Colourfield – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Big Country, China Crisis, Colourfield, Echo & The Bunnymen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Madonna, Prefab Sprout, Simple Minds, Smiths, Spear of Destiny, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Thomas Dolby

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (January)

The 1979 series was so well-received that I felt there really should be some sort of follow-up.

The 1979 series went into great detail, partly as I wanted to demonstrate just how magnificent a year it had been for singles. The spotlight on 1984 won’t quite be as intense, but I still intend to pick out quite a few tunes that have stood the test of time.

The year began with the #1 slot being occupied by a novelty song in the shape of The Flying Pickets acappella cover of Only You. The rest of the Top 20 was equally gruesome, with the likes of Slade, Billy Joel, Status Quo, Paul Young, Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney all vying with Roland Rat Superstar for the right to be exchanged for the record tokens that had been left under the Xmas tree. There were a few decent enough tunes from the likes of The Smiths, The Style Council, Aztec Camera, The Cure and Blancmange in the lower end of the charts that had been released towards the tail end of 1983 to make things slightly bearable. But in terms of new entries in the chart of 1-7 January 1984, there was nothing to write home about.

Fast-forward a week, and The Police had the highest new entry, at #32, with the distinctly underwhelming King of Pain, the fourth single to be lifted from the album Synchronicity. Just a few places below that was the fifth chart 45 from one of the many bands to emerge out of the Liverpool area in the early part of the decade:-

mp3: China Crisis – Wishful Thinking

In at #36, this was given a wonderful retrospective write-up by Post Punk Monk back in October 2011, and I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him:-

“This single is one of my all time favorites by the group in that the A-side is sweetly melancholic and unapologetically gorgeous, with a wonderfully played synthetic string section sweeping the tune along. Other tracks on the album this single is from have live strings, but I guess the recording budget didn’t extend that far. The synth strings still sound rather good and more importantly, the addition of oboe and fretless bass, two of my favorite instruments, on this track lends it a gentle nobility that carries it far above the sound of the crowd in the charts at the time of its release.”

Loads of folk in the UK clearly agreed with him, as Wishful Thinking would eventually climb all the way to #9 and prove to be the band’s best charting single.

This week’s chart also saw the debut of someone who would, in quite a short period of time, become, arguably, the biggest pop icon of the late 20th century. It’s a tune that was later given this accolade many years later on one of the biggest digital sites out there:-

“A song as utterly ’80s as Rick Astley or the Pet Shop Boys, it is also surely the most evocative theme tune ever created when it comes to packing a suitcase and jetting off for beach cocktails […] A feel-good pop giant with an infectious chorus – and the closest thing we have to bottled sunshine”.

mp3: Madonna – Holiday

In at #53, it would reach #6 in mid-February, the first of what thus far have been 64 Top Ten hits in the UK for Madonna, of which 13 have reached #1.

The third of the new entries into the Top 75 being highlighted this time around turned out to be one which became a big hit six years down the line:-

mp3: Talk Talk – It’s My Life

The lead single from the band’s forthcoming second studio album came in at #67, and two weeks later peaked at #46. It was then re-released in May 1990 to support a Greatest Hits package, at which time it reached #13.

Scrolling down now to the chart of 15-21 January.

mp3: Big Country – Wonderland (#13)
mp3: Thomas Dolby – Hyperactive (#45)
mp3: The Colour Field – The Colour Field (#53)
mp3: Spear of Destiny – Prisoner of Love (#60)
mp3: Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (#61)

I’m not going to argue that all of the above have aged well, but they provide a fine snapshot of the variety that was on offer to anyone seeking to expand their 7″ or 12″ vinyl collection. I certainly bought all five back in the day.

22-28 January. Have a look at what hit #1

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax

Even back then, in an era when it was possible for a slow-burner to reach #1, it was almost unheard of for it to take 12 weeks. But that’s what happened with Relax. Released in late October 1983, it had spent two months very much at the lower end of the chart, reaching #46 in the final chart of that year, and reaching #35 in the first chart of 1984, which earned Frankie Goes To Hollywood an invitation onto Top of The Pops for the show broadcast on 5 January.

The following week it climbed to #6, at which point Mike Read ~~Reid~~, one of the highest-profile DJs on BBC Radio 1, publicly expressed his disdain for the single and said he wouldn’t be playing it on any of his shows, leading to a chain of events where the single was banned right across the BBC on radio and television. None of which stopped it being played on independent radio stations, or indeed on The Tube TV show which aired on Channel 4; Relax would spend five weeks at #1, and indeed would go on to spend a total of 48 weeks in the Top 75, not dropping out until the chart of 14-20 October.

All of which kind of overshadowed these new entries that week:-

mp3: Echo and The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (#17)
mp3: Simple Minds – Speed Your Love To Me (#20)
mp3: The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make (#26)
mp3: Prefab Sprout – Don’t Sing (#62)

Looking back at things, the singles charts of January 1984 weren’t too shabby, were they?

