What of 1986? This was at times, unlike previous years, a difficult one to enjoy musically.
TEARS FOR FEARS and SIMPLE MINDS had shown in 1985 that the most bankable way to break America was to present a new wave sound that had some synthesizers but not too many while big compressed drums and rawk guitars would be the relatable component for FM radio shows to draw in listeners for their commercials in between.
Following the ubiquity of Phil Collins throughout most of 1985, the domination of the GENESIS axis continued with seemingly endless stream of singles from the ‘Invisible Touch’ album while former leader Peter Gabriel achieved international mainstream success with the Staxx-flavoured art funk of ‘Sledgehammer’ on major rotation at MTV.
Elsewhere, WHAM! ended on a high as George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley played their final concert at Wembley Stadium but also playing what turned out to be their last concert with Freddie Mercury at Knebworth Park were QUEEN. Having gone down the dumper in 1984 with their third album ‘Waking Up With The House On Fire’ having been assessed as a “disaster of mediocrity” by Smash Hits’ Tom Hibbert, the long playing attempt to rescue CULTURE CLUB out of the dumper ‘From Luxury To Heartache’ did nothing to change fortunes with Boy George’s then undisclosed heroin addiction affecting its prolonged production.
Hollywood was where is it at in 1986; Giorgio Moroder and his mechanic Tom Whitlock would win an Oscar and Golden Globe for ‘Best Original Song’ with ‘Take My Breath Away’ which provided the love theme for ‘Top Gun’, the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide; although it was credited to BERLIN, it featured none of its members apart from vocalist Terri Nunn and would cause tensions that would split up the band.
THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS re-recorded ‘Pretty In Pink’ for the John Hughes movie of the same name while having already featured discreetly during a mall scene with ‘Tesla Girls’ during another Hughes film ‘Weird Science’ the year before, OMD achieved their biggest hit in America with the specifically written standalone song ‘If You Leave’ which soundtracked the closing prom scene to touch the hearts of many teenagers stateside. However, the act who contributed the most music to the film was NEW ORDER with ‘Shellshock’, ‘Elegia’ and ‘Thieves Like Us’!
In the rush to make things more palatable for the American market, there were lukewarm offerings by THE HUMAN LEAGUE, HEAVEN 17, DURAN DURAN and EURYTHMICS who only a few years before had released some excellent albums. “We were all a bit lost by then” said Phil Oakey later in 2009 on the BBC documentary ‘Synth Britannia’, “we didn’t have anything to prove!”. But the worst one was ‘U-Vox’ by ULTRAVOX; as the lame titled suggested, this was a band with something missing and the record was to 1986 what OMD’s ‘Crush’ was to 1985 as it battled to incorporate orchestras, brass sections, acoustic guitars and the traditional Irish combo THE CHIEFTAINS into its sound.
After the programmed perfection of their Trevor Horn-produced chart toppers ‘Relax’ and ‘Two Tribes’, new producer Stephen J Lipson may well have been misguided in allowing FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD to play their own instruments on the second album ‘Liverpool’ as tensions within the band were about to cause implosion. Certainly the programmed Trevor Horn single remix of ‘Warriors Of The Wasteland)’ was far superior to the lame “as live” album version which unsurprisingly sounded like it was performed by a slightly polished-up pub rock combo!
Making a successful transition to organic instrumentation were TALK TALK with ‘The Colour Of Spring’, probably one of the best albums of 1986 regardless of genre. In E&MM, Mark Hollis said “I absolutely hate synthesizers” despite the band having had their breakthrough using them; while the sleeve credits did much to appease more rockcentric audiences with the vague acknowledgement of “instrumental” for Ian Curnow’s synth solos, the enjoyable long player did feature an electronic wind instrument called a Variophon and the state-of-the-art Kurweil on ‘Happiness Is Easy’!
Also heading into more organic territory with an ambitious double album divided into song-based and ambient instrumental records was David Sylvian; bringing in a number of guest guitarists like Robert Fripp, Phil Palmer and Bill Nelson, ‘Gone To Earth’ required more effort from listeners as the former leader of JAPAN distanced himself further from his old band although former bandmates Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri made contributions on a number of tracks.
As DAF went disco, Electronic Body Music influenced by the German duo’s imperial years on Virgin Records was emerging as a harder and darker alternative to the sanitised American-friendly sound that was now prevalent, with FRONT 242 and NITZER EBB issuing important singles that would trigger a new cult movement.
Overall, 1986 was a massive disappointment and confirmation of a wider downward spiral towards electronic creativity in pop music. House and dance would point towards the future but these sub-genres often lacked songs. Meanwhile, the emergence of Stock, Aitken & Waterman as a pop production factory would change the face of Top Of The Pops, Smash Hits and even the Independent Charts after years of delightful oddness but that is another story for others to tell…
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has somehow managed to assemble a list of 20 albums to represent The Electronic Legacy of 1986, although it must be highlighted that a fair number of those included would not have made the cut in previous years which had their embarrassment of riches. Not a “best of” list by any means, as usual, these are presented in alphabetical order by artist…
A-HA Scoundrel Days
While Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar were being perceived as a teenybop band thanks to the success of ‘Take On Me’, there was always an inherent Nordic gloom lurking within A-HA. Mostly produced by Alan Tarney, the blistering title song was swathed in a chilling melancholy. Then there were the hit singles but while ‘Cry Wolf’ was bouncy pop, there were snarls of frustration present in ‘I’ve Been Losing You’ and ‘Manhattan Skyline’.
ALPHAVILLE were under pressure on their second album ‘Afternoons in Utopia’, especially with the departure of founder member Frank Mertens. Ricky Echolette joined Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd but after the gritty commentary on heroin addiction of ‘Big In Japan’ in 1984, songs like ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Dance With Me’ possessed an anthemic optimism while on ‘Red Rose’, Gold moved from his Robert Smith impersonation into Bryan Ferry territory.
Having flown the ZTT nest, Anne Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan took their Fairlighted musique concrète to China Records and came up with ‘In Visible Silence’. With more variety and more polish, ‘Legs’ was classic AoN while a rework of ‘Peter Gunn’ with Duane Eddy and ‘Paranoimia’ would provide the hits, although the latter’s album version would be without Max Headroom. Although Langan would depart, a high profile collaboration with Tom Jones beckoned…
A quartet comprising of Susan Ottaviano, the unrelated Ted Ottaviano, Jade Lee and Lauren Roselli, BOOK OF LOVE signed to Sire Records and opened for DEPECHE MODE on two US successive tours. Their self-titled debut LP contained lively synthpop tunes such as ‘You Make Me Feel So Good’, ‘Boy’ and ‘I Touch Roses’ but it was a song named after the Italian artist ‘Modigliani’ that had most impact, appearing in an episode of ‘Miami Vice’ and the film ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’.
With CHINA CRISIS now more of a band than the original duo concept fronted by Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon, ‘What Price Paradise’ had less of a Trans-Atlantic flavour compared to its predecessor ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’. Still featuring great songs such as ‘It’s Everything’, ‘Best Kept Secret’, ‘The Understudy’ and ‘Hampton Beach’, it is still one of life’s great mysteries that the magnificent ‘Arizona’ never got beyond No47 in the UK charts!
Although THE COMMUNARDS, Jimmy Somerville’s venture with future TV vicar Richard Coles was intended to have more traditional musical values, the electronic sound of his previous band BRONSKI BEAT could not be left totally behind. With Mike Thorne still at the production helm, ‘Disenchanted’ crossed ‘Why?’ with ‘Smalltown Boy’ while the spirited Hi-NRG cover of ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ with Sarah-Jane Morris would be the UK’s biggest selling single of 1986.
‘Communards’ is still available via London Records
When Robert Görl and Gabi Delgado reunited in 1985 to record ‘1st Step To Heaven’, they opted not only to stop wearing back but to sing in English. Less aggressive than previous DAF works with a more electronic disco sound, ‘Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi’ quoted from LADY MARMALADE despite being an original while ‘Pure Joy’ was inspired by Prince’s ‘1999’. But best of all was the joyous ‘Brothers’ which celebrated Görl and Delgado’s friendship.
Producer Daniel Miller wanted a dystopian intensity to the fifth DEPECHE MODE album ‘Black Celebration’ and with Gareth Jones acting as Tonmeister, Martin Gore’s increasingly bleaker songs found the perfect sonic backdrop. The 7 track segue from the opening title song to ‘Stripped’ that included ‘Fly On The Windscreen’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Two’ remains DEPECHE MODE’s most outstanding sequence of music.
