1981

491. The Human League – Don’t You Want Me (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

It’s a tale as old as 1981. The tall but true tale of how a bunch of Sheffield synth-based misfits fell apart, causing the remaining singer to hire two dancing teenage girls he saw in a club and release one of the best pop songs ever. This is the story of The Human League and Don’t You Want Me, the Christmas number 1 that year.

Before

The Human League flickered into life in 1977. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were computer operators who met at the youth arts project Meatwhistle. Both were lovers of glam rock and Motown, but, perhaps in part because of their occupations, were becoming increasingly interested in avant-garde electronica. Only a few years previous, the idea of working class people delving into the latter was just fantasy. But the cost of electronic components had started to drop, and so Ware and Marsh clubbed together to buy a Korg 700S synthesiser. A mutual friend booked them to perform at his 21st birthday party, and so The Dead Daughters were born.

After a few more informal performances, Ware and Marsh decided to form a proper group. They recruited Adi Newton, bought a Roland System-100 synth and became The Future. They rehearsed in a disused cutlery workshop in the centre of Sheffield and during this brief time they recorded and compiled a demo tape of 10 songs. The Future visited London with this tape but were not signed, resulting in Newton leaving to form the influential Clock DVA with Steven ‘Judd’ Turner. The demos were eventually released by hip producer Richard X in 2002, along with early Human League tracks on compilation album The Golden Hour of the Future. It’s not an easy listen, sounding not unlike Throbbing Gristle or early Cabaret Voltaire, but it’s a curio.

Ware, wisely, decided a singer was needed if they were to hope to find a record deal. First, they asked Glenn Gregory, who had been in a punk band with Marsh, but he had moved to London to become a photographer. Instead, they settled on their old school friend, Philip Oakey. He was working as a porter in a hospital, when they asked him. Despite no musical experience, Oakey was handsome and known on the Sheffield music scene for his outlandish dress sense. Ware went round to his house to ask him to join The Future, but was forced to pin a note to his front door when he didn’t answer.

Oakey accepted, but got off to an awkward start, struggling to sing around the rest of the band, and only possessing one instrument – a saxophone – which he couldn’t really play. But they persisted and Ware decided a change of name could give them a second chance with record companies. In early 1978, he suggested they become The Human League, named after a group from the science fiction board game Star Force: Alpha Centauri. The Human League wanted greater independence from Earth – in the game I mean, not Ware, Marsh and Oakey.

The Human League released a demo tape with Future material thrown in. Ware’s friend Paul Bower from local new wave act 2.3 alerted the Edinburgh-based label Fast Product, who he had recently signed with. Thus, the first Human League single Being Boiled was released (for a long time, I thought Being Boiled (Fast Version) was an incorrect description of the pace of the record). Being Boiled was catchy, but it was not pop. Oakey’s lyrics, combining a protest against silk farming with Eastern religion, were his first contribution to the group.

The Human League’s first live performance came that summer at Sheffield’s Psalter Lane Art College – now known as Sheffield Hallam University. The trio were concerned about live shows beforehand, and more so afterwards, but hope came in the form of Oakey’s friend Philip Adrian Wright, who went from audience member to the band’s Director of Visuals. A session for John Peel followed, as well as dates supporting The Rezillos and Siouxsie and the Banshees. None other than David Bowie saw one of their live shows and declared in the NME that he had witnessed the future of pop music.

Not that you could tell that from their next release. The Dignity of Labour EP contained four experimental instrumentals and didn’t perform well, but this combined with the growing support of their contemporaries helped them get noticed. After supporting Iggy Pop in June 1979, they signed with Virgin Records, taking Fast Records label owner Bob Last as their manager.

The problem was, Virgin insisted they use conventional instruments and vocals. As a compromise, they released the disco-influenced single I Don’t Depend on You, which featured two female backing singers… as The Men. It didn’t chart. They were allowed to continue with their old style and released their debut album Reproduction in August. It was patchy at best, and although the single Empire State Human was promising, it didn’t compare with Tubeway Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric?. Gary Numan was taking any momentum The Human League might have initially had.

Nevertheless, 1980 showed promise when Holiday ’80 EP almost cracked the top 40. Produced by John Leckie, who had worked with XTC and Simple Minds, it included an excellent new version of Being Boiled and closed with a medley of Gary Glitter’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 2 with Pop’s Nightclubbing. The Human League made their Top of the Pops debut with a performance of the former.

In May 1980 Wright began playing keyboards during live gigs as well as looking after visuals, and they released their second album, Travelogue. It was an improvement on Reproduction – particularly The Black Hit of Space, which sounded ahead of its time. But tensions were growing. Oakey and Ware had often disagreed about their direction, with the former fancying a more commercial sound whereas Ware wanted to continue a more esoteric, totally electronic manifesto. Numan’s success with Cars and Virgin’s refusal to release anything else from Travelogue brought matters to a head, and Ware decided to walk out, taking Marsh with him. With a tour imminent, this was a disaster.

Last tried to sort the situation out, suggesting two new bands under a Human League sub-label, but Ware and Marsh wouldn’t return. It was agreed that Oakey could keep the name and they went on to form Heaven 17 with Gregory, based on the reference to a fictional pop band in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. Interestingly, before that, they formed British Electric Foundation, and released albums featuring modern acts covering famous songs with their electronics as backing. Heaven 17 was just one BEF act.

