Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Th the decade
and th e 12 s of
CULTURE CLUB
MADONNA
PRINCE
WHAM!
ADAM ANT N THE HUMAN
DEXYS
EURYTHMICS
DURAN DURA LET LEAGUE
SPANDAU BAL DEPECHE
SOFT CELL MODE
SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK
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MARILYN
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G
rowing up at the end of the music press launched a campaign of derision. Duran, Im often at a loss to understand what they were on
70s was a total drag. All the Spandau, Japan et al were mercilessly pilloried by the about. Was it parody? Poetry? Pife? Whatever, it felt
great punk action had zzled grown-up rock papers for decadently ddling while and still feels young and free and lively and great.
out years ago and we were left Thatcher ground Britains future under her Tory So here they come again Soft Cell, The Human
bored and hero-less. And then jackboot. The New Romantics were even accused of League, Grace Jones, Frankie the richest vein of
along came Adam Ant. One being Nazis! All because of some eyeliner and the fact British pop since well, ever really.
of the least likely punk survivors, written off as a that they preferred to play (spit!) synthesizers rather
pervy little also-ran, Adam put the show back into than guitars. There will be those who will argue that the 60s
showbusiness at just the right time. The birth of MTV with The Beatles, Stones, Kinks etc were better.
was about to revolutionise the way we interacted It wasnt long, though, before the music papers Others may argue for the Britpop of Oasis, Blur
with our music and how you looked, how you acted cottoned on. Faced with young readers turned off by and Pulp. But surely no generation has matched the
was about to become key to whether your song its cynicism, NME was forced to conclude that the New Romantics for sheer, joyous, downright weirdo
became a hit. New Romantics were succeeding in spite of Thatcher pop. From the kitschnsink realitypop of Soft
and her grey old guard. As Adam told NMEs Lynn Cells Say Hello Wave Goodbye to the infectious
Of course, your older brother hated him, protesting Hanna in 1980, If you dont think youre special. sloganeering of Frankies Relax, 1980-86 were
loudly that the great anti-social punk rock ethic had If you dont have personal pride and integrity and untouchable pop years.
been betrayed. It was a fucking tragedy that this self-respect, then spiritually youre dead. Pessimism
pantomime ponce was what Sid died for. But the is unforgivable. When things are down, youve got This volume relives that richest of eras and includes a
warrior paint striped across Adams cheek was just to get up. Theres no point in giving in. Kids need list of the 80 singles that brightened our lives.
what a new generation of kids both boys and girls something to tide them over, something they can
were looking for and, before long, he was joined have fun with. All they need is hope. All together now: You were working as a waitress in a
by the boys from Spandau Ballet wearing kilts, cocktail bar when I met you
Steve Strange got up like some garden gnome with In other words, he wasnt letting the bastards grind
a Liberace make-over and Boy George, a seasoned him down.
scenester who suddenly made looking like a Cabbage
Patch Doll seem improbably cool. A little dressing up On the back of this and other stunning statements
and hey presto! pop was FUN! such as Adams Ridicule is nothing to be scared of,
NME sashayed into an era of the most fantastical,
Killer single followed killer single into the Top Ten. impenetrable, inspirational and self-indulgent
The slavering tabloid press focused on the sexual writing the paper had ever seen. Pouring over the Steve Sutherland
outrage of blokes dressing in blouses while the serious words of Messrs Morley, Penman etc, even today Editor
LFI
NME ORIGINALS 3
TLFeBOOK
CONTENTS
A G
PAGE 7 PAGE 49
is for... is for...
Punks turn pantomime pirates, Adam silver buckle shoes GRACE JONES, scary catwalk queen, movie star
in the New Romantic movement and becomes the rst and disco diva. MARILYN, Boy Georges mate and a
prince of pop video. glamourpuss to boot!
B H
PAGE 13 PAGE 53
is for... is for...
Godfather of the NR movement, the canny old glamster Shefeld synth pioneers who split to leave the imperiously
dons a fresh lick of paint and hires the Blitz kids for his voiced Phil Oakey in charge of two pouty disco dollies.
Ashes To Ashes video. Result: pure pop gold!
C I
PAGE 19 PAGE 61
is for... is for...
Boy George ODowd, queen mum of the scene, storms JAPANs mannequin of icy cool DAVID SYLVIAN is
the States in a smock and then succumbs to smack. dubbed by NME the most beautiful man in the world, his
Tin Drum the art of poise.
D J
PAGE 27 PAGE 65
is for... is for...
ChucknDis Brummie homeboys, the Durannies rock Before he was weird (well, really weird anyway), Jacko
the Spandau formula all the way to the arenas and live the was the Peter Pan of the Studio 54 scene, the hottest star
James Bond life all the way. on Earth.
E K
PAGE 37 PAGE 69
is for... is for...
The odd couple. Annie looks like a well-hard geezer and Mysterious Krautrockers emerge from hibernation to
Dave looks like a mad muso professor. Their synth-soul cash in on the Ultravox/Human League synth zeitgeist
rules the world. their inuence had created.
F L
PAGE 41 PAGE 71
is for... is for...
4 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Contents
M T
PAGE 79 PAGE 113
is for... is for...
Opportunist Noo Yawk club vixen whose (literally) Breakthrough live TV show hosted by Jools Holland and
shameless naked ambition propels her to the heights of Paula Yates that provides the scene with a weekly national
discopop royalty. New Romantic catwalk.
N U
PAGE 83 PAGE 117
is for... is for...
O V
PAGE 87 PAGE 121
is for... is for...
Bath-based teenage duo TEARS FOR FEARS pioneer The Beau Brummel club runner and doorkeeper of the
the hits-for-therapy route into the hearts and minds of scene, Steve Strange, makes his own mark on the charts
bedroom mopers everywhere. with a New Romantic supergroup.
P W
PAGE 91 PAGE 123
is for... is for...
Minneapolis slinky cross between Hendrix and Sly George and Andrew, sheer chart royalty from the
Stone cops the New Romantic look and takes the scene get-go-go with their chirpy celebrations of the new
international. yoof highlife.
Q X
PAGE 97 PAGE 131
is for... is for...
Basildon futurists DEPECHE MODE ask, People are SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK, preposterous band with the
people so why should it be you and I should get along so most bonkers futurist manifesto in the whole history of
awfully? Ahem! pop. Fun for fashionistas!
R Y
PAGE 101 PAGE 134
is for... is for...
S Z
PAGE 105 PAGE 138
is for... is for...
Islington barrow boys Gary and Martin Kemp grow to Uber-producer Trevor Horns perfect pop factory,
be the style guvnors of the scene, while Hadders became mischievously marketed by NMEs own Paul Morley.
its Sinatra.
NME ORIGINALS 5
TLFeBOOK
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TLFeBOOK
*in WMA format at 64kbps based on 4 minute track length.
A
is for ...
7
RETNA
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Adam And The Ants
I
n the brown bar of a provincial hotel the guests are NME 20 DECEMBER 1980 PAGE 32 I just said, OK, youre not having the name. The Ants is
straggling slowly to the dinner dance upstairs. Their mine. I walked out the door and I havent seen them since.
clothes are a drab, begrudged concession to dressing-up How much of the plan smacked of the arch schemer
for an evening out. Constricting suits and dreary A year ago Malcolm McLaren?
dresses, worn with a stiffness in the neck and an That really doesnt interest me now, although it
awkwardness in the walk make the occasion
look less like a pleasure than a social chore.
Aaam Ant was did at the time. It nearly broke my heart. Im lucky
Ive got some very close friends who helped me
Out in the lobby the lift stops, the doors slide
aside and theres a sudden, confused impression
a figure of ridicule who through. In fact, Malcolm was very helpful at
the time. He wasnt as heartless as hed like
of colour and light, ashed back three-fold by the
mirrors inside. Its a strange blaze of gold and
even had his band stolen. to make out. But two weeks later I was
reading in the press that hed kicked
scarlet; a bizarre collage of feathers and braid, a
Undeterred, he stared into his
frieze of erce faces with vivid paint slashed across
me out. It was just very hurtful.
In the light of what followed, both
bronze skin and teeth that ash startling white.
The half pirate, half Red Indian raiding party make-up box and transformed for the new Ants, and the old group
that McLaren manufactured into
sweeps through the foyer, a shot of stunning Bow Wow Wow, Adam sees the break
glamour in a sombre scene. himself into a walking as greatly benecial to both parties.
Adam And The Ants spin out through the Does he feel its a case of rival camps?
revolving doors and step into the night. treasure chest. Words Of course I feel a rivalry, because when
they got rid of me, I felt really dejected.
Antmania is a barrage of ashbulbs from pocket cameras Lynn Hanna They had a certain amount of material wed
exploding in the face like a handful of reworks. Its a hand to worked on together. And I thought, Wait a minute,
the window of the battered van and awed faces squinting anxiously Ive done as much research as them. The sound belongs
inside. Its someone shouting Go! Move it! and a race down the to the Burundi tribe anyway. And I wanted to use the
stairs, round a barrier of ight cases and through a tangle of taped elements that Id learnt because Id done a lot of work on
wires to the backstage sanctuary of a Cardiff club. them. I just said to them, Look, theres
And its an excited queue curving right round the a sound here, and it dont belong to me
Im a dandy
precinct of the shopping centre outside. and it dont belong to you. May the best
highwayman well,
Antmania is also Adam Ant, a preoccupied I will be when I get man win. And youd better be quick.
gure in black leather prowling the empty cinema, this make-up on! I had Kings Of The Wild Frontier
lost in worries about the venues safety. out at the same time as C30 C60 C90
After three years of being ridiculed and Go!. The business is dog eat dog, and I
pilloried, portrayed as everything from a fascist think theyre realising that now.
to an S&M obsessed monster, Adam Ant has Adams appraisal of McLaren is
confounded his critics with a sell-out tour so divided; he admires his ability as a
successful that venues were switched from clubs catalyst and he compares his genius as
to concert halls. an impresario to that of Diaghilev. His
Its a success story thats more surprising summary of his personal character is held
because, at the beginning of this year, the original more succinctly in four letters.
Ants under the management of Malcolm McLaren Although I admire a lot of what Malcolm
unceremoniously disowned him, and it then McLaren thinks, the basic thing is I cant work
looked as if Adams career was nally nished. with someone who doesnt respect people,
Malcolm came around my house early one I cant work with people who are telling me
morning and he said, Adam, youve got to put what to write and how to write it.
your foot down because things arent working out The images that shaped the new Ants
JILL FURMANOVSKY-WWW.ROCKARCHIVE.COM/PETER ANDERSON/LFI
very well. Youve got to take part in the music. are the result of ideas from both Adam and
I got down to the rehearsal room and there McLaren.
was this really strange atmosphere. I started Malcolm was in America when they were
talking to Dave (Barbarossa) and he suddenly got making The Island, a pirate lm that really
up and said, Im leaving. I was really shocked but cleaned up over there. This time last year, I was
I said, Im sorry. But, you know, I wish you well. into total war-paint make-up.
Then I said to the other two, Well have to nd a The tribe elements are there anyway. All
new drummer. And they looked very sheepishly rocknroll is tribal; its all black music. The
at each other. Then the bass player said, Im with fact of the matter is that the music belongs
Dave. So I said to the guitarist, Its you and me to the tribes, youre just taking what you
then, Matthew. And he said, No, Im with Dave. nd useful.
8 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Adam And The Ants A
When Adam Ant isnt a glittering incarnation of a swashbuckling
pirate and savage brave, hes padding about in T-shirt and baggy
trousers, wearing a plain pair of thick-lensed spectacles. He has
a mobile, expressive face with animated eyes and his excellent
mimicry is spiced with a disarming sense of humour.
In the hotel room hes sharing with co-writer, guitarist and close
friend Marco Pirroni, whom he contacted the day after the old
Ants split, the nightly transformation is well underway.
Marco, already clad as a formidable pirate, compares the
Ants success to Hollywood glamour during the economic
depression of the 30s.
Ahoy me
hearties!:
Adam onstage in
London in 1982
NME ORIGINALS 9
TLFeBOOK
Adam And The Ants
10 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Adam And The Ants A
NME 2 JANUARY 1982 PAGE 31
It hits you in the stomach and you breathe in and you cant With Kings it was an experiment that involved a lot of
breathe out again. You stand there gasping, Adam says later. work from both myself and the band in designing the catalogue.
The lighting pours onto the stage, the drumming starts to It paid off not just in the fact that it went silver and sold as many,
swing heavy, slapping tide, and the Ants opening number rolls but that it actually set a standard.
into motion. Ive put a lot of thought into the product they receive rather
Like any decent development in rock, Antmusic is an original than profess to be on a street level, go down the pub with the lads
slant on an old tradition, at once revolutionary and deeply sort of thing. Ive never been into that at all.
conservative. It has a tongue-in-cheek charm thats a long way But in a lot of rocknroll, an audience comes just to observe.
from the deadly seriousness and consequent castration of much And if a kid comes to an Ant concert hes taking part for an hour.
of what has come to pass for hard rock music. Visually the Ants The audience may even come just to see each other. An interviewer
now slot as cleverly into rocks mythology as The Clashs early could get just as good a report from either side of the stage.
urban guerrilla chic. Which I do. During the Cardiff gig I go out and ask some of the
JILL FURMANOVSKY-WWW.ROCKARCHIVE.COM/LFI
Adam himself describes the traditional rock world as very audience why they like Adam And The Ants.
squalid, impersonal and degrading; an egocentric circus full of Why? gasps a stout boy in a T-shirt, somewhat surprised.
people who arent really human beings at the end of it all. Because I love em, thats why. He stops dancing for a second to
Theres a new generation of groups who wont take part in it. MM 5 SEPTEMBER 1981 PAGE 13 point at the stage. Theyre warriors, they are.
I think music has got to get more realistic. Theres a lot of things ADAM AND I like the clothes and I like the beat, explains a girl. Its
yet to be done to improve the state of things live. And its bad that THE ANTS different. Punk has got so boring now. Well, I think so anyway.
kids are paying 4 for a record that hasnt any kind of effort from PRINCE CHARMING I dont know anything about them, says another. Its their
CBS
either the band or the company. energy I like. Thats why I think theyre good.
The best, sometimes the
Its original, declares a small Antperson in a leather jacket.
only, way to deal with a
success so phenomenal Ive always been a fan. Im addicted to it. I think I preferred the
that it seems hardly able rst album, but theyre great onstage.
to last is to stay one step I dunno, confesses a boy in suede boots with a cool sweep of
ahead; keep a trick up
blonde fringe. Why dyou like anything? Why dyou like sex?
your sleeve and deal it
when the sceptics voices Sexmusic for Antpeople in truth.
scream loudest. And sex, says Adam, is central to rocknroll. Its a sense of dash
Adam Ant knows and daring, of physical fun encapsulated for him in the photo of
that. And hes trumped
Bryan Ferrys frozen sexual sneer, eyes almost closed under his
them all with a
masterpiece of a single; a exaggerated quiff and with his knowing smile, half a snarl, on the
potential monster. Here, cover of the rst Roxy Music album.
he takes one simple Even the word rocknroll is black slang for fucking. Why not
idea, twists it, turns it
bring it out into the open? A lot of kids who come to our concerts
and inates it to epic
proportions, combining are just beginning to nd out what its all about. Theres a sense of
repetition with a sense danger and excitement in it. If you say the word onstage, you look
of the unexpected. at the audience and you see a girl look at her boyfriend and they
Opening with a series
giggle, and thats great.
of wails, it moves into
a thick percussiveness
surrounded by dramatic Its during one of the four encores after that Lewisham concert
texture and layers of that Adam tells the audience hes proud of them. I ask him
vocals building up to
afterwards what he meant.
a stirring, disturbing
conclusion. Ridicule is If you dont think youre special, if you dont have personal
nothing to be scared of, pride and integrity and self-respect, then spiritually youre dead.
he sings. And if anyone Pessimism is unforgivable. And when things are down youve got
should know about that
to get up, theres no point in giving in. Kids need something to tide
its Adam Ant.
Carol Clerk them over, something they can have fun with.
All they need is hope.
N
NMM EE O
ORR IIG
GII N
NAA LL SS 11
??
TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
B
is for ...
13
CORBIS
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
14 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
David Bowie B
Bowie explains to Chris intent on protecting his privacy from public scrutiny, the
Japanese director Nagisa Oshima chose Bowie to play a godlike
prisoner of war Major Jack Strafer Celliers in his upcoming
Bohn about how life lm Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence precisely because he saw
in him such a quality.
begins at 36 People ask my why I cast actors
from the world of rock, remarks
Oshima in the lms publicity
notes. It is because they are
sensitive to what people want
I
ts been a long, strange, trip now, they are performers;
for David Bowie from Scary their antennas are screwed
Monsters to Lets Dance, on right and they dont
lasting two movies and three mind getting in there and
years, plugged only by three having a go at the truth.
bizarre single collaborations. The David Bowie
There was Bowie and Brecht sitting opposite is
on the excellent Baal EP, Bowie charming and chatty,
and Moroder on Cat People, the laughing frequently to
overblown melodrama of which relieve the tension.
makes perfect sense when heard over Now aged 36, he
the closing credits of the lm and, has never looked
nally, the oddest of them all, Bowie healthier. His
and Queen on Under Pressure! sun-bleached hair
Yes, I found that quite odd, smiles is a natural straw
Bowie. Im not quite sure how I colour, his face
got involved in that really. They tanned an ochre
turned up in Montreux, which is not brown by his recent
far from where I live in Switzerland. working sojourns in Australia
Needless to say when groups come to and the South Seas. He is
town to record, they nd out where spritely dressed in an olive green
I live so this is how I tend to see khaki blouse that emphasises
a lot of bands, under the inuence his boyishness.
of Switzerland. Within the connes of
Once the shock of Bowie working a 50-minute interview he is
with Queen passes, it stands up extraordinarily forthcoming about
surprisingly well, and Bowies his work, revising opinions of his
words are consistent with both past in light of his present attitudes.
REDFERNS/REX FEATURES
NME ORIGINALS 15
TLFeBOOK
David Bowie
The interview
The strongest impression left by your press conference was your
concern about the worthwhile nature of popular music.
For me, personally. My business is my business and it just strikes
me er, I dont really have the urge to continue as a songwriter
and a performer in terms of experimentation at this moment.
I feel that at the moment Im of an age and age has an awful lot
to do with it Im just starting to enjoy growing up. Im enjoying
being my age, 36, and what comes with it in terms of the body. It
actually physically changes. Mentally and emotionally there are
big changes, especially if you have been thrust in front of popular
and mass observation.
If youve been observed, as I have for the last 12 years, well,
you have to contend with that one way or another. You either care
about it, or you dont any more. You think, Well, as I have this
platform, theres something I can do with it. NME 2 AUGUST 1980 PAGE 19
And, frankly, I dont think I would want to continue performing DAVID BOWIE
any more if I didnt think I could do something hopeful and ASHES TO ASHES
helpful with my music, both for myself and my audience. RCA
How do you dene music that is hopeful and helpful? What Have you ever noticed
evidence we have from you at the moment is a celebratory dance how the line of Bowies
jaw on the cover of
record, as opposed to something that points anywhere. Heroes is apparently
Yes. I think it will have a lot to do with (adopting a mock preachy retouched to accentuate
tone) people shouldnt ght each other. People shouldnt kill each the thinness of his face?
other and people should try to live together. Theres something of
that about the cover
Isnt that a little simplistic? to Ashes To Ashes:
Yes, it is simple. around the central
Your positivism seems to parallel that of Jack Celliers, the Is-This-Man-A-Prat
character you play in Nagisa Oshimas Merry Christmas Mr photo depicting Bowie
as a glittering clown
Lawrence leading by action and deed. are a number of smaller
Instead of intimating change try and do something about it. frames showing random
You identied pretty closely with the character, then? stages in his disrobing.
Yeah, I think I immediately identied with him because of his Some are crossed out,
as if rejected frames of a
own personal turmoils, his and mine stemming from different contact-sheet. Musically,
sources. With Celliers, hes ridden with guilt most of his life itll gladden the hearts
because of his relationship with his younger brother, which caused of those radio producers
him to embrace that particular strength. That is pointed up a lot and jocks who broke
out in a cold sweat
more in Oshimas screenplay than it probably is in the book. with Alabama Song.
I guess its the idea of through all my experimentations I have Innocuous and OK, in
learned a lot and there must be something I can do with it on a its own way, but the
very simplistic level now. I dont have the urge to play around with point is this: all the
indications are
musical ideas. At the moment. Any more. that this is another
The present loss of urge to experiment is that an indictment David Bowie
of the Low/Heroes/Lodger period? Cant humanity and song about
technology sit together? David Bowie.
Andy Gill
Its just another way of using my songs, I think Im just a little
tired of experimentation now. But electronics are rewarding in
terms of playing around with atmosphere and trying to reach
different parts of the mind, funny corners of the mind
But there is a proliferation of synthetic instruments being used
in that kind of icy cold vein.
Its such a wide sweeping statement that, at the moment,
I feel its very hard to use those instruments without a kind of
preconditioning already there. That if you use the synthesizer it
means this particular thing: that Im part of this angular society.
16 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
David Bowie B
Thats had a very positive and strong bearing on whatever
I intend to do in the future. I feel I have to make a commitment to
something more altruistic to that which Ive been concerned with
before. If that sounds like a turnaround, then its a turnaround,
and it has to be and I would have to face that charge. But I dont
think it will quell my natural inclination to want to experiment
with music, though I think it will modify it greatly.
You wouldnt want anything you do to upset your son?
It would make me reect on anything that would produce the
kind of nihilistic quality which was part of my early music.
Hopefully I was falling out of that anyway. That period had
a lot to do with my problems as a human being. To produce that
kind of music, though its interesting to look at someone really
fucked-up writing music, its not very helpful.
The very simple problem is that were on a terrifying voyage
NME 1 NOVEMBER 1980 PAGE 21
and the effects that have been brought about by those causes are
Bowie looking
peachy in New
really quite transparent and obvious the need to belong to small DAVID BOWIE
York, July 1983 tribal units when there seems to be too many other people about; FASHION
RCA
the mistrust of somebody who is not from
ones own origins. Davids gotta New
Dance and, with Robert
Those kinds of things are so obvious that Fripperonic growling
I guess maybe its quite a good idea to write menacingly on steel
about them in a very obvious way. And I want tooth guitar, it proves
to utilise videos to the same extent. to be a continuation of
the paranoiac diamond
And its not satisfying because its Its easy enough to glamorise a pop song. hard funk explorations
not very useful, except as Brian Ive done that often enough in the past! of Fame. As with its
Eno would say for setting up a You know, give it a surreal quality, kind of predecessor, Bowie
new kind of vocabulary. Now Ive detached. Thats ne if youve got time to may well adopt an
anti-disco attitude
got the vocabulary Im supposed watch promos at that level, but these videos while at the same
to do something with it! Ha ha. reach too many people and, anyway, theres time acknowledging
On the other hand the too many of those kinds of videos. that hell ll the disco
subliminal aspect of electronics danceoors rather than
empty them. Similarly,
allows one to speak more through the ambiguity of Bowies
the music than does rocknroll, where the vocabulary is so well
known it has lost its efcacy.
Im writing something Ive never lyric allows the listener
to decide whether its
Thats the promise, surely, yeah. It does speak in those terms, touched on before, an emotional concerned with the
manipulative world
but I think also to reach a large audience theyre not willing to
listen to music, or play the records, if theyre couched in terms situation between two people of sartorial elegance
or the ever-increasing
theyre not really familiar with. left versus right power
I mean, theyre not going to sit and listen to that kind of music struggle. Whichever way
one conceives it, the
and accept it. Its like American television; the record buying songs overtly political.
public of America is still very much in the television format So it occurs to me that it would be a very good idea to utilise Roy Carr
mentally and it is impossible for them to listen to something those four minutes of space and try to make them say something
that doesnt make its point in the rst 30 or 40 seconds. And Im simple and as hard-hitting and as hard-selling as a commercial,
starting to subscribe to that at the moment. but in terms of human quality and human life as opposed to, This
Previously youve said youre not worried about your is the kind of outt, this the way you wear it and this is the kind of
experiments losing your old audience, that you were content to cool you have to have to be able to carry it off.
pick up new audiences as you go along. Is it easier to deal with complexities on lm than it is in song?
Hmm. That is the problem Im having, dealing with it in song format.
Are you effecting a reconciliation with your old audience? Sometimes you can end up sounding neo-Dylan or something
MM 19 MARCH 1983 PAGE 19
I dont think so. The music Im writing at the moment is and that is already stylish and part of a particular cliquey kind of
probably going to reach a newer audience for me. But if I am going songwriting. Im not very good at it yet. Im still working on the DAVID BOWIE
to reach a new audience, then Im going to try and reach it with one-to-one relationship, and from within that situation trying to LETS DANCE
EMI
something to say, which is on a very obvious and simplistic level. create an overall humanist feeling.
Everyone pricks up
I dont want to be the grandfather of the new wave by any means. It is hard. I think Jim Iggy Pop is much better at it than me. their ears if youll
For me, Im writing something that Ive never really touched If he could be manoeuvred into that kind of situation he could excuse the expression
on before, which is a one-to-one situation. I mean an emotional produce some stunning social observations. at the thought of this
situation between two people. Such a situation seems to take up China Girl (by Pop and Bowie) is another track on the new Bowie record. But
this reminds me of one
at least ve of the tracks on the album. The love situation, the album. Now thats a committed piece of writing, its a very strong of the many faceless
emotional situation between two people seems to have escaped piece. Where, for instance, the subject matter of Lets Dance is funk records that come
me or Ive avoided it is probably nearer the truth since nebulous. There is an undercurrent of commitment, but its not out and go nowhere.
I started writing. Usually, its been the man in isolation and all quite so straightforward He did this on Young
Americans and again
that. Whether Im becoming either one, comfortable or two, How do you feel about your legacy of songs in light of your on Station To Station
complacent with myself I dunno which it is but it is something present positive attitudes? Can you still sing them? much better, so why do
I can feel I can now get involved with as a writer. Oh quite easily, yes. No problem at all. Ive started listening to it again? I think Bowie,
I suppose the obvious question to that is: is it a response to a lot of my old stuff, gone back to nd out what I was writing then like all good legends,
should either disappear
your personal situation? and why. I guess they kind of stand up in their own place in time. or die or, at least become
Very much so. Are you married? So you dont have children? I dont think of them, like, thats a great old chestnut, sounding a recluse, give up and be
CORBIS/REDFERNS
I would never have thought it possible, but for me the one most good year after year, but theyre all interesting. remembered for what
enjoyable and hope-giving quality of my life over the past four of With every song Ive written I identify so much with the time he was good at.
Marc Almond
ve years is my son. and place that it was written in. Its hard for me to shake off the
N
NMME
E O
ORR II G
G II N
N AA LL SS 17
??
TLFeBOOK
David Bowie
no way I can make myself other than what I am. (Bowie pauses
I
and bursts out laughing) Now thats a funny thing for me to say t would certainly be difcult to accuse David
isnt it? (Laughter) What a ludicrous thing to say, David! But it is Bowie of making an inauspicious return to the
musical arena. Lets Dance is easily this years
somewhere in there, yes. One faces up to all these things. Im armed biggest single; every time it comes up it creates an
with all these things, my problems with my own background, my instant impression of sheer scale.
own personal problems, or whatever. Im not so detached from A single, quite literally, in several thousand;
myself any more. I feel in touch. (Mimes peace sign, laughing) Hey, and the taster for a new album which is the rst
sustained new music from Bowie for two and a
I feel in touch with myself! half years. The crew assembled for this project
How do you think your 17-year-old self would feel if he were by Bowie and co-producer Nile Rodgers include
confronted with your 36-year-old self? no-one who has ever worked with Bowie
My 17-year-old self would think, er, especially regarding the before, which may go some way
Oh absolutely! Drugs are no part of my writing or recording audience for my own work. I dont know if people can
braces himself
or anything. Its impossible to consider your life worthwhile, or for the future
still treat them as contemporary pieces
18 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
C
is for ...
19
RETNA
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
J is for Michael Jackson
THE BOYS
OWN CLUB
George on bitchiness NME 1 MAY 1982 PAGE 24
George on his appearance
I am a bitch, yeah. But Im not a bitch for the sake of Obviously Im into myself, but Im not walking
being bitchy. around just saying, Oh everybody look at me,
Im not nasty! I dont think so anyway. I know Im Paul Morley meets a look at me. I wear make-up and dress this way
not vindictive. I just have a laugh because it makes me look better. Im not doing
Im sure people slag me off! They always do. boy called George former it to get people to stare at me.
Ive caught people talking about me loads of People think that if you look like this
times. When Bow Wow Wow played St Albans model, Bow Wow Wow youre running away from something, and
I heard a skinhead say to his mate, Oh that thats a load of rubbish. Im not hiding.
queer guys going to come on for the encore, he
looks a real state. And when you talk to some
singer and now founder of I really dont think that theres anything wrong
with wanting to make yourself look as good
girls they try to be real clever, they say, Oh yes,
duckie, and I just rip them to shreds. Its so obvious
a new musical experience, as possible. Im not just a person who wears
make-up. There is a lot more that goes into it.
to do that.
Yknow, Im not a queer, not that sort of queer
the Culture Club I tell you, I really hate decadence. I hate risqu
people who go around with their tits hanging out,
anyway. Im as camp as you are, or as anyone is. Im not or people who try to have sex in public. I hate people
camp in a gay sense. Do you think I am? who really think theyre risqu and daring.
20 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Culture Club C
George on Steve Strange shut people down when youve
I think Steve Strange could have been a lot more successful and got the gab like me. Unless
respected if hed just been a bit human about it all. People look at theyre really insane, and then
Steve Strange and the general opinion is that hes a prat, and they you just run away. Dont stay
look at me and see that I wear make-up so they think Im a prat as where youre not wanted.
well. When Im interviewed Im always asked, Do you see yourself After smirking and lurking
in comparison to Steve Strange? What do you say? I dont want on the inside and outside of
to be rude about him. As far as Im concerned hes doing what he this, that and the other for
wants to do and hes enjoying it and its just nothing to do with the past few years George has
me. Hes there. He exists. So what?! ended up in a position where
he will be smart, smack at the
George on laughter centre of a lot of attention.
I believe youve got to have a sense of humour. So many people Hes going to be a pop
involved in all of this dont have a sense of humour. I dont know star and hes very capable of
how they can do what they do without laughing at themselves being good.
and saying its a real joke. I do it all the time. I go home and look NME 4 SEPTEMBER 1982 PAGE 42 With his customary Did you steal
at myself in the mirror and laugh at myself. Sometimes I just go my blusher?:
CULTURE CLUB cheerfulness he recalls a
George, Marilyn
home and cry. I look at myself and think, You fucking wanker! DO YOU REALLY WANT brief time he spent as guest and friend, 1981
TO HURT ME singer with Bow Wow Wow.
Im just a peasant, The Boy George tells me, Im really quite Virgin
The rst gig I did was at the Rainbow in front of loads of people
ordinary, but I can also be quite exciting as well. Culture Club astound and it was brilliant. Id never been on a stage in my life before then
me. They really are
There is something lonely and unromantic about The Boy very, very good indeed
and I really got turned on by it. Malcolm McLaren just gave me a
George: more than that theres a peculiar strength that sneaks up and yet, while slop like hunger for it all. I hadnt done anything ever apart from dress up
on you or into you, something arrogant and exasperating, and the pea-brained Haysi and walk around getting pissed. Id had my pictures in the paper
ultimately a beautiful, unconditional directness. Fantayzee are rolling but I was getting bored with the whole thing. I mean Malcolm
in it, this group reach
George doesnt ramble, he doesnt soft soap and he doesnt their third ne record
really just used me to keep Annabella I didnt realise that at the
make excuses. George says that hes probably apologised for without a sniff of a hit. beginning. But I dont suppose Id have got my band together if it
something that hes said or done just twice in his life. The Boy has Perhaps its the spectre hadnt have been for Malcolm.
no time for stagey politeness, hes incredibly impatient, and hes of the controversial Id started the band before I met Malcolm but after a while I just
sedan chair waving
convinced that a lively blessed honesty is something of more than Boy George that keeps
couldnt be bothered. Once they threw me out of Bow Wow Wow
passing importance. the public hemming I got really pissed off and, rst of all, I just wanted revenge, and to
His fast and funny conversation bites into the backs of snivelling and hawing. True, on be exactly like them but better. Just rip them off. Then I decided
sycophants and bores. Every sentence The Boy George utters is the cover hes pictured I had to do something of my own. Because Im a good singer!
doing that clumsy dance
framed by a disgusted snort or a delighted titter, or both. If he that our societys free-
George grins happily and serves up gallons of seedy, sordid Bow
doesnt like you and hell make up his mind straight away youll er children always feel Wow Wow gossip. Hes in his element. Yap, snap, titter, snort.
feel his snap. George is shamelessly common, yet he talks a rare, prone to, that is, elbows
formidable common sense. If you want to get anything done you out like a chicken and George on scandal
the old arse pushed out
have to concentrate hard when youre talking with him. As soon as waving around in some
Im not a scandalous person. I would never ever sell my sex life to
he spots the off-white lack of imagination of a fool he snaps. positive statement to the papers. Everyone Ive ever loved Ill love til I die! The people
I risk a snap. our undoubted African that I love, I wouldnt talk about them explicitly because theres no
Whats your favourite sexual position, George? heritage. But theyre a need. And most of the people Ive been out with would be really
talented group; what
The restless eyes react rst, and then can I tell you?
embarrassed if it became known because theyre considered to
Cuddling, with all my clothes on. Embracing, thats my Danny Baker be really straight. Nobodys perfectly straight, you know. What a
favourite sexual position. Whats yours? boring way to be if youre perfectly straight!
George on boredom
George has ended up in a position where he will Its boredom that makes me still want to go out to clubs. Who
be smack at the centre of attention. Hes going to wants to stay in? I go to bed sometimes and then get up to go out.
I go to bed and lie there and I think, Hell I cant stand it, Ill get
be a pop star and hes capable of being good up and go out. Ill get drunk. Im not going to get drunk to relieve
myself in some way; Im going out to get drunk so Ill fall asleep
when I get back home. I lead a really silly life!
What do you feel about people who are hostile because of your
appearance?
I think its really stupid. But people dont hassle me that much.
People dont seem to want to hit me. I dont know why! They sort
of look at me and say, Is that a geezer or a woman? And then they
dont bother hitting you, theyre like mesmerised. And you can
TLFeBOOK
Culture Club
George on money
With the punk thing everyone was making impractical attacks
on being rich or having money, yknow, but they all wanted to
be rich. You have to be. Ive got plenty of money, well, quite a lot.
Im not a millionaire or a thousandaire or anything. But Ive got
enough. I just want money so that I can be really irresponsible.
Im still really childish, The Boy George tells me. Ive never
really grown up. I think thats a good thing.
Boy Georges group Culture Club release their rst Virgin single
I dont want to be a boring pop star, I dont want
next week: White Boy is already causing a stir. to be a rock star and I never will be. What the hell
The Boy and his boys Jon Moss (drums/percussion), Roy Hay
(guitars/keyboards/piano) and Michael Craig (bass) have the best have I got to do with rocknroll? Boy George
look of a pop group since Japan or The Fire Engines or DAF or
Stimulin, and their sweetly spiced, correctly sexed sound spins new
shades and tints and blurs out into the current colour-motion.
George has not thought once about the general rock barriers: George on Warhol, Einstein and Monroe
hes not even reacting against them, like some of his predecessors. I hate Andy Warhol. I really hate him. Malcolms much funnier.
The natural extension of the post-rock events is a naturalness. Andy Warhol really takes himself seriously. Its just terrible. Hes an
We want to work at what we do, not analyse it, just get better. idiot. Like a big cheesecake on legs. I just think hes so awful.
Culture Club are real amateurs and thats it for now. There are Do you like Albert Einstein?
things we want to learn oh, fuck the music, I dont want to talk Ive never heard of him
about music anyway. He was a scientist
Is it a career, so to speak? Oh, hes on the cover of that M single isnt he?
