Back to the future: 1979-1989
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Oh, synthesizer

Remembering the electric keyboard pop acts that defined the early 1980s.

Essay

  • Author:
  • A staff writer
    National Library of Scotland

Pop music in the 1970s — a time mainly of guitar heroes, soul singers, pop bands wielding instruments, flicking microphones, of singers static (ballads), and of singers moving about (not-ballads).

Sometimes, at the back, there would be someone (usually a man) playing a keyboard of some sort joining in but not at centre stage, unless it was Elton John or someone on a piano. Or Chicory Tip.

Then, in 1979, on 'Top of the Pops' (TOTP) the mainstay of British pop promotion and coverage, a pale young man from Staines turned up with his mates. There had been pale young men with their mates before, but this time no less than two of them were playing (or 'miming') behind synthesizers, and electronic sounds were central. The max-factored young man was Gary Numan, his mates 'Tubeway Army' and the song was the massively successful number one single 'Are "friends" electric?'.

Of course synthesizers were around before Tubeway Army's appearance on TOTP, certainly by the aforementioned Chicory Tip in the song 'Son of my father', in the odd Kraftwerk tune, 'Magic fly' by Space, and predominant in anything by Giorgio Moroder (including 'Son of my father'). Progressive rock (prog rock) featured interesting noises in the capability of expensive keyboards and virtuoso players, often in solos (Genesis' Tony Banks), extended solos (Rick Wakeman of Yes) and virtually the main event (Keith Emerson in Emerson Lake and Palmer). Then there was Jean Michel Jarre and his concept albums, and Bowie who with Brian Eno placed synthesizers to the fore on Bowie’s albums 'Low' and 'Heroes'.

It is obvious in retrospect that Numan was hugely influenced by Bowie, indeed it was fairly obvious at the time. Bowie had been holed up in Berlin since 1977 — the name 'Numan' was chosen over the rather more prosaically 'Webb', because it sounded a bit German. Numan's 'act' was clearly deferential to Bowie — an imagined persona in a dystopian world. The kinds of instruments used by Bowie — especially in the late 1970s Berlin LPs — were dominating Numan's songs.

Staines massive

The difference was, Gary did not seem to be the distant, elusive figure Bowie had become. He was not a highfalutin prog rocker, a novelty act, or, heaven forbid, from abroad — he was from Staines. He didn't look especially odd, but sounded unusual — a slightly peculiar boy-next-door. Numan developed and maintained the sound and look in his first 'solo' single 'Cars', released later in the summer of 1979, with its wailing high-pitch refrains and synthetic drum crash. Numan's songs reflected coldness, dislocation and a slightly unhealthy interest in sex robots (in that, he may well have been ahead of his time). But with Tubeway Army's 'Replicas' LP, and Numan's 'The Pleasure Principle', Gary Webb had found a formula, a huge following and shown that machines could rock. Despite the bass, guitars and drummer.

While Bowie influenced Numan in an indirectly Germanic way, the outstanding influence on Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, thankfully shortened to OMD, was just German — Kraftwerk. OMD, from Liverpool and who toured with Numan in 1979, initially shunned the traditional group set-up of guitar, bass, drums, singer and possibly a keyboard. They had a bass player, Andy McCluskey, who sang, and a keyboard player, Paul Humphries. They had no drummer but employed a reel-to-reel tape recorder risibly named 'Winston'. Winston was 'responsible' for bits and pieces that could not be played live, including the drums.

it is perhaps unsurprising that the song ['Enloa Gay'] was a hit

OMD's first two LPs, 'Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark' and 'Organisation' (a name referencing the proto-Kraftwerk band Organisation who released the LP 'Tone Float' in 1969), featured songs about the everyday: telephone boxes, an oil refinery, electricity — the sorts of topics Kraftwerk had explored in the records 'Autobahn' and 'Radioactivity'. The sound similarity between Kraftwerk's song 'Radioactivity' and the OMD single 'Electricity' is plain; and for a band who became a very shiny pop group, there is much discord on their first two albums in distinct deference to German electro-noise group, Neu!.

