Tabla de contenidos para April 2020 en Classic Pop

CLASSIC POP WELCOME There’s a little Sliding Doors-style moment in our cover feature this month that quite possibly changed the course of modern history. Picture this. It’s 1984 and Bob Geldof is kicking back at the London offices of The Boomtown Rats’ record label Mercury after a day of meetings brainstorming ideas to boost the fortunes of their single Dave. The third release from the band’s sixth studio album In The Long Grass was doing rather lacklustre chart business at the time. After the meetings wrap up, Bob turns on the office TV and watches Michael Buerk’s powerful BBC news report about the famine in Ethiopia. The shocking footage would provoke an extraordinary reaction from Geldof–firstly the rapid-fire response of the Do They Know It’s Christmas? single, followed the next…

THE WONDER THE ASSEMBLY NEVER NEVER Maybe it’s churlish to describe The Assembly as one-hit wonders, considering the chart hits that two of those who were part of the project were previously and subsequently responsible for, but Never Never nonetheless ended up as their only recording. As if to prove it hadn’t been a fantastic waste of time, the single was released at the end of 1983. Intrigue over two guys from opposite ends of new wave working together aided its rise, but ultimately it was a terrific electronic arrangement from Vince Clarke and a soaring vocal from Feargal Sharkey. The track shot straight into the Top 40 and was at No.4 within a fortnight. It was joined in the Top 10 for a further two weeks by another Clarke…

THE POD SQUAD THE FIRST IN A NEW SERIES OF CLASSIC POP-FRIENDLY PODCAST PROFILES No.1 DAVID ORWICK THE D SIDE What’s your podcast about? We look at how music affects you–it’s about starting a conversation from these various points. There are interviews with fans, authors, music journalists and artists. There are also my solo episodes where I analyse a specific album. Recently, we did Duran Duran’s Seven And The Ragged Tiger. How did you get into podcasting? I’ve run the Duran Duran fan Twitter account @BoysMakeNoise for a number of years. There, it’s all about the music, the collectables, the fan experience. I’m more of a talker than a writer, so I thought a podcast would suit me more. After preparing ideas and learning the technology, the podcast launched in…

CLASSIC ALBUM DISINTEGRATION THE PLAYERS ROBERT SMITH Now 60 and still rocking the all-black togs and slathered-on makeup look that has been his trademark for the past four decades, Robert Smith is still going strong as The Cure’s quietly charismatic frontman. Concurrent to his early work with The Cure, Smith was lead guitarist for Siouxsie And The Banshees from 1982 to 1984, and also part of the short-lived Banshees splinter group The Glove. SIMON GALLUP Gallup joined The Cure in 1979, replacing Michael Dempsey on bass guitar. He left in 1982, following a fist fight with Robert Smith in a Strasbourg nightclub and formed The Cry (later Fools Dance) a year later. In 1984, he rejoined The Cure and has remained with them ever since (aside from a short break…

MADONNA: 30 YEARS OF BLOND AMBITION The Greatest Show On Earth HITTING THE ROAD TO PROMOTE HER CONFESSIONAL OPUS LIKE A PRAYER, 30 YEARS AGO, MADONNA’S BLOND AMBITION TOUR WAS A NON-STOP EROTIC CABARET BLENDING SEX, RELIGION AND SPECTACLE. TAKING ELEMENTS OF BROADWAY, HIGH FASHION AND UNDERGROUND GAY CULTURE TO SPORTS STADIUMS, IT REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE AND INFLUENTIAL PRODUCTIONS OF ALL TIME. MARK LINDORES Madonna’s recent Madame X tour may have thrilled fans due to the fact that they were given the rare opportunity of seeing their idol in such close proximity, but it’s also been by far her most divisive live show among the star’s admirers. A quick scroll through the comments sections of her social media platforms or fan forums and you’ll see the infighting;…

CLASSIC POP TOP TEN WEEK ENDING 4 APRIL 1982 THIS MONTH, THE GOOMBAY DANCE BAND CELEBRATE THEIR FIRST (AND LAST) NO.1 AND CHAS & DAVE BRING SOME COCKNEY TO THE TOP 10 STEVE O’BRIEN 01 (1) SEVEN TEARS GOOMBAY DANCE BAND (EPIC) 7TH WEEK ON CHART 02 (5) MY CAMERA NEVER LIES BUCKS FIZZ (RCA) 3RD WEEK ON CHART 03 (2) JUST AN ILLUSION IMAGINATION (R&B) 6TH WEEK ON CHART 04 (7) AIN’T NO PLEASING YOU CHAS & DAVE (ROCKNEY) 5TH WEEK ON CHART 05 (9) GHOSTS JAPAN (VIRGIN) 4TH WEEK ON CHART 06 (18) MORE THAN THIS ROXY MUSIC (EG) 2ND WEEK ON CHART 07 (15) GIVE ME BACK MY HEART DOLLAR (WEA) 3RD WEEK ON CHART 08 (4) LAYLA DEREK AND THE DOMINOES (RSO) 6TH WEEK ON CHART…

2O21 VISION Next year marks 40 years since Bucks Fizz swept to victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with Making Your Mind Up . “We’ve got big plans,” promises Cheryl. “We’ve got various venues booked already. It would be great if we can get something released around the anniversary, which is 4 April. Go to Europe – maybe Dublin, where we won.” “I’d love to do Dublin on 4 April,” agrees Mike, who was born in the city 65 years ago. “That’s where it all started,” says Cheryl. “I remember being taken up to this room [after winning], and being surrounded by a sea of photographers. It was just hundreds of faces and cameras. And we all thought: our lives have just changed, in that split second. “That silly song gave us…

