Tag: Ultravox (Page 12 of 16)

25 SYNTH SINGLES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HITS

3 January 2015 / electricityclub

Statistics can often not be a good indicator of quality and so it is that sometimes, a great single never actually attained the sales recognition it deserved. This could have been due to timing, lack of interest from a fickle music buying public or even a saturated market.

While some of these lost singles do get forgotten, many become live standards and firm fan favourites. So here are 25 singles from predominantly established acts or collectives featuring figures who are now well known in the music scene, that did not reach the UK Top 40 singles chart. Due to the sheer numbers of songs that are eligible, a cut-off point has been made for when CD singles started to become the norm around 1990.

After much deliberation, it was decided to leave out the work of ASSOCIATES as a number of their songs that would have been contenders for this list were featured in ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s own Beginner’s Guide To Billy MacKenzie. There are of course, several other notable omissions, but this list could go on forever…

So with a restriction of one single per artist moniker, the list is presented in chronological order by year, and then alphabetically…

THE HUMAN LEAGUE Empire State Human (1979)

It seems strange now that this extremely catchy single failed to be a hit in an era when synthesizers were being accepted by the wider record buying public. After all, both SPARKS and TUBEWAY ARMY had entered the Top 20 with their Moog assisted ditties. In hindsight though, Colin Thurston’s production did sound comparatively thin next to ‘The Number One Song in Heaven’ and ‘Are Friends Electric?’. Despite a timely re-release in 1980, ‘Empire State Human’ only reached a high of No62.

Available on THE HUMAN LEAGUE album ‘Reproduction’ via Virgin Records

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk

LORI & THE CHAMELEONS Touch (1979)

THE CHAMELEONS (not to be confused with the cult Manchester band) were actually Zoo Records supremos Bill Drummond of THE KLF fame and country house resident Dave Balfe who played keyboards with THE TEARDROP EXPLODES. On the beautifully sequenced ‘Touch’, art school student Lori Lartey innocently told of her holiday romance in Tokyo. It spent one week at No70 when re-issued on Sire Records. There was to be just one more single entitled ‘The Lonely Spy’.

Available on the compilation album ‘North By North West’ (V/A) via Korova Records / Warner Music

http://www.penkilnburn.com/

JAPAN Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980)

After three albums with Ariola Hansa, JAPAN decamped to Virgin Records and reached No60 with ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’, their first single release on the label. But much more was expected as the band were already playing huge venues such as The Bukodan in Tokyo. It would not be until Autumn 1981 following a cash-in release of ‘Quiet Life’ by their former label that David Sylvian and Co. were to become regular singles chart fixtures.

Full length version available on the JAPAN album ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ via Virgin Records

http://www.nightporter.co.uk

ROBERT PALMER Johnny & Mary (1980)

Robert Palmer took an interest in synths having become a fan of Gary Numan and JAPAN. ‘Johnny & Mary’ was a beautifully world weary number that hit a high of No44. He later had massive success with a more rock flavoured sound while his bank balance was enhanced when the song was covered for the ‘Papa et Nicole’ Renault adverts. Bryan Ferry’s reinterpretation with Todd Terje exposed a twilight years scrutiny on the lyrics which sadly, Palmer himself was never able to do…

Available on the ROBERT PALMER album ‘Clues’ via Island Records / Universal Music

http://www.robertpalmer.com/

SIMPLE MINDS I Travel (1980)

SIMPLE MINDS were signed to Arista Records between 1979-1980 and like JAPAN, they were met with indifference by their label. ‘I Travel’ was their penultimate single at Arista who threw in a free blue flexidisc featuring ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Film Theme Dub’ as a sweetener to early purchasers. But despite airplay at The Blitz Club where its futuristic frenzy was highly welcomed, ‘I Travel’ did not make any chart impact.

Available on the SIMPLE MINDS album ‘Celebrate: The Greatest Hits’ via Virgin Records

http://www.simpleminds.com

ULTRAVOX Passing Strangers (1980)

Things were heading in the right direction for the Mk2 line-up of ULTRAVOX following ‘Sleepwalk’ getting to No29 in the UK chart. Built around a more synth rock structure, ‘Passing Strangers’ had a great chorus and a sympathetic environment in which THE HUMAN LEAGUE and DEPECHE MODE were also managing to break through. But the single stiffed at No57 and it would take the massive surprise success of ‘Vienna’ in early 1981 to truly establish ULTRAVOX as a chart force.

Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘The Collection’ via EMI Records

http://www.ultravox.org.uk

OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING Lawnchairs (1981)

New York’s OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING were one of the new synthpop acts to emerge from across the Atlantic and their best known song ‘Lawnchairs’ was a frantic mechanised combination of OMD and Gary Numan. Despite gaining regular radio play in the UK, its chart summit was No49. The trio later re-recorded ‘Lawnchairs’ with a more conventional live drum sound, but this template totally took the charm out!

Available on the OUR DAUGHTER’S WEDDING album ‘Nightlife – The Collection’ via EP Music

http://www.synthpunk.org/odw/

SOFT CELL Memorabilia (1981)

Produced by Daniel Miller, ‘Memorabilia’ borrowed heavily from Cerrone’s ‘Supernature’. Released as a 12 inch single but relegated to B-side on the edited 7 inch with ‘A Man Could Get Lost’ as the A-side, Almond recalled a list of trashy souvenirs that were also metaphors for stalking. Dark yet danceable, despite not being a hit, ‘Memorabilia’ would later becitied as an influential proto-house classic.

Available on the SOFT CELL album ‘The Very Best Of’ via Phonogram / Universal Music

http://www.marcalmond.co.uk

TEARS FOR FEARS Suffer The Children (1981)

When TEARS FOR FEARS first appeared, they were trying to emulate OMD. ‘Suffer The Children’ took inspiration from Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal de la Quintana’s interest in Primal Scream therapy while musically, it recalled McCluskey and Humphreys’ ‘Pretending To See The Future’ but with more guitar. The child-like refrain by Ozabal’s wife within the bridge and coda would have actually sounded like an OMD hookline had it been played on synth.

Available on the TEARS FOR FEARS deluxe album ‘The Hurting’ via Mercury / Universal Music

http://tearsforfears.com/

BLANCMANGE Feel Me (1982)

If Ian Curtis had joined TALKING HEADS, then it might have sounded like this. “I always thought it was more David Byrne than Ian Curtis but, there was never any intention” recalled Neil Arthur in 2013, “We hired a Roland Jupiter 8, an ARP sequencer and a Korg MS20 plus a Linn LM-1 which Stephen Luscombe and I programmed up”. Reaching No46, ‘Feel Me’ always had untapped hit potential as FAITHLESS’ reworking using Arthur’s vocals proved.

Available on the BLANCMANGE album ‘Happy Families’ via Edsel Records

http://www.blancmange.co.uk

THOMAS DOLBY Europa & The Pirate Twins (1982)

With its thundering Simmons drums and glistening synth riff, ‘Europa & The Pirate Twins’ was based on a real life romance of Dolby’s: “I had a girlfriend and we used to fantasise that after the apocalypse, wherever we were, we would meet up on this beach in East Anglia where I grew up… I always thought she’d end up being this big movie star or something”. The song was not a Top40 hit, but entered the wider consciousness when it was used as the theme to BBC Radio1’s ‘Saturday Live’.

Available on the THOMAS DOLBY album ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ via EMI Records

http://www.thomasdolby.com

HEAVEN 17 Let Me Go (1982)

Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware often cite ‘Let Me Go’ as their favourite HEAVEN 17 song. Propelled by a funky Roland TB303 Bassline before it was hijacked by Acid House, ‘Let Me Go’ had hit written all over it, but stalled at No41. But in a competitive Autumn ‘82 for new releases, later international hits like Thomas Dolby’s ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ and EURYTHMICS’ ‘Love Is A Stranger’ (on its initial release) were having difficulties getting into the UK Top40.

Available on the HEAVEN 17 album ‘The Luxury Gap’ via Virgin Records

http://www.heaven17.com

THE TEARDROP EXPLODES Tiny Children (1982)

THE TEARDROP EXPLODES may not have been a synthesizer driven group, but this marvellously haunting ballad was layered in Prophet5 courtesy of Dave Balfe while Julian Cope sounded like a distressed little boy, lost in his sunshine playroom. Mercury Records probably thought ‘Tiny Children’ would be a hit following the success of JAPAN’s ‘Ghosts’ but released in June 1982, the sonic chill was not what people were wanted as they prepared for their summer holidays!

