HEAVEN 17’s strength as performers is that they are great fun.
It was the conclusion of their UK tour for ‘The Luxury Gap’ at Shepherd’s Bush Empire having premiered it during last year’s BEF Weekender at The Roundhouse. The vibrant chemistry between its central vocal axis of Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware and Billie Godfrey was very apparent and a pleasure to witness.
While the social commentary of HEAVEN 17’s music has always had serious intent and is as relevant now as it was in 1983, the message has always been delivered with a sense of humour and irony. As a result, HEAVEN 17 gigs have never been dour affairs. Of course, ‘The Luxury Gap’ was the album that launched HEAVEN 17 into the mainstream after a period as cult heroes with their debut ‘Penthouse & Pavement’.
They even ended up appearing on the same edition of Top Of The Pops as their old sparring partners THE HUMAN LEAGUE… the tensions between the two acts respective architects Martyn Ware and Phil Oakey have been well documented but in Spring 1983, ‘Temptation’ and ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’ were both in the Top 5 and the pop promise of the original Sheffield synth pioneers who formed in 1978 was now gallantly fulfilled.
The singles such as ‘Let Me Go’, ‘Crushed By the Wheels Of Industry’ and ‘Come Live With Me’ are regular staples of the H17 live set but it was the opportunity to hear material such as ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ and ‘We Live So Fast’ that made this evening such as joyful experience. The orchestrated ballad ‘The Best Kept Secret’ held the crowd’s attention despite the absence of beats while ‘Lady Ice & Mr Hex’, a weird fusion of jazz piano, polyrhythmics, Linn Drum and acid squelches was this section’s highlight.
Inevitably, ‘Temptation’ was still a scene stealer despite being programmed comparatively early into the proceedings although an extended BROTHERS IN RHYTHM styled reprise as an encore helped close the evening with the appropriate euphoric climax…“dime in the hot slot” and all that!
With notable session musicians such as Ray Russell, John Wilson, Simon Phillips and Nick Plytas playing on the original album, HEAVEN 17 sidemen (and woman) Asa Bennett, Julian Crampton, Al Anderson and Berenice Scott all marvellously replicated these parts and more in this retrospective setting. The band was complimented with the addition of Kelly Barnes on extra backing vocals, who with Billie Godfrey and Berenice Scott, provided a glamourous distraction stage right as Messrs Ware and Gregory did their double act on the left.
To bolster the remainder of the show, there were also various highlights from HEAVEN 17’s career like ‘We’re Going To Live For A Very Long Time’, ‘Penthouse & Pavement’, a danced up ‘Geisha Boys & Temple Girls’, ‘I’m Your Money’ and ‘Fascist Groove Thang’.
There’s very much an understanding between Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory that the earlier electronic material is performed, not for nostalgic reasons but because it is their best. However, in the absence of new material, the occasion also acted as a platform for the “medium of reinterpretation” with charismatic performances of THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘Crow & A Baby’ and ‘Being Boiled’.
Who would have thought that two songs Martyn Ware co-wrote with Phil Oakey and Ian Craig Marsh respectively about teenage pregnancy and silk worms roasted alive in the name of fashion would go down so well on a Saturday night? “From when THE HUMAN LEAGUE were good” remarked Ware cheekily on the conclusion of ‘Crow & A Baby’. “You can’t say that!” retorted Gregory before launching into his now almost inevitable acoustic rendition of ‘Don’t You Want Me’ and amusingly forgetting the words in the process!
There was also a cover of Da League’s cover of ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ where Martyn Ware left his Roland V-Synth GT to join Glenn Gregory as part of a new vocal duo THE RIGHT-ON BROTHERS, and a slowed down waltz tribute to the late Billy MacKenzie with ‘Party Fears Two’, ASSOCIATES’ heartfelt paean to the pain of schizophrenia. They may not have new songs but HEAVEN 17 certainly take risks with their live sets, unlike several of their Synth Britannia contemporaries.
It was a memorable and enjoyable time for everyone concerned. The banter between band members with the audience made for an entertaining show. But what next for the future artistic endeavours of HEAVEN 17? Is a live showcase of the Fairlighted jamboree of third album ‘How Men Are’ next in line? Nowhere near as consistent as either ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ or ‘The Luxury Gap’, it would be a brave move.
And looking ahead, even the most hardened HEAVEN 17 fan is unlikely to be waiting for the concert debut of ‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’!! So instead, here’s another question to end… is Berenice Scott possibly the sexiest lady ever to have got behind a synthesizer?
With thanks to Rosie Johnstone and Sacha Taylor-Cox at Impressive PR
‘The Luxury Gap’ 2CD+DVD box set is available now via Virgin/EMI Records
‘Naked As Advertised’ featuring HEAVEN 17’s versions of ‘Party Fears Two’, ‘Being Boiled’ and ‘Empire State Human’ plus 2008 versions of their best known songs is released by Absolute Zero
HEAVEN 17’s German tour for ‘The Luxury Gap’ includes:
Aschaffenburg Colos-Saal (10th December), Hamburg Fabrik (11th December), Berlin C-Club (12th December), Köln Live Music Hall (13th December), Leipzig Anker (14th December)
Some have questioned ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s endorsement of DURAN DURAN but the bottom line of their appeal is simply great timeless pop songs.
