I can hardly wait to leave this place

Translated by @manicswitch and editing and proofreading by @pfurs.

He leads a double life. By day he is Frank Tovey, the loving husband and caring father. But at night, when the lights go out, this mild-mannered English man becomes Fad Gadget. Then he rages as a boisterous dervish over the stage, jumps around the set while tarred and feathered or performs Saint Vitus’ dances while mummified. A classic case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde or the strange metamorphosis of Frank Tovey…

I was greeted at the door by Jackie Eldorado who, at the time of the heyday of punk, kissed the feet of no one other than Iggy Pop – or rather licked his legs. Thanks to Jackie’s cool involvement, this interview still somehow managed to take place. All in a measured haste, of course. I opened up the conversation with, “Marvin Gaye is dead”. Fad Frank – in reality a super slim model with a juicy small butt, as women knowingly and men enviously note – is seriously shocked.

“You’re joking”, he doubts my sincerity. “No,”, I assure him, “they’re already playing memorial broadcasts on the radio.” “Weird,” ponders Fad Gadget , “just a few days ago I suddenly had the impulse to go to a record store and buy a Marvin Gaye LP because I couldn’t get one of his songs out of my head for some reason.” Let’s stop our sad homages here and get straight in medias res. Who exactly is Fad Gadget? Maybe a non-musician that wants to chart new musical territory? One of the first synth-pioneers whose influence on the electro-pop-genre is not to be underestimated? Maybe a stage clown that likes to dress himself up in strange clothing? Maybe a coward that hides behind this nonsensical pseudonym? Who knows?? One thing he is for sure: An ace in his area of expertise.

With a quiet voice he tells me not to smoke – the voice I’m quite familiar with – and then tells me about how much he hates the music industry’s labeling: “I don’t like to be put into a box because I don’t just pull all of my influences from one place. To have me under the label of “British Electronic Pop” is just wrong because my last albums weren’t even electronic. Barely any synthesizers. Maybe you could say it’s pop music, but I’m probably not popular enough for that. They don’t play me on the radio.”

After the three albums FIRESIDE FAVOURITES, INCONTINENT, UNDER THE FLAG, the recent GAG and diverse singles that he – loyal soul – recorded almost exclusively at the English Blackwing Studio, Fad went on a pilgrimage to Berlin for his newest work. In the now famous Hansa-Studio, where, during his time, Bowie and Iggy Pop gave German music history an international footnote, he sought dialogue with his muse.

“Sure, the fact that Bowie and Iggy recorded there somehow influenced me. But I also just wanted some change in location, the work at Blackwing became too much of a routine. Also I knew that the Birthday Party worked there as well so it couldn’t have been too expensive. And it turned out that Hansa is a great place.”

I hummed “Berlin, dein Gesicht hat Sommersprossen” (Berlin, your face has freckles) while thinking about Knef (Hildegard Knef, German actress and musician) and asked Fad what he noticed about the walled city with the French, American, and British influences. “Not much to be honest, because, after working at the studio, I was too tired to get into the nightlife. But the city still had an influence on GAG. I can’t say what kind of influence, but songs reflect moods as well after all. In “Collapsing New People” which we recorded with Einstürzende Neubauten, we used, for example, an electric upright bass with a synthesizer, tuned Perrier bottles and a slide guitar. Influences from all sorts of extreme styles. The rhythm was a mix of chacha and disco. You see, there really isn’t a point in searching for a genre to label it…”

Brian Eno and other "Non Musicians" are known and equally accepted as sound crafters, technocrats, and experimenters in the circle of technically talented musicians.

“I’m a musician only in the sense of putting my ideas into sounds. In my earlier albums, this was a very personal, intimate process. GAG is – for the first time – a real band project.”

Friends, it’s getting exciting. We’re getting closer to the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde syndrome, the double life of Fad Gadget alias Frank Tovey. How does a loving father and caring husband turn into such a beast on stage?

“I don’t have a split personality as many often claim I do. You would never ask an actor something like that. The person on stage, Fad Gadget, is only a niche of my personality that I work on. It’s simply a part of me, my idea of Fad Gadget.”

This idea came into existence a few years prior at an art school, a place that, in England, has often been a starting point for a lot of budding musicians. As Frank noticed that his talents as a painter weren’t good enough, he changed to performance.

“Working with the entire body fascinated me because the reactions of the audience, the viewer, immediately returned to me. Through performance and mime lessons, I found my way back to music too. When I was 12, 13 I actually formed an amateur band, but it soon disbanded because of the lack of instrumental talent.”

