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This programme contains
some strong language.

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SYNTHESISER PLAYS VARYING NOTES

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Welcome to a time

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when there were no guitars
and no drums, just synthesisers.

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It was the 1970s.

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The place was Britain, and
our heroes were a maverick bunch

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of young pioneers, obsessed
by Kraftwerk and science fiction.

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All across the country, these
synthetic dreamers would imagine

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the very sound of the future -
yesterday.

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And by the '80s, their dreams
would become a reality,
as Britain went synth-pop.

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Welcome to a time
when machines ruled the world.

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# I stand still stepping
on the shady streets

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# And I watch that man to a stranger

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# You think you only know me
when you turn on the light

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# Now the room is lit with danger

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# Complicating, circulating
new life

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# New life

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# Operating, generating

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# New life, new life. #

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FANFARE

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By the 1970s,
we were living in the future.

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Our cities were going space age.

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MUSIC: "William Tell Overture"
by G Rossini

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Victorian slums had been
torn down and replaced by
ultra-modern concrete high-rises.

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Entertainment
also looked to the future.

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Our cinema and television screens
were full of tantalising glimpses

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of a future
that seemed just around the corner.

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Released in 1971, Stanley Kubrick's
Clockwork Orange was a futuristic

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and violent vision of concrete
Britain that captured the zeitgeist.

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The film's soundtrack was composed
by American synth pioneer Walter,
now Wendy, Carlos.

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It would have a profound effect on
a generation of would-be musicians.

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That was probably a lot of people's
maybe first time

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they'd heard electronic music,

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on the score to that film.
It made me forever associate

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classical music with people
getting their heads kicked in,

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which is kind of a bit strange.

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The soundtrack to Clockwork Orange -
fantastic synth sounds in that.

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Big Moog synthesiser
that Wendy Carlos used.

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And they were all orchestrated.

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Well, Wendy, who then said she was
Walter, I never quite worked out

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what was going on there, was an
absolute inspiration, you know.

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The first time we had ever heard
that sort of absorbent synth

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bass sound...just raved about it.

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Some of the people who would
be future post-punk people,

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would listen to the three or four

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original compositions that Carlos did
on that soundtrack

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that were much more sinister
and foreboding.

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There was a kind of linkage made
there between those sounds and

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the idea of a cold future,
a bleak future, and that probably
sunk quite deeply into the psyche

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of a lot of young musicians
at that time.

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For a generation of
electronic dreamers,

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Carlos' soundtrack
would offer a glimpse of
an alienated synthetic future.

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But the true divine spark

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would arrive on our
television screens in 1975.

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Tomorrow's World gave Britain
its first glimpse of Kraftwerk,

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a German band who played
only electronic instruments.

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ELECTRONIC DRUM BEAT

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They would invade our shores
later the same year.

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We played
one of our first gigs in 1975

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of our English tour in Liverpool.

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The Wings Over Britain tour was
playing the same night in the town.

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That was also the reason why
our hall was only half crowded.

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# Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n
auf der Autobahn

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# Fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n
auf der Autobahn. #

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All of our posters were stuck right
next to the posters of the Wings,

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so it made us proud
of course, you know.

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# Die Fahrbahn ist ein graues Band

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# Weisse Streifen, gruener Rand. #

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Amazingly they came to Liverpool
in October of '75,

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and I sat in seat Q36

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and witnessed the first day
of rest of my life.

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'75 was all the era of long hair and
flared trousers and guitar solos.

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And these guys all came
out in suits and ties.

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Two of them looked like they were
playing electronic tea trays
with wired-up knitting needles.

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And I was just...blown away.
It really - it was incredible.

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We had no long hair,
we didn't wear blue jeans.

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We had suits on, grey suits.
Short hair, you know.

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And we looked like the...

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children of Wernher von Braun
or Werner von Siemens.

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We saw ourselves
as engineer musicians, like that,

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instead of dancing, a voice on stage
to arouse the girls, you know.

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The interesting thing afterwards,
there was a knock at our
backstage door.

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It was a band. They were called
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.

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And the leader, Andy McCluskey,
was really astonished and happy

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that he was meeting us in person.

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And he said, "You know, guys,
you have shown us the future!

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"This is it! We throw away
our guitars tomorrow
and buy all synthesisers."

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In terms of inspiring people to
not just have a synthesiser
in their rock band,

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but to be completely electronic,

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I think you can never underestimate
the impact of Kraftwerk.

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Trans-Europe Express had the
same impact on the synth-pop

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as anarchy in the UK had on people
who wanted to be punk rockers.

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'Next year, Kraftwerk hope to
eliminate the keyboards altogether

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'and build jackets with electronic
lapels which can be played
by touch.'

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In British music
in the mid '70s,
the synth was a remote beast.

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Although they would
become much cheaper later

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in the decade, a synthesiser then
could cost as much as a small house.

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They were associated
with rich and technically gifted
progressive musicians.

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Until punk came along,
you had to be Keith Emerson.

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If you wanted to be in a band, you
had to have learned your instrument
for at least eight or nine years

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before you would dare
come out and play it.

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And it was simply the inspiration
of The Damned and The Clash...

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that said, get up and do it,
you know.

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Do your best. If it's crap, maybe
the simplicity will get you through.

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Whilst the music didn't concern
itself with synthesisers,
the attitude of the punk movement

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would inspire those with
an interest in electronic music
to do it themselves.

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# Oh

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# White riot - I wanna riot

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# White riot - a riot of my own

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# White riot - I wanna riot

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# White riot - a riot... #

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All the infrastructure around
punk we absolutely loved.

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It's just that the actual music we
saw as being quite old-fashioned.

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And I think they had been
a bit of a one-trick pony.

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So what we did was, we took the
attitudes of punk and give it

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a different context, ie, let's make
music that nobody's heard before.

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Across the country, small pockets of
experimentation surfaced, inspired
primarily by punk and Kraftwerk.

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We were in my studio at home
in south-east London.

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One day I opened my e-mail inbox,
there were 10 e-mails

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from a very disparate
bunch of people saying,

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you've got to go to eBay now
and buy this.

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What was Kraftwerk's
original vocoder,

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which was being sold on eBay.
And it was the one
that was used on Autobahn.

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I thought, well, this is the
equivalent for a guitarist of getting

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Jimi Hendrix's guitar that was
used on Purple Haze or something.

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MUSIC STARTS

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# TVOD... #

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I first got a synthesiser in...1977.

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And I bought a second-hand Korg 700S
from Macari's Music Shop

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in Charing Cross Road.

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The thing that pissed me off about
punk was you had to learn three
chords to be in a punk band.

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If you had a synthesiser,
all you had to do was
press one key with a finger.

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# I don't need a TV screen

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# I just stick the aerial

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# Into my skin. #

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Advances in technology in
the late '70s heralded the invention

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of the affordable synth, costing
no more than an electric guitar.

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Daniel Miller used his to form
The Normal, an experimental act
that supported punk groups.

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Miller drew on the work of
English author JG Ballard

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whose Crash was another
futuristic vision of Britain.

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# Warm

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# Leatherette

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# Warm

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# Leatherette... #

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I'd just broken up with a girlfriend
who I was very much in love with.

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And a friend of mine said,
read this book. And I read it,

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and it really had a huge...

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I'm using all these puns,
like impact.

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But it did have a huge impact.

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# See the breaking glass
in the underpass... #

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It wasn't like science fiction
in the sense it was outer space
and stuff like that.

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It felt like it was five minutes
into the future, and I loved
that aspect of it,

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the fact it was so outrageous,
but so possible at the same time.

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# Leatherette... #

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Warm Leatherette by The Normal.
The Normal was the alias of
Daniel Miller.

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# Hear the crashing steel... #

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The lyrics are just a precis
of some of the concepts in Crash,

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Ballard's novel, which was
about people who have
car accidents and find that

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thereafter their sexuality has been
diverted and they are obsessed with
being turned on by car crashes.

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So you had the lyric like, "The hand
brake penetrates your thigh - quick,
let's make love before you die."

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# Warm

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# Leatherette... #

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The music was supposed to be visual.

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You know, like driving along
a highway with big buildings either
side and going into a tunnel.

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There's quite a lot of
humour in it really.

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It wasn't meant be apocalyptic
or dystopian.

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Miller was one of Britain's first
synth poets. And he wasn't alone.

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In the north of England,
a bunch of computer programmers
dreamt of a similar feature.

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We loved JG Ballard.

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In fact, Roxy had a song, To HB,
about Humphrey Bogart.

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And we had a song, 4JG,
which was about JG Ballard.

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The Future were a bunch
of sci-fi nerds from Sheffield.

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They formed in '77
and played only synthesisers.

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When I bought my Korg 700S
in...1976,

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it was the first time there
was a monophonic synthesiser

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which you could do stuff with,
which was kind of domestic level,
entry level, in terms of price.

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It was £350, I think.

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And I remember distinctly
thinking at the time -

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I with a computer operator -
there was a decision day

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where it was either buy a
second-hand car and learn to drive,

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or go and buy
this monophonic synthesiser.

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And that proved to be quite
a fateful day, because
I still can't drive.

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But I've still got that synthesiser.

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This is a Mini-Korg 700S, and was
the first affordable synth.

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Fantastic machine.
Completely eccentric.

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# Listen to voice of Buddha... #

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They give you a book
of patches with it.

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Because it was Japanese,
there would be things like
Synthy Cat or Funny Frog.

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And you can't follow why it's doing
what it does, but it sounds great.

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Usually with a synthesiser, you
can get it to do something for you.

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You don't have to be manually
good at all.

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That was why we turned to them
in the first place,

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cos no-one could learn
how do the guitars either.

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We'd all tried. My brother's a great
guitarist and he tried to teach me.

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It just hurts your hand.
So we use these things.

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You can press a switch on, and
they'll do things for about ten
minutes. It's quite interesting.

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If you've got a tape recorder, you
can put it down, put something next
to it and it will sound all right.

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# ..Doesn't mean
that she's your better... #

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The day that I joined the band,
Martyn came round my house and he
had two records under his arm.

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One was Trans-Europe Express,
and one was I Feel Love.
And he said, "Look, WE can do this."

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I think that was his actual phrase.

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MUSIC: "I Feel Love"
by Donna Summer

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We loved all that stuff. The concept
albums that Giorgio Moroder did
with Donna Summer.

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(MACHINE-DISTORTED VOICE)
# One, two, three, four, five. #

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We used to play those continuously.

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This wasn't some kind
of post-gay ironic thing.

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It's because they sounded
great and interesting.

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You were never really sure
what the next set of sounds
coming up was going to be.

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I Feel Love just didn't sound like
any record that had been before.

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It came on the radio,
and you couldn't quite believe
what you were hearing.

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It was hypnotic, but it was driving.

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# It's so good... #

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Moroder's mood music
was the disco single of '77.

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Its success would set the template
for the future of the future.

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# I'm in love
I'm in love, I'm in love... #

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We were in fact much more influenced
by Moroder than we were by Kraftwerk.

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Everyone...ever since anyone that
knows we used synths, "Oh,
you sound like Kraftwerk, don't you?"

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We use the same instruments, so some
of the sounds are a bit the same.

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But we never really wanted to be
Kraftwerk, we wanted to be
a pop band.

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We wanted to...

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embody a sense of futurism

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without being so literal.

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It just so happened a friend of
ours, he had bought for him this

224
00:16:04,260 --> 00:16:06,900
science-fiction board game
called Star Force.

225
00:16:06,900 --> 00:16:09,300
And it was prodigiously tedious.

226
00:16:09,300 --> 00:16:12,500
It was real geek stuff.

227
00:16:12,500 --> 00:16:14,660
It was impenetrable.
You couldn't play it.

228
00:16:14,660 --> 00:16:19,100
There was The Rise Of The
Human League, or something.

229
00:16:19,100 --> 00:16:22,020
And I thought, The Human League,
that is such a cool name.

230
00:16:22,020 --> 00:16:23,740
# No future, they say... #

231
00:16:23,740 --> 00:16:27,460
The Human League set out to make
electronic pop for the modern city.

232
00:16:29,540 --> 00:16:32,620
# The city is human

233
00:16:32,620 --> 00:16:36,060
# Blind youth take hope
You're no Joe Soap

234
00:16:36,060 --> 00:16:39,300
# Your time is due
Big fun come soon

235
00:16:39,300 --> 00:16:42,540
# We've had it easy
We should be glad

236
00:16:42,540 --> 00:16:45,820
# High-rise living's not so bad... #

237
00:16:45,820 --> 00:16:48,300
The Human League have a totally
different spin on synthesisers

238
00:16:48,300 --> 00:16:51,900
where it was much more like this
bright technocratic

239
00:16:51,900 --> 00:16:54,140
optimism thing.
In fact, in one of their early songs,

240
00:16:54,140 --> 00:16:57,860
Blind Youth, they make fun of people
who go on about dehumanisation.

241
00:16:57,860 --> 00:17:00,380
# Dehumanisation

242
00:17:00,380 --> 00:17:02,100
# Is such a big word

243
00:17:03,380 --> 00:17:05,100
# It's been around

244
00:17:05,100 --> 00:17:06,620
# Since

245
00:17:06,620 --> 00:17:09,340
# Richard the Third

246
00:17:09,340 --> 00:17:11,860
# Dehumanisation

247
00:17:12,980 --> 00:17:14,540
# Is easy to say

248
00:17:15,940 --> 00:17:18,700
# But if you're not a hermit

249
00:17:18,700 --> 00:17:21,460
# You know the city's OK. #

250
00:17:21,460 --> 00:17:24,460
I'd say most of the brightness
came from Martyn.

251
00:17:24,460 --> 00:17:27,420
Martyn's very optimistic,
and if anyone's moaning about

252
00:17:27,420 --> 00:17:31,660
anything, Martyn will go and write
a song in the opposite direction.

253
00:17:31,660 --> 00:17:34,980
I think I felt a bit gloomy about
the concrete jungle and everything,

254
00:17:34,980 --> 00:17:36,860
which is ridiculous,
cos I'm a townie.

255
00:17:36,860 --> 00:17:39,140
I gravitate towards concrete...

256
00:17:40,780 --> 00:17:45,860
If you put me in the country, I
would find the nearest town and I'll
be sitting in a bar quite quickly.

