Tag: Heaven 17 (Page 12 of 14)

BERENICE SCOTT Interview

31 January 2013 /

Photo by Richard Price

Those who have been to HEAVEN 17’s concert performances over the last 18 months will have noticed a glamorous addition to the band on keyboards.

The lady in question is Berenice Scott, a musician and songwriter with an exotic musical upbringing. The HEAVEN 17 live line-up was expanded to accommodate the wider template of instrumental colours required to perform ‘The Luxury Gap’ as part of a UK tour and as a precursor to the BEF concert extravaganza at The Roundhouse in October 2011.

With the latter featuring guest vocalists as diverse as Sandie Shaw, Midge Ure, Green Gartside, Kim Wilde, Polly Scattergood, Shingai Shoniwa and Boy George, other than musical director Martyn Ware, Miss Scott was the only member of the house band to have been on stage for the entire 23 song set.

Taking in standards like ‘God Only Knows’, ‘It’s Over’, ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ and ‘The Look Of Love’, as well as cult favourites such as ‘Secret Life Of Arabia’ and ‘Make Up’ plus the full HEAVEN 17 set the night before, she showed her prowess in coping with the wide range of keyboard styles required.

Berenice released her first solo album ‘Ten Takes’ in 2007 and has worked on a variety of musical projects including with LEVEL 42’s Phil Gould and 42 associate Wally Badarou while more recently, she undertook a number of solo gigs in support of NOUVELLE VAGUE vocalist Marina Celeste. Following an EP entitled ‘The Outwood Sessions’ last year, she has re-recorded its key track ‘Walls Cave In’ for an upcoming single release. Having just completed the German leg of ‘The Luxury Gap’ tour with HEAVEN 17, Berenice Scott spoke about working with Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware, as well as shedding light on her own musical ambitions…

How did you come to be working with HEAVEN 17?

I was playing the Esbjerg festival in Denmark with JOHNNY HATES JAZZ and HEAVEN 17 were on the bill too. A few months later I was at a party and bumped into Joel Farland – H17’s drummer at the time – and soon after he arranged a meeting for Martyn, Glenn and us as he knew they were looking for a keys player for the BEF weekend. We had a nice chat over coffee in Primrose Hill and it lead from there!

Can you remember your first live performance with Martyn and Glenn?

The first show I played was Tramlines festival in Sheffield. It was a big home crowd and the vibe was mental. Glenn and Martyn have great energy on stage and I remember that once the show started the stage floor was bouncing around all over the place – had to keep a firm eye on the laptop! – was a lot of fun.

As the new girl in the band, they certainly threw you in at the deep end with the BEF Weekender. How was it learning so many songs, especially for the BEF show which of course was a one-off?

Well, we knew in advance there’d be quite a few songs but it wasn’t till I sat down with the setlist to properly get stuck in that my eyes widened a bit haha! I think it was something like 42 songs over the two nights… I enjoyed working with such a wide variety of artists as all the tracks required different approaches in playing and I love that. Slightly stressful at times but worth it!

Which one in particular was the most challenging to perform?

Sandie Shaw’s number ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ was one of my favourites to play as it’s very piano driven. I had to be really locked in with the click and Sandie though as the intro is very naked. Transcribing the solo for ‘Lady Ice & Mr Hex’ was a nice little challenge! Nick Plytas (original keyboard player on the album and ‘Lady Ice…’) certainly gave me something to get my teeth into.

Apart from Martyn, you were the only other musician who was onstage for the entirety of the BEF set? What memories stand out for you about the evening and were there any more nervy moments which you managed to get through ok?

It was cool to see everyone come on and off through the whole show, definitely could have done with taking my heels off a few times though haha! The second to last tune (if I remember rightly) was with Boy George – ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ – and was a blast.

Joel and I had a few hairy moments as some of the track disappeared but it was all good as we knew the parts to cover it. I can picture Boy George now in his pink hat commanding the stage with his fabulous stage presence. The final number was a rendition of ‘Temptation’ of course, everyone came on stage and I’ll never forget that.

You’ve been touring ‘The Luxury Gap’ with HEAVEN 17, how do you think the album stands up nearly 30 years on and which tracks have been your favourites?

It’s full of hits isn’t it?! Easy to see how it stands up when playing it live too, people are so into the tunes and we’ve seen a whole range of ages at the gigs. The test of time is the biggest one don’t you think? And tracks like ‘Crushed By The Wheels of Industry’ and ‘We Live So Fast’ still have such freshness to them. ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain’ is one of my favourites to play live, I think you can hear Martyn and Glenn’s funk influences in them such as Funkadelic and Parliament. ‘The Best Kept Secret’ is a beautiful orchestral landscape, there is such variety within this album, and it’s always nice when an album keeps you on your toes. The recent German tour was fab, very cold but a lot of fun. Didn’t want it to end 🙁

How do you find the more obviously unique electronic material like from the ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ era and the early HUMAN LEAGUE?

‘Being Boiled’ is great to play as well as the more recent addition to the set ‘Crow & A Baby’. The synths are so fat on these tracks and exciting to play, you can’t help but bop away to them. Martyn has a very particular idea of how he wants the synths to sound and it’s been great working with him to get the synths and pads sounding how he wants them to sound.

What’s the live band dynamic like? Is there much debate between you all as to what gets played and what remains sequenced for example? How involved were you in working out the final live arrangements?

I’ll have the set up and running in Logic at rehearsals and Julian Crampton (bass), Al Anderson (drums), Asa Bennett (guitar) and me will run the set through and make sure it’s all sitting right sonically. Martyn and Glenn have the final say, of course! As I mentioned before, they’re very hands on with synth sounds and arrangements and they know how they want things to sound, which is great as it gives the band proper direction.

You use a Roland Fantom G6 and Clavia Nord Stage, how did ese become your keyboards of choice and what are they like to use?

