Care – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (76)

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This one has been inspired by Revolutionary Spirit : A Post-Punk Exorcism, a book published in late 2023 by Jawbone Press, a London-based independent publisher which specialises in music and popular culture.

It was written by Paul Simpson. I’ll let the Jawbone Press folk say some things:-

“Part memoir, part social history, Revolutionary Spirit is the poignant, often hilarious story of a cult Liverpool musician’s scenic route to fame and artistic validation. If Morrissey was the Oscar Wilde of the 1980s indie scene, Paul Simpson was its William Blake, a self-destructive genius so lost in mystical visions of a new arcadia that he couldn’t meet the rent.

“Simpson’s career begins alongside fellow Liverpool luminaries Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie, Will Sergeant, Pete Wylie, Pete Burns, and Pete de Freitas at the infamous Eric’s club, where, in 1976, he finds himself at the birth of the city’s second great musical explosion. Along the way, he co-founds and christens the neo-psychedelic pop group The Teardrop Explodes, shares a flat with a teenage Courtney Love, and forms The Wild Swans, the indie band of choice for literary-minded teens in the early 1980s, who burn bright and brief, in the process recording one of the all-time great cult hit singles, ‘Revolutionary Spirit’.

“Marriage, fatherhood, and tropical illness follow, interspersed with artistic collaborations with Bill Drummond and members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, among others. Following an onstage reunion with Cope at the Royal Festival Hall, Simpson discovers that seven thousand miles away, in the Philippines, he is considered a musical god. Presidential suites, armed guards, police escorts—you couldn’t make it up, and, incredibly, he doesn’t need to.

“Revolutionary Spirit marks the arrival of an original literary voice. It is the story of a musician driven by an unerring belief that artistic integrity will bring its own rewards—and an elliptical elegy to the ways it does.”

It really is a remarkable and engaging read. It is not your typical rock bio, and is very much all the better for it. The chapters on his childhood and upbringing are every bit as enjoyable as the years when he was such an integral part of the Liverpool ‘scene’, while the later years, which cover a long period when I was unaware that Paul Simpson was still involved in making music, are illuminating. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The chapters on his time with Care make for rather sad reading. Without going into too much detail, he had been burned by the break-up of The Wild Swans and embittered by the success of The Lotus Eaters, who in effect were The Wild Swans with a different vocalist. He hooked up with Ian Broudie, then trying hard to make it as a performer rather than merely as a producer, and they signed to a major label in the shape of Arista Records. A debut single was recorded in the summer of 1983 with uber-producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley.

There was considerable airplay via the evening shows on Radio 1, which is where I heard it and fell heavily for its charms. But it didn’t make the A-list, and the single faded into obscurity.

The friends of the two musicians, and the book reveals there’s a huge cast who come into that category, suggested that maybe Ian Broudie should produce things from now on. He was at the helm of the follow-up single, Flaming Sword, which got to #48 in November 1983.

Work got underway on a third single as well as songs intended for a debut album. The third single, Whatever Possessed You, hit the shops in early 1984 at which point Paul Simpson got cold feet and walked out on Care.

Ian Broudie was stunned by this, but his ambitions weren’t derailed, which is why, a few years later, he in essence went solo but under the guise of Lightning Seeds. Paul Simpson went down a totally different path…..

Care really could have been and should have been contenders. But it’s quite clear, from Paul Simpson’s own recollections, that they were more or less doomed from the outset.

All the music by Care that was either fully produced or in the process of being finalised was collated on a 1997 CD, Diamonds & Emeralds, which really only saw the light of day as something of a cash-in on the success of Lightning Seeds. But let’s be grateful for small mercies.

Here’s the tracks from the 12″ version of the debut single, of which I’ve been a proud owner for 41 years!

mp3 : Care – My Boyish Days (Drink To Me)
mp3 : Care – An Evening In The Ray
mp3 : Care – Sad Day For England

The version that can be found on Diamonds & Emeralds is different in that it has a longer outro offering up an additional 40 seconds or so.

