Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Synth Britannia

BBC 4 will be showing a documentary this Autumn that pays homage to the UK innovators of late 70s/early 80s electro.

For UK viewers here is a trailer: -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/08_august/20/music.shtml

Superb trailer! Cheers for this!

Martin Gore on electronic music: "It would appeal to alienated youth everywhere...and Germans"

Noel Edmonds: "What sort of make-up do you put on?"

Gary Numan: "It's all natural actually...it's Max Factor"

But no sign of Mr Foxx. Did spot Fad Gadget mind!

and Wolfgang Flur

I read this is being broadcast on 16th October.

For non-UK people the preview is also on youtube now link

Brilliant! Look forward to that!

According to 'Remember the Eighties' Sir John Foxx is also going to be on this (quite rightly) so eyes peeled chaps.

Confirmed on myspace : link .

Oh - the broadcast in confirmed.
Sadly NOT the knighthood...

Some heavyweights on there - look forward especially to TG's contribution

Another trailer here:

youtube ... spot the Foxx!

Oh yes, very briefly there... quiff in full force!

then and now ..





and this happy chappy (left) on Underpass video methinks..

Interesting quote from John about the piano here

Following straight after Synth Britannia, on 6 Music, there is a show called 'Synth at the BBC' that is billed as 'an hour of Synth performances from the BBC archives including Roxy Music, Human League, Ultravox and Eurythmics'.

BBC-4 are also airing a documentary entitled 'Krautrock - the Rebirth of Germany' on October 23rd.

If that isn't enough, during the week of Tuesday 20 - Friday 23 October, Human League fan Andrew Collins presents 'The Great Bleep Forward' - a four part documentary exploring the development of electronic music .

a real treat for BBC viewers.. (and licence payers)

To use a very 1980s phrase;

"Can someone tape this for me please!"

If anyone can provide a DVD copy of this after the transmission please let me know. Perhaps it could do the rounds like the Spanish TV thing too, as many on this site from overseas are unlikely to see it otherwise.

Cheers in advance

Gazza

I second that (e)motion ... including the Synth at the BBC thing on after too please

I can oblige since I have quite a few PVRs that can do this sort thing.

Can sort out the order of who we send to once I've made the DVD

Brian

Many thanks for obliging Brian!

Cheers Bri even tho I've no idea what a PVR is .. but it sounds impressive

PVR=Personal Video Recorder

Basically a hard disk recorder that records Digital TV

Brian

Another Synth Britannia feature and interview with Daniel Miller (Mute) on The Quietus :p

Cheers D! That's a nice interview - not too sure what Miller's involvement with Mute is these days though

Oh I thought he was still the boss. :rolleyes:

Sneaky Foxx preview: youtube

What music is he playing?

Is that a posable action figure in the background?

can't believe I forgot! and missed the programme earlier, and if I hadn't looked on here before going to bed I wouldn't have known - but fortunately it's repeated in a few minutes again at 12.20am

Is it John, or is it Ludwig Van Beethoven?
and is it a Townsend Exclusive, limited to 1000 pieces only

I like the music... more please

It's on iplayer already...

I missed the first two minutes.

glad you posted when you did Birdsong!

I'm Sky+ing it now, and off to bed, and hopefully watch it tomorrow

(and I've also just set the timer for the Krautrock programme, phew, sometimes TV is just too good )

I thought it was a fairly good programme. The chronology went awry a bit at times; it hinted that Metamatic came before 'Are Friends Electric?'. I am also fairly sure they said that 'Vienna' was a hit in 1982 which is wrong.

There was also far too much time spent on Depeche Mode. OK, they did, in terms of record sales, go on to be the most successful of the electro bands but at the time they were really nothing special.

But in all, it was a good history and more or less coincided with how I remembered that time.

Would love to watch it .

Can I ask for a copy too?

Andreas

Thanks for the post Mike!
I enjoyed it very much.
From Walter Carlos to Kraftwerk to Human League
to Gary Numan the first synth popstar!
It was great to watch and listen to.
So, again, verythankyouverymuch.

