BLANCMANGE + OBLONG – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 17.11.21
Tonight’s Blancmange concert at the Concorde 2 in Brighton was originally scheduled for Saturday 3rd October 2020, but the onslaught of covid had other plans. So after a year on pause we find ourselves in the venue and ready to be entertained.
Obviously a year’s delay is not ideal, but it’s a fraction of the time compared to when I encountered Blancmange in the sadly missed New Regent concert venue, which used to stand near the seaside end of West Street on the eastern side. That was 14,370 days ago (39 years, 4 months, and 2 days) and by then I was already a Blancmange convert as I had secured ticket number 001.
Synth-pop legends Blancmange were on the way up and starting out on their long musical journey back then. In those days the group was a duo consisting of Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe. They achieved Top 10 singles status with 1982’s ‘Living On A Ceiling’, ‘Blind Vision’ (1983) and ‘Don’t Tell Me’ (1984) and their second album ‘Mange Tout’ (1984) also hit the Top 10 albums. However, their ‘Happy Families’ debut album is an absolute classic and a must for every self respecting synth music fan!
Sadly Stephen Luscombe is no longer a part of Blancmange due to ill health, but their sound remains true to what it always was. In fact if anything, it’s a tad meatier these days, with the 2018 ‘Wanderlust’ album being a classic example. They still have a sizable fanbase throughout the land, but unfortunately tonight’s performance wasn’t quite a sell out.
Frontman Neil Arthur and his chums, Oogoo Maia on Novation and Roland Jupiter-80 synths and Liam Hutton on Roland electronic drums, graced us with their presence from 9:01pm until 10:27pm. During which time they kindly gave us 18 compositions, which consisted of 16 original Blancmange numbers, plus a Fader cover (which Arthur is a member of) and their hit rendition of an ABBA tune. The lighting this evening was not over the top but very effective and continually bathed the musicians in red, blue, purple and green tones. The sound thankfully wasn’t deafening, as I took up residence in front of the speakers and leaned on the crowd barrier below the raised stage. The quality was most certainly crisp and very electronic in a fab Kraftwerk sort of way.
The trio opened with ‘Commercial Break’, which is the title track from their latest 2021 album. Blancmange lyrics have always been ‘‘up the wall (and) up the cuckoo tree’’ and the ‘Commercial Break’ tune informed us that ‘‘I could win you a pencil’’, which looking around the the punters smiling faces near me, was having the desired effect of getting the crowd on board.
Song two was in my mind a classic. ‘Game Above My Head’ first saw the light of day as the B-side to the ‘Vienna’-esque ‘Waves’ back in 1983 and it signalled a meatier stomping Blancmange sound. Tonight, that sound was meatier than ever courtesy of Oogoo Maia’s synths. 2018’s ‘In Your Room’ gave us our first introduction of vocoder backing vocals of the night and this was swiftly followed and eclipsed by ‘I Can’t Explain’, which was the first of a handful of true classics from the band’s debut ‘Happy Families’ album. This composition’s vocals were delivered with real passion, arguably more than any other during this performance. ‘‘I can’t explain, My feeling inside, That can’t be denied’’ which could have easily been Neil’s thought process as he secretly battled with a recent football injury to his leg. I’m sure the crowd wouldn’t have been none the wiser until he told us. The pain certainly did not outwardly affect his performance tonight, but I suspect that internally he was less than comfortable.
Next up was one of my choice songs of the night – ‘Mindset’ from the 2020 album of the same name. This had wonderful sounding synths and is a great new tune, which I hope will stay in their set for many years to come. I purchased a signed copy of the ‘Expanded Mindset’ CD from their merch stall after the concert, on the back of this single song performance.
1985’s ‘What’s Your Problem?’ came next and was followed by 2020’s ‘Clean Your House’ which has I would suggest a decent Euro disco vibe going down. Neil then informed us that they arrived early in Brighton today and went across the road and onto Brighton Beach, whereupon they watched the sunset and it reminded him of their next number, ‘Waves’. This has always been my favourite Blancmange song, but surprisingly wasn’t my choice tune of the 86 minute set.
The second tune in a row from their debut platter ‘Happy Families’ was graciously given to us next, in the form of ‘I’ve Seen The Word’, which was just simply terrific. The erect hairs on my arms were informing me of that fact.
More unusual thought provoking lyrics were the order of the day when 2017’s ‘What’s The Time?’ arrived. This includes the lines ‘‘What’s the best indie record of all time?, Are you meaning the 90’s, or can I rewind byzantine?’’. The out of the box lyrics flowed into the next number ‘Last Night (I Dreamt I Had A Job’, which had a banging dirty Jupiter-80 backbeat that reminded me of a tune performed by dance troupe Shock at Wembley Arena back in 1981 when they supported Gary Numan.
