Category: #magazine45s

Sweetheart Contract (VS 368) : Released July 1980 on 7″, 12″ and 2×7″ 

We drank from cups on standard issue sofas under scaffolding
Informed sources said we were seen by observers, it’s a meeting

Howard Devoto has always had a fine way with words as evidenced by the opening two lines to Sweetheart Contract, one of the standout tracks on The Correct Use of Soap and which was given a single release in July, some two months after the album had reached the shops.  I think everyone expected it to go the same way as all the other singles and not bother the chart compilers. It certainly didn’t seem to have #54 written all over it.

mp3: Magazine – Sweetheart Contract

It probably had a lot to do with the fact that initial copies came with an additional, free 7″ as a double pack, offering up three live tracks that had been recorded in May 1980 at the Russell Club in Manchester. Or maybe the fact that, after all this time, Magazine were finally on a 12″ single, with the three other tracks again being those live takes.

mp3: Magazine – Feed The Enemy (live)
mp3: Magazine – Twenty Years Ago (live)
mp3: Magazine – Shot By Both Sides (live)

The most interesting one is the very different version of Feed The Enemy.

The original, as found on the album Secondhand Daylight, is a slow-paced and tense affair, extending out to almost six minutes in length, in which Howard Devoto seems to carefully and cautiously select his words over a tune packed with anxiety and menace. The live version comes in at just under four minutes and is a raucous new-wave take on things played at 100mph, driven along in particular by Barry Adamson‘s frantic bass and John McGeoch‘s angular guitar work. Over time, I’ve come to enjoy it, but I was shocked and to some extent horrified the first time I played it, given it was such a departure from the version I knew so well.

This proved to be the last Magazine record involving John McGeoch.  He had played with the band on a UK tour in April and May and then on ten dates in Spain, France and the Netherlands in June.  By the time the Sweetheart Contract single was in the shops, he had left the band, replaced by Robin Simon for the North American and New Zealand/Australia tours in August/September, during which a live album would be recorded at the Festival Hall in Melbourne on 6 September 1980 and released by Virgin Records in time for the Christmas market. By then, Magazine were back in the UK getting ready to record new songs.

 

JC

Upside Down (VS 334) : Released May 1980 on 7″ 

This is a very strange one.

The Correct Use of Soap was released sometime in the first week of May 1980, having being preceded by two singles, both of which could be found on the album.  A new single was released on 16 May, and in terms of promoting and marketing the new album, then there would be every expectation that it would be one of its tracks.

mp3: Magazine – Upside Down

A previously unreleased/unavailable song. Fans, having just splashed out on the new album now found themselves having to spend a smaller amount on the new single.

Many years later, in the one book that I believe has been written solely about the band, Magazine – The Biography by Helen Chase (Northumbria Press, 2009), there’s a very slight reference to Upside Down.

In the run-up to the album’s release, Magazine put out three singles within a month of each other : A Song From Under The Floorboards, Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Agin) and Upside Down. Howard explains, “The idea was to release the whole album as singles and to release them at monthly intervals. Right at the end of the process they would all be collected together on an album. That would have been commercially stupid! Virgin made pretensions of going along with it. They were all going to be cardboard sleeves all with a different coloured label.”

But that doesn’t make any sense unless the intention had been for Upside Down to have been on the album, plus it begs the questions of exactly how many singles were planned and where would the b-sides have come from?

Upside Down, IMHO, is a disappointing effort, and I’m glad that for whatever reason, it was never included on The Correct Use of Soap. It’s one of the few unmemorable Magazine songs of the era.

The b-side was something of a surprise, and ultimately to some fans a bit of an abomination.

mp3: Magazine – The Light Pours Out Of Me (version)

One of the band’s oldest and best-loved songs, written back in the day by Howard Devoto, John McGeoch and Pete Shelley, and recorded for debut album Real Life back in 1978 with John Leckie in the producer’s chair.  The new version was worked up during the ‘Soap’ sessions with Martin Hannett producing. It’s a full minute shorter than the original. It is also slightly slower, less powerful and has a naff backing vocal. And there’s a middle section with a sax solo that makes them sound like later-era Psychedelic Furs. I don’t know anyone who prefers it.

