Clive with partner Alan Winstanley @ Westside during production of Sandy Shaw album 1985
Movies
Clive's work composing the soundtrack for Brother's Of The Head continues to win him critical acclaim...
Musically, this "Brother of The Head" is simply astonishing. Composed by Clive Langer (who also did the music for another film, Still Crazy, about 1970s' musicians), the film's soundtrack sizzles with the near psychotic energy of every great gig above a pub you have ever been to. The feedback howls, the vocals are unintelligible and yet the rawness of the guitars and the howling of the vocalist spell it out for you; the place may well smell of sweat and spilled lager but the band are something else. More pensive than The Jam and more savage than The Sex Pistols, the music of The Bang Bang is nothing short of stunning. It practically justifies the price of the DVD on its own. - Jonathan McCalmont, Video Vista 2/2007
"Brothers of the Head” is a stylish mock rock doc that is so well handled that I questioned, in my head, whether it is real or fake. Fulton and Pepe use their documentary experience to effectively create a nicely structured and balanced work that rings true. Besides the realistic-sounding interview bites, the film also benefits from solid performances all around and an outstanding score and faux punk songs, expertly written and produced by Clive Langer. The music is as good as some of the best to come out of the 70’s, capturing the raw, almost primal, energy of time as rock ‘n’ roll evolved (or, to some like me, devolved). Fans of the punk movement and its music will delight in Langer’s original songs. Robin Clifford, Rotten Tomatoes
Clive's Bands: Deaf School, Clive Langer and the Boxes
Deafschool -
The Liverpool, England art rock band Deaf School turned to the Tin Pan Alley sound, not punk, as an alternative to the commercial music of the 70s. Formed in 1976 by Steve Allen (vocals), Bette Bright (vocals), Clive Langer (guitar, piano), Max Ripple (keyboards, accordion), Steve Lindsey (bass, piano, vocals), Timothy Whittaker (drums), Ian Ritchie (sax), Eric Shark (vocals), and Paul Pilnick (guitar, accordion, bass, banjo). Deaf School made their debut with a double album, 2nd Honeymoon. Influenced by Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Kurt Weill, 2nd Honeymoon was an ambitious anomaly in a late 70s U.K. pop scene caught in a wave of punk. Deaf School recorded two more LPs of damn-the-mainstream eclecticism, 1977's Don't Stop the World and 1978's English Boys/Working Girls, and then broke up. Allen, who was calling himself Enrico Cadillac with Deaf School, formed Original Mirrors with Ian Broudie of Care and the Lightning Seeds; Langer, backed by the Boxes, went solo; Bright released an album with the Illuminations (also featuring Langer and Broudie; and Lindsey created the Planets. Langer became more well known as a producer with his partner Alan Winstanley, working on records by Madness, Elvis Costello, China Crisis, Tim Finn, and Morrissey.
As Producer - with partner Alan Winstanley, Clive Langer was among the top British producers of the new wave era, helming records for Madness, Elvis Costello and Lloyd Cole & the Commotions. He began his music career during the mid-1970s as a guitarist in the band Deaf School, going solo with backing band the Boxes in 1979 with the album I Want the Whole World. With Madness' 1979 debut LP One Step Beyond, Langer and Winstanley teamed for the first time as co-producers, inaugurating a partnership which continued for several decades. After collaborating on Madness' 1980 record Absolutely, the duo moved on to the Teardrop Explodes' Kilimanjaro; a year later, they helmed Seven for the former group and Wilder for the latter before teaming with Costello for 1983's Punch the Clock, the album which launched his first American hit, "Everyday I Write the Book."
A year later, Langer and Winstanley reunited with Costello for Goodbye Cruel World; they also produced Lloyd Cole's 1985 album Easy Pieces. China Crisis' What Price Paradise? followed in 1986, and as the decade drew to a close the duo's production schedule began to slow down -- their most notable new partnership was with the group Hothouse Flowers, for whom they produced 1988's People as well as 1990's Home. The new decade also saw Langer and Winstanley teaming up with Morrissey for his Bona Drag LP; a year later, they contributed several tracks to his Kill Uncle. Singles with Costello and Tim Finn were among the duo's most notable projects over the next several years, in 1994 they returned to the charts in style with Bush's best-selling Sixteen Stone.
Shipbbuilding is a song Clive originally wrote for Robert Wyatt but wasn't happy with the lyrics. He played the tune to Elvis Costello at a party hosted by Nick Lowe, and within days Costello had written lyrics he described at the time as the best lyrics he'd ever written.
Thanks for accepting our AD, you are now amongst our friends and family and it is a pleasure to have to on board...if you like your SKA & REGGAE with a melodic catchy edge then you may just like 1-STOP-EXPERIENCE welcome...Love Jen. X
Wonderful to meet you here Clive, we really appreciate your friendship. Ship Building is an amazing track. Have a fabulous weekend. LT Mark, Zeek, Brian, Oz & Veronica
This years festival is headlined by Billy Bragg (Friday), Seth Lakeman (Sunday) and Peatbog Faeries (Saturday) with many more top artists also performing incl the award winning The Demon Barbers and Henry Priestman.
Very nice to have friended you. Deaf School has been a major influence on me. I recently pulled out my English Boys/Working Girls LP and threw it on the turntable. It is still such an amazing piece of work. Every song is so well crafted and infectious. Still one of my favorites.
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