257
00:17:45,860 --> 00:17:49,460
# Blind youth take hope
You're no Joe Soap

258
00:17:49,460 --> 00:17:52,260
# Your time is due
Big fun come soon... #

259
00:17:52,260 --> 00:17:56,220
Unfortunately, British pop music
wasn't quite ready

260
00:17:56,220 --> 00:18:00,580
for a synth-led group
of futurists...just yet.

261
00:18:00,580 --> 00:18:07,340
But in 1978, The Human League
weren't the only group experimenting
with electronics in Sheffield.

262
00:18:09,540 --> 00:18:13,460
This is the old
Psalter Lane art college,

263
00:18:13,460 --> 00:18:19,020
which used to be part of
Sheffield Polytechnic in the 1970s.

264
00:18:19,020 --> 00:18:22,100
I believe The Human League also
played this very place

265
00:18:22,100 --> 00:18:24,700
for their first-ever
live show in Sheffield.

266
00:18:24,700 --> 00:18:31,380
Cabaret Voltaire
did perform in this very room.

267
00:18:33,900 --> 00:18:36,580
Yeah, we just thought
there was nothing for us.

268
00:18:36,580 --> 00:18:39,820
It was all kind of
bloated supergroups

269
00:18:39,820 --> 00:18:41,380
and progressive bands

270
00:18:41,380 --> 00:18:44,820
who weren't even from the
same kind of social backgrounds.

271
00:18:44,820 --> 00:18:48,700
They were probably
public school educated,

272
00:18:48,700 --> 00:18:53,860
whereas most of the scene
in Sheffield was pretty solid
working class.

273
00:18:56,820 --> 00:19:02,580
You'd find little bits of interest
interesting music within perhaps

274
00:19:02,580 --> 00:19:06,580
some of the prog rock stuff
where there'd be a weird little
synth break.

275
00:19:10,540 --> 00:19:14,740
But then once you kind of started
to discover all the German bands,

276
00:19:14,740 --> 00:19:18,980
you realised that there were entire
albums that were made of electronics.

277
00:19:21,020 --> 00:19:24,300
Whilst The Human League
dreamt of pop, Cabaret Voltaire

278
00:19:24,300 --> 00:19:31,140
were anything but, using electronics
to explore Sheffield, a city torn
between the past and the future.

279
00:19:33,940 --> 00:19:38,380
I remember watching loads
of science fiction things

280
00:19:38,380 --> 00:19:42,940
in the '60s, like Doctor Who
and things like Quatermass.

281
00:19:42,940 --> 00:19:47,500
And all these kinds of strange
things seemed to happen

282
00:19:47,500 --> 00:19:50,380
in old gasworks
or industrial environments.

283
00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:55,660
There was an
other-worldliness about it.

284
00:19:55,660 --> 00:20:00,700
You might see an alien
or a giant blob creeping
across the floor,

285
00:20:00,700 --> 00:20:04,500
glowing bright green
from radioactivity.

286
00:20:07,020 --> 00:20:09,500
# Nag nag nag

287
00:20:09,500 --> 00:20:12,460
# Nag nag nag. #

288
00:20:12,460 --> 00:20:16,700
A very arty group.
Obviously their name echoes Dada.

289
00:20:16,700 --> 00:20:21,340
They were really into
William Burroughs and ideas
like control and surveillance.

290
00:20:21,340 --> 00:20:23,460
They actually used quite a lot
of guitar,

291
00:20:23,460 --> 00:20:26,500
but it was so heavily processed,
it didn't sound like
rock 'n' roll guitar.

292
00:20:26,500 --> 00:20:28,620
It sounded more like a synthesiser.

293
00:20:28,620 --> 00:20:31,300
They also put
synthesising-type effects

294
00:20:31,300 --> 00:20:34,020
on the voice, which is probably one
of the most disturbing things
they did.

295
00:20:34,020 --> 00:20:39,380
You have a guy singing, but it sounds
more like a dalek than a human being.

296
00:20:42,980 --> 00:20:47,980
At night-time, you'd hear distant
booming noises with which would

297
00:20:47,980 --> 00:20:52,860
probably be something like
a drop forge or steam hammer
or something.

298
00:20:58,020 --> 00:21:04,180
You certainly knew that you were
on the edge of heavy industry.

299
00:21:04,180 --> 00:21:06,620
Everything in their music
is alienated.

300
00:21:06,620 --> 00:21:14,140
The music that comes from people
who are divorced from natural life,
any natural rhythms.

301
00:21:14,140 --> 00:21:17,620
The music for a hostile environment.

302
00:21:17,620 --> 00:21:23,020
If I've ever been asked to explain
that movement, I always call it
the "alienated synthesists".

303
00:21:23,020 --> 00:21:30,420
Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire,
Joy Division who were up a little
bit less obviously synthy...

304
00:21:32,060 --> 00:21:34,820
Everyone...everyone
was sort of like that.

305
00:21:34,820 --> 00:21:37,340
We were all going around in
long coats from second-hand shops

306
00:21:37,340 --> 00:21:40,020
and saying how terrible things
were, with a synth.

307
00:21:42,740 --> 00:21:47,020
Across the Pennines, another pocket
of alienated synthesists dreamt

308
00:21:47,020 --> 00:21:51,940
of an electronic future in the
spiritual home of British pop music.

309
00:21:51,940 --> 00:21:54,900
MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH

310
00:21:59,140 --> 00:22:04,220
We are in Mathew Street in
Liverpool, and I am actually standing
outside of the door to what used

311
00:22:04,220 --> 00:22:10,900
to be Eric's Club, which is where
we played our first gig, where we
invented OMD to play at this place.

312
00:22:10,900 --> 00:22:13,260
And it was the club
where we all used to come.

313
00:22:13,260 --> 00:22:17,260
The Bunnymen and the Teardrops played
within a month of us
playing here as well.

314
00:22:17,260 --> 00:22:20,700
This was the place I saw Devo
play their first English concert.

315
00:22:20,700 --> 00:22:23,380
And all of the influential bands
that we could get to come to town

316
00:22:23,380 --> 00:22:26,860
played here, apart from Kraftwerk who
played the big theatre down the road.

317
00:22:26,860 --> 00:22:31,140
And then literally
ten yards away is the Cavern Club.

318
00:22:31,140 --> 00:22:34,140
We've got Eric's and the Cavern right
across the road from each other.

319
00:22:36,260 --> 00:22:40,580
When Paul and I started
being interested in electronic music,

320
00:22:40,580 --> 00:22:42,380
we were very young.

321
00:22:42,380 --> 00:22:44,660
We had no money.

322
00:22:44,660 --> 00:22:50,380
And it was totally unrealistic
to think about getting the
big kind of keyboards you saw

323
00:22:50,380 --> 00:22:54,860
on TV or on stage with some of
the keyboard players in the '70s.

324
00:22:58,980 --> 00:23:03,420
My mother had
a Kays mail order catalogue,
and they had some synthesisers.

325
00:23:03,420 --> 00:23:07,980
Our first Korg Micro-Preset
was bought from my mother's catalogue

326
00:23:07,980 --> 00:23:11,780
for 36 weeks at £7.76 a week,
I seem to recall.

327
00:23:11,780 --> 00:23:16,260
This was the first synth, and we'd
made the first two albums with this.

328
00:23:16,260 --> 00:23:19,700
It's like, it's quite a basic synth.

329
00:23:19,700 --> 00:23:23,460
INTRO TO "ENOLA GAY"

330
00:23:29,180 --> 00:23:31,660
HE LAUGHS
Can you believe that's the record?!

331
00:23:31,660 --> 00:23:33,740
# Enola Gay

332
00:23:33,740 --> 00:23:36,780
# You should have stayed
at home yesterday

333
00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:39,460
# Oh-oh, words can't describe

334
00:23:39,460 --> 00:23:41,740
# The feeling and the way... #

335
00:23:41,740 --> 00:23:45,260
The major record labels
largely ignored synth music,

336
00:23:45,260 --> 00:23:49,140
forcing bands like OMD to look
to newly reformed indies instead.

337
00:23:49,140 --> 00:23:56,220
In 1978, OMD would sign to Factory.
A movement of sorts
was beginning to coalesce.

338
00:23:58,660 --> 00:24:02,540
I think the first wave of bands

339
00:24:02,540 --> 00:24:05,740
that sort of came out of the closet
in a late '70s...

340
00:24:07,340 --> 00:24:10,220
..we were all working
independently of each other.

341
00:24:10,220 --> 00:24:11,980
There was no unified movement.

342
00:24:11,980 --> 00:24:14,300
It didn't all start
in one club or one town.

343
00:24:14,300 --> 00:24:17,100
There was no gang of people
who all had a manifesto

344
00:24:17,100 --> 00:24:20,340
that we were going to do
the new British electronic music.

345
00:24:20,340 --> 00:24:23,940
It was small pockets of people
in different parts of the country

346
00:24:23,940 --> 00:24:27,700
who were independently obviously
listening to the same things.

347
00:24:32,380 --> 00:24:36,980
I did make an electronic
drum machine, because I'd seen
Kraftwerk with their sticks.

348
00:24:36,980 --> 00:24:39,700
So I thought, I can make one
of those. And so I did.

349
00:24:39,700 --> 00:24:45,620
Some of the early synth drums was
this very Heath Robinson-looking box

350
00:24:45,620 --> 00:24:49,620
with all these plates on there
with these sticks with wires

351
00:24:49,620 --> 00:24:52,500
that we did the drums to
Electricity.

352
00:25:00,780 --> 00:25:03,220
# Our one source of energy

353
00:25:03,220 --> 00:25:06,500
# The ultimate discovery

354
00:25:06,500 --> 00:25:08,940
# Electric blue for me

355
00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:12,660
# Never more to be free... #

356
00:25:12,660 --> 00:25:17,900
We were horrified
when Tony Wilson said, "What you do
is the future of pop."

357
00:25:17,900 --> 00:25:23,580
Pop? We were experimental German
influenced. We are not pop at all!

358
00:25:23,580 --> 00:25:26,740
How do you call us pop?
We were absolutely mortified.

359
00:25:26,740 --> 00:25:28,900
We couldn't see it at all.

360
00:25:31,980 --> 00:25:34,180
Totally by accident, Paul and I

361
00:25:34,180 --> 00:25:39,100
and I guess others at the
time had distilled the electronic

362
00:25:39,100 --> 00:25:46,660
experimentation and the glam pop of
Britain from just a few years and
earlier, into what was going to

363
00:25:46,660 --> 00:25:52,380
become, which didn't seem at the
time, but what was going to become
the future of pop music.

364
00:25:52,380 --> 00:25:57,300
By the start of 1979, the future of
pop music seemed a long way off,

365
00:25:57,300 --> 00:26:02,780
as the combined efforts of The
Normal, OMD and The Human League
had failed to trouble the charts.

366
00:26:02,780 --> 00:26:07,460
But dabbling in synthesisers was
becoming increasingly de rigueur.

367
00:26:07,460 --> 00:26:10,660
Even for dyed in the wool punks.

368
00:26:10,660 --> 00:26:14,380
At the other end of the East
Lancs Road, another Factory band,

369
00:26:14,380 --> 00:26:20,020
who would become one of the greatest
electronic acts, were taking their
first synthetic steps.

370
00:26:24,860 --> 00:26:29,780
The first synthesiser we had in
Joy Division was a little thing
called a Transcendent 2000.

371
00:26:29,780 --> 00:26:34,060
I actually
built it from a load of components.

372
00:26:34,060 --> 00:26:37,700
At the time I had insomnia,
I couldn't sleep very well.

373
00:26:37,700 --> 00:26:41,140
So I used to get this magazine called
Electronics Today,

374
00:26:41,140 --> 00:26:46,300
something like that,
and in it was this synthesiser.

375
00:26:46,300 --> 00:26:49,260
And if you were to buy one in those
days it was incredibly expensive.

376
00:26:49,260 --> 00:26:54,980
And we didn't have any money.
So I thought, this is really
cheap, it's only 200 quid,

377
00:26:54,980 --> 00:26:57,300
how difficult can it be to build it?

378
00:26:59,020 --> 00:27:03,460
And it was like...
Soldering components by hand.

379
00:27:03,460 --> 00:27:07,260
It took
about two months of doing that.

380
00:27:07,260 --> 00:27:10,460
And then it didn't
work incredibly well.

381
00:27:10,460 --> 00:27:14,300
RUDIMENTARY SYNTHESISER NOTES PLAY

382
00:27:15,780 --> 00:27:21,820
I remember we went to write a track
in the studio called Cargo,
in Rochdale.

383
00:27:21,820 --> 00:27:27,260
And when we went it,
we found a little Woolworths organ

384
00:27:27,260 --> 00:27:32,660
that you switched the battery power,
switched it on and it blew a fan.

385
00:27:32,660 --> 00:27:36,820
You could play chord buttons on it.
So I was messing about with
these chord buttons.

386
00:27:36,820 --> 00:27:40,900
And then Martin Hannah I think had
brought in a Solina string synth.

387
00:27:40,900 --> 00:27:43,500
What? You can play more than
one note at a time on it!

388
00:27:43,500 --> 00:27:48,140
So I got the organ
and the synthesiser

389
00:27:48,140 --> 00:27:53,900
and hit these chord buttons,
and wrote Atmosphere,
a Joy Division track.

390
00:27:53,900 --> 00:27:55,940
I seemed to write it
there in the studio.

391
00:27:57,620 --> 00:28:03,620
# Walk in silence... #

392
00:28:03,620 --> 00:28:06,380
I think we wrote the music

393
00:28:06,380 --> 00:28:10,100
and then
Ian wrote the words that night.

394
00:28:10,100 --> 00:28:13,940
Then we recorded the vocals the
next day. Which is amazing
when I think about it.

395
00:28:13,940 --> 00:28:15,980
# See the danger

396
00:28:17,340 --> 00:28:19,900
# Always danger

397
00:28:20,900 --> 00:28:25,380
# Endless talking

398
00:28:25,380 --> 00:28:28,500
# Life rebuilding

399
00:28:28,500 --> 00:28:30,340
# Don't walk away... #

400
00:28:34,620 --> 00:28:38,460
Whilst it seemed the north had the
lead in post-punk synth pioneers,

401
00:28:38,460 --> 00:28:40,980
things were also stirring
down south.

