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Classic - pop.TruePDF August - September.2015
Classic - pop.TruePDF August - September.2015
CLASSIC POP
eighties
THE
electronic
eclectic POLICE Peter
AUG/SEP 2015
LIVE
LIVE AID • THE POLICE • PETER GABRIEL • GEORGE MICHAEL • KRAFTWERK • SHAUN RYDER • MATT JOHNSON • PAUL YOUNG AND... STATUS QUO!
GEORGE
MICHAEL
AID
From Wham! To
Symphonica
THE GREATEST
SHOW ON EARTH
30 YEARS ON...
BOB, MIDGE, SPANDAU
AND DURAN ON THE
DAY THAT CHANGED
POP FOREVER
DUSSELDORF
& KRAFTWERK
The Rise of The Robots
INTERVIEWED
SHAUN RYDER Matt Johnson • Paul Young
“The Eighties had all got Marsheaux • Shriekback
a bit Rick Astley... Sarah Cracknell • Simple
we wanted to bring Minds • Thomas Dolby • The
rock’n’roll back!” Pretenders • Patti LaBelle
Hall & Oates • Adam Ant
18
18
CLASSIC POP
AUG/SEP 15
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ISSUE 18
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WELCOME TO
CLASSIC
eighties
electronic
eclectic
C
ANY TV OR RADIO onsequently I was the for a video which flashes back to
first to suggest that we images of The Tube, Frankie Say,
SIGNALS, AND SO should celebrate Live Leigh Bowery, and Siouxsie Sioux.
THE FIRST TIME I SAW Aid’s 30th anniversary But that’s not to say they’re
LIVE AID WAS TWO and relive it all over again – or being overly nostalgic. They
maybe even live it for the first poetically take on those for whom
WEEKS LATER. A FRIEND time – with a special feature and that past is always more exciting
HAD TAPED THE ENTIRE souvenir supplement. than the future in another new
We have some of the most song, The King Of The Tree: “The
THING ACROSS EIGHT iconic portrait shots from on stage, schlock of the new? Let’s not rise
E180 VHS TAPES. THE and a minute-by-minute timeline to the bait. Why should we work
BIGGEST, MOST LIFE- and reminisces from everyone with the kind of old fools who can’t
that was there. The timeline is recalibrate?”
CHANGING EVEN IN based on the BBC live feed but And that really was the spirit of
POP MUSIC HISTORY, also takes in the various satellite Live Aid too – doing something
AND I HAD TO WATCH link-ups from around the world, new and different, and trying to
and the premiers of the specially- change the future. And I guess
IT ON CATCH-UP. filmed pieces like David Bowie we all remember where we were
and Mick Jagger’s Dancing In The at the time, because we all could
Street – what was easily the most feel that history was in the making.
emotional moment of the whole As Daryl Hall told us, “In most
concert – the documentary footage cases, the things people tell you
set to The Cars’ Drive. are significant landmarks in your
Elsewhere this issue we go in career you don’t realise at the
depth with some of the unsung time. But with Live Aid, on the day
heroes of devious, deviant pop I thought ‘This is huge’…”
antics: Shriekback. Not least Ian Peel, Editor
because the first track from their
new album sums up the spirit of
Classic Pop. Take a look for Now
Those Days Are Gone on YouTube
S U B S C R I B E
3
CLASSIC
eighties
electronic
eclectic
3
CONTENTS
24
Getty Images
18
68 48
Follow us F E A T U R E S schoolgirl’s pride and joy’ to topping the ROSE MCDOWALL 62
Search Classic Pop LIVE AID 24 charts with a heartbreaking lament to As one half of Strawberry Switchblade she
magazine To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Live Aid, lost love… reached the heights of Eighties pop. Now she
we track back to that eventful day and offer SARAH CRACKNELL 48 ventures into darker terrain
@classicpop
a blow-by-blow account from the mouths of Eighteen years after her last solo MARSHEAUX 68
magazine
the cast of stars who helped Bob Geldof and offering, Saint Etienne’s enigmatic The Greek electro duo that dared take
@classicpop frontwoman returns to the studio on Depeche Mode chat with Classic Pop
Midge Ure create what truly was the greatest
magazine
show on earth… DÜSSELDORF 52 about the (re)making of A Broken Frame
ANDY SUMMERS 34 Die Krupps, DAF, Claudia Brücken SHRIEKBACK 74
With the DVD of a new film in the and Propaganda, and of course EDM 35 years lurking in the underground
offing this month, The Police’s guitarist pioneers Kraftwerk – many a mighty and arthouse-pop renegades Shriekback
remembers the pressures of life in the act has been forged in Düsseldorf have risen from the depths once more
band, up to their 2007 reunion tour POP ART: PETER GABRIEL 58 PAUL YOUNG 80
THE LOWDOWN: GEORGE Peter Saville has been behind some of the Paul Young has gone from chart-topping
MICHAEL AND WHAM! 42 world’s most iconic sleeve art, and it was he Eighties pop idol to an entirely different
We summarise the career of the UK pop who brought the camera-shy Gabriel out of position as frontman with Americana
sensation, from teen idol and ‘every the shadows for seminal album So outfit Los Pacaminos
4
34
58
42 80
Eric Watson
62 52
N E W S shaun ryder 19 R E V I E W S Subscribe
pop-up 08 A solo single, reunion shows with Black The best releases and live concerts subscribe to Classic
New Order, Duran Duran, Janet Jackson Grape and an anniversary tour with neW reLeases 93 Pop, save 25% and
and Hurts return with new albums, Boy Happy Mondays – Shaun is a busy man Fresh deliveries from Lianne La Havas, PiL, choose your bundle.
George goes on reality TV, Prince rocks Little Boots, Chemical Brothers… turn to Page 66
out at the White House, Neverland up R E G U L A R S reissues 98
for sale and… will The Police reform? transmission 20 Duran Duran, John Foxx, Frankie Goes To
buried treasures 12 Classic Pop readers speak! Hollywood, Ian Dury and much more SAVE
Rare box sets from Peter Gabriel,
Status Quo and The Police, plus Dire
LonG LiVe VinyL
A monstrous Bowie box set, The
84 compiLations 103
Two compilations from The Beat, Bucks Fizz,
25%
Straits and the first ever CD single Virgin Suicides soundtrack reissued by Eighties mixes and Smash Hits!
radar 14 Air, Suede, Supergrass, Joy Division, books 105
On the airwaves soon Cocteau Twins and more New publications covering David Bowie, The
matt johnson 17 competitions 86 Jam, Whispering Bob and Original Rockers
New book, soundtrack, documentary A Giorgio Moroder synth no less! LiVe 108
and reissues projects from the man top 10 88 Tom Bailey at Let’s Rock!, Kylie in Hyde
behind The The Another historic week at the top Park, Bryan Ferry…
5
CLASSIC
eighties
electronic
eclectic
Anthem Publishing
Suite 6, Piccadilly House,
London Road, Bath, BA1 6PL
WATERCOOLER
MOMENTS
OUR FAVOURITE LIVE AID MOMENTS… *1 “I tuned in especially to watch Adam Ant.
Vive Le Rock is magnificent, and the public
EDITOR Mark Frith are poltroons. I also wish that, like Nick
Ian Peel Forgive me, but it’s got to be U2. Rhodes, I’d seen Bob Dylan walk into a wall
ian.peel@anthem-publishing.com Bad is a great great song after his noxious mumbling.”
Madonna singing backing vocals for Thompson Twins Mark Lindores
Madonna *2 *2 “Shrugging off the publication of nude
ART DIRECTOR Andy Saunders, Art Editor pics in Playboy, she was introduced by Bette
Jenny Cook Queen Midler as “a woman who pulled herself up
jenny.cook@anthem-publishing.com by her bra-straps, and who has been known
Rudy Bolly
Wrapped in my duvet and staying up ‘late’ to let them down occasionally”. She arrived
Paul McCartney blissfully unaware he is mute onstage in a heavy coat despite the baking
to watch Madonna throughout Let It Be heat, telling the world, “I ain’t taking shit
off today, you might hold it against me 10
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
years from now” before delivering a great
Rik Flynn Rick Batey performance and ending the day singing
richard.flynn@anthem-publishing.com Pierre Perrone backup for Thompson Twins.”
Simon Le Bon’s false note slip-up during A View To A Kill Paul Dimery
*3 “The whole occasion seemed bigger than
Andy Ounsted any one performance. And as for Adam
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Leah Fitz-Henry Ant – career ending moment – very sad at
the time…”
leah.fitz-henry@anthem-publishing.com MANAGING DIRECTOR
Queen Jon Bickley *4 “I was at a friend’s party and really felt
jon.bickley@anthem-publishing.com like we were there even though we weren’t.”
DIGITAL EDITOR
Watching on a black and white telly in a pub in
Chiara Braggion
Cropedy on a canal boat hol.*3
chiara.braggion@anthem-publishing.com
Queen EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Paul Pettengale
CONTRIBUTORS
paul.pettengale@anthem-publishing.com
John Earls
The very start and the sense of occasion *4
Adam Ant*1
PUBLISHER
Wyndham Wallace Simon Lewis
Bono taking his mullet for a dance in the photo pit simon.lewis@anthem-publishing.com
Dire Straits’ Sultans Of Swing every time
Paul Lester
Adam Ant
O U R C O N T R I B U T O R S
A fan of Nick Kent, Julie Best known for editing Formerly a publicist, label
Burchill and Paul Morley, Teletext’s music pages representative and artist
Paul Lester always wanted Planet Sound throughout manager, Wyndham
to be a music journalist. He the Noughties, John Earls Wallace is a Berlin-based
became Features Editor of has also done pop for The writer whose first book,
Melody Maker, and later Sunday People, News Of Lee, Myself & I – about Lee
Deputy Editor of Uncut. Since 2007 he has The World and, currently, NME and the Hazlewood, the man behind These Boots
freelanced for The Guardian, The Sunday Daily Star. John lectures in journalism, Are Made For Walking – is out now. He’s
Times, The Independent, MOJO, Classic writes about football and will one day get also subtitled German films for English
Rock, Prog… and Classic Pop, where this that David Bowie interview. This month: audiences and sung with Morcheeba. This
month he interviews Rose McDowall. Live Aid, Sarah Cracknell, and Paul Young. issue he talks to Marsheaux.
SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES 0844 8560642 (Calls cost 7 pence per minute plus your phone company’s access charge) or +44 (0)1795 414877 classicpop@
servicehelpline.co.uk PRINTING Polestar UK Print Ltd Tel +44 (0)1582 678900 DISTRIBUTION Marketforce (UK) Ltd The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street,
London, SE1 0SU Tel +44 (0)20 3148 3300 LICENSING ENQUIRIES Jon Bickley Tel +44 (0)1225 489984 jon.bickley@anthem-publishing.com
6
IN A BUNCH: The Singles 1981-1993
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n e w s & o b s e s s i o n s
Nick Wilson
8
UP
9
UP
No.18
JOHN FARNHAM
YOU’RE THE VOICE
Comedians needing a shorthand
for eggy Eighties power
ballads can still turn to Aussie
singer John Farnham’s sole
international hit. You’re The The Police take another breath?
C
Voice was sung by Peter Kay ould The Police be poised for another reunion? Stewart Copeland isn’t
in his recent charming BBC1 ruling it out. Asked about the possibility the drummer replied, “We all
sitcom Car Share and was also get along really well, there’s no reason not to – so who knows? It’s a
the soundtrack to the low-speed blank page of history yet to be written.“ The Police last toured in 2008;
car chase in Alan Partridge film “Even the most incredible adventure, when it’s time to go home, there’s a
Alpha Papa. sense of relief,” Copeland admitted. “It was an incredible adventure, but it was all-
Farnham has been an icon in encompassing. ‘Tour-zilla’ we called it... we were relieved when we could go back
Australia for nearly 50 years, to our families, to our lives, to our own cool stuff.”
having begun as a teen-pop idol These days Copeland writes concertos for percussion, but he has also become a
with novelty song Sadie The Sting fan and adores his most recent work The Last Ship. “I got the album and I saw
Cleaning Lady as a 17-year-old him play it on TV one night, and the next day I could sing you the whole thing. The
in 1967. Ironically, You’re The guy’s still got it when it comes to a tune, and the lyrics are just beautiful.”
Voice initially struggled back
home on its release in 1986
as it marked Farnham’s change PRINCE’S WHITE
from clean-cut popster to serious
balladeer. Its co-writers include Colin Vearncombe HOUSEQUAKE
Prince has received the Presidential seal
Whiter Shade Of Pale songwriter
Keith Reid, Marvin Gaye’s goes back to Black of approval after rocking the White
House. The funk icon was invited by
backing singer Maggie Ryder, Wonderful Life hitmaker Colin Vearncombe returns President Barack and First Lady Michelle
and Manfred Mann guitarist on June 29 under his alias of Black with a new Obama to play for 500 A-list friends and
Chris Thompson. album, Blind Faith, created with his long-term supporters in June. The top-secret gig was
Once given radio support, writing partner Calum MacColl and funded by described by a White House official as a
You’re The Voice’s parent album PledgeMusic. Since 2009’s Water On Stone he “private party for friends and family” and
Whispering Jack topped the has written a book of poetry, I Am Not The Same few details are known, but there was a
charts for 25 weeks in Australia Person, and moved to the West Coast of Ireland. cameo by Stevie Wonder, who performed
and is the country’s all-time “I’m not missing London,” he tells Classic Pop. Signed, Sealed,
biggest-selling album. Since Delivered and
then, Farnham has appeared in Kiss with the
musicals such as Jesus Christ purple one.
Superstar and scored No. 1s in Prince recently
every decade from the Sixties released a newly
to the ‘00s. Although You’re mastered version
The Voice was a hit throughout of his Freddie
Europe, it failed to chart in the Gray protest
US, but became a minor hit there song Baltimore
when Heart covered it in 1991. on iTunes.
10
N E W S & O B S E S S I O N S
Surrender
to Hurts NEVERLAND
UP FOR SALE
Synthpop aficionados Hurts Michael Jackson’s famous home
return with a third studio album, Neverland – the 2,700-acre ranch
Surrender, on 9 October. in Santa Ynez Valley which fell into
The duo have a fine ear for disrepair following his untimely
classic pop melodies but this death in 2009 – is back on the
time they have expanded their market. Inspired by his favourite
sound, citing Fleetwood Mac, book, JM Barrie’s timeless children’s
Steely Dan, and even Motown classic Peter Pan, Jackson turned the
as infl uences. property into a playground when he
“We decided to see how bought it in 1988, installing a zoo, a
things would turn out if we train line, a cinema and a funfair.
enjoyed ourselves!” singer Colony Capital LLC, who bailed out
Theo Hutchcraft explains. “It Jackson in 2008 after he defaulted
was quite a dark time making on the $24.5 million that he owed
the last record, and the content on the property, were rumoured to
was quite reflective of our state, be planning to build a Graceland-like
but once we’d finished it and homage to the King of Pop, but now
exorcised the demons our mood Neverland has been refurbished and
shifted quite a lot.” is available to you for a cool $100
The duo joined forces with million. According to tabloid reports,
Madonna’s Grammy Award- the ghost of Jackson may scupper
winning producer Stuart Price the sell-off. Fans claim to have seen
and Ariel Rechtshaid (Haim, the late star moonwalking across the
Vampire Weekend) to sculpt grounds at night; others believe the
the new opus, and a first property should never be put up for
taster, Some Kind of Heaven, is sale, as per Jackson’s own wishes.
available on iTunes now.
B
oy George is an icon
of the Eighties, but
it’s the Seventies he
misses the most. “I’m
not really a nostalgia
freak,” George tells Classic
Pop ahead of his US tour with
Culture Club. “I think you’ve
got to mix it up. I like going to
clubs where you meet different DURAN TO
people. That’s why I love the RUN AND RUN
Seventies… it was the most
With new album Paper Gods arriving on
bonkers time. Cliff mixing with
11 September, Simon Le Bon is sounding
the Pistols. It was mad.”
committed. “The big thing is to keep
Fans will soon get a peek
Duran Duran going. I want to make a
into George’s private life via
really serious body of work. That’s my big
a TV reality show. “It’s difficult
ambition.” The band will tour the UK this
to say what it’s like – you don’t
winter, kicking off at Manchester Arena
know what it’s going to be
on 27 November. Pick up the next issue of
about until you start filming it,
Classic Pop for an exclusive feature!
put all the characters in place,”
he teases. “I’ve got to have
this conversation in a
Dean Stockings
11
UP
BURIED TREASURES
ANSWERS 1) The Chemical Brothers 2) Kylie Minogue 3) Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk 4) Smalltown Boy 5) Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum 6) China Crisis 7) ABC 8) David Gilmour 9) Deborah Harry 10) Sweetest Smile 11) Yello 12) Madness 13) The Spice Girls 14) Jess Glynne 15) Bad
R
ooting around those boxes of junk in your loft may turn up more
than you hoped for. While many vinyl releases from the Seventies,
1New Order’s new album is co-
produced by Tom Rowlands, a
member of which influential duo?
Eighties and Nineties are worth next to nothing – nostalgic value
aside, of course – some could land you a small fortune, should you
choose to part with them. Here, we take four rare artefacts to the
2 Which of the following do not
feature on Duran Duran’s new
album: Lindsay Lohan, Kylie,
experts at 991.com and ask them for a valuation. Browse their online store at
www.991.com... and get 15% off using voucher code CP150115.
Janelle Monae, Mark Ronson? THE POLICE PETER GABRIEL
12
N E W S & O B S E S S I O N S
13
O N T H E
UP
Spandau fight for
THE RELEASES TO
LOOK OUT FOR IN
themselves
After almost six months on the road, Gary Kemp
THE NEXT COUPLE thinks Spandau Ballet have never sounded better.
OF MONTHS… “Five years ago, that was just putting our toe in the
water,” he says. “This is the best show we’ve ever
done. It’s the most relaxed, everyone is respecting
JOY DIVISION each other, the audience are responding because of
GUTHRIE’S UNIQUE that.” Despite scoring some of the most recognisable
Still/Substance SOUND hits of the Eighties, Kemp wants Spandau’s legacy to
Reissues 24/7/15 Rob Guthrie, formerly of Cocteau Twins, be about live shows rather than his songwriting.
BANANARAMA lends his ethereal touch to the new album “We’re one of the
In A Bunch: The Singles by Jay-Jay Johanson, Opium. The Swedish best live bands
1981-1993 songwriter has known Guthrie since in the world,” he
1997, describing him, “a great man with says. “We do a
33-CD box-set 31/7/15
a unique sound”. New track Scarecrow is good show, and
LIANNE LA HAVAS just a taste of what the two have been that’s what we’re
Blood working on lately; “Our first collaboration about – although
New album 31/7/15 was She’s Mine But I’m Not Hers, a song I think the three
off my second record,” Johanson says, new songs we did
JESS GLYNNE
“and we also worked on Far Away and with Trevor Horn
I Cry When I Laugh Escape, two tracks on my third record, capture our energy
New album 14/8/15 Poison. Our most productive session was better than ever
PUBLIC IMAGE LTD roughly a year ago now, in a studio near before.” Spandau
Rennes. We did five tracks and the first hope to begin
What The World Needs Now one we finished is Scarecrow.” More recording a new
New album 21/8/15 material is expected in 2016. album next year.
