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"They can't play live"

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    #1

    "They can't play live"

    Someone help me out here.

    Sometime in the mid-80s, I remember there being a huge storm in a teacup about certain bands' alleged inabilities to play live.

    I was reminded of this after listening to a podcast; at one point, didn't the Musicians Union had some sort of policy that banned tape machines and synthesizers on stage?

    This is admittedly dimly remembered rambling; can anyone fill in the gaps?
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    #2
    "They can't play live"

    Yeah, that's two separate things you've got hold of there, Stumpy.

    The second is actually the first and I'm not entirely certain of the details. As far as I remember it goes like this: Numan (under his original guise of Tubeway Army) had recently got to No.1 with 'Are Friends Electric' and - for some reason - the Musicians' Union was shitting itself that the rise of synthesizers meant that humans were going to be replaced in pop and no-one would ever play an instrument again. Thus, they tried to get Numan and a few others banned from telly and the radio - perhaps only BBC channels, though. Although they at first refused, Numan did indeed become persona non grata at the Beeb and his songs disappeared off the air. Whether this merely coincided with his decline or was actually a large part of the cause for it is open for debate. The irony is that Numan was always a pretty good guitarist and that the early incarnation of Tubeway Army was pretty much straight-up punk.

    However, later in the decade, these fears were made mockery of by several high-profile incidents. One was The Cure performing one of their singles ('The Love Cats'? I need Hobbes' advice here) on Top Of The Pops with Robert Smith having deliberately slackened off all his guitar strings, so as to obviate the mimed-ness of their performance - an act for which he got in a bit of trouble, I seem to recall. Similarly, I seem to remember someone like Siouxsie deliberately singing the wrong words to one of their songs on the same show, so that the lip-sync was totally out. Then, a few years later, there were two major farces: one was Owen Paul's disastrous appearance on Pebble Mill At One - a comedy classic in its own right, though. The second - and this is the other thing you're thinking of was Milli Vanilli's confession that they mimed on all their records and that it was actually session musicians that did all their vocals. This effectively ended their career. It was doubly embarrassing for people like the BBC, since they'd always been allowed on with no questions asked ...and no questions necessary, since everyone involved with the show knew it was mimed.

    The Beeb played with various formulas of live-ness and mimed-ness on TOTP from there on, but these had mixed success and - again arguably - the show never returned to its former glories.

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      #3
      "They can't play live"

      I'd like to add that it would probably be best if one of my *ahem* more leaned colleagues were to step in and flesh out all those half-remembered incidents I've just listed.

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        #4
        "They can't play live"

        evilC wrote:
        ... one of my *ahem* more leaned colleagues ....
        Spearmint Inclino?

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          #5
          "They can't play live"

          Lucia Lean-agin?

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            #6
            "They can't play live"

            The second - and this is the other thing you're thinking of was Milli Vanilli's confession that they mimed on all their records and that it was actually session musicians that did all their vocals.
            Wow. I hadn't realised it was the records. I though it was just TOTP and the like.

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              #7
              "They can't play live"

              David Slumps?

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                #8
                "They can't play live"

                I seem to remember TOTP going "live vocals only" during the ravey davey years when everyone was getting sorted on the groovy train. Week one included Moby's gymnastic vocal workout 'Go'. Nirvana being all baritone and on drugs would have been the same year.

                Didn't last long. Too expensive probably.

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                  #9
                  "They can't play live"

                  Tilter Parkes?

                  Comment

                    #10
                    "They can't play live"

                    I seem to remember the "they can't play live" kerfuffle being around certain bands who couldn't do live sets without backing tapes, rather than about TOTP.

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                      #11
                      "They can't play live"

                      I know the answer to this .. But I"m just a bird.

                      Evil C is on the right lines.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        "They can't play live"

                        The Not The Nine O'Clock News team famously took the piss out of Marc Almond over the issue of miming, in this sketch.

                        This would've been '81/'82, so presumably there was a fuss being made about miming around this time.

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