402
00:28:42,980 --> 00:28:46,700
John Foxx was the former
lead singer of Ultravox.

403
00:28:46,700 --> 00:28:51,180
He worked in Shoreditch in London's
then unfashionable East End.

404
00:28:51,180 --> 00:28:56,140
SYNTHESISER CHORDS PLAY

405
00:28:56,140 --> 00:28:59,780
SYNTHESISER MELODY PLAYS

406
00:29:01,540 --> 00:29:05,180
These modular synths were
the first generation really

407
00:29:05,180 --> 00:29:06,940
of working synthesisers.

408
00:29:08,020 --> 00:29:14,420
And then the companies decided
to make a cheap version of it
because no-one could afford these,

409
00:29:14,420 --> 00:29:16,700
or very few people could afford them.

410
00:29:16,700 --> 00:29:21,020
And they condensed all that
down into this.

411
00:29:22,860 --> 00:29:26,260
London seemed
almost empty in the '70s.

412
00:29:26,260 --> 00:29:30,660
I used to walk around the streets,
newspapers blowing around
and great concrete walls.

413
00:29:30,660 --> 00:29:33,180
And everything seemed grittier

414
00:29:33,180 --> 00:29:36,980
and lost somehow,
like we'd lost direction.

415
00:29:36,980 --> 00:29:39,500
I'd wonder what that was about.

416
00:29:43,180 --> 00:29:45,300
I wasn't angry about it any more,

417
00:29:45,300 --> 00:29:48,660
as we were supposed to be as punks.

418
00:29:48,660 --> 00:29:53,820
I just wanted to make music for it,
the kind of music that I could hear.

419
00:29:55,860 --> 00:29:57,660
# Standing in the dark

420
00:29:59,460 --> 00:30:01,060
# Watching you glow

421
00:30:03,180 --> 00:30:06,820
# Lifting a receiver

422
00:30:08,340 --> 00:30:10,020
# Nobody I know

423
00:30:14,740 --> 00:30:16,340
# Underpass... #

424
00:30:17,700 --> 00:30:24,020
Underpass, with the sodium lights
and you might be mugged.

425
00:30:24,020 --> 00:30:27,020
Very '70s dystopian.

426
00:30:28,180 --> 00:30:29,460
The spectral city.

427
00:30:29,460 --> 00:30:32,380
# Now it's all gone

428
00:30:32,380 --> 00:30:36,460
# World War something... #

429
00:30:37,660 --> 00:30:42,460
This was the industrial bit of
London that had served the docks
and done some manufacturing

430
00:30:42,460 --> 00:30:44,340
and both of which have gone.

431
00:30:44,340 --> 00:30:47,060
It was like living in
a Quatermass movie

432
00:30:47,060 --> 00:30:51,660
because I realised and discovered
that underneath all of this area

433
00:30:51,660 --> 00:30:57,300
are the plague pits
where the bodies were thrown.

434
00:30:57,300 --> 00:30:59,460
That inevitably leaks into
your music.

435
00:30:59,460 --> 00:31:02,020
That is why a lot of my music
is so dark, I think.

436
00:31:02,020 --> 00:31:05,220
I come from Lancashire
and where did I end up?

437
00:31:05,220 --> 00:31:07,420
In a place even more sinister.

438
00:31:13,220 --> 00:31:15,100
# Underpass... #

439
00:31:19,420 --> 00:31:22,620
Fox's music wasn't
the only synthetic portrait

440
00:31:22,620 --> 00:31:24,340
of the '70s metropolis.

441
00:31:24,340 --> 00:31:30,020
An experimental group of artists,
known as Throbbing Gristle,

442
00:31:30,020 --> 00:31:33,540
had been forging their own
electronic industrial sounds

443
00:31:33,540 --> 00:31:36,780
in their Death Factory
down the road in Hackney.

444
00:31:36,780 --> 00:31:39,020
Grim. It was grim.

445
00:31:39,020 --> 00:31:46,460
It was very run-down. The
factory was an old trouser factory
and it was near London Fields.

446
00:31:46,460 --> 00:31:49,540
In the basement, we were level
with the plague pits.

447
00:31:49,540 --> 00:31:55,220
That's why it got called
the Death Factory.

448
00:31:55,220 --> 00:31:59,140
There was still a lot of
antagonism left over from,

449
00:31:59,140 --> 00:32:02,740
I know it sounds unbelievable,
but post-war.

450
00:32:02,740 --> 00:32:09,020
There were still people there like
the park keeper who used to be
one of Moseley's brown shirts.

451
00:32:14,300 --> 00:32:16,500
It sounds a cliche now
but at the time

452
00:32:16,500 --> 00:32:23,020
we were trying to reflect the
sounds around us in some weird way.

453
00:32:25,220 --> 00:32:27,620
Our studio was in, like,
an industrial area.

454
00:32:27,620 --> 00:32:31,460
There were different noises
going on all the time.

455
00:32:31,460 --> 00:32:34,740
We were trying to reflect
all these sounds

456
00:32:34,740 --> 00:32:41,340
and the way they all come
together in this weird mishmash
of electronic experimental textures.

457
00:32:52,140 --> 00:32:53,980
# Hot... #

458
00:32:59,020 --> 00:33:02,540
We felt a kinship with a lot of
bands, especially Sheffield bands.

459
00:33:02,540 --> 00:33:10,460
Yes, Cabaret Voltaire, those
people. But the kinship was the
fact that we were all independent.

460
00:33:10,460 --> 00:33:14,300
Chris Carter in Throbbing
Gristle was a nut for

461
00:33:14,300 --> 00:33:16,700
Tangerine Dream and
that kind of music

462
00:33:16,700 --> 00:33:22,100
so there were hypnotic dreaming
electronic Throbbing Gristle tracks

463
00:33:22,100 --> 00:33:25,860
that were pretty in a
funny sort of misshapen way.

464
00:33:25,860 --> 00:33:33,820
I had the synths and because they
were homemade synths, they weren't
bought off the shelf,

465
00:33:33,820 --> 00:33:38,980
they went Rolands and Korgs, they
sounded quite unique anyway. They
didn't sound like regular synths.

466
00:33:43,780 --> 00:33:45,900
And then I built
this effects unit.

467
00:33:45,900 --> 00:33:49,300
I saw this design in Practical
Electronics. You could combine
all the effects together

468
00:33:49,300 --> 00:33:54,300
and put a guitar through
it or a voice or anything.

469
00:33:54,300 --> 00:34:02,140
I started building these units
for Throbbing Gristle and called them
Gristlisers.

470
00:34:02,140 --> 00:34:04,140
We were never punk. We are not punk.

471
00:34:04,140 --> 00:34:07,020
We were an industrial
experimental music band.

472
00:34:15,460 --> 00:34:23,340
Come 1979,
British electronic music was still
being ignored by mainstream labels.

473
00:34:23,340 --> 00:34:29,100
So, Dan Miller, founded Britain's
first electronic indie, Mute,

474
00:34:29,100 --> 00:34:33,220
to release recordings
by kindred spirit, Fad Gadget,

475
00:34:33,220 --> 00:34:35,060
as well as his own work.

476
00:34:39,300 --> 00:34:41,780
I wasn't interested in rock music.

477
00:34:41,780 --> 00:34:45,220
I really was only interested
in electronic music.

478
00:34:45,220 --> 00:34:49,540
I thought that was the future
of where exciting music

479
00:34:49,540 --> 00:34:54,500
was going to come from and I
wanted to part of promoting that.

480
00:34:54,500 --> 00:34:58,620
One of Mute's first releases
would be strangely prescient.

481
00:34:58,620 --> 00:35:02,100
I came across an old Chuck Berry
songbook I had at home and I thought,

482
00:35:02,100 --> 00:35:06,540
"I wonder what that sounds like
done on synthesisers?"

483
00:35:06,540 --> 00:35:08,860
# Long-distance information

484
00:35:08,860 --> 00:35:12,220
# Give me Memphis, Tennessee

485
00:35:12,220 --> 00:35:13,940
# Help me find the party

486
00:35:13,940 --> 00:35:16,420
# Tryin' to get in touch with me... #

487
00:35:16,420 --> 00:35:23,980
Everybody said, "You've got
to release it, it's amazing."
I thought, "OK, what shall I do?"

488
00:35:23,980 --> 00:35:26,660
It doesn't fit in under
the normal kind of name.

489
00:35:26,660 --> 00:35:28,540
And then I thought,

490
00:35:28,540 --> 00:35:33,780
what about if there was a group
that were all teenagers

491
00:35:33,780 --> 00:35:36,820
and their first choice of instrument
was a synthesiser

492
00:35:36,820 --> 00:35:40,860
rather than a guitar,
because that hadn't happened yet.

493
00:35:40,860 --> 00:35:43,100
John Peel... I had given it to him.

494
00:35:43,100 --> 00:35:46,740
I was listening to the radio
with a couple of friends.

495
00:35:46,740 --> 00:35:49,620
He said, "We've got three versions
of Memphis Tennessee.

496
00:35:49,620 --> 00:35:51,900
"One is the original,
the other two covers."

497
00:35:51,900 --> 00:35:55,020
"One is really terrible
and the other is really great.

498
00:35:55,020 --> 00:35:59,180
I thought, "Oh, God." Fortunately,
he liked mine. He played it twice.

499
00:36:00,260 --> 00:36:01,340
Take it away.

500
00:36:01,340 --> 00:36:04,940
That was one of the biggest moments
of my entire career in music.

501
00:36:07,900 --> 00:36:10,900
That's the end of tonight's
programme in which you heard

502
00:36:10,900 --> 00:36:15,420
the Desperate Bicycles, The Slits,
The Mekons, Alternative TV,
The UK Subs and Sham 69.

503
00:36:15,420 --> 00:36:18,860
More of the same unpleasant racket
on tomorrow night's programme.

504
00:36:18,860 --> 00:36:21,980
Until then, from me, John Peel,
goodnight and good riddance.

505
00:36:24,580 --> 00:36:27,260
Getting your record
on the Peel show was one thing.

506
00:36:27,260 --> 00:36:30,420
But nobody was ready
for what happened next.

507
00:36:30,420 --> 00:36:35,140
What sort of make-up do you put on?
You appear very white.

508
00:36:35,140 --> 00:36:41,620
It's all natural. It's Max Factor
pan stick and it's 28 which is
natural, not white make-up.

509
00:36:41,620 --> 00:36:46,100
And then I just powder that with skin
tone powder and then just eyeliner.

510
00:36:46,100 --> 00:36:48,500
# It's cold outside

511
00:36:51,540 --> 00:36:53,860
# And the paint's peeling off of
my walls

512
00:36:56,300 --> 00:36:57,780
# There's a man outside... #

513
00:36:57,780 --> 00:37:02,020
On 24th May 1979,
the future finally arrived.

514
00:37:02,020 --> 00:37:04,700
# In a long coat, grey hat
smoking a cigarette... #

515
00:37:04,700 --> 00:37:08,220
He was a punk. He loved sci-fi.

516
00:37:08,220 --> 00:37:10,780
He even read JG Ballard
but most impressively,

517
00:37:10,780 --> 00:37:14,900
Gary Numan was on Top Of The Pops.

518
00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:18,580
I wish magic was real, you know.

519
00:37:18,580 --> 00:37:21,620
I wish fairies were real
and all of that kind of stuff.

520
00:37:21,620 --> 00:37:23,140
I love all that sort of thing.

521
00:37:23,140 --> 00:37:26,620
Probably never grow up, I suppose,
from that point of view.

522
00:37:27,500 --> 00:37:29,580
# Now the light fades out... #

523
00:37:29,580 --> 00:37:31,580
The first time he was
on Top Of The Pops,

524
00:37:31,580 --> 00:37:34,700
Either she phoned me, or I
phoned her, "Are you watching?

525
00:37:34,700 --> 00:37:37,500
"Have you seen this man,
he's fantastic."

526
00:37:37,500 --> 00:37:39,700
# There's a knock on the door... #

527
00:37:39,700 --> 00:37:43,300
The look and the sound
was so different.

528
00:37:43,300 --> 00:37:45,660
# And just for a second
I thought I remembered you... #

529
00:37:45,660 --> 00:37:47,340
Just sort of alien, wasn't it?

530
00:37:49,740 --> 00:37:51,700
I was in a lot of trouble at school.

531
00:37:51,700 --> 00:37:54,940
I was sent to a child psychiatrist
and things like that

532
00:37:54,940 --> 00:37:57,180
which turned out to be, apparently,
Asperger's.

533
00:38:00,140 --> 00:38:04,380
I felt more comfortable on my own.
The classic loner, I suppose.

534
00:38:04,380 --> 00:38:07,300
Didn't go out drinking,
didn't go out clubbing too much.

535
00:38:07,300 --> 00:38:09,660
# So now I'm alone

536
00:38:09,660 --> 00:38:11,580
# I can think for myself... #

537
00:38:13,180 --> 00:38:16,700
I went to a studio
to make a punk album,

538
00:38:16,700 --> 00:38:19,940
which would have been my first album.
And when I got there,

539
00:38:19,940 --> 00:38:23,020
in a corner of the studio,
there was a Minimoog.

540
00:38:23,020 --> 00:38:24,620
Luckily, it had been left,

541
00:38:24,620 --> 00:38:28,620
and this sound - which was a huge,
big bassy thing - and the room shook.

542
00:38:28,620 --> 00:38:34,100
I just realised you can press one key
and all of this other stuff happens.

543
00:38:34,100 --> 00:38:37,340
There was a massive
amount of power in them

544
00:38:37,340 --> 00:38:39,860
and depth that I'd just never heard.

545
00:38:39,860 --> 00:38:42,860
I'd never heard of anything
like it before. One note.

546
00:38:45,100 --> 00:38:48,380
People like ourselves and Cabaret
Voltaire and The Human League,

547
00:38:48,380 --> 00:38:52,900
had all got used to the fact that we
existed and there was somebody else
sharing our space

548
00:38:52,900 --> 00:38:54,300
and then along comes,

549
00:38:54,300 --> 00:38:58,140
who, I guess at the time we thought
was Johnny-come-lately.

