Synth Britannia - Friday bbc4

mike65

9pm-10.30pm

Documentary about a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage. Following Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire, the crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on TOTP heralded the arrival of synthpop. Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth into the mainstream, while acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order showed that the future of electronic music lay in dance music.

10.30pm-11.30

With Moogs turned up to 11, a 1970s/80s journey through the BBC's synthpop archives from Roxy Music to New Order.

delbertgrady

I've seen the ad a few times, and it looks great: any show featuring Vince Clarke, Daniel Miller and Andy McCluskey has got to be a winner. Can't wait.

Dudess

Was gutted as I knew I was going to miss this - but it's repeated at 12.20. Cannot wait!

Caught the end of the compilation of performances on TOTP and The Old Grey Whistle Test after the first showing - LOL at PETA appealing to The Pet Shop Boys to change their name to The Rescue Shelter Boys...

stovelid

Shit :mad:

Maybe it's on the site?

Dudess

It was awesome Stove - from A Clockwork Orange's soundtrack in the early 70s to just the right point: when synthesisers were hijacked by Howard Jones and The Thompson Twins. :pac:
Don't think BBC i-player works in Ireland though - unless there's another way of viewing it on the site (I'm not the person to ask these things... :pac:)
But BBC4 is always repeating those Friday night music programmes.

mike65

Its on again tonight 23:40

Scubadevils

I read your op and was pretty p*ssed to have missed this, great its on again tonight!!!

mike65

I've managed to miss it twice so far!

Scubadevils

Come to think of it, I don't think I have BBC4

mike65

Are you on SKY Ireland? If so you can tune it in -
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055520627

Scubadevils

Yes on SKY, cool... thanks for that.

delbertgrady

"We were on Top of the Pops with Bonnie Langford and Elton John and Cliff Richard, among others, and we were doing a song in waltz time which started with forty-five seconds of distortion, and had no chorus..."

Andy McCluskey wins quote of the show.

stovelid

mike65 wrote: »

Its on again tonight 23:40

And I missed it again.

mike65

There's a limit to the number of times BBC4 show a programme!

Anyway I just watched it, very absorbing 90 mins which has inspired me to fire up a few mono-synths
and have a dabble. The early stuff is, as usual the best as various acts come into exisitence and stumble towards success. The later material, like the acts (Yazoo etc) was less interesting.

Right, cos you clearly need some planning help I'm giving you 4 days notice of the following

FRIDAY 21:00
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany
How a radical generation of 1960s and 70s musicians created a new German musical identity.

22:00
Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum
Performances by Kraftwerk, including Autobahn, Radioactivity. and Trans Europe Express.

Scubadevils

Yeah and I feckin missed it again too

Cheers for the heads up on the others though, both sound like not to be missed also!

Dudess

Ever notice how those documentaries always feature two constants:

1. How sh1t Britain was in the 70s/early 80s
2. A bit of sneering at prog rock

mike65

Except in Prog Britannia of course! :pac: And Britian was a bit sh1t in the 70s and early 80s. Bloody unions!

mike65

Kraftwerk bump (blip!?) alert

Friday 21:00
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany
How a radical generation of 1960s and 70s musicians created a new German musical identity.

This is repeated twice overnight and again tomorrow evening at 23.30

Friday 22:00
Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum
Performances by Kraftwerk, including Autobahn, Radioactivity and Trans Europe Express.

Reapted again at 00.30 Saturday night/Sunday morning

stovelid

mike65 wrote: »

This is repeated twice overnight and again tomorrow evening at 23.30

Reapted again at 00.30 Saturday night/Sunday morning

My only chance.

Only back from Dundalk so couldn't have watched it tonight.

Dan Dare

mike65 wrote: »

There's a limit to the number of times BBC4 show a programme!

Anyway I just watched it, very absorbing 90 mins which has inspired me to fire up a few mono-synths
and have a dabble. The early stuff is, as usual the best as various acts come into exisitence and stumble towards success. The later material, like the acts (Yazoo etc) was less interesting.

Right, cos you clearly need some planning help I'm giving you 4 days notice of the following

FRIDAY 21:00
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany
How a radical generation of 1960s and 70s musicians created a new German musical identity.

22:00
Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum
Performances by Kraftwerk, including Autobahn, Radioactivity. and Trans Europe Express.

Watched it last night. Thank God for BBC4. Kraftwerk: Mimimum- Maximum. I have the DVD but last night The Model, Autobahn, Radioactivity were sung in German rather than English, and for some reason the songs sounded even better. (Needless to say I don't speak German)! Maybe I just need to get a life.:)

mike65

Ya, das war gut!

Dudess

Caught the absolute tail end of the second showing last night - it looked superb.

Won't get to see it tonight.

Scubadevils

mike65 wrote: »

Kraftwerk bump (blip!?) alert

Friday 21:00
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany
How a radical generation of 1960s and 70s musicians created a new German musical identity.

This is repeated twice overnight and again tomorrow evening at 23.30

Friday 22:00
Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum
Performances by Kraftwerk, including Autobahn, Radioactivity and Trans Europe Express.

Reapted again at 00.30 Saturday night/Sunday morning

Ah I have to see it tonight... can't believe I forgot last night! Must set a reminder on my phone or something.......

