Innholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2021 i Classic Pop

CLASSICPOP WELCOME 71 @ClassicPopMag LISTEN NOW The pandemic has been a game-changer for the vast majority of us over the past 18 months, and its impact is keenly felt in this latest issue of Classic Pop. Some artists, including our interviewees Marc Almond and Shaun Ryder, have been struck down by COVID and are still feeling the effects of the virus more than a year later. For others, this has been an opportunity to pause for breath, climb off the music business hamster wheel and take stock. Many of our favourite artists have been putting the time they’ve spent off the road to good use. This issue, we catch up with Toyah to hear about her entertaining Sunday Lunch YouTube sessions that have taken the internet by storm – although…

POP UP Ex-Daft Punk star Bangalter builds his own myth Daft Punk may be no more, but one half of the robot duo is already prepping a new project. Thomas Bangalter is composing music for French dancer and choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s new show, Mythologies. Co-produced by Opéra National de Bordeaux and Ballet Preljocal, the 90-minute ballet performance is about the “founding myths that shape the collective imagination”. Friend of Daft Punk DJ Falcon isn’t surprised that the robots called it day earlier this year: “They need to surpass themselves, to bring something new, and they perhaps had the feeling of having already explored everything within the framework of the Daft Punk project,” he explained. © Peter Neill One billion YouTube views for classic Astley single Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give…

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE CELEBRATES TOP GONG Jean-Michel Jarre has been awarded the ultimate civic honour in his home country. The synth pioneer was given the insignia of Commander To The Legion Of Honour by Emmanuel Macron earlier this summer, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil – and the star celebrated with a performance in the courtyard of Paris’ Elysée Palace. Jarre said: “After so long apart, it was wonderful to spend a special evening with a real life audience. We shared these good vibes with everyone around the world via the livestream, and I know we will all be together again soon. It was a night that I will never forget.” Jarre has generated global sales of more than 85 million albums and appeared in the Guinness World…

SOFT CELL THE TORCH SINGER’S MYSTERY With the ethos of Soft Cell’s standalone classic single Torch helping to influence the new album, it reignites one of the duo’s biggest mysteries: Whatever happened to Cindy Ecstasy? As her name implies, Cindy was the ecstasy dealer in New York who introduced the pair to the drug on their first trip to the US in 1981. Dave Ball: “In her defence, m’lud, ecstasy wasn’t illegal at the time. It was used in the 60s in couples’ therapy, which is how it first got known as the love drug. Cindy wasn’t called Cindy LSD or Cindy Cocaine.” Cindy duetted on Torch, her additional vocals on the extended version helping make the No.2 smash one of the early classic 12" remixes. She went on to…

CLASSIC ALBUM A WALK ACROSS THE ROOFTOPS THEY ONLY MADE FOUR ALBUMS IN 20 YEARS, SO THE BLUE NILE’S EVERY RECORD IS PRECIOUS. BUT THE SCOTTISH TRIO’S DEBUT OFFERED AN AS YET UNSURPASSED STRAIN OF SOBER BUT STIRRING SYNTH-POP. WYNDHAM WALLACE THE BLUE NILE “Being able to listen to music, and being able to talk to each other through music, is like being able to walk on air,” Paul Buchanan once told Graeme Thomson of Scotland’s The Herald, basking in the glow of his first Top 10 hit, albeit scored as guest vocalist on Texas’ Sleep two years after his own band had released what appears to have been their swansong, 2004’s High. “It’s like a miracle that we don’t really ever discuss. Why in the name of God can…

CLASSIC ALBUM A WALK ACROSS THE ROOFTOPS ‣ THE VIDEOS STAY No doubt persuaded to participate by a label eager to exploit MTV’s rapidly growing influence, The Blue Nile’s first video is packed with random 80s tropes: a monochrome set, bathing-suited women diving into a pool, sheaves of paper falling from the ceiling, drawing mannequins, glamorous models, face-painting, female cyclists, shadows cast by a conductor of distinctly limited talent and, inevitably, a somewhat self-conscious band, not least Paul Buchanan, who spends plenty of time with his head buried in his hands. Like a hostage forced to cooperate, he’s even blindfolded and seemingly tied to a chair for his opening line, while Robert Bell can barely hide his hilarity as a mysterious blue arm reaches out to pat his shoulder. The…

YES PLEASE! We’re definitely in the age of the rock biopic and now – following Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman – comes the story of Shaun William Ryder (born Little Hulton, Lancashire, 1962). Written and directed by Matt Greenhalgh, the as-yet-unnamed film was to have starred Starred Up’s Jack O’Connell (pictured) as Ryder. “We’d just gone into pre-production, and then COVID hit,” Shaun says. “And now, I’m going to have to announce this, as you’ve asked me, but Jack’s not on board, we’ve got somebody else. Jack’s filming somewhere else, so if we want to start filming in September we had to get someone else in.” It won’t be the first time that Shaun’s life has been up there on the big screen, with actor Danny Cunningham playing him in Michael…

#O3 LIFE THROUGH A LENS • STING YOUR BASS PLAYER’S LEFT IN A HUFF THE NIGHT BEFORE A GIG. WHO YA GONNA CALL? HERE’S STING ON HAND TO SAVE THE DAY FOR HIS PUNK MATES CHELSEA… STEVE HARNELL It’s 18 September 1981 and punk band Chelsea have both good and bad news. On the one hand, they’ve got a sold-out show to play at Fulham’s Greyhound pub in London. On the other, their bass player has quit the previous day leaving the gig in jeopardy. Step forward Sting, an old friend of Chelsea’s frontman Gene October, who learns the band’s set overnight to step into the breach. Much to the amusement of Chelsea and their label boss (and Police manager) Miles Copeland, Sting arrived at the show clutching sheet music…

TOYAH UNFINISHED BUSINESS “My mum was born into a class system with such complexities, and came from a situation that is so horrific, and which I only found out about last Christmas,” says Toyah, of the events that inspired the song Barefoot On Mars from Posh Pop. She can’t divulge the full story, she adds, because the revelations will be the subject of an upcoming television film, but she does allude to the fact that “one of our relations was a murderer”. “And suddenly, I totally fucking understood why she made our lives hell. Everything fell into place. I realised my mother, who I thought was a complete sociopath, had witnessed something so horrific that she never, ever recovered. “She couldn’t talk, she was paralysed throughout her life, and that…

BLONDIE ON THE RECORD: A NEW BLONDIE STUDIO ALBUM? “We have a lot of material in the demo stage,” Clem tells us. “We haven’t properly recorded anything yet, but we’ve been going back and forth during the pandemic, writing and working out what we may be doing. Pollinator’s producer, John Congleton, is on board to produce the next album. “A couple of songs have kicked around for quite some time that we’re probably going to attempt in a modern style. But we don’t have a particular brief… although there are some ideas that I’d like to see. We were going to do a completely 70s dance record – a whole album like Heart Of Glass would be really great! Like KC And The Sunshine Band… No, everyone contributes and lets…