Given all of the above the next single proved to be a surprise.  Tune in next Sunday.

 

 

 

JC

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (VS 328) : Released March 1980 on 7″ 

I really don’t know what I’d have made of the next Magazine single if my first awareness of it had been in March 1980….especially if, in some strange way I had come to the band via the stupendous A Song From Under The Floorboards just two months previously.

I’d have looked at the sleeve and label and spotted that the song’s composers were Sly Stone and Sylvester Stewart and immediately realised it was a cover version.  Not that I knew the song, nor indeed did I know all that much about Sly and The Family Stone other than they had written and recorded, sometime back in the 60s, the stomping Dance To The Music which had long been a staple of the ‘golden hour’ segments on daytime and weekend Radio 1.

It’s fair to say that I’d have been intrigued.

But the thing is, my knowledge of the song comes from its inclusion on The Correct Use of Soap, as Track 2 on Side 2 of the album.  And from the outset, I loved it, without thinking at all to compare it to the original.  Indeed, if it wasn’t for the writing credits, then I’d have been prepared to argue that it was a Magazine original, albeit one that John McGeoch likely had little to do with.   It’s all about the Barry Adamson bass lines, John Doyle‘s effortless drum patterns and Dave Formula‘s hypnotic sounding keyboard, but also a tip of the hat to the backing vocals offered up by Laura Teresa.

mp3: Magazine – Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

If you don’t mind, I’m going to briefly diverge to try and explain why Magazine had a female backing vocalist on their final two albums.

Howard Devoto met Laura Teresa in California in the summer of 1979, while the band was touring Secondhand Daylight. They fell in love almost immediately.  She soon followed him back to the UK and was soon present at the recordings of The Correct Use of Soap, with Devoto thinking that some of the songs would benefit from having backing vocals.  I’m assuming that Martin Hannett, being a control-freak, concurred, and it turned out that Laura Teresa had the voice they were all looking for.  She’s important on the funky cover version, but she turned out to be essential on the ballad that seemed to come out of leftfield.

mp3: Magazine – You Never Knew Me

Songs that are a million miles away from Shot By Both Sides….and yet the difference in time is just over two years.

Back to the single featured today…….and here’s its b-side.

mp3: Magazine – The Book

As I said back in November 2020, some songs are great short stories.

This man is at the door of Hell…somehow it seems to be his destination after a life of subtle stubbornness. He doesn’t expect to find himself waking up out of a dream…he doesn’t expect to pinch himself and wake up and that kind of thing…in fact, the thought of that happening makes him smile. He’s just mildly surprised to find himself there at the door of Hell.

To all accounts, the kindly old man who is the doorman (and who conceivably reminds him of his father) is sat reading a book…but he gets up smartly and without time for either of them to feel that they’re standing on ceremony says, “Hold my book for a minute, would you, while I get the door open!” (Presumably, you know, you need two hands to open the door.) For some reason, the old man doesn’t just put his book down on the chair.

It all happens quite quickly…he finds that he’s made a decision and is already holding the old man’s book…as just about anybody else would have, But it seems a bit curious because…in however small a way you like to consider it…it is as if he’s helping himself enter Hell…the path of least resistance. Of course, at the same time he suddenly thinks..Even as he finally grips the book…”This is my chance for a reprieve…the final test…the straw which will tip the good deeds over the bad.”

Next thing he knows, they have exchanged opinions on the book and he has handed it back to the old man and is being shown into Hell.

 

 

 

 

JC

A Song From Under The Floorboards (VS 321) : Released January 1980 on 7″ 

I was 16-and-half years of age when A Song From Under The Floorboards was released.  I don’t often express regrets about how my musical tastes evolved and developed, which is no surprise given how often I talk up 1979 as being the greatest ever year for new music and how much joy came by way through, in particular, the first half of the 80s when I lived the student life (on a grant and with the great support of the Bank of Dad and Mum).

But I do get annoyed at myself that I didn’t pick up on Magazine until 1982 with the purchase of the After The Fact compilation, an album, as the title itself suggests, issued by Virgin Records after the band had broke-up.