Available on THE TEARDROP EXPLODES album ‘The Greatest Hit’ via Mercury / Universal Music

https://www.headheritage.co.uk/

VISAGE Pleasure Boys (1982)

In Autumn 1982, VISAGE were in a state of limbo following the departure of Midge Ure. But with John Luongo who had remixed ‘Night Train’ on board, the remaining quartet of Steve Strange, Rusty Egan, Billy Currie and Dave Formula plus new bassist Steve Barnacle explored New York electro. ‘Pleasure Boys’ was hard and aggressive with lyrics full of hedonism. But the New Romantic audience had moved on and sales were only enough for it to get to No44.

Full length dance mix version available on the VISAGE album ‘The Face – The Best Of’ via Universal Music

http://www.visage.cc/

DEAD OR ALIVE Misty Circles (1983)

Having been courted by the major labels, DEAD OR ALIVE settled on Epic Records and unleashed this vicious slice of electro gothic disco in ‘Misty Circles’ as their first single release for them. Featuring guitars from a soon-to-be-sacked Wayne Hussey, who went on to join THE SISTERS OF MERCY and then form THE MISSION, ‘Misty Circles’ had a highly unusual sound produced by Zeus B Held that was darker than the romping Hi-NRG that DEAD OR ALIVE were later to have hits with.

Full length version available on the DEAD OR ALIVE album ‘Evolution’ via Epic Records / Sony Music

http://www.deadoralive.net/

JOHN FOXX Endlessly (1983)

By 1983, John Foxx had moved away from pure electronic music and was now listening to both SIMPLE MINDS and U2. His third solo album ‘The Golden Section’ took on a more pop oriented slant under the auspices of producer Zeus B Held ‘Endlessly’ was initially released in 1982 as a moody Linn drum heavy psychedelic romp and failed to chart. But for the new version, thundering sequencers, Simmons drums and a danced up euphoria were added… however, it still failed to be a hit.

Available on the JOHN FOXX album ‘The Golden Section’ via Esdel Records

http://www.metamatic.com

OMD Telegraph (1983)

‘Electricity’ would have been a hit had its sales not been spread over three separate releases with different recorded versions between 1979-80. ‘Telegraph’ was an angry metaphoric attack on religious fundamentalism in the USA, but considered to be the most commercial track on OMD’s brave but critically panned nautical adventure ‘Dazzle Ships’. With an infectious synth melody, what was there not to like? But OMD’s audience had diminished by this time and it only got to No42.

Available on the OMD album ‘Dazzle Ships’ via Virgin Records

http://www.omd.uk.com

TALK TALK My Foolish Friend (1983)

Produced by Rhett Davies who was best known for his slick touches on ROXY MUSIC’s ‘Avalon’, ‘My Foolish Friend’ was the last TALK TALK song to feature contributions from their original keyboardist Simon Brenner. Released between ‘The Party’s Over’ and ‘It’s My Life’ albums as a single, Mark Hollis was in wonderfully miserable mode over a dramatic synthesized backdrop. The single became lost when it only reached No57 and was not included on the ‘It’s My Life’ long player.

Available on the TALK TALK album ‘Asides Besides’ via EMI Music

http://www.spiritoftalktalk.com

THE BLUE NILE Tinseltown In The Rain (1984)

A classic song that sounded like THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS fronting OMD, ‘Tinseltown In The Rain’ is regarded as THE BLUE NILE’s signature tune. Released as part of a deal with hi-fi manufacturer Linn Products to showcase their flagship Sondek LP12 turntable, the gorgeous melancholy of ‘Tinseltown In the Rain’ had an understated quality that ensured the trio’s sporadic releases over the next 20 years were eagerly anticipated by the musical cognoscenti.

Full length version available on THE BLUE NILE album ‘A Walk Across The Rooftops’ via Virgin Records

http://www.thebluenile.net

CHINA CRISIS Arizona Sky (1986)

CHINA CRISIS are probably the most underrated band of their generation. Lyrically inspired by an artificially assisted gondola ride in Venice, ‘Arizona Sky’ was one of their many singles which deserved greater recognition. The nucleus of Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon usually managed at least one hit per album but with ‘Arizona Sky’, it was not to be. It settled at No47 despite the song’s brilliant singalong chorus, infectious synthesized textures and catchy “bop-bop-be-doo-dah” refrain.

Full length version available on the CHINA CRISIS album ‘Wishful Thinking: The Very Best Of’ via Universal Music

https://www.facebook.com/pages/China-Crisis/295592467251068

ERASURE Oh L’Amour (1986)

“Why are they doing a DOLLAR song?” someone was overheard at their first visit to an ERASURE concert. And this ultimately sums up why ‘Oh L’Amour’ should have been a massive hit. Its now highly collectable ‘Thomas The Tank Engine’ cover had to be withdrawn due to copyright infringement and wouldn’t have helped availability. However, it should be noted that the original artwork actually features two incidental characters from the Reverend W Audrey’s famous books…

Available on the ERASURE album ‘Always – The Very Best Of’ via Mute Records

http://www.erasureinfo.com

NEW ORDER Bizarre Love Triangle (1986)

One of NEW ORDER’s best loved tunes, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ only reached No56 in the UK singles chart. However, the version released was an irritating, dance enhanced remix by Shep Pettibone which took all the subtlety out of the song with its collage of overdriven percussive samples. Far better and much more commercial was an at-the-time unreleased remix by Stephen Hague which later formed the basis of the ’94 version on ‘(the best of)’ compilation.

Available on the NEW ORDER album ‘Singles’ via Rhino Records

http://www.neworder.com

ACT Snobbery & Decay (1987)

It was the height of Thatcherism and the Synclavier driven theatrics of ‘Snobbery & Decay’ were a sharp observation by Claudia Brücken and Thomas Leer on the state of the nation. However, the UK were not yet ready for an Anglophile German to tell them about its political decline… “No sadly they didn’t” remembered Claudia Brücken in Summer of 2010, “perhaps it was just not the right moment for this song… Thomas does think that perhaps we were ahead of our time”.

Available on the CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN album ‘ComBined – The Best Of’ via Salvo / Union Square Records

http://www.claudiabrucken.co.uk

KRAFTWERK The Telephone Call (1987)

The last single featuring the classic RFWK line-up, ‘The Telephone Call’ was the most immediate track on the disappointing ‘Electric Cafe’ album. Featuring lead vocals from Karl Bartos, despite the abundance of digital synthesis and sampling, ‘The Telephone Call’ still had all the usual Kling Klang hallmarks such as pretty melodies, syncopated rhythms and slightly off-key singing to make this to ‘Electric Cafe’ what ‘Computer Love’ was to 1981’s ‘Computer World’ opus.

Available on the KRAFTWERK album ‘Techno Pop’ via Mute Records

http://www.kraftwerk.com

CAMOUFLAGE The Great Commandment (1988)

Today, DEPECHE MODE influenced acts are common place but in 1988, this was highly unusual. Taking ‘Some Great Reward’ as their template, CAMOUFLAGE developed on the industrial flavoured synthpop of ‘Master & Servant’ and ‘People Are People’ which DM had all but abandoned from ‘Black Celebration’ onwards. ‘The Great Commandment’ was probably the best single DM never recorded but while it was a hit in Europe and the US, it made no impression in the UK.

Available on the CAMOUFLAGE album ‘The Singles’ via Polydor Records / Universal Music

http://www.camouflage-music.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
3rd January 2015

A Beginner’s Guide To BRIAN ENO

24 July 2014 / electricityclub

The vast career of electronic innovator and ambient godfather Brian Eno has crossed genres, styles and instrumentation.

Ranging from his solo work with his use of simplistic keyboards and snake guitar to major rock productions and motivational techniques such as his famous ‘Oblique Strategies’ cards, Eno’s theories and thought processes have shaped the pop, rock and avant garde worlds.b“Anything that’s strong enough will stand up to any amount of analysis” Eno said profoundly.

While starting out in art rock with ROXY MUSIC as an EMS VCS3 wielding non-musician, a car accident in early 1975 left him temporarily immobile in a hospital bed. Ever the thinker, it allowed him to explore the possibilities of environmental music. Inadvertently, he had discovered the sub-genre of ambient.

One of his best known early compositions of this type was the short instrumental title track of his 1975 opus ‘Another Green World’ which combined voxless and vocalled tracks in equal measures; the track later became the opening title theme to the BBC2 arts programme ‘Arena’. He focussed on this wordless aesthetic, producing acknowledged ambient classics such as ‘Music for Airports’, ‘Thursday Afternoon’ and ‘Neroli’. His recent album ‘Lux’ on Warp Records continued this quality tradition.

