Search - Frank Tovey :: Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey

Great tribute to an underated performer

Poor Napoleon | TX United States | 02/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At first glance, this collection doesn't make sense - even to a fan of Frank Tovey. Unreleased tracks, unearthed demos and a slew of vintage clips for a performer who never saw the success of many of his peers. Director Alex Proyas (The Crow) has a few words. There are interviews with members of Depeche Mode and Anton Corbijn, included in a lovely hour long documentary. A set of this love and magnitude for the cult singer just doesn't make sense. Then you open up the sleeve notes and a vintage photo of Frank wearing a t shirt that advertised the newly formed Mute Records and it all comes together.



This set celebrates not only Frank's ability as an artist, but his contributions to popular music. As stated in the documentary, Depeche Mode was opening for Fad Gadget in Mute's beginings. When we see Frank's on stage antics (tar and feathers, shaving himself in unsuspecting places), we realize that Frank was more than another musician - but his music is not to be understated here. The set is the first representation of Frank's full career, even his post Fad days, where he was something of a folk singer. Also included is a new track, Sleeper, recorded in 96 and seems to be influenced by the trip hop era somewhat.



People catching Frank for the first time will be amazed at seeing a very complete, chronological set of tunes as well as concert performances. The synth driven material is the best on here, but his work with the Pyros was great too, and the best material is chosen for this package. Synth pop fans wanting to catch something of a darker, more energetic version of something along the lines of DM should love checking Frank's material out, while fans will be salivating over the wealth of rarities here.



It's also worth noting that this is one of the best assembled retrospective packages I've seen and clearly a lot of digging was done to find some of the best available material out there. The DVDs are especially noteworthy with complete concerts from two different decades, a slew of rare performances and complete promos as well. A top notch collection coming from any artist."

Finally...

Jonathan Roberts | Long Beach, CA United States | 10/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This man gets the attention he deserves...sort of. I was really happy to see a box set release of various songs and videos. And everything in this set turned out amazing. So much great stuff, and I recommend it to anyone who's a fan, or even just beginning to look into Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey... However, I think I would have liked better maybe a 4 disc comprehensive set of ALL songs he has done. The 2 CDs include nice demos and fan favorites and a few others, but if this is supposed to a retrospective set, it should have included a lot more. It would have been more expensive, but I would have paid for a nice set of all his material, as its not too easy to get your hands on much else of his in stores. But back to the point, this set is AWESOME, the videos are worth the price alone! Get it!"

Frank's influence, no passing Fad

Paul A. Mccann | Columbus, Ohio | 01/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Frank Tovey was one of the most unappreciated artists of our time. He was an extremely diverse and multi-demensional arranger of sounds, and talented song writer. Martin Gore and Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode both cite Frank as an influence in their careers.

Most of the videos, and especially the live performance videos, are obviously low-budget. But this 2DVD/2CD set chronicles Frank (Fad), from his beginings, to his abrupt conclusion in the early 2000s. Whether making strange electronic pop tunes, or creating catchy folky songs, he consistently demonstrated brilliant song writing and arranging talents.

I, for one, wish the rest of the world had had the fortune of knowing this brilliant artist's work.

May he rest in peace."