OMD, like a lot of young men in the 1970s, were interested in war (or The War, the Second World War) and its dreadful consequences — 'Bunker Soldiers' and 'The Messerschmitt Twins', with its irresistible use of a German name, evoke the era. But OMD scored a hit with a song about the unlikeliest of topics: 'Enola Gay', the bomber that was used to drop the first nuclear device in anger on Hiroshima in 1945. The underlying message was that it was 'a bad thing', which of course it was. But it is perhaps unsurprising that the song was a hit. Not only was it a jaunty enough danceable tune, the threat of nuclear conflict was resurgent in 1980, with USSR's invasion of Afghanistan and the more belligerent anti-Soviet stance of Presidential candidate Ronald Regan in the US and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at home.

So far, so gritty — electro tinged glamour began to emerge with 'Fade to Grey', a moody piece of pop featuring the vocal talents of Blitz kid Steve Strange, a living 'canvas' for elaborate make-up applications. Electronics are principle in the song, until a drummer comes in half-way through — and there is a bit of French in there too, a nod and a wink to the European influence on the Blitz DJs, who never shied away from the odd European piece of electronica — the odder the better.

'Fade to Grey' was released under the name 'Visage', which appropriately enough was the face for an agglomeration of musicians from other groups — aside from Currie, Payne and Ure, a significant cohort of post-punkers Magazine were also major contributors — Barry Adamson, John McGeoch and Dave Formula. The song was written by Chris Payne and Billy Currie, who had both featured in Gary Numan's TOTP appearances and his live band, and Midge Ure, who had recently replaced John Foxx in Billy Currie's real band, Ultravox. Without an exclamation mark.

Until Foxx's departure in 1979 Ultravox! had been a guitar led but electronically influenced art-rock, post-punk sort of band. The two resulting acts, solo Foxx and Midge Ure 'led' Ultravox, were both essentially electronic acts, synthesizers and, crucially, drum machines throughout — even though Ultravox retained the very capable drumming talent of Warren Cann. Foxx pitched up early in 1980 with his LP 'Metamatic', which in many ways featured the same sense of dislocation and emotionlessness that interested Gary Numan. A series of singles emerged in 1980 all headlining synthesizers but dispensing with the services of real percussion in favour of improving drum-machine technology.

A synthesizer is even deployed prominently as a substitute solo instrument by Billy Currie

The Ultravox album in 1980 was 'Vienna' produced by Conny Plank who had also worked on the last John Foxx-Ultravox! LP, 'Systems of Romance'. Plank was a pioneer of electronica and had worked with everyone in Europe who had dared plug a dodgy box of valves and transistors with keys attached into the mains. In short, he knew what he was doing, and what he was doing with Ultravox was turning them into a success.

'Vienna' is a sort of hybrid album with drums and guitars intertwined with machinery, sequencers and rhythm machines. A synthesizer is even deployed prominently as a substitute solo instrument by Billy Currie, notably on 'Astradyne' and 'Sleepwalk'. All of this made little impact until the third single, also called 'Vienna', was released early in 1981 — and it became huge. A self-consciously pompous Romantic nod and a wink to highbrow and European music, 'Vienna' rode the wave of New Romanticism, only being pipped to the number one slot by the late John Lennon and Joe Dolce. Sublime and ridiculous.

Running parallel to the career of Ultravox was the Human League. The difference was, they had never used guitars or real percussion — the only things being hit were keys and buttons, and occasionally one another. The Human League had been stubbornly electronic since the rise of punk and new wave in 1977. They deliberately kicked against the pricks, and worked, and worked hard, at perfecting alternative, synthetically produced sounds and rhythms, even proclaiming on their 1980 LP 'Travelogue' cover 'Vocals and synthesizers only' in response to Queen's shibboleth 'No synthesizers'.

The future

Initially, the Human League were distinctly art house, issuing two singles (and argument on a flexi-disc about what should go on the flexi-disc) on Edinburgh's Fast Product label. Their songs were instrumental, in a literary criticism sense, in that they insisted on having 'a point', and at this time often had introductory 'statements'. When they switched to Virgin in 1979, the 'statement' relating to their debut album 'Reproduction' was the sleeve — a number of babies apparently under a glass floor, which is cracking under the weight of some faceless adults; the audience kind of got the point but the sleeve was a turn-off.

