Blancmange
Norwich with yet another – Wanderlust - which he showcased at the Norwich Arts Centre on the opening night of his latest tour.
Around about this time last year, Blancmange played at the Waterfront, notionally supporting Heaven 17, but right from the start it felt more like a double bill. Heaven 17 were as good as ever, but their set was very much a retrospective (they’ve been threatening to write new material for years) whereas Neil Arthur’s Blancmange focused on his then new album, Unfurnished Rooms. It perhaps should come as no surprise that an artist so determinably looking forward should return to Norwich with yet another – Wanderlust - which he showcased at the Norwich Arts Centre on the opening night of his latest tour.
First, though, was Jez Bernholz who presented a startling forty minute set blending emphatic beats, bird song, cacophonous soundscapes and his own elfin vocals, producing an audacious, and occasionally brilliant, wall of sound. Synths, digital samplers and sequencer looked to be just some of the gear employed by this master knob-tweaker, as on stage he coaxed (and sometimes hammered) a seamless string of haunting melodies and moods into being. Influences, if you are looking for them, appear to be Krautrock fused with Eno, though there were also hints of John Foxx’s seminal ambient stuff. More recent artists did spring to mind – imagine Four Tet or Rival Consoles in a bad mood – but it was the truly bonkers stuff that set him apart, reminding me (and I can think of no higher praise) of noodling Hawkwind in their Bob Calvert days. Truly marvellous, and a genuine treat.
So follow that, Neil Arthur!
Strictly speaking he didn’t have to, having joined Bernholz for his final number, but upon his return to the stage it was clear from the outset he intended to command proceedings. Flanked by two excellent musicians, he proved to be in fine, sonorous voice, bashing out three numbers, most notable among which was the sweeping grandeur of In Your Room, before pausing for a chat. And what a charmingly amiable, self-depreciating fellow he proved to be.
“Are you all Right?” he asked of the St. Swithin's audience, in a disarming strong Lancastrian accent entirely absent from his singing voice. “It’s like a church in here.”
The crowd was, it has to be said, a little reserved, with Easter Island statutes greatly outnumbering nodding dogs – I saw only one dancing loon and he’s the same fellow I see dancing and all these sort of gigs - but then we are all getting on a bit. In the early eighties, Norwich got dangerously close to having a proper music scene. The Farmers’ Boys, Screen 3, the Higsons and countless others packed out the pubs and clubs playing their latest single pressed by Backs Records and the like. Long gone, and largely forgotten, those times nevertheless left behind the legacy of a huge cabal of music savvy fifty-somethings keen to relive those glory days. This was a crowd that knew their stuff, not just the hits, and were hungry for more.
To that extent, Arthur delivered with I smashed your phone, TV Debateand the eponymous Wanderlust off the new album, demonstrating that his song writing in as strong as ever. It was good to hear that the quirky What’s the time?from the last album had kept its place on the set list, as had the pleasingly retro Last Night I Dreamed I had a Jobfrom the album before that. Instead of impatiently waiting for the big hitters, Arthur’s set had your ears alert to what treats were in stall this time, and it was telling that he has introduced so many new numbers since last year’s Unfurnished Rooms tour.
Blancmange seems to be all about what Arthur is doing now, not what he did then - when he did stray from his more recent material it was to present his collaboration with Benge, the melancholic I prefer Solitude. And even when he did go back in time (his words not mine) it was to fish out the relatively obscure What’s Your problem?from the archives.
That said, it would be a sorry Blancmange gig that didn’t finish on the classics, and sure enough the evening closed on exactly what we were expecting. Feel Me, Blind Visionand the encore of Waveswere all marvellously rendered, but best of all had to be Living on the Ceiling, not least as it featured a hilarious sing-along to that famous instrumental bit. Whether this was a Norwich thing, or it happens at every gig I cannot say, but it was singing that went on long after the song had finished and had Neil Arthur grinning from ear to ear.