I had a Mark 1 Stage 76 Rhodes and soon after got my Nord Stage 76 as it has – in my opinion – the best piano sound as well as all the other vintage keys sounds. Going out on the road I would take my Nord and M-Audio controller with my laptop running Logic’s Mainstage. I swapped the laptop for my Roland Fantom after being on tour supporting P!NK and checking out her keys player Jason Chapman’s rig, which at the time comprised of Fantoms. They looked so user friendly and I needed a keyboard that would allow me to easily layer sounds when constructing parts, especially for bands like HEAVEN 17.

At home, growing up, I was surrounded by classic synths and keys such as the Fairlight, Minimoog as well as a Bluthner Grand Piano and I do miss having a real piano and analogue synth in my rig but I’ve found a happy medium with my Nord and Fantom. Makes transportation a lot easier too.

Is there a dream instrument you would like to own?

Very happy with what I already have but I suppose a Mark 1 Suitcase Fender Rhodes 88 wouldn’t hurt! I recently tried a Roland GAIA, that’s a cool little board.

Photo by Glenn Gregory

What is your own musical background in terms of training and influences?

I started classical piano and trumpet lessons at 7. I was at a very arts and sports orientated school from 9 years old and I was lucky to have been encouraged musically there. I come from a family rooted in the Pop Muzik industry and I began to gravitate away from writing classical pieces on the piano to structuring pop songs. I wrote my first song at 16 on guitar and wrote on guitar for a few years until eventually switching over to piano as it is such a textually rich instrument. I definitely have a love affair with the piano!

Since then my teaching / college has been old records introduced to me such as THE CRUSADERS, EARTH WIND & FIRE and Herbie Hancock  etc… I have worked heavily with Phil Gould (of LEVEL 42) and sung on two albums for him – ‘Terraforming’ and ‘Watertight’. I always think of that as part of my training; Phil is without doubt one of the classiest drummers in the world and he transfers this rhythm into his songwriting. I learnt so much about phrasing, time signatures and melody through working with him.

There’s two versions of your single ‘Walls Cave In’, the earlier take is quite rocky and you’ve got the voice to match it too while the new version is more of a ballad. Were the two different approaches a result of your eclectic tastes?

Yes definitely… that’s a good way of describing it. I wanted to do a softer version as I feel like the song has two sides. The sentiment is quite painful and tinged with anger but it also has soft undertones which I wanted to put across in the less rocky version.

Who have you been working with on the album and how would you describe it?

It’s been a dream to work with all my favourite musicians this time around! My first album ‘Ten Takes’ was very in-the-box and a totally different experience as I played and programmed everything myself which is what I wanted to do at the time.

This time I’ve collaborated with musicians whom I’ve either known for a long time such as Alex Gould – drums (Jazz multi-instrumentalist and son of LEVEL 42 drummer Phil Gould) Andy Tolman – bass (Ben E King, Patrice Rushen), Ed Sethardwright – guitar/songwriting (co-writer of previous EP ‘The Outwood Sessions’) and musicians I’ve met through my session work over the past few years. These include Alex Reeves – drums (Johnny Hates Jazz, Dizzee Rascal), Derrick McIntyre – bass (Jamiroquai, Patricia Kass), Lily Gonzalez – percussion (ABC, Belinda Carlisle), and Ben Lyonsmyth – bass/songwriting (Olly Murs, Amy McDonald).

How would you like your music career to develop from here? Your hopes and fears for the future?

More of the same and continuing to play live with awesome artists would be nice. As long as I’m playing and writing I’m happy.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Berenice Scott

https://berenicescott.com/

https://twitter.com/berenicescott

https://www.facebook.com/berenicescott

https://www.instagram.com/berenicescott/

http://www.heaven17.com/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
31st January 2013

HEAVEN 17 The Luxury Gap Live

5 November 2012 /

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)

http://www.heaven17.com

https://www.facebook.com/heaven17official

Text by Chi Ming Lai
5th November 2012

HEAVEN 17 Interview

23 September 2012 /

HEAVEN 17 will be touring their platinum selling second album ‘The Luxury Gap’ this Autumn.

Featuring their classic hits ‘Come Live With Me’, ‘Let Me Go’, ‘Crushed By The Wheels of Industry’ and ‘Temptation’, the album’s resonant social commentary is wholly fitting in the current economic climate. Back in 1983 when the album was released, Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh flew the red flag for the Socialist Republic of Yorkshire with their witty observations of the greed and yuppie culture in the Thatcher era.

Perhaps more obviously pop oriented than its predecessor ‘Penthouse and Pavement’, ‘The Luxury Gap’ had a glossy sheen which combined synthesizer programming and digital drum computers with orchestrations, brass, jazz piano, rhythm guitar and paving slabs.

Glenn Gregory, who had been working as a photographer in London, was recruited into HEAVEN 17 following the split of THE HUMAN LEAGUE Mk1 in 1980. While Phil Oakey found two girls “in a cocktail bar”, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh formed BRITISH ELECTRIC FOUNDATION (BEF), a production company along the lines of THE CHIC ORGANISATION to best utilise their talents.

Among their first projects were the instrumental ‘Music For Stowaways’ cassette and the ambitious covers album ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction Vol 1’. Although he was partly involved in both, Gregory became lead singer for what was to be BEF’s pop outfit, influenced by the soul funk fusion of THE JACKSONS as well as the electronic music technology that had now become more affordable and user friendly.

‘Penthouse and Pavement’ was a critical success with steadily increasing sales but with the mainstream appeal of ‘The Luxury Gap’, HEAVEN 17 eventually took priority over BEF.

Photo by Gered Mankowitz

The period between 1981-84 is often considered to be HEAVEN 17’s imperial phase but during this period, they didn’t actually perform live, save a few live vocal / playback appearances in clubs for promotional purposes.

