Tony Mansfield was born on 19 Jan 1955 in Clapham, London.
"On leaving school, Tony worked as a menial in the Art Department of Decca Records before leaving to work for his father's building firm [Mansell Builders in South London]. That way he thought he'd be able to buy a better guitar and devote more time to his real obsession, playing in bands. He got the guitar and continued to operate a succession of semi-outfits, Reeman Zeegus and The End of The Worls but two, trying to get his foot in the door of various recording studios as a session man and using any spare time at the end of bookings to put down his own ideas. Tony declines to tell me just what sessions he took part in prior to the formation of New Musik, claiming that they were either embarrassments or flops or embarrassing flops. Came the day when Tony had a decent selection of tapes, he legged it to GTO Records who were suitably impressed. Against the company's wishes, who saw him as a solo act, he brought in Phil, Tony Hibbert and Clive and insisted that the songs should be pushed as a band project. ... Phil Towner provided the thumping bass drum on Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star'." [Smash Hits 7-20 Aug 1980, D. Hepworth]
'We don't really come from anywhere. We've just been doing basically what we're doing now, but for different people. ... Before New Musik I was doing sessions for various people. Nobody really that well known, just sessions in general: playing guitar in a unit of local musicians - I say local, I mean south London area. I mean I've done various different jobs and I left school at the age of 15 with the intention of becoming a rock star (laughs). It didn't actually work out.' [Miklos Galla's interview 15 Feb 1984]
From the very start New Musik recorded at TMC Studios at 118 Mitcham Road, Tooting, London SW17. Peter Hammond was the engineer. They continued their recordings there, with Peter Hammond, until the break-up in early 1982.
Tony Mansfield: 'Initially New Musik was a three piece band which was myself, Phil
Towner as a drummer and Tony Hibbert was the bass player. The majority
of the keyboards I did myself, although I came across more as the guitarist
and the singer. And then the fourth member, Clive Gates, was brought in,
mainly as an additional member - it was a very small unit so it was
necessary to make it a four-piece band.'
'I worked in one band called The Nick Straker Band (they had a hit with
A Walk in the Park) and I played guitar on most of the sessions for that
[album]. In fact on From A To B Nick plays keyboards on a couple of
tracks. That was the first thing actually that I had personally done
on record musically, but before that just session work really.'
'New musik was the first project - I say project as opposed to the band
because it started as a recording project, and later we took it on the
road in England and some parts of Europe. (We didn't reach America -
unfortunately. I mean, not that at the time we would have made much impact.
There was reaction in Japan and various places, but nothing really developed
in a big way [in America].) The thing started as a recording project:
I had a great interest in the studio and I wanted to try and develop myself,
in a sense. I'm now spending much more time producing other people, but
I had [then] an unconscious liking for production and I didn't realise
at the time that production was what it's turned out to be. I used to
listen to Beatle records and certain records which had certain sounds
and certain combinations of sounds which really intrigued me, and I was
very much into, and still am very much into, the studio aspect, the
effect side of things and what you can do with sound in general.'
[Miklos Galla's interview 15 Feb 1984]
First entered the UK charts 6 Oct 1979, spent five weeks on the charts, peaking at # 53.
This interview was published 9 Nov 2021 on Lee Mansfield's YouTube channel "Midwich Graffitti" as "RADIO ONE NEWSBEAT 1979" (7:27) on this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZRJzzeS1QI&ab_channel=MIDWICHGRAFFITI
Here follows a transcript for those of us who have problems understanding spoken London accent. I made the first effort, then Londoner and New Musik fan Tim Masson went through everything and filled in my blanks and corrected mistakes, and finally Hector Cook gave it a final check to make it as accurate as is possible with such things. Thanks to both!
Interviewer: "Finally some new music from a group of that name with a new single called Straight Lines. It looks set to go straight into the charts, and the group itself, a five piece [he should have said four!?], is the brainchild of writer, composer, producer, vocalist and instrumentalist Tony Mansfield. He came into Newsbeat along with bass player Tony Hibbert to tell us what New Musik is all about." Tony Mansfield: "Essentially New Musik came about in the studio. All the members, the present members of the band at the moment have all been working as session players and working with various people. I’ve always been writing, you know, and working in the studios, give me, you know, the chance of actually working on productions and things, you know. The single 'Straight Lines' is the first result of New Musik’s being together."
Interviewer: "Tony Hibbert, you are the bass player with the band, perhaps you can tell us exactly what sort of band you're going to be? On this one, it sounds like you're a mix of disco and rock, is that fair?"
Tony Hibbert: "Well 'New Musik' is basically what's the band's gonna be, it's gonna be a new form of music."
Interviewer: "Everybody's keep coming up to me with 'these bands are gonna be the new sound for the 80s'. Everybody's realized it's 1980 in January."
Tony Mansfield: “Well I think it’s gonna be, because we’re gonna try and be something completely different, you know."
Interviewer: "It's very hard - everything's been done before, hasn't it?"
Tony Mansfield: "It has, yeah."
Interviewer: "So how are you going to try to make different sounds? Is it electronically inspired?"
Tony Hibbert: "There's a lot of synthesizer work. That's why live we're going to be using two keyboard players. It's basically going to be quite electronic."
Interviewer: "Is 'Straight Lines' anything like a pointer towards the direction you’re going musically?"
Tony [Mansfield? Hibbert?]: "There are two or three different directions, two or three different lines of things that we follow, you know."
Interviewer: "You’re [Tony] the songwriter are you, or do the others meddle around with it as well?"
Tony Mansfield: "At the moment I'm the only songwriter."
Interviewer: "It must be a heck of a responsibility when you're kicking a totally new project and it's all your songs."
Tony Mansfield: "Yes, to an extent, but at the same time it's quite exciting, you know, seeing like reaction and things, you know."
Interviewer: "The reaction at the moment of the band is pretty good, isn't it? They seem pretty kind about the new single."
Tony Mansfield: "Yes, thank-you everybody."
Interviewer: "Must be a bit nerve-wrecking for all of you actually, at this stage with your debut single just beginning to bubble into the charts."
Tony Mansfield: "It is actually - it's really great seeing it going into the charts, you know, and the reaction off it from various places, been amazing you know."
Interviewer: "Do you intend to concentrate on single releases Tony, or is it an album concept as well?"
Tony Mansfield: "Well I think basically we'd like to be a singles band, but obviously it would be nice to get some albums going." Interviewer: "Well I think the best thing we can do is allow you to totally relax, go out and drink that bottle of neat Vodka in the corner [Tony laughs], and we'll play the single."
(End of interview)
[Comment from Hector Cook: "Interesting that the interviewer (who might be Andy Peebles?) notices how nervous Tony is and even refers to the calming bottle of vodka that awaits him (which might have been conditional on him doing the publicity…………a bit like Richard Branson having to bribe Mike Oldfield to première Tubular Bells live by giving him his Rolls Royce!)"]