Although Oakey got to keep the group name, this was in effect a poisoned chalice at this point. All Human League debts and commitments were his, including ensuring Ware and Marsh got one percent in royalties from the next Human League LP. Not only that, the media were, understandably, laughing at Oakey. How the hell was he going to get anywhere? Wright hadn’t written a song as yet and was new to playing keyboards. The musical talent had gone and the tour was literally days away.

It’s a well-known anecdote, but it bares repeating, that Oakey decided to hire a female backing vocalist and scoured the clubs of Sheffield. He visited the Crazy Daisy Nightclub and chanced upon two 17-year-olds on the dancefloor. A desperate Oakey, in an image that brings to mind Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1980) if his girlfriend wasn’t also there with him, asked Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall to join The Human League as dancers and backing vocalists. Once they agreed to be on board, he had to approach their parents, who agreed, providing Oakey promised to keep them safe. The new line-up was completed by professional musician Ian Burden from local group Graph on keyboards. However, despite Oakey’s moves, the tour was scoffed at by the music press, who slated Sulley and Catherall. The girls returned to sixth form education.

With Virgin still pressuring The Human League for reasons to keep them on the label, Oakey and Wright recorded and released the single Boys and Girls in February 1981. It was similar to the kind of songs recorded by the previous line-up and only reached 46, but Virgin decided what was missing was a decent producer. In a genius move, The Human League were paired with Martin Rushent, who had worked with Buzzcocks, Shirley Bassey and Joy Division. Rushent’s first move was to get the group out of Sheffield, where they still shared a studio with Heaven 17, and offer a fresh start at his Berkshire studio.

The first fruits of this pairing were the call-to-arms single The Sound of the Crowd. Sulley and Catherall were now on board as official members and on backing vocals, and Burden was also offered a full-time job. It was catchy as hell and perfectly timed, capturing the imagination of electronic music fans and New Romantic poseurs alike. The single peaked at 12 that spring. At last, some momentum.

Last reckoned one more professional on board could really guarantee future hits, and so he suggested guitarist Jo Callis, formerly guitarist with The Rezillos, who he had managed. The new line-up recorded one of the most enduring Human League tracks, Love Action (I Believe in Love). Released in July and soaring to three in the charts a month later, The Human League had proven the naysayers wrong and against all odds, were now bona fide pop stars. Sully and Catherall dropped plans to go to university and the group convened to assemble the album that would cement their reputation. As Shaun Ryder would later say, ‘It’s Dare‘.

Dare was released in October and preceded by another great single, Open Your Heart, which was a number six hit. Dare was huge, even causing the Musicians Union to publicly condemn it for potentially putting ‘real’ musicians out of a job. After it went to number 1, Virgin executive Simon Draper insisted the album should be mined for one more single. Oakey wasn’t happy with Draper’s choice. It was a song that the singer considered to be the weakest on Dare, which he had relegated to the last track on the album. Amazingly, the track was Don’t You Want Me.

Dare’s closer had been inspired by a photo story in a teen girl magazine. Originally conceived and recorded as a song solely from the point of view of the male protagonist. But, inspired by the romantic drama A Star Is Born (1976), he veered towards a troubled romantic duet. With two female backing vocalists in the group, he was spoiled for choice. Pure luck of the draw meant Sulley got the gig. ‘Romantic’ is perhaps the wrong word for this bitter power play snapshot between a man who falls for a cocktail waitress and ‘five years later on’ is being left behind. However, he’s not going down without a fight and threatens ‘I can put you back down too’.

Callis and Wright created a synth score to accompany Oakey’s bitter lyrics, which was initially harsher than the finished article. They really struck gold when they hit upon the guitar-synth melody that accompanied the chorus, which came about by happy accident caused by a computer error that played the line a half-beat out of time. Rushent and Callis loved the end result but Oakey thought it was largely shit – which is perhaps why he recorded his vocal in the studio toilets. An experience that went on longer than he’d have liked due to Callis repeatedly flushing a toilet by reaching in through an open window.

Review

You don’t need me to tell you what a totally brilliant song Don’t You Want Me is. But you might want me to explain why it not only endures as the years go by. Why it is never boring. It’s never annoying, no matter how many times you hear it. Were it not for Pet Shop Boys’ Always On My Mind, this would be the best Christmas number 1 of the 80s.

There is something innately brilliant in these early 80s electronic British number 1s, in the same way there was back in 1963 when The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and similar acts pushed the envelope. The technology is primitive (though incredibly futuristic in 1981 – so much so, the Musicians’ Union had felt obliged to show everyone just how threatened they felt). Don’t You Want Me is one of the best of the bunch.

Oakey’s decision to keep The Human League going and moving in a pop direction when their split happened has of course proven how wise he was. But his feelings towards this song were definitely wrong. It’s incredible to discover he considered it an afterthought and shoved it at the end of Dare. At the time, he and Rushent often disagreed about their work, but the producer was absolutely right to add a glossy, commercial sound to Don’t You Want Me. It’s that brightness, that colour, and simplicity of sound that made the album so huge.

Oakey didn’t give himself enough credit either. The concept of basing a duet around love is as old as time. But a duet that was possessive, cold and cynical, was new. The word ‘love’ doesn’t even come into the equation until Sulley admits her feelings near the end.