Following his acclaimed solo album ‘Before & After Science’ in 1977, he largely steered clear of conventional vocal led material until 2005’s excellent ‘Another Day On Earth’. However, he maintained a presence within the pop and rock sphere as a producer with ULTRAVOX! and later acts such as DEVO, TALKING HEADS, U2 and JAMES.

“Being a record producer is the best form of cowardice. Producers often get praised but they have to do a really bad job for anyone to criticise them” he said of his occasionally hands-off approach, “The way I work is to try to find out what isn’t being done that ought to be done. Sometimes that means somebody ought to make the tea. Sometimes it means somebody ought to re-write the whole bloody song”. Such is Eno’s magic, he even managed to steer COLDPLAY into making their most bearable track ‘Viva La Vida’! Eno’s influence in the studio has been significant, even when not actually behind the desk.

While often miscredited as the producer of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’, he was paramount in directing Bowie’s train of thought towards a new school of pretension beyond conventional rock ’n’ roll. The result was half instrumental tracks such as ‘Sound & Vision’ and doomy neo-classical electronic pieces such as ‘Sense Of Doubt’, while both the ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ albums were conceptualised into vocal and instrumental sides.

Other Eno collaborators have included HARMONIA, LARAAJI, ICEHOUSE and SUEDE as well as John Cale, Jah Wobble, Leo Abrahams, Jon Hopkins and Karl Hyde among many. Scouse pranksters HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT even sent up this artistic rite of passage in a song called ‘Eno Collaboration’. Eno’s catalogue is far too extensive to summarise in a short synopsis.

So what material would serve as an introduction to his varied career as a recording artist, producer, remixer and collaborative muse? Here are eighteen affectionately chosen examples. As with all previous Beginner’s Guides by ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, the list is not definitive, presented in chronological order and limited to one track per moniker, project or artist. The intention is to act as an oblique strategy to inspire further investigation…

ROXY MUSIC Ladytron (1972)

‘Ladytron’ was a gloriously arty adventure; the inclusion of otherworldly sonic manipulations on Andy MacKay’s oboe and sax alongside Eno’s striking VCS3 sourced electronics signalled a futuristic vision that was later to reveal itself in the New Romantic scene. But Eno’s tenure in ROXY MUSIC wasn’t to last; tensions had been running high at Roxy gigs. Following Roxy’s second album ‘For Your Pleasure’, Eno was gone!

Available on the ROXY MUSIC album ‘The Early Years’ via Virgin Records

http://www.roxymusic.co.uk

ENO Back In Judy’s Jungle (1974)

Eno’s solo debut ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ followed a trashy energetic guitar style inspired by THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, but his sophomore offering took in more esoteric approaches and an interest in Chinese Communism. The skippy waltz of ‘Back In Judy’s Jungle’ with percussion by Phil Collins headed towards the 38th Parallel as an infectious guitar melody (borrowed from a Korean folk tune) took hold alongside whistles and electronic effects.

Available on the ENO album ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’ via Virgin Records

http://eno-web.co.uk/

FRIPP & ENO Evening Star (1975)

Prog rockers KING CRIMSON shared management with Roxy and Eno; their guitarist Robert Fripp made his first collaboration with Eno in 1973 on ‘(No Pussyfooting)’. Comprising of two long spiky improvisations, it used a live tape loop technique christened Frippertronics which allowed Mr Toyah Wilcox to layer guitar sounds. This was put to good use on ‘Evening Star’ which had more melodic components in comparision and gentle harmonics.

Available on the FRIPP & ENO album ‘Evening Star’ via Opal Records

http://www.robertfripp.com

DAVID BOWIE Warszawa (1977)

‘Warszawa’ was named after the Polish capital city but captured the post-war tensions in West Berlin without the need for lyricism. At Hansa Studios where ‘Low’ was being mixed, the soldiers in the East Berlin watch towers could look into the windows of the building! Tony Visconti’s production enhanced the drama between Bowie’s enigmatic wailing over Eno’s Minimoog and Chamberlain keys. This formed part of an all instrumental suite on the album’s second side.

Available on the DAVID BOWIE album ‘Low’ via EMI Records

http://www.davidbowie.com

ULTRAVOX! My Sex (1977)

Using Eno’s Minimoog with a knob marked with a sheep sticker to indicate it made woolly sounds, Billy Currie’s classical sensibilities combined with John Foxx’s detached dissatisfaction on ‘My Sex’. Despite being accorded joint billing with Steve Lillywhite and the band in the ‘Ultravox!’ album’s production credits, drummer Warren Cann later revealed that Eno had only worked on four tracks and was not quite the accomplished studio technician the band hoped he would be!

Available on the ULTRAVOX! album ‘Ultravox!’ via Universal Music

http://www.metamatic.com

http://www.ultravox.org.uk

ENO MOEBIUS ROEDELIUS The Belldog (1978)

While the 1976 sessions with cult German band HARMONIA featuring Michael Rother of NEU! remained unreleased until 1997, collaborations with two of the collective Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka CLUSTER proved to be more successful. With a wonderful ambient collection ‘Cluster & Eno’to their name, their second album ‘After The Heat’added Eno’s contemplative voice to the experimentation, the best of which was the gentle sequencer led beauty of ‘The Belldog’.

Available on the ENO MOEBIUS ROEDELIUS album ‘After The Heat’ via Bureau B

http://www.dietermoebius.de
‎
http://www.roedelius.com

BRIAN ENO 1/1 (1978)

With ‘Music for Airports’, No1 in his Ambient series, the concept had been to create soothing pieces for inducing calm in those who had a fear of flying. Unlike ‘Music For Films’ which consisted of short musical fragments, ‘Music For Airports’ comprised of four extended sketches utilising piano, synths and vocal tape loops. ‘1/1’ was a magnificent 17 minute calling card that was “ignorable as it is interesting”.

Available on the BRIAN ENO album ‘Music for Airports’ via Virgin Records

http://brian-eno.net

JON HASSELL & BRIAN ENO Delta Rain Dream (1979)

Strangely enigmatic, Hassell’s muted avant garde trumpet playing and use of Prophet 5 processing in partnership with Eno on ‘Delta Rain Dream’ from ‘Fourth World Vol 1 Possible Musics’ provided a backdrop for a type of percussive primitive futurism where it was envisaged what indigenous tribes would have done if a solar powered synthesizer had been dropped in at the beginning of time and become their instrument of choice.

Available on the JON HASSELL & BRIAN ENO album ‘Fourth World Vol 1 Possible Musics’ via Virgin Records

http://www.jonhassell.com

HAROLD BUDD & BRIAN ENO First Light (1980)

Eno had produced and issued Budd’s ‘Pavilion Of Dreams’ on Obscure, but didn’t directly collaborate on a full album project with the American self-taught pianist until ‘The Plateaux Of Mirror’; ‘First Light’ was typical of an Eno collaboration where the musician of the partnership was allowed to breathe and build tension before Eno’s magical layers of synthesizer appeared in the final quarter. The approach could be compared to Eno choosing a tie for Budd’s shirt and suit…

Available on the HAROLD BUDD & BRIAN ENO album ‘The Plateaux Of Mirror’ via Virgin Records

http://haroldbudd.com

TALKING HEADS Crosseyed & Painless (1980)

‘Once In A Lifetime’ may have been the hit but ‘Crosseyed & Painless’ was the key track from ‘Remain In Light’, TALKING HEADS’ third album with Eno. Incorporating funk rhythms alongside assorted instrumentation modulating around a very basic repetitive chord structure, there was tension within the dance as David Byrne preached like an inebriate evangelist. The credit “All songs written by David Byrne, Brian Eno and Talking Heads” infuriated the other band members.

Available on the TALKING HEADS album ‘Remain In Light’ via WEA Records

http://www.talking-heads.nl/

BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE Regiment (1981)

Recorded during ‘Remain In Light’, ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ was the playroom that nearly drove TALKING HEADS apart. This influential album used taped speeches by personalities of assorted faiths effectively as lead vocals. Featuring the found voice of Lebanese mountain singer Dunya Yusin, ‘Regiment’ was mildly funky and its assortment of rhythmical clarity, synthetic atmospheres and sustained guitar textures proved to be a forerunner of JAPAN’s ‘Tin Drum’.

