These days, what with the 80's revival, so much of the electro-pop bands of yesteryear are In. Yet, there is one act that, for whatever reason, continues to be neglected. I speak of Frank Tovey's musical project "Fad Gadget", who, between 1980-1984 released four albums of experimental electronic pop on the Mute label (not to mention many unique singles) and conducted many caustic live concerts.
I had never heard of the man until the year 2001 or so, when I read a Depeche Mode biography that mentioned him. In Toronto that summer I found a CD store selling all his albums... For $40 a pop! So I spent about $160 on Fad Gadget CDs, but, much to my surprise, it was worth it.
Inspired by, among other things, Donna Summers and Suicide, Tovey recorded many of his early songs in a tiny room with only a keyboard and a tape recorder. These demos he left at the doorstep of Daniel Miller, legendary founder of Mute Records. Miller liked what he heard so he signed Tovey to his label. Tovey assumed the name "Fad Gadget" and the rest is history.
Fad first appeared on the music scene with the seminal electro-pop single "Back to Nature", which features a hypnotic synth-bass pattern, drum machines, what sounds like electronic animal noises, and Daniel Miller production work. It was backed with "The Box", another classic early electro-pop song. Following this Fad released a second single in 1980, "Ricky's Hand", which is a very thumping electronic dance song (complete with whirs provided by Fad's use of, according to the song credits, a "V.8 double speed electric drill") and more of Miller's trademark production.
In 1980, Fad released his first album, "Fireside Favourites", a 9 track album of electronic delights. From the synth-rocking opening track "Pedestrian" to the epic instrumental closer "Arch of the Aorta", it is a classic album. It produced the single "Fireside Favorite", a jaunty, poppy dance-hall number about nuclear annihilation and mutation. The b-side was "Insecticide" (which also appeared on the album, and uses many quirky insect sound effects, mostly keyboard generated... a great tune). Fad now had an actual band behind him: Eric Radcliffe on guitar and bass guitar, Nick Cash on drums, John Fryer (additional studio help) and of course, some assistance from Daniel Miller, who helped with production and did some keyboard work. It's still Fad's show though: The album credits list him as "voice, synthesizer, tapes, drum machine, ashtray, metal chair, electronic shaver, studio". Part of the joy of Fad's albums are his voice: Think of a more melodic Genesis P-Orridge is perhaps the best way I can describe it.
Fad's second album, "Incontinet", was released in 1981, again on Mute (in between the first album and the second he released two more singles: "Make Room", which utilized cut-up radio voices, and "Lady Shave"). "Incontinent", like the first album, also had nine songs, though now many of them were much longer. While a good album, it isn't QUITE as brilliant as the previous one (or the two that follow, for that matter). It does have the great piano-driven single "Saturday Night Special", which I guess mocks notions of masculinity and guns, but not as many of the songs leap out at you. The production is a lot slicker too, actually. Produced by Fad Gadget, John Fryer and Eric Radcliffe (and with an album cover of Fad in his "Flip the Clown" costume by Anton Corbyn) it features many of the same players from the first album along with new faces, such as Anne Clift on female back-up vocals, David Simmonds on piano and synth, and a cameo by Wire's drummer Robert Gotobed on the track "Manual Dexterity", which is almost entirely a song of rhythms.
In 1982 Fad released a third album, "Under the Flag", which many fans think is his best work (it is also the first album of his I ever listened to). Many of the songs on this one are electronic dance-orientated, especially the classic single "Love Parasite" and the two "Under the Flag" pieces that open and close the album. It also features synth-pop ("Scapegoat") acapella ("Plainsong", driven by bells) and one of Fad's greatest singles, the beautifuly melodic "Life on the Line", a song about the record industry. His most topical album, the material covered war, poverty, unemployment, and concerns for his newborn child's future. Once again produced by Fad with help from John Fryer and an album cover by Corbijn, it again featured the usual faces along with a few new ones: Most notably Alison Moyet on saxaphone and background female vocals.