Having successfully toured ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ in 2010 to great acclaim, it is now the turn of ‘The Luxury Gap’.

Glenn Gregory spoke about this classic album and also why HEAVEN 17 keep performing songs from the early phase of THE HUMAN LEAGUE like ‘Being Boiled’ and ‘The Black Hit Of Space’ in their live set…

There’s a 2CD/DVD box set of ‘The Luxury Gap’ about to be released– what can fans expect in terms of rarities?

We’ve dug around and there’s three tracks from ‘Night Of The Proms’ we’ve put on. That’s amazing because it’s a full orchestra and 75 piece choir. There are the extended remixes BUT we did forget to include the original demo of ‘Temptation’!!! *laughs*

That’s a shame because moving from that KRAFTWERK meets SOFT CELL demo to the electro-soul fusion…that’s quite a transformation?

Yes, quite a lot of our early demos were much more electronic and we were writing with similar equipment to THE HUMAN LEAGUE. It’s only afterwards when we went into the studio that we started to experiment and change the way we were conceiving and perceiving the songs.

For instance, it took us a long time to find a girl for ‘Temptation’. Martyn had the idea for the Motown backbeat but it’s still very electronic really… there was this part that built and we decided to try an orchestra. So we were in the studio with this massive orchestra and it was like “oh my god”, it was amazing because it was so different. It was a complete game changer.

Rusty Egan found us Carol Kenyon; we tried a couple of people including Josie James who sang on ‘Penthouse & Pavement’, but she was too soft, it wasn’t ballsy enough. So I phoned him up and explained what we needed and he went: “I GOT JUST THE GIRL FOR YA GLENN, COME DOWN THE WAG CLUB!” so that was it! He introduced us to Carol so big thanks to Rusty on that one *laughs*

What inspired ‘Come Live With Me’?

I was at that time I wrote it, seeing a young girl and I was getting a few jibes like “what time do you pick her up from school?”…it was half past three actually! *laughs*

So there was this “she’s half your age” thing and all that kind of stuff but it started to be about word play. “I was thirty seven – you were seventeen – you were half my age – the youth I’d never seen”… the words were making us laugh! It was all messing around! That’s where it all came from and we were quite surprised we’d written quite a beautiful song by the end of it because we were laughing like mad.

We did this cancer charity gig with John Shuttleworth at the Bloomsbury Theatre and there was a version of one of his comedy songs ‘Dandelion of Burdock’ which I did in the style of ‘Vienna’… it was a showstopper! But we did ‘Come Live With Me’ as well and John  was on with us… as the lyrics went: “I was thirty seven – you were seventeen”, he replied: “Well, I don’t know if I approve of that!” That was fun. *laughs*

Photo by Tracey Welch

You and Martyn have always maintained that ‘Let Me Go’ is your favourite H17 song. It had that TB303 Bassline which was very innovative at the time…

It changed so much from the demo and we wrote it in my flat on a TEAC 4 track. We had a tiny Yamaha keyboard and we came up with that melody which was almost film soundtracky. It was beautiful but as the song steadily got bigger, it went through a whole heap of changes. But we kept the TB303 Bassline.  It needed some balls so we put bass guitar on it but it didn’t work. Then we added these low piano notes like ‘Vienna’ and that didn’t work!

But then Martyn made this “wowww” sound on the Jupiter 8 with the delay, that was great and the start of it with the drums, that was me actually playing real drums. We got these toms in and I did this big Phil Collins fill. I did it twice and they all went “yeah, that’s brilliant” but I went “I wanna do it more! I’m enjoying this!”

When we finished ‘Let Me Go’, we realised we’d lost the original beauty of the demo so we did it again… so basically, ‘The Best Kept Secret’ is ‘Let Me Go’ but redone with an orchestra. So we got two songs out of it. It took a lot out of us but it gave us so much more back. We really do love that track, it’s a great song to sing. It’s very emotional and it’s great for my range, I can really belt it out. It gives a lot back that song.

You’ve talked about seeing ULTRAVOX play The Roundhouse and how vibrant the show was – did you draw inspiration from that when you put together the HEAVEN 17 / BEF weekend and debuted ‘The Luxury Gap’ live there?

Yes, that is absolutely true… Midge invited me and Martyn down. I had never actually been to The Roundhouse before and I went not knowing what to expect from a revamped ULTRAVOX or The Roundhouse and how the sound would be. But I was absolutely blown away by the artistry and sincerity of ULTRAVOX and the audience were amazing. They didn’t milk anything or act like ‘comeback kids’… to me, it was like watching THE KILLERS! I thought “this is an amazing place”, it was like a happening. I felt privileged to be there and that’s what put the idea in my head. And then Peter Price at William Morris Agency suggested doing the weekender with BEF thing which Midge loved the idea of.

Photo by Gered Mankowitz

That weekend must have been quite tricky to co-ordinate with all those high profile artists making an appearance?

That was just so much work to pull all that together. We got people to say yes and to turn up at odd times for rehearsals. But we hadn’t really thought about the night itself. So there was all these people singing and we realised we’d need a stage manager! So Martyn got this mate who worked at the Royal Opera House who does that. She made the backstage bit run really smoothly. At the end of the weekend, I needed four nights off!

Any tense moments for you or did you just let Martyn sweat it out alone?

Yeah, I was just helping it run smoothly and telling everyone they were going to be alright! *laughs*

What are you singing on the new BEF ‘Dark’ album incidentally?

I’m singing ‘It Was A Very Good Year’ which was made famous by Frank  Sinatra. Martyn has scored it, but using just System 100 and synths so it’s really odd and weird. He’s done a really good job of it. It’s slow and lumbering but quite obviously, dark as well *laughs*

So what’s the format for the upcoming tour – you’ll be playing ‘The Luxury Gap’ again – can we expect any surprises… more HUMAN LEAGUE songs?