After this, the full LP version (minus the bell intro) of 'Straight Lines' plays (2:31 - 7:26) - which is strange since the single is merely 3:59 long, and the longer 5 minute LP version was not released until 1 May 1980. This indicates that a full lentgh album version was prepared at the same time as the single, in preparation for an LP release.
Tony: 'New Musik is still pretty safe. I'm aiming for radio music - I listen to music from the point of view of switching on the radio. I wanted to create something that was controlled, rather than have four members getting together, deciding on a format and then tugging in different directions and generally creating, in most cases, a disharmony in the music. Even though you can get the magical combination in a few cases. Basically I had this idea that is now New Musik, which I think is working. We've had a bit of chart success which I feel is a pointer to what we could do in the future. But, despite all the tracks on our new album being written by me, I wanted to get the ball rolling and probably the one after will include contributions written by other members of the band now they know what to go for, in terms of style.' [RM 16 Feb 1980, Mike Gardner]
'I've always felt that what I'm doing is natural, something I've always been into. My main influences started off with the psychedelia period of the Beatles, from there to Yes, Led Zeppelin through Genesis, Pink Floyd and the odd foreign band like Kraftwerk. We're not going for a sound of the eighties, it's something that's always been there. It's just that what we've been doing seems to be in fashion, though we're not fashion conscious. I've always had this idea that during the late sixties and early seventies there was a pop sound, a radio sound, that suddenly died away and has only recently come back. I think the whole singles thing at the moment is quite healthy. You can be outrageous and still be successful. The general public are accepting less contrived sorts of things. Because of that there seems to be more room to move about.' [RM 16/2/80]
'I find it easier to write about real situations than writing love songs. I like things to mean something. It's a challenge to write something sensible in a few lines and mean something. 'Straight Lines' was very simple. It's about making decisions. You can go one way or another but whatever you decide is, in the long run, one specific way from A to B. 'Living by Numbers' is a similar thing. We are all living by numbers. Whatever situation you are in is based on a statistical thing. You are born and given a number on a birth certificate, you drive a car and you get registered - you're always a specific age. It's a bit morbid. I don't want to be morbid but you've got to look at realities of what's around. It's all down to reality.' [RM 16/2/80]
The performance was broadcast again on 31 January.
This interview was published 23 Oct 2021 on Lee Mansfield's YouTube channel "Midwich Graffitti" as "NEW MUSIK - RADIO ONE NEWSBEAT - JANUARY 1980" (2:51) on this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idNHfp7NtuE&ab_channel=MIDWICHGRAFFITI
Here follows a transcript for those of us who have problems understanding spoken London accent. I made the first effort, then Londoner and New Musik fan Tim Masson went through everything and filled in my blanks and corrected mistakes, and finally Hector Cook gave it a final check to make it as accurate as is possible with such things. Thanks to both!
[Comment from Hector Cook: "The interviewer concludes by saying that 'Living by Numbers' is a new entry in this week’s chart, and according to my Guinness book of British hit singles it entered the charts on 19th January 1980 which was a Saturday. As Newsbeat was a Monday-Friday show, I would guess it was broadcast on (or shortly after) Monday 21st January."]
Interviewer: "The song 'Living by Numbers' has jumped into the chart at number 26. The record is the group's second release, following-up the near-hit Straight Lines which came out last year. We asked songwriter and lead vocalist Tony Mansfield how important that first record was for New Musik."
Tony: "Well very, really, because I mean that was obviously our debut single and it gave us the insight into what we actually really wanna do, I suppose, you know."
Interviewer: "It's had a lot of praise too, didn't it, along the way?"
Tony: "Oh yeah."
Interviewer: "And some fans like Frank Zappa I gather is a fan of yours?"
Tony: "So I hear, incredible..."
Interviewer: "How are things going for the band at the moment - is it actually pulling itself together much more as a cohesive work force?"
Tony: "Yeah, it started as a sort of production thing. I mean we were all sort of doing work with different people, and I mean now it has actually come together as a band. I mean we've got quite a tight schedule coming up, you know, in the near future."
Interviewer: "You're producing, you're writing, you're performing and singing, it sounds a bit like a one-man band from the outside."
Tony: "No it's not really. It's... I mean the fact is, we've all known each other in the band for a long time, you know, and we're also really best friends. And it doesn't really come... it may look like that, but it doesn't actually work like that, you know, it's a lot of work from everybody really."
Interviewer: "You are working with other people, too, aren't you, not just sticking to New Musik?"
Tony: "Yes."
Interviewer: "I gather you're going to the studio today with another band?"
Tony : "Yes I am."
Interviewer : "Who’s that?"
Tony : "Well, After the Fire."
Interviewer : "Right."
Tony : "It's a band I have always liked actually since they had their first single. I really like that sort of thing, I mean it's the sort of thing that I can actually relate to myself. We're starting on an album, you know, ummm, for the next three weeks we'll be recording their second album."
Interviewer: "How have you got time to do that, and keeping New Musik running along?"
Tony: "Well it's rather difficult because, during working with 'After the Fire' we're sort of finishing our own album at the moment and that's due out, I think, end of March, early April."
Interviewer: "Be interesting to hear that LP too, because the two singles that have been out so far have a similar style to them. Is that the New Musik sound or are you trying to make it broader than that on the record?"
Tony: "There are a few tracks on the album that are very different from the singles. I mean the singles have obviously aimed at the commercial market really, and you've got to sell a single, especially when you first start off as well."
Interviewer: "When you're getting a single together, what do you write about, because I mean 'Straight Lines', ’Living By Numbers'...?"
Tony: "Usually points of fact. I mean with 'Living by Numbers' it was the case of trying to write a song which everybody could relate to, no matter what age group or from what walk of life, you know what I mean? It's a fact that everybody is 'Living by Numbers'."
(20 second 'Living by Numbers' excerpt follows)
Interviewer : "And a lucky number for New Musik – a new entry at no. 26 in this week’s Top 40."
This interview was published 22 Oct 2021 on Lee Mansfield's YouTube channel "Midwich Graffitti" as "RADIO JACKIE JANUARY 1980" (4:29) on this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m41kiGiNDRY&ab_channel=MIDWICHGRAFFITI
Here follows a transcript for those of us who have problems understanding spoken London accent. I made the first effort, then Londoner and New Musik fan Tim Masson went through everything and filled in my blanks and corrected mistakes, and finally Hector Cook gave it a final check to make it as accurate as is possible with such things. Thanks to both!
Interviewer: "Hello Lee"
Lee: "Hello"
Interviewer: "Perhaps you can tell me what it's like having a famous brother?"
Lee: "Right. It's great really because I like it when I see him on 'Top of the Pops' and things like that."
Interviewer: "Ummm, what band is it your brother’s in?"