While the League were working on sound someone was working on their career, getting them a slot on TOTP in May 1980 performing their version of Gary Glitter's 'Rock 'n' Roll' from the 'Holiday '80' EP. This was fairly unusual at the time as the record hadn't troubled the top 40, and despite their appearance, it never did — the 'Travelogue' LP, however, fared well in the album charts and their second appearance featured the re-release of 1979's 'Empire State human'.

Things had always been a bit tetchy in the Human League and by the end of 1980, matters had erupted into a full-scale schism. The singer and the slide projector operator went off with the name, and the musicians left with a new idea, the British Electric Foundation, a company which developed into a front for lots of guest appearances by notable singers, some more notable than others. Their new band, however, became Heaven 17 featuring Glen Gregory. The Human League struggled on as Phil Oakey and produced a contractual obligation single 'Boys and girls' at the start of the New Year — it was a brave attempt, but the absence of diverse ideas and input into the single was stark.

Until around 1981, synthesizers were definitely the preserve of geeks, affluent or otherwise, and / or the property of corporate bodies, namely, recording companies and studios. They were magnificent analogue machines with strange names — 'Odyssey', 'Polymoog', 'Prophet' — and produced by exotic elusive manufacturers — Moog, ARP Instruments, Inc, EMS, Sequential Circuits Inc However, Japanese programmable machines from Korg, Roland, Yamaha, and more affordable models from Moog and the earlier EDP Wasp made synthesizers more accessible. Of course, there were expensive innovations too remaining only within the budget of record labels, and one of those was the digital Linn LM-1 drum machine.

lots of people began to experiment with their electronically creative side

And it was this instrument that was to feature in the resurgent repertoire of the reconstructed Human League. Lacking musicians, Phil Oakey made the bold step of recruiting two young women as backing singers and dancers, Joanne Catherall and Suzanne Sulley. But it was musical ability and song-writing creativity that was required, so Sheffield-based musician Ian Burden along with Jo Callis — late of the magnificent pop-chart proven Rezillos — were recruited. Even the slide projectionist Adrian Wright took up keyboards. Working with their producer Martin Rushent, and the distinctive sound of drum samples delivered by the LM-1, the Human League released a string of popular, up tempo hits about love and dancing during 1981, as well as a monstrously successful LP 'Dare'.

Synthesizers' relative affordability and the independent sensibility engendered by punk and its successors meant that lots of people began to experiment with their electronically creative side while getting their songs distributed. Apparently ploughing a lone furrow in the late 1970s, Daniel Miller of Mute Records issued a series of singles and albums, mainly featuring wacky sounds from primitive machines, songs about strange subjects and sometimes even made by Germans — The Normal, Fad Gadget, the 'manufactured' covers band, the Silicon Teens, and Düsseldorf based Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft known as DAF. In 1981 a heartbreakingly lovely pop song was released on Mute by one of their new bands, Depeche Mode — 'Dreaming of me' was a minor mainstream hit and major indie success. In summer 1981 Depeche Mode released 'New life' and 'Just can't get enough', unashamed pop songs about love and they were huge.

Depeche Mode were four young men from the Basildon, a new town in Essex. The main song writer, Vince Clarke, was driven to make his music heard: he liked a pop song and did not mind a synth — in his hands the combination was to become irresistible. Strangely, after all the work, three singles, one LP and a couple of tours with Depeche Mode, Clarke already had different musical ambitions to the rest of the band — and in late 1981, with the world seemingly at his feet, he took an enormous risk and left.

1981 — annus mirabilis electronica

It was evident by the releases in 1981 that it was becoming a bit of an annus mirabilis electronica, with the stand-out records of the year coming from electronic acts, as well as the best-selling single. That came from Soft Cell (Mark Almond and David Ball, from Leeds) whose career had been steady, but relatively unsuccessful. However, having a track included on the 'Some Bizzare Album' early in 1981, also featuring Depeche Mode, Blancmange and The The raised their profile. Soft Cell synthed-up a Northern Soul classic and 'Tainted love' became a massive success in the UK and USA. Almond revelled in the seamier sides of life and love, while David Ball looked like a bouncer who had been asked to mind the equipment, which to his dismay he realised he could play. Their records were unusual and memorable, and when Marilyn Manson covered 'Tainted love' in 2003 he probably wasn't referencing the original by Gloria Jones.