Q+A ARTHUR BAKER THE LEGENDARY PRODUCER REVEALS ALL ABOUT HIS LATEST REMIX PROJECT THAT DEBUTS WITH A SHOWCASE OF SHEP PETTIBONE PLUS HIS OWN WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH NEW ORDER AND THE ART OF A GREAT MIX DUNCAN SEAMAN DJ turned record producer and remixer Arthur Baker is one of the pioneers of dance music in the 1980s, working with an array of artists from Afrika Bambaataa, Freeez and Hall & Oates to Neneh Cherry and the Pet Shop Boys. He also transformed the sound of New Order, whom he has continued to work with on and off for the past 40 years. Baker’s new project, Dance Masters, is a series of curated compilations that celebrates the art of the remix. The first instalment focuses on Shep Pettibone, the man who…

MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS FURTHER LISTENING… FLASHDANCE (1983) Helmed by Giorgio Moroder, this hugely successful soundtrack largely steered clear of marquee names (Donna Summer and Kim Carnes aside). It boasted two massive US No.1 hits – Irene Cara’s much-played title track and Michael Sembello’s Maniac. ELECTRIC DREAMS (1984) A bit of a curio, this one. The film was an endearingly daft rom-com about a male-female-computer love triangle. Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder’s title track is fondly remembered, but elsewhere there are tracks by Culture Club, Heaven 17 and Jeff Lynne. KRUSH GROOVE (1985) Released just as hip-hop was starting to make headway as a commercial force, the film itself is largely based on the early days of Def Jam records. LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys and Kurtis Blow all contribute tracks,…

REViEWS THE HOT LIST 80 What we’re talking about on Classic Pop Zoom calls right now NEW RELEASES 81 The Specials, Prince, Shaun Ryder, Toyah, Jack Hues, The Stranglers, Saint Etienne, Diana Ross, The Art Of Noise, Superstate, Natalie Imbruglia, Blancmange, Manic Street Preachers, The Vaccines, A Flock Of Seagulls, The Killers, Trifecta, Martin Gore, Colin Hay, Lindsey Buckingham, Tim Finn & Phil Manzanera, Jim Bob REISSUES 88 Depeche Mode, Aztec Camera, Various Artists – Arthur Baker Presents Dance Masters: Shep Pettibone – The Classic 12" Master-mixes, Sugababes, Various Artists: Now That’s What I Call 80s 12" Extended, Belinda Carlisle, OMD, Supergrass, Sheena Easton, The Kooks, Bonnie Tyler, Bernard Butler, Suede, Super Furry Animals, The Time, Tina Turner, Enigma, Paul Young, Various Artists: Song Education, Meat Loaf, Various Artists: Generation…

REViEWS PRINCE WELCOME 2 AMERICA LEGACY RECORDINGS Back in the day, artists were assumed to have reasons for locking away unreleased recordings, but in the streaming era such material, in standard, deluxe and super-deluxe editions, is what keeps many record company execs in suits. Fortunately, what held Prince back was labels who couldn’t handle his prolific nature, and his famed vault therefore invites less trepidation than most. So, here we have it: his third posthumous ‘new’ LP, joining four expanded albums and three live collections released since he died five years ago. In truth, a mild sense of deflation accompanied 2018’s Piano & A Microphone 1983 and 2019’s demos collection, Originals, so it’s a relief to report Welcome 2 America is a cut above. An inevitable deluxe edition offers a…

REViEWS JACK HUES ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC WORKS 20:20 DAWN CHORUS RECORDING CO. Misery loves company, but Jack Hues apparently loves misery. Not that he draws attention to this: though 2020’s Primitif was in fact provoked by personal loss, it proved thoroughly entertaining, and this new collection, much of it recorded in his living room after COVID landed, is full of thrills and spills. If you knew him, in other words, you’d definitely consider putting him on speed dial for life’s bleaker moments. Few, though, would ever guess Hues was Wang Chung’s co-founder, because his second solo album launches with We Gotta Work Together, a flaming blues-rock number which calls for social change like it’s 1969 and sounds like Jack White joined The Rolling Stones, then put an ecstatic Bob Dylan behind the…

NEW RELEASES DIANA ROSS THANK YOU DECCA There’s something manipulative about the video for Diana Ross’ 25th album’s title track, packed as it is with nostalgic live footage and excerpts from archival interviews. These deliver a feelgood factor, but a cynic might question if the former Supreme’s really here to offer thanks. In fact, when she says, “This is really about me,” then hurriedly adds, “and the people I sing for”, one wonders if Thank You, her first album in 15 years, is instead merely a bid for attention. Still, as she herself sings, wading through treacle, The Answer’s Always Love. So, flip-flopping between old and new sounds with a dozen award-winning songwriters and producers, Ross indulges Max Martin-style tropes on the anonymous If The World Just Danced, turns to…

NATALIE IMBRUGLIA FIREBIRD BMG Natalie Imbruglia’s sixth album was recorded following the arrival of her first son in late 2019, and consequently there’s much talk of a creative rebirth surrounding her first collection of new songs in over a decade. In truth, though, such rejuvenation isn’t initially obvious: Firebird begins with Build It Better, an identikit anthem of empowerment and escape from the loneliness of a bed which “feels five miles wide”, and it sounds like it was written by a committee eager to repeat the success of her smash hit debut single, Torn. The feelgood What It Feels Like could also be the fruit of the same committee, while Invisible Things’s shuffling snares and singalong must surely have been constructed with Coldplay fans in mind. But though The Strokes’ Albert…

MANIC STREET PREACHERS THE ULTRA VIVID LAMENT COLUMBIA The first Manics album to be written on piano rather than guitar, LP #14 sees the trio at their poppiest. Sounding similar in spirit to 2007’s Send Away The Tigers, it’s dominated by harmonising and James Dean Bradfield singing at his richest. There are inventive touches, including a Yes-style prog breakdown at the end of the otherwise New Seekers mood of Into The Waves Of Love. Diapause starts out as a Goth piano ballad, veers into more familiar mid-paced anthemics, then suddenly turns into synthjazz. It could also be viewed as the first great politically centrist album. Anyone expecting the makers of The Holy Bible to take up cudgels in the culture war should have realised Nicky Wire is too thoughtful, with…

NEW RELEASES A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS STRING THEORY AUGUST DAY In 2018, A Flock Of Seagulls singer Mike Score – a wildly entertaining character, with bulletproof bravado to match fellow Scouser Ian McCulloch – told Classic Pop he’d got dozens of songs written. Score, he insisted, had about six albums up his sleeve; it was just a case of which one to finish first. He’s certainly had time to gather the material – his band’s last album The Light At The End Of The World was in 1995. Instead, here’s a second collection of orchestral reworkings of old songs, following Ascension three years ago. It’s a dispiriting move as, like Ascension, the original line-up which dissolved in 1984 – featuring Paul Reynolds, Frank Maudsley and Score’s brother Ali – are…

THE KILLERS PRESSURE MACHINE EMI After going all out pop just last year on Imploding The Mirage, The Killers make their most personal album, about Brandon Flowers’ childhood in Utah. Interspersed with new interviews recorded with locals in the singer’s hometown, Pressure Machine is full of ballads that generally drop the bluster to fall in line with the personal intimacy of their recent duettist, Bruce Springsteen. Only the whirling In The Car Outside has echoes of Mr Brightside, as the graceful Cody perfects the Great American Epic which The Killers have attempted since All These Things I’ve Done. Indeed, with Dave Keuning finally back in the band, Pressure Machine is very much a guitarist’s album, from Phoebe Bridgers duet Runaway Horses’ finger-picking to the gospel of The Getting By. The…

