Review of Blancmange: Hello Good Evening

Introduction

Blancmange were amongst the cream of a host of synth duo`s around in the early 80`s consisting of Neil Arthur (vocals) and Stephen Luscombe (keyboards). What set this duo apart from the crowd, other than extremely catchy singles, was an Indian influence in their music and image that enhanced the whole package.

Signed to London Records, their first hit was God`s Kitchen in 1982, which came in after the New Romantic image had been and gone. Despite some excellent and catchy singles such as Living On The Ceiling, Blind Vision and Don`t Tell Me, the group`s seminal moment was almost certainly their inspired decision to cover ABBA`s penultimate single The Day Before You Came. This ABBA track soared to the dizzy heights of 32 in the UK charts in 1982, whilst Blancmange gave this excellent and underrated song a new twist and took it a whole ten places higher. Not that impressive you might think, but I`m willing to believe that more people think this is a Blancmange track than an Andersson/Ulvaeus composition.

This concert, which doesn`t include the last track mentioned, was filmed at the Hammersmith Palais on 24th May 1984, and the duo are augmented by David Rhodes (guitar), Pandit Danesh (percussion) and Ruby James & Lorenza Johnson (backing vocals).

Video

Considering the age of the footage, it`s in remarkably good nick. Not sure if this was filmed for TV presentation or just for the fledgling and quite expensive home video market at the time, but it`s edited well with a mix of live footage and concept art shots/footage. You`ll also see a couple of early 80`s video effects thrown in for good measure but it`s not overkill.

Audio

Choice between DTS and LPCM Stereo soundtracks, not a lot of use of the surrounds though - perhaps unsurprisingly for such a vintage performance for a limited audience.

Features

Not really extras but options to listen purely to the audio or program a jukebox to set the track order.

Conclusion

I may be biased by growing up through it, but in my opinion the early 80`s was the most innovative period in electronic music. Synthesisers were becoming both more fashionable and affordable, people with musical aspirations no longer had to pick up a guitar to blast out a catchy melody. The deluge of synthesised band were an affront to the old rock clique though at first, and I can quite clearly remember dramatic playground arguments about whether the guitar or synthesiser was harder to play.

Now I`ll quite happily admit that my favourite band of this period were Ultravox, but Blancmange would have relatively high on my list of favourites due to a combination of their quirkiness and addictively catchy singles. It`s true that their singles positions weren`t incredibly impressive but then neither were a host of popular artists back in those days, including the aforementioned Ultravox who were infamously beaten to number by Joe *spit* Dolce. Still, I`ve been on the lookout for stuff on CD for them for a while. I came across this DVD completely by accident whilst browsing Amazon one day and it was an instant purchase.

The concert is only about hour long, which is quite short by concert standards, but also quite typical of VHS release length. The sound and visuals are good, although it`s clear that the budget for artwork wasn`t that high. Still, who cares? It`s the disc that matters and it doesn`t disappoint. As per the groups of the era who weren`t `full` bands, the standard reel to reel tape player is present on stage behind Luscombe`s keyboard setup, but Luscombe does play live as evidenced by the odd bum note, most notably a couple of times during Don`t Tell Me.

This was quite a low profile release as opposed to the recent Japan DVD of Oil on Canvas and video collection, but the difference in quality control is beyond compare. This release is superb, whilst the Japan DVD was a wasted opportunity that looks awful. At a budget price you just can`t complain either…