Gloria was a soul singer, and Heaven 17 placed soul at the centre of their first LP 'Penthouse and pavement'. The boys of Buddha, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, late of the Human League, seamlessly moved with Glen Gregory to produce a cool, funky, soulful, danceable LP. It also featured a smattering of anti-war and left-leaning songs, completely overlooked by the YUPPIES who seemed to go for the corporate image promoted on the sleeve. It's probably quite hard to hear even the most unsubtle references to fascists when you're caroming 'round a dance floor off your face on Veuve Clicquot after a hard day in the futures. Play to win. However, Heaven 17's style shift was similar to 'Dare' and it was as if the two parts of the Human League were moving in similar more commercial, dance directions but they couldn't quite agree on how to get there. But the musical stamp of the early Human League is all over 'Penthouse and pavement' with the electronic 'horns' perfected on the 'Travelogue' version of 'Being boiled' making a prominent appearance, and the rhythm track for 'We're Going to Live for a Very Long Time' being exactly the same as that on 'Marianne' from the 'Holiday '80' EP.

Eins, zwei, drei, vier

Arguably the peak of the year's record releases came in May, when Kraftwerk returned after three years' 'rationalisation' with 'Computer world'. With this release the band raised the bar pushing the limits of what could be achieved in analogue synthesized music. It was clean, it was polished, it was art, it was dance, it predicted the future, it was the future. They had been influential before but with 'Computer world' Kraftwerk set the template for the development of electronic music and much of dance music for the coming 20 years. They even became popular as a pop band; 'Pocket calculator' was a hit and the rereleased 'Computer love' backed with 'The model' reached number 1 in the UK single charts in February 1982 after much radio play. The proliferation of electronic pop songs during 1981 had even warmed the British public's hearts to those remote, inscrutable Germans who'd been synthesizing for years.

Arch Kraftwerk fans OMD were also prominent later in 1981 with the singles 'Souvenir', 'Joan of Arc' and 'Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)' and their new LP 'Architecture and morality'. These singles were a departure for OMD as the songs were not about functional objects or concepts, but were love songs, admittedly two being about a martyred 15th-century saint — well, it's a sort of love. Critics were cool about the LP, possibly because they had been out-conceited by a bizarre title and fancy sleeve, but it was incredibly popular and the November release date was handily close to Christmas. And Christmas 1981 saw a breathless year of synth pop magnificence closed with the Human League's all-conquering 'Don't you want me'.

A woman's voice was given prominence on 'Don't you want me', as Suzanne Sulley delivered the response to Phil Oakey's first verse. However, women were underrepresented in the synth pop world in general, with men and machinery being a somewhat clichéd order of the day — in retrospect this is a ridiculous state of affairs, given the early influence of women such as Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram on electronic music in the UK. Things improved to the tune of one in Vince Clarke's new-for-1982 project Yazoo. Alison Moyet, a friend from Basildon, joined Clarke to release a song to launch a million 'our tunes' and first wedding dances, the irresistible love song 'Only you'. Moyet was a blues singer and the combination of her powerful, rich tones with Clarke's ease in producing a catchy synth pop tune was a hit. 'Don't go' followed, as well as the album, 'Upstairs at Eric's', and two UK tours by the end of 1982. On the records and the tour, Clarke switched to digital, using Roland MC-4 Microcomposer and a Fairlight CMI sampler — the digital future had arrived.

Clarke's former band Depeche Mode returned in 1982 with a more reflective single, 'See you' and a merry follow-up in 'The meaning of love'. However, the LP 'A broken frame' was generally a darker take on the world than that of early Depeche Mode, more interested in politics and the murkier aspects of human psyche. It was a solid response to what was potentially a fatal split with Clarke and the band, and Martin Gore in particular rose to the challenge. They were on their way to mega stardom.