Well, that remains to be seen. It is a career in the sense that Ive He thought that the physical body was something of a handicap.
signed up for ve years. He probably couldnt get what he wanted. People always make
No!!! these big ideas up about things if they cant get what they want.
I have! But Im happy about it. He had Monroe.
Its ludicrous! So what? Marilyn Monroe was just a gloried transvestite.
Im capable!
What were you doing ve years ago? Ive stopped wearing as much make-up lately, The Boy George
I was living in suburbia. Look at me now! tells me. Im cutting down. Its my natural look.
So where will you be in ve years? Back in suburbia? The Boy George may be painted and powdered and intolerant
I wont. Ive got a lot of go ahead. I have! I mean, and cleverly unsettling, but he talks like a comedian.
listen, we didnt get a record deal just by sending Do I? Thats great! Maybe thats my true vocation in life
photographs to Virgin. We actually did gigs and got actually, you print that and Ill kill you; Ill bomb your house.
shouted at and called queers. I think its good how weve George, beneath the banter and the bitching or because of it
done it. My little sister loves the record and thats all Im represents as much as anyone the new acceptance that the massive
interested in. cultural pressures, and complications mustnt be allowed to
George titters, and looks for something else to talk about. confuse and compromise.
Culture Club are up-to-date because they simply
George on love and sex get on with establishing a quality, a procedure, a
I fall in love all the time, 24 hours a day. I fall in love with pattern that is unique to themselves but which loosely
people for really silly reasons. I think its good and healthy to corresponds with other actions and activities. It is
be in love with people. I always go out with very nice people an attempt to recreate or recover a purity that can
and I love all of them. Not mentioning any names develop into something unknown and delicious.
Whats the type of person youre likely to fall in There is at the heart of Culture Club a necessary,
love with? indenable hardness.
The lorry drivers mate cos theyre oppressed. I dont give a shit. I dont want to be a
I dont go out with people just for the sake of having sex. boring pop star, I dont want to be a rock star
Its too messy to have people like that in your life. They and I never will be. How could I? What the
always hang around you and never go away. People hell have I got to do with rocknroll? I take
never go at 3am after youve had sex with them. They this seriously enough to want to do it, to
just wont go away, will they? I used to do all that want to be a success, but if it fails Im not
years ago. I thought I was fullling some need in me going to hide. Who gives a damn? Im
but I wasnt. Now, I just cant be bothered. just not desperate.
Did you lose your virginity to a boy? The Boy George looks
LFI/REX/BRIAN ARIS
No, I did not! I went off with loads of girls at school. around warily to see if anyone
I used to be the person to go out with at school, because overheard him: and then he
I was such a poof. I did think I was David Bowie then. laughs at himself.
22 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
C
THE
EVERYBODY
CULTURE
I
ts Georges birthday no biological landmark but a time
of transition for a boy about town with big ambitions.
Today is Tuesday, and Culture Club have a successful
single thats just climbed the charts to Number Three.
This same week has seen the release of their rst LP.
Tonight theres a concert for Londons Capital Radio to
be broadcast from Camden Palace. And almost overnight Boy
George has become a bona de pop star, a public gure with a
famous face.
The Boys full of beans, but not completely bowled over. He
looks back on a life thats been crammed with fun, and turns
towards the future with a trace of trepidation. For a boy who has
always seemed accessible, unselfconscious and almost everywhere
at once whether working in a clothes shop off Carnaby Street
or unostentatiously enjoying himself in the thick of London
nightlife theres an inkling of other considerations soon to be
confronted
The other day I went into a hamburger shop on Oxford Street.
I was dressed up and I forgot. I mean, I dont feel theres anything
to forget. I was hungry and I thought Id better get something to
eat. These little kids got around me in a circle, poking me. It was
quite amusing, because they were going, Are you the girl from
Culture Club? And I said, Well, actually, Im not a girl.
Its great, all that, because you dont deliberately set out to do
anything, and I really havent. I dont think I look like a girl, Im
just a bloke with bit of an ego problem, I suppose.
NME ORIGINALS 23
TLFeBOOK
Culture Club
24 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Culture Club C
everyone else. I suppose Im the sort of person who I look at people and think, Idiot! But if I meet them Im
spends most of their time trying not to be like everyone prepared to back down. Unless people meet you on your
else, which is probably why Im so ordinary. I feel so level, theyre never going to know what youre like, are they?
natural in what Im doing. Theyre going to say, I dont like him because he wears
Its quite sad, that big fear of alienation. You get it at make-up. If they project their uprightness on you, thats
school, because youre taught not to have a personality, their problem.
its better for them if you dont. Im not saying I hate Dont picture me White Boy is not about white people, its about
school, but I think it could be done a bit better. I think with no gender people who are shallow, see-through. Also, at the time
theres a lot of things about this country that could be bender, fool!: I started, there were a lot of cynical people around me,
done be better. Boy G meets Mr T who I dont mix with any more. A lot of Bow Wow Wowites
Its a fear of not being accepted by other people. I went through and a lot of very trendy people. They were saying to me, Ooh,
that at school, but it hardened me up. It made me more secure your bands really white, you should be tribal. I just kept
because I suddenly realised why people were doing it. I mean, saying, Were a rock band, were going to do all the things other
people dont.
I know why people hate me. I suppose Im the The songs about this guy I knew who kept saying, Youre really
white. I was supposed to be upset by that.
sort of person who spends most of their time Optimism
trying not to be like everyone else Boy George George hails the waiter with a friendly grin and a polite holler.
Im leaving the mushrooms. I didnt think theyd be like that.
Im optimistic.
NME ORIGINALS 25
TLFeBOOK
Character and stardom
Characters something you have to create, you cant get it by dressing
up. I like old women that you meet at bus stops. Theyre characters,
its not someone who comes up to you and says, I was a punk in 76.
Remember that old rigmarole? I hated all that, such a load of shit.
Ive got a snotty nose. Sorry. Its very un, er, star-like, isnt it?
Unity
Ive got ve brothers and one sister. Its a real Irish family.
You dont have to accept someones culture to like them. Its like
being Irish, all this Catholic and Protestant thing. You dont have
to dislike someone for being Protestant just because someone else
Gender does. That was the idea of using all the symbols together so that it
All the other countries are really frightened about the LP cover, was like an everyman culture rather than one-sided.
because a lot of people just think Im a girl. Of course I enjoy that, Weve dropped the Star of David now, because Ive no intention
I love it! Its great because Ive got a certain female element to my of hurting peoples feelings, and its not a very good time for that
character. But Im not a poof. Im effeminate in the way I look, but symbol. Im not anti-Arab and Im not anti-Jew, but I dont like the
Im not an effeminate person. I dont like effeminate people. Its idea of provoking people, sticking things down their throat.
like when you meet gay people and they say, Oh, hello. That is put
on, because Ive done it, put on a very camp voice. You do need gay Love, sex and marriage
clubs, because if youre gay and you walk up to someone in a club Of course I fancy people, but I dont usually sleep with people
and theyre not gay, theyre going to punch you in the teeth, arent I fancy. I sleep with people I dont fancy and then I really like them.
they, if you try and chat them up? But I dont believe in the gay I dont like people who are physically everything and psychologically
identity, that you have to be noted and recognised as gay. nothing. People whove just got their sexuality are pretty sad.
In that album theres a lot of references to gender. When we Im not a very sexy person. Thats one thing about people who
rst started I wasnt aware of it, but when we did White Boy are into the band, its not like, Woooaaar, Id like to go to bed with
everyone was saying, Whos the girl? Thats why I called myself George. Its more they like what I say and the idea of me. You are
MM 10 SEPTEMBER 1983 PAGE 22
Boy George. what you give out to people.
I really like symbols, so I decided to use the sex symbols on the CULTURE CLUB The whole idea of calling the album Kissing To Be Clever is like
cover. Its a heterosexual symbol, but it doesnt have to be. KARMA CHAMELEON the kiss of death, the kiss of life. The whole of that album is like a
Virgin
cynical love song. The best songs in the world are love songs. But
Boy, did we get Culture
Instinct and aggression Club all wrong. George
love applies to everyone. It doesnt just apply to a few people in the
There is an element of you wants success, but you follow your offered himself as bait, room with pink eyebrows and stilettos on. Everybody falls in love
instincts really, dont you? You want to have a hit because thats the invited ridicule and and everybody wants somebody to love at the end of the day. Ive
whole idea of signing a record deal. But if you start worrying what promptly got it with a been in love with somebody for about a year now, but its a bit on
vengeance. With what
other people think, youre useless to yourself. one imagines to be
the rocks at the moment. I dont play games with people. I dont
Its best if you dont lie to yourself. I dont mind about lying to immense satisfaction, not love them because they dont love me. It upsets me, but I dont
other people I do it all the time! If you can admit youre a creep hes systematically and believe in acting a different way. Im into relationships rather than
to yourself, youre halfway to solving your problems. I always do painstakingly proceeded sexual encounters.
to stuff our cynicism
what I feel is right at the time. Sometimes it isnt, but its much down our beer-infested
I dont believe in marriage. If you love someone you dont have
better to take the chance. I believe in acting how you feel, Im very throats and this should to prove it. The thing is, I can go two ways on that subject, because if
like that. justly be regarded as you love someone youre going to want to keep them forever, arent
Of course I get annoyed, Im a human being, Im not a star. a classic. As perfect an you? You cant be dogmatic about love, its such a heart-rending
exhibition of pure pop
Its not all this, Oh you cant embarrass yourself. Id just go up to as any of us are likely
thing. Im sure Id get married if I loved someone.
them and say, Look, dont fucking slag me off, cos if you do, Ill to hear all year.
REX FEATURES
punch you. Im always going to be like that. If theyre going to slag Colin Irwin Hypocrisy
me off, theyre going to get it back. Im like that a hypocrite. An honest hypocrite, I hope.
TLFeBOOK
D
is for ...
27
RETNA
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Duran Duran
28 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Duran Duran D
A
s the straining cordon of policemen
splits under the frantic pressure
of budding femininity, the coach
swerves away from Glasgow Apollo
and speeds though the dark, wet
back streets.
Soon the last gang of pursuers stumble back into the
distance and a solitary gure keeps abreast of the coach,
running as if its life is at stake. The coach just clips through
an amber light and still the gure keeps coming, madly
ignoring the Green Cross Code.
Pull up! Stop! yells Roger Taylor and the coach jerks
twice and coasts to a halt. The automatic doors purr open
and young Mark Duffy, heaving with exhaustion and
excitement, staggers up the steps to rapturous applause. standards? Is it because
Shirt sleeves
Please will you put I was in your coach? he asks they wear make-up? Just why do
just seemed so
Nick Rhodes as the lipstick blond signs his programme. unnecessary they offend mature sensibilities?
Please otherwise my friends wont believe me back in the 80s And why do they sell so many
OK, although the incidents true, youve read it many records? Only one way to nd out
times before. Duran Duran: pop stars, candyoss gods Yours truly nipped up north of the border with the
to a new generation of gullible adolescents with more
pocket money than sense. If only the stupid sheep On the road express purpose of confronting Duran with their
own reputation and giving them a rare right of reply.
would scream and lend nancial support to the Nick Rhodes provided the most apt preamble.
worthy likes of the Gang Of Four, the world would be in Scotland, Duran Duran We are probably the only band thats known
a better place. Well er wouldnt it? as ve individuals. We are ve very different
I, for one, quite honestly doubt it and have caught a open their hearts to personalities as The Beatles were four.
fair amount of ak in the past for being stupid enough There can be up to ve contradictions at any
Steve Sutherland
REX FEATURES/TOM SHEEHAN
to say so. Here, at Maker Central, my rapturous review one point. I think this interview is important
of the Rio album is still the subject of ridicule and because weve never ever been able to level our how
considered an unbalanced lapse of common sense. MM 13 NOVEMBER 1982 PAGE 24 we felt exactly about all those things I think its really
But just why do the press nd Duran Duran unacceptable? interesting about the reasons why
Do they pose some threat to jealously guarded traditional Appetite whetted? Here goes
Taylor, Simon Le
Bon, Nick Rhodes
and Andy Taylor
NME ORIGINALS 29
TLFeBOOK
Duran Duran
were looking for hit songs Nick Rhodes John Taylor: You are responsible for them. We have far greater
power over our audience than Paul Weller will ever have with his
because we really could stand onstage and say, Go out and break the
walls of Babylon! Now!And they would!
catalyst for good environmental karma.
Andy Taylor: I dont even know what catalyst means but that Duran Duran are too damn perfect
sounds exactly perfect. Andy Taylor: I forgot to send my dad a copy of Rio when it came
Simon Le Bon: I dont see it that way at all. We have got out, I havent had enough time to house-train my dog properly so it
something to offer people an ideology that comes over in the shits on the carpet
songs. Im trying to pick on something positive, give over a positive Nick Rhodes: I lost my wallet the other day, I lost a camera a
attitude rather than a negative one. month before and I lost a bag two months before that
Simon Le Bon: Mistakes? I dont talk about mistakes, I learn
Duran Duran are self-obsessed careerists from them.
Nick Rhodes: I dont think its a crime for a band to comprise ve
very ambitious people who take a lot of care over their artistic values Duran Duran are arrogant little oiks
and work hard to get through to as many people as possible. Nick Rhodes: Its not arrogance, its condence!
John Taylor: We are careerists. I see music as my career, but John Taylor: As long as the ve of us keep it together mentally,
its also my dream and what I do best so Im very lucky in that theres nobody to move where we can move. The Human League
respect. We have had to plan and too many people equate that may sell a lot of records, but theyll never play Madison Square
with being a calculating concern and not with being professionals NME 18 JULY 1981 PAGE 18
Garden. I think we will
and perfectionists or, at least, trying to be. Simon Le Bon: I dont know. Im not a prophet, Im a singer.
DURAN DURAN
Simon Le Bon: Whats wrong with being a GIRLS ON FILM John Taylor: If you look at most of our interviews, one after
careerist? On the other hand, EMI another is a justication of our own existence. Weve always had to
I agree with what Pete Townshend SOMEBODY PLAY THEM leap to our defence.
said, that if you havent got an THE ISLEY BROTHERS!
axe to grind, then you should This is an innocuous My strategem was, of necessity, the wrong tack; forcing
impersonation of a true
be in the cabaret. We have got blue funk. SOMEBODY confrontations over my priorities, not theirs. It was, at best, a start to
something to say just because PUNCH ME! This is so understanding that Duran Durans ve-way fragmented philosophy
its not screaming in agony doesnt numbingly adequate it takes no heed of the traditional, ridiculous notion that pop should
mean its not a statement. could make you squeal be overtly rebellious and prone to expressing a liberal conscience.
with irritation. Duran
Duran look like such Duran Duran say pop shouldnt have to be anything at all and,
Duran Duran exploit the Doodle Dandy partyline therefore, can be anything. I recognised this conclusion too late to
fantasies of teenage girls twits. Conclusion: tackle them on their terms. That comes next time. But its not too
Simon Le Bon: If you value money something like, if the late for you to go back, tear off your blinkers, lay your preconceptions
TOM SHEEHAN
30 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Steve Sutherland
reports from Montserrat
where Duran Duran are
recording their
new album
MM 23 JULY 1983 PAGE 23
FANTASY
ISLAND
U
nder the sweltering threat of an imminent
hurricane, the West Indian island of
Montserrat is the last place youd look for
the potentially biggest and undoubtedly best
band in the world.
Duran Duran have been recording in
Montserrat for ve weeks, writing and recording new songs,
rehearsing for their two prestigious British shows at the Dominion
Theatre and Villa Park and testing the patience and know-how
of co-producers Alex Sadkin (Grace Jones) and Ian Little (Roxy
Music) to the limits of human endurance.
Nick is deathly white, Roger is bronzed but sluggish, Simons
casual and chipper, Johns brown but bored and Andy spends
much of his time studying form for the local crab races. Overleaf
youll nd their musings on everything under the burning sun, but
before that, John wants to give you one or two words of advice:
If youre eating out, dont touch the Mountain Chicken.
Why not? Nice island.
Its frog! Lets buy it!
TLFeBOOK
Club Tropicana,
drinks are free
Sorry, got the
wrong band!
John on CharlesnDi
I quite like the idea of meeting the chaps. I wont be as
nervous as when I met David Bowie, though. I mean,
its nothing Ive ever dreamt about doing but, now its
happening, Im quite pleased about it. Roger on stardom
Nothings really changed. I feel exactly
Andy on his pals, the press the same as I felt three years ago. Its such a gradual process and
The critics tried to kill this band and, in not succeeding, it just Im still with the same people I was with three years ago only in a
shows how powerless they are even though they hold themselves totally different station.
in such high esteem. Basically people who like music have got
enough brains to judge for themselves. Nick on fans
I cant wait to see what the critics will say about our new album In one magazine I seem to remember saying that I had a black cat
itll get slagged to death and dyou know what I like about it? called Sebastian. The cat now gets more fan mail than me!
Every time someone slags us, theyre insulting a lot of people who
will take it personally. Because we put up with so much stick from John on lm
day one, all we ever did was do what we wanted to do. I havent got a burning desire to be an actor. Its something Id
quite like to do but, no, I cant see myself being good at it. Then
Roger on travel again, Roger Moores got away with it for 20 years and, I mean,
When you start out in a band, you think it would be great to make I can raise my bloody eyebrow like that!
it and be able to sit around and drink champagne and you wouldnt
have to work and youd have lots of money but once youve tasted MM 19 MARCH 1983 PAGE 19 Simon and the bands that tie
success and worse, I think work becomes more important than Were still good mates, denitely better than weve ever
DURAN DURAN
anything else. You tend to nd yourself on holiday for a week and IS THERE SOMETHING been. Were always together, weve never really had the kind of
youre just itching to get back. You just become so accustomed to I SHOULD KNOW? relationship where we just got together to get down to work the
EMI
work and success or whatever, you just have to keep going. Its like fact is, weve been working all the time. Weve havent stopped!
a drug, I suppose. The thing about Duran The biggest holiday Ive had was when I went to Sri Lanka
When we came here it was, Oh God! Montserrat! But its just Duran is that they always earlier this year for a month or so and thats the longest Ive spent
put out really infectious
like anywhere else. I mean, all weve done is record, play pool, swim pop records and you end away from the band since I joined. Weve had to become very
and play table tennis we could be in Birmingham or anywhere! up going round singing tolerant of one another. Weve had our personal differences, weve
them all the time. I had great big personal differences, but we still cope with them.
Nick on the great escape really liked Rio, but this
is them at their most
It was getting pretty hectic in London before we left. I mean, the unmemorable. Whether Roger on the future
daily papers were getting so persistent, I couldnt go anywhere. you like or hate a Duran I can see us going on at this rate for ve years or whatever until we
I went to a restaurant one night and they were waiting outside! It Duran record, you get bored. I think if we were gonna start fragmenting and going
was getting a bit much. Wed have been prisoners if wed stayed. can always recognise our own ways, wed have started doing it by now. Well always
it as being them, but
At that time, after the Rock And Pop Awards, I think there was this could have been keep going for new heights but, also, maintaining it is probably
a big burst. I mean, there was no other band to cover at that time anybody it reminds harder than actually getting there. To me, to maintain it is one of
and the ironic thing is, until that stage, wed never really had any me of The Beatles the ultimate things. David Bowies done it for the last ten years or
daily coverage, wed always avoided it because a lot of it is nonsense. harmonies in the 60s. whatever and, to me, thats more important than somebody who
Marc Almond
So it was nice for us to get away and get some perspective. just gets there, stays big for a year and then thats it, they just go.
32 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
D
we could be in Birmingham Roger Taylor succeeding spectacularly, although they reckon they have to
keep an eye on Alex Sadkin because his love of reggae slips out
occasionally and they dont want to end up with Duran Duran
In Dub!
Ive always liked poets like TS Eliot who are a little bit obscure Due to be mixed in Sydney, Australia (To give it the sharpness
and thats denitely part of my style, lyrically. Open interpretation of the city, according to Roger) during late July and early August,
is very important. The best books Ive ever read have always been Seven And The Ragged Tiger should be in the shops sometime
viewed differently by other people, they strike some very personal in October.
note within you and it gets a reaction within you. John: I think weve nally out-Chiced Chic after years of
From what little Ive heard of Ragged Tiger, Is There plagiarism. This is the blackest a white bands ever got.
Something I Should Know? (not included on the album, Duran fans can anticipate ecstasy without the slightest
incidentally) was a mere indication of new ground being broken, trepidation; others had better prepare for the stunned
a signpost away from the cool concoctions of inuences that conversation.
made up the rst two albums towards the synthesis of a unique Roger: Its reaching new heights all the time, not being satised
and unmistakable dextrous rhythm play of Roger and John, with your last album. I think as soon as youre satised with the
propelled by Andys brash but controlled guitars, embellished by album youve just recorded, its probably the end.
NME ORIGINALS 33
TLFeBOOK
Duran Duran
They came in
search of paradise
and discovered New
York. Steve Sutherland
hops aboard the glory ride to
congratulate Le Bon and the
boys on achieving their
ultimate ambition
I
ts brilliant. Ive made so many good friends in the
industry. I met Carly Simon; shes writing a song for us.
Been out every night, ligging. Brilliant. Last night we
went to Liza Minellis birthday party shes in a show just
over the road. We sang her happy birthday and
she started crying and hugged us all. Shes just
like she is in the movies. She really likes us. Were the
only new group she likes. I met Ronnie Wood, too, and
he knows all our names. I mean, imagine! One of the
Stones knowing all our names! And after Liza Minellis
we went to Eddie Murphys party at the Hard Rock and
then today I met Al Pacino. I mean brilliant!
Andy pauses for breath. I drop my suitcase. Were in
the foyer of the Berkshire Place Hotel. Ive been in New
York 20 minutes. I havent even checked in yet.
Oh, by the way, Sticky, Andy continues, Im a
millionaire now
DURANINDURAN
NEW YORK
MM 7 APRIL 1984 PAGE 12
34 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Duran Duran D
Ian Hunters Diary Of A RockNRoll Star when I was The air is rancid with stale fag smoke. We retire
11 and Ive wanted to play there for the last 12 years. to his bedroom where he idly ips a lm on his
Backstage tonight is much like any other. Simons video and sets about reassembling his wardrobe.
playing Fighter Pilot, a video game, yelling out Another day, another night in New York.
his score while his father aps over his sons ailing Theres no show tonight, so after last nights
voice. All the parents except Andys are there, getting performance the band plus entourage plus
bevvied up and singing English pub songs. anybody who wants to be anybody this week in
Theres vomit in the toilet so someones nervous, NY had highlighted it down to the Limelight, a
although no-ones letting on who. church converted into a club riddled with a maze of
While the band prepare, I nick one more beer and rooms. Its all very would-be decadent: the owner
make my way past the cops out front. The ceiling wears an eyepatch and upstairs in the library, the
looks like the spaceship in Close Encounters. Prince champagne is free but they still play the Eagles.
Charles And The City Beat Band have just nished It was a James Bond night whether in honour
their set a thankless task in front of this crowd. of JT nobodys sure. Everybody got drunk and
Nobody knows it yet but Ian Little, co-producer when the place closed or everybody got bored no-
of Ragged Tiger whos supposed to be mixing one can remember somebody suggested they all
a recording of the show in a mobile, has just been Andy throws his pile back to Andys hotel room. Hence the mess
mugged for his pass and cant get in because the best rock god Tomorrow the maid will refuse to clean this lot
cops wont believe him. No pass, no entry. pose at Madison up, the manager will agree and Andy will grab him
Square Garden
The intro tape starts and I feel sick and giddy. by the ear and insist it gets done. Today, though,
The screamings so loud, Im suffering vertigo, my hearings we talk and I wonder: is this really it a hotel room
impaired and my balance is going. Its a clich of course but over wrecked by folks you dont know, forever wrecked by folks you
here everythings bigger if not better, screaming included. dont know, forever waiting on room service?
The show itself is bolder than ever, tanked up and turned to the Well, if we toured like this for the next 10 years, I think wed
audiences taste. Simon dons a cap during The Chauffeur and he become complete morons. I dont think the human body or mind
backips from the horizontal onto his feet during the Girls On is built to do that. We get crank calls so weve gotta have a secret
Film nale. Someone says at least its better than his dancing.
They still employ the video screen above the stage so that everyone
gets a fair eyeful, but this has developed along with the razzmatazz. Its the dream you have when
The lmings damn near choreographed, the camerapersons are
aware of the onstage highlight every second of the show. youre a kid. The most prestigious
Its irritating sometimes, the way Duran play with history.
Weve seen this gross showmanship before. Its old hat with no
gig in the world Andy Taylor
humour, but to them it conveniently represents an escape from
dismal post-punk politico Puritanism. It was beginning to
depress me but I thought, what the hell? They do it so well, wheres NME 27 OCTOBER 1984 PAGE 26
code to get through to our phones. I mean, it may sound stupid but
the harm? If Madison proved one thing though, its that Duran if someones gonna call you in the middle of the night and wind
are now unashamedly an American band working to American DURAN DURAN you up saying: I know where youre staying. I hate your band
THE WILD BOYS
standards. I cant see the British love-affair lasting at this rate. This Parlophone Its such an abnormal way of life. When I was at home last
over the top stuff doesnt pass for fun where I come from, it passes Duran Durans rst Christmas, the rst couple of mornings I woke up I thought I was
for insecurity. Still the show, as a show, is stunning. bad record go on, in a hotel. It takes a lot of time to adjust from being out on the
Backstage after the show John is towelling himself down. Well, sneer. Let their desire road leading a completely different method of life. I mean, I cant
to visit faraway places
I venture, youve done it. even have the old lady here because shes four-and-a-half months
with strange sounding
What next? names, dress up like pregnant now so thats even worse.
Uh I dunno Shea Stadium? aming fruits and date He says hes not too worried that sales in Blighty werent what
models make up your they should have been for Ragged Tiger he claims it did half
Andys room mind about their GREAT
pop singles, just because
a million in the rst week alone so that cant be too bad. I tell him
Somebody must have slept here last night. they were never duplicit that many other pop people I meet dont so much object to what
Andy staggers back from the open door and surveys his living enough to pretend that Duran sound like these days as what they stand for and the way
room through a blinding headache and red eyes. Its 4.30pm and they didnt want to do it. they go about things their elitist attitude.
They have never
hes just got up. Its OK, though, hes only just gone to bed. People like stars in America, he snorts. Its the American
sounded more like a
Uh I dunno eight ten oclock this morning I dunno. respectable, masculinist way. Everyones a star in LA, you know.
There were so many people here last night, when I got pissed off rock band, and they I attempt to articulate that I nd it abnormal that folks hobnob
I just closed the bedroom door and left them to it. have never sounded with other folks regardless of who they are just because theyre
worse. Le Bons voice
He glances once again at the dismantled sofa, the body of famous but he doesnt understand that hes helping to build a new
never the strong prong
pillows of which are arranged in a vaguely human shape among is well to the fore, hierarchy that needs to be smashed.
the overturned ashtrays, cigarette burns and half-empty bottles sounding on the verge of Spandau Ballet arent playing Madison Square Garden. We
that litter the carpet. hysterical exhaustionand are. And thats what we wanted.
their humourlessness
He picks up a bottle of Jack Daniels with about a quarter-inch But is that so important?
TOMSHEEHAN
shes gonna get herself killed in a minute. Lets blast an inspiration get pissed with my brother-in-law.
to both Hoddle
it down this bit. and Waddle Even if he means it, its no longer on.
36 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
E
is for ...
NME ORIGINALS 37
TLFeBOOK
LFI
Eurythmics
Crown of
MM 22 NOVEMBER 1986 PAGE 23
thorns
A
nnie Lennox grapples nervously with self-pitying way, but I come from the provinces and I didnt
the little nger of her left hand. t in. I didnt belong. I didnt know who I was
She discreetly shifts into a more Its hard to carve your own path, but I did that
threatening posture, lightly If its Wednesday it I went against the grain. I could have taken the so-
touches her crop of blonde called easy way out I could have been a music
hair and stares at two freshly
packed suitcases on the oor in front of her.
must be Italy. Colin Irwin teacher or gotten married it would have been
much less full of strife. It was really tough, but I
I hate anger in me Im an angry person
But what are you so angry about?
joins Eurythmics on the feel Ive emerged through that
Do you feel at ease with yourself now?
Im angry generally. The world is not a place
to be passive in. I didnt ask to be born. You go
Milan leg of their world tour No. NO! Do you know anybody who feels
at ease with themselves? Do you feel at ease with
through childhood and suddenly youre hit with
adolescence and boy, that hits you!
and discovers fame and yourself? DO YOU?!? I dont think many people
do. Lifes too dangerous to feel at ease. Lifes
For me growing up wasnt easy. It was full of
strife, full of difculty nding out who I was. wealth isnt all its cracked too dangerous
That was very tough for me. I dont mean this in a For the next two nights its Milan. They think
up to be Milan. It could be Barcelona or Lausanne or Detroit
or Newport Pagnell. Its somewhere halfway round the
world and its part of a conspiracy thats claiming a year of
their lives.
Why do they do it, these people? For fame? Wealth? Ego? The
craving for adulation? It screws you up and it spits you out, but
still they do it because they cant contemplate not doing it.
Obviously its not glamorous to tour, says Annie with
such emphasis its clearly not obvious at all. But at this
level its really at its best. Compared to going up the M1
in a Vauxhall estate having to lug your own equipment
in blizzards and Ive done all that. At this stage its much
easier because were in halfway decent hotels that makes a
difference, it really does. Imagine not having a stable home for a
whole year. It gets a bit wearing living in orange and purple decor
for a year. But you pace yourself and on the one hand I quite enjoy
This tickles!:
Annie onstage at
the Ritz in New
York, April 1984
38 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
E
Fringe benets:
Eurythmics
onstage in Milan,
November 1986
living out of a suitcase because its simple everythings in the Side (reggae). Otherwise the Italians appear to be thrilled by the
suitcase. And its convenient, I dont have to make my bed, which I sudden entrance of Annie Lennox in her celebrated red bra and
hate. I dont have to do laundry, though I do wash my own clothes the night is nally salvaged by the celebratory Sisters Are Doing It
in the sink Im a touring laundrette here. For Themselves (oddly enough Aretha wasnt present, even in the
form of a hologram) and the entrancing new single, Miracle Of
Eurythmics explode into Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) Love, very possibly the best thing theyve ever done.
with more professionalism than conviction. Some aerodrome of But make no mistake, Eurythmics are in the major league now.
a building with the acoustics of a carpet factory and a sound thats They make music for platinum discs; they make music for grown-
so bad you initially wonder if Annies a ventriloquist her mouth ups; they make music for HUGE STADIUMS LIKE THIS!!
I like the bigger places in a huge place theres a very excited
atmosphere its an event! So many people have come to see you
We ght all the time. Its ery and Im thrilled theyve come. The only time I get the stadium
because we lived together. syndrome as you call it, is if the stage is so high I cant see the
audience. I like to be able to touch people.
Its like writing songs with your MM 14 JANUARY 1984 PAGE 18
But once you get into stadiums, Annie, dont you think youre
in danger of losing touch?
ex-wife Dave Stewart EURYTHMICS
HERE COMES THE
Maybe people think I go around the world in an incredibly
blas kind of way youve made a lot of money after all and
RAIN AGAIN youre very famous, theres a lot of fortune around you and it all
RCA
looks incredibly ash. You come in and it looks like hey, everyone
is moving but nothing comes out. Hours earlier their people Quite possibly the around you is a minion, but its not the case. Everything is like
Eurythmics nest
threaten to pull the gig so perturbed were they by the place; but, moment to date. The
that for comfort. I thank God I can travel in this limousine and
of course, Italians tend to be a terribly excitable crowd and a last pitting of crisp, icy stretch out and not be in a little car hunched up. Everything is for
minute cancellation wouldnt have been entirely in the interests strings against a steady my comfort so that when I get to the concert Im able to do it.
of world peace. rhythm pulse sets up
a perfectly fraught
So they soldier on veterans of many a blizzard and for emotional vacuum.
At dinner that night a few drinks are taken. The chef stays on
a while there we have little to do but admire the cut of their Their prime trick is the late to cook pasta, the gay waiter serenades us with some operatic
matching leather and decide whether Dave Stewart should ever matching of a show delicacy and, despite the imperfections of the evenings work,
be allowed into Europe again wearing that beard. of strength against Dave and Annie begin to groove. Dave regales me with tales of the
eggshell fragility, a
The show improves immeasurably as it wears on, but its pristine example of
garage bands hes been signing up to conquer the world and the
still rather less than wonderful, as they themselves graciously vagaries of life as one of the worlds leading production wizards.
CORBIS/JOE McFADDEN-LFI
NME ORIGINALS 39
TLFeBOOK
Eurythmics
Dave is talking about his favourite Eurythmics roll on. Theyre here
artists Van Morrison, Sex Pistols, for the duration. A million nights
T.Rex, The Incredible String Band, at Wembley coming up. And when
Barclay James Harvest, Ramones, theyre whiling away the odd hours
The Smiths apart Daves got several thousand
What Id really like to do is make Dave and Annie production jobs to do and Annie fresh
an album of ten songs and every track the odd couple from a bit part in Revolution (I thought
gives you goose pimples. If we can do just got odder! the public slaughter of that lm was
that then I really think we can say weve incredibly distasteful) is interested in
achieved something. Id like our records doing more movies.
to affect people the way Van Morrisons Thats about it. Be yourself tonight.
40 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
F
is for ...
NME ORIGINALS 41
TLFeBOOK
LFI
ink
PAnd
Gizza NME front
cover: Nasher, Mark,
Holly, Paul and Ped
rky!
32
BER 1983 PAGE
e
NME 5 NOVEM
P
E
arls Court is Frankies kind of town.
Over at the salad bar a bronzed,
bearded Middle Eastern type
catches their attention. I look up
from my grub and they smile
knowingly at each other. Yes he
In Frankies first fr
feature, Gavin M
ont cover
artin
ruise with
Hollywood. And also lling in a few details, sinking
into the environment they feel at home in, trying
to keep an open mind. And thats all Im keeping
open, mind.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood was formed
just over a year ago by Holly Johnson, one-time
takes a sleaze-c
is quite cute, isnt he? guitarist with Big In Japan and solo artist on
r to Sodom
Frankie is getting ready for the evening, the Liverpool independent label Erics. Fuelled on
cruising and the cowboys (he loves to see a guy
e rpoo ls an sw e anything from Bowie to Burroughs, Jean Genet
dressed in uniform), the scribbled indiscretions Liv to Lindsay Kemp, The Velvet Underground to
on the toilet wall and his favourite bit, at 11 oclock
when they all leave the pub and line up around the and Gomorrah T.Rex, Johnson set about presenting a scorching
leather-bound version of the lifestyle he and soon
block, taking it in turns to go cruising. Theres all sorts to be recruited pal Paul Rutherford led.
of little games and codes that lie ahead, and when he gets They built up a steady live reputation, female duo
onto the tube and sees a guy carrying a motorcycle helmet The Leatherpettes providing attraction for the heteros,
(a motorcycle helmet on the tube!) Frankie feels at home. and were approached by a succession of A&R men whose
It was really great last night. We had to go out and give out 20 stock reaction was, I loved it, but I dont know what my
invitations to act as extras in our video, so it was like going out boss would think. An appearance on The Tube however
and being told to pick up 20 men, smiles Paul. brought response from the then emerging Morley/Horn ZTT
partnership and the group took the opportunity to work with
A little history the famous producer immediately.
