Living On The Ceiling by Blancmange
December 03, 2004 | 
13 Comments
The Artist: Blancmange
The Song: Living On The Ceiling
The Album: Second Helpings: Best of Blancmange (originally on Happy Families)
Released 1982
It’s December again. And that means it’s time for classics and old school cuts! Last year the Song of The Week brought you classic artists Weezer, Outkast, Metallica and Tool. It doesn’t get much better than that. But, to be honest, none of those outstanding artists really capture what “old school” and “classic” means to me personally.
When I was in high school it was all about dance music, industrial and goth. Sure I was into Metal a bit, and prog rock, but New Wave was where I really started. I used to collect records and I still have a vast collection of 80’s and early 90’s 12 inches.
I decided to go through that collection and see if I could pick out a few tracks to use for this month’s Song of The Week. I want to start it off with a song, and an artist, that brings back some really fond memories for me—“Living On The Ceiling” by Blancmange.
I can still remember listening to this, and many other great Blancmange songs, on my cheap-ass walkman as I walked home from School in, oh, 7th grade or so. I still have, in rather good condition, quite a few of their singles, and most of their albums.
Damn, I remember how long it took me to find Happy Families, the album from which this week’s song comes, with the original picture cover. That was a big deal back in the day.
Blancmange was not what I’d call mainstream, at least here in The States, but they had a decent following in their day, and they were one of my favorites. They had a style all their own and that stands today. I can’t think of any other artist that sounds much like them at all.
They’re quirky, fun, energetic, diverse and totally different from much of what was coming out at that time. They did have all the same elements, but an original take on it all. If I were to try and describe them in terms of more popular bands, I’d say they’re a little bit Talking Heads, a little bit Human League and a little bit Howard Jones.
They might be a bit hard to find today, but if you’re into fun, original, goofy 80’s synth-pop, you’ll love Blancmange.
Recommended if you like: Thomson Twins, Depeche Mode, Visage, Human League, Giorgio Moroder
Filed under: Song of The Week
Comments
1. Geoffrey said:
Wow. I thought I was the only one who still had that on vinyl. We should swap records sometime.
Posted on December 3, 2004 09:18 PM | #
2. Adrian said:
I still have the album and 12” single in my vinyl collection. I saw them live a couple of times back in England in the last century. Their live show was fun, just good clean fun. There were a number of ‘fun’ bands back in those days, a backlash against the angst of punk perhaps?
Keith, your description is perfect, quirky being the word that best describes them to me.
Geoffrey, there are now 3 of us!
Posted on December 3, 2004 09:54 PM | #
3. Andrew said:
Well now I’m going to have to go out and buy it on Vinyl… that will make 4 of us!
Posted on December 4, 2004 01:45 AM | #
4. SZA said:
And I’ll find one for my dog and one myself making 5 and 6.
Posted on December 4, 2004 10:07 AM | #
5. Chris Hester said:
Great choice! I remember hearing an early version of this (which I still have on cassette) when they did a session for John Peel’s UK radio show. There were 3 tracks, and this was my least favourite. But when the final studio version was released, it was easily their best track!
I also recall a live TV version, when they changed the words to “up the Christmas tree”.
If anyone, they remind me of Soft Cell, and also OMD.
I once heard an interview where they expressed horror at the American audience calling them “Blank-Mange”. It is, of course, pronounced “Bla-mange”.
I was hoping you were going to post the original artwork for the album cover again - that was fantastic! (File Under: “Those Were The Days”, “They Don’t Make Music That Good Anymore” etc…)
Posted on December 4, 2004 12:19 PM | #
6. Maxine said:
So many memories……..when this song was out I was in High School and along with two friends had an FM radio show, called the Disk Spinners, which was troubling for so many reasons, not the least of which was that two of us (not me!) had rather pronounced lisps :-). Our (self-made) brief was “to play all the coolest music”, by which we had in mind The Smiths, Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, The The etc etc. But, being teenagers we actually couldn’t afford to buy too many of our own records, so pretty much had to rely on what was in the library at the radio station, and this was……….well, it was community radio, so I think they pretty much relied on donations from deceased estates. All we had to choose from was all the worst albums of things like CCR, The Eagles, Chicago, Boston, and loads of really bad Australian country and western and easy listening. Imagine our excitement when they found money in the budget to buy some new stuff, and came up with………Living on the Ceiling by Blancmange! I even knew how to pronounce it because my mum was a home science teacher. On many many weeks we even played it twice in the 1 hour show: it was better than hearing Tequila Sunrise again, surely?
Posted on December 4, 2004 09:19 PM | #
7. Adrian said:
Chris, your comment makes me laugh when I think back to the time when British TV needed words like bloody edited out for fear of offending people! My how times change!
Posted on December 5, 2004 09:59 AM | #
8. Mario De Zutter said:
Touched in forgetting that group.
In Belgium we listen to numbers as “Waves” and “Don’t Tell Me”.
It brings memories back, thank you!
Posted on December 5, 2004 02:55 PM | #
9. ted nygard said:
I had to order mine from a music vendor in England. Takes me back to the early 80s and living in the San Francisco bay area at the time. Good stuff
Posted on December 21, 2004 01:15 PM | #
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Posted on December 27, 2004 11:12 AM | #
11. Petra said:
Great choice!
I have a few of their albums, singles and 12” on vinyl still and I think I’ll have to get their “Best Of” CD eventually. Blancmange were definately some of my favourites in the 80s. And I too used to listen to them on my walkman on the way to school. I used to think Neil Arthur was gorgeous. And I really wonder what he looks like these days… God, doesn’t time fly?
My favourite tracks would have to be “Feel me” and “The game above my head”, though.
Posted on December 31, 2004 02:11 AM | #
12. David said:
Petra-
Did you ever hear Blancmange’s version of, ‘The Day Before You Came’, an Abba song? It’s fantastic.
Posted on December 31, 2004 06:26 PM | #
13. Red Baron said:
Excellent recommendation. I’m not sure, exactly, whether you would call them “Synth” music, or “New Wave”, but the important thing to note here, is where they came from. Blancmange is one of the many gems produced by Mike Howlett, who also produced The Thompson Twins, A Flock of Seagulls, and Tears For Fears. Mike Howlett is more widely known for bringing together Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, and Gordon Summer, now known as Sting. Mr. Howlett is my hero because he gave me The Police. So, any trail he leaves behind, is a trail worth following.
Posted on January 21, 2005 12:06 AM | #
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