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{EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Dave Simpson on Sheffield's pop pioneers Human League, Heaven 17 and ABC 11/27/2008 07:17 PM It's late 1979 and the Human League are pioneering Britain's synthesiser pop revolution. The previous week, at a gig at the Nashville Rooms in London, David Bowie had bounded into their dressing room to proclaim them "the future of rock'n'roll", a comment picked up by NME. However, that doesn't count for much by the time the tour reaches the band's hometown, Sheffield. In the middle of the gig, singer Philip Oakey is pouring his heart and soul into a futuristic, electronic version of the Walker Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, when an unfamiliar figure joins him on stage."This bloke came up and tapped Philip on the shoulder," remembers Martyn Ware, who played synthesiser for the Human League before leaving to co-found Heaven 17. "He said, 'Excuse me. Can you get off now? We've got a beer race on.'"Oakey winces at the memory. "I was very angry and everyone was trying to calm me down," he sighs, in his famous deadpan baritone. "I was going, 'This is wrong! Let me finish the song!'""What people forget is that the other band who Bowie said were the future of rock'n'roll were Legend," deadpans Oakey, remembering a metal band who "had an album cover bearing vinyl shoes and must have seemed very modern".Legend didn't become legends, but the music made by the Human League, Heaven 17 and fellow Sheffield electronic soulsters ABC - a triumvirate now touring together for the first time - has become pivotal to the way pop sounds today. Originally, their ambition was to destroy rock music altogether: "We hated anything that wasn't modernist," says ABC's Martin Fry. "It was like Cavaliers and Roundheads. Total warfare!" Instead, their work from the late 70s and early 80s resonates across modern pop, from Ladytron to Warp Records, from Xenomania to hip-hop. These days, a meeting with Sheffield's electronic titans is peppered with camaraderie and self-deprecating northern banter. That wasn't the case back when the Human League's Don't You Want Me sold 1m copies and the bands were jostling for pop supremacy. At that point, the Human League were so paranoid about being copied that they wouldn't give anybody tapes of what they were doing. History records Cabaret Voltaire as Sheffield's first electronic group, but they weren't the first Steel City act to use a synthesiser. That honour goes to an early-1970s band called Musical Vomit. Featuring computer operators Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh (who would later found the Human League), Heaven 17 singer Glenn Gregory and actor Ian Reddington (Coronation Street's hapless drummer, Vernon), they were unlikely pioneers. "It was like A Clockwork Orange crossed with Alice Cooper," says Gregory. "There was vomit from the stage and 'legs' being chopped off." As for the synth, it was wooden. "It had a joystick, which we loved because it was very Brian Eno," sniggers Ware. "But it only made two noises." The curious thing about Sheffield is that, unlike in Britain's other major cities - especially Manchester - its hip crowd didn't embrace punk. The most creative musicians in the city were exploring the possibilities of electronic music. "Sheffield was a hard place," recalls Gregory. "Everyone else was into heavy rock. It didn't accept punk other than as a trigger for innovation." Oakey - who says he hadn't heard of Cabaret Voltaire until he joined the Human League - recalls Kraftwerk's appearance at Sheffield University in 1976 as being "as seismic as the Sex Pistols. Everybody loved it." Crucially, the Human League didn't copy Kraftwerk's dry, robotic music; they added emotion and humanity to create what Ware describes as "synthetic soul". In an early interview, Oakey declared their ambition was to become "an international version of Abba". Aligning oneself against rock meant looking different, too. Ware remembers meeting his fellow synth player Adrian Wright, who was wearing "white jeans, a green jacket and silver platform boots". But when the band went out to the Crazy Daisy nightclub, their attire was even more unusual. One night, Marsh turned up wearing chains and a baked bean tin as a bracelet. "This guy looked at him and said, 'What the fuck's that?'" remembers Ware (soberly dressed these days). "The guy took [the beans tin] off, threw it on the floor and stamped on it, saying, 'Now what are you gonna do?'" Ware considers Marsh's reply - "Open another one" - worthy of the subsequent beating. That fate somehow eluded Oakey, despite his famous lopsided haircut, although singer Susan Sulley does remember