Nobody at school brought Magazine records into the 5th or 6th Year common rooms to play.  I, no doubt, read about the band in one or more of the music papers and probably heard them played on the John Peel show every now and again, but nothing stuck in my brain, albeit I’ll offer the defence that so much was going on, musically and the rest, that there wasn’t much room.  And when I really break it down, I was too wrapped up in The Jam who were, in my mind, the greatest band the world had ever seen and indeed would ever see.

To messrs Devoto, McGeoch (RIP), Adamson, Formula and Doyle, I offer a wholehearted and unreserved apology. Can you take any consolation that I think A Song From Under The Floorboards is one of THE greatest bits of music ever recorded?

mp3: Magazine – A Song From Under The Floorboards

Any Magazine fans back in the day must have been ridiculously excited back in January 1980, and would have been counting down the months, weeks and days until the new album was released (the wait turned out to be four months).  It is astonishing that no radio stations picked up on this song as it had all the hallmarks of a hit single – if only it had been brought to the attention of the record buying public.

What about the b-side?

mp3: Magazine – Twenty Years Ago

I do wonder, given it contains the refrain ‘Twenty years ago I used your soap’ if the original plan had been to have this one on the album, only to later decide that there were ten ‘better’ tracks’ or perhaps the band felt it would leave them open to accusations of listening to P.I.L. a bit too much?  Either way, it means that the few  who bought ‘Floorboards’ had two immense pieces of music to enjoy.

The second-hand market via Discogs has quite a number of copies of the single available for very reasonable prices.  Anyone who is serious about music should have this i their collection.  Just sayin’………

 

 

 

JC

There’s some logic (in my mind at least) as to why there’s an interlude on this particular Sunday.

Magazine had released just four singles up to now, two of which had been non-album offerings, while the other two had involved different mixes from the album versions.

Three of the next four would all be lifted from one album, The Correct Use of Soap, recorded in the second half of 1979 with Martin Hannett, who himself had not long finished production duties on Joy Division‘s debut album.  I really feel I need to talk/write about the album before shining the light on any of its singles.

The writer Garry Mullholland, in his 2006 book ‘Fear of Music : The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco’ penned these words:-

‘The third Magazine album is a key transition in British pop. There was now a generation of musicians who had been excited by the Pistols but also by disco, reggae and the pop of their childhoods.  Bands began to question whether rock and the electric guitar were really the cutting edge, or just a form of codified conformity.

So it was entirely natural that a band from a punk background, but with prog-rock-standard musicians, attempted, on The Correct Use of Soap to make a radio-friendly pop, complete with funk, soul and disco rhythms, horn solos, keyboards-to-the-fore, girly backing vox, even tender ballads. Joy Division’s producer Martin Hannett was brought in to give his fellow Mancunians a clearer, less dense and aggressive sound, while keeping the mystery and edge intact and not letting it get all Boomtown Rats. Everybody involved got it dead right. And then….no one bought it.’

It’s not quite true that nobody bought it. It came in at #28 on the first week of its release in May 1980.  It stayed at #28 the following week.  It then dropped, but by only three places to #31.  After that, it plummeted to #61 and on the fifth week after it hit the shops, it was nowhere to be seen in the charts.

It’s an album that has managed to more than stand the test of time, as I pointed out when I posted a review of it written for the Louder Than War website in 2013.  I did make the observation that the writer, Amy Britten, had written the review a style akin to what some refer to as the golden era of the UK music papers, when a thousand words would be used instead of a mere handful, and it was necessary to have a thesaurus close at hand.

I did offer up my own thoughts on the album.

I’ve never claimed to be a ‘good’ writer, but I am passionate about the things I like, albeit I often can’t get beyond using words like brilliant, fantastic or amazing to describe how much a particular record means to me.

The Correct Use of Soap will always be high up on the list of my favourite albums, but not because I’m able to make all sorts of smart and obscure references from the lyrics. It’s an album in which all members of the group are at the very top of their games, and yes, it enjoys a production input from Hannett that is unusually crisp and clear without too much gimmickry. It is a record that deliberately veers all over the place, with punk, funk, pop all to the fore – it even has a soppy ballad, complete with female backing vocals which tug at the heartstrings. But I’ll just keep coming back to the fact that McGeogh and Adamson, in particular, have never sounded better.