What am I doing here? Someone who just stopped reading The
Picture Of Dorian Gray because it was too faggy whod rather Blessed are the pop stars they will get paid to
listen to half an hour of Mary Whitehouse than two minutes of indulge their fantasies
Quentin Crisp, whos never heard of homophobia, just good Holly: We used to know Paul Morley when he was in
sense. To wit, nding out the whys and wherefores behind Manchester and he was working for the NME. We used to hate
Liverpool post-punk S&M gay cabaret act Frankie Goes To him, he was like this div from Manchester. He made people
42 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Frankie Goes To Hollywood F
like Howard Devoto, created their whole standing as far as the him to emerge, all squelching and sucking, kept on course by
press were concerned. Made them out to be much bigger than a thundering pelvic thrust metronome beat. Its roots are in the
their capabilities, which was a shame because Howard Devoto disco of Summer, Sylvester and mid-70s Whiteld, its head
was quite talented. Maybe now hes doing the same thing with twisted and turned by McLarens plundering escapades but its
us in a way. I guess we tted into his little fantasy, and he tted heart is in a sleazy bordello, pining for the sweat and spunk in
into ours. the backroom.
FGTH didnt receive an advance from ZTT (When youre Holly: Its like these untamed creatures meet Trevor Horn and
working with someone like Trevor Horn you dont mind making his stamp is all over it. Because it was our rst single, and theres
sacrices) and theyre down in London staying in the Columbia no ready-made market, we just had to have as much fun as we
Hotel on 5 a day expenses. Still they seem to have enough to get could when we were making it. We just thought buzz and then
some of that smoking stuff and both Paul and Holly are quite well know when its right.
relaxed, interspersing conversation with slow, stoned giggles. I always loved the sounds that Trevor got on his records, but
They start to tell me about the video they are ostensibly here to it seemed like something far beyond our reach because it was so
make with Bernard Rose (who directed UB40s Red Red Wine). shiny and commercial. I always thought the content and people
Holly: The basic idea is that theres this virginal character, he did it with was rather weak until McLaren. But I still died when
MM 12 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 22
Frankie, and his girlfriends just left him. Hes never had sex and he phoned us up.
hes walking down the street and gets lured into an orgy scene by FRANKIE GOES I mean on Relax Trevor interpreted the sound, of course. I
this character in black. Its going to be a club scene, the sort of TO HOLLYWOOD mean, hes a really strong guy, OK? Its hard to really talk about
RELAX
clubs we like to go to. Its interesting drawing a comparison with ZTT this. Were aware of the situation, were a band produced by
the Soft Cell thing. Where they pantomimed it, were going to do Frankie seem to Trevor Horn and its shoved down our throats a bit. We were wary
it for real, OK? So its going to be Emperor Nero in this club, a huge wallow and nally get of being his puppets at rst but as soon as we met him that all went
man who gets his whole body shaved for sexual kicks and feeds swallowed up by their out the window. Hes just a human being, hes that little guy whos
people to tigers and lions. Were using the actual Esso tiger own silly schoolboy used to be in Buggles.
beliefs that innuendoes
Really strong images, like a Fellini lm, chips in Paul, and words like suck I think of the shallow, squirming sexuality presented by
inexplicably. and come are going to current pop the vanity and preening of Wham! and Spandau
For us it is just like getting someone else to pay for our titillate what they see as and wonder if maybe the sleazy pantomime of FGTH will knock
fantasies. Were just having a party, its such wonderful imagery to our equally immature things up a bit, get someone to buckle down with it. Are they out
sense of good clean
use, though if you havent been in an Amsterdam leather bar you dirty fun. I suggest they on their own?
wont quite understand. look to either Ian Dury I think its becoming a trendy actually, after our Tube show
for honestly humorous you got quite a few like Fashion and even that Tracie girl giving it
vulgarity or Divine
I think of the shallow sexuality of for no holds barred
up front lth and stop
much sex and whip. I think its catching on. But with those people
its in a very supercial way because they havent got the bollocks
Wham! and Spandau and wonder sniggering like pimply
adolescents whove just
to go for it really. The gay/S&M angle is regarded as taboo but its
just people getting down, because its not long that we are here.
if FGTH will knock things up a bit caught a glimpse of their
neighbours knickers.
I met this Irish guy in a pub once and he asked me was I into
M&S, it was really lovely. So sweet.
Helen Fitzgerald
think it will ever die, itll just reach a limbo. all day. I think hes sort of bitter because
hes a real muso and hes on the other
Another lump of sugar in a different side of the camera. Very sad. He needed
orice cheering up so we bound the Leatherpettes
The track the video is promoting is Relax, in pink ribbon and gave them to him. He
the rst ever FGTH release. A monster jam brought them to his hotel and showered
discosex workout. Its Frankie as youd expect So thats where them with champagne, real champagne.
Kylie got her look!
NME ORIGINALS 43
TLFeBOOK
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The future
Paul: Weve been thrown in at the deep end now, what we always
wanted but when it happens you realise youre in deep water. Its
funny to catch yourself in it, you just crack up. Fame sounds fun
but I dont think anyone is ever prepared for it.
Holly: Ultimately it would be great to do a Frankie Goes To
Hollywood movie, with music an essential part of Hollywood,
obviously. We were amazed how much everyone picked up on
the sex attitude actually. It was just something we were exploring.
Weve got an idea to do a Disneyland video, a real glamour video
for instance. We just want to have fun.
I think the media will absorb what were doing eventually, the
way it absorbs everything. Then we can just change the theme of
our movie. It doesnt have to be sex we can shock them that it
isnt that kind of thing.
Denitions: 1 Sleaze
Holly: When we do play live, our sound is going to be a lot rougher
than on record. Over the past few months weve come to the stage
where we believe we are a valuable musical force again whereas
before we thought we were a side show sex thing. Our music has
got a lot smoother, smoother with sleaze and class. Whats sleaze?
MM 9 JUNE 1984 PAGE 31
Go to Amsterdam, child, and youll denitely nd out.
Paul: Sleaze is kind of like sex that is classy. Not crude. FRANKIE GOES
Holly: A good image of sleaze for me would be a 1930s TO HOLLYWOOD
TWO TRIBES
drinking bar with jazz musicians hanging round and black and ZTT
white prostitutes at the bar, that kind of scene. Which goes the whole
hog in proving there
2 Normal sex is more to them
Holly: I dont know what normal sex is. I think all sex is normal than stolen Ian Dury
basslines. Its not just
because it comes from people and people are normal. Theres that theyre suave,
not much that is socially acceptable if the bastions of society, the or a lovely shade of bars are quite tame, there they are totally overboard. Like
judges and Mary Whitehouse are deciding. Theyre just people mauve, its the fact that Tom Of Finland who is a homoerotic illustrator, he paints
with extremely closed attitudes. theyve come into the brilliant images of guys in leather, uniforms, sailors and stuff.
garden Lord and these
Paul: Being that closed is perverse. Not being able to face up to headaches are going His pictures are on the wall, the bar area is caged off and theres
that honesty with yourself is perverse. She must have seen so much to last a long time. slings and jackboots hanging from the ceiling and a giant
porn, must have strange thoughts running around her head. Headaches of shame cock in a light rope from one side of the ceiling to the other
Holly: She must have a huge guilt complex! Maybe shes never unconfessed. This, and its coming at the knob. Then you go to the backroom and
therefore, is A GOOD
had an orgasm! Has Mary Whitehouse ever had the big O? THING. Only when they theres an orgy going on. I was really impressed by it, the freedom
feel inglorious will they of attitude.
Maybe shes never had an turn over and die. Until
then black arrows hit the
It sounds vile. Where is the magic and thrill of sex taking place
in such unhygienic, graphically crude surrounds?
deck and Spandau Ballet
orgasm! Has Mary Whitehouse can stuff it. Kids open
your arms, the world has
It adds a whole new kind of theatre and performance to it.
You almost have to be prepared to fuck in front of ten people. Its
ever had the big O? Holly a winner. The best dance
record ever!
erce. Sex is a performance, especially when its with someone
that means a lot to you but even then you are patronising and
Mick Mercer
entertaining their existence. Any performance onstage or
3 Decadence
But how far can you go, dont you have a MM 28 JANUARY 1984 PAGE 3
NME 5 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 32
concept of decadence?
Decadence is a dead weird word, OK?
Its someone who is off the party rather than
on it. I looked it up in the dictionary and it
said a decaying era. I heard it in connection
with people who were wild and off the wall,
supposedly. I dont really understand it as a
concept, its a real voyeurs concept.
4 Morals
Dont you have any morals then?
Morals? Things like the Ten
Commandments and all that. Oh yeah, but
thats just a natural human weakness, maybe
its a strength. Im trying not to give anyone a
hard time, arent you? Thats about the only
moral Ive got.
Dont worry about the taste barrier, Holly,
just go right on through.
Amsterdam was fab, I was totally
knocked out. Whereas in England the leather
44 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Frankie Goes To Hollywood F
ALBUM
NME 5 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 32
I
t is, of course, brilliant. And nothing more
so than the last glittering shards, the nal
breaths taken in this pleasuredome.
After the echoes of The Power Of Love
have been borne away there is a concluding
shower of sparks from the wand, a teasing adios
from the carnival that wants never to stop as
if the whole business is about to start up again.
Horn signals a keyboard cascade that sounds
like a seraphic fanfare for Christmas itself
to begin, and that voice intones the familiar
Frankie say The sound gets louder, and a
crashing of gongs doubles the anticipation.
Frankie say sez the voice again, the pulse
quickens at its prompting.
Is this it? Do we at last discover what Frankie
really say?
The sound shatters like a crystal ball bursting.
Frankie say NO MORE. There is your solution,
if you wanted one. judgement that they cant be deemed pastiches.
It begins with a taunting of suggestive false But they are hollow vaults, strangely distant
Even Hollys unique starts: a doctored dive-bombing from the interludes in the show, as if they were some
rendition of Im A strings, Johnson proclaiming the world is obligation to remember real pop. Its almost
Little Teapot couldnt my oyster and a chattering backdrop a relief when the genuine Frankie
stop Frankie-mania from Whipsnade before Welcome return at the end of the side with
To The Pleasuredome itself is Its a Wish You Were Here.
launched. Perhaps the amazing
Its a cinematic cinematic accomplishment of the
as camp as a
Christmas tree
NME ORIGINALS 45
TLFeBOOK
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Paul Du Noyer
goes to Atlanta as
the pleasuredome engulfs
the US. While Holly Johnson
pretends hes Greta Garbo,
Paul Rutherford explains
the pride, passion and
pain of their 1984
success story
Y
ou can hang this on your knob, sir, the hotel
porter said to me.
I can?
Yes sir, you can. He produced a short
length of cardboard with the word Privacy on
it. Place it outside the door, like this, and your
room will not be disturbed in the morning. Yall have a good day,
now, and hope yenjoy Atlanta, Georgia.
Ah, I see I slipped him his tip and shut the door with some
relief. The Frankies only got here an hour ago and surely even they
need more than 60 minutes to corrupt the morals of an entire city.
Atlanta nds these Frankies two weeks deep inside their premier
tour of North America their rst tour anywhere, come to that.
Sell-out shows, sporadic fan hysteria, massive media interest,
satisfactory record sales: these are the payoffs to a cunningly
contrived invasion plan. Video age America seems like a changed
place, where the music market has grown almost as ckle and fad-
happy as Britains. Theyve embraced the Frankie scam, all this
painstaking pleasure-giving, like willing conspirators.
Holly xes the
In the concert-hall lobbies, kids queue with the Yankee dollar NME snapper with
to put on those T-shirts. Tomorrow theyll walk through the a friendly gaze
shopping malls, their adolescent chests chanting RELAX and
WAR and, most bizarrely, ARM THE UNEMPLOYED and its Holly Johnson got to meet Andy Warhol in New York: this
all great fun and no-ones any more sure what Frankie really says seems to please him greatly.
or means than we were back in Britain, and here they care even And a few weeks previously, Frankie nally got to Hollywood.
less. And three days after tomorrow, well, therell be Van Halen They lmed a performance of Relax for a brief scene in Brian
in town, or someone, with a new T-shirt to sell. De Palmas new movie Body Double. Again, its Holly whos most
Word is that FGTHs label, ZTT, were reluctant to see enchanted by dreams of the silver screen. But Paul Rutherford
their little boys go on the road, fearing they couldnt cut found the experience dead boring. Like making a video
it. A million cynics would see their point. As it turns out where the biggest star is the other side of the camera.
though, the band has acquitted itself very well. Not thats hes complaining. Rutherford, whos perhaps the
Pegged from the start as gments of Trevor Horns most approachable Frankie and the most willing to perform
imagination, a silk purse fashioned from a Scouse sows PR chore of spokesman, regards the whole circus with easy-
LFI/WIREIMAGE/JOE BANGAY
ear and hyped to the heavens a process that reached going detachment.
its vinyl apotheosis in the awed yet magnicent conceit I just like getting to see the world. I suppose. Sound like a
of Welcome To The Pleasuredome the musicians of beauty queen, dont I? I wanna travel and meet people!
Frankie Goes To Hollywood treat this tour as a declaration of Holly, Im sad to say, is not talking to the NME
independence. Look at us, say Frankie, we really exist. these days.
46 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Frankie Goes To Hollywood F
Whos it for? he asks, which puzzles me, since I know he
knows damn well who its for.
The NME, I reply, all the same.
Oh no, he murmurs grandly, I dont talk to the NME.
And with that, he sweeps out again, followed by Wolfgang.
It had been a brief and elegant performance. Initially, I guessed
it was a case of Holly rehearsing a routine he feels will be expected
of him if he ever becomes a Major International Star. But Paul
Rutherford tells me that Holly has never forgiven the NME for
what he believed were snidey anti-homosexual comments in the
Frankie cover story we ran in 1983 the very feature, ironically,
which gave the group its rst major publicity.
Gavin Martin, then, was the writer whod queered my pitch,
so to speak.
The article was a bit unnecessary, shrugs Paul. But then Im
not proud enough that I have to bear grudges.
Later, Holly will conde in Joe Stevens (whos both NME
lensman and ofcial Frankie tour photographer) that hes also
sore about a recent NME piece which showed contrasting pictures
of him in his old Big In Japan days and as he is now, under the
headline Frankie: From Wallyhood To Hollywood.
The headline was one of mine, Ill own up. But if he really is
to become the Major International Star of his dreams, then hell
nd far worse things than dumb puns to contend with along the
way, Im sure.
what he believed were snidey anti-homosexual It was just us being ourselves. We never thought, Lets shock
everybody, lets freak everybody out. It was just, Lets do it, be
comments in the cover story we ran in 1983 ourselves. And it was just us being as honest as possible.
Theres this thing, isnt there, that an artist has to have this
mystique and weird pretentiousness about them. And they dont.
NME ORIGINALS 47
TLFeBOOK
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
R
elax was perhaps the least sexy record in
pop history. What could be more coldly,
hideously chaste than the orgasm near
the end, that ludicrously amplied simulation of
ejaculation?
No, Relax was driven by something far
Frankie went to
stronger than sensuality by an idea of sex. Sex
Hollywood and
as threat, sex as shock, sex as subversion. Like
all they got was
striptease, Relax was all about fear.
this lousy T-shirt
That pyrotechnic stretch from Relax through
Two Tribes to The Power Of Love, from
Most people in bands are quite disobedience to schmaltz, still stands as one of
the superlative pop essays, a glorious charade.
thick, all they wanna do is play The combined brilliance of Morley and Horn
music. But they mask it with, I like managed somehow to overcome the manifest
this painter, and that painter. Its fallibility of their human software for Frankie
just bullcrap. Just do it. were sadly and severely unsexy, devoid of
charisma or presence, so small next to the MUSIC
If, as you say, you were only being and the GESTURES. heaven, sailboats of
honest, did the massive reaction Back then, we could ignore all this in the ice on desert sands, presumably to evoke the
take you by surprise? fracas. But the Frankie assault was meant to be grandeur of Frankies vision. Frankie would
I wouldnt say a surprise it came as a shock! It was a jolt for apocalyptic in its perfection. How could there be convince us theyre possessed by a barbarian
a day after, let alone anything as ignominious insatiability: there seems to some kind of
everybody. I dont think any of us has realised how successful as a follow-up? quest for a nebulous glory pagan
weve been, because its happened to us so fast. No-ones had a Without that sense of turmoil existence of perpetual joy,
chance to sit back and think about it. or event, there is only a pained
awareness that there is nothing
This idea perpetual motion.
At one point a Scouse
Given the fuss, all the moral outrage, did you ever think youd
stepped over some line, gone too far? Its being said youre a tamer
intrinsically fascinating about of orgasm as voice muses In the coming
Holly and the lads, nothing age of automation man
group now than you used to be. voluptuous about his voice. insurrection, of sex might be forced to confront
No, I dont think weve censored ourselves at all. In fact, I see But the orgy must pick up himself with the true spiritual
it as being stronger in other ways. People say, Oh, your image has where it left off. Back in as a radical kind of problems of living.
really calmed down and yers dont wear leather now. Well, leather
Frankies perfumed boudoir,
the air hangs heavy like a
misbehaviour, is so Frankies solution to
this quandary appears to
never ever freaked me out. dulling wine. very old hat be a mystical investment in
I dont think were any less hard or honest than we were. OK, Listening to this record I dont pleasure. Like Prince, they are
so we dont have transvestites and girls jumping around the stage, think of Nietzsche or Huysmans, saying party up, before we all die!
De Sade or Blake. Warriors Of The Unlike Prince, though, they make the
but its still erotic what we do. I think were still the only band to do Wasteland is like Iron Maiden trampling their pleasure principle seem incredibly boring.
it like that. Theres still something a bit crude about it. Its just that way through the backdrops of Lexicon Of Love, This idea of orgasm as insurrection, of sex
we have cotton on now Im sure someones kinky for cotton. Kill The Pain is like yobs trying on Dollars stage as a radical, apocalyptic kind of misbehaviour,
More than Paul Rutherford shaking his bum about, I think costumes and bursting them at the seams. is (honestly) so very old hat as if were all still
The production is verbose rather than strait-laced in by Christian stuffed shirt mores and
what shook me most about the Frankie stage show was the vivacious. Stephen Lipson directs with all the morality! As if this kind of agrancy can still get
opening, when the back projections show images of America, restraint of Cecil B DeMille, making choirs of anyones knickers in a twist! Prince can just about
Russia, the bomb and shots of napalmed Vietnamese children. massed angels dance about the mix. Hes Horns magic away the critical faculties for long enough
After the happy-happy rocknroll build-up to the show, it puts the protg, (an) adept at taking the most wafer-thin to temporarily resurrect this obsolete mythology.
songs and hysterically exaggerating them. But Frankie can cast no such spell. I stayed
most eerie and chilling edge on the set The lyrics are the ripest gibberish, dotted painfully sober throughout.
to follow, illustrating the themes of with words like sun, moon, oceans, hell, Simon Reynolds
War and Two Tribes. But those
children belong so much to the
real world, it disturbed me that
their suffering might be used The days labours done, I returned to my hotel. The business
to give mere dramatic effect with Holly had left me somewhat troubled, so I sought that
to what is, after all, just a comfort of travellers the world over, namely the Gideon bible.
pop concert. How deep I opened a page at random, in the time-honoured fashion. If
does Frankies concern nothing else, I reasoned, it might give me a jokey intro to begin
really run? These arent
things to be played with.
We use it because its I dont think weve censored ourselves. Theres still
very graphic, and hard, and
very direct. But we are something crude about it. Its just we have cotton
denitely leftists.
on now Im sure someones kinky for cotton Paul
this article with. But what I got, and I swear it, was something
about Saul and his servant going into town to seek the asses.
LFI/REDFERNS/RETNA
TLFeBOOK
G is for ...
NME ORIGINALS 49
TLFeBOOK
Gender benders
G
race Jones has the u, some kind of virus How long have you lived in New York? I ask.
mixed with severe jet lag. Her voice Altogether about seven years, on and off. Two years there,
croaks and crackles when she laughs one year here, four years Ive been living here for four
which she does a lot. No mask. years now.
Chat chat chat. Grace Jones You were born in Jamaica, werent you?
wears a woolly hat.
Joe Stevens and I meet her in her favourite Just days after she gave Mmmm, Spanishtown. My folks moved to New
York. They lived upstate. Ever hear of Syracuse?
restaurant; a Japanese one named the Chinya.
It is reached through the seedy lobby of the Russell Harty a slapping Syracuse University? Its a big university. You ever
hear of Jim Brown? He played for Syracuse.
Woodward Hotel, on 210 West 55th Street, And you attended?
which is just around the corner from where on his TV chat show, Ian Two years, studying drama, theatre.
Grace lives. Did you ever work professionally?
Joe and I pore over drinks and menu. Im Penman peers into the About one year, on and off. I did a couple of
so nervous it takes me three attempts to get lms, but professional lms but shitty parts.
my chopsticks together. A little Japanese guy private life and Japanese What were they? Or would you rather not drag
wanders merrily about the small restaurant with it back out?
a massive shing rod over his left shoulder. This dinner of Grace Jones Oh no! I dont care! Theyre shown once in a
helps us relax. while on television. They were basically parts for men.
I sit fully prepared for manoeuvres. Will she use that I played a heroin carrier in this one movie. I carry a gun
clipped, uncomprehending voice on me? Lash out? I get under my wig and all this stuff. Also I play a singing detective
deceived by facts and myths! If she ever comes now, now I get a lot of offers to play singing detectives lately!
50 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
G
Paulo or Apollo or Paul. I dont know; any one of the three you
like. We still havent decided so well let him decide.
The soups arrive and my rst tape ends.
I discover to my horror two large pink shrimps oating in my
soup. What is this dish Stevens has persuaded me to eat? Its got
shrimps! You know I dont like shrimps!
You dont eat shrimps? Grace asks in somewhat maternal
tones.
I dont like seafood.
You dont like seafood? Oh wow! How can you not like
seafood? Do you swim?
Yeah. From a very early age.
And you dont like seafood?
How I screw up my face do the two go together?
I dunno! I mean, the sea smells like seafood. You dont like the
smell? The taste?
I hate it all. It makes me sick. You love seafood presumably?
Yeah, my favourite. I like steak tartare though, too.
Grace has started on her second dish.
Would you like to taste this? Its really lovely clams with
cucumber
NME ORIGINALS 51
TLFeBOOK
Peter Robinson
was always a shy,
retiring boy
Prince or showgirl?
Paul Morley tussles with
Marilyn on a soft sofa and
hot
wonders if the seduction
of pop has a more
explicit meaning
NME 24 DECEMBER 1983 PAGE 38
Some like it
Marilyn on what he is
You could go far.
Marilyn on complication
Its very fashionable at the moment to hate Marilyn. Can you
I could go nowhere as long as I go out for dinner with Diana understand why?
Ross then Ill be happy. Yeah because when you dont understand something and its
What do you mind? new, youre frightened of it. Its like AIDS for instance. People do not
People buying me grapes when I want bananas. want to discuss AIDS, but its there.
Youre as contagious as AIDS?
Marilyn on being nice I dont think of myself as a disease. Im just a person who sings
Have you got a grudge against the world? on a few records.
I dont think so. The worlds a big place and theres a lot of
people in it. Everyones free to do exactly what they want, as long Marilyn on showbusiness
as they dont hurt anyone. When you hurt other people like that I want to get an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony thats my new
guy that wrote that thing about me in The Sunday People, well, it goal. Ill probably fail miserably, but at least I will have tried.
didnt hurt me, but it was just so twisted. Theyre quite conventional aims, arent they?
Dont you relish that kind of attention? Are they? Who on earth would dream of having those things?
I just think its sad because it makes me realise that there are Isnt it the usual type of fantasy?
freaks in the world and I dont want there to be freaks in the world. Ive never met anyone who wanted those things. How weird.
I want everyone to be nice and give owers to each other. MM 5 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 32
What do you think most people dream of?
Some people would say, Oh Marilyn, youre so nasty for MARILYN Washing machine new car. . .
making us listen to that record. CALLING YOUR
Switch off the radio. NAME Marilyn on the oor
Mercury
Oh Marilyn, youre so nasty for making us look at your Are you telling me more lies?
Well, if nothing
photographs. else, Georges Oh, no its probably just another
Turn over the page. pal proves hes contradiction lifes full of them you know!
not just another Oh, fuck you Marilyn!
Marilyn on his memories pretty face, Oh, I wish you would
although, under
Ive tried all the drugs there are, Ive been to all the different the pressure of Marilyn slips and slides, races away, directly
nightclubs, and discos, and through all the scenes, all the different doing so, Calling challenges the interviewers right to ask such
aspects of music, and Ive come up with my own version, the Your Name questions. The questions are beneath him.
version that suits me. And it is a new thing, because its a new comes on more Or above him. He couldnt care less. Once
like an attempt to
blend, its my blend. Its like a food mixer; depending on what you establish credentials hes made his points he nds a new game
put in the drink what comes out will always be different. It always rather than a bona to play
depends what you put in and what you take out and thats what de song. Pleasantly Actually, Im wondering if Paul Morleys
I am. Monkeeish and cheekily gay? We all have our weaknesses.
Culture Clubbish, it fulls
A food mixer? its function. An exercise So this is your technique
Kind of. Yourecertainlyoneofthemostinteresting
RETNA/REX FEATURES
52 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
JILL FURMANOVSKY-WWW.ROCKARCHIVE.COM
TLFeBOOK
is fo
H r ..
NME ORIGINALS
.
53
The Human League
Charles Shaar
Murray joins
The Human League on the
road and, behind the serious
faade, discovers four overgrown
ten-year-olds arguing over their
Empire Strikes Back
sticker books
T
HE HUMAN ADVENTURE IS JUST
BEGINNING. The rst slide appears on the top
left-hand screen. It is rapidly followed by another:
A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR
AWAY. And another: IT BEGINS WHERE
EVERYTHING ELSE ENDS. At the back of the
stage, lan Marsh activates the tape machine, the rhythm track rolls
and once again The Human League grapple uneasily with their
machines and commence another performance.
In Shefeld Top Rank a capacity audience welcomes them
with that combination of warm encouragement and ferociously
critical scrutiny which hallmarks the hometown audience. In
Derby a small but enthusiastic crowd of clean-cut youth who seem
to know them primarily from Top Of The Pops cheer them to the
(digital) echo. In Hammersmith Palais, a legion of glam rockers of
a demented dandyism unseen since the heyday of Eno-phase Roxy
Music acclaim them as champions.
BOILING
POINT
Dotted hither and yon are youth units with the beginnings of
Philip Oakey haircuts: cropped on one side, elegantly owing on
the other. Philip, however, has been cultivating his for two years
and therefore has something of a head start on them.
Philip Oakey is the vocalist for The Human League, an
aggregation of young men from Shefeld who have logically and
diligently followed up a series of perverse cultural preoccupations
and ended up constructing pop music exclusively through the
use of throats, lungs, synthesizers, sequencers and tapes, while
embellishing said music with slides and projectors. transformation. Do you realise what agony it is for this man to
Philip Oakey clutches his microphone stand and turns his head shave? He has extremely sensitive skin and active stubble as well as
slowly from side to side. The long portion of his hair sweeps over his extremely greasy hair. Philip is, however, prepared to suffer for his
shoulder in slow motion. He is attempting to watch the slide show, art. On the top of a bus in Shefeld he is merely a tall bloke with
since he has been informed that Adrian Wright, the member of the a very silly haircut. Onstage, he is a friendly emissary from some
band responsible for the visual aids, is currently incorporating a wonderland of cultural deviance.
photograph of Oakey into his slideshow. Oakeys stage role has emerged as a result of a disability. He
I wish I had wing mirrors on my mic stand, he will declare declares himself unable to play a synthesizer and sing at the
with more than a hint of wistfulness, or video monitors! Then same time. Though he takes his turn at the keyboards along with
I could stand perfectly still and not move at all. the others in the studio he leaves lan Marsh and Martyn Ware
He cuts an impressive gure in performance, does Philip, which to operate the devices while Adrian Wright makes sure that the
is a tribute to the painstaking care that he puts into his nightly projectors know whos boss.
54 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
The Human League H
sorrow: recently his collection of Star Wars toys outgrew his
corridor and he had nowhere else to put them.
It would be unfair to pick on Adrian for being an overgrown
ten-year-oId: all of The Human League are overgrown ten-year-
olds. In the van en route from Shefeld to Derby a ludicrous
scene ensued when it was discovered that out of three copies of
an Empire Strikes Back comic purchased by the band, one copy
had lost its set of free transfers. Instead of utilising the economic
advantage that they have over other ten-year-olds and simply
purchasing one more copy, the band proceeded to squabble for
ve minutes over the existing transfers. It was not a pretty sight.
To console himself, Oakey leafed through a prized recent
acquisition: a model directory. Not the glossy soft-porn ones
sold in newsagents, but the genuine article as circulated by model
agencies to bona de clients. Models fascinate Philip: he follows
them from ad to ad and transformation to transformation.
lt is the transformations that fascinate him rather than the
models themselves, the techniques they use for modifying their
appearances to suit each assignment. Sometimes they portray
real people; these roles fascinate Oakey most of all. He is himself,
however, reluctant to be photographed in his untransformed
state, thereby depriving others of the chance to see before and
after pictures.
Martyn is in the middle of an explanation of the origin of the
groups name: We got it from this science-ction game called
Star Force. There were all these scenarios in the back for various
wars in the future, and one of these for a stage round about 2180
where there were two main empires: The Pansentient Hegemony
and The Human League. The Human League were centred
around Earth and the scenario was called The Rise Of The
Human League. So we stole it.
We discuss their stage set-up and what theyd like to do with
it next. A brief conagration breaks out when a disagreement is
reached over the use of lm and videos as well as stills and slides.
This hits on a pretty central problem, says Philip. Everybody
In at the deep end:
else thinks we should play live and I dont at all.
The Human League
(l-r) Ware, Oakey, So why do you play live?
Marsh and Wright I think its useful sometimes for getting songs licked into
shape when you start out.
NME ORIGINALS 55
TLFeBOOK
The Human League
Other groups get together with two guitars and genuine personalised horoscope but not making them personalised
at all, just wording the ad very carefully, getting a solicitor to check
theyll thrash out a song. The rst thing we do is put it all out and just having the dozen very basic standardised ones.
I think I made about 30 quid.
it down on tape and then add to it Phil Oakey Back in real life, the League consider their future.
I dont think were really interested in rock as a career. What we
really want to do is to get into lms, and I think that between the
They commenced rehearsals in Devonshire Lane (a must for four of us we have the ideas and the contacts to do something, but
all visitors to Shefeld) and Adrian became involved when Addy we need some money. To make money we have to sell albums and to
Newton came and removed all the doors I thought whats this sell albums we have to sell singles so here we are.
prat doing taking my door away? including lans pride and joy: And back onstage, the last shots of Gary Glitter and stills from
CHRIS HORLER/IDOLS
his detective door. Land Of The Giants are replaced by three more slides, from different
He had an ofce in 1930 with I Marsh Private Investigator lms and TV shows. They all spell out the same thing. They say
lettered on the door THE END
56 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
H
League two:
(l-r) Phil, Adrian,
Joanne, Suzanne,
Ian and Jo
KISS OR PROMISE
L
ife, states Phil Oakey, settling into an armchair
This time around, the Indian summer of 1981 has
in the tacky splendour of a seedy hotel
lounge, has been a constant series of Phil ladles on seen a bright British electro-pop explosion. Already
disappointments to me ever since
I joined this group. the Max Factor and stirring up the stagnant charts is the serene teen-
pop of Depeche Mode and the electro-glide of
Lets be honest, I thought wed Soft Cell. Still waiting on the sidelines are Pete
do it with our rst single. I thought Being Boiled Joanne and Suzanne tell Shelleys fresh surge of homosapien love, the
would be Number One. Then The Dignity Of smoother electro-glide of Thomas Leers
Labour came out and I thought, well, I know its a Lynn Hanna how they made Four Movements, the sensual, cerebral
bit unusual, but it might just get to Number One. danceoor funk celebration and stimulation
Then you got us, Suzanne says from the other The Human League an electro- that is the very wonderful Heaven 17.
side of the table. And you got to Number 12, then Pushing to the top of the chart pile, setting
Number Three, twice. What more could you want? pop success. And everybody the scene with The Sound Of The Crowd
We knew we were going to be a top group two years for the insinuating success of Love Action
ago, continues Philip, ignoring this interruption.
Denitely. Wed got all the names trademarked so
bitches behind one is the hopeful hit-machine of the regenerated
Human League.
people couldnt rush out and make T-shirts because we
were going to be so popular, instantly. Then we just sat
anothers back And all this after the old League split up last
year into the BEF/Heaven 17 formation and Phil
around and waited for people to buy the records. Oakey and Adrian Wright were left holding the name,
And they didnt, says Suzanne. the slides and the haircut.
LFI
NME ORIGINALS 57
TLFeBOOK
The Human League
the strangest combination of people Ive ever worked with. Its Human League?! Bring Joanne and Suzanne were originally ardent Gary Numan
like people have been picked up on the way, ending up with this back the Daleks, Doctor, fans who both dressed alike in black, although theyve since
lets converse with
bizarre conclusion. Well, its not the conclusion, maybe in two Kraftwerks computers!
developed their own stage style, mainly through shopping in
years Suzanne will be the lead singer or something. Dont cry on their second-hand stores.
Everyones different, adds lan. No little alliances ever form. shoulders; youll Were trying to be individual in the way we dress and dance,
Part of The Human League concept is that no one knows smudge the lipstick says Joanne. You want people to know what you are.
on their circuits.
what anyone else is doing at any given point in time, says Jo. Its Neil Rowland
Joanne stops suddenly.
that random element that adds the vital spark. Am I sounding like Steve Strange?
58 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
The Human League H
Everybody says you should dance the same, but we wont. If
we stood there and did a routine, it wouldnt be being ourselves.
I think it works that anyone can do what they want really, says
Suzanne. If anyone comes in and says, I want to play keyboards
today no-one turns round and says, Oh no, you cant, thats not
your role in the group.
Everyones supposed to be an individual, states Joanne.
Thats what this group is, a set of individuals.
We are family
The Human League are an exotic and incongruous spectacle in
the tawdry afternoon emptiness of the Bayswater hotel. The girls
glow in black, red and gold clothes, colourful paint and powder,
bright tights and precariously high heels.
In their midst Phil Oakey reclines in an armchair, resplendent
in bronze face-powder and black eye-liner, the haircut scraped
severely back from his forehead and wearing a dark, wide-lapelled
suit that seems to have a split in the seat of the trousers. Adrian
Wright stands out by virtue of the ordinariness of his appearance,
sombre jacket, faded jeans, pointed suede shoes and a calm,
cynical manner that contrasts with the loud mayhem created by
the other three members of the group who the hotel porter views
from time to time with some consternation.
We rejoin the scene as Adrian and Joanne return to the circle
around the coffee table after posing for a photo-session.
Youve combed your hair, Adrian, cries Philip immediately
in wheedling and irritating tones.
Adrian refuses to fall for the bait.
No, I havent, he replies evenly.
You have. I can tell, crows Philip.
Adrian appeals to Joanne. Did I comb me hair?
No, he didnt, she states seriously.
NME ORIGINALS 59
TLFeBOOK
The Human League
P
hil Oakey is a post-Iggy crooner of romantic
agony who possesses a tough streak of
intellectual scepticism.
Dare! is the second intoxicating intervention
to be produced out of the great split, and already
its the rst Human League greatest hits collection.
It is the rst coherent projection of persecuted
lover Oakeys staggeringly twisted personality
I mean that in the queasiest possible way. The League stop
The Human League, presumably because arguing long
Phil Oakey and Bobby Last took charge of enough for a
the proceedings, have begun to deal quick photoshoot
seriously with the themes and issues
of popular ction, song, lm and The So does Bob Last.
Its difcult to tell what difference it made. Probably a great
soap opera love, an intensity
of desire, an examination of
League are I like the idea of The Human
League knocking Genesis off deal. Hes brilliant at what he does.
comfort, beauty and jealousy. Abba locked into the Number One place in the Hes a master of his equipment, adds Adrian.