REViEWS SUGABABES ONE TOUCH LONDON The career of Sugababes is an industry archetype in how not to oversee the careers of independent women in pop. Debut single Overload is one of this century’s best pop songs, a mighty wall of harmonies and funk that presaged so much of the current chart hits, and still sounds fresher than 99% of them. Their wellbeing seemingly secondary and mocked by cultural gatekeepers who should have known better, Sugababes’ ever-changing line-up looks a cry for help 20 years on. There should have been a happy ending when the original line-up reformed in 2011. Quite why there’s only been one new song since remains opaque – the industry is still pathetic at helping so many pop artists. At least the 20th anniversary reissue of the…

OMD LIBERATOR/UNIVERSAL UMC/LIBERATOR As good as disowned by Andy McCluskey, 1993’s Liberator found OMD adrift, embracing contemporary dance culture like a ‘Cool Dad’. Unfortunately, Dollar Girl and Everyday sounded like horrifying SAW pastiches, and Agnus Dei akin to a clumsy Enigma remix, galaxies away from the band’s minimalist roots. Heaven Is’ synth stabs were no better, but at least Best Years Of Our Lives and King Of Stone were slow enough to showcase McCluskey’s tender, tired voice. Otherwise, their ninth album depended on a cover of The Velvet Underground’s Sunday Morning and Dream Of Me (Based On Love’s Theme), which sampled Barry White. 1996’s Universal also had its moments: the title track’s big beats, Walking On The Milky Way’s Beatles leanings, If You’re Still In Love With Me’s chamber music, New…

THE KOOKS INSIDE IN/INSIDE OUT UMC/VIRGIN The career of The Kooks is instructional in showing how it’s possible for any band to become hip, if they stick around long enough. Given their omniscience over the past 15 years, it’s easy to forget how ABBA and The Bee Gees were critically mocked for years, before the Guilty Pleasures movement of the early 00s. Guilty Pleasures has largely been dismissed as a concept now – like what you like, who cares about what’s meant to be cool etc. Virtually the only exception to that credo is indie-pop, the safest genre for tastemakers to give a good kicking to. Which is fine, except that the co-headliners of the bleeding-edge London festival All Points East last year would have been The Kooks and The…

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS RINGS AROUND THE WORLD BMG Following the collapse of Creation Records in 1999, Super Furry Animals really went to town when Sony rescued them. Rings Around The World became the first album to be released simultaneously as a DVD, with videos for each song. They got Paul McCartney to guest on Beach Boys-y harmony pop moment Receptacle For The Respectable – Macca’s celery chewing in the background a nod to his contributions to the BB’s Smile recording sessions. The mad excess of the time is exemplified by this 20th anniversary reissue being released in two parts, three weeks apart, to cater for all 82 extra tracks. Yes, that’s EIGHTY-TWO bonus songs. The highlights of those are the welter of unreleased remixes, where Kid606 and Martin Carr’s Bravecaptain…

ENIGMA THE COMPLETE STUDIO COLLECTION UMC/VIRGIN EMI More than 30 years since Sadeness (Part 1) reached No.1 and made Michael Cretu one of the first classical/rave crossover artists, the German’s eight albums are reissued on vinyl, also simultaneously collected into a boxset. There’s a new compilation, too, which is the best starting point for Enigma’s ambient style. Cretu’s vision has remained consistent. The Cross Of Changes is rootsier, The Screen Behind The Mirror closer to Gary Numan’s industrial harshness and Voyageur is Enigma at their poppiest. But you can tell the thread throughout. Despite a dubstep whoomph intruding in Seven Lives Many Faces, it’s still easily recognisable. Even when Cretu sings, as on Voyageur’s sweet middle of the road ballad Total Eclipse Of The Moon, you can hum that distinctive…

VARIOUS ARTISTS SONG EDUCATION VINYL BASE Launching a new label dedicated to helping younger listeners discover vinyl, the first compilation from Music On Vinyl’s new imprint highlights classics featured in recent TV shows including Stranger Things, Sex Education and Riverdale. It’s a fine sampler, helping fans from both sides of the Atlantic discover each other’s acts. Names less familiar in the UK – Canned Heat, The Motels – merge with our more familiar big-hitters such as ABC, Limahl and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It’s an enjoyable ’anything goes’ attitude, which might lure in older fans seeking to finally own some Devo and Spencer Davis, too. JE…

TRASHCAN SINATRAS I’VE SEEN EVERYTHING PAST NIGHT FROM GLASGOW Arriving at the same time as The Perfect Reminder, a book detailing its making, this reissue of 1993’s second Trashcans album offers a welcome opportunity to celebrate the under-sung Irvine band’s jangling joys. The title track is like the happiest, least self-piteous song in The Smiths’ catalogue and Hayfever bounces along irresistibly on a rush of pianos and strings, while Killing The Cabinet is like inhaling Vitamin C. But Orange Fell underlines their intimate, elegiac side, its plans made as “streetlamp Lucozade orange fell”. WW…

CORINNE BAILEY RAE CORINNE BAILEY RAE UMC/VIRGIN EMI A mysterious treasure, Leeds soul force Corinne Bailey Rae has only released two further albums in the 15 years since her self-titled debut launched her to Grammy and BRITs acclaim. Reissued on vinyl, that debut long-player remains a beacon, with luminescent pop anthems like I’d Like To and the mighty Put Your Records On shining the way for Lianne La Havas and Laura Mvula in spearheading a new wave of modern pop. Bailey Rae mastered smoky torch songs via Like A Star, too. A singer capable of anything except, seemingly, a prolific workrate. JE…

BOOK REVIEWS REMEMBERINGS SINÉAD O’CONNOR TASCHEN From the moment Sinéad O’Connor entered the public consciousness in the late 80s with her shaven head and Doc Marten boots, markedly different from anyone else in the charts at the time, she was an arresting presence intent on dancing to the beat of her own drum – whatever the consequences. As she writes in Rememberings, her first memoir, O’Connor always saw her role as a protest singer, akin to Bob Dylan or Bob Marley. She became a pop star almost by accident. Structured as a series of vignettes (the ‘rememberings’ of the title) as opposed to a traditional autobiography, Sinéad apologises in the book’s introduction for her lack of writing ability. This proves unnecessary, though, as she’s not only a perfectly competent writer,…

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 issue, in an exclusive interview, he meets our cover stars Soft Cell to hear about their comeback album and helms our reissues section. Paul Kirkley makes his living from interviewing famous people with much more interesting and glamorous lives than his own. He is also, to the best of his knowledge, the only paid TV critic for a national supermarket chain. This issue, he checks in with Toyah to talk about the success of her viral YouTube videos and stellar return with new studio LP, Posh Pop. Wyndham Wallace has written for Uncut, The Guardian and…

MADONNA DOC HITS STREAMING SERVICE Madonna’s documentary about her Madame X tour will finally debut on US streaming service Paramount Plus from 8 October. Focusing on live footage from a concert in Lisbon, the star revealed: “Sharing my vision with global audiences has been profoundly meaningful to me. The opportunity to bring its message and the incandescent artistry of all involved to an even wider audience comes at a time when music is so deeply needed to remind us of the sacred bond of our shared humanity.” Fans can expect behind-the-scenes clips from the intimate shows which took place in theatres between 2019 and 2020, plus insight into Madonna’s battle with hip and knee injuries that forced numerous cancellations. It’s not yet clear where UK fans will be able to…