While that essential element has been crucial to their massive worldwide appeal, it has also been their fusion of influences such as ROXY MUSIC, DAVID BOWIE, KRAFTWERK, CHIC, SEX PISTOLS, GIORGIO MORODER, JAPAN and THE HUMAN LEAGUE that have made them more appealing than the average boy band and allowed them to cross over into the hearts of synth aficionados.
DURAN DURAN particularly took the arty poise of JAPAN, who had been wooing teenage girls in Japan itself, and toned down their androgynous outré to make it more accessible. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes was essentially a David Sylvian clone and within his role, it was the burgeoning movement in post-punk Britain involving affordable synthesizers that was to prove crucial to the development of the band he founded with bassist John Taylor.
In his new autobiography ‘In The Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran’, John Taylor remembers: “Seeing THE HUMAN LEAGUE for the first time was a turning point. Nick and I saw them supporting SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES at the Mayfair Ballroom in the Bullring shopping centre and watched in amazed silence. They had no drummer. No guitars. They had three synthesisers and a drum machine instead. So Nick’s mum, Sylvia, made a £200 investment: the first Wasp synthesizer to arrive in Birmingham…”
Of course, this synthfluence went the full hog on their ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ tour in 2007-2008 with a mid-show electronic interlude. Performed in the style of KRAFTWERK, the set included covers of ‘Warm Leatherette’ and ‘Showroom Dummies’ as well as a Klingklang rework of their own ‘Last Chance On The Stairway’ and their most RFWK inspired number ‘All She Wants Is’. When ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK asked John Taylor about this and commented it was a refreshing change from acoustic sets, his swift reply was: “Yes, exactly… fun wasn’t it. Nick and I really hate those ‘oh so sensitive’ acoustic sets!”
The David Beckham of the New Romantic movement launched his book at London’s Leicester Square Theatre with a sold-out book reading and signing, where he was met by applause and cheers from ladies of a particular demographic who were quite clearly dumbstruck at being face-to-face with someone who had adorned their bedroom walls in their teens.
There was excitement and anticipation, but it was quite apparent that these ladies were also into the music, something that is not always obvious with female fans of some bands. But of course, it was this adulation that ultimately sent JT off the rails into a well documented misadventure of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll! The book gives him a chance to tell his side of the story and to be honest, as outrageous and debauched some of these anecdotes are, it would have been difficult for most red-blooded men, thrust into the position he was at the age of 21, to have acted any differently…
John Taylor was a lanky bespectacled music geek called Nigel when he formed DURAN DURAN in 1978. He changed his name to the cooler John, while his pal Nicholas Bates felt the surname Rhodes (after the fashion designer Zandra and THE CLASH’s manager Bernie) would be slightly more aesthetically pleasing… after all, it’s not very nice to be called “Master Bates”.
Anyhow, they loved ROXY MUSIC, whose lavish aspirational demeanour was key to their appeal… the message being that an ordinary man, like son of a miner Bryan Ferry, really could attain and get to date Kari-Ann, the glamorous model who was the first ROXY MUSIC cover girl. JT also joked to the audience about Roxy’s peacock synthesist Brian Eno: “They had this keyboard player who just turned knobs… how the hell does that work??”
Despite Nick’s Wasp and latterly accquired Crumar Performer, a number of line-ups featuring clarinets and various lead singers proved fruitless although one girl who auditioned, Elayne Griffiths, suggested JT should wear contact lenses after he took off his glasses for a video shoot.
Luckily, the owners of the legendary Birmingham club The Rum Runner, the Berrow brothers believed in their potential. Michael Berrow even sold his flat to finance the band, such was his commitment. Drummer Roger Taylor had joined, but the turning point was the recruitment of guitarist Andy Taylor who was to become JT’s party partner–in-crime and drama student drop-out Simon Le Bon as vocalist.
Le Bon may not have had the greatest voice in the world but he had swagger and he had lyrics. He gave the fledgling band focus and the rest would become history. The albums ‘Duran Duran’ and ‘Rio’ would become big sellers with singles such as ‘Planet Earth’, ‘Girls On Film’, ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ and ‘Save A Prayer’ while crucially, the band toured like there was no tomorrow, unlike their arch rivals SPANDAU BALLET.
The other advantage they had over them was their songwriting prowess. In fact, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK asked JT what was the particular moment when he realised DURAN DURAN were going to blow away the Islington quintet; he gleefully answered: “To Cut A Long Story Short!”
A bit like in that scene at the start of ‘The Inbetweeners Movie’, when ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK left school, the Deputy Headmaster warned everyone to “beware of slow horses and fast women”… JT most definitely ignored the latter and reaped all that was on offer; he was like a kid in a sweet shop.
In one of the evening’s book reading segments, JT told everyone over their smirks of laughter: “I had been a nerd at school, never had a regular girlfriend. Now, I had only to wink in a girl’s direction in a hotel lobby, backstage or at a record company party, and have company until the morning.” Over time though, enjoying The Hokey Cokey, fast cars and even faster women took priority over the music… the book includes a recollection of JT having a hissy fit when asked to redo a bass part in Sydney for ‘Seven & The Ragged Tiger’, their multi-million selling but disappointing follow-up to ‘Rio’.
Is it any wonder that the quality of a band’s output diminishes once they find the trappings of success? Incidentally, the ‘Seven’ of the album’s title was the five band members plus the Berrow brothers (in case you thought they couldn’t count!) while ‘The Ragged Tiger’ was fame!