Of course, everything comes together for that total banger of a chorus, which will be drunkenly shouted by men and women on dancefloors for evermore. If The Human League’s story was made into a film, Don’t You Want Me would be the perfect happy ending. Oh, and hats off to Sulley too, who’s vocal is both deadpan and somehow emotional at the same time.

Another element that is definitely worth a mention is the video, directed by Steve Barron, who created some of the most memorable pop videos of the era, including Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing and a-ha’s Take On Me. Shot on 35mm film, Don’t You Want Me really stands out due to its cinematic feel. The storyline, of a director’s struggles to make a film, was inspired by the French film Day for Night. Oakey, Sulley and Callis really stand out and could have perhaps made great actors. It could be argued that Oakey proved his worth in his cameo in Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s amazing 1992 pilot The Weekenders…

After

Don’t You Want Me held firm at the top of the pops for five weeks and was the biggest-selling single of 1981. The Human League were in so much demand that the stereo remix of the Fast Product version of Being Boiled was re-released in January 1982 and soared to six. Don’t You Want Me then scored the group a US number 1 that summer. Later that year, an instrumental version of Dare called Love and Dancing and credited to The League Unlimited Orchestra was also a hit. They very nearly achieved two Christmas chart-toppers in a row when the Motown-influenced Mirror Man was kept from the top by Renée and Renato’s Save Your Love. Disgraceful. In 1983 they reached two once more, this time with (Keep Feeling) Fascination. This marked the end of the always fractious working relationship with Rushent, who walked out during initial sessions for their next LP.

Hysteria (1984), produced by Hugh Padgham and Chris Thomas, divided fans and critics alike, and The Human League’s commercial powers waned. The singles – The Lebanon, Life on Your Own and Louise, reached 11, 16 and 13 respectively. Oakey’s collaboration with one of his idols, Giorgio Moroder, was deservedly more successful, as Together in Electric Dreams – from the soundtrack to Electric Dreams (1984), peaked at three.

The Human League, once at the forefront of electronic music, struggled to adapt to rapidly advancing technology as the 80s progressed. Callis, who had helped write some of their biggest hits, quit and was replaced by drummer Jim Russell, closely followed by Last. In 1985 they shelved material for their next album due to disagreements with producer Colin Thurston, so Virgin paired them with hip hitmakers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. At first the signs were good, as the single Human was a number eight hit in 1986, but the other singles released from Crash sank rapidly. Wright left soon after, and Burden departed in 1987.

There were more line-up changes and poor results as the 90s began. Romantic? (1990) featured a line-up bolstered by keyboardist Neil Sutton and guitarist/keyboardist Russell Dennett, and even Callis returned to help. But although Heart Like a Wheel was a minor hit, reaching 29 in 1990, Virgin dropped The Human League two years later.

Oakey’s mental health suffered and he lost confidence in his abilities, but after recording an EP with Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1993, EastWest Records signed The Human League and paired them with producer Ian Stanley, formerly of Tears for Fears. The first fruits, Tell Me When, was released on Boxing Day 1994, and was a well-deserved hit, peaking at six. Sounding very of its time, but reminiscent of material from Dare, The Human League were back in vogue, and the parent album Octopus scored a further hit with One Man in My Heart. A remix of Don’t You Want Me even made it to 16.

A change in management at EastWest saw The Human League without a record deal and although they signed with Papillon Records in 2001 and released the album Secrets, it sank commercially. They joined the nostalgia circuit. However, in 2008 Oakey had a great idea – The Steel City Tour. The Human League teamed up with Heaven 17 and ABC to celebrate the music of the early 80s that came from Sheffield. Oakey and Ware had buried the hatchet – whether it was genuine or for the sake of a moneyspinner, I don’t know, but I’d have loved to seen it.

The Human League’s last album to date is Credo, which was released in 2011. This would suggest there may be no more to come, but if so, that’s fine. Oakey and co. should be more than content with their legacy, and especially this song, which went from an afterthought to a single that made them pop immortals.

The Outro

Don’t You Want Me became a top 20 hit for the third time in 2014, reaching 19 as a result of a social media campaign by fans of Aberdeen FC, who one week earlier had won the Scottish League Cup. They had turned the chorus into a terrace chant of ‘Peter Pawlett baby’ in honour of their midfielder.

The Info

Written by

Jo Callis, Philip Oakey & Philip Adrian Wright

Producers

Martin Rushent & The Human League

Weeks at number 1

5 (12 December 1981-15 January 1982) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

15 December 1981: Actresses Michelle Dockery/Victoria Summer
21 December: Cricketer Sajid Mahmood
28 December: Singer-songwriter Frank Turner
29 December: Actress Charlotte Riley
1 January 1982: Footballer Luke Rodgers/Television host Gemma Hunt
4 January: Footballer Richard Logan
6 January: Actor Eddie Redmayne
9 January: Catherine, Princess of Wales/Conservative MP Robert Jenrick

Deaths

15 December 1981: Journalist Claud Cockburn
16 December: Engineering manager Rose Winslade
17 December: Opera singer Sybil Gordon
1 January 1982: Actress Margot Grahame
2 January: Conservative MP Sir Tam Galbraith
4 January: Wykeham Cornwallis, 2nd Baron Cornwallis
11 January: Actor Ronald Lewis/Army major-general Sir Kenneth Strong
12 January: Army major-general Frank Crowther Roberts

Meanwhile…

19 December 1981: An opinion poll showed Margaret Thatcher had become the most unpopular postwar British prime minister, and that the SDP-Liberal Alliance had the support of up to 50% of the electorate.