It’s funny because it’s me that pushes that HUMAN LEAGUE thing and I love that early stuff. I was a massive fan even though I knew them all. I must confess that yes, I have programmed up a few more things already… I’ve been on at Phil Oakey every time I see him saying: “Please Phil; you, Martyn and Ian… go and do the first two albums, just do it once”. But he won’t have it! I would have my ticket and be at the front weeks in advance…

You and Claudia Brücken were in The Independent recently about how you both met and she’s was saying you should do new material…is there a chance of a new HEAVEN 17 album – how are the odds looking today with regards to going back into the studio?

We’ve got to take a different view of it and have a different head on… it’s partly me, and Martyn as well. We could easily write a couple of tracks, sing them and put them out…that’s fine but there’s something in us that thinks “if we’re going to do it, we would want to do it really well” and that might mean using an orchestra or working with other people. It’s going to take more effort. BUT it doesn’t have to be that, we could just do it. For instance, I did the track for John Shuttleworth in about 3-4 days and it’s sounded great, Martyn said it was “awesome”…and I was just messing about really! I’m kind of coming round – Claudia’s winning I think… she’s always going on at me *laughs*

How was performing with Claudia Brücken at The Scala and Bush Hall?

It was great, Claudia and I just keep ending up working together. It’s always an absolute pleasure. She’s a lovely person and we get on well. I take the p*ss out of her because she’s German and she doesn’t understand so it’s great for me. *laughs*

You did ‘When Your Heart Runs Out of Time’ live with her. The original recording you did for ZTT was produced by Midge Ure under the alias Otto Flake Junior, have you any interesting memories of that?

The hilarity of that is, for this German TV documentary Midge and I did, I invited Claudia down to the studio so that we could do ‘When Your Heart Runs Out of Time’. So Midge said: “ok, can you send it to me?”. So I sent it to him and we were talking…he did not remember doing it!! He has no memory of it at all! Claudia was saying “Midge, we were in your studio!”; “Which studio?” Midge replied… Claudia goes: “In Chiswick” ! He had no idea, it was hilarious! *laughs*

Paul Morley got the gig for the ‘Insignificance’ film and had the idea of putting me and Claudia together to do this Country and Western track written by Will Jennings. It’s at the end of the film, it was just a very funny thing to do. The video for it was hilarious; Paul said “The premiere’s tonight in Haymarket, why don’t we get Claudia in a white dress all Marilyn Munroe-esque, you get your suit on and we just film you lip-synching to the song as people are leaving”.

Claudia was going: “Oh Paul, I cannot do that!”… so I gave Claudia some vodka! And gave her some more! So people would literally have just come out of the cinema as we were performing it! If you look at it on the video, I’ve got hold of her wrist really tightly, it looks like a love thing but it’s not, it’s to stop her running away! *laughs*

So this ‘Durch Die Nacht (Into the Night)’ documentary for German TV with Midge Ure…how did that come about? It looked a fun night!

It was a lot of fun, Hasko Baumann, the director, contacted Midge about it. The concept is they arrive at your house and follow you… they don’t say anything or interfere. When I read about it in the email, I thought: “What? How does that work?” So there’s two crews, one with you and one on location plus cameras in the car. They just put two people together, film them and make an hour programme out of it. We filmed from 5.30pm until 12.45am constantly with me and Midge ranting about the state of play! *laughs*

Midge was also on the first BEF album as part of THE NANCY BOYS doing backing vocals on the Paula Yates sung track ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’…

…yes, it was me, Martyn, Midge and Bob Geldof… THE NANCY BOYS! *laughs*

You also did backing vocals on ‘The Gift’ track ‘Antilles’ and you co-wrote ‘Personal Heaven’ with Midge for X-PERIENCE which was a hit in Germany. Any chance of you doing you more work with him?

Yeah, it’s funny, I said that to him the other day. We get on really well and we’re good friends. When he came round, I was playing ‘Wild Is The Wind’ on guitar and he said he loved it, we like the same things. So I said “You know what? We should just do something together”. Instead of half a day’s work, we should really consider doing something together… I think people would be interested. It’s never really occurred to us, we’re just friends outside of music really.

I’ll tell you a funny story about Midge… I was in Cornwall with my wife and parents. We were sitting in this bar and this girl walks past with a small girl and a guy; I thought “that looks like Sheridan (Midge’s wife) and that could be Midge… hang on, it is Midge!!”. So I shouted “MIDGE!” but he just ignored me! So I thought: “that can’t be Midge” but my parents went: “go and ask… he might be deaf”. So I ran after him! I went “MIDGE” and he turned round and saw me and went: “F***ing hell, I thought you were just some nutcase shouting my name!” I said: “I AM!” *roars of laughter*

There’s a book due out shortly by David Buckley called ‘Electric Dreams: The Human League, Heaven 17 and the Sound of the Steel City’. Are you involved in this?

I’ve done a couple of interviews for it, but there’s been a few delays for various reasons.

With all the recent HEAVEN 17 activity of the last few years, do you miss Ian Craig Marsh being around at all?

We are still really close… I say “are” even though we’ve not spoken to him for several years. He just very slowly stopped being in contact with Martyn first, then me. And then Lindsay, my wife who was always the one who could get him to answer, he stopped with her too. He then just totally disappeared.