Fad Frankie realized that he wouldn’t become a virtuoso early on. But, this time, he made a virtue out of necessity. “Actually, I have always only cared for sounds, for noise, for cacophony. I experimented with pots and pans, with things from daily life, and their sound possibilities. For example, at first, I only played a sequence on the piano using a two finger system that I recorded onto tape and then worked into an endless loop. I then added more chords and sang over those tape loops. Bit by bit, my attempts became more adventurous but, even today, I still work within the boundaries of these technical limitations. In doing so, you experience new surprises again and again.”

Sure, Fad Gadget loves surprises. We do too! But he still has a clear goal in front of his eyes: success, money, maybe even a small chart hit. Our friend needs the money to realize his upcoming projects. Everyone says, great, dark humor!, but Fad is really convincing. He remembers how the lonely creative process of the painter in the ivory tower took a toll on him. Pictures he didn’t like – and that was most of the time – ended up in the trash. That’s why, today, he prefers art forms that reach a lot of people. People that reach out, like fans that write to him from Australia: “A strange feeling”, but that’s exactly what’s important to him. That’s why he likes products that one can mass produce and copy – e.g records, fliers and movies.

While outside of the dressing room, the last preparations for the concert are getting done and our small conversation comes to an end. Frank still has time to talk about how last year he tore his tendons during one of his acrobatic exercises and still played the gig until the end: “Adrenaline, you know?!” I also got to know about how “Sleep”, a lullaby for his daughter Morgan, came to be. Daniel Miller, Mute boss and Gadget producer, recorded a simple sequence to which Fad and his wife sang. Morgan also joined in – the technicians had just enough time to plug in her mic.

Fad Gadget is a funny saint. An intellectual that turns into a sex symbol on stage. His acting on stage has something mechanical to it as if he’s hiding his fear with his loud performance. Like anyone else, he seems to rely on familiar faces. Apart from a few guests like Alison Moyet (Yazoo), Roland S. Howard (Birthday Party) and the avant-gardist Boyd Rice named NON, he always returns to the same musicians. He appreciates that he can phone his boss, friend, and partner Daniel in the middle of the night when things get difficult or simply just to talk. He obviously loves his wife and child.

Translated by @manicswitch (Thanks Ira!). Editing and proofreading by @pfurs. 

Then Fad Gadget - alias Frank Tovey. Standing at his side were Robert Gotobed (Ex-Wire)/Drums, a bassist, and Daniel Miller (The Normal, Mute Records Boss)/Electronics.

The music was his label's known blend. Electropop: sometimes straight, sometimes playful - with a bit of black humor. Everything went great - only Robert Gotobed struggled to catch up sometimes. Highlights include - unsurprisingly - his singles "Ricky's Hand", "Fireside Favorites", and the new "Make Room".

But even while everything sounded nice, I lost major interest after a third of the performance. His music was too conventional, edgeless, and with not enough surprises for my tastes. 

Now, Fad Gadget doesn't see himself as just a plain musician, but as a performer as well. And it was very impressive to see what he was capable of.

 He banged on his equipment with a plastic pipe hard enough to get the room to shake. One time he hung himself from the pipes on the ceiling, only to let himself fall all of a sudden. The ending highlight was a tense duel between his head and a rhythm machine. One could almost think he acted in some kind of performance mania - if it weren't for the calculated placement of a break in the middle to gauge the audience's reactions as he told us later on.

And a majority of the audience, especially the audience at the front, was very pleased with what they saw. While they danced, people in the back were less impressed and used the time to talk.

I was under the impression that the stage spectacle was compensating for the missing surprises and intensity in the music. Fad Gadget's actions somehow stood oddly unrelated to the music.

Here the underlying problem of all e-poppers, from Orchestral Manoeuvres to Human League, once more became obvious: Producing pop with synthesizers is nothing new anymore. Once you're acquainted with those sounds, you'll find yourself asking why conventional music, only by the addition of electronic instruments, should be considered unique.

We were able to talk to Fad Gadget after the concert. We then immediately asked him if his music had a lot of potential. "I can’t really say. It's something that'll show in the future - if it couldn't evolve, I would immediately stop with that approach." He doesn't see himself reliant on musical activity. After all, he has a performance art degree and being a mime behind him. "Today music is the medium for me to realize my ideas. Rock'n'roll, out of all other art forms, is interesting to me because of its spontaneity. I like the exciting and raw feel and the direct contact to the audience. Everything you do has immediate feedback."

And what was that with the break: "I always do that to test the audience!" But that's something very risky to do: "Well, yeah. I haven't been attacked for it yet. But something unexpected can always happen and that's kind of the point of me doing it."