Lee: "It's New Musik. They've recently had a single out called 'Living by Numbers' which is number 26 in the charts at the moment."
And their debut single was 'Straight Lines' which was a near hit."
Interviewer: "Aha. What do your friends think when you tell them you’ve got a brother in New Musik?"
Lee: "Well some of them believe me but half of them don't, they laugh."
Interviewer: "Dont they? Do they poke fun at you sometimes?"
Lee: "Yeah!"
Interviewer: "Ha-Ha-Ha. OK who would you like to say hello to whilst you are talking to me?"
Lee: "Ummm, I'd like to say firstly to my brother whose birthday it was last Saturday on the 19th, and I also would like to say congratulations to him and his wife Maria on the good news that I'm gonna be an Uncle."
Interviewer: "Ha Ha yeah?"
Lee: "In September."
Interviewer: "Aha. And anyone else, anyone at school?"
Lee: "Errr, well my I'd like to say happy birthday to my cousin [Corinsa Mainfuller ?] Sunday the 20th.
And best to my Mum and Dad, and all my Aunties and Uncles, and my Grandad."
Interviewer: "Ah ok and perhaps your friends at school now will believe that your brother of errr.. What's your brother's name?"
Lee: "Pardon?"
Interviewer: "What's your brother's name?"
Lee: "Tony Mansfield "
Interviewer: "Tony Mansfield, that's it! I'm not as well up on these people as Jimi King cause he went to school with him didn't he?"
Lee: "Yeah"
Interviewer: "Yeah well perhaps they will believe you are the brother of Tony Mansfield now [that] they hear you on the wireless."
Lee: "Yeah, well they’re all gonna listen."
Interviewer: "Ha Ha Ha. Ok well thanks very much Lee, bye bye."
Lee: "Bye!"
['Living by Numbers' starts playing]
Interviewer: "What a super little chap he is and he was right, they are at number 26 up from last week’s number 52 and also written by his brother as well I noticed. New Musik and 'Living by Numbers'. And the naughty little boys making that New Musik news later, we'll have it in about three minutes time."
['Living by Numbers' plays]
Interviewer: "Thanks for talking to me Lee, we'll be talking to some more people a little bit later on."
Swap Shop was a children's Saturday morning TV show hosted by Noel Edmunds. Assumingly either Straight Lines or Living by Numbers.
'It's good that people can put out records with surprises on them. People are accepting a bit of novelty. Record companies should take more gambles. There are already so many failed records, it couldn't hurt. We certainly couldn't have put 'World of Water' out from a standing start. ... You can still mould your own sound around elements of commerciality. Sometimes you can sell a record 'cause it's got one silly sound in it. Once you've got the listener's attention, you've grabbed them.' [Sounds 24 May 1980, Betty Page]
Phil Towner: 'If you listen to the words, they're about drowning in society. There are parallel images like water, getting drunk, drowning, losing money. But then again water's nice.' [Sounds 24/5/80]
Lee Mansfield: "Oh and of course the infamous Magpie (kids magazine show like Blue Peter) where the band were interviewed and played a different version of This World of Water. Instead of white they all wore blue work outfits!
17 April - Penzance, Domolza's
18 April - Exceter, Routes
19 April - Slough, College
20 April - London, Imperial College
21 April - Cambridge, University
22 April - Leicester, University
23 April - [T.B.C] [to be confirmed]
24 April - Preston, Polytechnic [another ad says 'Saltburn, The Philmore']
25 April - Newcastle, University
26 April - Dundee, University [another ad says 'Glasgow, Strathclydde University']
27 April - St. Andrews University
28 April - Leeds, Polytechnic
29 April - Nottingham, Trent Polytechnic
30 April - Essex, University
(This list is from a scan that Clive Gates sent to New Musik facebook group 16 April 2022.)
Tony Mansfield: "I want to re-arrange some of the material so that there are differences live so it will still be interesting and a surprise to those who've bought the records." [Record Mirror 16 Feb 1980]
'From A To B - which I'm obviously proud of, it meant a lot to me - was really a collection of separate sessions, it wasn't recorded as an album. I think I did three songs at the end to make up the album. The first real album was 'Anywhere'. The record company over here was pleased with 'From A To B' because it was the first thing we put out in this country.' [Miklos Galla's interview, 15/2/84]
'It's important to an extent [image], but... no, I don't really care. People can make what they want of New Musik, but they shouldn't write us off as a chart band. They'll think differently later on. Hopefully later on the New Musik thing will get a little weirder. We've taken a chance on the New Musik concept. We are progressing; the album's safe radio music but more diverse. Our new material is odd. There's this thing called 'Back To Room One' which is very poppy, would appeal on the radio, but if you look at it another way it's oblique.' [Sounds 24 May 1980, Betty Page]
'[New Musik] is one of those names which easily catch on. Our promotion has been low key so far, no badges or T-shirts yet, but is has caught on with radio people. Even Gerald Harper's playing the new single! Radio music is usually seen as run of the mill, but 'World of Water' is really doomy, a really nasty song. The whole LP is doomy. We're doomy. But it's put in such a jolly way that people don't take in the words. New Musik is something new. People who've heard our records or seen us live just aren't certain about it all. The idea of New Musik preceded Gary Numan's first hit; the synthesised percussive sounds - we were doing that ages ago. The John Foxx used the same riff as in 'Sanctuary' on 'Underpass'. It's on our old demos, honest!' [Sounds 24/5/80]
'Over a period of time I was into the psychedelic era of The Beatles, Hendrix, Yes, Purple and Genesis. Now it's Eno, Talking Heads, XTC and Yellow Magic Orchestra. YMO could be the big thing this year. I like the Heads' attitudes; they write on similar subjects to me, but approach them differently.' [Sounds 24/5/80]
'To get that medium between weirdness and commerciality. If you achieve that, it's new music. It's all about balance. ... We've got more tricks up our sleeve - effects nobody else has used yet. And we're not telling anyone else what they are!' [Sounds 24/5/80]
(Dead Fish (Don't Swim Home) is about Tony's fears of nuclear war.)
Reached number 35.
1 May - Norwich, Cromwells
2 May - Notts/Retford, Porterhouse Club
3 May - [T.B.C] [= to be confirmed] [another ad says 'Slough, College']
4 May - [T.B.C] [= to be confirmed]
5 May - West Runton, Village Inn
6 May - Aylesbury, Friars
(This list is from a scan that Clive Gates sent to New Musik facebook group 16 April 2022.)