Fundamentally, theres LP charts. Why? Choice and
Ramones, Iggy, And a lot of the old Human League records did sound like a lot
been an artful redenition of change, lust and longing.
the quite devious potentials of The Human League could be of blokes in an eight-track studio in Shefeld.
middle of the road music. As the Can, Zappa, the rst pop group broken in by Its his attitude, says Philip. A lot of people Ive worked with
League theory no doubt had it
they are Abba locked into Ramones,
Kraftwerk punk and who are in touch with
the deeper elements of art rituals,
wont take any little dodges to get around something and make
it easier. If something could be played by hand, theyd say, Keep
Iggy, Can, Zappa, Kraftwerk. A pop skills, political illusion and love
confection energised by intimate reection. codes who have burst into the mainstream. doing it, youll do it eventually, and youd end up wasting six
The use of electronics becomes all but Surprise! Dare! is some kind of revenge, and hours, whereas Martin just feeds it through the computer. At
irrelevant. The Human League just produce their in many ways it challenges the very conventions every stage, he always goes for the easiest way of getting the best
music to interfere with the daily details of the 80s of pop music and the essence of innovation.
idea down.
family. The Human League signify that deliciously What is it all for? I think that Dare! is one of the
serious, sincerely disposable MOR music can great popular music LPs. Its both pleasant and Despite the fact the League ght shy of revealing future plans
possess style, quality and sophistication. its a challenge. Ill keep it forever: truth and lie for fear of encouraging grandiose ideas that may then fall at, at
I like the idea of the Human League selling combined Ill always hold dear. some stage they plan to release an instrumental LP and, of course,
hundreds of thousands of copies of their product. Paul Morley
more of their colour-coded pop records.
60 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
is
Ifor ...
REDFERNS
NME ORIGINALS 61
TLFeBOOK
The Other
Side Of
Silence
NME 6 NOVEMBER 1982 PAGE 25
W
hat, then, is time? David and the
other Japan
If you dont ask,
I know. If I have to over what happens in blokes: Steve,
Richard and Mick
explain, I do not
know. the silence after sound? David It was a bad caricature. When I was
There seems to about 13 or 14 I didnt like myself very much. I
want to be a uniting of perfection of thought Sylvian talks and talks to Paul didnt like the idea that I was shy and introverted.
and feeling with perfection of form, resulting I disliked my childhood intensely, but from as
in a subjectivity that takes you beyond the Morley about his childhood, far back as I can remember I hated not being
ordinary self towards a confrontation with the independent. People were saying to me that I would
ideal self so? pop, suicide and the future never do well in music because I was too shy that
So? Fear not to be young, precocious, hurry on, I couldnt even go onstage to sing because I couldnt
if there is somewhere you can hurry on beyond Japan even face talking to people. Which was true, I couldnt.
But I wanted independence.
Do you remember the last time? So I built, like, not an alter ego. I exaggerated a tiny part
Yes, this now seems to be the right time. The last time of myself. I turned it into a gross caricature and wore certain
obviously wasnt. But I did enjoy the conversation, even types of clothes that I could hide behind. I lived the part totally.
though I could tell you were a little hostile. I believed that if I lived the part long enough, I would
Then no-one gave you a piece of chance. become it. I saw it as like a salvation. But eventually I hated
Oh no, if you make mistakes around here its difcult this caricature so much I was forced to come to terms with
to ever escape. I know the rst album is rubbish, that all myself and nd a way to control myself.
the hype that went with it was just wrong, but we were just How do you see this exaggeration now?
ve boys, naive and trying to get something together. Its difcult to pinpoint. When I started in the music
When did you develop a self-consciousness about business oh, disgusting phrase when I rst started
what you were actually doing, a feeling towards what making music I was doing it for all the wrong reasons, the
could have been done? wrong reasons being to have fame, to boost the ego. Im not
After Life In Tokyo I was in New York for about a that type of person at all. So I stood back from it, and as
month, and it was a real depression, looking back on what much as I was allowed, slipped away.
Id done and disliking everything. From the appearance Everything that motivated you to make pop music
of the band to the people wed worked with to the music youve had to shake away: those rampant desires, myths
itself. Just horrible. absorbed as a teenager.
We talked about splitting, although we were getting You have to lose all those things to function smoothly.
on together ne. I started writing songs in a new way, on You have to lose the desire for people to look at you in a
keyboards, which made a whole difference. Something certain way. So that when you say write a lyric you have to
as simple as that changed things around, everything lose the desire to put in something about yourself which
sounded more mature, and there was a great change in you only want people to see but that isnt true. You strive
approach and attitude. towards a strange purity that is probably impossible, a kind
David Sylvian:
What was it about the adopted appearance that of carefulness that hopefully achieves the opposite effect a
Suicide?
you hated? Theres always radical bravery.
tomorrow!
62 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
The Ultimate Pop Idol I
MM 30 OCTOBER 1982 PAGE 33
JAPAN
GHOSTS
Virgin
Somewhat ashamed of
being attached to an
outmoded gimmick,
Japan have been
recently attempting
to pass the parcel, as
it were, by singing lots
of songs about Red
China. This one is about
Ghosts of no particular
persuasion; you know
what it sounds like.
David Sylvian has a
bellyache and so we
all have to hear about
it. Jayne Manseld
once suggested to her
manager that they bottle
the Manseld urine and
sell it to her star-struck
fans. Well, David Sylvian
bottles bellyaches and
(sometimes) idiots buy
them. Men shouldnt
read books knowledge
makes them miserable
Julie Burchill
NME ORIGINALS 63
TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
J
is for ...
NME ORIGINALS 65
TLFeBOOK
LFI
Michael Jackson
T
he voice wafting in from the West Coast was as
feather soft as a childs. It was Michael Jackson,
calling with the ground rules for our interview.
CBS International had already cautioned me
against asking questions comparing the Jacksons
to similar family entertainment empires with
lots of white teeth and television specials say, of the Mormon
persuasion say, from Utah.
Sure Id caved in, and I wont ask him what he thinks of
Baudelaire or Afghanistan either. Anything else? Yeah. I was told
to expect a personal call from Michael, and here he was live in
Bell Telephone mono with a pip of a condition.
He wanted me to ask my questions to his sister. Then shed
repeat the questions to him. He said it had to do with something
I believe in.
Oh. You mean I drop off the questions and pick up
the tape later, but Im not there during the actual
interview?
No, he said, I could be there and hed
answer me.
Hmm, I thought on, this round-robin
twist is a new one me. What can he
Michael Jackson:
possibly be afraid of?
Sure, I said at last, whatever makes
black Sinatra for the 90s,
you feel comfortable.
Weird.
or just looking for an escape to
Scheduling an interview with heaven? Steve Demorest gets to
Michael Jackson is a tricky business,
especially just after hes been misquoted talk to him via his
by a major American trade publication.
Only a good deal of polite patience all 13-year-old sister, Janet
round the globe had pulled this one off.
They say The Jacksons have sold more
records than anyone except The Beatles, but it
was always Michael who had the most charisma. In 1970, when he out of the yard, and then swing into the driveway of a
was precocious 11-year-old mini-Super Fly, strutting and spinning sprawling one-storey house. Theres a Rolls and a couple
and singing with a sophistication beyond his years, Michael had of Mercedes scattered about, but the tan camper parked
a natural cool that girls ten years his senior couldnt nd in their under the basketball hoops lends a family touch. This is very
own boyfriends. comfortable upper-middle class spread alright, but certainly not
In 1979, the familys Destiny album went double platinum, the overwrought palace they could afford if they wanted.
and they claim to turn away 10,000 people every night they pack Thirteen-year-old Janet herself a child-star on the TV sitcom
one of Americas huge stadiums. Michael, however, is over three Good Times answers the door like a dutiful youngest child, small
million in sales with Off The Wall all by himself. golden beads clacking at the ends of her thin Bo Derek braids.
Now 21, Michael has become downright handsome. You catch There are no parents about, no manager and no bodyguard. In
him on camera coming out of an eerie smoke anked by green fact, myself and Shirley Brooks from CBS (who politely retires to
lasers, with his black spangled body-suit sparkling like modern the den to watch The Rockford Files for the next two hours) are the
chain-mail, and suddenly the little urchin of old is a full-grown nearest excuses for grown-ups in sight.
prince. The stage presence is fabulous and you understand why Jacko: The best
theyre beginning to call him the black Sinatra for the 90s.
Now 21, Michael has become
singer in the
world just now
Our grey Cadillac dreadnought has climbed out of Hollywood,
oated over the hills, and glided down into the ats of San downright handsome. The little
Fernando Valley.
Not far from the bustle of Encino we pull up to open iron gate,
urchin of old is a full-grown prince
ring the intercom for the inhabitants to clear the Doberman
66 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Michael Jackson J
MICHAEL JACKSON
OFF THE WALL Epic
T
his week, Michael Jacksons Off The Wall
album notches up one solid year in the
NME Top 30. No black music record has
ever done this before.
Obviously Off The Wall has been sustained in
the charts by CBS policy of systematically culling
it for singles. No less than ve have dropped off it
Michael relaxes to dominate the airwaves in their subtly pervasive
at home and fashion, and all but one of them Top Tenners
(below) its Janet and theres more where they came from.
the interpreter Off The Wall is a collection of highly polished
good-idea-for-a songs. It has the production
skills the polish of Quincy Jones and
its got Michael Jackson. Apart from of the classiest intros to any record
anything else, his current status At 22 in years. Its by far the best song
shows he never lost his magic in on the album and, signicantly,
the eyes of a whole generation Michael Jackson wrote it himself and
who rst got turned on by I
Want You Back and have stuck
Jacksons the co-produced.
The measured, vulnerable
by him whenever the going singer we always vocal style of Rock With You
got at all passable ever since. is equally masterful. And yet
But even more than that, hoped he another lick hits you straight
theres his performance. To my between the eyes on Working
ears, this album marks the rst would be Day And Night, with its urgent
time since those teeny bop days that vocal group chorus (all Jackson
Jackson has sounded comfortable. At himself). As Graham Lock pointed out in
22 hes the singer we always hoped he would be. his original review, probably the best singer in the
Listen to him on Dont Stop Til You Get Enough, world just now in terms of style and technique.
wailing in that strange, crying voice punctuated Its that style and technique that have made
by short ecstatic sighs and sharp whoops Off The Wall a platinum seller, and which will
the sound of a man in complete control. The continue to sell Michael Jacksons records for
whirlpool of strings at the beginning is also one years to come. Phil McNeill
And heeeeeeeres Michael! Quietly padding into the carpeted It sounded so phoney like I was trying to hint to that but I
hall to shake hands, the charismatic Michael Jackson appears to wasnt, I didnt even think of that. But Quincy does jazz, he does
be simply a nice, sweet, rather low-key youth. Hes wearing an movie scores, rocknroll, funk, pop hes all colours, and thats
orange knit pullover shirt, dark slacks and large, gleaming black the kind of people I like to work with; I went over to his house just
shoes that give the impression of a puppy or a colt not yet fully about every other day, and we just put it together.
grown into his feet. Did Quincy have a lot of good ideas for Michael?
Michael reminds me Ive agreed to operate with his sister Did Quincy have good ideas for you? Janet whispers.
acting as our interpreter and the three of us adjourn into the Theres a great coincidence that happened on that album. You
unpretentious, bright yellow and lime living room. Ive already know the Paul McCartney song I did, Girlfriend? The rst time I
decided to open with the blandest possible questions so hell have met Paul McCartney was on the Queen Mary and then I met him
time to check on my humanity, but Michael doesnt know that.
Hes cracking his knuckles while I set up the tape machine, until
Janet sitting between us chastises him mildly. He smiles and One of my favourite pastimes is
relaxes. Throughout our talk shell reach over to pluck at his hair
or brush his arm reassuringly. being with children. Talking to
So, lets start with Quincy Jones. Everybody loves his production
of Off The Wall. Quincy remembers meeting Michael at Sammy them, playing with them
Davis house when the boy was ten, and Michaels rst recollection
of Quincy dates from backstage at a Muhammad Ali benet, but
their real meeting came when they worked together on The Wiz again at a party he threw at Harold Lloyds estate here in LA. Him
in 1978. MM 22 FEBRUARY 1983 PAGE 22
and Linda came up to me and said, We wrote you a song, and
Er, Id like to know how Michael decided that Quincy would they started singing Girlfriend, da-da-dee-dee-dee. And I said,
MICHAEL
be the best producer for his album. JACKSON Oh, I really like it, when can we get together? So he gave me his
How did you decide to have Quincy? Janet echoes. BEAT IT Scotland number and the number in London, but we never got
Michael smiles. Good start. Epic
together on the whole thing. The next I noticed it he had the song
One day I called Quincy up to ask if he could suggest some Jackson should stick to on his London Town album. Then one day I went to Quincys
great people who might want to do my album. It was the rst the doe-eyed smoothie house and he said, You know whats a great song for you? This
crooning hes so adept
time that I fully wrote and produced my songs, and I was at. This foray into rock
McCartney song called Girlfriend. I just ipped out.
looking for somebody who would give me that freedom, plus just doesnt ring true. A Is Michael really working day and night, like he wrote in his
somebody whos unlimited musically. Quincy calls me Smelly cut from the Thriller LP, song? Janet passes the question along.
RETNA/LFI/WIREIMAGE
and he said, Well, Smelly, Why dont you let me do it? I said, itll probably be a huge Working Day And Night is a very autobiographical in a lot of
danceoor success but
Thats a great idea! not my cup of tea.
ways though I did stretch the point to playing the part like I was
Michael laughs as though he still cant believe hed been so Helen Fitzgerald married to this person but shes got me moving. But its not work
ingenious. like slavery. I love it, or I couldnt have survived it this long.
NME ORIGINALS 67
TLFeBOOK
Michael Jackson
MICHAEL JACKSON
THRILLER Epic
A
s one who didnt spend all his mythical
youth tucked away in some sweaty local
disco until it was hip to come out (like
round about now), it was only three years ago that
the charms of sweet soul music hit home.
When I arrived at the late-70s, convinced that Michael always
no-one could hold a light to Holland-Dozier- did look a lot
Holland or match Otis voice, Michael Jackson was younger than his
decent enough to release Off The Wall. OTW contemporaries
sold me down the (groove) line and Thriller
nearly knocked me off it. the main reasons why I do what I
This is not a good LP. Utilising the do. Children are more than adults.
talents of Quincy Jones and Rod
taste, but all reeking They know everything that people
Temperton on production and
songwriting, plus the usual galaxy
He has of that West Coast complacency are trying to nd out they know
of musicians that take half a lyric the skill, but its weve come to expect from LA.
Unlike Marvin Gaye, who
so many secrets but its hard for
sheet to fully list. (Michael, or them to get it out. I can recognise
Mick as I like to call him, even wasted here. Just can take the crassest lyric
that and learn from it. Grown-ups
puts in a quick apology to in the world and turn it into
anyone hes overlooked.) wait for the singles something truly special and are really nothing but children who
sensuous, Jackson seems to
There are two songs worthy
of mention. The opening Wanna
that will follow this have lost his talent for turning
have lost all that real magic by not
noticing and digging and nding
Be Startin Somethin, written by B movie dross into gold.
The one other nugget, like the out. I believe in that deeply.
Mick, is an uptempo electro-funk
song, sung in Jacksons familiar, hurried aforementioned Wanna Be, is Thats why Ive never taken
breathless voice which lends undoubted Billie Jean, written by Mick again. It works drugs or had alcohol. Ive tasted champagne, but I dont drink it.
excitement to the song. Its a great opener and is because it has a great bassline, simple drums
When people do toasts, I just pick up the glass. Because I enjoy
followed by nothing special. Discounting the and a cool vocal from Mick that gives the song
twee duet with McCartney which turns up here, impressive space. nature too much like her.
the one adjective that sums up most of this album He has the skill, but its wasted here. Just wait He points to Janet, who smiles.
is bland. Bland as in Baby Be Mine or the last for the singles that will now follow on from this Plus Im crazy for birds and animals and puppies. And I love
three songs on the LP, all done in the best possible particular B movie. Paolo Hewitt
exotic things. Ive had llamas, peacocks, a rhea which is the second
largest bird in the world a macaw, pheasants, racoons, chickens
Long is right. Michael began entertaining locally in Gary, everything. Now Im gonna get a fawn. And a amingo. I dont
Indiana when he was six years old, and after 15 years hes probably think I want a cougar, but I want a chimpanzee theyre so sweet.
the most durable child star since Shirley Temple. Groomed in Ooooooh, I have such a good time with the animals.
the spotlight, this guy grew up on magic. Performers dont come His voice wavers and his hand squeezes his brow tighter.
any more natural than Michael Jackson. Is most of his stage work Omigod I think this lamb is so overcome hes really on the verge
pretty spontaneous? of weeping.
Ill tell you the honest-to-God truth, he says, forgetting to What can I say now?
wait for Janet. I never knew what I was doing in the early days
I just did it. My dancing just comes about spontaneously. Some
things Ive done for years until people have marked them as my Nothing can harm me when
style, but its all spontaneous reactions.
A lot of people cant deal with the fact that youre another Im onstage nothing. Thats really
person onstage. Theyll come up to me and say, Do that spin that
you do on TV. Its so hard. I dont really go out to clubs and discos
me. Thats what Im here to do
at all. Sometimes you think youre going to sneak into a movie and
nobodys going to see you, but as soon as you hit the door the pen MM 12 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 22
call me up and say, Hey, you wanna go somewhere? Or when versions hes got enough nothing. Thats really me. Thats what Im here to do.
Stevie (Wonder) wants to go out hell call me up. to keep going well into Thats it alright. Raised on wonder and nurtured in the dreams
85. This is unhealthy and
One of my favourite pastimes is being with children talking of millions of fans, this guy is escaping all the way to heaven and he
inane. Helen Fitzgerald
to them, playing with them, wattlin in the grass. Theyre one of doesnt want to come down.
68 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
K
is for ...
NME ORIGINALS 69
TLFeBOOK
Kraftwerk
Werk of
MM 23 MAY 1981 PAGE 27
KRAFTWERK
POCKET CALCULATOR
The Kraftsmen: EMI
(l-r) Ralf, Florian,
Wolfgang, Karl Oh, far out man! Play
a tune on a pocket
calculator to, like, really
genius
emphasise the mess
that were all in. I mean,
its such a cool concept,
those pigs are really
going to have to take
notice now, I mean, just,
wow! The implications
are, like, Earth-
shattering. Yeah pass
the Casio and pass out.
Paulo Hewitt
I
ts the rst night of Kraftwerks British tour, and a
MM 9 MAY 1981 PAGE 21
packed Free Trade Hall is a testament to how popular
they have become since their last visit. The audience is KRAFTWERK
a colourful mixture of futurist types, Bowie freaks and COMPUTER WORLD EMI
I
number of denim-clad fans with AC/DC embroideries. ts almost exactly three years since Kraftwerk
released their last album, the coolly majestic
Surprised? Just wait til you see Kraftwerk in action. A huge
Man Machine. In the interim their unique
black curtain falls away to reveal four Germans behind their sound has been plagiarized and popularized by
synthesizers in stark black suits. Behind them is a glittering a cast of thousands including the Cliff Richard of
control panel full of digital wizardry. Above each member is a new electronics, Gary Numan, robotic bores like
Telex and new age funsters Buggles.
screen which shows different lms to accompany each song.
How refreshing it is then to be reminded just
how shallow these plastic imitators sound up
I could have sworn that a boy against the genuine article. As the albums title
cut establishes, nobody has yet matched the rich
tones and classic purity of this music. the same quality as those on Machine. In
on crutches was dancing towards Their approach is so devious, so
subtle. Supercially they purvey
their place the group appear to have
opted for a more one-dimensional
the end. It really was that good a frightening barren landscape Didnt style of European disco which,
as bleak as their song titles but running the entire album, adds
their humanity nds expression you guess that a new dance sensibility and a
in the controlled rhythms of
each piece which is invariably
Kraftwerk were just distinct continuity.
Ironically this new phase
a bunch of wacky
WWW.KRAFTWERK.TECHNOPOP.COM.BR/DAVE WILLIS-IDOLS/SHOOTING STARS-IDOLS
You cant help but notice the apparent ease with which they blessed by a haunting melody. will no doubt open them to
control their instruments. The sound is close to perfection with Consequently Kraftwerk accusations of stealing ideas
owing rhythms and synth drums which can be Germans looking from their largely anaemic
cold but successors.
almost tear out your Adams apple. elegant, for a party? So lets remember how all
The set showcases their greatest hits and stark but this began. So what if the closing
most of the new album, Computer World, poignant. Their track Its More Fun To Compute is
medium is ruthlessly positively innocuous compared to some of their
with Ralf and Florian taking turns to sing in
mechanical, their spirit is earlier material. You can dance to it and the new
German and English. Showroom Dummies warm and glowing. They commerciality is itself a fresh direction within
is a tting nale with 2,000 Mancunian make the modern world which they maintain credibility.
voices adding a memorable contrast to Ralfs seem empty yet beautiful This is Kraftwerks rst pop album. Didnt you
no mean task. guess that beneath those showroom dummy
German vocals.
Unfortunately, whats exteriors was a bunch of wacky Germans looking
I could have sworn that a boy on crutches lacking on this long for a party? Well, it looks like they found one.
was making dancing movements towards the Kraftwerk put an awaited work are songs of Ian Pye
early model of
end. It really was that good. Frank Worrall the iPod through
its paces
70 NME ORIGINALS
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L
is for ...
PICTORIAL PRESS
NME ORIGINALS 71
TLFeBOOK
Bobs mates: back row (l-r), Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Steve
Norman, Chris Cross, John Taylor, Paul Young, Tony Hadley,
Glenn Gregory, Simon Le Bon, Simon Crowe, Keren Woodward,
Martin Kemp, Jody Watley. Middle Row: Bono, Paul Weller,
James Taylor, Peter Blake, George Michael, Midge Ure, Martin
Ware, John Keeble, Gary Kemp, Roger Taylor, Marilyn, Sarah
Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, Francis Rossi. Front: Robert Kool Bell,
Dennis Thomas, Andy Taylor, Jon Moss, Sting, Rick Partt,
Nick Rhodes, Johnny Fingers, Peter Briquette
FEED
MM 8 DECEMBER 1984 PAGE 24
THE
WORLD Bob kept Phil
awake by prodding
N
him in the back
ine oclock on the last Thursday night in with his guitar
October. The BBC news bulletin is
making its way through the usual When Bob
round of miners pickets,
superpower troubles and royal Geldof saw reports
hairstyles when suddenly born frontman with The Boomtown Rats, is
we cut straight into a report from our African of the Ethiopian famine he now something of a minor gure in the ckle
correspondent, Michael Buerk. His report and world of pop, but both he and his increasingly
accompanying lm shows a scene of total
devastation in the northern regions of Ethiopia,
wondered what might happen public wife Paula Yates are the sort of people
who know just about everyone who is
where thousands of people are dying every day
due to a complete lack of food and water. The
if he asked a few mates to make think anything in showbusiness, and they start to
what they and their friends could do to
camera proceeds slowly through the huge crowds
of mothers and babies, focusing in on the sunken
a record Barry McIlheney help ease the suffering out there in Africa.
Bob thinks, well, I might as well try and
eyes lled with ies, the hideously swollen stomachs
of a people condemned to die of starvation, the
talks to the man behind do something with a few of my old cronies,
and if were lucky we might even get close to
sickening lack of esh on a million bare bones.
Almost before Buerks report is over, viewers throughout Band Aid around 60,000 which would help feed the world
at Christmas.
the land are jamming the BBC I started to think, well, I know a hell of a lot of people,
switchboard, many of them barely I might be able to get something organised, he says. Lets
able to speak through their tears of give old Midge a ring and see what he has to say.
sheer helplessness and despair, and It was a phonecall that was to lead to the most remarkable
all of them asking that one basic gathering of pop stars the world has ever seen.
question. What on earth can we do So Midge immediately said that he was really mad to do
to stop this suffering? something. I then rang Sting and he said, Yeah, count me in, and
In a house just outside London, then Le Bon, he just immediately said, Tell me the date and well
the singer with one of Britains top clear the diary. The same day I was passing by this antique shop
pop groups of the late-70s is sitting Rossi and Partt
and who is standing there but Gary Kemp, just about to go off on
watching the BBC news and feeling had a quick break tour to Japan. He said he was mad for it as well and to wait ten days
rather sick. Bob Geldof, the Dublin- to listen to the til they got back.
football scores
72 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
L
this tune which is the sort of Christmassy bit at the end of it and he as the Ethiopian famine. few hundred. Just think about that for a moment and dig deep,
Allan Jones
married the two together. I was still trying to work a lot of things brothers and sisters, dig deep.
NME ORIGINALS 73
TLFeBOOK
Something about Eurythmics
LIVE AID
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
W
The toilet queue
here are the words? Where are at Wembley
the words to describe it all? Stadium was
Strings of superlatives absolutely huge
are useless. No It was the
dictionary, this time
around, can help biggest rock event the
to articulate the shattering emotional impact
of the happenings inside Wembley Stadium world has ever seen. We
on the day that brought us Live Aid.
This was the day when you nally knew recall all the thrills and spills,
youd been right to believe in rocknroll
despite its faults and foibles, the day when
the power of music, its potential, its worth
the backstage dramas. At
and its humanity, was conclusively proven. Wembley: Barry McIlheney Status Quo are suddenly with us, darting all over
the place, and you can hardly hear them: the singing
Fifteen minutes before noon, and the
anticipation is building to fever pitch as the
and Carol Clerk and clapping of the crowd is drowning out everything
bar the bassline. An inspired choice of opening act
helicopters keep on coming, each one laden with (hasnt everybody got a soft spot for the Quo somewhere?)
an unknown cargo of superstars. and an unforgettable start to the concert, particularly since
Each minute feels ten times the length of the one its that most appropriate song.
before it and then, at last, the video screens icker to life By the time we actually realise what hit us, Status Quo have
and the crowd are yelling their heads off, at the sharpening disappeared and The Style Council have taken their place. Theres
CORBIS/REX FEATURES/PICTORIAL PRESS
images of ChasnDi on walkabout backstage. a little time to breathe now, several moments to keep that hysteria
The rumpus grows as the groovesome twosome emerge in the in check as a smooth Youre The Best Thing lls the stadium.
Royal Box with Geldof and assorted other musos; grows as a line Hereafter, the tempos rise steadily, hitting top gear with a wonderfully
of Guardsmen in uniforms and busbies take position onstage infectious Walls Come Tumbling Down. Good grief, even Weller
and deliver a trumpet fanfare; explodes with the opening bars of looks carried away with it all, ditching the guitar for a gangly jive
Rockin All Over The World. round the stage! The new haircut, by the way, is a cracker.
74 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
L
The grand nale of
Live Aid, Wembley
Stadium, 10pm
July 15 1985
NME ORIGINALS 75
TLFeBOOK
Live Aid
76 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Live Aid L
Santana on satellite offered the
best excuse of the day for the tiring
Wembley veterans to take a quick and
well deserved breather. Indeed, even
the sight of Chrissie Hynde and The
Pretenders with a rousing Back On
The Chain Gang couldnt quite revive
the troops. No, instead we just stretched
our legs and waited for The Who.
Or rather, waited for Roger Daltrey
to swing the mic around the stage like
a madman and Pete Townshend to do
the windmill and the famous skips
in the air. They did all this, no more
and no less, and that is why 72,000
people at Wembley sang along to the
incongruities of My Generation
and Wont Get Fooled Again.
Hadders and co They all looked very old up there
give their very and the sound left a lot to be
own Royal wave desired. Who cares?
And if The Whos performance
was possibly the most frustrating
It needed something special just a little bit special to follow fusion between old and young
that. And something preferably that would conjure up the sense of in every sense, then the one-off
history involved in the whole thing to take over from Bonos brief alliance of Elton John and George
but memorable evocation of the ghosts from a distant decade. Michael was the undoubted father
Who better then than The Beach Boys, complete with Brian and son act of the entire day. Porge,
Wilson, out of the sandbox and hidden away in the corner, and as we like to call him, looked like
staring out at us from the stadium across the ocean. some shady country singer after
Dire Straits nipped across the road from their 114-night stint one too many nights on the liquor,
at the Arena to entertain the punters and the ever-growing list of but he sang like an absolute beauty.
celebs. Today even they seemed to play a vital role and managed to The inherent drama of Dont Let
even move the feet of some people (blush!) who normally wouldnt The Sun Go Down On Me might
have them anywhere near the house. make it sound good even when
No sign of Tears For Fears, so time for the second break of your Uncle Sammy takes the mike
the day, and very welcome it was too before a simply brilliant down at your local but it has surely
and wonderfully OTT performance from Freddie Mercury and never been given the poignancy
Queen. It might only have been 15 minutes in a 16-hour project, and grace which George Michael
bestowed upon it tonight. A bit of a
prat at times, but lets be honest: this
Live Aid was an unforgettable, boy is one hell of a chanter.
Not unlike his old man Elton in
historic and in purely pop fact, who looks like a cross between
terms spectacular occasion Tommy Cooper and a Cossack warrior and who beats out the great
crashing rhythm of the seminal Bennie And The Jets with the
enthusiasm of a two-year old.
And that was it really, apart from two minutes of rare
but boy did our Fred go for it in some style, reviving the emotion from Mercury and May and the nal scenes which
agging souls down at the very front with his customary would only be cheapened by trying to distil them into mere
strong-arm tactics, and sealing a place in the history books words on a piece of paper. Sufce to say that even the most
during Radio Ga Ga, when more people in one big eld hardened cynics in the press box had a lump in the throat
punched their sts into the air than at any time since, oh, and that for three minutes on the stage at Wembley it all
probably Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup in the very seemed so blindingly simple. Millions of people will die in
same place nearly 20 years ago. the African desert unless we supply them with food. Every
Scotlands Simple Minds are wowing America with major pop star in the world played music for 20 minutes to
their collection of old and new material and are playing try to do just that. And all the time the governments of the
tonight before their new-found audience in Philadelphia. world and the EEC sit on top of tons and tons of urgent
The global village looks towards the stage at Wembley supplies because of some stupid, heartbreaking and
and one of the great communicators of our time looks back. obscene logic that says thats the way things are.
The European Man is here in all his immaculate style, thin, On Saturday at Wembley Stadium, Philadelphia and
tanned and singing the opening verse of TVC 15. all around the world, more than one billion people were
CORBIS/REX FEATURES/PENNIE SMITH/BARRY PLUMMER
David Bowie looks like a man who knows precisely presented with a different approach and they might just
the scale and importance of the event he is so closely do something about it because they will remember it was
involved in and he gives a performance that is suitably David Bowie onstage along with Paul McCartney along
epic for all the world to enjoy and yet intimate enough with Bono along with your very own favourite pop star
for the individual to privately reel back the years to and if thats the only way of doing it, then so be it. In all its
the soulboy days of Rebel Rebel or the apocalyptic dramas, its mixed emotions and its sheer sense of wonder
Freddie: winner
heartbreak of Heroes, as close to the perfect anthem of vest in show
Live Aid 1985 was an unforgettable, historic and in
for this extraordinary event as the Quos opening at Live Aid purely pop terms spectacular occasion. For better or
blast all those hours ago. for worse, we shall never know the like again.
NME ORIGINALS 77
TLFeBOOK
Live Aid
I
t was billed as the greatest music event of all time, and for the UDO LINDBERG (inset) US host
rst time in pops ignoble history, the reality fullled and READING A Jack Nicholson
even surpassed its promise. The wicked world of pop and the STATEMENT
ON BEHALF OF
brutal and corrupt world of televised entertainment combined for GERMAN ROCK
the benet of something other than just themselves! MUSICIANS
But before this star-studded show of altruism had even begun, It was announced that
Although it is great
another lm report from Ethiopia by Michael Buerk was screened; that over 30-50 million
95 per cent of the worlds
showing us pictures we didnt want to see, and telling us facts we dollars are being televisions were switched
didnt want to hear. More money was needed to sustain lives. raised for Africa, it is to Live Aid (the other ve
Within 30 seconds of these harrowing scenes, a picture of the but a small token of per cent were probably watching Brookside), and not one of them
repayment for the years
Earth appeared, Charles and Di arrived at Wembley to a royal of colonial exploitation.
could understand a word of the interview between London and one
salute, and Status Quo literally started rocking all over the world. The only real help of Concordes engines pretending to be Phil Collins, who was by
The contradictions were as vast as the event itself. But it worked. will be the immediate now winging his way to Philadelphia, courtesy of British Airways.
I was just one in a billion, a passive viewer of the largest ever withdrawal of all The Philadelphia audience demanded an extra hosing down after
military and economic
media extravaganza, designed to aid people from an equally great interests on the part of
Madonna pirouetted about the stage raising the blood pressure with
disaster. Both were compulsive viewing, with mind-boggling Europe, Japan, USA and navel concealed and hair dyed brunette just for the occasion. Does
pieces of technical wizardry used to capture frenzied excitement, the Eastern Bloc. It is a this mean people will stop calling her a dumb blonde?
or a moment of heart-wrenching despair. Between the famous perverse tragedy that Phil Collins arrived and looked in the same gruesome state he
we allow the spending
names at Wembley, Band Aid equivalents from distant countries of 1,000 billion dollars
was in at Wembley. The Wright brothers have a lot to answer for.
(We Are The Rest?) were aired live from Austria to Australia. for murderous weapons
Bowie curtailed his set by one number in order to introduce
an impromptu video of yet more children eviscerated by war and
when with only a small
part of this amount 95 per cent of the world was
we could feed the
emaciated by drought. There are no
more overpowering images than
entire world. The
governments in
watching (the other ve per cent
the sight of a child starving to death.
Yet television has also made us more
Washington and
the Kremlin are sick were probably watching Brookside)
in their heads. We
immune to such a painful reality, and from the country
though the video brought a lump to which has instigated
the throat, it was never as moving two terrible wars The massed stadium was suddenly thrown into hysteria as Mick
as seeing Billy Connolly wiping his appeal to all people Jagger and Tina Turner laced their cut-and-thrust vocals with
who still close
face clear of tears. That drove the nail their eyes to this
bumpngrind and some striptease.
home, and I dissolved schizophrenic Flanked by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Bob Dylan looked
Supersonic world. Stop the incapable of recalling his own name, let alone his former greatness.
Phil Collins and wars in the Third
(below) sluggish
A dreadful, interminable version of Blowin In the Wind was
World. Stop the
Bob Dylan crime of military
mercifully terminated by Lionel Richie, ushering in the second
build-up. We Grand Finale of the day.
cannot forget the Ostensibly similar to the Wembley nale, the JFK farewell was
purpose behind
TOM SHEEHAN/REX FEATURES
infused with a pride that stems from saving a planet while still
this event. If
this should turn
preserving even justifying the American way of life.
out to be only a huge The transmission ended not with a bang, but a whisper. Sixteen
rocknroll celebration hours after Michael Buerks opening report the whisper was one of
carried out on the backs chronic guilt. Where the hell were we when Ethiopia pleaded for
of dying children - we
can forget it. We must
help to avert this tragedy over a
rise up against such decade ago?
world insanities. It must never be forgotten that
we are responsible for this tragedy
in the rst place and it is we who
must make sure that Live Aid
never has to happen again.
TLFeBOOK
M
is for ...
79
RETNA
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Madonna
MADONNA Madonna
LIKE A VIRGIN Sire
isnt a musician
80 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Madonna M
Its been
a bad year for
Madonna her film flops,
her marriage fails. Whats
happened to the sass and suss
that brought her stardom? John
McCready looks at the fall of
MM 10 NOVEMBER 1984 PAGE 31 a goddess with a heart
MADONNA
LIKE A VIRGIN
Sire
of tinsel
The sugar-sweet tones
W
of Madonna will always
need a great song and a e live in a world which has
fat production to really sold its grubby soul to a devil
hit home, and here called celebrity.
she is lucky enough to
be blessed with one
Nothing matters except
of these two crucial listening to stars, looking at
components, courtesy them, buying, selling or making
of the genius of Nile them. They seem to live such wonderful lives that the real world
Rodgers. The song isnt
exactly all that bad, just
just pales by comparison. Being a milkman, a dentist or a shop
permanently crippled assistant is simply second best. The message is irresistible. Day
by its rather unfortunate in, day out the noise just wont stop. If youre not somebody, you
title. Some of my best are nobody a milkman, a dentist, a shop assistant.
friends are virgins.
