Blancmange, Queen Margaret University Glasgow, 3rd December 2022
80s synth-pop outfit Blancmange are in Glasgow with a new album and a new tour to promote it.
Its easy to say Blancmange are back with a new album and tour, but for those in the know, they’ve never really been away. During their peak they had 7 top 40 singles and 3 hit albums before front man Neil Arthur and colleague Stephen Luscombe went their own way in 1986, however after reforming the band in the late noughties and releasing their fourth album, Luscombe left the band due to ill health leaving Arthur to carry on on his own. This year sees the release of a new album Private View, and a series of gigs to showcase the new material.
Supported on the tour by Stephen Mallinder, once of Cabaret Voltaire. Their sound was one of industrial type music, tape loops and electronics, and Mallinder’s solo work continues this theme. His 40-minute set, including tracks from his latest album Tick Tick Tick, was very well received by the Glasgow audience, and he left stage to a huge roar of approval. Great music which set the tone nicely for the rest of the evening.
The dimly lit stage set the atmosphere perfectly, as colleagues Liam Hutton on percussion and Chris Pemberton on keyboards took to the stage, before the loudest cheer for Neil Arthur. As he took the mic, the band launched into a set containing Whats Your Name, That’s Love That It Is, Feel Me and Last Night (I Dreamt I Had a Job). Fans of electronic synth music would be in their element, this is music of the highest quality, great percussions from Hutton, Pemberton juggling three machines perfectly and Arthur’s vocals as powerful as they ever have been.
Highlights of the evening for me were obviously the bigger numbers. Waves came in early on in the set, and slotted in nicely with the newer material, but the first encore of the evening saw Blind Vision, quickly followed by Living on the Ceiling. A very short break before encore number two and the bands other biggie Don’t Tell Me saw the end of the show, and what a show. These are the main numbers fair weather fans of the band would know instantly, but for the more devoted, the whole evening was a rousing success.
The early to mid-eighties charts were rife with electronic and synth music, with the likes of Depeche Mode, Human League and Heaven 17 dominating the scene. Maybe not as commercially successful as their peers, Blancmange’s output is up there with the best of them, and tonight’s performance only emphasises this. Neil Arthur is a very talented singer and songwriter and can turn his hand at lyrics from the most mundane to the outright ridiculous in the stroke of a pen. Top marks for a terrific show.
Review and Photographs by Stephen Wilson