There’s not a duff song on ‘Soap’….it would, on its own make for a perfect ICA. A position that Devoto & co. seemingly acknowledged by the fact that in 2009, shortly after their brief reformation, they undertook a tour in which they played the album in order from start to finish, before taking a short break and coming back for a second set of songs from the other albums.

I’ll get round to looking at the singles over the next few weeks.  The fact that the opening track of the album was passed over for a 45 is an indication of its quality

mp3: Magazine – Because You’re Frightened

It’s also one of the finest demonstrations of just how great, and I mean GREAT, a guitarist Magazine had. It’s no wonder that Siouxsie Sioux and her colleagues would soon put in a call and ask John McGeoch to join them.

 

 

JC

Rhythm of Cruelty (VS 251) : Released March 1979 on 7″ 

The most recent appearance of this single came via its inclusion in Dirk‘s memorable series ‘One Hundred and Eleven Singles’, back on 2 May 2024.

Dirk began by saying there can be no argument that Magazine were, in comparison to their peers, more progressive and less traditional. He then posed the question “How did you see this development back in 1978 or thereabouts? I mean, if memory serves correctly, Devoto was seen as a bit of a betrayer to punk when leaving Buzzcocks … just in order to front this strange modern New Wave combo”

His own take on things was that a lot of people rather wasted their time complaining about Devoto having left Buzzcocks and blaming Magazine for that event, rather than closely listening to early Magazine with an open mind.  He is convinced that taking such an approach would have everyone a lot, including the record buying public and, by extension, Magazine as well.

Rhythm of Cruelty, like all the Magazine singles (with the exceptions of #41 hit Shot By Both Sides and later offering Sweetheart Contract which raced to #54 in 1980) failed to trouble the Top 100.  Maybe there’s merit inDirk’s observation that they weren’t really given a fair hearing, as it does seem it was only after they split up did the the accolades and credit come thieir way.

Wiki lists Rhythm of Cruelty as being taken from the album Secondhand Daylight which was released just two weeks after the single. But the fact is, the version issued as a 7″ single is a completely different mix from the album version.

mp3 : Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty (single version)

The band had worked with a new producer, Colin Thurston, who up to this point was best known as a studio engineer for the 1977 albums Heroes by David Bowie and Lust for Life by Iggy Pop album.  Secondhand Daylight was Thurston’s debut as a solo producer and he would go onto work with The Human League on the album Reproduction later in 1979 before hitting the jackpot with the first two Duran Duran albums in ’81 and ’82.

Rhythm of Cruelty is a much underrated single.  It harks back, in part, to the band’s post-punk roots, as can clearly be heard in the opening bars as well as the cartoon violence of the first two lines spat out by Devoto.  Secondhand Daylight proved to contain a fair degree of prog/krautrock elements, which is an indication of the increasing influence of Dave Formula on keyboards. Compare and contrast….

mp3: Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty (album version)

The b-side is T.V. Baby.   The music for this one was written by Formula but for much of the song his keyboards are hidden or well back in the mix. Indeed, the most prominent sound for much of its near four minutes is the saxophone playing of McGeoch.  It sounds nothing like any song on Secondhand Daylight, which leads me to think it was always destined for use as a b-side.  As these things go, it’s more than alright

mp3: Magazine – T.V. Baby 

No other singles were released in the UK to support Secondhand Daylight, but over in New Zealand, one of its tracks was issued on 7″

mp3: Magazine – Believe That I Understand

It was backed by Rhythm of Cruelty as the b-side – whether it’s the single or album version, I’m unable to say as this is the one 7″ release from back in the day that I don’t have in my collection and the asking price on the few occasions it pops up on Discogs is just too much.

 

 

JC

Give Me Everything (VS 237) : Released November 1978 on 7″ 

This was originally posted on 8 April 2010 (and re-posted on 7 August 2014) with the title ‘GET IT RIGHT UP YE’

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For years, I thought that the Factory Records mogul was the brains behind the production of this, the third single from Magazine released on 17th November 1978.

Turns out it was a totally different Tony Wilson…one who for years worked at the BBC. Stupid me…..

For some artistic reason, Howard Devoto insisted that Give Me Everything be released without any marketing campaign and with no review copies to be sent to the music press. Almost as if he wanted it not to succeed. And almost as if he wanted to avoid dealing with any music journalists.

