Ok brothers and sisters, who watched this and felt all tingly inside.

Watching an early Human League appearance as I type.

Like Andy McCluskey says, genuinely puzzled - 'by the mid-90's we have Oasis'

What happened?

Watching it as I type, I can see exactly what happened. The music is all quite depressed. People wanted to be happy so they voted for someone to repackage the Beatles for a modern audience.

Yazoo. Awesome.

ken

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I'm All Ears.

Depressing maybe, but at least a little original.

And anti-rock, which is always very good.

Cerebral, literate and cool. Not sweaty or greasy macho yobbish pubescence.

Count me in, Spinal Tappers!

I have just finished watching it and found it fantastic viewing. Some of the music played from the late 70's was seriously left-field!!!

I got a bit annoyed at the end when the likes of Howard Jones and the Thompson Twins got totally discounted and pigeon holed as pointless synth pop. Whilst not synth pioneers like some of the others, each had a role to play in the emergance of synth music to the masses. Especially Howard Jones IMHO.

Oh and where was Thomas Dolby? He was one of the early brigade.

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And Bagpuss, once he was asleep, was just a saggy old cloth cat.

Quote Guy7:

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I got a bit annoyed at the end when the likes of Howard Jones and the Thompson Twins got totally discounted and pigeon holed as pointless synth pop. Whilst not synth pioneers like some of the others, each had a role to play in the emergance of synth music to the masses. Especially Howard Jones IMHO.

Oh and where was Thomas Dolby? He was one of the early brigade.

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It was very heavily influenced by Simon Reynold's generally excellent "Rip It Up and Start Again" which expresses similar sentiments. I'm guessing he had a lot to do with it (The Charles Shaar Murray of post-punk - he appears a few times on the program).

I should point out however that his other meisterwerk, "Energy Flash", is rubbish...

Quote beatmunga:

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And anti-rock, which is always very good.

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I am currently watching Howard Jones surrounded by a bank of keyboards that would happily have graced any prog rock stage.

I am not being down on the genre, I am huge Heaven 17, Tourists, Eurythmics and Yazoo fan. I was merely pointing out that public moods changed.

Got a point there RegressiveRock...

Jones the synth hasn't dated well.

And the public gets what the public wants. And probably deserves.

But OASIS?

Play the game... depressing dirge if I ever heard one!

Quote Guy7:

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I have just finished watching it and found it fantastic viewing. Some of the music played from the late 70's was seriously left-field!!!

I got a bit annoyed at the end when the likes of Howard Jones and the Thompson Twins got totally discounted and pigeon holed as pointless synth pop. Whilst not synth pioneers like some of the others, each had a role to play in the emergance of synth music to the masses. Especially Howard Jones IMHO.

Oh and where was Thomas Dolby? He was one of the early brigade.

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+1 on all the above.

The whole program seemed to just grind to a halt in the mid-80s and just dismissed the likes of (as you say) Howard Jones, Dolby, The Thompsons but also Nik Kershaw, Japan, Freur (who went on to become Underworld), Fashion and many others (including - to a degree - Peter Gabriel and arguably Trevor Horn) who were all doing great stuff with the emerging synth, sampler and sequencing gear of the time ... even the much-maligned Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Quote hollowsun:

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... even the much-maligned Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

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SAW was a great outfit. Waterman knew what he wanted and got the best out of everyone. Sure, alot was copy verging on pastiche but it was forward. I hear they were working with the Sheilas (from the Sheila's Wheels advert) just last year.

ken

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I'm All Ears.

I wonder if us Aussies will ever see it?

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Visit my band's website

Quote funkyant:

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I wonder if us Aussies will ever see it?

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I don't think you can use BBC iPlayer out in Oz can you?

No, BBC iPlayer is limited to IP numbers based in the UK (and I've heard of local numbers that get blocked, a call to BBC tech support to explain why you are in the UK and using a non-listed IP is needed).

Zuke : 55.29

Quote JB Surlie:

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No, BBC iPlayer is limited to IP numbers based in the UK (and I've heard of local numbers that get blocked, a call to BBC tech support to explain why you are in the UK and using a non-listed IP is needed).

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Give Firefox and the FoxyProxy plug-in a whirl to view it outside the UK. Can be painfully slow and not guaranteed to work though....

yeah the programme was fairly good. lots missed out but that's inevitable, unless it's a 12 part series, which is probably too much to ask for.

found myself looking over phil oakey's shoulder though and trying to make out the large modular behind him. looked like a shedload of doepfer.