1982 was a fallow year for the Human League in the UK, as they disappeared to America to promote 'Don't you want me' which topped Billboard Hot 100 that July. Similarly, Heaven 17 and Soft Cell were still trading on their 1981 work and synth pop was fairly quiet. 1983 saw a resurgence of new products by groups who'd found their way through analogue machinery, but success and time made them more polished and their impact was a little dissipated, although Heaven 17's 'Temptation' was a huge hit. Synth pop really changed when New Order released the digitally simulated 12" 'Blue Monday', in its floppy disc sleeve; it was a huge dance hit. The way forward was digital and the record labels and producers were cottoning on — songs were being created in the studio on machinery that potentially dispensed with the need for a band. Add singer and backing track, proceed to the hit parade.

In contrast, 1984 heralded the arrival in the charts of Bronski Beat, all-electronic music and the remarkable falsetto of Jimmy Somerville. Their songs were striking, in that the band dispensed with any uncertainty about their sexuality and they sang about their lived experience: family and parochial ostracism of a gay youth in 'Smalltown boy' and violence towards gay people in 'Why?' This had rarely, if ever, been addressed in such an open, popular way in the UK. While there was plenty ambiguity around, Bronski Beat were honest, clear and illuminating. Their politics were highlighted in the title of their album 'The Age of Consent', which listed the ages of consent for sexual relations between gay men throughout the world. They were also intensely left-wing, supporting the miners' strike that dominated UK politics in 1984 and early 1985.

By then the number of completely new synth pop acts was on the decline, the notable exception being the Pet Shop Boys — 'West end girls' had been a great success in 1984, they took their opportunity and made lots of money. Synthesizers were being incorporated into the bands again: Queen started using them as the Human League started using guitars. The machines were so sophisticated that they could be the entire musical accompaniment to a song fashioned in the studio and it was sometimes difficult to tell there were no musicians playing: the Emulator, after all, did what it said it would. However, the homogenised sound of Stock Aitken and Waterman tunes throughout the decade was a sign that the backing track could only have come from machines.

The charm of the early synth pop acts had gone, but they had left a legacy — it was possible to be from provincial towns and be successful, without years of guitar, drum or bass practice. You could sing about cars and planes, as long as you sang about love and dancing too. Synth music could be warm, charming, heart-breaking, and danceable. And there was a back catalogue of silly noises to inspire followers, such as the bands spawned by house music, techno and the dance scene in the 1980s and 1990s — and the resurgent synth pop of the new digital century, with access to a bewildering range of new machines and the odd homage to old ones. Click, click, drone.

What they all did next

Taking his love of David Bowie to its logical conclusion Numan did a Ziggy Stardust and announced an end to live performance, and bade farewell with a couple of huge gigs at Wembley Arena in 1981. He then took up flying being famously involved in the crash landing of his Cessna on the B3354 near Southampton. He regularly produced new LPs, kept a loyal fan base and was recognised in time as being influential. And he still tours.

OMD carried on in the 1980s and fizzled out, only to return in 2006. Andy McCluskey worked with one of his heroes Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk in 1991, and fulfilled a long held ambition — to visit Kling Klang studios in Düsseldorf. However, it was long after Kraftwerk had vacated the premises. He also founded the girl group Atomic Kitten in 1998.

Visage chimed up in the 1980s with a few more hits — then dissolved only to be reborn twice in the 21st century. Sadly, Steve Strange died in 2015.

Ultravox were one of the mainstays of 1980s popular music, while Midge Ure was famously half of the impetus for Band Aid that delivered 'Do they know it's Christmas?' John Foxx ploughed a lone furrow, and continues to make strange music on independent labels.

The Human League returned with successful singles, but nothing as popular as the hits of 1981. Phil Oakey teamed up with Giorgio Moroder for the single 'Together in electric dreams' (and an LP) in 1984 — an electronic super partnership. The League continue to play live on the lucrative nostalgia circuit. Mainly vocals and synthesizers, and only Phil, Suzanne and Joanne remain from the mega-star years.

Heaven 17 led a relatively quiet life after their chart success in 1982 and 1983. They saw themselves, initially, as a studio band and did not tour, but eventually they hit the road, even playing 'Being boiled' from the Human League back catalogue. In 2008 Heaven 17 toured with the Human League — the notion may have been too much for Ian Craig Marsh who promptly left. Great pop quiz answer for the question 'Name people who appeared on 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'' for indeed they did.