DURAN DURAN fragmented in 1986 following THE POWER STATION and ARCADIA side projects… there was even a JT solo single ‘I Do What I Do’! Eventually despite a 1993 renaissance, the band was left with just Le Bon and Rhodes and no Taylors when JT himself departed in early 1997.
But in 2000 following the disastrous ‘Pop Trash’ album, a social meet-up in LA with the three of them at JT’s pad led to the definitive line-up reuniting for a triumphant world tour in 2004. When you’ve got it, you might lose your way but if you can re-focus and get your demons conquered, you can get it back.
However, the below expectations comeback albums ‘Astronaut’ and ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ followed and although they lost Andy Taylor again and a record deal with Sony on the way, their persistent efforts bore artistic fruit with the superb 2011 album ‘All You Need Is Now’ released on Nick Rhodes’ Tape Modern imprint. JT admitted it took three albums to get it right and was gracious in his regret that Andy Taylor was not still in the band to make his distinct contribution.
Observing JT on stage without his bass and his bandmates was strange at first. But reading from a lectern in the style of a presidential address, he was articulate and came over as charming, humourous, and humble. He was also thankful he was still around to tell the tale. He talked about the passing of his parents and how the book had been inspired by the enormous family archive he had found when clearing up his childhood home.
He gamely accepted questions from the evening’s compere, book co-writer Tom Sykes and also the audience, some of whom endearingly could not contain themselves when actually speaking to their hero! Entertaining and witty, this thoroughly enjoyable and well organised event was carried off with charisma and fun.
Meanwhile, the book itself is a very good, easy read. With a more than generous selection of archive photos, it provokes laughter, sadness, affection and raised eyebrows in equal measure. One of the ingredients to a male popstar’s success is to make female fans fall in love with them and make male fans want to be them.
While some observers may complain about how some bands fail to get recognition over others they consider less deserving, a lot of it can be pinned down to lack of engagement on the band’s part… consider the fact that a number of the bands from that New Romantic / Synth Britannia era did not really tour much back in the day, if at all.
John Taylor may have been excessive in his pursuit of the fringe benefits that came with success but he, like the rest of DURAN DURAN, pursued their dreams and made some very good records on the way.
As Simon Le Bon once remarked on the ‘Top Ten New Romantics’ documentary back in 1999: “Decadent DURAN DURAN? We weren’t, we were just hard working!”
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were kindly invited by The Mott Collection to the launch party viewing of KRAFTWERK 45RPM, a new exhibition at The Vinyl Factory in the leafy London suburb of Chelsea.
Among those present were Back To The Phuture’s Mark Jones and SEX PISTOLS’ Paul Cook. Comprised of 45 iconic 7 inch KRAFTWERK single covers from all around the world, the exhibition showcased the band’s “analogue past dreaming of today’s digital present”.
Indeed on 1981’s ‘Computer World’, they predicted the world we live in today… home computers, internet dating, Big Brother surveillance and mobile devices that can add up, play tunes, compose songs AND control your day.
The Blitz Club’s legendary DJ Rusty Egan spun the appropriately themed gallery soundtrack featuring KRAFTWERK plus a variety of classic and new acts influenced by the Düsseldorf quartet such as ULTRAVOX and SIN COS TAN. Amusingly, there was even room for SEÑOR COCONUT whose Latin-tinged covers of ‘Showroom Dummies’ and ‘The Robots’ have to be heard to be believed!
Onlookers mingled and viewed the sleeves which were slightly scuffed and showed their age. But their impressions of yesterday’s tomorrow still possessed a thoughtful Walter Gropius chic and a Gilbert & George art school demeanour, from ‘Autobahn’ to ‘The Telephone Call’. As The Vinyl Factory themselves said: “Kraftwerk acknowledged that urban life was alienating yet celebrated the joys of modern technology. Their wistful melodies of contemporary reality were ironic but also a prediction of times to come.”
Everybody has their own particular memory with a slice of KRAFTWERK vinyl. With ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, it involved the 12 inch luminous pressing of ‘Neon Lights’. You held it up next to a lamp with your hand hovering just over the vinyl’s surface. One minute later, you would switch the lights off to play the disc and watch a ghostly hand spin round at 45RPM while the turntable now glowed in the dark! And this is without even mentioning the all encompassing music which also marvellously featured ‘The Model’ AND ‘Trans-Europe Express’ on the B-side!
And speaking of ‘Trans-Europe Express’, one of the lesser known but no less iconic images on display at KRAFTWERK 45RPM was the Schienenzeppelin experimental propeller driven railcar which adorned the Belgian ‘Trans-Europa Express’ single sleeve and also appeared in the video. Despite being designed in 1929 by Franz Kruckenberg, its aesthetic is still vintage yet uniquely futuristic…rather like KRAFTWERK’s own retro-modernism.
For an act who were associated with being robotic, KRAFTWERK were strangely human, especially in their imperial classic line-up of Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos. One case in point was ‘Ohm Sweet Ohm’ from 1975’s ‘Radio-Activity’.
Despite its vocodered intro, as the track steadily sped up, the white noise percussion actually fluctuated while the romantic Odyssey missed a cue and the Orchestron shrilled. The track built to its crescendo over the pulsing Minimoog bass and improvised virtuoso section to perhaps be one of the most beautiful pieces of music to have been recorded…ever!
