the names
biography

During their initial four year career, relatively little information on Belgian group The Names spread outside France and the Benelux countries. Indeed their distant appeal owed something to mystery, with many of their records selling on the strength of their association with Factory Records and producer Martin Hannett, as well as the excellent music contained in the grooves. Yet Michel Sordinia's group deserved better, for The Names traded in a brand of sophisticated post-punk pop far superior to that offered by many of their British peers.

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EARLY YEARS: THE PASSENGERS

The Names evolved from new wave group The Passengers, formed in Brussels around Christmas 1977 by guitarist Marc Deprez and bassist Michel Sordinia, then passing as Mike S. Christophe Den Tandt was subsequently recruited on drums, and in company with second guitarist Robert Franckson and singer Isabelle Hanrez, the band began gigging with a set which combined original material with Velvet Underground and Richard Hell covers. Given the gender configuration, comparisons with Blondie were inevitable. Despite being university students the punk ethos held sway: having entered (and won) a talent competition, the group promptly turned down their prize of a one- off single deal.

The group attracted the beginnings of a following during 1978, and as they improved as musicians their music became more complex. Following the departure of Franckson and Hanrez, Sordinia took over as frontman, gradually mastering the art of playing bass and singing simultaneously. Den Tandt scraped together sufficient funds to purchase an early synthesizer, while Deprez remained on guitar. Although the subsequent no-drummer situation took longer to resolve, the group were able to spend most of 1978 and early 1979 concentrating on refining a sound they could call their own, writing original material such as Speak German to Your Car, Reduced to Stereotypes and Dance in Circles, none of which was released.

When it came to musical influences, The Passengers live set now leaned increasingly toward two of the headline acts they were booked to support: Simple Minds, and Magazine. Indeed the Magazine show in the spring of 1979 proved something of a watershed. As well as a proper soundcheck, the influential Manchester band allowed their guests full use of their light show. The resulting set was well received, and The Passengers subsequently gained further bookings in Brussels as an opening act. A live performance for BRT radio in 1979 (complete with canned applause) accurately captures their set at this time, and excerpts from it are included on the archive collection Spectators of Life. Live tapes also reveal that Sordinia sang in English from the outset, a decision which may have irritated some Belgian audiences, but a necessary evil if the group were to make any headway internationally.

DEBUT 45: SPECTATORS OF LIFE

After a demo tape caught the attention of WEA's Belgian office, the label offered The Passengers a one-off single deal, chiefly as a means of testing the market for home-grown New Wave. Declining a producer, the band elected to press the record straight from the original demo. Although this was a move they later came to regret, Spectators Of Life remains a gem, combining a piano-led Europop feel with an urgent, modern dynamic. Backed with White Life and The Drive (redolent of Wire and Magazine respectively), the single was also issued as a 12" on Celluloid. Surprisingly, this excellent debut failed to sell in large quantities, and is today a scarce collector's item. Probably it was too commercial for a post-punk audience, yet too edgy for the mainstream.

Before the single appeared the group became The Names, a move prompted by a fleeting mention of a rival set of Passengers in the NME. Since the band already harboured ambitions in the UK, a swift change of identity was deemed necessary, The Names being adopted following an ironic suggestion from a friend. Throughout this period, and their entire career, The Names were managed by Michelle Mauguit, also Sordinia's partner. On this point she revealed to Brussels scenesheet En Attendant:

Certain tensions arise, just like in every other group, but nothing serious. We sort out any problems together, because I remain above all a friend. In that respect the work always takes second place. (1)

THE FACTORY CONNECTION

Following the WEA single, a second turning point came after the Joy Division concert at the Plan K in Brussels on 17 January 1980. Having targeted Fiction and Factory as the best of Britain's cutting-edge labels, Sordinia seized the opportunity to slip Joy Division manager Rob Gretton a copy of Spectators of Life. Although Fiction had already shown interest, when Gretton called a few weeks later to offer a single on Factory the Names needed no second bidding. Factory mandarin Tony Wilson closed the agreement with a simple handshake on a visit to Brussels a few weeks later, in April.