10 May - Edinburgh, Usher Hall
11 May - Glasgow, Pavilion
13 May - Derby, Assembly Rooms
15 May - Hemel Hempstead, Pavilion
16 May - Ipswich, Gaumont
17 May - West Runton, Pavilion
18 May - Bradford, St Georges Hall
19 May - Sheffield, City Hall
20 May - Hull, City Hall
22 May - Manchester, Free Trade Hall
23 May - Hatfield, Poly
24 May - Brighton, Dome
25 May - Dorking, Assembly Rooms
26 May - Birmingham, Town Hall
28 May - Bristol, Colston Hall
30 May - London, Rainbow
Tony Mansfield: "To go from a studio where you're not playing in terms of volume, to playing live and loud, isn't easy. We've been studio based for a long time, so this first tour is really to knock the band into shape. ... We don't cheat - the tape recorder is on full display, bang in the centre of the stage, under spotlights. We just want to emulate the studio sound live. It'd be easy to go on as a four piece and miss things out, but instead we're using tapes on five songs and harmonizers on others. ... Making videos is just good business sense. We wouldn't have the rig or equipment we've got now if we hadn't done them, or done our bit on TV. It's a vicious circle though." [Sounds 24 May 1980]
Clive Gates: "It's like being on holiday!" [Sounds 24/5/80]
I asked Lee Mansfield many, many years ago about the B-sides: "My theory is that 'She's a Magazine' is good enough to have originally been intended for the LP, and that the two short instrumental pieces Chik Musik & Magazine Musik were originally intended as 'reprises' at the end of each side of the vinyl LP?"
Lee replied: "I think Chik/Magazine Musik were always just fragments of ideas for B-sides - I never heard anything about them being 'reprises'. 'She's a Magazine' was also always intended as a B-side track as far as I recall. It certainly doesn't feel like a 'fully developed' album track to me - more an after-thought."
13 June - Horsham, Capitol
14 June - London, Camden Music Machine
17 June - Northampton, Nene College
18 June - Manchester, Polytechnic
19 June - Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University
20 June - York, University
23 June - Penzance, Demelza's
24 June - Birmingham, Digbeth Civic Hall
25 June - Leeds, Warehouse
26 June - Oxford University
27 June - Melksham, Assembly Hall
28 June - Southampton, Le Saint´s College
A local Horsham paper wrote the following around 13 June 1980: "MUSIKAL EVENING / Oxford's loss is Horeham's gain this week when rising pop band New Musik hit town on Friday night [13 June] with their special effects and their original sound. The band, who climed the charts earlier this year with their single 'Living by Numbers', are in the middle of a tour of England. When faced with a sudden cancellation of their Friday 13 booking in Oxford they were snapped for the Capitol Theatre. They boys obviously think it is going to be their lucky day, because Friday 13 is the date their latest single 'Sanctuary' is being released. (...) On the road, after a brief career spent mainly in recording studios, brings its own problems. To match the sort of sounds the recording engineers produce for them, the band quite blatantly use a tape recorder in full view of the audience during their live shows. They don't consider it cheating, just a good way of producing the best possible sound. However they produce the sound, the show offers good value for money with seats at just 2 or 2.50. Tickets can be bought from the Capitol Theatre box office for the sho which starts at 8 pm and also includes support group Never Never."
New Musik fan Graham Getty sent quotes from 'Sounds' magazine to my Mansfield mailing list 3 Oct 2005: "TITLE: When the Musik Stops. NEW MUSIK's British tour came to an abrupt halt after their London Venue date [14 June] and the remaining dates were cancelled. A spokesperson for the band said that drummer Phil Towner was taken ill after the concert and was confined to bed for two weeks. But from the SNIPS camp, who were supporting, came dark stories that the whole tour had been less than satisfactory. 'It was like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic' said one participant and it's understood that legal action is in the air after the cancellation of the last few dates."
However, New Musik fan Steve Bullman emailed me on 9 July 2019 and told me: "I went to the Manchester Poly gig 18/6/80 (Ticket number 68,£1.50), so, no, it wasn't cancelled. My brief note about the gig says: 'a great gig, with the drummer looking as pleased as punch. Tony Mansfield seemed impassive throughout. Enthusiastic, full crowd.' ".
'They're all quite happy with the arrangements and Clive has been allowed to contribute an instrumental [The Office] to the material for the second album. ... The hero bands were the bands that made albums. They were the bands worth getting into. New Musik is a band that writes music that takes deeper aspects of an album band and puts them into a pop mould. It's fashionable now to be a pop group whereas a few years ago it wasn't and, let's face it, to reach people you've got to get on the radio. That we seem to have succeeded at. The thing with New Musik is that although it's a pop group there's no reason why you can't produce more experimental music. We call it an experimental band which is literally experimenting with what does and doesn't work.' [He plays me a backing track, the bare bones for a song he intends to call 'Churches' which he plans to write on the subject of religion. He explains that the songs isn't written yet; he starts with a title from the list of doomy phrases he keeps in an excercise book. I'm not sure if he's joking or not.] 'That's just me being honest. Certain bands will tell you how wonderful life is. We're just trying to make people think. You switch on your telly and there's always something going wrong. How long are we going to be around? That's what it's all about. What is there to be happy about? That's what I'm asking.' Tony does at least admit that he's thrilled about the baby his wife is expecting. [Smash Hits 7-20 Aug 1980, D. Hepworth]
They performed 'Dead Fish (Don't Swim Home)' and 'This World of Water'.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/new-musik/1980/zuiderpark-rotterdam-netherlands-53943741.html
'It was my choice to go with those two singles [Luxury and While You Wait]. Luxury was actually finished before the album was finished and the company said 'we need a single, so what have you got', and we'd started recording, and Luxury seemed the best bet to go with. I actually thought Luxury was one of the better things that New Musik did, but it wasn't really a big hit.' [Miklo's interview]
4 March - Sussex, University
5 March - Hastings, Graffiti
6 March - Dorset, Institute Pool
7 March - Dudley, Town Hall
8 March - Croydon, Fairfield Hall
10 March - Trent, Polytechnic
11 March - Loughborough, University
12 March - Bradford, Tiffanies
13 March - Crawley, College
14 March - Wolverhampton, Polytechnic
15 March - Birmingham, Digbeth Civic Hall
16 March - Leeds, Warehouse
17 March - Hull, University
18 March - Middlesbrough, Town Hall
19 March - Manchester, University (UMIST)
20 March - Glasgow, University (QM)
21 March - Huddersfield, Polytechnic
24 March - London, The Venue
Cancelled dates:
25 March - Northampton, Nene Collage
26 March - Liverpool, Warehouse
27 March - St. Neots, Priory Centre
28 March - Corby, Festival Hall