KRAFTWERK’s simplicity was at their heart and in the process, their distinctly minimal European approach even influenced a whole bunch of urban youngsters across the Atlantic as the Klingklang sound mutated into electro, hip-hop, techno and house. Every act that has ever used a synthesizer for a melody or a snap of electronic noise for a drum beat owes a debt of gratitude to them.
As Herr Hütter has even remarked: “…electro is everywhere!”
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Toby Mott and Rusty Egan
KRAFTWERK 45 RPM is at The Vinyl Factory, 91 Walton Street, London SW3 2HP until 5th October 2012. Opening hours are 10.30am to 6.00pm. Tel: (0) 207 589 0588
The commemorative book KRAFTWERK 45RPM by The Vinyl Factory is now available in a limited edition of 300 copies.
This catalogue documents the 45 singles from The Mott Collection. It also includes an essay by Toby Mott and an exclusive 7 inch single of a rare interview.
Featuring Interviews with RRussell Bell, Chris Payne and Tim Dry
Lifelong Numan fan Stephen Roper has devoted the last three years to compiling ‘Back Stage – A Book Of Reflections’. The book focuses on the years 1979 – 81, when Gary Numan was at the peak of his fame and commercial success. It features first-hand accounts of those who were closest to him at the time including band members, record company executives and friends such as John Foxx, THE SKIDS and DEVO plus support acts OMD, SIMPLE MINDS and NASH THE SLASH. The foreword is provided by Numan himself while he also contributes a chapter. The result is a fascinating and often humorous insight into the eye of the storm, during which Numan was making headlines and topping the charts worldwide.
Numan’s rapid ascent to stardom took him by surprise as much as anyone else, and by his own admission he wasn’t fully prepared for the consequences. As former band member Chris Payne recollects, while ‘Are Friends Electric?’ was still at No1 and the media frenzy was in full force, Gary invited Chris to come on holiday… to a caravan in Weymouth! Chris agreed to go because “it sounded like a bit of a laugh”, but inevitably they were mobbed by fans and the press, and ended up cutting the holiday short.
During this three year period Numan toured extensively, both in the UK and worldwide. The Numan tours were famous for their jaw-dropping stage sets, culminating in the spectacular farewell shows at Wembley in 1981. As sound engineer Alan Morrison says in the book, “Gary needed at least three forty foot lorries to get his point across… but what an emphatic way to do it!”
Also included are the original tour itineraries (all produced on a manual typewriter) and sketches of stage sets, together with handwritten estimates for the productions. It is this level of detail and authenticity that makes Back Stage a compelling read for anyone with an interest in Numan’s glory years.
The ‘Back Stage’ launch party took place on a Saturday night in Westminster, and brought together several of the book’s key contributors including Chris Payne and RRussell Bell from the Numan band and latterly of DRAMATIS, Tim Dry of SHOCK / TIK & TOK, Steve Webbon from Beggars Banquet and of course Stephen Roper himself. There was a packed house of Numan fans all keen to meet these key figures and have their books signed.
All of the book’s contributors gave their time generously, signing books and chatting freely to guests. With a soundtrack of Synth Britannia classics playing, there really was a party atmosphere! The only poignant note of the evening was the absence of Ced Sharpley, the legendary drummer from the Numan band who was sadly taken ill just days before the event. Many guests wrote personal messages on a drum skin to be presented to Ced, in the hope that he would make a speedy recovery.
Meanwhile, Ced’s bandmates RRussell Bell and Chris Payne took the opportunity to make a very special announcement – that DRAMATIS have reformed and that, after a gap of over 30 years, their second album is imminent. This news should delight fans who still enjoy their first album ‘For Future Reference’. What will that creative partnership come up with? Watch this space!
‘Back Stage’ is a remarkable achievement and Stephen Roper should be commended, not only for tracking down the key characters involved, but for collating their contributions into a beautifully presented book that will delight many a Numan fan. Stephen’s enthusiasm for the project showed through at the launch party, as did the positive energy and goodwill of all involved.
Chris Payne and RRussell Bell kindly spared some time to talk about the Numan years, DRAMATIS and that big announcement…
RRussell, you were the last to join the band. So did the others put you through any initiations on ‘The Touring Principle’?
RRussell: No, I saw them on Old Grey Whistle Test and thought “what a brilliant band!” but I thought “that guitarist don’t look much”. I heard on the grapvine they needed one so I phoned up Beggars Banquet to see if they wanted another guitarist… but they said they knew nothing about it! Then I saw an advert in Melody Maker and I went along for the audition, there were four or five blokes there…in fact, Chris auditioned me although he says in the book that I was the only one to turn up! *laughs*
Chris: I’d like to jump in here…obviously, it was a bit of a joke but the reality is that there were twenty guitarists auditioned over a two day period and RRussell was by far the most interesting, innovative and outstanding. That’s what should have been in the book! *laughs*
RRussell: That’s what we like to hear! The first thing I did was this TV in Holland, we were staying in a ‘Boatel’. We got taken out by the record company and we were heading back in about five cars. I’d just nicked this big plastic lobster from the restaurant and got in this car with this Dutch bloke. After about a hundred yards, we crashed into a parked car! I’d smashed my face on the windscreen and was virtually unconscious when this guy shouted “QUICK, GET OUT! RUN!” because if you get caught for drunk driving in Holland, it’s mandatory prison for a week! So I jumped out and I’m running down the street with a lobster in my hand! From thence on, we used to nicked lobsters from everywhere…I’ve got a big collection of plastic lobsters! *laughs*
Chris: That was just a bit of fun! They were really good and had some great songs. But I just had this thing in my head that there’s a tape recorder there in place of musicians… that’s just Chris Payne being his altruistic self!