In August 1980 the band, which by now included regular drummer Luc Capelle, travelled to Strawberry Studios in Manchester. Here they met Martin Hannett for the first time, and proceeded to cut both sides of their Factory debut in a single night. All found the experience of working with Hannett inspirational, while he in turn exploited their inexperience creatively, encouraging the musicians to use a toy xylophone on Nightshift, and even to shake their guitars as they played. Factory's limited budget (and Hannett's preferences) meant that the group were not present for the final mix, and although happy with the sound Hannett achieved, felt he had thinned their cherished 'wall of sound' a little too much, particularly on the flipside, I Wish I Could Speak Your Language.

While in Manchester, The Names were to have played support to A Certain Ratio at the Beach Club on 29 July, but when the time came the schedule didn't match. Their place was taken at short notice by Steve Morris, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, whose short set (as the No-Names) marked the low-key live debut of New Order. Meanwhile a good indication of The Names' live set during this period is provided by the five tracks included on the TWI 082 CD, which (despite appearances) were taped at a Brussels show in 1980, and the several tracks from the Oostakker show included on this posthumous Spectators of Life CD. Indeed had The Names recorded an album at this time, the results would already have been impressive, with Questions and Answers being a song at least as good as Nightshift.

FAC 29: NIGHTSHIFT

Boasting a dark power and grace, Nightshift received good press on release in November (on 7" only, FAC 29). Nevertheless this excellent single was somewhat overshadowed by the image of the label on which it appeared. For genuinely inventive groups such as Section 25, Crispy Ambulance, Minny Pops and The Names, the patronage of Factory would prove both a blessing and a curse, with the careers of all four stained by the charge of aping Joy Division long after each produced entire albums of unique and original material. That said, Factory got The Names noticed outside Belgium, and into a studio with Hannett, and by the following summer had sold over 4,500 copies of Nightshift.

A Factory newsletter dated August 1981 reveals two further points of interest. The gorgeous picture sleeve was inspired by the flipside, and supposedly depicts 'people at a party having conversations'. Meanwhile distributor Pinnacle complained that Factory was the one record company in Britain incapable of making Nightshift a hit. Factory (ie Wilson) countered that Factory was "not a record company, but that's another story..." Not one but two videos were shot for Nightshift. The first, shot at the band's rehearsal space, appeared on the collection A Factory Video (FACT 56), while a second was never publicly aired.

CREPUSCULE

The strong influence of Factory on the Brussels scene increased tenfold with the establishment of sister labels Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Crepuscule, by journalist Michel Duval and Plan K booker Annik Honore. After initial singles by A Certain Ratio, Section 25 and Durutti Column, Crepuscule proper opened its account with the celebrated cassette package From Brussels With Love (TW1 007), released in November 1980. The Names contributed Cat, a self- produced track recorded seven months earlier in April. The Names also joined Section 25 and A Certain Ratio for another prestigious Factory Night at Brussels University on November 23rd.

Following Nightshift, the remainder of 1980 and the first half of 1981 was spent writing new material, already with an album in mind, and wrestling with the new sounds imposed by Hannett. It is somewhat ironic that Hannett was also the producer of choice to both Joy Division and Magazine, with whom The Names were frequently compared. However even a cursory listen to their music reveals no bass-heavy dark night of the soul. The Names were sober, certainly, but never steeped in psychodrama, while their music - sweeping, cinematic, sometimes epic - was blessed with an airy European feel which set it poles apart from the dour likes of The Sound, or The Cure.

CALCUTTA

In May 1981 a new single, Calcutta, was cut in Brussels for Factory Benelux, and then sent to Hannett in Manchester for remixing. As a result, the release of this all- important second single would be delayed for no less than eight months. In the meantime, The Names completed a short Dutch tour with labelmates Minny Pops, and recorded two tracks for Crepuscule compilations. The first, the short instrumental Music for Someone, was released on the double set Fruit of the Original Sin (TWI 035) in October, and became a frequent opener at live shows. Tokyo Twilight, the second, appeared on the celebrated Christmas album, Ghosts of Christmas Past (TWI 058). The older material in the live set was also dropped in favour of songs written for the forthcoming debut album.

1981 also saw Sordinia briefly involved in a sideline project, By Chance, whose one single on Crammed Discs (Soul Kitchen/ Revenge) is of interest if only because Revenge would later be reworked as a Names song. A curious Belgian 'supergroup', By Chance recorded in London and also performed one gig with Marine and Defunkt at Plan K during the summer. While their style was several light years removed from The Names, Sordinia enjoyed the indulgence, and felt his singing improved as a result.