PAUL YOUNG
Tomb Of Memories
4CD box-set 21/8/15
A-HA
Cast In Steel
New album 4/9/15
DAVE MCCABE AND
THE RAMIFICATIONS
Church Of Miami
New album 4/9/15
SUPERGRASS
I Should Coco
Reissue 4/9/15
DURAN DURAN
Paper Gods
New album 11/9/15
VANGOFFEY
Take Your Jacket Off And
Get Into It Geldof gives gong away
B
New album 11/9/15 ob Geldof and Midge Ure, receiving a Special Anniversary Award at the Ivor
NEW ORDER Novello ceremony for Do They Know It’s Christmas?, swiftly gave their prize
Music Complete away. Geldof paid tribute to others, singling out former Universal UK boss John
Kennedy, a Band Aid lawyer, who forced through EU legislation that allowed
New album 25/9/15
money to continue to be raised after the stated deadline. “It’s not a great song,”
DAVID BOWIE Geldof pointed out. “When I called Paula [Yates] on The Tube she was standing beside
Five Years: 1969-73 Midge. He said, ‘You come up with something; so will I’. I came up with something I
12CD box-set 25/9/15 think we can all agree is miraculous – he came up with, frankly, the Z-Cars theme. But
he made it real. It was a device to do something vital, because to die of want in a world
of surplus was intellectually absurd, economically illiterate and morally repulsive.”
14
weexplore
buy our
vintage pop & rock vinyl!
buried treasure!
991.com buys and sells mint condition Vinyl, LP’s,EP’s,
45’s, CD’s and pop music memorabilia.
U2 honoUr toUr manager
U2 have paid tribute to their late tour manager Dennis Sheehan,
who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest earlier this year. The band’s
friend and colleague died in his room at the Sunset Marquis Hotel
in Los Angeles on 27 May following the first of U2’s five shows
at The Forum. Sheehan, who began his career with Patti Smith
and Led Zeppelin, worked with U2 for more than 30 years.
Paramedics were called to his room after he went into cardiac
arrest in the early hours of the morning, and he was pronounced
dead at the scene. Bono wrote on the band’s website on the
same day, “We’ve lost a family member… we’re still taking
it in. He wasn’t just a legend in the music business, he was a
legend in our band. He is irreplaceable.”
from the Classic Pop to the obscure: 80’s, 70’s, 60’s pop &
rock prog, psych, blues, folk & jazz
No.18
FUNNY HOW Gift enjoying the good stuff again
R
AIRHEAD
oland Gift will be a welcome highlight on the summer festival circuit again this
Initially sounding like baggy year. “It’s not like I’ve been away from it totally. It’s all I’ve ever done, really,”
wannabes in the era of the Gift says. Fine Young Cannibals broke up 1992: “It was tricky,” he explains.
Madchester come-down, Kent “We didn’t really split, we just kind of stopped – but it doesn’t happen quickly.
quartet Jefferson Airhead When you’re in a group you’re also signed as an individual, and while the
morphed into timeless Monkees- record company may not be able to relate to you in the way that they could relate
style euphoria when Adam to you as a group, they don’t want to let you go, just in case, so it gets a little bit
And The Ants/Bow Wow Wow sticky.” It was the success of The Raw & The Cooked that finally drove the Cannibals
bassist Leigh Gorman produced apart: “The record company hadn’t experienced that kind of success, nobody in the
their early singles. Although group had. Pressure came from people thinking that the next album had to sell more
they had to drop the ‘Jefferson’ than the one before, and that’s such a short-sighted way of approaching things.”
prefix after threats by Jefferson
Starship, the infectious Funny
How was their peak. The song THE BIGGER PICTURE
is still occasionally played on 6
Wet Wet Wet will celebrate the 20th
Music, and it was used as the
anniversary of their huge No. 1 album
intro music on Match Of The Day
Picture This with a 17-date UK arena tour.
years after its release in 1991.
The Big Picture Tour kicks off in February
Next single Counting Sheep
2016, reaching as far south as Plymouth
became Airhead’s sole Top 40
and all the way north up to Inverness.
hit, reaching No. 35, but despite
“We’ve been working on new material as
their album Boing! managing
well as looking into the archive,” bassist
to climb as far as No. 29 in the
Graeme Clark reveals, “and we’re looking
charts, the band was dropped by
forward to playing plenty of songs
Warner. Singer Michael Wallis
from Picture This alongside many other
formed a new line-up, but the
favourites.” The album will be re-released
darker-sounding single That’s
and remastered in two formats, including
Enough in 1993 proved to be
a super deluxe three-disc set with DVD.
their only release.
After a brief return to the Don’t ever forget…
live stage in 1996, no more Simple Minds celebrated the 30th anniversary of their
was heard until 2007, when a huge US breakthrough hit earlier this year by
petition at airheadonline.co.uk performing at the Billboard awards to celebrate three
was established to get Boing! decades of The Breakfast Club, the cult John Hughes
reissued, and the campaign movie which spawned Don’t You (Forget About Me).
finally bore fruit five years later However, the Scots actually thought The Psychedelic
when it appeared on iTunes. Furs should have recorded the Keith Forsey/Steve
Meanwhile, the original line-up Schiff song instead. Kerr said, “The demo sounded
reformed in 2008 to play Funny like a Psychedelic Furs song. But we’re kind of glad
How and Counting Sheep at the they didn’t do it! I don’t think anyone knew either the
wedding of the band’s drummer movie or the song would become so iconic – not just
Sam Kesteven. for one generation, but probably two. No one knew.”
16
GODFATHERS
of
M A T T J O H N S O N
A
s he gears up for an
In our initial review of your box
appearance at Festival No. 6 in
set I was quite harsh about the
September – though speaking,
analogue look and intentionally
as opposed to performing –
weathered artwork. What’s your
we talked to the increasingly
take on that?
prolific Matt Johnson about new
Cally, my designer, has designed the
book, soundtrack, documentary
sleeves for countless artists over the past
and reissue projects from the
few decades and he has a very hand-
man that is The The...
made style. Using old-school techniques
and distressing and weathering materials
We broke the news of a new The is one of his trademark tricks. I imagine
The album in our March issue, most well-loved original copies of Soul
but you’re also in the middle of Mining would look similarly worn.
making a political documentary.
It’s for Radio Cineola, the imaginary When a lot of The The fans think
shortwave radio station I broadcast of Soul Mining, their thoughts turn
from my website. I’m co-producing with to The Pornography Of Despair
Johanna Saint Michaels and the film and the extra tracks on the
is being funded by the Swedish Film original cassette edition...
Institute, amongst others, including my The extra tracks on the Soul Mining
own Lazarus company. The making of it cassette were actually re-recordings
will take up much of this year... of The Pornography Of Despair rather
I also have another couple of books in outside of music in order to make myself than the original album itself. The
production for my publishing company, completely financially independent of the Pornography Of Despair was the follow
Fifty First State Press. I’m working on industry so that when (or if) my passion up to Burning Blue Soul. I paid for it
one with my older brother Andrew on for music did finally return I’d be able to out of my own pocket and by begging,
his artwork as Andy Dog, for my record come back on my own terms – funding stealing and borrowing studio time.
sleeves plus much of his other work myself, fully owning all of my rights, and When I signed with CBS they wanted a
too. My dad has also now completed releasing through my own companies. follow up to Uncertain Smile so I decided
the prequel to his Tales From The Two to re-record the songs to try and make
Puddings book which I edited and The The won our Box Set Of The them more commercial. Apart from
published in 2012. We’re a tight family, Year award this year. What have Perfect, which was re-recorded at least
as you can probably tell. been your favourite box sets? twice and became the follow up single,
I do love a nice box set and some of I was never happy with the rest. They
It feels like you’re becoming more my favourite collections over the years fell in-between the more experimental
and more prolific, in areas other include The Velvet Underground, Can, original versions and the commercial
than music, since NakedSelf back The Beatles, Miles Davis, Hank Williams, recordings CBS wanted, so they were
in 2000... Frank Sinatra and the Smithsonian just used as b-sides for the Soul Mining
One of the reasons I quit music back in collection of Alan Lomax recordings. singles. I didn’t include them on the
2002 was that I found myself becoming I retrieved my old Seventies/Eighties anniversary box set because they weren’t
increasingly disillusioned at having been hi-fi system from storage a few years intended to be part of Soul Mining in
trapped in so many terrible contracts ago and had it overhauled, including a the first place and I wanted to maintain
(recording, publishing and management). Thorens TD-147 deck, Quad amplifiers a purity to it. However, I will release the
So, rather than just crank out recordings and huge Tannoy York speakers, and original, more experimental Pornography
that had no passion left in them I turned listening to vinyl through a complete Of Despair album through my own label
down every single offer of new recording analogue system is a real treat for the as soon as I have located one of the
contracts (and there were quite a few) ears, especially with older, high quality missing multi-tracks. It sounds closer to
and just walked away. I decided to recordings where the recording chain Burning Blue Soul than to Soul Mining...
concentrate on my business interests was obviously pure analogue. Ian Peel
17
Video Tech
THREE VIDEOS
FROM HOLLYWOOD Maximom Prefab
Prefab Sprout’s Wendy Smith puts in a rare guest
DIRECTORS HONING
appearance on the new album by Paul Smith & The
THEIR SKILLS ON POP Intimations. The Maximo Park singer’s latest solo
project Contradictions arrives 21 August, combining
North Easterly charm with the grit of Brooklyn’s
NYC coast. ”I only want to release music that adds
something new to the world, however small,” Smith
says, “and this is an alternative pop record that fulfills
my own criteria.” Since leaving Prefab in 2000 Smith
has been working for the Sage Gateshead and also
with community-based music-making projects. LAUPER’S FUN TIMES
I TOUCH MYSELF Cyndi Lauper was the over the moon to
DIVINYLS
be inducted into the Songwriters Hall
of Fame in June by pop whippersnapper
Some of it’s in moody black-and-white,
Carly Rae Jepsen, who sang Time After
but Michael Bay’s 1991 performance
Time. The Queens native was struggling
video for Aussie duo Divinyls has
as a waitress when she got her first
none of the explosions soon to be
record deal in 1982, but they weren’t
his trademark in Armageddon and
interested in her songwriting. “I had to
Transformers.
wrestle my way onto my own album,”
www.youtube.
Lauper remembers. “They said: ‘You
com/watch?v=
should just stand there and sing. You
wv-34w8kGPM
should dress like Katrina and the Waves’.
I still can’t believe I make a living making
music,” she added. “I’m blown away.”
PLANET EARTH
DURAN DURAN
Later an action-film director with
Highlander and Blue Ice, nobody
captured Eighties artists better than
Russell Mulcahy, who worked with
Duran, Spandau, Elton, Bonnie
Tyler, and Queen.
www.youtube.
com/watch?v=
8NF6Qa84mno
I
f you’re taking a stroll on a UK beach the sounds that filled our days at the
over the next few months, don’t be seaside. There’s something emotionally
surprised to trip over Martyn Ware deep about our connection with the
WE DON’T HAVE TO coast which has shaped our identity. I
TAKE OUR CLOTHES OFF banging a couple of shells together.
The Human League and Heaven 17 want to capture the sensory nature of
JERMAINE STEWART
founder has ditched his synths to make the coastline, reflecting the diversity and
Before Seven and The Social Network new music using sounds from the UK beauty of the sounds of our shores.”
David Fincher made lavish Madonna coastline, teaming up with the National Want to join in? You can upload your
and George Michael videos, but before Trust for Sound Of Our Shores, a project own sounds onto the first-ever UK coastal
those came this 1986 kitsch joy, all which aims to encourage the general sound map, hosted by the British Library.
bow-ties, tuxedos and public to record the sounds that shape Submit your recordings by Monday 21
slick moves. and define our relationship with the September and Ware will pick the best
www.youtube. coast. “I’ve had a deep connection with to create a brand new piece of music for
com/watch?v= the coast all of my life,” Ware explains. release in February 2016.
HWZisnZ-RGE
18
GODFATHERS
of
S H A U N R Y D E R
F
resh from reuniting Black Grape What inspires you to write now?
for a tour and releasing a solo Same as ever – walking down the street,
single as SWR, Shaun Ryder hits watching the news, funny stories I hear
the festivals with Happy Mondays off people. I do what I do, then people
before a 25th anniversary tour say it sounds like a Mondays or Black
of their landmark album Pills ‘N’ Grape track. It’s weird – every album we
Thrills And Bellyaches. How is did was completely different, so what is
the one-time arch caner enjoying a ‘Mondays song’?
being so busy?
Does it feel like 25 years since Pills
Black Grape’s 1998 split was ‘N’ Thrills… came out?
so messy that you once accused Our Bummed album from 1988 seems
rapper Kermit of injecting heroin like five minutes ago and the first Black
into his penis. How did you ever Grape album feels like I went to bed for
get back together? an eight-hour sleep and when I woke up,
I’d been keeping my eye on him, suddenly I’m 52. Yet Pills feels like 10
bumping into him at Snoop Dogg lifetimes ago. I’ve no idea why, but time
concerts, watching him get in a better is a funny f***er like that.
and better place. When I was reminded
that it was 20 years since our first album Your solo single Close The Dam as
It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah, I SWR is the best thing you’ve done
thought “You know what, let’s do it.” The in 15 years…
guy’s loving life. I call him Paul now. He’s cool. Now, I can see if we’re all 18, Thanks. But it’s probably the only thing
50, I can’t call him Kermit when he’s 50. that might not be cool. But in your fifties, I’ve done in 15 years! I can’t wait for
who cares? I’m going “Come off it!”, so people to hear the album next year. I
Will Black Grape do a new album? there’s a big argument. But it was fine, made it with Quincy Jones’ grandson
Definitely. We had a jam and we’ve got all done and dusted dead quick. Sunny Levine. He’s a genius, music is in
a few ideas. Really, Black Grape is just the blood. He was a teaboy in the studio
me and Paul. We’re talking to producers How would the 18-year-old with his granddad when he was three.
and we’ll get in the studio next year. Mondays have coped in the jungle?
With a new Happy Mondays album, Fine. We’d have all been sat around What new music excites you?
there’s five people who’ve all got a lot to taking class As. My life is taken up with my six- and
say. I want to do a new Mondays album, seven-year-old girls, so when I hear
our Paul [guitarist Paul Ryder] is up for it Were the Mondays really as music it’s Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus.
too, but God knows when it’ll happen. chaotic as the press made out? I laugh when I see the “What are they
We played up to it. The Eighties had doing to our kids?” headlines about
But you did make a new Happy all got a bit Rick Astley. No disrespect Miley twerking… they’re the same ones
Mondays song, Oo La La To to Rick, my missus thinks his songs are you had about Madonna or Elvis. If they
Panama, for the TV show Singing fantastic and I love him, but we wanted weren’t getting those headlines, they
In The Rainforest… to bring rock’n’roll back. We smoked wouldn’t be doing their job right. My lad
True, and it showed it doesn’t need to be weed, took certain party drugs and we went to university listening to hip-hop,
difficult. I thought getting the Mondays weren’t shy about saying it. It seemed to but he’s come back all Acid Housed up,
out together in Panama would be a good shock, and we knew the value of those playing beats that sound the same as 20
bonding experience, and it was. There headlines. We didn’t want to disappear, years ago. I think the youth should get
was only one argument. When we did so we gave the press what they wanted. something new. John Earls
the press shots at the end, they wanted
us to pose with our instruments while Was there a point when that * Black Grape play Festival No
standing in the jungle water. My brother cartoon image took over? 6 and Happy Mondays play
Paul, at 50 years old, decides that wasn’t I think serious drug habits took over. Beautiful Days and ParkLive
19
TRANSMISSION
upcoming film, Entertainment. She told
me she’s getting ready to release some
new material which will be available on
her Reverbnation page.
ANTHONY DEVITO, ANNABELLALWIN.
COM
Wow vinyl. She now has a part in his CARSTEN ELMOSE, DENMARK
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24
L I V E A I D
25
L I V E A I D
impact of it scared me,” he says. “I didn’t conclusion. As a musician, what else “Announcing names was a total
know what I should do. In my head, I’d could I do? Simple: put on a show.” bluff,” admits Geldof. “We did a press
thought I could go straight back from Enter Harvey Goldsmith. The promoter conference and announced a list of
Band Aid to being a musician. I was a for Queen, Madonna, Pink Floyd and names. I was guilt-tripping them. If they
born salesman – I sold tunes the way my Elton John, he was perfectly suited didn’t want to do it, I’d make them say
dad sold towels – but suddenly I couldn’t to ensure Geldof’s wild plans could they wouldn’t help, not me.”
sell The Boomtown Rats. I couldn’t go happen. Goldsmith has a forbidding One name was Queen, in the middle
on Wogan and be asked about Africa reputation but, while he talks down the of two years off. “Their manager phoned
and say ‘Well, Terry, it’s amazing, and phone from his office in a stern tone, up from New Zealand, yelling ‘We
incidentally the Rats are touring, here’s a he’s got a ready wit and plainly loves don’t know anything about this!’” says
song we’re playing.’ I’d carried the band the “berserk” side of music. “Bob came Goldsmith. “I told him ‘Bob wants you to
on my crusade and we were f***ed.” to see me, telling me we needed to put play.’ It was crazy, really. They agreed.”
Going to Ethiopia had only made on a big charity concert,” he recalls. Midge Ure, Band Aid’s producer and
Geldof more aware that the charity was, “I was about to head off with Wham! co-writer, remembers Geldof exerting
no pun intended, only a sticking plaster to China, so I was a bit preoccupied. I extra pressure. “Bob bumped into
for the scale of famine in Africa. “Band just said ‘Can we talk about this when Freddie in a Japanese restaurant,” he
Aid worked,” emphasises Geldof. “But I get back?’ Bob being Bob, he barged smiles. “When Bob insisted Queen were
there was so much more to do. I’d said in to see me the day after I got back.” playing, Freddie told him ‘Don’t be silly,
to myself I’d do what I could if Band Goldsmith agreed to help but, having darling.’ To which Bob replied: ‘No,
Aid worked, so it would have been settled on July 13 as a date, they had just you’re doing it or I’ll jump up and down
irresponsible not to take that to its logical 11 weeks to put it together. on you.’” Queen signed.
26
32
HOW IT HAPPENED
JULY 13, 1985, WEMBLEY STADIUM
12.02pm: After The Coldstream Guards perform God
Save The Queen, Status Quo open Live Aid with Rockin’ All
Over The World.
Francis Rossi: “Bands are funny buggers, always
wanting to go on last. There’d been a lot of jockeying for
position, managers saying ‘We can’t go on before them,
we’ve had more Top 10 singles this year.’ And we just went
‘We’ll go on first, thank you very much.’ You go on first,
everyone around the world is watching, but none of the
other acts realised they’d shot themselves in the foot.”
Tony Hadley, Spandau Ballet: “When Quo’s
manager volunteered them to go first, everyone else went
‘You what?!’ Then when they did Rockin’ All Over The
World, me and Janice Long were stood backstage going
‘Woah!’ They were fantastic.”
Harvey Goldsmith: “It wasn’t until we got Quo’s setlist
that we all realised that of course they were the right band
to go first. Once you’ve seen Rockin’ All Over The World is
the first song, what other number could you open with?”
Steve White, The Style Council: “We were nervous,
watching Quo. Usually at a festival, there’s 5,000 people
queuing for a drink and 3,000 for the toilet, but absolutely
everyone was watching Quo. The atmosphere was so
enthusiastic, but there was a slight worry of ‘What if they all
scarper when we come on?’”
Francis Rossi: “Once we’d finished, generally every
band realised ‘Shit, we should have opened.’ They’d all been good, because as we came off Garry said to Bob
great talent and turned them into pop stars and celebrity-based stars”
no other f***er is on that stage and we’re going to own Bob before.”
it. Besides, it meant we were finished by 12:15 and could
have a proper drink. Lovely.” 1:01 Adam Ant performs one song, new single Vive Le
Rock, and will be the only artist whose sales went down the
12:19 The Style Council perform four songs. week after playing Live Aid.