ENGINEERING A COLLABORATION For the last decade, Roachford has been enjoying a second wind as lead vocalist in Mike + The Mechanics, the extra-curricular project of Genesis’ Mike Rutherford. To date, Roachford has written and recorded two albums of original material with Mike, 2011’s The Road and 2017’s Let Me Fly, as well as 2019’s Out Of The Blue, which mainly reworks some classic Mechanics hits. “There was an old Top Of The Pops from 1989 on television the other day, and Mike + The Mechanics were two places above me in the same week,” says Roachford. “We were in the Top Four. And that’s bizarre, because I remember seeing them, never dreaming that I’d be singing lead vocals with the band after Paul Carrack. I literally got a phone…

Reviews ROACHFORD TWICE IN A LIFETIME BMG Listening to Andrew Roachford MBE’s first album since 2013’s This Beautiful Moment, one gets the sense he was keen to crack the formula that helped The Dap-Kings bring the late Sharon Jones to attention, or to revive the magic Mark Ronson conjured up for Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. That, one assumes, is why Jimmy Hogarth, a lover of 60s soul who worked on Winehouse’s debut, Frank, is behind the desk this time, bringing with him members of Amy’s band. Nonetheless, hearing a track like Too Much To Lose or Once In A Lifetime, whose old school grooves bring to mind Al Green – notably his Let’s Stay Together – one sometimes wishes Roachford’s accompaniment were as raw as his gritty, Green-like vocal.…

LÅPSLEY THROUGH WATER XL RECORDINGS “I’ve been working on myself while I’ve been away,” Holly Lapsley Fletcher sings on First, one of her second album’s prettiest songs. Indeed, having shaped her debut, 2016’s Long Way Home, in conjunction with a throng of collaborators, she’s chosen (largely) to go it alone, taking, she says, “complete ownership” of its follow-up. One thing she’s not relinquished, though, is her fondness for pitch-shifting, a habit one might consider compulsive. It’s odd she’s so committed to the trick: hers is a warm, melancholic voice which, when left to its own devices, as at the start of Ligne 3 – where she leans elegantly into the melody – doesn’t feel like something to disguise. But, apparently, “it’s not that easy letting go”, as the song’s nasal,…

Reviews ROGER ENO & BRIAN ENO MIXING COLOURS DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON This isn’t the first time, of course, that Roger Eno has paired up with older brother Brian. Though denied a headline slot, he can be found prominently on Eno’s classic Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks. Remarkably, however, this is the first time they’ve shared equal billing, and it’s no wonder the tradition had to change. Improvised by Roger over 15 years, these 18 tracks were only sent to Brian to add the cerebral, soothing – you guessed it – ambience familiar to fans of his more esoteric work. That such tinkering was apparently normally undertaken during train journeys suits their escapist mood: a welcome sense that one’s going nowhere but getting somewhere defines their meditative nature. Nonetheless, these aren’t blurred, aimless…

REN HARVIEU REVEL IN THE DRAMA BELLA UNION Having recovered from the frustrations her 2012 debut bequeathed her – and a broken spine! – Harvieu returns at last. With its timeless, studied songwriting, Revel… boasts a cabaret-esque quality: Strange Thing’s a string-adorned, dynamic carnival and Cruel Disguise’s twanging guitars and growling organs confirm its title’s dark dramas. Her rich, empathetic vocal, meanwhile, swoops gracefully from note to note, sometimes playful (the redemptive Tomorrow’s Girl Today) but more often forlorn (the mournful You Don’t Know Me). WW…

JACK HUES PRIMITIF DAWN CHORUS RECORDINGS Jack Hues hasn’t exactly been quiet since Wang Chung first broke up 30 years ago. There have been film soundtracks and – they’re his inverted commas – ‘jazz’ quartets, while he and bassist Nick Feldman have also revived the 80s mainstays over the last decade. It was a series of personal losses, however, which provoked him to make his first solo album, and while that suggests this may be something of a misery memoir, it’s in fact as rowdy as it’s contemplative. Indeed, it regularly sounds like he’s having a grand time: Whitstable Beach’s awkward time signature betrays a love for prog rock while its guitars imply an admiration for Sonic Youth, and Winter’s cautious restraint and palpitating simplicity is inventive enough to seem…

BAXTER DURY THE NIGHT CHANCERS HEAVENLY RECORDINGS “I’m not your fucking friend,” Baxter Dury mumbles impatiently as his sixth album stumbles out of the darkness. “I’m trying to be, though”, he adds, before a bevy of nonchalant French females, like extras in a Serge Gainsbourg biopic, shuffle on to emphasise his point. He maintains this gumshoe guise throughout this delightful mix of Leonard Cohen, The Streets and Sleaford Mods, strings dancing behind his morose delivery on Carla’s Got A Boyfriend and sounding most like his father, Ian, on Slumlord, which unravels like a drunken take on Bowie’s Let’s Dance. WW…

