Lotus Eaters – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Adam Ant, Bauhaus, China Crisis, Cure, Duran Duran, Joy Division, Lotus Eaters, This Mortal Coil, Time UK, XTC

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (10)

Lots of comments last month…..my huge thanks to everyone. I didn’t quite realise there would be such love for New Song by Howard Jones. Who am I going to dismiss with such impudence this time???

Chart dates 2- 8 October

Late September 1983 must have been a time when record labels had all their promotional folk go off on holiday. The highest new entry in the first chart of October was all the way down at #38. I won’t bore you with the details…..

It’s all the way down into the 60-somethings before there’s anything worthy of particular mention

mp3: Time UK – The Cabaret (#63)

It had been almost a year since The Jam had broken up. Paul Weller had continued to enjoy success via The Style Council, while Bruce Foxton had released solo material. Rick Buckler had formed Time UK with two members of Masterswitch ( me neither!), and two other musicians who had previously played with the Tom Robinson Band and Sparks. A record deal was secured, and The Cabaret was the debut single. #63 was as high as it reached….neither of its two follow-ups or parent album did anything. I’ll be honest….I don’t recall this 45 at all.

Just slightly lower in the rundown was this.

mp3: The Lotus Eaters – You Don’t Need Someone New (#64)

Debut single, The First Picture Of You had been one of the songs of the summer, and in reaching #15, seemed to provide a good platform for The Lotus Eaters to become chart staples. This was the rather enjoyable follow-up, but it only ever crawled its way to #53, and that, more or less, was the last time the UK record buying public spent money on the band.

Chart dates 9-15 October

I think I have to run through some of the acts hanging around the Top 20 this week to give an idea of how awful the singles charts exactly 40 years ago.

Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (#1)
David Bowie – Modern Love (#4)
Howard Jones – New Song (#5)
George Benson – In Your Eyes (#7)
UB40 – Red Red Wine (#8)
David Essex – Tahiti (#10)
Rocksteady Crew – Hey You The Rocksteady Crew (#11)
Black Lace Superman (Gioca Jouer) (#12)
Paul Young – Come Back and Stay (#13)
Peabo Pearson & Roberta Flack – Tonight I Celebrate My Love (#14)
Nick Heyward – Blur Hat For A Blue Day (#15)
Lionel Ritchie – All Night Long (#16)
The Alarm – 68 Guns (#17)
Kajagoogoo – Big Apple (#18)
Genesis – Mama (#19)
Ryan Paris – Dolce Vita (#20)

In what is a particularly awful list, I will single out that Black Lace song for a special mention. Look it up on YouTube if you dare.

Oh, and the four who were trying hard to shore things up were Tracey Ullman (#2), Siouxsie & The Banshees (#3), Public Image Ltd (#6) and New Order (#9).

It wasn’t much better further down the charts…with worse to come as Billy Joel‘s Uptown Girl came in at #54 for the first of what would be a 17-week stay in the Top 75, all the way through to February 84, including five weeks at #1.

Once again, the 60-somethings offer some respite:-

mp3: China Crisis – Working With Fire and Steel (#66)

I’ve never been a fan, but a previous mention on the blog did throw up some love as well as a guest ICA from Martin, our Swedish Correspondent, although this particular single (which would eventually peak at #48) didn’t make his cut.

mp3 : XTC – Love On A Farmboy’s Wages (#67)

The band’s 8th Top 75 hit (from their first 17 singles) eventually went to #50. It would until January 1989 for XTC to again get higher than #50, and it came through Mayor of Simpleton (their 24th single and 10th to go Top 75).

Chart dates 16-22 October

I was going to pass completely on this particular chart. Nothing of merit whatsoever. Apart from

mp3: This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren

I was stunned to spot that this had made the Top 75 back in the day, as I was sure it was just a cult song. I was even more stunned to spot, in the summary, that it went on to spend 13 weeks in the chart, but a closer inspection tells the true story, with the chart at the time being considered as the Top 100.

