Kate Bush – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

GOT TO KEEP THE CUSTOMERS SATISFIED (3)

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A very quick follow-up to some of the comments offered up in respect of yesterday’s edition of Shakedown, 1979.

Flimflamfan. It really did surprise me that Rainbow were responsible for your favourite new 45 back in September 1979. It’s not one that I care much for, and I certainly have never owned a copy, physically or digitally, but given that you are such a wonderful supporter and contributor to the blog, how could I not find a way of getting my hands on this.

mp3: Rainbow – Since You’ve Been Gone

It’s also dedicated to WinterInMayPark who considers the song to be ‘perfect pop rock’.

One of the anonymous contributors offered up this intriguing comment:-

“Hitting the charts at number 66 in September 1979 was what John Peel described as his “single of the decade”: ‘There must be thousands’ by the Quads. Sadly, it never threatened the top 40 despite plenty of airplay.”

I have to be honest and say that I can’t recall the song whatsoever. It had a two-week stay in the charts, coming in at #75 on the week of 16-22 September, and reaching the afore-mentioned giddy heights of #66 the following week. It was the only time the band had a hit single:-

mp3: The Quads – There Must Be Thousands

I’ve turned to wiki for the skinny.

“The Quads were a new wave band from Birmingham, England, active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The band was formed in Birmingham by three brothers, Josh Jones, Colin “Jack” Jones and Terry “Johnny” Jones, plus bassist Jim Doherty.

Their 1979 debut single There Must Be Thousands was a favourite of the BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who selected it as his “single of the decade!” Josh Jones later described the recording of “There Must Be Thousands”:

“It was a grass roots protest and two fingers to the corporate record company stranglehold on the industry. We recorded our ‘hit single’ in the cellar of a house for 30 quid and then a ‘proper’ studio to get a decent vocal sound, taking the total cost to a heady 130 pounds.”

Despite receiving considerable airplay on the main BBC Radio 1 daytime programmes, “There Must Be Thousands” only reached No. 66 in the UK singles chart, but in 2001 John Peel still listed it as one of his all-time favourite records. Then, in 2013, to coincide with its use on a promotional video by natural skincare company JooMo, the track was re-released by Big Bear Records.

The band released further singles, including Gotta Getta Job, which they performed during the People’s March for Jobs in 1981, a march in which they took part. They continued to perform until the mid-1980s, when Doherty left. They reformed in the 1990s and made further recordings but they were not released.

Josh Jones later moved to Auckland, New Zealand and became an Anglican priest, while still creating and recording new music”

Can’t say that I agree with John Peel’s take on it………

And as I’m doing my best to keep readers happy, I’ll offer up some Kate Bush tunes from the On Stage EP, which came into the chart of 9-15 September at #35, eventually peaking at #10 during a nine-week stay in the Top 75.

mp3 : Kate Bush – Them Heavy People (live)
mp3 : Kate Bush – Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake (live)
mp3 : Kate Bush – James And The Cold Gun (live)
mp3 : Kate Bush – L’Amour Looks Something Like You (live)

The price, however, is to court controversy by re-posting something that was originally featured on the old blog in August 2010 and on the current blog in January 2017.

“The thing is, while browsing in a second hand vinyl emporium a wee while back, I came across a copy of a 1979 EP, and given it was going for £2, I thought it worth giving a listen to again all these years later.

It has four live tracks, all recorded at a London gig in May 1979. This turned out to be the only time that Kate Bush ever toured in her entire career*, although over the years there would be sporadic live appearances, either solo or as alongside a whole range of other performers, suggesting that it wasn’t a fear of playing live that she suffered from.

The four songs all originally featured on The Kick Inside or Lionheart, her first two LP

So as it is spinning round the USB Turntable and doing whatever thing it is gadgetry wise to turn the tracks into instant mp3s, I’m thinking to myself…….this is shite.

