PUNK JAZZ?

An interview with John L. Walters and Richard James Burgess of Landscape

Loydell, Rupert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2730-8489 (2024) PUNK JAZZ? Punk & Post-Punk journal, 13 (3). ISSN 2044-1983 (In Press)

Text (Accepted version of article) Landscape P+PP interviewLoydell.June 24 (1) (1).pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 1 January 2099. Download (447kB) | Request a copy

Abstract / Summary

Originally an eight-piece jazz band (1974), briefly a sextet (1975) and ultimately a five-piece, Landscape performed anywhere and everywhere they could in and around London and then further afield, from art colleges to village fetes as well as pub and club venues. I’m not sure if I first saw them at The Nashville or The Music Machine, but in 1977 they were a welcome distraction from and contrast to the pub rock and recycled pub rock of punk.

Landscape released two EPs, U2XME1X2MUCH in 1977 and Workers’ Playtime (1978) on their own Event Horizon label and managed to create quite a buzz around the band, with sold-out gigs, and then in 1979 their eponymous first album on a major label (RCA). They also appeared on the BBC’s science programme Tomorrow’s World, discussing computer programming as well as their electronic drums and wind instruments. It was a sign of things to come.

Before long two of the band were programming the Fairlight for Kate Bush’s third album Never for Ever (Bush 1980) and the whole band reinvented themselves as an electronic dance band, somewhat incongruously dressing themselves in futuristic vinyl, but soon achieving pop success with ‘Einstein a Go-Go’ and ‘Norman Bates', both tracks from their second album From the Tea-Rooms of Mars … to the Hell Holes of Uranus (Landscape 1981), both quirky, unexpected songs with killer hooks and bizarre videos.

The band would also turn up doing production duties and/or performing on various, often surprising, projects, not least music & dance troupe Shock’s deconstructive version of The Glitter Band's ‘Angel Face’ (Shock 1980), a neglected 7″ classic. Meanwhile, Landscape persisted with making their own dance music, although ‘European Man’ (Landscape 1980) failed to chart despite being issued several times. By the time 1982’s Manhattan Boogie-Woogie had been released, the moment had gone, as moments often do, and despite a brief incarnation as Landscape III (a trio), the band broke up for good in 1984, with members continuing session and production work, and writing for films and television, including bass player Andy Pask’s theme for TV cop drama The Bill (Morgan, Pask 1985).

Item Type:	Article
ISSN:	2044-1983
eISSN:	2044-3706
Subjects:	Music > Digital Music Music > Instrumental Writing & Journalism > Journalism Music Music > Popular Music Writing & Journalism
Courses by Department:	The School of Communication
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Rupert Loydell
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2024 15:13
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2024 15:13
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/5702

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