Biography
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Years Active
1981 – 1986 (5 years)
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Members
- Barry Johnson
- Derek Johnson
- Donald Johnson
- Gonnie Rietveld
- Mike Pickering
Quando Quango's twisted electronic music experiments lasted a good six years, spawning an album and several dance 12" releases. A case of Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk somewhere between Manchester and Rotterdam, part of a new wave of post-punk electronica, with a whole lot of Mike Pickering's broad knowledge of soul, disco, reggae and pop to stuff the gaps.
Most significant to dance music fans were the insistent bass syncopations of Love Tempo, the party atmosphere of Genius and the boogie of Atom Rock, as well as Tingle with its Quando dance manifesto and Go Exciting, a pastiche of Fela basslines with Latino flava lyrics, which reportedly touched the hearts of Latino clubbers in New York. It shows vague visions of future music, based on a curious musical cross-section of all that was interesting in the early 1980s.
The backgrounds of co-members also demonstrated the variety of Quando Quango's approaches. Barry Johnson fitted his bass work between Sweet Sensation, The Twelfth Tribe of Israel and, later, reggae giants Aswad. Percussionist Simon Topping joined in-between A Certain Ratio (ACR), Salsa percussion classes in New York and, later, his Latino-flavoured house outfit T-Coy. First drummer Reinier Rietveld was simultaneously part of Dutch cult band Spasmodique. Later drummer Adam Ryan-Carter became a successful songwriter for several pop acts. And, not least, some great help on bass, guitar and percussion from two other talented Johnson brothers, Donald (ACR) and Derek (52nd Street)."
Mike Pickering went on to form 'M-People'
http://mpeople.webeden.co.uk
Quando Quango were signed to Factory Records, Manchester, UK
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