22 October – 12 November : 4-week stay at #66, #72, #77 and #75
3 December : 1-week stay at #98
14 January – 11 February 1984 : 5-week stay at #97, #98, #82, #85 and #83
25 February – 10 March : 3-week stay at #97, #80 and #93

Given that it wouldn’t have received any radio airplay beyond that from Peel, it’s hard to figure out why it spent so much time around the very lower ends of the chart. I wouldn’t imagine that even in the weeks it wasn’t in the Top 100 that it sold 0 copies, which means it sold in small numbers across the UK for at least a five-month period, while wiki reveals that Song To The Siren enjoyed a run of 101 weeks on the UK Indie Charts, one which ranks fourth in the 1980s behind Bela Lugosi’s Dead (131 weeks), Blue Monday (186 weeks) and Love Will Tear Us Apart (195 weeks).

Chart dates 23 -29 October

Any DD fans out there?

mp3: Duran Duran – Union Of The Snake (#4)

Their 9th single since February 1981, but their first in six months, with the previous effort Is There Something I Should Know? giving them their first #1. The record company would no doubt prove to be disappointed that Union of The Snake, would stall at #3.

Two feline-related songs made their entries into the charts this week:-

mp3: Adam Ant – Puss’n Boots (#21)
mp3: The Cure – The Lovecats (#23)

I don’t like the Adam Ant single. But I’m posting it to remind you that, just a few years after he’d emerged from the punk world into mainstream pop with his Ants, he was now pursuing a solo career in which Phil Collins had been engaged to produce the songs as well as contribute his drumming skills. This one would eventually peak at #5

I do like The Cure single, albeit there’s a real novelty feel to it. Anyone who fell for the quaint charms of The Lovecats and raced out to buy any of their earlier albums probably recoiled in horror at what was coming out of the speakers. Maybe Robert Smith was trying his best to be subversive.

The Lovecats reached #7, which would be the biggest hit for the band until Lullaby reached #5 in mid-1989.

A rather unusual release entered the singles chart this week at #52.

The Singles ’81-’83 was a six-track release by Bauhaus, that I’ve seen described as a mini-LP and an EP. It seems, for the purposes of chart positions, it was considered as an EP. The six tracks were The Passion Of Lovers, Kick In The Eye, Spirit, Ziggy Stardust, Lagartija Nick and She’s In Parties. Here’s Track 1 on Side A:-

mp3: Bauhaus – The Passion Of Lovers

A re-release entered the charts at #71:-

mp3: Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart

It would spend seven weeks in the charts, making it all the way to #19 in mid-November, which wasn’t too far behind the #13 spot it had reached in July 1980.

OK, so it took some old songs being re-released to really perk up the charts back in October 1983. The question is…..did it set things up for a decent November? Tune in next month to find out……

JC

Bananarama, Bruce Foxton, Creatures, Cure, David Sylvian and Riuichi Sakamoto, Depeche Mode, Echo & The Bunnymen, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Lotus Eaters, Malcolm McLaren, Tom Robinson

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (7)

Slight change of tack this month, and indeed for the remainder of this series, in that instead of looking at one week’s chart in a particular month, I’m going to go through each of them to highlight and recall some great 45s from the latter half of 1983.

Chart dates 3rd – 9th July 1983

The top end of the chart still had the June hangover, but one of the former new wave heroes found himself in the Top 10 with a bit of an MOR classic:-

mp3: Tom Robinson – War Baby (#6)

I could have included this in last month’s posting as it was kicking around the charts in June 1983, but held it back. TRB had, with 2-4-6-8 Motorway and the Rising Free EP, enjoyed a bit of success in the new wave era, but Robinson’s next venture, Sector 27, had failed dismally. He went away to live in Germany, wrote some new songs, including War Baby, and returned to the UK with the aim of becoming purely a solo artist. War Baby was the only big hit he would enjoy, albeit there was a minor hit later in 1983. He’s remained very well-known here in the UK as a result of broadcasting shows on all various BBC Radio stations since the late 80s.

