#Stephen Luscombe

[mitjalovse]

Am I basically suggesting that these unintentionally perfect finales should be the end of the musicians I discuss on the posts about the topic? I don't think so. I believe you can continue after these records with Blancmange showing that succinctly. While the project doesn't reach the heights of the 80's, Mr. Arthur can still provide you with some great music. Of course, Believe You Me sort of served as a finish, though the reunion of the outfit resulted into something completely distinct. I agree, Mr. Neil Arthur could've released the latest under a different moniker, but I think he wanted to say this is still a part of the same ethos as what the group was in the 80's. However, he and Luscombe did put a full stop on Believe You Me, though they carried on with the next sentence …

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Richard Luscombe at The Guardian:

Six major book publishers have teamed up to sue the US state of Florida over an “unconstitutional” law that has seen hundreds of titles purged from school libraries following rightwing challenges. The landmark action targets the “sweeping book removal provisions” of House Bill 1069, which required school districts to set up a mechanism for parents to object to anything they considered pornographic or inappropriate. A central plank of Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s war on “woke” on Florida campuses, the law has been abused by rightwing activists who quickly realized that any book they challenged had to be immediately removed and replaced only after the exhaustion of a lengthy and cumbersome review process, if at all, the publishers say. Since it went into effect last July, countless titles have been removed from elementary, middle and high school libraries, including American classics such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Contemporary novels by bestselling authors such as Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume and Stephen King have also been removed, as well as The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank’s gripping account of the Holocaust, according to the publishers. “Florida HB 1069’s complex and overbroad provisions have created chaos and turmoil across the state, resulting in thousands of historic and modern classics, works we are proud to publish, being unlawfully labeled obscene and removed from shelves,” Dan Novack, vice-president and associate general counsel of Penguin Random House (PRH), said in a statement. “Students need access to books that reflect a wide range of human experiences to learn and grow. It’s imperative for the education of our young people that teachers and librarians be allowed to use their professional expertise to match our authors’ books to the right reader at the right time in their life.” PRH is joined in the action by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks. The 94-page lawsuit, which also features as plaintiffs the Authors Guild and a number of individual writers, was filed in federal court in Orlando on Thursday.

The suit contends the book removal provisions violate previous supreme court decisions relating to reviewing works for their literary, artistic, political and scientific value as a whole while considering any potential obscenity; and seeks to restore the discretion “of trained educators to evaluate books holistically to avoid harm to students who will otherwise lose access to a wide range of viewpoints”. “Book bans censor authors’ voices, negating and silencing their lived experience and stories,” Mary Rasenberger, chief executive of the Authors Guild, said in the statement. “These bans have a chilling effect on what authors write about, and they damage authors’ reputations by creating the false notion that there is something unseemly about their books. “Yet these same books have edified young people for decades, expanding worlds and fostering self-esteem and empathy for others. We all lose out when authors’ truths are censored.” Separate from the publishers’ action, a group of three parents filed their own lawsuit in June, insisting that the law discriminated against parents who oppose book bans and censorship because it allowed others to dictate what their children can and cannot read.

Six major publishers sue Florida over book ban law HB1069.

[kraftwerk113]

Life´s too short for weird music - Tagesempfehlung 19.11.2023

Blancmange / Blind vision

Heute in der Jahresrubrik Life´stoo short for weird music 40 x 1983: Blancmange mit Blind vision. Das überraschend erfolgreiche Debütalbum Happy families (1982) ist abgewickelt und Neil Arthur und Stephen Luscombe stehen in 1983 unter Druck nachzulegen. Mit Blind vision erscheint dann im Mai 1983 erstes neues Material von Blancmange. Blind vision knüpft nahtlos an den Sound von Mange tout an. Auch kommerziell ist Blind vision erfolgreich, erreicht Platz 10 der UK Singles Charts. Blind vision ist die einzige Veröffentlichung des Duos in 1983, findet sich aber auf dem in 1984 veröffentlichten zweiten Blancmange Album Mange tout wieder. 