550
00:38:58,140 --> 00:39:00,820
"Who the hell is this guy
from London

551
00:39:00,820 --> 00:39:07,500
"who's on telly and having a massive
hit record? Never heard of him."

552
00:39:07,500 --> 00:39:11,300
Numan was
Britain's first synth pin-up.

553
00:39:11,300 --> 00:39:14,220
Hello, Sarah.
Hello, Gary. Hello, Sarah.

554
00:39:14,220 --> 00:39:16,420
My friend Cheryl read in a newspaper

555
00:39:16,420 --> 00:39:19,980
that your mum
does your hair. Is this true?

556
00:39:19,980 --> 00:39:23,820
Yes, that's right. She's been doing
it since I was about four.

557
00:39:23,820 --> 00:39:27,940
All right, thank you. Bye-bye.
Did she put the streak
in the side as well? Yeah.

558
00:39:27,940 --> 00:39:29,820
I really liked Gary's music.

559
00:39:29,820 --> 00:39:33,420
I think he made the best
records at that time.

560
00:39:33,420 --> 00:39:39,980
I think, he, if anyone,
he really condensed it into a form
that was perfect at that point.

561
00:39:42,620 --> 00:39:48,620
Numan would immediately show that
his number-one success was no fluke.

562
00:39:48,620 --> 00:39:54,700
Cars was part eulogy to JG Ballard
and part testimony to
living in '70s London.

563
00:39:59,220 --> 00:40:06,060
I was in my car and a couple
of men in a van swerved round me,
pulled up in front,

564
00:40:06,060 --> 00:40:10,540
got out and were clearly going to
give me a bit of a hammering.

565
00:40:10,540 --> 00:40:14,980
Trying to get me out, kicking
the car, screaming and shouting.

566
00:40:18,100 --> 00:40:19,820
# Here in my car

567
00:40:19,820 --> 00:40:21,180
# I feel safest of all

568
00:40:21,180 --> 00:40:23,660
# I can lock all my doors

569
00:40:23,660 --> 00:40:25,460
# It's the only way to live

570
00:40:25,460 --> 00:40:27,260
# In cars... #

571
00:40:28,380 --> 00:40:31,340
I was pretty scared.
I locked all my doors

572
00:40:31,340 --> 00:40:36,140
and ended up driving up onto the
pavement and shot along the pavement

573
00:40:36,140 --> 00:40:39,900
because I couldn't go anywhere.

574
00:40:39,900 --> 00:40:43,500
People obviously leaping out of
the way. I was in a bit of a panic.

575
00:40:47,220 --> 00:40:52,540
Cars is just about feeling safe
in amongst people in a car

576
00:40:52,540 --> 00:40:55,060
because no-one can get to you.

577
00:40:55,060 --> 00:40:56,900
You're in your own little bubble.

578
00:40:56,900 --> 00:40:57,980
# Here in my car

579
00:40:57,980 --> 00:40:59,380
# Where the image breaks down

580
00:40:59,380 --> 00:41:01,260
# Will you visit me, please?

581
00:41:01,260 --> 00:41:04,300
# If I open my door, in cars... #

582
00:41:05,380 --> 00:41:10,100
I was gutted when Cars came out.
I thought it was really good.

583
00:41:10,100 --> 00:41:12,900
# ..I was starting to think about
leaving tonight... #

584
00:41:12,900 --> 00:41:14,980
All this time we were convinced,

585
00:41:14,980 --> 00:41:18,660
it was just a matter of time
before we had a number one record.

586
00:41:18,660 --> 00:41:21,500
Part arrogance and part stupidity,

587
00:41:21,500 --> 00:41:25,420
and then somebody comes out of
the blue and does it.

588
00:41:25,420 --> 00:41:28,740
With sales totalling
in excess of ten million,

589
00:41:28,740 --> 00:41:31,380
Gary Numan was
a new kind of pop star,

590
00:41:31,380 --> 00:41:34,980
but being at the front of the
synth way had inevitable drawbacks.

591
00:41:38,580 --> 00:41:43,820
The Musicians Union tried to ban me
for, I think, the first year
when I was around

592
00:41:43,820 --> 00:41:47,020
because they said I was
putting proper musicians out of work,

593
00:41:47,020 --> 00:41:49,780
although I had to be a member
to get on Top Of The Pops.

594
00:41:49,780 --> 00:41:53,740
Caused me loads of grief, actually.
The music press were pretty harsh.

595
00:41:53,740 --> 00:42:00,340
It wasn't rock 'n' roll. It wasn't
honest, it wasn't working class,
it wasn't worthy, it wasn't earthy,

596
00:42:00,340 --> 00:42:07,540
it wasn't real, it wasn't sweaty,
it wasn't manly. It was pretentious,
pseudo intellectual.

597
00:42:07,540 --> 00:42:13,460
I am absolutely convinced that
Numan's career was shortened by

598
00:42:13,460 --> 00:42:17,860
a nasty, nasty, vitriolic
journalism.

599
00:42:17,860 --> 00:42:21,100
But, again,
what had there been before me?

600
00:42:21,100 --> 00:42:24,580
It had been punk.
The whole anti-hero thing.

601
00:42:24,580 --> 00:42:29,500
Not only was I doing
electronic music which they
wasn't pleased with anyway,

602
00:42:29,500 --> 00:42:32,620
but I'm standing up saying,
I want to be a pop star, I love it.

603
00:42:32,620 --> 00:42:37,500
All this anti-hero stuff before that,
I wasn't anything to do with that.

604
00:42:37,500 --> 00:42:41,380
I want to be famous.
I want to be standing on stages

605
00:42:41,380 --> 00:42:45,860
and I don't speak for the people
because I don't even know them.

606
00:42:47,020 --> 00:42:52,340
The decade would end with Numan as
the unlikely synth-pop hero
come good.

607
00:42:52,340 --> 00:42:56,220
What lay around the corner would
see the synth transformed

608
00:42:56,220 --> 00:43:00,740
from post-punk experimental tool
into THE pop instrument of choice.

609
00:43:20,380 --> 00:43:24,060
As the '80s dawned,
the future finally arrived

610
00:43:24,060 --> 00:43:27,940
and it wasn't going to be alienated.

611
00:43:28,900 --> 00:43:32,460
A shift to the right
heralded a new era in Britain,

612
00:43:32,460 --> 00:43:35,780
an era in which prosperity
and material wealth

613
00:43:35,780 --> 00:43:38,820
would be vaunted above all else.

614
00:43:38,820 --> 00:43:42,500
There would be no room
for experimental dreamers
in the Me Decade.

615
00:43:42,500 --> 00:43:45,980
You were a success
or you didn't exist.

616
00:43:45,980 --> 00:43:48,820
# One man on a lonely platform

617
00:43:48,820 --> 00:43:53,020
# One case sitting by his side... #

618
00:43:53,020 --> 00:43:55,500
The big hit of 1980 was Visage

619
00:43:55,500 --> 00:44:00,940
whose Fade To Grey followed fast
on the heels of Numan's success.

620
00:44:03,620 --> 00:44:06,220
It seemed the future had passed
The Human League by.

621
00:44:06,220 --> 00:44:09,420
# Ah, ah-h-h-h

622
00:44:09,420 --> 00:44:11,220
# We fade to grey.

623
00:44:11,220 --> 00:44:12,660
# Fade to grey... #

624
00:44:12,660 --> 00:44:16,220
I think there were three
number-one hits.

625
00:44:16,220 --> 00:44:19,660
Certainly Dave Stewart
and Barbara Gaskin, Gary Numan

626
00:44:19,660 --> 00:44:24,180
and I think the Flying Lizards might
have been number one with Money

627
00:44:24,180 --> 00:44:29,540
and I stood there, I think we'd
done a couple of LPs and I thought,
"We've blown it."

628
00:44:29,540 --> 00:44:31,620
We now look like the also-rans

629
00:44:31,620 --> 00:44:35,540
and everyone has taken the idea
and done a lot better than us.

630
00:44:35,540 --> 00:44:38,980
# The best things in life are free

631
00:44:38,980 --> 00:44:42,420
# But you can give them
to the birds and bees

632
00:44:42,420 --> 00:44:46,420
# I want money
Ooh, ooh-ooh

633
00:44:46,420 --> 00:44:50,140
# That's what I want
Ooh, ooh-ooh

634
00:44:50,140 --> 00:44:53,700
# That's what I want
Ooh, ooh-ooh

635
00:44:53,700 --> 00:44:54,900
# That's what I want... #

636
00:44:54,900 --> 00:44:58,220
I turned up one day to be told
I was being thrown out of the group.

637
00:45:00,980 --> 00:45:05,500
And it was a bit like School Of Rock
with Jack Black going,

638
00:45:05,500 --> 00:45:07,620
"You can't throw me out
of my own group."

639
00:45:07,620 --> 00:45:10,460
We'd released Reproduction
and Travelogue

640
00:45:10,460 --> 00:45:12,300
and done all this touring.

641
00:45:12,300 --> 00:45:17,580
There was a nagging undercurrent
of dissatisfaction
from the record company

642
00:45:17,580 --> 00:45:21,860
that they weren't selling
as many records as they hoped.

643
00:45:21,860 --> 00:45:25,260
I think I'd made a big effort
on a photo session

644
00:45:25,260 --> 00:45:27,860
and Martin hadn't even turned up.

645
00:45:27,860 --> 00:45:33,180
Suddenly, I was hearing these stories
that Martin was never ever going
to appear on a stage with me again

646
00:45:33,180 --> 00:45:35,620
which I think he only said

647
00:45:35,620 --> 00:45:41,460
because that was what Bryan Ferry
had said about Eno in legend.

648
00:45:41,460 --> 00:45:44,180
Whilst The Human League
were crumbling,

649
00:45:44,180 --> 00:45:47,820
something was brewing
in the most unlikely of places.

650
00:45:50,220 --> 00:45:53,700
Basildon was a new town. Built
for the post-war East End overspill,

651
00:45:53,700 --> 00:45:57,300
it wasn't one of pop music's
more romantic places.

652
00:45:58,900 --> 00:46:04,700
But a bunch of kids were going to
ditch their guitars
and reinvent synth music as pop.

653
00:46:04,700 --> 00:46:08,740
When we were growing up,
Basildon was a violent town.

654
00:46:08,740 --> 00:46:12,620
We had the highest crime rate
for five years on the trot.

655
00:46:12,620 --> 00:46:15,740
I can remember going back to Basildon

656
00:46:15,740 --> 00:46:22,260
and going down to
the pub with some friends and I had,
you know, black nail varnish.

657
00:46:22,260 --> 00:46:25,460
Going to the bar and ordering
a drink. I had forgotten about it

658
00:46:25,460 --> 00:46:28,580
wasn't even thinking about it
and some guy said to me,

659
00:46:28,580 --> 00:46:31,340
"What the fuck have you got
on your fingernails?"

660
00:46:33,700 --> 00:46:37,780
Depeche Mode formed in 1980.

661
00:46:37,780 --> 00:46:41,220
They had a spot
at their local disco.

662
00:46:43,100 --> 00:46:46,540
Croc's was a really ordinary disco.
There was a crocodile, yeah.

663
00:46:46,540 --> 00:46:50,540
It was quite a sorry-looking
animal, but it was alive.

664
00:46:53,220 --> 00:46:58,180
They had this night once a week
where they'd play things like
The Human League and Soft Cell

665
00:46:58,180 --> 00:47:00,380
and also bands would appear there.

666
00:47:02,580 --> 00:47:05,300
# I stand still stepping on
the shady streets

667
00:47:05,300 --> 00:47:08,260
# And I watch that man to a stranger

668
00:47:09,260 --> 00:47:11,900
# You think you only know me
when you turn on the light

669
00:47:11,900 --> 00:47:14,580
# Now the room is lit with danger

670
00:47:14,580 --> 00:47:17,820
# Complicating, circulating

671
00:47:17,820 --> 00:47:20,860
# New life, new life

672
00:47:20,860 --> 00:47:23,940
# Operating, generating

673
00:47:23,940 --> 00:47:27,140
# New life, new life... #

674
00:47:27,140 --> 00:47:29,100
When I first started playing
synthesisers,

675
00:47:29,100 --> 00:47:31,540
it would have been The Human League,

676
00:47:31,540 --> 00:47:35,660
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark,
their very first album.

677
00:47:35,660 --> 00:47:39,660
I was a big fan of Daniel Miller's
work as the Silicon Teens

678
00:47:39,660 --> 00:47:44,340
and as The Normal and also
Fad Gadget who was on Mute Records.

679
00:47:46,220 --> 00:47:51,420
Vince was sort of the boss of the
band. He was unbelievably driven.

680
00:47:51,420 --> 00:47:55,380
# Complicating, circulating
New life... #

681
00:47:55,380 --> 00:48:00,420
He earned £30 a week in the yoghurt
factory and save £29.70, a week,

682
00:48:00,420 --> 00:48:01,900
to save up to buy a synth.

683
00:48:02,060 --> 00:48:04,540
to save up to buy a synth.

684
00:48:04,540 --> 00:48:07,300
He forced the pace.

685
00:48:07,300 --> 00:48:12,500
This actually was the original
Depeche Mode drum machine
that we used for Life.

686
00:48:12,500 --> 00:48:16,940
Dave's job before his song
was to set the tempo.

687
00:48:16,940 --> 00:48:21,420
Number seven would be fast,
number two would be slow etc etc.

688
00:48:21,420 --> 00:48:29,340
I owned Autobahn, that was really
what got us to go out and buy our
first synthesisers,

689
00:48:29,340 --> 00:48:34,100
the whole...things that were
happening around the time

690
00:48:34,100 --> 00:48:36,500
with Kraftwerk and even
early Human League stuff.

691
00:48:36,500 --> 00:48:39,780
# ..New life, new life... #

692
00:48:39,780 --> 00:48:42,340
I was really happy
that the first time I heard them

693
00:48:42,340 --> 00:48:43,780
was when they played live.

694
00:48:43,780 --> 00:48:48,820
They started and I thought,
this sounds interesting.

695
00:48:48,820 --> 00:48:53,660
There were four little mono synths
teetering on beer crates.