Barry McIlherney
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born 28 years ago in Rochester,
Michigan. Then, in the glow of Marilyn and Elvis, the noise was
in some ways louder, clearer and more persuasive than it is today.
Of course, the tales have grown tall in the telling but Madonna
seemed destined to become something more or less than a shop
assistant. The received rags to riches story sees Madonna dancing
in the street to the Motor City beat. It sees her turned upside
down by the death of her mother and her fathers subsequent
remarriage to a woman she didnt like. It sees her twisted in the
MM 23 FEBRUARY 1985 PAGE 26 traditional way by a Catholic education which leaves the vested
virgin with a fetish of crucixes. At 18, a splinter of ambition
MADONNA stuck in her shoulder and the noise ringing louder in her ears,
MATERIAL GIRL
Sire Madonna heads for The City Of Dreams.
Bouncy stuff from the She wanted stardom I came to New York for fame and
worlds least virginal fortune because its noise was irresistible and because the
female singer. I am a
material girl, confesses
Madonna, who is
glimpsed on the sleeve
clutching a blue satin Sean Penns crap
sheet about her naked tie spelt the end
personage. Rrrrrr. The for his marriage
music, meanwhile (if to Madonna
anyones still interested),
is catchy enough, with a
purposeful throb in its
step. However, what is
the strange ringing noise
that comes jabbing so
prominently out of the
LFI/REX FEATURES
NME ORIGINALS 81
TLFeBOOK
MM 12 JULY 1986 PAGE 27
MADONNA
TRUE BLUE Sire
Q
uestion: whats the difference between
Madonna and Maradona?
Answer: Madonna used her head.
Every girls role model, every lads fave uppity
vixen, Madonna earned our affection for scheming
to the top. Pretty and pushy, she turned ruthless
careerism into an S&M fairytale and even jolly crap
like Holiday was forgivable because anyone with
so much drive for success as to milk those clichs
so brazenly deserved all the attention she got.
But now shes there, at the summit of
pop achievement, her rise and rise
resisting our basic instincts, does
she still burn to screw with our True Blue The World Go Round,
senses and make her mark?
Certainly the signs are
is a series of shamelessly derivative of We
Are The World in the hope they
Madonna liked
crucixes, but ominous the navels gone screen tests as make Live Aid: The Film.
preferred Chupa from the videos and True Blue But I like her best still
Chups lollypops is dedicated to my husband, if shes casing for smouldering with that precious
the coolest guy in the world. streak of independence.
alternative was the usual, the Frumpy or what? every lm in the Wheres The Party? is hedonist
everyday. But for the time But then, we should remember
that Madonnas main objective has
next year tantrum. Best, though, is Papa
Dont Preach with its risqu double
being, a material girl on the always been the major money and now entendre, the word baby examined
make would have to make her videos are all mini movies or actual movie and brought to fruition within the song.
do with a part-time job at extracts and her songs are all scenarios because This Madonna is unmarried, young enough to be at
Madonnas an actress. True Blue is really a whole school, pregnant and proud and keeping it and on
Dunkin Donuts.
series of screen tests as if shes casing for every lm Top Of The Pops.
And then there were the boyfriends. Grafti artists, amateur opportunity in the next 12 months. So True Blue still calls enough of the shots
musicians, painters and DJs. Men as stepping stones to the She can simper in Jimmy, Jimmy should they to convince us Madonnas not a mere Pennpal
limelight. Most of them worked at Dunkin Donuts too. But decide on yet another West Side Story remake, she just yet. She still has too many egos unsatised.
can come over all Mother Teresa on Love Makes Steve Sutherland
Madonna was different. Everybody told her so. Turning her
considerable energies to music, she discovered that the quickest
and hippest route to the loot was via the danceoor. In 1983, Sire those holy fools who swim in its zzy waters feel like saints, angels,
Records told Madonna her days at Dunkin Donuts were over. invincible stars.
She was signed for $5,000, two white mice, a catapult and a packet By the time a drug called Like A Virgin was available on
of Swizzles. Madonna, always a star in her head now had the prescription, Madonna must have felt that way too. Like A Virgin
opportunity to turn her Detroit daydreams into reality. was a perfect way, a swirl of dance rhythms and candied choruses.
The marketing man believed her music, a stolen strip from It was magical. It sold to boys and girls alike. Lots of them. Our
synthesized dance-pop, could be knocked into shape. Visually, pennies piled high and Madonna exchanged them for star-bright
condence and self-belief. But Madonna was deceived. Like most of
Before Sean Penn poisoned her the beautiful pop people, she believed she could moved mountains
when all she could shift were units. And whatever came next could
champagne, Madonna married be no more than second best.
Madonna does not need telling this. Hence the movies and the
pop. There can be no divorce marriage that went with them. Madonna knows that lines on your
face the same lines that in pop tell the world you can think of
nothing better to do mean character and maturity at the movies.
MM 21 JUNE 1986 PAGE 27 Film stars die when they are lowered into the ground. Pop stars like
no manipulation would be necessary. Madonna had been using MADONNA Madonna, real pop stars who light up the world of glorious seconds,
her body and her sexuality for as long as she cared to remember. PAPA DONT PREACH die when their little bag of glamorous tricks has been seen and heard
Sexually, she exploited herself. The marketing man applauded her Sire
just once too often.
self-created image, not because they were capitalist perverts, but Is she or isnt she? There are those who say Madonna is making mistakes and
because Madonna was modern and liberated. And if you believe Conscientious feminist precipitating her own downfall. That will happen anyway. Before
or consciously obliging
that, youll believe anything. sex symbol? Or both?
Sean Penn poisoned her champagne, Madonna married pop, for
The celebrities squeezed up. There was room for one more on Determinedly resilient better or worse. There can be no divorce. She will fall because thats
top. Madonna had made it. The rest is recent history; pages and and unbearably the way it goes.
pages of words like these, crucixes and belly-buttons in excelsis. predictable, this latest Pop has its rules, and they cannot be changed. Not even for stars
attempt at recognising
But there would be other things too. Terrible lms like Shanghai some sort of female
as bright as Madonna.
Surprise and terrible husbands like Sean Penn. Terrible songs like stubbornness nds These days the whirly wheel of fame and fortune spins so fast, 15
True Blue. Petulance and paranoia. her refuting her own minutes seems like seconds. Madonnas three LPs are the short span
Madonna is clever enough to know that pop fame cant last fathers authority and of a complete 80s pop career the climb, the wave from the summit
insisting on having the
forever. Its the clichd candle burning at both ends, blowing in baby she so carelessly
and the long way down. The True Blue single and its charmless
the wind. With movies and marriages and career control, she was conceived. Odious video seems like a very painful goodbye. What was once seamless
trying to make it last a little longer. It just couldnt be. Not even a danceoor nonsense pastiche has become hollow parody. Its as if Madonna is waving to
star who declared herself the luckiest by far could change that. from an overwhelmingly us from a big car on the road to Hollywood.
mediocre talent.
LFI/CORBIS
82 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
N is for ...
SOFT CELL
REDFERFNS
NME ORIGINALS 83
TLFeBOOK
Say hello:
David Ball and
Marc Almond
of Soft Cell
Sleeping
Chris Bohn
joins Soft Cell at the
Top Of The Pops studio
B
ring on the carnival people! barks the
authoritative voice of a stage manageress, who is
NME 12 AUGUST 1981 PAGE 28
trying to instill a sense of urgency into the nal
dress rehearsal before a rare live Top Of The Pops
broadcast, now only three hours away.
In the coffee bar outside the studio nobody
responds. Well, going by the gaudy array of costumes, she could pioneer John (Ultra) Foxx, through popularisers Numan and
be calling anyone, be they the Dollar drum majorettes, the OMD to former pupils Soft Cell.
cosmopolitan-clothed Funkapolitan or even the assembled cast of Soft Cell have absorbed their lessons well. Tainted Love once
the BBCs next prestige production Nancy Astor, what with their a Northern disco hit for Marc Bolans wife Gloria Jones is one
showy Victorian evening dress. of the most assured and stunning syn-ful dance singles released
As it happens, shes paging the obvious: the train of mardi gras this year. In its combination of streamline software simplicity
extras brought along to illustrate Modern Romances ridiculous and sensual throb it reinforces NY heroes Suicides experiments
and opportunistic Everybody Salsa. Evidently the producers in emotion-tugging electronics without repeating them directly,
limited idea of good television overrules quality control. as they had done previously with the earlier Memorabilia.
MM 1 AUGUST 1981 PAGE 10
Aware of TOTPs visual limitations, John Foxx looking Theyve taken the whole thing a step further on the 12-inch
like a stylish cross between Rhett Butler and Beau Brummell SOFT CELL version, which effortlessly merges with the B-side version of The
TAINTED LOVE
has assembled his own props. Meet my drummer, he says, Phonogram
Supremes Where Did Our Love Go via an extremely inventive,
introducing the majestic bust hes carrying under his arm. His melodic burn down. Little touches like that contribute to Tainted
Soft Cell are bouncing
TV group is eshed out by human sculptures Eddie Maelov, on the sprays shooting Loves transcendence of genre prejudices. They elevate it, and by
resplendent in Noel Coward lounge suit, and Sunshine Patterson, out from our basic implication the whole electro-bop, above the ckle clutches of the
in elegant evening gown. doubt. Dont take them fad ends and place it in the public arena where it belongs.
for granted, dont
Hes here to remake The Great Gatsby, John joshes Eddie. Nobody should be surprised, hurt or disappointed that Soft
underestimate them
And Sunshines, eh, late for the wedding, Eddie kids his partner. because of the sound it Cell are sitting pretty at the top of the BBC charts.
Meanwhile a bunch of ofce boys have strayed onto the set oh has nothing to do with
my God its OMD after a colour supplement primer in American nonsensicals like Duran
Duran or Depeche Mode
preppiness.
it has real anguish.
Sitting in the middle of this fanciful costume ball, this weeks But. If Kraftwerk could
Number one unit Soft Cell appear to be Cinderellas and thats be silly sometimes,
despite singer Marc Almonds wristloads of bracelets and studs and make duck noises like
Cyril Fletcher, or even
the brassy gold necklaces dangled around his neck. Bemused by
yodel well, Soft Cell
their chart bedfellows. Soft Cell scan this evenings roll call. have humour too. This
John Foxx, Gary Numan, Teardrop Explodes, Orchestral is two man synthesized
Manoeuvres, us itll be dry ice a go-go tonight, predicts Marc bliss contorting feeling
to how it is in reality, a
with a giggle and a groan.
revelation in itself. It has
Actually, Numan couldnt make it but he has sent his video. a natural subsidence to
So, apart from The Human League, who werent invited although a natural oor. Follow it
down and stay with it. Marc caps a
Love Action had yo-yoed up to a Number Three, tonights TOTP memorable
Neil Roberts
is a valuable survey of the ever evolving electro-disco beat from Top Of The Pops
performance
84 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret N
MM 28 NOVEMBER 1981 PAGE 16
A lone, Latin-tinged trumpet sounds through the corridors and of one-time Bizzare groups Depeche Mode and Soft Cell sets
seeps all off-key into Soft Cells dressing room. The duo makes an the whole operation in a far better light. Compare, for instance,
odd couple. It wasnt planned that way, they assure me. Spandau Ballets degeneration from kitschy visionaries into hack
Singer Marc Almond, from Southport, is small, effervescent funk plagiarists with Soft Cells rise from trashy aesthetes to
and giggly; musician David Ball, from Blackpool, is tall, laconic, dancehall favourites and decide for yourselves whos created the
almost morose and more conscientiously artisan than artist. New Soul Version. Suddenly it becomes apparent that Stevo was
Unsurprisingly Marc dominates the conversation. closer to the pulse than the rest.
There, he sighs. Ive gone and hogged the interview again.
Marc plays frontman with relish all Liberace gestures and
varying voice pitches while David is the natural straightman who Marc Almond is all Liberace gestures and varying
is still wondering what all the fuss is about. What with the formers
utterings and the latters refusal to participate in the creation voice pitches, while David Ball is the natural
of the Soft Cell myth, the duo were at rst dismissed as ightly
futurists prepared to ride whatever bandwagon was available. straightman wondering what all the fuss is about
The rst one to happen along was the Some Bizzare Album
compilation put together by East End futurist DJ and lovable
pest Stevo. When it came out, the Some Bizzare boys were seen Stevo has been knocked an awful lot, states Marc. Hes
as poor relations to the more stylish publicists of the Spandau been called all sorts of things. Paul Morley said, which was really
Ballet/Rusty Egan set. Stood up against Spandau svengali Steve untrue, that Some Bizzare was a nice sort of home for all these
PENNIE SMITH/REDFERNS
Dagger, or even Blue Rondos Chris Sullivan, Stevo appeared as little groups that nobody wanted. Well, I admire Stevo for going
little more than a court jester. out to be untrendy, for turning down groups who were already
However, as Spandau and Blue Rondos attempts to stay ahead well known and who were prepared to be on the album, accepting
have resulted in increasingly absurd fads, the unforced emergence the futurist tag and all.
NME ORIGINALS 85
TLFeBOOK
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
fun and then come the tears Marc Almond Almond is fully aware of all
its trends and innovations, its
emotions and uctuations. But
these days its appeal is wearing thin.
For me, my performance art background is only important You cant go on forever on the danceoor, admits Marc
because it gave me the condence to get out there onstage. It was ruefully. There is still some great disco coming out, but its
just, like, exercising myself in getting up onstage and not caring if coming to wear a little thin on me. I hate this new Latin music,
I make a fool of myself. After that, its just a case of looking back on though the real Latin music is great. I mean, how can people who
things you did three years ago and feeling a little red faced about have no roots in Puerto Rico bring out this kind of music?
them, if only because your ideas improve a lot in the meantime. Disillusioned with the danceoor, where do you turn to from
More telling is their apprenticeship in Northern teen disco not here, Marc?
the sophisticated clubs where the DJ plays a never-ending stream To the bedroom, I think, he giggles. Its getting to the stage
of jazz funk imports from New York that nobody recognises or where weve said what needs to be said about that, about going out
indeed would bother taking home with them. Their roots in a and having fun and then come the tears.
poppier dance, in the tunes that occasionally make the charts; Our writing is getting more personal, a bit deeper and a lot
Tainted Love is their tribute to the teen dance. sadder. Its about reaching into the stuff and writing things that
We both like Northern soul, 60s music and the 12-inch record, you have to feel about.
explains Marc. We thought we would try to being that 60s sound Soft Cell are one of the few units who have a genuine claim on
and style of song into the 80s, but the problem was to how to do a the new cabaret, even if there is as much Batley Variety Club as
12-inch of Tainted Love without doing the boring, very standard the Berlin kind. Their entertainment is effusively emotional in
thing of stripping it all down to the bass and drums and re-editing the showbiz tradition, ridiculously expressive, mildly satirical/
NME 30 JANUARY 1982 PAGE 15
the sound, which is putting me off 12-inches in a way. comical and hilariously self-indulgent. And in the best tradition
Then we had the idea of doing an instrumental bit in the middle SOFT CELL of Northern variety its also a little grubby. For reasons known
SAY HELLO
and going into another song at the end, almost like a medley tribute only to themselves, theyve taken to having publicity shots done
WAVE GOODBYE
to where we come from, those songs that made an impression on Phonogram in sex shops with peculiar props.
us. It was originally just going to include a few bars of Where Did Soft Cell are just the David: We like people to think that there is something shady or
Our Love Go but we liked the way it turned out and included the coddest thing. If they seedy in our backgrounds that nobody knows anything about.
whole song. ever market a video of Have you?
their stage act itll just
And we even had a slightly tongue-in-cheek drum break in the Were not saying!
have to be packaged
middle thats the crashing of dustbin lids and syn-drums. by Birds Eye. I tried to Were not interested in being clean and goody-goody,
Before talking to Soft Cell, it was easy to think that the radical make it work, breathes explains Marc. We like writing songs about sex and trash. We
leap in quality from the earlier Memorabilias Suicide-made- Marc Almond. You did that consciously to get a dirtier image really. The LP will be
in a cocktail dress and
painless to the distinctive torch reading of Tainted Love was more called Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.
me in a suit. Oh no,
down to producer Mike Thorne than the duo. The wonderful segue, suits arent Marc at all. We got one song from a News Of The World headline Sex
for instance, is a disco producers trademark. However, it becomes When he snakes his way Dwarf Lures 100 Disco Dollies To A Life Of Vice, he laughs. We
apparent that it was the duo who went in with the ideas and Thorne across the stage during felt it just had to be put down and immortalised.
Top Of The Pops I shall
made them work. It wasnt the production of Memorabilia that To the people who have to sell them Soft Cell are depressingly
expect nothing less
was at fault, but the song itself. The duo still quite like it, though than footless tights, a difcult to pin down.
they acknowledge the sound improvements of their hit. leather off-the-shoulder People tell us that were directionless, admits Marc. Well,
We had liked Mike Thornes production of Wire, says Marc, blouson top and picture if I had a plan and knew what I would be doing in three years
hat. A cocktail dress?
and anyway he is a less obvious choice of producer than Daniel I wouldnt bother. Its more exciting to be directionless this it
Probably not. I mean
REDFERNS/REX FEATURES
Miller (the Mute man who produced Memorabilia) for electronic a fellow doesnt want the perfection that were aiming towards. We want to be aware
music, were very pleased the way things have turned with Mike to get a reputation for of everything peoples feelings, the media, trivia, deepness,
and were going to New York soon to record a new single and LP being a fruit, does he? everything! And if thats being dilettante and directionless than
Danny Baker
with him. I am dilettante and directionless and glad!
86 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
O is for ...
RS
TEARS FOR FEA
RETNATOM SHEEHAN
NME ORIGINALS 87
TLFeBOOK
The Outsiders
HISTO RY O F
HE A DAC HES Paul Colbert
T
he story so far. In
deepest darkest
Bath, Roland pursues a primal
Orzabal and Curt
Smith have met scream as
at the age of 13.
Sharing a sense of humour and he confronts
(we guess) similar problems, they
become friends over the years and Tears For Fears
eventually form a synth-based band,
MM 30 OCTOBER 1982 PAGE 10
calling it Tears For Fears.
They write a song entitled Suffer The
Children. Four months later they pen another, Pale
Shelter. Tapes are applied to the ears of several record companies
and Phonogram is the fastest to react.
Within a brisk feature by MMs own Steve Stick Boy Sutherland,
Tears For Fears reveal a driving force an urge to pursue Primal
Screaming, a method of exorcising the neuroses (fears) collected Roland and Curt:
during childhood by emphasising the emotions (tears) of the you dont have
mature man. Music, they say, is a means of accessing this idea to to be mad in this
the public and of getting themselves to Los Angeles where Primal world but it helps
Scream Therapy has its nest exponents.
Almost a year later another song has been written and released.
Mad World does better than its predecessors, astonishingly so. Its I cant really explain it, opens Roland. The things
leap into the chart surprises fans, record company, even the band. behind that are very scientic, they probably wouldnt
What, we wonder, has been happening while we were away? interest you.
The news is sad. Sitting across the room from Tears For Fears They would.
this morning I suffer the same stomach plunging sensation that But I dont want to talk about it.
aficted Luke Skywalker when he tackled the Death Star over the Hoping for a softer landing, I switch to the history lesson.
weekend. The defences are up, shields are in place and both Roland Had it always been a two piece? Did the name Graduate mean
and Curt are showing the rst signs of an artistic team whose anything?
dreams have been brutalized by a money-orientated business. Roland: No.
Its not that theyve lost sight of the targets so condently Curt: Dont talk about that.
expressed in that earlier interview, but they seem frightened of Roland: Before we were in Tears For Fears we were in a band
called History Of Headaches. The trouble with that band was
there was only one person in it and that person was the total
Roland and Curt are showing consciousness of the whole band and that amounted to nothing.
It amounted to a baked bean which we ate and because we ate the
signs of an artistic team whose MM 18 SEPTEMBER 1982 PAGE 14
baked bean the total consciousness of the whole world threw us
88 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
The Outsiders O
TEARS FOR
FEARS
EVERYBODY WANTS
TO RULE THE WORLD
Mercury
Thats terrible. Dont you think youre guilty for not persevering? TEARS FOR FEARS
Roland: Well, thats the way I am. I dont like to struggle
THE HURTING Mercury
against things like that because theyre bigger than me.
So you havent discarded any of those original ideas?
T
hey say children and old men are much the
Curt: No. Everything we said then is true now. same. Certainly Tears For Fears obsessively
Roland: But were not going to talk about it. self-centred lack of enthusiasm for life
is strikingly reminiscent of John Lennons self-
So if you prefer to explain those theories and beliefs in the
imposed premature senility.
songs, is there any sign theyre getting through? Whats peoples Both, in adopting personal experience as a
reaction to you? microcosm of the cruel machinations of the Mad
Curt: They all like us for different reasons. We had someone World, intend to pour protest from the heart into
other hearts. Both, in contemplating their own
say, We love your songs. We taped your Peel session and every
pampered misery, deny the very existence of
time we hear The Hurting we cry. Thats nice. I think a lot of the happiness they imply they seek and,
people are interested in what were writing about. hence, deny themselves the chance
But I dont to (re)discover any reasons to be
cheerful other than nding a Tears For The TFF formula
Yes I know, you dont want to talk about it.
sympathetic ear into which to
unburden their uncertainty.
Fears translate to translate childhood
traumas into adult romance
The story as it was. In deepest darkest Bath, Roland Orzabal So what, we should ask childhood traumas with Freudian fanaticism
and Curt Smith have met at the age of 13. The repressions and ourselves, do Tears For Fears is ludicrously laboured but,
anxieties that afict them over the next handful of adolescent have to offer other than the into adult romance crucially, their lyrical lethargy
inherently arrogant assumption is salvaged by what really sells
years will be forgotten and submerged from day to day but make a that in musically parading their with Freudian them; their structural invention.
forceful re-appearance in their songs. They will sing about losing emotional scars, they speak for fanaticism Mad World was a
that part of themselves, and they will sing in order to do it. all of us? Unlike Lennons Walls And magnicent single, so marvellously
Bridges LP, TFFs pop primal therapy textured, so bubbling with little
Roland: We met via a mutual friend. We seemed to get on
tends to luxuriate in the attention it attracts, inducements to succumb to its charms.
because we had the same sense of humour. sounds ironically happy to wallow inspirationally More than emotion recollected with
Curt: Mine was different. instead of seeking exorcism. tranquillity, The Hurting is the innocent past
What else did you share? TFF simply feel sorry for themselves. That needlessly impregnated with meaning.
said, it doesnt do to examine TFFs motives too The success of The Hurting lies in its lack
Roland: Im not going to tell you.
deeply. All theyre saying is, Mummy, youre not of friction, in its safety and, for all their claims
Curt: Its a bit heavy isnt it? watching me, making a fuss about confronting that coping with relationships has been warped
Roland: I could tell you the psychological symbolism behind the mature realisation that their sensibilities have beyond their ken, TFF have contrived an assured
the relationship if you like. been moulded without their consent to disguise masterpiece of seduction.
their reluctance to quit the cosy irresponsibility Dont grow up too soon boys.
Carry on.
RETNA
NME ORIGINALS 89
TLFeBOOK
TLFeBOOK
P
is for ...
NME ORIGINALS 91
TLFeBOOK
Half a million dirty
minds cant be wrong
about this man
T
his fellow sitting across the table from me healthy half-million sales. Radio play has been virtually
NME 6 JUNE 1981 PAGE 16
in an uptown Manhattan Holiday Inn nil, this being due to much of the subject matter of the
room may be a Prince but he aint LP, which contains the kind of lyrics that might have
no Charlie.
On the other hand, this 20- A new sex symbol come out of a few heavy sessions of Freudian dream
analysis. Among other topics, the album deals with
year-old Prince is just as much a
lad with the ladies as is our prospective monarch; in America who writes songs oral sex, troilism and incest. It also concerns itself
with direct political matters, however; Dirty
in the musicality of his speaking voice, which is Mind climaxes with the song Partyup, and
much lower in tone than the high pitch youd about oral sex and incest, this an atmosphere of militant deance that insists,
expect from listening to his records, there is a Youre gonna have to ght your own damn war/
slur that comes from lack of sleep. is the Prince the ladies die for. Cos we dont wanna ght no more.
I havent been to sleep for a couple of nights
well, Ive been to bed, but not for sleeping, he Chris Salewicz listens to There is a weird mist about the body music made
adds, meaningfully. by the green-eyed, sensually slack-jawed Prince,
Ho-ho-ho! I spontaneously chuckle with his trashy talk as there is also about the multi-instrumentalist
disrespectful satire, miming macho rib-nudging. himself. An academic analysis of his intensely
Such lack of awe for the Big Willie talk that is such immediate sounds indicate their origins lie in areas as
an essential part of Princes everyday mood and music far apart (and as close together) as pre-disco Philly, Eddie
obviously pisses him off a bit. But, really, what does he Cochrans primal rocknroll rhythm, The Beatles and
expect? Still, not a bad lad when alls said and done the inevitable Jimi Hendrix, who seems to have provided
Prince has own in to New York from his hometown much of the spiritual source material for the notoriously
of Minneapolis, Minnesota, for this interview. This lascivious, wild spectacular which Prince enacts every
is just the beginning of a lot of mileage hes going to be time he steps out onstage. Yet the hypnotic accessibility of
putting under his belt. This week he also jets to Europe this compound belies a mysterious, vinegary cold within
for a series of dates that includes one London show, at the cool of its core.
the Lyceum. Whatever, Prince dislikes suggestions that he is
In the jargon of the trade, Prince is working his redening R&B. Or that his rst two, less cohesive LPs
Dirty Mind album, released at the end of last year. Like were an interpretation of disco in rock terms.
his rst two Warners LPs, For You and Prince, Dirty To me, disco was always very contrived music. It was
Mind was produced, arranged, written and almost all completely planned out for when the musicians were
entirely performed by Prince alone. recording it in the studios. Basically, what I do is just go
In America, Dirty Mind is an underground hit in and play.
which means that via word of mouth and exceptionally Its easy for me to work in the studio, because I have
Prince was always
favourable press coverage it has notched up a more than very fond of his
no worries or doubts after what the other musicians
guitar collection
92 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Prince P
going to play because that other musician is almost always me!
All the other musicians on the record are me. Disco music was
lled with breaks that a studio musician would just play and ll
up when his moment came. But I dont do that at all I just play
along with the other guy.
Princes voice, which lies in a region occupied by Michael NME 14 NOVEMBER 1981 PAGE 27
Jackson and Smokey Robinson, also has its curious edge. Too PRINCE
much that of a beautiful young boy, it is like the silky new-castrato CONTROVERSY WEA
of a choirboy beneath whose starched, spotless surplice is a body
crawling with crabs.
P
rince has an urge in him which sometimes
Maybe thats what Prince is about the twin sides of human comes out as a nightingale, sometimes a
vulgar pierrot and then occasionally just
nature. Sin and salvation, says the man who dedicates to God
a babyish gurgle. Here is a minstrel who sings
Dirty Mind, a record that promises incest is everything its meant of his bedtime succour a modern prince, mark
to be. you and may have the captives seduced, only to
Such a subdued, low-key character offstage that one feels it dash the accomplishment away; straddled oer an
earthquake of rocky showtime guff and peacock
certainly must be his alter-ego that takes over in performance,
proud of Mr Reagan to boot.
Prince all the same remains always a natural communicator. He Im still frightened of Prince allured by the
waxes warm and cold, though just like his two-edged music. promise, alarmed by the chintzy crud of his
But its his prerogative; hes very much of his own man, working live routine, partially assuaged by this
new Controversy. Princes value
on his terms in a similar manner to that insisted on by other of
continues to lie in the merger he Sex is structural power of the
black Americas genuine musical artists like Marvin Gaye and
Stevie Wonder.
affects implicit rather than
explicit of categories usually
his shrine music thud and skim, shudder
and tightening has as much
He dislikes being considered a prodigy: I dont even know taken for granted as token and thats where in common with Kraftwerk as
dualities (love/sex, rock/soul) with the more obvious Hendrix
what the word really means, he shrugs. Im just a person. Princes confusing
or as irreconcilable opposites and harmony funk lineage.
Prince also bristles uncomfortably at PR descriptions of his (pleasures/politics, gaiety/ Sex is his shrine and thats
uency with 27 separate instruments. acuity). We will get nowhere charm works where Princes confusing
That came about because that was the exact number of quickly searching Princes practice
for principles of judgement: he is not
best charm works best. Do Me Baby
recalls the likes of Imagination in
instruments I played on the rst album. But actually there are a
uniformly lovable or loyal. its slippery slipstream, but is so much
lot of instruments which if you can play you can also play another Controversy is packaged as a collection better. Prince comes complete with a
six related ones. of quibbles and queries unied under a vaguely dischord, jettisoning the elaborate arrangement
conceptual close sign. And I like it. I obsessively and shivering in a silent afterglow. Its Smokey
like two of the eight inclusions (Do Me Baby Robinson singing obscene moonbeams lust
I havent been to bed for a and Annie Christian) and, all in all, its a more
elaborately an easily realised music than last
imploring love and the strains on the pillow arent
the tracks of our tears.
couple nights well, Ive been years Dirty Mind. Prince can get really expansive
with his voice (how the abstract gospel intro
Does he want to do much more than put his
tongue in our cheeks? Im not sure that Id vote for
shifts into a sexy, smoky falsetto stutter in Private him if he did. Prince is ultimately conservative, but
to bed, but not for sleeping Joy) and his constructive appliance of synth
techniques assures that the sheer aesthetic and
temporarily valorous; thats funk?
Ian Penman
The black and white front cover shot on Dirty Mind is an This grabbing of greater control of his own destiny was
exact representation of the persona Prince presents onstage the probably inevitable, considering the production and arrangement
army surplus ashers mac (which he is wearing in the Holiday autonomy Prince already had.
Inn at this very moment: Its the only coat Ive got), the dark I just turned down all the producers that Warners suggested
jockstrap-like underpants. The photograph has been cropped at to me for the rst album. Even when they nally agreed to let me
pubis level, missing out of the bare thighs and leg-warmers that produce myself they insisted I had to work with what they said
complete Princes androgynous stagewear. was an Executive Producer, who was really just an engineer. And
This image is far from the soft-focus colour job of the horseman that caused a whole lot of other problems, because he was versed
astride his winged white steed that graced the rear of Prince. in short-cuts and I didnt want to take any though (laughs) that
Pretty dodgy stuff enough to make a strong man weep. was why it took ve months to make.
It was his need to extend that autonomy hed already gained in The recordings become a little easier these days. I used to be
production and arrangement terms that led to Prince breaking a perfectionist too much of one. Those ragged edges tend to be
with his Minneapolis-based management following the release of a bit truer.
Prince, and signing a deal with the former managers of Little Feat.
I think Ive always been the same. But when youre in the Prince is the third youngest in a family of four brothers and four
MM 19 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 26
hands of other people they can package it in a way that is more sisters. They are not all of the same blood: There was a lot of
uhhh acceptable. All along Ive had the same sort of ideas that PRINCE illegitimacy different fathers, different mothers.
came out on this record. Its just that my former management had LITTLE RED CORVETTE Princes father, who obviously christened him as he did because
WEA
other thoughts about it all. His voice curls downwards. he knew hed need to learn how to ght, was an Italian-Philipino
He looks a bit like Little
The songs on Dirty Mind were just some demo tapes that Richard, but I dont like leader of a Midwest pro jazz band. He left his sons black mother
I recorded and took to LA to play to my new management. Even the poster, with his bum when the boy was seven.
they werent too happy with them. We also had long talks about hanging out and all that. Thats when I rst started playing music, he says. He left the
what I felt was me getting closer to my real image, and at rst they I thought this was going piano behind when he left us behind. I wasnt allowed to touch it
to chart in England a
thought that Id gone off the deep end and had lost my mind. while back and then it when he still lived with us.
Warners basically thought the same, I think. charted in the States so Around the age of nine, Prince stated spending much of his
But once I told them that this was the way it was, then they theyve put it out again out-of-school hours in his mothers bedroom, poring over her
knew they had no choice and theyd have to try it, because they here. Theres lots of little substantial porn collection. She had a lotta interesting stuff.
tricks and gimmicks on
werent going to get another record out of me otherwise. it, and when you do that Certainly that affected my attitude towards my sexuality.
I know that Im a lot happier than I was. Because Im getting it doesnt usually work, His mothers choice of replacement for his father also affected
away with what I want to do. With the other two albums I feel but this one does. him. At the age of 12 Prince moved out of the family home and into
I was being forced to suppress part of myself though also Great record. that of one of his sisters. Its very difcult having a step-father
REPFOTO
Francis Rossi
I was younger. basic resentment all the way around. Nobody belongs to anybody.
NME ORIGINALS 93
TLFeBOOK
Prince
PRINCE
1999 WEA
D
ear Mixed-Up of Minnesota.
Well, dont you have problems?
Being the sole son and heir of Barry
White and Jimi Hendrix is no easy burden for a
young boy to bear but when the only people
who like you are the people who get their records
free well, then comes the hour when the
record company, in one last mad gasp of magpie
marketing, puts out the Specially-Priced Two
Record Set and almost audibly screams, Come
and buy it, you bastards! It may stink, but at
least its free!
You saw, you conquered, you
came; that used to be your Your I still remember your
preoccupation, Prince, you
pup! You were the Reeperbahn
problem, rst communiqu I Wanna
Be Your Lover with some
of rock; but now as you and Prince, is affection. You were the
your countrymen sit and carnal castrati incarnate,
contemplate your cold sores in commercial post- there was a gurgling, glorious
Oh my God!
I forgot to put my
the USAH (After Herpes) I detect exuberance about you, all
a more chaste worldview, full coital triste on a those sweet soaring runs
trousers on for
the shoot. Again
of partying and vague romantic
sadness rather than blow by blow
cosmic scale and that nifty backcombed
backchat you were out of the
cornporn. Yet even this can have its closet and in your element, being
complications; you use partying, like many of just what you always wanted to be prepared to make a few mistakes and end up starting a war that
your nasty nationality, as a carwash for the brain a girl group! But now your songs sound like they dont have to go out and ght.
having fun to hide from fear, most graphically in an interminable string of Fame B-sides and I just think the people should have a little more to say in some
the title track. The end of the world dont worry considering how Fame A-sides sound, thats
of these foreign matters. I dont want to have to go out and die for
your pretty little head about it, Prince, leave the some insult.
social comment to Grandmaster Flash and revel in Your problem, Prince, is commercial post-coital their mistakes.
your role of pretty boys pin-up. triste on a cosmic scale. Thank God we got a better President now, Prince continues,
I also notice that you have one song Little Red The antidote? Get thee to a nunnery, or at rather startlingly, with bigger balls the reader may note the
Corvette which implies that you want the world least to Donna Summers songwriter. Few things
recurrent sexual imagery than Carter. I think Reagans a lot
to know that you are a regular guy and not just a are such bets chartwise as a Bible-bashing black,
sex freak, a regular guy who sings love songs to Born Again. Sex is no manifesto, no saviour and better. Just for the power he represents, if nothing else. Because
lumps of metal when he wants to show that he is certainly no shock. As my colleague Confucius that also means as far as other countries are concerned.
as capable of having fun as the next guy; though likes to say, Nothing sadder than a asher who He also has a big mouth, which is probably a good thing. His
falling in love with a lump of metal is a rather no one notices.
mouth is his one big asset.
recherch way of having fun and far from normal. Julie Burchill
Perhaps this is Princes Minneapolis background coming out.
