Fad Gadget

Francis John Tovey (8 September 1956 – 3 April 2002), known also by his stage name Fad Gadget, was a British avant-garde electronic musician and vocalist.

He was a proponent of both new wave and early industrial music, fusing pop-structured songs with mechanised experimentation.

As Fad Gadget, his music was characterised by the use of synthesizers in conjunction with sounds of found objects, including drills and electric razors.

His bleak, sarcastic and darkly humorous lyrics were filled with biting social commentary toward subjects such as machinery, industrialisation, consumerism, human sexuality, mass media, religion, domestic violence and dehumanization, often sung in a deadpan voice.

As a child, Frank Tovey lived in Bow.

His father, Frank Tovey, Sr. was a porter in Billingsgate Fish Market.

At school, Francis tried to learn many different musical instruments.

He realised he did not have the co-ordination to be able to play any of them really well.

Tovey drifted away from the idea of playing music, and began getting involved in other art forms instead.

He later studied visual arts and mime at Leeds Polytechnic.

He felt the need to give his mime act some sort of musical accompaniment so he went back to the idea of recording music.

The initial musical pieces were formed of sound manipulation using tape recorders.

Tovey began experimenting using an old Grundig tape recorder.

He disconnected the erase head from the playback head and installed a simple switch between the two.

This gave him control over what sounds could be erased or kept.

He spent a lot of time building up sound collages using this method.

After finishing full-time education Tovey began working at various jobs and around the mid seventies managed to set up his own home studio.

At the time he was living in London, in a small house.

The only space where he could set up his studio was in a cupboard.

The initial equipment he used consisted mainly of his Grundig tape recorder.

At this time he was using no musical instrument at all.

The first keyboard instrument he owned was a Crumar Compac electric piano.

He also bought a Korg Minipops drum machine from a home organ shop.

He eventually decided to purchase a Korg synthesiser.

He thought that due to his lack of musical ability he would be able to create some impressive sounds.

After the purchase of this equipment he began writing music seriously; it was at this time he sent a demo tape of "Back to Nature" to Daniel Miller, who had just released his first single as The Normal.

Frank Tovey signed as Fad Gadget to Daniel Miller's Mute Records.

He was the first artist to sign to Mute.

"Back to Nature" was recorded as the second Mute Records release at RMS Studio in London.

At the time RMS was an eight track studio.

Gadget had no real experience of recording within a studio environment, so he left most of the decision making to Daniel Miller.

Most of the recorded instruments on "Back to Nature" belonged to Tovey, although he used equipment belonging to Miller as well; this included an ARP 2600 synthesiser.

"Back to Nature" was a great success for Mute Records so a follow-up record was produced; the follow-up was titled "Ricky's Hand".

The recording included Gadget's wife, Barbara, singing a vocal part near the end of the recording; the vocal part is then mixed with a synthesiser part into the outro of the song.

Fad Gadget then went on to record an album for Mute Records.

Fireside Favourites was recorded at Blackwing Studios in London.

He decided to record the album without Daniel Miller's assistance.

Gadget felt it was important that he made all the decisions about recording the album himself.

Gadget also felt the ideas and concepts behind his live performances were just as important.

His live appearances progressed to dressing in theatrical costumes, reflecting back to his days studying visual arts, and he quickly became known for his confrontational stage antics.