one audience member trying to set fire to his trousers.But there was a point to even the most outlandish fashion statements. Oakey's magnificent barnet - which led to him being called "Phil Funnywig" by NME - got the Human League's music noticed. "I always wanted a distinctive hairstyle, like Bowie or Marc Bolan," says the 53-year-old. "I copied it from a girl on the bus." ABC's Martin Fry - a Mancunian Roxy glam rocker turned Sheffield-based electronic kid - remembers the "shock" of first encountering the Human League. "The reaction from the audience was uneasy: 'Where's the drummer?!' This was before hip-hop, and that sort of shock isn't around now."Record labels didn't know what to make of the Sheffield scene, but the Human League were given a chance by Virgin, which was still flush with money from the success of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. The groups felt as if they were taking on the entire musical establishment. Their nemesis was the Musician's Union, which saw synthesisers and drum machines as a threat to the livelihood of thousands of percussionists. It started a "Keep Music Live" campaign, to which the Human League responded with an on-stage skull and the slogan "Keep Music Dead". There were other problems. Early synthesisers were problematic, and although musicians first picked them up in part out of laziness - "We didn't want to spend months with the Duane Eddy songbook, learning to play guitar," admits Oakey - they found themselves programming their equipment for months. (At one point the Human League took photographs of the machines' settings so they could get the same effects the following week.) Nevertheless, the Sheffield sound was extraordinarily influential even then. Oakey insists that Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark copied the Human League's stage equipment, although he concedes that their debut, Electricity, was a "brilliant single". Others were catching up, too, and synth music started to generate hits, while the first two Human League albums - 1979's Reproduction and 1980's Travelogue - barely troubled the charts. When Gary Numan hit No 1 with Are 'Friends' Electric?, Oakey was mortified.Something had to give, and the Human League broke into two, with Ware and Marsh leaving to pursue new projects.Even today, the members find it awkward to discuss what exactly precipitated their acrimonious split. Oakey suggests he and Ware were simply too forceful as characters to be in the same band. Ware suspects that their manager, Bob Last, had spotted Oakey's potential as a "pop star with massive earning potential" and engineered him away from arty stuff. Ware and Marsh set up the British Electric Foundation - a "futuristic production concept" whose most lasting legacy was to relaunch Tina Turner - before bringing in Gregory to become Heaven 17. Oakey, meanwhile, was drowning his sorrows at the Crazy Daisy, where he spotted two teenage girls dancing and asked them to join the band for a gig in Doncaster.At first, the new members didn't seem to be adding much. "We just hummed along and did some dancing," says Sulley. "And occasionally got so drunk we fell off stage," adds Joanne Catherall. In Germany, they faced burning union flags and cans pelted by people who "expected a band of boys". However, when the new-look Human League released their 1981 masterpiece, Dare, the pair became part of electronic pop history - glamorous girls-next-door who paved the way for everyone from the Spice Girls to Girls Aloud. "But we were never stylised," says Sulley. "We did look like we'd walked out of Sheffield. It gave hope to people, because if we could do it, anyone could."In the 80s, the Sheffield sound went overground. As the Human League's Don't You Want Me squared up to Heaven 17's (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang and Temptation, ABC released their masterwork, 1982's The Lexicon of Love, which blended electronics, orchestrated soul and a gold lamé jacket. For Oakey, it was a vindication of what he had been trying to achieve for years. "People who had laughed in our faces three years earlier were suddenly saying, 'Your records are great,'" he remembers. "And things like, 'It doesn't matter if it's a synthesiser, it sounds like a bass.'" Suddenly, even rock bands were using synthesisers, while there were, ironically, howls of outrage when the Human League played guitars for their 1984 single The Lebanon. "We shouldn't have done it," says Oakey. Sulley is more circumspect: "We wanted something different."Today, the records made in Sheffield in the late 1970s and 80s are in the rare position of being loved by housewives, electronic boffins and hip-hop purists alike, and still sound ultramodern. The