Who else has Minnesota turned up? Only Prince, Bob Dylan,
During this time, up until when he graduated from high school Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey. Which is at least a
at 17, Prince played in a succession of high school bands, notably healthy bit of yin and yang. (More like Cheech And Chong Ed.)
one called Champagne. Prince says he still lives in the city in which he was born
It was all Top 40 stuff. The audiences didnt want to know the precisely because it is so isolated. Ask Prince about his musical
songs I was writing for the group. Theyd just cover their faces inuences and hell go all coy on you. You dont hear anyone, hell
largely because of the lyrics. I remember I had this song called claim, if your home is in Minnesota. All the radio stations play is
Machine that was about this girl that reminded me of a machine. C&W music, he says. In fact, he genuinely doesnt appear to have
It was very explicit about her, urrhhh parts. People seemed to heard, or even heard of, a large percentage of acts with whom one
nd it very hard to take. might assume he would be familiar.
It was also this spell of living with his sister that was to inspire the Listening to the radio there, he insists, really turned me off
incest is all its meant to be line. a lot of things that were supposedly going on. If they did pick up
I write everything from experience. Dirty Mind was written on something theyd just play it to death and youd end up totally
totally from experience disliking it. So I missed out on a lot of groups.
So hes experienced incest? There was an amount of deliberate choice operating here.
How come you ask twice? When I started doing my own records I really didnt want to
MM 15 JANUARY 1983 PAGE 19
(Chuckles) listen to anybody, because I gured I should just disregard what
Oh well, one often hears its far more common than is popularly PRINCE AND THE anybody else might be doing. I can only be a product of my time
imagined REVOLUTION unless I cut myself off totally though that, he adds, purposely
1999
WEA
enigmatic, is soon to come.
The perspective on the apparently obsessive sexuality of Dirty Forsaking the reputation
From whats he going to cut himself off?
Mind is shifted by the non-specic politics of Partyup: I was he built being suss The world.
in a lot of different situations when I was coming up to make that enough to make discos What does he intend to do?
record. A lot of anger came up through the songs. It was kind of a implicit sexual innuendo Just write music, and things like that. Hang around in my
explicit, Prince no longer
rough time. There were a few anti-draft demonstrations going on head. And just make records. I dont think Ill perform anymore.
takes owt to the limit,
that I was involved in that spurred me to write Partyup. but, rather, exploits a I dont want to do this too much longer.
Really, that song is just about people whod rather have a good lucrative rock cross-over Is it stopping being fun?
time than go and shoot up one another. Thats all its pretty and fashionable bomb Its still fun. But I get bored real fast. Yeah, its still fun. But
paranoia. Boring.
basic. I just seem to read about a lot of politicians whore all going I cant see it going on for too much longer in the same fashion.
Steve Sutherland
to die soon and I guess they want to go out heavy, because theyre And so Prince heads for that last plane to Minnesota.
94 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
P
T
he week was sheer hell. How to hang on to two
Prince tickets until Thursday? Keep them in the
ofce and theyll walk, such was their rarity,
such was the envy of friends and foes alike.
Keep them in the wallet and I might get
mugged, some other dude sweating and
screaming in my seats. Keep them in the at and re or
theft or some act of God might deny me the big one.
Thursday. An age away. And what if I managed to
secure those little perforated pieces of pure gold from
all the pitfalls and He cancelled the last night. What
if He were shot or, worse, just didnt play on a whim?
But Thursday came as Thursdays do and we made
it to Wembley without a fatal head-on or a busted
big-end and the perspiration and panic set in. What if
the hype did its horrible thing, what if the expectation
of a litany of delights forced every critical faculty into
overdrive and unleashed the adrenalised cynicism that
can often render spiteful disappointment.
Anyway, 8.20. A disembodied American voice
asked if wed welcome Prince And The Revolution
and we decided yes, we would. I could hear the snake-
charming raga of Around The World In A Day but
We got our
tops mixed
up!: Prince and
guitarist Wendy,
Wembley 1986
REPFOTO
NME ORIGINALS 95
TLFeBOOK
Prince
T
hey used to say the genius of Hendrix was
that his guitar acted as an extension of his
total being, that he agonised and fantasised
through that axe. Well, the same applies to Prince
everything he treats has a Midas touch, a litmus
feel for the most effective groove, an intuitive trust
at the erogenous zones where the physical and
spiritual collide in orgasm.
I believe Prince is currently pops greatest
operator, a wizard, a true star. Hes
calculating and innocent one eye
tearful, coy, expressing hurt,
the other cocked, laughing, Prince is Mayeld, Marc Bolan
Prince thought
coquettish, showing off. And,
of course, sex is his sacred
pops greatest and Jayne Manseld licking off
their ngers after something
the light shined
out of his arse
plaything. Hes Freudian beyond operator, a true good and dirty. Mountains
fault and fabrication and theres is delightfully daft cosmic
and it really did! a shocking intelligence working star and Parade vaudeville. And then theres
us up into a lather inside these the nale, this LPs Purple
songs. Theyre amoral in that is a soft-porn Rain, Sometimes It Snows In
lust and love, pleasure and pain,
are indistinguishable, immoral in
paradise April, an acrobatic ballad that
employs the simple sentimentality
I could see nothing. The bloody that hes aware of the dandy outrage of country music to express deep
curtains remained closed for of it all, and boldly hedonistic in that Prince loss so poetically, so personally its
one whole agonising verse until advocates all experience enriches life. indecent when his vocal spirals into luscious grief,
a James Brown soul squall rent them asunder and there He stood So Parade is a soft-porn paradise, a sensual celebrating the sadness to the very last sob.
sacrament, supposedly the soundtrack to our Ive heard tell that, while Ive been under this
in studded bell-bottoms and Cuban heels, hair a greased-back 30s doe-eyed heros next exhibition of narcissism on spell, lesser mortals have been saying dull things
Bolero crest, lips a fruity Shirley Temple pout, hips a pendulous lm. The rst sides well weird, nursery rhyme songs about revivalism and Beatles fetish. But when
Elvis thrust, smile sweet and wicked under dem rollin Fats Waller subjected to sensory overload. Prince luxuriates alls said and done youll realise Parade eclipses
eyes. Oh the eyes, big and bad as moons, Bambi and Valentino, no in submitting himself to his senses. Side two, if everything else youve heard this year.
anything, is more illicit, more abandoned to delight. Seriously, Godlike.
woman was safe. And the navel, the navel glistened, gorgeous and Kiss, of course, is perfection Bo Diddley, Curtis Steve Sutherland
thin. We screamed.
Around The World watched an intricate metamorphosis
into Christopher Tracys Parade and The Revolution achieved sacred when He grabbed a guitar and deliciously screwed it,
with elegant ease what others appear to nd impossible: exquisite licking the machine heads as He casually sat on the lip of the stage
efciency without sterility, synchronisation with joy. And what and coaxed little urries of loving jazz moons from the strings.
was He doing during these intense opening manoeuvres tracks I would have cried again but I was rescued by the sheer cool
dismissed on record by the purists as the great mans psychedelic velocity of the svelte Kiss. 1999 belonged to the crowd, Prince
sell-out? He was hamming it up on the Hammond like Little prancing, us baying.
Richard, all cute cocky grins and sugary snarls. Encore time and the only real doubt raised by His visit. Can it
A brutally boisterous New Position lubricated the innuendo be that He, like any other mortal American, is stricken with such
and melted into I Wonder U and His chest was revealed in one a paucity of discernment that he cant see that hauling Ronnie
ecstatic ounce. We screamed and screamed again. Wood and Sting onstage for a spirited run-through of Miss You
And then I wept. Copiously. The lights fell low, the band backed is a decision lacking in all things hip? Some say Hes a muso and
off and suddenly, vulnerable amid the razzmatazz, Prince sang Do lacks that vital taste but I think Hes beyond all that. I think He
Me Baby from the Controversy album. He sang like Ive never doesnt deign to worry about whos supposed to be who probably
heard anyone sing before, He sang about love and lust, about their just lonely up there above the clouds.
relationship, about the politics of plonking. He sang as a victim This is the uniqueness of Prince He feels no shame. He
NME 1 MARCH 1986 PAGE 17
and achieved coy command. This man was fawning for Chissakes, brings on uncluttered naivety, an obscene enthusiasm to the
standing there actually pleading with us to adore Him, knowing, PRINCE AND THE most overwrought emotion and feels no embarrassment in laying
with all the wily power of His feminine charms, that He had us REVOLUTION it bare by laying it on thick. The clichs peel back to the core of
KISS
trapped right where He wanted us, suckered in our pity. It was all Paisley Park
their impact under His caress like layers off an onion, the spell of
too much for this hetero Anglo Saxon boy and, boy, did I weep. But His sob choking me at the beauty of witnessing someone doing
OK, I submit: this is
I nearly gagged at what He did to us next, cocking a snook at our brilliant. After the something better than anyone else ever has.
broken hearts, He swaggered into How Much Is That Doggy In momentary aberration After that it was inconceivable that He could give and I could
The Window? like some wanton, uncaring tart, then wrapped it of Around The World take anymore, I was so blissed out by the sorrow, so exhausted
In A Day, Kiss is back
up into a harsh and chinky When Doves Cry. by the brilliance, but Purple Rain pumped me erect for one last
to roots, and not just
Seated at the piano, He made eyes at the girls showering him Princes roots, but the gasping climax. There He was, tearing out the shattering guitar
with bouquets before he preened through a cock-teasingly slow roots of those roots. solo with the abandoned exuberance of Hendrix, there He was,
rst verse of Little Red Corvette. The song calls all the singing soul from his soul because He doesnt know any other way
way back to Sly Stones
And then there was Head, the naughty fellatio celebration and being quite cheekily vaudeville too, referring to Himself as
deconstructions, a
banned by the radio off the Dirty Mind album. Lying astride sparse, stinging and your little friend, sending Himself up and taking us higher.
the mic stand, fucking perfectly in time to the humping beat, He yes! sly funk workout Two hours in the company of this ultimate showman, this
did a little mock-macho rap, we giggled along and it wasnt cheap. in which the spaces say complete performer, this song and dance man, and all the desperate
as much as the paces.
Not once. This was great theatre, great athleticism, great comedy faith Id maintained in ckle pop made perfect sense. I had a star in
REPFOTO
Andy Gill
all performed with the greatest delicacy. It was almost as if it was my eyes and a memory, forever, of heaven in my head.
96 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Qis for ...
IT B E/Y OU A ND I
WHY SHOUL D ODE
RE PEO PLE/SO D EPE CH E M
PEOPLE A ALO N G/SO AWFULLY?
SHOULD GET
VEIGUE/DULLE-IDOLS
NME ORIGINALS 97
TLFeBOOK
Mode in Essex:
(l-r) Vince, Martin,
Andy and Dave
G
od , what a year its been. Not half over simple two-minute gems, that stand quiff and earrings
yet and every week theyre coming above the ever-growing pile of synth-pop fad followers.
MM 9 MAY 1982 PAGE 13
great new bands bragging, Suss enough to play by the rules, but brilliant enough
bruising, begging for attention. to break em.
Its getting so I cant tell me Steve Sutherland
Scars from me Spandaus, but Scramble
listen to this and listen good. ventures into deepest, Take my advice name-drop Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode, far from being yet another like crazy, turn on your radio and wait. Watch
seven-day wonder, are damn near the most
perfect pop group these two lucky lug oles
darkest Essex to meet them storm up the charts, sit back and feel smug
as your friends all scramble to follow your lead.
have sampled all season. A couple of cracking
tracks one a narcissistic boppin beauty of a
Mute men and purveyors Be the rst one on your block to sport a DM
T-shirt and allow yourself a snicker as hoards of
single called Dreaming Of Me that nudged
the charts; the other a moody, melodic pseudo-
of perfect pop music, nouveau new romantics and grubby electronic
garage bands put down their icy frowns and bid
mechanical outing on the Some Bizzare Album
aptly titled Photographic were enough to put me Depeche Mode to get the drop of Mode magic.
Theyll be lucky I had trouble.
on the scent. Prior to partaking in the Mute Night Silent
Several scorching live dates conrmed it. This band Night extravaganza at the Lyceum Ballroom in
has a full set of knowing but naive, intense and yet idiotically London, hufng and puffed from endless games of tag
98 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
The Big Question Q
OK. Have you got your Lurex pants on? that the Mute man sounds something of a Svengali gure.
Patrick Humphries
No. Hes been really good.
NME ORIGINALS 99
TLFeBOOK
The Big Question
DEPECHE MODE
A BROKEN FRAME Mute
W
hat a difference a year makes. The
Depeche Mode of 81s Speak And
Spell seduced their way into our
hearts and into the charts with unblemished
innocence; the synthesized soul brothers of
cartoon punks, the Ramones.
The role and execution were essentially simple:
perfect pop with no pretensions. Such (ac)cute
timing could scarcely be dismissed as contrived,
such sublime straightforwardness blossomed
beyond all critical sniping.
But, though in many ways
ambitious and bold, A Broken
Frame as its name suggests Now ugly compared to the
marks the end of a beautiful
dream. Now Vince Clarkes
Vince Clarkes wry Boys Say Go but A Broken
Frame is closer to Speak and
(selshly?) split the market, split the market, Spell than its tricky veneer
A Broken Frame sounds sadly might suggest.
naked, rudely deprived of the A Broken Frame The lyrics have matured
formulas novelty. from wide-eyed fun to wild-
Whereas past pilferings sounds sadly eyed frustration, but the weary
were overlooked as springboards
towards an emerging identity, the
naked words of Leave In Silence, just
like the glib ones of Just Cant Get
larcenies of A Broken Frame sound Enough, are words and nothing more.
like puerile infatuations papering over In attempting the balance that Yazoo get
anonymity. What it also illustrates is that growing away with, the new Depeche Mode overstep the
up in public is much the same as it was in the 60s mark. Vince is adept at conjuring musical moods
that once established as a commercial viability, and Alfs voice is earthy and human enough to con
pressure, pride or self-opinionation invariably us theres emotion behind their candyoss, but
pushes a band beyond compounding their the Mode remain essentially vacuous.
But why, I wondered, with far bigger and more inuential labels capabilities and fuels daft aspirations to art. Shouldnt Have Done That, the albums most
hot on their trail, did they choose Mute? To be fair, the one factor in favour of Depeche ambitious departure, proves beyond doubt that
Modes commercial decline, the sole grace that Depeche attempting to twist pin-up appeal into
Well, we trusted Daniel, admits Dave.
saves A Broken Frame from embarrassment, nursery neurosis is like asking the Banshees to
We went to see various majors and we were impressed at is that their increasing complexity sounds play Little Deuce Coupe. The boys pluck should
rst with what theyd got to offer but it was the same every time, less the result of exterior persuasion than an be applauded and we should be grateful that they
yknow. Daniel seemed a lot more honest. Anything that a major understandable, natural development. refuse to tread water.
It may lack Vinces gossamer sleight of hand, But the plain fact is, theyre drowning.
can do, Daniel can do.
the ponderous Monument may sound positively Steve Sutherland
So alls hunky dory at Mute. The Some Bizzare connection
rankles, however. Spotted by the opportunist Bizzare founder Stevo
supporting Soft Cell at Crocs, he approached them to contribute to Perilous
his compilation and they naively agreed a decision which they So whats in a name?
now unanimously regret. Depeche Mode means something like fast fashion in French;
We didnt play the Bizzare evening here at the Lyceum, a keen reection of the current scene with its constantly shifting
elaborates Dave. We were never even approached to play it. It was styles but also, perhaps, a perilous prediction that synthy-pop,
only when we were advertised that we knew anything about it. We like mod, punk and 2 Tone before it, is subject to the ckle whims
had no intention of doing it at all. of fashion?
Why not? No, we just found it in a magazine and like the sound of it,
Were not bizarre, claims Vince. Its the whole sort of thing claims Dave. There was no reason why we chose it. We didnt
about being a futurist band and all that crap. There isnt a futurist even know what it meant up until
scene really is there? Its only a name. We still dont, quips Andy.
So how would you describe yourselves? Vince writes his irresistibly catchy songs this way too. A
A dancy pop band, says Dave. heavyweight talent searching out lightweight commercial sounds
and then thinking up cute lyrics to suit, he miraculously turns
out the sort of precious little trash classics that Phil Oakey would
NME 24 MARCH 1984 PAGE 23
give his whole fringe to come up with; the sort that Gazza Numan
DEPECHE MODE could have created if hed only cracked a smile.
PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE Their only peers, in fact, are early Orchestral Manoeuvres In
Mute
The Dark.
Another plea to the
world along the lines of
Youre the rst person to mention that, says Vince semi-
Timmy Thomas Why sarcastically. It doesnt sound nothing like it to us. Orchestral
Cant We Live Together?, Manoeuvres use owing keyboards and poppy tunes, I suppose,
which compensates but we like differing things yknow lots of music, no one
with sincerity for what
it lacks in verbal grace.
particular thing. I mean, most of our songs are danceable, the
People Are People beat is very important and as long as people can dance to it, its
marks time before all right.
Depeche Modes next You know, if you wanna put us anywhere, he adds, I think
The Mode on Top Great Leap Forward.
theres a market for pop music and always will be. Thats the
REDFERNS
TLFeBOOK
R
is for ...
101
RETNA
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Run-DMC & The Hip-Hop Revolution
R
un-DMCs third album, Raising Hell is raps
ultimate culture shock, street music honed into
a commodity, a mixed-up motherfucker thats
sponsored by a shoe corporation.
And Run-DMC have never come closer to
the precipice. Nearing the end of a phenomenal
national tour which will culminate in a triumphant return to
Madison Square Garden to perform in front of 40,000 sneakers
and black Americas most enthusiastic live crowd.
Selling records faster than Flash can cut, Run-DMC have taken
hip-hop culture to the edge of an unimaginable crossover.
They appear regularly on MTV smashing through the tattered
remnants of cable racism and, in a moment of wise-guy acumen,
theyve hired the help of slumbering rock giants Aerosmith and
recorded a new version of their signature tune Walk This Way.
To make sure MTV keeps them on permanent show, Run-
DMCs management has dug Aerosmiths Joe Perry and Steven
Tyler out of a morgue of drug problems, marriage breakdowns,
rock binges and nights spent wrecking increasingly cheaper hotel
rooms in order to play a vital part in Run-DMCs bid to win the
hearts and pockets of white America.
Raising Hell even the title of their album sounds like a Spinal
Tap victory tour has all the right references to rock and enough
calculated ingredients to appeal to white radio stations throughout
America. The album has already been christened the Thriller
of rap, a crossover certainty that carefully manages, through
shrewdness and a street-hard beat, to remain loyal to raps original
audience of y-girls, homeboys and Hollis Crews.
Jason Mizell, whose alter-ego Jam Master Jay has provided
Run-DMC with breaks for over ve years, originally introduced
them to hard rock by using AC/DC and Aerosmith albums as
part of his scratch repertoire.
After Michael Jacksons successful collaboration with Van
Halen, it became common for enterprising black performers
to hook up with monster rockers. Aerosmith became Run- Beatboxing
DMCs slightly soiled invitation card to the MTV video party. clever: (l-r) Run,
Unbelievably, the formula is still working. Americans, it seems, Jam Master Jay
are still conned by the false harmony of a good old racial and DMC
collusion: yoboys kicking ass with a couple of feather-cuts.
SUCKERS
The Jam Master sees the video of Walk This Way as just good they rst brought out the shell-toe style, the front looks like a sea
fun. Aerosmith and us are in separate practise rooms. Theyre shell. Adidas is the best, it kicks Fila on the ass.
makin a lot of noise, so we turn the speakers up to blast them
out, then they try to blast us out, screaming Walk This
New Yorks In the most effective marketing campaign since the
Saatchis sold blue-rinse Conservatism to the working-
Way. Then Aerosmith crash through the walls and we
end up playing together onstage.
Run-DMC are class, a clapped-out rock band and a pair of German
training shoes have provided the platform for black
In the battle to be seen on MTV, Aerosmith
are Run-DMCs passport through the racial
crossing hip-hop and musics most fearsome beat.
If you think three rappers acting tough and
checkpoints. And in the bid to widen their
appeal still further, the Adidas sneaker acts as a hard rock and crossing chanting about their favourite brand of sneakers
is nothing more than hip-hop name tagging or
commercial emblem that can unlock the safe of
corporate sponsorship. over in the process. Stuart commodity fetishism in a beat-box style, then
the story of Adidas has passed you by. Theres
Darryl McDaniels (DMC) speaks with a intrigue in the rhythm of every good song.
forked tongue. His impression of Raising Hells Cosgrove keeps his feet Adidas is no ordinary company, its the
opening track My Adidas, comes with the gushing commercial outcome of two brothers locked
honesty of a street kid and the manipulative sales (Adidas shell-toes, natch) in serious battle. The companys origins date
talk of a door-to-door huckster: back to 1924 and the small German town of
Adidas is the best style ever. I like to sport them movin and his Herzogenaurach, near Nuremberg, where two
thats why I bought them. Theyve got all the colours and brothers, Adi and Rudolf Dassler, pioneered the familys
they look good on your feet, they make the best suits and ears open shoe business. In 1948 the brothers acrimoniously split to
the best jackets. We started wearing Adidas back in 1978 when form the two giants of modern sportswear: Puma, originally
TLFeBOOK
Run-DMC & The Hip-Hop Revolution R
Despite British radio, My Adidas may prove to be as signicant
to the career of Run-DMC as their involvement in the hip-hop
movie Krush Groove, a sub-standard lm that ironically explored
a war between two brothers, Joseph Simmons (Run) ghting his
brother Russell for musical integrity and the hand of Sheila E.
Run is the one who most regrets the outcome of the lm. In the
dressing room of a sports amphitheatre in Philadelphia, he sneers
at the mention of it and pretends to sleep through the interview.
Its obvious Runs shut-eye is a big put on, but I go along with the
ruse, preferring to speak to the more amiable Jam Master Jay.
When we started Krush Groove it was a good story but they
Run-DMC couldnt started changing it and made it soft, put Hollywood on it.
even thread their
shoelaces, let Run-DMC have an immediate opportunity to rescue their
alone tie them battered male pride, a second movie, Tougher Than Leather, is
already in pre-production.
NME 30 AUGUST 1986 PAGE 14
Hollywood is exactly what it wont be, says Jay. Itll be Hollis-
DMC points an imaginary gun RUN-DMC
WALK THIS WAY
wood, a movie from Hollis in Queens. We have total control. We
E scape
from New York
MM 8 FEBRAUARY 1986 PAGE 12
New Yorks
superhip Def Jam
T
he word is out electro is dead, long live Perhaps you prefer this description of an NME
rap! Or to put it another way, hip-hop
has gained a second breath, a chill label has burst upon the journalist who gave the band a bad review.
That guy was retarded. He dressed nice
breath of fresh air courtesy of raps but beyond that he was a ball-slapping, dick-
second generation. Great British Public via a sucking homo.
This time round things are The Beastie Boys hardcore roots are
going to be different. The beat isnt going to be distribution deal with CBS. showing. And like many of their hardcore
smothered by an avalanche of media hype about contemporaries, its not that the Beasties go
breakdancing and grafti. This time the beat will Frank Owen endured a torrent too far with their comic grotesque, its that
be epic and conspicuous and will move mountains, they dont go for enough. But, thankfully,
cities, whole continents. The localised New York of invective from the labels after a while they started to make a little sense,
mood will be the basis of a global reverberation that especially when they talked about the connections
will dissolve the distinction between hardcore, heavy best known act, the between rap and hardcore.
metal and hip-hop an unholy alliance of the pure and When we did Cookie Puss it wasnt meant to be
the primal that will crack pavements and once and for all
divorce black music from its soul roots.
Beastie Boys a spoof on rap. It was meant to be a spoof on people who
called rap electro; Malcolm McLaren and all those people
So says Rick Rubin, Ringmaster General of the Def Jam circus, who went to grafti openings. Hardcore and rap are identical.
the hottest hip-hop label around and now party to a big money Except hip-hop guys wear funny hats and punk guys have
worldwide distribution agreement with CBS that takes the one funny hair. Except those peace-punk homos like the Dead
time New York independent into the marketplaces of the world. Kennedys and Crass and those faggots who go on about how
The grosser-than-gross heavy metal rap of The Beastie fucked things really are, as if people didnt know.
Boys has been chosen to spearhead Def Jams mission to Yet at the same time they cite The Clash as a massive
convert this country to the new style of rap. The Beasties inuence. Isnt there a big contradiction here, given The
reputation precedes them, and I was surprised to nd Clashs own attempts at combining politics and pop?
them still holed up in the Chelsea Holiday Inn despite The Clash werent singing about politics. To me it was
rumours theyd been kicked out for freebasing in their like they were just homeboys drinking together. They
rooms. Encountering their previous singles like Cookie were saying whats fucked up in their lives, not somebody
Puss and the sheer force, rampant hammer-rock rap and elses. Its not on the level of the governments fucked up,
obsessive misogyny of their latest effort Shes On It, I had because that is so distant. People in New York are going
them pegged as a bunch of hardcore hip-hop bigots. nuts because theyre smoking crack thats what were
So come on Beastie Boys, talk dirty to me. I can take it. singing about. Were talking about being social not
What we are trying to do is cross The Young Ones and political. Were talking about Cooling on the corner with
Benny Hill. So imagine the denitive Beastie Boys video. 40 of OE/Because me and MCA are close with Mike D.
Wed have the girl in the David Lee Roth video in a bikini Thats what were singing about.
with big tits and a big ass. Shed have a big bottle of OE and I nish by asking them now their heavy metal/
wed smash the bottle in her face so we could steal her crack hip-hop crossover is going to t in in Britain.
money. It is going to work because the music were making
And on it goes is ill. The way I gure it is that England is going to get
Have you heard about this thing called death metal? real ill by the end of the decade, what with all this
Slayer are death metal and they are going to be on Def Jam. unemployment. When you all get hooked on crack
Its like they all sing about its raining blood and the priest is thats when were gonna clean up. Or maybe well get
Where did Goldie
CORBIS/LFI
fucking a nun while he cuts a virgins head off with a pick- hair extensions and an eye patch and get Marilyn to
Lookin Chain
axe. Its disgusting and Rick Rubin just loves it. get all their fuck us. Then wed probably be Number One.
ideas from?
TLFeBOOK
S
is for ...
105
CORBIS
NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
Spandau Ballet
T
om Wolfe would know what to make of it. The
renowned contemporary historian who is also
something of a dandy in his own right would know
exactly where to place Spandau Ballet and all their
friends, followers and fanciers.
What would he call it when a gang of workaday
teenagers reject the uniforms of their class and gather at night in
London clubs in all their outrageous nery to celebrate fashion Spandau Ballet:
without limit and style without manifesto? What would he call it? stopping trafc
The nocturnal underground? Irreverent chic? The multicoloured in New York, 1981
diamante-ecked supercharged dandies?
TALKING
There are no more than a few hundred of them, if that. They
recover by day and live by night. Splintered off from the London
soul scene in the mid-70s, propelled by the articial energy behind
almost every youth cult since the early-60s they have discarded and
moved on from as many clubs as they have guises: Chuagaramas
(which later became the Roxy), Billys, The Blitz, Hell, St Moritz.
Style was the password, the premise and the promise. If you had
it you were everywhere, if you didnt you were nowhere.
By the time magazines like Harpers & Queen had discovered the Sullivan is wearing a baggy blue suit with a large, muted
Blitz kids, the real kids were somewhere else, ever more extravagant, red check and a geometric kipper tie. Through the door comes
decadent, surreal, bizarre and fantastic in their pursuit of style. a ow of tartan, rufes, brooches, kilts and not a few more
If the clothes are too loud, they declare, then youre too old. outlandish specimens of vanguard couture. Sullivan knows them
Steve Dagger is 23. His father works in Sohos Berwick Street all. He used to run the St Moritz with Perry Haines of i-D, the
market, and Steve can bark and barter with the best of them; its a fashion magazine that Terry Jones, former art director of Vogue
facility that he claims came in handy when it came to negotiating and Donna and designer of the rst Public Image album sleeve,
a deal as manager of his friends Spandau Ballet, the gureheads of started in order to plug high fashion into street fashion. Word has
the new dandyism. it that Chris Sullivan could stand in any club doorway in London
He wears a mid-length leather coat, white rufed shirt, black and pretty soon a couple hundred people would be clamouring
velvet breeches tucked into white knee length socks and black to get in.
pumps. His hair is immaculately cut and swept across his forehead.
He waves the latest of several cans of pils around him in amazement
at the supremely kitsch dcor of the Kilt club. A gang of workaday teenagers gather in London
The moose-heads and muskets that line the halls of the imitation
hunting lodge discotheque entirely suit the look he is sporting of an clubs in all their outrageous nery to celebrate
Edwardian fop. His accent is unexpected: working class London
broader than the Holloway Road. fashion without limit and style without manifesto
I cant believe this place! he exclaims. Normally its full of
Arabs on their way to Regines, but Sullivan has done it again! All
this tartan you see here tonight has been brewing for weeks, and Downstairs in the Kilt, the DJ is having trouble nding his feet,
hes perfectly pulled it all together. It ts this place perfectly! Its a a few motley couples are shufing theirs to records by Marlene
knack, a gift he has. Look at it its great! Deitrich and Frank Sinatra. Robert Elms decides to take over
Chris Sullivan, a young Welshman who came to London the console, spinning James Browns Night Train, The Fatback
after he left school, is on the oor upstairs, greeting his friends in Bands Wicky Wacky and records by Hamilton Bohannon and
his ebullient Welsh manner, relieving the groups who steadily Funkadelic. Suddenly the danceoor is packed and throbbing.
trickle in of their 2 a head. He has rented the Kilt club on an For every art or fashion student down here tonight there are
otherwise slack night to stage the main event in the Spandau Ballet at least ve dance enthusiasts. The soul scene in London, a small
social calendar a party. Dress is invariably fancy and tonight offshoot of which spawned Spandau Ballet, has always been about
tartan is optional. clothes, clubs and dancing, and that doesnt mean tonic suits at
TLFeBOOK
Spandau Ballet S
THREADS
looks set to capitalise on the success of Spandau Ballet with its
emphasis on the thrill and ash of youth and style. It was Elms who
thought up the name Spandau Ballet, long before anyone had even
conceived of the group, during one of the gangs yearly excursions.
We were in Berlin that year. We always go away somewhere
or other, the year after that it was New York, then St Tropez. Next
Dingwalls when The Q-Tips are playing. The people who followed year were going to Ibiza, theres supposed to be this amazing club
Chris Sullivan from Billys to the St Moritz are not all that different there and the group are going to play it. Anyway, we were in Berlin
from the people who drive Ford Escorts with their radio tuned to and we saw the prison, and I just thought, what do they do for
Robbie Vincents Radio London soul show of a Saturday morning. entertainment? Ballet? Spandau Ballet.
Making the scene and staying on it, whether your scene is Spandau Ballet sprung themselves on their friends one Saturday
clothes, or funk or just social, is the primary design. Rocknroll morning at a rehearsal studio near where they live in Islington
hardly offers a more valid alternative. Ask any girl. They know. about this time last year. They told everybody it was a party,
When Steve Dagger was xing Spandaus record deal, he used drinks were free and everybody came. To date, they have played
to test a record companys suss by asking if they knew what a soul fewer than a dozen gigs, or rather parties, one at Blitz, two at the
boy was. Of course they knew what a soul boy was; a soul boy was Scala cinema, one on the HMS Belfast, a few at a club in St Tropez
a Dexys fan with a woolly hat and an overnight bag, wasnt it? and recently one at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.
Sure, Steve would reply, ordering another free drink as he That these scattered appearances, combined with a few reports
recalled the 48-hour funking expeditions he and Spandau and in the Evening Standard, a few more in the fashion glossies, and
their friends made to Bournemouth clubs where there wasnt a a half-hour London Weekend Television documentary about the
woolly hat in sight. scene have won them a lucrative record deal is one of the biggest
NME 1 NOVEMBER 1980 PAGE 22
The Fatback Bands Wicky Wacky has pulled everybody on snubs the long-suffering rock fan with his cherished notions
to the oor; Rusty Egan is there, and so is Kristos. Egans high- SPANDAU of musical validity and paying ones dues has had since the Sex
BALLET
tech disco at the so-called Bowie nights at Billys rst drew media TO CUT A LONG Pistols sent the whole thing spinning some three years back.
attention to the scene, a media which immediately dubbed it a STORY SHORT Somehow, Spandau Ballet have managed to antagonise people
Reformation
glam-rock revival and went away laughing. who have only ever heard their name or seen a photograph. These
Kristos is a 17-year-old veteran of the nocturnal underground Innovative they are not, people imagine that a group who have gone as far as they have,
yet the Ballet Corp have
who wears a beret and a goatee, the image of Tony Hancock in apparently just on the strength of their clothes and their photos, a
managed to collect
The Artist, and has a band with the improbable and unforgettable sufcient Devo and group who look so downright pretentious, cant possibly have any
name of Blue Rondo A La Turk! Robert Elms, having warmed Bowie table droppings musical worth as if musical worth counted for anything other
things up, is out the oor too, putting a ve-degree spin on the to seamlessly piece than a pension.
together a predictably
theme on the night with the tartan-less kilt, the coolest item of Spandau Ballet didnt go begging at the door of the rock press;
austere but nonetheless
dress on show. rather catchy electro- they didnt play the Marquee week in week out; and because of that,
Elms, a 22-year-old graduate of the London School Of anthem of self the conservative rock establishment is deeply suspicious. It hasnt
Economics, has been writing about Spandau Ballet, the clubs, glorication. won our endorsement, they say, so it must be a hype. But if Malcolm
CORBIS
Roy Carr
the scene and the scenemakers, for The Face, the magazine that McLaren was pulling the strings, theyd all be applauding!
we still had style Martin Kemp Its not like you need an expensive modern shirt thats never
been seen before. You take the best things from the past and you
got it sussed. As soon as you want to get rid of looking scruffy,
looking down at yourself, then you got it, you got it straight away.
completely outside, it challenges the way the world is set up for Its an attitude. When you dont put on your old jeans and then
the rock press and the agents and the record companies and the change to go out at night. You wake up in the morning with style.
publicists, and they go, Hang on, you cant do that You dont, like, just get style at six oclock, after you have a bath.
I dont know how successful Vivienne Westwoods going to A bath dont spark off style. Dyou know what I mean? Its just an
be now. Shell probably do alright because shes a 35-year-old attitude which so many kids have.
fashion designer with press agents and shops in Kensington. But Its wanting to make the most of yourself, says Gary, snatching
NME 4 JULY 1981 PAGE 17
her approximation of the clothes is well out of date. Thats Billys. the thread back from his brother. Bryan Ferry on Round Table
All that diamante and gold that Bow Wow Wow wear was in Billys. SPANDAU the other day said our single was very uplifting, and he also said
Shes taken that, copied it and got it wrong. BALLET something weve been saying for ages about the greyness and all
CHANT NO 1
Bow Wow Wow is completely conceived and contrived by an (I DONT NEED
the music to commit suicide to thats around at the moment.
old shark, asserts Gary. With what were doing, theres no-one THIS PRESSURE ON) Its so depressing. Why make yourself depressed? If youve got
over the age of 23 involved. Everybody doing it running the clubs, Reformation
nothing to say, like all these bands are telling us weve got, then
playing the records, dressing up, making the music, making the Move to the groove! why make yourself feel even worse.
clothes none of them are over 23. Dip like a dervish! Feel All these people saying, You cant wear those clothes, theyre
the chant and glow like
The rock press dont mind some old shark like McLaren a lover in the land of a
ridiculous, they are just denying the imagination. Its saying
manufacturing something to make some money out of the kids, thousand dances! With because you come from a poor background youre not allowed to
and yet they slag us off, us, the actual kids in inverted commas. cold sweat in their swing look good, or youve supposed to look like a certain thing. Why be
I just dont understand it. and motion in their art, depressed? Being young is about having a good time, looking good,
Spandau Ballet turn
The group was the last thing to come along all the clubs and it loose and return to
going out at night, getting drunk, dancing, sex, everything!
all that was already there. The group was simply what brought it to the singles arena with Martin has the last word: They always write about it and
the fore. If it wasnt for the group, the whole scene would have gone a dazzling danceoor say poseurs right? The people that dress well are the poseurs,
exactly as it had done in the 70s and something else would have stormer as demonic as but theyre having a brilliant time, theyre having a party time,
anything else were likely
happened next year and the media would have ignored it. to contort ourselves to
they dont mind getting down to it. They dont stand up at the
I know were going to be what breaks it all open, and some this summer. Spandau bar, passing comment, theyre too busy passing out! Those people
people are going to get rich. But that happens a lot. In all the clubs have taken the spirit who say poseurs are just voyeurs!
theres been fashion photographers taking pictures since it started of 75 Kool, Fatback Like Roxy Music before them, Spandau Ballet have come out
and (especially) Brass
six months later you see the clothes in the Paris fashion shows. Construction and
of nowhere, fast. Right now, theyre going somewhere even faster.
