In which I hope to have kept to my promise that this one will feature all sorts of great ‘non-hit’ singles. The well-thumbed big red book is again being flicked through.
mp3: Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria
Anyone reading this post and hearing Sensoria for the very first time in their life might have a hard time in believing it’s a song that’s 41 years old. One that takes me back to the Strathclyde Uni Students Union downstairs disco on Friday and Saturday nights, held in the space that was normally where we devoured our daily helpings of pie, beans and chips. As I’ve said before, this is one for flailing around the dance floor with your raincoat flapping behind you like Batman’s cape as he chases the bad guys.
mp3: The Daintees – Trouble Town
The second single from a newish-band based in the north-east of England who had been snapped up by Newcastle-based label Kitchenware Records, largely on the basis of the talents of their singer/songwriter frontman. It would take until mid-86 before the band, now called Martin Stephenson and The Daintees, to enjoy a small amount of commercial success via their albums and dynamic live shows.
mp3: Go-Betweens – Bachelor Kisses
The second and final single to be lifted from the album, Spring Hill Fair. After Part Company had failed to wow the record-buying public, Sire Records went for a Grant McLennan composed number this time around. The record label actually went a bit further. Believing that they had a radio-friendly number on their hands, they gave the album version to producers Colin Fairley and Robert Andrews, who earlier in the year had worked with The Bluebells, and asked them to make it just that little bit more commercial. Robert Forster would later comment “we got new producers, more days on the bass drum, and a version of the song of no great variance to the original take.”
Money was also spent on a promo video:-
The female backing vocal is courtesy of Ana da Silva, the lead singer of post-punkers The Raincoats, and a band much loved by Kurt Cobain. The failure of the single led to Sire Records dropping the band a few weeks later.
mp3: Grab Grab The Haddock – I’m Used Now
The Marine Girls, a trio from the south of England featuring Tracey Thorn, Alice Fox and Jane Fox, had made a small splash in the indie-pop world in the early 80s, eventually signing to Cherry Red Records and releasing the well-received album Lazy Ways in early 1983. By this time, Tracey had relocated to Hull University where she would meet Ben Watt and form Everything But The Girl; meanwhile, Jane had recorded material with her boyfriend, the Manchester-born poet Edward Barton, with one of the songs, It’s A Fine Day later being re-recorded as an electronic dance track by Opus III in 1992 and proving to be a massive hit. After the Jane and Barton mini-album in late 1983 had sunk without trace, the Fox sisters formed what proved to be a short-lived band called Grab Grab The Haddock who would release a 12″ single and an EP on Cherry Red in 1984/85. I’m Used Now was the debut single.
mp3: Paul Haig – The Only Truth
The production is credited to B-Music/Dojo, otherwise better known as Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson. How many of you wanted to shout out ‘Confusion’ just before Paul’s vocals kicked in?
One word to describe this one? Tune.
mp3: The Higsons – Music To Watch Girls By
A band formed by students at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, The Higsons had been around since 1981, and in due course would sign for 2 Tone and release a couple of non-hit singles for the label in 1982/83. By 1984, they were on the London-based indie-label Upright Records, who would release the band’s sole LP from which this cover version of the easy-listening 1967 hit single by The Bob Crewe Generation was the lead single. The band broke up the following year, and lead singer Charlie Higson would find fame and fortune as a comedy actor/writer in The Fast Show, while trumpeter/saxophonist/guitarist Terry Edwards would forge a very successful musical career which continues to this day.
mp3: The June Brides – Every Conversation
The band’s second single on the newly established Pink Records somehow managed to surpass the magnificence of debut In The Rain from a couple of months earlier. A band that would get lumped in with the C87 ‘movement’ despite all their music, in their first incarnation, all being from June 84-May 86.
mp3: The Loft – Why Does The Rain
The Loft, as with The June Brides, get lumped in with the C87 ‘movement’ when in fact they had already broken up in late 1985. This was the debut single, and it’s an absolute belter. The next 45, Up The Hill And Down The Slope, was even better, but singer/songwriter Pete Astor then called it a day and went on to form The Weather Prophets, a band who would release their own take on Why Does The Rain on their debut album, Mayflower, in April 1987.
mp3: Red Guitars – Marimba Jive
The third and final single of the year from Red Guitars, whose profile was fairly high after a load of well-received live shows opening for The Smiths UK tour in early 1984. Sadly, and undeservedly, the singles failed to connect with the record-buying public, and likewise with debut album Slow To Fade which was released just before the end of the year.
mp3: Marc Riley & The Creepers – Shadow Figure
The fifth single to be recorded by the band set up by Marc Riley after he ‘took his leave’ of The Fall in January 1983, but their first following the release of debut album Gross Out back in June 1984. An unusual number in which the kitchen sink seems to have been thrown at the tune during the production process….almost chamber pop in execution.
mp3: Shriekback – Mercy Dash
The second flop single in three months. This one is dedicated to Post Punk Monk, one of the finest on-line writers out there, and a huge fan of Shriekback.
mp3: Violent Femmes – It’s Gonna Rain
The second and final single to be lifted from the album Hallowed Ground. I remember at the time being a bit underwhelmed by the album, but then again, it had been an impossible task to follow the eponymous debut that had landed in the UK in late 1983. I’ve grown to appreciate things just a little bit more as the years have passed, but it remains hard to fully embrace an album of folk/country tunes with more than a hint of Christianity sprinkled in. It’s Gonna Rain is actually an interpretation of the Noah’s Ark story, and in places it’s not too far removed from the sort of music Jonathan Richman does so very very well.
mp3: The Mighty Wah! – Weekends
The second and final single to be lifted from the album, A Word To The Wise Guy. And while Come Back had gone Top 20 earlier in the year, the radio stations ignored the follow-up!
Told you this month was a good ‘un.
late addendum/correction : huge thanks to those who corrected me on Jane and Barton (see the comments section). Much appreciated.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 