Dudess

Oh thank you Jesus - it's on now!

Fascinating show - not just the music, which is brilliant, but the socio-culturo-politico (whatever) landscape that heralded it.

Dudess

All this talk of early 80s gloom and Germany reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1T8Qb986U

Also, shame Spandau Ballet didn't continue in this vein:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KrFLZ9OCBQ

Dan Dare

Forgot about The Passions, thanks.:)

mike65

Passions In Love with a German Film Star is one of my 80s favourites. (music is sh1te these days)

Dan Dare

mike65 wrote: »

Passions In Love with a German Film Star is one of my 80s favourites. (music is sh1te these days)

Wasn't music always ****e (except for the music that we actually liked).:)

Dudess

This thread needs more doses of po-faced guys whining about their favourite topic: alienation - the linchpin of early '80s synth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0WNbm1jz6A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT8ZOB0MIV4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeWySiuq1I

Dan Dare

BBC 4- 9.30 Friday- Ronnie Scotts And All That Jazz. :eek:

mike65

Bump

Friday 9:00pm - Synth Britannia

10:30pm Synth Britannia at the BBC

and then repeated at 1 am till 4 am

mike65

Last Bump, on tonight

Some sythns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50U1zFHoH30

leincar

Thanks for the heads up. Beer and popcorn it is for tonight.

Dudess

For any night owls: it's on at 1.30.

pmr31

late to this discussion -howard jones never hi jacked synths..he helped develop them at their hight and continues to lead the way using cutting edge technology - he broke America as a synth genius having top ten albums and a number one single when very few bands did...he pioneered midi use etc

Nolanger

Howard Jones was a joke. By the time he arrived everything had been done already. What synths did he buy on mail order or build himself? Five years too late he was.

pmr31

right...over ten million record sales - sold out tours of amerca, wembley etc..

besides jones was using synths since the early 70's...just because you saw him on top of the pops in the 80's doesnt mean he appeared out of no where.

anyway...Jones may not have been the first to have commercial success but in the mid 70's was using cutting edge technology..

if you wanna go down the route of who came first you have to go way back beyond the popular artists who graced the tv in the late 70's/ 80's

besides its not a matter of who pioneered what..its more that they made great music and very creatively...

Personally i have a soft spot for most artists in the programme.....

Nolanger

The whole point of that programme was that punk influenced synth pop resulting in a cold, emotionally hollow, industrial sound that started in the late '70s in Sheffield and London. The era then ended around '83 when crap like Howard Jones hit the charts playing bland pop music with synths!

pmr31

SO what?..its just an opinon...yours and the programmes

cold synths- industrial synths - you like them or you don't -obviously a lot of people like what came later throughout the 80's

Vince Clarke/Yazoo, Erasure, OMD, Howard Jones etc ...you obviously don't

like they say opions ...that all it is ....

or musical snobbery....

personally i like most of it and don't think the early stuff was any better than the later
...besides synths in some form or another existed way back and continue to evolve today in a variety of ways
...whether you like one band or another who really cares its just taste

..the point is that millions of people bought a wide variety of synth music from Gary Numan to Howard Jones...

that programme was one perspective

the early stuff might have been less commercial..thats about all...

Nolanger

Another point you missed from the programme was that the early groups like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle built their own synths. That's why they sounded so different to bland keyboard pop like Howard Jones and Thompson Twins.

A V A

the early stuff from the late 70's/ early 80's was way better than the much that was brought out half way through the 80's,the sounds and the cheesynes was unreal !!! good point was made about synths being built from scratch . . thats what made the music new and fresh, bands have always been around and a new style music was being made from scratch , the first synth based music was just brilliant compared to the much all through out the 80's . . . to me it felt like they took advantage of the whole synth side of things and abused it :P haha

mike65

Synth music was nearly killed by the DX7 FM synthesis type unit, suddenly everyone just pressed a number from the presets. 90% of DX7s were never tweaked I read somewhere.

A V A

well said . . .and they then thought they were magic and thought they could prance around like idiots

pmr31

nah didnt miss any points...didn't agree with some of the points..

whether you build a synth or not who cares...?

I get the gist of the programme just didnt agree with it..


Howard Jones (in my) and many people's opinion was a pioneer especially in relation to sampling...

its always the case that once something becomes popular people wanna knock it.

A V A

no, im into alot of mainstream/popular music but he was just a twat !!!!hes not a pioneer of sampling ?? there was alot more people well before howard jones that pioneered sampling well before he was around,he came through mid 80's and all he did was recycle it ?? he didnt pioneer it ?? from what iv read and seen , vince clarke would be one of the mainstream artists that pioneered sampling and synthesis well and proved the diferent techniques of what could be done in relations to the early years of sampling

pmr31

he was doing stuff long before he became famous..in a band called warrior way back in the mid 70's...he adopted sampling way before he bacame famous and used a fairlight in the very early stages....

but this is becoming boring........blah blah:rolleyes:

pmr31

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDq_ywT45gE

A V A

yep he's just a twat!!! cheesy mainstream rubbish !!!!!

pmr31

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A V A

you read my mind "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" exactly what i did

Nolanger

The Mickey Joe Harte of synth pop