I wrote about today’s song from CD86 some fourteen months ago. I wrote at the time that a lot of the stuff from the C86 movement hadn’t aged well with it being down , in many cases, to poor production which nowadays grates on the ear while all too often the off-key singing which in its day seemed to be part of the charm now sounds annoying. Last week’s songs by Razorcuts being a prime example.
But there are others that turned out to be absolute classics.
mp3 : The Chesterfields – Ask Johnny Dee
The Chesterfields formed in 1984 and folded in 1989 during which time there were two studio LPs and eight singles/EPs. They toured extensively (I saw them once as support act to Edwyn Collins on one of his earliest solo tours) and like so many bands picked up a decent sized hardcore following. many of whom (according to wiki) referred to them as “The Chesterf!elds”, with an exclamation mark replacing the “i”, following the example of the band’s logo.
Tragically, lead singer and main songwriter Dave Goldsworthy died in November 2003, at the age of 40, from head injuries sustained in a hit & run incident in Oxford.
The b-side to the single featured on CD86 is another belter of a tune. Totally different from the a-side, it is very reminiscent of The Monochrome Set which is never a bad thing in my book:-
mp3 : The Chesterfields – Pop Anarchy!
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
JC, I have always liked this one. No. 15 on my list of top 50 UK indie singles from the ’80s I put together about this time a year ago. As I recall, our pal Dirk didn’t think much of it. Perhaps hearing it again today will bring him around to our way of thinking. Well done, sir.
One of my top 3 from the C86 era – along with Velocity Girl & Almost Prayed. Still play this regularly. I don’t think anything else they did really came close. They called their album Kettle – so you could always “put Kettle on”!
Agreed. Good song.