Loads of looks the diamante look with the pill-box hat, the slammed it straight Whats more, they could seize the imagination of a lot of kids who
toy soldier look at Billys and all the padded shoulders. Loads of into the heart of 1981. arent all that interested in what the NME puts on its cover each
PETER ANDERSON
them. Everything weve ever started in those clubs has been in the Dare to dance and feel week, because theyre brash, loud, young and fun.
the chant!
fashion magazines six months later. I didnt think the Edwardian Adrian Thrills
Clothes alone are very important. Without them wed have
look would go into the shops, and yet I walked into Stanley Adams nothing to take off.
TLFeBOOK
S
Suits you! (L-r)
Gary, Tony, John,
Steve and Martin
A SOLAR ECLIPSE
ON THE
SOCIAL CALENDAR
A
shady Glaswegian side street: not the ideal Surveying the scene a little later, shortly before the Spandau
place for a leisurely stroll at closing time set, the groups perceptive young manager Steve Dagger nds
unless one is heading somewhere it hard to contain his fascination with the audience they
special somewhere like the have attracted.
Ultratech. The other night, when we played in Edinburgh,
The Ultratech is one of it was unbelievable! The front three rows were all
Scotlands slickest new nightspots. It could be
overlooked were it not for the faade of mirror-
This is soul! This is style! teenage girls. When the group came on it was a
case of the screaming ab-dabs! Martin had a
like metal that marks its secluded doorway.
Out in the street another grey day is creeping
This is success! chain swiped from around his neck and Tony
had his shoelaces pinched! Can you believe that!
to a close. But inside, the club is already cooking,
the danceoor bristling with the body heat of This is Spandau! To a lot of these kids, especially the younger
ones, stuff like Chant No 1 and all the ZE stuff
Glasgows young night-owls. Tonight they have
turned out in force for that solar eclipse of the Adrian Thrills encounters is probably the rst music you could loosely call
soul that theyve heard.
social calendar a live Spandau Ballet show. With the magnicent Chant single planted
The Ultratech is an ideal Spandau venue, Gary Kemp rmly at the top of this weeks NME chart, Number
entirely in keeping with their intention of supporting One by name and nature, Spandau have conrmed
the club scene rather than the concert hall. The place their growing musical maturity and once again
itself is an eye-opener, featuring a superb lightshow and perplexed their band of puritanical critics. In the space
a series of wall-to-wall mirrors and reecting pillars that of four singles since signing to Chrysalis nine months ago,
make it seem twice its actual size. Spandau have moved on from the deceptive electronic beginnings
NME 1 AUGUST 1981 PAGE 25
The crowd are a predictably mixed bunch: the curious and the of their Long Story debut to the masterful Brit-funk jazz-punch
converted, although some of the latter the uffy High Street of their current chart-topper. A revolt into soul?
JILL FURMANOVSKY-WWW.ROCKARCHIVE.COM
futurist brigade have got it all wrong, posing the night away in The thing is that soul music will always be the best music
the shadows with po-faces and Topshop trimmings. for a club scene, continues the fast-talking Dagger in his beefy
The ones who know are acting fast and ash, pumping it up Cockney brogue. It was the music of the 70s in the clubs and it
out on the oor to the zap of ZE and the sensual, uplifting swing still is now. But it has never really been done properly in England.
of soul music. Now this is the way to start a Monday morning! Most of the stuff is still coming out of New York. And as for a
I down my pils and head for the danceoor. white group doing it making the real dance music Im not sure
Welcome to the working week. if it can be done without falling into all the obvious traps.
Spandau, with the assistance of the humanly possible. They look good,
Beggar & Co horns, have at least made move well and play with a barely-
a start. And they have done so without disguised love and enthusiasm for
attracting too much ak from the inverted their chosen genre.
racists of the soul scene, ever suspicious of Group founder and songwriter
white boys on funk. Gary Kemp switches back and forth
It would have been annoying if people between guitar and synth, brother
had come in with that sort of prejudice, Martin pumps his bass and Steve
afrms Dagger. But were not trying to be Norman, originally the second
like a black group. Tony doesnt sing with guitarist, now concentrates on
a black voice and I think it would be silly providing additional percussion.
Martin and Gary
of him to try. Theres still a large European Kemp (AKA Steve Their condence has grown
element in there too. from EastEnders noticeably since their London
Back in the heat of the Ultratech oven, the and Ronnie Kray) Sundown date of a few months
ve Spandau boys are now onstage. Though back and vocalist Tony Hadley
they are more ragged live than on record, now injects far more pace and passion into his operatic phrasing.
the crisp, rigorous drumming of John Keeble is a reliable anchor To complement the musical shift towards a more soulful way
and they never fall apart musically. The other three instrumental of thinking, The Clothes easily as important as The Music are
members use the discotheques makeshift stage as well as is also a-changing. The ostentatious frills and blanket drapery of
last year has been replaced by a far sharper cut: Steve and Tony
sport short Spanish jackets onstage while Gary wears the baggy
The clothes easily as important as the music pants of a dashing navy chalkstripe suit designed for him by Blue
Rondos Chris Sullivan the jacket of the selfsame suit was swiped
are changing. The ostentatious frills and drapery of from him by an over-eager fan during the groups recent one-off
booking in Ibiza.
last year has been replaced by a far sharper cut The crucial Clothes Pose, however, has been widely
misrepresented according to their manager.
SPANDAU
BALLET
TRUE
Chrysalis
TLFeBOOK
Spandau Ballet S
When you see that, you just know that youve got to have those
clothes as well. At that time, it was something like a Ben Sherman
shirt, Prince of Wales check trousers and brogue shoes. Then
came the Rupert trousers and then the Oxford bags and so on.
If you go through all that, like I did, you inherit an attitude
that you nd really hard to shake off. The kids that got into a rut
were the ones that drifted the other way through their middle
class education, began to adopt some of the middle class clichs
and attitudes and fell into the rock scene.
It was during his schooldays that Kemp and his mates rst
became what could loosely be called soul boys. They would
frequent local disco pubs or late night dance clubs like Ilfords
famed Lacy Lady, Charing Cross Global Village or Wardour
Streets Crackers. The dress was sharp, veering towards the more
avant-garde extremes of mohair and vinyl later taken up by punk.
The music was funk, a soundtrack of soul provided by DJs like
Chris Hill and George Power. An average nights listening circa
1975 would encompass a strictly dance-orientated diet of Kool
& The Gang, Fatback, The Ohio Players and War plus, often
preferably, some more obscure import soul fare.
It was a great scene, reects Kemp. It was very mixed, boys
and girls, whereas the rock scene always tended to be very male. It
The T-shirt
was just a lot smarter. If you were into rock music youd know all
company got
Tony Hadleys about the bands by reading the rock papers every week. Rock
order mixed up music was something you were always looking
up to. But the soul boy thing was a much larger
package. It was a whole attitude to life.
There were always two sides to the original Blitz The soul clubs always had a very friendly
scene. There was the high posey end which tended to atmosphere, because soul music has always been
get in all the colour supplements. Then there were the a very uplifting music and not drab to listen to. It
other half, who were a very basic bunch of real boozers. tends to trigger off the better emotions in people.
A lot of people missed the essential humour of what Kemp is refreshingly frank about the snobbery
was going on in that people would spend ages getting and elitism inherent in the soul scene.
ready to go out, putting on all these classical clothes, The great thing about the funk that the soul
and then go out and get them absolutely wrecked! boys listened to was that only a few people could
get into it and understand it. The media werent
Gary Kemp is 21. His mood is one of typical good interested. The media were totally immersed in
humour when we meet up again a couple of days later rock, so the kids had the music to themselves.
in the loft above the bands London Bridge rehearsal Soul boy Kemp and his Islington pals a loose
studio. It is only the middle of the afternoon, but association of friends known as the Angel Boys,
Kemp still looks the part of the soul boy, decked out in most of whom are now either in Spandau, Blue
a royal blue bowling shirt and a pair of white trousers Rondo or the more surreptitious Animal Nightlife
tucked neatly into his knee-boots. represented the more extreme, high-living
His manner is energetic, although the brash contingent among Londons funkateers.
Cockney front and seemingly boundless self- As such, they were always liable to become
condence belies a faint trace of nerves, usually a bored with some of the more staid, unchanging
good sign. aspects of the capitals funk scene and there were
The group have done a few interviews lately in the two critical points when they stepped outside of
week rock papers and in the past six months have the soul spectrum: with punk in 1976 and with
declined to talk to both Ian Penman and Paul Du the electronic/glam nights at Billys club in Sohos
Noyer on this paper. The reason, according to Kemp, Dean Street in 1978. Kemp was initially inspired
is that they were fed up with having to continually
justify themselves as people.
Wed do interviews and nd ourselves sitting there, No-one asks a heavy metal group why they have
representing the attitude of the majority of working class kids but
having to justify our whole lifestyle to someone who was saying long hair, or Rastas why they have dreadlocks but
that it was wrong. And that really irritated me.
No-one asks a heavy metal group why they have long hair, no- we continually have to justify our dress Gary Kemp
STEVE RAPPORT/PENNIE SMITH/JILL FURMANOVSKY-WWW.ROCKARCHIVE.COM
From the electronic nights at Billys, through Bowie at the Blitz, SPANDAU BALLET
suits and swing at the St Moritz, 70s soul at Le Kilt and the harder, JOURNEYS TO GLORY Chrysalis
more contemporary funk of Le Beat Route, things have now
seemingly come full circle back to electro-funk at the Egan-Strange
P
icture angular glimpses of sharp youth
establishment Club For Heroes or the Pub For Earoles as Spandau cutting strident shapes through the
curling grey of 3am. Hear the soaring joy of
affectionately term the plush Baker Street basement palace.
immaculate rhythms, the sublime glow of music
for heroes driving straight to the heart of the
Spandau Ballet made their rst appearance one Saturday dance. Follow the stirring vision and the
morning towards the end of 1979 in a Holloway Road rehearsal rousing sound on the path towards
journeys to glory.
studio, an event which was quickly followed by two Christmas
party appearances one at Steve Stranges Blitz do and another at
Robert Elms, inveterate pseudo
and Spandau Ballets tireless
Hadley about as
threatening as a muzzled
Chris Sullivans Mayhem Warehouse hoedown in Battersea. publicist (in effect) might sounds like poodle, more like upwardly
After rst attempting unsuccessfully to master the jazz- have added the following to mobile couples who join the
funk genre that has always been their rst love, the group switched his unintentionally hilarious some club singer Young Conservatives for the
inscription on the inner sleeve social life than knee-to-the-
the emphasis of their sound towards a more Euro-inuenced, of their rst album: Salute as trying to do a Bowie groin Nazis.
electronic groove. the trumpets sound in burning impersonation If theres one thing that
The thing about European music was that it was getting away tribute, raise high the ag of comes low on their list of
onward marching Viking youth, sing priorities its the actual music
from what was happening on the soul scene, explains Kemp.
out as the Fatherland strives inexorably to accompany their wet dreams.
towards the triumph of the will tomorrow The essential criteria? Firstly, it must be
into the lifestyle Gary Kemp Dagger and the rest of the dutiful crew overjoyed.
You see, theyd dearly love you to think a new
Spandau Ballet t the bill perfectly, delivering
white, corpuscular disco pop as cleanly as a
movement of profound signicance is stirring, surgeons sterilised scalpel, spotless and safe. Its
a new dawn is breaking where style is elevated difcult to hate this record, its just so reasonable.
to icon status and moral values and concerns are Never exciting or irritating, its just there.
But the problems with the electronic music at Billys and Blitz blown aside. They would be better off without vocalist
was that people were beginning to worship it solely for the music. Fascist overtones? Remember those British Tony Hadley, whose insipid vocal interrupts
Movement stickers urging the release of Rudolf rudely like some club singer trying to do a Bowie
Originally, the music was there as a soundtrack. None of us was
Hess from Spandau jail? Just whats needed impersonation, technically perfect but soulless.
ever great record buyers, we were more into the lifestyle. for adding that hint of danger, that sense of Spandau Ballet are nothing more than a
The other drawback with the music was that a lot of hard, momentous import. bundle of fancy rags without a peg to hang them
harsh electronic stuff tended to be a bit depressing. After Billys we The whole thing would be dangerous if it on. Supercial music for supercial people with
wasnt for the fact that its so laughable. The supercial concerns.
wanted to get back to soul again because that was genuinely the
Spandau, ex-Blitz glitter clique are actually Lynden Barber
music that most of us were into.
Stage appearances were kept few and far between, initially
because Steve Dagger genuinely feared that it might be physically With last autumns changes in clubland and the move from
dangerous for the group to appear live regularly. Hell to Le Kilt, the musical emphasis on both the danceoor and
People always went on to us about not playing very often, but the Spandau rehearsal room went back to funky modes. Suddenly
jazz-funk groups dont play very often because the type of audience it was all change and back to 1975 with The Fatback Band and
that they would attract would be the sort of kids who danced and James Brown on the turntable and Kemp in the studio composing
went to clubs and were the performers themselves. And we wanted the danceoor scorcher Glow.
to relate to the same sort of audience in the same sort of way. Originally producer Richard Burgess was set to get in the Earth
Hey, that sounds
Wind & Fire horns from the States, but a chance meeting between
like a great title
for a song! Spandau and Light Of The World/Beggar & Co at Top Of The
Pops set the seal on a musical alliance between the Ballet and the
Beggars that has already delivered Chant and now promises
even greater things.
The mid-70s soul they were playing at Le Kilt was great at
the time, but it was becoming too much of a straight fashion.
Everyone was going on about 1975 soul, but we were still thinking
that people should be listening to some newer stuff as well. But
what was happening in the clubs themselves was far more relevant
than the actual type of musical being played.
Its true, though, that the music creates the atmosphere. And
soul, whatever else you want to say about it, is the most uplifting
emotional sound that there is. The beat and the sound and
everything is simply pure emotion. Its there in the word as soon
as they say it soul!
And however much the purists might wince at the idea, there is
plenty of soul in Spandau Ballet. You can feel it in their music, in
their clothes, in their attitude, in their clubs and in their lifestyle.
PETER ANDERSON
TLFeBOOK
T
is for ...
So whats the
verdict on Channel 4s
The Tube? A disaster or
success? Adrian Thrills spends
a day on the set, amid the
chaos and celebrations
A
cameraman zooms in on a lone gure standing
nervously in front of the Perspex tunnel which
leads into Tyne Tees Televisions Studio Five.
The former Squeeze keyboard player Jools
Holland gazes through the early evening drizzle
and begins to quack busily into the lens.
Right! Pay very close attention indeed. Walk to your television
set and turn it up. It is November 5 and were just about to go down
G
in the annals of television history with a live rock show from now
O IN
on youre going to be watching the fantastic Tube!
G
With those words, the cathode ray tubes latest contribution to
the countrys pop culture last week lifted itself off the launching
pad and into our living rooms. It will be with us every Friday night
T HE
for the next 20 weeks, beaming almost two hours of live music and
UP
chatter to an audience of over ten million.
These are still early days, but the possibilities of The Tube are
TU
clearly enormous. Rather than push the programme as Channel
4s answer to the increasingly staid tandem of Top Of The Pops and
Whistle Test served up by the BBC, the Tube team are aiming to
recapture and update the spirit and excitement of the legendary
60s pop show Ready Steady Go!.
The Tube is an ambitious project and it already has a lot going
for it. Firstly, its producers have secured themselves a prestigious
prime-time viewing slot. Secondly, they possess an infectious
enthusiasm essential to the presentation of televised pop. Thirdly,
the whole show is transmitted live from a Newcastle studio, perhaps
the biggest plus factor of the lot.
Last Fridays programme in reality more of a
gloried pilot show emphasised all these advantages.
It also revealed a number of potentially fatal aws, but
more of those later. Right now, it is coming up to 5.15pm band live on the air but shelved such plans once rumours
on Channel 4 time to go down to the Tube station. of their split began circulating a few weeks ago.
Also in the studio are Shefelds Heaven 17,
The show augmented for the night by the Beggar & Co horns,
Each episode of The Tube is hosted by a team of three and snotty Sunderland brats The Toy Dolls, who enjoy
presenters. Two of them are name hosts Jools Holland the distinction of becoming the rst live rock band to
and Bob Geldofs girlfriend, Paula Yates (described in appear on the new channel when the cameras pan to
her Tyne Tees biog as a pop personality, whatever that them straight from Hollands jumpy intro.
may be). The rest of the show consists of an incredibly smug
Alongside these two each week will be one of the ve Yates interview with Policeman Sting, an equally
unknown rookies plucked painstakingly from a list of stilted chat between Holland and Pete Townshend, a
over 3,000 applicants. For the opening show, it is a Scottish torturous lm feature on the LA music scene, video
Associates and Simple Minds fan called Muriel Gray, who clips from Duran Duran and Glasgows highly-
got the job after answering an advert in NME. promising Set The Tone, a couple of magazine-
The centrepiece of the rst programme is a 30-minute style featurettes and some caustic interjections by
live set from The Jam, a performance accompanied by Shefeld poet Mark Miwurdz.
a Muriel Gray interview with Paul Weller in the bands Most of the pieces are crammed into the rst
Paula, Kim Wilde
dressing room. It transpires that Weller had originally and the height 45 minutes of the show, rendering it no more than
intended breaking the news of the impending parting of the of Geordie a series of fragments thrown together with little
fashion in 1983
TLFeBOOK
The Tube T
Paula practises
her interview
technique with
co-presenter Jools
to the twin stages and the second section of the show. Once
the bands arrived, things began to buzz the way a live pop
programme should.
The bands
The Tube suffered badly from the rigidity of its format, but the
opening night was saved by the performance of the two main
studio groups, Heaven 17 and The Jam. The only mystery is why
one of them, ideally Heaven 17, wasnt invited to open the show,
thus involving the studio audience, surely the real soul of such a
programme, right from the outset.
Instead, Messrs Marsh, Ware, Gregory and their brass-bossing
cohorts from Beggars enter the fray somewhere around half-
time. They skip and it through three songs, The Height Of
The Fighting, Who Will Stop The Rain and the current single
Let Me Go!, and the audience respond accordingly. Though not
playing live in the strictest sense their synthesized sound coming
from the customary set of backing tapes employed in their club
BE
PAs the group give the show its rst real surge of adrenalin.
The Tyne Tees people have been great to work with, observes
Martyn Ware in the dressing room later. They might lack a
bit technically, but they more than make up for that with their
enthusiasm.
But it was The Jam who gave Tube One its crowning moments
with a ery set that was occasionally ragged but never unexciting.
Paul Wellers output over the last couple of years has been erratic to
say the least, but here were The Jam sticking to what they know best,
Paula Yates belting out eight superb songs with a taut, nervous commitment
loving the rarely captured on a televised pop programme Ghosts, In
camera in Tyne
Tees Studio 5 The Crowd, Town Called Malice, Modern World, Move On
Up, The Great Depression, Precious and the forthcoming nal
single Beat Surrender.
The cameramen actually run out of time somewhere around
The possibilities are enormous. The Tube team here, but the band play on, to the delight of the studio audience,
aims to recapture the spirit and excitement of the with their blistering covers of Edwin Starrs War and Ray Davies
David Watts before returning to their dressing room.
legendary 60s pop show Ready Steady Go! Weller later attributed the sheer intensity of the performance
partly to nerves, although a burning desire to make the bands last
live TV appearance one of their most memorable no doubt also
came into it.
cohesion and none of the pace and unpredictability one might So what did they make of the programme overall?
expect from a live broadcast. I think that the show will be good as long as they can keep
The two featurettes, a dreary piece on modzines and an getting the interesting live acts on it, opines Weller. It would
over-long item on African dance, seem particularly dense and be great if they could have a set from an English group like us
tedious for all their touted topicality. The absence, too, of a alongside an American band like Shalamar or something.
single challenging, stimulating interview was also disappointing Most of the pop shows that you get on TV never last, adds
KEVIN CUMMINGS-IDOLS/REX
Muriel Grays chat with Weller was probably the best, if only for drummer Buckler. But this one stands a better chance than
its bluntness; while Paulas probing of Sting was embarrassing in most. Most of the problems that you get with pop on TV are
its trite sexual innuendo. basically because the television people just dont understand the
And so The Tube began with a whimper rather than a bang, bands that they are putting on. At least this lot seem to know
although the pace did eventually quicken as the focus switched better than most.
The presenters
Producers of The Tube Malcolm Gerrie and
Paul Corley defend the much-criticised
selection of Paula Yates and Jools Holland
as the name presenters of the new show on
the grounds of their professionalism and
previous television experience.
Nevertheless, the air of showbiz smugness
and petty ego-gratication from Holland
and Yates is one of the more unwelcome
aspects of The Tube, particularly as
theyre actually as nervous as the relatively
inexperienced Muriel Gray.
Paula Yates is particularly nauseating.
Her main concern lies in projecting her
own personality at the expense of the
show, continually ashing esh or drawing
attention to the fact that she is a few months
pregnant by touting the show as a small step
for fat women. Gladioli all over:
The Smiths on The
The ve unknowns Muriel Gray, Tube, March 1984
Michael Cremona, Gary James,
Mike Everitt and Nick Laird-Clowes
might lack the bland condence of Achtung mulllet!
Yates and Holland, but in the context U2 live on The was to propose a series of eight 30-minute
Tube, March 1983
of a live pop programme surely their magazine shows. The programmers turned
far greater enthusiasm for the music him down. Instead they suggested a series
more than compensates for any of 20 105-minute music shows, and the
absence of slick professionalism? concept of The Tube was born.
Muriel, a 24-year-old exhibition We wanted to make a show that would
designer at an Edinburgh museum convey the energy that teenagers and
who made her television debut on young people have still got, he says. If
Fridays show, begs to differ and anyone says to me that the kids sorry,
defends the appointment of two but I cant think of another word for them
name hosts. She was also clearly are depressed and they just sit on their
unhappy with her Jam interview, arses moaning about what a shit Maggie
feeling that rst-night nerves got the Thatcher is, Ill show you someone who
better of both her and Weller, although hasnt spoken to as many kids as I have.
she was to compensate in part with her The emphasis of a lot of youth
introduction of the band later on as programmes falls too heavily on things like unemployment and
those masters of wit and repartee. abortion. The way some of them go on, youd think that every
I didnt think the interview was very successful, she says. Most 16-year-old girl in Britain was going to have an abortion before
Jam fans are probably pretty disappointed and it is probably my she was 20.
fault that things werent better. Paul is a very committed person and One of the biggest criticisms weve had to face is that well
somehow I couldnt get him to talk about the things that concern never get to have a live atmosphere in a TV studio, but you saw
him. Maybe if Id been more professional like Paula and Jools Id what it was like when The Jam were onstage. Weve got one
have been able to handle it better. programme in the series when were probably going to have The
Clash, U2 and the Sex Gang Children in the same studio. Whats
Theres nothing else really. Whistle Test is boring the atmosphere going to be like then?
After the show, Pete Townshend was saying that rock music
and Top Of The Pops is only any good as a and live TV were two of the riskiest things to try and combine but
that it was the sheer tension of the thing that made it work. Now,
comedy show Tube presenter Muriel Gray after seeing The Jam, he wants to do the show.
Now, Im not knocking Top Of The Pops, but you just dont
get that tension when you have a load of bands miming their one
song in front of a bunch of Equity people in a half-empty studio.
The interview apart, how did she feel the rst show went?
Its hard for me to be objective, but I think the show was really The series
exciting. The Jam were great onstage, and its that sort of thing that Like it or not and most of its detractors to date are just those who
proves that this show has the potential to be really great. When you failed at the presenters auditions The Tube is going to be a crucial
look at the competition, theres nothing else really. Whistle Test is part of the British pop platform over the next ve months.
boring and Top Of The Pops is only any good as a comedy show. On the evidence of last weeks opening slot, The Tubes
massive potential still remains unfullled, but the programme
The producer shows all the signs of improving during the coming weeks. If the
The man behind The Tube is a bluff, amiable Tyne Tees producer presentation, particularly of the magazine section of the show,
by the name of Malcolm Gerrie. At 32, he has already produced can be given more pace and punch, The Tube will be on the point
the acclaimed Alright Now and Razzmatazz shows, both of which of becoming the rst pop show really worth watching in years.
boasted a heavy bias towards music, and he remains a man with The next ve months on Channel 4 should make mighty
very denite ideas on televised pop. interesting viewing. The Tube team might not totally transform
When he approached the Channel 4 programme controllers the face of televised pop in the UK, but it should be good fun
REDFERNS
on behalf of Tyne Tees with his assistant Paul Corley, the idea watching them try.
TLFeBOOK
U
is for ...
BRIAN ARIS
A
picture of a group: a TV screen, on it men
wearing high-buttoned black shirts and
serious expressions. The music: slow
drumbeats, a sparse backing, solemnity.
A close-up of a face on the screen, deadpan.
There was a song on the rst Ultravox
album called My Sex. This sounds rather like it but the words
are wrong. You realise where a certain pop star got his ideas from.
The voice continues, cold, relentless. The mouth twitches a little
but reaches the end of the song impassive. There are cackles of
laughter in the background. The face looks toward the camera,
reproachful. This is art, says that robot. This is Ultravox.
Ultravox went to Germany to make an album. Conny Planks
famous studio is a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Ultravox
got bored. The result is a collection of videos, which include a lot
of studio fooling, proof that Ultravox have a sense of humour.
Other interesting and surprising facts about the band: Ultravox
are one Scotsman (Midge Ure: vocals, guitars, and synthesizers),
one Canadian (Warren Cann: drums, electronic percussion,
and vocals), one Yorkshireman (Billy Currie: synthesizers,
piano, violin, and viola) and one Londoner (Chris Cross: bass,
synthesizers, and vocals). Ultravox are not John Foxx.
Ultravox frequent Blitz, where the trendiest young people in
town go, as the Twentieth Century Box TV programme (theme
tune by John Foxx) repeatedly insisted, Midge Ure is the trendiest.
Ultravox get upset when critics accuse them of being
passionless. Ultravox are not a synthesizer band.
There are some days (many of late) when you turn on the radio
and every record sounds like Hawkwind. And there are some days
when you turn on the radio and every record begins with a bleep
or a bubble. Not just the plastic Top 30, three minutes at a time
VIEN N A
118
Tache
entertainment:
Ultravox singer
Midge Ure
NME ORIGINALS
CAL LING
TLFeBOOK
Ultravox U
and expensive matching video, but groups which want us to take
them seriously, groups it is necessary to admire in order to stay up
to date. It seems shallow but I feel Im drowning. Is it a conspiracy
or is it just me? Some days Im just allergic to synthesizers.
And then along come poor, unfashionable Ultravox, always in
the wrong place at the wrong time, and make an album which
doesnt disagree with me at all. The reason is simple, they claim
with disarming logic. They are not a synthesizer band.
But what of my nightmare vision of a world taken over by
musicians in bleak industrial suits and robot haircuts, and
punters with dyed red hair and baggy trousers? Are Ultravox
denying responsibility? They are.
I went to meet Ultravox hoping for a beginners guide to
electronic rock and ten reasons why I shouldnt feel hostile to it.
This is what I got.
Me: Why do I hate synthesizers and not hate Ultravox?
Billy: Because were a rock band. We use the technology but
we dont let it push us around.
On the plethora of modern electronic pop bands: The Vox on the
Billy: People buy synthesizers for instant effects. (Chris box in 1980
sneers: Noises and bleeps.)
audience will still hear it and tap their feet. like synthesizers.
TOP OF THE
Hes Steve
O
n a winters day in London, in the
grounds of an old peoples home,
a man is posing for the camera.
Strange, the Busby
It could be the ghost of Lord
Byron, but that old poet aristo
Berkeley of the new
used to dress up like an 18th
century Greek shepherd while todays man looks dandyism. Quite a change
more Bavarian Busby Berkeley Bavarian, that is.
Its Steve Strange, and hes only spent an hour for the man who used to
All that clubbing
and a half getting ready: he doesnt have a huge quiff
any more and that cuts down on his preparations to front The Moors Murderers. made Steve
Strange literally
meet the day and the mirrors in a thousand eyes. Fade To Grey
Spandau Ballet are in the charts. The new Paul Tickell puts the
dandyism has arrived. More and more people
are dressing up and fancily romancing, while Beau new glitterati into By late-78 Strange had started hanging out with
Brummels own country rots to the silly Billy beat of drummer Rusty Egan, whose band The Rich Kids
punk monetarism and economic cuts. perspective were then on the point of splitting. We started a weekly
Steve Strange is no longer famous for being famous or for Bowie night at Billys. The idea was to be an alternative to
being the gloried doorman of Blitz and Hell where, before those disco even though we only had a handful of suitable records
niteries closed, the clientele used to go to pose and ornateness The Human League, The Normal, Kraftwerk and, of course,
of costume permitting dance. Steve can now be famous because Bowie and Roxy.
hes the vocalist in a band called Visage whove just released an To ll the gap the two nightclubbers started to make their own
album of the same name. tapes in the studio time which The Rich Kids still had set aside.
Ever since he moved to London from Newport, Steve has always Producer Martin Rushent engineered several tracks which have
wanted to be in a band. He remembers being in the dole queue now surfaced on the Visage album.
at the same time as a lot of todays stars, and inevitably be hung By now Egan and Strange had moved out to Blitz and Hell
around the Pistols and Siouxsie. His real passion, though, was for to master the ceremonies and dictate the sounds. They kept up
Generation X, the punks with a touch of glam. the studio work and the project transgured itself into a band
After doing some artwork at the request of Billy Idol, the poseurs Visage, who signed with Polydor in May this year.
apprentice ran into a spot of bother. He joined a band called The Strange isnt worried that the germ of Visages album is quite
Moors Murderers, an event which he now sitting in the spacious old. He thinks that the timing is absolutely right for what its trying
Chelsea basement of Visages publicist bitterly regrets. to put across: the album is both a gloss on the high glossiness of
I was singing the songs and didnt even know what they were Blitz and a manifesto for Stranges next gaudy cellar The Peoples
about. I was led on by the guy with the money upfront. One day Palace, which will open in spring next year.
he got a load of photographers in and bam! it was all over the Strange quotes from Visage the title track: New styles/New
papers, I thought: What the fuck have I done? I got out fast. shapes/New moulds. Its about why we closed down Blitz and Hell;
After The Moors Murderers, Steve joined The Photons. We they were becoming stale. Youve got to have a constant change of
wore very colourful two-piece suits with Cuban heels. It was a very music, fashion and venue.
sharp image, but nothing to do with the 60s thing. Steve left: he Until the Peoples Palace throws open its doors the London
didnt like the bassist as a player or a person. The Photons faded, glitterati are all dressed up with nowhere to go. Theres not much
Vince the drummer joining The Psychedelic Furs. at the moment, even though were going to start using the Venue
in Victoria for one night a week. I get people ringing me up all the
From Newport to time asking me whats going on.
People shouldnt be knocked new romantic:
the many Visages
It may sound immodest but me and Rusty have played a hell
of a part over the last two years in the nightlife of a lot of kids
for having a good time, if its all of Steve Strange
CORBIS/REX FEATURES
kids are people who work nine to ve and then go out and live
their fantasies. Theyre glad to be dressed up and escaping work.
about style and being romantic I dont think people should be knocked for having a good time,
if its all about style and being romantic.
TLFeBOOK
W
is for ...
BRIAN ARIS
TLFeBOOK
Wham! W
swimming and wrote songs. Andy, on other hand, didnt want to
know, refused to nd work, any work, just to earn a little cash to
make up some of his time instead of moping all day long.
Andy wasnt convinced. He could see Georges point, but why
work at some crap job hed hate the minute he started? What was
the point? Thanks, but no thanks. There was more to it than that.
Hed rather stay in bed. Keep warm. Hide from his parents. At
least that way he could ignore the world.
So they sat there, in the kitchen, a painstaking silence between
them, both fumbling mentally for some mutual ground and a
common resolve. Then Andy smiled. He looked at George and he
smiled, and in that one second, both friends knew everything was
alright again. Theyd survive.
Mind you, says George Michael now. If we hadnt spent our
time like that, Wham Rap would never have happened.
TEEN DREAMS
RUE
COME T
It was the next thing that was really good and energetic,
comments Andy.
Backed by local musicians, George and Andy were the two
NME 18 JUNE 1983 PAGE 6
front vocalists who wrote the material.
We had some quite good ska numbers actually, says George.
T
hey sat in the kitchen, the pair of them,
sullen and miserable, unable to A sense of The arrangements were really poor because they were the
rst songs wed written. But a couple of them could have
communicate with each other. been really big hits. If someone had been clever enough
The best of friends, but tonight humour? Clubs, parties to pick us up, organise us properly, we could have had
there was a gap between them, some really big hits.
something they had never and late nights? Five months We had a manager who took a demo that hadnt
experienced before and it frightened them. really been mixed to all the record companies. One
George knew what depressed Andy. to write Bad Boys? What is of the stories from that, which is quite ironic, is that
Unemployment. He could clearly see the our repertoire which was on the tape, included a
effects upon his friends usual ebullient with these Wham! guys? version of Cant Get Used To Losing You.
nature. He felt sympathy for his friend, but he After the deal had fallen through I saw in a
also felt confused by his refusal to ght. Paolo Hewitt checks for magazine, months afterwards, that it was coming
Granted, the dole was no fun in any book out on the new Beat album. I thought, Fucking hell,
you might care to mention. Hours of tedium,
lack of funds, loss of vision all contributed to
George and Andys I cant believe it. I was really pissed off.
When Dave Wakeling sings it, he sings it so much
wearing your spirits down. But why couldnt Andy
at least make a token effort to face up to it.
disco dilemmas like Andy Williams that you get the impression that he
was an Andy Williams fan, in which case it might have
REX FEATURES
George had. He was a part-time DJ by night, and a been a coincidence. But it was ironic that when were in the
part-time cinema attendant by day. In between, he went Top Five with Bad Boys they were there also there with that.
made out that its hip; cool soul guys, got no money but youre still WHAM!
really cool. Which is all a load of bollocks because theres very few CLUB TROPICANA
Innervision
people like that about.
The record did nothing. Zilch. It nearly killed them. Like so Oh no! More soul boys
go soft. If Linx are
many artists, they blamed their record company for not promoting anything to go by, when
them well enough. No build-up, no hit. they start singing songs
As winter approached, they issued Young Guns (Go For It!), in that holiday mood
the follow up. Wham! A hit! its time to carve the
headstone. Wham Rap! was
Tongues still planted rmly in their collective cheek, Young Theres always been rhyming slang
Guns amusingly examined young relationships and the troubles an element to each for George and
they can bring. A great dance record, Wham! appeared on Top Of Wham! single. Wham Andrews clothes
The Pops with an exhilarating dance routine that caught the eye Rap! got full marks
for spirit and negative
and the imagination. numbers for political
George and Andy, along with Shirley and Dee on dance and vision. Young Guns had It happens all the time, George admits nonchalantly. Thats
song routines, had established themselves with a vigour and energy guts but was patently a why Bad Boys took months and months because I was under such
that beautifully captured their obsession with youth topics. classic in the closet, with pressure personally to follow up Young Guns and not disappoint
George asking his mate
Five months later, after working solidly on their debut LP, the precisely what he was people. At the same time I didnt want to make another Young
third single Bad Boys was put out. Most people felt that it was a doing with a girl when he Guns. I just got totally confused and through that confusion I had
poor parody of the rst two songs; that theyd run out of ideas. could be having fun with to write parts for all the various things I hadnt done yet.
