The historic recordings contained here on the 'Blackwing Sessions' represent a rare and hitherto unreleased insight into early British Synth-pop. They are the primary demo material for what many consider to be a 'Lost Classic' from the early 1980s ' The Peter Pan Effect' by Robert Marlow. The tracks where programmed at co producer Eric Radcliffe's home in Gravesend in kent along with Marlow's best friend and synth-pop guru Vince Clarke in the spring of 1982. Clarke a man already the founding force in two internationally successful projects Depeche Mode and Yazoo. Clarke was at the top of his trade as an innovative and talented writer, musician and producer so for his best friend Robert Marlow, joining forces with multi- talented Radcliffe who had produced Clarke on 1981's Depeche Mode premier 'Speak and Spell' as well as Yazoo's eponymous 'Upstairs at Eric's' was going to be a pivotal moment..
Marlow was already, at the tender age of 21 a veteran of several bands to emerge from the Basildon music scene, beginning in 1978 in a “...baptism of fire” as guitarist in 'The Vandals', a punk rock band formed by Alison Moyet along with school friends Kim Forey and Susan Paggett. Marlow was the first of the 'Basildon Mafia' to acquire a synthesizer in 1979 and formed 'The Plan' with Clarke on guitar and Perry Bamonte (later to find fame with ‘The Cure’) on bass. He then fronted the all electronic line up 'French Look' with friend Martin Gore who later joined Clarke in Depeche Mode (along with French Look sound man Dave Gahan) Marlow's third soiree into the musical pantheon was in ‘Film Noir’ (again with Bamonte) and along with synth player Alan the band opened for Depeche Mode at their triumphant Basildon homecoming on ‘The Speak and Spell Tour’ in 1981.
The music contained on ‘The Blacking Sessions’ did not see the light of day until 1999 when Swedish label Energy Rekords remastered the original ‘Peter Pan Effect’ which had been mysteriously shelved in 1983 by distributer RCA despite the release through Clarke and Radcliffe’s Reset Records of Robert’s four well recieved singles ‘The Face of Dorian Gray’ and I Just Want to Dance’, both released in 1983 the later contained here with alternative Lyrics. 1984 saw the release of the string driven ‘Claudette’ and in 1985 the gloriously camp ‘Calling All Destroyers’. These recordings do not have the polish of the released album as they have been painstakingly restored from the artists own analogue sources, however as a record of a very a British new town phenomenon ‘Robert Marlow - The Blackwing Sessions’ is an important and entertaining document.