In 1983, Fad released the single "I Discover Love", a big band, jazz-sounding number that is absolutely delightful to the ears (it also had a guest cameo by Rowland S. Howard on guitar). In 1984, Tovey released his final album under the Gadget name, "Gag". The cover, which featured Fad tarred and feathered, was once again done by Corbijn. Less people worked on the music on this one (in fact, for this album all Fad contributed was his voice and production) though it did feature a cameo from his baby and, once again, Rowland S. Howard on two songs. It was also produced by Gareth Jones, who produced a few classic Depeche Mode albums. "Gag" is a classy final album, with some of Fad's best singles: "One Man's Meat", a poppy upbeat track which I guess is about masturbation, judging from the noises Fad makes at one point, and one of my all-time favorite Gadget singles, the industrial dance number "Collapsing New People", about trendy artists in Berlin (the single had a Berlin mix
featuring Einsturzende Neubauten!) The album also includes another of my favorite Fad Gadget songs, "Jump", where Fad advises a suicidal person in the chorus to "JUMP!" Brilliant. This album was released at the height of Fad's career... by this point, he was even appearing with Siouxsie & the Banshees at the Royal Albert Hall (and if that's not an accomplishment, I don't know what is).
After "Gag", Tovey shut down Fad Gadget and began releasing solo albums under his own name, albums where he abandoned electronics to focus on playing "real instruments" like guitar. He did about five of these, but I haven't heard any of them. In the early 80's he released an album under his own name with NON's Boyd Rice called "Easy Listening For The Hard of Hearing" which I've sadly never heard but from what I gather the enhtire album was made using only household objects and found sounds... apparently it wasn't released for a few years because the two couldn't agree on the cover art!
Although he did quite a few studio albums Fad also did a lot of live shows, though for some reason there's never been a live CD released. He was very confrontational in a lot of these shows... In 1980, for example, at the Clarendon in London he smacked his head against his drum machine during the opening number until it split open and he began bleeding all over the stage, causing some people to faint before he was dragged off stage and bandaged up. Then there was a show in 1982 (reviewed by Gavin Martin: a review and picture appear in the liner notes of the "Incontinet" CD) where a shirtless Fad ripped out tufts of his pubic hair and showered them on the heads of the audience.His 1983 European tour ended halfway through after a stage dive ended up with him getting a "busted nose, two black eyes, a glass lacerated back, minor contusions, and plastered legs". Or his 1984 double bill with Einsturzende Neubauten in which he kept jumping up and grabbing at the air-conditioning vent above the stage until the entire false ceiling collpased on him. In his live antics he was much like Suicide: Confrontational concerts, melodic studio albums.
The eighties ended, and Fad Gadget faded away to obscurity, becoming a cult thing. However, in the early 2000's, when Depeche Mode went on their European tour for the album "Exciter", they got Tovey to reprise his Fad Gadget persona for their support band, and once again, Fad was back, drills, whip cream and all. He began work on a fifth Fad Gadget album... Sadly, he died of a heart attack shortly afterwards (I think in 2002), so it will probably never come to be.
Many of Fad's 80's albums were re-released by Mute in 1991 along with a singles collection: These CDs are hard to find today and when you do find them they're usually very expensive, as I found out! Fortunetly, in 2001 Mute released the mostly ignored "The Best of Fad Gadget", a 2 CD collection with liner notes by Paul Morley. The first CD featured singles and b-sides, the second remixes, new mixes, and more b-sides. This CD is a little easier to find and is perhaps the best starting point for the Fad Gadget novice... To be honest, his singles were always more impressive then his albums, many of which had filler. "Back to Nature", "The Box", "Ricky's Hand", "Fireside Favorite", "Insecticide", "Life on the Line", "Love Parasite", "I Discover Love", "One Man's Meat", "Collapsing New People" (AND the Neubauten Berlin mix on Disc 2!), it's all here (except for "Jump") Highly recommened. |