JC

Assembly, Aztec Camera, Blancmange, Care, David Bowie, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Julian Cope, Madness, Simple Minds, Smiths, Style Council, Yello

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (11)

Chart dates 30 October – 5 November

If you’ll recall the closing few sentences from last month, then you’ll know that the first week of November was likely to have some decent stuff kicking around the charts, with The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Order still hanging around the Top 20, while PiL, Joy Division and Bauhaus were all a bit further down. On the flip side of things, Billy Joel, Lionel Ritchie and Culture Club were still dominating the very top-end of things

It was also a week in which loads of new singles became eligible for a chart placing – 15 songs appeared for the first time in the Top 75 (20% of the total), although most of them were utter pish and/or unrecallable. Here’s the full list of new entries

#75: Brian May and Friends – Starfleet
#73: The Danse Society – Heaven Is Waiting
#66: Imagination – New Dimension
#65: David Bowie – White Light/White Heat
#63: Major Harris – All My Life
#61: Aztec Camera – Oblivious
#47: Marilyn – Calling Your Name
#45: Eurythmics – Right By Your Side
#43: Rainbow – Can’t Let You Go
#34: Limahl – Only For Love
#26: The Police – Syncronicity II
#25: ABC – That Was Then, This Is Now
#24: Status Quo – A Mess Of Blues
#21: Madness – The Sun and The Rain
#19: Shakin Stevens – Cry Just A Little Bit

The Danse Society, one of the many goth-rock bands who were suddenly finding success )of sorts), were on a roll as Heaven Was Waiting was the second 45 of theirs to crack the Top 75 in 1983. It would actually make it as high as #60, while the parent album of the same name, released just in time for the Xmas market in December 83, got to #40. Wiki offers the reminder that the album wasn’t well by professional critics, with reviews such as “further plodding nonsense” and “Heavy on gloomy atmosphere […] but short on memorable songs.” The fact I can’t recall anything of them maybe bears that out.

David Bowie was having a stellar year in 1983, sales wise at least, thanks to Let’s Dance selling in millions and all his other albums enjoying resurgent sales (in July 83, ten Bowie albums could be found in the Top 100). This live cover version of the Velvet Underground staple had been released as a single to promote a live album, Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture, which was hitting the screens that very month.

Aztec Camera had moved from Postcard to Rough Trade to Warner Brothers, and the promotional efforts of the major took them into the charts with the first ever time with a re-release of an old song. Oblivious is a great pop song, and while I’m not normally a fan of re-releases, it was good to see this going on to do so well, eventually climbing up to #18 before the year was out, the first of what proved to be eight Top 40 hits for Roddy & co.

The Eurythmics might have burst onto the scene earlier in the year with the majestic Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) but the release of new album Touch, had seen the adopt a more commercial and mainstream pop sound that brought huge success all over the world. Not a sound, however, that I recall with much love or fondness.

Talking of changing style and sound, ABC had gone down a different road from that taken with debut album The Lexicon Of Love. It didn’t go down well with critics or fans but the first single from what turned out to be The Beauty Stab, did eventually reach #18. I~~t proved to be their last ever Top 20 hit single~~. They had just one further top 20 hit, courtesy of When Smokey Sings, in 1987 (and thanks to the observant readers who spotted this error!)

Madness were enjoying their 17th successive Top 20 single. The quite excellent The Sun and The Rain would eventually get as high as #5 which actually turned out to be the very final time they would make the Top 10.*

*in the 80’s, I should have added. A re-released It Must Be Love was a hit in 1992, while a much later single, Lovestruck, reached #10 in 1999. Again, my thanks to the ever-helpful readers…..)

Chart dates 6-12 November

It was inevitable after the previous week’s glut of new entries that things would slow down a bit. The highest new entry came from the Rolling Stones, offering up something that was a bit more funk/dance orientated than much of their previous material. Undercover of The Night came in at #21 and later climbed to #11. Who would ever have imagined back then that 40 years on, they’d still be going strong and having hit singles?

Some notes of interest from further down.

mp3: The Assembly – Never Never (#36)

It proved to a one-off collaboration between Vince Clarke and Feargal Sharkey, and this electronic ballad soon took off in popular fashion, hitting #4 just two weeks later.

mp3: Care – Flaming Sword (#58)

One of the great long-lost bands who really should have been much bigger than things turned out. This was their second single, but the only one that cracked the charts. Main songwriter, Ian Broudie, would have to wait a few years with The Lightning Seeds to enjoy commercial success.

