Watch Electronic’s Remastered ‘Forbidden City’ TOTP Performance
Electronic have shared archival footage of their 5 July 1996 Top Of The Pops performance of Forbidden City, which you can watch below. The track features on Electronic’s upcoming Get The Message: The Best Of collection, which is released on vinyl on 29 September 2023.
Forbidden City was initially released on Electronic’s second album, Raise The Pressure, released by Parlophone after the closure of Factory Records, in 1996. The album peaked at No. 8 on the UK Top 40, with Forbidden City rising to No. 14. The track was reputedly one of the fastest to be written and recorded on the album, with most of the music by Marr and the lyrics by Sumner (much like Get the Message and Make It Happen). It is a guitar pop/rock song with a heavily distorted guitar solo by Marr and its lyric concerns a young man who has an abusive relationship with his father but wants to return home despite this antagonism.
Following the success of Forbidden City, Raise The Pressure spawned two further singles courtesy of For You – one of six songs on the album co-written with Kraftwerk’s Karl Bartos – and the dance-y Second Nature. Unlike with the band’s self-titled debut, Electronic chose not to tour in support of Raise The Pressure.
Pre-order Get The Message: The Best Of Electronic
First released on CD in 2006, Get the Message: The Best Of Electronic is the career spanning collection from the Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner band who released a string of critically acclaimed hits including their debut single Getting Away With It, Get The Message, Disappointed and Feel Every Beat.
This compilation captures the very essence of their ground-breaking sound, blending Marr’s distinctive guitar work with Sumner’s vocals and guest features from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant (Getting Away With It, Disappointed) and Kraftwerk’s Karl Bartos (For You, Imitation Of Life).
Pre-order Get The Message: The Best Of Electronic.