ROBERT FORSTER DANGER IN THE PAST / CALLING FROM A COUNTRY PHONE CHERRY RED Following the acclaim of the recent first two volumes of The Go-Betweens’ trilogy of boxsets, singer Robert Forster reissues his first two solo albums, handily arriving on the 30th anniversary of his debut Danger In The Past. That album had more of a sense of unrest and danger than Forster’s old band, but we’re talking small degrees. Really, what Danger In The Past offered was nine more songs as richly delivered and beautifully chiselled as the ones he’d always written separately from Grant McLennan’s half of a Go-Betweens album. The same applies to Calling From A Country Phone, which arrived three years later. This time, Forster’s lyrical doubts were even stronger than before, but were set to…

SPICE GIRLS SPICEWORLD / THE GREATEST HITS UMC/VIRGIN EMI Back out on vinyl, second Spice album Spiceworld is all about the singles. Stop ended their run of six No.1s, but it’s their greatest tune. Nobody can deny the headrush of Spice Up Your Life either. But the rest has more filler than Jimmy Carr’s forehead. Now out on audiophile heavyweight vinyl after a picture disc release, The Greatest Hits is the only Spice album anyone really needs. When the quartet got stuck into a big tune, they were unstoppable and their best pop carries more heft than mere nostalgia. JE…

OUR CONTRIBUTORS Best known for editing Teletext’s music pages Planet Sound in the 2000s, John Earls has also written about pop for the Sunday People, News Of The World, Daily Star and NME. This month, John meets The Boomtown Rats, Roland Orzabal and Michael Bolton before helming our reissues section. Mark Lindores grew up during the golden age of pop mags, devouring Smash Hits and Number One. He now writes about the artists he used to read about in Classic Pop, Total Film and Mixmag. In our latest issue, Mark oversees our book reviews and looks back at Madonna’s iconic Blond Ambition tour0.–after 30 years it remains one of the most influential live shows of all time. Paul Kirkley makes his living interviewing famous people with much more interesting and…

LOST & FOUND BON JOVI BON JOVI Bon Jovi’s first album doesn’t instantly point to the likely creation of a global hair rockin’ monster, but it’s still an enjoyable debut. It struggles to know what kind of album it wants to be, and hindsight throws up stacks of muscular metal clichés, but in 1983 fewer of them existed, and the exuberance and youth of Jon Bon Jovi carries a lot of regulation thumpalong stadium tunes without resorting to dragging them with him. Opener–and debut single–Runaway, with its Hold The Line synth riff, is a decent melody; there are further signs of the rock god learning curve with the relentlessness of Come Back, the harsh guitar and huge drums of Breakout and the anthemic quality of Roulette. Album closer Get Ready…

IAN PEEL‘S A TO Z POP of W IS FOR WILSON WERE HE ALIVE TODAY, THIS YEAR CLASSIC POP WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY BE CELEBRATING TONY WILSON’S 70TH BIRTHDAY. WE ONLY MET A COUPLE OF TIMES, BUT AT BOTH JUNCTURES HE WAS IN FULL-ON VISIONARY MODE. Factory Records founder, clubland impresario and protagonist for the North, Tony Wilson was a mixture of characters and an even headier brew when you take into account his other life as local TV news reporter and MTV gameshow host (Remote Control, anyone?). The first time we crossed paths was in 2000 when he was launching music33.com, a very early-stage digital download store. iTunes was already the dominant force but music33 was designed–as you would imagine–with the artist and consumer in mind, rather than the profit levels…

THE BOOM TOWN RATS “WE COULDN’T DO THIS AGAIN IF IT WAS NOSTALGIA, BECAUSE THEN YOU’RE JUST BING CROSBY” ONE OF THE MOST CHAOTICALLY BRILLIANT BANDS OF THEIR GENERATION, THE BOOMTOWN RATS ARE BACK WITH THEIR FIRST ALBUM SINCE 1984, THE YEAR OF BAND AID. IT’S ALLOWED BOB GELDOF TO BE A ROCK‘N’ROLL STAR AGAIN, AND THE GROUP BEHIND I DON’T LIKE MONDAYS TO BE A GANG ONCE MORE. CLASSIC POP TAKES COVER AS WE QUIZ THEM ON SQUATTING, POLITICS, THE NON-PC LYRICS OF DO THEY KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS? AND HOW RAT TRAP NEARLY BROKE THEM… JOHN EARLS “I miss pop that has ideas. I want to bang my head at how brilliant a hook each line of an Ed Sheeran song has. Adele’s voice? Oh my God. I wish…

CLASSIC ALBUM DISINTEGRATION THE SONGS 1 PLAINSONG The epic sweep of Plainsong sets the scene for the album to come, immersing the listener in Smith’s turbulent, doom-laden world. Twenty seconds of wind chimes intro the track before the sudden sonic lurch of bass, synth and drums piles in. It takes just over two-and-a-half minutes for Smith’s vocals to begin and when they do they are low in the mix, a deft touch that heightens the intensity of his voice, stripped bare and deadpan despite the sumptuous layers of echo. Within the lyrics, Smith quotes a girl who compares the weather to death and complains about feeling old. “I think it’s dark and it looks like it’s rain, you said/ And the wind is blowing like it’s the end of the…

NERVES OF STEEL WITH HIS BOBNESS To cement Michael Bolton’s place in the stratosphere, his 1991 album Time, Love & Tenderness features country ballad Steel Bars, co-written with Bob Dylan. “That was an out-of-body experience,” laughs Michael. “I’d sold nearly 10 million albums by that point, but the thought of being in the same room with Bob Dylan and trying to talk to him? Those sales didn’t matter one bit. I’d been a fan since I was 13 and I was a nervous wreck driving up the hill to his house. The closer I got, the less worthy I felt.” To make matters worse, Bob’s manager had warned Michael of his perfectionist streak before the session. “I was told, ‘Write something great, because if Bob doesn’t like what you’ve got,…

