SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (July, part two)

Top of the flops in the summer of ’79?

mp3: The Fall –  Rowche Rumble

The Fall‘s third single.   Of the five personnel who had been involved in the debut single in June ’78, just the one remained.  Can you guess who it might have been?

One of the most instantly recognisable of the band’s early tunes. It opens with some pounding drums, over which MES rants about drug addiction via prescription pills.  Just short of a half-a-minute later, the rest join in to create a quite magnificent noise. The review from Ian Birch in Melody Maker indicates that he got it – “Brimming with well-meaning wryness, it careers along in entirely its own way, independent of all fashions and alert to every possibility. Improves with every play.”

mp3: Chris Sievey – Baiser/Last

The Freshies, a Manchester-based punk band, had released a couple of singles on their own Razz Records during 1978 to almost complete indifference.   In July 1979, lead singer Chris Sievey teamed up with producer Martin Hannett to release this double-A sided single on Rabid Records, the label that had brought Jilted John to the attention of the record buying public.  This 45 didn’t do much, and Sievey was soon back in the folds of The Freshies,  with the band continuing to release material through to 1984, at which point Sievey began performing as Frank Sidebottom.  But that’s another story altogether.

JC