Depeche Mode arguably became the most successful of the synth pop acts from the early 1980s. Having become dark, edgy and appealing to proto 'Goths' Depeche Mode became a massive stadium band by the end of the decade. Such is their popularity their 2017 Global Spirit Tour was staged mainly in Olympic stadia, in front of audiences of 20,000 and more. Soft Cell dissolved in 1984, Marc Almond going off into nether world balladry à la Nick Cave / Scott Walker / Jacques Brel, and Dave Ball starting the Grid, a popular techno dance combo during the 1990s.

It is debatable if 'Computer world' was the height of Kraftwerk's career — but they seemed to hit the rocks after its release. 'Vacillation', the odd single, a disappointing follow up in 1986, reworking of their greatest hits, the 1980s were not the productive years that the 1970s had been. Amid some acrimony Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür left the group … they just became bored with musical inactivity and far too much cycling. Florian Schneider soldiered on until 2009. By 2017's tour only Ralf Hütter remained of the four protagonists on 'Computer world', which did not deter the punters who turned up en masse.

After the dissolution of Yazoo Vince Clarke attempted a BEF style project, the Assembly, which lasted for two records — 'Never, never' with Feargal Sharkey and 'One day' with Paul Quinn (and that wasn't released as an 'Assembly' product). Alison Moyet became a successful solo artist, troubling the hit-parade mainly in the 1980s. In 1985 Andy Bell and Clarke found one another and the glamourous pop sensation Erasure was born, quietly at first, but outrageously thereafter. Yazoo returned for a nostalgic one-off tour in 2008. Erasure are still a going concern and still tour.

Jimmy Somerville left Bronski Beat in 1985 — to become a Communard with (the now Reverend) Richard Coles. The band had a hit with the splendid 'Hit That Perfect Beat' in 1985. And then … Bronski Beat carry on to this day.

Pet Shop Boys became a huge pop act for the next 25 years. Camp and magnificent, a sort of upmarket Erasure.

New Order spent the first three years of the 1980s in the shadow of their earlier incarnation, Joy Division. Arguably they found their new identity on releasing 'Blue Monday', and a string of popular records followed over the next 20 years — and the odd fight with Peter Hook, who is not now involved.

See also:

Further reading

  • 'Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange' by Steve Strange (London: Orion, 1982) [National Library of Scotland shelfmark: HP1.204.2294].
  • 'The Human League' by Peter Nash (London: Star, 1982) [Shelfmark: HP1.82.3318].
  • 'Kraftwerk: Publikation: A Biography' by David Buckley and Nigel Forrest (London: Omnibus, 2012) [Shelfmark: HB2.212.9.141].
  • 'Mad World: An Oral History Of New Wave Artists And Songs That Defined The 1980s' by Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein (New York, NY: Abrams Image, 2014) [Shelfmark: PB8.215.617/16].
  • 'Mute: A Visual Document From 1978 — Tomorrow' by Terry Burrows and Daniel Miller (London: Thames & Hudson, 2017) [Shelfmark: HB2.218.10.2].
  • 'New Musical Express' (London: New Musical Express 1979-1985) [Shelfmark: HJ10.22 SER].
  • 'Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: an official biography' by Johnny Waller and Mike Humphreys (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987) [Shelfmark: HP2.89.761].
  • 'Praying To The Aliens' by Gary Numan and Steve Malins (London: Andre Deutsch, 1997) [Shelfmark: HP2.89.761].
  • 'Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-84' by Simon Reynolds (London: Faber And Faber, 2005) [shelfmark: PB8.210.133/1].
  • 'Smash Hits' (Peterborough: Emap National Publications, 1979-1985) [Shelfmark: HJ9.76 SER].
  • 'Soft Cell The Authorised Biography' by Simon Tebbutt (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984) [Shelfmark: HP3.84.1088].
  • 'Stripped: Depeche Mode' by Jonathan Miller (London: Omnibus, 2003) [Shelfmark: H3.91.5674].

 

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