'In early 1979 the band was formed, the recordings were kind of underway, and around that time in England there were very few electronic-oriented bands. There were obviously influences from other... there was a big electronic movement from Japan, and also obviously from Germany - that's always been very strong. So there were the usual influences. And there were poeple like Peter Gabriel who have been always very kind of innovative. I really like Peter Gabriel's work, I always have done. Basically the electronic thing didn't really materialize until sort of, I suppose, 1980/ early 1981. So when New Musik came about, which still incorporated guitars, and bass and drums and so forth (there were obviously lots of synthesizers [too])... the reason I'm relating to England there is at the time [1980/81] it was quite unheard of for bands to actually go out and play live. I mean if you're a rock'n'roll band in the sense that got just guitars, bass and drums, you can go on stage, you can jump about and do the usual rock'n'roll thing, but if you've got synthesizers you become quite stagnant as a live act. And we had various problems in the sense that we didn't really have the backing to have elaborate stage sets or anything like that at the time, so we had a fairly moderate light show, and just basically our instruments. We tended to play [live] fairly accurately to the sounds of the records. We had two keyboard player live - myself and Clive, and we had the Simmons pads on the actual drum kit, and also we had I think two or three different Syn Drum outfits. For the time [the live performances did] fairly well. Obviously every venue is different, we did a lot of colleges and universities and various clubs in the major cities. In London we played The Venue twice, it was quite nice, the audience was sort of [used to all big artists], 'you name it, they were there': Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, The Buggles, Yes, Steve Strange. I mean we weren't the greatest band live, I think it was very difficult to be a pop band, I think essentially that's how we were labelled.' [Miklo's interview]
New Musik fan Mark Davison remembers in April 2001, 20 years afterwards: "I was at the concert given by New Musik at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, on Sunday March 8th 1981. I went with my brother, Nigel, and two friends in their teens and we came to the conclusion in later life that it was one of the best concerts we had ever been too. It was so refreshing and new. It was like a reawakening in a dream world of beauty, blue skies and sparkling seas. But, as one of your correspondents said, it was strangely tinged with an inexplicable sadness. This remarkable irony is the one thing that sticks in my mind. I instantly wanted to see another gig by the band and fortunately, they were playing at Crawley Techical College, (Sussex, Southern England) on Friday March 13th 1981 - just a week later. I forgot to invite my brother, and he has not gorgiven me in the intervening 20 years. This gig was even better. Fans could mingle next to the stage while bassist Tony Hibbert paced up and down in a type of black great-coat. I remember the background taped sounds of the Anywhere album being played on a tape recorder set up for all to see in the centre of the stage. Again it was a stimulating gig and the songs were floating pleasurably around the head for months and months. I still have the tickets for those concerts framed. Also, I have a poster for the gig I prised off the wall of Crawley College. I also bought a New Musik jacket made from dark blue fabric and an enamel badge which is designed in red and green and bears the Anywhere symbol. The music was way ahead of its time. Memorable moments. Little has matched it for ethereal qualities."
Another New Musik fan, Tim Golds from Munich in Germany, told my Mansfield mailing list 2 Oct 2005: I saw them back in the early 80's when they played Mandala Hall at the University of Sussex in Brighton (I was a student at the time). I wrote to Clive Gates about this gig, he remembered it well, noting "We went back to a friends house in Brighton afterwards and got totally drunk". During the set they played tracks from Anywhere. In fact we were all quite disappointed that there was nothing from A to B. My friend has the hand written set list "El Seto", which he managed to retrieve in a drunken stupor from the stage at the end of the concert (I’ll try to track him down and get a scan). I recall a large reel-to-reel tape deck on stage, providing most of the backing. Tony I think was dressed in tartan trousers and black pixie boots. He didn't talk too much but I can remember him saying "They All Run After the Carving Knife" was about the press and "Under Attack" was a love song. A real bonus were the 2 tracks from "A to B" played as an encore. I think Straight Lines and Sanctuary (one might have been World of Water can’t really remember). Both not the best renditions, I had the feeling they were not too together! Still a great gig, shame they folded as a band not long after."
'Anywhere is my favourite album, to be honest. That period in time I was really happy (I still am), that was my happiest point with New Musik. Whilst we were recording that album our record company, GTO, were beginning to fold up. GTO was a subsidiary company to CBS, CBS being the main parent company, and automatically once GTO folded, we were property of CBS. And CBS obviously they have a large roster of artists and I think - with all respect to them - they were more concerned really with promoting their own major artists than taking on a small subsidiary label's left-overs. And I don't think they really saw New Musik as a potential band in general. Around that time - as far as the record company was concerned - things started to sort of dwindle a bit. When Anywhere came out, it didn't do as well as From A To B, and right after that we went straight into ideas for 'Warp'.' [Miklo's interview]
The track "Room One" is about the childhood flat that Tony had overlooking Clapham Common in South London [info from Mark Davison].
This interview is part of the various artists live DVD "LISTEN TO LONDON" from 2008 (available from http://www.listentolondon.net/index.html). Here follows a transcript for those of us who have problems understanding spoken London accent. I made the first effort, then Londoner and New Musik fan Tim Masson went through everything and filled in my blanks and corrected mistakes, and finally Hector Cook gave it a final check to make it as accurate as is possible with such things. Thanks to both!
Tony: "Urmm, you know, bands normally play the thing that kinda put them there wherever it is. And this is the thing that put us there and this is a song all about watches."
[The band perform Living By Numbers ... (from start in background) ]
Tony: "We have got a record actually in the futurist charts at the moment, but we don't really consider ourselves as a futurist band you know. I don't know what we call ourselves really?, Alternative... an alternative documentary pop band."
Clive Gates: It relates to the social, political and economic climate of the world. I would say, and this isn't a fashion thing either, it's been very much in people's minds, particularly for some of the newer bands that [think] there's doomsday around the corner and all the rest of it. But we felt that for years, particularly with the election of certain heads of governments and certain parts of the world, no names being mentioned. There's every opportunity in my opinion that the likelihood of world war, whatever you might consider it is going to come about, and Tony being the songwriter I think has reflected that opinion for some years now. So I'd say we reflect, or like to just comment, not offering any solutions or any highfalutin answers. We just like to comment on the way we see things in the world today."
[The band perform an excerpt of World of Water]
Tony: "I mean nowadays it is virtually impossible to really get a new band together and to finance that band. I mean nowadays, you know, equipment and to take a band on the road, it's ridiculous you know."
Clive Gates: "Yeah"
Tony: "Unless you are really going to slum it. We managed purely because we had a hit record, and which in a way is again [thanks to] the old great British press. You know they really slag bands off that you know that happen like we happened, you know, because they think well they haven't done their homework, they haven't slogged."
Clive Gates: "They haven't discovered them."
Tony: "Yeah, and they haven't discovered us, yeah, but the fact is we did slog, we slogged, we slogged in studios and, and you know.. not on the road."
Announcer: "Once again everybody - New Musik"
[The band perform a full live version of Straight Lines]
'Tony wrote From The Village partly based on the TV series The Prisoner.' [Lee Mansfield, 15 Aug 1998]
Additional info from Lee Mansfield: "Swap Shop (Saturday kids tv show) featured Luxury and While You Wait. In that show the band ditched their white outfits for a more new romantic inspired look."