[odk-2]

Blancmange - Blind Vision (Long Version) (1984) Neil Arthur / Stephen Luscombe from: "Mange Tout" (LP|CD Extended Version)

Synth-Pop | New Wave | Electronica | Electro-Funk

JukehostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Neil Arthur: Lead Vocals / Drums Stephen Luscombe: Keyboards / Trumpet

David Rhodes: Guitars Neil Jason: Bass Bashira Johnson: Percussion

Horns: The Uptown Horns: Crispin Cioe: Saxophone Arno Hecht: Saxophone Robert Funk: Trumpet Paul Litteral: Trombone

Backing Vocals: Dolette McDonald Brenda Jay Nelson Jocelyn Brown

Conductor [Maestro]:  James Biondolillo Produced by John Luongo

Recorded: @ Sigma Sound Studios New York City, New York USA 1983

Released: 1984

London Records (UK) Island Records (US)

Edsel Records (2 CD Reissue)

[stevenvenn]

Blancmange - Blind Vision (from Mange Tout) Got a hankering to dig into this 80s gem again. Such a great album! I listened to the crap out of this in my teens. Love it. Sorry I’ve been MIA. Covid is nasty (even if it’s mild). On the mend.

[heartbeatkitty]

Same energy

[scumpatrol]

BLANCMANGE, 1984

[popsixsquishcicerolipschitz]

West India Company -- O Je Suis Seul - (Baghwan Boogie Mix) Weatherall Remix

Music Maker

Artwork By [Design & Illustration] -- Tom Hughes Engineer -- Thrash Performer [Member] -- Asha Bhosle, Pandit Dinesh, Peter Culshaw, Stephen Luscombe Producer -- Pandit Dinesh, Stephen Luscombe Remix -- Andrew Weatherall

Concept: Gerard Talbot & Keith Wood. Re-mixed from original track off West India Company "New Demons" (EGED 61 / EGEDC61 / EEGCD 61). manufacted and distributed by Caroline Records, Inc. Editions EG  c&p 1990

[maidenauntsoftechno]

A couple Stephen gifs for your edification.

(link)

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: one of my favourite “hidden gems” of the mid-1980s, Blancmange’s *Mange Tout* is about as extra and in-your-face as it gets, full of dense arrangements, gender-bending bombast, and musical instruments from Southern Asia.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! This time around, I’ll be taking a look at one of my favourite hidden gems from the mid-1980s, the sophomore LP of Blancmange, entitled Mange Tout.

Despite their relative obscurity today, particularly in comparison to many of their contemporaries, Blancmange weren’t total strangers to the pop charts. Their first full-length LP, 1982’s Happy Families, would yield the biggest hit of their career: “Living on the Ceiling,” which peaked at #7.

Music: “Living on the Ceiling”

While it never got to be a chart-topper, “Living on the Ceiling” is still an unforgettable track in its own ways. Perhaps its most distinctive feature is its use of the traditional Indian instruments, the sitar and tabla. While 80s synth-pop is certainly full of Orientalism, most of the references you’ll find are pointing to the Far East, and the perceived aesthetic sophistication and techno-utopian futurism of China and Japan. Aside from certain works of Bill Nelson, Blancmange were pretty much the only ones engaging with South Asian musical themes. Blancmange’s instrumentalist, Stephen Luscombe, grew up in London’s Southall neighbourhood, which had a high population of immigrants from Southern Asia, which led him to a lifelong interest in Indian music. Combined with electronics, it makes for a totally unique sound, which ends up sounding better in practice than it might in theory.

While any time White European musicians turn to alternative cultures as artistic tools, there’s a valid cause for some degree of criticism and concern, there’s also an artsy, left-field un-hipness about Blancmange, who seemingly drew from Indian music not only alone, but purely for sonic enjoyment. Unlike the exotic fantasies spun by groups like Japan, none of Blancmange’s songs seem propelled by any specific idea or ideology about India, but rather seem to tackle common pop themes of love and heartbreak against a seemingly *non sequitur* musical backdrop. While we, as listeners, might have strong associations with particular sounds, this is ultimately more cultural than innate, and there’s really no reason why a composition with Indian instruments must revolve around some theme of “Indian-ness”; it isn’t like people in India don’t also fall in love. However you feel about these influences, the role of Indian instruments is only increased on Mange Tout, where they appear on multiple tracks, including the album’s most successful single, “Don’t Tel Me.”