Available on the BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE album ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ via Nonesuch Records

http://davidbyrne.com/

BRIAN ENO, DANIEL LANOIS & ROGER ENO Deep Blue Day (1983)

The ‘Apollo’ album was a soundtrack to a documentary film about the mission to the moon. Its intention was to react against the newsy manner of space travel presented by most TV programmes of the day with its fast cuts and speeded up images. Feelings of weightlessness were captured among the collection’s aural clusters and atmospheres. ‘Deep Blue Day’ with its accessible countrified twang from Lanois was used in the infamous ‘toilet’ scene of the film ‘Trainspotting’.

Available on the BRIAN ENO album ‘Apollo’ via Virgin Records

http://daniellanois.com/

U2 The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

It seemed a most ludicrous union at the time… the flag waving over earnest rock group teaming up with the thoughtful, ambient egghead! With Bono and Co doing their best ‘New Gold Dream’ period SIMPLE MINDS impression, ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ captured the harrowing trauma of Hiroshima in layers of Yamaha DX7 and Fairlight as Eno pushed the Irish quartet into a more esoteric mind process to counter their bombastic tendencies.

Available on the U2 album ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ via Island Records

http://www.u2.com

MICHAEL BROOK Hybrid (1985)

Brook was a studio engineer who could see the possibilities of stretching out the timbres and textures of the electric guitar. His experiments led to his development of the Infinite Guitar. Co-produced by Eno, ‘Hybrid’ was the first album to fully exploit this instrument and the title track very much followed the percussive possible musics of Eno’s ‘Fourth World Vol 1 Possible Musics’ collaboration with Jon Hassell. This wasn’t entirely surprising as Brook had played live with the duo in 1981.

Available on the MICHAEL BROOK album ‘Hybrid’ via Virgin Records

http://www.michaelbrookmusic.com

JAMES Sometimes (1993)

After their ‘Seven’ album, JAMES were accused of heading down the U2 route so in a replicant move, Booth and Co secured the services of Eno for ‘Laid’, which was released in Autumn 1993. While driven by frantic acoustic guitar, the lead single ‘Sometimes’ benefitted from Eno’s input by steadily building and adding glistening ambient synths. A most gloriously harmonic vocal section towards the conclusion appeared for yet another lift when it was least expected… pure Eno!

Available on the JAMES album ‘Laid’ via Mercury Records

http://www.wearejames.com

DEPECHE MODE In Your Room – Apex Mix (1994)

Using the percolating bass sequence and chilling stabs from the original album version plus slices of Martin Gore’s backing vocal, Eno’s Apex Mix of ‘In Your Room’ was almost Zen-like in its meditative qualities. Legend has it that while Martin Gore was playing this version in his car, he had to turn it off as it was sending him to sleep! In true Eno style, the backing built slowly and made the most of the song’s inherent tension.

Available on the DEPECHE MODE CD single ‘In Your Room’ via Mute Records

http://www.depechemode.com/

BRYAN FERRY Wildcat Days (1994)

The first co-write between the two former sparring partners with perhaps some nostalgic lyrical reference to the fledgling days of ROXY MUSIC, ‘Wildcat Days’ was the best track from Ferry’s arduous ‘Mamouna’ project, the original sessions of which had started as far back as 1989! Lots of weird noises, detuned swoops and a seasoned supporting cast including Andy MacKay, Chester Kamen and Steve Ferrone combined for this marvellous slice of electronic art funk.

Available on the BRYAN FERRY album ‘Mamouna’ via Virgin Records

http://www.bryanferry.com

BRIAN ENO & J PETER SCHWALM From This Moment (2001)

For his project with German DJ and percussionist Schwalm, Eno took a more rhythmically colourful approach to his ambient philosophies that coincided with the emergence of chill-out rooms within the club scene. Certainly, ‘Drawn From Life’ possessed more accessible entry points for those who maybe found works such as ‘Music For Airports’ too sedate. The album’s opener ‘From This Moment’ was great soundtrack music, bolstered by live percussion and strings.

Available on the BRIAN ENO & J PETER SCHWALM album ‘Drawn from Life’ via Virgin Records

http://jpeterschwalm.webnode.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th July 2014

MIDGE URE Fragile

12 July 2014 / electricityclub

TEARS FOR FEARS’ Roland Orzabal once said that artists should make fewer albums when explaining the 4 year gestation time for ‘The Seeds Of Love’ album.

While that album was perhaps less than satisfactory, he had a point. Within that same period between 1985 to 1989, OMD issued two albums plus a greatest hits and then split up as a result of the burn out. If the best ten songs had been siphoned off ‘Crush’, ‘The Pacific Age’ and their corresponding non-album appendices, there probably would be a smaller but stronger body of work to represent OMD’s Hollywood phase…

Long periods between albums of original material are now common occurrences among veterans of the Synth Britannia era. HEAVEN 17 are currently recording their first album since 2005’s ‘Before After’ while Alison Moyet had a 10+ year gap before her triumphant artistic rebirth with ‘the minutes’ last year.

And now Midge Ure returns with ‘Fragile’, a solo album of new songs and his first since 2001’s ‘Move Me’ Of course, the diminutive Glaswegian has not been idle having released a collection of covers entitled ’10’ in 2009 and returned to ULTRAVOX with the ‘Brilliant’ album in 2012 being the end result. And all this without even mentioning his endless touring and collaborations with European artists such as SCHILLER, JAM & SPOON and X-PERIENCE.

Indeed, the success of the ULTRAVOX comeback appears to have been a big motivator in Ure getting his creative focus back. It can’t be easy as he has nothing to prove as one of British music’s esteemed elder statesmen. But despite being still highly regarded in Europe, the general public in the UK appear to be apathetic as to what he can still offer. Now, while Ure is highly unlikely to reach the heights of No1 singles like he achieved with ‘If I Was’, or headline Wembley Arena as he did in support of his 1985 debut long player ‘The Gift’, his new meisterwerk is an impressive musical diary of a man pondering and confronting his post-midlife.

Although not featuring on ‘Fragile’, his recent orchestral laden collaboration ‘Taking Back My Time’ with Stephen Emmer probably sums up the album’s manifesto. But the collection begins with another poignant title ‘I Survived’ which sensitively soars and sees Ure comfortable in his own skin, unafraid to question how his life has turned out. “Keep it and hold it while you can” he sings.

The eight songs and two instrumentals that comprise ‘Fragile’ sentimentally recall his work with VISAGE, ULTRAVOX and Mick Karn as well as his earlier solo work. But then, this is a Midge Ure album, and apart from a contribution by Moby and a sampled drum loop, ‘Fragile’ is all his own work. “In a way, it’s a much more grown up record than anything I’ve done before” he told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

‘Are We Connected?’ could well be a thematic follow-up to ‘Contact’ from ‘Brilliant’, but is much harder rhythmically like DEPECHE MODE’s ‘In Your Room’ from ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’. Appropriately enough, there is much intense questioning before Ure then cries “All hail to this new religion, crossed wires in conversation”! The album eases into a more sedate pace on ‘Let It Rise’, a track recorded for SCHILLER’s ‘Atemlos’ album back in 2010.

A much more epic proposition in its original form, Ure goes back to basics for his version 2.0 but retains the track’s electronic eloquence with some shrilling synths and pretty melodic motifs. Now whereas ‘Brilliant’ and ‘Move Me’ both had Ure rocking out on his guitar, other than on ‘Star Crossed’, ‘Fragile’ is much more gentle and textural.

The beautiful progressive ambience of ‘Wire & Wood’ that starts Side 2 is a fine example of Ure’s sound painting. Free from the pressure of writing lyrics, he utilises various spiritual atmospheres including Spanish guitar, oboe samples and washes of synth before a Morricone styled pan pipe and vocal ad-lib combination in the final of the piece’s four movements. With a monochromatic Film Noir instrumental ‘Bridges’ also featuring in the second half, these two selections are a reminder of the wordless wonders that made up a fair chunk of ‘The Gift’.

But it is the songs that most listeners will be interested in and Ure certainly doesn’t disappoint in that department. ‘Become’ is unsurprisingly the album’s lead single and a romantic, less abrasive take on ‘After A Fashion’. With a danceable metronomic beat and all the hallmarks of classic VISAGE, as the album’s most uptempo number, it is inevitably the focal point of ‘Fragile’. But there are other songs that are easily its equal.

The most notable of these is ‘Dark, Dark Night’, a co-write with a certain Richard Melville Hall, otherwise better known as Moby. The song is quite obviously a descendant of ‘Rockets’ from his ‘Destroyed’ opus. Optimising the latter’s rich symphonic string sounds and chilled vibes, ‘Dark, Dark Night’ builds to an amazing climax with melodic screeches and a tremendous guitar solo from Ure.