696
00:48:53,660 --> 00:48:54,780
# I'm still stepping on shady streets

697
00:48:54,780 --> 00:48:57,340
# And I watch that man
to a stranger... #

698
00:48:57,340 --> 00:49:02,380
They had a fan base with them
and their fans weren't watching
the band. They wear just dancing.

699
00:49:02,380 --> 00:49:03,980
# ..The moon is lit with danger

700
00:49:03,980 --> 00:49:05,820
# Complicated... #

701
00:49:05,820 --> 00:49:11,420
Miller first saw Depeche Mode
supporting Fad Gadget in east London
and signed them to Mute.

702
00:49:12,980 --> 00:49:14,900
None of us knew what we were doing.

703
00:49:14,900 --> 00:49:18,260
By the time I met Depeche, we had
just released our first album.

704
00:49:18,260 --> 00:49:22,340
Compared to them, I was
an experienced industry person
but I knew nothing.

705
00:49:22,340 --> 00:49:25,220
You know, they needed
a bit of help in the studio,

706
00:49:25,220 --> 00:49:28,100
so I introduced them
to some ways of working.

707
00:49:28,100 --> 00:49:30,860
Using sequencers, they'd
never used a sequencer before.

708
00:49:30,860 --> 00:49:32,820
Everything was played by hand.

709
00:49:32,820 --> 00:49:39,540
This is the legendary Arp 2600.
I bought it second-hand in 1979.

710
00:49:39,540 --> 00:49:46,540
It was being sold, one
of three being sold by Elton John's
road crew after a world tour.

711
00:49:46,540 --> 00:49:52,380
These were used on all the Depeche
Mode albums I was involved with

712
00:49:52,380 --> 00:49:54,420
especially on the first album,

713
00:49:54,420 --> 00:49:58,180
where it was really one of
only two synths that we used.

714
00:49:58,180 --> 00:50:01,940
You can hear it going out of tune
on that note there.

715
00:50:01,940 --> 00:50:03,780
It's not really in tune at all.

716
00:50:03,780 --> 00:50:06,700
MUSIC: "Just Can't Get Enough"
by Depeche Mode

717
00:50:08,460 --> 00:50:11,700
Depeche Mode would prove to be
the real silicon teens.

718
00:50:11,700 --> 00:50:15,060
The combination of sex appeal
and synthesisers

719
00:50:15,060 --> 00:50:18,420
would make them one of
the biggest pop acts of 1981.

720
00:50:18,420 --> 00:50:22,420
# When I'm with you baby
I go out of my head

721
00:50:22,420 --> 00:50:26,100
# And I just can't get enough
And I just can't get enough

722
00:50:26,100 --> 00:50:29,780
# All the things you do to me
and everything you said

723
00:50:29,780 --> 00:50:33,700
# I just can't get enough
I just can't get enough

724
00:50:33,700 --> 00:50:36,900
# We slip and slide
as we fall in love

725
00:50:36,900 --> 00:50:41,740
# And I just can't seem
to get enough of... #

726
00:50:45,420 --> 00:50:48,420
When Depeche Mode,
when we were gigging

727
00:50:48,420 --> 00:50:50,260
we'd all carry our synthesisers

728
00:50:50,260 --> 00:50:52,140
and I, for some reason,

729
00:50:52,140 --> 00:50:55,660
had to buy the heaviest synthesiser
out of all of them, you know.

730
00:50:55,660 --> 00:50:58,940
We didn't have cars or anything,
we'd be on the train,

731
00:50:58,940 --> 00:51:01,340
and this really is quite heavy.

732
00:51:01,340 --> 00:51:05,060
So I'd have this thing under my arm,
Fletcher would have a Moog,

733
00:51:05,060 --> 00:51:07,660
Martin had a Yamaha, I think,
on the train.

734
00:51:07,660 --> 00:51:10,900
# I just can't get enough
I just can't get enough... #

735
00:51:10,900 --> 00:51:15,420
When we did our first
Top Of The Pops we were on the train
with these, our synthesisers.

736
00:51:15,420 --> 00:51:18,420
You got the train
to Top Of The Pops? Yeah.

737
00:51:18,420 --> 00:51:23,180
From Basildon to Fenchurch Street
and then on the underground.

738
00:51:27,140 --> 00:51:30,940
But like Human before, it wouldn't
all be plain sailing for Depeche.

739
00:51:32,940 --> 00:51:35,580
I think, you know,
you've got to remember that

740
00:51:35,580 --> 00:51:39,340
during our pop period we had lots of
fans and a lot of people liked us,

741
00:51:39,340 --> 00:51:41,580
but there were a lot of people
hated us.

742
00:51:43,300 --> 00:51:48,100
Certainly the '80s
was a real old battle royale

743
00:51:48,100 --> 00:51:53,220
between us and journalism
in general, music journalism.

744
00:51:53,220 --> 00:51:57,820
It was just really, you know, pop.

745
00:51:57,820 --> 00:52:00,140
You know, I think...

746
00:52:00,140 --> 00:52:04,460
I can understand why
people hated what we did,
you know, looking back on it now.

747
00:52:04,460 --> 00:52:06,700
It wasn't just the sound. It was...

748
00:52:06,700 --> 00:52:11,100
Every TV that we were
asked to do, we did, and it
didn't matter how stupid it was.

749
00:52:11,100 --> 00:52:15,540
You know, there's something very
un-British about electronic music

750
00:52:15,540 --> 00:52:18,700
to start with. They want bands
to be like they were in the '60s -

751
00:52:18,700 --> 00:52:22,180
four guys, guitar, bass and drums,

752
00:52:22,180 --> 00:52:25,140
pretty lead singer, skinny jeans,

753
00:52:25,140 --> 00:52:28,140
you know, conventional kind of
thing.

754
00:52:28,140 --> 00:52:30,660
That's really what sells newspapers,
I guess.

755
00:52:30,660 --> 00:52:34,220
# Playing on my radio
and saying that you had to go... #

756
00:52:34,220 --> 00:52:37,380
They'd written Depeche Mode off
anyway as a teeny-bop band,

757
00:52:37,380 --> 00:52:41,700
a one-hit wonder,
especially once Vince left,
they thought "Well, that's over."

758
00:52:41,700 --> 00:52:44,940
# New day, turn away
Wipe away the tear... #

759
00:52:44,940 --> 00:52:48,820
In November '81,
Clarke unexpectedly quit.

760
00:52:48,820 --> 00:52:53,060
I was, and still am,
a bit of a control freak.

761
00:52:53,060 --> 00:52:56,340
So, with the advent of computers
and sequencers,

762
00:52:56,340 --> 00:53:00,060
I realised that I could
make all of the music myself.

763
00:53:00,060 --> 00:53:04,860
You know, I didn't need necessarily
other people to play the parts.

764
00:53:04,860 --> 00:53:09,580
I got a real satisfaction out of
programming all of the parts myself.

765
00:53:13,820 --> 00:53:20,580
Without their chief songwriter, it
seemed the game was up for Depeche
Mode before they really got going.

766
00:53:22,380 --> 00:53:25,260
MUSIC: "Don't You Want Me?"
by The Human League

767
00:53:25,260 --> 00:53:27,980
In the same year,
a reversal of fortune

768
00:53:27,980 --> 00:53:31,540
had seen a new-look Human League
finally get in on the pop action,

769
00:53:31,540 --> 00:53:33,540
partly thanks to a line-up change

770
00:53:33,540 --> 00:53:37,940
that took them out of the pages
of the NME and put them
on the front page of Smash Hits.

771
00:53:37,940 --> 00:53:43,380
# You were working as a waitress
in a cocktail bar

772
00:53:43,380 --> 00:53:46,300
# When I met you

773
00:53:46,300 --> 00:53:51,020
# I picked you out, I shook you up
and turned you around

774
00:53:51,020 --> 00:53:53,180
# Turned you into someone new... #

775
00:53:53,180 --> 00:53:58,220
We got Joanne and Susan
simply because we were
booked to do a European tour

776
00:53:58,220 --> 00:54:03,820
and Martyn and myself became
unable to be in the same group
and we just thought,

777
00:54:03,820 --> 00:54:09,220
"Well, get some nice high vocals,
yeah, let's try a girl.

778
00:54:09,220 --> 00:54:12,380
"Let's be a bit different
and try a girl."

779
00:54:12,380 --> 00:54:18,220
From that the step was that if we
were gonna take a girl on the road

780
00:54:18,220 --> 00:54:21,020
with a load of terrible randy idiots
like us

781
00:54:21,020 --> 00:54:23,900
there ought to be two of them
to look after each other.

782
00:54:23,900 --> 00:54:26,060
Joanne and Susan turned up...

783
00:54:26,060 --> 00:54:31,900
I was being sarcastic there,
by the way, we were sitting there
reading books, really.

784
00:54:31,900 --> 00:54:35,660
# You better change it back
or we will both be sorry

785
00:54:35,660 --> 00:54:39,980
# Don't you want me, baby?

786
00:54:39,980 --> 00:54:43,860
# Don't you want me, oh?

787
00:54:43,860 --> 00:54:46,340
# Don't you want me, baby...? #

788
00:54:46,340 --> 00:54:51,300
Oakley spotted the girls dancing in
a futurist night club in Sheffield.

789
00:54:51,300 --> 00:54:54,020
Our parents thought,
"There's some ulterior motive,

790
00:54:54,020 --> 00:54:55,940
"something's going on."

791
00:54:55,940 --> 00:55:00,020
But then Philip came round
and met both sets of parents

792
00:55:00,020 --> 00:55:03,220
and they thought
he was a decent enough guy

793
00:55:03,220 --> 00:55:07,500
and then we went to school
with our parents and they
talked to the head teacher,

794
00:55:07,500 --> 00:55:12,100
who thought that it would be
good for our education

795
00:55:12,100 --> 00:55:14,860
to have six weeks
going round Europe

796
00:55:14,860 --> 00:55:18,180
because we could go to art galleries
and things like that.

797
00:55:18,180 --> 00:55:21,220
# Put your hand in a party wave

798
00:55:21,220 --> 00:55:23,220
# Pass around

799
00:55:24,820 --> 00:55:28,980
# Make a shroud pulling combs
through a backwash frame... #

800
00:55:30,700 --> 00:55:33,940
We never went to
said art galleries!

801
00:55:33,940 --> 00:55:35,660
We did go to a lot of clubs.

802
00:55:35,660 --> 00:55:39,220
Yeah. We went to Cologne Cathedral,

803
00:55:39,220 --> 00:55:42,780
that was about the most cultural
thing we ever did.

804
00:55:42,780 --> 00:55:45,140
# Get around town, get around town

805
00:55:45,140 --> 00:55:48,620
# Where the people look good
Where the music is loud

806
00:55:48,620 --> 00:55:51,700
# Get around town
No need to stand proud

807
00:55:51,700 --> 00:55:55,740
# Add your voice
to the sound of the crowd... #

808
00:55:55,740 --> 00:56:00,180
It also meant that we could
appeal to women as well as men.

809
00:56:00,180 --> 00:56:03,500
The early Human League
was a very male-based group

810
00:56:03,500 --> 00:56:06,980
and really only lads in long coats
liked us.

811
00:56:06,980 --> 00:56:09,740
And some transvestites.

812
00:56:11,260 --> 00:56:13,860
OK, pop music, let's go.

813
00:56:13,860 --> 00:56:15,660
Anyone here like The Human League?

814
00:56:18,100 --> 00:56:20,780
# The shades from a pencil peer... #

815
00:56:20,780 --> 00:56:25,220
Released in 1981, Dare crystallised
the new synth-pop sound.

816
00:56:25,220 --> 00:56:27,620
# A fold in an eyelid... #

817
00:56:27,620 --> 00:56:31,980
We did something that could
only be done at that stage.

818
00:56:31,980 --> 00:56:36,660
While we were doing it, they
were bringing the machines in
that enabled us to do it.

819
00:56:36,660 --> 00:56:40,700
For instance, the very first Lynn
drum I think that arrived in England

820
00:56:40,700 --> 00:56:46,860
came into our studio and we took
the drums off Sound Of The Crowd
and put the Lynn drum on.

821
00:56:46,860 --> 00:56:49,540
Without that, probably,
it wouldn't have worked.

822
00:56:49,540 --> 00:56:55,340
I remember when Martyn
got the Lynn drum

823
00:56:55,340 --> 00:57:00,860
and it was like a child at Christmas
getting the first fire engine
or something.

824
00:57:00,860 --> 00:57:06,820
He was jumping up and down and all
the boys were, "Oh, it's a drum!"

825
00:57:06,820 --> 00:57:11,420
Before that, apparently,
the drums had been one of
the hardest things to do

826
00:57:11,420 --> 00:57:17,540
and now there was this box that was
this big and you could program it.

827
00:57:17,540 --> 00:57:21,900
They were all very excited
and we were a bit like, "OK, boys."

828
00:57:23,500 --> 00:57:25,580
Now the flood gates were open.

829
00:57:25,580 --> 00:57:30,620
The rush to market
swept every aspect of
British life in the early '80s.

830
00:57:30,620 --> 00:57:34,940
Everything was now up for grabs,
including pop music.

831
00:57:34,940 --> 00:57:40,180
In an attempt to eclipse his
ex-bandmates, former Human League
member Martyn Ware

832
00:57:40,180 --> 00:57:43,660
would cash in on the times
with a concept album.

833
00:57:43,660 --> 00:57:48,540
We were doing the day shifts,
they were doing the night shifts
in the same studio.

834
00:57:48,540 --> 00:57:52,620
They were making Dare, we were
making Penthouse And Pavement.

835
00:57:52,620 --> 00:57:55,660
I've never been so motivated
in my life, believe me.

836
00:57:55,660 --> 00:57:59,580
I said, "We're gonna make it stylish,
fantastic.

837
00:57:59,580 --> 00:58:02,940
"Finally, the shackles are off,
we can start using other instruments

838
00:58:02,940 --> 00:58:06,780
"cos the original manifesto
is broken,

839
00:58:06,780 --> 00:58:10,740
"but we're still gonna make it
predominantly electronic."