1-HIT WONDER STYX BABE Soft rock ballads, as beloved as they often are, also hold the dubious status of being the most ridiculed pop sub-genre around. Fortunately, defenders of the spandex-clad weepie always have a case if they can point to superb musicianship, and Babe has that in abundance. The clarity and purpose of Dennis DeYoung’s vocal delivers goosebumps, and the song’s lyrics go further than most standard “down on my knees”-type rock slowies. It isn’t just a bloke giving it the usual rock ballad spiel in order to get his card stamped. The other delight is DeYoung’s long-winded but not ostentatious electric piano backing – along with his voice, the two venture towards a traditional torch song, though that is soon dispelled by the need to include the rest…

Q+A TONY HADLEY THE FORMER SPANDAU BALLET MAN BELATEDLY TOASTS FOUR DECADES OF MUSIC WITH A MAMMOTH 36-DATE UK TOUR FEATURING THE FABULOUS TH BAND NEXT YEAR. BIG TONE CAUGHT UP WITH CLASSIC POP TO EXPLAIN WHY HE CAN’T WAIT TO FINALLY BE SINGING, IN THE FLESH, AGAIN. RUDY BOLLY There’s an undeniable twinkle in Tony Hadley’s eye, clearly evident even via the pixilated view of a laptop screen. Perhaps it’s because he can sense the age of these Zoom interviews may finally be coming to an end. “I’m getting excited now,” he chortles. “Obviously from my personal point of view it’s frustrating not being able to do the job I love. I’ve had a Zoom with my band and crew every week of lockdown, and we have a laugh…

THE POD SQUAD CHECKING IN WITH OUR FAVOURITE CLASSIC POP-FRIENDLY PODCASTS MARK PAWLOWSKI 80SOGRAPHY What’s your podcast about? It’s a deep dive, album by album, into 80s artists and includes interviews with key players. For our Tears For Fears season, I interviewed Chris Hughes, Ian Stanley and Nicky Holland. There’s also my 80sography series where I chat with people who had a career in the 80s such as Hugh Padgham, Langer & Winstanley and Stephen Hague among others. How did you get into podcasting? Basically, I thought of a podcast that I’d love to hear and then decided to make it. I liked the idea of sharing the thing I loved (i.e. 80s music) with like-minded souls. As for getting into it, I just jumped into it and learned as…

THIS MONTH IN POP SEPTEMBER 1987 IN OUR ROUND-UP OF SEPTEMBER 1987’S BIGGEST MOMENTS IN THE MUSIC WORLD, PETER GABRIEL IS LAUDED AT THE MTV AWARDS, IAN ASTBURY IS ARRESTED AND PINK FLOYD ENTER THEIR THIRD PHASE… STEVE O’BRIEN © Alamy 05 The Cult’s Ian Astbury is arrested after a show in Vancouver climaxes in a riot. Some staff at the concert claim they were assaulted by Astbury, who spends the night in a local police cell. 11 Level 42’s It’s Over becomes the first CD video single to go on sale in the UK. It contains 20 minutes of music and five minutes of video. 19 Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke delivers a lecture at the Courtauld Institute in London. It’s later released as the album The Courtauld Talks.…

A WALK ACROSS THE ROOFTOPS CLASSIC ALBUM ★ THE PLAYERS PAUL BUCHANAN Born in Edinburgh in 1956 to a civil servant father who’d formerly been a musician, The Blue Nile’s reticent frontman was a keen singer from an early age, though by the time he arrived at Glasgow University he’d switched his attention to English Literature and Medieval History. The only band member to flirt with the glamorous life – he dated Rosanna Arquette in the early 90s – he released a solo album, Mid Air, in 2012, and has also collaborated with, among others, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Julian Lennon and Texas. His last outing was on Starless’ self-titled 2016 album. ROBERT BELL Friends with Buchanan since childhood, Bell also attended Glasgow University, where he studied mathematics. He received…

SHAUN RYDER DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED BACK IN 2010 SHAUN RYDER WAS JUST ABOUT TO RELEASE HIS SECOND SOLO ALBUM. THEN I’M A CELEBRITY… HAPPENED. NOW 11 YEARS ON, WE’RE FINALLY GETTING TO HEAR VISITS FROM FUTURE TECHNOLOGY. THE HAPPY MONDAYS FRONTMAN TALKS ABOUT HIS OLD/NEW LP, AS WELL AS SURVIVING COVID, HIS BATTLES WITH ADHD AND HIS FORTHCOMING BIOPIC. STEVE O'BRIEN © Paul Husband As celebrity resurrections go, few are as remarkable as that of Shaun William Ryder. In the early 90s, the Happy Mondays frontman was almost a poster boy for bad behaviour. Remember that tale of him wheeling a sofa out of a recording studio in Barbados to sell for crack? You could never imagine Neil Tennant doing that. Fast-forward 30 years, however, and there he is,…

TOYAH “I WAS JUST EXPLODING WITH IDEAS” WHEN THE WORLD FELL SILENT LAST YEAR, TOYAH WILLCOX DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO MAKE SOME NOISE. THE RESULT IS POSH POP, THE SINGER’S FIRST ALBUM IN 13 YEARS – A DEFIANTLY ENERGISED RESPONSE TO THE MOST TESTING OF TIMES. AND THEN THERE WAS THE SMALL MATTER OF BECOMING A GLOBAL INTERNET SENSATION… “I HAVE TO DRIVE MY OWN SHIP,” THE PUNK ICON TELLS CLASSIC POP. “NO ONE ELSE CAN DO IT FOR ME.” PAUL KIRKLEY The first image that greets Classic Pop when we Zoom call Toyah Willcox at home is that of her husband, King Crimson legend Robert Fripp, sweeping up shards of broken glass with a dustpan and brush. “We’ve just had something happen that’s freaked me out,” explains Toyah.…

10 AND BREATHE WEEK ENDING 04 SEPTEMBER 1988 PHIL COLLINS GETS GROOVY, THE HOLLIES RETURN TO THE TOP 10 AND BREATHE ENJOY THEIR ONLY UK CHART HIT… STEVE O’BRIEN 01 (9) A GROOVY KIND OF LOVE PHIL COLLINS (VIRGIN) 02 (2) THE HARDER I TRY BROTHER BEYOND (PARLOPHONE) 03 (1) THE ONLY WAY IS UP YAZZ AND THE PLASTIC POPULATION (BIG LIFE) 04 (7) TEARDROPS WOMACK & WOMACK (4TH & BROADWAY) 05 (28) HE AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER THE HOLLIES (EMI) 06 (6) MEGABLAST/DON’T MAKE ME WAIT BOMB THE BASS (MISTER-RON) 07 (5) MY LOVE FT STEVIE WONDER JULIO IGLESIAS (CBS) 08 (14) THE RACE YELLO (MERCURY) 09 (3) THE LOCO-MOTION KYLIE MINOGUE (PWL) 10 (4) HANDS TO HEAVEN BREATHE (SIREN) A GROOVY KIND OF LOVE PHIL COLLINS (VIRGIN) Most…