I asked Lee many, many years ago: "I have always wondered if 'From the Village' was recorded during the sessions for FROM A TO B, or ANYWHERE. It sounds like it's kind of in beween. All the other non-album tracks from this period ("And", "Under Attack", "Guitars") sound like they could easily have been placed on ANYWHERE. But with 'From the Village' I am not so sure. It sounds a bit too 'thin' soundwise. Would you know, or perhaps ask Tony?"
Lee replied: "As far as I recall those tracks were recorded between the two albums. I remember Tony playing them to me before I heard anything from 'Anywhere'."
Here follows a transcript for those of us who have problems understanding spoken London accent (or Swedish for that matter). For the English part, I made the first effort, then Londoner and New Musik fan Tim Masson went through everything and filled in my blanks and corrected mistakes, and finally Hector Cook gave it a final check to make it as accurate as is possible with such things. Thanks to both!
Kjell Alinge: "Jag har varit i London och träffat Tony Mansfield, ledaren för gruppen New Musik." [I have been to London to meet Tony Mansfield, the leader of the group Mew Musik]
['Luxury' plays]
Kjell Alinge: "Tony Mansfield skrev den här låten 'Luxury' när han stod i kö och väntade på hissen i Eiffeltornet i Paris. I två timmar stod han i kön. Hmm. En kille som sjunger om lyx, ska han behöva stå i kö? Det kanske inte alls stämmer, det här med lyxlivet." [Tony Mansfield wrote this song 'Luxury' when he was waiting in line for the elevator to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He stood there for two hours. Hmm. A guy who sings about luxury, would he really need to be waiting in line? Meybe this 'luxury life' is a fallacy.] Tony: "But it's not a life of luxury, no (laughs)."
Kjell: "Is that your dream though?"
Tony: "What, a life of luxury?"
Kjell: "Or having a lot of like synthesizers and instruments and everything, around you, maybe."
Tony: "I've got a lot of synthesizers (laughs), which are, I mean it is necessary, yeah."
Kjell: "Lyx för Tony det är att han har massor med instrument och elektronik till hjälp när han gör musiken. Och lyx för honom det är också att han får hålla på med det han helst vill, göra musik, hur mycket han vill. Tony praktiskt taget bor i inspelningsstudion." [Luxury for Tony is having lots of instruments and electronic devices at hand when he creates his music. And luxury to him is also being able to do what he wants to do the most, which is to create music, as much as he wants to. Tony is practucally living in his recording studio.]
['24 Hours from Culture' plays]
Tony: "There's loads of backward stuff on the new album as well you know. Backward dance music (laughs). But, yeah, that's a very important part of it, cos that's the thing that I tended to get from, say, the 60s, you know, psychedelic kind of era you know, cos a lot of my influences come from there, you know. I'm a very strong Beatle fan, and always have been, you know, sort of Beatles were always my heroes and..."
[Beatles 'Strawberry Fields' plays]
Tony: "A pop song backwards, anything you know, it's very interesting, it's very soothing you know. It could also drive you crazy if you listen to too much, but I like to incorporate that, it gives a very weird sound you know, I mean a little bit of backward-ness."
Kjell: "Just det, man kan vända på alltsammans och spela upp ljuden och musiken baklänges, så att det låter [his voice is playing backwards] och den baklängeseffekten använder Tony gärna i sina låtar. Som på den här nya singeln." [That's right, you can turn everything around and play the sounds and the music backwards, so that it sounds like (his voice is playing backwards), and Tony likes to use that backwards effect in his songs. Like on this single.]
['The Planet Doesn't Mind' plays]
Kjell: "Jovisst det där är verkligen 'ny musik', också heter gruppen också 'New Musik' och det här är deras nya singel 'The Planet Doesn't Mind'." [Yes this is truly 'New Musik', and that's also the name of the group, and this is their new single 'The Planet Doesn't Mind']
This interview was published 27 Oct 2021 on Lee Mansfield's YouTube channel "Midwich Graffitti" as "RADIO JACKIE - NEW MUSIK WARP PROMOTIONAL 1982" (44:44) on this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyVb5cvrWo&ab_channel=MIDWICHGRAFFITI
Here follows a transcript for those of us who have problems understanding spoken London accent. I made the first effort, then Londoner and New Musik fan Tim Masson went through everything and filled in my blanks and corrected mistakes, and finally Hector Cook gave it a final check to make it as accurate as is possible with such things. Thanks to both!
Jimi: With me on the show today I've got Tony Mansfield from New Musik who's consented to come along. Afternoon Ton..
Tony: Good evening (Laughs)
Jimi: Good evening. I like a man with style. (more laughs) We'll be having a chat later on throughout the show, well all throughout actually, talking about new albums and things like that, so stay with it. Just to get you acquainted with the man, just in case you hadn't, this is his biggest hit.
['Living by Numbers' plays ca 0:30 - 3.39]
Jimi: You've got your finger in a lot of pies at the moment, I seem to have noticed.
Tony: Yes, I've been quite busy doing bits of productions things for some quite weird and wonderful people. (both laugh)
Jimi: I've seen the name Tony Mansfield on a lot of labels lately.
Tony: Yeah
Jimi: Okay we'll talk about that in a little while.
Tony: Mainly records (both laughs)
Jimi: That's what it's all about.
Jimi: Right, I've got a single on the turntable now which is not New Musik, by any means, but it is you, isn't it?
Tony: Ah partly, yes, this is by Yukihiro Takahashi, he's the drummer of a band called the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and, he's a very talented chap and they're a very talented band and they're very big in Japan, they’re sort of almost Beatles status, you know, and, this is a track off of an album which I did with him, and, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music as well.
Jimi: What's the name of it?
Tony: It’s called 'Drip Dry Eyes'.
['Drip Dry Eyes' plays from 4:32 - 9:44]
Jimi: A lot of the Japanese chaps are into the jazz-funk thing now, because.. some of the jazz-funk which comes over, I mean I don't get involved in this, being on the disco side of things. Um the jazz-funk stuff is coming over from Japan, as well as America now, I mean it costs about another 10 pounds an album to buy it. Has this chap ever thought about getting into that field or?
Tony: Well actually they're quite fusion oriented, you know, they're very much into... they're mainly into sort of electronic things. I think that's the big thing with Japanese artists at the moment. They are very kind of disciplined musicians, and, and they're all very clever.
(Radio Jackie jingle)
Jimi: Right Tony. Last time as I said we spoke about New Musik was when you recorded the single Sanctuary yep? And it was just about to enter the charts, that was about a year and a half ago. [this is quite possibly when the unreleased New Musik track 'Pleasure Moves' was played]. Things have changed a lot now haven't they?
Tony: Yes, now there's only three of us, and there's only one existing member from the original band, that's Clive Gates.