Together, the follically challenged pairing are a partnership made in heaven and it has obviously had a prolonged effect as ‘For All You Know’ is another wonderful example that mirrors that template. Adding simulated fretless bass and symphonic choirs into the equation, although Mr Hall is not involved in this one, ‘For All You Know’ does rather sound like ULTRAVOX’s ‘Change’ slowed down and reimagined by Moby!

In fact, the sad modulated string synth pads reminiscent of OMD are all over ‘Fragile’ but they are certainly more interesting than the thinner Virtual String Machine generated tones that characterised the ‘Brilliant’ album. These sounds give the album a comparatively primitive but emotive feel, familiar in shape but fresh in feel. To close the album, there is the Floydian tones of the ‘Fragile’ title track. This solemn epic is such that it could be considered Ure’s own ‘Comfortably Numb’.

Overall, ‘Fragile’ sees Midge Ure reinvigorated by his musical past and enjoying using electronic sounds again on top of a much more mature outlook while evoking a true honesty in his voice. Clearly, the ULTRAVOX experience has been an important factor in Ure rekindling his muse… quite ironic as Matt Bellamy and Co have turned ULTRAVOX’s sound up to 11 and taken it round the world’s stadiums!

‘Fragile’ is available as a CD, vinyl LP and download via Hypertension Music

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
11th July 2014

A Short Conversation with MIDGE URE

23 June 2014 / electricityclub

Midge Ure needs no introduction as one of the most highly regarded elder statesmen of the British music scene. Having become fascinated by KRAFTWERK when they hit the UK charts with ‘Autobahn’, he purchased his first synth, a Yamaha CS50 in 1977 and eventually became a prime mover in helping electronic music gain a mainstream acceptance in the UK.

Through his work as a member of VISAGE and ULTRAVOX, songs such as ‘Sleepwalk’, ‘Vienna’, ‘Fade To Grey’, ‘Mind Of A Toy’, ‘The Voice’, ‘The Anvil’, ‘Hymn’, ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’ and ‘Love’s Great Adventure’ have since become recognised standards in Synth Britannia folklore. During this period, he also produced tracks for FATAL CHARM, RONNY and MESSENGERS.

Previously, he’d been a member of THE RICH KIDS and had worked with THIN LIZZY and THE SKIDS. And all this is without mentioning his three UK No1s with SLIK, BAND AID and as a solo artist, plus his charity work with the Band Aid Trust, the Prince’s Trust and Save The Children. The last few years have been particularly busy for Midge Ure.

A regular on the live circuit with his endearingly intimate acoustic gigs featuring career highlights in stripped back form, he also undertook a number of key collaborations in Europe with acts such as X-PERIENCE, SCHILLER and JAM & SPOON. There was of course his own covers album ’10’ in 2009 with Ure’s emotively respectful takes on Peter Green’s ‘Man Of The World’ and Freddie Mercury’s ‘Nevermore’.

But his most high profile project was the reformation of the classic ULTRAVOX line-up. His successful live reunion with Warren Cann, Chris Cross and Billy Currie in 2009 subsequently led to the recording of 2012’s ‘Brilliant’ album. An impressive collection of songs by any standard, the songs ranged from the motorik stomp of ‘Live’ and the ‘U-Vox’ gone right melodic rock of ‘Lie’, to the pulsing electronica of ‘Rise’ and the Odyssey laden ‘Change’. It was a highly apt return as ULTRAVOX’s biggest legacy has probably been the stadium pomp of MUSE… just listen to ‘Apocalypse Please’, ‘Starlight’ and ‘Guiding Light’ if any proof is needed.

2014 has seen Ure contribute to the orchestrated great adventure of ‘International Blue’, an album celebrating the art of the crooner. Assembled by Dutch composer Stephen Emmer, the album also features Ure’s old pal Glenn Gregory from HEAVEN 17. With the release of Ure’s song ‘Taking Back My Time’ as a single and his first solo album of original material in 12 years ‘Fragile’ about to be unleashed, Midge Ure kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK at the world famous Abbey Road Studios about both projects and what the future may hold for ULTRAVOX…

Photo by George Hurrell

How did it feel to be working with an orchestra again on ‘Taking Back My Time’, having done so previously on ‘All In One Day’ and at the ‘Night Of The Proms’ concerts in Germany?

This is slightly different. Stephen Emmer did all the arrangements for the ‘International Blue’ album so I was presented with a backing track that he’d fine honed and worked on.

He thought my voice and my style of melody and lyric writing would suit this project.

This is very grown up stuff, it’s really complicated, beautiful musical arrangements… so to sing a track like that, it was an absolute joy because I didn’t do it the same way I would normally approach one of my songs; it was a different key for me, I sing it much lower so it’s a different vocal range and you can hear that.

Were there any particular classic reference points you used for ‘Taking Back My Time’?

Not really… I mean the chord structure and arrangement that Stephen already had were so reminiscent of the Burt Bacharach school of songwriting, that whole Scott Walker thing, the melody instantly came into place so my process of writing for this took maybe two or three days so it wasn’t a huge amount of time to sit there and do it. My big worry was that I wasn’t going to do Stephen’s backing track justice. So I had to make sure I was singing something that was solid and informative plus had interesting plays on words and subject matter. But the melody itself had to embellish and compliment what he’d already put there.

You have a new solo album ‘Fragile’ coming out soon. How would you describe it?

I describe it as wearing my musical influences on my sleeve. There are elements of prog rock, a lot of electronics, a lot of electric guitar… it’s very difficult for me to say what it is but if one of the tracks came on right now, you would know it’s me… you’d know from the melodies, counter-melodies, structures and vocals of course. So it’s very definably me. In a way, it’s a much more grown up record than anything I’ve done before. It’s been worked on over a period of maybe twelve or thirteen years,

There’s a song ‘Let It Rise’ which you originally did with SCHILLER. How have you reworked it to suit your own style?

SCHILLER’s got his very own, very good and distinctive style which is much more of a laid back, trip-hop dance thing. And although when we wrote it, the track suited his style incredibly well, I thought I could take it back again and turn it into something that’s much more me which is precisely what I’ve done.

One of the highlights of ‘Fragile’ entitled ‘Become’ is another of the songs that’s been around?

It’s the first single… that’s kind of harking back to early VISAGE.

You had originally offered ‘Become’ for the VISAGE comeback album?

I decided not to get involved when originally Rusty Egan and Steve Strange looked like they were getting VISAGE back together again. But when Rusty wanted to start playing around with remixes using modern electronic computer recording techniques, he asked if I had anything so I gave him ‘Become’. He started playing around with it and changing it; but I kept saying to him “Rusty, I will finish that at some point, it’s just something for you to dabble with”! Then it was going to be a track with Steve singing on it, it was going to be a VISAGE track, it was going to be this, it was going to be that… eventually, I said “it’s mine, I’m gonna finish it!” – Rusty is more than welcome to take it down the route he was taking it, but it’s a very different track to the one I finished, although they were conceived from the same idea.

You also worked with Moby on this album?

Yes, the track is called ‘Dark Dark Night’ and it was originally going to be for Moby’s last album… but in true Midge Ure style, by the time I’d finished it, Moby’s album was out! So I converted it and turned it into my thing. I’ve never met Moby or spoke to him, but we’ve got an email / tweeting relationship, so he asked me to do a modern collaboration and that was one of the songs he sent over. I’ve run it past him, he absolutely loves it and more than happy that I’ve put it on ‘Fragile’. I’m touring in America during the summer and he’s coming to the show at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, so I’ll finally meet up with him.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

Is there a concept behind ‘Fragile’?

Yes, subject matter-wise, I always think of an album as a diary and about what affects you. The period, between this album and the last one ‘Move Me’, is such a long period that there have been many highs and many lows during it. So I just documented most things. Some of the songs were starting to be conceived way back then, but I never completed them until the last couple of months, so the whole thing still is coherent and works as a unit, as an album. I’ve started playing with instrumental music again, it’s fairly diverse and very distinctly me.

It’s been 12 years since ‘Move Me’ and you’ve mentioned that part of the delay has been the frustration of the modern music industry. What are your hopes and fears regarding the future… if there is one in the conventional sense?

I can’t predict how it is going to go but I can’t imagine it’s going to get any worse in the industry. We seem to have gone through a massive period of mediocrity while there’s still been some great music, writers and musicians out there. But they seem to be buried under this sea of apathy. I think that the more people understand that the industry as we knew it has completely and utterly gone, then they have to start to do what I’ve had to do for the last thirty years, which is learning how it all works.

