Listening to the Music the Machines Make - Inventing Electronic Pop 1978 to 1983: Inventing Electronic Pop 1978-1983

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I don’t think I have a moment for that, my musical church is quite broad and I’ve never been very over-intellectual about my music tastes, it’s like “I do or I don’t”. Howard Jones came in with a different take on the form and actually, I loved Howard Jones so from my point of view, my love of electronic pop did continue. It blurs and like we talked about earlier, lots more things were interesting in different directions and also taking some of this electronic sensibility into it. They may well have been more interesting to me at the time. However, I was perfectly prepared to accept Howard Jones and the later electronic acts. Featuring additional input from key figures, including Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure), Martyn Ware (The Human League, B.E.F., Heaven 17) and Daniel Miller (The Normal, Mute Records), this book is a welcome addition to the existing literature. The bands that feature (Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Human League, etc) may have been written about extensively previously (there’s also plenty of bands and music to discover if you aren’t particularly au fait with this period), but it’s the way that Evans weaves and knits these familiar names into such a rich and enormous tapestry that makes the book stand out. It is also done with humour and an affable tone that adds a human touch to the academic, and again, forensic approach taken. Plus, it’s so bloody lovely to immerse oneself into this utterly fascinating and key period in the evolution of electronic music once again and realise how important it is. The book talks about a lot of acts who are basically canon now and many of them are still performing in some form or another. But is there an underrated act for you from this period? In a very real sense, Martyn Ware and his musical peers were among the first post-punks to reinterpret and reshape punk’s stance and DIY attitude for their own purposes. The Human League was just one of an emerging wave of artists rejecting punk’s one-dimensional guitar legacy in favour of replacing traditional instruments with electronic ones in pursuit of creating something entirely new, as Ware would later summarise: ‘What we did is we took the attitude of punk and gave it a different context, i.e. let’s make music that nobody’s heard before.’

No, I don’t have another book project at the moment. I only actually finished writing this book in July. Naively, I thought you just hand your book in and six months later they hand you a copy. But the process of going through all the edits, the photos, getting the artwork and style right, it’s been quite intense. It’s been quite a challenge to balance it with what I’m doing workwise. I don’t. I have zero musical ability but I do genuinely love the music from the period I wrote about, so the book is written more from the perspective of a fan or an enthusiast than from the perspective of a musician or an insider. Evans’ meticulous research is synthesised into a lively and informative narrative that finally grants the genre the respect that it deserves.”– A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 Classic Pop Magazine Cleverly combines impressive research with an effortless and enjoyable readability, and is surely destined to become the definitive final word on this subject.' The Afterword

INTERVIEWS

Highly anticipated… as a book which dissects the ‘golden age’ of British music between 1977-1983, it’s a must-read.’ Electronic Sound The final stage of the narrative outlines the worldwide popularity of more than a few of the acts that emerged from that era. In 1980, no one would have thought bands such as Depeche Mode would be playing arena-sized venues anywhere – much less that they would still be doing so decades later. Similarly, Japan started out as a punk band in much the same way as Numan and transformed themselves into one of the most innovative bands of the synthpop era.

So the two things in tandem, the bands wanting to make more of a mark and wanting the recognition that came with that, plus Virgin’s financial situation which meant they needed bands to step up and start making more commercial records, was actually a very powerful moment in shaping some of the most important records in Virgin’s catalogue I would say. SL: The foreword in your book was written by Vince Clarke who has been a living legend in the music industry over the last 40 years. How did he like your book? Has he already read it? I first started doing research for the book about six years ago, but not in any serious or particularly organised way. I just kind of messed around for a couple of years and didn’t really get anywhere, but I did build up quite a collection of research materials.Also, every time I see them, I always come away thinking what a great show The Human League always put on. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FnbtbaXEnFqqbjOpBuWH1?si=8567b2c1826944b9 Interviewer: Rob Puricelli - Biog I looked at all the records I wanted to talk about and at the beginning, there’s relatively few. But the important ones for me were THE NORMAL ‘TVOD’ / ‘Warm Leatherette’ and THE HUMAN LEAGUE ‘Being Boiled’. In fact, ‘Being Boiled’ was my key one and an early version of the book had the subtitle ‘From Being Boiled To Blue Monday’; I thought that sounded quite snappy and explained what the book covered. But then Daniel Miller said to me “You do know ‘TVOD’ / ‘Warm Leatherette’ came out before ‘Being Boiled’?” *laughs* This is a very exciting piece of news for me personally and I have been waiting for absolutely ages to be able share it with you: it feels incredible to come out and actually say it but I have only gone and written a book! The first thing I should say is that it's not an Erasure book, it's a book about the electronic pop music revolution from the end of the seventies to the start of the eighties, but I am beyond thrilled that Vince and Andy are both involved.

Yes! Lots of terrible clothes, bad beards and long hair, it all seemed very soft and safe! Now when the electronic bands started coming through, they came with this aesthetic with the keyboards and it looked fantastic. But they also had this new look, they were smarter, had these interesting haircuts and they looked so different. For me, the thing that was most marked about their performances was the sound itself. It was something that I’d never heard before, those noises were SO new and SO modern! Yes, a little. Some of the artwork from the period the book covers is just as iconic as the music (and sometimes more so), so although the book isn’t really about the visual side of what was going on it was often difficult to disconnect one from the other. Not really, if it’s a good story then it’s in the book! One of my favourites though is the time that the Musicians’ Union tried to ban synthesisers for fear that they might put “proper” musicians out of work… A scroll of chronological, interwoven but often disparate stories featuring every purveyor of synthpop you can possibly think of … a must-read.”– Record Collector I think that it’s fascinating that so many of the pioneers of this story are still making new music, and also that the music they are making is every bit as innovative and interesting as it ever was, and sometimes more so. It may be a trait of their generation, but I wonder if their longevity is in part down to the fact that they were successful at a time where success could be particularly rewarding financially which may have provided a comfortable base to continue to operate from. There’s also the ongoing nostalgia circuit which allows these artists to continue to perform and those performances also provide a financial base from which acts can record and release new material. As for laying groundwork in the 80s, in my experience these artists are almost always amazed and slightly baffled that they have been able to get away with it for so long!Listening to the Music the Machines Make is the enthralling, explosive story of electronic pop between 1978 and 1983 – a true golden age of British music. In their review of the ‘Bombers’ single upon its July 1978 release, Melody Maker were cautiously supportive, describing the song as ‘interesting if flawed’ and praising Tubeway Army’s new musical trajectory, noting, with something akin to approval, that ‘the treatment shows they’re beginning to scour the studio for possibilities’. Record Mirror, meanwhile, were less objective, singularly failing to identify any redeeming features in the song at all and simply imploring the band to ‘please give up gracefully’. While music fans will be forever grateful that Tubeway Army chose not to heed Record Mirror’s advice, ‘Bombers’ ultimately did little to further the band’s cause. The single sold roughly the same number of copies as ‘That’s Too Bad’, but nevertheless, as the first tangible step towards the band’s reinvention, it does illustrate an important move away from the increasingly stale punk stylings of the day. That inspiration came from reading the autobiographies from some of the artists who helped define the 80s and noticing that sometimes the stories didn’t quite match the facts as I understood them. I don’t have any guilty pleasures. I love music equally across the genres and, although my tastes are definitely weighted towards electronic artists, at any one time I’m just as likely to be listening to Buddy Holly as I am to Orbital!