mp3: Malcolm McLaren – Double Dutch (#19)

The inclusion of this one might annoy a few of you, but I remain quite fond of it. The svengali had enjoyed an unexpected Top 10 hit in 1982 with Buffalo Gals, one of the first hit singles to feature hip-hop and scratching, but that was reckoned to have been the last anyone would hear of him. He returned in 83 with a single which celebrated a skipping game that was highly popular among many African American communities, particularly in New York. It’s one of those songs which entertains and annoys in equal measures, depending on your take. It would eventually climb to #3.

mp3: David Sylvian and Riuichi Sakamoto – Forbidden Colours (#20)

The vocal version of the main theme to Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, one of the most critically acclaimed films of 1983. This was not the first time that the former frontman of Japan and the award-winning composer had collaborated on a hit single, as the double-A sided Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music, which was part of the first solo project undertaken by Sylvian, had been a Top 30 hit in 1982. Forbidden Colours would rise up the charts over the next couple of weeks, peaking at #16.

mp3: The Cure – The Walk (#34)

The eleventh single to be released by The Cure. This was the week it entered the charts, making six in a row to make at least the Top 50. However, The Walk would go on to spend 8 weeks in the charts, and in reaching #12 would give the group its breakthrough into the Top 20.

mp3: Bananarama – Cruel Summer (#36)

There’s no way I’m not including this in the feature. Bananarama were great fun back in 1983, and would remain so for many more years to come. This was another new entry and, during a 10-week stay, would eventually peak at #8.

mp3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Everyday I Write The Book (#40)

Having been in the charts earlier in the tear as The Imposter, the release of the first new single off what would be the band’s seventh studio album, took Elvis Costello & The Attractions back into the Top 40 for the first time since High Fidelity in 1980 – four singles in the intervening period had all stalled in the 40s or 50s. This one would be a real slower burner in that it spent 8 weeks in the charts but never got any higher than #28.

Chart dates 10th – 16th July 1983

Rod Stewart and Paul Young continued to bore everyone rigid at the top of the charts. Baby Jane was at #1 for a third successive week, but was poised to lose its place to Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) which was sitting at #2 but would end up itself spending three weeks at the top.

All of those that had come in as new entries the previous week made progress up the chart, joined by a few more excellent 45s.

mp3: Echo & The Bunnymen – Never Stop (#30)

This was the first new release since the success of the album Porcupine, as well as the hit singles taken from it (The Back of Love and The Cutter). Its absence from any future albums sort of makes Never Stop one of the more forgotten 45s from the Bunnymen, but it’s one of my favourites, particularly in its extended 12″ format which was given very regular airings at the Student Union discos. It would rise to #15 the following week, before slowly drifting out of the chart.

mp3: The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You (#36)

The debut single from The Lotus Eaters had been on sale for a few weeks before it reached the Top 40. It had come in at #71, climbed to #42 and now got to #36. The good news would continue as it would rise in each of the next five weeks, which also led to a couple of appearances on Top of The Pops, reaching #15. It would prove to be the only occasion that the group had a Top 40 hit.

Chart dates 17th – 23rd July 1983

mp3: The Creatures – Right Now (#32)

The side-group of Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie was now enjoying a second Top 40 hit in 1983, this time with a cover of a jazz song from the early 60s. There was a brilliantly written review from Paul Colbert in Melody Maker:-

“The Creatures slipped through an unlocked back window, ransacked the place and left with the best ideas in a fast car. Like all the greatest criminal minds they strike without a warning and only they know the plan. We have to piece the clues into a cover story. From the earliest seconds of ‘Right Now’ you know you’re on shifting ground. Siouxsie baba da baping away to the noise of her own fingers clicking until Budgie barges in with congas on speed. Christ which way is this going? The one direction you don’t expect is a vagrant big band coughing out drunken bursts of brass in a Starlight Room of its own making. Budgie and Siouxsie – the Fred and Ginger of the wayward world”.