Steve White: “You can tell how nervous we were, as we Adam Ant: “I was meant to do four songs, but other acts
played the songs twice as fast as usual. The most obscure had bigger egos and wouldn’t let the number of their songs
song we played, Internationalists, was Paul Weller’s dig at be cut. I didn’t mind that, but Live Aid was a good idea
the Royal Family being there. I remember him glaring up at that went badly wrong. If all the money from the box office
the Royal Box for its lines about equality. We’d asked if we doesn’t go to starving children, it’s a different ballgame.
could go on early as we’d wanted to enjoy the rest of the Record companies jumped on the idea as a good way
day as punters, but then we got booked to do a TV show in to sell records while feeling good about themselves, and I
Maidstone to play our new single, Come To Milton Keynes. don’t want any part of it.”
That was a real letdown, and you can see on YouTube how
flat that TV performance was. But we got back to Wembley 1:17 Midge Ure halts overseeing Band Aid to play four
by about 6pm and had a blast.” songs with Ultravox.
Midge Ure: “We were shitting ourselves, as we refused
12:44 Bob Geldof gets back to being a pop star with The to use backing tapes. Everything was stripped down to
Boomtown Rats for three songs. the bare minimum. We knew our place in the pecking
Bob Geldof: “A few minutes before we went on, David order, but for a band who weren’t expected to be anything
Bowie massaged my back. That was pretty wild. Bowie special, we held our own.”
massaging my back? Surely that should have been the other
way round. I was proud when the Rats went on. Unlike the 1:46 Spandau Ballet perform two hits plus Virgin, never
rest of the day and the weeks leading up to Live Aid, I was released as a single.
quite secure on that stage. I had total confidence in the Steve Norman: “It was so monumental, but you didn’t
guys behind me. I was a pop singer again. Live Aid was a have time to think. No-one cared who you were. Once you
really weird day, but once I heard ‘Bob, you’re on’ I walked were done, you were yanked off and no-one pampered
out and you can see my head clear: ‘Oh yeah, bang, I’m a you when you came off.”
pop singer with these guys.’ And we were good.” John Keeble: “When we finished, I got a cab home
Garry Roberts: “I wanted us to blow everybody else off to Camden to shower and then come back. London was
stage. That’s always there. I wanted us to show that we’re deserted, as everyone was watching Live Aid. It was like
great and everyone else is shit.” Day Of The Triffids. Camden to Wembley usually takes an
Pete Briquette: “I just felt the luckiest person in the world hour, but it took nine minutes. It was fantastic to see it from
to be there and our show went in a flash. But we must have the outside.”
27
“BOB TOLD FREDDIE,
‘YOU’LL DO IT OR I’LL JUMP
UP AND DOWN ON YOU’”
As for Ure, the Ultravox singer was As Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp says. “We didn’t have time to look at the
supposed to be recording his debut solo puts it: “Before Live Aid, festivals were sophistication of the mix. Once we had
album but, like his Band Aid partner, his owned by heavy metal bands. Pop acts Queen, David Bowie and Mick Jagger,
day-job went on hold. “We lacked skill in just didn’t do them. It was hard for the we knew we had a show.”
aid work,” he explains. “We didn’t know industry to get its head round the idea of At which point, Geldof had another
whether to prioritise food, medication a big outdoor concert which had bands idea. “Wembley was shaping up, but
or trucking. The tipping point came from Top Of The Pops playing.” it needed to be global,” he says. “We
when we learned there was a cartel that Dire Straits were one of the first needed to do a concert in America too.”
controlled aid trucks. Bob was outraged, big names to agree, despite Live Aid Geldof wanted the American leg to
saying we had to break the cartel. That falling during their 13-night residency be in New York, but its stadiums were
was expensive, and it sparked Live Aid. at Wembley Arena next to the stadium. booked. US promoters Bill Graham
But I had very little to do with organising “Bob was most insistent,” deadpans and Larry Magid found John F Kennedy
the concerts – I was happy to leave it to bassist John Illsley. “He kept phoning, Stadium in Philadelphia, which has the
the specialists like Harvey while trying to saying ‘If you guys do it, there’s more same five-hour time difference as New
oversee the day-to-day charity side.” chance I’ll get others.’ So we agreed to York. This meant both concerts could
Despite the success of Band Aid play in the afternoon, although that made easily take place within 24 hours.
and the idea of playing Wembley for a tricky situation to get our gear back Once Philadelphia was confirmed,
Stadium, Geldof and Goldsmith initially and forth from Wembley Arena.” Bowie and Jagger wanted to duet, with
struggled to get musicians on board. The Wembley Stadium show has Bowie singing in England and Jagger
“Charity concerts like this had very long been praised for its mix of new in the US. But how would they sing
rarely happened,” Goldsmith points out. popsters and veterans, but Goldsmith together, given the time delay in getting
“Managers were phoning me going admits that was largely accidental. “In satellite pictures from one continent to
‘How will it actually work?’” truth, we put on who we could get,” he another? “We couldn’t work out how
28
L I V E A I D
2935
“I’D ASSUMED
BOWIE WOULD
Brian Aris
BE A BIT MAD,
BUT HE WAS VERY
GRACIOUS AND
RESPECTFUL”
bad the time lapse would be,” chuckles all the logistics of those schedules, and I jacket and a guitar case would be sent
Goldsmith. “Eventually, we decided understood why Bob said no.” to Whistle Test’s office, as nobody else
one of them would have to go up in a With Dylan, Tina Turner and Madonna knew how to deal with them. So we were
space rocket. We called NASA. To my playing, Live Aid US was a worthy given Live Aid, which just got bigger and
amazement they took us seriously, so we companion to Wembley. Geldof began bigger. I was on holiday on Sark and
started having an earnest discussion about talking to TV companies but, for once, his Dave Hepworth phoned to tell me how
how Jagger could sing in outer space.” ambition wasn’t high enough. Goldsmith big the audience was going to be, in
The practicalities of giving astronaut recalls: “Bob talked to Channel 4 about a incalculable billions. I went to a meadow
training to a Stone meant Jagger ended two-hour highlights show. I told him ‘That’s and lay there, feeling really quite faint.”
up in Philadelphia after all, as did several no good. You’ll have a show covered Meanwhile, artists began planning
British artists. “We’d rather have played in adverts, it’ll look horrible.’” The pair setlists. Bowie was filming Labyrinth, so
Wembley,” says Simple Minds guitarist went to see Michael Appleton, producer his touring band were working with other
Charlie Burchill. “But Don’t You… had of The Old Grey Whistle Test at the BBC, musicians. His bassist, Matthew Seligman,
gone to No. 1 in the US and Bob was and daytime schedule controller Roger recommended Thomas Dolby. “I’d
slightly struggling to fill the American Lawton. “Bob did his best Passionate assumed Bowie would be a bit mad, like
bill. We asked him who was picking the Bob number and Roger instantly became in Cracked Actor,” admits Dolby. “But he
bands, and Bob said ‘It’s my ball, I’m in a big supporter,” laughs Goldsmith. was very gracious and respectful – more
charge.’ His hustle and directness made “Roger went to Michael Grade, the BBC’s Edward Fox than Rupert Everett. At first,
me think it was going to be something Director General, to talk about clearing we rehearsed his new single Loving The
special. It felt that there was a great the schedules for the full 16 hours of both Alien, but once he realised the scale of
cultural shift, that people on the ground shows. After 48 hours, Michael phoned Live Aid he saw a hits set was best.”
could make governments change.” me to say ‘Why not? Let’s do it!’” By now, Live Aid was able to start
Paul Young, at that point on a US tour, The job of presenting 16 hours of live cherrypicking artists. According to Midge
admits he tried to get shifted on to the TV from what was becoming the biggest Ure: “Pete Townshend said he’d do it,
Philadelphia bill, having agreed to play concert in history went to the OGWT and was told ‘F*** off, unless it’s The
Wembley. “It cost a fair whack flying hosts: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Andy Who.’” Despite splitting in 1982, The
my band home from the States,” says Kershaw and Janice Long. “The BBC Who were in. So were Led Zeppelin, in
Young. “It was only when I saw a Live Aid weren’t across music the way they are Philadelphia. Playing their first show since
documentary years later that I realised now,” says Ellen. “Anybody with a leather John Bonham’s death five years earlier,
30
but our own show at the arena was
fantastic. 12,000 people had come to
see us instead of Live Aid, and if they
were anything like me they wouldn’t
have known how to set the timer on
their videos to watch it later. We owed
them a good performance, and it was a
pleasure to play.”
31
Zep hired two drummers; Phil Collins and
Chic’s Tony Thompson. Collins was also “MADONNA’S going to be on TV all over the world and
I’ve got to keep up appearances.”
SHOW WAS A
due to play with Sting at Wembley. “Phil’s The instability of the American show
manager, Tony Smith, was my ex-business was a concern. “America is terribly
partner and he was being awkward,” parochial, even today,” says Goldsmith.
grumbles Goldsmith. “After much
discourse, Tony said Phil would play, but DISASTER, BUT “Because Live Aid was invented here and
not in America, they had some reticence.
only if he could do something different.
I asked ‘Like what?’ and Tony said ‘If he
can play England and the US.’ I said ‘OK,
IT LOOKED I sent half my team over to make sure
they were on it. Maybe it was the running
order or the line-up, but it didn’t have the
done,’ and luckily British Airways loved
the idea, so they loaned us Concorde.”
FANTASTIC“ same excitement as Wembley.”
Having toured in February, The
Goldsmith remembers that Paul Boomtown Rats also played Glastonbury
McCartney was hardest to persuade. Nik Kershaw: “That turntable was pretty in June. Bassist Pete Briquette summarises
Geldof offers a more surprising reluctant primitive. You were wheeled on, prayed life in a band with Geldof at the time:
conscript: Bryan Ferry. “I love Bryan, but the gear was in the right place and that “We’d get a phone call during rehearsals
he’s a total ditherer,” he chuckles. “He some of it was working.” Inevitably, it and it’d be the Pope. We were trying to
was going ‘Oh, er, hmm…’ So at the broke down during rehearsals; “The work out a chord sequence and Bob was
press conference, I finished the names crew had had it at that point,’ Goldsmith fielding calls from a Saudi prince offering
of performers by saying ‘Oh yeah, and recalls. “I helped them put it back together the use of six planes.”
Bryan Ferry…’ Bryan rang, going ‘I didn’t and geed everyone up. I was so optimistic For his part, Geldof couldn’t wait to
say yes!’ and I told him ‘Well, you tell the after that, I spoke to Bob at 2am and put organising Live Aid aside to get on
world you don’t want to help.’” suggested we might raise £5 million.” stage again. “I knew that, to the punters,
It was down to Goldsmith to ensure In America Rod Stewart, Prince and it would be ‘Here’s the guy who organised
artists didn’t over-run. A giant turntable Springsteen were still in negotiations; all this, hurrah for him’, but I’d be with my
was installed at Wembley: whoever was Tears For Fears cancelled at 24 hours’ band. I knew I could do that, at least.”
on stage at the front, the next act behind notice when some of their touring band On top of the mental strain, Geldof was in
them, ready to be cranked into place as quit. They were replaced by George agony with a bad back. “It didn’t surprise
soon as the current artist’s time was up. “I Thorogood. “I got a phone call at 2pm the me – something had to give,” he shrugs.
bought 40 massive clocks and stuck them day before,” says Thorogood. “We were “The night before, I was shitting myself. It
everywhere,” says Goldsmith. “Every in San Francisco, 3,000 miles away, and was the same fear as I’d had the day of
dressing room had a notice: ‘I don’t care hadn’t played in a while, but we were Band Aid: what if nobody else turns up?”
when you go on, but I do care when you able to get a midnight flight. I had to find In case he got night sweats, Geldof once
get off. Stick to time!’” a barber real fast before that flight. It was again slept on white towels.
38
Nicholson, Chevy Chase and George Segal. Nick Rhodes: “My worst fear of being on stage, of not
never saw the show; he was reporting from South Africa. He has
estimated that Live Aid saved between one and two million lives
George Thorogood: “It was brutal – 100F in the shade, being able to hear anything, came true at Live Aid. I couldn’t
33
Invision / Press Association Pictures
34
A N D Y
S U M M E R S
internal
S
ex, drugs and rock’n’roll – it’s a Police days and the London punk scene. But it’s
highly combustible mixture, and The not done as a chronological story. We establish
Police survived for quite a while the fact we’re doing the reunion tour early on,
before exploding and flaming out and then it dips in and out of live Police concert
in spectacular fashion. Detailing a footage, and then starts going back to the earlier
lot of what actually went on behind days. I narrate it and the film also incorporates
the scenes – the giddy highs and excesses, as rare footage dating back to the Sixties and my
well as the heartbreaking lows – is the feature- involvement with the early British rock scene and
length film Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving artists including Zoot Money and Eric Burdon,
the Police, based on legendary Police guitarist as well as many still photographs taken by
Andy Summers’ acclaimed 2006 memoir One me along the way. I was always interested in
Train Later. It is, in theory, the next best thing to photography, so it was very natural for me to
being both out front and backstage at one of the document everything, whether it was backstage
supergroup’s shows. at some grungy club or on early tours with the
Starring Summers, Sting and Stewart Police. So there’s a lot of intimate moments and
Copeland, the film tells the inside story of interesting shots and archival stuff, especially
the band’s meteoric rise, headline-grabbing in the first 25 minutes of the film, with The Sex
break-up, and reunion 20 years later, through Pistols appearing, and so on.
rare archival footage and Summers’ personal
collection of photographs. Summers, who’s It’s amazing that the band happened to
always been a multi-faceted artist – a musician, form almost by chance…
songwriter, composer, photographer and Yeah, I just happened to bump into Stewart
author – can now add filmmaker to his extensive Copeland getting off the tube in London one
resume, as he was the driving force behind every day in 1977. We decided to grab a coffee and
aspect of the project. discuss forming a new band with Sting, whom
Here, in a wide-ranging and candid interview, we’d just met, and who was this totally unknown
the rock guitarist talks about making the film, and singer back then, who was sleeping on my sofa
whether the Police will ever reunite – or whether at one point. One train later, and it all might
they’ll kill each other first… never have happened, which is why I titled the
book One Train Later.
How would you describe the film?
It’s a musical journey that uses live footage from Why do so many great bands end up
the 2007- 2008 Police reunion world tour, along wanting to kill each other?
with lots of archival footage, both from the early (Laughs) ‘Cos they’re like marriages… very
35
36
intense marriages, except you’ve got – in this case –
three people in the marriage, all with big egos and
different ideas of how to run it at any one time. And
then add in all the stress and touring and so on… it’s a
miracle it ever works for long at all.
a half-truth”
approval and sign off on it all. We sent it to his manager
who signed off on it on Sting’s behalf. I’m sure he’ll see
it, but it’s too late for him to object to anything now.
37
there – and there always was, this incredible musical
chemistry, and it’s not like it died. To me, the tour was
not an exercise in nostalgia, as Sting called it – rather
bitterly – after the tour. It was a chance to prove that we
really were that good, and I think we played better than
we ever did. More experience, better playing, all the
incredible technology at our service. And just the three of
us up there.
of the three of us –
of us – that’s what made it, and it’s never been as good
since. Look at the tour – we had an incredible turnout all
across the world, and no one can do that on their own.
38
39
T H E L O W
DOWN
Getty Images
42
george
michael
W
hen Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, standard Last Christmas) topped the charts.
As the ultimAte Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom and
aka George Michael, and Andrew
eighties pop Ridgeley were performing dance Everything She Wants ensured that Wham!’s
poster-boys, routines in the nightclubs of their second album Make It Big made them massive
hometown of Bushey, being revered and embodied everything that was fun about
WhAm! mAde it by the girls and mocked by the boys unabashed pop music.
big With A string (a pattern which would follow them However, George Michael’s underlying
of erA-defining throughout their career), even they – frustration was that he wasn’t receiving
George, ambitious and driven, and the recognition he felt he deserved as a
bonA fide clAssics Andrew, cocky and good-looking songwriter. A pair of solo singles, the mature
before lAunching – could not have predicted where ballads Careless Whisper and A Different
george michAel these early performances would lead them. Corner, both went on to become No. 1 hits
Ferocious party animals by night, they baulked and garnered George the critical acclaim
onto the globAl at the idea of doing any job that would he craved. The writing was on the wall for
stAge, Where he hamper their dreams of being in a band and Wham!, but not before a hugely publicised
spent their days signing on and songwriting, photo op on the Great Wall Of China was
succeeded in living by a mantra that would later appear in beamed around the globe to promote the fact
mAking his idols their first single, “Enjoy what you do”. that Wham! had become the first Western act
his peers… Following the implosion of their first band, a to perform in China in April 1985. The coup
ska-influenced five-piece called The Executive, was landed thanks to a ferocious campaign
m a r K
a chance meeting in a local pub with old by their manager Simon Napier Bell, who
l i N D o r e S
schoolfriend-turned-A&R guy Mark Dean led to played up the group’s wholesome image to the
Wham! signing to Innervision Records when Chinese authorities while highlighting the sex,
he snapped them up on the basis of a four- drugs and rock’n’roll hedonism displayed by
track demo tape they gave him, a move which Queen and the Rolling Stones, the other acts in
would later prove to be to their detriment. contention for the honour.
Within months, Wham! re-recorded the Having achieved an extraordinary run of
demos in a studio and Wham Rap! was hits including three No. 1 albums, four No. 1
released as their first single in 1982. Although singles and five Top 10 singles, Wham! split at
popular in the clubs, the song flopped in the the pinnacle of their success in front of 82,000
charts. It was the second single Young Guns fans at Wembley Stadium in June 1986.
(Go For It!) and a last-minute Top Of The Pops In the aftermath of Wham!, Andrew
performance which became their breakthrough preferred a role behind the scenes, while
and quickly established them as pop’s pretty George went on to launch a successful
playboys with a penchant for fake machismo solo career, becoming one of Britain’s most
and a knack for knocking out attitude-laden, successful artists of all time, selling over 60
rap-infused hits such as Bad Boys and a million albums (his solo debut Faith alone
remixed version of Wham Rap! currently stands at 25 million) and achieving
Wham!’s debut album, Fantastic, shot countless No. 1 singles and albums around
straight to No. 1 and cemented their position the world, as well as scoring hit duets with
as major players in the pop game before its industry legends such as Elton John, Aretha
final single, the sun-soaked summer smash Franklin, Queen and Whitney Houston. His
Club Tropicana, marked a change of direction career has become the blueprint for any
both musically and stylistically. singer/songwriter wanting to transcend teen
A reinvigorated Wham! emerged in idolatry and to achieve musical longevity.
1984 following a legal emancipation from Though it may have taken a while for the
the “professional slavery” of their stifling former heartthrob to earn respect as one of our
record contract with Innervision, and signing most talented singer/songwriters, his knack for
with Epic Records saw them reinvented as a creating irresistible pop melodies has always
day-glo pop entity armed with a barrage of been evident, even from those oft-dismissed
irresistible sugarcoated pop confections, all of Wham! records. In the words of the man
which (with the exception of timeless Yuletide himself, listen without prejudice and you’ll see.