And when we started to do stuff again, we emailed him and asked if he would like to be involved… we didn’t hear back, so we asked again… nothing. Then we said “If we don’t hear back, we’re just going to do it anyway and presume that you don’t want to do it”. But I still feel completely the same about him, although he’s never explained why he went. Y’know, there’s still all the love there and he’s a brother but it’s weird, we’re all Facebook friends! *laughs*

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Glenn Gregory

Special thanks to Sacha Taylor-Cox at Impressive PR

The double CD+DVD box set of ‘The Luxury Gap’ is released on 22nd October 2012 by Virgin/EMI Records

‘The Luxury Gap’ UK and German 2012 Tour includes:

Liverpool 02 Academy (23rd October) , Glasgow 02 Academy (24th October), Newcastle 02 Academy (26th October), Sheffield 02 Academy (27th October), Birmingham 02 Academy (29th October), Bristol 02 Academy (Tue 30th October), Aschaffenburg Colos-Saal (10th December), Hamburg Fabrik (11th December), Berlin C-Club (12th December), Köln Live Music Hall (13th December), Leipzig Anker (14th December)

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Text and Interview Chi Ming Lai
23rd September 2012

CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN & PAUL HUMPHREYS Discuss How ‘This Happened’

4 July 2012 /

Photo by Hege Saebjornsen

Claudia Brücken’s ‘This Time’ career celebration at The Scala in London was without doubt, one of the best live presentations of 2011.

On this wonderful evening, the first lady of cinematic electronic pop was joined by some very special guests in Erasure’s Andy Bell, Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware, Ralf Dörper and Susanne Freytag from Propaganda and one time ZTT label mate Andrew Poppy for an unforgettable and almost certainly unrepeatable concert. The superb event has been captured as a DVD film and accompanying CD soundtrack entitled ‘This Happened’.

This is the perfect souvenir for those who were there (and those who wished they were there). It captures all the warmth of appreciation from that evening when Claudia performed a selection of songs from her career accompanied by a superb backing band led by ONETWO partner and musical director Paul Humphreys.

Featuring Philip Larsen, James Watson, Dawne Adams, Sam Sallon, Melissa D’Arcy and Dave Watson, the company delightfully tackled a catalogue songs made famous by Claudia as a member of Propaganda, Act, Onetwo and as a solo artist. There are many highlights to savour including a exceptionally groovy ‘Absolut(E)’, playful duets with Glenn Gregory and Andy Bell, the Bond theme meets Massive Attack chic of new song ‘Thank You’, the three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA and the surprise inclusion of ‘Dream Within A Dream’ from their highly regarded album ‘A Secret Wish’.

But that’s not all. To celebrate the release of ‘This Happened’, Claudia Brücken will also be playing a new version of the show, ‘This Time Too’ at London’s Bush Hall on Thursday 19th July 2012 featuring OMD’s Andy McCluskey as one of the special guests.

Taking a break from preparing for this upcoming performance, Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys kindly invited ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to their London studio to talk about the live DVD and reminisce about that wonderful evening at The Scala last March.

It was an amazing night at The Scala, how do you look back on it?

Claudia: It was a complete success, it was great to have all the people, who I have collaborated with, agree to perform with me. It was quite a difficult task to get all of the musicians together and to organise it all.

Paul: Getting everyone to rehearse on the same day was a nightmare.

Claudia: Everybody was individually rehearsed. We told everyone what parts they were doing so they were all well prepared and then we did two days rehearsal…

Paul: …that was mainly for the band really as we were playing a whole load of songs we had never played before. *laughs*

Which songs were the most challenging to reproduce in a live situation?

Paul: ‘Dream Within A Dream’ was probably the toughest because it’s such a complex piece, there’s all these solos and Dawne our percussionist had all these things to do, there were different cues and all the bar counts are changing all the time! To be honest, we never got ‘Dream Within A Dream’ right in rehearsals; the only time we got it right was live on stage at the Scala. On stage, we were all just secretly nodding at each other!

I remember all the gasps of excitement from the audience when Susanne uttered those first few words…

Paul: Yes, you can hear it on the mikes when I mixed it!

Claudia: That was a little personal challenge; it’s such a great Propaganda piece. As Susanne was there as a guest, I really wanted to put that song out there in a live context.

Paul: All the chords are very complex and we had to get in our mate Sam who hadn’t played flugelhorn since he was a kid. So he bought one and he spent two weeks rehearsing…but he did really well *laughs*

The setlist was very well paced and as good as perfect. How did you decide what to perform?

Paul: We played the obvious ones from the ‘ComBined’ album as it was a celebration based around that.

Claudia: Also through Onetwo, we had so many songs already rehearsed. It was just a matter of organising everyone. So it became obvious when we had Glenn as a guest that we do ‘Snobbery & Decay’ and ‘When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time’. ‘When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time’ was pure self-indulgence because we’d never done it before. We thought we might as well do it.

Paul: We completely reworked it, it’s nothing like the original; we did a very electro version.

Claudia: Then Glenn and Martyn remembered they had done an electro version of ‘Temptation’ which was a demo…

Paul: …apparently that was the demo which got HEAVEN 17 their deal. And they had a German singer actually talk it before they reworked it with all the high vocals and the strings.

Claudia: I had this demo as a template and I really like that almost detached attitude so I thought that’s a good way to go with the idea.

Paul: But the biggest challenge for Claudia was ‘Running Up That Hill’ and ‘In Dreams’ with Andrew Poppy because you’re so exposed and any slight mistake, it really stands out.

Claudia: It was quite daring because most people attending the show, their background is electronic music so for me to just come out and bring it right down to just piano and voice…I really liked it for a change of scene. I did a show with Andrew Poppy the other day for his new album ‘Shiny Floor, Shiny Ceiling’. We did a couple of performances at the Chelsea Arts Centre. He’s very clever and such an artist, he’s got his own ideas and he sees it through.

Paul: It was an amazing show.

Were there any songs that you considered, but discounted for various reasons?

Claudia: I would have liked to have played more from ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ like ‘Baby Sign’ or ‘Love: In Another World’ but there was just so much to choose from.

The crowd particularly enjoyed the three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA…

Claudia: It was great, I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve been working towards the possibility of trying to get PROPGANDA on the road again and there’s always been hurdles, it’s never been easy! Everything else with ONETWO and the band has always been very easy and pleasurable.