BLONDIE Q&A: DIRECTOR ROB ROTH ON THE 'HAUNTED' VIBE OF HAVANA “I’ve known Debbie for more than 30 years. Usually, they say, ‘We need a cover, or a music video’, and then I pitch it. This was the very first time I went to them: ‘We need to document this! This is never happening again!’ It’s a milestone. There are so many layers to its significance. “I just didn’t know what was going to happen, so I let it unfold… It was low-budget, I hit all of these walls, then I found out Chris wasn’t going on the way to the airport. It was just endless – ‘Oh no, this is going to be a disaster!’ I’d never shot in a Communist country [and] I actually hadn’t shot real film…

POPARAZZI READERS SHARE THEIR FAVOURITE PHOTOS AS THEY GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN PLANET POP Send your Poparazzi pics now to steve.harnell@anthem.co.uk EDDIE LUNDON WITH CAROLINE WILLIAMS Here’s a photo of me with Eddie Lundon of China Crisis after a show at the Otley Courthouse near Leeds on 21 November 2019. Great guys, great gig! In between songs Gary kept the audience laughing with gentle humour – they don’t take themselves too seriously! Eddie and Gary Daly were really active with shows before the lockdowns with numerous dates up and down the country. I caught up with Eddie while he was packing up the gear after the gig, Gary was signing some CDs etc at the merch stall. JAKI GRAHAM WITH JAKE STAVRINIDES…

SHAUN RYDER VISITS FROM FUTURE TECHNOLOGY SWRX Officially, Visits From Future Technology is Shaun Ryder’s second solo album. The Happy Mondays/Black Grape leader considers it his first: if you’re struggling to recall 2003’s Amateur Night At The Big Top then so is Ryder, who made it while “coming off anything you can name”. Shaun eventually got clean in 2006 – and made most of this follow-up just four years later, shortly before going into the jungle on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!. Visits From Future Technology was forgotten about for the next decade. Lockdown boredom caused Ryder to remember that lost album, made with his studio protégé Sunny Levine. He’d been told at the time Levine’s production was too minimal. In the post-James Blake world of current stripped-back…

THE STRANGLERS DARK MATTERS COURSEGOOD Dark Matters opens as dramatically as you’d hope a Stranglers album would open, with a menacing drone and spaghetti western twangs, before one of their trademark swirling keyboard riffs explodes over a chugging bassline and blasts of guitar. One thing’s different, however: that organ sound is Dave Greenfield’s, but he’s no longer here, having died last year of COVID. There’s therefore a suitably subdued tribute to him in And If You Should See Dave… – essentially a virtual wake, it’s decorated by chiming bells and distinguished by one especially poignant line, “This is where your solo would go”. In truth, mortality is a repeated theme here, with the initially baroque, later synth-buoyed – but always surprisingly playful – If Something’s Gonna Kill Me (It Might…

SUPERSTATE SUPERSTATE Z2 COMICS Superstate is Graham Coxon’s latest project, except, hang on: it’s a graphic novel, co-penned by Coxon – plus two other writers and 15 artists – about a dystopian, dying world. Oh, wait, sorry: it’s Coxon’s soundtrack to that novel. But no, Coxon truly is a Renaissance man: Superstate’s all three, though music and book are available separately. It’s certainly ambitious, with a 122-page book and 15 songs – one for each story – and at times it’s definitely graphic: you won’t want kids reading L.I.L.Y., a tale of a sex robot. (The song’s gravity-free vocals are something to behold, too.) Superstate therefore requires commitment: though they’re obviously connected, engaging with a story distracts from a song, and one lasts longer than the other. But returning to…

REViEWS BLANCMANGE COMMERCIAL BREAK BLANC CHECK It’d take more than a global pandemic to halt Neil Arthur and Benge’s prolific workrate. The duo’s lockdown album takes a sideways look at modern life’s problems – putting the bins out, dodgy VAR decisions – and places them in a more acoustic framework than usual. Found sounds including dishwashers and electric saws inspire meditative reflections closer to Penguin Café Orchestra than Pet Shop Boys. The only issue is that the generally minimalist mood sometimes doesn’t develop, leaving the instrumentals Empty Street and Looking For Aliens too sparse without Arthur’s doomy vocals to draw the listener in. Best of all are a clutch of songs with a sinister edge. The title track in particular, framing the pandemic as the chance to have a reset…

TRIFECTA FRAGMENTS KSCOPE The unexpected offspring of Steven Wilson’s band, with whom each plays, Trifecta are Adam Holzman, a veteran keyboardist who graced Miles Davis’ Tutu – and it shows – alongside drummer Craig Blundell and Kajagoogoo bassist Nick Beggs. Doubtless each ‘feels’ their music deeply, whether it be Check Engine Light’s quirky time signatures or Lie 2 Me And Take My Money’s sleek funk grooves. Pavlov’s Dog Killed Schrödinger’s Cat provides a breather, but The Enigma Of Mr Fripp’s carousel keyboards amply compensate. WW…

COLIN HAY I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF COMPASS RECORDS “I just don’t know what to do with myself,” sings Men At Work’s frontman Colin Hay, so he’s done what most veterans do at this point in their career: made a covers album. His choices are effective but certainly not radical: here’s a hoarse, semi-acoustic Waterloo Sunset, a smooth Wichita Lineman, an Ooh La La faithful to The Faces, and there’s only a paper’s width between his and Del Amitri’s Driving With The Brakes On. The Beatles bring out his best – twice – with Norwegian Wood and Across The Universe. WW…

TIM FINN & PHIL MANZANERA CAUGHT BY THE HEART EXPRESSION RECORDS 12,000 miles apart, Split Enz’ Tim Finn and Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera were reunited remotely by the pandemic and a shared love for Latin music. Look at that opening track’s title, Mambo! Salsa!…, while the temperate Bajo Luz Distinta is sung entirely in Spanish. But Vamos Despacio’s reluctant groove is enriched by Yazz Ahmed’s flugelhorn while Finn’s gruff and sometimes trembling vocals pay dividends on the highly Roxy-like Malecón and lend All That’s Human a welcome vulnerability. WW…

REISSUES AZTEC CAMERA BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS – THE WEA RECORDINGS 1984-1995 PRODUCTION GLOSS DIALS DOWN RODDY FRAME’S ROUGH EDGES CHERRY RED Listening to nine CDs exploring Aztec Camera’s world, it’s hard not to feel a pang of regret. That’s not because 1983’s widely acclaimed Rough Trade debut album High Land, Hard Rain is missing from this boxset, though it would have been welcome. Instead, it’s because mastermind Roddy Frame’s superb songwriting deserved better. First emerging in 1980 as a fresh-faced Scot, he was blessed with a voice that fell just short of a velveteen croon, his melancholic melodies and heart-on-sleeve lyricism as good as any contemporary. Unfortunately, Frame quickly chose to follow a production path which was very much smooth and narrow. While this didn’t neuter his talent, it rendered…

VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL 12" 80S EXTENDED NOW Following the excellent recent Now Yearbook ’83, the Now team further their resurgence with another compilation showcasing the very best of the brand. Arriving at the same time as the similarly fabulous Shep Pettibone collection, together they document the best of early remix culture. A less thoughtful compilation would have simply chosen the obvious 12"s of the decade. There are inevitable big hitters here – bonus points for anyone with a-ha’s Take On Me or Soft Cell’s Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go on their remix bingo cards. What’s pleasantly surprising is that – again, like some songs on Now Yearbook ’83 – the Now team have persuaded some artists to donate remixes which haven’t featured on their own…

