Entertainment For Lively Minds
Two Tribes
Posted by simontyler on 11 October 2011 - 12:48am.
listening to this the other day I was reminded of Thomas Dolby on the free to air pod-cast talking about Trevor Horns recording technique and it kinda got me thinking about who the heck is playing on this track. Apart from Holly are any other members of FGTH on the recording? I've heard rumours that the bass is played by Norman Watt-Roy of the Blockheads.
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The Blockheads
played on the second recording of Relax(three sessions were used for the single, although this generated several versions). Contrary to popular belief only sections of it were used for the single. The bass on Relax is based on an Emulator sample of the bass intro of Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.
Two Tribes was largely played by the band, augmented by The Theam AKA Horn's dedicated group of crack session regulars AKA most of the Art Of Noise. There is also a full orchestra on there and tons of electronics. The percussion is pretty mindblowing.
If you haven't seen the full "video destructo" version of above clip please do.
I own far too many copies of this record..
Don't Know Much About This But..
..a friend of mine is being mentored by Nasher as he records an album. He's been posting studio footage of the recording process and its been an eye/ear opener how with just an odd suggestion Nasher keeps raising the bar on his songs. This is one of the demos.
Destructo mix
Remember staying up late to record the long version of the video when it was on Channel 4 (I think)
Hibakusha mix
was always my favourite version
The Annihilation 12"
was the first version of this I heard and is the only one I like - most of the others sound too busy and cluttered. And you get Chris Barrie reading Hitler's words from his trial in the voice of Reagan. It's so insulting when FGTH get lumped in with Wham, Spandau and Duran just because they had pop success in the 80s. Not comparable.
Seriously the Annihilation 12" is an incredible piece of music. And HJ never sounded better.
The Greatest
12" single of all time.
I agree
because the other side is good too - War, a bit of authentic Scouse banter, a kind of phoney live version of "TT" and instructions on what to do when your grandmother dies in your fallout shelter. Read by Patrick Allen, the link between "Protect and Survive" and "The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer".
And Paul Morley's sleevenotes are fantastic. What a package.
After you Nash..
Hibakusha is also a fabulous version, although the rarest of the four 12"s.
I have a Spanish Anihilation 12" and Morley's sleevenotes are renedered in Castillian (as are those on my Spanish Pleasuredome LP).
Yes, i am that sad.
I even still have my "only bullets can stop me now" Ronald Reagan T-shirt from 1984!
If that hasn't already been done here...
it should be. I'm not sure if I'd go for the greatest but it's certainly a very strong contender. Just for sentimental reasons I'd have to go for Blue Monday or Relax (presents on my 21st).
Saw FGTH on the Pleasuredome tour
at Hammersmith Odeon. Was a great gig though I am convinced that instruments were NOT being played by those on stage. Holly was definitely singing but there is no way that Mark O'Toole's rudimentary bass strumming was making the noise coming out of the speakers.
The 15 year old muso in me was crushed. Would be delighted if anyone can prove otherwise.
Also "War" was an inspired flip to TT. Complemented each other perfectly.
I always thought...
...this is where Trevor Horn got the idea for Welcome to the Pleasuredome.
That's astonishing!
Not sure I'd go so far as to call it outright plagarism, but please categorise firmly under, ahem, "influences..."
That moment - when the muted jazz guitar comes in over the sequencer on the album version of Welcome to the Pleasuredome - is one of my favourite moments in all of music. Just gorgeous.
Also liberally borrowed by The Stone Roses
Intro to Breaking into Heaven on The Second Coming.
That guitar....
Amen. The sleevenotes imply that it's Steve Howe which, given Horn's then-recent Yes tenure, is feasible.
The first side of "Pleasuredome" is absolute genius.
Paul Rutherford is famous for being nought but a dancing 'tash. But his cameo on this and Black Night White Light are great. He's probably on the records more than Mark O'Toole is, bless 'im.
Paul Rutherford
was definitely dancing on it.
To be fair, he sings
backing vocals, and quite prominent they are too (Score no more..score no more etc).
He wasn't quite the Bez of FGTH. (Unless someone is going to tell me that was a session vocalist? I'm no expert).
FGTH were a marvellous, preposterous creation. A punk band, 8 years too late, but with a sound derived from FM-Radio era Yes.
Maximalist-uber-pop with a narky scouse attitude, S&M gay leather vibe and prog-rock pretension. Beat that Lady Gaga.
Annihilation is the mix
took me ages to track down Hibakusha in those pre internet days of record collecting and its good but its no Annihilation.
I didn't know when those records blew my mind that maybe they weren't playing every note and I still don't care. Its the feeling and excitement they produced and still create that's important to me.
And the Hollster still got it (doubt the band are doing ALL that)
My favourite Frankie item is the Pleasuredome LP double picture disc
Did anyone finish the computer game they put out? I got to about 95% on me C64 version
The absolute best ever FGTH merchandise was a vibrator
The batteries said "The Power of Love".
It's TRUE.
Yes
wasn't there a order form for merchandise in with the album? One of the sellers in Record Collector used to have a WANTS list and they'd give you £50 for a vibe
Used this when teaching the Cold War
along with a massive number of other songs, such as:
Love - Mushroom Clouds
Dylan - With God On Our Side
Bowie - "Heroes"
OMD - Enola Gay
Sting - Russians (don't snigger)
Played these in the background whilst the kids were working. Yeah, I was hip once.
Only goes to show what a huge shadow the Cold War cast over the world.
I was genuinely concerned as a kid about the possibility of nuclear war. No matter what we face today, we don't have *that*.
Oh, and that Annihilation remix of TT
http://youtu.be/Rv__VioaUdc
with pleasing artwork video & sound of needle picking up.
Hasn't it since been revealed
that we came closer to getting fried than at any time during the Cold War in about late 1983? The USSR, run by paranoid/senile drunks, was scared shitless by the sabre-rattling of Big Ron's first term and were seriously considering striking first in an attempt at survival. TT was even more topical than it felt at the time.
Of course, it's now also used to soundtrack footage of Orgreave, which seems pretty trivial in that context.