Calcutta, backed with Postcards, was eventually released by Factory Benelux (FBN 9, on both 7" and 12") in January 1982, more than a year after Nightshift had whetted public interest. Both were excellent songs, yet the new single sold fewer copies than Nightshift, despite being pronounced 'difficult to resist' by the NME. In Brussels, it hardly helped that humourists re-christened the lead song Quelle Cute Ass ('what a cute ass') - a ribald interpretation Sordinia failed to anticipate, and can hardly have welcomed.

1982: DIALOGUE NORTH-SOUTH

Despite Calcutta's disappointing showing, 1982 proved a prolific years for The Names. Through the first half of February the group took part in the first Crepuscule package tour, Dialogue North-South, alongside such luminaries as Paul Haig, Richard Jobson, Durutti Column, Marine, Minny Pops, Isolation Ward and Antena. The tour took in Belgium, Holland, France and - just - the UK, the original intention being that all concerned would play experimental sets unhindered by tiresome concepts like familiar singles. In the event only The Names, Minny Pops and Tuxedomoon fully embraced this risky strategy. Adopting the moniker N.I.M. (Names in Mutation), The Names presented only Music For Someone and the second (slow) side of their album-to-be, bravely soldiering on with the concept long after it became clear that other participants were content to play it safe. In Lyon, a large French university town in which the band were already popular, this novel approach had to be abandoned after the audience grew restless until the band delivered their familiar singles.

Guitarist Marc Deprez also performed a short solo set on several dates, his Durutti-esque composition Ballade a Tervuren subsequently appearing on the Crepuscule video Umbrellas in the Sun (TWI 099), and a version taken from the live tape of the NIM show at the Beurschouwburg in Brussels on February 3rd appearing on the archive CD Spectators of Life. The spoken introduction is by Wally Van Middendorp of Dutch labelmates Minny Pops. Covering the tour for UK rock weekly Sounds, Johnny Waller seemed to feel the need to apologise for liking the band:

Which leaves The Names, for whom everyone I spoke to had nothing but scorn, 'too gloomy', 'just like Joy Division' and 'no originality'. While admitting that all these have an element of truth, they're gross exaggerations and I found their deep drum resonance and driving bass enjoyably derivative. (2)

A patchy album and cassette souvenir of the tour was released by Crepuscule soon after (TWI 082), which includes a low-fi version of (This is) Harmony. To confuse matters, the eventual CD version replaced Harmony with the five early Names numbers recorded live in Brussels in 1980.

SWIMMING

Dialogue North-South wound up in London with a sparsely attended show by The Names and Marine at The Venue on 16 February 1982. The gig saw the band derided for their melodics and reserve by the NME's Chris Bohn:

After Marine, the Names sound redundant; still locked into a cosy dripfeed dream of comfortable distances and slight vagaries, they swaddle tasteful, tame rhythms with suffocating synthesised cotton wool blankets. The Names are neat and unsoiled by life and as such fail to touch all but those similarly cocooned. (3)

The next day the band recorded a BBC radio session for John Peel, although these versions of Discovery, Life by the Sea, (This Is) Harmony and Shanghai Gesture suffered a little from hurried mixing. Sordinia and company then continued their taxing schedule and again travelled north to Manchester, this time to record their first album, already titled Swimming.

Like Nightshift, Swimming was cut at Strawberry Studio with Martin Hannett producing, an earlier proposal to record with John Leckie having fallen through. Always idiosyncratic in his working methods, Hannett refused to listen to any of the material in advance of the session, despite the fact that all was already fully arranged. For their part the band were keen to impress on him the concept of 'small sounds-big consequences', and sought more natural, acoustic textures, including piano as a lead instrument.

At Hannett's suggestion the album was split into two distinct sides, the first with an uptempo 'day' feel, and a slower 'night' feel to the second. The resulting set was a less dense affair than their previous two singles, and while the deceptive lightness of the overall production might not benefit every song individually, it does make for a more balanced listen over 45 minutes. Despite the title, and the curious aquatic sounds linking each track, the album was not underpinned by any grand concept, although it was noted later that the water noises made it hard for radio to break up the album for airplay.