However, the review penned by Dave McCullough in Sounds showed that the strategy somewhat backfired:-

At last I have Howie and his chums sussed. They’re really The Muppets in disguise laughing their scraggy-heads off while the hundred thousand punks STILL take them seriously. This is dreadful – the lyrics proving more cringeworthy even than usual. ‘You’re so oblique and easy’. Look – Howie – you’re as much a poet as Len Fairclough is a poet – so why don’tcha sod off – you baldy little pain?

Or had it backfired?? Howard’s response was to send the journalist a cheque for £10 with the words:-

Your review of Give Me Everything was so unbelievably sympathetic, was so to the point that this £10 of my enthusiastic and shrieking money must go to you. You’re not so oblique but you’re so easy. You must have it. I hope you can see that. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more. Please cash it. Have a Christmas. Howard.

Which was of course printed in full in the following week’s edition of the paper…….an incident that helped inspire the later song Feed The Enemy.

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy

The b-side is a cover of a Captain Beefheart song (now there’s something I never ever got….and as a consequence have nothing of his/theirs on vinyl or CD). It remains one of the most popular Magazine recording ever as evidenced by its inclusion in the sets of the comeback gigs in February 2009.

I wonder if the journo and Howard ever kissed and made up??

Oh and as a wee bonus, here’s yer Peel Sessions versions:-

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything (Peel Session)
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy (Peel Session)

Broadcast on 24 July 1978, some four months before the 7″ single was released.

Happy Listening.

 

JC

Touch and Go (VS 207) : Released April 1978 on 7″ 

This was previously posted on 5 November 2019 with the title ‘THE BARELY REMEMBERED SOPHOMORE SINGLE’

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A previous instalment of the cracking debut singles series enabled the spotlight to be put on Magazine and the quite majestic Shot By Both Sides, released in January 1978.

It would be a further five months before the debut album, Real Life, hit the shops, comprising just nine tracks, one of which was a re-recording of Shot…., but noticeably absent was the single the band had released in the intervening period.

mp3 : Magazine – Touch and Go

It’s very much a song of its era, relying heavily throughout on the new wave guitar work of John McGeoch while Barry Adamson on bass and Martin Jackson on drums provide ample support as the rhythm section. And of course, there’s the unmistakable whining vocal delivery of Howard Devoto, seemingly almost breathless at trying to keep up with the relentless pace of the playing. It’s almost as if Dave Formula’s dainty keyboard solo, which comes in at exactly halfway through the song, is there to enable the vocalist to get a second wind.

Touch and Go isn’t a bad song. It’s big problem is that it is a very long way removed from the brilliance of the debut 45 and it didn’t have enough going for it to make it stand out among the other post-punk singles that were being released in 1978. It’s also quite unlike the other songs that Magazine were beginning to write and record – compare for instance with the opening track on said debut album:-

mp3 : Magazine – Definitive Gaze

I recently came across a review of Definitive Gaze that described it perfectly – ‘it switches between a sci-fi love theme and the score for a chase scene’ (Andy Kellman, allmusic). Touch and Go feels lumpen and unimaginative in comparison, and while there was ample space for it to be included on the debut album, it was a wise decision to cast it aside.

The b-side to the 7” was a real hoot:-

mp3 : Magazine – Goldfinger

Yup…..a cover of the theme tune to the James Bond movie as penned by John Barry and sung by Shirley Bassey. It’s almost as if Howie & co are auditioning for the right to compose and perform the next again Bond movie. The thing is, they would have certainly done a better job than what was used in the 1979 movie in the series – can anyone, without looking it up, recall what Moonraker sounded like?

Fun fact pop-pickers.

Despite being one of the most instantly recognisable of the Bond theme songs, Goldfinger only got as high as #21 in the UK singles charts in 1964, albeit it performed better in the USA by hitting the Top 10.

In fact, only one James Bond theme song has ever reached #1 in the UK. And very surprisingly, that accolade belongs to Sam Smith and his rendition of Writing’s On The Wall, which was written for Spectre in 2015.

Every day is a school day round here…………

 

 

JC

Shot By Both Sides (VS 200) : Released January 1978 on 7″ 

No apologies offered if, during this short series, I delve into the archives as I’ve written previously about quite a few of the Magazine singles. This was previously posted on 12 January 2018.