Music: “Don’t Tell Me”

On Mange Tout tracks like “Don’t Tell Me,” not only do the instruments return, but so do the session musicians who had performed on “Living on the Ceiling”: Deepak Khazanchi, on sitar, and Pandit Dinesh, on the percussion instruments tabla and madal. “Don’t Tell Me” is a track with a lot of pop appeal, lightweight and singable, which makes it a bit surprising that it was actually the final single released from the album. It certainly impresses me that Blancmange managed to create such bubbly and finely tuned pop, given that neither of their core members came from any formal or technical background: Luscombe had had a history in avant-garde music ensembles, and vocalist Neil Arthur became interested in music via the DIY culture of punk. Their first-ever release, the 1980 EP Irene & Mavis, sounds more like Throbbing Gristle than Culture Club, but they somehow managed to arrive at something quite sweet and palatable in the end. That said, it’s also possible for sweet to eventually become too sweet--and this line is provoked on the album’s divisive second single, “That’s Love, That It Is.”

Music: “That’s Love, That It Is”

In contrast to the lighter “Don’t Tell Me,” “That’s Love, That It Is” is utterly bombastic, with a vicious intensity. The instrumentation and production style is dense to the point of being borderline overwhelming. By this point in his life, Stephen Luscombe had recently discovered that he was gay, and his time spent in nightclubs that catered to the gay community provided another pillar of Blancmange’s signature sound: the influence of the queer disco tradition, which is almost certainly the source of this tightly-packed instrumental arrangement style. Blancmange never seem to be mentioned in the same breath as other stars of queer synth-pop like Bronski Beat, Soft Cell, and the Pet Shop Boys, presumably due to the combination of their overall obscurity and the fact that Luscombe was never the face of their band, but I see no reason not to include them in the same pantheon of camp. Speaking of queerness, it’s also worth noting how Blancmange played with gender, particularly on their cover of “The Day Before You Came.”

Music: “The Day Before You Came”

A solid eight years before Erasure’s iconic Abba-Esque, Blancmange offered their own interpretation of an ABBA classic with “The Day Before You Came.” In their hands, it’s a languid dirge, and a meditation on quotidian miseries for which the titular event seems to offer little respite. The unchanged lyrics, portraying the narrator working in an office and watching soap operas at night, are subtly feminine-coded, but the deep and unmistakably masculine voice of vocalist Neil Arthur seems to muddle those connotations. While it is a cover, I’m tempted to sort it into the same tradition as Soft Cell’s “Bedsitter” and the Pet Shop Boys’ “Left To My Own Devices,” as a work which musically elevates the everyday life of a campily self-obsessed character to the sort of melodrama the narrator perceives it to have.

I’ve spent a lot of time praising the instrumental side of their music so far, but it’s also true that Blancmange wouldn’t be Blancmange without Arthur’s contributions. The presence of his rough and untrained voice, with the added gruffness of a Northern accent, draws a line between these tracks and a typical pop production, and he sells us quite successfully on the gloomy, ominous feeling of tracks like “The Day Before You Came” and the album’s lead single, “Blind Vision.”

Music: “Blind Vision”

On the cover of Mange Tout, we find an assortment of seemingly unrelated items, which form a sort of graphic wunderkammer against a pale beige backdrop. Perhaps the best theme that could be assigned to them is that of travel--we see several means of transportation, such as a boat, a motorbike, and an airplane flying above a map, as well as items that can be taken as symbols of exotic locales, such as a North American cactus, and an elephant and Zulu nguni shield from Africa. Only the harp is clearly evocative of music itself--and this instrument won’t even be found on the album! The album’s title, “Mange Tout,” suggests that we are getting “full” Blancmange, or “all of” Blancmange. Taken together, the cover and title seem to imply that this album is stuffed to the brim, and contains a whole world of musical ideas. I would definitely agree that that’s a major motif of the album: it’s audacious, explosive, and free-wheeling. It very much feels like an album that was put together on the back of a first initial success, with a pumped-up budget and bold creative vision, and hence pulls no punches. Perhaps the most compelling feature of Mange Tout, and the primary reason I recommend this album so highly, is its unbridled enthusiasm for what it’s doing. Even in its ostensibly experimental moments, Mange Tout feels not like an album that is “trying” something, but rather one that boldly and assuredly proclaims the things it does, and embraces a kind of “more is more” maximalism.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see Mange Tout as the creative as well as commercial peak of Blancmange’s career. Their follow-up release, 1985’s Believe You Me, is far from the worst album I’ve ever heard, but it definitely doesn’t feel quite the same as the “classic” Blancmange works, adopting a more middle-of-the-road, radio-friendly synth-pop direction, with less of the South Asian influences and experimentation that really set them apart in the saturated synth-pop landscape. While not a work devoid of merit, Believe You Me was a relative commercial dud, and the duo would split soon after, chiefly citing personal and creative differences--though they did have a brief reunion in the early 2010s.