As with the 1979 series, I’ll be consulting my big red book of indie singles to identify those 45s that didn’t bother the mainstream charts, but were well worth forking out some money for. It should be with you in the next week or so.

JC

PS : Total coincidence that thirteen songs feature in this post…….or is it?????

(It is!!!)

Colourfield, Echo & The Bunnymen, Pete de Freitas, Wild Swans

PETE DE FREITAS : AN APPRECIATION

I received a really nice e-mail the other day from Scott who asked if it would be possible to re-post something from the old blog.

It was a piece from 14 June 2009 and it’s title can be found in the first line……

—————————————————————

I cannot believe it was all of 20 years ago…..but it is.

14th June 1989 when the life of Peter Louis Vincent de Freitas ended as the result of a motorcycle accident.

He was 27 years of age. And he was the first dead pop star I ever shed a tear for.

Born in 1961 in Trinidad, Pete de Freitas was a bit of a posh boy, educated at a famous Roman Catholic public school near Bath, England, and while he was far from dim, he was never keen on pursing an academic career. So by the age of 19, he was living in London, sharing digs with another lad from his old school, and both of them dreaming of forming a band.

Pete’s flatmate had a big brother who was involved in the music industry, part of an ever-growing new scene on Liverpool. That big brother and his close mate started staying overnight at Pete’s place whenever any of the bands they were involved with played in London. Pete would sometimes go along to the gigs, which is what he did one August night in 1979.

Pete’s flatmate’s brother was David Balfe, and his mate was Bill Drummond. The band they took Pete to see at the YMCA on Tottenham Court Road was Echo & The Bunnymen – a three-piece act backed by a drum machine. The drum machine was in fact ‘Echo’, the humans were ‘The Bunnymen’ – Ian McCulloch (vocals), Les Pattinson (bass) and Will Sargeant (guitar)

The band were getting a lot of attention, but it was widely felt that they would sound a lot better with a real drummer. Within 12 months of seeing them for the first time, Pete had that gig, just in time for the recording of the band’s second single, but their first for a major label.

From 1980 – 1986, Echo & The Bunnymen were one of the most entertaining bands on the entire planet. All four band members contributed to the songwriting, which showed in the magnificently tight unit that was the guitarist, bassist and drummer, while up front they had a hugely charismatic singer who was not slow in offering his opinions on any subject under the sun. They attracted a huge following, many of whom dressed in identical clothes and wore their hair in the same way as their idols. They enjoyed Top 30 success with seven of their singles, but it was their LPs which found them at their best, all four of them going Top 10.

Live, they were truly electrifying, with shows that stretched out for well over two hours featuring not just the hits, but great and unusual versions of album tracks as well as a handful of covers from many of their own influences.

Many people associated with the band, not least their larger than life manager and the frontman had predicted massive things for the 1984 LP Ocean Rain. And while it sold in impressive numbers, it didn’t conquer the world….

The band began to drift apart in some ways. First of all, McCulloch recorded a solo single. The others started producing and appearing on records by other bands. And in 1986, Pete de Freitas left the band.

Along with two members of the Bunnymen road crew, he took himself off to the USA to form The Sex Gods. The idea was to take the money he had made from his time as a Bunnyman, head off to places like New York, New Orleans and Jamaica, filming themselves as they went along living a truly hedonistic life. It was a bender to end all benders.

There were drunken rows, drug busts, near fatal car crashes amidst the chaos. Later on Pete de Freitas would admit he was going insane. He was eventually brought back to the UK by Bill Drummond.

He was temporarily replaced as the drummer, but the rest of the band soon realised how much they needed him, and he was allowed to re-join.

Echo & The Bunnymen released an album in 1987 called The Game – this time with very little hyperbole, and although it went to #4 in the UK charts, critical reaction was lukewarm. This time it was singer Ian McCulloch who decided that enough was enough, and he quit in 1988, intent on the solo career.

The other three decided to keep going, on the basis that having failed to really crack America with Mac at the helm, they could maybe succeed with someone different, unlikely as it might seem. The new recruit was Noel Burke, ex-frontman of St Vitus Dance….and someone who sort of looked and sounded like Mac….

The new line up were in rehearsals in Liverpool in June 1989, and Pete de Freitas was on his way there when he crashed his motorcycle on a back road near Rugely in Staffordshire. As I mentioned earlier, he was just 27 years old.

Years later, Les Pattinson in an interview with a music magazine said that he still thought of Pete every day. At his funeral, the three remaining original Bunnymen cried their eyes out….albeit McCulloch could not bring himself to speak to Pattinson and Sergeant for what he considered a betrayal in replacing him as singer.

I remember reading about Pete’s death in a newspaper the next day. My eyes welled up and my throat tightened. The man who I thought was the coolest man on planet pop was no more.

Quite a few years earlier, not far from my school, I had seen a motorcycle accident when the unfortunate rider was hit by a bus whose driver couldn’t have seen him. It was an incident that I hadn’t thought about much since, but it was the vision that flashed before my eyes as I read the paper, and it was something that gave me some sleepless nights over the next few weeks. Even as I type this, I can see that accident from over 30 years ago….all triggered off by the premature and sad death of a pop star.