SUPERGRASS IN IT FOR THE MONEY BMG Last year’s boxset The Strange Ones initially looked a definitive Supergrass collection, but bassist Mickey Quinn soon assuaged fans angered that the compilation’s vinyl was on rough-sounding picture discs. Quinn vowed that audiophile heavyweight vinyl versions of their six albums would be on the way. Sure enough, here comes a far sturdier sounding edition of Supergrass’ 1997 second studio album. More surprising is that there are over a dozen extra tracks not featured in the boxset. It’s not a great look that collectors – and who else buys boxsets? – need to fork out for In It For The Money for the third time if they want all the additional live songs and demos from the era, though. Format complaints aside, In It…

BONNIE TYLER THE EAST WEST YEARS 1995-1998 CHERRY POP Seven months on from Bonnie Tyler’s new album The Best Is Yet To Come, Cherry Pop’s new 3CD set could be viewed as The Worst Is Back Again. For collectors, it’s great that Tyler’s two albums released in 1995 and 1998 finally arrive on streaming, accompanied in the boxset by a remix disc dominated by six ill-fitting disco diva mixes of Tyler’s cover of Meat Loaf’s Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad. 1995’s Free Spirit was poorly titled for a sprawling mess where songs were left to drift far past their natural running time. A succession of producers, including Jim Steinman, David Foster and Andy Hill, didn’t seem to know what to do with such a gifted singer. Three years later,…

THE TIME THE TIME RHINO The Time’s debut album credits the band – featuring future superstar producers Jam & Lewis – as its creators. In reality, The Time is a Prince album in all but name. The Time singer Morris Day replaces Prince’s guide vocals, but the rest of the album is entirely played and (under his Jamie Starr alias) produced by Prince. OK, the rumbling synth stabs in the hyperactive chant Cool are from Prince’s keyboardist Dr Fink, but he’s not in The Time either. In short, The Time is one of the best albums not to feature the band credited with making it. Which, when you’ve got Jimmy Jam on keyboards and Terry Lewis on bass at your disposal, is a pretty ballsy move even by Prince’s standards.…

PAUL YOUNG FROM TIME TO TIME – THE SINGLES COLLECTION MUSIC ON VINYL The first Paul Young hits compilation, released in 1991, is also probably the best of his 10 Best Ofs in existence. It emerged when Young was starting to fade commercially. But the 15-song set, reissued on vinyl, was a timely reminder of Young’s way with a cover. His versions of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now and Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over make their album debut here, alongside classic Zucchero duet Senza Una Donna. Although it obviously omits Young’s later albums, it’s a great insight on how he switched from funkateer to easy-going AOR with charm to spare. JE…

MADNESS THE RISE & FALL BMG Arriving just seven months after their chart-topping Complete Madness compilation, the Camden jesters’ fourth album was far from clumsy. Their trademark instrumentation remained in place but Tomorrow’s Just Another Day’s arrangements highlighted the album’s more advanced, conceptual, albeit deceptive complexity. Are You Coming (With Me) sidled up to The Specials and Primrose Hill added fabulous village brass band stylings, while Blue Skinned Beast was a sometimes noisy, satirical tribute to Margaret Thatcher. WW…

VARIOUS ARTISTS GENERATION BLITZ STATE OF BASS Seeking to highlight the more experimental, futurist side of early synth-pop, underground label State Of Bass’ compilation does a great job of bringing together 34 new artists seeking to further the spirit of the Blitz club. Around half the songs are exclusive, while only Sink Ya Teeth and Tiny Magnetic Pets have made any mainstream inroads. That shouldn’t matter. For anyone who’s been lured to the dark side by early Human League, there’s a fabulous array of moody pop and electronic freakouts waiting patiently here. JE…

REViEWS PRINCE: AND THE PARADE & SIGN O’ THE TIMES ERA STUDIO SESSIONS 1985 AND 1986 DUANE TUDAHL THIS SECOND BOOK IN THE PRINCE STUDIO SESSIONS SERIES CHRONICLES THE YEARS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE PURPLE RAIN ERA © Alamy ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Given Prince’s reputation as one of the greatest live performers of all time, the revelation that he resented embarking on long tours as he found them repetitive is rather shocking when it’s cited in Duane Tudahl’s new book as the reason his Purple Rain Tour was limited to a US run in 1985. This is just one of the many surprising facts to be gleaned from this exhaustive compendium that documents Prince’s relentless 1985-’86 schedule in painstaking detail. Renowned for his prolific output, the period covered here is widely…

THE REMARKABLE TALE OF RADIO 1: THE HISTORY OF THE NATION’S FAVOURITE STATION 1967-95 ROBERT SELLERS OMNIBUS PRESS For anyone who grew up avidly listening to the charts on a Sunday afternoon, started their day to the breakfast show, or spent summers on beaches among crowds of thousands packed in front of the Radio 1 Roadshow trucks, this book is essential. Robert Sellers has undertaken the mammoth task of writing the story of Radio 1 and delivered an enthralling history of the station from its beginnings until the end of its reign as the most influential music platform of its time. Although the book does draw on a variety of sources and documentary footage, it is the copious amount of interviews that Sellers conducted exclusively for this project that bring it…

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LOST & FOUND DAVID GRANT DAVID GRANT David Grant dissolved Britfunk pioneers Linx much earlier than expected, and his debut solo album relies principally on bass-heavy electro-funk backing and his natural sub-falsetto. This collection of nine songs, six of which were singles, mainly stay in a pleasantly inoffensive second gear. Singles Love Will Find A Way, Stop And Go and album opener Rock The Midnight follow the funked-up pattern in a predictably regimented way, though the former does have a more substantial chorus. Exceptions include the stylish Organise, which raises its head lyrically as Grant pans media perception of him within a more manageable melody, not needing to squeak out high notes at will, while despite an odd placing as the penultimate track on the album, someone was perceptive enough…

IAN PEEL‘S A TO Z OF POP ONE OF THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT ASPECTS OF THE NEW JAMES BOND FILM NO TIME TO DIE IS BILLIE EILISH’S TITLE SONG. BUT WHAT IS THE FRANCHISE’S MOST POPULAR THEME WITH CLASSIC POP ARTISTS – AND WHICH IS THE BEST FOR GETTING YOU OFF TO SLEEP? B IS FOR … BOND, JAMES BOND When I received Spotify’s last end-of-year email with my top-played artists and favourite songs, I got quite a surprise. Surpassing the great works of Classic Pop stalwarts like Pet Shop Boys, New Order and even Furniture, my mostplayed artist across all of last 2020 was John Barry. And a short selection of John Barry tracks at that: the soundtrack to Moonraker. Because while 1979’s Star Wars-inspired Roger Moore outing won’t be…

