Floppy fringes at the ready ..

...for seminal New Romantic band Duran Duran release their debut eponymous album this week in remastered, expanded, extra-tracked, DVD-added format. As well as the debut in it's entirety on CD1 you'll get an extra CD with unreleased demos, remixes, Radio 1 session and all that plus DVD with TOTP, OGWT and Swap Shop performances and two naughty "uncensored" Girls on Film video. Gotta be worth the 18 quid...

Here's the Durannies back in the good old days before yachts and sun-tans when the Brummie-boy-band were considered 'experimental' enough to go on The Old Grey Whistle Test:

I Love 1980 - 5

The Cure - A Forest

Well as I've done a Siouxsie posting for 1980, better do a Cure one too. Never really took much notice of this lot until 1981 or even 1982 when the angst-factor really began to kick in but thankyou to Benge for reminding me that this track is actually from April 1980.
Not much to write about it so I'll just post the TOTP performance this time (yes you will see Paul McCartney for a split second at the start) .. listen again and again and again and again and again...

Micromusic

Just found out via youtube that Numan's legendary videotape Micromusic will soon be available on DVD for the first time.
Previously available only as VHS (officially, but torrent users may know otherwise) this film of Gazza's 1981 Wembley Arena London "farewell" concert will feature 25 tracks from the albums Tubeway Army , Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, Telekon and the still to be released Dance, with the usual spectacular Numan-esque visuals with one of biggest stage sets ever built in the UK.
The DVD will be made available at Numan's forthcoming Scala show, London on 13 April, and then through the official Numan site who assure that the footage and sound are fully re-mastered.
An hour long exclusive interview with Gary Numan talking frankly about the Wembley period is also included. Fun for all the family.
More info and orders : numan.co.uk

I Love 1980 - 4

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House

I thought this track was from 1979 but trusty old Wikipedia informs me thatthis gem is 30 years old this year too, almost to the day.
Although Siouxsie & the Banshees had started off well with debut single Hong Kong Garden in 1978, these London punks had followed the almost 'novelty' hit with a couple of rather dark and dour albums, laying the foundations for goth and 'dark' music but too harsh for these ears still tuned into Abba and ELO.
A breath of fresh air then with Happy House which with it's catchy hooks and singalong lyrics striking the right balance between post-punk and (dare I say it) new-wave pop, tinged some deeper meaning. You had to dance and think at the same time.
The happy house (a pseudonym for the madhouse, of course) was originally about the group's fan club although turned out to be a snide comment on the emerging new Britain...well that's how I saw it anyway. "We've done no wrong, with our blinkers on" chants our Siouxsie as the youth danced along on TOTP.
So after a shaky start to the band's career Happy House opened the way for a solid track record for SATB throughout the 80s and into the 90s and which in some form or other continues to this day. Success with singles, albums and much critical acclaim has made Siouxsie and pals to be one of the most influential groups of the 20th century...and quite right too.

listen / watch here
get it on Best of or Kaleidoscope (1980)

Siouxsie Sioux . ....she's happy here.

I Love 1980 - 3

Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers / Biko

Although Peter Gabriel's first two solo abums had practically passed me by (save perhaps for the folky Solisbury Hill some years earlier during my own folky period..) the new single Games Without Frontiers from the upcoming third solo album quickly took our attention through a lot of radio play and publicity. The sparse electronics, easy sing-along lyrics ("Willy is happy again!") and hook lines made it a classroom/bedroom favourite ... oh and Kate Bush sexily singing 'jeeeeuuux sans frontières' as an added bonus. It was also an anti-war statement of course which boded well for my increasing political awareness and upcoming pacifist anti-nuclear stance. Great single.

I came across Biko in bargain bin some months later - unlike Games it had received next to no radio play and was probably banned from the already Thatcher driven BBC radio and TV. It deals with apartheid in South Africa and in particular the death of Stephen Biko, who I learned about only from the back of the single sleeve. It's amazing really how little apartheid was discussed in those days, at least in the UK. I remember our religious studies teacher bringing it up once (but can't remember he name, bless her) and that's probably all we ever knew about it. The song still gives me the shivers now.


In the usual style I never got to hear the ensuing PG 3 album until some years later, via a tape copy, although I have to admit it still sounds good today in remastered mp3 form. Tracks like The Intruder, No Self Control (also featuring Kate) and Lead a Normal Life show a very dark side to Gabriel although things are lightened up with the stomping I Don't Remember, And Through the Wire and aforementioned Games.

Peter Gabriel 3 - info page

Journeys to.....pants!

Spandau Ballet have recently re-released their 1981 debut album Journeys to Glory in 're-mastered' and expanded CD special edition, although judging by the reviews, the results are less than favourable.
One reviewer on amazon.co.uk described the new issue as "Absurdly unlistenable. Harsh, painful, tinny. Spandau's best album ruined", while another states "It is physically hard to listen to, compressed, squashed, tinny, flat, and incredibly harsh and metallic." Another punter while lamenting the sound quality also complains about the omission of the Musclebound 12" and lack of DVD visual material.
LIM also has a first hand description of the albums 'digipak' packaging which is equally pants with bad printing and sloppy overall design. Oh dear.
Ths Spans' second album Diamond has also undergone the re-issue treatment although sound quality is apparently better. Something to do with the originals?

Let's hope fellow-New Romantic pioneers Duran Duran fare better with their re-release of their eponymous debut due the end of this month with re-mastered sound, B sides, extended versions etc. and DVD!

read The Quietus' excellent review of both Spandau albums and their collocation in time here.


ver Spans circa 1981 .. "pretending it's art.." - quite.