battlegrounds on which the Steel City contingent fought for pop's future - the Limit Club and Crazy Daisy - have long been demolished, but the stance of their patrons remains unwavering."I still hate rock music," says Oakey, defiantly. "I think it's adolescent, easy, power-chord nonsense." Meanwhile, a blue plaque at Sheffield University honours the site of the Human League's first gig. Appropriately, it has become a computer department.? The Steel City tour begins at Glasgow Academy on November 30.Pop and rockguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - QE2 runs aground on final voyage 11/11/2008 05:55 AM It was hardly the most regal moment in the QE2's glittering career when the supreme luxury ocean liner ran into a sandbank off Southampton this morning on its final voyage before metamorphosing into a floating hotel in Dubai.But the embarrassment was merely fleeting as the ship, which has carried royalty and Hollywood stars, as well as millions of less famous passengers, docked just 25 minutes late at the port, where the Duke of Edinburgh led the farewell ceremonies.A Cunard spokesman said the ship had been pulled off the sandbank. "No one on board has been injured. A lot of people will have been in bed when it happened and not have noticed."The QE2's final departure from British shores will be accompanied by solemnity as well as pomp and ceremony. To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the first world war, a Tiger Moth plane dropped 1m poppies on the 70,000-tonne liner, which served as a hospital ship during the 1982 Falklands war.After a two-minute silence, Prince Philip met long-serving staff as well as the former captains of HMSs Ardent, Antelope and Coventry, ships that were lost in the Falklands campaign. He will also stand on the aft decks of QE2 to watch a fly-past by a Harrier jet. A small flotilla is expected to accompany the ship as it leaves Southampton for its final voyage to Dubai.Passengers snapped up tickets, with the highest-priced berths going for more than £28,000. The trip was sold out almost instantly. The QE2 will reach Dubai on November 26 and be handed over to the firm Nakheel - part of the Dubai World company and the creator of the Palm Jumeirah, the world's largest man-made island.The QE2 will be extensively refurbished over the next few months before docking permanently at a specially constructed berth on the island. The revamped vessel will have a heritage museum displaying artefacts from the ship and from maritime history.Since it was launched by the Queen on the Clyde in 1967, the QE2 has carried more than 2.5 million passengers. The longest-serving ship in the history of the Cunard line, it has broken records both for speed and endurance. After 40 years and 5.5m miles, however, keeping it at sea for much longer would have been too costly.With the Queen Mary 2 now the Cunard flagship, and with other vessels due to join the company's fleet, Cunard announced last year that the QE2 would be sold to Dubai World for around £50m.Over its 40-year career, the QE2's passengers have included most of the crowned heads of Europe, politicians such as Lady Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, the astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the explorer Sir John Blashford-Snell. British stars have included the singer Vera Lynn, most of the Beatles, individually, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. The Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Hope and Paul Newman have also sailed on the QE2.Dubai's hot, dry climate should help to preserve the ship in the long term.CruisesTransportDubaiguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds {EUROPE > NEWSPAPERS} - The great ukulele revival 11/08/2008 07:45 AM Long derided as a 'joke instrument' the ukulele is now enjoying a worldwide revival with its fans ranging from primary school pupils to David Bowie and Warren Buffet. {LITERATURE > CYBERPUNK} - Cool Pop Art "Pravda" animation 10/14/2008 09:07 PM In 1967 artist Guy Peellaert (later responsible for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs album cover, It's Only Rock and Roll for the Rolling Stones, and the classic coffee table book Rock Dreams, published one of the very first Pop Art comics, The Adventures of Jodelle. It's really amazing and you can find copies on the Internet ranging from $14 to $300. I have a copy and it's one of my prized possessions. You can see what it looks like here and here. A year later Peellaert put out Pravda another sexy comic creation modeled this time after gorgeous French yé-yé singer Francoise Hardy. Copies of Pravda are hard to come by and costly. Pravda posters can sell for over $500 on Ebay. The other day I found this super cool Pravda animation that Peelaert did in 2001 featuring a soundtrack by The Rolling Stones, Missy Elliot and Joy Division. (Richard Metzger is guest blogger.)