SUPERFAN DEVOTED FANS SHOW US THEIR COLLECTIONS AND POP MEMORABILIA GARY NUMAN FRANK HENTSCHKE WOLFENBÜTTEL, GERMANY Q When did you become a Superfan of Gary Numan and why do you like him? A I became a superfan in around 1993 when Gary was on a creative low. I bought a cheap CD compilation called Electric Dreams which included Cars and Are ‘Friends’ Electric?. I was unaware of his work before that because he wasn’t that big in the German charts. I was very impressed by his use of analogue synths and that unique voice. As a fan of dystopian novels, I was amazed by Gary’s mysterious lyrics and ever-changing album cover images from 1979 to 1984 that seemed to come straight from sci-fi movies. This was quite unusual. I was…

THE FIZZ SING WHEN YOU’RE WINNING NOTHING IN THE TUMULTUOUS SAGA OF THE FIZZ – IN ANY OF ITS VARIOUS INCARNATIONS – HAS EVER BEEN SIMPLE. YET THE STORY BEHIND THEIR LATEST STUDIO ALBUM SMOKE & MIRRORS COULD BE THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY OF THEM ALL, AS PAUL KIRKLEY DISCOVERS As mission statements go, The Fizz’s recent single Winning Ways is fairly unequivocal. “Tell me about your sad, sad story, tell me about your former glory,” sing the artists formerly known as Formerly of Bucks Fizz (stay with us, it’s complicated). “You’re living for yesterdays, get up and join the race. You’re better than that, get back to winning ways.” There’s an extent, of course, to which the 40-year history of Bucks Fizz is indeed a sad, sad story – not…

TOP 20 US HITS AND UK MISSES IT DIDN’T HAPPEN HERE SOMETHING THE AMERICANS LOVE NOT BEING RECIPROCATED IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD? PERISH THE THOUGHT! ACTUALLY, IT’S MORE THAN POSSIBLE IN POP, WHERE COUNTLESS MILLION-SELLING RECORDS IN THE STATES BARELY MADE A RIPPLE IN BRITAIN, LET ALONE THE TOP 40. MATTHEW RUDD Much was interchangeable between the UK and US charts in the 1980s as particular genres and stars controlled both sides of the Atlantic. Yet it always came as a surprise when something caught on immeasurably on the Billboard Hot 100 that the chart in Britain simply wouldn’t entertain. Sometimes the reason was understandable – a song in an US sitcom or soap not shown anywhere else – but in many cases the act was established, or…

THE HOT LIST WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT AT CLASSIC POP TOWERS THIS MONTH STEVE HARNELL 1 A-HA ONE BILLION VIEWS MERCH Just arrived at CP‘s HQ is a selection of special A-ha merchandise to mark one billion YouTube views of the band’s Take On Me. Check out the trio’s official store for items including the release in blue 7" vinyl and VHS form, plus reproductions of its iconic video’s original pencil sketches as well as a T-shirt. store.rhino.co.uk/uk/artists/a-ha.html 2 RÓISÍN MURPHY MURPHY’S LAW Tying in with Murphy’s recent performance at the 6Music Festival is this slinky little floorfiller. Róisín explains: “Murphy’s Law is our crack at a straight-up, straightforward, no-frills, disco standard.” By ‘our’, she’s referring to long-time collaborator producer DJ Parrot. roisinmurphyofficial.com 3 TEAC TN-3B £399 Teac’s latest belt-drive…

BILLY OCEAN ONE WORLD SONY MUSIC It feels churlish denouncing Billy Ocean’s 11th album. All Over The World, a lightweight reggae variation on Let it Be, insists we “do it for the children”, for “peace and unity”, and its energetic title song advocates global unity, or, in his words, “a love revolution”. It’s phrases like these, though, that are indicative of the record’s Achilles heel: One World has a bad case of the trites. That he indeed crossed borders makes one feel more discourteous. Daylight’s and Mystery’s rhythms and brass remind us of his Trinidadian roots – though the latter’s metal guitar solo is a surprise – and his voice remains a unifying force. Admittedly, he begins tentatively on opener We Gotta Find Out, and age has rendered him gruffer…

RICHARD MARX LIMITLESS BMG There are moments on Richard Marx’s 12th album where one could easily forget he’s been making music for five decades. When Another One Down kicks off proceedings, its restless pace, exaggerated dynamics, treated backing vocals and anthemic chorus could easily be mistaken for the work of a 20-something boyband member eager to prove he can go it alone. The same could be said of Limitless, which follows with a jangling acoustic guitar, a beat which kicks in predictably as he warns “It’s like my heartbeat’s pounding right out of my chest”, and squiggly keyboards that provide the necessary moment of celebratory, hedonistic release. Still, Marx has built his career on writing for other people as much as for himself, and he shifts shapes as the album…

