SCOTT...OF THE ART CHART HIT

Remember M's Pop Muzik, that striking No 2 smash from May 1979? Like Gary Numan and Flying Lizards' '79 hits, it was a sign of a synth-pop future yet to come. And now M aka Robin Scott is going back to that future, with his first album on a major label for 40 years. Southend, London, Canvey, Westcliff:

- Daryl Easlea

Pop music has been good to Robin Scott, but Pop Muzik has been even better. His 1979 single as his shady alter ego, M, remains one of the form’s glittering examples, a record, like Donna Summer's I Feel Love two years earlier, that never grows old, ushering in the 80s with its smart, shiny elan. Far from living in a disco, he has forgotten about the rat race, residing in the Black Mountains in South Wales.

Scott — who had previously compartmentalised his work with M and his solo material -- realised in his bucolic setting that the two could perfectly coexist. The result is The FAQs Of Life, an album that looks at life with grace, and, being Robin Scott, has more hooks that a Peter Pan pantomime audition.

His is a story that takes in: Pop Muzik, but also Malcolm McLaren, Vivien Westwood, the London folk circuit, Level 42, The Slits, David Bowie, and pub rockers Roogalator, who, rather amazingly, he briefly managed prior to his chart ascent.

But Scott is most enthusiastic about the now. Unlike many musicians who swear they don’t dwell in the past but then seem to spend their career there, he has a wide-eyed wonder about the events of his life, especially latterly.

“Last year we had this extraordinary situation with TikTok, a whole generation going crackers over Pop Muzik again,” he enthuses over Zoom. “It’s bigger than it ever was, which is such a strange situation to be in. I'm really flattered on two counts: one, that I haven't been forgotten; and second, that there are all these young kids who are adding their own creative stamp to something which I've done. That's fantastic. A spontaneous connection.”