Oh, and I almost forgot about this one.

mp3: The Smiths – This Charming Man (#55)

It would spend 12 weeks in the Top 75 all the way through to February 1984, peaking at #25 in early December 83. It was the first of what proved to be sixteen singles from The Smiths that would crack the charts over the next four years, only two of which reached the Top 10 (and both peaked at that particular number). Have a think and see if you can remember….the answer will be given as a PS at the foot of the post.

Chart dates 13-19 November

Fourth single of the year and a forth chart hit. It was only a year since The Jam had split up, but Paul Weller was proving to be every bit as popular as ever.

mp3: The Style Council – A Solid Bond In Your Heart (#12)

I remember at the time being a bit let down by this one. It certainly didn’t seem up to the standards of the previous three singles, but in some ways it was just a minor bumop in the road as the imperious pop phase of TSC was just around the corner. Oh, and a couple of years later, we would learn that Solid Bond had been demoed while The Jam were still going, so it could very well have come out as one of their later singles if they hadn’t disbanded.

mp3: Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel – White Lines (Don’t Do It) (#60)

One of the very best of the early rap singles, it sneaked into the bottom end of the charts in November 83 and then disappeared, only to re-emerge in the following February from where it would spend 37 successive weeks in the Top 75, the first 18 of which were outside the Top 40, before really being picked up on by the general public and hitting the #7 for two weeks in July/August 1984. It was inevitable after the previous week’s glut of new entries that things would slow down a bit. It’s the full 12″ on offer today, as that’s the one I have in the collection.

mp3: Julian Cope – Sunshine Playroom (#64)

I’d totally forgotten that this had been released as a single. It was actually the first time that Julian Cope had taken solo material into the Top 75. Again, it’s a quiz question with the answer at the bottom. How many JC singles went into the Top 75 between 1983 and 1996?

Don’t be fooled into thinking that all was sweetness and light in the singles chart some 40 years ago. The top 4 consisted of Billy Joel, Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson, Shakin Stevens and Lionel Ritchie. Some of new entries and highest climbers this week included Paul Young, Genesis, Tina Turner, Nik Kershaw, and Roland Rat Superstar – a grim reminder that the British public have always been suckers for novelty records.

Chart dates 20-26 November

A couple of the new entries were Christamas-related and readying themselves for all-out assaults in the month of December. Yup, I’m looking at you The Pretenders and The Flying Pickets…..

There were some things worthy of attention.

mp3: Simple Minds – Waterfront (#25)

It was booming, bombastic and anthemic, and it was the beginning of the end of the cutting-edge Simple Minds. But it was a song totally inspired by home city of Glasgow, and in pulling together the promo video for the single, the band hit upon the idea of opening up and using the Barrowland Ballroom for a live performance. A huge debt is owed to them for that…..

mp3: Blancmange – That’s Love, That It Is (#43)

The duo had enjoyed a great 12 months, with the previous three singles (Living On The Ceiling, Waves and Blind Vision) all going Top 20, as indeed would their next again single (Don’t Tell Me) in April 1984. This is the one nobody remembers as it got stuck at #33 in mid-December among all the stuff that tends to dominate the charts in the month of the year. Maybe, in hindsight, it should have been held back six or eight weeks.

mp3: Yello – Lost Again (#73)

This has long been a favourite of mine and I was disappointeed that it flopped so miserably. The record buying public were seemingly far from convinced by the merits of off-centre electronica musicians from Switzerland.

And finally this month.

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax (#67)

For the next six weeks, this single hung around the lower end of the charts, making its way up to #46 with steady but unspectacular sales.

It then eventually reached #35 in the first week of January 1984 which led to an appearance on Top Of The Pops….it wasn’t their first UK TV apppearance as they had already been on The Tube, broadcast on Channel 4, on a number of occasions. The TOTP appearance resulted in huge sales the follwowing week and it went all the way to #6.

