Happy Birthday King of Synthpop

 

Today Vince Clarke turns 65 and it is time to pay tribute to his work here. Born in Essex he studied violin and piano. Influenced by Sparks, Human League and Fat Gadget he formed with a schoolmate a short lived band which became Depeche Mode after Martin Gore and Dave Gahan joined the band. Clarke wrote the most of the songs for their debut album Speak & Spell, a record that changed everything in synthpop. Not only that they were an all-synthesizer band, they were clever enough to write songs with great hooks.

Shortly after this album he left the band, because the sound of them got a darker touch and he formed with Alison Moyet, another schoolmate, Yazoo. They released two albums and with Upstairs at Eric's they reached the charts. Since then, it has become clear that Clarke's songs need a great voice to come to full fruition.

As erratic as he appears, he dedicated himself to a new project after the second album and founded The Assembly. But not much more than Never, Never, in which Feargal Sharkey is allowed to sing, remained.

With his next project he found a destination for the next years. In Andy Bell, he found a voice that would shape the sound of Erasure through an advertisement in Melody Maker.

In 2003 Erasure released Other People's Songs an album with cover versions in which the cover version by Steve Harley stands out above all (because it is also a great song).

Happy birthday Vince

Back Then

 

Last weekend a few of my pals watched the Stuttgart game for the Bundesliga and we were all disappointed by the result. Stuttgart were the far better team but they lost at home 0:1 at home against Freiburg. After we got over our frustration we went to a friends home to finish the afternoon, There was nothing more to do than talking and have good conversations until a friend started to play some music. Step by step each of us took over the controls and finally it was my decision DJing for half an hour. I didn't know much better than to go back to the early 70's to play some glam rock. We all enjoyed this evening and so it is a pleasure for me to kick you all back to music more than 50 years ago. Enjoy this little journey.

Back To The Days Of Glam

Glam rock was connected to a lot of bands that were at the top of the charts but there were more that are forgotten now. One of them were Cockney Rebel a band from London and they had their big times in the early 70's when glam had it best times. They were famous for their sharp outfit but their music was more than simple chart songs. Cockney Rebel were one of the first bands that tried to combine classic songwriting with symphonic sounds. Listening to their songs almost 50 years later I have to admit that Steve Harley was far ahead of his times.

The Age Of Glam

I think I will continue this series of pop music more than 40 years ago and feature the golden age of glam when most of us were kids. One of those bands I was attracted to in my youngest days was Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. Cockney Rebel was a band from the last days of glam but I liked the very much. Not only because they brought London dialect to my ears. If I have to say that a band was close to perfect pop songs - Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were very close to it.

Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile)

Cockney Rebel was a successful British Glam rock band in the early 1970s around the charismatic singer Steve Harley. He was very egocentrically but one of the first who put a clarinet into his pop songs. I was liked him and his songs. Especially he teched me trying to understand his dialect (another one was Steve Marriot with The Small Faces). Anyway a song who reached number one in the British top ten who is still worth to listen to.

Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel - Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)