Andy Bell and Vince Clarke’s debut album ‘Wonderland’ was not an instant hit. The lead single ‘Who Needs Love (Like That)?’ was mistaken by some to be an unreleased YAZOO recording. Among the album’s highlights were the joyous ‘Reunion’ and the funky ‘Push Me… Shove Me’ . The record’s HI-NRG centrepiece ‘Oh L’Amour’ flopped as a single but undeterred, ERASURE toured the college circuit to build up a new fanbase from scratch.
As I START COUNTING, Simon Leonard and Dave Baker finally released their longform debut following two impressive Daniel Miller-produced singles ‘Letters To A Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’. Both included on the CD edition of ‘My Translucent Hands’, quirky tracks such as ‘Catch That Look’ and maintained the standard if with less immediacy. The duo would open for Mute label mates ERASURE on their 1987 European tour.
‘Rendez-Vous’ had something of a loose space theme but the space shuttle Challenger tragedy tinged the release with sadness as the ‘Last Rendez-Vous (Ron’s Piece)’ was to have featured astronaut Ron McNair playing sax. Meanwhile, the symphonic ‘Second Rendez-Vous’ inspired by Wendy Carlos would become favourite of Pope John Paul II and the rousing ‘Fourth Rendez-Vous’ captured the vein of the classic Jean-Michel Jarre single.
After two hit albums with Rupert Hine, Howard Jones had Arif Mardin on production duties for ‘One To One’ having been impressed by his work with SCRITTI POLITTI. While still very synth-driven, an array of session musicians on drums, guitars, bass and brass featured for a more sophisticated sound. But ‘Little Bit Of Snow’ found him in reflective mood on the ivories as the singles ‘All I Want’ and ‘You Know I Love You… Don’t You?’ failed to crack the UK Top30.
‘One To One’ is still available via Cherry Red Records
Coming after the 5 year wait since 1981’s ‘Computer World’ as the world KRAFTWERK anticipated came true, ‘Electric Café’ was something of a disappointment. Distracted by cycling and technology, there were still delights to be found. ‘The Telephone Call’ featuring Karl Bartos on lead vocals was a highlight along with the voice sample-laden ‘Musique Non Stop’ while the ironic ‘Sex Object’ was fun despite the barrage of DX7 presets like a YouTube tutorial…
‘Electric Café’ is now available as ‘Techno Pop’ via Parlophone Records
NEW ORDER were simultaneously about indie guitar rock and electronic disco, although rarely mixing. On their fourth album ‘Brotherhood’, the band’s schizophrenic musical personalities were separated across two sides. The electronic part was headed by ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, but there was also the solemn ‘All Day Long’, the sinister ‘Angel Dust’ and the Lou Reed pastiche ‘Every Little Counts’ with its laughter and unforgettable scratching stylus ending!
Things really had got “strange” for Gary Numan as his Numanoids marched on BBC Broadcasting House to protest that ‘This Is Love’ and ‘I Can’t Stop’ had charted yet were not getting radio airplay; however, they were the worst songs on ‘Strange Charm’. Something of an underrated record, the dreamy ‘My Breathing’ and the Vangelis-inspired title song were impressive while there was also a new great Bill Sharpe collaboration ‘New Thing From London Town’.
A much better record than the rotten ‘Crush’, with a heavier synth, choral and live drum edge, one highlight was ‘The Dead Girls’ which revisited the sonics of ‘Architectural & Morality’ but with digital technology. Although the hit came from the Paul Humphreys sung ‘(Forever) Live & Die’, the Andy McCluskey fronted ‘Stay’ and ‘We Love You’ provided the electronic rock disco drive while ‘Flame Of Hope’ clearly fell under the spell of THE ART OF NOISE.
While PET SHOP BOYS debut album wasn’t perfect with ‘Suburbia’ and ‘Violence’ improving in re-recordings, ‘Please’ featured not only ‘West End Girls’ and ‘Love Comes quickly’ but had an array of brilliant track including ‘Two Divided By Zero’ and ‘Tonight Is Forever’. While an ironic observation on the rise of yuppies, the misunderstood ‘Opportunites (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)’ proved to be quite prophetic for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, but who was the brains?
‘Please’ is still available via Parlophone Records
SUICIDE reconfigured for the 21st Century with Giorgio Moroder at the studio helm, behind the hype of cyberpunk combo SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK were some decent tracks even if they all sounded the same! The throbbing drive of ‘Love Missile F1-11’, ‘21st Century Boy’ and ‘Sex-Bomb-Boogie’ provided the fun but the flow was spoiled by novelty effects and samples while there were paid adverts between tracks as an honest statement on commercialism.
Inspired by a London Records A&R muttering “why can’t you make music that you can dance to?” after the avant pop of ‘Change’, SPARKS took inspiration for their lively if underrated 14th album, recorded in Brussels with old pal Dan Lacksman of TELEX engineering. The title song echoed ERASURE’s ‘Oh L’Amour’ while Ron Mael played with bursts of Fairlight and Roland Jupiter 8 on the falsetto soul of ‘Fingertips’ and Russell got to impersonate Gene Pitney on ‘Rosebud’.
The front woman of synthpop act SSQ who had a US dance hit with ‘Synthicide’ in 1983, Stacey Q may have begun as a ‘Shy Girl’ but with its fair number of tunes as good as ‘Two Of Hearts’ like sister song ‘Insecurity’ and the more Jam & Lewis influenced ‘Music Out Of Bounds’, her debut album ‘Better Than Heaven’ is a reminder how fun and carefree pop music once was and should still be. The album remains a collection of wonderfully innocent escapism.
The most recent CHINA CRISIS album ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ may be 10 years old but the background to its genesis now makes it seem like it has come from another era.
The follow-up to 1994’s ‘Warped By Success’, when it finally went public in 2015, it was only available as a CD or download via the now defunct crowdfunding platform Pledge Music and subsequently at CHINA CRISIS shows.
Curiosity was piqued by the light chamber recital that introduced opener ‘Smile’ before a fuzzy bass synth interjected while ‘Because My Heart’ showcased a Merseyside take on countrified Americana. A CHINA CRISIS album would not have been complete without a wistful number about ‘Being In Love’ but keener fans wanted to know how Howard Jones came to be playing on ‘Bernard’ and asked what happened to ‘Everyone You Know’, a sprightly pop tune gifted as a free download to all Pledgers when the campaign began in 2013.
A charming compendium of “adult contemporary soulful art pop…” that has grown in stature over recent years, as songs such as ‘Fool’, ‘Down Here On Earth’ and ‘My Sweet Delight’ became live favourites, interest was reignited in ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’. The album got a limited self-reissue in 2020 with ‘Everyone You Know’ appended to a new vinyl edition, but that sold out a while ago.
Having reissued the debut CHINA CRISIS album ‘Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms – Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain’ as well as the collections ‘China Greatness’ and ‘The Complete Sessions 1982-1983’, the ethically minded Independent record label Last Night From Glasgow has released an expanded version of ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ as a forest green double vinyl LP and CD, both containing 10 bonus tracks, as well as a single cloudy blue vinyl version for the more cautious consumer.
With the CHINA CRISIS nucleus of Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon now as busy on the live circuit as they were in their commercial heyday when their third album ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ became their biggest seller, album number seven ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ can be yours to own and is available at gigs, in shops and online via the usual retail outlets.
Taking a short break from their live schedule, Gary Daly looked back at 10 years of ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and chatted about the bonus tracks that are now on offer as part of this new 10th anniversary edition.
Even though ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ is now 10 years old, it’s still a bit of a best kept secret even among CHINA CRISIS fans, but now they are getting to find out?
Autumn was never “released”, not in the traditional way of a record company being involved… manufacturing and distribution, basically putting the album in shops around the world. ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ was one of the last great Pledge Music / fan funded albums, made and distributed by us, the band. It was thrilling and super exciting to be so involved but having said that, we are sooooo happy ‘Autumn’ is now going to be available again courtesy of Last Night From Glasgow record label…
‘Everyone You Know’ was the download only gift to Pledgers when you first crowdfunded the album in 2013, have you been able to find a place for it on this reissue, is this now an album track or an extra?
‘Everyone You Know’ is now both an album track and extra track, depending on what format you choose. The song itself was initially left off the CD, we felt it was, sonically, a little bit “stand alone”… of course we are now of a mind it’s a fantastic addition…
How did the idea for a deluxe edition with bonus tracks come about, are they all tracks from the original sessions or are there newly curated pieces?
Curated and very very relatable. Some of the songs are home demos and a couple are live in the studio piano / vocal performances. With it being the 10th anniversary, we saw it as a great opportunity to do an extended edition and make more ‘Autumn’ music available…
Are you yourself a fan of demos and alternative takes in the deluxe boxed sets of your favourite albums?