Music: “Lose Your Love”

My favourite track on Mange Tout is “All Things Are Nice,” which, alongside the neo-doo-wop “See the Train,” would be classed as one of the more experimental tracks on the album. Full of tension, “All Things Are Nice” alternates between eerily whispering vocals from Arthur, and a variety of samples from other media--which was still a relatively cutting-edge technique for the time. “All Things Are Nice” is almost certainly the most conceptual track on the album: as samples discuss world war, and Arthur whispers that “we can’t keep up with it,” the song is probably to be interpreted as a commentary on the runaway nature of technology and so-called “progress” in the modern age. The titular assertion that “all things are nice” seems to be ironic--or perhaps it embodies a sheer love of chaos and unpredictability, for their own sake, which would certainly fit the album’s mood. It also feels like it might be a sort of defense of the album itself: like I said, *Mange Tout* is serving us “all of Blancmange,” and isn’t it fun to get to have all of something? That’s everything for today--as always, thanks for listening!

Music: “All Things Are Nice”

[strangears]

Synthpop rétrospective - Discographie Erasure :  Wonderland

          Alors que le dernier album de Yazoo sort à peine, Vince Clarke a déjà la tête ailleurs. Tout d'abord, avec son comparse/ingénieur du son Eric Radcliffe, présent depuis Speak and Spell sur toutes ses productions, il lance le projet « The Assembly » : il souhaite réaliser un album entier dont il assurerait lui-même la composition et tous les aspects musicaux tandis que des interprètes seraient invités pour prêter leur voix le temps d'une chanson. Le projet avorte rapidement du fait du manque de disponibilité et d'intérêt des chanteurs contactés. Il en résulte que la discographie de The Assembly se borne à un unique single, « Never Never », réalisé avec le chanteur irlandais des Undertones, Feargal Sharkey ; une ballade qui rappelle déjà celles produites avec Alison Moyet pour Yazoo, un tube restreint à quelques pays d'Europe (Allemagne, Suisse, Royaume-Uni).

     On se demande alors pourquoi The Assembly tient une place si importante dans la biographie de Vince Clarke. D'autant plus que sur la même période entre Yazoo et Erasure, il se lance dans des projets bien plus intéressants. En 1984, il sort avec ses anciens camarades d'école ; Paul Quinn et leur « One Day », Robert Marlow et leur « The Face of Dorian Gray » ; des titres qui restent franchement potables et l'album solo de Robert Marlow (qui sortira 15 ans plus tard, faute d'intérêt du public et du label RCA) possède une qualité de production aussi prenante et efficace que ce que Vince a produit jusque là (pour ce que j'en ai entendu), même s'il en a pas écrit les mélodies. Il sort la même année un EP du nom de West India Company. En compagnie de Stephen Luscombe de Blancmange, Pandit Dinesh et Asha Bhosie, ils livrent un mariage pertinent entre son Électro occidental et la musique indienne, se rangeant dans une New Age proche de Jean Michel Jarre ou Vangelis. Une curiosité passée inaperçue à (re)découvrir.

     Passons à la naissance de son ultime acte Pop. En 1985,  après une nouvelle annonce pour le Melody Maker et un énorme casting sur près de 80 candidats, Vince accroche avec le 36ème, un certain Andy Bell. Celui-ci a fait ses armes en tant qu'enfant de chœur et garde les bases de cette expérience, son style s'approchant du chant lyrique. Il forme un premier groupe, Dinger, qui sortit de manière presque confidentielle le 45 tours « Air of Mystery » puis après ce casting, il découvre à 21 ans qu'il va pouvoir travailler avec son idole, ce cher Vince Clarke. Ils choisissent le nom Erasure pour son côté énigmatique, abstrait, voulant aussi bien dire effacement que gommage et faisant référence à la nation fictive Eurasia du “1984″ d'Orwell et au “Eraserhead” de Lynch. Et l'année suivante sort Wonderland, leur premier album, produit par Flood (le producteur de Violator entre autres...)