PURITY RING WOMB 4AD One’s reverence for Canada’s Purity Ring is likely to depend a great deal on one’s tolerance for Megan James’ voice. Cutesy to the point of callow, and frequently Autotuned to within an inch of its life, it sounds at times – like Grimes on her recent album, and countless others nowadays – as though it were a bot programmed to deliver lines for a children’s cartoon’s most adorably kooky character. This, though, is apparently ‘future pop’, and it suggests that this future will be dominated by indistinguishable holograms, not to mention a dearth of capital letters. So if that’s your thing, you’ll love vehemence, where James sounds like a malfunctioning doll against a backdrop of dry percussion and shadowy synths, and rubyinsides, through whose backwards beats…

JAH WOBBLE & THE INVADERS OF THE HEART OCEAN BLUE WAVES JAH WOBBLE RECORDS His distinctive basslines remain centre-stage, and he sings, too, yet it’s The Invaders who are the stars of Jan Wobble’s latest collaboration. A muscular band, they at times recall The Cinematic Orchestra or Tortoise for their jazz-flavoured instrumental excursions, as on the title track, its keyboard solo so psychedelic it might suit a Pink Floyd freakout. They also throw prog and funk into the mix, notably on Take My Hands, while Quirky, as its title warns, offers the album’s freest musical expression. WW…

LISA LOEB A SIMPLE TRICK TO HAPPINESS FURIOUS ROSE PRODUCTIONS The songwriter behind Stay (I Missed You) returns with a ninth album of tasteful introspection. Most of All’s a lilting slice of nostalgia with an especially dreamy chorus, and Loeb’s voice sounds especially sweet on the acoustic Sing Out, while This Is My Life’s semi-acoustic pop is perfect for the imminent Friends revival. Doesn’t It Feel Good’s casual vibes will also reassure those stuck in unfulfilling relationships, though there are mixed messages: Another Day encourages romantic endurance, its piano pleasingly pacifying. WW…

C.A.R. CROSSING PRIOR STREET RANSOM NOTES Wonky synth-pop fans will revel in Chloé Raunet’s third album, which adds sprinkles of post-punk claustrophobia and polar cold wave. Nothing’s quite as it should be, whether Reveller’s overstretched vocal, denoting her desperation, Flight And Pursuit’s woozy, pitchshifted harmonies, or Steal The Dance’s octavespanning keyboard melody. Pressure Drop, furthermore, employs musique concrète as adventurously as OMD’s Dazzle Ships before ending in a spooky gothic style reminiscent of Neil Arthur’s recent Fader releases. WW…

REISSUES BILLY OCEAN LOVE ZONE MUSIC ON VINYL Coinciding with Ocean’s long-awaited new LP One World, Music On Vinyl’s reissue of 1985’s sixth album was Billy at his commercial height: There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry) followed Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) as his second No.1 in the US, while When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going became his only UK charttopper. It appeared Ocean’s royalties included a clause on being paid by the word in his song titles. Having made his mainstream breakthrough two years earlier with Suddenly, Ocean ditched Keith Diamond in favour of Barry Eastmond and Wayne Braithwaite as producer/co-writers. It worked, with Braithwaite’s commanding bass – honed working with Melba Moore and Kashif – adding steel under Anita Baker/Gladys…

REISSUES PRINCE THE RAINBOW CHILDREN / UP ALL NITE WITH PRINCE: THE ONE NITE ALONE COLLECTION SONY/LEGACY The latest in Sony’s clear-up operation to get Prince’s post-Warner albums into shape hits the really thorny years here. Released in 2001, The Rainbow Children was Prince’s first LP out under his own name since becoming Symbol eight years earlier. Prescient on music’s future, Prince gave away album highlight The Work Part 1 as a free download on illegal filesharing site Napster. Driven by double-bass, it’s a hectic workout which would fit on Diamonds And Pearls. It’s also one of the few listenable moments on an album dominated by solos that go nowhere, with Prince’s voice distorted in a hilarious subsonic rumble that you could argue presages Autotune, but only if you’re a…

Reviews ABBA LIVE AT WEMBLEY ARENA UMC/POLYDOR With ABBA’s critical rehabilitation long since complete, it’s hard to remember how entire musical movements once stood in opposition to them. This live collection, recorded during November 1979, may help undermine such clemency. Not that this isn’t a valuable document of a fine band worthy of your investment: it’s actually exactly that, a high-octane hits collection performed to an excitably partisan audience at often breakneck speed by top-notch sessioneers. Opener Voulez Vous is so fast it threatens to fall off the stage and As Good As New surely left their bassist with blisters. Furthermore, even if their songs are overfamiliar, it’s still hard to argue with Take A Chance On Me’s disco strut or Gimme Gimme Gimme’s diva drama, let alone the show’s…

SISTER SLEDGE THINKING OF YOU – THE ATCO / COTILLION / ATLANTIC RECORDINGS 1973-1985 SOULMUSIC Missing just 1971’s debut single Time Will Tell, everything else Sister Sledge released in their golden years is on this thorough new boxset. Be warned: fitting eight albums plus the era’s standalone singles and B-sides across five CDs means many albums are spread over two different CDs, including the classic Chic-produced We Are Family. For a decade, the four Sledges were at the forefront of soul-pop, adaptable enough to go disco with Chic for two albums before switching to smooth R&B harmonies on the Narada Michael Walden-produced All American Girls in 1981. By the time of 1985’s When The Boys Meet The Girls, they were back with Nile Rodgers but sounding like a rock‘n’roll girlgroup,…