A this point in time, long after the horse had bolted, Radio 1 DJ Mike Read announced he wasn’t going to play the record due to the suggestive nature of the lyrics. He also felt the record sleeve was disgusting and amoral. The BBC then decided Relax should be banned from any daytime play, but this didn’t stop the likes of David ‘Kid’ Jensen and John Peel having a bit of fun and airing the song in their evening shows. The ban was extended to include Top of The Pops.

All this only prompted a bit of mania among the record-buying public, and Relax initally went to #2 in the wake of the ban and then spent five weeks at the #1 slot through to the end of February 84, going on to spend 48 succesive weeks in the Top 75, including a rise back up to #2 when FGTH’s follow-up single, Two Tribes, went massive.

The BBC eventually relented and dropped the ban -it had become a joke in as much that the commercial radio stations and the non-BBC TV channels were more than happy to play the song or have it performed on programmes.

Who ever said there was no such thing as bad publicity was certainly right on this occasion.

One more month in the series to go. It’ll appear sometime in late-December.

JC

PS (1): The two singles by The Smiths to hit the Top 10 were Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and Sheila Take A Bow.

PS (2): Julian Cope had 16 singles reach the Top 75 between 1983 and 1996. Seven of them actually cracked the Top 40, with World Shut Your Mouth being the best-achieving of them all, hitting #19.

Care

IT’S ONLY TAKEN 37 YEARS TO GET HERE…

As mentioned previously on the blog back in December 2013, (to great indifference!!), Care was primarily a coming together of Ian Broudie and Paul Simpson, forming in early 1983.

The former is best known as the man behind The Lightning Seeds, but he’s been part of the music scene in his native Liverpool since the late 70s, initially as part of the new wave band Big In Japan (who also featured Holly Johnson who found fame with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Bill Drummond, likewise with The KLF). The latter had come to some minor prominence as the vocalist with The Wild Swans, two of whose other members – Jeremy Kelly and Ged Quinn – would go onto enjoy fleeting chart fame with The Lotus Eaters.

I remember hearing My Boyish Days, the debut single by Care one evening on either the David Jensen or Janice Long show on Radio 1 and being knocked out by what was then a pretty unusual and distinctive mix of acoustic guitars and synthesisers. I tracked the record down the following day.

It was on a major label – Arista Records. The production team was Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley who at the time were probably the biggest name producers in the UK. But despite considerable airplay in the evenings, it didn’t make the then crucial A-list at Radio 1 and the single faded into obscurity.

The b-sides productions were accredited to Kingbird, one of the names that Broudie used. He took responsibility for the follow-up single, Flaming Sword, and it sneaked into the Top 50.

Single number three, Whatever Possessed You?, was another Kingbird effort, and despite at least one TV promo slot on the Oxford Road Show (I know this as I still have the clip on VHS tape), it didn’t come close to the charts, suffering from a severe lack of airplay.

Care then broke up in the summer of 1984 without bothering to release their debut album, the songs of which, along with the singles, some b-sides and demo tracks, eventually saw the light of day in 1997 as a CD entitled Diamonds & Emeralds. The band were referred to as Care featuring Ian Brodie.

The cash-in was of course completely cynical as it came hot on the heels of The Lightning Seeds biggest success with the football anthem Three Lions that was adopted by the supporters of England during their hosting of Euro 96. But if even a small handful of those who were new to Broudie’s talents were drawn to the CD by association, they would hopefully have found much to enjoy.

I’ve long had copies of the first two singles on 12″ vinyl – I was sure I bought the third at the time of its release but its long been missing from the shelves. Ever since starting this blog way back in the midst of time, Whatever Possessed You has been one of those pieces of vinyl that I’ve long coveted. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t ever track down a good copy on sale for a reasonable price, and I’ve watched in horror over the years as the price of any newly offered items have been increasingly beyond what I thought it was worth.

The final straw came at the end of 2020 when I lost out at the last minute on eBay to someone who came in with about 10 seconds to spare. I was determined not to miss out again….so when I saw one on Discogs in January 2021, I decided the price was irrelevant. It’s the most I’ve ever paid for any second-hand item in the collection(overtaking something on Postcard Records from about ten years ago), and given that prices are just getting really silly for anything that’s remotely rare, I don’t think I’ll ever go that high again.