No, I’m not really but I must admit, I absolutely “love” our China demos…
The demo version of ‘Being In Love’ sounds like something that could have gone on your 2019 solo album ‘Gone From Here’?
Yeah, that was done with a buddy of mine Christopher Barlow in his home studio, we’ve worked a lot together these past 10 years. Chris is a real Bowie and vintage synths guy, he contributed to both ‘Autumn’ and ‘GFH’.
There are two versions of ‘Fool’, Eddie’s acoustic demo and an electronic instrumental “KRAFTWERK meets STEELY DAN” version which is fantastic. It shows where you can take a song… could you see the potential of ‘Fool’ almost as soon as the demo was presented to you?
‘Fool’ is very much an Eddie song, it was Brian McNeill who fashioned its feel, he realised its ‘Flaunt’ arrangement potential. And it was a colleague of Eddie’s, Paul Mitchell Davidson what did the fantastic brass and wind arrangement.
Two tracks ‘My Sweet Delight’ and ‘Bernard’ appear as live recordings made in North Wales but in solo piano-centric arrangements?
Bryn Derwen studio, Bethesda, North Wales… Andy Steele (of MUDDYHEAD) on piano and myself, lead vocal. These recordings are from sessions over the last few years, I would have just recorded them as songs in progress and would have been curious to hear them in a singer / songwriter setting.
‘Fall’ is like the theme to ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood – The Musical’ if one existed, was this overture a retrospective idea or something you had already considered when the album was being made?
‘Fall’ is basically Chloe Mullet’s wind and brass arrangement with additional soundscaping by engineer / producer Carl Brown. When Carl and Mark (Pythian, mix engineer) were mixing the track ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’, they soloed Chloe’s arrangement and it was completely a work of some considerable sonic / melodic achievement. Worthy of a presentation as is, they sent it to me and I was blown away. It was always my intention to include in any re-release.
What’s the meaning behind the “Dutch Master” of ‘Down Here’?
‘Down Here’ / Dutch Master is Brian McNeill’s initial mix and was mixed in Holland… at this point, we was of a mind maybes it was time to mix the album. But after living with some of the initial mixes for a little while, we decided there was still work to be done…
Is there a story behind ‘How To Live & Love?’
The story behind the inclusion of ‘How To Live & Love’ is the song itself features Kevin Wilkinson, Gary ‘Gazza’ Johnson and myself on piano / vocal. It’s a live performance and very much from a time when it had the potential to make it to the album but then things change and… a version did make it to my solo Polite Postcard CD box set ‘How To Live & Love Your Life’ from 2008. I was deffo of a mind fans would enjoy hearing Kev and Gaz again, hence the inclusion.
As well as appearing as ‘Because Because Because’ which is a not-so-country version of ‘Because My Heart’, the ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ version had been given a new Mark Saunders single mix which plays on its New Country vibes… its interesting how this song has developed as it first appeared in 2007 as part of ‘The Visionary Mindset Experience’ solo EP you did?
‘Because My Heart’ deserves wholeheartedly to be known the whole world over, it’s soooo beautiful. We have been working once again with Carl Brown (‘Autumn’ producer) and Mark Saunders; we decided to ask Mark would he like to remix ‘Because My Heart’; I think he’s added some new country music energy and radio friendly vibes. It’s definitely on a journey, from my ‘Visionary Mindset…’ EP to this re-release… songs do indeed have a life of their own!
How would you sum up ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ and why anyone interested in quality music should have it in their home?
Well firstly… if it is already in your home, let me on behalf of everyone involved in the making of and now promoting of ‘Autumn’, thank you thank you thank you. And for everyone yet to hear / own ‘Autumn’, take a minute, a chance and immerse yourself in what is now considered to be one of our finest recordings… you will not be disappointed.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Gary Daly
Hosted by PopRambler Iain McDermott, ‘Back To NOW’ is a podcast that celebrates all things related to the variously compiled world of pop and how our favourite compilation albums shaped our lives and now fondly stand as time capsules for our own musical journeys.
Chi Ming Lai of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was honoured to be invited back to Back To NOW after his debut appearance in 2024 about the ‘NOW ’81 Yearbook’. On this new episode, he joins Ian Wade, author of ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’, to discuss the ‘NOW ’82 Yearbook’ 4CD set and its companion 3CD set of “Extras”.
The start of 1982 saw a continuation of the amazing Autumn of 1981 with the third singles from albums by SOFT CELL,OMD and JAPAN all hitting the Top5 while the synthesizer pioneers who were ahead of their time like KRAFTWERK and THE HUMAN LEAGUE saw tracks first released in 1978 become Top10 Hits with ‘The Model’ notably dropping down the charts before getting to No1. There were chart breakthroughs for SIMPLE MINDS and ASSOCIATES while YAZOO,CHINA CRISIS,BLANCMANGE,A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS and TALK TALK impressed with their debut long players.
However later in the year, there was a backlash against the synthesizer as exemplified by the Musicians Union tabling a motion to ban synthesizers from recording and live performance. Meanwhile musically, the fiddle and banjo romp of ‘Come On Eileen’ by the Celtic soul incarnation of DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS becoming the biggest selling single of 1982 in the UK gave indicators that public may have had enough of all things electronic.
But you cannot halt progress and advances in music technology like the Linn Drum Computer and the Fairlight CMI were to become the perfect tools for producers like Trevor Horn and Tony Mansfield to continue adventures in modern recording with DOLLAR, ABC and SPANDAU BALLET as well as Captain Sensible and Mari Wilson among the beneficiaries. Meanwhile DURAN DURAN truly became the teenyboppers band of choice with their ‘Rio’ album eventually going platinum but if the year before had been 1981 B.C.C. – before CULTURE CLUB, then the end of 1982 saw the emergence of the two Georges, O’Dowd and Michael.
Of the year, the Now Music official website said: “1982 saw the first huge hits from a wealth of new artists including CULTURE CLUB, WHAM! and TEARS FOR FEARS, as well as an incredible line-up from artists who had established their chart presence in the prior 18 months and would produce some of the greatest tracks of the decade; DURAN DURAN, SPANDAU BALLET, ABC, HAIRCUT 100, SOFT CELL, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, and a newly solo Adam Ant.”
In a lively conversation, Iain McDermott, Ian Wade and Chi Ming Lai cover topics as diverse as the importance of Smash Hits in their coverage of pop, predict the possible inclusions for the upcoming NOW ‘Vault ’82’ collection and the unlikely trio of chart toppers from West Germany, thus proving that despite it being the country that seeded innovative electronic music, its cheesy home-grown Schlagermusik could also unexpectedly crossover as grandparents bought their one single of the year!
As Smash Hits Editor David Hepworth said in their end of year review, there were “no patterns” to pop in 1982.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Iain McDermott
Released in April 1985, ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ was CHINA CRISIS’ most successful album, spawning two UK Top20 singles in ‘Black Man Ray’ as well as being certified Gold.
The duo of Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon had already achieved chart success with their melodic synth-flavoured singles ‘Christian’ and ‘Wishful ‘Thinking’ while their respective parent albums ‘Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms – Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain’ and ‘Working With Fire & Steel – Possible Pop Songs Volume 2’ were also well received. But ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ was a different musical beast compared to its predecessors. Produced by Walter Becker of STEELY DAN, the influence of his band was more than obvious with a more live soulful feel making its presence felt.
It would be fair to say that if ‘Working With Fire & Steel – Possible Pop Songs Volume 2’ was their English album, then ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ is their American one. With the prominent use of noted session players such as PINK FLOYD live guitarist Tim Renwick and keyboardist Nick Magnus who played with former GENESIS guitarist Steve Hackett, it broadened CHINA CRISIS’ musicality while retaining their all-important melodic sensibilities.
Something of a shaky live act in their earlier days, the original ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ tour saw CHINA CRISIS improving on stage with Gazza Johnson (bass), the late Kevin Wilkinson (drums) and Brian McNeil (keyboards) successfully translating the Trans-Atlantic FM friendly vibe of the album to the concert environment. This ultimately was the birth of the entertainers that CHINA CRISIS have morphed into today and 2025 sees 40 years of Imperfection being celebrated.