43
T H E M U S T- H AV E A L B U M S
44
W H A M ! T H E L O W D O W N
NEED TO KNOW
Sweet seduction Heaven sent, heaven stole
George’s intention had been to follow the Following a lengthy absence from the S H H H
sombre Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 with spotlight, George made a surprise
a volume of dance tracks, but after Vol. 1’s appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards
disappointing sales the idea was shelved. in Berlin in November 1994, where he
premiered Jesus To A Child, a heartfelt ballad ● In April 1985, Wham! became the performing backing vocals on Elton
Seeking an outlet for the tracks he’d already
written about the death of his lover Anselmo first Western act to perform live in John’s Nikita and Wrap Her Up and
recorded, George contributed three to Red
Feleppa in 1993. George said his devastation China. The trip was a major media David Cassidy’s The Last Kiss. He also
Hot + Dance, a charity album launched to
at the loss left him with severe writer’s block event with George and Andrew trailed had a hit with a cover of the Bee Gees
raise money towards AIDS research, with
for 18 months, after which the lyrics to the constantly by photographers and TV song Jive Talkin’ as the lead singer
Too Funky chosen to lead the campaign.
song came to him in an hour. Everything crews and footage beamed around the with Boogie Box High.
The laidback house track featured sampled
about the song, from the lyrics to the tender world. They were also filmed by their ● Wham!’s backing singers/dancers
dialogue from The Graduate and was
Brazilian bossa nova rhythm track, was own crew for the home video, Foreign Shirlie Holliman and Dee C Lee were
accompanied by a video with glamazonian
inspired by Anselmo and George always Skies: Wham! Live In China, named hugely popular with fans. Dee C went
supermodels in Thierry Mugler designs. The
dedicates the song to him every time he after a line from Like A Baby. on to enjoy solo success and join
song reached No. 4 and was the most played
performs it live. The song was released over ● George has duetted with a wide future husband Paul Weller in The
song in Europe in 1992, yet Sony’s reluctance
a year after its premiere as the first single range of artists including Queen, Style Council; her replacement, Pepsi
to adequately promote the accompanying
from Older and hit No. 1 in January 1996. Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Whitney DeMacque, stayed with Wham! until
album led to George leaving the label.
Houston, Mary J Blige and the their split before scoring a string of
Sugababes’ Mutya Buena as well as hits in duo Pepsi & Shirlie.
45
t h e l O w d O w n W h a m !
t h e m u s t- wat c h v i d e O s
club trOpicana i want YOur sex FreedOm ‘90 Outside
Director: Duncan gibbins Director: anDy morahan Director: DaViD Fincher Director: Vaughan arnell
The final single and video from the Fantastic Although it looks remarkably tame and By 1990, the ‘sex symbol’ image that Following his high profile arrest in a Los
album, Club Tropicana marked a stylistic un-risqué by today’s pop promo standards, George had cultivated during the Faith era Angeles public toilet for “engaging in a lewd
change of direction for the group, with 1987’s I Want Your Sex video was met with had bit him in the perfectly formed ass and act”, George turned his public humiliation
George and Andrew swapping the tough-guy a maelstrom of negative media attention, he had decided that, in a bid to be taken into hilarity with a brilliantly satirical take
posturing and the not-entirely-convincing including an attack by Tipper Gore of the more seriously, he would no longer appear on the episode for the Outside video. Once
machismo of earlier videos such as Bad Boys PMRC, and a ban by Britain’s Radio 1 due in his music videos, although it’s debatable again the work of Vaughan Arnell, who had
for suntans and Speedos in an effervescent to the fact that in a world still terrified by that casting some of the world’s most directed the Fastlove video, Outside begins
celebration of the Club 18-30 holidays that the spread of HIV and AIDS, anything seen beautiful supermodels – Cindy Crawford, as a pastiche of Swedish Seventies porn films
were so popular at the time. Shot at Ibiza’s to remotely promote sex was strictly taboo. Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy before evolving into a high-tech exploration
hedonistic haven Pikey’s, Club Tropicana was Given the fact that George’s audience at the Turlington and Tatjana Patitz – plus a handful of voyeurism, cataloguing couples indulging
the perfect visual representation of the cool, time was still predominantly young girls, the of high-flying male models in various states in al fresco carnal displays while telephoto
breezy song, casting the group as carefree video was branded a tasteless, tacky attempt of undress lip-syncing to the song was the lenses and surveillance cameras track their
playboys in search of some cheeky fun in to create controversy and gain him a more best way to emphasise the music. Items every move, with a pivotal scene where
the sun before a hilariously camp twist at mature audience. George replied by pointing from the Faith video – the Rockers’ Revenge George dressed as a US policeman dances in
the end of the video revealed George and out that the video was an exploration of the leather jacket, the Wurlitzer jukebox and the a disco-fied toilet complete with mirrorball
Andrew to be airline pilots, the objects of carnal desire shared by a couple in love and Gretsch guitar – were set on fire to symbolise urinals. Unfortunately, not everyone enjoyed
their interest airline stewardesses. Bright, actually promoted safe sex – though shots the end of his former persona. Misplaced the video’s humour. Marcelo Rodriguez,
colourful, and fun, Club Tropicana was of George and model Kathy Jeung writhing moral message aside, Freedom ’90 garnered the LAPD officer who had arrested George,
Wham!’s coming-of-age, revealing them to about on satin sheets and him writing heavy rotation on MTV and became an iconic unsuccessfully attempted to sue him for
be the purveyors of fun-loving, dynamic pop ‘Explore’ on her thigh and ‘Monogamy’ on clip that encapsulated the Nineties aesthetic the emotional distress he claimed to suffer
music they would remain until their split in her back in lipstick proved too much for of glamour-filled fashion editorials come as a consequence of his depiction in the
1986. https://www.youtube.com/ many to handle. https://www.youtube. to life. https://www.youtube.com/ video. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=WYX0sjP6Za8 com/watch?v=r3AP26ywQsQ watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A watch?v=gwZAYdHcDtU
The Outside video features George dressed as listen up! 11 I Knew You Were Waiting
a US policeman dancing in a disco-fied toilet, a selection of classics For Me
from the many eras of
but not everyone enjoyed its humour: the LAPD george michael…
no. 1 duet with aretha Franklin
what’s next?
title track of his debut album
14 Freedom
3Wake Me Up Before You
Go-Go Wham!’s second no. 1 hit
46
OF
THE
I
album Lipslide, Cracknell’s new album Red Kite
f ever there’s a band who defy their stereotypical is informed by her own life, and the Oxfordshire
image, it’s Saint Etienne. They always seem to be busy, countryside dominates its beautifully pastoral
making a film about London here or playing a fashion soundscape. Whereas Lipslide was recorded with
show there, but in the past decade they’ve actually only a multitude of producers, Red Kite was made in just
released one album, 2012’s Words And Music. Their two one-week sessions near Cracknell’s home – and,
collective persona is that of detached, bookish types, yes, in true village fashion she did ask a neighbour
yet music business legend states that their tours were if she could borrow the barn where recording took
regularly more hedonistic than Primal Scream’s. place. To further the idyllic image, producers Seb
Throughout their career, the trio have seemed to Lewsley and Carwyn Ellis lodged with Cracknell
embody London, both with the metropolitan sweep during the recording, while co-writers included her
of their music and in making documentaries about nephew, rising singer-songwriter Noah Kelly. “Noah
the capital. Though Bob Stanley remains in London, was touting his wares, sending loads of ideas with me
singer Sarah Cracknell grew up in the Berkshire going ‘No… no… sorry, nope’ until Underneath The
countryside and has lived for the past 15 years in Stars, which I really liked. Noah behaved himself, he
rural Oxfordshire. If there didn’t try to get involved with
is a stereotype that fits
Cracknell, perhaps it’s that
“I DON’T LIKE TO CRAP what I chose to do with the
song at all.”
of the village mum since she ON ABOUT MYSELF. With Stanley and Pete
moved with her husband, WHETHER IT’S IN LIFE OR Wiggs busy writing books,
Heavenly Records founder
Martin Kelly, to raise the
SONG, I DON’T DO ‘POOR Red Kite was conceived
during a break from
couple’s two sons. ME’. THAT’S WHY I WRITE Saint Etienne, its songs
“Village life does mean IN A CINEMATIC WAY” arriving surprisingly easily
people knock on your door considering the lengthy
a lot,” laughs Cracknell. “Everyone will come over, gap since Lipslide. “I’d got to know some people
literally asking to borrow eggs or to tell you what’s nearby who can play strings and clever stuff,” smiles
happening at the village hall on Saturday. When Cracknell. “They’re used to playing together and just
Bob first came over, three people had knocked within launching into song, which I’m not used to doing.”
an hour and he was going ‘Does this happen all the They included Truck Festival organiser Robin Bennett,
time? God, I’d hate it.’ But now my husband and I are “Us writing songs together across the kitchen table”.
always borrowing sugar from our neighbours too.” A bout of flu just before the second week of
Cracknell is terrifically entertaining company, recording was the only cloud, as Cracknell fretted
refusing to take life at all seriously as she relays about how to find extra cash to finish the self-funded
tales about her supposedly hip husband’s love of album. “I was wheezing and bent double,” she
Ed Sheeran or her terrible memory that means she’s recalls. “But it was a case of mind over matter, and I
49
snapped out of it by day two. No, I wouldn’t have let dancefloor pulse, but it’s inspired Cracknell’s
any vocals go if they were noticeably fluey!” bandmates to begin a follow-up to Words And Music.
The album’s first single, Nothing Left To Talk About, “Bob and Pete have seen that I’ve made an album
features Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire. and said to each other ‘Ooh, a record! That’s a
Although the Manics began on Heavenly, Wire’s good idea! Why don’t we do one of those?’ My first
childlike voice seems an unlikely choice for a guest impression is that it might be less of a dancefloor
vocalist. “I didn’t want a voice that was too stroppy or extravaganza, but it could yet go in any direction and
strident,” explains Cracknell. “I like Nick’s fragility.” we need to reconvene and chat about all that.”
The pair share a love of wearing feather boas on Could it be recorded with the same speed as Red
stage, though Cracknell notes: “I give mine away all Kite? “Maybe. My record lent itself to that swiftness
the time. I can never find one in the cupboard when I because a lot of instruments were being played by
need to.” one person. It’s more time-consuming when you’ve
Cracknell will tour the album in winter, probably by constantly got other musicians coming in, not least
train as she’s become wary of tourbuses since Saint because you have to play them the track first.”
Etienne were involved in a crash in Calais 13 years Although Saint Etienne are spread across
ago. “My eldest son was a baby and I was pretty Oxfordshire, London and, in Wiggs’ case, Brighton,
scared,” she says. “I’d actually forgotten about that they remain friends, “knowing when to give each
crash until you reminded me, though. It can be useful other space” and the album is likely to come out next
having a bad memory sometimes! I prefer trains year. While Wiggs and Stanley finish their book
anyway – I get car-sick if I try reading on a tourbus.” projects, Cracknell is working with Swedish musician
Is it true that Saint Etienne’s tours were wild? “Who Name The Pet and remains open to other
said anything about ‘were’?” she responds. “Who collaborations. “It depends if someone asks at
says we’ve cleaned up? No, the truth is that we do the right time.”
still get a bit over-excited after a show sometimes and One area where Saint Etienne do
I’m sure that’ll continue with the solo gigs. I’ve got a differ is in social media. While
little gang, because it’s the same people who played Stanley is an inveterate tweeter,
on the record and I like surrounding myself with Cracknell has no Facebook or
people I know. Twitter account. “I’m really slow
“We’ve been moved on by the police a few times and behind with all that stuff,”
for loitering – drinking en masse with what’s left of the she admits. “I even find email
rider. I’m slightly proud that still happens to me! But I an intrusion! It’s hard enough
have to be careful, because it wouldn’t look good to keeping up with that, so I’m
my kids if I was actually put in a cell overnight, and just not interested. I’m quite
it’s easy to lose track of what is and isn’t an arrestable technophobic, and I need to
offence. I can get a little bit lippy with authority and I be careful that I don’t get so far
do need to button it.” behind that I’m beyond repair.
Cracknell’s children – sons Spencer, 14, and Sam, But I just don’t like looking at a
11 – mean that she’s still in touch with chart music, screen all the time. It really annoys
which the singer has a great deal of fondness for. me, because I’d rather gaze out of the
She’s a fan of chart-topping EDM producer Route 94 window and look at the birds. I’m a bit of
in particular. “So much of modern dance music just a twitcher and a bit nature-y.”
reminds me of going clubbing in the Nineties,” she That sense of natural wonder infuses Red Kite,
chuckles. “I used to like that stuff and it turns out I still but it hasn’t necessarily inspired Cracknell to crack
on in haste for solo album three. “It might take me
another 18 years, who knows?” she ponders. “These
“BoB and Pete have things never seem to take long. When someone said
seen that I’ve made how long it had been since Lipslide I yelled ‘You’re
an alBum and saId to kidding me!’ I’m always involved in something with
Saint Etienne, like playing a live soundtrack or touring
each other ‘ooh, a abroad. It may not appear that any of us do very
record! Why don’t We much, but in fact we really are. Promise!”
do one of those?’”
do. Back then, you’d never hear that type of music on
the radio and it’s great that it’s on daytime Radio 1
now, because it means I don’t have to go out!”
No different than any other mum, Cracknell’s
children are monumentally unimpressed with her
career, though she recalls taking Sam to see his
beloved QPR play and twice being asked at half-time
“Are you Sarah from Saint Etienne?” According to
Cracknell: “Because these lads were fellow QPR fans,
Sam was suddenly impressed. He started telling all his
friends ‘Two people came up to my mum…’”
Aside from the burbling Hearts Are For Breaking,
most of Red Kite is a world away from Saint Etienne’s
50
S A R A H C R A C K N E L L
51
H E R I T
P A
G
O
E
P
SO MUCH TO
ANSWER FOR
E
P
O G
P A
H E R I T
Düsseldorf
IN THEIR NATIVE GERMAN CITY KRAFTWERK
WERE LOCAL LEGENDS, BUT THEIR INFLUENCE
SPREAD INTO MANY DIFFERENT MUSICAL
WORLDS. WHERE WOULD WE BE
WITHOUT THEM?
M A R K F R I T H
52
DÜSSELDORF S O M U C H T O A N S W E R F O R
I
nfluence. It’s a big word. We use it Derrick May, purveyor of
a lot. A certain sound on a certain Hi Tek Soul, or “George
Clinton meeting Kraftwerk
record influences another sound on
in an elevator”
another record; one band or singer’s
body of work can inspire a whole act’s
career or even, if they’re very influential,
a whole movement. You can all name
several now. If you imagine a world
without some of those key influencers you
can picture a world without another, later
act or even a whole tranche of acts.
However, imagine a world without
Kraftwerk and you can potentially
obliterate much of the music that
followed. Would electronic music have
caught hold if they hadn’t taught us that
as well as being rigid and repetitive, it
could be melodious too? What about
house music? Derrick May, house
innovator and Kraftwerk obsessive,
based a lot of his other sets around
the band’s basslines. He loved their
simplicity, their cleanness and (with their
late Seventies work) how, in his words,
“goddam funky” they were. What about
hip-hop? Grandmaster Flash would play
the band’s work extensively at his early
New York residencies, whilst 1982’s
Getty Images
Express to revolutionary
the nucleus. As the band moved into the ‘remix’ was completely new. Their
1972, they began to experiment: post- place in musical history was sealed.
Whilst Neu! were inventing the
effect
production distortions were added, live
performances began to feature drum 12” mix, Kraftwerk spent the latter
machines with preset electric organ half of 1973 and early part of 1974
rhythms. Then, in 1973, came a reformatting the Kraftwerk concept.
new member, Wolfgang Flür, Electronic instruments were moving
a very different personality Neu!. The album’s mixture of on apace and the band invested
to the studious, reserved Krautrock noodlings, syncopated in the newest kit. They developed
founding duo. drumbeats and odd noises was their recording space in Düsseldorf,
With their 1973 album Ralf an innovative and unusual but Kling Klang Studios, which would in
Und Florian, Kraftwerk began heady mix, and although the time make them more self-dependent
to move closer to its famous album sold only a moderate 30,000 (production duties that had previously
sound of vocoder, synthesisers and copies, Bowie, Brian Eno and OMD been farmed out would soon be handled
drum machines. The music was fitting have all cited the band as an influence. in-house). Their look changed too. In
into place, but the look, the image, the Indeed, for OMD’s Paul Humphries, his autobiography, I Was A Robot,
style was to be as important. It had to Neu!’s music was a gateway to a whole, Wolfgang Flür describes how the long-
53
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o
e
p
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e
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o
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Düsseldorf
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54
DüSSElDoRF s o m u c h t o a n s w e r f o r
Getty Images
haired Krautrockers were fashioned into They started to have hits – the “Wolfgang tells the story,” continues
something entirely different in the months 22-minute title track of Autobahn was Dorper, “of going to one punk venue and
leading up to their new album. a big club record in the US and the being repeatedly kicked in the back! It
“At the time of Autobahn, we adopted album went Top 5 in the Billboard chart was crazy – the punks would actually
the ‘German’ image at Florian’s and the UK chart. Then, in 1975, they attack them!”
suggestion, based on his love of the toured the UK, and in doing so inspired Wolfgang Flür’s stories of the time
fashions of the Fifties. It was like The a whole generation of UK musicians to cast light on the secretive world of the
Beach Boys, who represented an ditch the guitars and play synthesisers band, a world that was getting more and
American prototype with their ‘all- instead. Back home in Düsseldorf, more secretive with time. Indeed, Flür’s
American dream’… we just wanted to memoirs are one of the only detailed
stop being compared with the English insights into the band’s world we have.
pop scene.” The band – now with The book – released in 2003 – was
a fourth member, Karl Bartos – took
themselves off into central Düsseldorf for Emil the subject of a lengthy legal dispute
between the author and Kraftwerk, but
group haircuts and off-the-peg suits. This
didn’t go unnoticed. To a teenage Ralf Schult’s visuals for is very insightful about the period of
Autobahn’s release and the tour that
Dorper, later to find huge acclaim as
one quarter of Propaganda, growing Kraftwerk were stunning followed. It is clear that both Flür and
Bartos were regarded as more junior
up in Düsseldorf meant you would
see the band or members of their – clean, pop-art inspired members – earning less, staying in
cheaper hotels to the other two on a
entourage on a regular basis… and
boy, did they stand out. work which placed the band US tour, and having to look happy
when Hütter and Schneider showed
“In Düsseldorf at that time most
people were still wearing flares, but in a clear space of a new off the watches their music publishers
had bought for the two of them.
modern life
they were wearing narrow tight trousers,” After the Autobahn tour, in May 1977,
relates Dorper now. “You’d certainly the band began work on a follow-up,
recognise them if you saw them around. Trans Europe Express. With this
You’d see someone in tight trousers with album the band were at the
short hair and you’d think ‘Ah, they must peak of their powers: fantastic
be connected to Kraftwerk!’” however, local gig-goers were reviews, sold-out shows, and
The look became increasingly less enamoured. As 1975 the patronage of David Bowie,
important. A designer friend, Emil Schult, ticked over to 1976, punk who was hopeful of some
worked with them on the visuals to took hold in the city. Whereas kind of collaboration with the
accompany the album Autobahn, and before punk, as Ralf Dorper band and producer Brian Eno. But
the results were stunning: clean, pop-art recalls, “they were pretty visible – Kraftwerk didn’t collaborate. They didn’t
inspired depictions of motorways and they’d go to all the in-places. Florian support anyone else either (turning down
other urban landscapes. The work placed would drive everywhere in his very large Bowie’s offer of a slot on his Station To
the band in a clear space – that of the Mercedes…”, with the advent of punk Station tour the previous year was just
city, of technology, of a new modern life. the locals became hostile. one example). Yet their quest for a life
55
DüSSELDORF s o m u c h t o a n s w e r f o r
David Bowie wrote V2 your hands, and now the Adolf Hitler,
Schneider in tribute to and now the Jesus Christ” with a sarcasm
Kraftwerk; the band would
missed by many observers.
repay the compliment on
Trans-Europe Express Die Krupps got John Peel plays and,
crucially, a Single Of The Week in
the NME. A buzz was growing at the
paper’s office about Die Krupps and this
new breed of German music, so when
Dorper left to work on a new project,
Propaganda, the timing couldn’t have
been better. NME writer Paul Morley told
the band he wanted to sign them for a
new label he was putting together. At first
they were sceptical. Then, when Morley
mentioned who would be producing,
their view changed…
Speaking to Classic Pop on the
phone from Düsseldorf, it is clear
Dorper loved Trevor Horn’s work with
Malcolm McLaren and ABC (and he was
interested in the latter’s move from noisy,
abrasive records to perfect pop, a move
Dorper himself was to make.) Originally
a trio (Dorper, Cologne-based friend
Andreas Thein, and singer Susanne
Freytag), by the time Propaganda
Getty Images
released records they were a foursome;
Freytag brought in Claudia Brücken, a
former bandmate in The Topolinos, who
became the main vocalist.
away from a public profile was about to permeate through the whole of the city. Dorper had doubts about their contract
take a bizarre and brilliant turn. Neue Deutsche Welle (New German from the off. “It looked like a contract
In the (rave) reviews the band Wave) was at first an underground from the Fifties or Sixties – but I kept
received, certain key phrases would movement derived from punk and new thinking: ‘Trevor Horn’.” They would
re-occur: the band were “cold”, even wave before becoming a less derivative, have had to sell a quarter of a
“robotic”. Ralf in particular loved this more distinct style. Its spiritual centre was million albums to recoup costs,
image, and over several months an a pub called Ratinger Hof, the CBGBs of but confidence was high.
idea developed in his mind: what if Düsseldorf, and many of the acts were The recording of first single
Kraftwerk were replaced in the public from the city. There was DAF (Deutsch Dr Mabuse was an exciting
sphere by a series of doppelgängers? time for everyone involved, and
If functioning models could be made of produced one of ZTT’s truly
the band, they really could be robots. great singles.