But…..and this is the main thing…..it has made me very very happy.

And to celebrate, here’s the tracks from all three 12″ singles, freshly ripped as I’m typing these words, and made available at the 320 kpbs for the best possible listen after you download.

mp3: Care – My Boyish Days
mp3: Care – An Evening In The Ray
mp3: Care – Sad Day For England

mp3: Care – Flaming Sword
mp3: Care – Misericorde
mp3: Care – On The White Cloud

mp3: Care – Whatever Possessed You?
mp3: Care – Besides (One)
mp3: Care – Besides (Two)
mp3: Care – Besides (Three)
mp3: Care – Besides (Four)

Three of my favourite singles of all time, backed with eight fabulous pieces of music, most of them instrumentals, on the b-sides.

Enjoy.

PS – Ian Broudie, in the guise of The Lightning Seeds, would later release his own version of Flaming Sword, as a b-side to the Sense single, in 1992

JC

Anthony H Wilson, Care, Joy Division

NINE YEARS AGO

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I was living and working in Toronto. Jacques the Kipper sent me a text in case I didn’t get the news. I posted this on the blog.

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

I was saddened by the news of the death of Tony Wilson.

I’ve no doubt you’ll find some heartfelt tributes on loads of blogs, as well as a few less than kind remarks as there are many who thought the man was a twat. And let’s face it, he sometimes thought he was as well.

I’m not from Manchester, and perhaps not best placed to offer an opinion. But I’ll contend that Tony Wilson did as much as anyone in the latter part of the 20th Century to raise the profile of the city he’s most associated with. He helped transform it into a city where those of us who didn’t live there were jealous of those lucky enough to do so.

I only met him once. He came to Glasgow for a book reading of 24 Hour Party People, and it turned into a fabulous couple of hours. He was regally entertaining, with more than a hint of self-parody about his persona. Along with Bill Drummond, he was the one guy in the music industry that I would love to have been able to go down the pub with.

The world is a slightly poorer place without him being around. I hope the city gives him a great send-off.

song : Care – Sad Day For England

song : Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Pennine Version)

2016 Addendum….

The city did give him a great send-off and they’ve never forgotten him. Here’s one of the most extraordinary and memorable things I’ve ever had the privilege of watching and listening to.

Care, Lightning Seeds

MORE CULT CLASSICS…

I mentioned them in passing just 48 hours ago and couldn’t resist the temptation to re-tell the story.

Care was primarily a coming together of Ian Broudie and Paul Simpson.

I remember hearing their debut single one evening on either the David Jensen or Janice Long show on Radio 1 and being knocked out by what was then a pretty unusual and distinctive mix of acoustic guitars and synthesisers. I tracked the record down the following day.

The follow-up single was a Kingbird production, which was one of the names that Broudie used. It also flopped.

Single number three did the same, despite at least one TV promo slot on the Oxford Road Show (I know this as I still have the clip on VHS tape).

Care then broke up in the summer of 1984 without bothering to release their debut album which only then saw the light of day in 1997 as a CD entitled Diamonds & Emeralds. The band were referred to as Care featuring Ian Brodie.

But if a small handful of those who were new to Broudie’s talents were drawn to this album by association, they would hopefully have found much to enjoy.

And here are the afore-mentioned three singles in the order that they were released:-

mp3 : Care – My Boyish Days (drink to me)
mp3 : Care – Flaming Sword
mp3 : Care – Whatever Possessed You

The first two are the 12″ versions.

Flaming Sword was later re-recorded om 1992 by The Lightning Seeds as the b-side to their Top 40 single Sense. And here it is:-

mp3 : The Lightning Seeds – Flaming Sword

Not much difference you’ll find which shows either the 1983 recording was ahead of its time or the 1992 recording was immediately retro. Whatever. I just think its a great pop song that should have been a massive hit.

Oh and if any of you out there have a 12″ copy of Whatever Possessed You and would like it to go to a good home alongside many other pieces of vinyl, then I’d be delighted to offer said home….

Enjoy!!