20 December: The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred off the coast of Cornwall. The mini-bulk carrier MV Union Star‘s engines had failed in heavy seas, so the lifeboat Solomon Browne went to the rescue. But sometime after the lifeboat had rescued four people, both vessels were lost with all hands. 16 people died, including eight volunteer liefeboatmen.

1 January 1982: The new year began with three new regional TV stations on ITV – Central, TVS (Television South) and TSW (Television South West), replacing ATV Midlands, the incredibly bitter Southern Television and Westward Television respectively.

2 January: The Welsh Army of Workers claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water.

10-15 January: The extremely cold winter that began in December 1981 continued with the lowest-ever UK temperature of -27.2C recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire.

490. Julio Iglesias – Begin the Beguine (1981)

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The Intro

Singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias is the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and the best-selling male Latin artist in history. However, it took his cover of Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine to finally take him to number 1 in the Uk singles chart.

Before

Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva was born in Madrid on 23 September 1943. His father, Julio Iglesias Sr, was one of Spain’s youngest gynaecologists and María del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat was of Jewish descent.

Growing up, young Iglesias spent most of his time either playing professional football as a goalkeeper or studying law. But his time as the former came to an abrupt end when he was involved in a serious car accident in 1963. Unable to walk for two years, Iglesias was given a guitar in hospital from a nurse who thought it would help him concentrate on new skills he could learn with his hands. After rehabilitation, he passed his law degree.

In 1968, Iglesias won the Benidorm International Song Festival with La vida sigue igual, which was used in the 1969 film of the same name, in which he played a fictionalised version of himself. He then signed to Discos Columbia (the Spanish branch of Columbia Records) and released his first album, Yo Canto, which was a huge hit. In 1970 Iglesias represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest, where he came fourth with Gwendolyne.

Throughout the 1970s, Iglesias would score hits around the globe in various languages, including Un canto a Galicia (1971), A flor de piel (1974), Corazón, corazón (1975) and Quiéreme mucho (1979).

In 1979, Iglesias moved to Miami, Florida, where he signed with CBS International. The title track to the LP Hey! became his first charting track in the UK, peaking at 31. 1981 saw Iglesias release the album De Niña a Mujer, which featured his version of Begin the Beguine.

Porter had written Begin the Beguine while on a Pacific cruise in 1935 and it quickly became a part of his Broadway musical Jubilee. The song refers to the dance and music form beguine, which is similar to a slow rhumba, had originated in the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and was steadily growing in popularity at the time. Begin the Beguine was considered too long to become a hit, but Artie Shaw and His Orchestra’s version became a hit in 1938.

A year later Joe Loss and Chick Henderson recorded their version, which went on to become the first record to sell a million. The song featured in Metro-Goldywn-Mayer’s musical Broadway Melody of 1940 twice and soon became a pop standard, covered by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley.

Iglesias wrote new lyrics for his version – titled Volver a Empezar in Spanish. Only the first line, ‘When they begin the beguine’, is in English, which makes it the first mostly foreign language chart-topper since Manhattan Transfer’s Chanson D’Amour in 1977. It was the first Spanish song to become number 1 here, but Iglesias was the second Spanish act to do so, after Baccara, also in 1977.

Review

It’s astounding to think that this track managed a week at number 1 inbetween two all-time classics in Under Pressure and Don’t You Want Me. It’s very dated for 1981 and would have sounded more contemporary had it been released in the balmy summer of 1976. Over the lightest of disco backings, Iglesias sings about lost love, rather than dancing the beguine. However, the words, translated into English, are empty and bland. One doesn’t feel Iglesias has ever felt such emotion.

A strange number 1 for 1981, indeed – perhaps the older record buyer liked the easy listening stylings of the handsome middle-aged crooner, while younger listeners fancied something that reminded them of summer, just as one of the coldest winters of all time began (see ‘Meanwhile…‘.

The video is also very uninspiring, featuring a suave Iglesias crooning against a multi-coloured disco backdrop.

After

Iglesias tried to repeat the success of Begin the Beguine with Yours (Quiéreme Mucho), This cover of a criollo-bolero nearly did just as well, peaking at three in 1982. The 1943 song Amor was less successful, only climbing to 32.

A greatest hits collection, Julio, was released in 1983, and became the first foreign language LP to sell more than two million in the US. A year later came 1100 Bel Air Place, his first to be mostly recorded in English. It was a smash hit and included the popular duet To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before, which he recorded with country music legend Willie Nelson. It peaked at five in the US and 17 here. The album also featured his cover of The Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe, which featured backing vocals from The Beach Boys. The relevance of the album title? It was a former home of Iglesias, and superstar producer Quincy Jones resided there until 2005.

Iglesias continued to record with huge stars. In 1988 he released My Love with Stevie Wonder, which is to date his last UK hit, peaking at five. In 1993 he recorded Summer Wind with Frank Sinatra, and a year later, the album Crazy, which included duets with Sting, Dolly Parton and Art Garfunkel.

In 2003 he released one of his most successful albums, Divorcio, which I’m ashamed to say I can only hear being exclaimed in the same way as ‘Scorchio!’ from The Fast Show. 2006 saw Iglesias release Romantic Classics, which consisted of covers of songs he believed would become future standards, such as I Want to Know What Love Is and Careless Whisper.