CLASSIC POP BEST LIVE SHOW JARV IS… THE STEEL YARD, LONDON 2 MARCH It’s 11 years since Jarvis Cocker last released a new album, eight since Pulp’s final reunion show. Yet here is Cocker, looking and acting perfectly unchanged: imperiously clanking across the stage, talking lovable and gently heroic nonsense between songs, having become the age his tweedy look always suggested. What’s changed? A new band and a new album that seems everything that you’d want from our hero in 2020. Although Pulp made Disco 2000 and Sorted For Es And Wizz, they never attempted dance music. The six people in Jarv Is… help shape the lithe grooves their frontman’s stage moves always deserved. There’s just one Pulp song – the title track of 1994’s His ‘n’ Hers – in…

PETER SHAPIRO TURN THE BEAT AROUND: THE SECRET HISTORY OF DISCO FABER The latest in Faber’s greatest hits series of classic pop and rock reads to receive the reprint treatment is Peter Shapiro’s scrupulously researched history of disco. While looking back to its 70s heyday, the inclination is to limit that to the hallowed diamonddrenched debauchery of disco mecca Studio 54 and its celebrities-behaving-badly clientele. Turn The Beat Around bucks that trend, delving deep to explore its inception, cultural commentary and musical merit. Tracing the history of disco from its unifying sound of New York’s silent majority of the gay, black and Latino communities to boundary-breaking cultural phenomenon, Shapiro explores the musical merit, political presence and style statements of the genre unfairly dubbed “the music that taste forgot” and attempts…

NEWS POP UP Fans create tribute archive for trailblazer Andrew Weatherall Fans have paid tribute to the late Andrew Weatherall by creating a comprehensive archive of his work. The DJ/producer behind era-defining music for the likes of Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, Saint Etienne and My Bloody Valentine died on 17 February, aged 56, from a pulmonary embolism. Now an archive dubbed The Weatherdrive (tinyurl.com/theweatherdrive), has been made available featuring more than 900 hours of his DJ sets, remixes and press cuttings, all collated by fans. Although celebrated as a pioneer of acid house and genre-defying dance projects like Two Lone Swordsmen, Weatherall is perhaps best known for producing much of Primal Scream’s Screamadelica album. Frontman Bobby Gillespie paid his own tribute to his friend in The Guardian: “I’m going to…

Q+A ROLAND ORZABAL AS SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR CELEBRATES ITS 35TH BIRTHDAY, JOHN EARLS SITS DOWN WITH ROLAND ORZABAL TO TALK ABOUT THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF TEARS FOR FEARS With classic album Songs From The Big Chair turning 35, Tears For Fears are re-releasing the mammoth boxset version of the album that contained Shout, Head Over Heels and Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Roland Orzabal remembers the makings of an era-defining record–and gives Classic Pop the lowdown on that long-awaited first new LP since Everybody Loves A Happy Ending in 2005… Does it feel like 35 years since Songs From The Big Chair? It was a big album and 1985 was a big year. It should be easy to digest how long it’s been, as it’s…

Q+A NICK VAN EEDE CUTTING CREW ARE BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM OF ORCHESTRAL REIMAGININGS OF THEIR FINEST WORK. STEVE HARNELL TALKS CLASSICAL REINVENTIONS WITH THEIR SONGWRITING FRONTMAN. Stirring 80s power ballads (I Just) Died In Your Arms and I’ve Been In Love Before have been given a new lease of life, along with eight other tracks, for Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven, Cutting Crew’s new orchestral reboot of their back catalogue. As Classic Pop catches up with band mainstay and songwriter Nick Van Eede, he’s preparing to film two new videos for the LP: “My brief from the director was to find anything from my last 30 years that was old and funky looking for props. I’ve been digging out reel-to-reel projector screens and the like. I feel like I’m…

CLASSIC ALBUM DISINTEGRATION THE VIDEOS LULLABY There’s more than a soupçon of Tim Burton in this gloriously nightmarish video for Disintegration’s lead single which features a bed-ridden and pyjama-clad Robert Smith hallucinating all manner of nightmare-bothering horrors. Directed by long-time cohort Tim Pope, it stars Smith as both the cannibalistic “spiderman” mentioned in the lyrics and his eventual victim, whilst also including the various other members of the band draped in cobwebs. It later won, quite deservedly, a British Video Of The Year gong at the 1990 BRIT Awards. youtu.be/ijxk-fgcg7c FASCINATION STREET He may have been alarmed at turning 30 in 1988, but Robert Smith still had beauty on his side when he lensed the video for this America-only single release. Looking every inch the swoonsome goth pin-up he was…

GOING GAGA OVER BOLTON Working on his new album, Michael hopes his aspiring songwriters will match one of the musicians he worked with on his last album of new songs in 2009, One World One Love. The co-writer of Murder My Heart was a thenunknown Lady Gaga, who had just finished recording her debut album, The Fame. “Lady Gaga phoned my record label, saying she’d been a fan of mine for as long as she could remember,” says Michael. “Unless you were in the music industry, you wouldn’t have known about her at that point. I’d never heard of her, but my label said, ‘She’s great, you’re going to love working with her.’ And they were right.” Gaga sent Michael two unreleased songs of hers, one of which was Just…

