In 1979, mime artists Tim Dry and Barbie Wilde united with actors Robert Pereno and Lowri-Ann Richards and dancer Karen Sparks to produce Shock. In April 1980, they recruited another mime, Sean Crawford. The line-up changed again with the departure of Karen and the introduction of Carole Caplin.
Their first record, "Angel Face" on RCA Records – with production by Rusty Egan (Visage) and Richard James Burgess (Landscape) – was a dance floor hit, as was the second, "Dynamo Beat". In 1981, Shock co-starred with Ultravox at the 'People's Palace Valentine's Ball' at the Rainbow Theatre. Lowri-Ann, Barbie and Carole appeared in the video for Landscape's "Einstein A Go-Go". Sean and Barbie starred in the video for Ultravox's "Passing Strangers".
Shock went on to perform at The Ritz rock club in Manhattan and toured Europe and the Far East. Their biggest live concerts were in April 1981 with Gary Numan at Wembley Arena.
Shock eventually broke up and reformed as a foursome with Barbie, Tim, Sean and Carole and released the single "Dynamo Beat" on RCA Records. However, soon Tim and Sean broke away to form their own double act as Tik and Tok. Barbie went back to acting and TV presenting. Carole went on to become a lifestyle advisor to Cherie Blair.
Gary Anthony James Webb, known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two studio albums with the band, he released his debut solo studio album The Pleasure Principle in 1979, topping the UK Albums Chart. His commercial popularity peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s with hits including "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". Numan maintains a cult following. He has sold over 10 million records.
Synth-pop is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late 1970s.
The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New Romantic movement was characterised by flamboyant, eccentric fashion inspired by fashion boutiques such as Kahn and Bell in Birmingham and PX in London. Early adherents of the movement were often referred to by the press by such names as Blitz Kids, New Dandies and Romantic Rebels.
Ultravox were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was their 1981 hit "Vienna".
William Lee Currie is a British multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Huddersfield, England. He is best known as the keyboard and strings player with new wave band Ultravox, who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1980s.
Visage were a British rock/pop band formed in London in 1978. The band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their hit "Fade to Grey" which was released in late 1980. In the UK, the band achieved two Top 20 albums and five Top 30 singles before the commercial failure of their third album led to their breakup in 1985.
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1980s built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the electronic music of synthpop. In the early years of the decade, while subgenres like heavy metal music continued to develop separately, there was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like The Police and UB40, enjoying considerable single chart success.
Jimmy Maelen was an American percussionist from the 1960s to 1980s, who worked with many artists including Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, Dire Straits, Barry Manilow, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, David Bowie and John Lennon. He also played on hit records by Bob James, Duran Duran, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Yoko Ono, Meatloaf, Alice Cooper, BJ Thomas, and many others.
Barbie Wilde is a Canadian-born British actress and writer, perhaps best known for appearing as the Female Cenobite in Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) – the second of ten Hellraiser films based on Clive Barker's novella, The Hellbound Heart.
Tik and Tok are the robotic mime and music duo of Tim Dry and Sean Crawford. They began performing together with Shock, a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe in the early 1980s with Barbie Wilde, Robert Pereno, L.A. Richards and Carole Caplin.
"Fade to Grey" is a song by British synth-pop band Visage, released in November 1980 as the second single from their debut album, Visage (1980), on Polydor Records.
Zoo were a dance troupe who appeared on the weekly British music series Top of the Pops between 1981 and 1983.
Carole Raphaelle Davis is an English-American actress, model, singer, and writer.
"To Cut a Long Story Short" is the debut single by the English new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on 31 October 1980. The band began recording the song before they were signed to a record label because of the interest they had generated with a debut concert for patrons of the exclusive weekly London nightclub the Blitz as well as a Christmas party at that establishment. After having tried other popular genres, the band had been preparing to make their debut as performers of dance music and wanted the public to associate them with the young crowd who met at the Blitz every Tuesday. They needed their guitarist/songwriter, Gary Kemp, to come up with something that they could feel confident about presenting to the top tier of the club's regulars at their first performance.
Perri Lister is an English dancer, singer and actress. She was a dancer with the British dance troupe Hot Gossip which appeared regularly on The Kenny Everett Video Show in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United Kingdom. In the 1980s Lister was a backing vocalist for a number of pop music acts, including Billy Idol, with whom she had a nine-year relationship.
Susan Hyatt is an American singer, songwriter, and recording artist. She is the lead vocalist and co-founding member of the alternative pop-rock bands: Stimulator, Pillbox, Sizon & Glitter Symphony, and Sirens of Soho.
Tim Dry is a mime artist, writer, photographic artist, musician and actor, best known for appearing in Return of the Jedi and the cult sci-fi/horror film Xtro. Tim was a member of the duo Tik and Tok, that popularised robotic mime in the UK in the 1980s.
Boogie is a rhythm and blues genre of electronic dance music with close ties to the post-disco style, that first emerged in the United States during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. The sound of boogie is defined by bridging acoustic and electronic musical instruments with emphasis on vocals and miscellaneous effects. It later evolved into electro and house music.
Episode 1 is the first episode of series 1 of the British science fiction/police procedural/drama television series Ashes to Ashes, which is the sequel to Life on Mars. It began broadcasting on BBC One on 7 February 2008.
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