Already boasting, no doubt, of shelves full of international awards, in 2013 Iglesias also was recognised by Guinness World Records as the best-selling male Latin artist, and he was also inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The Outro

Iglesias hasn’t released new material since México & Amigos in 2017, but to be fair, he is now in his 80s, and could very easily choose to retire and rest on his considerable laurels. Divorcio!

The Info

Written by

Cole Porter (Spanish version Julio Iglesias)

Producer

Ramón Arcusa

Weeks at number 1

1 (5-11 December)

Trivia

Deaths

7 December: Author Gordon Rattray Taylor
8 December: Burnley FC chairman Bob Lord
9 December: Rugby league player Brian McTigue/Scottish playwright CP Taylor
10 December: Metallurgist John D Eshelby

Meanwhile…

8 December: Following the freaky weather that brought 104 tornadoes to the country, a severe wave of cold weather, later to become known as ‘The Big Snow of 1982’ begins with severe snow storms across the UK. Temperatures plummet to the lowest in any December on record since 1874 and the heaviest snow storms since 1878. The storms continue in waves until 27 December.
Also on this day, Arthur Scargill becomes the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers.

489. Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure (1981)

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The Intro

Under Pressure, that behemoth of a pop track by rock giants Queen & David Bowie, sees both acts trying to outdo each other. Somehow, rather than come out as a sloppy egotistical mess, it became one of the greatest number 1s of the 80s, no matter how many times you might hear it.

Before

Six years previously, Queen had scored the 1975 Christmas number 1 with their most famous single, Bohemian Rhapsody. A lengthy nine weeks there earned them huge fame and meant their next two singles were hits too – in 1976, the lovely You’re My Best Friend went to seven and epic singalong Somebody to Love peaked at two. 1977 brought mixed fortunes, with Tie Your Mother Down only reaching 31. Queen’s First EP was a cash grab that went to 17. But We Are the Champions restored their fortunes, hurtling to two. The rest of the 70s featured some of their most famous songs performing well – most notably the double A-side Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls (1978) at 11, Don’t Stop Me Now (1979) at nine and Crazy Little Thing Called Love (1979) at two.

The last track I mentioned was the first release from The Game, which was their first LP of the 80s. It was also the first to see Queen introduce synthesisers into the mix for the first time. Other singles from this album included the number seven smash Another One Bites the Dust. They also released their soundtrack album for the camp film Flash Gordon (1980).

The last time we saw David Bowie around these parts wasn’t that long ago at all. Ashes to Ashes, the first track to be released from Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), had been number 1 in 1980. The excellent Fashion followed and peaked at five, before commercial success trailed off with subsequent singles – the title track (number 20) and Up the Hill Backwards (32).

In July 1981, Queen were recording what was to become the LP Hot Space at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. One of the tracks they were working on was drummer Roger Taylor’s Feel Like, but they weren’t happy with the results. Also at Mountain Studios was Bowie, who lived in Switzerland at the time and was recording the vocals to the title song of the film Cat People (Putting Out Fire). Two of the biggest acts of the 70s met each other and, perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, they decided to try working together.

Queen and Bowie had lots in common, for a while. Both found fame during the glam period as rock acts that weren’t afraid to be flamboyant, or to experiment either. However, it’s fair to say that although Queen stuck mostly to the rock format, Bowie had been continually experimental as the decade progressed. But both were about to release some of the most straightforward pop material of their careers, but not before Queen continued to make Hot Space, which consisted mostly of disco.

Initially in Montreux, Bowie contributed backing vocals and a spoken word section to the track Cool Cat, but he wasn’t happy with his performance and asked to be wiped from the recording. With Hot Space recorded, they all decided to see if they could create a new song, which included the guitar element from Feel Like. Although Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, Taylor and Bowie were all credited for what became Under Pressure, Deacon claimed in 1984 that Mercury was the driving force.

You would think Deacon would be keen to lay claim to one of the most famous bass riffs of all time, but he didn’t. In 1982 he stated that Bowie had created it. However, Bowie said on his website that it had been written before he joined the band in the studio. In recent years both May and Taylor have insisted it was Deacon, but in 2016 May appeared to clear matters up. In an article for Mirror Online, the guitarist said Deacon had been playing a riff in the studio consisting of the same note six times, ‘then one note a fourth down’. Queen and Bowie took a break and went for food and liquid refreshment at a local restaurant. Several hours later, Bowie misremembered the riff that Deacon had been playing, and insisted it was what became the backbone of Under Pressure. He even went so far as to stop Deacon playing, which made matters tense for a while. However, everyone must have come to their senses and seen that, whoever was right, Bowie’s version was a magic ingredient. May also said in the interview that normally at this point, Queen would have gone away and discussed the song’s structure. Bowie wanted to carry on, saying ‘something will happen’.

Review

Bowie was right. Something did indeed happen. Under Pressure is one of the finest number ones of the 80s and one of that holy list of songs that I will never, ever grow tire of. If anything, the lyrics take on added relevance with every passing year. However, how much better would it have been if they’d taken more time on the song? I’m looking at you in particular, Mercury.

It’s strange to see how Queen’s lead singer would be so willing to let this song be mixed and released without him working more on his lyrics. Vocally, he and Bowie are an excellent match for each other, complimenting each other so well and then seemingly battling it out at the song’s finale. But why did he and the rest of Queen settle on his scatting in lieu of more actual words? Bowie later said he felt they could have spent longer on Under Pressure lyrically, and that’s a polite way of putting it.

