(This article I wrote originally appeared in Nightwaves issue 13 in February 2003, but Blancmange has recently crept back into my life again, so I thought I'd revisit it here. Many thanks to Gary for originally publishing this.)
"Blancmange were born with the intention of making weird noises and wearing weirder clothes." - Neil Arthur, "This is Lancashire", 8 April 1998
Ambitiously eclectic, refreshingly experimental, and too short-lived is how one could describe 1980s electronic sound organizers Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, better known as Blancmange. Blancmange were one of the most exciting and unpredictable bands of the new wave era, using strong experimental elements within the commercial synthpop formula. Here is their all too brief story.
Prior to their musical pairing, Luscombe, an accomplished musician who once played for the Portsmouth Symphonia, played keyboards for an avant guard art band called MIRU, while Arthur was experimenting with punk in The Viewfinders. Of his brief flirtation with punk, Arthur says : "I remember ripping up my dad's band jacket and sticking toothpaste tubes to it. My hair looked like it had a bad case of mange... I'd go home wearing all this stuff and wonder why I kept getting beaten up." Brought together by the Harrow School of Art and a shared interest in Kraftwerk, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe formed their musical partnership in 1978 under the name L360. After recording a few rough demos L360 split, only to re-form in January of the following year re-christened as Blancmange (after the bland, unpalatable puddings - a commentary on the state of pop music at the time). Reunited, they recorded a tape of a Kraftwerk-inspired instrumental piece entitled "Sad Day" and sent the tape to club DJ Stevo. Impressed by what he heard, Steve included the track on his "Some Bizarre Album", a compilation of songs by various up and coming "Futurist" bands. Released in 1981, the "Some Bizarre Album" became a phenomenal success and launched the careers of many of the bands we now associate with synthpop, including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and The The.
In the meantime, Blancmange briefly became a trio with the addition of Laurence Stevens on drums. Stevens was quickly replaced by a drum machine and they played their first gig opening for prag Vec. They were seen by David Hill, who was so enthusiastic about the band he offered to finance their first EP. Recorded on a cassette deck and a Teac 4-track, the result was the highly eccentric 6 song EP "Irene & Mavis" on the Blaah Music lable. The enigmatic record doesn't identify Arthur and Luscombe by their real names but rather as Mavis Seascostas and Irene "Disco" Sinden. To add to the confusion, the label on the record identifies the band as The Dave Clark Five. (Included on the EP is a hilarious mocking cover of "Concentration Baby" by The Dave Clark Five.)
In 1981 Blancmange participated in a tour in support of the "Some Bizarre Album" compilation. The unusual stage presence of gangling, reluctant front man Arthur and diminutive Luscombe behind the keyboards attracted a lot of attention for the band, as did their outrageous audio/visuals, where the projection screen was often placed in front of the group rather than behind. Among their early followers was Martyn Ware (Human League/Heaven 17) who helped Blancmange record a demo which led to their signing a contract with London records.
On February 23, 1982 Blancmange were invited by John Peel to record 4 songs for his BBC radio program. This would be their first recording experience, apart from their basement sessions. The Peel Session gave the band national exposure. The 4 songs recorded were "I Would", "Living on the Ceiling", "Waves" and "Running Thin". Shortly afterwards, their first single "God's Kitchen" with "I've Seen the Word" was released on March 15, 1982.
On July 9, 1982, the second single "Feel Me", with an instrumental of the same as B-side, was released and selected by Sounds magazine as "Single of the Week". Sounds stated that "Blancmange stand out a mile as a life-saving raft of pure pop pizzazz on a dark sea of sludge. This is what good dance records are supposed to sound like." By September 24 the debut album Happy Families was released, and was met with unanimous critical approval. The NME said the album "...betrays no beginner's awkwardness... the flaws are minor and the merits are major 'Happy Families' is worth a piece of anyone's time." Sounds claimed "Blancmange set alight the dull skies of popular music... roundly delightful and as soundly devastating..." The album established Blancmange's unique style of combining East Indian and electro-pop/disco influences, as well as their tendency for strong visual imagery (the album cover of Happy Families features a cartoon of a cat's tea party, and all future sleeves and picture discs sport bold, colourful artwork.) The album produced two more highly successful singles: the Eastern-flavoured "Living on the Ceiling" (censored at the time for its use of the word "bloody"!) which peaked at #7 on the charts, followed by the sensitive, heavily orchestrated "Waves" which reached #10 on the charts.
By 1983/early 1984 Blancmange had 3 more hit singles with "Blind Vision" (charted at #10), "That's Love That It Is" with B-side "Vishnu" (#33) and "Don't Tell Me" with the bizarre B-side "Get Out of That" (peaked at #8 on the charts). At the height of their career, Blancmange were able to remain innovative and maintain their commercial appeal without becoming too self-indulgent. They were, however, quick to reject being labeled or compared to other artists of the time. An infamous quote by Stephen Luscombe from 1983 stated: "I do refute the idea that we're just another electronic duo. That's so facile... we tend to think of two people who organise sounds. Neil and I can't write music -- we tend to see it in blocks of colour..."
In the spring of 1984 the second LP Mange Tout was released. Recorded with American remix/dance producer John Luongo, Mange Tout saw the East Indian influence emerge more fully with the addition of Pandit Dinesh on tablas and Deepak Khazauchi on sitar and santour. The album rocketed to #8 on the charts but was less well received by the critics than their previous effort. Sounds maintained "Nowhere does their humour lapse, or their altruism falter", while Record Mirror called Blancmange "...excellent technicians, if not great tunesmiths". Mange Tout did produce one more hit for the band: an unlikely cover of ABBA's "The Day Before You Came", which reached #22 on the charts.
Blancmange went on a year's hiatus, during which time Stephen Luscombe worked on the West India Company project, a collaboration with Pandit Dinesh and famous Indian singer Asha Bhosie on an album of East Indian style music. Blancmange's absence from the charts caused their popularity to suffer. Their next single, "What's Your Problem?", released in September 1985, barely reached the top 40. Their third album Believe You Me was released the following month, peaking at #54 then quickly disappearing from the album charts. The next two singles "Lose Your Love" and "I Can See It" (known on the album as "Why Don't They Leave Things Alone?") went largely unnoticed.
By May 1986 Neil Arthur and Stepehen Luscombe felt the Blancmange experiment had effectively run its course and decided to call it quits. Life after Blancmange has seen both Arthur and Luscombe individually writing music for various TV and movie projects. (Some of Arthur's work can be heard in the documentary "Finest Hour" as well as in the BBC drama "Alice and Ted".) In February 1994 Neil Arthur released a solo album Suitcase, which featured a top 50 hit "I Love, I Hate". He continues to record dance music under the name Stoppa and Knobby. ***
On the subject of Blancmange's supremacy during the synthpop era, Arthur earnestly stated: "The 80s don't seem that long ago, although I can't remember all of it now. I had a fantastic time doing it, if I'd only the opportunity to get one record out I would have been pleased. But I managed to have a few and even a gold record, so it was great." (This is Lancashire, September 10, 2001).
...Indeed, it was great.
*** Update: Blancmange reunited in 2006 and are currently working on a new album. More of that to come in a future article I'm working on!
(Image is copyright of Blancmange, of course!)
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