I watched that new Synth Brittania two-parter that's coming to BBC4 anytime soon.
It was great, with loads of brilliant clips of run down late Seventies Britain, Top of the Pops performances, Swap Shop appearances, etc., and great interviews with members of long-forgotten bands, well-known bands, bands you never paid much attention to but will now and of course the most perfect soundtrack, withe everyone from Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, to Kraftwerk, The Normal, Gary Numan and the Human League. Vince Clark is interesting, as I had no idea that when he formed Yazoo with Alison Moyet he didn't actually know her - at all.
So it's all wonderful but as with all these things, it's let down by woeful research.
I really hope the copy I saw wasn't the final edit, as it's littered with factual errors and if you, like me, are a muso, this will get your goat no end. Ultravox's Vienna a hit in 1982? No, it was 1981. OMD having two hits in the same year both about Joan of Arc? Wrong again. Fade To Grey being the hit of 1980? Deep sigh. I could go on.
How hard can it be to get your facts straight? The Guinness Book of Hit Singles must be knocking around your office somewhere. It's very poor, and of course once it's out there, it becomes fact and everything gets blurred. Lazy, very lazy.
But I do recommend the show. If you were 16 in 1981 then it's what you've been waiting for. Film of Croc's in Basildon, Kraftwerk, OMD and Yazoo - it's like a dream. But my God it's dated and it made me feel really old. But it made the really good point that once Howard Jones got in on the act it was all but over as a new movement, as it had become totally mainstream. At last, someone's said it.
Enjoy.