So I put the brake on it at the last show at Hammersmith Odeon. Andy McCluskey would come out and say “I’m Andy, this is Paul and this is Winston”…
RRussell: …me, Chris and Gary were behind the curtain tossing pennies at them and they went to turn the tape recorder on but because we’d put the brake on, nothing happened!
Chris: We were just p*ssing ourselves! At the end of a tour, there are always comedy moments… OMD were a really good support band, the best support act you could have got for the time actually! Fantastic!
RRussell: SIMPLE MINDS weren’t bad…
Chris: …yes, but that was later in Europe. They were phenomenal, one of the few bands to tour with us because we had people like NASH THE SLASH, HOHOKAM who were solo or two guys. Who else did we have? Oh yes, SHOCK!
Legend has it that Gary Numan only booked SHOCK for the Wembley shows because he fancied one of the girls… who was it?
Chris: Probably all three!!
RRussell: It was Carole Caplin funnily enough! To be honest, there was a line of people who fancied Carole… she was so fit! *laughs*
Ah, she wore that gold cone bikini during ‘Trois Gymnopedies’…
Chris: …she got on really well with my sister! *laughs*
RRussell: I don’t like the way this is going! *laughs*
RRussell, you got quite adept at multi-tasking with guitars, violin, synths, tambourine, electronic percussion…
RRussell: …bass pedals, saxophone! I could play violin already and I was ok on keyboards but sax, I had to learn and did a crash course. I can only play about four things on it! I had to do Mick Karn’s solo on ‘She’s Got Claws’ at Wembley… to this day, that’s about the only thing I can remember how to play. Funnily enough, I got booked to do a session with this jazz band and I walked in with my guitar, but they said they wanted me to play sax! Thankfully, it was a short little bit but I had to phone a mate who played sax to ask him how to play F# as I’d not done that before!
When you did ‘She’s Got Claws’ on that final night at Wembley (and it’s immortalised on the ‘Micromusic’ DVD and ‘Living Ornaments 81’ CD), you all got out of synch with the backing track…
RRussell: That can happen…
Chris: …you’ll probably find that the backing track got out of synch with me!! *laughs*
RRussell: Basically, if you can’t hear the sequencer part… one of the problems at Wembley was there was a massive bounce back from the wall and it was an awkward delay. As you walked away from your monitor, you’re hearing almost half a second delay so you get slower and slower. But at the end of the day, we followed Ced cos he had cans usually.
Chris: You’ve got to bear in mind that monitors were absolutely crucial for the configuration, these days you have ear pieces but then, you were playing a wide stage…
RRussell: …it was 80 feet wide!
Chris: And I was completely cocooned from the other keyboard player and I couldn’t see the drummer or anything! So you were totally reliant on the monitor and if that went down, you were totally stung!
You mentioned Ced Sharpley who is very much in our thoughts…
RRussell: …yes, the three of us were so tight. We were best mates for ten years, really close.
Chris: And we were the mainstay of DRAMATIS…
RRussell: …we were DRAMATIS!!! *laughs*
I understand you have an announcement?
RRussell: Yes, DRAMATIS is back together and releasing the second album, we’ve recorded most of it including tracks that we played live in 1982… ‘Sand & Stone’, ‘Every Night & Day’. The rest of it is new. It’s sounding really good.
Chris: This could be a Guinness Book of Records, the longest time taken for a second album release ever! 31 years!
Ced’s got this status of a legendary drummer who’s influenced the Hip-Hop community, did you see that coming back in the day?
RRussell: If we had, we’d have done it ourselves! *laughs*
Chris: Well, it doesn’t surprise because he’s a great percussionist and brought that to his drumming.
A lot of GARY NUMAN’s stuff was kind of mechanical, it had to be for the nature of the music but Ced brought that extra little thing because of the way he drums. He wouldn’t just play very KRAFTWERK type rhythms, he’d add something to the pieces.
When you were touring America, were you aware that the urban street kids were getting into GARY NUMAN?
Chris: Not at all…
RRussell: …not at that time. I remember Gary’s dad Tony came up to me and told me AFRIKA BAMBAATAA got in touch and wanted to do a collaboration with Gary and I said “BRILLIANT” and Tony said “who is he?”. I said “Tell Gary to do it” and Tony went “NAH!”*laughs*
Chris: How cool would that have been?
RRussell: It happened much later, but not then!
Were there any ‘Spinal Tap’ moments like getting lost trying to find your position on the massive stage sets or the crew playing practical jokes?
RRussell: There was one classic where the production was being built to Gary’s specs and there was supposed to be this square cage that came with him in from a truss…
But they done it in metres instead of feet so it was like the size of a shark cage! He went “I can get the whole f***ing band in this!” It was supposed to be two feet square, not two metres!
So it’s the opposite of ‘Stonehenge’?
RRussell: YES! EXACTLY! *laughs*
Chris: There was also things like you’d play Glasgow Barrowlands which had this roller skating rink and the stage was configured in such a way that you couldn’t get everything in. So me and the other keyboard player were hidden and all you could see was the top of my head!
