The post featuring the new chart hits from June 1984 was a bit of a mixed bag. Thankfully, top of the flops proved to be a bit better.
mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – In The Ghetto
Yup….it’s now 41 years since the debut single of the band that had emerged from the implosion of The Birthday Party. This 45 had in fact been preceded by an album, From Her To Eternity, that can best be described as post-punk goth. It was less abrasive than the Birthday Party material, but it was still a long way from being what could be called commercially accessible. None of the seven songs on the album were thought of as being suitable for a single release, and so the band’s take on the Elvis Presley #1 hit from 1969 was put on sale in the shops, with a video made to help boost sales:-
It’s a mighty long way from the Nick Cave of 2025 who is such a darling of the chattering classes.
mp3: East Bay Ray – Trouble In Town
This is one I heard for the first time maybe seven or eight years ago, and it was via a blog or music aggregator site. East Bay Ray‘s guitar work was very much at the heart of what, musically, defined Dead Kennedys. This solo single from 1984, is a long way removed from that sound, It’s akin to the soundtrack of a cowboy movie and great fun to listen to. The lead vocal is courtesy of the frontman of Steve One & The Shades, a San Francisco-based power pop band back in the 80s.
mp3: The Fall – Oh! Brother
The band’s 13th single, but the first for new label Beggars Banquet and the first of what we can now define as the Brix-era. As I wrote when looking at this single in detail back in September 2021, it was The Fall, but not as we, or indeed anyone, knew them. It was a pop song, one which would have sat easily alongside those that were being released on a regular basis by Rough Trade. I’m sure that Geoff Travis would have been scratching his head and wondering just what he had ever done to upset MES to the extent that the thrawn bastard continuously refused to contemplate anything akin to radio friendly songs, while he was on his label, only for him to come up with this absolute monster once he’d moved to a major label.
mp3: The Brilliant Corners – Big Hip
The second 45 from Davey Woodward & co. Still leaning a bit on the rockabilly sound that had been at the heart of January 1984 debut She’s Got Fever rather than the indie-pop C86 sounds that they would swerve into a few years later, but more than listenable across its two minutes duration.
mp3: Microdisney – Dolly
The band’s move from Cork to London eventually led to a deal with Rough Trade, with the album Everybody Is Fantastic being released in May 1984 to not a lot of fanfare beyond those who had long been championing the band in Ireland. The following month saw the release of Dolly, a lovely acoustic-led track from the album, became their debut 45 on the label.
mp3: The Hit Parade – Forever
This features on the 5xCD box set, Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989. Here’s the blurb from the booklet:-
In 2011, The Guardian’s Alex Petridis interviewed Julian Henry about his dual life as a successful PR executive by day and his twilight world as guitarist and singer in an indie band. Back in the 80s, Henry had created The Hit Parade with Matthew Moffat and Raymond Watts, issuing beautifully crafted and overtly 60s-styled singles on their own JSH Records. It began with ‘Forever’, a Bacharach & David homage sans guitars in 1984…..
mp3: The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3: The June Brides – Sunday To Saturday
Another debut single, this time on the newly established Pink Records, from a band who would eventually be lumped in with the C86 movement but whose best songs long pre-dated that genre. Indeed, by 1986, The June Brides had more or less imploded. They are a band I knew nothing of back in 1984, but when, a few years later, I finally came across them, it was instant love, primarily as they had an unusual and distinctive sound, making use of viola and trumpet as well as the standard guitars, bass and drums, and in Phil Wilson they had a very talented songwriter albeit his vocal delivery was a bit of an acquired taste. It was a real thrill to finally see them play live at the Glas-Goes-Pop festival of 2022.
mp3: Biff Bang Pow! – There Must Be A Better Life
Back in February, I mentioned this lot’s debut single, 50 Years Of Fun, the third 45 to be issued by Creation Records, which was part-owned and run by the group’s vocalist and guitarist, Alan McGee. This was their second offering, and there’s more than a nod to the 60s mod-era.
mp3: Red Guitars – Steeltown
So much was expected of Red Guitars in 1984. Debut single, Good Technology (one of Dirk’s 111 selections) was, and remains, a bona-fide classic. A tour a support to The Smiths had raised their profile, and the press coverage in the UK music papers was almost universally positive. But they never clicked with the record-buying public, and this, their second single, was a flop.
mp3: R.E.M – (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
The fourth single from the beat-combo out of Athens, Georgia. They didn’t, over their extensive career, really make too many songs that sounded as ‘countrified’ as this. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s long been one of my favourites of theirs, and it inspired a train ride out to the town when I was over in Washington D.C. attending a conference back in the early 00s.
mp3: Section 25 – Looking From A Hilltop (restructure)
One of the lesser acclaimed acts on Factory Records, the band had been formed by brothers Vincent and Larry Cassidy. Their debut single for the label had been back in July 1980, and while there was a degree of critical acclaim for their post-punk sound, there was rarely much in the way of sales. By 1984, they had been through a few changes in personnel, and by now the brothers had been joined by two female vocalists and keyboardists, Jenny Ross and Angela Flowers, (Jenny was Larry’s wife, while Angela was their sister). The band’s third album, From The Hip, saw a shift in direction, being very much aimed at the dance floor. Produced by Bernard Sumner of New Order, it was released in March 1984, and the best received of its tracks, was remixed and issued as a 12″ single (FAC 108) a few months later.
mp3: The Stockholm Monsters – All At Once
mp3: The Stockholm Monsters – National Pastime (link fixed)
My big book of indie music tells a different story from wikipedia. The latter states that Stockholm Monsters formed in 1981 in Burnage, a suburb of Manchester. My big book suggests (and I have no every reason to doubt it thanks to a clarification from Swiss Adam) that the four-piece of Tony France, Karl France, John Rhodes and Shan Hira were from New York and only moved to Manchester after being ‘discovered’ by Factory Records supremo, Tony Wilson. A debut single for the label emerged in 1981 and there were further singles in each of 1982 and 1983, prior to debut album Alma Mater, produced by Peter Hook of New Order, was released in March 1984. The album, like all the three previous singles, was ignored by the record-buying public. Undeterred, and still championed by Wilson, two more tracks were issued as a single in Jun 1984 (FAC 107) and which was the subject of this post on the blog back in March 2023.
mp3: Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone
A re-release of the band’s debut single came out on 12″ in June 1984, accompanied by Add It Up, another of the tracks to be found on the rather wonderful eponymous debut album, along with Jesus Walking On The Water, a track that would be found on the forthcoming second album, Hallowed Ground. It kind of says a lot that instead of issuing the new song as the lead track on a single, it was relegated to a b-side, with the record labels in the USA and UK trying hard to get the world to take notice of the brilliance of Gone Daddy Gone.
So there you have it. June 1984’s flop singles, many of which were far better than the ones which charted.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 