The Blow Monkeys frontman Doctor Robert admits his bandmates had mixed feelings the first time they heard Digging Your Scene.
Released as the second single from their sophomore album ‘Animal Magic’ (1986), the track marked the group’s UK Top 40 debut and was a hit worldwide, marking their first and only US Top 20 hit.
Although the album arrived in 1986, the campaign for ‘Animal Magic’ launched one year earlier with single Forbidden Fruit, which charted in the UK at No. 94, as the group continued to craft their next record.
Looking back, Doctor Robert says: “The label didn’t know what we were. We didn’t know what we were, really. People would say, ‘What are you?’ I’d say, ‘Well, we’re sort of glam-jazz’.
“I didn’t really know what it was, we were just recording, but we had Digging Your Scene and Korda said, ‘Go to New York and do a remix of it.’ So I went over with a version of Digging that we had done as a band and went to Arthur Baker’s studio, Unique – and it was unique, because there were no instruments there!
“It was the first time I’d ever been in a studio where there were just samplers and MIDI cables everywhere. I worked with a guy called Michael Baker – this young punk who was in there – and he was brilliant. Him and his mate Axel [Kroll] changed the backing track on the record and I knew that that was the moment things would really change.”
When he returned to the UK, the label was thrilled with the track but it received a mixed reception from the other members of the group. “On one hand they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s a hit,’ but on the other hand they’re not on it. Their drum and bass has been replaced by a LinnDrum machine, which is what everyone used in the eighties because that’s how you got on the radio. So that was a blow for the band at the time, but it gave us a career.”
Reflecting on the collection more than 35 years on, he adds: “It’s quite inventive; some of the brass lines and things that are going on are different, and I can see what I was trying to do.
“I always think the singing could have been better, but that’s just me. But I’ve gotta say, it’s not a bad album!”
Read the full interview in the March 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
‘Animal Magic: Deluxe Edition’ is out now via BMG on 4CD and limited edition white vinyl formats.