The location for the London leg is Cadogan Hall, a former church at the heart of Sloane Square in Chelsea and luckily bar prices were not unreasonable inside while nearby establishments were charging £27.50 for two drinks and two packets of crisps!! Eschewing the traditional support act, as an expanded 7 piece including regular sidemen Jack Hymers on keys and Eric Animan on sax plus ‘What Price Paradise’ era guitarist Stuart Nisbet, CHINA CRISIS’ opening set comprised the first side of ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ in order. From the opening bars of ‘The Highest High’ joyously celebrating their hometown of Kirkby, this was an evening of fun and entertainment.
Anyone who has ever been to see CHINA CRISIS in recent years knows that the comical banter between songs is as much part of the show as the songs themselves. Daly was as ever the witty raconteur, explaining that ‘Strength Of Character’ was a rare reggae excursion for the band as the form was extremely difficult for Caucasians from Merseyside to pull off authentically! Meanwhile with a projection of Walter Becker and George Michael on screen, Lundon remembered that on ‘You Did Cut Me’, the sax was played by Steve Gregory who had also performed the same task on ‘Careless Whisper’.
It was unusual to hear ‘Black Man Ray’ so early in the show before the interlude but Daly took the opportunity to plug merch. But as well as this, there were more pressing midlife concerns discussed such as the benefits of trousers with elasticated waists, the onset of baldness and comparing meds while under the care of consultants!
Opening the second section of the show with the second side, ‘Gift Of Freedom’, ‘King In A Catholic Style’ and ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’ all displayed that rhythmic bounce which characterised ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’, while there was a rare outing for ‘The World Spins, I’m Part of It’ which Daly jokingly remarked was far too wordy in an affectionate dig at Lundon who had written the majority of the lyrics.
After the ‘Flaunt’ showcase ended with the moody ‘Blue Sea’, there was an extended encore of other hits and tales. After renditions of ‘African & White’, the fabulous ‘Arizona Sky’ and the CHIC influenced ‘Tragedy & Mystery’, there was a story about how Alice Cooper played ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ on his tour bus! Of course, there was ‘Wishful Thinking’ and ‘Christian’ plus more anecdotes from Daly, the most amusing of which was him still being irked by CHINA CRISIS always being billed below GO WEST at retro festivals!
Closing with ‘Sweet Delight’ from the most recent CHINA CRISIS album ‘Autumn In The Neighourhood’ which will be reissued later in the year, Daly dedicated the song written about his wife Jean to one of his daughters who was due to give birth to what would be his fifth grandchild 😊
Fellow Liverpudlian Ken Dodd once sang about ‘Happiness’ and that is what CHINA CRISIS provided tonight. In what Daly has said will be their busiest year for live work since their ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ heyday, if you’ve never seen them live before, now might be a good time to try and buy to get ‘The Highest High’ and “join in the fun”.
The 40 Years of Imperfection tour continues: Edinburgh Queen’s Hall (8th May), Gateshead Sage (9th May), Leeds City Varieties Music Hall (10th May), Manchester Salford Quays Theatre (16th May), Airdrie Town Hall (17th May), Liverpool Philharmonic (24th May), Carlisle Old Fire Station (14th June), Holmfirth Picturedome (4th October), Galashiels MacArts (31st October)
For information on other CHINA CRISIS live dates in the UK and internationally throughout 2025, please go to https://linktr.ee/chinacrisismusic
Having ended 2024 opening for popular American indie band VAMPIRE WEEKEND at London’s Brixton Academy plus their usual seasonal appearances at The Cavern in Liverpool, 2025 sees CHINA CRISIS busier than ever on the live circuit.
Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon started CHINA CRISIS in 1981; signing to Inevitable Records who launched the careers of WAH! And DEAD OR ALIVE, their debut single ‘African & White’ was championed by John Peel. CHINA CRISIS were picked up by Virgin Records and on the release their first album ‘Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain’ in 1982, the pair were opening for SIMPLE MINDS with the profile helping to achieve their Top20 breakthrough ‘Christian’.
The second CHINA CRISIS album ‘Working With Fire & Steel – Possible Pop Songs Volume 2’ produced by Mike Howlett spawned their biggest hit single ‘Wishful Thinking’ in 1984. But a fresh approach the following year saw their third album ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ produced by Walter Becker of STEELY DAN fame. With the subsequent tour featuring what is often considered the classic Chinas line-up of Daly and Lundon with Gazza Johnson on bass, the late Kevin Wilkinson on drums and Brian McNeill on keyboards, this most successful of the CHINA CRISIS long players celebrates its 40th Anniversary in 2025.
With show formats ranging from synthpop quartet to full 9 piece band, today the live nucleus includes keyboard player Jack Hymers and saxophonist Eric Animan; the pair were involved in the recent reworks collection ‘China Greatness’ issued on independent label Last Night From Glasgow. It took CHINA CRISIS back into the Top10 of the UK album chart for the first time since 1985.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had a long entertaining chat with Gary Daly over a game of Vintage Synth Trumps about the workings of CHINA CRISIS through the years and much more…
The first card is a Roland SH-3a…
Oh gosh, I know nothing about that AT ALL! I didn’t know it existed!
It is a rare one, but I saw a synth that you used from the Roland family on your solo album ‘Gone From Here’, the RS-202 String Machine…
That belongs to my friend Chris Barlow from Manchester, he would have brought that to the session and known his way around it. It was great, we had David Berger who was the engineer and also the drummer in a band called OUTFIT, he’s Swiss-French and lives in Liverpool.
What we were trying to do was recreate the Bowie / Fripp / Eno thing. So David would be engineering and sort of messing the sound as we went along, then Chris who knew the equipment inside out and there was me trying to come up with the lines and melodies to the song. It was a lovely way of working, it was very productive because we knew what headspace we were in, so it was “let him get on with this, you get on with that and I get on with this”, it really does free you up if you work as a team with synthesizers.
You said a few years ago that one of the early influences on CHINA CRISIS was MAGAZINE and their keyboardist Dave Formula had a Roland RS-505 which superseded theRS-202…
I would have seen Dave playing it! I would have seen them a lot… I originally saw them at the De Montford Hall, then The Empire. It was always with John McGeoch on guitar, Barry Adamson on bass, I thought they were amazing, there was something about them. I’ve just got the MAGAZINE boxed set for Christmas.
I’d listened to a lot of prog rock and my favourite ones were the keyboard-based bands like YES… although they are not considered “a keyboard band”, I consider them a keyboard band because of Rick Wakeman. I liked ELP and even HAWKWIND as they were a bit sonically synthesized. So when I moved to new wave, that’s what helped because there was the likes of MAGAZINE who were a bit rocky and a bit proggy, but it was new enough for me to go “oh, that’s not what I’ve been listening to, it’s almost punk”.
Around that time, everyone was using synths differently. There was SIMPLE MINDS’ Mick MacNeil, Vini Reilly in THE DURUTTI COLUMN along his guitars, OMD, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, HEAVEN 17, all these people I suspect had no formal training and were all self-taught, inspired by KRAFTWERK and all of that. It became that we could do it as well.
It’s interesting to look back now that all these groups were lumped in together as “synthesizer bands” but who all sounded so different, which perhaps isn’t so much the case now… so you’ve mentioned John McGeoch, Dave Formula and Barry Adamson, so did you like VISAGE?
I did, I bought the records when they came out and I was so excited about it. But I was originally put off for a little bit by the New Romantic thing, I didn’t really like seeing members of MAGAZINE in there, I wanted them to be completely MAGAZINE…
So you wanted them to do another ‘Sweetheart Contact’! *laughs*
Oh my god, absolutely!
What about Midge Ure and Steve Strange’s involvement in VISAGE?
I wasn’t too keen on Midge Ure at the time, only because he seemed a gun for hire, I knew of SLIK and RICH KIDS so I was like “What the hell?”; Midge was a bit of a “Mexican flea”, jumping from one act to another… obviously Midge is amazing and the sound of VISAGE.
D’ya know what? We actually met Steve Strange about 12 years ago, we did this gig with him at the O2 and he had to share a dressing room with us! We had a few people in the band then who were quite badly behaved with various stimulants and what not! And that poor guy Steve is trying to recover from all manner of addictions and our band are bouncing off the walls before even going on stage! *laughs*
Steve seemed really lovely, I wish I’d met him before and it would have been nice to chat, we did a tribute gig to him in Port Talbot with all these friends of his after he’d passed. He was like one of those little figures, there he was in the video to ‘Ashes To Ashes’, that was an amazing song and put Bowie totally in the ball park of new wave. But the fact that Steve was there walking on the beach with him in that weird video effect, it made you think “oh, he’s not just a Blitz Kid”!
