My First Pop/Popular Single and LP

[teamsaint]

Thinking about ts's "New Wave" - I think that if the first title of something already includes the word "New" then it doesn't fall into the general rule. "New Wave" is ok, because there wasn't a "Wave" movement before (unless you count the Vortexists); "New Complexity" similarly - there never was a "Complexity"; "Newcastle".

"New Romantics" on the other hand ...

those inclined to reading religious texts might point out that there was already a perfectly good Testament.......

[Beef Oven!]

those inclined to reading religious texts might point out that there was already a perfectly good Testament.......

New balls please.

[teamsaint]

New balls please.

Lol.

did you ever appear on the original TV talent show " Faces"?

(I think that is the correct spelling)

[Beef Oven!]

(I think that is the correct spelling)

Lol!

[Radio64]

and when was anything ever old fangled..or indeed just fangled.

Enjoying this thread.

[Beef Oven!]

and when was anything ever old fangled..or indeed just fangled.

That's a one, on me!

[Barbirollians]

Bought with my money rather than for me

Single: Le Freak by Chic

Album: Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police

[cloughie]

Single Shadows:Apache
LP Animals - Animals

[Tevot]

Greetings Pop Pickers

Indeed - an entertaining thread. Loved Val Singleton getting dirty with Freddie and the Dreamers in the Blue Peter Studio...

Anyway :First single - Are 'friends' electric? - Tubeway Army
First Album - The Pleasure Principle - Gary Numan

I was about 13 at the time - and as Jim Diamond once observed ... "I should have known better..."

Best Wishes,

Te "Fluff" Vot

[Radio64]

...

Anyway :First single - Are 'friends' electric? - Tubeway Army
First Album - The Pleasure Principle - Gary Numan

I was about 13 at the time - and as Jim Diamond once observed ... "I should have known better..."

Best Wishes,

Te "Fluff" Vot

But why? thos are both ace first time purchases! TPP is still being reissued / reperformed / revalued after all these years.

[Tevot]

But why? thos are both ace first time purchases! TPP is still being reissued / reperformed / revalued after all these years.

Hello there Radio64

Thanks - I suppose in many ways they were - but if you compare and contrast Numan with Kraftwerk (unknown to me in 1979) and say Depeche Mode who obviously hit the very big time a few years later - I would have to say that I feel Numan's albums were at best uneven and at worst plodding and lacking invention.

And tellingly - who has stood the test of time?

Of course there are marvellous songs - "Are friends..." and Cars spring to mind.... and immediately I'm transported back to 1980 and a reminder of how old I now am As I write I'm listening to Replicas - an album which I'd never heard in its entirety - and well worth the listen - but again I feel that there are about 3 or 4 tracks worth the effort and the rest is just padding... ( Indeed is Replicas Numan's Ziggy Stardust with synthesisers?)

My next LP purchase was in 1980 : Ultravox's Vienna... Better image, marketing, punchier electro pop songs... Numan was very soon eclipsed.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Radio64]

Hello there Radio64

Thanks - I suppose in many ways they were - but if you compare and contrast Numan with Kraftwerk (unknown to me in 1979) and say Depeche Mode who obviously hit the very big time a few years later - I would have to say that I feel Numan's albums were at best uneven and at worst plodding and lacking invention.

And tellingly - who has stood the test of time?

Of course there are marvellous songs - "Are friends..." and Cars spring to mind.... and immediately I'm transported back to 1980 and a reminder of how old I now am As I write I'm listening to Replicas - an album which I'd never heard in its entirety - and well worth the listen - but again I feel that there are about 3 or 4 tracks worth the effort and the rest is just padding... ( Indeed is Replicas Numan's Ziggy Stardust with synthesisers?)

My next LP purchase was in 1980 : Ultravox's Vienna... Better image, marketing, punchier electro pop songs... Numan was very soon eclipsed.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

Hi Tevot,

yes it's true that Numan was soon eclipsed but his pioneering work in bringing electronics into pop and indeed rock music is unprecedented and practically unrivalled, save perhaps for his own idol and mentor John Foxx, also still going strong, especially through his work with Ultravox! (pre-Vienna, of course).

It's odd you've never heard Replicas in its entirety but I always feel it's an album which has stood the test of time despite being very much of its time (if that makes any sense). Likewise TPP. It's no wonder perhaps that Numan still lives with and on the legacy of these early albums performing them live, issuing live discs, re-issues, deluxe editions galore, and not just for the nostalgics.

True, he has re-invented himself several times over the years (hello Nine Inch Nails et al) but nothing seems to match the drive and freshness of the early works.

Further listening: Telekon, 1980


PS good shout on Vienna. Much more polished for the glossy new (romantic) 80s, with Midge Ure now at the helm and Conny Plank in the producers chair. One of my Top 10 for sure.

[Madame Suggia]

Remember you're a womble.

[Radio64]

Remember you're a womble.

and if you minuetto allegretto you will live to be old... cit. Uncle Bulgaria

[Tevot]

Hi Tevot,

yes it's true that Numan was soon eclipsed but his pioneering work in bringing electronics into pop and indeed rock music is unprecedented and practically unrivalled, save perhaps for his own idol and mentor John Foxx, also still going strong, especially through his work with Ultravox! (pre-Vienna, of course).

It's odd you've never heard Replicas in its entirety but I always feel it's an album which has stood the test of time despite being very much of its time (if that makes any sense). Likewise TPP. It's no wonder perhaps that Numan still lives with and on the legacy of these early albums performing them live, issuing live discs, re-issues, deluxe editions galore, and not just for the nostalgics.

True, he has re-invented himself several times over the years (hello Nine Inch Nails et al) but nothing seems to match the drive and freshness of the early works.

Further listening: Telekon, 1980


PS good shout on Vienna. Much more polished for the glossy new (romantic) 80s, with Midge Ure now at the helm and Conny Plank in the producers chair. One of my Top 10 for sure.

Hi Radio64,

Regarding Telekon - there's the rub indeed. It was the second (and last) Gary Numan album I bought - and listening to it I felt it wasn't a patch on the Pleasure Principle. Whether or not Numan was a pioneer of electronic music in the UK I wouldn't be able to say - but circa 1981 he had certainly became less cool at school where hipsters / nerds and the like listened to Bowie, Human League, Depeche Mode and New Order - and by 1983 Numan's time had in many respects come and gone...

My nominee for electronic music pioneers / prophets without honour in the UK would have to go to Cabaret Voltaire who had been toiling at the coal face since 1974. They produced a great deal but there are four of their studio albums released between 1983 and 1987 which though uneven I often return to ( The Crackdown, Microphonies, "The Covenant, Sword & Arm of The Lord" ; and Code) The same , alas, I cannot say for Gary Numan ...

Best Wishes,

Tevot