Hard Corps (English band)

Last updated

Hard Corps
Origin London, England
Genres Synthpop
Years active1984–1990
Labels
  • Survival
  • Polydor
  • Sonoscope
  • Rhythm King
Past members
  • Hugh Ashton
  • Robert Doran
  • Clive Pierce
  • Regine Fetet

Hard Corps were a 1980s synthpop band from Brixton, London. [1]

Contents

History

Hugh Ashton, Robert Doran and Clive Pierce were introduced to chanteuse Regine Fetet, who, having never sung before had an enigmatic, fragile human voice which mated perfectly with the sound the three British sound engineers were creating. Hard Corps were an electronic band that pioneered electronic music in the 1980s and released their first single in 1984 Dirty/Respirer on Survival Records, with Respirer also being released that year on The Art of Survival compilation EP [2] along with bands such as Tik and Tok, Eddie and Sunshine and Richard Bone. A later re-recording in 1985 of Respirer was produced by Mute Records founder and electronic music production supremo Daniel Miller.

In 1985, the band supported The Cure in the UK and Europe and in 1988 supported Depeche Mode in the UK. [3] They were on the cusp of making a real impact and hoped to support Depeche Mode when they returned to the USA, but according to an interview by Rob Doran for The Electricity Club: "However, we were not invited possibly due to British and American Musician Union politics on support bands and reciprocal agreements, but I don’t think there was any chance with Regine’s onstage controversies anyway!" [4]

By the time the band released their first album in 1990 (produced by Martin Rushent), they had already split up. Doran went on to write music for TV, radio, commercials and video with the singer from Perfect Strangers, Rod Syers. Ashton carried on with Regine for a while doing PAs and using the Hard Corps' name before becoming The Sun Kings with former Naked Lunch member Paul ‘Driver’ Davies. Clive Pierce continued writing and producing electronic music.

The band is noteworthy for Regine's provocative performances, which often involved her removing her top on stage; an apocryphal story suggests that this may have been the reason for the band not supporting Depeche Mode in the USA. Regine Fetet died of cancer in 2003. A number of previously unreleased tracks have been made available on LPs compiled by Minimal Wave Records.

Hugh Ashton passed away from cancer on 19 January 2024.

Members

Discography

Albums

Source: [5] [6]

Singles

Compilation appearances

Equipment list

The following are equipment used by Hard Corps on their recordings: [7]

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References

  1. B2 Collective / b2collective.com (24 January 2012). "Minimal Wave Records | Artists | Hard Corps". Minimalwave.com. Retrieved 23 March 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. "Various - The Art Of Survival at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  3. "Hard Corps". Minimalwave.com.
  4. "An Interview with Rob Doran of Hard Corps". The Electricity Club. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  5. "Minimal Wave Records | Artists | Hard Corps". Minimalwave.com. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  6. "Hard Corps Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  7. Graham Needham (BH). "Article | Hard Corps - The Definitive Exposé". CyberNoise. Retrieved 23 March 2014.