”… and it has! And oh my god, we’ve got some suffering to come! I mean morally and conceptually, I fear for the working classes in Britain. I think there will be civil insurrection. And I’ve lost count of the number of people who say we should reissue ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’!
Are there any plans to take ‘The Luxury Gap’ out live in the future?
Yes! Glenn in his traditional role as sceptic is um-ing and ah-ing while in my traditional role as ‘bull in a china shop’ is going “of course we’re going to do it”! So it’s somewhere between the two. It’s looking quite likely that we’ll be doing another European series of dates in late Autumn next year. And we almost certainly will do ‘The Luxury Gap’ there as a trial before we bring it over to Britain.
It’s a different kind of album to do live because I think it’s going to require an extra keyboard player because of all the brass and the strings. We don’t really like putting too much on the backing track, you can end up sounding a bit karaoke if you’re not careful. But then it’s a cost issue, it’s all difficult.
For instance, the European tour we did… even though it did very well at the box office, it just about broke even because of the production we were carting around with us. It’s a bit more economical in Britain because we’ll be selling more tickets anyway. It’s fine here but in Europe, you have to show faith and spend a bit of money to break the market.
‘The Luxury Gap’ sold a lot more than ‘Penthouse & Pavement’, it was more directed at the general public rather than the cognoscenti. That’s the definition of popular music, if you can do it intelligently then you’ve got the best of both worlds. I’m very proud of ‘The Luxury Gap’, it a very good album. Musically it’s very intelligent, there are certain elements that are superlative frankly like having THE PHENIX HORNS ESQUIRE, ‘Temptation’ etc. Some of the lesser known tracks work really well, you’ve got Simon Phillips on drums…
… ‘Lady Ice And Mr Hex’ is one of my favourites
Yeah, I mean it’s a brilliant piece, certain elements of it are serendipitously brilliant but then I’m a big fan of ‘How Men Are’ looking back on it. I think it’s an under rated album and that was when we were probably in our most daring and creative phase. I regard ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ is the most groundbreaking of the albums, but that’s primarily because of what was going on around it at the time.
Looking back on the ‘Pleasure One’ and ‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’ period after that, what do you think now?
I think after ‘How Men Are’, several things happened. There was an overall moving away from daring music that was going on in the British music scene towards a more structured marketed thing. We weren’t new anymore so the only path we had to go down was carrying on writing good pop songs.
And during ‘How Men Are’ when we were trying to get on Top Of The Pops to do ‘Sunset Now’, Glenn exploded his cartilage in his knee on the day we were meant to film that and he had to go to hospital. And nobody but nobody f***ed off the BBC in those days! If you ever f***ed up their schedules, you never got on Top Of The Pops again and that’s exactly what happened! Which is really wrong but that’s just the way it was! That kind of killed the promotional activity on that album which is a real pity… not abroad but just in Britain.
So consequently when it came to making ‘Pleasure One’, we’d lost our confidence a bit because it felt like we were slipping. So we started employing more session players and moving towards a more traditional rock sound. And that wasn’t a deliberate decision. We lost confidence not in our songwriting but in the sound that we had, so it like really lost a bit of identity…
… yes, it happened to THE HUMAN LEAGUE, OMD, ULTRAVOX; it happened to the whole lot of you!
We wanted to move on but there wasn’t anywhere to move on to from a sound point of view. We couldn’t go back to being all electronic, it seemed like we had to keep trying new stuff but in the end, it sounded a bit more old fashioned. Having said that, I think ‘Contenders’ is one of my favourite tracks we ever did, I really like that. But generally, the album wasn’t fantastic I have to say!
And ‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’ was the nail in the coffin; we’d completely lost our way by then as far as I was concerned! We were retreading some ideas and some of the things we were doing were not working. I think we all knew it had run its course at that point. But ironically, it wasn’t that we’d run out of musical ideas, it was just that vehicle because at that time, I was doing Terence Trent D’Arby’s album which showed myself, Glenn and Ian that we’d still got creative ideas but we’d lost focus on what HEAVEN 17 should be at that point.
The break did you good as you came back with ‘Bigger Than America’ in 1996.
I really like that album, it was our attempt to get back to the electronic sound. I said we’ve only got one chance to do this retro thing and show people because everyone was in the middle of that dance thing at that time. We thought we’d show them what these original sounds are like in a song context and things like ‘Dive’, ‘Bigger Than America’ and ‘We Blame Love’, they’re really good.
But you had a setback almost straight away. Any thoughts about how that album disappeared off the radar?
It was bad timing, we signed to an imprint that was owned by the guys who did SNAP! They then basically lost interest in their label about a month after our record came out and it reverted back to Warners in Britain who’d got no interest whatsoever in the album so they just killed it!, They were just terrible, they’d got no idea and didn’t particularly like it. It was just marking time really. Which was a pity because there was some good things on that album, it could have been more successful. I think we might re-release it on our website.
