You are the camera, we are FOTOSTAT

When Kraftwerk's "The Model" was released again, three years after it's initial release, on the b side of the UK single "Computer World" in 1981, it became a surprise hit and made it to the top of the singles chart. Being a hit someone thought it had to be featured on Top Of The Pops, and so it was. But it appears Kraftwerk weren't that interested in promoting their old song. Instead, robot-oriented dance duo Fotostat was called in to perform a little dance while "The Model" was playing.

Fotostat were not only dancers, they were also twins. Glenn and Mark Robertson were born in 1960, in Colcherster, Essex, UK. Together, they moved to London and, did some shows, appeared in a Pete Townsend video, and released a little bit of music in the early 80's. The robotic twin duo gained some attention with their songs throughout the UK, which spawned a few more tv performances.

This was shot in 1982:



And this is a performance from Glasgow in 1983, again filmed by the BBC.



Nowadays, the twins seems to have left the UK for New Jersey and New York respectively. Rock n' roll seems to be their thing nowadays. They each have a MySpace page (Mark, Glenn), but it's hard to say exactly what they are up to, due to some kind of general refusal of formatting/punctuation.

Kraftwerk on BBC (get it here)

BBC Radio 4 - Factual:

Kraftwerk: We Are the Robots

Thursday 22 November 2007 11:30-12:00 (Radio 4 FM)

Marc Riley traces the career of Kraftwerk, whose 1970s electronic music owed more to the experimental German classical compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen than to any pop tradition. They were part of a new generation of young West Germans, living in the shadow of the Cold War, who identified with the need to recapture a German cultural identity distinct from that of Britain and America.

Followed by News.

Here's an mp3 of the show, that I found on-line. Kudos to the person who recorded it.