Propaganda
Recording sessions for next album The Problems followed.
Man Machine were interspersed with “We started to push for studio
56
H E R I T
P A
G
O
E
P
orchestral arrangements with forays into The band’s growing obsession with So much to
Die Krupps-style noise (particularly on
Jewel, the brash twin of the beautiful
cycling led to the song Tour De France,
one of their biggest international hits, in
anSwer for
E
P
O G
Duel). Alas, it was to be the band’s 1983 (in a terrible irony, that same year
P A
H E R I T
Düsseldorf
finest moment. After a messy split from Ralf Hütter suffered a bad cycling injury
ZTT (Claudia Brücken left to begin a that caused him head injuries and he
notable solo career) the band signed to spent several days in a coma.)
Virgin, but by the time the album 1234 As the Eighties wore on, the group
was released in 1990 the personnel began to tour less and release very little.
had changed. Dorper regrouped with
Die Krupps, and the band is still
Wolfgang Flür left; Karl Bartos departed
to become Professor Of Music at
BEST 10
going strong today.
As the Eighties
Hamburg University. Then
in the noughties, Florian
TRACKS
progressed, Kraftwerk
settled into an
when Schneider also left,
leaving Ralf Hütter
HALLOGALLO
NEU! (1972)
intensive, studio- Kraftwerk as the only original If new to Neu!, start with the debut
album that influenced, well, everyone
based regime.
Like workers at announced a residency member. However,
in the last few AUTOBAHN
a factory, they
at the tate modern, eight years the presence KRAFTWERK (1975)
put in long nights of Kraftwerk has A new dawn: electronic music could be
melodic, exciting and make the charts
at Düsseldorf’s
Kling Klang Studios nights’ worth of tickets been felt more than
ever – not just in the COMPUTER LOVE/THE
– constructing
equipment, then sold out in seconds growing number of
artists who cite them
MODEL
KRAFTWERK (1981)
recording as an influence (even The Model took Kraftwerk into a new
music with it. “You Coldplay got in on the world of commercial radio pop
can’t just go act with their appropriation of DER MUSSOLINI
into a shop and say ‘I’d like Computer Love on Talk), but also in their DAF (1982)
to buy these things,’” said Ralf selective but brilliant live work. Düsseldorf’s noise revolution was led
Hütter in 1981. “We had to make At no point was the power of Kraftwerk by DAF and this single. Remember:
them all ourselves.” The equipment had more pronounced than when the group they are being sarcastic…
to be transportable, too, so they could, announced a February 2013 residency TOUR DE FRANCE
as much as possible, reproduce the clean at London’s Tate Modern as part of a KRAFTWERK (1983)
studio sound night after night. Touring series of gigs worldwide in iconic art Shimmering, blissed-out, and no less
had another advantage – they could visit spaces. Eight nights’ worth of tickets than the invention of ambient house
bands they had influenced and, in New sold out seconds, with over 100,000 DR MABUSE
York in the early Eighties, see DJs mix in applicants missing out (non-goers held PROPAGANDA (1984)
their records in Manhattan clubs. alternative Kraftwerk-inspired events all A huge, wild, slightly scary slice of
Their influence on American rap music over the city during the run). The concerts epic brilliance with, at 3:46, a bit of
reached a peak in 1982 when Afrika were a sensation, with many reviewers Welcome To The Pleasuredome. Ha!
Bambaataa producer Arthur Baker being stunned by the number of young
DUEL/JEWEL
sampled Trans-Europe Express on Planet gig-goers present. PROPAGANDA (1985)
Rock. Paul Humphries got the shock of Influence. No-one has had it like ‘Abba from heaven’: one of the
his life when, on OMD’s first German Kraftwerk, and 45 years on, it’s growing. greatest pop records of the decade
tour in 1980, whilst playing in a venue in They shaped house and hip-hop and
Bochum, “we looked out from the stage British electronic music and probably WHEN YOUR HEART
RUNS OUT OF TIME
and all four members of the band were everyone in this magazine. Stick your
GLENN GREGORY AND CLAUDIA
just standing there, dressed identically. finger in a random page – there, that’s BRüCKEN (1985)
They were just interested… checking out someone influenced by Kraftwerk. An One of two great lost Brücken songs, a
the competition.” astonishing career, and it isn’t over yet. beautiful C&W-tinged ballad
listen up!
Die Krupps to DAF,
Propaganda to Kraftwerk, witness
the Düsseldorf
sound on our
Spotify playlist:
Getty Images
http://spoti.
fi/1FKluC9
57
P E T E R G A B R I E L
P
eter Gabriel’s biggest the album cover. After a string of “Through a strange set of
album – and one of the wonky/leftfield singles – Shock The circumstances my Canadian
highest-selling records Monkey, I Have The Touch, I Don’t colleague Brett Wickens had
of 1986 – featured Remember – Gabriel was on the developed an album cover
four singles for which the words verge of mass appeal but, visually, with Peter Gabriel, but it didn’t
“monster” (Sledgehammer), he wasn’t prepared to step into the work. It was a disaster,” recalls
“raving” (Big Time), “loony” (Red limelight. This was an artist who, Saville. “I personally didn’t know
Rain) and “party” (In Your Eyes) after all, hadn’t even named his Peter Gabriel, I wasn’t a fan of
would be perfectly gripping previous four albums. So when Peter Gabriel. I did not like who
descriptions. (To say nothing of the Peter Saville was approached to he was before with Genesis, I
world’s most gripping ballad, the design the cover, he had a unique couldn’t bear all that. But Brett
Kate Bush duet, Don’t Give Up.) brief and a tall order to fulfil, and loved it and he wanted to get
They took Gabriel into the it wasn’t helped by the fact that involved. Together with Peter and
mainstream, but he didn’t appear he’d never been a Gabriel fan, a photographer they worked on
on the sleeve of any of these and that the record was already a cover but it just... slipped away
singles, and neither the title nor finished but with a cover design – from them. Very, very near to the
the artist’s name appeared on and a title – that just wasn’t right... release date, it just slipped away.
“Gail Colson said, ‘We’ve got a problem. Peter
Gabriel has made a very important record that
he has to come out in front of. We’ve got to
save this situation’” P E T E R S A V I L L E
So’s
’s first single,
Sledgehammer,, set
a graphic style for
the whole project in
terms of font, the
International Klein
Blue block colour,
and the intentional
absence of the
singer’s face.
58
P E T E R G A B R I E L P O P A R T
Above left:
reflections of Soft
Cell’s stage set.
Above: Almond
requested Feather
to do his “Gene
Kelly thing”
No text, no titles
but – as Peter
“I remember seeing the proof. “And then a really lovely woman a lot. He’s like a good person, Saville confirms –
“we created the
It was an album called Good called Gail Colson, who was he just is and I picked up on
icon, the global
and the photographer was a very managing Peter, said ‘We’ve got that, I felt that, and as we left he icon, of Peter
talented man called David Hiscock a problem. Peter Gabriel has handed Brett a cassette, and he Gabriel, that was
[who would later shoot the cover made a very important record, you said ‘I think it’s finished...’ to front – and, I
have to say, be
of Gabriel’s 2013 album, Scratch haven’t heard it, but he’s made “So we got in the car, I was – Peter Gabriel
My Back]. But his style was to a record that he has to come out driving, there’s a road back for the next 10
etch away the photo print and in front of.’ She said, for his own across the hills to meet the M4, years…”
of course, Peter being Peter, they interest, for this record he must not and Brett was beginning to offer
etched everything away. They hide behind a door. She said ‘will this cassette to the player... ‘Oh,
started with a picture of Peter you please come and see him, and Brett, no, do I have to?’ He said
Gabriel and ended with a few you’ve got two weeks, we’ve got ‘Yeah, you’re gonna have to.’ Oh
beige lines on a piece of paper. to save this situation?’ God, I suppose so. He put the tape
“Peter’s instinct was to go away, “So Brett and I went to a farm on and it opened with Red Rain
he shied away from it. And with just outside Bath where Peter was and I’m driving along listening to
Hiscock etching away, Peter could working. I didn’t know him, I Red Rain thinking ‘It’s alright, this,
just take himself away, leave a bit didn’t know what to expect. I just it’s pretty good. It won’t continue
of eyebrow and that was it. And it thought, ‘Genesis? Nah...’ but like this, but this is alright.’ I mean,
was called Good… but it wasn’t. Peter was really lovely, I liked him Red Rain is an astonishing track.
59
A close-up of an
iris for the US-only
single release for
the album’s grand
finale, In Your
Eyes – though, like
Sledgehammer,, it
begs the question is
this minimalism or
is it literalism?
“After a while, working connected to music, you know
No. 1s. Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, OMD’s
Enola Gay. And the synthesis of things in Sledgehammer
was extraordinary” P E T E R S A V I L L E
Unknown Treasure
Peter Saville on the differing to hear it?’ I thought, ‘40 minutes
inspiration – musically and visually of Joy Division? I’m not sure, but I
– between Gabriel’s So and Joy can’t say no!’ I sat down tentatively,
Division’s Unknown Pleasures... and a little bit fearful of what I was
“When you work on a great about to hear. Rob put the needle
record – you’ve heard the demos, on and She’s Lost Control started.
you’ve been to the studio and I couldn’t believe it. What Martin
somehow you know what the had done with Joy Division... I was
record is like and what it is – you au fait with punk and new wave
have this remarkable feeling of music at that time. I knew what was
association. That, by association, out in the UK and abroad, I knew
you’re involved in something what was there, but when I heard
important. The counterpoint Unknown Pleasures, I mean, within
The album’s
would be the Factory/New Order five minutes you think ‘This is great’. spell-binding
position: with Unknown Pleasures, “When I left Rob’s I was on collaboration,
I hadn’t heard anything at all. All another planet, because I knew but not the first
time Peter and
I knew of Joy Division was the that I’d done the cover of what was Kate had duetted.
two tracks on A Factory Sample unarguably a great album, and Head to YouTube
which were promising but rough. it would be received as a great for the tear-
jerking Another
I did the cover and took it to Rob album. What Martin had done Day from Kate’s
Gretton’s house one afternoon to was so sophisticated and finished, 1979 Christmas
say ‘It’s done’ and he said ‘I’ve got it didn’t sound raw. It was so Special TV show.
a test pressing today, do you want accomplished, it’s extraordinary.”
60
P E T E R G A B R I E L P O P A R T
61
SINCE
YESTERDAY FROM POP SENSATION TO RECLUSIVE CULT
FIGURE, ROSE MCDOWALL HAS ALWAYS BEEN
IN TOUCH WITH THE DARK SIDE. “I HAD A
LOT OF EXPERIENCES THAT WERE WILDLY
WEIRD,” SHE TELLS CLASSIC POP...
P A U L L E S T E R
S
trawberry Switchblade were a duo comprising Strawberry Switchblade’s debut single,
Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson. With their Trees And Flowers, was about Jill Bryson’s
bows, polka dot dresses and pop hits such as agoraphobia; Since Yesterday was about
Since Yesterday (No. 5 in 1985), Let Her Go, the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Your
Who Knows What Love Is? and their interpretation of music always had a dark undercurrent…
Dolly Parton’s Jolene, they were, briefly, Smash Hits Our image was really flamboyant and colourful, but
cover stars. Later, Rose became a cult figure, working our minds were dark. Well, mine was.
with a variety of post-industrial and neofolk artists.
Now, having just reissued her version of Blue Oyster Your 1985 self-titled debut album featured
Cult’s Don’t Fear The Reaper for Record Store Day, a lot of slow, sombre and sorrowful songs –
and with an imminent release of her 1987-89 solo Go Away, 10 James Orr Street, Being Cold.
demos, Cut With The Cake Knife, to be followed by The phrase ‘sinister-sweet’ seems to have
re-recordings of her numerous collaborations, she been invented for these wintry ballads…
is set to go more public. Classic Pop spoke to the I’d love somebody to say, “She’s the female Leonard
reclusive Eighties musician on the phone from her Cohen”. People say, “Oh, it’s music to kill yourself to.”
home in Oxfordshire, on the eve of a rare show at But I love melody, and the beauty of melancholy.
London’s St Pancras Old Church…
You were everywhere for a while, on the
You started off in a Glasgow punk band… radio and TV. What was that like?
Yes, The Poems. We were inspired by The Ramones – I remember these teenage girls on the corner of
we thought, “If they can do it, we can do it!” I played Oxford Street shouting, “You’re trying to look like
drums standing up… as did Bobby Gillespie later Strawberry Switchblade!” I couldn’t stop laughing.
on, with The Jesus & Mary Chain. I did it because
of Maureen Tucker of The Velvet Underground, who You and Jill went your separate ways in
I loved. We were part of the same scene as The Nu- 1986. Are you still in touch?
Sonics, who later became Orange Juice. A bit. We’re still in touch because of things like Peel
Sessions. But we don’t really hang out anymore. We
Didn’t Orange Juice’s Edwyn Collins come up did have a falling out back then, but it wasn’t just
with the name for Strawberry Switchblade? that… things get said in between that are ridiculous.
No, it was James Kirk, their guitarist. Orange Juice I like Jill, she’s a nice girl. There were just certain
were amazing, a massive inspiration – I bought my problems that were beyond anybody else’s control.
first guitar off James. I even did drumming for them
when Steven Daly left. James played with us at one Next, you played with a lot of post-
point, for our early John Peel sessions – as did Alex industrial and/or dark “neofolk” bands…
Fergusson of Alternative TV. I used to go to all the I recorded an album, Cut With The Cake Knife,
punk gigs like Chelsea, supported by Alternative TV with various members of The Sugarcubes and Into
Pics: Mike Prior
– I loved Alex’s guitar playing. Anyway, it was James A Circle, which is being issued in August. I lived in
who came up with our name. Funnily enough, he has Japan for six months around 1989, and had a band
now joined [a reformed version of] The Bluebells. with some Japanese kids called Candy Cane. I sang
62
“I’D LOVE SOMEBODY TO
SAY ‘SHE’S THE FEMALE
LEONARD COHEN’. I LOVE
MELODY AND THE BEAUTY
OF MELANCHOLY”
73
63
backing or lead vocals for Coil, Current 93, Death In take or leave. He is a difficult person, like a spoilt
June, Alex Fergusson, Into A Circle, Megas, Nature six-year-old, who wants everybody to be his friend
And Organisation, Nurse With Wound, Ornamental, but doesn’t want his friends to be friends with each
and Psychic TV. In 1993 I collaborated with Boyd Rice other. He was always trying to get me to go into “the
under the name Spell and produced two singles and nursery”, as they called it – the room with the dentist’s
an album for Mute Records. At the same time I had a chair where they used to practise “sex magick”.
folk-rock band called Sorrow with my then-husband These were people into The Temple of Psychick Youth.
Robert Lee. Between 1993 and 2001 we released But I’m not a sheep or a follower. Magic is a very
two albums and an EP and performed in Europe and personal thing, and I stopped when I had my son Bobi
America. I was also in a group called Rosa Mundi. [she has three children: Keri, Bobi and Velocity Lee],
I worked with The Damned, live and in the studio – because if spirits are around they’re always going to
that’s unreleased. I worked with people I love, like Felt go for the easiest or weakest.
and Primal Scream – I did backing vocals on Loaded,
although I didn’t get credited. I also did a track called Did you decide to become a recluse?
Rosemary’s Tears, about the Moors murderers. I left London so my son could be born in Scotland,
then I went to Canada for a year and a half. Then I
How much of this is available on CD? wanted to be near [the city] but not in London, so I
Not much, but there will be. I’m working with Michael came to Oxfordshire. I have isolated myself so much,
[Kasparis] at Night School Records to re-release a lot but I’ve had stalkers and they’d find me anywhere.
of my solo stuff [see panel].
Stalkers, really?
Boyd Rice was friends with Anton LaVey, God, yeah. This one guy had been following me for a
founder and High Priest of the Church Of year. That would freak anybody out. Then one day he
Satan – it always struck me as weird that walked up behind me in slow motion – it was really
you, this young so-called pop girl, would be creepy. I got this slow motion tap – three times – and I
working with those sorts of people… turned round and he said, “You know who I am.” He
The darkside, you mean? [laughs]. I sold my soul for said that in slow motion as well. There were no stalker
rock’n’roll! laws at the time, I didn’t know I could call the police.
Once I nearly got run over by a car and he ran into
What happened? the road. He said, “If you die I want to die, too!” He
My mother told me I was mad when I was 16. I’d sing was awful. Eventually, I was outside Creation Records
opera really loud, or do ballet – spontaneous things. with Lawrence from Felt and he had a stalker as well,
I was a strange little girl. I believed in magic… I had so we set them up [on a blind date] and sent them off
a lot of experiences that were wildly weird. It was just in a cab! We thought that would be it, but his stalker
so outrageous that I knew something else was going started coming to my house telling me not to see
on. Once – I was the eldest of seven kids, and I was Lawrence because she was in love with him!
chasing one of my little brothers and he slammed the
door in my face and bust my nose, and I screamed so On a happier note, you sang with The Jesus
loud the wall burst into flames. Honest to God, that’s And Mary Chain at Glasgow Barrowlands.
the truth. My mum said I used to speak in tongues. I Well, they’re my favourite band of all time. I came
used to have nightmares that would continue while I offstage and said, “I could die happy now.” I love
was awake. I said a lot of things and knew a lot of them. Even more than The Velvet Underground.
things a little kid shouldn’t.
You’re about to play at St Pancras Old
Church in London, yet you’re seen as almost
“I WAS LOOKING AT THE a female Syd Barrett…
TAPE MACHINE, THEN THE That’s totally what I did. I removed myself from
TAPE STARTED TO SMOKE everything. I still did gigs and things, with Sorrow, or
solo. And I still work, but not as much as I used to. I’m
AND IT CAUGHT FIRE. way more private than I used to be, though I talk too
BUT I STOPPED DOING much if I like somebody. I just don’t like crowds.