However, Mercury does just about pull it off – after all, this is a man with such a commanding presence, he had the whole of Wembley Stadium yodelling along with him at Live Aid four years later. And of course, underpinning the whole song is Deacon’s entrancing, ultra-catchy bass riff. The intro is spellbinding, and when the riff and Mercury’s understated scat leads into his and Bowie’s ‘Pressure!’, the hairs on the back of your neck can still stand to attention.

Bowie and Queen’s anthem to the stress of modern life can be seen as a prediction of the 21st century, which explains just why the song has aged so well. The former’s handiwork is clear, and almost retro by his standards, as we get a little of the unusual wordplay little seen seen by the glam icon since his Berlin period – now don’t get me wrong ‘Pressure, pushing down on me, pushing down on you, no man ask for… puts people on streets’ is not exactly comparable with the cut-up lyrical technique of some of his finest late-70s material, but it’s clear this is him and not Mercury at work.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that Mercury’s few lyrics on Under Pressure work really well with Bowie’s. When he sings ‘Chipping around, kick my brains ’round the floor/These are the days it never rains but it pours’ are an effective compliment to Bowie’s preceding lyrics about the terror of seeing friends struggling under the weight of the world. But then he just scats again. And again. And when he says ‘OK!’, is it a sarcastic quip that everything is far from OK, or just pure laziness? Either way, it’s a bit mind-boggling that everyone was happy to let it stay in the song.

But with Under Pressure, the whole is definitely far greater than the sum of its parts. And back to that finale. From Mercury’s hushed ‘Turned away from it all like a blind man’ is pure brilliance. The way the two superstar singers battle for the last word is awe-inspiring and pop music at its best. Mercury as the questioning optimist, desperately hoping that love will win out. It makes for a brilliant ending. And yet Bowie somehow tops him, reviving the cynicism of his ‘Thin White Duke’ era with the cold cynicism of ‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word’. And then, even better, they both seem to predict where Thatcherism will go next, by noting that love means caring for others – the ‘People on streets’ could be the miners that go on strike three years later. Is this song a warning that, as Thatcher later said, there really is no thing as society, because pressure has stopped people loving anyone but themselves? It’s a hell of a lot to contemplate as the finger clicks fade into silence.

After

With neither Queen or Bowie available to star in a video for Under Pressure, it made sense to task David Mallett with the responsibility. The prolific director had created some of Bowie’s most memorable videos, including Ashes to Ashes, as well as Queen’s Bicycle Race. For this single, Mallett compiled stock image of footage that loosely represented pressure, including traffic jams, riots and – controversially – footage of explosions in Northern Ireland, which Top of the Pops insisted on having removed before showing the video.

Under Pressure spent two weeks at number 1 in 1981. In 1982 it became part of Queen’s LP Hot Space. The band would perform the song live many times, but Bowie didn’t until he joined the line-up for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, where he joined the remaining members of the band along with Annie Lennox fulfilling Mercury’s role. It later became part of his own sets, featuring bassist Gail Ann Dorsey singing Mercury’s parts.

The Outro

In 1990, the song had a revival thanks to the rapper Vanilla Ice. Although he originally claimed not to have sampled the bass and piano on his number 1 Ice Ice Baby (which he clearly had), and then refused to award a songwriting credit or royalties to Queen and Bowie, he later relented. He also later claimed to have purchased publishing rights, which was also bullshit.

In 1999 a remixed version of Under Pressure, known as The Rah Mix, made it to 14 in the singles chart.

The Info

Written and produced by

Queen & David Bowie

Weeks at number 1

2 (21 November-4 December)

Trivia

Births

26 November: Singer Natasha Bedingfield
27 November: Actor Gary Lucy
29 November: Photographer Tom Hurndall
1 December: Actress Kathryn Drysdale

Deaths

3 December: Historian Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith
4 December: Writer Enid Welsford

Meanwhile…

  • 23 November: The 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak became the largest recorded tornado outbreak in European history when 104 reached England and Wales
  • 25 November: A report into the Brixton Riots, which hit inner-city London earlier this year, blamed social and economic problems in inner-city areas across England.
  • 26 November: Shirley Williams won the Crosby by-election for the SDP, overturning a Conservative majority of nearly 20,000 votes.

488. The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (1981)

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The Intro

After a couple of near misses, The Police found themselves back at the top of the hit parade for the fourth time with Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.

Before

The trio’s third album, Zenyatta Mondatta, had spawned their third number 1, Don’t Stand So Close to Me. But the next record – their ‘gibberish classic’ (as Alan Partridge called it) De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da – was understandably their lowest-placing chart position (minus some reissues) at five.

Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers headed to AIR Studios in Montserrat to record their fourth LP, Ghost in the Machine, which was co-produced by Hugh Padgham. First single from this collection was Invisible Sun, which did very well indeed, peaking at two.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic was an exception from the album, in that it was recorded at Le Studio at Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada. It was also the oldest track from Ghost in the Machine, having originated back in 1977 as a track by Sting, before the band had formed. He eventually revealed the inspiration for the track was Trudie Styler, who lived next door to Sting and his then-wife Frances Tomelty, who was Styler’s best friend at the time.

The demo of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic eventually surfaced on the 1997 compilation Strontium 90: Police Academy. Strontium 90 was the name of Sting, Copeland and Summers’ – plus Gong’s Mike Howlett – previous band. On this rather charming, gentle acoustic guitar-led version, Sting played every instrument.

