Tag Archives: Blancmange

Blancmange, Commercial Break. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are two ways to look at the world of advertising, one being is that is brings a product into our lives that is indispensable, that will go on to change the course of our day, our year because we were fortunate enough to understand the message that it was carrying; and the other is that we see it as an intrusion, a focused infringement into our psyche, one that can cause the weaker willed to purchase anything, everything, that is placed before them, and therefore cause a draining of resources that might have been put to better use elsewhere.

Blancmange, Wanderlust. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Even in the act of the upbeat and positively engaging, there is always the beauty of the sudden and dramatic turn which leads the voyeur of art to appreciate the darker aspects of the performer’s work, an undertaking in which the sculpted metaphor of rhythm and rhyme cultivates a need to express itself in a way that is strangely familiar, but at the same time different, an altered perception of the reality that many would have been used to.

One Of The Most Endearing British Bands, Blancmange, Return To Liverpool  With A Night At The Arts Club On March 24th.

BLANCMANGE, the iconic synth pop band fronted by the much admired Neil Arthur, are delighted to announce a run of new live dates for 2018, including a return to the Arts Club in Liverpool where they wowed the audience as support to Heaven 17 in 2014

Last year, Blancmange released a new album of 10 songs written and recorded by Neil Arthur and co-produced by Benge (Wrangler/John Foxx & The Maths and Gazelle Twin co-producer.) It’s been a fantastically creative period for both of them, releasing their debut album as a new electronic duo – Fader’s First Light – in June 2017 and then the final sessions for Unfurnished Rooms followed immediately in the summer. For the new Blancmange album, all the songs were written by Arthur while Benge added percussion and layers of analogue synth, with the pair then mixing the record together in the latter’s Memetune studios in Cornwall.

Blancmange, Gig Review. Hanger 34, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are moments in Pop history that unforgivably seem to be forgotten by the majority, that some groups, lauded rightly by those whose lives were changed by the positivity of one song, have been allowed to be seen as a memory, a reaction to past events and the recall of certain emotions. Bands such as Blancmange offered a way of communication, of sincerity that arguably was unique to them, and one that for everybody who made their way to Hanger 34 on cold Saturday night in Liverpool would have been ecstatic to celebrate; it was a celebration that was wild and proper.

Blancmange, Unfurnished Rooms. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is one of those great quirks of musical nature that tease out every so often, that when people think of the great synth-pop bands of the 80s, they either naturally gravitate towards those that have come out of Yorkshire or even from down in Essex, the richness of the those particular bands has been, and arguably will always be forever be, enshrined in popular music history, and rightly so.

Blancmange, Semi Detached. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In adversity comes the greatest of challenges, to overcome adversity twice, albeit for two very different reasons is a mark of greatness. There never really should be any doubt that Blancmange bring a mark of greatness to the table that cannot be fully appreciated unless you took the band for the every word in the respective periods they have come to be associated with. Two eras separated by time, by complication and inconvenience and exemplified wonderfully by the new album, Semi Detached.

Blancmange, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Neil Arthur stood almost transfixed on the stage of the East Village Arts Centre. Seemingly beautifully hypnotised by the sight and sound that was taking place before him as fans, young and old, of Blancmange didn’t just sing back to him, they liberated and gave freedom to the symbol of musical expression.

Rewind the 80s Festival Announce Third Weekend Of Geat Music.

Rewind the 80s Festival – the world’s biggest 80s music festival, is back with three U.K. festivals during summer 2014.

The addition of an 80s festival in the North-West is a welcome surprise from the organisers who have put on blistering and exciting shows in Scotland and Henley-Upon Thames  for the last few years. With Rewind North coming for the first time to audiences, the same electric like energy and heady mix of artists and musicians will be on show at Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire on Saturday 30th August and Sunday 31st August 2014.

Blancmange, Blanc Burn. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 26th 2011.

With other bands from the 80’s pop scene making waves with talks of come backs and releasing new albums for their fans in what can be seen as a blaze of glory, there is one band that has quietly been going about its business and creating a new album that stirs the desire for the Synth Pop era that they were at the forefront of at the time.

Blancmange gained a reputation for their style of recording great, memorable songs and even covering tracks by Abba’s The Day Before You Came to great critical effect.

Blancmange, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 11th 2011.

The audience greeted the long awaited return of 80’s Synth Pop superstars Blancmange to Liverpool with the kind of noise you’d expect at the Liverpool Echo. It may have been two decades since Neil Arthur stood in front of a Scouse crowd but Liverpool music fans have long memories and the recollections of being entertained by Blancmange have long been smiled at.