So on the ‘Fragile’ album, not only have I played 99% of the instruments, I’ve engineered it, I’ve produced it, I’ve mixed it, shot a video and edited it… you have to be a kind of king of many things. You have to understand how it all works, because there aren’t people out there to do it all for you. There are no budgets out there to throw money at the wall and hoping it will stick! You have to get it right for you, first and foremost. I’m a firm believer that if you absolutely are convinced it’s right, other people will get it.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

You did some dates with ULTRAVOX supporting SIMPLE MINDS in Autumn 2013… was that to test the water with the view to ULTRAVOX continuing in the future at some point, or just some fun?

I think the ULTRAVOX thing, as we said from day one when we got back together, was that we’ve opened doors now that were certainly closed before. And now ULTRAVOX can just sit on a shelf until we find something that interests us to do.

The idea of just going out every year and doing another tour / another tour / another tour kinda is self defeating because it’s a case of diminishing returns… the more often you go out, the less people will go and see you and it becomes a bit pathetic. And we never set out to make it anything pathetic. We want to keep it quality and keep it right. So it’s still sitting there, still breathing, we’re just waiting for a breath of life to spark it back into action again.

The 30th Anniversary of the original BAND AID recording is approaching. Are there any plans to officially commemorate it?

You know what? I honestly have absolutely no idea! There are no plans to do any celebratory 30th Anniversary things. We did Live8 ten years ago, we did BAND AID20 ten years ago… there was talk of a new version of the song, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. But watch this space, who knows?

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Midge Ure

Special thanks to Sacha Taylor-Cox at Impressive PR

‘Fragile’ is released by Hypertension Music on 7th July 2014. Further information can be found at http://www.midgeure.hypertension-music.de/

http://www.midgeure.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Midge-Ure/275159919205373

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
23rd June 2014

MAD WORLD: An Interview with co-author LORI MAJEWSKI

19 April 2014 / electricityclub

‘Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s’ is a brand new book that covers the music of the MTV Generation.

Written by New Jersey born Duranie Lori Majewski and LA based Glaswegian Jonathan Bernstein, ‘Mad World’ includes many of the bands that formed part of the post-punk British Invasion of the US which the Americans later referred to as New Wave. Very different from the British definition of New Wave which included acts such as BLONDIE, THE PRETENDERS, X-RAY SPEX and THE POLICE, the Stateside classification threw in Synth Britannia, New Romantics, Young Soul Rebels, Goths, Antipodean funk rockers and refugees from The Bromley Contingent!

Regardless of the seemingly incongruous acts being lumped together, what New Wave in the US did was enlighten a whole group of impressionable teenagers about a musical world that artistically and stylistically had more to offer than the turgid home grown rock of bands like BOSTON, REO SPEEDWAGON, STYX, TOTO and JOURNEY.

‘Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s’ features a foreword by DURAN DURAN’s Nick Rhodes and while not definitive, ‘Mad World’ delves into the spirit, the politics and the heartache behind some of the greatest songs in popular culture, regardless of genre. With the publication of the book in North America and a UK edition scheduled for Autumn 2014, co-author Lori Majewski gave a fascinating American viewpoint on Synth Britannia and much more…

I understand that this book was partly inspired by the advent of Grunge?

Jonathan Bernstein and I met during Grunge when we both worked at Spin Magazine which in the US, used to be a real competitor to Rolling Stone, although how it’s evolved now as Rolling Stone is more of a veteran magazine while Spin is more indie. But back then, it was neck-and-neck, a bit like how NME and Melody Maker were in the UK. I was just starting out in the business and wanted to work on a music magazine.

Unfortunately for me who grew up an Anglophile and liked electronic music, by the early 90s, electronic music was no longer in vogue and even a dirty word; it was really gauche to use synthesizers! Grunge with its guitars and feedback, it was dirty compared with the pretty electronic sound that we loved in New Wave.

I kept it to myself because I was at Spin, but then I heard Jonathan talking about ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ by ABC being his favourite record… it was like I could hear angels singing because I thought “OH MY GOD! Somebody understands that time in music!” because nobody wanted to talk about it anymore. We were kinda nerdy for even liking it, we weren’t cool at Spin. So we became best friends.

So how long has ‘Mad World’ been in the making and what has the journey been like?

It wasn’t until 18 months ago when we read an article with Gary Kemp from SPANDAU BALLET. He was talking about the song ‘True’, the story behind it, all the different influences and what the lyrics meant. We called each other and thought “Wow! Imagine if we could do this kind of article with all of our favourite songs?” That’s how ‘Mad World’ really evolved.

We were going to do the stories behind the songs but as we interviewed the artists, it turned into so much more… it was about the songs, the journeys to making those seminal tracks, how those tracks changed their lives and how sometimes the success strangled artists. Take A-HA; when I interviewed Mags, he said “everyone knows ‘Take On Me’ but I’m like a dad with lots of kids, don’t just like one of my kids, you have to like all of them!”

We also had a cultural conversation with these artists because they talked about The Cold War and Thatcherism. There were some bands like DURAN DURAN who said they “wanted to be the band that you danced to when the bomb drops”. Others like TEARS FOR FEARS wanted to explore that darker side and the psychological melancholy, which is why our book is called ‘Mad World’.

We wanted to do it decades ago, but we could only have done ‘Mad World’ now when these artists were ready to tell their stories of their careers. Plus we had to wait until a time when this kind of music was back in vogue, because no-one would have bought it even five years ago.

How would describe the way you and Jonathan’s very different dynamics combined to produce ‘Mad World’?

Jonathan is 10 years older… he’s 52, I’m 43; he’s Scottish so he was raised on the critical British music press so he’s much more curmudgeonly while during New Wave, I was a wide-eyed American teen who couldn’t get enough of MTV. So I was a fan and he was a critic… but where we meet is we both LOVE this stuff! He loves it from a critical view and he was like “Gosh, it took me a long time to realise it but this stuff is good and influential!” whereas I just bathe in it; I love DURAN DURAN and DEPECHE MODE and built my entire life around that *laughs*

I’m particularly fascinated about how Americans regarded the synthesizer as an instrument and this frequent reference to it being a keyboard, as if there was some kind of denial about it being a real instrument?

From where I sit, I think the synthesizer is essential to my favourite records. The first big record that used the synthesizer I ever heard was Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’. At that time during the turn of the decade, ’79 going into ’80 here in America, I was listening to AIR SUPPLY, Olivia Newton-John and the ‘Grease’ soundtrack! My father was into Warren Zevon. The thing is, Americans really hated disco after a while so when I first heard ‘Cars’, it was unlike anything I’d ever heard. It sounded like the future, it sounded like the space age. You have to remember not everyone was that open and a lot of people I went to school with went “that’s not music”. And just the fact that it was called a synthesizer… it’s synthesized, it’s not real!

They thought it had no skill whereas the stuff we came up on like JOURNEY and FOREIGNER, they were bands that played guitars and it was real masculine stuff! So someone like Gary Numan comes along, he’s a one-man band thanks to a synthesizer and he’s wearing make-up!

You see, David Bowie was not as big in the US as he was in the UK at the time. So you put all that together and no-one here really knew Numan was pretty much born of the rib of Bowie. So people thought it was sissy stuff and uncool… and he’s wearing make-up and making synthesized sounds! So Americans were very suspicious of it.

How would you describe the impact of Gary Numan and THE HUMAN LEAGUE in the US during the first wave of UK synth artists?

In the Europe, you also had ULTRAVOX, OMD plus of course KRAFTWERK. Gary Numan was the first to really make it big and mainstream so in the US, he opened the door for all that. But when THE HUMAN LEAGUE and EURYTHMICS came on the scene with ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ and ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’, I just felt “WOW! THINGS ARE CHANGING!”.

The reason we cover ‘Being Boiled’ in the book is an inconvenience of the fact that Phil Oakey didn’t want to talk to us, that was really disappointing. I was thinking “Do we even have a book without ‘Don’t You Want Me?’…?”; but then talking to Martyn Ware, he chatted about his beginnings with THE HUMAN LEAGUE. I realised ‘Being Boiled’ was the boiler plate for so many of the records that came afterwards; DURAN DURAN, OMD and Vince Clarke all talk about ‘Being Boiled’. So we may not have the story you expect with ‘Don’t You Want Me?’, but we have one of the beginning stories of the entire era.

There was still a very macho rockist attitude at the time… I recall John Cougar making some quite homophobic comments about SOFT CELL in Smash Hits!