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January 1978.

I was just getting my head around punk/new wave. At 14 years of age, I was still more into playing and watching football than I was getting my kicks from music. All that was to change over the next few years and I think it’s accurate to say that by my 18th birthday in June 1981, my head had been completely turned by some of the most amazing bands and performers who were integral to what we now lovingly refer to as the post-punk era.

It was around then, just as I was about to gear up for going to university that I discovered Magazine – the only problem being that the band were on the verge of breaking up.

There was a really interesting comment left behind not that long ago – I think it was from Drew – in which he said he envied someone discovering a class act fairly late on in their career as there is so much incredibly good music to go back and discover, and this was certainly what happened to me with Magazine. I can’t now begin to imagine being able to develop and expand my musical tastes without owning a copy of The Correct Use of Soap, the band’s third and best album, although there are moments on each of it predecessors, Real Life and Secondhand Daylight, which can held be held up as equally outstanding and memorable.

January 1978 was when Magazine released their debut single. As I said many moons ago when I pulled together an ICA (it was #35 in the series), Shot by Both Sides is one of the great post-punk anthems that had the audacity to reach #41 in the singles charts and somehow trigger off an appearance on Top of The Pops. The sight of Howie & co. – even in an edited two and a bit minutes clip – was something that scared the millions of viewers as sales dropped dramatically the following week and the band didn’t hit the Top 40. Indeed, despite what would become an outstanding catalogue of singles over the next three years, Magazine never got as close to a hit single as the debut.

The tune is one that dates from the fag-end of Devoto’s days with Buzzcocks, as can be seen from Pete Shelley being given a writing credit. Indeed, the latter used the tune himself some ten months later for Lipstick, the b-side to the hit single Promises, albeit, for some strange reason, Devoto’s name totally absent from its credits.

Shot by Both Sides still has the ability, what is now 40 48 years on (FFS!!!!!!!) to amaze and startle. All 3 minutes and 54 seconds of it, from the opening riff to the magnificently timed climax via the snarling, paranoid and terrified sounding vocal. It’s as near a flawless and memorable a debut as there’s ever been. Such a pity that the world wasn’t quite ready to embrace fully what this most extraordinary sounding and looking band were offering.

Time has been very kind to Magazine in that they gained increasingly in popularity in the years after their demise and their comeback from 2009-2011 in which they toured and released a new album was praised and welcomed in equal measures; at long last, the band members made some money. The one down side was the sad and constant reminder that John McGeoch, whose guitar work had been integral to making the band such essential listening, had passed away in 2004, albeit Noko, who was Devoto’s side kick in Luxuria, did a sterling job in difficult and challenging circumstances.

Is Shot By Both Sides their finest 45? I personally don’t think so and would afford that particular accolade to A Song From Under The Floorboards. But nowadays, if I’m down at the old-fogies indie-disco, I think I’d rather hear Shot…..although if truth be told, I’d much rather dance these days to Definitive Gaze which, when played through expensive and modern speakers, does sound as if it’s from another galaxy altogether.

mp3 : Magazine – Shot By Both Sides (single version)
mp3 : Magazine – My Mind Ain’t So Open

PS :

The 2018 post made no reference to the b-side.  My Mind Ain’t So Open, and I want to rectify that.

It’s probably the most directly punk/new wave song the band ever wrote and recorded. You’ll see from the credits that the debut single predates Dave Formula coming on board to add the keyboards that would prove to be such a pivotal part of the band’s sound.  It means that the three musicians playing on the song can thrash away as fast and as carefree as they like under the guidance of producer Mick Glossop, who, as it turned out, wasn’t retained to work on the debut album.

There is no argument that McGeoch would prove to be one of his generations most revered guitarists, but on this one, he kind of dials it in; but in his defence, he was merely aping all his contemporaries.

But please….don’t get the impression that I’m not a fan of this b-side….it’s actually a brilliant two-minute blast of defiantly snotty punk, very much in keeping with a lot of what was being released in 1978.  It’s just that Magazine’s sound would quickly evolve and lead them to places where they were beyond comparison with their peers.

 

 

JC