Sunday, December 31, 2006

Blue Zoo

Blue Zoo was a short lived British New Wave music group whose original band name was Modern Jazz, and who released a single "I Shoot Sheep" in 1980. Band members were: Mike Ansell on bass, Matthew Flowers on keyboards, Pete Lancaster on trumpet, Andy O on vocals, Tim Parry on guitar and Mickey Sparrow on drums. Tim Parry later went on to become a producer.


Blue Zoo had one hit single. In October 1982 "Cry Boy Cry" charted and reached number 13. It stayed on the UK Singles Chart Top 40 for eight weeks. They released an album Two By Two - sometimes written-as 2x2 or 2By2 - in 1983.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Instant Hit: Dalek I Love You- Horrorscope

"Horrorscope" was the last single release for the British group Dalek I Love You which would disband soon after it in 1983. The single was released on Korova and as 7" version it was backed  by "These Walls We Build" while the 12" version included the instrumental version. The song was performed Keith Hartley, while the artwork was provided by Ian Wright. The song appeared on their self titled second studio album which was reissued in 2007.
 


Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Instant Hit: Rah Band- Messages From the Stars

The fictional studio group orchestrated by Richard Hewson, known as Rah Band, dropped "Messages from The Stars" in 1983 under Catfish Records. This electro-funk journey featured enchanting female vocals and spacey dub elements, embodying the signature style of Rah Band. The track experienced a resurgence when it was reissued by Sonoptix in 2011, offering listeners eight different remixes to enjoy.

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Instant Hit: Soft Cell- Torch

"Torch" is one of my favorite Soft Cell songs that was released back in 1982. The backing vocals were provided by the female singer Cindy Ecstasy who also provided vocals on the extended version of this song which appeared on Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing. Produced by Mike Thorne, "Torch" was originally issued on the Some Bizzare label in the UK.
 

Friday, December 1, 2006

I Start Counting

Pop experimentalists I Start Counting favored English artiness with a sense of fun. Unlike many other electronic groups from the 80's, I Start Counting never settled into a single formula; the band continued to tinker with its sound, shifting effortlessly from light to dark, accessible to avant-garde.
 
I Start Counting was formed in the early 80's by David Baker and Simon Leonard. In 1984, the duo was signed by Mute and released its debut single, the quirky "Letters to a Friend". "Letters to a Friend" easily distinguished itself from the glut of synthesizer-laden records from the mid-80's with Baker's distinctly British talk-sing style and the psychedelic feel of the keyboards. The follow-up, 1985's "Still Smiling", was hailed as another instant classic from the band. This single release emerged in April 1985. "Slight but sweet, delicate intelligent electro-pop with melody and depth," They managed to produce the mini-LP Translucent Hands by the end of 1986. The final single to be taken from Translucent Hands was a rigorous rework of "Lose Him", which appeared a year later, in January 1988, and featured samples from the legendary rubber movie Bound In Latex, as well as sampled cameos from Cary Grant and Tony Hancock.

Typically contrary, "Million Headed Monster" was the next single, in May 1989. Backed with "Listen" the former's pop thrills contrasted with the more experimental sounds of the latter. A final, full length LP 'Fused' appeared in June 1989, and provided an innovative blast of avantgarde House contrasted with ambient soundtracks and a perfect pop palette blended in-between.

From an interview with Baker
"What we try to achieve is changing all the time because what we enjoy is listening to changes. Usually, if we've just done a pop song we want something different for the next one. It would be more commercially sensible to stick to one thing and decide we were going to be completely electropop or a dance band or completely weird, but I think we'd just get bored if we did that."
In fact, the duo were about to undergo a rigorous change of identity. The name I Start Counting was laid to rest, and Barker and Leonard chose another, Fortran 5, with which to continue their musical explorations.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Instant Hit: Shona Laing- Soviet Snow

Shona Laing is a New Zealand musician who was mostly popular in her native country but also had two minor international hits in the late 80's with "(Glad I'm) Not a Kennedy" and "Soviet Snow". "Soviet Snow" was released in 1987 and it managed to enter the US singles charts during the same year. The song was released by Virgin featured "South" as the b-side single. 


Monday, November 6, 2006

The Associates

The Associates were a Scottish Post-punk and New wave band from the early '80s, consisting of Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine. Under the name The Associates, they achieved Top of the Pops fame, despite their unconventional approach to pop music which inspired music critics to label it as "new pop."
Mackenzie and Rankine met in 1976 and formed the band The Ascorbic Ones and soon after they changed their name to The Associates. Their debut single was David Bowie’s song “Boys Keep Swinging”, which to great surprise was also released before Bowie’s version. This song attracted a good deal of attention and by 1980, they were touring with The Cure and The Passions and were signed to Fiction.

In the same year, the band released their debut  The Affectionate Punch. By this time the duo was extended to a group by adding bassist Michael Dempsey and drummer John Murphy, even though in most promotional material the group were still marketed as a duo. 
A string of 1981 non-album singles on the label Situation Two were compiled as Fourth Drawer Down, released that October. These releases saw the band develop an interest in experimenting with sound and recording techniques. In the same year Rankine and Mackenzie released a version of "Kites" under the name 39 Lyon Street, with Christine Beveridge on lead vocals.

The Associates' breakthrough came in 1982 with the release of the single "Party Fears Two." Riding the wave of synth-pop popularity at the time, the song reached No. 9 on the UK singles chart. Following this success, two more hits emerged: "18 Carat Love Affair" and "Club Country." Martha Ladly, of Martha and the Muffins, contributed backing vocals and keyboards to this album. Sulk became Melody Maker's Album of the Year.