SOFT CELL “We’re a very fluid band. Soft Cell is still a soap opera.” WHEN SOFT CELL REFORMED AFTER 16 YEARS APART TO HEADLINE LONDON’S O2 ARENA IN 2018, IT WAS BILLED AS THEIR FAREWELL. INSTEAD, MARC ALMOND AND DAVE BALL ARE NOW BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM ENCOMPASSING EVERY AREA OF THIS MOST COMPLEX OF DUOS. WHAT CHANGED THEIR MINDS? IN THEIR ONLY INTERVIEW THIS YEAR, THEY TELL CLASSIC POP HOW THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC CAUSED THEM TO RE-EVALUATE THEIR BELIEF IN EACH OTHER… AND WHY THEY’RE FINALLY READY TO EMBRACE BEING POP STARS AFTER 40 YEARS. JOHN EARLS In spring last year, a week into the first lockdown, Marc Almond became seriously ill with COVID. He wanted to go to hospital, but was warned by his doctor: “Don’t go.…

MORE CHAOS FROM MARC? While Dave Ball has stayed busy working with The Grid, Marc Almond is considering his next move, after the stalled release of his last solo album Chaos And A Dancing Star. The album was Marc’s second with Chris Braide, who has become an in-demand producer for Lana Del Rey and Beyoncé after starting out as Soft Cell’s backing singer on Cruelty Without Beauty. It was released in February 2020, weeks before lockdown. A one-off launch show took place at London’s Royal Festival Hall, but a tour was cancelled. “I was fuming with BMG over Chaos And A Dancing Star, to be honest,” Marc admits. “I was very upset and angry, as I didn’t feel that album had run its course. I realise there wasn’t anything that…

CLASSIC ALBUM A WALK ACROSS THE ROOFTOPS • THE SONGS 1 A WALK ACROSS THE ROOFTOPS With soft arpeggios flickering in the distance, interrupted by the sudden, eerie sound of grinding metal, A Walk Across The Rooftops opens in vivid fashion, setting the album’s nocturnal mood. “What you hear at the beginning is the sound of somebody walking across the rooftops,” Buchanan told the BBC’s Johnnie Walker. “I’d sit in the kitchen at night and just look out the window. It was just the way the varying heights of the buildings were that made it possible for me just to see across the roofs.” Attended by haunting brass, stabs of bass and sparse strings, Buchanan also takes little time to establish the album’s redemptive, emotional tone, announcing after 60 seconds,…

GOLDFRAPP ALBUM BY ALBUM REMIXES Although each of their first three albums brought them a greater degree of success here and throughout Europe than their predecessor did, the US was late to the party. Supernature stalled at No.138 there and Goldfrapp adopted the Moby method of licensing their songs to TV ads and programmes in order to get them heard. Thanks to big name DJs and producers remixing their tracks and including them in their sets, the US club scene was where they first gained traction, with Supernature‘s singles faring well in the dance charts. 2006’s We Are Glitter (originally a US-only release but now widely available on various streaming services) capitalises on their status as an underground niche act by handing over the Supernature singles to everyone from Fred…

SUPER FAN ★ DEVOTED FANS SHOW US THEIR COLLECTIONS AND POP MEMORABILIA ELTON JOHN PAUL RICE, TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA Q When did you first become a Superfan of Elton John? A I was 10 years old in 1978 when I first saw Elton on The Muppet Show, then I remember reading about him going to tour Russia the following year in the newspaper at high school. I thought these were both very cool things. I became a real fan in 1983 after hearing I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues and buying the Too Low For Zero album. After that, I saw Elton live for the first time in 1986 on his Tour De Force with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and there was no turning back. Q What do…

MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS THEY SHOOT… THEY SCORE IN THE 80S, HOLLYWOOD TURNED ITS BACK ON ORCHESTRAL FILM SCORES IN FAVOUR OF JUKEBOX-STYLE COMPILATIONS THAT SOLD IN THEIR MILLIONS – BUT DID COMMERCE WIN OUT OVER ART? WILL SIMPSON © Alamy © Getty The relationship between movies and music is long and intertwined, from the live soundtracks that were performed to accompany silent films to the stirring orchestrations of the golden age of Hollywood. Just as a decent meal requires a sauce of some description, so films need music. For decades, Hollywood had contracted out its supply to individual composers and many gained significant fame from it, their names becoming synonymous with certain cinematic genres. Ennio Morricone will forever be associated with the innovative way he created drama for Sergio Leone’s westerns.…

GREATEST SINGLES BY 80S ACTORS TOP 20 TOP 2O GREATEST SINGLES BY 80S ACTORS NOT CONTENT WITH FAME IN MOVIES AND TV, CHARTS IN THE 80S WERE AWASH WITH THESPIAN INTERLOPERS… JON O’BRIEN Actors moonlighting as pop stars wasn’t strictly an 80s development. Who can forget Telly ‘Kojak’ Savalas’ hitting No.1 in 1975 with his erm, interesting, spoken-word rendition of If, for example? But it was the following decade where pretty much every other thespian – from soap opera regulars to Hollywood A-listers – who could hold a note seemed to make a bid for the charts. Ignoring anyone already renowned as a double threat at the time, here’s a countdown of the era’s most listenable (and a few unlistenable) side hustles. 2O NICK BERRY EVERY LOSER WINS • Several…

SAINT ETIENNE I’VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU HEAVENLY Approached blind, it would be easy to mistake Saint Etienne’s latest for remixes of unearthed songs. But while their peculiar brand of pop has always been arcane it’s never been this mysterious, their soundscapes eviscerated of their more immediate traits. Driven by an urge to examine current misty-eyed fondness for the turn of the century, their 10th album is largely constructed from “samples and sounds drawn from the years 1997-2001” and feels like an ambient producer – Global Communication, say – has ‘reimagined’ an apparently absent original album. If it’s little like the Saint Etienne you know, it’s also frequently as lovely as this idea sounds. Little K offers almost six beatific minutes of downtempo bucolic electronica and the title track’s…

THE ART OF NOISE NOISE IN THE CITY (LIVE IN TOKYO, 1986) MUSIC ON VINYL By 1986, JJ Jeczalik, Anne Dudley and Gary Langan had dropped the masks and split acrimoniously from Trevor Horn and Paul Morley, partners on 1984’s Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise? Newer material was more accessible, and here they’re slightly torn early on between, on one hand, the introductory riffs of novelty hit Peter Gunn and the playful Paranoimia and, on the other, Close (To The Edit)’s sampledelia. But if their pop instincts, such as they were, had won out, this will only disappoint die-hard early fans, especially of the exquisite Moments In Love, which is robbed somewhat of its otherworldly qualities by live rendition. Otherwise, old and new alike sit surprisingly well together,…

THE VACCINES BACK IN LOVE CITY SUPER EASY Their name having become an unfortunate punchline during the pandemic, The Vaccines respond in the best way possible, with a strutting and confident album which places the focus firmly back on their music. Further honing the gaze towards glam rock instigated on previous LP Combat Sports, their fifth record is loosely a concept album about a Blade Runner-inspired fictional city. Thankfully, listeners can dispense with such nonsense and instead twirl and handclap along to early Suede levels of debauchery. While there’s room for cartoon pop-punk (Paranormal Romance), The Sweet-style simplicity (Savage) and Talking Heads art-rock (Headphones Baby), the overall mood is very much trying and succeeding in recreating a Roxy Music insouciance. Imagine the excitement surrounding the band a decade ago, fulfilled…

