manintherain
Group: Members.
Posts: 546
Joined: Mar. 2004 |
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Posted: July 25 2018, 09:34 |
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Quote (Korgscrew @ Dec. 27 2013, 18:26) | I certainly see no evidence for him having used the Fairlight CMI before Five Miles Out - I think Mike's claim of having had one since 1979 (a claim he made a long time after 1979, it should be noted...) is probably not accurate. There's a claim on Wikipedia that the first commercial album to use the CMI was Kate Bush's 1980 album Never for Ever, but that's not attributed, so it's difficult to assess that claim. Certainly people who were involved with selling them in the UK never quote Mike among the earliest adopters of it...so I think we need to take that claim with a pinch of salt. It's not listed amongst the instruments on the sleeve of QE2 (you'd think if he was willing to list 'claptrap' he'd have been willing to list the Fairlight) and I can't say I hear it anywhere on that album either, so I'd say we really need to stick with saying it was first used on Five Miles Out (which there's a good amount of supporting evidence for) unless we've got some really good proof to the contrary. |
Mike was certainly one of the first customers in the UK.
"Peter Vogel went looking for clients and distributors, travelling around the world with a CMI. In the summer of 1979, he met Peter Gabriel, who was recording his third album in his studio. Vogel showed a demo of the CMI to Gabriel, Stephen Paine (a close relation of Gabriel), Hugh Padham and Steve Lillywhite. Quite impressed by the possibilities of the machine, Peter Gabriel used the CMI during the whole week of Peter Vogel's stay. Peter Gabriel eventually bought a CMI, and created Syco Systems with Stephen Paine. It was the first company to import and distribute Fairlight In Europe. John-Paul Jones was the second buyer (he wanted to replace his Mellotron !, followed by Richard Burgess (Landscape), Kate Bush, Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn, Alan Parsons, Rick Wright, Thomas Dolby, Stewart Copland, J.J. Jeczalik (Art of Noise), Mike Oldfield... In the USA, the CMI was successful too : it was used by Stevie Wonder (first customer), Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer, Joni Mitchell... In Austria, Hubert Bognermayr (Eela Craig), in France, Jean-Michel Jarre, Indochine, Daniel Balavoine, Louis Chédid... were among the CMI users."
Source: http://egrefin.free.fr/eng/fairlight/fairhist.php
Edited by manintherain on July 25 2018, 09:35
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