That was a fantastic programme, particularly the first hour.

It's the first time I've ever seen John Foxx on my TV! Great to see him talking and playing on the synths, and being highly complimentary of Gary Numan too

Superb archive footage and new interviews with the Human League, OMD, Kraftwerk and Numan, who had quite a lengthy section devoted to him.

I was surprised Jean Michel Jarre didn't get a mention - although this was about the British pioneers that emerged, mostly following the discovery of Kraftwerk, Oxygene, as far as I know, did have a significant impact over here too.

Could be a new song??? But sounds like Enola Gay in the background..

I think he was just either improvising or playing some quirky obscurity!

You can see the clip here.

The chronology seemed a bit out, as they went into Metamatic/Underpass before AFE or Cars - but I guess the emphasis was on 1979, which is at least when most of Metamatic was recorded.

I thought the same!!!

I thought that when I watched the clip before the programme, but there was a shot of it close up right at the start, and I don't think it was after all.

I've assembled a few still montages from the various artists who appeared...

I really enjoyed this programme too.
I agree, but I think it worked, and the actual sequence of events is just a technicality. It flowed well,and seemed to be about themes and ideas as much as timelines.

Hey - isn't Foxx whole career a bit like that...?

Foxx was featured 'early' because of his work pioneering ideas with Ultravox (which fitted into the context) and because this is what influenced Numan in London.

Maybe also that they looked at the 'underground' activity before the major 'pop' breakthrough that was led by Numan?

"Director's license" I guess.

I don't know Philip Oakey well, but I don't think he came across well at all...

Thanks Alex.

That top left image of John's hand was the opening frame for the whole programme.

Should become iconic...

Phil tends to come across as a bit arrogant and a little grumpy, but I've met him on a few occasions, and he's not like that at all.

What did you all think of Numan's syrup?

(Hint for foreign readers: Cockney rhyming slang!)

I thought the programme afterwards was a bit rubbish. Aside from Numan, Roxy and OMD, I didn't find anything enthralling about watching a load of mimed performances.

It just reminded me of how much I dislike "Vienna" and Sparks.

It's his real barnet fair. It just used to be on the back of his lump of lead!

It would do with a trim though... but overall I think he's still looking pretty switched on for 51...

Throbbing Gristle bit here . I don't know much about them at all.

Hard work, but well worth the effort.

TG is the pool of ideas from which so many creatures were spawned...

20 Jazz Funk Greats is their most accessible album if you want to be eased in gently, and The Endless Not from 2005 is a masterpiece

I also enjoyed TG, it was the first time that I've heard them actually.
Is that 2005 masterpiece you're speaking of also accessible Birdsong?
Or is it more like industrial freak-out music?

Just watched it.

Good show.

Could have easliy been a whole series though.

Currently watching the program afterwards.Enjoying that too.

Alex I think you had to be there to apreciate 80s pop.

I wasn't that fussy as I am now about my music.

It looks like John! :p

The synth on which the figure rests is one of John's other favourite synths,the Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus Mk I. This synth features prominently, as both a vocoder and a string machine, on The Garden, Cathedral Oceans I and My Lost City.

John's other string machines or the like during the period: Elka Rhapsody 610, Polymoog Synthesizer/Keyboard and Prophet 5 Mk 2. He could have used a Jupiter 4 for strings because one is used on The Garden but the strings are fatter on a VP-330. A Juno 60 was probably the string synth on In Mysterious Ways replacing the aforementioned. John also replaced his ARP Odyssey Mk2 with an OSCar as the bass/lead synth on his final Virgin album.

I couldn't watch the programme but I've just seen plenty of snippets on youTube and they are all really good. BBC should release this documentary on DVD. A treasure and a great souvenir of those wonderful five years.

Chris
PS John looks well at home at Benge's studio. My dream too!

Absolutely loved the programme, pretty much covered everything that was brilliant in the 80's, some interesting footage especially the film of early Human League, John Foxx made a good contribution and loved all that technology behind him!