It just feels as if it is music played by top-notch session players incapable of hitting a bum note, but who are just as incapable of adding any meaning or feeling to a song. It’s got wanky solos all the way through as well, and the sort of music that punk/new wave/post-punk was determined to banish forever (not that they ever had a chance of succeeding).

I’ve recently read reviews of that six-week tour that Kate Bush undertook in 1979 and by just about every account, it seems to have been an event that was ahead of its time with its use of theatre and dance and multi-median innovations including the use of a head-mic. But tucked away in the middle of such reviews, you cotton-on to the fact that the musicians were drilled to the Nth degree with no room at all for improvisation. It sounds as if it was more akin to going along to a musical than a gig…….and I reckon that’s what comes across on the tracks on the EP. They lack any real depth or soul……but I bet they were astonishing if witnessed in the flesh.

Oh well. I’ve said it.

Bring on the brickbats.

* written and published years before the London residency of 2015 which so many got really excited about.”

JC

Buzzcocks, Giorgio Moroder, Jam, John Cooper Clarke, Kate Bush, Siouxsie & The Banshees

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (March)

March 1979. Four weeks of chart rundowns to look back over and determine whether any of the new entries are worth recalling as fab 45s from 45 years ago. To be fair to the first chart of the month, some classics highlighted in earlier editions of this series were still selling steadily – Oliver’s Army (#2), Heart Of Glass (#6), Into The Valley (#13), The Sound of The Suburbs (#16), English Civil War (#28) and Stop Your Sobbing (#37). It just about compensated for a lot of the rubbish that was being inflicted on our ears – this was the time when Violinski, a spin-off from the Electric Light Orchestra, were enjoying what thankfully turned to be a one-hit wonder.

mp3: Buzzcocks – Everybody’s Happy Nowadays

In with a bang at #44, and in due course climbing to #29, this turned out to be the last time a Pete Shelley lead vocal for a new Buzzcocks single would disturb the Top 50. Not that any of us knew that was how things would turn out.

The new chart was also delighted to welcome someone else who was very much part of the thriving post-punk scene in Manchester:-

mp3: John Cooper Clarke – ¡ Gimmix ! Play Loud

The one and only time that JCC ever had a hit single. This came in on 4 March at #51 and went up to #39 the following week. Sadly, it didn’t lead to a Top of the Pops appearance.

Now here’s one that’s a perfect illustration of why I think 1979 wins any poll for the best year for new music:-

mp3: The Jam – Strange Town

A new song not included on any previous studio album, nor would it feature on any future studio album. Came in at #30 on 11 March and stayed around for nine weeks, peaking at #15. It also had a tremendous b-side in the shape of the haunting The Butterfly Collector. Who’s up for a TOTP reminder of how cool Paul Weller was back then?

Oh, and you don’t have to be new wave/post-punk to be picked out for inclusion in this series:-

mp3: Kate Bush – Wow!

The success of this was probably a big relief to everyone who was involved in the career of Kate Bush. Two big hits in the first-half of 1978 had been followed up with a disappointing effort from Hammer Horror, which failed to reach the Top 40. The first new song of the year came in at a very modest #60 but, during what proved to be a ten-week stay in the charts, would peak at #15.

mp3: Giorgio Moroder – Chase

Midnight Express had been one of the biggest films of 1978, and its soundtrack would go on to win an Oscar the following year. The one single that was lifted from the soundtrack album was a big hit in clubs and discos, particularly the full-length and extended 13-minute version. The edited version for the 7″ release did make it into the charts, entering on 11 March at #65 and peaking at #48 two weeks later.

Squeeze are still going strong these days, selling out decent-sized venues all over the UK when they head out on tour. They never quite enjoyed a #1 hit in their career, but the chart of 18 March saw a new entry from them at #33 which eventually peaked at #2 an 11-week stay:-

mp3: Squeeze – Cool For Cats

And finally for this month, here’s who were enjoying chart success in the final week of March 1979:-

mp3: Siouxsie and The Banshees – The Staircase (Mystery)

In at #33 and climbing in due course to #24, it was all anyone needed to hear to realise that Hong Kong Garden wasn’t going to be a one-and-bust effort for Ms Sioux and her gang.