So when Susanne and Ralf agreed to join me, it was the closest at that point of getting those Propaganda songs back up live. I’m someone who doesn’t give up easily and I try different ways to make something happen. I’ve known them for such a long time and it just kind of fell into place.

Is it true Ralf never played live with PROPGANDA first time round when you were on ZTT?

Claudia: That’s right, he was working as a banker and couldn’t get time off. The first time was the Trevor Horn Wembley concert in 2004. Wow! That was a bit of a band wasn’t it? *laughs*

Yes, I’ve seen the video clip of that! Stephen Lipson, Lol Creme, Anne Dudley, Geoff Downes, David Palmer AND an orchestra!

Paul: Now that’s what I call a band! *laughs*

Claudia: A band, Trevor Horn style! *laughs*

There’s an obvious onstage chemistry between you and Glenn Gregory, what do you put that down to?

Claudia and Paul: Mates! *laughter*

Claudia: But we genuinely love each other as well, I’ve known him since the ‘Dr Mabuse’ video shoot which his first wife Sarah did the make-up for. One of my earliest memories about England was going to Glenn’s old house in Notting Hill…I was discussing make-up and stuff with Sarah and there were Heaven 17 sitting on a couch in a darkly lit room. We just became really good friends and went through a lot of things together on ZTT as Trevor Horn used to use him as a session singer a lot on recordings by Grace Jones and stuff.

We’ve already mentioned Andrew Poppy but you couldn’t have had a more polar opposite guest than the other Andrew, Mr Bell?

Claudia: I did some gigs with Andy Bell back in 2005 at Madame Jo-Jo’s and Koko, it was just so natural.

Paul: Again, we’re mates with Andy, we’ve been on holiday with Andy too. He’s a sweetheart. We adore him.

Susanne almost didn’t make it on stage in time for ‘Light The Way’. How did you make sure the evening ran like clockwork while still being able to vibe off the special occasion?

Paul: It was funny while mixing the sound for the DVD and album, all the way through the intro of ‘Light The Way’, Claudia’s going: “Where’s Susanne? Where’s Susanne?”…we didn’t have a stage manager! *laughs*

Claudia: We forgot actually about that didn’t we!! *laughs*

Paul: We relied on everyone to remember their cue, I posted a sheet up in the dressing room! There’s only one dressing room at The Scala and it’s tiny…there were fifteen of us!!

Claudia: All these men dressed in black standing there, it was like a Magritte painting *laughs*

Paul: There were three chairs, all for the girls of course.

Claudia: It was very funny!

How was it trying to fix situations like when Susanne’s microphone cut out during ‘Dr Mabuse’ in the final audio mix? Is it a matter of retrieving sections of the recording or overdubbing?

Paul: It was actually there. It went to record, but our soundman Chicky had it muted on the desk! He had so many cues to remember that he forgot that one! *laughs*

Claudia: It was a bit “let’s see what happens” as well. There was so much information for him there.

With so many people involved, was it a matter of tying it all together during the soundcheck? Martyn Ware mentioned to me it had been a long day.

Claudia: We did have a soundcheck but there were a few technical hiccups which no-one could foresee. At 6.45pm, I said to Paul: “Shouldn’t we be hearing a sound of some sort by now?”

Paul: I was trying to keep Claudia calm and saying “Don’t worry, everything is fine” but knowing that it really wasn’t! What happened was James from the band’s laptop blew up and he didn’t have a back-up….all his virtual instruments were on there. So he was programming all these different sounds on another keyboard that he had using his headphones! But also at The Scala, we had so many lines, mikes and inputs that the stage box wasn’t good enough. You have to split it to monitor desk and front of house but with their box, you could have one or the other, but not both! So I had to hire one really quickly and get it delivered. But I didn’t tell Claudia this! *laughs*

How does the finished DVD look and will it satisfy those fans who there, and also those were unable to make it to the gig?

Paul: It’s fantastic!

Claudia: It’s been a real labour of love, it’s taken us so long to make. We get asked to play Canada, Russia, Finland and the USA but we can’t tour everywhere, it’s not so simple.

So I wanted there to be a documentation of what I’m like live so I hope they like it. We put a lot of love into it… it’s 100% and more to make this an entertaining piece of work.

Is it in 5.1 surround sound?

Paul: It’s not actually, so many people I know don’t have 5.1, so I didn’t think it was necessary. Plus it would have made it far more expensive to make because I mixed it in my own studio, and I don’t have a 5.1 system in here. I’m happy with stereo and most people will enjoy it stereo. In 5.1 you’ve got mix everything twice as you have to do a stereo mix anyway, those balances are completely different. It took a long time to just to mix 98 minutes of music in stereo.

You have ‘This Time Too’ at Bush Hall coming up on 19th July as a follow on event. This time you have another Andrew, ie Mr McCluskey as a guest. What song will he be performing with you?

Claudia: He’s doing ‘Absolutely Immune’ in place of Andy Bell…

Paul: …but instead of ‘Delicious’, we’ll be doing something else which Claudia and Andy will sing as a duet.

Would it ever be a possibility for you to go out with a touring version of this show in Europe, albeit maybe without all the wonderful guests?

Claudia: If I did it, it would make sense for everyone else to join us…anything is possible.

But if they did come on tour with me, I would want them to show more of themselves. I couldn’t ask them to sing just one song…

Paul: Hopefully, Claudia will be touring to promote her new solo album and she will playing some of these songs in the show so it will kind of be happening…

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys

The DVD+CD set ‘This Happened’ is released on 23rd July 2012 via There(there).

