ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

This however was not possible as there were commercial pressures from the record company, management etc. to keep the whole OMD ball rolling. So faced with this I decided to get off the ride really, this was compounded by the fact that Andy and I stylistically couldn’t agree on a musical way forward. All a bit of a shame really as I thought even though we had already been hugely successful, OMD could have gone on to even greater things. Andy and I worked together again in 1998 touring Europe doing promotion for a singles collection Virgin had just released where we managed to put a lot of the bad feeling to rest. I’m actually writing this on tour with Andy in Germany as we agreed to do the Nokia Night of the Proms tour together as OMD, playing some of our old hits with a full Orchestra and Choir. The other thing I have agreed to do with OMD is to go on tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our seminal album “Architecture and Morality” where we will be doing a small tour of the UK and Europe playing the whole of the record. I would like to point out however, that I may work again with OMD from time to time but my commitment to Onetwo is full and complete. It just means that my work load increases dramatically from time to time!

Chain D.L.K.: The things for Propaganda also started well with “Dr. Mabuse” and the full-length “A Secret Wish”. But afterwards the success didn’t continue and also Propaganda called its split, as far what I know in some bad terms. So I would also like to ask you, Claudia, to give us some background of the sudden end of Propaganda, as far as this is allowed to ask for …

One Two: (CB) The bone of contention was always the fact that we were on a very bad deal with ZTT but I do remember there was willingness for negotiation on ZTT’s side. Unfortunately we had incompetent management which did nothing to nurture a feeling of solidarity within the band. It was always like hey you should get rid of her (meaning me) you don’t need her and the other way around, hey you don’t need them, why don’t you get rid of them. Evidently that’s not good management. Sadly the rest of the band thought it more of a threat that I was married to label director Paul Morley and they thought we wanted to be in control, which we really weren’t. Paul always loved and cared for the bands he signed and would always support the artist he signed wholeheartedly, him being more of an artist himself rather than a company boss. The rest of the band decided they wanted to part with ZTT and seek better fortune elsewhere but I really wanted to stay with ZTT knowing I wanted to be around this creative energy that I had been immersed in for the last 18 month. We had such a great team of people, working with Lippo was such a treat and getting Trevor’s expertise was something I knew that wouldn’t be easily found anywhere else. So we parted and I decided to stay with ZTT.

Chain D.L.K.: Your mutual time with OMD happened to end in 1990. Where have you been and what have you done through the years, Paul?

One Two: (PH) Well by the time the lawyers had untangled the legal issues left over from the demise of my time with OMD and Virgin Records it was 1992 , I was living in Los Angeles and my wife at the time had given birth to my daughter so I basically took a few years off to be a full time father. I had become somewhat disillusioned with being an artist too by this time but in 1994 I decided to go back to work again but this time on the other side of the business and formed an independent record label based in Liverpool with my former OMD colleagues Mal Holmes and Martin Cooper. We launched the label Telegraph Records with an album full of songs I had written over a period of years with Malcolm and Martin under the name The Listening Pool. We released the album ,not to start a new band but really to use the release to attract attention to the label and hopefully other artists. Continue »

We subsequently signed China Crisis, Pete Coyle from the Lotus Eaters and several local bands that we had signed to help and develop. The label was ultimately financially under-funded and as my marriage failed during this period I basically lost the drive and the interest in it. That then takes me up to meeting Claudia.

Chain D.L.K.: Nearly the same question for you, Claudia, although you have done here and there some vocal contributions (Act, also later with Andy Bell on his solo album …) and a solo album. What else has happened for you personally?

One Two: (CB) After I finished Propaganda I stayed on ZTT and formed Act with Thomas Leer. We co-wrote the album “Laughter Tears and Rage” together and in 1991 I released my solo album “Love and a million other things” on Island Records. Since then I’ve collaborated with many writers from all sorts of genre including The Startled Insects, Barry Adamson, Nicki Chinn, Blank and Jones, Spiritfeel and Chromeseduction. I also after the release of my solo album dedicated my years to my daughter who was born 1992

Chain D.L.K.: Some words to Theremusic, which seems to be your own label and home base. Are you nowadays really independent working and alone responsible for your decisions?

One Two: (PH) Yes we talked with some of the major labels with our Onetwo idea, but ultimately decided that being independent was the way forward. The corporate music industry has been imploding for several years now and we are returning back to the way the industry was in the late 70’s / early eighties when all the good things were happening with new independents i.e. Factory/ Mute etc. So, as I bring some experience from running Telegraph in the nineties, we decided to start our new label There(there)

Chain D.L.K.: Please describe us your earlier release “Item” and the its conceptual idea. Was it a kind of promotional release to catch attention by a few labels?

One Two: (CB) “Item” was an experiment. It’s called “Item” because it was originally intended as an eBay only release and “Item” is what all products are called in that environment. It sold thousands through eBay and attracted the attention of many 3rd party distributors so it ended up being sold in some shops and was actually exported around the world by Mute Records.

Chain D.L.K.: The track “Cloud 9" got co-composed by Martin L. Gore of Depeche Mode. How did you get in contact with him and how did you “persuade” him to help out? Is it thinkable that this track will be accompanying the album “Instead” as a Single-CD release? Any video stuff you¹re working on to satisfy the MTV/VIVA youth generation?

One Two: (CB) Well, being as solo artist for so long, I’ve always sought to work and collaborate with other musicians. I think I am a very creative person and I always have ideas for new songs going around in my head. On this occasions I started to write a little chord sequence on guitar and I pretty much had the lyrics plus the verse melodies sorted out but as my knowledge of chords on guitars are limited I simply thought, hmm, who could I ask to help me with this song and seriously, Martin who lived closed by, came into my mind. I never thought of Martin the guy from Depeche but just of Martin who’s a great singer songwriter guitarist and because we were mates and he was around and he lived close by I just rang him up and told him that I wanted to play him a bit of my song. We met up and he listened and I said please help me finish writing it and he said no way I can’t do that I’ve never written with ANYONE BEFORE, SO I replied well don’t worry, why don’t you give it a go and if it doesn’t work than just throw it in the rubbish, and then I left. After a couple of days Martin called me up and said, hey I’ve done it  …it was a doodle …and that was the way “Cloud 9" was written. He’s such a sweetheart!

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