Right Now would end up spending 10 weeks in the charts, peaking at #14.

Chart dates 24th – 30th July 1983

mp3: Depeche Mode – Everything Counts (#26)

I’m no fan of post-Vince Clarke DM, but it’s only fair to acknowledge the amount of time they’ve been around. Everything Counts might have been 40 years ago, but it was already their seventh Top 30 single, going back to New Life in June 1981. It would eventually reach #6, which matched their previous best chart performance, which had been achieved with See You. I was surprised to learn that only one further DM single would ever get higher in the charts, and that came the following year, when People Are People reached #4.

mp3: Bruce Foxton – Freak (#34)

The bass player of the band formerly known as The Jam finally got his solo career underway. His debut single came in at #34 and after a couple of weeks had climbed to #23, but he never again replicated this success, very much overshadowed by what Paul Weller was achieving with The Style Council. To be honest, Freak isn’t a very good song, and probably owed its success from the loyalty of fans of his former band.

I’ll be back with more of the same in four or so weeks.

JC

Lotus Eaters

ALL DOWNHILL AFTER THE DREAMLIKE DEBUT

The Lotus Eaters were part of that great Liverpool scene of the early 80s, albeit as a band they came along after the demise of Zoo Records albeit their individual members were around at that time.

Jem Kelly had been a member of The Wild Swans whose Revolutionary Spirit/God Forbid 12″ was arguably the best 45 ever released by Zoo. Their break-up had seen vocalist Paul Simpson go off and form Care alongside Ian Broudie. Kelly, who had written the music for the Zoo singles hooked up with Peter Coyle who had sung with a number of local bands that hadn’t made any breakthrough. They turned out, initially, to be an ideal match for one another.

Such was the affection that listeners had for The Wild Swans, this new band were invited to record a session for the John Peel Show before they had signed any deal. This session, in October 1982, created a bit of a stir and a bidding war for the band, largely on the basis of one of the songs – The First Picture Of You – that had been aired during the session.

In due course, the band would sign to Arista Records for what was allegedly a decent sum of money. The first single, released in July 1983, was no surprise.

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You (12″ version)

It’s a wonderfully, dreamy, laid back piece of pop music that climbed all the way to #15 in the singles charts, spending three months in the chart. The b-sides were decent too…

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – The Lotus Eaters
mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – Stranger So Far (Peel Session)

Big things were expected of the band. But to everyone’s disappointment, the follow-up single was a flop, failing to hit the Top 40.

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – You Don’t Need Someone New

The next four months were spent working on the debut LP with a variety of producers and in April 1984 what was regarded as the strongest new song was released as the band’s third single:-

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – Set Me Apart

It sold even more poorly than the sophomore effort. All the hopes and aspirations from the time leading up to the release of the single were gone. Record company interest totally diminished almost overnight and the release of the debut LP, No Sense of Sin, was greeted with huge indifference thanks to a non-existent marketing/media campaign.

Twelve months later it was all over.

In the immediate aftermath, Jem Kelly reformed The Wild Swans while Peter Coyle recorded some solo material before immersing himself in the dance scene of the late 80s/early 90s.

And now to the postscript.

In 2001 there was a reunion of The Lotus Eaters with a new album on a Japanese-owned indie label along with some live shows. Nothing much happened for another eight years as the two protagonists did their own things in academia but in July 2009, there was seemingly a one-off concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, with a string quartet, to play the songs from No Sense of Sin. The interest in and reaction to that show led to a another album of new songs in 2010 along with promotional tours of the UK and Japan. There’s been various rumours of them working together more recently but nothing concrete has emerged.

All I have in the collection is the debut single. It’s on vinyl and its more than a third of a century old. That’s my excuse for the occasional hiss, pop, crackle and jump you might hear.

Oh and here’s a copy of the Peel Session version that caused such a stir:-

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You (Peel Session)

It is VERY Wild Swans. Easy to see why so many record company folk were keen.