Don’t get me wrong. There really was a lot of dreadful nonsense clogging up the charts in March 1979, particularly at the top end of things, and there were probably as many hit singles whose natural home was on the easy-listening station of Radio 2 than on the pop-orientated Radio 1. But I think it’s fait to say that there were a few diamonds to be found amongst the dross.

Keep an eye out later this month for a look at some memorable 45s which were released in March 1979 but didn’t trouble the charts. And I’ll be back in four or five weeks time with the next instalment of this particular series when we will spring into April.

JC

Kate Bush

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (35)

Yesterday’s posting involved a lot of research and work. Today’s is a straight lift from wiki, albeit in edited form:-

Wuthering Heights is a song by Kate Bush released as her debut single in November 1977 and re-released in January 1978. It appears on her 1978 debut album The Kick Inside. It stayed at number one on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks, and remains Bush’s most successful single. The song received widespread critical acclaim, with Pitchfork naming it the fifth greatest song of the 1970s.

Bush wrote the song aged 18, within a few hours late at night on 5 March 1977. She was inspired after seeing the 1967 BBC adaptation of the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. She then read the book and discovered that she shared her birthday with author Emily Brontë.

Wuthering Heights is sung from the perspective of the character Catherine Earnshaw, pleading at Heathcliff’s window to be allowed in. It quotes Catherine’s dialogue, including the chorus lyric “Let me in! I’m so cold!” and “bad dreams in the night”. Critic Simon Reynolds described it as “Gothic romance distilled into four-and-a-half minutes of gaseous rhapsody”. The vocal was recorded in a single take.

Bush’s record company, EMI, originally chose another track, James and the Cold Gun, as the lead single, but Bush was determined that it should be Wuthering Heights, which in due course was scheduled for release at the beginning of November 1977. However, the singer was unhappy with the images chosen for sleeve and demanded that it replaced. Although some copies of the single had already been sent out to radio stations, the label did relent and rescheduled the release for mid-January 1978, a move that actually was of immense and unforeseen benefit as a November release would have seen it clash with Mull of Kintyre, the new single by Wings that subsequently became the then biggest-selling single in UK history.

Wuthering Heights proved to be something of a slow burner, with most of its early plays being restricted to the London-based Capital Radio. It took a full month to reach the charts, but after a debut appearance on Top of The Pops, it went on an upwards spiral, hitting the top spot in mid-March, where it stayed for four weeks. It wouldn’t drop out of the Top 40 until May 1978, and come the end of the year was certified as the tenth highest-selling single of 1978, with sales of well over half a million.

mp3 : Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
mp3 : Kate Bush – Kite

Little known fact….and one which is a damning indictment on the pop industry.

Wuthering Heights was the first UK # 1 to be written and performed by a female artist.

JC

Kate Bush

IN WHICH I SLAGGED OFF KATE BUSH

AS POSTED OVER ON THE OLD BLOG IN AUGUST 2010.

I was never completely convinced by Kate Bush when she first emerged in January 1978. The early singles sold in their millions but as a mid-teens boy with a love for post-punk bands with all their loud guitars and even louder shouty lyrics, the talents of the singer-songwriter at the piano with her squeaky voice just didn’t register.

Oh and she was ancient as well at 18 and a bit years of age……..

But as I got older and realised that there was a wee bit more to music than spotty oiks in sweaty venues, I fell for the charms of Ms Bush and started to listen to her much more closely. Oh and some brilliant promotional photos on giant billboards also had something about grabbing my hormonally-charged attention…..

I’ve a few Kate Bush LPs sitting in the vinyl cupboard, but its been years since I played them. The only tracks that ever come up on the i-pod shuffle are those that formed part of a Greatest Hits CD that was released in 1986 that I picked up cheap a few years later. I didn’t pay any attention to the comeback record in 2005 although a few folk have said I’m missing out on something quite decent.