You’ve re-released your last album ‘Before After’ through the website as a limited edition of 100, each in unique artwork. How did this idea come about ?
What happened was we originally couldn’t find anybody to put it out so we pressed some up ourselves to sell it and then it got picked up by another label. But we’d forgotten there were 100 that we’d pressed up that were just sitting around in a box. So these albums are still in the wrapper, we might as well sell these. And then we came up with the idea from seeing an exhibition of an artist who had done 50 different covers for a 12 inch single. And I thought wouldn’t it be great to do 100 different album covers and do it as an art piece, signed with a letter of authenticity.
It’ll help pay for the next album that we make or whatever. And so we did it and it came out really well. They’re all excellent, the great thing is people have started going when they get their copy “oh, I’ve got Number 43 and this is what it looks like… “ and because they’re all completely different, they post them up on line. It’s really nice. We’ll sell them at the gigs as well and it’ll sell out once we start touring.
What’s next for yourself? Will you do another ambient project with Vince Clarke?
We’re not going to do anymore new stuff on Mute but there is ten years of Illustrious output which I’ve never released. So I might do a big boxed set in some interesting format which I’ve yet to determine.
I love ‘Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle’…
… it’s good isn’t it? We’ve got seven or eight hours of this stuff, some of it’s really good. I’m sitting on it really because I know somebody will want to buy it eventually.
‘Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle’ is not facile stuff, some thought went into it and it’s beautiful… it’s not whale song or terrible spa music! And that album was rendered in binaural so it does mess with your head when you listen to it on headphones.
Anything else?
I’m just negotiating doing a Future Of Sound event in Sydney Opera House next June which is going to be called Future Of The Centres. I’m probably going to compose a new piece for that together with various other artists. I’ve been talking to The British Film Institute about doing a soundtrack to a quite important Russian science fiction film from the 1920s which I can’t reveal what it is. That would almost certainly be on at the BFI in the middle of next year. I’m looking at various other compositional stuff with the BFI where they’re re-examining what was new over the years. I’m hoping to be the music curator for that. There’s quite a lot of stuff coming up.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Martyn Ware
Additional thanks go to Peter Noble at Noble PR and Kayleigh Watson at Name PR
The deluxe 3 disc collector’s edition of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ is released by Virgin Records on 22nd November 2010
The ‘Penthouse and Pavement Live in Concert’ with ‘The Story Of Penthouse And Pavement’ double DVD is released by Blink TV on 15th November 2010 and will be available at the merchandise stand during the tour.
HEAVEN 17’s 30th Anniversary Penthouse and Pavement Tour
Dates include: Edinburgh HMV Picture House (22nd November), Glasgow O2 ABC (23rd November), Manchester Ritz (25th November), Birmingham HMV Institute (26th November), London HMV Forum (28th November), Oxford O2 Academy (29th November), Brighton Corn Exchange (30th November), Bristol O2 Academy (1st December)
BBC4’s marvellous ‘Synth Britannia’ celebrated the rise of the synthesizer and how it changed popular music forever, particularly in the UK. Superbly produced and directed by Ben Whalley with interlinking cultural commentary provided by ‘Rip It Up And Start Again’ author Simon Reynolds, it was an empathetic documentary that captured the spirit of a golden era.
The contributors to the programme read like a ‘Who’s Who?’ of electronic music: Wolfgang Flür; Daniel Miller; Richard H Kirk; John Foxx; Gary Numan; Phil Oakey; Martyn Ware; Andy McCluskey; Paul Humphreys, Martin Gore; Vince Clarke; Andy Fletcher; Midge Ure; Dave Ball; Alison Moyet; Susanne Sulley; Joanne Catherall; Bernard Sumner; Neil Tennant; Chris Lowe.
They were to become the heroes of the revolution, rebels with a cause, poster boys and girls of the VCO! Although there were a few errors, especially with regards dates like when OMD signed to Factory and the single of ULTRAVOX’s ‘Vienna’ was released, this was an entertaining 90 minutes.
The new attitude brought about by punk in 1977 was still a bit too rock’n’roll for some like the young Daniel Miller, learning three chords was still three too many! But armed with newly affordable silicon-chipped technology by Korg and Roland from Japan, the true DIY spirit encouraged by the new wave would be fully exploited. Wonderful and weird sounds could be made using just one finger, knob twiddling would become the new art! Daniel Miller and Martyn Ware gleefully tell of their first synth purchase, in both cases it was the Korg 700s. The accessibility of the budget priced synthesizer offered the ultimate challenge to musical convention. It was electric dreams over acoustic nightmares!
