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Synth Pop

London poet, Red Flame, 1982

Anne Clark

Anne Clark was born in London in 1960 and left school at 16. Her jobs included nursing in a psychiatric hospital and working at Bonaparte Records in Bromley. The early punk scene pulled her in, and she booked music, poetry and comedy nights at the Warehouse Theatre. Her first time on stage was at Richard Strange's Cabaret Futura, on a bill with Depeche Mode. Her debut album came out on Red Flame in 1982. From 1983 keyboardist David Harrow, whom she had met at the Warehouse, set her spoken poetry to electronic music, and John Foxx produced her 1985 album. She moved to Norway in 1987 for about three years. She has a cult following in Germany, runs her own label, After Hours Productions, and still performs.

Hammersmith, Tubeway Army, 1977

Gary Numan

Gary Numan was born Gary Anthony James Webb in Hammersmith, West London, in 1958. He took his stage surname from a Yellow Pages listing for a plumber called Neumann. In 1977 he formed Tubeway Army with bassist Paul Gardiner and his uncle Jess Lidyard on drums, and they signed to Beggars Banquet. Their second and last album went to No. 1 in the UK in July 1979. He dropped the band name and topped the chart again that year with The Pleasure Principle, a rock album made on synthesizers with no guitars on it. He is a licensed pilot and flew around the world in late 1981. After some leaner decades, Savage (Songs from a Broken World) reached No. 2 in 2017. He has lived in Santa Monica, California, since 2012.

Ghosts: no drums, UK No. 5, 1982

Japan

Ghosts was written by David Sylvian and recorded in 1981 for Tin Drum, Japan's fifth and final studio album, which the band produced with Steve Nye. Sylvian and Richard Barbieri gave it a minimalist arrangement influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Barbieri came up with the odd, slightly discordant synth sound at the start, Steve Jansen arranged and played the marimba, and there are no drums at all. An edited version came out as a single on 12 March 1982 and peaked at No. 5 in the UK that April, the band's biggest hit at home. Sylvian called it the only time he let something of a personal nature come through. Japan split later that year, and in 2000 Sylvian re-recorded the song over the original backing track.

Poulton-le-Fylde, Factory, 1977

Section 25

Section 25 formed in Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool, in November 1977, around the brothers Larry Cassidy (bass and vocals) and Vincent Cassidy (drums). A 1979 charity gig in Blackpool with Joy Division got them onto Factory Records, and Ian Curtis and Rob Gretton produced their 1980 debut single. Martin Hannett produced Always Now in 1981, which came in an elaborate Peter Saville sleeve. With percussionist Lee Shallcross on board they turned toward electronic dance music, and Bernard Sumner of New Order produced From the Hip in 1984. Larry's wife Jenny Ross joined on vocals and keyboards. Jenny died of cancer in 2004 and Larry in 2010. Vincent has kept the band going, with releases as recent as 2024.

Eisbär: Bern, 1981, No. 12 in Germany

Grauzone

Eisbär, German for polar bear, was written by Martin Eicher, singer and guitarist of Grauzone. The band came from Bern, Switzerland, and played its first concert in March 1980. Urs Steiger and the band produced the song, which first appeared on the compilation Swiss Wave – The Album in 1980 and then as a 1981 single, in a version about 30 seconds shorter. It reached No. 12 in Germany and No. 6 in Austria and became the band's best-known hit. Grauzone split at the end of 1982 after ten concerts, four singles and an album, and Martin's brother Stephan Eicher went solo. Nouvelle Vague, Oomph! and Eisbrecher are among the many acts that have covered it since.

The Collection