STUFF LIKE THAT” You’ve recorded so many beautifully sad
songs. Which is your favourite?
Did anything strange happen when you were Coil’s Where Are You.
in Strawberry Switchblade?
Yes, once I was in the studio – and this can be verified Eerie prettiness is a leitmotif in your work…
– I really disliked the first note on Let Her Go. I was It is, yeah. I do get compliments for my haunting
furious looking at the tape machine, then the tape voice. Once on tour with Sorrow in America, the
started to smoke and it caught fire. But I stopped whole audience were crying. I have never felt so
doing stuff like that because a couple of accidents moved in my life. I’m here to bring misery to those
happened when I was doing magic rituals in London who don’t see it! But sorrow and sadness are not
and I thought, “I’m not totally in control of this.” nasty. When you’re in a sad place, you’re not angry;
it’s a personal place, it can be quite comfortable:
How dark did things get with Psychic TV et al? a quiet, dark place. That’s why I called my band
Not dark at all. They were just funny. Psychic TV and Sorrow. It’s about embracing sorrow. Doing that, you
Genesis [P Orridge] – he’s like a character you can reach depths you wouldn’t otherwise have reached.
64
R O S E M c D O W A L L
BEING BOLD
Finally, after years of only having one record available, there is a
slew of new releases from Rose McDowall…
August 2015: Rose McDowall – Cut With The Cake Knife CD/LP.
Many of the tracks are demos, 1987-89 vintage, originally titled The
Sunflower Demos, for what might have been a second Strawberry Switchblade
album. Will feature an interview conducted with Rose plus many unseen
period photos from 1987-89.
November 2015: Sorrow – Under The Yew Possessed CD/LP.
From 1993, it will be the first time the songs have appeared in proper CD/
LP form. To feature a new interview about the Sorrow era plus photos and
illustrations.
March 2016: Sorrow – Sleep Now Forever CD/LP.
A 1999 recording. Will also feature the deathlessly beautiful Let There Be
Thorns, a single from 2001 that sounds roughly like Clare Grogan weeping
over Joy Division’s Decades.
June 2016 – On CD/LP, Rose’s “Solstice” series of recordings collecting her
favourite collaborations throughout her career, with Current 93, Coil, Felt,
Nurse With Wound, Alex Fergusson and more.
September 2016 – As yet unconfirmed, Rose has unearthed a cassette
believed to be the lost Poems album. If it’s of acceptable sonic quality, there
will be an issue of this!
October 2016 – Gem CD. An electronic album Rose made with a soundtrack
composer from Canada in 2006.
65
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AFTER THE
TRIAL
69
s ha rr i se hk ebaauc xk
m
I
I had no time to do my homework. The Eighties was the
t’s 1998, and, in Greece, devotees of Depeche most pop period in music! Back then, Madonna, Prince
Mode – possibly the country’s most popular and Michael Jackson were the leaders. Today we have
act – are celebrating the release of The Singles Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Nicki Minaj. Something has
86>92 at a party organised by Hysterika, the gone wrong, don’t you think? It’s not necessary to be stuck
band’s local fanclub. Deep in the crowd, two in the Eighties to realise that!”
young women, Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie With their love of music piled into Pop Corn, the
Sarigiannidou, cross paths, stopping when they recognise experiment paid off. Before long, it was included in an
each other from the streets and bars of Thessaloniki, where electro-clash compilation called Nu-Romantix, and radio
they share friends. Having discussed common musical swiftly picked up on it. “We decided to form a duo,” Melitsi
interests, however, they part ways once again. remembers, “but agreed that we wouldn’t have a public
The significance of the meeting will remain overlooked image: no photographs, no videos, nothing. Something like
for some time, and, even two years later, their friendship M|A|R|R|S in 1987 with Pump Up The Volume.”
will only develop after they both move to Athens, where “We wanted to form a group that’d have OMD’s
Melitsi has won a job at the country’s biggest technical melodies, Martin Gore’s lyrics, the Pet Shop Boys’ style
company and Sarigiannidou is beginning work as a and imagery, and the Sparks’ genius!” Sarigiannidou
make-up artist. Leaving behind one’s family is never easy adds. “In some way that I don’t remember right now, John
for young Greeks, and Melitsi and Sarigiannidou are no Foxx was also in our plan.”
different: they bond first not over their shared love of pop, For their debut album, they hooked up with a production
but instead their mutual distress at living away from home duo called Fotonovela, recording, mixing and mastering
for the first time. As Sarigiannidou admits, laughing, “all Ebay Queen in just one week. The album was such a
we did back then was cry”. success in their homeland that they were able to buy
But, with the benefit of hindsight, it was, perhaps, new equipment with the proceeds, and they continued
inevitable that these two dedicated fans of synthpop working with their collaborators, releasing a second
would end up releasing one of the bravest, most satisfying album, Peekaboo, two years later. These began to arouse
albums of the Classic Pop year: a reverential, outstanding international interest, and, with a couple more covers
reinterpretation of Depeche Mode’s entire second under their belt – among them songs by New Order and
album, A Broken Frame. Not only was their first meeting The Lightning Seeds – they also began remixing other acts.
prompted by their mutual love of the legendary Basildon These included Moby, Gwen Stefani and even Depeche
group, but the idea of them ever recording together only Mode themselves, before a third album, Lumineux Noir –
came about thanks to another Hysterika party in 2003, “our best album,” according to Melitsi – hit the stores in
organised to celebrate the release of a Greek Depeche 2009. By this time, they’d earned themselves a reputation
Mode tribute album, Around The World And Back. not only for their own recordings – which earned them
Until then, they’d never considered making music – comparisons with Ladytron and Client – and intelligent
neither were trained musicians – but a challenge from the covers, but also for their extended mixes, a number of
kaleidoscopic video was hailed as “soulful”, seductive” and “a
renaissance” and topped the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart
pop_up Moroder and Kylie’s Right Here, Right Now with its
owners of what would soon become the country’s leading which were included on the 2012 compilation, Ebay
electro-pop label, Undo Records, changed all that. A short Queen Is Dead, and which confirmed their status as true
time later, Marsheaux were born when they completed a fans of the Eighties aesthetic.
cover of the classic Pop Corn (originally made famous by
Hot Butter in 1972). Undo Records, losers of the bet, were
left to find someone else to clean their warehouse. All the
same, Marsheaux’s version of A Broken Frame remained a “THE EIGHTIES
WAS THE MOST
dozen years away.
Of course, it could have been very different. According
to Melitsi, Greeks, as a rule, are largely engrossed in their
country’s own musical output. “People outside Greece
don’t really know that Nana Mouskouri is the biggest POP PERIOD
selling artist of all time,” she points out. “She’s sold many
more thousands than Madonna, or Abba. If you add up IN MUSIC.
SOMETHING
all the sales of Madonna, Mariah, Celine, Beyonce, Lady
Photography: Petros Dellatolas
Gaga and Britney, you’ll find that Nana herself has sold
HAS GONE
double the sum of the others.”
Nonetheless, Melitsi and Sarigiannidou developed
a love for international pop from an early age.
Sarigiannidou spent her formative years in Germany,
where her father worked as a furniture maker – “He sang WRONG”
70
71
m a r s h e a u x
72
“The idea that groups were sitting in their studios,
crafting their own extended versions, always drove
us crazy,” Melitsi says. “It was a part of a culture that
doesn’t exist any more. We still listen, even today, to
12” singles from this period and get chills. You listen
“WE TREATED A
Classic Pop earlier this year confirms that their gamble
was a grand success, and Sarigiannidou is right to
declare proudly that, “When the album was finished and
AND RESPECT.
breathes new life into the original, hauling it with style and
finesse into the 21st century. Without compromising their
IT WAS FRAGILE,
own vision – or Depeche Mode’s, either – its 10 songs
appear bigger, bolder and more elaborate than ever
before, and bonus extended mixes add further drama to
LIKE A BABY IN their glossy, glistening allure. Almost two decades since
Melitsi and Sarigiannidou first met, they’ve fulfilled their
73
S H R I E K B A C K
S
hriekback. It’s a bit like Fight Club. that saw them go bang first in the UK and then
Some people nod sagely and the States: 1985’s Oil & Gold (Marsh: “Mad,
secretively on hearing the word. impeccable, unstoppable! Damn near killed me
Others stare back blankly. Those in but completely worth it”), 1986’s Big Night Music
the latter camp – who may well have and 1988’s Go Bang! (Barry Andrews: “Comic
crossed paths with their music via a book Shrieks! Everything primary colours, plastic
passion for groups like XTC, Gang Of Four, King and MSG”).
Swamp or a love of film soundtracks like Michael But then... Chapter Three: The Wilderness
Mann’s Manhunter, which had Shriekback Years, a decade from the early Nineties to early
appearing alongside Kitarô and Klaus Schulze – Noughties that saw just 1992’s Sacred City
might appreciate a quick recap of the four distinct (“densely cerebral yet relaxed, like a Patrick
chapters of the group’s story so far. Keiller in a jacuzzi”), 2000’s Naked Apes And
“A messy splurge hinting at the potential” is Pond Life (“intense, some good bits and lovely
how Carl Marsh describes 1982’s debut, Tench. playing, but overall unfocussed and too short!”)
“Lots of energy and bridges burned for these and 2003’s Having A Moment (“a bit of ragbag,
few tracks. All very new for me… the first time I but with some classic moments. Very much a work
ever sang a song, it got recorded and released. of transitions: band, business and technology”).
Oh well.” Care followed a year later – to Barry Which bring us to the latest chapter, which
Andrews, still a “happy, juicy, free record” – finds Shriekback regrouped, refocussed and
before chapter one built up to a critical peak surprisingly productive. “Very personal, lovingly
with 1984’s Jam Science. “We were fired up but textured and full of life-krill,” is how Andrews
frazzled,” says Marsh. “The rocket landed miles describes 2005’s Cormorant, which lead almost
PHOTOGRAPHY: Mike Prior
away from where we aimed it, but listening to it straight into a follow-up, Glory Bumps (“a certain
now that’s probably for the best... a lesson about fragile, damaged quality to this which works
judging intentions rather than results.” brilliantly on the quiet ones but is kinda hysterical
The mid-Eighties – Chapter Two – was the on everything else”) and their last album, Life In
group’s commercial peak, with three albums The Loading Bay.
74
75
s h r i e k b a c k
Without Real String Or Fish. “Obviously we don’t have the display case at the Pitt Rivers, however, it is pointed
much distance on Without Real String Or Fish yet, but it’s out that: “these days the package and knots are still
down a baying Hawkwind audience at London’s Lyceum in 1980.
smart, playful, and adventurous… that seems to be what represented in gift-wrapping, though often in a stylised
we do. Maybe now with a certain added confidence born way, without real string or fish.”
of experience and respect.” I found that last phrase achingly poignant. The loss
of so much, right there. The retreat from physicality, into
Fish was started as far back as 2011, wasn’t it? what? Symbols? Virtuality? Stylisation? All of these things,
How did the timeline pan out exactly – which is surely. In that little phrase is distilled a whole cultural
a nice way of saying, why did it take so long?! drift: towards a world of terrifying absence and away
Barry Andrews: We’re busy boys – especially Mart from things and their substance, smell, taste and tactility.
and Carl – and all of us are spread out between Swindon, Another way the world has made it more difficult for us to
London and Lewes. Possibly – and more terrifying – there’s be at home in it. These themes do bubble up in the album
the middle-aged phenomena of years whizzing by before a bit but I think it’s a kinda ‘cultural context’ title rather
you notice. than a lyrical theme one.
Carl Marsh: Yes… if you add up the total number of
days it’s probably not very many, just rather spread out. Shriekback’s catalogue is full of lyrics that
Maybe two weeks altogether actually in the same room, you just don’t find anywhere else. I often find
then a lot of mailing in the homework. It would be great myself singing The Reptiles And I: “Chromium,
one day to do one as a sustained, contiguous thing. radium, nickel, iridium. Gold and actinium,
arsenic, plutonium. Neon, molybdenum, zinc,
Where did the title originate, and does it point iodine. Braving the elements, the reptiles and I.”
to a theme across the album? Where does your lyrical inspiration come from?
BA: ‘Without real string or fish’ was a phrase on a glass Do you have a set of go-to sources?
case in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Well worth a CM: If only there was a sure-fire, go-to source! The
76
GLIMPSE OF PLANETS
How does a band introduce itself? Here’s Barry Andrews’
fantastical manifesto for the group, from a promotional
video for Oil & Gold.... “We are sometimes asked, what is
this thing called Shriekback? What is the meaning of all this?
Who do you think you are? When we are asked these equally
penetrating and germane questions we can only answer that
we are Shriekback! And we strive to do good deeds. To be
brave, to make firm resolutions and abide by them, to behave
honourably and decently, and to run as fast as possible. And to
those among us too clever by half and too weird for our own
good, and perhaps for the good of others, we say do not be
afraid, approach us as though you were a tiny child. We will
take care of you and we will show you marvels, strange colours,
unprecedented noises, splendours you perhaps recall from
dreams. And if we stand together long enough, and in the right
place, perhaps the accustomed fog will lift and we will glimpse
whole new planets and, further off, the unfamiliar stars.”
77
S H R I E K B A C K
78
PoP_uP A Barry Andrews-written press release from 1983
sleepless nights that would’ve saved. For me, there’s a
79
COLLECTIVE
MEMORY
d DESPITE SCORING WORLDWIDE SMASHES,
PAUL YOUNG WAS A RELUCTANT SOLO
STAR. WITH NEW RARITIES BOX-SET TOMB
OF MEMORIES DOCUMENTING HIS GOLDEN
COMMERCIAL YEARS, HE TELLS CLASSIC POP
OF THE PARANOIA FAME BRINGS AND WHY
TRYING TO CRACK AMERICA WAS A MISTAKE…
J O H N E A R L S
80
Eric Watson
the same tempo. What Pino played was much better
than we had, so we tailored the song to fit. That’s
one reason why the partnership with Ian and Laurie
worked – we wouldn’t doggedly go on with our
original plan if someone else had a better idea.
Marvin Gaye’s original version of Wherever Was it easy keeping your vision for your
I Lay My Hat is much brasher than yours. second album The Secret Of Association
Why is yours more melancholy? among that madness?
That’s down to Pino Palladino’s bass. Originally, Recording at a residential studio was a big help, as
we’d put a Phil Spector-type beat on it, but stuck to we were able to discuss it 24/7 – the songs we had,
81
how it could sound coherent. Every Time You Go thought I’d try to make it easier for the record label
Away is timeless because we knew not to over-use and write to order for American radio. They wanted
synths and drum machines. We were very aware of me to be a rock artist and I thought they knew best.
not making everything sound programmed.
How do you feel about the album now?
It’s quite a sad album, isn’t it? It’s about 30% successful. Wonderland and War
You’re right, it is. Maybe subliminally, I could Games are great, but it didn’t work. I’m not
feel things were closing in on me. My life got American, so how am I going to understand what
claustrophobic, to the extent of needing two security works in America? It didn’t please America or Europe,
guards – one to check out the crowds ahead and one so that’s the last time I tried doing that.
to stay with me. I couldn’t go down to a hotel bar to
meet friends after a show, and I worked so hard that Why did you take a four-year break before
Laurie and Ian would work without me before I flew your fourth album Other Voices?
back to join them. I had to fight to get back on to my I was feeling hemmed in and wasn’t enjoying it
own album. That got worse in between Association anymore. For the first time, an album had gone wrong
and the next album Between Two Fires, but there’s a and I needed to get back to finding out who I was. I
hint of that on Association. wanted to get my own life back and spend time with
my wife Stacey and our daughter Levi. It’s difficult
Was Between Two Fires a deliberate attempt keeping a relationship going on tour, but during that
to keep your American success going? time off we became a tight threesome, experiencing
American radio wouldn’t play Tear Your Playhouse magical moments like on a road trip around America.
Down, the single after Every Time You Go Away. The
record label said AOR stations wouldn’t play it, the How easy was it to get back into the swing
rock stations refused because there was no guitar, of making music after the break?
supposedly the soul stations couldn’t understand a It was hard, because my working relationship with
white soul singer… I didn’t understand American Laurie ended. He has a painstaking, meticulous
radio at all, because I thought “Either it’s a good approach, and in that time it just dragged on. After
single, or it’s not”. I grew up on British radio, where a year, we only had seven songs and they weren’t
you’d hear Edith Piaf next to The Sex Pistols, but I coherent. I was getting bored out of my mind, so I
Brian Aris
P a u l y o u n g
Simon Fowler
the crowds ahead
and one to stay
with Me”
scrapped the sessions. We moved as a family out to Did you know that The Crossing would be
UK throughout the summer of 2015 and will perform at the opening night
trying to write for it from England. I knew we weren’t seeing eye-to-eye, but for 10 years
we’d had a pretty good run at it. I didn’t see the
What was it like having Nile Rodgers point of trying to be the same musician as the one
produce you? I’d been at the age of 25, and they couldn’t see the
That almost felt like a holiday excursion. Nile turned point in me not sounding like the Paul Young, who’d
me on to a lot of music in our downtime. He was had hits. The trouble is, I don’t know what makes me
hosting an MTV show about music around the world “Paul Young” – I can’t put my finger on what worked
at the time, so he played me fantastic stuff he’d found commercially, so I don’t know how to recreate it. But
travelling the globe. A lot of music in my collection I like The Crossing. I was like a kid in a candy store,
comes from Nile’s recommendations. as my producer Don Was had an incredible contacts
book. I got to work with my hero, the singer Tony Joe
Other Voices is star-studded: David Gilmour, White. He turned up and told me story after story, my
Stevie Winwood, Chaka Khan, Nile… mouth open like I was a 14-year-old kid again.
For once, I acted on my impulses, thinking “Why not
reach out to these people?” I could just hear David’s How enjoyable it is fronting your current
guitar on Heaven Can Wait and I’d sung at a charity band, Los pacaminos?
concert he’d organised. I could hear Elton John’s They’re guys I’ve been working with for years,
piano on that too, but he was too busy touring. So from even before the time of No Parlez. I love the
were Eurythmics, when I could picture Annie Lennox camaraderie of being in a gang. I never really liked
singing the harmony on Softly Whispering I Love You. the idea of being a solo star. I played the game,
There was total freedom on that album, as there was but now I’m back in a band, I love every minute. I
on No Parlez. It wasn’t as successful because time couldn’t have been a complete arsehole, or these
marches on. Also, I find it hard to choose singles. guys wouldn’t still be playing with me!
83
W
ith Dire Dire Straits’ tour that year.)
Straits’ Equally of importance to the
Brothers music industry, the CD era
In Arms marked the first time that
celebrating the public were persuaded
its 30th anniversary, there to buy albums they already
have been a few recent owned all over again: you
thinkpieces on CDs. The first may have purchased that Bob
CDs went on sale in 1982, Dylan album on vinyl as a
but it wasn’t until Brothers teenager, but now it was time
In Arms that the idea of to upgrade to the superior
digital being ‘superior’ to CD version. It helped that you
analogue took hold (partly could fit a few extra songs on
thanks to Pioneer sponsoring the 80-minute space of a CD.