NIK KERSHAW ALBUM BY ALBUM LIVE & ACOUSTIC NO FRILLS 2010 As is often the way with these type of solo acoustic reboot albums, it’s the radical transformations that are the most satisfying. How about a baroque refit of Dancing Girls or a beatbox shuffle for Don Quixote? Kershaw’s complex arrangements were always his calling card, and this LP puts them under the microscope to fine effect. Case in point, some deft fingerpicking gives the melody of Wouldn’t It Be Good room to breathe. It’s up close and personal as Kershaw explained: “All flaws, squeaks, rattles, and buzzes recorded in glorious 24-bit stereo. Small children, local wildlife and Stansted Airport trying to make guest appearances.” LIVE IN GERMANY 1984 2011 Squeezing all of the juice out of Human Racing including…

MAKING THEIR LINE-UP By CP’s count, there have been at least 23 members of Bucks Fizz and its attendant spin-offs (of varying legitimacy). After Jay Aston quit the group in 1985, Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker and Bobby G went on to enjoy moderate success with new recruit Shelley Preston (including the Top 10 hit New Beginning). When Preston left at the end of the decade, the others continued as a three-piece until Baker’s departure in 1993, after which Nolan and G recruited Heidi Manton and Amanda Szwarc. In 1996, Nolan left and was replaced by David Van Day, of 80s chart contemporaries Dollar. When that rapidly went south, Van Day transferred his allegiance to Nolan and hired two new singers, Lianna Lea and Sally Jacks, to form his own rival…

NEW RELEASES DEPECHE MODE SPiRiTS IN THE FOREST SONY MUSIC DIRECTED BY LONG-TIME COLLABORATOR ANTON CORBIJN, SPiRiTS IN THE FOREST CAPTURES DEPECHE MODE IN BERLIN AS THEY COMPLETE THEIR GLOBAL SPIRIT TOUR There’s a coherent argument to be made that Depeche Mode’s 1989 tour film 101 invented reality TV, when director DA Pennebaker focused his documentary on the fans who’d won a “Be in Depeche Mode” competition. MTV took note, as 101 inspired The Real World and, well, who knew that Depeche should get royalties for The Real Housewives Of Cheshire? Regularly working with Anton Corbijn, the spirit of 101 is still there in SPiRiTS IN THE FOREST, though thankfully in the telling of fans’ stories rather than trashy gawpfests. Corbijn’s film was given a cinema release last November, and…

NEW RELEASES FASSINE FORGE TRAPPED ANIMAL Fassine’s last collection, 2016’s Dialectik, brought to mind Goldfrapp and Massive Attack, but though its brooding nature was sometimes claustrophobic, their third album goes further. There’s no mistaking their intentions: despite hinting at glimmers of light – thanks in part to Sarah Palmer’s voice, which, especially in this context, sounds like Toni Halliday’s, were Curve playing at half-speed behind her – the opening title track packs a big punch, and Limbs, which follows, lulls listeners into a false sense of security with sweet-tempered verses, before metallic guitars and pummelled drums disturb its peace. Bloom, too, explodes into life like Rammstein, its synths as mighty as a 100-piece choir and drums that sound like they’re being thrown across the room by Thanos. There’s also an…

THE ORB ABOLITION OF THE ROYAL FAMILIA COOKING VINYL For an act often dismissed as predictable, The Orb – within their own confines – can prove surprising. Alex Paterson’s 16th album is full of little surprises, possibly due to the songwriting partnership he’s struck with Michael Rendall, once his studio engineer and a member of his touring band. For starters, it’s been a while since the project attempted anything as commercial as Daze, which combines house and soulful vocals – provided by Andy Cain – or House Of Narcotics, where Cain also appears, which melds sweeping strings, harp samples, Moroderesque synth arpeggios and squidgy acid. Honey Moonies occupies a similar space, and talking of space, Hawk Kings unexpectedly pays tribute to Stephen Hawking, though this computergenerated voice fails to launch…

LITTLE DRAGON NEW ME, SAME US NINJA TUNE With today’s world overwhelmed by the cacophonous cycle of people yelling ever louder to be heard, it’s gratifying to report that Little Dragon’s sixth album chooses to forgo that strategy altogether. This may be because their last LP, 2017’s pleasing but patchy Season High, found the foursome struggling to compromise with one another. This time, they seem to be all about harmony, or, as singer Yukimi Nagano puts it on New Fiction, “We need new fiction, babe/ We need to find our own way”. Admittedly, the way they’ve found isn’t entirely their own: the song recalls trip-hop’s early days, its pace a little more determined than Massive Attack’s first albums but not as cheerful as Morcheeba’s, while its closing piano solo would…

NEW RELEASES ADAMSKI FREE TO KILL AGAIN FIREFLY Ever since Killer’s killer success, Adamski’s been uneasy about both his alias and making dance music. After 16 years without albums, 2015’s Revolt was mostly in waltz-time, while a name change to Sonny Eriksson resulted in an underrated album of rockabilly two years later. Now, however, Adamski wants to be Adamski again, and he’s fallen back in love with his biggest hit to such an extent that he’s made 10 different versions of it to mark its 30th anniversary. It’s debatable whether it works as an album per se: listened to in a row, it turns out it is possible to grow tired of that incendiary riff. However, played individually, the mixes are terrific fun: Boy George does some fiery toasting for…

EOB EARTH CAPITOL Comparing Ed O’Brien’s solo debut to his day job is unfair, but the Radiohead guitarist’s done little to dissuade this. Earth fails to reveal new aspects to his talent, instead sometimes feeling like an undercooked record by the mothership band. Shangri-La’s falsettos lack Thom Yorke’s vocal charms, its melody undeveloped, as is Banksters’, while Brasil’s coda simply meanders. Sail On, though, recalls Slowdive’s ambient Souvlaki and Olympik’s borrows lines from World Of Twist’s The Storm to underline its baggy nature. WW…