     Sur les trois singles choisis, seul le dernier « Oh l'Amour » rencontre un succès relatif, ce sera d'ailleurs le seul de toute la carrière d'Erasure à rentrer dans les charts françaises (sûrement parce que le titre est français... chauvinisme...) Je le trouve pour ma part un peu trop mièvre dans cette version pour convaincre. Oui, le succès n'est pas immédiat, il faudra par exemple attendre 1992 pour que le premier single « Who Needs Love Like That » soit reconnu à sa juste valeur, à savoir un pur tube Hi-NRJ. Il faut dire que le public voient Andy Bell à ses débuts comme un simple imitateur d'Alison Moyet. Même si la ressemblance entre les deux voix est parfois marquante, celle d'Andy se démarque assez par son grain particulier et sa prestance dans les aigus pour ne pas souffrir cette comparaison facile.

     Après, le problème vient sûrement d'un manque de directions nouvelles, car avec Wonderland, Vince Clarke ne propose rien de plus que ce qu'il a pu produire auparavant, dans une continuité qui se répète. Il puise dans son spectre musical allant de ballades bluesy à des tubes plus dansants, de Yazoo à Depeche Mode avec son style qu'il maîtrise maintenant à la perfection : il n'y a pas plus Synthpop qu'Erasure ! Et c'est aussi un problème car du coup, il n y aura pas grand chose à dire sur ces premiers albums. Il s'agira souvent d'une collection de tubes Pop dans laquelle il suffit de piocher pour garder ceux qui nous attirent, nous attrapent pour nous faire bouger ou nous restent le plus facilement en tête. Pour ma part, je ne garde ici que « Who Needs Love Like That » et  « Senseless », même si je comprend qu'il soit facile de succomber aux charmes surannés des autres titres.

Recommandation : ***/5

[kraftwerk113]

Life´s too short for weird music - Tagesempfehlung 11.10.2022

Blancmange / Everything is connected

Seit der Reunion in 2011 haben Neil Arthur und Stephen Luscombe aka Blancmange einige Alben und Singles von recht unterschiedlicher Qualität veröffentlicht. Auch as aktuelle Album Private view macht hier leider keine Ausnahme beinhaltet aber das ziemlich großartige Everything is connected, ein Song der irgendwie aus der besten Blancmange Zeit (1982 – 1985) gefallen und sich ohne Qualitätsverlust im Jahr 2022 wiederfindet.

[gigsoupmusic]

Donna Lewis Teams up with David Baron on Kate Bush Cover ‘Running Up That Hill ’