840
00:58:10,740 --> 00:58:14,100
And so the idea was that suddenly
we're not a group,

841
00:58:14,100 --> 00:58:17,780
we are ripping open the facade
and going,

842
00:58:17,780 --> 00:58:21,900
"No, this is great music,
but it's a business."

843
00:58:21,900 --> 00:58:24,220
It really is a business.
It doesn't matter.

844
00:58:24,220 --> 00:58:26,620
Bob Dylan can sing all he wants.

845
00:58:26,620 --> 00:58:30,420
He's busy brown-nosing
the A&R men behind the scenes.

846
00:58:30,420 --> 00:58:33,660
# Now here comes my job

847
00:58:33,660 --> 00:58:38,140
# Credit bleeding with the mob

848
00:58:38,140 --> 00:58:42,020
# Dreams become ideals... #

849
00:58:42,020 --> 00:58:45,380
But, ironically,
and we were totally anti-Thatcher

850
00:58:45,380 --> 00:58:48,460
and always had been, you know,
Fascist Groove Thang etc.

851
00:58:48,460 --> 00:58:53,580
It got taken on board
by the aspirational yuppie culture

852
00:58:53,580 --> 00:58:57,060
in the early '80s as their kind of
theme tunes a lot of the time.

853
00:58:57,060 --> 00:58:58,980
Like Let's All Make A Bomb.

854
00:58:58,980 --> 00:59:02,740
They completely missed the point of
the song, totally, and it was like,

855
00:59:02,740 --> 00:59:07,100
"Yeah, mate, remember listening
to that, yeah. it's fantastic, mate.

856
00:59:07,100 --> 00:59:09,180
"Love the ponytails."

857
00:59:09,180 --> 00:59:13,340
MUSIC: "Penthouse And Pavement"
by Heaven 17

858
00:59:13,340 --> 00:59:16,060
Not everyone wanted in
on booming Britain.

859
00:59:16,060 --> 00:59:20,740
Cabaret Voltaire were neither
into ponytails nor popularity.

860
00:59:20,740 --> 00:59:23,500
Their vision of Britain was
concerned with the inner city riots

861
00:59:23,500 --> 00:59:28,260
that erupted across the country
in summer '81.

862
00:59:28,260 --> 00:59:32,820
People say that
The Specials' Ghost Town

863
00:59:32,820 --> 00:59:38,300
was the soundtrack to the unrest
of that year, but a lot of people

864
00:59:38,300 --> 00:59:42,700
alternatively think that
Red Mecca was the sound of that.

865
00:59:42,700 --> 00:59:44,460
I think I've said in the past,

866
00:59:44,460 --> 00:59:48,900
somehow that insurrection
on the streets kind of
found its way into the music.

867
00:59:53,660 --> 00:59:57,940
You kind of took
some heart in the fact

868
00:59:57,940 --> 01:00:01,340
that some people were kicking back
against the system,

869
01:00:01,340 --> 01:00:06,580
albeit in quite a crude manner, and
were prepared to take on the police.

870
01:00:14,660 --> 01:00:18,820
You know, we weren't paranoid, this
stuff was slowly happening, you know,

871
01:00:18,820 --> 01:00:21,020
the rise of surveillance culture,

872
01:00:21,020 --> 01:00:25,780
the rise of the right wing in America
and the fundamentalist Christians.

873
01:00:25,780 --> 01:00:30,180
Eh, oh la, in the name of Jesus.

874
01:00:30,180 --> 01:00:32,660
Then you've got like
the revolution in Iran

875
01:00:32,660 --> 01:00:35,940
with the Shah being deposed

876
01:00:35,940 --> 01:00:41,300
and the general feeling
that things are moving to the right.

877
01:00:48,140 --> 01:00:54,180
Meanwhile, something strangely
synthetic was happening in the
sleazy underbelly of London's Soho.

878
01:01:01,300 --> 01:01:03,540
MUSIC: "Tainted Love"
by Soft Cell

879
01:01:03,540 --> 01:01:07,940
I was going to lots of Northern Soul
clubs so I was listening to

880
01:01:07,940 --> 01:01:12,420
kind of Kraftwerk
and Northern Soul,

881
01:01:12,420 --> 01:01:15,820
which is where things developed from,
really, in my head.

882
01:01:15,820 --> 01:01:18,380
HE PLAYS "Tainted Love"

883
01:01:21,980 --> 01:01:24,020
There... I missed it.

884
01:01:24,020 --> 01:01:28,260
If we had the money we'd come
to Soho and just hang around Soho,

885
01:01:28,260 --> 01:01:31,900
just getting ideas,
which is where the name came from.

886
01:01:31,900 --> 01:01:35,980
# Sometimes I feel I've got to

887
01:01:35,980 --> 01:01:38,060
# Run away... #

888
01:01:38,060 --> 01:01:43,780
And Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret was
a bar back in 1980 or whatever.

889
01:01:43,780 --> 01:01:48,540
That's where that photograph's from.
We were just kind of fascinated,

890
01:01:48,540 --> 01:01:51,380
being these two northern hicks
from the sticks

891
01:01:51,380 --> 01:01:54,060
and suddenly, "Wow, this is amazing."

892
01:01:54,060 --> 01:01:58,300
It was kind of glamorous
and dangerous.

893
01:01:58,300 --> 01:02:01,380
Lots of neon lights and stuff,
which we were fascinated by.

894
01:02:02,700 --> 01:02:05,980
# Now I run from you

895
01:02:05,980 --> 01:02:08,900
# This tainted love you've given

896
01:02:08,900 --> 01:02:12,540
# I give you all
a boy could give you

897
01:02:12,540 --> 01:02:16,980
# Take my tears
and that's not nearly all

898
01:02:16,980 --> 01:02:21,020
# Tainted love
Oh, oh, oh, tainted love... #

899
01:02:21,020 --> 01:02:23,740
The first people
doing the electro thing

900
01:02:23,740 --> 01:02:27,340
really caned the alienation,
"I am hollow inside" thing,

901
01:02:27,340 --> 01:02:30,100
like Gary Numan,
and you get this second wave

902
01:02:30,100 --> 01:02:35,740
where you've got the cold,
glistening synth sound but
the singer's actually very emotional.

903
01:02:35,740 --> 01:02:39,140
Marc Almond's a good example of that,
torridly emotional.

904
01:02:39,140 --> 01:02:44,540
# ..Someone to hold you tight
And you'll think love is to pray... #

905
01:02:44,540 --> 01:02:47,340
It's like
there's a super-passionate singer

906
01:02:47,340 --> 01:02:51,100
and then the one other person,
usually a guy with a synthesiser,

907
01:02:51,100 --> 01:02:53,740
and I think they're using the synth
more as like

908
01:02:53,740 --> 01:02:56,140
a miniature or condensed orchestra,

909
01:02:56,140 --> 01:03:00,100
like they can get all the sounds
they need out of this one box.

910
01:03:00,100 --> 01:03:02,620
So really it's more like
electronic soul music.

911
01:03:02,620 --> 01:03:06,140
# Take my tears
and that's not nearly all... #

912
01:03:06,140 --> 01:03:08,420
Where Soft Cell led,
others would follow.

913
01:03:08,420 --> 01:03:12,420
Having left Depeche Mode,
Vince Clarke would form his own duo

914
01:03:12,420 --> 01:03:15,740
with a rhythm-and-blues singer,
also from Basildon.

915
01:03:17,580 --> 01:03:19,540
Vince I met for the first time

916
01:03:19,540 --> 01:03:23,460
when I was 11. We both went to the
same Saturday morning music school.

917
01:03:23,460 --> 01:03:25,300
It was a council-run thing where

918
01:03:25,300 --> 01:03:28,460
I believe he was playing violin
and I was playing oboe.

919
01:03:28,460 --> 01:03:33,820
Even though we'd never spoken in
that time I recognised him for the
fact that there was three of them,

920
01:03:33,820 --> 01:03:39,100
three brothers with this white-blond
hair looking like a family of ducks
going across the road, you know.

921
01:03:40,140 --> 01:03:44,020
Once I left Depeche I had some songs

922
01:03:44,020 --> 01:03:48,060
which I wanted to demo
for the record company.

923
01:03:48,060 --> 01:03:50,940
One of them being Only You.

924
01:03:50,940 --> 01:03:53,380
# Looking from the window above

925
01:03:53,380 --> 01:03:55,580
# It's like a story of love... #

926
01:03:55,580 --> 01:03:58,780
Anyway, I got in touch with Alison
cos I vaguely knew her.

927
01:03:58,780 --> 01:04:03,300
We didn't have plans to
form a band or anything,
we had no history together.

928
01:04:03,300 --> 01:04:07,180
We just went from the demo
to the recording studio

929
01:04:07,180 --> 01:04:09,220
to making the first record.

930
01:04:09,220 --> 01:04:13,620
# All I needed was the love you gave

931
01:04:13,620 --> 01:04:17,380
# All I needed for another day

932
01:04:17,380 --> 01:04:21,060
# And all I ever knew

933
01:04:21,060 --> 01:04:22,860
# Only you... #

934
01:04:22,860 --> 01:04:25,220
I wasn't overly interested
in technology,

935
01:04:25,220 --> 01:04:29,940
I couldn't even afford a record
player or cassette player
so the idea of buying hardware...

936
01:04:29,940 --> 01:04:33,300
There's no point in lusting after
the things you can't have.

937
01:04:33,300 --> 01:04:35,260
Like me thinking about a mini-skirt.

938
01:04:35,260 --> 01:04:38,780
# Listen to the words that you say

939
01:04:38,780 --> 01:04:41,540
# It's getting harder to stay

940
01:04:41,540 --> 01:04:45,340
# When I see you... #

941
01:04:45,340 --> 01:04:49,140
Vince Clarke then forms
another one of these classic

942
01:04:49,140 --> 01:04:50,780
sort of fire and ice groups.

943
01:04:50,780 --> 01:04:53,660
The ice is the synth
and the fire is Alison Moyet,

944
01:04:53,660 --> 01:04:56,740
so that's almost like a template
for '80s pop -

945
01:04:56,740 --> 01:05:00,140
the synthesiser guy,
the synthesiser boffin,

946
01:05:00,140 --> 01:05:03,820
and then
the super-passionate singer,

947
01:05:03,820 --> 01:05:06,820
usually female or maybe gay male.
It's kind of...

948
01:05:06,820 --> 01:05:09,300
The duo replaces the rock band.

949
01:05:16,140 --> 01:05:19,060
It's an affront to rockism,
isn't it?

950
01:05:19,060 --> 01:05:21,660
Just the look of those bands.

951
01:05:21,660 --> 01:05:25,460
# All I needed
was the love you gave... #

952
01:05:25,460 --> 01:05:28,700
When we first started
working in Yazoo,

953
01:05:28,700 --> 01:05:34,060
it was like he was
effectively suffering
from a very recent divorce.

954
01:05:34,060 --> 01:05:35,500
# Only you. #

955
01:05:35,500 --> 01:05:38,820
It's like these were
his childhood mates, Depeche Mode.

956
01:05:38,820 --> 01:05:43,220
This was a huge thing for him,
to go from being a local boy,

957
01:05:43,220 --> 01:05:45,860
like the rest of us,
without a great deal of hope,

958
01:05:45,860 --> 01:05:48,340
without many prospects
or any qualifications.

959
01:05:48,340 --> 01:05:53,620
The last thing I'd heard was
he was driving vans for R White's,
crashing them and leaving them.

960
01:05:53,620 --> 01:05:56,620
MUSIC: "Don't Go" by Yazoo

961
01:05:59,380 --> 01:06:04,060
Yazoo signed to Mute Records in 1982
and, to his surprise,

962
01:06:04,060 --> 01:06:09,220
Daniel Miller found himself with
another wildly successful pop act.

963
01:06:09,220 --> 01:06:12,900
# Came in from the city
Walked into the door

964
01:06:12,900 --> 01:06:16,540
# I turned around when I heard
the sound of footsteps on the floor

965
01:06:16,540 --> 01:06:20,060
# Love just like addiction
Now I'm hooked on you

966
01:06:20,060 --> 01:06:24,300
# I need some time to get it right
Your love's gonna see me through

967
01:06:26,260 --> 01:06:30,100
# Can't stop now, don't you know
I ain't ever gonna let you go

968
01:06:30,100 --> 01:06:32,540
# Don't go... #

969
01:06:32,540 --> 01:06:35,580
There was nothing right about it.

970
01:06:35,580 --> 01:06:39,700
It was quite soulful music
with a very cold, electronic beat.

971
01:06:39,700 --> 01:06:44,860
She didn't fit the typecast
female pop-star image at all.

972
01:06:44,860 --> 01:06:47,700
# Hey, go get the doctor... #

973
01:06:47,700 --> 01:06:50,860
You know, and it's become
a cliche now, but at that time,

974
01:06:50,860 --> 01:06:54,700
the quiet second bloke
on synth wasn't a cliche.

975
01:06:54,700 --> 01:06:56,980
# Can't stop now, don't you know

976
01:06:56,980 --> 01:06:58,780
# I ain't ever gonna let you go

977
01:06:58,780 --> 01:07:00,580
# Don't go... #

978
01:07:01,940 --> 01:07:06,220
In the 18 months that we existed,
myself and Alison never
got to know each other.

979
01:07:06,220 --> 01:07:10,780
We never went out to a pub
to have a drink

980
01:07:10,780 --> 01:07:12,980
or did any of that stuff,
any socialising.

981
01:07:12,980 --> 01:07:16,220
It was just in the studio, working.

982
01:07:16,220 --> 01:07:21,380
To actually come across somebody
who was unfathomable,

983
01:07:21,380 --> 01:07:26,540
who you could not penetrate,
and at the same time had,

984
01:07:26,540 --> 01:07:32,020
regardless of what he says, a burning
ambition, he was an ambitious boy.

985
01:07:32,020 --> 01:07:36,660
What was amazing about it
is he actually achieved
his ambitions, which again,

986
01:07:36,660 --> 01:07:40,100
coming from where I came from,
you didn't see that very often.

987
01:07:42,140 --> 01:07:44,780
And I wanted to penetrate him!

988
01:07:44,780 --> 01:07:47,140
Not biblically, obviously.