84
L O N G L I V E V I N Y L
As Live Aid’s TV presenter Without getting bogged vinyl sales to target older all as far as the majority of the
Mark Ellen points out in his down in the debate’s consumers with a few quid public are concerned? Major
fine memoir Rock Stars Stole technicalities, it’s now to spend; in which case, why albums available as records
My Life, Live Aid marked for generally accepted (and yes, aren’t recent Top Five albums such as Taylor Swift, Sam
many the first time that rock we know there are doubters) by middle-aged favourites Smith and even the credible
stars long written off as past that vinyl gives the purest Simply Red, Will Young or Hozier are nowhere to be
it were seen on TV by a new sound after all. In which case, Collabro available on vinyl? found in the official Top 40
generation of fans suddenly why aren’t most consumers It’s plain to see that vinyl album chart. It only took
intrigued by the likes of Neil buying new releases on vinyl hardcore music fans are at a couple of years for CD sales
Young, Tom Petty and The rather than CD? least aware of vinyl as an to overtake those of vinyl. If
Beach Boys. A new format to Obviously vinyl sales have option, but should it matter vinyl really is back, then why
make their supposedly-ancient risen again, but the numbers that, despite endless “Vinyl is hasn’t that trend begun to
albums appear modern was are still a fraction of the back!” reports on TV in the reverse more dramatically?
an ideal tie-in. sales of CDs. You’d expect past five years, it isn’t back at Your views are welcome…
JOY DIVISION – COCTEAU TWINS – THE SKINT RECORDS – 20 SIMON & GARFUNKEL
UNKNOWN PLEASURES, PINK OPAQUE, TINY YEARS OF BEING SKINT – THE COMPLETE
CLOSER, STILL, DYNAMINE/ECHOES IN Fatboy Slim! Tim Deluxe! Tiga! As COLUMBIA ALBUMS
SUBSTANCE A SHALLOW BAY well as giving football fans reams of Consisting of the duo’s five albums
Virtually all of Joy Division’s music is After reissuing Heaven Or Las Vegas ammunition when the label sponsored and their Greatest Hits compilation
released on vinyl for the first time in and Blue Bell Knoll last year, 4AD Brighton & Hove Albion, Skint lorded it over from 1972, two years after they split, Music
a decade, with the Substance non-album turns to the Cocteaus’ more obscure output. the dance scene for many years. Its On Vinyl’s box-set has every note you could
singles and B-sides compilation making its Originally released in 1985, the singles Tiny quadruple live set showcases new talent such own by the pair from the studio. It’s
vinyl debut. Expect original artwork, Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay are as Seb Wildblood alongside old classics like attractively housed, with a 20-page booklet,
including the gatefold sleeves of Still and gathered together across the same vinyl EP. Lo-Fidelity Allstars’ incendiary Disco Machine a poster, and download codes. Be quick: the
Substance; the latter includes two Also available is the long-deleted 1986 Gun. Many of the songs, including Fatboy’s box is limited to 1,000 individually numbered
previously-unreleased songs, the widely compilation The Pink Opaque, with early single Sunset 303, haven’t previously been sets at £135. Greatest Hits has no exclusive
bootlegged original Love Will Tear Us Apart singles such as Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops and available on vinyl. It’s housed in four Skint studio songs, but there are live versions of
and As You Said, originally recorded for the Aikea-Guinea, as well as Simon Raymonde’s disco bags, with a fanzine and an interview 59th Bridge Street Song, For Emily Whenever
sessions of their abandoned debut Warsaw. first contribution to the band on Millmillenary. with Skint boss Damian Harris. I May Find Her and Kathy’s Song.
85
WIN! LOTS OF
COOL STUFF
WE’VE SERIOUSLY UPPED THE STAKES THIS ISSUE WITH THE CHANCE TO
WIN A NOVATION MORODERNOVA, GIORGIO MORODER’S SLICK NEW
SIGNATURE SYNTHESISER, AS WELL AS BELINDA CARLISLE AND PUBLIC IMAGE LTD
COMPILATION ALBUMS AND SOME DELECTABLE PETER GABRIEL POSTERS! ZOOM
OVER TO WWW.CLASSICPOPMAG.COM & CLICK ON ‘COMPETITIONS’ TO ENTER…
Q
Giorgio Moroder’s new album is called:
• Giorgio • Déjà Vu • Moroder
Closing date: 30/09/2015
86
1 x set of four Peter Gabriel posters
P
eter Gabriel collaborated with Hypergallery in
2010 to edition his entire collection of cover art
from names such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Susan
Derges and the incomparable Storm Thorgerson.
Now Hypergallery bring us all the works in poster
form: ‘Car’, ‘Scratch’, ‘ Melt’, ‘Security’, ‘Plays Live’
and his collaboration with Peter Saville for So –
featured in this very issue! Our winner can choose four
of these six stunning posters as their prize…
Q
Peter Gabriel had a US No. 1 hit with:
•Sledgehammer •Clawhammer •Rockhammer
Closing date 30/09/2015
Q
Belinda Carlisle was lead vocalist in which band:
• The Bangles • The Primitives • The Go-Gos
Closing date: 30/09/2015
Q
John Lydon originally fronted which band:
•Sex Pistols •The Clash •Talking Heads
Closing date: 30/09/2015
87
Everything I Respectable
Own MEL AND KIM
BOY GEORGE Two years after Dead Or Alive’s You Spin
Written by singer Me Round (Like A Record), Stock, Aitken and
David Gates as a Waterman scored their second UK No. 1 with
tribute to his father London sisters Mel and Kim Appleby’s second
after attending his single. Boosted by its “Tay-tay-tay-tay” refrain
funeral, Gates’ band and six different club mixes, Respectable
Bread took Everything I Own to No. 5 in the remains an epochal S/A/W moment. The
US in 1972. Two years later, prolific reggae sisters sadly only recorded one album, FLM,
singer Ken Boothe took it to No. 1 in the before Mel’s death from cancer aged just 23.
UK and it was his version that Boy George Managed by her then-boyfriend and future
echoed in his first single following Culture mogul Craig Logan from Bros, Kim launched
Club’s split. Seven months after his arrest for a brief solo career with a self-titled album in
heroin, it appeared to mark calmer times 1990. Although S/A/W wrote their hits, she
for George as he launched his Sold album. has chaired the Best Contemporary Song
“I’m still trying to find out why I got on judging committee
drugs in the first place,” he said at the time. at the Ivor Novello
“When I have the answer, I’ll be able to tell Awards for songwriting
people ‘Look, don’t do it.’” Other covers since 2003.
of Everything I Own have included Shirley Respectable became
Bassey, *NSYNC and Rod Stewart. a minor hit for Mike
Stock and Matt Aitken’s
short-lived girlband
Girls@Play in 2001.
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L I A N N E L A H AVA S
BLOOD
WARNER BROS
BLOODY HELL! SOUTH LONDON’S LIANNE LA HAVAS STRIKES A RICH NEW VEIN, ADDING
FUNK, R&B AND MORE TO HER ALREADY WINNING MIXTURE OF HUSHED FOLK AND SOUL…
during that time she cultivated produced by Paul Epworth and like Ghost, on which she returns
associations with the likes of builds upon an instrumental by to the fingerpicking, bluesy folk
Paloma Faith, producer Matt Ninjatunes act The Invisible. of earlier days, and Wonderful,
Hales (of Aqualung) and Willy Indicative of her awakening – a collaboration with Hales and
Mason. So, after her label had while on holiday in Jamaica Disclosure’s Howard Lawrence
unhurriedly cleared a path – to the instinctive power of where, almost as exquisitely
for her 2011 public unveiling rhythm, it sounds like Erykah as Roberta Flack, she sings
on Later – when her voice, as Badu performing a James Bond of how “electricity lingers in
pure as a crystal decanter at theme tune, its title perfect for our fingers”. She’s not afraid
a debutante ball, caused a the goose-bumps it provokes, of interrupting such moods,
nation to swoon – it was almost its groove highlighting how however, as Never Get Enough
inevitable that Is Your Love Big prescient Prince was in inviting highlights, with its shift from
L
Enough? would end picking up her to appear on Art Official Minnie Ripperton-style pastoral
ianne La Havas’s the kind of sales most debuts Age. This audacity is also on meanderings to dirty rock,
success seems to can’t even sniff at. show in What You Don’t Do, her voice as distorted as the
owe a great deal to Having taken her time again, which sounds like Feist had accompanying guitars.
a record company La Havas now returns with a she grown up in Harlem, and Blood ends with Good
practise that, over follow-up that is bigger and, both the brass-laden shuffle Goodbye, its irresistible
recent years, seems to without doubt, even bolder. of Midnight and the more tenderness embellished with
have been neglected: good, Where her debut leaned upon percussive Grow, which, an unusually restrained string
old-fashioned development. It more acoustic sensibilities, stopping just short of the showy arrangement. Biding its time as
took the best part of two years Blood is full of grand soul vocal acrobatics that spoil so successfully as La Havas has,
for her to release anything after gestures, not least opening much contemporary R&B, recall it’s a fitting end to a dazzling
signing to Warner Bros, and track – and recent single Janelle Monáe’s finest work. album: the perfect good
– Unstoppable, which was There are quieter moments, too, goodbye. Wyndham Wallace
93
PUBLIC IMAGE LTD
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW…
PIL OFFICIAL
The new PiL aLbum feaTures – shock horror! – The same PLayers as LasT Time, buT wiLL
iT be any Less unPredicTabLe? “buy now whiLe sTocks LasT,” John Lydon advises…
Public Image Ltd in 2009 and well as Lu Edmonds and Bruce 9, Lydon warbling over a
took his band into the studio Smith, veterans of late Eighties vigorous backing track, while
for the first time in almost two PiL with their own (post-)punk The One sounds like a slicker
decades, recording This Is PiL pedigrees – drift from tight-as-a version of alt-country act
in 2012. The sarcasm dribbling -squirrel’s-arse rampaging to Lambchop in their late Nineties
from his chin is no less snotty blustering pub rock, sometimes ‘indie’ period. Spice Of Choice
on this new and confusing – but in one song. Big Blue Sky’s is undistinguished stadium rock
fitfully compelling – collection, dubby verses give way to what notable only for Lydon’s ranting
underlined by the advice on sounds like Simple Minds, in one breath about Barclays,
Double Trouble: “Don’t come Lydon no longer sounding like master plans and masturbation,
to me for a cuddle/ ‘Cos all I a man chewing his enemies’ but Know How charges at a
want is the trouble”. bloody internal organs, and furious gallop, Bettie Page
T
This is not news: no one instead Freddie Mercury in finds Lydon malevolently
he first words on goes to Lydon for emotional an Elton John costume. It is, addressing America – “the
What The World reassurance, but on this tenth simultaneously, awesome and greatest pornographic country
Needs Now…are album it’s harder than ever dreadful – in the many senses in the world” – over a Duane
“What? You f***ing to know where you stand, of the words. Eddy riff, and I’m Not Satisfied
nagging again? as he shifts from sounding The album follows this recalls the hypnotic, metal-
About what? The like a vindictive old man to a pattern, though not, normally, friendly Album. And Lydon’s last
toilet’s f***ing broken again?” shambling provincial drunk to a in such an extreme fashion. words on the closing, Leftfield
John Lydon – with money raging, caustic voice of reason. Whole Life Time finds the grooves of the desperate, filthy-
notoriously earned advertising His band, too – featuring band recalling the glossy mouthed Shoom? “F*** off.”
Country Life butter – reformed session musician Scott Firth, as commercialism of Happy and Plus ça change. Wyndham Wallace
94
N E W R E L E A S E S
LITTLE BOOTS
WORKING GIRL
ON REPEAT RECORDS
95
JESS GLYNNE
I CRY WHEN I LAUGH
ATLANTIC
Simon Emmett
You’re most likely familiar
with the big hits, Hold My Hand
and Right Here, the former
a not entirely unpredictable
Jess Glynne isn’t the first slice of soul-infused pop-house, throws in a gospel chorus as goes further on Take Me Home,
to search for hope after a the latter bringing the album generously-voiced as Glynne a dramatic, minor key piano-led
breakup, a fact she’s no doubt to a less effervescent, but still herself. Love Me, similarly, is ballad in which she confesses
aware of, given her self- uplifting, end. There’s more of a sprightly little number that to being “wrapped up, so
confessed admiration for Amy that too, and Real Love and exhibits the confidence at the consumed by all this hurt” and
Winehouse, whose Back To Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself heart of Glynne’s positivity begs for care for “a broken
Black finds in its melancholic look set for the upper reaches without insisting upon a hands- soul” from an anonymous
grooves – if not so often in its of the charts. But there are in-the-air sense of unity, and acquaintance. Still, these don’t
lyrics – a gently uplifting sense tracks that happily don’t stick to she’s willing to head in the set the dominant tone, so
of optimism. Glynne, however, this formula: You Can Find Me other direction as well, with the whether this is for you depends
is probably one of the first to reins things in a little, Why Me puzzlingly-titled Saddest Vanilla upon your tolerance for largely
do so on an album brimming and It Ain’t Right adopt a funky – which finds her and Emeli incessant, seemingly euphoric
with “pop-house bangers” (as swagger that leaves Glynne a Sandé singing of “the saddest party vibes. You’d better get
her press biography refers to little more space to manoeuvre, vanilla I’ve ever tasted” – used to them, mind: Glynne is
collaborations like her No. 1 and Gave Me Something slowing things right down. She set to be around a while. WW
WOODY WOODGATE
IN YOUR MIND
DW RECORDS
96
N E W R E L E A S E S
97
A U g / s e p t 2 0 1 5
classic
best reissue
DURAN DURAN
RIO
PARLOPHONE
Simon Le Bon and Company’S magnum opuS getS the two-Cd treatment, with
aLL the remixeS and aLternate verSionS you CouLd want from Brum’S artieSt…
and each contains the original It’s fun to hear how much the measure of Rio’s excellence
album plus various extras. songs changed – whether from that, beyond its four singles,
The double-CD is the one for demo to finished rendition or there were at least three
completists: it’s based on the from album version to stretched more tracks that could have
2009 iteration, but instead of and funkified club incarnation: been issued in 7“ form: New
the 60-page casebound book My Own Way, for example, Religion, Hold Back The Rain
with textured sleeve, it comes in becomes a rather different and moody fave The Chauffeur.
digipak form (minus the 2009- beast in its journey from demo Still, for all of that, Rio was
era words “Limited Edition” to Rio to 45. The band disliked not quite up there with 1982
scrawled across the iconic the latter track, but there’s no masterpieces The Lexicon Of
artwork) and you “merely” get arguing with the strength of the Love, Sulk, Songs To Remember
D
the original UK and US vinyl material here. Producer Colin or New Gold Dream. It was
uran Duran have track lists (the latter bearing Thurston was at the helm, and arguably too lightweight to
been here before, the late-’82 remixes for the he helped create a sound that merit contention alongside
revisiting their best- American release by producer was sleek and danceable, arty Orange Juice’s You Can’t
known album first David Kershenbaum), four of but accessible. Hide Your Love Forever, or
in 2001 and then the August 1981 Manchester Duran may have been a Too-Rye-Ay, or Pelican West,
in 2009. This latest Square Studio demos including bunch of clothes-horses and or Altered Images’ Pinky Blue
version of their 1982 classic, an early version of New pretty-boys, but compared (let’s leave The Dollar Album
which featured the hit singles Religion, as well as non-album to a boy band like Take That out of this for now). But there’s
Rio, My Own Way, Hungry Like singles, B-sides (one of them – they were veritable cerebral little denying that Duran were
The Wolf and Save A Prayer, Careless Memories – live) and geniuses, each capable of the quintessential Eighties band,
comes in remastered single- 12“ mixes including three of instrumental and compositional and that Rio was their definitive
CD and 2CD Deluxe formats, their celebrated Night Versions. greatness. And it’s some statement. All aboard! Paul Lester
98
R E I S S U E S
JOHN FOXX
2 0 T H C E N T U R Y: T H E N O I S E
METAMATIC
contribution as an electronic
music pioneer: it is menacing,
harsh, raw, glistening,
punishing, minimalist, crude,
and starkly powerful. File
next to Robert Rental, Thomas
Leer, Daniel Miller, Throbbing
Gristle, Human League Mk 1
and Cabaret Voltaire – the only
difference being that, unlike
most of the above, this strange
character with the dystopian
vision was, briefly, a chart star.
This is the first Foxx comp to No One Driving and current austerity measures can synthetic Metamatic. It’s almost
seriously address his 35- Underpass take the listener only live in dread of returning disappointing that, circa
year post-Ultravox career, back to the future. Foxx may to. The synth FX are wonderfully Endlessly and The Garden
focusing on his early proto- have alluded in his imagery evocative of a specific moment, (1981), he rediscovered
electronica that provided the to Ballard, Kubrick and Fritz and utterly timeless: today’s psychedelia, the Beatles, Pink
bridge between DIY synthpop Lang, but he was looking grime acts could learn a lot Floyd et al. Better to think of
and Detroit techno. 20th forward, too: all manner of sci-fi from these tracks, sonically and him as someone who couldn't
Century: The Noise explores movies are anticipated here. in terms of how to effectively have existed before 1977.
his contribution from 1980’s The title alone of He’s A Liquid create a noir atmosphere. There’s no denying the beauty
Metamatic album right up to conjures all sorts of Terminator/ Burning Car signalled the of his team-ups with Harold
1998’s collaboration with Robocop-style future-creatures. end of Foxx’s hard-edged Budd, the haunting ambience of
Louis Gordon, Subterranean Underpass posits Foxx as Gary style, before the re-connection Splendour and such, but really
Omnidelic Exotour. Numan’s scary older brother, with a human past on 1981’s Foxx, the cyber-mensch with the
It opens with 20th Century, connoting a cold, bleak, dark The Garden, with its use of neuromantic croon, did his best
which brilliantly sums up Foxx’s Britain that those bemoaning actual instruments after the work in his first year. PL
ZTT/UNION SQUARE
99
A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS
WISHING: THE VERY BEST
MUSIC CLUB DELUXE
SUEDE
SUEDE
EDSEL
100
R E I S S U E S
ZTT/SALVO
Xxxxxx
the music had a different kind 1987’s All Systems Go, and
of awkward beauty. Swirling, 1996’s You To Me, which
strings-drenched songs such as Hits, Singles & More focuses saw Summer join forces once
Via Vagabond essay a luxuriant on the disco diva’s Eighties more with Bellote. CD2 starts
Anne Pigalle was ZTT’s Piaf, neo-cabaret, and there are and beyond. The 140 million- with 1987’s fabulous Dinner
and this is the Édition Deluxe sea shanties (Looking For Love) selling, five-times Grammy- With Gershwin, proceeds
of her 1985 debut album, and old-fashioned dances (The winning singer might have through The Wanderer and
released at the height of 1000 Colours Waltz). But there been one of the signal artists her last two British Top 20 hits
Frankiemania and the label’s are also serious attempts at a of the Seventies, but it’s easy – I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt and
successes with Art Of Noise new type of Gallictronic pop to forget that in the following Love’s About To Change My
and Propaganda. Debut single on Souvenir D’Un Paris. There three decades she released 10 Heart, both from 1989 – and
Hé Stranger wasn’t a hit, are two CDs in this opulent albums, and that as well as concludes with several extended
neither was the follow-up Why package, including the original Moroder she also collaborated versions and remixes. The music
Does It Have To Be This Way?, album and a CD of remixes with Quincy Jones, Stock might not be as futuristic as her
and so the promise of her as and alternate versions, notably Aitken & Waterman and recordings circa 1975-1979,
a sort of avant-Sade couldn’t a Trevor Horn-ified take on Hé Harold Faltermeyer, as well as but if you want a collection of
be realised. Nevertheless, she Stranger that is pure French numerous notable songwriters her later pop sides, this does
created an album – co-written B-movie sorrow by the Seine. PL and arrangers. the job just fine. PL
ACT AIR
L O V E & H AT E THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
ZTT/SALVO PARLOPHONE
101
THE BEAT THE BEAT
THE 7” SINGLES I JUST CAN’T STOP IT
COLLECTION EDSEL
EDSEL
THE STRANDS
EDSEL
production; he was mooted
as the next Trevor Horn-style
(1985). Head’s next venture kitsch’n’synch merchant, and
Shack put out a great debut certainly helped Bucks Fizz
album, Zilch, in 1988, to critical achieve credibility in the wake of
acclaim but little chart action. Dollar’s avant-garde makeover.
