Purveyors of some of the finest cult electro-pop you may never have heard, Mainframe were notable in part for their use of (and their involvement in the development of) the…
One Hit Wonders: Timbuk3 – The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades
Husband and wife duo Timbuk3’s 1986 debut single The Future’s So Bright… is something of a pop anomaly (with an equally oddball part-animated video). What right did a twanging Fifties…
Lost & Found: Your Kiss Is A Weapon – Engine Room
If you’d blinked then you would have missed this fantastic all-guns-blazing non-hit from 1985. It was the work of Richard Strange, who has since had more success as an actor…
Lost & Found: Espiritu – Conquistador
File this one under “Why On Earth Weren’t They Massive?”. Espiritu– in their best, early period –were a duo of singer Vanessa Quinones and instrumentalist Chris Taplin. When Quinones moved…
One Hit Wonders: Election Day – Arcadia
It’s amazing to think that Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, stalwarts – architects, even – of classic pop could ever have been responsible for a one-hit wonder. But here…
Lost & Found: Ring a Ding Ding – Perils Of Plastic
A definitive slice of mid-Eighties sophisti-pop, this and all of Perils Of Plastic’s singles remain absent from iTunes and even compilation CDs. A short-lived duo of some pedigree, they were,…
One Hit Wonders: …And Stones – The Blue Aeroplanes
In June 1990, Bristol’s finest art-rock collective released …And Stones. Since their inception in 1981, the band had celebrated the eclecticism of pop music and had included pretty much every…
Godfathers of Pop – Daryl Hall Interview
Last year’s tour by Daryl Hall And John Oates – captured by the cameras at the Olympia Theatre in July, a performance just released on a new DVD, Live In…
Godfathers of Pop – Mark King Interview
Founding member of Level 42 Mark King started out as a drummer until he convinced a music shop to hire him as a bass expert. His band evolved from jazz…
Godfathers of Pop – Andy Bell Interview
The Erasure frontman has been busy of late, releasing a solo album, Torsten The Bareback Saint – which he performed at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2014 – and a…