Dr. Calculus

Dr Calculus mdma was a recording project created by Stephen Duffy and Roger Freeman in 1984. Having both left Pigbag Chris Hamlin introduced Roger Freeman to ex-Duran Duran Stephen Duffy in a Birmingham UK city centre bar in Spring 1982. Hamlin and Freeman then proceeded with musical instruments to Turin Italy for several months where Freeman worked out what would later become horn sections on the Dr Calculus recordings. He arrived in London at the end of 1983 where friends in the fashion industry mentioned to him a new thing called Ecstasy coming from California. In 1984 Stephen Duffy bumped into Roger Freeman at the White Trash nightclub in London and suggested doing a recording together. Using spare studio time from Stephen's solo work they recorded the first Dr Calculus single Programme 7. From this the Ten Records label let them record another single Perfume from Spain and the album Designer Beatnik, released in the Summer of 1986. This included prototype chill-out / house tracks which segued together to run non-stop for forty minutes. Guest appearances on the album included Pigbag members Ollie Moore and Chris Lee, bass player Guy Pratt and vocalists Francoise Gigandet, Tricia Ronane, Jeni Innocent, Caroline Dodd and Junior Gee, with Tamsin Anne de Roemer providing ambient sounds recorded while she was in Japan. It was co-produced and engineered by Paul Staveley O'Duffy and the sleeve artwork was by Stephen Duffy's brother Nick which featured a cover photo of the Spirit of Ecstasy car mascot. Several participants from the Dr Calculus project appeared as Stephen Duffy's backing band on UK Channel Four television's music programme The Tube on 14th February 1986. Two years later a remix of the single Perfume from Spain entitled Full of Love was used on the soundtrack of the movie She's Having a Baby. Following little reaction from the music press at the time Stephen Duffy went on to form The Lilac Time while Roger Freeman landed a job in a London warehouse just as the Acid House Party / Rave scene was starting up.