Doctors of Madness

When the Doctors of Madness broke up in fall 1978, the event was scarcely noticed and barely mourned. Within three years, however, and with the band still firmly in their grave, the group was being heralded not only as one of the crucial landmarks of the mid-'70s transition from glam rock to punk, but also as founding fathers of the latest musical convolution to shake the British landscape. Quite conceivably, the entire Futurist/electro movement of the age, that which thrust the likes of Ultravox, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, and OMD to the fore, might never have occurred without the Doctors' existence, an achievement rendered even more remarkable by the Doctors' own avoidance of any of the principle trappings of the movement. In an age when synthesizers were regarded as the epitome of icy aloofness, the Doctors were glacial with barely a keyboard in sight. In an age when emotionless minimalism had been adopted as the sound of the new concerto, the Doctors unleashed side-long panoramas of shifting, drifting malice. And at a time when sordid alienation was a passport to popularity, the Doctors barely had a friend on earth. In 1981, their U.K. label, Polydor, released a best-of compilation with all the fanfare in the world. In 1978, they had dropped the band without a second glance. The Doctors of Madness were formed in 1975 from the wreckage of Great White Idiot, a band whose one live show, at London's 100 Club, ended when the audience realized that the advertised Soul Night was not now taking place. The original lineup of vocalist Richard Harding, guitarist Eddie Macaro, keyboard player Martin Martin, drummer Peter Hewes, and violinist Geoffrey Hickman, plus a now forgotten bassist, did little before disputes over the band's future direction saw the bassist replaced by...