Platinum award-winning Welsh songstress Donna Lewis and producer, arranger, mixer and engineer David Baron have teamed up again on ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ their own rendition of the original by Kate Bush released on 30 August via Here and Now Recordings. Donna Lewis, who co-wrote and performs the vocals to the track, needs no introduction. Her hit ‘I Love You, Always Forever’ racked up over 60 million Youtube plays, and over 58 million Spotify streams, featured extensively on MTV, reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and ultimately reached platinum status. Lewis' second album, Blue Planet (1998), spawned two hits including ‘Love Him,’ which topped the Billboard dance charts. She worked with producer Trevor Horne on The Art of Noise's The Seduction of Claude Debussy and again on the film Anastasia, a duet with Richard Marx for ‘At the Beginning’. This reached number two on the US Adult Contemporary chart. Her collaboration with progressive house duo Project 46 & DubVision ‘You and I’ on Spinnin’ Records reached Top 5 on the Beatport chart. https://open.spotify.com/track/4Y4Z06fLCMTe737v2eMdBa?si=Hd9IREOoSRi5Hwk-JHpGtA The pair have whipped up a storm with their previous release ‘Bad Bad Love’ (feat. Donna Lewis)’ which premiered on Clash Magazine, and received a personal mention from The Lumineers’ Jeremy Fraites, with the birth of his son. The single received airplay from BBC Radio Wales' Adam Walton and Janice Long, and press support from tmrw Magazine and XS Noize. This follows on from the successful release of Baron’s previous track ‘People of No Concern’ (feat. Lettie & Madeleine.) Baron has worked with The Lumineers , Lenny Kravitz, Peter Murphy (Bauhaus), Simone Felice, Shawn Mendes, Meghan Trainor, Melanie De Biasio, Bat For Lashes, Jade Bird, Vance Joy, Matt Maeson, Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, Michael Jackson and Gregory Gonzales (Cigarettes After Sex) He has seen press support from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Earmilk, Consequence of Sound, Harper's Bazaar, The Line of Best Fit and airplay from BBC 6 Music’s Nemone and BBC Radio 3’s Nick Luscombe. Television appearances include NBC San Diego, and working alongside Glassnote Records with Jade Bird for her performances on Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and BBC Radio 1s Live Lounge. Baron cites a wide array of influences - from Samuel Barber's Adagio, to Max Richter, Zero 7, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and The Cinematic Orchestra. On ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ Baron and Lewis put their own idiosyncratic voice on the original track by Kate Bush. While at once nostalgic, the change in direction suffuses the track with a string quintet and modular synthesizers. Both poignant and expressive, ‘Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)’ addresses themes of human relationships - love, conflict, reconciliation and understanding. Drawing parallels to the orchestral tones of Ólafur Arnalds, with vocals that are reminiscent of Susanne Sundfør, ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ is a rhetorical question, lovingly wrapped in Donna Lewis’s irresistible vocals. Speaking of the track Donna Lewis notes: David and I wanted to give Running Up That Hill a uniqueness that the song deserves. Starting out with a stark piano vocal performance, David then wrote a string and synth arrangement around the vocals to create a beautiful balance of simplicity and complexity.” Baron explains: “‘Running Up That Hill’ has one of the most meaningful lyrics: “There’s so much hate for the ones we love”. It is a stark reality for many who are in troubled relationships. We just do not understand each other. The string quintet, modular synthesizers, and vocals morph between sweet and strident, sonorous and dissonant. There is never a true resolution, only a musical ladder that is climbed without ever reaching the top. You can see the clouds - but you can not touch them. It is in this yearning that a truth is revealed by Kate Bush - it is up to us to try to understand each other.” Read the full article

[heartbeatkitty]

STEPHEN, NO

(Many thanks to @natromanxoff for sharing the full 1983 episode of Pop Quiz!)

[scumpatrol]

BLANCMANGE, 1982

[viralnewstime]

Stephen “The Ghost” Walker, a longtime fixture of Melbourne community station Triple R, passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer.

Walker served 14 years as Program Manager at the station, and was a presenter for 37 years with shows such as Skull Cave, From The Bunker, Survival Talkback and Ghost In The Machine. In particular, Skull Cave was a popular weekly program, which Walker handed the reins over to Woody McDonald in 2018.

Walker’s first ever broadcast was a late-night shift in 1981. “I started off with Cabaret Voltaire’s Voice of America album and I finished off with Pere Ubu’s Modern Dance album and all the journey that it took in between,” Walker once reflected in an interview with The Age. “So that was the way the twig was already bent back then.”

//

//

Walker was the first radio presenter to ever be inducted into The Age Music Victoria Awards Hall of Fame, an honour he received in 2011 for his contribution to Melbourne culture. In 2011, to celebrate his then 30 years on Triple R, the likes of Nick Cave with the Dirty Three, Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe from the Drones and more banded together to fundraise for medical treatment Walker required for MS.

“His on-air presence was something truly special,” commented Triple R in a statement posted this morning, remarking that he was “instrumental” in shaping the station’s sound during the late 80’s and 90’s, and noting frequent comparisons to John Peel that Walker received.

“Beyond his many contributions on air, we’ll miss Stephen’s wise words, his cheeky ability to shock, his heart-felt support for and interest in all things Triple R, his incredible vision and deeply philosophical nature. We celebrate Stephen’s contribution to Triple R, Melbourne underground culture, music and community broadcasting.”

You can head here for a selection of Skull Cave highlights, including a long-form interview with Patti Smith back in 2008.

The post Legendary Triple R Presenter Stephen “The Ghost” Walker Has Passed Away appeared first on Music Feeds.

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