Like some on this programme, my first introduction to the sound of the synthesizer came via KRAFTWERK and Walter (now Wendy) Carlos. In the summer of 1976, my junior school teacher was the young and pretty Miss Neilson.
She’d already shown her Bohemian colours by naming our pet guinea pig ‘Bilbo’!! But one day in PE, she made Class4 interpret movement to ‘Autobahn’ and the soundtrack to ‘A Clockwork Orange’!!!
Although too young to really appreciate what was going on, my aural palette was being shaped by this fantastic cacophony of electronics. Noveltyinstrumental hits like Jean Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygene Part VI’ and SPACE’s ‘Magic Fly’ soon followed and caught my pre-teen futuristic mind as I eagerly waited for the next episode of ‘Space 1999’! The importance of science fiction in the development and imagination of electronic music cannot be underestimated with ‘Dr Who’ and the writings of JG Ballard being particularly important influences.
Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ was Year Zero for modern electronic pop music as we know it. Producer Giorgio Moroder‘s throbbing sequencers and dance beats were “the future of the future”.
But Gary Numan’s first appearance in May 1979 on ‘Top Of The Pops’ was for many including myself, their ‘Ziggy Stardust’ moment in the birth of synthpop, ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ was cold and detached, the discordant Moog machinery and the haunted vocal sneer connected with many during this gloomy period in Britain. It seems unbelievable now, but it was the talk of school the following morning. Electronic music had just found its first pop star!
Unemployment in the UK was at an all time high. Margaret Thatcher was now in power while across the Atlantic, Ronald Reagan was “President Elect”! With fascist gods in motion, the Cold War had heightened to the point where no-one’s future on this earth could be guaranteed. Whilst OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’ related to the nuclear holocaust paranoia of the time via some incongruous melodic warmth, there were a number of other pop-orientated bands just around the corner.
The new Mk2 version of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, SOFT CELL and DEPECHE MODE all possessed a defiant spirit of optimism in the face of adversity because ultimately “everybody needs love and affection”! The music was emotive and avant, all at the same time! “We never wanted to be KRAFTWERK” says Phil Oakey, “we wanted to be a pop band!”
Photo by Chi Ming Lai
The use of synthesizers was a statement of intent, like an act of artistic subversion. But as Marc Almond once said, you can only truly subvert when you have access to the mainstream. How can you change the world if no-one hears you? Musically, the best way to achieve this was going to be through pop songs! Whilst owing a debt to KRAFTWERK and taking advantage of the door opened by Gary Numan, these acts managed to appeal to people who didn’t necessarily know what a Linn Drum Computer was! Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley amusingly recalled when the UK’s first Linn LM-1 was delivered to Martin Rushent’s Genetic Studios for the making of ‘Dare’: “They were all very excited… OK boys!”
There are several technology driven insights like Paul Humphreys playing ‘Enola Gay’ on the Korg Micro-Preset, John Foxx demonstrating the ARP Odyssey and Daniel Miller operating the ARP 2600 which was used on all the early DEPECHE MODE albums. There were often misconceptions about how this stuff worked though. “The number of people who thought that the equipment wrote the song for you: ‘well anybody can do it with the equipment you’ve got!'” remembers Andy McCluskey, “F*** OFF!!”
“You’ve got to remember it was the first time ever that someone could sit and make a record on their own” says Midge Ure, stating the recording of EURYTHMICS ‘Sweet Dreams’ in a basement on an 8 track tape machine as an example! But as the success of synthesizer continued, the backlash set in. Numan was particularly the victim of some venomous media attacks; not only was he doing electronic music but he had none of the anti-hero stance of punk… he wanted to be a popstar: “I don’t speak for the people because I don’t know them!” he exclaimed!
Andy Fletcher tells of the Battle Royale that DEPECHE MODE were always having with the press. People insisted it wasn’t proper music. The Musicians Union even tried to ban the use of synths in studios and live performance! I remember fellow classmates unceremoniously smashed up and burned a copy of ‘Cars’… AND THEN presented me with the remains! If I wasn’t already feeling isolated, then this sort of intimidation was certainly going to seal it!
Martin Gore quotes a disgruntled rock journalist who described the genre as being for “alienated youth everywhere, and Germans!” As an outsider with a typical post-war ‘Boys Own’ fascination for Airfix kits and Messerschmitts, this music would define me! What did these narrow-minded hooligans know?
Worshipping America was not what I wanted! To me, soul and jazz funk (much like R’n’B today) was the horrid soundtrack of the school bully! SYNTHPOP and its Mittel Europa romanticism appealed to my sense of elitism. I could wear my intelligence on my sleeve, it would become my badge of honour! Pretentious… MOI?
