Blancmange bring re-imagined Happy Families to tour next month

Eccentric music pioneers from the 1980's, Blancmange, have re-imagined and re-recorded their landmark 1982 debut album, 'Happy Families'. It is to be performed in full during a November 2013 tour, with the new album available exclusively at tour venues. Neil Arthur has given the songs that won popular acclaim three decades ago a thoroughly 21st century spin.

Neil refers to the new versions, which include fan favourites 'I Can't Explain', 'Waves', 'Feel Me', and the Top 10 hit 'Living On The Ceiling' – as an "interpretation".

"I just wanted to approach the songs using today's technology," he says. "Every time we perform it's a different interpretation. So rather than just dust off the old songs, I wanted to bring something fresh to the project and make it a contemporary reworking rather than an exact imitation."

Due to continuing health issues, Stephen Luscombe will be unable to join Neil on the tour. However, Neil will be joined for the entire list of dates by guitarist David Rhodes, who performed on the original album, and sound engineer Adam Fuest, a long-time collaborator who will be manipulating the live sound and visuals.

"The intention is to do something a bit like Roxy Music did with Brian Eno processing sounds live during a performance," says Neil. "It might be less predictable, it might even be a bit chaotic! But I like the excitement of that, the chance element – the feeling I'm moving forward creatively."

From their origins making experimental synth wave, to the chart-topping yet cool and credible hits, Blancmange were at the very heart of 1980s club culture, from support slots with Grace Jones, to killer 12" remixes by the likes of John Luongo. Their tracks were on regular rotation in sweaty nightclubs from New York, to Berlin to London, forming part of sets reflecting the open minded "as long as it moves the floor" policy of the time, that would see their records blended seamlessly with disco, post punk, EBM, new beat and early house. Their music also sat with equal comfort alongside both the synth pop of peers OMD or Human League and leftfield cult figures like Cabaret Voltaire or XTC and was undoubtedly popular with many of the leading electronic music pioneers worldwide.

Their influence on the past few years' slew of electro revivalists like La Roux, Hot Chip and Metronomy has been well documented, but of equal note is the likelihood that anyone partying from Dalston, Peckham, Brixton and beyond in recent times is likely to have heard Blancmange tracks fitting perfectly into sets by hip party selectors proffering cold wave, Balearic, electronic oddities, cosmic disco, house and even techno.

With their 2011 album 'Blanc Burn' having won critical acclaim, and the lasting legacy of their still-fresh past output, the time is ripe for yet more Blancmange action.

The tour begins on 3^rd November in Clitheroe, Lancashire, finishing in London and Cardiff on 15th & 16th. Tickets are here priced between £16 and £22.50 plus booking fee.

Their tour dates are:

3 November Clitheroe, The Grand
4 November Darwen, Library
5 November Darwen, Library
6 November Manchester, Soundcontrol
7 November Glasgow, Broadcast
8 November Newcastle, Think Tank
9 November Southampton, The Brook
10 November Brighton, Concorde 2
11 November Wolverhampton, Robin
12 November Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
13 November Liverpool, Erics
14 November Wakefield, The Hop
15 November London, The Garage
16 November Cardiff, Ifor Bach
20 November Cork, Pavilion
21 November, Button Factory