... {PEOPLE > RADCLIFFE, DANIEL} - SCREEN SHOTS OF DETAIL VIDEO 09/07/2008 01:03 AM For those who saw Dan on the Detail website, but was disappointed that the website or the magazine itself didn't have the photos that were in the video clip, I made screen copies of it!The IntroHe looks like David Bowie!He's so cute in this picture.Oh, that tongue of his!And this one just kills me! *giggles*You can find the rest in my Gallery page.Enjoy! {ARTS > PEOPLE} - Would the real Ms Glennie please stand up? 09/06/2008 09:00 PM IT SOUNDS like the most unlikely musical collaboration since David Bowie teamed up with Bing Crosby. But percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie has revealed plans to perform with r {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Photo and cleaning firm cuts jobs 12/02/2008 10:31 AM Dry cleaning and photo firm Bowie Castlebank Group goes into administration with the loss of 817 jobs. {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - Spacious Contemporary Glen Park House (noe valley) $6500 4bd 11/21/2008 03:27 AM Fabulous custom contemporary home on intimate cul-de-sac! High ceilings, spacious rooms, great floor plan! Ideal for families! 3/2 on main level. Wonderful finishes! Viking & Bosch appls, granite counters, cherry cabinets. Open dining room, huge living room with limestone fireplace. Slate and custom tile entry. Huge family room, office, 4th bdrm, bath on lower level opens onto deck and landscaped garden. Great location! Two blks to BART, GP Village restaurants & shops. Near Glen Park itself! www.new45Chenery.com call Sue Bowie at 415-642-4000 suebowie@aol.com {KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT > ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS} - Uptime Magazine October/November Digital Issue Online 11/19/2008 09:50 AM ? Feature: Creating an Oasis - Asset Management in the Arabian Gulf by James W. Davis ? 2008 PdM Program of the Year Award Winners: Profiles in Excellence ? Info Tech: Keeping It Simple - The Implications & Importance of Easy Data Entry & Retrieval in EAM Systems by Michael Israel ? Infrared: What You Should Know Before you Buy - A Guide to Buying an Infrared Camera by Paula Bowie ? Lubrication: Foundation First - The Building Blocks to Creating an Effective Plant Lubrication Program by Paul Dufresne, CMRP, CPMM ? Maintenance Management: Cooperation is Key - The Operator?s Role in Achieving Equipment Reliability by Heinz P. Bloch, P.E. ? Motor Testing: Reliability, Maintenance, Energy, Environment - Considerations in Electric Motor Repair vs. Replace Decisions by Howard W. Penrose, PhD ? Precision Maintenance: Shaft vs. Foot Alignment Tolerances - A Critique of Various Approaches by Alan Luedeking ? Reliability: Turning A Blind Eye - RCM & the Sub-Prime Mortgage Meltdown by Neil Bloom ? Ultrasound: Leaks, Motors and Bearings - Ultrasound is Well Suited for Many Varying Applications by Jim Hall ? Vibration: Case of the Whirling Pump - Finding Hidden Machinery Faults With Operating Deflection Shape Analysis by Daniel T. Ambre Uptime Magazine October/November Digital Issue Online {LITERATURE > CYBERPUNK} - MTV's video archive 11/07/2008 03:50 PM On Dinosaurs and Robots, Mister Jalopy posts and comments on a whole bunch of his favorite videos from MTV's video archive. Here's a small sample of Jalopy's picks: MTV was the internet of the 1980s. It was the connection from our mundane suburban lives to the urbane sophisticated world that we imagined joining. Now everybody knows everything and every trend is overexposed to the point of lifelessness, but MTV played an important role as it gave us a window into subcultures that meant the world to us. True, D+R is about inspired objects, but we sometimes diverge to consider the exceptional whatever the form. The MTV offering is not as broad as YouTube, but the quality, searching and metadata quality make it worthwhile. The MTV embedding function is a bit of a stinker. If you embed, strip off all html after the ending embed tag. Bauhaus - Ziggy StardustAt the time, Bauhaus was skewered by the British press for doing a light cover of a classic Bowie song to rocket up the charts. Indeed, it was, and remained, their greatest commercial success, but I loved it then and I love it now. Peter Murphy brings a growling, sleazy sneer that is completely successful.Digital Underground - Humpty DanceHe likes his oatmeal lumpy.Massive Attack - TeardropAmazing work by Gondry. Transcendent song. Many more videos and commentary here: Ladies and Gentleman, The MTV Music Video Archive... |