The Musician & The Professor
- jamesgeraghty
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
I can't even remember how I latched onto this little bit of narrative. It's a story about the intersection between the worlds of new wave music and academia, and in this case, the title reference is for one and the same person. And yes, I know it is not unheard of for musicians to later become academics, especially with the visual arts connection, but in this case I found it interesting as it is a person you may well have never heard of...
On The Beach:
Martha Ladly was studying at the Ontario College of Art in the late 1970s. Punk and new wave had made its way across from the UK and up from New York, even into Toronto. The Queen Street Strip, just north of downtown and the shore of Lake Ontario, was the place to be, and handily just a block or so from the college buildings.
It was 1978, and Ladly was offered a place in an already established local new wave band called Martha and the Muffins. She played guitar, but they already had a guitarist in Mark Gane, so she simply became their keyboard player. She wasn’t even the first Martha, with Martha Johnson already providing part of the band name and the lead vocals. Ladly added backing vocals to her duties and all was good.
They put out a single, Insect Love, on a local independent label before their demo tape found its way into the hands of an A&R person at Virgin Records. They got signed to offshoot Dindisc, and soon the band found themselves heading to England to make a record at Richard Branson’s very own set up at Manor Studios in Oxfordshire. Their debut LP, Metro Music, is regarded as something of an essential record from the North American new wave era - lots of bright guitars, sax and catchy songs.
Martha & The Muffins: Insect Love (audio only - quirky and intriguing)
Keen to capitalise on this initial success, Virgin had them back in the studio tout suite, to make Trance And Dance. While Johnson had sung lead on the breakout hit Echo Beach on the first record, Ladly got to write and sing lead on the seventh single, Was Ezo, and a few
other album tracks too. But it was her work on the album sleeve that helped set up the next phase of her life, bringing her to the attention of many, including Peter Saville
Martha & The Muffins: Was Ezo (audio only - Go-Go's 'inspired' bass line, catchy Roxy Music style tune)
Art & Music:
She would leave the band in August 1980, to take up an art scholarship in the UK (having by now already graduated in Fine Art). Even moving countries didn’t stop her musical career though; she would release a pair of solo singles during her first few years in the UK - Finlandia and Light Years From Love (both released simply under the name Martha) - with the latter including New Order’s Peter Hook on bass.
Martha: Finlandia (audio only - interesting, with some classical undertones)
Martha: Light Years From Love (official video - and the Hooky bassline)
She then got an opportunity to work as a project manager with renowned visual artist Peter Saville, who had co-founded Factory Records with Tony Wilson, and was responsible for the designs of many of its album covers. Her painting Factus 8 was used on New Order’s 1981 - 1982 EP, which included the singles Procession and Temptation.
Andy and Paul from O.M.D. credit Ladly with coming up with the title for their classic 1981 LP, Architecture & Morality, and also 1984 single, Tesla Girls. She provided some backing vocals for Roxy Music on their Avalon tour (1982), having gotten to know them when The Muffins had supported them a few years before. She then got some work with Scottish post-punk outfit, The Associates, with its mercurial members Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine. She provided keyboards and backing vocals for three tracks on Sulk (though not their biggest hit, Party Fears Two), and contributed on and off to the band until 1986, including a Top of the Pops appearance. That was followed by a stint working and touring with Robert Palmer’s band.
The Associates: Party Fears Two (on Top of the Pops - although Ladly didn't play on the record version)
The 1990s saw her return to other areas of the arts, managing Anta’s, a trendy design business in trendy Holland Park, London, working on their range of recoloured “authentic tartan”. She also spent much of that decade working with Peter Gabriel, as the Head of Design for his Real World Group. Ladly had already worked with him through her time with Saville, working on the design for 1986’s So album, and also the Secret World Live album a few years later (1994). As part of her Real World role, she led design teams on international interactive arts projects, looking after marketing and merchandising, and also managed the content of Gabriel’s Box fanzine.
Academia:
The new millennium saw a move back to Canada. First was a job as the creative director at HorizonZero, a bilingual online magazine, run by the Banff New Media Institute (in Alberta) that ran from 2002 and 2004. It was a journal of digital art and new media culture, running for 18 issues including features on video, games, digital artwork and the intersection between technology and culture.
Appointed as Associate Professor in 2003, becoming a full professor in 2011, and in 2012, Ladly was appointed as the Associate Dean of graduate studies at Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD - the new name for her old art college), with her speciality being interactive communication. She also mentored at the Canadian Film Centre, in their Interactive Project Lab, and acted as a member of faculty for its Habitat Interactive Art and Entertainment Program.
References:
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