RRussell: I had a platform and to get on it, I had to climb up a ladder and then crawl through this hole to get on stage… it was like potholing!
Chris: On ‘The Fury’ tour, we all came out in dry ice and this thing rose up and we all came on stage. Gary went “GO! GO!” and we were just covered in dry ice and I walked straight into a pole and smashed my head! I was totally disorientated, walked to wrong set of keyboards and for the first couple of numbers, I could barely play!
RRussell: We used to do this dance like THE SHADOWS on the last track of one shows and one of the crew taped my ankles together… and one of the crew, Archie came on stage in New Zealand with a tray of drinks completely naked!
The Teletour had those steep ramps? Did you ever go a*se over tit?
RRussell: Yeah, we used the same ramps at Wembley and we had diving boots on just to get some grip… but you had to take a run at it!
I usually used a radio pack but at this Wembley show, I was using a lead on my guitar so I came running down the ramp for this big guitar solo; Brian May and Jimmy Page were in the audience, and my roadie had put a short lead in the bloody guitar and it pulled out… I was looking round as if to say “can you plug me in again?” and he was sat there reading! *laughs*
You used to do this funny dance during ‘M.E.’
RRussell: I signed up as a guitarist and having to do all this other stuff… it wasn’t a dance, I was trying to destroy those bloody pie-tins! I had four Synare3 syndrums and used to break all of Ced’s drumsticks on them! I thought “If I break them, I won’t have to play them and they can put it on a sequence”… so I used to hit them as hard as I possibly could! It was hate really, pure emotion! God, they’re bloody tough things, they’re still working now I think! I thought I could either tap them and look like a w*nker or thrash the s*it out of them!
What keyboards were you using and how were you finding setting the sounds up, especially when the lights went down?
Chris: It was a nightmare, I think on one tour I had over eighteen keyboards, some were never used as they were back-ups… two Polymoogs, two Minimoogs, an ARP Odyssey…
RRussell: …I was the guitarist and I had five synths!! I had a Polymoog, two Minimoogs, Moog Taurus pedals, Synares and a Roland guitar synth!
Chris: Everything could breakdown, they’d go out of tune…
Was there any particular device that you never looked forward to playing?
Chris: A bit later on, the Prophet5… nightmare!
RRussell: I had this thing called The Clap!! It made a sound like a bunch of people clapping and it had a foot pedal… I thought if I just stand there, everyone will think I look bored so I picked the pedal up and ‘clapped’ it…I hated that! *laughs*
Now for a trip down memory lane, we have the 1981 Gary Numan Yearbook! You’re all pin-ups here… RRussell, you look like the fifth member of KRAFTWERK. Can you remember what your ambition was?
RRussell: Yes, to play the first gig on the moon! What a memory eh?
Are you still working on that one?
RRussell: Yes, but it’s not going great! *laughs*
Can you remember who was your favourite female singer?
RRussell: In those days… Kate Bush? LeneLovich? Julie London? Ah, Pat Benatar!
Yes, Pat Benatar…
RRussell: …she was quite hot as well!
Chris, can you remember who your favourite singer was at that time was?
Chris: Kate Bush?
No, it was Marie Osmond!!! *everyone laughs*
Chris: I think I might have been making that one up!
RRussell: Nothing he says in this ‘Back Stage’ book is reliable, you’ve seen what he’s like! I rest my case! *laughs*
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK also chatted to Tim Dry aka Tik, one half of TIK & TOK but also, a member of New Romantic dance troupe SHOCK who supported Gary Numan at the three farewell Wembley shows. He subsequently worked with him on the ‘Warriors’ tour and two tracks for TIK & TOK’s debut album ‘Intolerance’…
How did you get invited by Gary Numan to do the Wembley Shows?
Tim: SHOCK did a show at The Embassy Club in London and there’s Gary Numan, standing there on his own clutching a can of coke so we went up to say “Hi”. He said “I really love your show, I’ve got these gigs at Wembley, would you be my support act?” and we thought “Yeah! Right!”. But he was serious so we went down to Shepperton Studios to rehearse and that was the first time I actually felt the power of the music. It was monumentally loud.
One funny story was that Gary came along to see us later at this tiny gig in a horrible club out of town, somewhere going north. He’s watching us unrecognised doing our show. So we’re all in the dressing room afterwards and he’s sitting there with us when this fan bursts in and goes “HEY! I’ve heard GARY NUMAN’s in here” and he pans round the room, passes Gary and says to me “Are you Gary Numan?”, I said “no” so he walked off!
How was it at Wembley?
Tim: We’d come back from New York performing to maybe three hundred people in a club which was in your face. But coming out on stage in the blackout with the dry ice going and we started doing this weird movement, you couldn’t see the audience. It’s only later on in the show when the lights come up that bloody hell, there’s all these thousands of people! We did a forty minute set and the deal was that the three girls in SHOCK would do ‘Trois Gymnopedies’ when Gary went off to change his cossie while Sean and I would do our robotic thing to one of his numbers. But we came out on the wrong number cos we were so nervous! We said sorry to Gary but he said “Brilliant, do the same tomorrow night”.
