OFFICE FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT – MUSIC’S NOT DEAD, DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL-ON-SEA 1.3.24
Bexhill-based synth trio Office For Personal Development are more than just a band. With meticulous attention to detail they have invented themselves as a total concept, a corporate entity with a retro business aesthetic and a strong brand identity, pledged to deliver a programme of motivational coaching through the medium of 1980s-inspired disco pop. It sounds an unlikely and slightly sinister combination, but if you go along with it, an OPD show can be a joyously uplifting and transformative experience.
We’re in the foyer of the Grade I listed icon of modernist architecture, the De La Warr Pavilion on Bexhill’s seafront. This is also the home of independent record shop Music’s Not Dead, and tonight’s in-store performance is promoting the release of Office For Personal Development’s debut album ‘Doing. Is. Thinking.’ Both LP and CD versions are lovingly packaged, with the green vinyl matching the band’s livery, and lyrical extracts of encouraging epithets presented as flow charts. There’s even a cardboard model of a photocopier to assemble, if you feel so inclined.
The workplace vibe extends to the performance space, with the keyboard stations decorated with pot plants, and a water cooler centre stage. Effects units are stowed in briefcases. The huge curved windows have been decorated with foil fringe curtains, and the majestic sweep of the venue’s famous spiral staircase is beautifully lit by green spotlights. An impressive crowd has gathered, and some of the punters are amusing themselves on an interactive electronic terminal the band has installed. The content looks alarmingly similar to the bizarre online training we all seem to have to endure as a condition of any kind of employment these days.
Showtime is here, and there’s a loud cheer as ‘Head of IT’ Del Querns and ‘Goals Liaison Officer’ Jenna Love take their places at their respective workstations, clad in the band uniform of grey suits, white shirts and green ties. Del is familiar to most of us here as he can usually be found on the other side of the counter at Music’s Not Dead. A recorded intro starts, and voices in various accents intone “Welcome to the Office for Personal Development” over an electronic backing. We wait, poised in anticipation of the arrival of the master of ceremonies, ‘The Director’ Trevor Deeble. His entrance is particularly spectacular, sliding down the bannister of the magnificent spiral staircase to land amongst the crowd, where he proceeds to go on walkabout, shaking hands with individual audience members. The delicate keyboard motif of opener ‘Take Me Back’ is soon augmented by a scudding bass thud and dreamy washes of synth. The Director’s vocal manages to be powerful and plaintive at the same time. The well-received number is followed by the brisk and expansive exhortation ‘You Are In Control’, embellished by flurries of descending notes.
We depart from the album running order with the soothingly reassuring ‘Everything Is Going To be Okay’, lilting along on a juddering bassline and tinkling arpeggios of high notes. There’s a clap-along breakdown where The Director leaps from the bass bin into the crowd and lists the five guiding principles of the band’s motivational programme, counting them on his fingers for emphasis. There’s some more enthusiastic interaction between songs, the rabble-rousing lightened by an over zealous punter bellowing out “I want your babies!”, which raises a chuckle.
‘Strong Enough’ is a more reflective piece, exploring the self-doubt that can afflict even the best motivated amongst us. It’s underpinned by some monstrously deep bass notes. Del and Jenna have swapped workstations, and The Director has the audience sufficiently in his thrall to co-ordinate mass participation in a finger-click section which he abruptly silences with a smart flourish, like the conductor of an orchestra. Goals Liaison Officer Jenna takes the lead vocal for ‘Love Me Again’, a piece of classic pop froth that would be a worthy contender in a vintage edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The synth backing gets a judder on to accompany ‘Best Days Of Our Lives’, the soaring vocal ironically a lyrical stream of morose invective. Head of IT Del looks uncharacteristically relaxed, delivering some exaggerated flourishes on his mini Korg.
The Director straps on an electric guitar, and there’s a brief interlude while he tunes it. “This is the best bit,” quips Jenna, to laughter from the crowd. “My confidence teacher tells me to tune like nobody’s watching,” The Director retorts, and we’re into the title track from the album, opening with a section of frankly quite psychedelic lead guitar. It reminds me of Donald Ross Skinner’s playing on Julian Cope’s classic ‘Safesurfer’. The pace picks up with a vocal line worthy of the Pet Shop Boys and a chant-along chorus driven by funkier rhythm guitar. There’s another breakdown for The Director to assertively interact with the audience, and by the conclusion of the piece, absolutely everyone is clapping along in an ecstatic reverie. It’s a triumph of stagecraft.
There’s more in the locker. ‘Risk To Benefit’ is a fine song that moves along nicely, its anecdotal lyric decorated with a high backing vocal from Jenna, and there’s more enthusiastic clapping along. ‘Do It All Over Again’ is a primal howl, railing against the workaday grind, and usually culminates in The Director tearing off most of his clothes and screaming in anguish, curled up on the venue floor. For variety today, we’re instead treated to a screaming contest, with three plucky volunteers giving their lungs an extreme workout at the appropriate juncture. They are competing for a band t-shirt. Sales have been good, and there are only smaller sizes left, so the result is a foregone conclusion, with the most petite participant scooping the prize.
‘Invisible To Me’ is a satisfying finale to a brilliantly executed set that has delighted the many onlookers. As is customary, the band do a little dance and a synchronised thumbs up as the outro music plays, and then it’s time to get busy signing copies of the album. For anyone who can’t wait to get home to play it, there’s an “after work drinks” at a nearby social club, where DJ sets from band members are promised, plus a full play through of the album. I know where I’m heading next, then.
If you are intrigued by the concept of the Office For Personal Development, I strongly urge you to check out their album and begin your own developmental journey.
Office For Personal Development:
Trevor Deeble aka The Director – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Del Querns aka Head of IT – keyboards and electronics
Jenna Love aka Goals Liaison Officer – keyboards, vocals
Office For Personal Development setlist:
(All from 2024 album ‘Doing. Is. Thinking.’)
‘Take Me Back”
‘You Are In Control’
‘Everything Is Going To Be OK’
‘Strong Enough’
‘Love Me Again’
‘Best Days Of Our Lives’
‘Doing. Is. Thinking.’
‘Risk to Benefit’
‘Do It All Over Again’
‘Invisible To Me’
Great summary of what turned out to be an entertaining enjoyable album launch by the band