989
01:07:47,140 --> 01:07:49,700
# I ain't never gonna let you go
Don't go... #

990
01:07:49,700 --> 01:07:53,540
I just wanted to be
in the studio so much.

991
01:07:53,540 --> 01:07:57,300
I would have been in there
24 hours a day.

992
01:07:57,300 --> 01:08:01,140
It was like being in a sweet shop.

993
01:08:04,100 --> 01:08:09,140
Synth-pop was becoming increasingly
popular and increasingly grand.

994
01:08:11,460 --> 01:08:15,780
OMD would enjoy
three top 10 hits in 1982,

995
01:08:15,780 --> 01:08:19,460
two of which were about
Joan of Arc.

996
01:08:19,460 --> 01:08:21,700
We were quite intellectual, you know.

997
01:08:21,700 --> 01:08:25,300
Pompous, stuck up our own arses,
I guess you could say.

998
01:08:30,020 --> 01:08:31,540
We were going on Top Of The Pops

999
01:08:31,540 --> 01:08:35,060
with Bonnie Langford and Elton John
and Cliff Richard amongst others,

1000
01:08:35,060 --> 01:08:37,620
and we were playing a song
that was in waltz time,

1001
01:08:37,620 --> 01:08:41,380
that started with 45 seconds of
distortion and had no chorus,

1002
01:08:41,380 --> 01:08:45,060
and had a Mellotron playing
what sounded like bagpipes.

1003
01:08:47,060 --> 01:08:50,740
Explain how it works.
Well, actually,
it's fairly straightforward.

1004
01:08:50,740 --> 01:08:52,940
It's a musical computer.

1005
01:08:52,940 --> 01:08:56,900
The right hand is lead instruments
with a choice of 18 different ones,

1006
01:08:56,900 --> 01:09:01,900
and the left hand is rhythms in this
half and backgrounds in this half.

1007
01:09:01,900 --> 01:09:04,540
It's all been fed
on to hundreds of tape tracks.

1008
01:09:04,540 --> 01:09:09,780
The Mellotron is a very early sampler
before samplers went digital.

1009
01:09:09,780 --> 01:09:12,380
It was a very analogue thing.

1010
01:09:12,380 --> 01:09:15,340
Here's a French accordion
with a Viennese waltz.

1011
01:09:17,300 --> 01:09:19,420
It was nightmare to use on stage.

1012
01:09:19,420 --> 01:09:24,740
We were playing in this tiny town
in the middle of France and the
Mellotron was completely out of tune

1013
01:09:24,740 --> 01:09:29,100
because all the town were drawing
the power down so much cooking,

1014
01:09:29,100 --> 01:09:31,740
the motor wouldn't spin fast enough.

1015
01:09:31,740 --> 01:09:35,180
Thank you. Well, David
isn't a musician, as you know,

1016
01:09:35,180 --> 01:09:40,620
but I have a professional pianist
here who can really show you
what the Mellotron can do.

1017
01:09:40,620 --> 01:09:45,140
The number of people
who thought that the equipment

1018
01:09:45,140 --> 01:09:47,420
wrote the song for you...

1019
01:09:47,420 --> 01:09:50,820
"Well, anybody could do it with
the same equipment you've got."

1020
01:09:50,820 --> 01:09:52,420
Fuck off.

1021
01:09:52,420 --> 01:09:58,860
# If Joan of Arc had a heart

1022
01:09:58,860 --> 01:10:05,500
# Would she give it as a gift? #

1023
01:10:05,500 --> 01:10:08,180
It's all played by hand.

1024
01:10:08,180 --> 01:10:11,740
Believe me, if there was a button
on a synth or a drum machine

1025
01:10:11,740 --> 01:10:14,620
that said, "hit single",
I would have pressed it

1026
01:10:14,620 --> 01:10:17,860
as often as anybody else would have,
but there isn't.

1027
01:10:17,860 --> 01:10:22,100
It was all written by real human
beings and it was all played by hand,

1028
01:10:22,100 --> 01:10:25,700
to the point where Paul and I thought
we were gonna get arthritis

1029
01:10:25,700 --> 01:10:29,300
in our fingers from playing bass
lines like that for hours on end.

1030
01:10:29,300 --> 01:10:31,980
MUSIC: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made
Of This)" by Eurythmics

1031
01:10:31,980 --> 01:10:36,940
Between 1981 and 1983,
synth-pop reigned supreme.

1032
01:10:36,940 --> 01:10:39,700
Our charts were chock full
of duos and groups

1033
01:10:39,700 --> 01:10:41,820
who set aside changing the world

1034
01:10:41,820 --> 01:10:45,140
in favour of making it
with a synth on Top Of The Pops.

1035
01:10:45,140 --> 01:10:48,980
# Some of them want to use you

1036
01:10:48,980 --> 01:10:52,620
# Some of them want to
get used by you

1037
01:10:52,620 --> 01:10:56,180
# Some of them want to
abuse you... #

1038
01:10:56,180 --> 01:10:59,300
You've got to remember
that it was the first time ever

1039
01:10:59,300 --> 01:11:01,980
that someone could sit
and make a record on their own.

1040
01:11:07,700 --> 01:11:10,180
Eurythmics came along

1041
01:11:10,180 --> 01:11:13,340
and they did Sweet Dreams
in their basement.

1042
01:11:13,340 --> 01:11:16,780
They recorded it
on an eight-track tape machine.

1043
01:11:16,780 --> 01:11:20,340
Annie sang Sweet Dreams
into a little Shure microphone,

1044
01:11:20,340 --> 01:11:23,660
holding it in her hand,
and won a Grammy for it.

1045
01:11:23,660 --> 01:11:27,540
MUSIC: "Vienna" by Ultravox

1046
01:11:27,540 --> 01:11:30,580
And in 1982, along came a song

1047
01:11:30,580 --> 01:11:33,580
that turned the alienation
of the original synth pioneers

1048
01:11:33,580 --> 01:11:36,540
into a full-blown epic.

1049
01:11:36,540 --> 01:11:41,460
Ultravox would score one of
the biggest synth-pop hits ever,

1050
01:11:41,460 --> 01:11:47,140
called Vienna, which has that total
fetishism of Mitteleuropa, Vienna.

1051
01:11:47,140 --> 01:11:52,100
It's the Habsburg Empire,
the romance of central Europe.

1052
01:11:54,580 --> 01:11:57,860
# Freezing breath
on the window pane

1053
01:11:57,860 --> 01:12:00,660
# Lying and waiting... #

1054
01:12:00,660 --> 01:12:05,580
The movies we were watching and
the music we were listening to
at the time all came out of Europe

1055
01:12:05,580 --> 01:12:08,540
and the history that Europe had,
you know, Vienna being

1056
01:12:08,540 --> 01:12:11,780
this beautifully romantic city,
this beautiful place.

1057
01:12:11,780 --> 01:12:15,780
You put all that together
and you've got this fantastic image,
this wonderful...

1058
01:12:15,780 --> 01:12:19,540
I'd never been to Vienna
when we wrote the song,
I didn't know anything about Vienna.

1059
01:12:19,540 --> 01:12:23,580
# Reaching out in a piercing cry
It stays with you until... #

1060
01:12:23,580 --> 01:12:26,420
You try putting that down,
that you're gonna write a song

1061
01:12:26,420 --> 01:12:29,580
that is a four-and-a-half-minute long
electronic ballad

1062
01:12:29,580 --> 01:12:32,820
that speeds up in the middle
with a viola solo thrown in -

1063
01:12:32,820 --> 01:12:35,260
it doesn't equate, it doesn't work.

1064
01:12:35,260 --> 01:12:38,940
But at the time when you're young and
naive, naivety is a wonderful thing.

1065
01:12:38,940 --> 01:12:44,660
# This means nothing to me

1066
01:12:44,660 --> 01:12:48,140
# Oh, Vienna. #

1067
01:12:53,460 --> 01:12:57,740
Not to be outdone by their English
synth-pop derivatives,

1068
01:12:57,740 --> 01:13:00,140
Kraftwerk would return in 1982

1069
01:13:00,140 --> 01:13:03,820
to score their only number one
single success,

1070
01:13:03,820 --> 01:13:08,660
cashing in with a song that
they'd originally recorded in 1978.

1071
01:13:08,660 --> 01:13:12,140
MUSIC: "The Model" by Kraftwerk

1072
01:13:13,180 --> 01:13:15,340
With The Model that was, in England,

1073
01:13:15,340 --> 01:13:19,300
to be a hit, that was
a complete different story.

1074
01:13:19,300 --> 01:13:22,700
We didn't expect it ourselves.

1075
01:13:23,860 --> 01:13:28,980
# She's a model
and she's looking good... #

1076
01:13:28,980 --> 01:13:33,580
The reasons was the following -
we had already a single to be played

1077
01:13:33,580 --> 01:13:37,900
on the radio in England
and it was Computer World.

1078
01:13:37,900 --> 01:13:42,580
The man of the EMI London house,

1079
01:13:42,580 --> 01:13:46,180
he didn't know what to
put on the B-side.

1080
01:13:46,180 --> 01:13:51,140
And he thought and he thought and
he thought, maybe two days longer,

1081
01:13:51,140 --> 01:13:56,060
and suddenly, he had the great idea
to put The Model from the last album,

1082
01:13:56,060 --> 01:13:59,580
Man Machine, on the B-side.

1083
01:13:59,580 --> 01:14:04,500
And then they sent the single
to radios, and 80% of the radios
played the B-side.

1084
01:14:09,900 --> 01:14:14,220
# She's going out tonight
Loves drinking just champagne... #

1085
01:14:14,220 --> 01:14:19,980
By 1983, Britain had entered an era
of conspicuous consumption and greed

1086
01:14:19,980 --> 01:14:24,740
that made the late '70s
seem like a foreign country.

1087
01:14:24,740 --> 01:14:26,900
Loadsamoney!

1088
01:14:26,900 --> 01:14:32,780
It would provide inspiration for
Depeche Mode's new chief songwriter.

1089
01:14:35,020 --> 01:14:38,700
# The handshake seals a contract

1090
01:14:38,700 --> 01:14:42,860
# From the contract
There's no turning back

1091
01:14:42,860 --> 01:14:48,140
# The turning point of a career... #

1092
01:14:48,140 --> 01:14:52,180
The early '80s were just
a terrible time in Britain.

1093
01:14:52,180 --> 01:14:55,420
And I was young and impressionable,

1094
01:14:55,420 --> 01:14:58,820
and that was really
when I first felt like

1095
01:14:58,820 --> 01:15:02,020
I was writing from the heart, really.

1096
01:15:02,020 --> 01:15:06,820
# The grabbing hands
grab all they can

1097
01:15:06,820 --> 01:15:10,660
# All for themselves, after all

1098
01:15:10,660 --> 01:15:14,860
# The grabbing hands
grab all they can

1099
01:15:14,860 --> 01:15:18,940
# All for themselves, after all

1100
01:15:18,940 --> 01:15:21,900
# It's a competitive world... #

1101
01:15:21,900 --> 01:15:25,780
Around the time of
Construction Time Again,

1102
01:15:25,780 --> 01:15:28,820
samplers had just really come out.

1103
01:15:28,820 --> 01:15:31,820
We would just...
It was a whole revelation to us.

1104
01:15:31,820 --> 01:15:36,900
We were just going out and smashing
pieces of metal

1105
01:15:36,900 --> 01:15:40,620
with sledgehammers,
raiding the kitchen drawer

1106
01:15:40,620 --> 01:15:43,460
for all the utensils
to make percussion sounds.

1107
01:15:43,460 --> 01:15:45,860
Just anything
we could get our hands on.

1108
01:15:45,860 --> 01:15:49,380
We've got this vague idea at the
moment which was used on the demo.

1109
01:15:49,380 --> 01:15:53,260
We've got this pebble,
which we got from the mud.

1110
01:15:53,260 --> 01:15:55,620
Yeah, look, white spots.

1111
01:15:55,620 --> 01:15:57,700
They're the stinging nettles.

1112
01:15:57,700 --> 01:16:02,580
Anyway, the idea is to roll
the pebble on this piece of metal
along here,

1113
01:16:02,580 --> 01:16:05,820
this window frame,

1114
01:16:05,820 --> 01:16:07,380
thus causing...

1115
01:16:07,380 --> 01:16:09,980
thus making this sort of sound.

1116
01:16:09,980 --> 01:16:11,100
RATTLING

1117
01:16:11,100 --> 01:16:17,820
Construction Time Again really
started to see us form as the basis

1118
01:16:17,820 --> 01:16:20,380
of what we are today.

1119
01:16:20,380 --> 01:16:21,620
RATTLING

1120
01:16:21,620 --> 01:16:26,900
That was a lot better. Anyway,
the idea is to take that sequence

1121
01:16:26,900 --> 01:16:30,500
and to make an interesting
rhythm out of it,

1122
01:16:30,500 --> 01:16:34,420
and to sequence it
all through the song,

1123
01:16:34,420 --> 01:16:35,860
so people dance.

1124
01:16:39,460 --> 01:16:45,420
Depeche Mode pioneered their
new sampler-based sound
in London's Shoreditch.

1125
01:16:45,420 --> 01:16:49,420
In those days, Shoreditch,
there was not a soul around.

1126
01:16:49,420 --> 01:16:51,700
Now, of course, with Hoxton
etc etc,

1127
01:16:51,700 --> 01:16:53,460
it is the trendy place to be,

1128
01:16:53,460 --> 01:16:56,460
but it wasn't when we
were at the Garden Studios.

1129
01:16:56,460 --> 01:16:59,020
There was not a soul to be seen.

1130
01:16:59,020 --> 01:17:04,300
# Get out the crane
Construction time again

1131
01:17:04,300 --> 01:17:07,980
# What is it this time... #

1132
01:17:07,980 --> 01:17:10,820
I remember, there was one sound
in particular

1133
01:17:10,820 --> 01:17:14,140
that was us actually hitting a piece
of corrugated iron

1134
01:17:14,140 --> 01:17:16,340
that was the side of a building site,

1135
01:17:16,340 --> 01:17:19,300
and the sample sort of went like...

1136
01:17:19,300 --> 01:17:23,860
"Krr! Oi!", and that
was the site foreman.

