Shine On: Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner never planned to sing for New Order. As a young man, he wanted to play guitar in his band, Joy Division. That was going well, until frontman Ian…
Bernard Sumner never planned to sing for New Order. As a young man, he wanted to play guitar in his band, Joy Division. That was going well, until frontman Ian…
We have repeatedly described Karin My as “Sweden’s secret weapon.” Raised in the south of the country, she absorbed the futuristic sounds of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, sitting alone in…
Right place, right time – a satisfying explanation for the careers of many engineers and producers. In the case of Ken Thomas, things are a little more complicated. The engineer…
The legendary producer, Stephen Hague, started out making the most uncool music possible. As a member of La Seine, he shared responsibility for long-haired 70s guitar combos making mainstream rock.…
Compared to the privileged founders of Kraftwerk, who were able to launch their project with family money, Robert Görl had it tough. Raised in an orphanage in Munich, he was…
Dr Martyn Ware recently joined a growing list of luminaries from the 1980s alternative music scene in acquiring an honorary doctorate. The University of Sheffield awarded the degree to Ware…
As the half of Soft Cell charged with operating the machines, Dave Ball has played a crucial role in the popularisation of electronic pop music. With Ball leering on the…
Rico Conning has written for the French icon, Francoise Hardy, and recorded Dusty Springfield, but don’t mistake him for an aging contemporary of Phil Spector. Conning started out with a…
Eddie Bengtsson is rightly called the Swedish Vince Clarke. The poptronica specialist holds his own in a roll-call of synth masters, alongside Clarke, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware and John Foxx,…
Beate Bartel was born in West Berlin. At the end of the 1970s, when she had just left her teens, punk and new wave influences were making their mark on…