The thing is, while browsing in a second hand vinyl emporium a wee while back, I came across a copy of a 1979 EP, and given it was going for £2, I thought it worth giving a listen again all these years later.

The four songs all originally featured on The Kick Inside or Lionheart, her first two LPs:-

So as its spinning round the USB Turntable and doing whatever thing it is gadgetry wise to turn the tracks into instant mp3s, I’m thinking to myself…….this is shite.

It just feels as if it is music played by top-notch session players incapable of hitting a bum note but who are just as incapable of adding any meaning or feeling to a song. It’s got wanky solos all the way through as well and the sort of music that punk/new wave/post-punk was determined to banish forever (not that they ever had a chance of succeeding).

I’ve recently read reviews of that six-week tour that Kate Bush undertook in 1979 and by just about every account, it seems to have been an event that was ahead of its time with its use of theatre and dance and multi-median innovations including the use of a head-mic. But tucked away in the middle of such reviews you cotton-on to the fact that the musicians were drilled to the Nth degree with no room at all for improvisation. It sounds as if it was more akin to going along to a musical than a gig…….and I reckon that’s what comes across on the tracks on the EP. They lack any real depth or soul……but I bet they were astonishing if witnessed in the flesh.

Oh well. I’ve said it.

Bring on the brickbats.

* written and published years before the London residency of 2015 which so many got really excited about.

Kate Bush

WOW (the natural follow-on to yesterday’s post)

Kate-Bush-Wow-42617

Is there any bloke out there, born in the first half of the early 60s, who didn’t fall in love or lust immediately with Kate Bush?

In 1978, her single Wuthering Heights, topped the singles charts for four weeks. This meant Kate became the first woman to reach #1 with a self-written song. What made the feat truly astonishing was that it was her debut, and she was just 19 years of age.

This was a singer who was quite unlike any other in the late 70s. Very few women were involved in punk or new wave, although that was to change quite quickly. If you heard a woman singing on the radio, is was usually on a disco track or some sort of sugary ballad. OK , I’m generalising as there were also some reggae-style singles that had female vocals, but like punk/new wave, these were few and far between.

Kate Bush had a vocal style all of her own – and it was one that divided the nation. I loved the fact that you couldn’t always make out the lyrics unless you really listened closely (or bought the albums in which case you got a lyric sheet). I loved how the records sounded – it was, thinking back, the first time that I appreciated how records had to be produced and arranged rather than just someone shouting into a microphone while strumming a guitar.

And most of all, for these things were important to a hormonally-charged teenager, I loved the way she looked. But I’m not that shallow folks…..if the music had been awful, I wouldnt have given her any attention. Honest.

Its hard to imagine nowadays when so many artists seems to take ages from one album to the next, but Kate Bush released two LPs in 1978. The Kick Inside was her debut, and it hit the shops in February. By late-October, Lionheart had been issued. This was all down to the fact that her label, EMI Records, knowing that Kate had already written over 50 songs that were in demo form, put pressure on her to quickly follow up the initial success.

The first single from the LP also came out in 1978, but Hammer Horror was a flop, failing to reach the Top 40. In a rare show of sense, EMI waited a few months and allowed Kate herself to have a big say in what would be the follow-up, and in March 1979, this began to be heard regularly on daytime radio:-

mp3 : Kate Bush – Wow

It was quite a daring single for its time. In an era when ‘pain in the ass’ was a lyric that wasn’t allowed on radio, Kate got away with ‘he’s too busy hitting the vaseline’ as part of a song that was sympathetic to homosexual actors unable to get the lead roles as they weren’t macho enough. There wasn’t much made of the subject matter at the time, but I’m guessing that if a 21st century female singer-songwriters was to do something similar, you can bet that one of her myriad of publicists would have the fact running in every tabloid in the land in the hope of creating a hype….

Here’s yer b-side too:-

mp3 : Kate Bush – Fullhouse

Enjoy.