The Associates disbanded in 1982 just before the Sulk Tour. Billy Mackenzie continued to write and record music under The Associates banner until 1990 and then under his own name. However, without the guiding hand of Rankine, recordings were sporadic and arguably failed to reach the majesty or inventiveness of his earlier work. Alan Rankine on the other side recorded three albums and singles until the end of the decade without any big success, but continuously worked as producer with Paul Haig and Winston Tong.

In 1988, WEA/Warner rejected the fourth Associates album The Glamour Chase considering it not commercially viable. Mackenzie signed to AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records, to release the fifth Associates album Wild and Lonely. However, recordings were sporadic and subsequent records failed to reach the UK chart and sold far fewer than their/his early albums.
Between 1987 and 1992, Mackenzie worked with Blank and musical partner Dieter Meier of Swiss avant-garde outfit Yello. Mackenzie wrote the lyrics of the song "The Rhythm Divine". In 1992, Mackenzie released an electronica-influenced solo album, Outernational, for Circa Records with limited success.

Mackenzie committed suicide in 1997 at age 39, shortly after the death of his mother. He had been suffering from clinical depression. He was contemplating a comeback at the time with material co-written with Aungle. The albums Beyond the Sun (1997) and Eurocentric (2000) were released posthumously. 
Before Mackenzie's death, almost all Associates records had been deleted. Former band member Michael Dempsey and the MacKenzie estate began a reissue programme to make sure the band's legacy continued, reissuing almost every Associates album, including a 25th anniversary edition of The Affectionate Punch in 2005.

The Tom Doyle book The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy Mackenzie, first published in 1998 and reissued in 2011, documented the band's career and Mackenzie's subsequent life.
Alan Rankine use to be a lecturer in music at Stow College in Glasgow, and worked with Belle and Sebastian on their debut album, Tigermilk. Rankine died on 3 January 2023 at age 64.

Information source mostly Wikipedia and other relevant internet sources.
(All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright owners)

Friday, September 1, 2006

80's About!

So 80’s! A big bang or more a bit of fizzle? But when did the 80’s actually begin? A quick look at the fashion statements screams mistake after mistake…..but wait a minute….isn’t Lady Gaga doing what Toyah Wilox and Steve Strange were doing with their outrageous costumes. Then again, wasn’t Martin Fry’s famous gold lame jacket taken from the cover of an Elvis Presley LP? Wasn’t Marc Bolan mixing genders long before Boy George and Pete Burns? Didn’t Bowie make his big “I am gay” statement long before Frankie? Hmmm. Let’s agree that the roots of the 80’s, is firmly in the fertile soils of the decades that came before. Well if we’re joining dots here we’re going to get a final picture some time……aren’t we? Probably not!



80’s was about the dawn of a new sound to pop music, which  happened in the last years of the 70’s with Gary Numan and Tubeway Army. His topping the charts with “Are Friends Electric?” brought the synthesizer into the homes of the UK nation via Top Of The Pops. His look and voice was mostly David Bowie, but the sound was grand and the atmosphere one of alienation. Hazel o’Connor should also get a mention here for Breaking Glass….same theme and Tony Visconti (Bowie’s producer) twiddling the knobs.

However we have to wait until 1981 before the really “new” sounding music finally arrives at the top of the charts. Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” gave a different kind of soul to the 60’s Northern Soul classic, and later that year The Human League scored a No.1 with “Don’t You Want Me”… also sort of about love being tainted. Interestingly, the Human League choose to proclaim that their No 1 hit was the first all synthetic song to hit the top of the charts…….hmmm didn’t Soft Cell do that 3 months previously? So with synths now on sale for public consumption there was no stopping the onslaught of their use in pop music. Ultravox mixed them with guitars, the disco scene born in the 70’s revamped the sound and sounded very sexy. Giorgio Moroder’s sound and style was being used in everything from the deepest underground sounds of Fad Gadget to the mainstream sound of Abba.
The sound was new and the fashion tried to be. Hairspray and backcombing battled against the Blitz Kids look of cool 30’s retro with the house of freaks make up to match. It was OK for boys to wear make-up (again!!!) which hadn’t happened since….well the decade before when glam rock turned the youth into glitter bugs with more mascara than mammy! Toyah took face painting to the extremes to try and cover up for the dodgy music she was making. Marc Almond wore false eyelashes and with Dave Ball made a classic debut album that still sounds fresh and dizzy.
Well it is impossible to give an overview of a decade in a few paragraphs, but what were the 80’s all about? Forget the politics and the remember Live Aid and how a pop star made the politicians look like a useless pack of disorganized, disinterested and insincere old men in suits. Forget the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. Remember the fun, of Wham, the nasal vocals of Simon Le Bon, (it is a big part of 80’s pop). Spandau Ballet’s trying too hard to be serious. The cartoon Thompson Twins. The bubbly Mel and Kim. Erasure and Andy Bell’s camp and fun Top Of The Pops appearances and the silly, silly dancing. When it is pulled up close and inspected, the decade did exactly what the previous decades have done, and updated rock n roll. Every self respecting decade since the 30’s has done it effortlessly, and the 80’s is no different. Your ears will tell you the real movers in the scene when they say “That sound did not exist 10 years ago!” To all the stars, big and little, from the underground to the mainstream……..a heartfelt thank you for adding colour and texture to my life. For providing music and visuals that mean something long after they stopped being a daily event. If Yazoo were to record together again, can I request they write a new song called “Goodbye 80’s”?????

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