1137
01:17:23,860 --> 01:17:25,860
# It's a lot
It's a lot

1138
01:17:25,860 --> 01:17:27,260
# It's a lot
It's a lot

1139
01:17:27,260 --> 01:17:28,940
# It's a lot
It's a lot... #

1140
01:17:28,940 --> 01:17:35,580
We seemed, in the '80s,
to be doing a one-band crusade
for electronic music

1141
01:17:35,580 --> 01:17:40,900
against the music press, that was
overwhelmingly rock-based.

1142
01:17:40,900 --> 01:17:47,140
We would often do interviews
with journalists and we'd have

1143
01:17:47,140 --> 01:17:50,140
a big argument,
because they just didn't consider

1144
01:17:50,140 --> 01:17:52,220
electronic music to be real music.

1145
01:17:53,860 --> 01:17:57,860
# There's a new game
we like to play, you see

1146
01:17:57,860 --> 01:18:01,980
# The game with added reality

1147
01:18:01,980 --> 01:18:06,740
# You treat me like a dog
Get me down on my knees

1148
01:18:06,740 --> 01:18:10,060
# We call it master
and servant... #

1149
01:18:10,060 --> 01:18:16,260
You know, we got accused at certain
times of being like a very subversive
pop band, and I do think that we did

1150
01:18:16,260 --> 01:18:22,460
get away with some stuff that was
probably risque for the radio, just
because we used it in a pop context.

1151
01:18:22,460 --> 01:18:28,620
# With you on top and me
underneath... #

1152
01:18:28,620 --> 01:18:32,420
In our early career, there was things
like Master And Servant and stuff.

1153
01:18:32,420 --> 01:18:36,100
# Let's play master and servant

1154
01:18:36,100 --> 01:18:38,940
# Let's play master and servant... #

1155
01:18:38,940 --> 01:18:42,820
Some of the reviews
were unbelievably vicious.

1156
01:18:42,820 --> 01:18:45,340
You just couldn't...
Real hatred for the band.

1157
01:18:45,340 --> 01:18:48,260
Real hatred. I don't know why.
It wasn't British, really.

1158
01:18:49,700 --> 01:18:52,580
A journalist once said,

1159
01:18:52,580 --> 01:18:57,580
"The music will appeal to alienated
youth everywhere, and Germans."

1160
01:18:57,580 --> 01:18:59,500
HE LAUGHS

1161
01:19:04,020 --> 01:19:08,820
Depeche Mode would eventually find
a sympathetic home for their music
in America.

1162
01:19:13,100 --> 01:19:16,260
For a lot of Americans,
England just means gay.

1163
01:19:16,260 --> 01:19:23,380
They think it's like a conflation of
Oscar Wilde and various ideas about
British boarding school.

1164
01:19:23,380 --> 01:19:28,140
For people who feel different,
or misfits in America,

1165
01:19:28,140 --> 01:19:31,180
England does actually seem
like this utopia.

1166
01:19:31,180 --> 01:19:35,860
They imagine everyone in England
walks around wearing eyeliner and
plays synthesisers, you know?

1167
01:19:35,860 --> 01:19:38,300
And so to be a Depeche Mode fan
in America

1168
01:19:38,300 --> 01:19:40,220
was actually quite
a dissident thing.

1169
01:19:44,860 --> 01:19:51,420
Depeche Mode were the only act who
were truly successful in exporting
the British electronic sound.

1170
01:19:51,420 --> 01:19:54,420
The band would enjoy massive
popularity in America

1171
01:19:54,420 --> 01:19:56,380
throughout the '80s and beyond,

1172
01:19:56,380 --> 01:20:00,580
consistently filling stadiums
across the land.

1173
01:20:00,580 --> 01:20:02,420
Back in Britain, in '83,

1174
01:20:02,420 --> 01:20:07,140
the sampler was moving synth-pop
in a different direction.

1175
01:20:07,140 --> 01:20:12,100
Suppose I want to send my loved one
a rather special musical greeting,
well, I can.

1176
01:20:12,100 --> 01:20:16,700
First, let me give the computer
an idea of the sound
that I actually want to send.

1177
01:20:16,700 --> 01:20:18,580
So, I'll prime it again.

1178
01:20:24,380 --> 01:20:26,900
And now I'll speak into the mic.
Hello!

1179
01:20:26,900 --> 01:20:32,380
And we have to wait
a couple of seconds now for the
sound wave to come up. There it is.

1180
01:20:32,380 --> 01:20:37,700
SAMPLER: # Hello, hello, hello
Hello, hello, hello. #

1181
01:20:37,700 --> 01:20:39,020
Hello, dear.

1182
01:20:39,020 --> 01:20:43,460
When we arrived in it,
the Emulator had just been invented.

1183
01:20:43,460 --> 01:20:48,700
It was completely riveting, because
it had James Brown going, "Please!"

1184
01:20:48,700 --> 01:20:50,580
You played up
and down the keyboard.

1185
01:20:50,580 --> 01:20:52,620
Had a string quartet
or an orchestra.

1186
01:20:52,620 --> 01:20:55,700
It had a famous Beethoven
"Rumph, rumph."

1187
01:20:57,460 --> 01:20:59,260
# West End girl... #

1188
01:20:59,260 --> 01:21:01,340
The first record we made,
West End Girl,

1189
01:21:01,340 --> 01:21:04,420
every sound was actually a sample
played on the same keyboard

1190
01:21:04,420 --> 01:21:07,180
which looked just like
a Bontempi chord organ.

1191
01:21:09,460 --> 01:21:15,780
The idea was to take real life
and put it against beautiful
or dance or both music.

1192
01:21:15,780 --> 01:21:20,340
Because we were the last of the
thing that started with
The Human League,

1193
01:21:20,340 --> 01:21:25,740
and we were probably the
first of the thing where
pop music was raised to dance music.

1194
01:21:25,740 --> 01:21:28,700
# In a West End town
a dead end world

1195
01:21:28,700 --> 01:21:31,420
# The East End boys
and West End girls

1196
01:21:33,620 --> 01:21:37,340
# Ooh, in a West End town
a dead end world

1197
01:21:37,340 --> 01:21:40,460
# East End boys
West End girls... #

1198
01:21:43,020 --> 01:21:47,580
The Pet Shop Boys
gave us a glimpse of what the future
held for British electronic music.

1199
01:21:47,580 --> 01:21:51,180
But the band that would truly
spearhead the shift from synth-pop

1200
01:21:51,180 --> 01:21:55,580
to dance music had evolved out
of the ashes of Joy Division.

1201
01:21:57,860 --> 01:22:02,100
Whilst in America, New Order
would have a synthetic epiphany.

1202
01:22:06,740 --> 01:22:09,620
Kind of at the period
where Ian had died

1203
01:22:09,620 --> 01:22:12,860
and we were going
recording in New York.

1204
01:22:12,860 --> 01:22:15,780
We were spending a lot of time
in New York and I was going

1205
01:22:15,780 --> 01:22:18,540
to night clubs after the studio.

1206
01:22:18,540 --> 01:22:20,260
Every night.

1207
01:22:20,260 --> 01:22:25,620
I remember sitting there on these
kind of steps in a club and thinking,

1208
01:22:25,620 --> 01:22:27,900
"Wouldn't it be great
if one day,

1209
01:22:27,900 --> 01:22:30,740
"our music was played
in a place like this."

1210
01:22:32,580 --> 01:22:36,220
That sort of planted
a seed in my head, really,

1211
01:22:36,220 --> 01:22:39,660
that got me interested
in more in synthesisers.

1212
01:22:41,300 --> 01:22:44,940
You know, if you play an encore
or something, you know,

1213
01:22:44,940 --> 01:22:48,100
it's like, you're just falling
into the trap, you know,

1214
01:22:48,100 --> 01:22:51,300
it's a phoney thing
doing an encore, everyone expects it.

1215
01:22:52,860 --> 01:22:56,140
"Ooh, let's get these machines
to do a track and we'll just go on

1216
01:22:56,140 --> 01:22:59,740
"as if we're doing an encore,
press a button and then bugger off."

1217
01:22:59,740 --> 01:23:01,380
That was the idea.

1218
01:23:11,620 --> 01:23:14,620
When Blue Monday came out,
a lot of people didn't like it.

1219
01:23:14,620 --> 01:23:17,060
They went, "What, what...

1220
01:23:17,060 --> 01:23:20,180
"it doesn't sound like New Order,
what are you doing?

1221
01:23:20,180 --> 01:23:23,140
"It doesn't sound like
you're supposed to sound."

1222
01:23:23,140 --> 01:23:27,140
A lot of people were like, "I don't
like that." Then, it just took off.

1223
01:23:28,260 --> 01:23:32,060
# How does it feel?

1224
01:23:32,060 --> 01:23:33,660
# To treat me like you do?

1225
01:23:35,780 --> 01:23:39,380
# When you laid your hands upon me

1226
01:23:39,380 --> 01:23:42,420
# And told me who you are... #

1227
01:23:42,420 --> 01:23:44,620
I guess, people went on holidays

1228
01:23:44,620 --> 01:23:48,700
and they hear it in night clubs
in Spain and Greece and stuff,

1229
01:23:48,700 --> 01:23:50,820
and when they came back,

1230
01:23:50,820 --> 01:23:53,460
they would buy it'd be
a big hit over and over again.

1231
01:23:55,420 --> 01:24:02,580
Blue Monday's inscrutable
club cool would make it become the
biggest-selling 12-inch of all time,

1232
01:24:02,580 --> 01:24:08,020
originally released in 1983,
it heralded the future
for British electronica.

1233
01:24:08,020 --> 01:24:12,700
A new age of dance music,
unconcerned with pop charts
and commercial appeal,

1234
01:24:12,700 --> 01:24:16,700
would gain a massive following
that thrives to this day.

1235
01:24:18,740 --> 01:24:25,620
For those electronic pioneers who
had brought the synth into British
pop music, it was the end of an era.

1236
01:24:25,620 --> 01:24:28,460
It sort of starts,
I guess, round about '83.

1237
01:24:28,460 --> 01:24:30,900
It was just overdone.
It was saturated.

1238
01:24:30,900 --> 01:24:33,220
There was too much
synth-pop around.

1239
01:24:33,220 --> 01:24:35,620
# This is the sound
of all of our friends... #

1240
01:24:35,620 --> 01:24:40,780
It's all very well if it's
being on a synth, but the actual
melodies and the way the songs

1241
01:24:40,780 --> 01:24:44,460
were structured were really
pretty traditional and quite trite.

1242
01:24:44,460 --> 01:24:47,100
It wasn't that inventive
as electronic music.

1243
01:24:47,100 --> 01:24:51,580
# Somebody's got their eye on me

1244
01:24:51,580 --> 01:24:55,340
# Perhaps I should
invite him up for tea... #

1245
01:24:55,340 --> 01:24:59,900
Towards the middle of the '80s,
there wasn't so much encouragement

1246
01:24:59,900 --> 01:25:03,100
from the record companies to
do more experimental stuff.

1247
01:25:03,100 --> 01:25:08,860
I meant that initial supernova
of post-punk, it was dying away.

1248
01:25:08,860 --> 01:25:11,220
And slowly but surely,

1249
01:25:11,220 --> 01:25:15,060
the cancerous growth
of market-led A&R-ing

1250
01:25:15,060 --> 01:25:18,180
started invidiously creeping up

1251
01:25:18,180 --> 01:25:23,260
and blandifying and homogenising
the musical market, in my view.

1252
01:25:23,260 --> 01:25:25,420
We were a bit lost by then.

1253
01:25:25,420 --> 01:25:28,300
It was all a bit...
We felt we'd achieved it.

1254
01:25:28,300 --> 01:25:32,820
We thought we'd proved our point,
and it just looked like

1255
01:25:32,820 --> 01:25:34,740
we didn't have
anything left to prove.

1256
01:25:37,580 --> 01:25:41,660
The commodification of synth-pop
marked the end of a golden era

1257
01:25:41,660 --> 01:25:45,740
in which a generation of post-punk
musicians had taken the synth

1258
01:25:45,740 --> 01:25:50,460
from the fringes of experimentation
to the centre of the pop stage.

1259
01:25:51,780 --> 01:25:55,980
Out of the '70s and into the '80s.

1260
01:25:58,340 --> 01:26:05,860
At the time, it was just really,
really exciting, and it was exciting
to be a part of a musical movement

1261
01:26:05,860 --> 01:26:08,820
that had never been done before,
that was completely different.

1262
01:26:08,820 --> 01:26:10,500
It wasn't a rehash of anything.

1263
01:26:12,180 --> 01:26:19,180
Those early electronic records,
they'd ever been done before, so,
it was a fine time.

1264
01:26:19,180 --> 01:26:22,820
# I only knew you for a while... #

1265
01:26:22,820 --> 01:26:27,700
We were trying to do something new.
That's specifically why we chose
electronics

1266
01:26:27,700 --> 01:26:32,100
and embraced every new piece
of equipment we could
get our hands on or afford.

1267
01:26:32,100 --> 01:26:36,060
We wanted to sweep away all of the
old rock cliches and stereotypes

1268
01:26:36,060 --> 01:26:39,380
and the lead guitar solos
and long hair and everything.

1269
01:26:39,380 --> 01:26:43,220
And then what happens towards
the end of the '80s and
even worse in the mid '90s,

1270
01:26:43,220 --> 01:26:48,020
everybody decides that guitars
are back in, synthesisers
are somehow old-fashioned,

1271
01:26:48,020 --> 01:26:50,980
and you get Oasis! Horror!

1272
01:26:50,980 --> 01:26:53,980
# We'll always be together

1273
01:26:53,980 --> 01:26:55,980
# However far it seems

1274
01:26:55,980 --> 01:26:58,620
# Love never ends

1275
01:26:58,620 --> 01:27:01,380
# We'll always be together

1276
01:27:01,380 --> 01:27:08,700
# Together in electric dreams

1277
01:27:18,340 --> 01:27:21,380
# Because the friendship
that you gave

1278
01:27:21,380 --> 01:27:24,540
# Has taught me to be brave

1279
01:27:24,540 --> 01:27:26,020
# No matter where I go

1280
01:27:26,020 --> 01:27:30,300
# I'll never find
a better prize... #