Soft Cell – Non Stop Erotic Cabaret
Soft Cell – Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing
Soft Cell – The Art of Falling Apart
Disco Complex – Attic Tapes
Bryan Adams - 11
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath
Isaac Hayes - The Man
Selecting Soft Cell on the jukebox this morning, spurred on by the most entertaining remix album last night, I’d forgotten just how good they were in their heyday...
Lunch today with excellent colleague Margaret and chums Nick and Kenny from a rather large Dutch corporation...
Home through the rain, still soundtracked by Messrs Almond and Ball...
Exec Producer was over in Fife on a “works night out”...
Spent the evening trawling through all the tapes I could find in the attic of the group Disco Complex which existed from 1982 to 1983 and featured me, the Exec Producer, Count Brodski, George Coleman, Kenny MacLeod (who went on to form Sugar Bullet)and Mr Keith Apter...
The first four named started out as an electronic “covers” band in the Spring of 1982 playing tunes by the likes of Petula Clark, David Bowie, David Essex, Gary Glitter, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Magazine and the Beatles and the Ronettes then, during the Summer of that year we started writing our own material...
Towards the end of the year we added Kenny and Keith to expand the sound palette...
I am still in contact with them all, save Kenny, who’s not been seen for a good number of years – as I type, he’s singing a version of a song “All I Ask” – I’d completely forgotten he replaced me as lead vocalist on that one after he joined the band...
Unfortunately, some of the live percussion (that not being played by Keith Apter) which is accompanying the drum machine, is not quite on the mark and, possibly, too close to the microphone – it was all recorded live in my bedroom out at my mum’s house in Loanhead...
Hah – now here’s me trying to sing Kenny’s song “Righteous” – making not too bad a job of it but when Kenny comes in on the chorus it’s obvious how much better his voice is than mine...
Eventually we drifted apart and Brodski continued to work with Kenny on the initial stages of Sugar Bullet but, unlike Kenny, he never made it as far as being signed to Virgin from 1990-1992 – he continued on projects with me from1984-1986 in Love Parade and The Dancers of San Martino...
The period 1986 to 1991 however is known to me and the Exec Producer as “Brodski – The Wilderness Years” as the (then) ginger headed one disappeared off the radar for five years only to be bumped into again in the Summer of 1991 (n.b. these dates may well be completely wrong)...
Now I’ve found a much worn tape of our last song ideas from February/March 1983 – by which time we were down to just me, Kenny and Brodski - I don’t remember any of these tunes (bar one which turned up in 1987 on one of my albums and one which sounds like a Love Parade song from the year after) - not much is salvageable – and I suspect no-one will ever hear this but me – why would they want to anyway?
Bloody hell – there’s some stuff on side two and the first thing is a song which I thought Brodski and I wrote between us in 1984 – it’s clearly an idea we worked on with Kenny and later brought to fruition ourselves...
Just one tape left after this – the final Disco Complex album “Collonades”, a cobbled together effort released before the afore mentioned demos petered out and signalled the end of the band...
Just received an e-mail from Moira of Lex & Moira fame advising Mars will be as large in the night sky as the moon during August...
Sorry but it's a hoax - Moira's an awful one for hoaxes...
Now awaiting the phone call to collect my better half...
Update - Mission Accomplished and Bryan Adams and The Mars Volta added to the day's playlist...
Off to bed with Isaac Hayes in my head...
Highlight of the Day : Hearing Kenny singing one of my songs again...