Rumours circling claimed George had dried up while accusations him, while Bad Boys, Thats what happened with the album, and thats why I kept
as Julie Burchill pointed
of contrivance with image and song lled the air. out, poses the question , ghting and ghting, doing different things and then wiping
When their debut LP Fantastic is released a lot of people will Just what was a 19-year- them out completely and starting all over again.
choke on their words. old doing living with To Georges painstaking approach, which meant staying up 48
Its a stunning vindication of George and Andys ability to Mumsie and Dadikins hours on the last days of recording to have the LP nished in time,
anyway? What they
produce a black based music that covers a various shifts in style all had was the musical Andy acts a vital catalyst, offering advice, support and opinion.
but loses none of its identity. Fantastic is a powerful, condent clout and the macho On his own admission hes not as good a songwriter as George.
debut that will shatter a few illusions and create a few more. It will shout, some hardcore But he is the main part in Wham!s lyrical technique of taking
establish George Michael as a great singer and Andy Ridgeley as the content that the young a subject matter, pertinent to youth, and blowing it out of all
grits could go for.
perfect foil to his songwriting talents. Now what happens? proportion. The sexism of Young Guns for instance, or the line
The lads make a buck in Bad Boys, Im handsome, tall and strong has stuck in many
A nice sunny day in west London, Andy in his normal good or two and were back peoples minds.
mood, George a little more serious, a little more concerned. We in the cocktail lined I cant believe that anyone would take that line seriously, says
lands of sophistication
talk about Wham! Are they contrived? with Club Tropicana. George in disbelief.
What can you do? sighs George. What can you tell people? Palm trees on the cover, Some peoples sense of humour, offers Andy, isnt the same
Were both young. Weve written about what you go through when delicately chopping as ours and they wont get it. Simple as that. You cant expect
youre young. When we get accused of things like that youd think guitars and a voice everyone to get the joke. Most people will and thats the purpose
thats like an overdose
we were both 30 or something. of Birds Angel Delight. of exaggerating it, to make it that much clearer. But theres always
With Bad Boys, although its become the best seller George What are they trying to be someone who doesnt get the fucking joke.
knew it would be, both admit that their critics might have a point. do, make peace with the A line like that is saying it totally straight and thinking, What
I think theres more energy to Bad Boys than there is to Young mater and pater? If so a wanker! says George. I think anyone who susses the records
youve done it boys my
Guns. We wanted to take the energy we had on Wham Rap! neighbours loved it. at all knows thats not a serious line. That sexism in Young Guns
and the commerciality of Young Guns and put them together. Bad boys go rotten, was all fucking tongue in cheek. People didnt get it. He shrugs
I personally dont like Bad Boys as much as I wanted to, but I knew pop dreams go pap. his shoulders.
it would sell really well. Conclusive proof that As long as people like his music, the lyrics are secondary in
pop corrupts and pure
Like all their songs, Boys was concocted in the studio over a pop is pure corruption. many ways. Although he wont insult his or Andys intelligence by
long period of time. Its an expensive process because, more likely Don Watson writing clichd disco lines.
than not, George will scrap a days work rather than keep it. Weve tried to stress it so many people, Andy interrupts, that
we dont to be a UB40 or that kind of left eld band. We want
to make pop records; we want to be a successful band and make
Anyone who susses the records knows were records that people enjoy, and not essentially for the lyric. What it
boils down to is popular tunes are the tunes that everybody nds
not serious. The sexism in Young Guns was easy to hum along to.
The next single, Club Tropicana follows a similar method.
all fucking tongue in cheek George Michael
REX FEATURES
TLFeBOOK
Wham! W
I dont think anyone is going to see it, George remarks,
because I dont think it means anything to anyone but us. It was
written about Le Beat Route and at the time the press were making
so many things out of clubs, as though a club was suddenly a
paradise when its just another way of spending an evening,
probably the best way of spending it, but its not that brilliant. MM 12 JULY 1986 PAGE 28
W
hatever else, there are some things
suntan free there, there was a beach there and your drinks were they cant take away from Wham!
They may have made real prats of
free. Everything was in this club.
themselves in the meantime, but Wham! Still gave
With the release of Club Tropicana, Wham! will also be us Wham Rap! and Young Guns (Go For It!),
undertaking a new skin. Dee and Shirley will be absent. anthems of a sort for youthful optimism and both
I think that Bad Boys is denitely the last thing that theyll go brilliant, brilliant singles.
Odd now to imagine it, but Young Guns in
on Top Of The Pops and do because one, theyve got other things
particular seemed to signify a bold new dream
that they want to do, and two, because people have got to see us as for the pop ethos, with its stirring brashness
less of a dance troupe and more as a band. I think it matters. and admirable arrogance in the face of
Why? A dance troupe is more interesting than a band. adversity while intelligently dofng
the cap to the new exciting black
Because, George explains, were being seen by so many
raps coming out of New York. Have You may Wake Me Up Before
people on a visual level. Were like a very young version of Bucks
Fizz. Two blokes and two girls who worked well visually only we
pride in the dole queue was the
message and it hit a nerve that
well have You Go-Go, for example, had
wit and originality and the
were very young. When we did Young Guns everybody said it touched all our hearts. loathed them, but mawkish Last Christmas
Which is exactly why such astutely integrated the
was so different and thats why it sold so quickly afterwards. But they will still have
scorn was heaped upon George traditions of Motown into
when you do something different it gets boring twice as quickly. and Andy when they dumped Michaels unerring ear for
Later on in the year Wham! will undertake their debut tour. the incorrigible sense of fun soundtracked compelling choruses.
They speak with enthusiasm of their ideas to have a 15-piece and adventure in favour of Club
Tropicana and fake suntans and
your youth The key to the whole thing
and the track that doomed Andrew
accompany them, how a DJ (current hot tip Capitals busy Gary
contrived videos and shuttlecocks Ridgeley is, of course, Careless
Crowley) will open the show with an hour of disco, and then after down the shorts. Whisper. Crushingly sentimental, it
the group has played, keep spinning so the show becomes more On this double album compilation the corpse nevertheless oozed class, gave George Michael
of a disco event, and how unseen Wham! videos will be shown is barely cold but the marketing clean-up goes on. instant respect as a songwriter and set him rmly
Nobodys saying George and Andrew should have on the path to being the new Paul McCartney.
throughout the evening.
spent their lives re-making dole queue raps, but It must have been Careless Whisper and the
Also on the horizon is a solo offering from George Michael the ruthlessness with which they set about selling reaction to it that convinced George that he had
which will be released later this year. Its a song that has been themselves as pop pin-ups was damn offensive. a deeper role to play than bouncing up and down
written for years, a soul ballad that wouldnt suit Wham! in their Listening back over the 15 tracks it is possible alongside the vacuous Ridgeley.
now to make a balanced judgement on their worth I suspect that in future years Wham! nostalgia
present format.
as a pure pop song, and while their sound was will reach unforeseen heights you may very
Its probably going to be bigger, asserts George, than always alarmingly thin and Michaels voice too weak well have loathed them, but they will still have
anything weve ever done before. The thing is, I just love the idea to successfully carry off something as vigorous as been responsible for the soundtrack to your youth
of being able to keep the identity of the band consistent singles Im Your Man. Wham! were a cut above the norm. and that is more important than music alone.
It was their unyielding gift for self-promotion that Cheers, boys.
wise. Weve got plans for the single that comes out as the rst 1984
was so obnoxious, not necessarily their records. Colin Irwin
Wham! single, and it will be a really stark contrast to my single.
TLFeBOOK
Wham! W
COME,
BITE So youre on for four Number Ones on the trot.
George: Well, the Christmas single is so commercial NME 26 MAY 1984 PAGE 16
in the imagination.
You dont see pictures of us whipping women. We dont abuse up along the way I should be writing better songs.
Allan Jones
women in any way. Amen.
TLFeBOOK
130 NME ORIGINALS
TLFeBOOK
X
is for ...
Y
ou nd yourself reading about
them
Sigue Sigue Dont be just another stuttering item on just
another edition of The Tube if you want it to be
Its been a long day, and it isnt
over yet. Sputnik a promise written: this is Sigue Sigue Sputnik pronounced
the way they want it to be and theres never been
The two juiciest members anything like it. Of course, all this depends on
of Sigue Sigue Sputnik of terror-spunk and flaming how seriously youre taking all this lather. The
pronounced Sic Sic Spitnack, trivia tarts have group do not take it seriously at all, because
just ballsed up their rst live television interview. gall fall headlong into a the whole point is that whatever happens they
The conspiracy boys, the coming linguists, the will have the last laugh isnt this so? That
heroes of excess have just been knobbled down Tube embarrassment. is, though, if anyone anywhere is laughing:
into the cobblestones of ordinariness by a nice girl really laughing.
at The Tube. Paul Morley hangs around Its been a long day, and it isnt over yet. Flash
The men whove threatened to poison a nation Tony isnt laughing. Does this mean he does take
with sado-pretence, disturbance and a revolutionary for the last laugh it all seriously? Is he kidding me? Is he just playing
type of wealth were given three minutes to advertise the game, acting out how youre meant to be when
their terror-spunk and aming gall. Nothing much NME 8 MARCH 1986 PAGE 30 you look silly on The Tube? Behind the pissed-off face, is
happened; they were reduced to a standard smug-up of giggle he laughing last? How do you feel, Tony?
and tiny spite, like Bauhaus on Blue Peter. Anyone watching must Terrible he quietly admits.
have thought, now heres a group who will dare to pull their tongue What about you, Martin?
out at Norris McWhirter. Hoorah! I was trying desperately hard to be clever. When you try
Its been a long day, and it isnt over yet. I refuse to let Sigue Sigue too hard, it never works.
Sputnik pronounced Splish Splish Phut Phut, ght fans get away Its harder doing something for real than promising the
with being so sweet and nervous. The two juices, Flash Tony world to yourself in interviews. For the moment, Flash Tony
James and Ravaging Martin Degville, will boast that there can has lost the rude sparkle in his dazzling blue eyes. He stutters,
be no end on earth to the triple-S delight, that they have the skills Its learning how to do it I think were going to be brilliant.
of Lew Grade, Sony, Orson Welles, Colonel Tom Parker, Ferrari, The only way to practise live TV is to do it
Little Richard, Howard Hughes, Richard Nixon, Walt Disney, I felt gushing, Martin gushes. It wasnt that bad, was it?
Bob Guccione, Stanley Kubrick, Bruce Forsyth, Noel Coward, Oh, I really dont care weve learnt a lot today I now know
Roy Liechtenstein, Jack The Ripper, Beau Brummel and Norman what you have to do to you really need to prepare you have
Mailer smashed together, so what can they expect? Charity? to take complete control.
?? N MN EM EO ROIRGIIGNIANLASL S
132
TLFeBOOK
X Certicate X
We nd ourselves walking along a corridor towards The Tube
interview. Flash Tony and Marty Degville beam with condence,
lapping up the world and its fortunes, charging along in their red
stilettos as if they were hover-boots. What can stop them?
I nd myself listening to Flash Tony James: This is it. Theres
no stopping us. We can win in any arena. I can see no limit to
earning money its all going absolutely how we want it. There
we are, signed to EMI. Thats great, those initials, they just seem to
sum up the music industry for me. What a way to start. Sending
in our lawyer Whatever Spandau Ballet got, whatever Sade
got, we want twice as much all on the back of a video we made
ourselves with two video recorders! We want to wind everybody
up. Everybody. For the sheer glee of it. People are so scared about
music. Im not. We get so much venom from other groups slagging
us off when they cant possibly even have heard us what fun!
He laughs, of course.
I nd myself thinking: Flash Tony, hes a little old fashioned
really, out of a gaping groping Nik Cohn novel from 1969 when Wed like to see
anyone be as smart,
times were simpler and rocknroll was a steady signal and you
thin and good
could never have imagined Phil Collins, Gary Davies and Norman looking as us
Tebbit forming a supergroup to only make compact discs.
going to live out such a fantasy, and then were going to completely
ignore the old rock cycle there is no limit and you know we
There we are, signed to EMI. We told our lawyer, became a really big group before we even made a record
Whatever Spandau Ballet got, whatever Sade That was funny, in this little village. But now youve made a
record, and all you can do is add to the statistics of rock.
got, we want twice as much Tony James But were such a big group already
Not bigger than Go West.
No, but were bigger in all the other ways.
Whatever that means. We all laugh.
I nd myself interviewing Flash and Ravage in a public house
opposite the Tyne Tees studio. Flash isnt too happy about the Have the triple-S wonder driven a diamond dagger up the
venue for the interview: who is? nations backside this week, or are they just another funny name
Oh dear, we adjourned to the pub to get the interview done for the DJs to giggle with? In one way they are the perfect group for
Well, youve spent too much time in a Melody Maker world: this lengthening moment, a brattish symbol of the violent greed
thats part of your problem anyway, the toy town world that that separates Aaron Spelling from the churning of whingeing
youve easily conquered because Go West are apparently the best mob, a small exploding sign of a time when accelerating
new group of the moment and the alternative are Biscuits from helicopters replace Saturday afternoon horse racing. They knew,
Liverpool singing songs about Fred Titmus and Nerys Hughes supremely, that the smashing st hitting the splashing esh in a
like it was a real laugh or something. Youve had it easy, Flash: now Rocky or two was gripping the civilised world. They saw that its
show me something. the slash, click sizzzz, the super-sensual touch and t of the 30-
Well show everybody that no-ones gone anywhere near second commercial thats the start of persuasion: that the video,
showing off what can be done within rocknroll, what can in this desolate post A-Ha age, pumps up more information for
be done next well go beyond this toy town world, out into the enclosed consumer than the sound of the single. Plant a mad
nance, leisure, ve real stars actually being the directors of a NME 22 FEBRUARY 1986 PAGE 8 haircut on top of all that! And it may seem obvious now but they
multi-national company? I think we have the intelligence and the SIGUE SIGUE thought of it rst and Ill be sending Cliff Richard along to sing
ability to deal with the bigger world of rock we want to be out SPUTNIK Congratulations.
and about among those tough bastards LOVE MISSILE F1-11 So pause for the academic part. More than just a well thought
Parlophone
Do you pride yourself on being comfortable elitists; so superior, out plan teasing us hopeless theoreticians? More than just being
so sure? The fact that Sigue Sigue good for the industry, as some of my friends would say? More than
Sputnik have already
Absolutely. The opposite of punk. Not everyone can do what blown it shouldnt put
just a new centre spread in the glossy magazines? Hands up those
were doing. Not anyone can do what were going to do, or, anyone you off. But blown it they who hope it is. Lets nd Martin to see what he thinks. Hes standing
can do it but wed like to see them try. Wed like to see anyone be have. See, when you go in front of a monitor thats transmitting the reverend Kerr.
as smart, thin and good looking as us. for the hype you dont I dont think Ill ever end up in a situation like Jim Kerr. Im
tell anyone about it. You
We werent all born with such a vision, I say, thinking for a just do it. And then brag.
looking for new possibilities in success. I want to be successful and
moment Im talking to The Runaways or what You learn from the recent yet never out of touch with things. I dont want to be someone
Yeah, its a shit isnt it? Its a shit for the fat uglies isnt life Eighth Wonder asco whos made into a pop icon and then doesnt know how to save
tragic and the way they were himself. I dont want to become David Bowie or Mick Jagger.
totally mismanaged.
What do you believe in, Tony? The Great British Public
What do you think is wrong with them?
Alright for a start, theres nothing in the Virgin Megastore may be gullible but Theyve manipulated an awful lot of people and theyve
that I would cross the road for so I believe in making this they werent, in this become clichs of themselves.
exciting in every detail, even the details that you cannot see. instance, stupid, because Why are you so concerned about them cheating people when
as everyone knows the
This is obviously why the boy pop writers suck your cocks, but people who pay for the
youre only concerned about yourself?
in this day and age, after all weve been through this past 30 years, hype in the end are the I am concerned about myself because with my ability I think
it doesnt half sound boring Great British Public. And I can offer people hope because I dont want to live off the success
But it doesnt have to be boring. Just because people time and quite why they should people give me. Thats why I wouldnt cheat people. The public
pay for a song that lacks
time again get their success and then mess it up doesnt mean we melody and makes that
make you into a pop icon and I dont think I could turn round and
have to. The ideas of rocknroll can be taken and applied to other say, Well, thanks for all the money, fuck you and goodbye.
RETNA/REX FEATURES
ERS
DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNN
TLFeBOOK
Dexys share a
joke with the
NME snapper,
Birmingham 1980
Overnight Bag
Sensations NME 14 JUNE 1980 PAGE 28
B
smash but it wont
irmingham is the miserably mangled product rocknroll.
make Number One like
of 20 years unwary architectural endeavours. you know what. Great In 1977 he emerged at the head of one of that years many
Its a town lled with subways, precincts and fun with an irresistible independent thrash outts, The Killjoys. The group also included
multi-levelled monstrosities. Everywhere rhythm and delicious Al Archer. They released one record, Johnny Wont Get To
brass riffs. Powerhouse
catacombs of screaming trafc go under, over Heaven, a wry little send up of the image Malcy was constructing
rhythm section, great
and around pedestrian bystanders. vocals. The sheer for Johnny and the Pistols. The group soon fell apart however.
The eight guys who comprise Dexys Midnight Runners exuberance is almost When The Killjoys started I was really interested in punk.
live in this town. Singularly and collectively theyre a sullen, contagious. Having I read about it and I thought it was the greatest thing that had
built up the pressure
suspicious and reserved bunch. They dress in austere anti-style, happened in ages. But then I got disillusioned.
and excitement with
straightforward, sensible and workmanlike. ruthless skill the band, Unable to reconcile his own creative desires with those of the
Their expressions are tight-lipped and impenetrable, as we set inexplicably, sneak in rest of the band, Rowland retreated to a rich, untapped vein of
off on a guided tour of Brum and some of the haunts they frequent. a quiet interlude so heartwarming music from the 60s. Rasping brass, shimmering
that they can carry on
We stop at a caf in Digbeth where I drink tea and wonder how organ and alluring passionate vocals.
trucking again. They
REDFERNS/DAVID CORIO
the natives play pinball without any ippers on the machine. shouldnt have bothered Al and me talked about the group after The Killjoys split up.
Just back from a 40-date UK tour and with Geno at Number but thats a small beef. Wed listened to lots of Geno, Otis Reading, Aretha Franklin, Sam
One in the charts, Dexys have to start getting used to the fact that Great record. & Dave, Cliff Bennett and loads of other people. We just wanted
Martyn Sutton
theyre hot property. Everywhere we go people stop and talk. to form our own band and go out and do it.
with the press Kevin Rowland I dont think they have. Have they? I dont know, I never read
their interviews. Perhaps I should. But it sounds pretty much like
rock and roll to me, what they do, its got its roots in rock. The
Sex Pistols were a real Chuck Berry band like the Stones. Anyway,
I think theyve built up this black and white world where Public Image are signed to Virgin thats a big capitalist label.
everyone hates Nazis, likes Joe Strummer, eats brown rice, rebels Ouch! But you record for EMI.
against their parents, takes speed and doesnt smoke dope. They The reason we signed with EMI was because theyve got
totally believe in it, theyre engrossed by it. The most depressing absolutely no image and our groups got a very strong image.
thing is that now bands have come along and geared themselves to Weve got total control at EMI. We could have had our own
it. Bands have responded to the press and the press are loving it. label but there seemed to be no point. We signed for an advance
NME 26 JUNE 1982 PAGE 25
The thing is, this world isnt so black and white. Its a lot more of 10,000 and we had to hustle for that, they asked for specic
complicated than the press see it. They dont do nearly enough, they DEXYS breakdowns of how the money would be spent. We lost 4,000 on
dont live in the right places and they dont do the right things. They MIDNIGHT the tour and even before it began we had incurred loads of bills.
RUNNERS
should have a lot more people going round researching to nd out COME ON EILEEN
Geno got to Number One just because its as crisp and clear as
what is really happening. Mercury
an icebreaker, not just because its an affectionate salutation to the
This might be the last interview we do actually. Ever since I claimed their most underrated musician Kevin Rowland ever had the pleasure
Why? LP was the greatest thing to see (three times, actually). Dexys put it over in a way that makes
in all of the world Ive
Were just totally disillusioned with the press. Weve never been secretly avoiding
you believe their love, their respect, is very real indeed. Obviously
really been represented properly. If were not represented this time Dexys Midnight Runners they are starting to inuence others.
itll be the last one. for fear that I might be Id like to see the charts lled with soul, loads of feeling
Maybe Dexys are being standofsh, but maybe theyre just being confronted with the lie, everywhere. I mean other people can have their musical choice
but this single comes as a
strong and God knows, that is a very valuable commodity. shock. Come On Eileen
and exist but soul hasnt been around at all. I just think, I really
I ramble out a question asking them how much loyalty they owe is good enough to give believe in my heart that rock and roll music is a spent creative
to these kids, noting how groups with lots of members seem to them another Number force, totally.
attract many youngsters who can identify with a crowd of jostling One record. Its spry and
merry, cobbled together
bodies onstage. with ne-plucked
I left Dexys feeling that they were a bunch of weirdos, but when
Yeah, from our point of view they certainly do. But before we mandolins, sawn ddles I thought about it for a while they began to appear a lot less weird
go any further I want to say this: were not going to start fucking and tack piano and still and a lot more sensible. I certainly wouldnt worry too much
preaching about what were going to do. Were not going to be like retains that Geno style about not being able to comprehend the totality of the group. Id
Northern soul refrain
The Clash or any of those other arseholes that say, Were going to for the chorus. Here is
much prefer to listen to their records or see them onstage, because
do this for the kids, weve gotta responsibility to the kids or Were the liveliest and freshest thats where they work out: with sass, with swing and with soul.
going to get a place for bands to rehearse and give all our money back sound on a Britsh 45 this Ah yes, soul. Its what were talking about! S-O-U-L. Soul! Soul?
to the kids. Were not going to say anything like that and then turn week. Folky rather than Its impossible to dene. I nd it in music that Kevin Rowland
funky. Why does that last
around six months time and not do them. Weve got really strong sentence worry me?
nds redundant. Its a universal quality that applies to all great
plans on what we want to do, much much more sincere and much music. I hear it in Public Image, I hear it in Joy Division and bless
REDFERNS
Danny Baker
more useful than anything The Clash have even talked about. my cotton socks if I dont hear it in Dexys.
TLFeBOOK
NME ORIGINALS 137
TLFeBOOK
i
Z
s for ...
138N MN EM EO ROIRGIIGNIANLASL S
??
TLFeBOOK
Zang Tumb Tuum Z
The important thing is to recognise that the root of rock is the
put-on and the take-off.
In Sarm West, the west London recording studio owned by
Trevor Horn and his wife/business partner Jill Sinclair, appointed
press handler Paul Morley leans forward to consider the words.
To ensure objectivity he hasnt been told who wrote them or who
they are about. Hes simply been asked if they could fruitfully be
applied to the TAON.
Yeah, Id certainly agree with the put-on and the take-off bit.
Thats been a very important element of what we do in this blue
building. Parody you see, people always accuse what we do of
being serious. The people who accuse you of being intellectual are
usually the ones who are taking you seriously and dont see what TAON white out
and (below)
youre trying to do is put-on and take-off.
Queen of Noise
This is not to be the usual band interview, as the presence Anne Dudley
of Morley obviously signies. Jeczalik turns up towards the end
but by then the most interesting grounds already been covered.
Far from reecting some awkwardness or casual perversity, the
TAONs anonymous image is deliberately planned. The style
of their photographs (no faces shown, often no bodies shown)
mirrors a prole kept carefully in the shadows. references to the absurdism and desire to shock of the Dadaists.
Morley, former pet enfant terrible on the NME and now a An inkling that turns out to be not so far from the truth.
member of the ZTT board, assumes the role of thinker, schemer. The European-ness of ZTTs Propaganda is obvious, the
If Horn is the heart of The Art Of Noise, Morleys the dreamer. As Teutonic avour of their Dr Mabuse underlined by the echoes of
a writer whose prose nally degenerated into a tediously obscure German expressionism in the video. But what about TAON?
form of self-indulgence, its interesting to nd that in person In a way, they are raiding the 20th Century, in terms of it
hes lucid and direct. He virtually interviews himself, gabbling being an incredible century in terms of whats happened, in terms
through his ideas at a furious number of words per minute. of discovery, and combat, the fury of the century, the tension of it.
The Art Of Noise came together during the time when
McLaren wasnt in the studio for the recording of Duck Rock,
he explains. Horn, Fairlight operator Jeczalik, engineer Langan Rock groups seem to borrow from within a very
and classically-trained musician Dudley would mess around in
the studio, come up with odd combinations of sound. specic era, so it just gets weaker until it disappears
And then, because we wanted to develop the unit, the fth
part became not necessarily me, but the record label, in a in a puff of Howard Jones Paul Morley
way, they became the frame so that the TAON didnt become an
anonymous, nonsensical thing. Instead of McLaren it was ZTT
who gave it shape and content. Rock groups just seem to borrow from within a very specic era
I hated the stereotypical notion of the pop group, and what for their stuff, so it gets weaker and weaker until it just disappears
weve tried to do with everything weve signed though it wasnt into a puff of Howard Jones.
so obvious with Frankie was a unit of communication that What comes across with great strength from TAON is the
wasnt the pop group or the rock group, because it seemed the sense of breeziness, of curiosity. Some of the greatest music arises
very format was stiing the amount of creativity or invention that not from a pre-planned scheme or genius-like vision but from
could come through. So TAON was set up as a kind of innovative the natural instinct of inquisitiveness. Modern studio technology
idea to the group. possesses a mind-boggling capacity for creation if put into the
At the moment theres a demand for the instant hit and we hands of those who hunger for exploration, invention and fun.
wanted to try and generate the kind of patience there used to be Thats the point, says Morley. Theres no need to go in with
once upon a time where a record label was interested enough in any plan, it just comes up. Its an accidental music. I agree with
the music of the group as banal as that sounds to encourage you. I cant understand how when you review the singles you get
them to nd out themselves. 90 singles, why 89 are so awful because that beautiful room in
Morley speaks of dredging up the European tradition and there (he points towards the studio) is gorgeous.
applying it to a pop context. Perhaps this isnt so surprising; Anyone who has any dedication to what they do, any creative
MM 27 OCTOBER 1984 PAGE 26
the style of ZTTs sleevenotes is obviously inspired by the Italian energy, can not go into a room like that and come out with some
futurist manifestos, and Ive always suspected hed defend the THE ART
OF NOISE awful record. I dont know what happens. TAON records sound
more outrageous excesses of his pickled prose with CLOSE (TO THE EDIT) like theyve been made in that kind of room, whereas you hear
ZTT
Howard Jones or Nik Kershaw or the Thompson Twins, it sounds
Twelve bar blues taken like it was made in a mental hospital or something. Its almost as
Propaganda:
to its illogical extreme. if theyre scared of that room.
ZTTs Teutonic
Good farting noises
street preachers
on it. Im sure itll be
Hearing such wonderfully wicked vitriol, I could almost
a hit, but what does it forgive Morley for making Haircut 100 respectable. Ive always
mean? It also wins the felt that Morleys sloppily dened new-pop ethic helped pave the
award for the most way for the new-MOR, in the same way that Callaghans social-
pretentious sleevenotes
of the week, if not the
service-cutting Labour government softened people up for the
century. Trevor Horn is Tory onslaught. Those who sow should reap, you might say.
an excellent producer Me? OK, I forgive. Bitching between writers is like a couple
but theres something arguing over who didnt put the cat out in front of their friends.
about the karma of ZTT
And quite frankly, that was then but this is now.
REX FEATURES/TIM JARVIS
The Associates
prepare to deliver
NME 8 MAY 1982 PAGE 12
their budget
statement
ABC
THE LOOK OF LOVE
Vertigo
140N MN EM EO ROIRGIIGNIANLASL S
??
TLFeBOOK
MM 20 FEBRUARY 1982 PAGE 12 MM 3 APRIL 1982 PAGE 27 NME 19 MAY 1984 PAGE 22
DOLLAR GRANDMASTER
MIRROR MIRROR FLASH & THE
WEA FURIOUS FIVE
The positive pop fans THE MESSAGE
Sugarhill
answer to Bucks Fizz,
Dollar make records The Message is one
which full their of the most mesmeric
functions with ease. records youre likely to
Trevor Horns production hear. Ever.
does much the same for The Message is
the smart blonde duo part of a great tradition
as Martin Rushent has in black music which
done for Altered Images. thrives on alertness and
Mirror Mirror is the best prides itself on morality
record Abba never made. and strength. As an
Gavin Martin incisive contemporary
overview on the inner-
city malaise it is without
parallel and combines
the breakdancing teams
presently setting New
York alight to make a
truly potent upheaval
of the soul tradition.
And when you compare
the sass and conviction
of this to any of our
MM 30 OCTOBER 1982 PAGE 23 homegrown pork pie and
pint punk poets or so-
A FLOCK OF called mobile, energetic
Dollar: makers
SEAGULLS new pop groups you get
WISHING (IF I HAD the impression some
of the best
A PHOTOGRAPH people arent telling the
record Abba
OF YOU) truth. Get The Message?
never made Jive
Gavin Martin
If I was 14 and madly
in love Id sit at home
and play it all day and
cry my eyes out. Pure
melancholia for the
lovelorn. Sad lyrics
and sweet melody in
an electro-pop vein
combine to produce a
great pop song.
Caroline Harper
MM 10 NOVEMBER 1984 PAGE ?? MM 1 JUNE 1985 PAGE 27 NME 4 MAY 1985 PAGE 17
have severe difculty standpoint. FYC are Roland Gift in soundscaping and a
in getting the average immediately important. of FIne Young song. Its no King Heroin, jarring, lest we forget,
human being out of bed Johnny come on home, Cannibals: its Grandmaster Trash anti-war statement. You
in the morning. wont you? soul miner and The Spurious Jive! should hear it.
Barry McIiheney Martin Aston Gavin Martin Danny Kelly
TLFeBOOK
MM 10 OCTOBER 1981 PAGE 23 NME 26 JUNE 1982 PAGE 25 NME 15 JANUARY 1983 PAGE 15
Arista Regard
HF are smart because
Incorporating touches The single of the trite theyre Number One
of salsa and rap into poster campaign. Two in countries whose
one gloriously cohesive and a half modern teenagers can still afford
whole, the Haircuts day hippies white, to buy records. Smart
deliver a danceoor dreadlocks, big brimmed because they appeal
beauty of furious hats, odd clothes in straight over our heads
frenetic funk, belied by curtain patterns, no to Eurokids who come
the singers innocent socks try to foist to London in search of
vocals. Theres some another amalgam of artful dreadies while we
great horn work around dance inuences onto look to gaunt German
the middle followed by a us. The song should technicians to conjure
steamy sax solo. be free and crazy the real post-EEC
Just another example but actually sounds Europa. Theyre even
of how rocks main winsome and windy. smart enough for Clive
centre has been totally (Note for fanzines: when Langer, who is clearly
destroyed leaving space interviewing Haysi quite happy to move
for everything to come Fantayzee ask them from the melancholy
through. Which is why what the title means. Shipbuilding to this
Heaven 17 never
this will make the old How did it come about? nonsense nursery
liked to miss
guard throw up their Was there ever another ditty. Battle Hymns For
an episode of
hands in despair. mix? Stuff like that) Children Singing, the
Grange Hill
Paolo Hewitt Danny Baker title of a forthcoming LP,
signies the dawn of the
post-McLaren age.
Barney Hoskyns
HEAVEN 17
MM 9 APRIL 1983 PAGE 22
(WE DONT NEED
THIS) FASCIST HEAVEN 17
GROOVE THANG TEMPTATION
Virgin Virgin
KING
MM 4 OCTOBER 1980 PAGE 19
MM 24 APRIL 1982 PAGE 23 LOVE & PRIDE
CBS
ORCHESTRAL
KID CREOLE Guess who I saw the MANOEUVRES
AND THE other night? Perry IN THE DARK
COCONUTS Haines, architect of new ENOLA GAY
IM A WONDERFULL youth fashion mobility
Dindisc
Hewitt Esq. For you, got a right to express forward with condence
but not for me, pal. their individuality!! and a sure sense of
Suave Latinos smooth This is the group Perry their own identity.
round danceoors has been hawking The melodys soft,
and fail to convince around town for the reassuring, carried
me that theres any past few years. Its by the synthesizer
heart beneath the gormless, ascetic, over stream and Andy
ash clothes. Music for busy London club-goers McCluskeys effectively OMD: jumper-
mannequins. dance music. downbeat vocal. wearers of the
Patrick Humphries Gavin Martin Allan Jones year, 1980
TLFeBOOK
MM 25 FEBRUARY 1984 PAGE 22 NME 13 APRIL 1985 PAGE 17 NME 12 NOVEMBER 1983 PAGE 20
Signed by Virgin for The band that all but Thompson Twins how
a sum that probably disappeared in the NME did it happen? Can we
caused an outbreak of readers poll return with blame Sadkin? Sadkin
severe heart tremors at a swirling rock anthem. is beginning to pull out
the local branch of the But where they once of the Twins playroom
Nat West when he tried painted a misty canvas of hes credited on the label,
to cash his advance, European romanticism, but not on the sleeve,
Green returns to active Simple Minds now which means someone
duty with an elaborate conjure up an image of forgot he turned up.
conceit bordering on heads bobbing in an With or without him the
a grand folly. This is American stadium. Twins pull out two of the
the kind of modern This single is taken nine stops available to
funk David Bowie from the lm soundtrack them. Are they capable of
probably thought he of The Breakfast Club. pulling out all the stops?
was delivering on Lets When one considers If I knew what that meant
Dance. Ignore its more that the core of the I would tell you. This is
sweeping pretensions, group Kerr, Burchill, certainly the rst Twins
though and be seduced Forbes and McNeill bit that hasnt made me
by its sway, its audacity have been together for scream in fright dont
and ironic charm. eight years, it is hardly the Twins scare you? Oh
I fear it will only surprising that singer youre lucky. With this
exasperate the chaps and musicians strike single, not only is Sadkin
at Broadcasting House, up a rare empathy in disappearing but also the
however, so its chances their performance, the music. Theres not much
of enlivening the soaring voice gliding left: the music disappears
nations airwaves may be
Sade: forehead nimbly through the until all thats remaining
dangerously restricted.
and shoulders cloudily-hewn rock mix. is the cartoon, the locks,
Allan Jones
above the rest Adrian Thrills the pigtail, the peaked
hat. A pop joke. Or would
it be satire?
Paul Morley
SADE
MM 24 MAY 1986 PAGE 31 MM 6 JUNE 1981 PAGE 24
SMOOTH OPERATOR
PET SHOP BOYS THE Epic
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EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS: Anthony Ireland, Emma Beddard, Susan Forrest, Susanna Grant, Phil King
THANKS TO: LFI (cover image), Jill Furmanovsky/www.rockarchive.com, Tom Sheehan, Brian Aris, Pennie Smith, Peter Anderson, Justin
Thomas, Sarah Watson, ZTT Records, Corbis, Karen Walter, Alex Needham, Michael Chapman, Paul Lester, Simon Houghton, Mark
Hammerton, Sweet Memories, Crysi Slut, Rob Porter, Harvinder Chadha, Will Stanbridge, Katie Sherman, Joe Winfield
All reasonable efforts have been made to obtain copyright clearance and acknowledge the source of material used in the magazine. If you
should have been contacted or credited please e-mail cat_goodwin@ipcmedia.com.
Check out the NME Originals web site: www.nmeoriginals.com
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