Four years later, Sting worked on a second demo in Le Studio, this time with piano to the fore. He was confident this would form the basis of a number 1 single, but Copeland and Summers were less keen, so they started from scratch on a band version. When this didn’t work out either, Sting finally persuaded the others to go back to the Le Studio demo.

Tensions grew when Sting decided to bring in session keyboardist Jean Roussel, who had played on Cat Stevens’ Wild World. Summers found Roussel pushy, and his inclusion on piano, Minimoog and clavinet certainly sounds like a potential recipe for excessive use of instrumentation on such a light track. However, Roussel’s input makes for that rather lovely intro, and adds colour in general throughout. The rhythm section did get to add some of that signature Police sound, though muted compared to their previous chart-toppers.

Review

It’s clear that Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic meant a lot to Sting and had personal meaning for him as it meant he could express his forbidden love. But his determination to get Copeland and Summers to in effect play backing band to this solo outing understandably caused problems.

However, Sting was ultimately proven right. Sure, it’s on the lighter side of The Police’s back catalogue and possibly too saccharine for some, but it’s a lovely, sun-kissed burst of upbeat loveliness. It’s not without flaws though. Rhyming ‘magic’ with ‘tragic’ is a bit rubbish, and I don’t understand why, after all the time spent getting Roussel to give the track more, they decided to make Sting sound like he’s singing from a cave. What happened there?

Far better is the second verse, which Sting returned to several times through the years:

‘Do I have to tell the story
Of a thousand rainy days since we first met
It’s a big enough umbrella
But it’s always me that ends up getting wet’

Again, this most likely has personal meaning to the singer and Styler, as he uses it again on O My God, a track on the final Police LP, Synchronicity (1983), and the song Seven Days from his fourth solo album Ten Summoner’s Tales (1993).

The video, filmed in Montserrat by Derek Burbidge, is also a mixed bag. It’s nice to see the band performing for locals and the island footage ties in nicely with the joy of the song. But this is the fourth Police video I’ve watched now, and they’re all the same. Put the band in a very literal setting that fits the theme of the track, and also film them pissing about in the studio and generally acting up for the camera.

After

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic topped the charts in the UK, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands, and peaked at three in the US. They had one more UK chart-topper to come before they split up.

The Outro

An orchestral version of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic was recorded by Sting for his 10th album, Synchronicities, in 2010.

The Info

Written by

Sting

Producers

The Police & Hugh Padgham

Weeks at number 1

1 (14-20 November)

Trivia

Births

15 November: Labour MP Jared O’Mara
17 November: Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding
20 November: Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison/Actress Andrea Riseborough

Deaths

14 November: Ulster Unionist MP Robert Bradford (see ‘Meanwhile‘)
17 November: Anglican bishop Colin Winter

Meanwhile…

14 November: Ulster Unionist MP Robert Bradford was gunned down by three IRA members in Finaghy, Belfast, during political surgery.

18 November: The England football team qualified for the World Cup in Spain by defeating Hungary 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. It was the first time they had qualified for the tournament since 1970.

487. Dave Stewart With Barbara Gaskin – It’s My Party (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

Look for this song anywhere online and the first thing you’ll read is ‘No, not that Dave Stewart’. Nonetheless this Dave Stewart, with Barbara Haskin’s version of the 60s teen classic It’s My Party by Lesley Gore is an interesting curio in the history of number 1s.

Before

It’s My Party had been written in 1962. The original was penned by John Gluck, Wally Gold and Herb Weiner, who were staff writers at Aaron Schroeder Music. However, the lyrics actually came from Seymour Gottlieb, a freelance songwriter, who had worked with Weiner (oo-er). He had been inspired by his daughter Judy’s tears over her grandparents being invited to her 16th birthday party.

The writers took the song to Barbara Jean English, the receptionist at their firm, who cut the demo version. However, Musicor, the label owned by Schroeder, wasn’t interested.

It could have, potentially, become Helen Shapiro’s third number 1 single. The young British star, who had scored two chart-toppers with You Don’t Know and Walkin’ Back to Happiness in 1961, recorded a version for her Helen in Nashville LP in 1963. Unfortunately for her, she was beaten to the punch by 16-year-old US singer Gore. Her version, produced by the legendary Quincy Jones, was huge and is rightly remembered as a pop great from the early 60s, becoming number 1 in many countries – but, surprisingly, not in the UK, where it peaked at nine.

Stewart, who was born in Waterloo, London on 30 December 1950, would have been 12 at the time. He was still at school when he joined his first band. The Outsiders were a local covers band. From there, he joined Uriel as their organist at the age of 17, a group that also featured future progressive rock icon Steve Hillage. When university called for Hillage, Uriel continued as a trio, renamed as Egg. They recorded two albums for Decca, and stayed on good terms with Hillage, who briefly rejoined them in 1969 to record together under the name Arzachel.

Egg broke up (hahaha) in 1973, and Stewart joined upcoming Canterbury progressive rock band Hatfield and the North. When they split two years later, Stewart briefly joined Hillage’s Gong before forming National Health, which largely consisted of former Hatfield and the North bandmates. When National Health disbanded in 1980, Stewart quickly formed Rapid Eye Movement (not to be confused with the far better known and longer-lasting REM in the US).