The tracklisting is:

1   Kiss Like Ether
2   Sequentia
3   Dr. Mabuse  – with Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dörper
4   Absolut[e]
5   Cloud 9
6   Snobbery & Decay – with Glenn Gregory
7   Temptation – with Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware
8   When Your Heart Runs Out of Time – with Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware
9   Running Up That Hill – with Andrew Poppy
10 In Dreams – with Andrew Poppy
11 Dream Within A Dream – with Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dörper
12 p:Machinery – with Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dörper
13 Night School
14 Light The Way
15 Home (Tonight)
16 Delicious – with Andy Bell
17 Absolutely Immune – with Andy Bell
18 Duel – with Susanne Freytag
19 Thank You

http://www.claudiabrucken.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaBruckenMusic

Text and Interviewby Chi Ming Lai
Photos from the Claudia Brücken, Propaganda and Onetwo Facebook pages
4th July 2012

2011 END OF YEAR REVIEW

30 December 2011 /

The Year Of Capacitors

It was a year which saw classic and new stand side-by-side as comrades in arms for the synthesizer. In possibly the event of the year, April’s ‘Back To The Phuture ­- Tomorrow Is Today’ at London’s Troxy saw godfathers Gary Numan and John Foxx supported by the best new UK synthpop act for many years, MIRRORS.

The Brighton quartet reappeared in the summer over on the South Bank when the Vintage Festival Electronic Phuture Revue gave us a celebration of synthpop cool with performances by ONETWO, RECOIL, HEAVEN 17 and Thomas Dolby. Speaking of the latter, they premiered ‘The Luxury Gap’ at The Roundhouse in 3D sound no less while their production alter-ego BEF presented ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction Live’.

Meanwhile, Mute Records celebrated their influential legacy with a weekender also at London’s Roundhouse featuring ERASURE, YAZOO and THE ASSEMBLY in the same set, plus acts such as RECOIL, NITZER EBB and LAIBACH. With an electro documentary weekend before Easter on the Sky Arts TV channel featuring Gary Numan, DURAN DURAN, NEW ORDER, Jean-Michel Jarre and the late Rorbert Moog electronic music’s cultural legacy was being recognised the world over.

Indeed, Gary Numan’s Inspiration Award from Mojo magazine finally acknowledged those trailblazing Synth Britannia years. There were complaints by one well-known blog however about wrinkly electropop but without these pioneers who changed music, where would we be today? As KRAFTWERK’s Ralf Hütter said: “From all over the world comes inspiration. We have been very lucky, because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction and electro is everywhere”.

Shouldn’t the imperial phase of Synth Britannia and its earlier Germanic influence therefore be celebrated in the way that senior blues musicians have been revered within the world of rock ‘n’ roll? Missing from the Mute evening’s proceedings as a collective were DEPECHE MODE who gave the world a U2 cover and a second instalment of their remix collection as part of their year’s work.

One rework that provoked enormous debate was Alan Wilder’s improved rework of 2009’s ‘In Chains’ which added speculation as to whether he would be rejoining the band. Certainly, it would induce some much needed creative tension that has mostly been missing from DEPECHE MODE since the start of the noughties.

But one act truly excelling in the darker side of electronic based music was IAMX who continued to conquer Europe while remaining largely ignored in the UK. Martin Gore could seriously learn from Chris Corner about how to make melodic, accessible music that doesn’t compromise artistically and retains a gritty edge. Meanwhile, Gore rekindled a working relationship with Vince Clarke on a techno project under the banner of VCMG.

Monday 21st March was an interesting day as it saw the release of albums by DURAN DURAN, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and John Foxx. As concert celberity Mr Normall amusingly recalled in his Facebook status “this is 2011, not 1981”! At least two of those albums were the best and most immediate bodies of work from those artists for many years. The bar has certainly been raised for acts such as ULTRAVOX and VISAGE who both announced forthcoming new albums. BLANCMANGE made their welcome return with Neil Arthur’s sense of humour as sharp as ever but sadly, he was unable to be joined for the live shows by his bandmate Stephen Luscombe due to illness. One hopes Stephen is making a good recovery.

MIRRORS showed their promise and delivered the superbly seamless long player ‘Lights & Offerings’. While the band themselves admitted it may have been a touch derivative, it was enjoyed by a small but loyal fanbase who embraced their whole intelligent pop noir aesthetic. However, just as they were about to make a breakthrough, a second high profile tour supporting OMD in Germany was cancelled along with an appearance at Bestival.

Then founder member Ally Young announced he was leaving the group. The situation has been likened by some observers to when Vince Clarke left DEPECHE MODE. Of course, the end result of that was both parties mutated into highly successful acts and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is hopeful something similar may occur here. Certainly an excellent new darker tune called ‘Dust’ from the remaining trio indicates MIRRORS are not finished yet!

The similarly smartly attired HURTS continued their domination of Europe and while not as adored in the UK, they still did the business touring wise with sell-out shows at Somerset House and Brixton Academy with Kylie Minogue making a surprise guest appearance at the latter.

Of the ladies, Beth Ditto went superbly electronic with her debut solo EP while Claudia Brücken went jazz for the soundtrack of ‘LA Noire’, but not before celebrating the electronic part of her career with a fine retrospective Combined and a fantastic show at The Scala which saw a three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA plus special guests ANDY BELL and HEAVEN 17.

Another acclaimed German chanteuse Billie Ray Martin returned with her new project THE OPIATES and an album ‘Hollywood Under The Knife’ while LADYTRON released a definitive Best Of ’00-10′ and a new album ‘Gravity The Seducer’. The latter was a glorious, lush masterpiece of aural subtlety which was not universally embraced by their fanbase but is likely to become a cult favourite in the future.

Meanwhile, the spectre of FEVER RAY’s Karin Drejer-Andersson lurked, both musically and politically, within several darker female fronted combos such as AUSTRA, THE HORN THE HUNT and GAZELLE TWIN. The brooding unsettlement of this Hauntronica (or witch house as it was sometimes referred) won favour with some while John Foxx named GAZELLE TWIN’s ‘The Entire City’ as his album of the year. However, this fairly uncompromising strain of electro wasn’t for everyone although it was definitely more preferable to dubstep, the trendy new dance form that even the usually club friendly Chris Lowe of PET SHOP BOYS was having trouble embracing!

