Quando Quango

Rotterdam to the Hacienda

Quando Quango was formed in Rotterdam by Mike Pickering and the Rietveld siblings, Hillegonda, called Gonnie, on synthesizers and programming and her brother Reinier on drums; the year is 1980 per Wikipedia's history and 1981 per its infobox, MusicBrainz and LTM. Dutch press in 1981 called them dancing on the edge of a volcano. They moved to Manchester in May 1982, where Pickering became the DJ at the Hacienda. Gonnie Rietveld described the sound as Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk somewhere between Manchester and Rotterdam. The settled four-piece was Rietveld, Pickering, Simon Topping, formerly of A Certain Ratio, on percussion and trumpet, and Barry Johnson, who had played in Sweet Sensation, on bass, recruited in 1984; Reinier Rietveld left by the end of 1983 for his band Spasmodique. Guests included Johnny Marr and Vini Reilly on guitar.

Their debut single "Go Exciting" (FAC 67) came in October 1982, "Love Tempo" in July 1983, then "Atom Rock" (FAC 102, June 1984), whose 12-inch with "Triangle" had Marr on guitar and was described as the first time Bernard Sumner and Marr worked together, and "Genius" (FAC 137, 1985). They recorded a BBC session for David Kid Jensen on March 8, 1984, and one for John Peel on November 23, 1983. The album Pigs + Battleships (Factory, November 1985) was produced by Mark Kamins, recorded in Stockport in December 1984 and mixed at Shakedown Studio in New York in February 1985, and reached 17 on the UK indie chart. A single, "Bad Blood" (FAC 156), was scheduled for 1986 but not released, and the group ended. Pickering went on to T-Coy and M People, and Hillegonda Rietveld became an academic, writing This Is Our House (1998) and becoming Professor of Sonic Culture at London South Bank University. LTM reissued the album in 2003; "Genius" was a reissue favorite, revived on Andrew Weatherall's 9 O'Clock Drop.