The Assembly were a British

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

project formed in 1983 in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

, England, by

Vince Clarke Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously ...

(songwriting, keyboards, backing vocals) and

Eric Radcliffe Eric Charles Radcliffe (often credited as E.C. Radcliffe - born 3 December 1950) is an English recording engineer and producer who worked with new wave and synthpop bands in the early 1980s in Basildon, England. He later became owner of Blac ...

(songwriting, production).

Feargal Sharkey Seán Feargal Sharkey (born 13 August 1958) is a singer from Northern Ireland most widely known as the lead vocalist of punk band The Undertones in the 1970s and 1980s, and for solo works in the 1980s and 1990s. His 1985 solo single "A Good ...

was hired as a guest vocalist for the

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

of the group's only single, "Never Never". Clarke and Radcliffe had planned to use a different singer on each track the group recorded, but the group disbanded after the release of " Never Never", and no other vocalists were employed by the duo.

Band history

Clarke founded The Assembly shortly after disbanding Yazoo (featuring vocalist Alison Moyet), upon completion and distribution of Yazoo's 1983 album, '' You and Me Both''. The Assembly marked the most involved phase of Clarke's long-term professional relationship with

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproductio ...

Radcliffe, who had contributed significant influences to the recordings of Clarke's previous bands,

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

and Yazoo. However, the Assembly project never became a full-fledged band and resulted in only one single release, the UK hit " Never Never". It featured a

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

guitar track triggered note for note on a

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

. The sound was augmented by

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

Clem Clempson David "Clem" Clempson (born 5 September 1949) is an English rock guitarist who has played as a member in a number of bands including Colosseum and Humble Pie. Career Clempson began his career in the late 1960s with the power trio, Bakerloo (or ...

on electric guitar. Former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey was hired to sing on this track. Clarke and Radcliffe had planned to use a different singer on each track the group recorded, but none were released after "Never Never". The other track on the single, "Stop/Start," was an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

, featuring Clarke's signature songwriting style with syncopation that gradually became the downbeat of the musical phrase. Despite the commercial success of the single, The Assembly was no longer a functioning entity by the end of 1984. Clarke went on to form

Erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...

with vocalist and co-songwriter Andy Bell in 1985. Although Erasure worked with Radcliffe on some of their early work, they eventually began working with other producers and engineers, including

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

. Sharkey, for his part, began a successful solo career in 1984, and achieved his only UK number one single in 1985 with "

A Good Heart "A Good Heart" is a song by Northern Irish singer Feargal Sharkey, released as the first single from his self-titled debut album. It was released in 1985 on Virgin Records. Background Written by then-Lone Justice frontwoman Maria McKee about h ...

". "Never Never" was re-released on CD single in 1996 with four tracks, containing both the normal and extended versions of both the title song, and "Stop/Start". The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Never Never", filmed at

Upminster Windmill Upminster Windmill is a Grade II* listed smock mill located in Upminster in the London Borough of Havering, England. It was formerly known as Abraham's Mill and was in Essex when built. It has been restored and is a museum open to the public at ...

in the

London Borough of Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. Th ...

, was featured on the first ''

Now That's What I Call Music! ''Now That's What I Call Music!'' (often shortened to ''Now!'') is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music (Universal/Sony Music) which began in 1983. Spinoff ...

'' video in 1983, though it did not feature on the corresponding

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

Reunion

In May 2011, Sharkey appeared on stage during the Erasure set at Mute Records' Short Circuit music festival for a one-off performance of "Never, Never" with Clarke.

Discography

* " Never Never" – A side "Never Never", B-side "Stop/Start" (instrumental) – 1983 –

Mute Muteness is a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak. Mute or the Mute may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Mute'' (2005 film), a short film by Melissa Joan Hart * ''Mute'' (2018 film), a scien ...

TINY1 – No. 4 UK – BPI: Silver

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assembly, The English electronic music groups English synth-pop groups English new wave musical groups English electronic music duos Male musical duos New wave duos New wave supergroups Electronic music supergroups British synth-pop new wave groups British supergroups Mute Records artists

Band history

Reunion

Discography

See also

References