RECORD STORE DAY 18-04-2020 OUR PICK OF CLASSIC POPFRIENDLY ARTISTS FOR THIS YEAR’S RECORD STORE DAY ON 18 APRIL INCLUDES NEW ORDER, NUMAN, BOWIE AND ERASURE GARY WALKER & STEVE HARNELL ALL RELEASES CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRESS BUT SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE CHECK YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORE OR GO TO WWW.RECORDSTOREDAY.CO.UK FOR THE LATEST DETAILS. ACE OF BASE THE SIGN (7") !K7 RECORDS Exclusive Record Store Day version of the UK No.2 and US No.1 platinum-selling single from 1993 by the Swedish reggae-pop outfit. Now pressed on 7" picture disc and strictly limited to 700 UK copies. THE ALARM ELECTRIC FOLKLORE LIVE ‘88 (2LP) 21ST CENTURY RECORDINGS Expanded 2LP version of the original 1988 album that features a collection of 10 previously unreleased live tracks. 750 copies…

BROS GOLD DEMON One touching aspect of last year’s Bros documentary After The Screaming Stops was the reaction it provoked. At last, fans and haters were united: in admiration of the twins’ success, in sympathy for the terrible time they’d endured, and in (sometimes guilty) hysterics for their extraordinary relationship and bizarre ‘eloquence’. Gold, though, may remind people why audiences were once so divided. Running to three CDs when they released just three albums, it might even stretch devotees’ patience. (The vinyl version only offers their singles.) Their entire 1988 debut LP Push is here, in one form or another. So, too, are all but three tracks from their other two albums, as well as obligatory rarities, of which an entertaining piano-only reinvention of Drop The Boy, The Boy Is Dropped,…

THE PRIMITIVES BLOOM! THE FULL STORY 1985-1992 CHERRY RED Forever associated with 1988 indie-disco staple Crash, the Coventry favourites were briefly the brightest stars of the post-C86 pop wave, merging psychedelia with insistent tunes across three albums. This 5CD boxset starts with a compilation of The Primitives’ pre-fame indie era. The Lazy Years mainly serves to highlight how, by Crash, guitarist and songwriter Paul Court had been learning his craft. Debut album Lovely featured a smattering of similar sugar-rush highs. As with follow-up LP Pure, attempts at varying the froth were less successful: the more sprawling tunes floated into nothing and Court’s reedy vocals meant the tracks he sang lead on lacked conviction. Arriving in 1991 post-rave and in the middle of Nirvana, third album Galore was out of step…

PAUL YOUNG & THE ROYAL FAMILY LIVE AT ROCKPALAST 1985 MUSIC ON VINYL Established in 1974, German music TV show Rockpalast allows acts to play a full show and is their equivalent of The Old Grey Whistle Test. It’s significant Paul Young gives his eight-piece backing band The Royal Family joint credit on this vintage live set, as their hard and powerful playing allows Young room to roam across the 13-song set. It makes for a heavier companion to the Young we’re familiar with. Everytime You Go Away, then Paul’s new single, gets a deliciously chewy guitar throughout as the singer relishes the chance to belt it out. The playing sometimes gets over-indulgent – the boogie of Sex sounds like a needlessly extended intro from an episode of Later… With…

THE MAGIC NUMBERS THE MAGIC NUMBERS HEAVENLY One of the best pop albums of the 00s, for a brief period The Magic Numbers seemed to have heavenly harmonies and up-tempo highs to spare. This new reissue finally makes their excellent B-sides available on streaming sites, with the album also back out on vinyl. It didn’t last, with songwriter Romeo Stodart lost to mournful ballads by second album Those The Brokes. One play of Long Legs and Love’s A Game and that disappointment – along with any other cares – will be washed away. Hopefully, one day they’ll rediscover this golden touch. JE…

BOOKS SHEILA ROCK YOUNG PUNKS OMNIBUS PRESS One of the most striking things when scanning the pages of photographer Sheila Rock’s punk retrospective Young Punks is how fresh and contemporary many of the images are despite some being almost 50 years old. As one of the principle photographers that helped found The Face magazine, Sheila was a defining voice of the celebrated publication, shooting three of its first 10 covers. Divided into chapters headed Fashion, Tribe, Music, Scene, Influence and Legacy, the book trains its lens on the everyday folk who helped establish punk as the fashion, cultural and political movement it went on to become as well as on future icons such as The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Don Letts, Billy Idol, Steve Strange…

CHRIS HEATH PET SHOP BOYS, LITERALLY AND PET SHOP BOYS VERSUS AMERICA PENGUIN Having been long out of print and previously commanding huge sums on internet auction sites and specialist book sellers, Pet Shop Boys, Literally and Pet Shop Boys Versus America – two volumes that redefined the music biography genre – have finally been reprinted and republished. They’re as indispensable now as when first published three decades ago. Written by former Smash Hits scribe Chris Heath, both books are candid, hilarious and revealing (well, as revealing as Pet Shop Boys allowed them to be), akin to jumping in a time machine back to 1989. Taking place at a transformative point in the duo’s career, Pet Shop Boys, Literally catches up with Neil and Chris as they hit the road…