The thing is, in the North, we had a very negative view of that whole New Romantic thing, we thought “why would you do that in front of your music?” without realising you could do anything. We weren’t brought up in families like that where you were encouraged to be as individual as possible or to express yourself as much as you want, with synthesizers or without. Ours was big working class families, Eddie was one of 10, I was one of 8! EVERYONE went to work, the fact that me and Ed ditched our jobs at 17 was AN OUTRAGE because everyone went to work, but we stayed at home and tried to come up with these songs all that time.
Another card, this one is the Roland Jupiter 6…
Oh, that I don’t know! I’ve had two Jupiter 8s, one I owned twice in that I sold it and then bought it back and sold it!
The Korg Polysix was your first polyphonic synth but was it a bit of a revelation once you upgraded to a Jupiter 8?
The Jupiter 8 is my favourite synth, I would kill to have one of those again. Mark Phythian who mixed the last couple of CHINA CRISIS albums and my solo album, he was our tea boy during ‘Working With Fire & Steel’ and then goes on to win 3 Grammys! These are in his studio room at his terrace house in Liverpool where he’s got a Jupiter 8 but his isn’t working, it’s faulty… that instrument, the big thing about it was we could sequence it with the drum machine. So we could trigger it. You could imagine, all of a sudden, I was arpeggiating all the basslines in different kind of ways, it sounded very convincing, that we knew what we were doing but really, we weren’t! *laughs*
So was the sequencing at the start of the ‘Working With Fire & Steel’ song, was that done by triggering the Jupiter?
Possibly, it sounds like it would have… I think that wasn’t me sequencing that, the producer Mike Howlett did that later, triggering it via the gate through the desk, I think he might have done it like that.
You’d mentioned Mark Phythian and his Grammys, but you’ve had a habit of working with young producers who go onto big things, like Gil Norton who did half of your first album?
He was our original engineer who would have introduced us to the 8 track at Amazon Studios in Kirkby and then to the 16 track. Working with Gil was so enlightening and fantastic. For all our inexperience, Gil would set the desk up and he knew we’d been working with the Portastudio for a few years, so we knew about slowing tape down, speeding it up, turning it over, reversing it, what you could do with delays, how you could stereo them… so Gil would be more than happy to have us go in with the bare pickings of a tune like the 4 tracks of our Portastudio and spend the whole day coming up with stuff. That doesn’t happen like that, so he was happy to set it up and let us get on with it while he went to have a cup of tea. Then he’s come back in, see what we’d been doing and get it to tape.
With the Portastudio, because you only had 4 tracks, you had to make decisions about what to keep and what to lose and what to bounce. So when we got onto the 8 track and then the 16 track, we knew how to do that with Gil. The great thing with Gil was that he taught us; so if he said we should bounce this with that, then it freed up another 4 tracks. So that meant you had to commit to the sound you were making, because it was going to be there at the finished mix. So by the time you go to the end of your recording, there was very little that you had to do because you had been doing it as you went along.
It was funny how Gil became so successful, working with bands like THE PIXIES and FOO FIGHTERS, I was like, that’s not the Gil I knew, the Gil I knew was very unassuming and I don’t remember him wanting an amazing career, it was like he was happy just to be in Kirkby and doing what we were doing. The clientele that came in ranged from SAD CAFÉ to Ken Dodd to ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, that was the centre of our universe really. We only went away because we were in a band and working with other producers, but I always thought Gil would stay there and become the chief guy.
So Gil co-produced the second “Entertainment” side of ‘Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms’, had that been the intention to keep it 8 track, because the impression I get from reading between the lines was that the more sophisticated “Difficult” first side and particularly the sessions produced by Steve Levine weren’t that smooth?
No, it wasn’t great at all… it was great working with Steve, he’s lovely guy but we felt like he was… what we heard coming out of the speakers, we weren’t entirely happy with really. He was sort of getting a bit too involved, he was playing us too many of his ideas and committing them to tape… we were like “What are you doing? That’s not your job! This is OUR track and this is OUR job!”
He was committed to recording the rest of the album, so me and Ed walked out a bit unawares that he’d been booked to the whole album and a contract had been signed, that’s money and people’s wages and everything! And we’re just going “Oh, we’ve tried a couple of weekends with him, we don’t like him, we’ll do it ourselves! See ya!”, Virgin must have thought “WHO THE F*CK ARE THESE KIDS? WALKING ON STEVE LEVINE, WALKING OUT ON PETE WALSH?” *laughs*
What happened was, we OK’ed him to mix what we’d done with him, so three tracks, one was a version of ‘No Ordinary Lover’ which we went “no, that’s not happening”! The other two ‘Seven Sports For All’ and ‘Feel To Be Driven Away’, we thought “oh they are quite good actually, he’s done a great job there”; and I think had he done it all, it most probably would have been a very successful record actually! *laughs*
Having said that, my experience of working with Pete Walsh and the three tracks he did (he did four but one didn’t make it), I thought he was the best on that record, he could have done it all, it would have been an incredible record. Oh, you want to see the track sheets for ‘Christian’, there’s nothing on it, there’s literally NOTHING on it, and that’s him! Pete, he knew! He was so great!
They’re all great these producers, honest to god, every one of them know their job… ok Steve overstepped it a little bit but only a little bit, they all of them kept exactly what we’d done of the demos and then elaborated on them or supplemented or replaced, but they all did it in such a way where they were like “whatever these guys played to the record company, they must have liked it, we’ve got to keep that ingredient”.
Even when Walter Becker was like “Gary, you can’t play… not the kind of playing I know”, he still made sure that he got every single thing I’d done on the demo onto the tracks before we worked with anybody else. They were all like that. With Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, even though by then we had Brian McNeill on keyboards, he wouldn’t have played on my demos for ‘Arizona Sky’ or the tracks off ‘What Price Paradise’. So when we went in, I would have done mine little bits and Brian would have recreated them. It’s a great thing that method of production, holding onto the essential thing. I suspect they didn’t do that with FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD*laughs*
The next card is a Roland SH-101…
Ah yes! I would have worked with that, I can’t quite remember on what, but we would have had one, although not for long. Gazza most probably would have had something to do with that. I didn’t like it when they started doing like faders and quality of the plastic casing felt a bit… it wasn’t as robust as the SH-09 or the Yamaha CS-10 which were solid little things that had a weightiness to them. The SH-101, that could almost be “oh, we did this on a 3D printer!” *laughs*
I remember in your second Smash Hits interview that you’d said you felt sort of obliged to keep up with the technology and were buying lots of equipment but then regretted it, did you ever feel the pressure as a band to keep up technologically?
No, because by the time Brian McNeill had taken over on keys, it was him who was in charge of whatever we needed and I just had what I had at home to do my demos on. Brian had a rack mount of DX-7s, about 9 or 10 of them, he would have used them on CHINA CRISIS for brass and this and that, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near that. Sequencers, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near them, anything that was digitally programmed, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near it.
If I worked on the DX-7 which I had and the DX-7 II, say I went into the algorithm, I didn’t know what I was doing so then I would say to Gazza to teach me how to save stuff, he understood it a bit more. I was one of those guys who when I got something out of the box, I discarded the manual whereas Gazza and Brian didn’t, they would sit and get their heads around it. I was always intuitive, as in I liked to get involved and hear it and feel it, as opposed to read how to do it. I’ve never read how to do anything, I left school and I wasn’t entered for any exams at all because my thing was not to open the book.
Another card, it’s the MicroMoog… did you ever own a Moog?
No, but Brian did, he’s got the proper Minimoogs. This was when they started making them more plastic. We did have a Moog in Amazon, it was the one Gary Numan used…
Oh, the Polymoog?
Yes, it was beautiful. It was in the studio and it wasn’t ours but when we went in, we always used that, it was fantastic. It was warm and rich, I saw Gary Numan with it and I was like “YEAH! THIS IS IT!”
What have you been listening to lately?
I’ve just been listening to some old live tapes, CHINA CRISIS live in the USA, OH MY GOD! F*CKING HELL! It’s such a rubbish recording, it even has all the tech credits at the end, y’know “A Star Systems production by Ray Skidberry, mix engineer Kevin Clark…”, but it sounds like dogsh*t! It hasn’t been mixed at all! But it’s always interesting hearing a little bit of them *laughs*
Something much better I’ve also been listening to is this ‘Shanghai’ 12 inch single by Albert Au released on EMI Hong Kong, the B-side of this is ‘Black Man Ray’ in Cantonese; it’s lovely y’know, in the middle he uses steel drums… we got it at the time, it’s so fun. Everywhere I go, if I come across a record shop, I always go in it… the other day at a gaff that had a café near where we were playing, I got the ‘Black Man Ray’ 12” for a fiver… ok, I HAVE obviously got it but you can never have too many copies of ‘Black Man Ray’ *laughs*
Next card is the Oberheim OB-Xa, was that a synth you worked with?
