Active until 1990 Genre Dance/electronic | Active from 1984 | |
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Albums Metal & Flesh, Radio Sessions, Rarities, Clean Tables Have To Be Burnt Members Clive Pierce, Regine Fetet, Hugh Ashton, Rob Doran Similar Sympathy Nervous, Das Ding, Soma Holiday, Innergaze, Das Kabinette | ||
Hard Corps were a 1980s synthpop band from Brixton, London.
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 EP in 1984 Dirty/Respirer on Survival Records, with Respirer also being released that year on The Art of Survival compilation EP along with bands such as Tik and Tok, Eddie and Sunshine and Richard Bone. 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. 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!"
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’ Davis. As of 2014 Clive Pierce was still 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 were made available on Minimal Wave Records.
Members
Albums
Singles
Compilation appearances
Equipment list
The following are equipment used by Hard Corps on their recordings:
Songs
Je Suis PasseClean Tables Have To Be Burnt · 2012
Desolation LandClean Tables Have To Be Burnt · 2012
Metal + Flesh1985