You supported him on the’ Warriors’ tour as TIK & TOK…
Tim: Normally a major star support act gets short shrift… the audience normally go to the bar but for us, they were there. It was several weeks on the road and we always used to help his mum with her cases, she was such a sweetheart making sure we ate properly.
How do you look back on working with Gary Numan?
Tim: Gary is the most open, self effacing guy I’ve ever met. After the tour, we were making an album and asked Gary if he would play on a track called ‘Show Me Something Real’. He came to our studio with a Polymoog and Prophet5, plays these synth lines in one take, goes into the booth to do a backing vocal and then he’s off.
And then he said: “I’ve got this song ‘A Child With The Ghost’, would you like to record it?”… he’s giving us one of his songs to record!! So we did it. It was quite difficult for me to sing because Gary has a very kind of strange inflection timing wise but I managed to get it right and we had this girl Tessa Niles sing backing vocals who then went off to work with Gary as well. I remember thinking this was a profoundly beautiful song he written for Paul Gardiner. How generous is that? Not pretentious in any way, shape or form.
Chris Payne’s solo CD ‘Between Betjeman, Bach & Numan’ which features classically influenced reworkings of ‘Down In The Park’ and ‘Fade To Grey’ is released by Coverdrive Records on 23rd April 2012
Text by Steve Gray
Interviews by Chi Ming Lai and Steve Gray
Launch Party photos by Richard Price
Archive photos courtesy of Melvin Hurd, RRussell Bell, Nick Robson and Stephen Roper
24th March 2012, updated 16th JUne 2023
John Foxx’s first concert tour for several years captured the hearts of loyal electro heads and the curious alike.
Featuring the album ‘Interplay’, his most accessible and critically acclaimed body of work since ‘Metamatic’, the show delivered a mechanised charm while simultaneously adding a humanic warmth.
Ably assisted by Chief Mathematician Ben Edwards aka Benge with stylish synth girls Serafina Steer and Hannah Peel, classic and new songs were combined as the welcome live return of ‘A New Kind of Man’ and ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ blended in perfectly with the Trans-European dystopia of ‘Watching A Building On Fire’ and the futuristic folk of ‘Evergreen’.
John Foxx means different things to different people, so longtime followers stood side-by-side with the newly-converted. Tapio Normall remembers discovering the one-time Dennis Leigh as an impressionable teenager in Finland: “It is actually a small wonder that I started to like John Foxx. Radio didn’t play his songs, Finnish music magazines didn’t write about him and where I lived, there were no English music papers available. My friend’s sister had a compilation album called Modern Dance. It had ‘Europe After The Rain’ that was where I heard a John Foxx song the first time. A few months later I saw the ‘Dancing Like A Gun’ video on TV and after that I was sure this is my thing”.
Thirty years on, Tapio says: “Today I like John Foxx more than ever and I’ve been lucky to meet him few times”. Although arrays of vintage equipment were present during previous one-off shows at The Roundhouse and The Troxy, mobilisation for a European tour dictated a more practical rather than wholly artistic approach.
Foxx was leading his young crew from behind his Roland PC300 controller like a veteran ship’s captain while in the engine room, Benge primarily played the distinctive Simmons SDS5 hexagonal pads over various Roland CR78/TR808 and LinnDrum patterns while occasionally turning to a variety of other devices.
The marvellous ARP Omni MkI string machine was delicately handled by Serafina Steer who also had an Alesis Micron at her disposal. It was April 2010 when PULP’s Jarvis Cocker said her album ‘Change Is Good Change Is Good’ was “Probably my favourite album of the year so far”. Since then, she has become a mainstay of John Foxx’s band. Stage left, new addition Hannah Peel had that ubiquitous female friendly modelling synth in the MicroKorg plus a Roland JX3P.
Martin Swan is a member of newish combo VILE ELECTRODES; an analogue synth expert who was part of the project team who curated the Oramics To Electronica exhibition at the Science Museum, he gave some interesting thoughts while at one of the London XOYO shows: “They’ve obviously slimmed down the set-up from before and I think they’ve made some very astute decisions about what it’s important to take. It was interesting to see they’re using virtual analogues onstage – the MicroKorg and Serafina’s Alesis Micron – they were presumably picked specifically because they were small…”
He also added: “Most importantly however, it didn’t seem to make a big difference sonically: Sound wise I don’t think it affected the quality, although I think Benge was playing some stuff off his laptop… cheat haha! They were obviously using some live pedals and grungy effects which always helps a lot to take the digital edge off modern synths”
He also has some thoughts about the transportation logistics: “In terms of touring with some of the older stuff, the JX3P that Hannah Peel used is a fairly sturdy beast. My main hope is that they have a decent flight case for the ARP Omni!” That particular antique is rumoured to be of at least 1976 vintage so would be expected to have a degree of fragility but according to Martin: “Maybe surprisingly, old kit often stands up to tours very well because it’s made of wood and metal, rather than plastic! I’m not sure that some of the synths being made today will be on the road in 30 years time. I’m glad I’m not their roadie though…”
So this jaunt was a much more streamlined set-up with no film projections and focussing as a playing unit. Organic tensions were provided by Serafina Steer’s bass guitar and the VU-like bowed embellishments of Hannah Peel. A solo artist in her own right, in 2010 she released the Rebox EP on Static Caravan which included musicbox covers of synth laden classics such as ‘Tainted Love’, ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Electricity’. With her own ‘Organ Song’ being sampled by OMD for ‘Bondage of Fate’ and her inclusion in the band line-up, Peel’s reputation has certainly been enhanced by the endorsement of such Synth Britannia luminaries.