That’s the ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ era, I really don’t know how we ended up with it. It might have been something to do with SIMPLE MINDS and Mick MacNeil. I remember for the life of us that we couldn’t get to grips with it, not like we did with the Poly 6, the Jupiter 8, the SH09 and the Yamaha CS10, they were magic really, I completely got engrossed with them.
The Oberheim’s sounds were incredibly rich but it wasn’t completely user friendly, it didn’t have that arpeggio thing which the Jupiter8 had, which was gold for me… I wasn’t a musician as such so even up to ‘Arizona Sky’ and stuff, I was still using drum machine to trigger the arpeggiator and then use the echo unit to get that wondering motoring kind of sequencer effects.
The Oberheim would have been the melody line on ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’, Walker Becker would get me and Eddie to all the parts we’d done on the demos with all the sounds we’d used, then that would be it and Nick Magnus would be involved to bring in chords and getting sounds quickly. We weren’t like that at all, our approach was a lot more organic and painstaking. And then… it fell out the back of a van outside The Ritz in Manchester!! *roars of laughter*
That was in 1989, ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE to get the f*cking insurance on it!!! We were touring ‘Diary Of A Hollow Horse’, things were tight and management had sort of hinted “do you really need that? We don’t need it, could it fall out of the lorry!”… Hahahahaha! I WASN’T personally involved in that deviation but what a mental thing to do! Smash a synth to get the money! It shows you where we were at, mentally with each other, with the record company, with management, everything was just going *******!!!
But that’s the kind of band we were! You’ve got to remember me and Eddie were from Kirkby, we’d grown up in big families and all our friends, nobody had anything and you wouldn’t be completely light fingered but you’d by hook or by crook, you’d make stuff happen, do you know what I mean? Amazon Studios, me and Eddie would bunk in through the window in the night with our Portastudio and mic to record the piano! Out of necessity, you would!
You recently got back into the album charts with ‘China Greatness’, what was it like revisiting the back catalogue to select inclusions, particular the “lost” jewel ‘It’s Never Too Late’?
Once we saw people doing that orchestrations thing like OMD at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, people were coming up to us and saying “your music could be amazing like that” but we were like “yeah, it would but it’s never gonna happen!”. So we were of a mind and what happened was a guy Steve Hammonds who was in charge of all the CHINA CRISIS deluxe editions, I said to him “if I wanted to get hold of our masters, could you get them for us to work on?” and he got back to me and said “yes, tell us what do you want”.
So me and Eddie chose 7 songs each, we wanted ones we really liked and we had to include some of the singles. It took 3 days to send the files because they were so big and hi-res. I went through these with Dave Berger who worked on my solo album and you’ve got to remember I’ve not heard these since we recorded them and it WAS a moment. Then we gave Jack carte blanche to do whatever he wanted. We tried to use the strings from our 40th Anniversary concert because we’d recorded them but had to replace them because they were out of tune which always happens when it’s a live thing. So Eric transcribed the new brass parts that Jack had done. ‘China Greatness’ is literally all Jack’s and Mark Phythian’s work. We might have made a couple of suggestions but not much at all.
So had ‘It’s Never Too Late’ always been preying on your mind, that it was shelved for ‘Working With Fire & Steel’ and then when it finally came out, it was tucked away on the bonus 12” of ‘Black Man Ray’ so wasn’t really heard by many people, even fans?
That was just bad management really… I wrote that song on guitar and possibly one of the first songs I ever wrote on guitar because I couldn’t play guitar. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, I thought it was a little bit wet but it’s quite lovely really, I think it is a bit special in a pop way, it’s got that thing of what CHINA CRISIS had. We had all these lovely melodies and lines that would introduce the song like on ‘Wishful Thinking’, every one of our songs (almost) has an introductory line that catches your attention doesn’t it? Same with ‘It’s Never Too Late’.
Yes, it was us who made the decision to drop it, but someone should have took us to one side and said “That song is very much like the song we think will be the big single off the album, we should really keep hold of that because you are going to want a follow-up”! But we f*cking followed it up with ‘Hanna Hanna’ that was NOTHING like ‘Wishful Thinking’ and people were listening going “we don’t even know what group that is, you don’t sound like that other song, different singer, different everything!”
I remember ‘It’s Never Too Late’ was never even on the sleeve tracklisting or the label of the ‘Black Man Ray’ bonus 12”, there was just this sticker. I remember when I heard it, I thought it was a great song but to be fair, I can understand why it wasn’t included on the ‘Working With Fire & Steel’ album…
Yeah, because some of the songs already on the album like ‘Here Come A Raincloud’ and ‘The Soul Awakening’ were more what we wanted to be… ‘The Soul Awakening’ to me was like ‘Julie With…’ from ‘Before & After Science’ by Brian Eno, we were trying to be bit like that. ‘Here Come A Raincloud’ was beautiful, it was a reaction what was going on, the strikes, the miners, a lot of unemployment and stuff that wasn’t great. We were going home to that from our lovely lives in the Roosevelt Hotel in LA with Iggy Pop in the swimming pool, then all of a sudden in Kirkby, all the factories are closing down, the police are battling with miners, oh my god! So ‘Here Come A Raincloud’ when you hear it on the John Peel session, I’d written it on bass guitar…
That ties in nicely with my next question as there’s ‘The Complete Sessions 1982-1983’ which features CHINA CRISIS recordings for the John Peel show and released by Last Night From Glasgow… this isn’t doing down the album version but I actually feel the John Peel session recording of ‘Here Come A Raincloud’ is better, the overdriven drum machine just gives it that extra eerie tension which fits the lyrics…
Yeah…
…the John Peel version of ‘This Occupation’ is particularly interesting because it’s full-on synthpop! What’s the drum machine you are using?
That’s a Roland TR808 triggering the bass synth, it was us trying to get a bit A CERTAIN RATIO and ABC, it was all getting a bit funky and we were quite keen on doing that because we loved Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’ and that kind of thing… the fact were doing it all with synths was what we were involved with, that was just a natural thing to happen. But lots of people were making a racket then like CABARET VOLTAIRE and all these people, I can remember listening to all that thinking they were great with the solidity of what they were doing, it was forceful and solid with great sounds, but they lacked songs and melody.
We were so involved with melody and when we were out on the road, we would have mixtapes that would have everyone on it, songs like ‘Wichita Lineman’ to THE BEE GEES to Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, all these great songs… we didn’t have any snobbery in our band, there’s so much music out there.
You sent me a photo of your Boss Doctor Rhythm drum machine, was that a bit of a revelation when you got that?
Yeah, ‘African & White’, we wrote that around that drum machine. We didn’t know how to programme it so we were just hitting stuff and pressing play. One morning we pressed play and it did this “tsk-tsk-tsk, tsk-tsk” and straight away I picked up the bass and did that “boom-boom-boom-boom, boom”, its f*cking Motown, all the music we’d grown up with! Then Eddie did that echoing guitar sound, although he never replicates that live and I don’t sing it the octave down with the high octave… I often think, we should be trying to do it to see if people will respond. It’s difficult because music mutates over time, especially live.
Talking of live, 2025 sees the 40th Anniversary of ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’…
What, Walter Becker’s debut solo album? *laughs*
What are you favourite memories of making this record?
I must admit, the actual making of it, I had such a lovely time and my roles had changed so much. What you have to remember is we’d done two albums, we’d had chart success, Top10, we’d lived and toured, stuff like that… so we were really not wanting to see each other again. Eddie and Gazza were working together, I was working on my own. That only lasted a few weeks but it would have felt like a long time. But we’d written ‘Black Man Ray’, ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’ and stuff, y’know…
Once Walter was involved, I was neither here nor there… I was resigned to the fact that I was in “a band” now, it’s not me and Eddie anymore with Gazza, Kevin and Walter being this incredible rhythm section, making what me and Ed had done really sound amazing. But at the same time, I was still “this isn’t how I’d have it” but I was happy to go along with it. That’s why it’s not my favourite CHINA CRISIS album, it’s like my third favourite but I’m not even sure it’s that! *laughs*
But it was such a happy time for us because Kevin rejoined the band, Walter so lovely and really enjoyed being with us… I think we reminded him of STEELY DAN when they had Skunk Baxter and all these people in, having success with ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ so he slotted right in.