You’ll see from the photo above that Pete was a good-looking man. He was someone who just about everyone I ever went out with during my years at University would admit to fancying. When you heard about the way he lived his life, you just wanted to be him.

He was only two years older than me. And while I have had a great and memorable almost 46 years on this planet, there’s still a part of me that wishes that I had lived his life for just one day…as long as that day wasn’t June 14th 1989.

R.I.P. Pete de Freitas. I still think of you every time one of your songs comes on my i-pod….

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – All My Colours
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Nocturnal Me
mp3 : The Wild Swans – Revolutionary Spirit
mp3 : The Colourfield – Take
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean (live – 1983)

Footnote

There were a lot of really nice comments left behind after the piece appeared, many of them thanking me for such a heartfelt tribute.

A few months later I received the most wonderful e-mail from Pete’s daughter. Lucie-Marie de Freitas was a very young girl when her father died, of an age before she could develop any memories of him.

Her e-mail explained that the treasure trove of songs, articles and videos have helped her learn so much about her father and the incredible impact he had in his short time on earth. She thought it was remarkable and moving that so many people still remembered him after all those years and she thanked me for the tribute I had made.

Talk about leaving me speechless.

Colourfield

A GREAT UNACKNOWLEDGED LP

My posting on The Specials last week triggered off a search of the archives of the old blog for something I’d done on another of The bands that Terry Hall enjoyed success with. I’ve updated and modified it slightly, but this is more or less what I said back in October 2008.

My introduction to The Colourfield came via TV, and a video commissioned by The Tube for their debut single*. It was a totally different sound from that of Terry Hall‘s previous bands – lots of acoustic guitar with a very clean production – quintessential pop music with a hint of indie in many ways.

It came as such a shock to long-standing fans and many other music critics that one reviewer was led to write:-

‘This lot have absolutely nothing going for them. No sense of humour. No glamour. No good melodies. No danceable rhythms. No excitement. No controversy. No emotion. Nothing whatsoever. They are, in short, ruddy awful’

He was of course, quite wrong, and while the band didn’t have anything like the impact or success of The Specials or Fun Boy Three, the first set of singles and the debut LP were quite exquisite and exceptional.

The debut single itself reached #43 in January 1984. The follow-up single, Take, bombed at #70. But in January 1985, a bitter-sweet pop song, started to get a lot of airplay, and gradually it started to climb the charts. Thinking Of You eventually peaked at #12 in February 1985.

Virgins and Philistines hit the shops in April 1985, by which time the morose but beautiful Castles In the Air, a single that sounded as if had come straight from the mid-60s had failed. Unsurprisingly, given that just one of their 45s had sold in any numbers, the record-buying public shunned the LP. But its their loss.

This is a record that was ahead of its time. Just four years later, Paul Heaton formed The Beautiful South and released a bundle of hit singles and albums that aren’t a million miles away from that of The Colourfield. And just after that, Ian Broudie formed The Lightning Seeds to great acclaim, and again much of the sound of his band could be traced back to The Colourfield.

Ten tracks long, and just under 40 minutes long – it didn’t include the debut single but the three follow-ups were all there. It’s a gloriously mellow piece of work, sometimes low-key, but filled with gorgeous pop music throughout – hints of Spanish guitar, synth-produced strings, woodwind instruments and keyboards all appear at different times on different songs. And there’s even a protest song – the very catchy Cruel Circus which slates animal cruelty, and in particular those creatures who are born in and confined to research laboratories.

Thinking back, I think its fair to assume that the main reason no-one took it seriously was that Terry Hall had forged a reputation as a representative of disaffected youth and having been pigeon-holed in that fashion not too many were keen to allow him to carve a different and more lasting niche.

Virgins and Philistines is an album that for years had been long deleted, and indeed when I wrote the original post it had never been given a CD release in the UK, but that was rectified some 2 years later in 2010.

As such, when I ripped the vinyl to mp3 to accompany the post, it was the first time I had played the LP in its entirety for the best part of 20 years and it remains a real favourite re-discovery that I still flick to when I’m on a bus or train journey-

mp3 : The Colourfield – Thinking Of You
mp3 : The Colourfield – Cruel Circus
mp3 : The Colourfield – The Hammond Song

* I recently picked up a copy of the debut single. It was then I noticed that the song AND the band was called The Colour Field. Two separate words. An ‘oops’ on my part back in 2008. Here is the debut:-

mp3 : The Colour Field – The Colour Field

This b-side to the single was also included on the album, as the closing track. And no wonder. If, like me, you’re a bit of a sucker for the bitterly honest and straight from the heart break-up songs – the sorts that Elvis Costello and David Gedge have often specialised in over the years – then I hope you’ll agree that this is up there with the best of them:-

mp3 : The Colour Field – Sorry

Enjoy