electronic

from 1989 to 1999 bernard sumner and johnny marr made a number of appearances on television to promote their single and album releases as electronic. thanks to shug sludden for supplying the core information on this page.

bernard, johnny and neil tennant all appeared on the long-running top of the pops on 14 december (below), miming to their first hit getting away with it. sumner initially had reservations about lip-synching (new order always tried to play live), but was persuaded by marr and tennant that it was in keeping with the programme’s history. parts of an interview with the central duo from this era was included in a retrospective programme titled 1989 forever, broadcast in the early naughties, though it actually dates from 1991, when other segments were shown on the dutch tv show cut the crap. as for 1990, click here to see an mtv report about the manchester music scene, presumably filmed around the time of getting away with it or the dodger stadium gigs.

marr and sumner returned to the top of the pops studio on 25 april (far left) and 9 may (second from left) to promote their second single get the message — on the latter appearance they mimed to the dna groove mix, which was the a-side of the current 12" release. they also did interviews for friday at the dome with sarah champion on 31 may (second from right) and request video on 3 july. sumner was interviewed alone by dave kendall on mtv’s 120 minutes on 7 july (far right). click here and here for a two-part interview from this period.

a performance of disappointed for top of the pops on 2 july (below) saw neil tennant sporting his grey shirt and waistcoat combo from the video, and taking centre stage to sing live whilst marr and sumner unnassumingly mimed at his side. the video was projected at the rear, though it wasn’t quite in sync with the audio. electronic also gave an interview for mtv in 1992, which was split in half and shown on two consecutive dates. in the first they gave a tour of manchester, and in the second (far right) they talked about the band on a crowded bus.

parts of a 1991 interview with electronic were included in a 1993 mtv documentary about pet shop boys titled popumentary. during a segment about their many collaborators bernard sumner spoke about how mark farrow had called him in 1989 and told him of neil tennant’s interest in the project, while chris lowe talked about how well they got on with each other on a personal level. other contributors to the film included producer stephen hague (far right), who remixed feel every beat and disappointed, and mark farrow himself.

bernard sumner appeared on an edition of bbc2’s late show on 1 may discussing the effects of prozac on the process of songwriting. interviewed by psychologist oliver james (second from left), bernard slightly resembled a jelly baby as he worked on the lyrics for future b-side a new religion, joked with johnny marr, and went on a skiing holiday with his family. once a much sought-after broadcast—though bafflingly infamous — it’s still worth seeing for footage of karl bartos at work (second from right), as well as insights into how raise the pressure was recorded (according to james, they were fifteen months into its conception at the time).

marr and sumner promoted raise the pressure with appearances on top of the pops (for forbidden city, far left), tfi friday (playing for you on 20 september, second left, and forbidden city on 13 december), and later… with jools holland (performing out of my league, second from right, and second nature, far right, on 30 november). apparently johnny played his les paul behind his head à la jimi hendrix during the customary jam that opened the latter show. they also gave interviews for muchmusic’s the wedge on 18 july, and mtv’s 120 minutes on 21 july. in addition, a uk tv advertisement was aired.

a performance of second nature for tfi friday on 7 february. unlike the jools holland version which featured a click track and samples from the studio version, this performance was much looser and rockier, with emphases on marr’s guitar and ged lynch’s drums.

for the twisted tenderness campaign marr and sumner were augmented by future new order guitarist phil cunningham, doves’ jimi goodwin on bass, martin slattery on keyboards, ged lynch on drums, and astrid williamson providing backing vocals. in various combinations they appeared on mtv europe (on 24 march), top of the pops (in april, promoting vivid, far left), vh1 (performing haze, second from left, and vivid), tfi friday (on 9 april, playing vivid, second from right) and the short-lived jo whiley show (on 5 may, playing haze, far right).

in october 2006 johnny and bernard appeared together on an edition of the vh1 show greatest hits, to promote the get the message compilation. judging by their attire they filmed the show on the same day as their interview for the independent. during the 20-minute programme they discussed getting away with it, get the message, disappointed, forbidden city and vivid, plus the origins of the band and their evolution from duo to four-piece.