MARTIN GORE THE THIRD CHIMPANZEE REMIXED MUTE Though the aged among us may struggle, Depeche Mode completists will no doubt flock to these 10 reworkings by a slew of cutting-edge producers. Wehbba’s Capuchin remix is especially merciless, its pounding techno brandishing glistening synths, and Chris Liebing revs up Vervet’s tempo, stretching it over nine minutes while ridding it of Mode-like synths in favour of a more muscular character. Brazil’s ANNA also gives Howler a huge energy boost, and MoReVoX closes out with a pitch-black Mandrill reworking. WW…

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM REPRISE A decade since Lindsey Buckingham’s last solo album, stock in Fleetwood Mac has risen markedly, thanks to touring and a new generation of admirers. Both recently won and veteran fans will delight in how he plays to his strengths here, whether in opener Scream’s muted songwriting simplicity, On The Wrong Side’s multi-layered harmonies or Blue Light’s fingerpicked jollity, which wouldn’t outstay its welcome at twice the length. Time adds a slightly syrupy Mediterranean feel, but joining him in Santa Rosa is highly recommended. WW…

JIM BOB WHO DO WE HATE TODAY CHERRY RED Jim Bob’s angry: his 12th solo LP opens with The Earth Bleeds Out, a spiky environmental rant, and no prizes exist for guessing Shona Is Dating A Drunk, Woman Hating Neanderthal Man’s theme. (“She’s joined at the hip to an arse”, apparently, possibly the calmer #prayfortony’s subject.) Encapsulating his observational skills, the painfully tense A Random Act addresses social media’s irresponsible impatience, while males get short shrift on breathless anthem Men, and whatever hope’s left dies with the closing title track. WW…

VARIOUS ARTISTS ARTHUR BAKER PRESENTS DANCE MASTERS: SHEP PETTIBONE – THE CLASSIC 12" MASTER-MIXES EDSEL/DEMON A perfect gift for anyone who studies album credits, New Order producer Arthur Baker’s new remix series launches with the ideal choice for the era’s remixers. Shep Pettibone happily retired 30 years ago to run a hotel but, throughout the 80s, he showed remixers how it should be done. The tragedy of Pettibone is that he wasn’t influential enough. Rather than his successors, who often turn a song into showing off their own style, Pettibone always remained faithful to the original track. It’s not that he lacked his own ideas, as Pettibone virtually invented the shuffle drums and breaks that dominated the late 80s. His real skill was in bridging the original Extended Versions of…

REISSUES BELINDA CARLISLE LIVE YOUR LIFE BE FREE/A WOMAN AND A MAN DEMON Following the expanded vinyl release of Belinda Carlisle’s 1986 debut Belinda in May, two of her 90s album get the 3LP vinyl treatment. Live Your Life Be Free from 1991 is effectively the end of Carlisle’s imperial phase. The title track is a Rick Nowels classic, pure arm-waving euphoria, setting the tone for the singer’s most all-out pop record. It was Carlisle and Nowels’ third album together. Although other producers in Richard Feldman, David Munday and Eric Pressly had entered the fray, Live Your Life Be Free is the sound of Carlisle and Nowels in their comfort zone. You’re Nothing Without Me is a riotous flamenco-tinged rocker, Emotional Highway deft blues that would fit on Twin Peaks’…

REViEWS SHEENA EASTON THE DEFINITIVE SINGLES 1980-1987 CHERRY POP Since her album Fabulous in 2000, Sheena Easton has been elusive. She hasn’t played any shows in the UK since that album’s release, with a starring run in the West End in 42nd Street in 2017 the only chance fans have had to see her on home turf. It’s time that people were reminded of what a great pop star Easton can be, so give thanks for a 3CD set comprising 29 singles in seven years, alongside 28 remixes from the likes of Shep Pettibone. One of the first reality pop stars, Easton was a versatile talent, one of the few singers who seemed equally at home working with Nile Rodgers and Kenny Rogers. Easton has disowned her Nile Rodgersproduced 1985…

REISSUES BERNARD BUTLER/SUEDE PEOPLE MOVE ON/COMING UP DEMON Although he’s an excellent producer and songwriter, last year’s joint album with Catherine Anne Davies was a reminder the world needs Bernard Butler as a musician, too. Finally reissuing his 1998 debut solo album, Butler really is revisiting it: he’s re-recorded the vocals for the whole album and its six B-sides, included alongside the original record. Butler’s vocals aren’t dramatically different, just somewhat better. Butler’s playing obviously doesn’t need changing, his emotive guitar equally gorgeous on the dramatic pop of Not Alone and Autograph’s playful folk. A couple of songs run on too long, but a chewy guitar motif will drag listeners back in soon enough. To the undoubted annoyance of both parties, Suede’s first post-Butler LP, 1996’s Coming Up, is reissued…

REViEWS TINA TURNER FOREIGN AFFAIR DELUXE EDITION WARNER It’s hard to believe an album which included The Best – originally sung, fact fans, by Bonnie Tyler – wasn’t a massive hit globally, but though it earned her first British No.1 solo LP, in North America Foreign Affair was the worst performing of Tina Turner’s first three postcomeback LPs. In retrospect, they may have had a point: next to Private Dancer’s relative subtlety, it felt like being bludgeoned over the head. Not that people demanded subtlety of Turner by then, as two CDs and a DVD included in this remastered set’s deluxe edition confirm. Few holler like her, and even between songs on this 1990 Barcelona recording – originally released on VHS in 2003 – you’ll hear her shrieking, the audience…

WORLD PARTY GOODBYE JUMBO SEAVIEW A 1990 Album Of The Year in some parts and now back on vinyl, Karl Wallinger’s second LP was another artfully devised collection of classicist pop writing. The Beatles remained his idols, especially in God On My Side’s arrangement and When The Rainbow Comes’ Harrisonesque melancholy. But there was also sweet soul in Ain’t Gonna Come Till I’m Ready and – obviously – Sweet Soul Dream. Put The Message In The Box meanwhile suggested Dylan doing powerpop, and Way Down Now’s nods to The Rolling Stones were proud. WW…

MEAT LOAF BLIND BEFORE I STOP MUSIC ON VINYL Reissued on vinyl for its 35th anniversary, Meat Loaf has admitted he basically made his fifth album as a contractual obligation. He certainly sounds uncomfortable with his producer – Boney M mastermind Frank Farian – shoehorning none-more-80s synths all over potential trademark full-blown rockers such as Getting Away With Murder. The mix sometimes works – Burning Down is simply a rattling good pop song, and Farian has enough subtlety not to intrude on showstopping ballad One More Kiss. But it hardly stands up next to Loaf’s work with Jim Steinman, even if it’s not the disco disaster it’s sometimes stereotyped as. JE…

PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME NOW: THE DURAN DURAN STORY STEPHEN DAVIS HACHETTE While Duran fans wait with baited breath for the release of their heroes’ new album Future Past in October, author Stephen Davis’ provides a lazy recap of the band’s story so far in Please Please Tell Me Now. Compiled from multiple sources and interviews, the book sets out to create a concise portrait of the band yet unfortunately falls short on several counts. Although it goes into meticulous detail on some facets of the band’s career, it is frustratingly vague on others, creating a very unbalanced account. The already welldocumented stories of Duran Duran’s early years, influences, their MTV dominance with the iconic videos etc, are reeled out offering very little that fans of the band won’t already…