The live components came together like a fusion of LADYTRON and ULTRAVOX with Peel and Steer also providing Mira and Helen styled backing vox to compliment Foxx’s own distinct tones. Meanwhile, Benge’s analogue percussive snaps, Steer’s bass and Peel’s violin (particularly on the ‘Metamatic’-era material such as ‘Plaza’, ‘He’s A Liquid’ and ‘Burning Car’) indicated how these songs could have sounded had Foxx not parted ways with Messrs Cann, Cross and Currie back in 1979.
London’s XOYO in Shoreditch played host to two shows presented by Artrocker magazine with different support acts on each night. On the first date, Tara Busch, described by John Foxx himself as a cross between “Karen Carpenter, Nico and Doris Day on a Moog” did exactly that as Richard Price found out: “She started her set with THE CARPENTERS cover Rainy Days & Sundays, it came across as nice and soft on gently played out synth”.
Her set, which also included her marvellous Bob Moog Foundation charity single ‘The Rocket Wife’, impressed Tapio Normall: “I liked Tara Busch and her one woman show. Her gig reminded me of how Thomas Dolby started and look where he is now; in Suffolk. No really… Tara Busch’s small scale live show was engaging thing to hear and see”.
Meanwhile Brighton’s GAZELLE TWIN aka Elizabeth Walling was a different kettle of fish altogether: “Wow, what can I say? Just dark but done well” said Richard Price, “she sings really well in an almost operatic style. The band had these finger LED lights on which worked very well in the almost total darkness of the act”. Tapio Normall, who has just about seen it all on his musical travels, commented “she was maybe the strangest thing I have seen and I’ve seen some quite odd stuff! GAZELLE TWIN’s most unusual look and haunting songs are something else. You don’t confuse them with your average rock ‘n’ pop act”!
The second London gig featured the acclaimed XENO & OAKLANDER who have just released their third album ‘Sets & Lights’. They were particularly impressive, literally fighting on stage to keep their array of vintage and virtual gear operating in unison. Tapio Normall remarked “they were a very appropriate support band. A friend of mine said they sound like early BERLIN. Is that true? I wouldn’t know but my impression of XENO & OAKLANDER was positive”.
VILE ELECTRODES lead singer Anais Neon noticed the platform Foxx had given female electronic musicians to perform, both in his band and as support: “In the past, girls in electronic music were often just a pretty face fronting someone else’s music, so it’s great seeing women on stage manning the synths (no pun intended) and being multi-instrumentalists just as well as their male counterparts”.
So have music fans finally cottoned onto the idea of female friendly synthesis? Anais certainly thinks the genre has been slow to respond: “For such a futuristic and forward thinking style of music, popular electronic music has really lagged behind guitar driven music in terms of girls being properly at the helm. Although women have long had a lead role in avant garde electronic music: think Daphne Oram, Laurie Anderson, Delia Derbyshire etc but, for some reason, popular electro missed the boat. More women and more synths, I say!”
And at the final London show, the tremendous reaction from the audience rose to being particularly ecstatic at the end. One thing that must be celebrated is how respectful and knowledgeable fans of John Foxx are. No inappropriate whooping during quiet sections of the show, chit-chat during the more esoteric material or lack of appreciation of the imperial, pioneering back catalogue. When the fanbases of several Synth Britannia-era acts are reduced to nostalgia freaks whose only interests are drunken singalongs to greatest hits and the lead singer’s trouser content, John Foxx is proof of how the elder statesman’s role can be carried forward with dignity.
At the height of his powers by delivering possibly his best ever live set and new material that is equal to his most regarded work, John Foxx is in an enviable position. And as one of electronic music’s father figures, rather than dismissing the new breed of synthesizer based artists for their apparent lack of integrity as some of his peers have done, Foxx has actually had them share the stage with him or become part of his band.
One thing that is not normally talked about with John Foxx is his humanity; “He’s a man with a very expressive face, you might say he’s one of those people who has grown more distinguished as he’s grown older. As a photographer I find this fascinating” said Mike Cooper, “Foxx was massively influential on electronic music’s development, up there and in fact in earlier than some of the other Synth Britannia pioneers such as THE HUMAN LEAGUE, Gary Numan and THE NORMAL – ‘Metamatic’ had sounds, songs, and an aesthetic that would be influential on synthpop, minimal wave, EBM, industrial, and eventually techno…”
Continuing his ever prolific creative spurt of the last decade, available on this tour was the new JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS album ‘The Shape Of Things’ which features starker, reflective material that didn’t fit into the overall pop concept of ‘Interplay’. On it, ‘Rear View Mirror’ and ‘Unrecognised’ are perhaps the most immediate tracks with their pulsing hypnotics.
The deluxe edition includes a bonus CD of remixes with two highlights being Andy Gray’s superb reworks of ‘Watching A Building On Fire’ and ‘Interplay’. Also worthy of mention are XENO & OAKLANDER’s take on ‘Evergreen’ and ‘Where You End & I Begin’, a collaboration with TARA BUSCH. So as this tour of JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS proves, the link between past, present and future in electronic music is the healthiest it has ever been.
Special thanks to Steve Malins at Random and all who contributed their valued recollections of the tour.
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