Enjoyed it a lot.

Quote RegressiveRock:

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I can see exactly what happened. The music is all quite depressed. People wanted to be happy

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An understated gig of a few lasers, light show, in downtown Houston would've sorted that

I was quite disappointed with this program. Trying to shove so much into 90 minutes meant it was very patchy and lacked cohesion. Although I knew it was largely about synth pop I felt the title was misleading - it should have been called Synth Pop Britannia (plus a bit of Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle). It needed to be three parter.

There must have been other influences besides Kraftwork, Wendy Carlos and Moroder (with the likes of Son of my Father rather than just I Feel Love). The Residents and Brian Eno for example. Some of the seventies stuff must have been influential such as On the Run or even Space (was for me at least). For all other seventies synth users it just dismissed and said you had to be rich to own one. Surely there were bands using cheaper options like Hawkwind with their audio generators.

It would have also been interesting to explore what synth pop might have influenced with the likes of Orbital et al. Then it might have deserved the Synth Britannia.

The syth Britainnia at the BBC was interesting. Mainly it demonstrated that these bands weren't much good, although I quite liked them at the time. There was good stuff like Are Friends Electric, Vienna and Ghosts but most of the songs played were poor (although there was better tracks around).

Quote table for two:

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An understated gig of a few lasers, light show, in downtown Houston would've sorted that

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yeah, that's a point.

i know he's french, but jm jarre didn't get a single mention.

but kraftwerk did.

what can it all possibly mean?

.........they were never going to please everyone

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www.myspace.com/shambolic-charm

Wot no Dolby??
Wot no Blancmange??

I can forgive the latter (only just - they were trying to move synth into a more 'world' music area and were still a little art-y so deserved a mention at least), but the former is comical!

Come to think of it, no mention of The Buggles and how VKTRS was a) hugely influenced by the electronic beat and b) was then influential on the the charts.

One other stupid thing - in the 'At the BBC' bit afterwards, why was the footage for Howard Jones (one of the best actual players that the pop world had) a mimed performance? How ludicrous is that?

Still, good marks for effort : 8/10

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Yep - would have liked to see more HoJo, who I was a massive fan of back then - great synth arrangements on his early stuff.

But the program was really about the bit between the late seventies and the early eighties, the journey of the whole synth thing becoming mainstream fashionable. By the time HoJo was having hits, synth pop was a given, really.

Heck, I would like to have seen Propaganda in there as well, but that's beyond the program's scope, I fear...

I didn't see the "At the BBC" thing - is that on iPlayer too?
Edit: Yes it is...

Quote hogberto:

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i know he's french, but jm jarre didn't get a single mention.

but kraftwerk did.

what can it all possibly mean?

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Eye fink, KW showed that needn't have the music dexterity of Prog Rock or Berlin School EM or French wizardry to make EM.
Kind of like Punk for EM.



TBH when i was at 2nd yr "rebel" at school in the mid 80's i thought musically these chart bands were generally shite ...
but when I first heard JMJ i was hooked.


Time has mellowed my views & I love 80's synth pop .

Hehe - I remember that Pet Shop Boys performance.

For a young synth-spotting geekhead in the making, two guys with (deep breath), A DX7, Emulator II, a DX1, a PX1, and *two* Fairlights in 1985 was majorly squee worthy.

Let's make lots of money, indeed.

Just saw the Tears for Fears on the Synth Brit at the BBC.

Ahh - rat tails, t-shirts with rolled up sleeves and Steinberger basses!

I missed this, but managed to find it on BBC iplayer. Nice to see John Foxx on there and Depeche Mode. The bands that I grew up listening to. I didn't really get into synthesizers until around 1985/1986.

I do, however, remember admiring these exciting looking machines from afar in 1985. At the time I was reading a magazine called "What Keyboard" which I think was a forerunner to Sound on Sound? I could be wrong.

Can't wait for the next episode tonight.

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Duncan J. White

I remember singing to Tears for Fears & Howard in me 2nd year at school & Nik Kershaw of course. Loving PSB's WEGirls as soon as i heard it.
My Sis played Vienna to death ... even as a youngun i thought it was fab.
Got into New Order big time in 1989 ... my first covers were of blue monday, confusion.
Swapped mix tapes with me best mate at school maaaan i luved casettes.

I think a mention should have gone to Bananarama's Cruel Summer ... big worldwide thanks to K Kid.

Also, no mention of Art of Noise spearheading the sampling option!

