Electronically Yours with Martyn Ware

Thomas Dolby is a very interesting and surprisingly humble renaissance man and polymath. He has always combined a fascination with the future as a kind of geeky avatar, with a playful and highly commercial musical approach. Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. As a London teenager, Tom Robertson was fascinated with the convergence of music and technology. His experiments with an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers and cassette players led his friends to dub him “Dolby.” That same fascination later drove him to become an electronic musician and multimedia artist whose groundbreaking work fused music with computer technology and video. Two decades, several film scores, five Grammy nominations and countless live-layered sound loops later, it's clear Dolby's innovations have changed the sound of popular music.

That’s Thomas – smart cookie…

Martin grew up through the formative late 70’s in Sheffield with Martyn – hanging out at the same pubs, writing fanzines while he was studying at Sheffield University. Influenced by both the early Human League and Cabaret Voltaire initially, he became the singer of Vice Versa, and early electropop act, which soon evolved into that rarest of creatures – a fully realised, truly popular modern pop creation – ABC. With the help of Trevor Horn, they created indisputably one of the greatest debut albums of the 80’s, possibly all-time. Martin has remained as creative and stylish as ever to this day, and, performing live, has continued to thrill audiences all over the world.

Ladies and gentlemen – the King of Cool, Martin Fry…

Gerry Casale is a genius. There, I’ve said it. I became a close friend with him when we first met in 1981 when his US management company (DEVO, Neil Young, The Residents, etc.) took on Heaven 17. His friendly and iconoclastic personality has always been a major inspiration for me and many musicians I know. His integrated artistic and philosophical approach is worthy of much more credit than merely his appearance as a rock star. He is a true renaissance man, with a beautiful, humanistic core.

Gerry's music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder and bass player of the new wave concept band Devo, which became massively popular worldwide in the late 70’s and 80’s. Casale is the main lyricist and one of the main composers of Devo's music and directed most of Devo's music videos. He is one of only two members (along with lead singer and keyboardist Mothersbaugh) who have been with Devo throughout its entire history.

Enjoy this illuminating conversation. We are all Devo!

Midge Ure is an internationally famous multi-dimensional being – singer, songwriter, producer, musical director, performer, composer, writer, podcaster, lover of technology, synthesist, guitarist par excellence. He’s also one of the most lovely people on the planet – a good friend, a family man, and a man of generous wisdom. His work ethic is second to none, and his love of his music and performing shines through everything he does. Martyn and Midge became friends in the early 80’s when their paths often crossed on TV shows, but their biggest collaboration was on Band Aid. They have remained good friends since then, and you can hear the love and respect they have for each other. Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one Midge Ure…

Kim Wilde has been a glamorous pop star from her teenage years. Her father is Marty Wilde, 60’s pop star, who’s family have become a lineage of excellence. Ricky, Kim’s brother, helped to write and produce a string of massive hits on the 80’s including Kids In America, Chequered Love and You Keep Me Hangin’ On, both in the UK and across the world and the US. She is also an author, radio DJ and television presenter, specialising in gardening and her love of wildlife. Martyn has toured extensively with her, and they have become close friends since Kim revealed her love of Heaven 17’s Penthouse and Pavement album as a 16 year old! She sang on the 3rd BEF album in 2015 and still tours and records extensively and successfully. She is as dynamic, intelligent and lovable as ever…

There is much intelligence and playfulness in Ana Lynch’s creative life. As Ana Matronic in the Scissor Sisters, she is an iconic figure in the glam-art pop-rock scene. She is also currently a Radio 2 DJ specialising in the wide world of disco, and with her husband, Seth Kirby, she creates large-scale ambient visual performances.

She burst onto the scene as the female co-lead vocalist for the Scissor Sisters. She has stated that, in her eyes, the objective of the band was "about people displaying their fantasies on the outside, trying to break out of the everyday, and look like their dreams". In The Scissorhood, the fan community for Scissor Sisters, those fans who hold a special affinity for Ana are known as "nuns". Fans who are attracted to Ana, even if they might not usually be attracted to women, term themselves "Anasexual".

As an author, she has published a book entitled Robot Universe: Legendary Automatons and Androids from the Ancient World to the Distant Future, and she is fiercely proud of her Celtic roots.

This episode is a fascinating insight into her alternate world of robots, sexuality, futurology and just plain fun.

Graham Fellows went to the same school as Martyn (different year though) - King Edward VII Grammar School in Sheffield. From his website...

'Graham David Fellows has been a paperboy, a champion mouse breeder, a builder's labourer, a barman, a teenage pop sensation, a stage actor, a soap star (well, a few episodes of Coronation Street in 1983), a milkman, a character comedian, a film director, a film star, and a singer/songwriter. Here you can find out more about all the above, read song lyrics, view previously unavailable archive material, plus current info about what Graham is planning next.  In the meantime, you should know that despite being left handed Graham has written..

"The finest lyrics known to man" The Independent.'

His most loved character is John Shuttleworth, with whom Martyn has appeared on his Radio 2 show, and also as a guest at the London Palladium

The discussion covers much of his eclectic career, including the number one pop artist Jilted John. 

Oooof...

Sandie Shaw is literally a living legend. She is one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, she had three UK number one singles with "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (1964), "Long Live Love" (1965) and "Puppet on a String" (1967). With "Puppet on a String", she became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Martyn invited her to record a song  for the British Electric Foundation album 'Music Of Quality And Distinction Vol 1', for which she recorded a version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart".

Sandie also featured on MQD Vol 3, and Martyn and Sandie have remained great friends for almost 30 years. Their conversation is wide ranging and often hilarious - not to be missed...