"Tar" is the debut single by the British pop group Visage, released in 1979.

Background

"Tar" was the band's sole release on

Radar Records Radar Records was a UK-based record label formed in late 1977 by Martin Davis (managing director) who had previously worked at United Artists Records, and Andrew Lauder, who had previously been head of A&R at the UK divisions of Liberty Recor ...

in November 1979, before they signed to

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

the following year. The song's lyrics are centred on the habit of smoking cigarettes. As Steve Strange put it in his autobiography, the song is about "the pleasure and pain of nicotine". The B-side to the single is "Frequency 7", a rapid synthesizer composition with

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

vocals. (An extended, instrumental "Dance Mix" of the song was released on the " Mind of a Toy" single in 1981. Both versions were re-released by the band in 2013). "Tar" was not a chart hit, and Radar's distribution deal collapsed shortly after the single was released. A newer version of the song appeared on Visage's eponymous debut album released in 1980. The "Tar" single is the only Visage release featuring bassist

Barry Adamson Barry Adamson (born 11 June 1958)Biography
. Barryadamson.com. is an English pop and rock music ...

as a member of the band, receiving composing credits for both songs. He played a smaller role as a session musician in all subsequent releases. No music video was produced for the track.

Track listing

* 7" single (1979) :A. "Tar" – 3:27 :B. "Frequency 7" – 3:05

Personnel

Steve Strange Stephen John Harrington (28 May 1959 – 12 February 2015), known professionally as Steve Strange, was a Welsh singer. From the late 1970s he was a nightclub host and promoter. He became famous as the leader of the new wave synth-pop group ...

— vocals * Midge Ure — synthesizer, backing vocals *

Billy Currie William Lee Currie (born 1 April 1950Ultravox.org.uk
) is a ...

— synthesizer *

John McGeoch John Alexander McGeoch (25 August 1955 – 4 March 2004) was a Scottish musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Magazine (1977-1980) and Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980-1982). He has been described as one ...

— saxophone *

Rusty Egan Rusty Egan (born 19 September 1957 in London) is the former drummer for the British new wave band Rich Kids. They were founded by former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock (bass guitarist and backing vocals, occasional lead vocals), with Steve New ( ...

— drums, electronic drums programming *

Barry Adamson Barry Adamson (born 11 June 1958)Biography
. Barryadamson.com. is an English pop and rock music ...

— bass *

Dave Formula Dave Formula (born David Tomlinson 11 August 1946, Whalley Range, Manchester, England), is an English keyboardist and film-soundtrack composer from Manchester, who played with the post-punk bands Magazine and Visage during the end of the 19 ...

— synthesizer *

Peter Ashworth Peter Ashworth is an English photographer. Ashworth initially specialized in music photography, between 1979 and 2000. In the 1980s, he worked with many UK artists including The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Soft Cell, Jimmy Page and The A ...

– sleeve photography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tar (Song) 1979 debut singles 1979 songs Radar Records singles Songs written by Midge Ure Visage (band) songs Songs written by Billy Currie Songs written by Steve Strange Songs written by Rusty Egan Songs written by Dave Formula Songs written by John McGeoch