Released on Crepuscule (rather than Factory Benelux) in June 1982, Swimming still sounds fresh today and belies the fact that it was completed in no more than a week. However the album was all but ignored by the British music press save for The Face, who determined:

The Names are concerned with space. Dunes, sea birds and grey waves fill Swimming, its fragile, occasionally pedestrian structures given depth and cohesion by an intelligent, imaginative Martin Hannett production. (4)

Several different sleeve designs were considered for Swimming, all of them outstanding. The promotional poster offered the striking red and black abstract by Benoit Hennebert later adapted for the Spectators of Life CD, while the press advert (reproduced in Britain in Masterbag) featured a quite different but highly attractive monochrome graphic.

THE TURN OF THE TIDE

Although Swimming found a measure of acclaim and healthy sales it failed to elevate the band onto a higher commercial plateau. Indeed times were changing, and 1982 saw a sudden thaw in the 'cold wave' which had frozen the alternative rock scene since the turn of the decade. Great White Hopes such as Wire, Joy Division, Magazine and Josef K were already long gone, while others faded as the radio began to play a different tune. 1981 had seen New Order release Movement, and the Cure exchange Faith for Pornography. By the close of 1982 the bright new pop of Temptation and Let's Go To Bed had already appeared as singles: fine records both, but a far cry from that which had gone before. Indeed even Cabaret Voltaire were beginning to flirt with the mainstream.

Matters were made worse for The Names when drummer Luc Capelle was injured in a motorbike crash shortly after Swimming was released. Sensing that the writing was on the wall, The Names struggled on until the close of 1982, recording their swansong single in Brussels with temporary drummer Michel Silverstein. Hannett travelled to Brussels to produce the three tracks, although the band chose (perhaps unwisely) to supervise the final mix themselves.

THE ASTRONAUT

The Astronaut eventually appeared on 12" only (TWI 111, with many copies pressed in green vinyl) and was backed by Revenge and Shining Hours, two recordings deemed 'unfinished' by Sordinia. In truth all three tracks were a little disappointing compared to previous records, with Shining Hours in particular projecting far better live, as is clear from the tape of the last Names performance at Lombeek. The same tape also features Secrets, a strong song written too late to benefit from a studio recording.

Long before TWI 111 appeared in October 1983, The Names had elected to split. On graduating (in journalism/law and economics respectively), Sordinia and Deprez found themselves without the grants on which they had previously subsisted. Neither wished to fund The Names with unemployment cheques. With no real audience beyond a widespread cult, and no band revenue besides modest gig fees and copyright mechanicals, orthodox employment assumed priority.

With the subsequent drop in commitment came a corresponding fall in quality, and so The Names disbanded. With the benefit of hindsight in 1990, Sordinia admitted to some regrets on this score, and felt that the band should have tried harder to adapt and survive. But the split proved permanent. Marc Deprez entered the civil service, while both drummers remained in music. Christophe den Tandt subsequently gained a Yale scholarship and studied literature in North America for five years before returning to Brussels to teach. Michel Sordinia became a film critic, writing books on Terry Gilliam and Nagisa Oshima before directing for the first time in 1991.

POSTSCRIPT

In 1991 Swimming was remastered for CD, and released under that title on Factory Benelux as FBN 9 CD. The disc added a plethora of extra tracks, including both sides of FAC 29 and FBN 9 singles, as well as The Astronaut, and two studio-recorded compilation tracks, Music for Someone and Cat. LTM reissued the set in 2000, following it with the archive CD Spectators of Life in 2001.

In 1994 all four original members reunited under the moniker Jazz to record a new studio album, Nightvision. Joined by bassist Eric De Bruyne, the 'new' group produced a polished set of nine new songs, with The Tether Ends Here and The Fall in particular proving the equal of anything The Names recorded fifteen years earlier. Although not widely distributed outside Belgium, where it appeared in the Pazz label in 1997, CD copies can be obtained by mailorder direct from LTM.

Remarkable, The Names returned on 15 December 2007, performing at the A Factory Night (Once Again) event at Plan K in Brussels (with Section 25, Crispy Ambulance and Kevin Hewick) ahead of recording a new studio album in 2008. The Names released their Plan K set as the DVD Nightshift (LTMDVD 2522), and are also featured on the compilation DVD of the show, A Factory Night (Once Again) (LTMDVD 2519).

James Nice

Updated December 2007


Sources: (1) En Attendant (Belgium), 1.80 (2) Sounds, 3.4.82 (3) NME, 2.82 (4) The Face, 7.82


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