Really? It’s interesting, as a young girl I didn’t think straight or gay, I was just thinking love. Music has such an emotional impact on you anyway but especially if you are a young person. I just felt that music opened up my eyes and heart to things that I hadn’t previously been exposed to. And that’s why I fell in love with DURAN DURAN… yes, it helped that they were good looking but they dressed so well and they were so interesting.

But you compare that to the guy at school who may be the equivalent of a John Cougar in the jeans and T-shirt. That may work on some girls but that’s your average guy to me, whereas you had DURAN DURAN on these exotic beaches, wearing these fantastic clothes and having these great accents. And Boy George, I didn’t think if he was straight or gay, I just thought he was beautiful. At the time, boys looked like girls and girls looked like boys but it didn’t necessarily mean they were gay. SPANDAU BALLET dressed up and sometime wore as much make-up as LIMAHL did. But he said at that time, you just didn’t talk about… but he was not in the closet either.

I think we were so much more progressive back then we are now. During the Grammys this year, we had Macklemore standing up for gay rights. But back in the 80s, you didn’t need a straight white rapper to do that because you had gay pop stars in the charts.

OMD are an interesting conundrum as they were part of that first wave yet didn’t make it at the time, but they then made progress later when they supported THOMPSON TWINS and THE POWER STATION before ‘If You Leave’ was a hit?

OMD are a good example of where the difference between me and Jonathan is vast. Jonathan loved them right from the beginning and really understood their KRAFTWERK pedigree. Me? I happened by accident to get into OMD because I had tickets to see THE POWER STATION.

SPANDAU BALLET who were due to support had to pull out of the tour as Steve Norman had broken his leg! So I saw OMD with them instead and they played this song from a new movie called ‘Pretty In Pink’. I was thinking “who is this guy with the crazy dance moves?”, but I could see he was really into it and I loved the music.

So I went backwards from ‘If You Leave’ and discovered ‘Architecture & Morality’; I fell in love with the pair of love songs about Joan Of Arc and I was like “THIS IS JUST INCREDIBLE!”. To this day, OMD are definitely in my top three favourite bands. I saw them in concert this past summer and they were my favourite of the year. I still think record after record, they make fantastic music and I say in the book, if no other band existed in the genre of New Wave, I’d be happy to hang my hat entirely on just OMD and say they are a genre unto themselves because I think they are that spectacular a group!

Now, with OMD’s early stuff compared with the later stuff, I think it’s apples and oranges because with ‘If You Leave’, it’s from ‘Pretty In Pink’ which is my favourite of the John Hughes films. I have a soft spot for Ducky… which girl who grew up in the 80s didn’t? I grew up with freckles so I really loved the fact that Molly Ringwald was considered a really beautiful girl. Until her, there were no pretty teenage girls I could look up to, so all of that is wrapped up in ‘If You Leave’. It’s definitely a part of the whole John Hughes nostalgia thing. But when I think of early OMD, I think of ground breaking seminal electronic music.

It’s interesting you feature THE NORMAL in the book, but not KRAFTWERK. KRAFTWERK seem to have made more of a cultural impact on the US urban dance scene rather than New Wave pop?

We look at KRAFTWERK as being a parent figure to this era rather then being a part of it itself. So when I think about who inspired all of these artists, it’s KRAFTWERK, ROXY MUSIC, T-REX, CHIC and David Bowie. Then you put it through the punk blender because none of these New Wave artists would have picked up an instrument if it wasn’t for punk. Bowie, Roxy and Bolan were too much on a pedestal, you could never imagine emulating them because they were true rock stars.

But when punk and KRAFTWERK came around, two things happened; punk made you feel you could do it with just three chords while KRAFTWERK taught you that you didn’t even need a band, just one piece of equipment which was the synthesizer. So that’s why there isn’t a chapter on KRAFTWERK, but they are mentioned many times throughout the book.

The chat with Peter Hook must have been quite revealing considering his Joyless Division with NEW ORDER?

Peter Hook was one of my first interviews for the book actually and he is one of my favourites, I probably talked to him about five times. He was very generous with his time, his memories and he was very candid. Some people think he’s overly angry about the situation but as he says in the book, he gave 30 years of his life to the band and he feels really burnt by it. He said it’s a divorce and as someone who’s been through one, I wasn’t married for over 30 years but I can’t imagine what it must feel like; he calls the new version of NEW ORDER “New Odour”. I really liked talking to Peter and one of the reasons is because he is proud of his legacy and loves his own music, both as JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER.

Now, when I talked to like Vince Clarke, it was really hard to get him to talk about his own music. But once I started asking him about his heroes, he completely opened up about people like Simon & Garfunkel and THE CURE. So he had no problem talking about that, but had a problem talking about his own music because it’s too close to him. Peter Hook is not like that, he is enjoying preserving his legacy and you can see that; he’s written two books on his career so far and has another on the way about NEW ORDER. I think he’s a great storyteller.

Did you talk to Bernard Sumner as well?

Yes, I also interviewed Bernard but he really avoided as much as possible talking about Peter Hook and the problems they had. He said NEW ORDER’s music, particularly ‘Blue Monday’ has been passed down through the family like a gold watch, meaning people who are in their 40s and 50s have passed the music down to their teenage kids who now find it cool. The JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER chapters are two of my favourites.

My heart hurts for Peter because I’m a very sensitive person too and I can tell that this whole situation with Bernard has broken his heart. However, this is not something that happened recently, this has been a slow boil for many years. Peter said they only shared one phone call over 35 years and that was because Bernard’s car had a flat battery and he need a lift to a gig!

This first wave paved the way for prettier bands like DURAN DURAN and DEPECHE MODE plus electro-soul hybrids like HEAVEN 17, EURYTHMICS and YAZOO in the US. Was there a big difference in these acts that made them more appealing to Americans? Was it really just down to videos and MTV?

A good video is a good video, but a great video can’t rescue a crappy song! So it was much more than that… the truth of the matter is, DURAN DURAN became as big as they are in the United States because they spent many months touring here. In 1984 on their biggest tour, they spent half the year here. So America got used to these bands whereas HEAVEN 17 never set foot here.

Martyn Ware talks about HEAVEN 17 never coming to the US and thinks that hurt them. HEAVEN 17, YAZOO and a few of the others, they appeared on video and it was so new, it got them all around the world at once. So they thought “MTV in America play videos, why do they have to see us live? We don’t need to go to Australia, we’ll send them the video!”

If HEAVEN 17 had toured and put in the time, they had the songs that would have made them big here… ‘Temptation’ had a lot of potential in the US. YAZOO were sizeable here and not just with ‘Only You’. When I was in High School, everyone loved ‘Upstairs at Eric’s’ and they played ‘Situation’ to death.

What about DEPECHE MODE?

DEPECHE MODE are interesting in that they’re really two bands… in this book, we talk about the early Vince Clarke Depeche that was really, a different group to the one that came over towards the end of the decade and sold out the Rose Bowl. And when Vince Clarke left, they really didn’t know what was going to happen because he wrote all the songs and produced.

It took Martin Gore a few albums to step up; ‘People Are People’ was a slight hit here but it wasn’t until they really put the time in to breaking in America that they made it. In fact, their first huge hit here wasn’t until ‘Enjoy The Silence’ in 1990. To me, DEPECHE MODE and THE CURE are the Holy pair of New Wave graduates who then went into the alternative music scene and started playing stadiums. I believe if THE SMITHS had stuck it out, they would have been doing so too.

With DURAN DURAN and their sound particularly, were their disco and rock elements also a factor in their American appeal in that they were not a pure synthesizer group?

I think you’re right. I’m the world’s biggest Duranie and I have to say, I think the magic is that the five members made incredible music and were the best at what they did. Nick Rhodes was a great synthesizer player and a producer behind the scenes in putting these records together; Simon Le Bon has an interesting and unique voice; John Taylor is a hell of a bassist who many contemporary artists look up to; you had Roger Taylor who Mark Ronson and Nile Rodgers both talk about what a strong drummer he is; and then there’s Andy Taylor who Mark Ronson says gave “a Steve Jones element” to the band. So you have this confluence of disco and synth sound with the crazy rock guitar element, it was a unique combination. With DURAN DURAN, you had the best of all worlds. You didn’t have that in SPANDAU BALLET!

Photo by Virginia Turbett

It’s interesting you say that, I briefly spoke to John Taylor once and asked him when he realised DURAN DURAN were going to trump SPANDAU BALLET and he replied “To Cut A Long Story Short”…

…he said to me that he ran out and bought that record, listened to it and was like “alright, nothing to worry about”. A thing that come across in the book is how competitive all of these groups were. Duran were super competitive with Spandau and that gets a lot of ink.