Very underestimated John is to, Metamatic was without doubt a ground breaking album.

Gary

Official Gary Hunter Homepage

Well... it's Throbbing Gristle after all.
It's self indulgent, atmospheric, industrial, scary - but not without its delicate and sensitive moments.

Has presence and maturity in abundance, and reminds you that experimental people are still out there

Okay, I think I get the picture.
If it comes close to what I heard at BBC4 from them,
I think I'll dig it.
Thanks for responding B!

Just finished viewing it, and have to agree that it’s a fantastically enjoyable programme, even made me feel quite emotional watching it in places. It was not at all like those “Ooh, remember the 80’s” type shows, where you have to cringe through the dross till you get to the good stuff, but just good little interviews, and nicely put together.

Now I’m hoping the BBC will realise they might make some more money out of it by releasing it onto DVD with a complete booklet and photographs or something, that would definitely be one worth buying.

Nice review in The Scotsman with Foxx quote.

Very enjoyable.Although,it took a Bass Player to advise the lumpen prole that synth-songs need to
be written.No magic button on the synth...take a
F**k O*f bow, Andy McCluskey

me again-sorry.With all the "I/We woz tha furst"
prompted by SynBrit,does anyone recall a concept
album about Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis, (Not Gottsching!)possibly by one of the Radiophonic Workshop? I bought it in the days when hearing a synth on the opening titles to The Rockford Files (was it a CAT ?)was bread-and-butter.(Yep-I goes back that farrrrr......)

Briefly saw some of the SB at the BBC performances too - not sure if Roxy were totally valid - couldn't they have put the nigh-legendary Kraftwerk on Tomorrow's World performance at the beginning?
Also Sparks not relevant - love the song but maybe Sir John Foxx doing Underpass on TOTP would've been more appropriate.
Plus next time please leave out the sarkey comments box à la TOTP2 on each performance..

.. we must moan mustn't we.

the problem with Sparks is Ron Mael is a darn good
synthesist in the studio, but we only ever see his Adolf-at-the-Joanna persona in visuals.
His synth work on the Moroder-produced album is
xcellent.the opening synths-cresendo on La Dolce
Vita ranks with Kraftwerks Kommentenmelodie for
sheer joi-de-vivre.(IMHO)

Yes no doubting that my son but ...well, it doesn't matter ...

Superb documentary, couldn't fault it really. Well researched footage, interviews etc.

The background story of 30 years ago was interesting also - Fascists on the move, 'Labour Isn't Working', riots, national strikes and a Conservative government waiting in the wings...

...funny how things change eh? :rolleyes:

Although I could find some faults (with anorak on and tightly zipped up) it was a BRILLIANT documentary, reflecting in many ways my own experiences with 'synth music', which - as I now know - many others had too.
Foxx's contribution was like Metamatic: minimal but essential. They could've mentioned him again when Dep Mode went back to the Garden Studios for CTM, but no matter.
Yes interesting tie-in with social/political climate and changes going on. (M. Thatcher elected April 79, Gary Numan number 1 a month later.. hummmmm.)
Oakey and McCluskey were quite rightly the driving force in the commentary from start to finish, both eloquent in their own ways.
I thought including Joy Division (Sumner) was inappropriate although nice that their was a nod in the direction of more avantgardistes Cab Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle (now 'homely' couple..), who I know little about.
I thought Ure-vox were never gonna get mentioned and in fact Vienna was wrongly delegated to 1982 status.
I would've mentioned Bowie and Ashes to Ashes in 1980 as kick-starting the (dare we mention it) "new-romantic" movement which led to Visage, et al and ultimately Depeche Mode.
Would've been nice at the end with a caption for each interviewee saying what they're doing now, instead of Oakey's odious sell-out 'Electric Dreams', although as he said himself "we got a bit lost". Indeed.

Back to The Future..

I have to admit I was getting bored in the last 30 mins.