I had such a great time singing for him, he thought my lyrics were genius and he’s actually in print saying that, he thought ‘Black Man Ray’ was like THE BEATLES… I was just stoned all the time and he was very happy for me to be like that. We’d sing in the evening and it was very meticulous, lots of tracking and lots of takes but I was just having a laugh. So when he was telling me to do things and repeatedly do it, I was like yeah, not a problem. And when they were comping and all that, I could have a smoke and then come back in *laughs*
It really was a great time for us, so I have very fond memories of the album even though I don’t think it’s the best album. I can see WHY people think it’s the best album because it’s got that sonic thing to it, a cohesion that makes it. But I’m of a mind that if you really want to hear CHINA CRISIS and US playing and US performing, then that’s ‘Working With Fire & Steel’. That’s because that is me and Ed, Gazza and Kev have just joined us, there’s no session keyboard players, everything you hear is me with a bit of Ed. But I do think ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ is like Walter’s solo album but we were the writers for it and he used our band but with his ideas *laughs*
With the Flaunt The Imperfection’ tour, it was like you were finally enjoying playing live for first time because I’d seen you at the London Lyceum in 1983 and you weren’t very good then…
Yeah, there was no stage presence and no stage craft in 1983, because we weren’t particularly interested in that. I certainly didn’t want to stand up in front of people, there was a lot of pressure on us to become a band. Everyone else was enjoying being in a band but I wanted be at home with my Portastudio and Jupiter 8, I was generally the only one who ever turned up for albums with a finished demo. I might get Eddie or Gazza round to do a bit but mostly everyone was happy to just elevate the band thing.
My favourite CHINA CRISIS album is ‘Working With Fire & Steel’, I do like ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ but it is music of its time which was more Americanised, more FM radio-friendly with more live playing… but the album of yours which despite its highlights that I’ve never got on with as a whole is ‘What Price Paradise’…
What happened with ‘What Price Paradise’ was we got a residential rehearsal place and then made the songs. Y’know, I can’t stand the sound of that album… quintessentially the drums were the wrong sound and they were used for all of it. I was like, you can’t fix it if you’ve used it for all of it! Again, we got into a position where it’s moving at such a pace, it wasn’t me and Eddie anymore and more so once we’d got to ‘What Price Paradise’.
Of course, Brian McNeill had joined as the keyboard player and happy to be involved. So even though I would arrive with ‘Arizona Sky’, it would be completely redone sonic wise. I was resigned to it being “this is the band” and not being about my little demo as great as that sounds… I feel the band went a bit “blokey” on ‘What Price Paradise’…
I’d never thought of it like that before but it makes sense and I’ll try and use an analogy… it’s like those two NEW ORDER albums without Gillian Gilbert, they’re a bit rock and not that good yet when she’s back on ‘Music Complete’, some of the old magic reappears. You know yourself that it’s often the chemistry of the people you have that makes a band successful rather than musicianship or contribution… I seem to remember from reading the deluxe reissue booklet notes you weren’t that keen on the live drummer you had for the ‘Working With Fire & Steel’ tour?
Oh Traxie O’Toole, he went on to do quite well actually and ended up playing for Steve Hackett who was in GENESIS. But for us, he was f*cking shocking man! He just couldn’t help himself, he paid no attention to what Kevin had done or was on the tracks, but he couldn’t restrain himself, he’d be doing proper jazz fills and stuff inappropriately, in the wrong place in the wrong song *laughs*
He sounds like the live drummer that DEPECHE MODE have now! *laughs*
Yeah!
OK, next card is an Octave Cat… you had one and it was supposed to be an ARP Odyssey copy but with knobs instead of sliders, was it ever any good?
Oh yeah! It felt a bit cheapskate, it just wasn’t made very well. We used it on a memorable occasion when we were playing Kirklands in Liverpool 1981 for the release of ‘African & White. We did three Mondays as a kind of residency, first Monday hardly anyone come, second Monday f*cking mobbed, third Monday hardly anyone come. It was me, Ed and Dave Reilly on drums while we had backing tracks on the Portastudio. At one of the gigs I remember, I played a topline on the Cat and managed to detune the oscillator! I couldn’t f*cking get it back so I had to turn the volume off and mimed to look like I was doing something with the actual music everyone was hearing! *laughs*
So not a great synth?
No, I think we gave it away! It didn’t make an appearance on any record! You sort of fall in love with what you are working with which is why guitarists have their favourite guitars. Keyboards have their particular sound.
So there’s a 10th anniversary reissue of ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ as a vinyl LP coming as well which will see it more widely available?
The only reason it’s happening is to get it in the shops so that people around the world can get it. I won’t be keen to make it available for too long, I do like having ownership of that record and I want to retain that really. A lot of those songs originally were me starting my solo album. I convinced Ed that we should send them round to a few people to get a reaction and they all thought it was CHINA CRISIS. I knew nobody was interested in me doing a solo record so that was it. I want the album to get the credit it deserves, the fans absolutely loved it but otherwise, it was like nobody knows about it. Why hasn’t it been reviewed, why hasn’t Mark Phythian won a Grammy for the mix, y’know?
A bouncy little ditty called ‘Everyone You Know’ came from those sessions and was given away free as part of the original Pledge Music crowdfunding campaign, it wasn’t on the CD but was an added bonus on the first vinyl issue of the album, will it remain?
It wasn’t on the original CD because I felt the approach we took on ‘Everyone You Know’ was a bit too poptastic and I was like “Ooooh! Who’s that?” *laughs*
It’s a great song, a Gary and Eddie one because that’s his riff, although I played it. He had that in another tune but he did nothing with it so I started playing it and then the next thing you know, I wrote a song and showed it to Ed, he absolutely loved it.
I made a bit of a mistake, when we put it on the first vinyl, it didn’t seem to fit into the running order. The end of ‘Autumn’ with ‘Wonderful New World’ just seemed correct as its about loss but you’ve got to look forward, it’s beautiful… and then it goes “BANG!” into ‘Everyone You Know’, it’s not f*cking right! So we might think of about maybe changing that running order for this edition. It will be a great one live though, it would suit the CHINA CRISIS synthpop quartet format but it’s a bit of a one that…
2025 also sees you opening for SIMPLE MINDS somewhere in summertime, that’s going to be a nice reunion as they were important early champions of CHINA CRISIS weren’t they? You supported them on the ‘New Gold Dream’ tour…
I’d never seen anything like it. We’d toured with ORANGE JUICE and played little gigs with ALTERED IMAGES and stuff, but when we were with SIMPLE MINDS, they were the hottest f*cking band in the country! Every gig was mobbed, it all had an atmosphere and then the whole place would go mental when they opened with ‘New Gold Dream’! I can imagine for me and Ed, we’re stood there, a couple of nice boys with their nice songs looking at the whole theatre jumping, it was SO electric, it was like F*CKING HELL MAN!
They were so kind to us, they took us on their bus, we stayed in the same hotels and in the US, they were the same… they didn’t have to, they could have insisted we buy onto the tour and we do our own transport. It did help that Bruce Findlay, their manager was about to start managing CHINA CRISIS so he would have told them that we were going to be part of the Schoolhouse Management set-up. But they were like us, working class lads who taught themselves everything they know and we were learning just being with them, experiencing what it was like. They were so self-assured, they’d been doing it for a good while so they were ready and they were great.
It’s a shame about what happened to that line-up of SIMPLE MINDS, oh my god! Mick MacNeil, I’ve never heard a keyboard player like him, the fact that it was all on the Jupiter8 was like WOW! And Derek Forbes, those basslines and Charlie was just like, he was so handsome and his sound was so great, y’know. I originally saw them supporting MAGAZINE at The Empire and then on their own at Eric’s. So me and Ed would have seen them and bought ‘Life In A Day’ and ‘Real To Real Cacophony’. I remember the first song I wrote, I tried to do something like the ‘Life In A Day’ title song.
In 2025, it’s like CHINA CRISIS are playing live everywhere, in the US, Canada, Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, plus dates opening for SIMPLE MINDS and SQUEEZE, how does it feel to be almost busier than back in the day?
I think we’re good at it now, which I don’t think we ever were back then… I mean, if we could have the classic band of Kevin, Gazza and Brain now, we’d be unreal.
We started CHINA CRISIS so we didn’t have to get a job, the jobs they wanted us to have were on an industrial estate or in a factory if you know what I mean. I feel like after 40 years that we’ve made it our job so we are very workman-like, we’re professional about it and we make sure we turn up at the right time, we make sure everybody goes home relatively happy, that kind of thing.
I do love getting to play for people who may never have seen us before. Last year we played Singapore for like only the second time and there’s families there who can’t believe they’ve finally got to see you, their kids listen to your music in the car and on holidays, they’ve come with mum and dad; that’s a really lovely thing, that’s the positive in that we can still do it and still enjoy it. Even when I’m annoyed, I have a laugh, I let the audience know that I’m having to work tonight but guess what? Let’s have a laugh, you have to enjoy your work.
