Showing posts with label Sheffield. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheffield. Show all posts

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Books: Electric Dreams: The Human League, Heaven 17 and the Sound of the Steel City

"Electric Dreams', the long awaited super book by David Buckley which tells the story of how a band, a city and a lot of synthesizers provided the ultimate soundtrack to the Eighties. David Buckley, the acclaimed author of 'Strange Fascination: David Bowie – The Definitive Story', charts the Human League’s unlikely rise from avant-garde veterans of the punk wars to international pop sensations and reveals how a small number of bands in Sheffield created the music that came to define an era: electro-pop. The release of the book also marks the thirtieth anniversary of 'Dare', the Human League’s seminal third album. Pre-order your book here.  

More about the Author: /www.david-buckley.com/

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Human League's Credo

The UK's premier synth innovators The Human League have announced the details of their forthcoming single and album on the Wall of Sound record label. The first single will be called 'Night People". There is no confirmed date yet for the ''Night People" and it will be released before the tour begins in Norwich on Monday 29th November. The title of THL's ninth studio album will be titled 'Credo' and it will be released next year shortly after the second single.

http://www.league-online.com/

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Vice Versa

Vice Versa was a synthpop group from Sheffield, England. The band was formed in 1978 by Stephen Singleton and Mark White. Their record label ‘Neutron Records’ played an important role in Sheffield’s late 70’s music scene. The group later transformed their sound into pop after Martin Fry joined the band and became a lead singer.

Vice Versa were formed in 1978 in Sheffield. They founded their own record label ‘Neutron Records’ and succeeded in gaining public attention with their blend of electronic which was inspired by Cabaret Voltaire and The Human League. In September 1979, they released their first record on ‘Neutron Records’, an EP called ‘Vice Versa Music 4’, including the 4 songs "Riot Squad", "Camille", "New Girls/Neutrons" and "Science - Fact". Their record label made sharp and intelligent statement with their music announcing the new decade in music. Vice Versa also won a NME’s famous song of the week. In 1980 the label released ‘The First 15 Minutes’ EP which featured unsigned, local bands of Sheffield including Vice Versa and Clock DVA. The group also supported the Human League during their first Sheffield gig.


Martin Fry who was running the fanzine ‘Modern Drugs’ interviewed the group and joined the group after David Sydenham left. Vice Versa made two more releases before they changed their sound. They released a cassette only '8 Aspects of' followed by their only single release “Stilyagi/Eyes of Christ”
During their Holland tour Martin started improvising on vocals and soon became a new lead singer after, while Mark White took over the song writing. The new concept was born. Vice Versa went pop. The rest of the history is ABC.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

ABC- Traffic

ABC have released the new album 'Traffic' on 28th of April this year. The album is released on the label Borough Music and it is available on their official website. The first single "The Very First Time" has been released as a download in March and can be downloaded from 7Digital.


Friday, October 5, 2007

Vitamin Z

Vitamin Z founders Geoff Barradale and Nick Lockwood, both just 25 years old, were born and raised in the industrial wastelands of Northern England’s Sheffield, a city whose pop heritage included such notables as Dave Berry and Joe Cocker, as well as, Human League and Cabaret Voltaire.

The group originally took shape around a loose-knit collection of local musicians who came together in a common rehearsal space.Vitamin Z’s vocalist Geoff Barradale was inspired to be a singer after attending a Paul Young concert. Ironically, like Paul Young, Vitamin Z became recognized in the U.S. for one lovelorn ballad in the ’80s and really nothing else. The song was “Burning Flame” and it represented Vitamin Z’s creative peak, encapsulating the mid-’80s pop scene in England when British artists such as Young, the Style Council, and Spandau Ballet took stabs at blue-eyed soul.
Barradale and Lockwood, recognizing early their mutual affinity for melodic evocative modern music, began developing material together, eventually forming a group that performed for increasingly enthusiastic crowds in and around their home town. They next traveled south to London to record their Geffen debut, choosing the famed Abbey Road Studios to cut the tracks that would eventually comprise 'Rites Of Passage'. Provocative, compelling, innovative - Vitamin Z, on 'Rites Of Passage', their debut album for Geffen Records, have fashioned a fresh and fully realized sound far ahead of its time. It’s an accomplishment all the more impressive given the fact that Vitamin Z is a brand new musical entity. While others were more intent on making their image fit the mainstream, Vitamin Z were working on their songs, smelting down their soul influences, manicuring their melodies, making modern sound with roots firmly embedded in the music they respected.

Their “Burning Flame” single was a club favourite in Britain and appeared in dance charts all over America while in 1985, as accompaniment to their “Circus Ring” single, they filmed a video in Istanbul, the first time Western cameras were allowed into Turkey since Alan Parker’s prison movie, Midnight Express, had so outraged and enflamed international relations.
Vitamin Z have been ominously quiet since 1985 but it transpires they were spending time doing what they've always done - seeking to perfect their notion of what music should be. The result of their labours is "Burn For You", a soaring affirmation of undying love, a meteorite among electric soul ballads. Strongly humanitarian, it carries the same message that runs through all Vitamin Z’s work that an experience honestly shared is a joy and a hope; a belief that shines through Sharp Stone Rain, their second LP, due for release in the Autumn.

'Sharp Stone Rain', Vitamin Z’s second album (both on Geffen Records), justifies the band’s unswerving persistence of vision. From it’s first single, “Can’t Live Without You”, to a reprise of its initial American success, “Burning Flame”, to the intense "Burn For You", Vitamin Z proves to be a master of the electric soul ballad, the rock ‘n’ roll torch song. Barradale’s honey-poured-over gravel voice and Lockwood’s compelling music create an unmistakably distinctive sound, one matched by Barradale’s deceptively simple yet intriguing lyrics. Vitamin Z also revisited “Burning Flame” on their next album, Sharp Stone Rain, its title a reference to the bombing of a Northern Ireland church wherein 11 people were killed. But the LP was not successful and the group split up. Barradale started the Wild Orchids and then began recording with Seafruit in 1998.
You may have heard of one of the hottest bands in the U.K. these days called the Arctic Monkeys. Well it was Geoff Barradale who saw the band and signed on as their manager. They had a hit in the U.K. with the song “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”, and released their first full length CD titled Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.

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