Synthpop Forums

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English synthpop group Northern Kind have just created a new synthpop forum to discuss the band, their tour, and other related topics. Since I’m now a member of this and a bunch of other synthpop-related forums and message boards (as well as being a lurker in several others), I thought it’d be handy to list all these in one post. To help me, I asked Stefan Last, Sweden’s biggest synthpop fan and frequent contributor to many forums for his thoughts on his favourites. Follow after the jump then for a list of message boards with comments from myself and Stefan.

These first three forums both Stefan and I visit often. Says Stefan: “I like all of these forums as they’re all very friendly places and I feel I can contribute to them.”

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Marsheaux Official Forum

  • 326 registered users
  • Band members read and post occasionally
  • I signed up here relatively recently after lurking for a year or so. It seemed like a friendly place and features several familiar names from the Human League forum. There are usually a few posts a day, so not too many that you lose track of threads. This is Stefan’s favourite forum as “a lot of other bands that I like are also discussed there, and from time to time I also find out about great bands/artists that I have previously missed.“

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Secrets: Human League Fan Forum

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  • 773 registered users
  • Band members read and post occasionally
  • I used to post on this forum daily, back when it was on ezboard and after it moved to its current home. For a band that hasn’t released any new music in over 8 years, there’s a surprising amount of band-related talk and banter on a daily basis. It’s also one of the friendliest forums I know, with a great mixture of users. There’s loads of non-Human League topics and areas too so it’s a great place to find out about new bands (especially the General Recommendations thread) as well as tour and release news of other established and up-and-coming synth bands.

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Client Official Message Board

  • 2,365 registered users
  • Band members read and post
  • Not a forum I know too well myself, but Stefan is a frequent contributor. On the Client and Marsheaux forums, he says: “You get in direct contact with the bands. Both Sophie and Marianthi drop by the Marsheaux forum from time to time, and Kate more or less runs the Client forum (with technical assistance from Corinna I believe)“.

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Northern Kind Fonkrum

  • 90 registered users
  • Band members read and post
  • The newest synthpop forum (hence the currently relatively small member list), created for one the hottest up-and-coming synthpop bands in England. There’s a good range of forum topics and NK mastermind Matt Culpin has already posted some surprisingly candid messages.

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Heaven 17 Message Board

  • unknown number of registered users
  • Band members read and post
  • Must register to read!
  • The official site (and presumably the forum as well) is maintained by Orac from Electronically Yours. It’s a small-ish forum (and one of the few non-phpbb forums) with areas for band news, tour info and other stuff. It could perhaps do with a bit of a makeover, but it has one massive saving grace in that H17’s singer-songwriter Glenn Gregory actively participates in discussions.
  • Update: this board has been disabled

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Official OMD Website Forumomd

  • 629 registered users
  • Band members read
  • Great looking forum with some interesting topics and a deep archive of posts on this sometimes under-rated band. The non-OMD areas are not too well organised though, the Open Discussion forum has topics on everything from other bands, TV shows, sport, news and politics.

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depechemodeforum.com

  • 2,908 registered users
  • Both Stefan and I are big Depeche Mode fans, but I agree with his verdict: “Having visited (not joined) their forum I realise it’s not for me. I prefer small, friendly places and that is something the DM forum is not.”

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Pet Shop Boys Commupsbnity

  • 890 registered users
  • Forum seems lively with loads of visitors but I don’t follow this one myself. I like the Shoppies but I’m not a huge fan. Also the forum  has nowhere to discuss other bands or similar music.

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Erasure Official Forum

  • 3,379 registered users
  • Must register to read!
  • Stefan says that he was a regular here a few years ago, but got tired of it. “It just got too big, and shifting through a lot of irrelevant posts to get to the interesting bits was just too time consuming.“

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