When you’re a creative person, I feel you do need a bit of space, don’t be that person who’s an entertainer for a bit, be another person who plans to go into a studio and plans to get the songs recorded. With it being self-produced and stuff, the amount of energy and effort, you don’t appreciate it when you’re younger but I can tell you ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ was a gargantuan f*cking task of just getting everybody available and everybody paid, all the bills met, keeping the quality control up etc, the level of teamwork you have to inspire in people… you haven’t really got the time and energy for that if you’re out the door every other few days entertaining people. The pro plus is you get to experience it all with everybody and everybody loves it so much including yourselves. We’re a great band at the moment, everybody’s happy and focussed and mostly sober. The only downside is I do feel it encroaches on the creativity being so busy.
It’s funny isn’t it when you’ve achieved so much, even though I don’t think it was a lot… if it was a school report, I would say it was “fair to middling, could have tried harder”. People respond to the hits so much and you’re lucky to have them, but actually it’s a lot of the other songs that I properly enjoy, I really do. Over the last 20 years, me and Ed have not stopped, we’re now in a position where you don’t ever have to stop… if you don’t want to, you can literally carry on. People have connected with us in such a way, they’re quite happy for you to still to keep coming and be around. We were so privileged to be indulged by our families when we were 17-18. And then we were 18-19 when we got signed.
Finally, is there a synth favourite of all time?
That would be the Jupiter 8, that IS ‘Working With Fire & Steel’… the Korg Polysix is ‘Difficult Shapes…’, the DX-7 is ‘Flaunt..’ and Roland D50 was ‘What Price Paradise’, I lose track after that! *laughs*
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Gary Daly
CHINA CRISIS will be performing ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ for its 40th Anniversary throughout 2025 – for information on these and other 2025 live dates in the UK and internationally, please go to https://linktr.ee/chinacrisismusic
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While Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar were being perceived as a teenybop band thanks to the success of ‘Take On Me’, there was always an inherent Nordic gloom lurking within A-HA. Mostly produced by Alan Tarney, the blistering title song was swathed in a chilling melancholy. Then there were the hit singles but while ‘Cry Wolf’ was bouncy pop, there were snarls of frustration present in ‘I’ve Been Losing You’ and ‘Manhattan Skyline’.
ALPHAVILLE were under pressure on their second album ‘Afternoons in Utopia’, especially with the departure of founder member Frank Mertens. Ricky Echolette joined Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd but after the gritty commentary on heroin addiction of ‘Big In Japan’ in 1984, songs like ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Dance With Me’ possessed an anthemic optimism while on ‘Red Rose’, Gold moved from his Robert Smith impersonation into Bryan Ferry territory.
Having flown the ZTT nest, Anne Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan took their Fairlighted musique concrète to China Records and came up with ‘In Visible Silence’. With more variety and more polish, ‘Legs’ was classic AoN while a rework of ‘Peter Gunn’ with Duane Eddy and ‘Paranoimia’ would provide the hits, although the latter’s album version would be without Max Headroom. Although Langan would depart, a high profile collaboration with Tom Jones beckoned…
A quartet comprising of Susan Ottaviano, the unrelated Ted Ottaviano, Jade Lee and Lauren Roselli, BOOK OF LOVE signed to Sire Records and opened for DEPECHE MODE on two US successive tours. Their self-titled debut LP contained lively synthpop tunes such as ‘You Make Me Feel So Good’, ‘Boy’ and ‘I Touch Roses’ but it was a song named after the Italian artist ‘Modigliani’ that had most impact, appearing in an episode of ‘Miami Vice’ and the film ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’.
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Although THE COMMUNARDS, Jimmy Somerville’s venture with future TV vicar Richard Coles was intended to have more traditional musical values, the electronic sound of his previous band BRONSKI BEAT could not be left totally behind. With Mike Thorne still at the production helm, ‘Disenchanted’ crossed ‘Why?’ with ‘Smalltown Boy’ while the spirited Hi-NRG cover of ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ with Sarah-Jane Morris would be the UK’s biggest selling single of 1986.
When Robert Görl and Gabi Delgado reunited in 1985 to record ‘1st Step To Heaven’, they opted not only to stop wearing back but to sing in English. Less aggressive than previous DAF works with a more electronic disco sound, ‘Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi’ quoted from LADY MARMALADE despite being an original while ‘Pure Joy’ was inspired by Prince’s ‘1999’. But best of all was the joyous ‘Brothers’ which celebrated Görl and Delgado’s friendship.
Producer Daniel Miller wanted a dystopian intensity to the fifth DEPECHE MODE album ‘Black Celebration’ and with Gareth Jones acting as Tonmeister, Martin Gore’s increasingly bleaker songs found the perfect sonic backdrop. The 7 track segue from the opening title song to ‘Stripped’ that included ‘Fly On The Windscreen’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Two’ remains DEPECHE MODE’s most outstanding sequence of music.
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As I START COUNTING, Simon Leonard and Dave Baker finally released their longform debut following two impressive Daniel Miller-produced singles ‘Letters To A Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’. Both included on the CD edition of ‘My Translucent Hands’, quirky tracks such as ‘Catch That Look’ and maintained the standard if with less immediacy. The duo would open for Mute label mates ERASURE on their 1987 European tour.
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After two hit albums with Rupert Hine, Howard Jones had Arif Mardin on production duties for ‘One To One’ having been impressed by his work with SCRITTI POLITTI. While still very synth-driven, an array of session musicians on drums, guitars, bass and brass featured for a more sophisticated sound. But ‘Little Bit Of Snow’ found him in reflective mood on the ivories as the singles ‘All I Want’ and ‘You Know I Love You… Don’t You?’ failed to crack the UK Top30.
Coming after the 5 year wait since 1981’s ‘Computer World’ as the world KRAFTWERK anticipated came true, ‘Electric Café’ was something of a disappointment. Distracted by cycling and technology, there were still delights to be found. ‘The Telephone Call’ featuring Karl Bartos on lead vocals was a highlight along with the voice sample-laden ‘Musique Non Stop’ while the ironic ‘Sex Object’ was fun despite the barrage of DX7 presets like a YouTube tutorial…
NEW ORDER were simultaneously about indie guitar rock and electronic disco, although rarely mixing. On their fourth album ‘Brotherhood’, the band’s schizophrenic musical personalities were separated across two sides. The electronic part was headed by ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, but there was also the solemn ‘All Day Long’, the sinister ‘Angel Dust’ and the Lou Reed pastiche ‘Every Little Counts’ with its laughter and unforgettable scratching stylus ending!
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While PET SHOP BOYS debut album wasn’t perfect with ‘Suburbia’ and ‘Violence’ improving in re-recordings, ‘Please’ featured not only ‘West End Girls’ and ‘Love Comes quickly’ but had an array of brilliant track including ‘Two Divided By Zero’ and ‘Tonight Is Forever’. While an ironic observation on the rise of yuppies, the misunderstood ‘Opportunites (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)’ proved to be quite prophetic for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, but who was the brains?
SUICIDE reconfigured for the 21st Century with Giorgio Moroder at the studio helm, behind the hype of cyberpunk combo SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK were some decent tracks even if they all sounded the same! The throbbing drive of ‘Love Missile F1-11’, ‘21st Century Boy’ and ‘Sex-Bomb-Boogie’ provided the fun but the flow was spoiled by novelty effects and samples while there were paid adverts between tracks as an honest statement on commercialism.
Inspired by a London Records A&R muttering “why can’t you make music that you can dance to?” after the avant pop of ‘Change’, SPARKS took inspiration for their lively if underrated 14th album, recorded in Brussels with old pal Dan Lacksman of TELEX engineering. The title song echoed ERASURE’s ‘Oh L’Amour’ while Ron Mael played with bursts of Fairlight and Roland Jupiter 8 on the falsetto soul of ‘Fingertips’ and Russell got to impersonate Gene Pitney on ‘Rosebud’.
The front woman of synthpop act SSQ who had a US dance hit with ‘Synthicide’ in 1983, Stacey Q may have begun as a ‘Shy Girl’ but with its fair number of tunes as good as ‘Two Of Hearts’ like sister song ‘Insecurity’ and the more Jam & Lewis influenced ‘Music Out Of Bounds’, her debut album ‘Better Than Heaven’ is a reminder how fun and carefree pop music once was and should still be. The album remains a collection of wonderfully innocent escapism.
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