Blancmange (band)

Blancmange
Origin	Harrow, Middlesex, England
Genres	New Wave Synthpop Alternative dance
Years active	1979–1987 2006–present
Labels	London, Sire
Associated acts	The West India Company
Website	blancmange.co.uk
Members
Neil Arthur Stephen Luscombe
Past members
Laurence Stevens

Blancmange are a British synthpop band who came to prominence with a string of hits in the early to mid 1980s.

Biography

Blancmange was formed in Harrow, Middlesex in 1979 by singer Neil Arthur (born 15 June 1958, Darwen, Lancashire) and instrumentalists Stephen Luscombe (born 29 October 1954, Hillingdon, Middlesex) and Laurence Stevens. Stevens left shortly after the band were formed and Arthur and Luscombe continued as a duo. The duo released their first EP "Irene and Mavis" the following year, but had their first real exposure via a track on the seminal Some Bizzare Album, alongside fellow acts Soft Cell and Depeche Mode. This led to them signing a recording contract with London Records.

Blancmange supported Nash the Slash on a London club tour in October and November 1980. Nash introduced the band to the Virgin subsidiary record label DinDisc, but they were ultimately signed by London Records, in 1982.

The duo found minor success with their 1982 double A-sided single, "God's Kitchen"/"I've Seen The Word" which peaked at no.65 in the UK. This was followed by "Feel Me" which peaked at no.46. Later that year, they broke through with "Living on the Ceiling", which reached no.7 in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album, Happy Families (which featured a sleeve painting in the style of Louis Wain) also reached the top 30.

Further hits followed with "Waves" (no.19), "Blind Vision" (no.10), "That's Love That It Is" (no.33) and "Don't Tell Me" (no.8), while their second album Mange Tout also reached no.8 in the UK album chart. In 1984, Blancmange covered ABBA's single "The Day Before You Came", which reached no.22 in the UK (slightly higher than Abba's original less than two years earlier). But after this, the band's fortunes declined. Their 1985 single "What's Your Problem" only reached no.40, and the subsequent album Believe You Me spent only two weeks in the UK Albums Chart, peaking at no.54. Blancmange formally split up in 1987.

Luscombe released an album of Indian influenced music New Demons with Pandit Dinesh, Peter Culshaw, Priya Khajuria and Asha Bhosle under the name West India Company, in 1989. Meanwhile, Arthur released a solo album, Suitcase, in 1994.

Following a gap of a quarter of a century, Blancmange released their fourth studio album Blanc Burn in March 2011.

Discography

Studio albums

• Happy Families (1982) UK #30
• Mange Tout (1984) UK #8
• Believe You Me (1985) UK #54
• Blanc Burn (2011) UK #163

Compilations

• Second Helpings (1990)
• Heaven Knows (1992)
• The Third Course (1994)
• Best of Blancmange (1996)
• The Platinum Collection (2006) ^[1]

EPs

• Irene & Mavis (1980) 33 RPM 7", Blaah Records, only 500 copies ever printed
• 21st Century Blanc Remixes Part 1 (2011)

Singles (with chart position)

• "God's Kitchen"/"I've Seen the Word" (1982) UK #65
• "Feel Me" (1982) UK #46
• "Living on the Ceiling" (1982) UK #7
• "Waves" (1983) UK #19
• "Blind Vision" (1983) UK #10 US Hot Dance Club Songs #3
• "That's Love That It Is" (1983) UK #33 US Hot Dance Club Songs #16
• "Don't Tell Me" (1984) UK #8 US Hot Dance Club Songs #44
• "The Day Before You Came" (1984) UK #22
• "What's Your Problem?" (1985) UK #40
• "Lose Your Love" (1985) UK #77 Hot Dance Club Songs #2
• "I Can See It" (1986) UK #71
• "Drive Me" (2011) UK Download only^[1]

Radio Session tracks

• "I Would"
• "Living on the Ceiling"
• "Waves"
• "Running Thin"

Recorded for a February 1982 Peel Session show.^[2]

Trivia

• Some of the vocal samples in the song "All Things Are Nice" from the album Mange Tout appear to have been borrowed from an episode of the television series Little House on the Prairie (episode No. 57, season three, "Little Girl Lost," first aired 18 October 1976) in which Carrie, one of the daughters, becomes trapped in an abandoned mine shaft.
• In the 1986 Sci-Fi film Flight Of The Navigator Blancmange appear on David's TV with the music video for "Lose Your Love" when he is introduced to music videos by Carolyn, played by a young Sarah Jessica Parker.
• In 2000 "Living On The Ceiling" was sampled by the German techno group Scooter on the song "Kashmir", from the album Back To The Heavyweight Jam.
• In the videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, "Living on the Ceiling" was used in the FLASH FM radio station.
• In 2008 "Living On The Ceiling" was used in a television advertisement for Berocca vitamin tablets.[1]
• The video from "Don't Tell Me" was filmed in Valencia during the festival of the Fallas which takes place between 14 and 19 March.
• During the 1980s and through the late 1990s the main theme of "Living On The Ceiling" was used as the intro for the Arabic news program on Israel's Channel One television.
• An instrumental version of the song "Blind Vision" by Blancmange is used for the closing credits of the 1985 B-movie Avenging Angel.
• "Don't Tell Me" plays during the club scene in the 1987 thriller No Man's Land, starring Charlie Sheen and written by Law & Order's Dick Wolf.
• Faithless remixed "Feel Me" for their 2010 release The Dance.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 62. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
2. ^ BBC John Peel Sessions – Blancmange. Retrieved 29 August 2006.