This led to a career in radio, writing for various publications, and ultimately a radio show about The Beatles (Beatles Universe), which ran for over four years. Conceived in the wake of the pandemic, the album looks beyond the trials of the past two years and strives to find answers and, moreover, solutions to the situation we’ve arrived at, with Neil insisting the desire to keep moving forward underpins the set. We ambled on, Stephen started the cassette player with the backing track, and I was still playing guitar at this point. All image and audio content is used by permission of the copyright holders or their agents, and/or according to fair dealing as per the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Nobody goes through a very close relationship with a partner without making some mistakes, and it’s a case of… how many times will that person put up with it?

It’s reminiscent of past glories in parts, evident with a vintage electronic sheen manifested in Here We Go Go, which has been on the back burner since the 80s according to Neil and is satisfyingly now getting an outing here. Forty years after adding understated guitar lines to Blancmange’s 1982 debut album Happy Families, Rhodes has brought equally tasteful textures to Private View. Arthur pretty much does everything on Private View, again assisted by Benge, also appearing is David Rhodes on guitar giving the two opening tracks What’s Your Name and Some Times These a distinctly harder edge.

Brilliantly taking cues from the forest-laden atmospheres of CLUSTER, ‘Take Me’ features some wonderful piano and guitar work. In June 2022, the modern-day Blancmange performed at the Meltdown Festival curated by the lady herself, at the aforementioned Southbank Centre.

She borrowed her mum’s Mini Clubman and picked our gear up, dressed to the nines in this beautiful 1950s dress and high heels. When Blanc Burn emerged to great acclaim in 2011, what – I wonder – were his ambitions for the reformed Blancmange? But I wanted it to be out there as an emotional thing, and of course I disguise my lyrics a little bit – it’s not straight down the line. It’s a sweaty, sticky afternoon on London’s South Bank, and we’re sitting outside a cafe round the back of the Royal Festival Hall. years and 16 albums later, Blancmange have re-signed to London Records with the captivating and inspired Private View, melding futuristic electronics, Neil Arthur’s unmistakable vocal hooks, and songs spanning buoyant and joyful to dark and brooding.Despite it being 45 years since the teenage Neil Arthur left his native Darwen for the moderately bright lights of late 1970s London. Continuing FADER partner Benge as producer who worked on the recent BLANCMANGE albums ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Mindset’ and ‘Commercial Break’, ‘Private View’ presents a striking opener in ‘What’s Your Name’; not a cover of the 1981 DEPECHE MODE tune, despite a sparse vibey start, it strums and crashes into action while Arthur uses a manipulated voice treatment to give a sense of other worldly alienation away from the indie rock track that this could easily be. Opening with a delicate piano motif before intertwining layers build to a motorik beat with Neil’s understated vocal, its quintessentially Blancmange and a fitting closer to an album that looks to the future while remaining respectful of the past.