But Nordic influences weren’t just about tonal gloom and witchery. Greek maidens MARSHEAUX adopted some FEVER RAY styled percussive moods on their only song of the year ‘Can You Stop Me?’ but remained synthpop while American duo NIGHTLIFE borrowed Sally Shapiro’s sweeter template.

Over at The Finland Station, producer Jori Hulkkonen’s PROCESSORY project delivered an 18 track electronic Sci-Fi concept album entitled ‘Change Is Gradual’. TIGER BABY from Denmark returned with the dreamy single ‘Landscapes’ while from Sweden, both THE GIRL & THE ROBOT and Emmon delivered enjoyable new material. There was also the mysteriously kooky IAMAMIWHOAMI but best of all from the region were THE SOUND OF ARROWS with the cinematic crystalline pop of their debut album ‘Voyage’.

At the pure pop end of the spectrum, Lady Gaga plotted her next move into world domination with new album ‘Born This Way’. With religious lyrical imagery were very much in evidence throughout, this was her ‘Like A Prayer’ with a Eurocentric sound being very much the dominant factor in the music. With her ear firmly on the inventive UK music scene, GOLDFRAPP, HURTS and MIRRORS were commissioned to deliver remixes of ‘Judas’.

LITTLE BOOTS returned with a bouncy house number called ‘Shake’ while SUNDAY GIRL had her album delayed again and didn’t appear to know whether she wanted to be a singer or a fashion designer. Her pop thunder has now potentially been stolen by the similar raspy timbres of Lana Del Rey whose pair of remixes by NIKONN became favourites with many electro enthusiasts. Embracing couture but with her head fully focussed on the music, QUEEN OF HEARTS brought some intelligent sparkle to electropop. With mentions in The Guardian and The Times, her superb EP ‘The Arrival’ realised the potential that was apparent in her earlier girl group days.

Several acts introduced by ELECTRICTYCLUB.CO.UK in 2010 gained prestigious supports slots as a sign of their steady progress. SHH were billed with former BLACK BOX RECORDER vocalist Sarah Nixey whileTHE VANITY CLAUSE opened for a solo Andy Bell performance and Electro Weimar songstress Katja von Kassel did the same at two of ERASURE’s shows in Germany.

VILLA NAH were due to play the biggest gig of their career with DURAN DURAN but Simon Le Bon’s illness, which also caused the postponement of the entire UK tour in May, unfortunately put paid to that. So it could be said that “Synthpop’s Alive” and this was exemplified by Essen based American act MAISON VAGUE who gave the world probably the best wholly independent release of the year.

Clark Stiefel’s wonderful cross of Gary Numan and DEVO was the work of a man brought up in the avant-classical world with hands-on experience of vintage Moog and Buchla modulars. Using the concept of “living in a dream since 1983”, despite the vintage influences, it was electronic music as imagined by the eccentricity of Oscar Wilde crossed with the thoughtful demeanour of late classical composer Franz Liszt.

Over the year, American based electronic acts were starting to come to the fore with XENO & OAKLANDER, SOFT METALS, HIGH PLACES, THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND and Tara Busch all gaining notable acclaim.

A question that has to be asked though is whether there is too much synth based music at the moment? Interestingly, Thomas Dolby and Sarah Nixey moved away from the electronic world and released new albums that had a more personal, organic quality. Some observers were complaining about “synthpop by numbers” and “Synth Britannia throwbacks”, but as OMD’s Andy McCluskey once said on that very programme, if there was a magic button for a hit single, he’d have pressed it more times than anyone else.

While improvements in technology have made it much easier for the public at large to make music and interesting noises, not everyone has the ability to write proper songs. Not only that but the iPod/notebook generation have been listening to compressed mp3s on tinny speakers for such a long time now that they have no grasp of dynamics. This has hampered many new acts who have taken to doing everything themselves and as a result, produced some average pieces of work.

There is nothing like a second opinion and creative tension to help a new piece of music along. And it is this willingness to understand the cores of songwriting, production and arrangement that ultimately separates the good from the bad, and ultimately the outstanding from the good.

ELECTRICTYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings of 2011

MIKE COOPER

Best album: MUERAN HUMANOS Mueran Humanos
Best Song: VELVET CONDOM Rouge City
Best Gig: KRAFTWERK at Die Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Best Video: LADYTRON Mirage
Most Promising New Act: MUERAN HUMANOS

STEVE GRAY

Best album: GARY NUMAN Dead Son Rising
Best Song: TENEK What Do You Want?
Best Gig: Back To The Phuture – Tomorrow Is Today at The Troxy, London
Best Video: DURAN DURAN Girl Panic!
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS

CHI MING LAI

Best album: MIRRORS Lights & Offerings
Best Song: VILE ELECTRODES My Sanctuary
Best Gig: Back To The Phuture -Tomorrow Is Today at The Troxy, London
Best Video: TIGER BABY Landscapes
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS

NIX LOWREY

Best Album: SANDWELL DISTRICT Feed Forward
Best Song: JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Summerland
Best Gig: KRAFTWERK at Die Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Best Video: LADYTRON Mirage
Most Promising New Act: MUERAN HUMANOS

RICHARD PRICE

Best album: MIRRORS Lights & Offerings
Best Song: JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Shatterproof
Best Gig: HEAVEN17/BEF Weekender at The Roundhouse
Best Video: QUEEN OF HEARTS Shoot The Bullet
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS

JOHAN WEJEDAL

Best album: AUSTRA Feel It Break
Best song: MIRRORS Into The Heart (Greek Girls Are Not Easy extended remix)
Best gig: AUSTRA at Stockholm Debaser Medis
Best video: EMMON Ghost Dance
Most promising new act: LOUISE (ex-THERMOSTATIC)

Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st December 2010

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