For the second month in a row, there were plenty of songs that featured in the chart edition of this series just a couple of weeks back. Last month, the list of 45s that weren’t commercial hits was quite small – just six in total. Will things be any different with the look back at May 1984?
Spoiler alert. Not much……
mp3 : The Comsat Angels – You Move Me
A song I haven’t thought about in over 40 years. It’s not one that I’m all that fond of, but The Comsat Angels were a band that one of the student union regulars really liked and used to pester the DJs to play. Summarising things from wiki, they formed in 1979 and released six albums between then and 1986, later reforming, initially under different names and then finally calling it a day in 1995, before briefly re-forming in 2009-1o. You Move Me was their tenth single and would later be included on their fifth album, 7 Day Weekend, released in 1985.
mp3: Fad Gadget – One Man’s Meat
For anyone looking for background, I would ask you to have a look at ICA 231, lovingly compiled by The Affectionate Punch back in November 2019, but in summary, Fad Gadget was, initially, the stage name of the late Frank Tovey (8 September 1956 – 3 April 2002), one of the pioneers of electronica here in the UK. He wasn’t one who ever chased commercial success at any point in his career, but he was name checked by almost everyone who was anyone in the genre over the ensuing decades. There were four studio albums and eleven singles released between 1979 and 1984 under the name of Fad Gadget, and One Man’s Meat was the last of the 45s.
mp3: Flesh For Lulu – Subterraneans
I’ve mentioned previously that 1984 was a bit of a stellar year for goth music. Flesh For Lulu had formed in London in 1982, and not too long afterwards were signed by Polydor Records. They were dropped after the debut album and early singles failed to chart, and they ended up on Beggars Banquet for much of the rest of the decade. Despite a dedicated fan base and a few champions in the music press, they never enjoyed any commercial breakthrough, disbanding in the early 90s.
mp3: New Order – Murder
A 12″ single on import featuring a previously unreleased song and an instrumental take on hit single Thieves Like Us? Why, thank you Factory Records, as us obsessives will buy everything to which New Order attach their name (well, at least back in 1984 we did). This one came out on Factory Benelux. It’s four minutes of relentless noise in which Stephen Morris really gives the drums a hammering. Not easy, nay, make that impossible to dance to!
mp3: The Nightingales – The Crunch
Hands up and confession time. It would be well into the 21st century before I got my hands on a copy of The Crunch, a 12″ EP released in May 1984 by The Nightingales, a band that has been described by one critic as ‘the misfits’ misfits’. My knowledge of the band was sketchy until watching the excellent documentary King Rocker, which was aired on Sky Arts back in 2021. There’s a real reminder of the Josef K singles in the way the guitars are played on this one.
mp3: Marc Riley & The Creepers – Pollystiffs
As mentioned a few months ago as part of this series, Marc Riley having been sacked from The Fall in 1982, formed his own band and began writing and recording. This was their fifth single in what had been a productive twelve months, and would be followed shortly afterwards by the debut album, Gross Out. Another one that I can’t recall hearing back in the day…..the days/nights of listening obsessively to John Peel had been replaced by going out and/or spending time with a new girlfriend.
mp3: Serious Drinking – Country Girl Becomes Drugs and Sex Punk
Candidate for one of the best song titles of all time from a post-punk band, with a penchant for humorous lyrics and much loved by John Peel. Serious Drinking emerged from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and two delivered two well-received albums in 1983 and 1984. They kind of set a template for I Ludicrous and to a lesser extent, Half Man Half Biscuit, and this song was memorably featured in Dirk’s on-going series just a few weeks ago.
Having looked ahead to June 1984, I can promise a much larger set of tunes next time out.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 