It was TfT mentioning swapping music with mates that jogged my memory. Mate of mine thought that I might like 'Who's Afraid' - 'It's like Jarre but with funny noises instead' was his comment...



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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Watched this last night.

I remember the PSB performance and admiring the DX1. That thing is huge!!

Great to see DM...love that band. Going to see them in December. "Some Great Reward" is totally responsible for me being a gearslut! Always remember them being on channel 4's "The Tube" performing "A Question of Time" live, in fact I have it on VHS! I was mesmorised by the PPG Wave 2.3 Fletch was paying the bassline on.

Quote Dave B:

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Also, no mention of Art of Noise spearheading the sampling option!
Mate of mine thought that I might like 'Who's Afraid' - 'It's like Jarre but with funny noises instead' was his comment...

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I think it might be in a next episode.
90's big beat Chemical Bros, Underworld owe it AoN.



May also show some Paul nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnineteen HC.

Quote desmond:

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Hehe - I remember that Pet Shop Boys performance.
a DX1

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Quote The Pearl Works:

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I remember the PSB performance and admiring the DX1

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Oh No ! Dont mention the DX1

Quote table for two:

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Zuke : 55.29

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Isn't this week (Friday) a focus on Krautrock ?

They also missed out Tony Mansfield's outfit New Musik and Swiss pioneers Yello.

I haven't watched it yet , but I presume they didn't mention the start with Joe Meek and Telstar ?

Quote Kwaidan:

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Isn't this week (Friday) a focus on Krautrock ?

They also missed out Tony Mansfield's outfit New Musik and Swiss pioneers Yello.

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yeah this friday there's a programme on Krautrock and also one on Kraftwerk.

set your videos again people.

I watched it and it mostly reminded me of why I instinctively hated and despised this dead-eyed, cold-blooded type of thing at the time, and preferred bands who played their instruments with some kind of skill and passion. As for Simon Reynolds and his invention of the word 'Rockist', like it somehow contravenes some equal-opportunities nonsense if you deprecate Depeche Mode for playing the keyboards with one finger, what a tosser!

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Battle flags are flown at the feet of a garden gnome.

It reminded me of how excited we all were about new instruments etc, at the time - simply because they were at least vaguely affordable (well, not the Fairlight)

It was never my kind of music, really, but some things stick out - the long held top note in Gary Numan's 'cars', in the main hook, the sheer catchiness in the Human League stuff, and Alison Moyet's voice. Great stuff. Kind of wondering why Vince Clark appears to be a bit grumpy, though ! Maybe he prefers playing all those old modulars to wittering about the old days ...

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http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

there was precious little new in Synth Britannia if you were already a fan of this stuff...
it was more aimed at people who'd watched Life on Mars and thought "gosh, yeah, I love some of that old stuff!"

Personally I'm excited about next's week show, which is KRAUTROCK - there's a ton of people getting interviewed on there who have very rarely been spoken to on British TV before (Roedelius/Moebius, Klaus Schulze, etc etc)

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~

Quote beatmunga:

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Quote Guy7:

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I got a bit annoyed at the end when the likes of Howard Jones and the Thompson Twins got totally discounted and pigeon holed as pointless synth pop. Whilst not synth pioneers like some of the others, each had a role to play in the emergance of synth music to the masses. Especially Howard Jones IMHO.

Oh and where was Thomas Dolby? He was one of the early brigade.

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It was very heavily influenced by Simon Reynold's generally excellent "Rip It Up and Start Again" which expresses similar sentiments. I'm guessing he had a lot to do with it (The Charles Shaar Murray of post-punk - he appears a few times on the program).

I should point out however that his other meisterwerk, "Energy Flash", is rubbish...

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I enjoyed Rip It Up and Start Again, although I've always considered Simon Reynolds to be a tad pretentious. He's at his unintentionally brilliant best when betraying his complete lack of technical knowledge, though. Particualr favourite bits are his description of the Young Marble Giants' use of a "technique known as" palm muting (as if this was a new idea which no guitarist had ever thought of before) and the revolution brought about by the introduction of a "device" called midi!

Edited by djangodeadman (20/10/09 09:31 AM)

It wasn't a great programme by any stretch of the imagination but it wasn't that bad.

What outstanded me though was inflated some of the egos were, in particular the guys from The Human League. The chap from OMD's dig on Oasis was pretty bizarre too. Did he forget about 'other' electronic music of the time in the charts.

The Prodigy were around at the same time as Oasis and were probably the evolution of the synth band. Let us not forget Aphex Twin too. More interesting and more fun than OMD ever were! Probably sold more records too.