Jimi: Hmmm, apart from you of course.
Tony: Apart from me yes. We've got a new drummer now, a guy called Cliff Venner, and Cliff used to be in the [group] UK Players.
Jimi: Hmmm, everytime you tell me that I try to think of the single I've got.
Tony: Well to be honest I don't know.
Jimi: 'Everybody Get Up' [1980], that's it yeah.
Tony: Ah!
Jimi: The UK Players, that's the sort of only hit that they ever had I think? Your new single, which we're going to play in a moment...
Tony: Our Christmas single [jokes]
Jimi: Your Christmas single, which got released a bit late (laughs). Err, that's the first time I've ever seen you record somebody else's song.
Tony: Mmmm.
Jimi: Why did you do that?
Tony: There's a number of reasons really. I mean it's a bit kind of I suppose trendy, or whatever the word is, to sort of actually put something out that's in line with kind of what's actually going on in the world, as it were.
Jimi: Hmmm
Tony: That's outside Tooting, Balham and so forth, what with all sort of the anti nuclear and all that kind of business you know, it kind of relates to that. It also relates to The Beatles as well…… did a hell of a lot for me, in music.
Jimi: I think I remember you telling me that before.
Tony: Yeah, they were always my sort of, you know, number one heroes musically. Now a lot of the younger people probably only relate to things like 'Wings' and that, you know, over the past year or so, unless their sort of you know older brothers and that have got kind of Beatle albums, umm maybe they haven't actually been sort of turned on to the Beatles as it were, you know.
Jimi: Hmmm, you're very Beatles aren't ya?
Tony: Yeah I just really like the Beatles, you know, I mean a lot of people have actually knocked us for doing it, you know, they’re saying well you know, oh another Beatle’ cover and all this sort of thing but you know I just wanted to do a cover, I just wanted to do somebody's else's song as opposed to something I've written, and err this I think 'All You Need Is Love' is probably the greatest, one of the greatest Beatle’ classics.
[All You Need Is Love plays from 12:22 - 16:26]
Jimi: Well that's New Musik and 'All You Need Is Love'. ’Greensleeves’ got in there somewhere, ha ha what's that doing in there? (laughs)
Tony: Umm, ‘Greensleeves’ was actually on the Beatle’ version
Jimi: Was it?
Tony: But it was right in the background, I didn't even know this but a friend of mine at the record company said to me, Here, are you going to do ‘Greensleeves’ at the end? And I said 'Why?' and he said, Well have a listen to the Beatle’ version and you'll see, and it's sort of, there’s kind of a cello bit right at the back there.
Jimi: Oh I never really noticed it?
Tony: At the very the end. Yeah, they don't make a very big thing of it, but we thought you know, just to make it a bit different.
[Changing Minds plays from 17:04 - 21:45]
Jimi: New Musik again and 'Changing Minds' which is one of the tracks off the last album which I rather like. So did Dave Small who was on previous to me, we both used to play that quite a lot, and you never released that as a single.
Tony: No, well I didn't really have the option, err.. it was down to the record company really.
Jimi: Do you not get any say in it at all?
Tony: Well, yes, sometimes. I think it's a case of, sometimes you come up with things that everybody tends to agree that it sounds fairly commercial or whatever.
Jimi: Hmmm, because you had two singles off of that album and one in between which is going to go to the new album.
Tony: Yeah, yes, right.
Jimi: Which we are going to hear a bit of in a second now.
Tony: I think the last single where we actually got quite a bit of airplay with was 'Luxury', which was off of that album. The single released after Luxury [was] called 'While You Wait' which actually didn't receive any airplay at all, err, which you know is basically known in the business as a flop.
Jimi: (laughs)
Tony: Err, and, umm, the last single, umm, we've just actually changed our record label [to] 'Epic' dare I say, and, err, I mean now it's a whole new sort of ball game really, you know. Actually the latest single 'All You Need Is Love' is our first release on Epic. Although the last single, which is called 'The Planet Doesn't Mind', that was all still part of the old GTO deal, but in actual fact, when that record came out, the company was already kind of, how can I put it, finishing.
Jimi: In the hands of the receiver, oh well (laughs).
Tony : Yeah... well.
Jimi: Did they actually go bust did they or?
Tony: I don't really know the ins and outs of it, to be honest. The company was actually part of CBS, which we are [on] now you know; we’re with CBS kind of you know totally, whereas GTO were...
Jimi: Oh I see, are GT [means 'GTO'] and CBS basically the same company then, are they, I mean it's just...
Tony: GT, sorry?
Jimi: Epic and CBS.
Tony: Yeah Epic and CBS are basically the two main labels, and then they've got, you know, I don't know, sort of another ten labels scattered about.
Jimi: Other little bits.
[RADIO JINGLE - Radio Jackie plays at 23:48]
Jimi: Special guest star Tony Mansfield with New Musik brought along his new album for us today which is not out yet and comes out in March and is called 'Warp'. I was wondering if that's what the record was, but it is in fact called Warp. And, well, tell us a bit about it, so what's happening?
Tony: Once again this is a result of the new band, which is as I said just a three piece now, just the three of us, and this particular track is a thing called 'Here Come the People' which is like an instrumental track which actually opens the album, and it features Cliff, our new drummer on the electronic drums. He's really a bit of a jazz drummer and he's quite a different drummer to the previous drummer [Phil Towner], you know. I mean both [are] exceptionally good in their own ways of course. I mean this actually, err, there're some little bits that he has done on this which are, I'm sure. demonstrates his ability.
[HERE COME THE PEOPLE plays from 24:43 - 28:08]
Tony: This one's called 'A Train on Twisted Tracks' and this is followed by a thing called 'I Repeat'.
[A TRAIN ON A TWISTED TRACKS and I REPEAT plays from 28:16 - 36.00]
Jimi: From the new New Musik album, which is going to be released in March, and you better give me the titles again as I haven't got the titles written down here have I.
Tony: Errr the first one was called, err, 'A Train on Twisted Tracks', which might be a single, we don't know yet, and the second one, that one which was just fading out there, was called, err, 'I Repeat'.
Jimi: You nearly couldn't remember them?
Tony: Errr I frown as it was so long ago that we recorded that album, you know that....
Jimi: Go on then Tony, you’ve got a dedication of your own to do now.
Tony: Oh yes, right, this is a dedication for my little daughter Charlie and errr, 'Hello Charlie' and for her Mum as well.
Jimi: Ah yes, bless her. Your daughter is like a little carbon copy of you isn't she?
Tony: Yeah, poor thing.
Jimi: Ha ha ha. And she likes Human League doesn't she?
Tony: Yeah that's right.
Jimi: Well here we go...
[HUMAN LEAGUE - DON'T YOU WANT ME plays from 36:45 - 40:34]
Jimi: I've decided I'm going to pick a [New Musik] track now, is that alright?
