As what used to be called studio boffins, Art Of Noise were deliberately faceless and imageless, great for the sort of theories Paul Morley draped around their oeuvre, less so if you have a hit single and the BBC want to know if you'd like to come in and represent it on prime-time television. So step forward Anne Dudley, Gary Langan and JJ Jeczalik, two Fairlights and a liberally 'played' mixing desk, some masks of the design as seen on their record sleeves, some sort of fur stole, berets and the full whiff of artisan. Their Tube appearance for the same is worth a look for Morley visual input, clown costumage and an absolutely static audience.
2 comments:
The faceless image is a tricky thing to pull off. Better done these days by the various bedroom musician producer types and virtual bands. I once read that Morley originally wanted the TOTP appearance to just feature stylised string puppets. Ho hum.
I remember as late as 89 when they were promoting 'Yebo' the AoN were still described as "faceless", despite a live tour, a good few TOTP appearances and they were forever turning up on TV to be interviewed about samplers. I thought it went to show how well Paul Morley's original concept stuck in the mind - just because the band didn't appear on record sleeves and only turned up for one of their promo videos.
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