Plan on staying home October 16th, or setting the DVR - because BBC Four will be airing a new documentary that looks at a "generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage":
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.
Synth Britannia features contributions from Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan, Neil Tennant and others.
See the BBC site for broadcast times and details on the show.
And if you know when this is going to be available outside the UK, leave a comment below!
Link:
James Lewin
Twitter @podcasting_news
Revisions that turned synths into brand new machines