The second of two songs from 2018’s ‘Wanderlust’ album was played next. This was ‘Not A Priority’ which has the wise words ‘‘Please be yourself, You can’t be anybody else’’, which are delivered with accompanying high pitched backing vocals from Oogoo and it has a Placebo vs ABBA vibe. Talking of which, the ABBA ‘The Day Before You Came’ cover version was next. Liam Hutton was able to give his Roland electronic drums a rest during this stripped back number as the other two delivered an almost classical version with Neil’s heartfelt vocal delivery as he had been through the subject matter during his life.
New tune, ‘This A State’ followed and after that was the second cover of the night in the form of ‘I Prefer Solitude’ (from 2017 ‘First Light’ Fader album). An album that Neil put together with Benge Edwards who we had witnessed earlier on playing electronic drums in the support act. This rendition had a fabulous Numan-esque sound and perfectly fitted in with the currently totally electronic Blancmange set.
It was now the turn of arguably almost everyone in the room’s favourite song, 1982’s ‘Living On The Ceiling’, where the crowd took on the part of the North African keyboard sound but singing it. The penultimate number was ‘Feel Me’, which had a brilliantly deep sounding bass synth running through the track. ‘Blind Vision’ concluded the performance at 10:27pm and as much as we stamped our feet, banged the crowd barrier and shouted for more, we had already had our lot. There never was an encore planned as can be seen from the setlist. It was yet again another excellent Blancmange concert performance and my third retro synth-pop concert in three days. Happy days!
Blancmange setlist:
‘Commercial Break’ (from 2021 ‘Commercial Break’ album)
‘Game Above My Head’ (from 1984 ‘Mange Tout’ album)
‘In Your Room’ (from 2018 ‘Wanderlust’ album)
‘I Can’t Explain’ (from 1982 ‘Happy Families’ album)
‘Mindset’ (from 2020 ‘Mindset’ album)
‘What’s Your Problem?’ (from 1985 ‘Believe You Me’ album)
‘Clean Your House’ (from 2020 ‘Mindset’ album)
‘Waves’ (from 1982 ‘Happy Families’ album)
‘I’ve Seen The Word’ (from 1982 ‘Happy Families’ album)
‘What’s The Time?’ (from 2017 ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ album)
‘Last Night (I Dreamt I Had A Job’ (from 2016 ‘Commuter 23’ album)
‘Not A Priority’ (from 2018 ‘Wanderlust’ album)
‘The Day Before You Came’ (ABBA cover) (from 1984 ‘Mange Tout’ album)
‘This A State’ (from 2021 ‘Commercial Break’ album)
‘I Prefer Solitude’ (Fader cover) (from 2017 ‘First Light’ Fader album)
‘Living On The Ceiling’ (from 1982 ‘Happy Families’ album)
‘Feel Me’ (from 1982 ‘Happy Families’ album)
‘Blind Vision’ (from 1984 ‘Mange Tout’ album)
Find out more about Blancmange at www.blancmange.co.uk
Support this evening came from Oblong. Sadly we were running late and only caught the last few numbers of their performance that concluded at 8:41pm and so we can’t honestly give an opinion regarding tonight’s set. However, here is some background information we have found on the outfit that you may be interested in reading……….
Oblong formed out of the occasional meetings/musings/musics of three friends, Ben ‘Benge’ Edwards, Dave Nice and Simon ’Sid’ Stronarch. Originally they were in a band together, along with others, in the early 1990s, but as time drifted by the three went their own ways, only occasionally meeting up socially. As those years turned into decades, the three found themselves increasingly drawn to their musical calling, and the social meetings began to revolve around writing and recording sessions, which involved Ben and Dave traveling across England to meet up at Sid’s rural home and studio. These sporadic road trips between London and the West Country eventually resulted in their debut album ‘Indicator’, released on Benge’s Expanding Records label in 2006
Since then the three men allowed life to drift on once again, with Benge eventually moving Westward to set up an electronic music studio in a remote moorland location, in the summer of 2014. Before long the musical draw took hold again and they began meeting up in Cornwall and working on new material. The process once again was to slowly build up tracks and piece together an album of electro-acoustic music, following their instincts in a similarly uninhibited way, allowing their three very different sets of musical styles and influences to flow. The result is ‘The Sea At Night’, an album as infused with nostalgia for past musical styles as it is with the dramatic moorland atmosphere surrounding the studio and nearby coastal landscapes.
Electronic synth-pop pioneers pt1 can be found HERE.
Electronic synth-pop pioneers pt3 can be found HERE.
Where was “Don’t tell me” ?