Appropriately for a feature that encourages artists to travel through time back to their younger selves, using the records they love as totems to make that jump, this Baker’s Dozen came together in pieces. Over the course of three separate phone calls, Neil Arthur, one half of cult synth pop masters Blancmange, shared his favourite records and opened up about bad decisions, good nights and how a fan becomes an artist. To say that it was great fun is an understatement.
A re-formed but perhaps not reformed Blancmange have now been back in the studio, with Arthur giving their 1982 debut Happy Families as a "contemporary reworking", using current music technology to make Happy Families Too…, before taking it on the road for live dates, which continue next month in Ireland.
The deluxe version of Happy Families Too… is released in February via Cherry Red Records, featuring remixes by Vince Clarke, Greg Wilson and Applebottom. Blancmange play the Button Factory in Dublin on February 21 and The Pavilion in Cork on February 22. Click on his image below to begin scrolling through Neil’s choices
