Orginally published by L.S. Media. February 16th 2011.
The last few years has seen a multitude of iconic 80’s pop bands return with brand new material and willing to re-enter the hectic lifestyle of touring to packed audiences up and down the country. Sheffield pop stalwarts The Human League have been extremely successful in their approach over the period of time and their music has become even more popular to a brand new audience whilst at the same time holding on to the original fans that bought singles and albums in their millions. Duran Duran, once the darlings of the New Romantic scene tour extensively throughout May and countless others continue to ply their musical trade amongst some of the most loyal fans around.
There is one band though who for the last quarter of a century have avoided any talk of getting back together, no album to reignite the flames of a truly memorable band’s career and no chance at all of experiencing them play live and witnessing a brand new audience discover the joys of seeing one of the finest examples of 80’s Synth Pop show exactly why there music has lasted the course of time…till now.
Blancmange have remained an enigma to a generation of 80’s teenagers who grew up on such songs as their top ten hit Living on the Ceiling from the 1982 Happy Families album, a classic cover version of Abba’s The Day Before you Came and the stunning God’s Kitchen, there has seemed no wave of nostalgia big enough for them to come back and take to the stage once more. However as with a lot of the music politics of the time, there has been more going on than a lot of people would ever imagine. I managed to catch up with one half of the famous duo whilst on a short break in the studio.
Typical of Neil Arthur’s genuine interest in people, we spend the first few minutes of a tight schedule talking about the University of Liverpool and the English degree they offer, thankfully before too much time has passed we get round to the interview.
Blancmange have a new album, Blanc Burn, due out a couple of days before the Liverpool Academy gig and after offering my congratulations on the imminent release Neil laughs and reminds me that is has been 25 years since the last studio album. On the back of that startling revelation I have to admit that as boy verging on door of being a teenager when the band came out, my memory might have been a bit a sketchy but from what I remember the three studio albums put out in their very short time together were actually very superb, lyrically and musically. I hoped I wasn’t doing him a disservice by hoping that the fourth one was going to hit the same heights.
“You will have to wait and see” laughs Neil coyly, “We have enjoyed putting it together and it’s been done on our own terms, it has been recorded under own steam without any involvement from the record company until we have finished it. We took a completely finished product to the record company; they not only accepted it but welcomed it which was very nice, it’s a very rare thing to have achieved”.
The previous albums, the already aforementioned Happy Families, 1984’s Mange Tout and the seemingly final studio work Believe you Me were all released by London Records. Neil goes onto explain slightly about the relationship back then.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking London, but this has a D.I.Y. aspect to it, something you can do at home, it’s not intentionally reflected because recording techniques have changed over the years and just to take it back, we have done this under our own steam. To get away from studio and record company pressure we took this back to a home environment. It has been a labour of love in a very positive sense, (laughs) it has not taken 25 years to put together”.
I am intrigued by the idea of getting back together again after 25 years, to the ordinary fan or man in the street it can seem on par with seeing friends from your school days when times have changed and the person you may once have known has gone down a different path.
“I suppose over the years, Steve and I have always remained mates and I think if we had stayed together in the 80’s it may have affected our friendship and for the sake of our friendship we decided to stop the band but we did remain in contact, there were certain things, certain obligations we had to keep, so over the years we maintained a good mates friendship. Over the years we had done music for T.V. and films and then one day a few years ago we happened to be in the same room and said at the same time “Do you fancy doing some work together” and we both said yes, so we got this idea and came to my studio, started talking and put a few ideas down and it just kind of came together, there was no master plan, no formula”. I suppose, for example when we were with the London record company they would say “well we need a Living on the Ceiling number two” well we didn’t have a formula for it so we just put out waves, that’s how we are.
It is interesting to think that other bands that were about at the time, The Human League and Duran Duran have maintained a profile over the last 25 years, they have broken up and since reformed and in some other bands the friendships have become too fractured to sustain the group ethic, it is also refreshing to hear what Neil says about his friendship with Stephen, to still be in contact and too have a friendship and it has never diminished.
“Well you know, nobody forces you to do it but you end up in a situation where you end up in each other’s pockets, you’re right on top of each other and you’re very intense and there is a kind of pressure, I’m not being too cynical about it but it was a very exciting time and I really enjoyed it but you get to a point…when we started off doing this it’s so far away now, you might think what’s the point of doing this, I remember walking off stage at Wigan and thinking I’m not doing that again and I meant it”.
“It didn’t really matter, there were other things to get on with, you know I have a fantastic family, mates who live far more interesting lives than I do (laughs) and coming back to what we were talking about earlier, it just seemed we’ll have a go at it and see what happens and before you know it we have got an album together and we have a record label who allowed us to retain the licence so it’s not like the old days”.
It does certainly seem as though the old days of the record label owning the licence to a bands creativity are finally well and truly over, there can be nothing more frustrating to a fan of a band or a collector to see record labels continually put out best of compilations and the ultimate collections just to keep revenue coming in for the label.
We move on from the contentiousness of the record industry to talk about Blancmange covering Abba before other bands.
“We did get asked that a lot but we managed with The Day Before you Came, to get it higher up the charts than they did, we got asked by some, well why do you want to do that for and we just said well we want to have a go at it”.
Neil also has fond memories of playing Liverpool as he told me a story from the early days in his career.
“We had a fantastic time in Liverpool, from right at the beginning when we would play places like the Warehouse and there would be 12 people in the audience and half would be relatives (laughs) and then going back and playing the bigger venues, The Empire and the Royal Court and my mum still turning up with a potato pie for us before the gig. We also played the University there as well and my family used to come down, I’m a Lancastrian, and they would all travel down to watch us. We supported Depeche Mode there; funnily enough I have just sent an e-mail off to Vince” (Vince Clarke, original member of Depeche Mode).
Time has been slipping away from us both during the interview and it is with great reluctance that I have to say goodbye to Neil. The gig promises to be one of interest to old and new fans alike and Liverpool crowds are always appreciative of bands that give their all. Blancmange have a big name to live up to but knowing Neil and Stephen they will deliver a night that will be much talked of for a long while after the curtain has finally come down.
Ian D. Hall