The Strands didn’t prove to be Are You Ready (1982) was
third time lucky, but Head could a great leap forward, and with
lay claim to have anticipated the My Camera Never Lies and the
guitar revivalism of The Stone perky yet experimental Easy Love
Roses and Oasis. and One Way Love it was their
The Magical World Of The most successful album. By Hand
Strands (and the associated These Definitive Editions of the Cut (1983), they were starting to
release, The Olde Worlde, first four Bucks Fizz albums repeat themselves – Run For Your
featuring mostly different versions come with extended mixes, Life sounds like My Camera…
Michael Head is one of the of the same tracks with a few rarities, B-sides, a Spanish revisited while 10,9,8,7,6,5,4 is
lost boys of Liverpudlian pop. unreleased ones) was recorded rendition of the debut, and a riot of Poison Arrow drums. I
His first band, Pale Fountains, in the early Nineties and a disc of material post-Hand Hear Talk (1984) was the bid for
played guitar pop with released in 1997, with Mark Cut, their third album. They cred, with its sepia-toned sleeve
Bacharachian ambitions. They (Oasis) Coyle at the helm. It finds could easily have been one-off and none-more-1984 track title
signed to Virgin and big things Head in a forlorn, folk mood; Eurovision hitmakers, but that Cold War. This was the group's
were expected, but debut some of the tracks are spare, was dispelled by follow-up No. final album for RCA and featuring
album Pacific Street (1984), others more fully orchestrated. 12 hit Piece Of The Action, Jay Aston. Peaking at No. 66,
an intelligent jazz-pop classic Head indulges his love of psych, just one of the excellent tracks the writing was on the wall.
on a par with Prefab Sprout’s folk, jazzy West Coast rock and, on their 1981 self-titled debut. Actually, Writing On The Wall
Swoon, didn’t quite deliver; nor of course, Love, his favourite Much of their greatness lay in (1986) was their final album –
did Across The Kitchen Table band. He said it: magical. PL Andy Hill’s songwriting and but that’s another story. PL
102
C O M P I L A T I O N S
1988-93
VA R I O U S
CAROLINE TRUE
a little from the title’s promise.
There are tracks from 1979
– Are ‘Friends’ Electric? by
Set Go, in hock to The Byrds but Tubeway Army, for example.
with one eye on the dancefloor; CD2 is where it gets really
Primal Scream cover Slip Inside alternative – as in indie and
This House draws lines between goth: The Cure, The Damned,
the two psych eras, being a Bauhaus, The Jesus And
clubbed-up version of 13th Floor Mary Chain, Killing Joke, The
Elevators’ 1967 classic. Pet Mission, The Sisters Of Mercy,
Shop Boys offer a bleep-tastic even Mudhoney are here.
The Sound Of The Atom Splitting Alternative to what? This is It’s pure mid-to-late-Eighties
and Electronic chip in a dance a three-disc box set that, on student union disco, with lots
remix of Get The Message. CD1, seems to be cool Eighties of opportunities for inebriated
Welcome to the Best Baggy 808 State’s earliest track Let electronic business as usual, revelling. CD3 is all over the
Album In The World… Ever! Yourself Go is here, from when and all the better for it: Who shop, stylistically, taking in
It’s a latterday strain of (A Guy Called) Gerald was in Needs Love Like That? by Roxy Music (Same Old Scene),
psychedelia; less freakbeat the group, although his Voodoo Erasure, Oh Yeah by Yello, Inspiral Carpets (Move), The
than freaky dancin’. Compiler Ray is strangely absent. You also Enola Gay by OMD, Don’t Go Belle Stars (Sign Of The Times),
Savage has gone for known get The Sabres Of Paradise’s by Yazoo, yada yada. There Furniture (Brilliant Mind), PiL
artistes. It opens with the 12“ Clock Factory and the Roses’ are some pleasingly unexpected (Rise) and The Stranglers
mix of I Know You Well by backwards-guitar-fest Full Fathom choices – Art of Noise’s Close (Always The Sun). It’s insanely
Shack, which is well psych- Five. Turn on, tune in, drop out, To The Edit, Propaganda’s diverse, but then, that’s why it
Beatles, la’. The High offer Box all the way back to Hulme. PL Duel – and then it starts to stray was such a great decade. PL
RHINO
103
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facebook.com/pages/Chiara-Carli/851299578295515
classic
Amid the rolling greenery of Ashton Court, 2015’s let’s roCk! Bristol proved
to Be wonderfully diverse, from roCk shenAnigAns to soul to perfeCt pop…
Y
ou’d be hard-pushed crank up for jimmy Somerville, congregation through a life- hand to the heavens, it’s hard
to find two bands more who predicts he’ll have “a affirming singalong of New not to feel profoundly moved at
dissimilar than Bucks pink head after 30 minutes”. If Song, before an exuberant what he’s been through.
Fizz and The Boomtown Smalltown Boy locks the crowd techno take of Things Can Only If the Rats are rock‘n’roll
Rats. It’s an unlikely in a half-nelson, Don’t Leave Get Better. Rick Astley is in neurosis, Billy Ocean is musical
marriage, but we’ve Me This Way is a moment to sparkling form. Combining the aspirin. Backed by an exquisite
come to expect nothing cherish forever. comedy of Vic Reeves with the band and a trio of uber-cool
less from Let’s Rock Following disco stompers voice of Vic Damone, he has female singers, he’s as smooth
Bristol!, which manages from Sister Sledge, Tom Bailey the crowd wild, especially for a as a man of his pedigree
to be just as eclectic as has his work cut out. His set is note-perfect Uptown Funk. should be. He might be an
the decade it celebrates. full of gimmicks – a Pac-Man Bob Geldof is even wilder OAP, but when he invites the
Following Bucks Fizz’s version of We Are Detective; hi- than usual. exciting and ladies to Get Outta My Dreams,
lunchtime slot, Betty Boo tech video backdrops; kicking inciting, he spits out the Rats’ Get Into My Car, you get the
injects some street savvy into a giant football into the crowd rabid repertoire as if playing feeling many would. Such is
proceedings. She’s lost none of – his talent as a genre-hopping these songs for the first time. the strength of his catalogue,
her sass, rhymin’ and stealin’ multi-instrumentalist undeniable, He challenges us to take our you can forgive him the odd
to a new generation. Hunched and those hits sound confident clothes off, accuses a fan of duff note and dad dancing. He
modestly over his guitar, Nick 30 years on. But it’s all a bit spiking his drink (it’s all part of closes his set with Caribbean
Heyward reminds us what a mid-tempo, with a palpable the act), and swears a lot. As Queen, crooning “our hearts,
great songwriter he was, hits sense of anticlimax. downright scary as he is, when they beat as one”. If there was
like Love Plus One sounding Dressed in white, Howard he sings “The lesson today ever a line that sums up the
fresh as a daisy. ABC are suave jones is a pop evangelist, is how to die” in I Don’t Like mood of the Let’s Rock! crowd,
as ever, but excitement levels leading his Sunday Mondays, bowed down with his that’s it. Paul Dimery
108
L I V E & E V E N T S
109
Getty
B A R C L AY C A R D P R E S E N T S
BRITISH SUMMER TIME:KYLIE
H Y D E PA R K , L O N D O N
21 juNE
Years and Years show promise, ChiC deliver as alwaYs, GraCe Jones is bonkers
and maGnifiCent, and kYlie does everYthinG exCept deliver the perfeCt endinG…
I
n previous years British Years And Years’ excitability with his own songs – from is unfazed. With a relatively
Summer Time has struggled proves a fine opener. Since Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Duran’s minimal three costume changes,
to establish itself in the winning the BBC’s Sound Of Notorious and Sister Sledge’s it’s a hits show delivered with
festival calendar, as anyone 2015 newcomers poll, the We Are Family to Le Freak – a warmth not often associated
who witnessed such careless trio are enthusiastic to explore isn’t boastful, just good festival with Kylie. She sings the
bills as jLS headlining over the possibilities of a festival manners. Good cheer of a very Neighbours theme in a pointed
The Beach Boys can attest. main stage. Olly Alexander different sort comes from Grace dig at nearby residents causing
This summer’s bills have is reminiscent of a young jones: covered in tribal body the absurdly early 10pm
stepped up by making Andy Bell in both voice and paint, topless, yelling about curfew, does I Should Be So
each day effectively a capriciousness as he pirouettes legalising cannabis… you’d Lucky properly rather than
genre-based day out with an throughout their sleek Hi-NRG. change carriage if she was with its now-traditional jazz
arena-worthy headliner plus With debut album Communion next to you on the train, but it’s flumpery, and slinks about
a big name. So there’s indie only just released, they don’t the kind of batshit spectacle during Slow in teasing manner.
(The Strokes/Beck), pop (Taylor yet have enough material festivals don’t offer enough of. It’s fabulous, yet her good work
Swift/Ellie Goulding) or vintage for a solid festival set, but Nightclubbing is tough, Pull Up is undone by ending on Into
rock (The Who/Paul Weller). compensate for that with To The Bumper is divine, and The Blue. Yes, Kiss Me Once
If you want a disco outing, it Alexander’s puppyish charm. it’s only topped by jones hula- is an under-rated album, but
doesn’t get much better than Chic’s ability to guarantee hooping throughout Slave To nobody bought it and ending
BST’s strongest day, signified by good times remains undimmed, The Rhythm. on its single is a churlish note
the giant glitterball that hovers and Nile Rodgers’ way of jones’ set hollers “Follow on which to close a fabulous
over each main stage act. mixing hits he’s produced that!” at full volume, but Kylie event. Some people… John Earls
110
L I V E & E V E N T S
Had David Bowie and Grace Exploitation maintain the You can’t really legislate or classics like Listen To What
Jones produced a lovechild, it relentless pace of a set that prepare yourself for the rush of The Man Said, Let Me Roll It
would probably have shared only breaks for the fractured emotions you feel when Paul and Band On The Run to take
Roisin Murphy’s wardrobe. Like riffery of Chris Isaak pastiche McCartney plays the Beatles the crowd back to the blissful
her spiritual father, Murphy Exile. She moonwalks off stage, hymns that The Long And Seventies, while four new
has become a master at laying re-emerging with a fluorescent Winding Road, Let It Be and songs, including the uplifting
low, having taken seven croissant on her head. “I’m Yesterday have become over Hope For The Future, prove he
years between the sparkling giving up fashion for Lent,” is the last 45 to 50 years. Or can still pen a melody and lyric
Overpowered and the recent her half-baked apology before when he pays tribute to John that tug at the heart strings.
Hairless Toys albums. True, a quick change into something Lennon, George Harrison and McCartney also rewinds
there’s been the occasional resembling a sexy red chilli. Jimi Hendrix with Here Today, the clock back to 1980 with
guest foray on club bangers Tonight the tracks segue Something and Foxy Lady. the inclusion of Temporary
and last year’s Italo House sensually into one another, Obviously perfectly at home in Secretary, a Kraftwerk-like
tribute EP Mi Senti. Murphy recreating a classic club London and happy to entertain electro track from that year’s
is an A-list singer at heart, night rather than a gig, and his children, grandchildren and McCartney II. Although it’s
capable of delivering perfect the feelgood factor reaches rows of celebrities including been used in his intro music for
alt-pop moments that transform its zenith during a mammoth Brandon Flowers, Simon Pegg several years, Macca has never
the planet into a giant glitterball Jealousy complete with and Ant and Dec, McCartney performed it live before, and
– yet she always side-steps the acapella breakdown. Yet looks two decades younger it demonstrates that synthpop
obvious, and all but neglects Murphy studiously avoids Sing than his 72 years and gets holds no secrets for him. It’s
her colourful past. It Back and anything from away with a playful version of a lateral move unexpected
Her greatest hits are avoided, Overpowered, explaining: “I All Together Now. With her by a headlining act of his
audience communication is kept love pop music, I’m not trying husband’s blessing, he even vintage and magnitude, and
to a minimum and she playfully to destroy it. I’m trying to push autographs the shoulder blade demonstrates how at ease he
dodges the dim spotlight. it – it’s all about ideas.” of a female fan who’s been feels with his current band,
Yet there are eight incredible As new as most of those waiting years for the occasion. arguably the best he’s ever had
costume changes, and a ideas are, a few past morsels Backed by a trio of – give or take the Fab Four with
collection of adorable new do survive. Former Moloko superlative LA musicians in Billy Preston on keyboards.
songs worthy of the Top 10 in a colleague Eddie Stevens guitarists Rusty Anderson When an over-enthusiastic
more just universe. orchestrates a supremely funky and Brian Ray plus drummer Dave Grohl joins in for I
Murphy begins by sliding take on Pure Pleasure Seeker, Abe Laboriel Jr and sole Brit, Saw Her Standing There at
into view to the pulse of before stripping Familiar longstanding keyboardist Paul the end of the first encore,
a four-by-four kick drum, Feeling to its bare bones. ’Wix’ Wickens, McCartney you feel things can’t get any
resplendent in a garish Nineties Flitting between techno, packs 40 songs into 150 better. However, the Abbey
tracksuit, looking like she’s country, funk and avant-garde, minutes and touches on most Road medley that concludes
robbed a local jumble sale. the captivating Murphy has the parts of his sublime catalogue. the second encore – Golden
“I’ve just been for a jog,” she rare quality of crafting quality There are generous handfuls Slumbers, Carry That Weight
quips, before slinking into dance music that satisfies the of Beatles rockers – Can’t Buy and The End – neatly wraps up
the effervescent disco pop of brain as much as the feet. And Me Love, Eight Days A Week, the evening. McCartney’s life’s
Evil Eyes. Gone Fishing, Dear her frocks aren’t bad either. Paperback Writer, Back In The work has been one of the gigs
Miami and the eerily minimal Rudy Bolly USSR and more – plus Wings of a lifetime. Pierre Perrone
Wenn
111
ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL BRYAN FERRY
S E A C L O S E PA R K , I S L E O F SYMPHOnY HALL,
WIGHT BIRMInGHAM
12-14 junE 20 MAY
The traditional start to the with the quality of old tracks Casually wandering onto the Though an accomplished
mainstream festival season, like Trouble In The Message stage with a relaxed level of songwriter himself, a noticeable
Isle Of Wight’s organisers Centre, but for a festival show cool that’s been his trademark proportion of Ferry’s solo output
had stepped up their game by the hits took too long to arrive, since Roxy Music ditched their has seen him croon songs made
stealing Fleetwood Mac from and the lively new songs from glam rock flamboyance for famous by others. under a
Glastonbury. The veterans’ first The Magic Whip deserved a suits 35 years ago, Bryan Ferry bright spotlight, backed by just
ever festival show was here, more raucous response than exudes a mature grace and piano and with his harmonica
after years of talk from Michael being placed in the middle of sophistication. He may well close to hand, a yearning
Eavis that they were his dream relative obscurities. be edging towards 70, but the variation on Bob Dylan’s Don’t
Glastonbury booking. Away from the headliners, labourer’s son remains the very Think Twice It’s All Right reveals
Were they worth the the festival finally had some epitome of suave. a sensitivity and longing the
rumoured record festival fee? fresh talent to enjoy. In previous Ferry opens with two new song’s author could never
Well, they drew the weekend’s years Isle Of Wight has barely numbers from his album achieve anymore. It’s masterful.
biggest crowd. An ideal way bothered with new bands, but Avonmore, the title track and Later, his rendition of Jealous
to calm down at the end of a the new jack Daniel’s-sponsored Drive Me Wild. After his Guy, while smoothing over
hectic weekend saw Lindsey jack Rocks tent had an almost intriguing yet underperforming the emotional rawness of john
Buckingham, Stevie nicks and uniformly high standard of instrumental collection The Lennon’s original, also finds
the returning Christine McVie promising rowdy rock’n’roll – Jazz Age, Avonmore’s glossy, something new. But Ferry’s
somewhat croaky of voice, but like Welsh trio Trampolene’s layered sound is almost a return deft knack for making a song
delivering the hits. mix of confrontational punk and to the classic Ferry territory of his own really climaxes with
The Prodigy and Blur were social commentary poetry, and his Boys And Girls era. Live, the his tight, howling revision of
livelier headliners, both with The jacques’ snotty pop. tastefully performed newbies clattering Sixties blues track
something to prove despite their The Sunday afternoon second sit comfortably alongside such Let’s Stick Together. It’s this
status. The Prodigy were all out stage double-whammy of old faves as Slave To Love, with 1976 smash, along with the
to ensure nobody thinks of them The Lightning Seeds and Ash the slick groove of Loop De Li Roxy material from the same
as mellowing in old age, with was the unexpected standout a genuine highlight. Schmaltz? period, that still excites, with
the title track of new album The of the weekend. Ash placed no chance. the swirling art school rock of
Day Is My Enemy as incendiary three infectious tunes from new Backed by a tight 10-piece Out Of The Blue, alongside
as the opening Breathe. If album Kablammo! amongst an band, a retake on Zamba is the strutting Love Is The Drug,
Firestarter was thrown away in otherwise all-hits show, while imbued with far more creeping Virginia Plain, Do The Strand
an unsuitable new dub setting, Ian Broudie’s mob drew such dread than the recorded and Editions Of You that get the
then the angry new songs a giant crowd that the tent version, while an extended sell-out crowd on their feet.
caused anyone who stayed in had to be closed. If you want mid-set replay of Avalon’s The contrast between those
the opening day’s torrential rain the definition of timeless pop, instrumental closer Tara gives glam smashes and Avonmore’s
to forget about the weather and look no further than Broudie’s several band members time layers is significant, but Ferry
kick up a muddy fuss. conveyer belt of solid gold in the spotlight. Among them handles the journey like a
Blur, for the first time in 12 singles. He may have been is slinky soprano saxophonist pro. To paraphrase Do The
years, also had a new album to forgotten by the media, but jorja Chalmers, who does an Strand, he might not be a new
promote. Their show was more there will always be a place for excellent job filling in for Roxy’s sensation, but he remains a
divisive – there’s no arguing melodies this strong. JE Andy Mackay throughout. fabulous creation. JE Derek Bremner/NME
Matthew Becker
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L I V E & E V E N T S
113
CLASSIC
MOMENTS
No.18
G R A C E J O N E S
C E L E B R A T E S
A V I E W T O
A K I L L
1 5 M A Y 1 9 8 5
Flanked by Boy George and Marilyn, an unusually understated
Grace Jones has reason to smile at a New York party for her role as
henchwoman May Day opposite Roger Moore in the Bond film A View
To A Kill (astute readers may have noticed legendary New York artist
Keith Haring lurking in the background). Although Jones started out
as a model and a bit-part actress in the early Seventies before turning
to music, her breakthrough in films didn’t come until the year before
Bond, when she played vicious tribeswoman Zula in her pal Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s action flick Conan The Barbarian. A View To A Kill
also marked the film debut of Jones’ then-boyfriend Dolph Lundgren,
Getty Images
after she persuaded bosses to cast the future action star as a KGB
officer. Jones’ own acting has faded while she concentrates on music
once again; her last film success was in the Eddie Murphy comedy
Boomerang in 1992, and she hasn’t acted at all since 2001.
114
CLASSIC
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