Tony: It’s enough.
Jimi: This is the track when I walked in I met you in the pub, in the Mitre in Tooting.
Tony: That's right.
Jimi: One lunchtime and then we went back up the studio and you were just doing the vocals for this song here.
[ADVENTURES plays from 40:46 - 44:30]
Jimi: Well, errr, good luck with the new single anyway.
Tony: Thank you very much.
Jimi: And hope ‘All You Need Is Love’ is a hit for you and good luck to the band.
Tony: Thank you.
Jimi: Stand by for Ian Westfield, undoubtedly will play it for you and do his best anyway. Thanks very much for tuning in and I'll see you next Sunday between I think about 2 and 4, your guess is as good as mine (finishes with Radio Jackie echo jingle).
'When Anywhere came out, it didn't do as well as From A To B, and right after that we went straight into ideas for 'Warp'. And at that point Philip, the drummer on the first two albums, decided that he'd had enough and he left, and there was a new line-up to the band, it was just myself and Clive and we got another drummer [Cliff Venner], a friend of mine, and we just tried some experimental things really. Warp is a very strange album, not necessarily musically strange, it was strange the way it was conceived, because at the time we were using a totally different method. At that time I worked with Y.M.O [Yellow Magic Orchestra] and they had a computer and that was very inspiring. I didn't have the money or the back-up to get straight into computers, but what I did was I tried to develop a style with Warp of keying and triggering - which is now a very standard thing. The whole album was recorded with a triggering method. A majority of it was sequencers. ... The splashing sound in 'Here Come the People' was [laughs] a bowl of water. The first digital machine I that used was the Emulator, I think that was two years ago [Feb 1982 - after the recording of Warp], and I've had the Fairlight for about a year and a half now.' [Miklos' interviwew]
'Producer Tony Mansfield discusses his experiences in the recording industry during this period [late 70s]. Describes walking into control room of a study and encountering the Prophet 5 synthesizer (which was microprocessor based, and polyphonic). He says it was his first experience of system-based musical experience, and how hard it was to go back to the studio he worked at where only ordinary instruments were employed. However, he was able to purchase a Fairlight for production work. He also describes the Roland MC-4 Microcomposer, a laborious, step-by-step compositional process, and contrasts it to the Fairlight's Page R - basically a rhthym sequencer which loaded your sampled sounds and provided a drum machine-like interface on the computer screen. You just played the notes on the keyboard in real time which was much easier to relate to, musically.' [from Rick Wakeman BBS Series 'Man, Machine and Music' (3 & 4) 8 Feb 1996, written by Alan Rowett. Taken from http://www.nfte.org/back-issues/0149]
'My basic role is a producer rather than an instrumentalist or a technician. From a production point of view, synths are really good tools. I'm more of an ideas person than an actual musician - I play most of the things but it takes time. I think I'm quite resourceful - if you gave me a tin whistle and a ukulele I'd find some use for it.'
Keyboards: 'Oberheim OBXa, Prophet-5, Roland Vocoder Plus VP330, piano (whatever's in the studio). The Oberheim is my main, favourite instrument, the fact that you've got the split keyboard facility is beneficial for live work or composition. If you spend time in the studio, you're going to track those things on anyway. The Prohpet I've used for about the last two years. It's a very simple system for someone like myself - very instant. It's a good instrument to develop on. Sequential Circuits opened it up for all the others. The Prophet and the Oberheim are very similar systems, but they do have their own individual charachteristics. I think everybody's trying to make the ultimate polyphonic synthesiser, but there are always going to be slight differences between makers. Ultimately, someone will bring out a synth that's got everything! With keyboards now, I think they've got to be made accessible to the kids, to the people who are going to grow up and develop them.'
Sequencers: Roland CSQ600 (to Prophet)
Amplification: Oberheim DI (to desk)
Percussion/drum machines: Simmons SDS-V module. Triggered by pads or Roland CR78.
Favourite studio/engineer: 'I enjoyed working at Air recently on Yukihiro takahashi's solo project. Strawberry South. TMC studio. I work exclusively with Peter Hammond, he's something of a perfectionist.'
Home recording: Two Revox B77s. 'I tend to do very 'mock-up' rough demos at home - I don't want to spend hours re-creating it in the studio.' [E&MM March 1982, Tony Bacon]
'In the early eighties, Tony was asked by Tom Watkins to produce a band he was managing called 'Spelt Like This'. Tony was sent their demos but decided it wasn't his cup of tea. Tom then said to Tony that he was managing a new band that would be 'right up his street' called the Pet Shop Boys! But unfortunately, by the time their demos arrived Tony had moved on to other commitments. Then during recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios (where I still work) for their 'Actually' album, Neil Tennent told me that he would be quite keen to work with Tony... But again alas, it was not to be. As far as Holly Johnson and Kajagoogoo, again, Tony was approached to produce albums for these at different times, but although some vague pre-programming may have been attempted - nothing solid came of it.' [Lee Mansfield, 13 Aug 1998]
'Basically I still see the band, I'm still in close contact with everybody, we're all doing different things. Clive is beginning to produce other people as well, the bass player Tony runs a hire company, and Phillip has a small demo studio - and he does sessions, in fact he's going to do a session for me this week. So they're all still involved in music in one way or another. After Warp, at that point I personally started with production work, so I tended to get pretty busy with production. There was no kind of a big bust-up or anything like that.' [Miklos' interview]
'I've been signed for publishing just recently and I'm expected to do an album in summer [1984]. At the moment I've thought of various names. I mentioned it to the band [New Musik] about two months ago, we happened to be all together at the same time, and I said 'Would we like to go in and do another album?'. I mean there is no deal, there are no companies interested in the band because we haven't done anything [recently]. There is interest, I mean we all said 'Oh yes, I'd be a good idea'. Obviously we'd have to incorporate some of the old ideas, but things have changed so much in such a short space that obviously the album would have to be a lot more sort of up to date [laughs]. I would like to do another New Musik album, probably with the original line-up. I think we [would all be] pretty weary about doing another album and weary at the thought of how it would be accepted. I we did record another album we would put a lot of work into it, and then suddenly it's a situation that nobody wants to sign the thing or put it out. I would create problems. But I think that maybe we would do another album, I got the impression from everybody that it would be a great idea. At the moment I think it's just a question of time, everybody finding the time to be committed to an album. I have a name [of the project], it's called 'Fun Drum'. The idea, it's a very varied idea, much more diverse than New Musik. Vince Clarke's idea with Assembly, his idea is basically the idea that I had, except that he's done it before I have. Not totally the same, but incorporate other vocalists, and generally collaborating with different people, bringing in different people for different reasons, to get a continuity.' [Miklos' interview]
Copyright for individual quotes are stated in the interview.
Last update 2022-06-06.
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