Photo courtesy of Alex Machairas
The move towards today’s electronic based dance music as pioneered by Giorgio Moroder is symbolised by the success of NEW ORDER and PET SHOP BOYS. Legend has it that KRAFTWERK were so impressed by the sound of ‘Blue Monday’, they sent an engineer down to Britannia Row Studios to check out the equipment only to find out it was comparatively unsophisticated! But ‘Synth Britannia’ actually goes on to suggest that the success of the third generation acts like Howard Jones and THOMPSON TWINS was the death of this fantastic period. “There was too much synthpop around, it was all very well being on a synth but actually the melodies and how some of the songs were structured was quite traditional and trite…” sighs Simon Reynolds, “it wasn’t that inventive as electronic music!” – he was right!
Unfortunately by the mid-80s, most of our heroes had given up the fight and went conventional. “We were all a bit lost by then” says Phil Oakey, “like we didn’t have anything to prove!” After declaring in 1980 that ‘Travelogue’ contained “synthesizers and vocals only”, THE HUMAN LEAGUE had by the disappointing ‘Hysteria’ credited Jo Callis with “guitars, keyboards, vocals”, sadly in that order!
Meanwhile OMD went from listing all their equipment on their ‘Dazzle Ships’ and ‘Junk Culture’ albums to Paul Humphreys simply being on “vocals, electronic keyboards, piano” for ‘Crush’! The lure of dollars to water down the synthesized sound for synthobic America just couldn’t be resisted anymore! This classic era of quality synthpop was sadly now over!
However, while the others fragmented, DEPECHE MODE got darker and stuck to their electronic blueprint, eventually achieving massive success in the US from 1988. So it would seem these pioneering acts’ original Eurocentric electronic manifestos had been right after all.
Their legacy is evident today: LITTLE BOOTS and LA ROUX have hit the Top 10, and collaborated on the marvellous BBC6 Music ‘Back To The Phuture’ live sessions with Gary Numan and HEAVEN 17 respectively; rock band MUSE credit “synths and programming” on their new album while featuring a song that sounds like ‘Vienna’; and a girl group cover of ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ is a ‘Comic Relief’ charity single!
Meanwhile, the synthpop era’s big international No1s ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ and ‘Tainted Love’ are still being played at weddings and night clubs, ironically often being sung along to by the same bully boys who were setting fire to Gary Numan records years earlier!! “It was exciting to be part of a musical movement that had never been done before, it was a fine time” smiles Vince Clarke.
‘Synth Britannia’ ends appropriately enough with ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ and this final quote from Andy McCluskey: “We were trying to do something new, that is specifically why we chose electronics, we wanted to sweep away all of the rock clichés! And then what happens towards the end of the 80s and even worse, the mid 90s? Everybody decides guitars are back, synthesizers are somehow old fashioned AND, we get Oasis!!”
McCluskey holds his hand to his head in despair but today, most of the acts featured in ‘Synth Britannia’ are still playing to packed audiences around the world. What was originally an electric dream is now a full blown reality. JUSTICE and a job well done 🙂
Ohm Sweet Ohm! The ‘Synth Britannia’ Soundtrack
DEPECHE MODE New Life
WENDY CARLOS William Tell Overture
WENDY CARLOS Title Music from ‘A Clockwork Orange’
KRAFTWERK Autobahn
THE CLASH White Riot
THE NORMAL TVOD
THE NORMAL Warm Leatherette
THE FUTURE 4JG
THE HUMAN LEAGUE Being Boiled
DONNA SUMMER I Feel Love
CABARET VOLTAIRE Seconds Too Late
CABARET VOLTAIRE Nag Nag Nag
OMD Messages
OMD Enola Gay
JOY DIVISION Atmosphere
JOHN FOXX Underpass
THROBBING GRISTLE Still Walking
THROBBING GRISTLE Hot on the Heels of Love
FAD GADGET Back to Nature
SILICON TEENS Memphis Tennessee
TUBEWAY ARMY Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
GARY NUMAN Cars
VISAGE Fade to Grey
THE FLYING LIZARDS Money
DEPECHE MODE New Life
DEPECHE MODE Just Can’t Get Enough
DEPECHE MODE Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead
THE HUMAN LEAGUE Don’t You Want Me
HEAVEN 17 – Penthouse & Pavement
CABARET VOLTAIRE Landslide
SOFT CELL Tainted Love
YAZOO Only You
YAZOO Don’t Go
OMD Maid of Orleans
EURYTHMICS Sweet Dreams
ULTRAVOX Vienna
KRAFTWERK The Model
DEPECHE MODE Everything Counts
DEPECHE MODE Master and Servant
PET SHOP BOYS West End Girls
NEW ORDER Ceremony
NEW ORDER Blue Monday
PHILIP OAKEY & GIORGIO MORODER Together in Electric Dreams
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