But also, DURAN DURAN were worried about ABC and John Taylor says in the book how nervous he was when ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ came out. And ABC were looking over their shoulder at THE HUMAN LEAGUE. And Gary Numan was competing with OMD. Back then, there was a race and ABC’s Martin Fry talks a lot about that race to put out the freshest, coolest, newest sounding record. And they were all competing in it.

They were all very much trying to come up with the next sound. So it’s interesting with ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’; SPANDAU BALLET started as a New Romantic band, then they come out with this funk dancefloor hit ‘Chant No1’, AND THEN became much more of a ballads band with ‘True’.

Look at today’s music scene… no bands are blowing up the formula between records like they did then! That’s what made it so exciting and so interesting. John Taylor went rushing out to buy ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ because he had no idea what it was going to sound like; whereas today, when Katy Perry puts out a record, you kinda know how it’s going to sound! And so many of today’s artists use the same producer so they do sound the same! *laughs*

Photo by Brian Griffin

ULTRAVOX who are in the book never made it in America despite their cinematic videos. Were they just too European and too old for the MTV Generation?

It’s funny, with ULTRAVOX, I think Americans had no idea where Vienna even was, so they couldn’t get into it! *laughs*

But for us Anglophiles who understood and liked DURAN DURAN and SPANDAU BALLET, it opened up Europe to us. The first time I ever went to England was to see a DURAN DURAN concert. Nick Rhodes said the same thing about Bowie, he had never even left the country but through Bowie, he felt he could understand what it could be like to go to Berlin or Paris. In general, only 2 out of 10 Americans even had a passport and that’s true to this day. Andrew Farriss of INXS said that people in America were getting them confused and thinking they were Austrian instead of Australian! The accents couldn’t be more different! *laughs*

But Midge Ure is one of those really important driving forces of the entire movement because not only was he in ULTRAVOX, but he was a big part of VISAGE and co-wrote ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ so he had to be in this book 🙂

How do you subscribe to the thought that a number of these British acts that made it huge in America were effectively softened versions of acts that came before eg DURAN DURAN with JAPAN, and PET SHOP BOYS with SOFT CELL?

I’ve never thought of PET SHOP BOYS ever as a softened version of SOFT CELL, but I can see where you’re coming from. The first time I heard ‘West End Girls’, it blew my mind, I’d never heard anything like it before and I still haven’t. SOFT CELL’s ‘Tainted Love’ was a tremendous hit here, it’s up there with ‘Sweet Dreams’, ‘Cars’ and ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ but SOFT CELL never really followed it up here.

As far as DURAN DURAN and JAPAN went, it’s like Gary Numan and David Bowie. I didn’t know until years later about JAPAN because they weren’t big here. But I remember listening to them and thinking “Wow! I can really hear DURAN DURAN in this”.

Now Duran may have started out with that influence but let’s not forget about SPANDAU BALLET. DURAN DURAN may have blown them out of the water eventually, but they have Spandau to thank. If there wasn’t a Blitz Club, there wouldn’t have been a Rum Runner so if there wasn’t a SPANDAU BALLET, there wouldn’t have been a DURAN DURAN. But Duran kept it going and they’re the elder statesmen of the entire era.

I loved JAPAN but they were too bloody minded and David Sylvian was too arty to want to become pop stars…

DURAN DURAN never minded and wanted to embrace the mainstream. They were huge and maximised every opportunity whether it was videos or their good looks or the fact that they were good songwriters and musicians. They were a team and shared songwriting credits on every song.

SPANDAU BALLET broke in two because Gary Kemp was being sued by three members of the band for royalties.

DURAN DURAN never had to worry about that kind of thing. I’m really proud to be a Duranie because they’re survivors. Have you seen DURAN DURAN live?

Oh yes, several times. I didn’t see them until 1988 unfortunately, but I went to one of the 2004 shows at Wembley Arena and it is still one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to!

I was at every single one, I loved those Wembley shows! OH MY GOD! They blew me away!

This will make you laugh, one of the things about being a male DURAN DURAN fan, you didn’t admit it when you were younger. But you don’t have a problem with it when you’re older. So when me and my mate got to the Wembley gig, we thought “where shall we stand? Oh, let’s stand towards the left” because of course, that was where all the girls were… waiting for John Taylor! 😉

You’re right, guys did not admit to liking them when they were younger but now you go to a Duran concert and there tons of guys there… and they’re not just there to hold the wife’s handbag! *laughs*

Who’d have thought the majority of the acts that feature in ‘Mad World’ are still active as brands and live performers. So should these artists keep touring and how do you feel about them recording new material?

When we interviewed Andy McCluskey, he feels that a lot of bands from this era shouldn’t be doing new music because they have nothing new to say. He felt that when OMD made the last two albums, they had to dig deep to really challenge themselves to say it was not to make a quick buck off the audience. That’s why Tom Bailey has to this day not done an acoustic album of THOMPSON TWINS hits or a reunion tour because he feels he doesn’t have it in him… although for the first time, he’s going to be touring solo in the US with Midge Ure and Howard Jones.

But I look at a band like DURAN DURAN; Simon Le Bon said to me that they are “career musicians”, they would not know what to do with themselves if they did not have a tour to do or a studio to go into… they are driven to make new music. Some people think the record ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ with Timbaland was a mistake, but it’s one of my favourites… I’m really look up to Duran because they take chances. I always say hats off to acts like them and U2 for trying new things.

Of course, I see why Duranies were so excited about the Mark Ronson produced ‘All You Need Is Now’ album because it brought them back to ‘Rio’ and that sound. As long as bands are inspired to keep going and can, they should. INXS cannot keep going; they called it a day last year and Andrew Farriss said he has a hard time writing with someone who isn’t Michael Hutchence. Imagine working with someone for so long and suddenly they’re not there anymore?

So the bands that do continue, by and large, none of them disappoint me. I like some records better than others but even if I don’t like what they produce, I love the spirit with which they produce it.

I guess the end result of this New Wave legacy in America is that there’s great cinema like ‘Donnie Darko’, but also terrible new bands like FUTURE ISLANDS…

…I’m not a huge fan of FUTURE ISLANDS either… I was on my way to do a radio interview and I could not remember what they were called, I was thinking “Fantasy Islands? No, that’s not right!” *laughs*

The thing is, when I saw FUTURE ISLANDS on ‘The David Letterman Show’, I thought it was a comedian doing a skit on what they thought an 80s New Wave band was like…

…really? That’s so funny, I can see that! *laughs*

So how do you view the long term cultural significance of New Wave?

What I do like is that the sound continues… I like CHVRCHES, I think they’re good. On ‘American Idol’ the other evening, it was ‘80s Night’ and they had DURAN DURAN on there. Even a lot of this EDM is really a direct descendant of New Wave and electronica. Daniel Miller of Mute said that he can’t stand that term EDM aka Electronic Dance Music, but it’s what New Wave sort of was.

So it continues and it’s cool that the artists we love are finally getting recognition for really paving the way 30 years ago. I mean, there was the 90s when nobody would give OMD or Gary Numan a record deal because people thought no-one wanted to hear that music. John Taylor said he would have crawled into a hole in the ground if it wasn’t for Nick Rhodes keeping DURAN DURAN together, because they felt so shunned by popular culture.

What’s nice, whether or not you like EDM, FUTURE ISLANDS or CHVRCHES, is they’re continuing the tradition of the artists we love and allowing them to get their proper due finally. I really hope that in the next few years, DEPECHE MODE get inducted into The Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame. It’s about time one of these bands gets properly recognised for ushering in an entire era of amazing electronic music.

Moby, who does the afterword in ‘Mad World’, said to you he’d have liked to have been in DURAN DURAN. I always wanted to be in OMD and still dress like Paul Humphreys circa 1981! Which New Wave band would you have liked to have been in?

This is a hard question… to me DURAN DURAN are so good at what they do, I can’t even imagine being a part of it. Do you know what I mean? Whereas I look at a band like BOW WOW WOW, they had a female singer Annabella Lwin and I talk a lot in the book about how she was my first girl crush. She had a Mohican and she was so freaking cool! It seems like it was a party to be part of BOW WOW WOW although you learn from the book that it was nowhere near a party and that she barely hung out with the guys! But from a distance, it looked really fun to be in BOW WOW WOW?

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Lori Majewski

‘Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s’ by Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein is published by Abrams Books

http://madworldbook.com

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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
19th April 2014, updated 3rd February 2019

Tag: Ultravox (Page 12 of 16)

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