In Memoriam: Blancmange's "Stephen Luscombe" Has Died Aged 70

Stephen Luscombe, musician and songwriter and the other part of the English synth pop duo Blancmange has died, aged 70. His former bandmate, Neil Arthur, paid tribute to the musician on the group's social media on Sunday, writing: "Heartbroken. RIP Stephen. Love you forever."

Luscombe was born in Middlesex on 29 October 1954. He studied at the University of Westminster’s Harrow School of Art in London. Connected by a shared admiration for Brian Eno, Can, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, the pair formed Blancmange at the tail end of the 1970s.

Luscombe, who has died aged 70 after suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm and heart problems, cemented his place in pop history with his work with his musical partner Neil Arthur in Blancmange. Stars of the synth-pop wave of the 1980s, alongside contemporaries such as Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and Soft Cell, Blancmange made their first big impact with their UK Top 10 hit Living on the Ceiling in 1982, while its parent album, Happy Families, reached the UK Top 30.

Luscombe had keyboard skills, while Arthur's idiosyncratic vocals and the duo's studio wizardry and knack for melodic hooks would prove a potent combination. Luscombe would later recall how the best concert he had ever seen was by electronic pioneers Kraftwerk at London's Roundhouse in 1976. "I  haven't seen anything since that was anywhere near as good," he declared. "Them all in suits with short hair and their computers and all these hippies sitting watching."

Blancmange enjoyed a further streak of hit singles taken from the follow-up Mange Tout from 1984, a Number 8 hit on the album chart. The singles Blind Vision and Don’t Tell Me both reached the Top 10, That’s Love, That It Is made it to No 33, while their version of Abba’s The Day Before You Came went to No 22. Luscombe would recall how the latter song prompted a generous response from the Swedish superstars. "Agnetha and Anni-Frid wrote us a letter and said they really liked our version as it gave them special memories and made them laugh."

Blancmange's commercial profile declined subsequently, with What’s Your Problem their last Top 40 hit single and the third album, Believe You Me, reaching only No 54. In June 1986, following a Greenpeace concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Blancmange announced they were splitting up. Arthur told Classic Pop: "Me and Stephen, we’re like chalk and cheese. When that's constructive it's really good, but when it's destructive you haven't got a chance."

In 1989, Luscombe released the album New Demons, under the name of West India Company. This was in the wake of a visit he had made to India with Boy George, where George recorded with a 100-piece Indian orchestra and the singer Asha Bhosle. The album was a collection of Indian-inspired pieces (echoing the use of tabla and sitar on Living on the Ceiling), where Luscombe collaborated with Bhosle and the singer Priya Khajuria, the tabla player Pandit Dinesh and Peter Culshaw.

Luscombe was born in Hillingdon, north-west London. Before he met Arthur, he had gained considerable experience in experimental music, not least through playing the violin with the Portsmouth Sinfonia. This had been founded at the Portsmouth School of Art, and the composer Gavin Bryars, who taught there, encouraged anyone to join, regardless of their musical ability, or lack of it (Brian Eno played the clarinet). 

Subsequently, Luscombe had assembled his own experimental music workshop called MIRU, or Music Improvisation Research Unit, which would play versions of pop standards such as These Boots Are Made for Walkin' as well as their own compositions and bursts of improvised noise. One night they were performing in the college bar at the Harrow School of Art, and Neil Arthur was among the bemused listeners.

Luscombe recalled how "the night that Neil saw us we had five percussionists and the bar was full of lawnmowers and washing machines. We'd find washing machines on the way to gigs and then plug them in and see what happened. The barman absolutely loathed us. We just thought it was funny."

Arthur had his own band, The Viewfinders, while pursuing his college studies. Luscombe also had a full-time job in graphics and printing, but the pair ended up getting together to make their own recordings at Luscombe's home in Hayes, west London. At first these were instrumentals, until Arthur belatedly revealed that he had a rather impressive singing voice.

They added Laurence Stevens on drums, but he left shortly after the group’s formation. In April 1980 the duo released a limited-edition debut EP, Irene & Mavis. This went broadly unnoticed, but that changed when Blancmange's song Sad Day was included on the compilation Some Bizzare Album, a showcase for as-yet-unknown synth-pop groups including the The, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. This prompted London Records to offer them a deal, and in 1982 they had minor hit singles with God’s Kitchen/I’ve Seen the Word and Feel Me. Then came Living on the Ceiling, a hit in the UK and on several international charts, and the success of Happy Families.

Finally in 2011, Luscombe and Arthur combined for a belated fourth Blancmange album, Blanc Burn, but Luscombe subsequently had to step away from the band because of his aneurysm, which he learned was a hereditary condition. In 2013 the duo's rerecorded version of Blancmange's debut album, named Happy Families Too…, was released, but Luscombe was unable to participate in the subsequent concert tour for health reasons.