100% OMD

Liverpool-combo Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are slowly giving details of their new long-awaited album The History of Modern. Their latest blog on myspace states that therecord label that will be issuing the album is 100% Records, who have previously worked with Moby, Placebo and The Temper Trap. The provisional release date for the album is set for late August/early September and while Paul Humphries "has been working" on it recently with mixing work coming up Andy McCluskey is meeting with Peter Saville this week to discuss sleeve design concepts.Stay tuned to LIM.










OMD: under construction

I Love 1980 - 2

Blondie - Atomic

Although it's from a 1979 album Eat to the Beat, I always thought Atomic was a very 1980 sort of song and in fact I was pleased to read that it was in fact released as a single in February of that year. The album had been around although word had it that it was a disappinting follow up to the ground-breaking Parallel Lines (which we all had), so obviously I never even bothered with a tape copy (although I remember someone having it), but Debbie Harry was still a bit of alright..
But back to the single "Atomic" tho which was in fact a remix of the album track and had us bopping round the disco floors in a clumsy 16-year old sort of way. Cool punky music you could also dance to and impress girls with. And Debbie Harry was still a bit of alright.
The single actually made it to number 1, even though to this day I don't really understand what it's about. "I'll make you magnificent...atomic!" eh? A metaphor? Oh right!
The video (as seen on TOTP) plays on the post-nuclear apocalyptic theme, with our Debs dancing in a bin-bag, somewhat in contrast to the glossier dishy disco-Deb of Heart of Glass .. but she was still a bit of alright...atomic in fact!
By the way if anyone's reading and has the 12" in digital format then I'd like to hear their version of "Heroes". Thanks.

Foxxy electro-fest happening

Metamatic.com has announced details of "Short Circuit 2010", a celebration of the best of British electronic music at London's Roundhouse, headlined and curated by John Foxx.

Following a DJ set by one of the UK's most influential electronic artists, Gary Numan with co-producer Ade Fenton, John Foxx will perform a unique analogue synthesizer show to mark his thirtieth anniversary as a solo artist and the release of his debut solo album "Metamatic" in early 1980.

Foxx and a one-off group of special guests will assemble on stage for the first time with the machines he used on that album - the Moogs, ARPs and drum machines that created the sound of the future - to perform material from "Metamatic" and a selection of early Ultravox music.

The set will also include brand new material created in collaboration with Paul Daley from Leftfield, along with new songs by John Foxx & The Maths - an all-analogue synthesizer project with London-based artist Benge, whose work has been described by Brian Eno as a 'brilliant contribution to the archeology of electronic music.

Tickets £30 or so from Roundhouse

John Foxx: he's been sleeping in the garden again.

Extortionately expensive futuristic entertainment

Well if you've got 360 quid to spare then why not go along to the 5DX Dome in London next April?
Grace Jones, The Human League, Gary Numan and The Orb will all be performing at the special multi-media all singing all dancing "5 dimensional" Dome placed in Kensington Palace from April 7 - 11 which will utilise 3D surround sound and 360 degree visuals. Slap up dinner also included in the price, so it's got to be worth it.*

Says Numan of the Dome, "The technology of the 5DX Dome is so new it's scary. It's the entertainment equivalent of walking into a laptop - the audience are immersed in a 360 degree digital environment unlike any experience known before. It's a massive step forward in terms of entertainment and I'm proud to be involved."
Jones Numan and The League will also be playing the same Dome in Miami in March

details here: Silver Odyssey

*Lost In Music just being funny here...we do not approve of such high cost elitist music not for the masses.

Gary Numan finds his way around his laptop

More BL

Bad Lieutenant have announced their second single “TWIST OF FATE” is due for release on March 22nd. Described by the band as "21st century guitar music, blending catchy guitar hooks, and pounding bass sitting perfectly with Bernard Sumner’s familiar effortless vocal style" the track is already a firm live favourite

The band will be playing the following UK dates next month:

15th March – Sheffield Leadmill
16 March – Glasgow Garage
18th March – London Electric Ballroom
20th March – Preston 53 Degrees
21st March – Liverpool Masque

Official site: badlieutenant.net
never cry another download

St. Etienne - Foxbase Beta

Basically what it says on the packet: St Etienne's 1991 album Foxbase Alpha re-produced by Richard X, ie. not just re-mixed but *re-produced* indeed which seems to involve shaking the whole thing up and turning it into something new .. the same but different. And although the whole album is thoroughly 'modernised' (like we used to do with old kitchens) some tracks benefit from this treatment, others less so. Makeovers of Love Will Break Your Heart and Nothing Can Stop Us lose much of their original charm, whereas a couple of Alpha's more tedious tracks like Wilson or Etienne Gonna Die become more interesting. Like the Swallow comes through well with (artificially generated?) kiddies' choir and elaborations of the TV and radio samples from the original, (eg. the marvellous "Countdown Conundrum") plus some surprising new bits (OMD geeks look out) fill it out nicely. And all outer-wrapped in a kind of a rather contrived, virtual taxi-ride.
Bonus disc includes commentary and a couple of rarities from the Alpha days. If you're familiar with Alpha you will probably appreciate Mr X's re-make, and if you're not then now's the time to discover a whole new album.

Buy here

PS As Richard X is such a fan of early Human League, I wouldn't mind hearing what he'd come up with when re-producing, say, the aptly named Reproduction....