I failed to see the 'revelation' of New Order (yawn) pioneering the fusion of electronica and dance... What's happened to Bernard Sumner?! He looked terrible.

The short section on the Pet Shop Boys and the rise of sampling technology was far more interesting.

It did give the impression that nobody was doing anything nowadays, other than reminiscing about the old days... which is far from the truth. Indeed, a 'what they're doing now' bit to finish with, would have been good. Although they would have probably needed to make something up for The Human League...

Ha ha! Quite right although "working on a new album" would do as it has done for the last 5 or 6 years.

Right about Sumner . .I think he'd been on the booze, although they should have made *more* of what Blue Monday represented in 1983.

And I think you also said about JM Jarre Alex who indeed should've got a mention . .he sort of bridged the gap between prog and mainstream electronic music.

Personally, I think Jarre and Tangerine Dream should both be rated alongside Kraftwerk as some of the original electronic innovators.

Although, as the programme's title suggests, this was about the British artists.

Oh wait... aren't Kraftwerk German?!

Have to agree that the programme certainly lacked something of a 'relevance to the moment' for the majority of the artists portrayed. It would have been good and also optimistic if there had been more indication about their present or most recent contribution (if indeed they have anything), a kind of ‘where are they now?’

I've since watched the programme again with someone who liked a lot of the groups during that period (but not really into electronic music in its wider sense) and is a big fan of Joy Division/New Order/Bernard Sumner (when he was young), and I always have that argument about how ground breaking fantastic Blue Monday was supposed to be at the time. Personally I’m sick to death of having heard it about a million times now, and its alleged starting point for all Rave/House/Dance music, it was even used in recent years to advertise Mars Bars on TV, please... tell me why I don't like Mondays

And as regards Bernard, yes we both agreed that compared to some other people on the show the years appeared to have not been too kind to him, wait, hang on rewind there, he’s just a normal looking bloke for his age, and look at Gary, okay, he’s had hair treatment, but face-wise he’s looking very good, now looking again for a moment to Martin Gore, and perhaps even Phil Oakey, hmm, what’s with the shiny, smooth areas on show in those talking heads shots... surely Dr Botox has paid a visit

Yes Oakey did seem a bit shiny sometimes

Yup - but Kraftwerk were the catalysts for the whole thing just as Elvis was for the Beatles.

I disagree with you about New Order - at the time it was a massive thing for guitar bands such as Joy Division etc to make the leap towards electronics - Joy Division/New Order were accused of becoming 'the next Genesis' - sometimes by people in their own ranks for using synthesizers. Just as it's a leap from 'Bombers' to 'Cars' so was the leap from 'An Ideal for Living' to 'Atmosphere'.

Your look-alike got a good look-in though Garry! Was quoted by more or less everyone as an inspiration.. further reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmusic/2009/10/synth_britannia_jg_ballard.html

'tis sad but true; the alien urban landscape Ballard predicted is now the world we live in...luckily the yuppies in the Barbican haven't started barbequeing their dogs and neighbours yet...yet...

Generally really enjoyed the programme.
That's the Bob Moog figure on John Foxx's keyboard isn't it?
Shame there was no mention of Thomas Dolby (or did I miss it?), or Landscape, didn't the guy in Landscape invent the Syndrum and had the only person I remember of the synth groups who played a wind instrument synth?

A short section on the ones who didn't survive that era would have been interesting too - The Mobiles, interviewed on tv about their spending thousands on an Oberheim OBXa then demonstrating it to the audience, or Blancmange... or...

And Wasn't Vince Clarke's synth room massive! and John Foxx's one had a very closed-in alien escape-pod vibe to it,...

"Shiny" wasn't the word I would have used...

"of an a**e" would seem more fitting...

perhaps...(This is)Phil(talking)had a bit of a spit n' polish on the offchance he runs into Louise-again?

Me and Blue Monday? A while back in this topic I
said synth-songs need to be written.No magic button on the synth.I was in denial about this turgid sequenced nonsense...

then Mr McCluskey certainly reiterated his opinion on the subject...with a "F*+^ Off' to boot!

I just walked past Phil Oakey in my lunch break. Looking quite smart!

off to a meeting to discuss a new album release perhaps?
or off to the BBC Office to discuss his much larger starring role in the sequel to Synth Britannia, called 'Synth Britannia 2: Revenge Of The Human League...'

LOL!!

He was with a bunch of other people - didn't notice if there was anybody else I knew. Could it be a release date for the next THL album was being discussed in front of my very eyes... in 2050 perhaps!!

COOL!

Told you he wasn't over Louise

"I'm on the hunt,I'm after you" as some bloke once sang.

SB youtube playlist for those without BBC iplayer ..
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/11/02/synth-britannia-clips-selection/

Hi Brian - many, many thanks!

Got both DVDs! CHEERS!

Got my both copies too.

Great stuff on Synth Britannia - nice videos.
The Krautrock DVD made me laugh at some points. Interesting story about the history.....

Oncemore: THANK YOU BRIAN!!!

Cheers Gazza & Andreas.

Glad you got them in 1 piece.

Brian

Synth Britania is being shown again on BBC4 Friday 30th July at 10.30pm

Thankx Core!
And the headliner act at the previous Glastonbury Festival (PSB) is shown prior to this fantastic doc!

Good news for Chicago Foxxites: The "Synth Britannia" documentary will be shown Friday, 10 September, and Saturday, 11 September, at 4.50 PM in the Garland Room of the Chicago Cultural Center as part of something called SonarChicago. Also on the program will be "Amplified Gesture." For more information, see http://www.sonarchicago.com/en/sonarcinema.php

Lele, I do hope you also made time to watch this film on the bill:-

"to the end of the world (Finisterra) so that once there, they may begin a fleeting, earthly journey through the land of the living
...battle with their own fears and struggle with the obstacles of their own phantasmagoric condition"

http://www.sonarchicago.com/en/sonarcinema.php

You gotta love that photo of the guy in the bedsheet with holes for eyes, as he sits fishing by a lake, now that is spookier than a Halloween cake

Ah, but not quite as spooky as the David Sylvian baseball caps Samadhisound has on offer!

I giggled when I saw that photo, then snorted derisively as I read the ridiculously pretentious description, but resumed giggling when I watched the clip. I am hoping to make it to as many items in the program as my tangled schedule today will allow and promise to report back if in fact "Finisterra" is the unconventional masterpiece it purports to be — or if it is simply the best laugh I've had in weeks!

I'm looking forward to your Chicago Cultural Center report, and the customary photos of the event, and in particular the one of you observing the proceedings whilst wearing your Samadhisound baseball cap

Hear! Hear!

I want to know about that mad film now too!

Sorry to disappoint you, gentlemen. I have no reviews and no photos (nor do I yet have a Samadhisound cap). I didn't make it to a single item on the program, as I was stuck in the office (on a SATURDAY!) until nearly 10 PM. But I promise to keep an eye out and see if the ghosty Spanish film makes its way into the theatres anytime soon. We've got the Chicago International Film Festival coming up in about a month — perhaps it will be a contender for the top prize.

Good grief Lele, if that happened here then we'd have to call a general strike!

You should have given your boss an amplified gesture, and shouted out that we cannot live by bread alone, we need our art. I'm sure that if you'd played your management a track or two from Manafon to make your point then they would have got on your side with this...

If I played snippets of Manafon for my boss, I would probably be told to take a rest cure of indefinite duration! At least working on Saturday was overtime, so I can set aside the extra bits on my upcoming paycheck to finance future purchases of Foxxorabilia. (As for the Samadhisound cap, I am gong to hold out for the impending limited edition, specially repackaged reissue version with bonus extras, personally remastered by Sylvian himself, with new artwork and undoubtedly a far steeper pricetag.)

For Lele and others here's a review of the Chicago Sonar thang:
http://media.www.depauliaonline.com/medi...n-3936822.shtml