In 1981, Stewart moved in a different direction, becoming interested in new, electronically led versions of classic pop tunes. The first of these was a cover of Jimmy Ruffin’s Motown classic What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, featuring vocals by former member of The Zombies, Colin Blunstone. Stewart had clearly hit upon a good idea, but I’d bet even he didn’t think his next single would make it all the way to number 1. This time around, he enlisted Gaskin, who had provided backing vocals in Hatfield and the North.

Gaskin, born 5 June 1950, was actually born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. In 1969 she moved to Canterbury to study at university, but quickly fell into the Canterbury scene, becoming the singer in folk-rock group Spirogyra. She met Hillage, who was also a Kent University student, as well as the band Caravan and Stewart. Through this friendship she sang backing vocals occasionally for Hatfield and the North, but when Spirogyra split up, Gaskin left England to travel around Asia.

Upon her return almost three years later, Gaskin was invited to join the all-female group Red Roll On. Soon, she became reacquainted with Stewart and after working together on an album by Bill Bruford, they collaborated on It’s My Party.

Review

Stewart and Gaskin’s prog background is very much apparent on this single, in spite of it sounding like a New Romantic track due to the use of then-futuristic early 80s synths. It’s like a mini-symphony, in which Stewart initially makes his bank of keyboards mirror Gaskin’s trauma over her missing Johnny (stop sniggering), with lots of seemingly random drum machines sounding out.

Gaskin’s vocal is, to be honest, pretty irritating, particularly the way she wines ‘you!’ at the end of each line. She reminds me a little of Toyah, here, which might explain why this single did so well – Toyah was huge at this point, thanks to singles such as It’s a Mystery. Her stuff sounded great to me as a boy, and so did this record. Not so much as a middle-aged music snob… There’s an element of high-camp irony to It’s My Party, sure, but the spoken-word section is annoyingly over-the-top, and I don’t really understand how it then switches to a finale that sounds the most like the Gore version, all bubblegum pop and kitsch jollity.

It’s certainly not your average cover, but perhaps the end section appealed to parents and grandparents who loved the original, whereas the kids liked the modern sounds and incredibly of-its-time video? An interesting chart-topper, certainly – and for four weeks, to boot. But a bit of an annoying mess, too. I’d imagine the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart would have come up with a more commercial-sounding version, and Annie Lennox could have done a very good job with the vocal.

I have more time for the video than the song itself, I know that. But I’ve no idea why there are two kendo fighters battling, other than the Japanese martial art was popular at the time. And why is Stewart wearing – what is it, a face protector used by boxers? And I definitely don’t know why his face is replaced by neon light at the end, but it reminds me of the spooky kids with lights shining from where their eyes should be in the video to Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 chart-topper Total Eclipse of the Heart – and I like it. There’s lots of very 80s angular-faced mannequins scattered around the party, and yes, that’s Thomas Dolby playing Johnny.

The sleeve of the single used to mesmerise me as a child, I recall, with Gaskin wearing stupendously long nails and Stewart brandishing a sword.

After

Further Dave Stewart With Barbara Gaskin singles followed this UK and Germany number 1. They recorded an album’s worth of material but chose to release two tracks a year for the next three years. But nothing, including covers of Busy Doing Nothing in 1983 and The Locomotion three years later, managed to chart, let alone get in the top 10.

Stewart reformed National Health in 1981, and used his hippy days as inspiration for Neil’s Heavy Concept Album in 1984. The ‘Neil’ in question was Nigel Planer’s character in The Young Ones, and the LP featured his brilliant cover of Traffic’s Hole in My Shoe, which missed out on number 1 by one place. He had also composed the theme tune to BBC Two’s revamped Whistle Test in 1983. In the 1990s, he worked with cult TV critic Victor Lewis-Smith, creating the music for his two series Inside Victor Lewis-Smith (1995) and Ads Infinitum (1999).

The Outro

Gaskin continued to work with Stewart on albums and gigs sporadically through the years and in 2021, 40 years after It’s My Party, they married.

The Info

Written by

Herb Wiener, John Gluck Jr & Wally Gold

Producer

Dave Stewart

Weeks at number 1

4 (17 October-13 November)

Trivia

Births

25 October: Footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips
31 October: Physician Kate Granger
7 November: Footballer George Pilkington
13 November: Racing driver Tom Ferrier

Deaths

19 October: Footballer Johnny Doyle
22 October: Conservative MP David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter
24 October: Archer Inger K Frith
27 October: Army major-general Sir Randle Feilden
30 October: Writer Denys Rhodes
5 November: Cricketer Sir Harold Vincent
6 November: Physician Douglas Vernon Hubble/First World War nurse Beryl Hutchinson
8 November: Jockey Tim Brookshaw/Conservative MP Lionel Heald

Meanwhile…

19 October: British Telecom announces the discontinuation of the telegram in 1982, after 139 years in use.
Also on this day, Scottish Celtic footballer Johnny Doyle is accidentally electrocuted while building his new home.

22 October: The case of Dudgeon vs United Kingdom is decided by the European Court of Human Rights, which rules that laws in Northern Ireland that criminalise consensual gay sex are in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights. Ooo, those pesky woke Europeans.

23 October: A MORI poll puts the Liberal-SDP Alliance on 40%, ahead of Labour on 31% and the Conservatives on 27%.

24 October: A CND anti-nuclear march in London brings together more than 250,000 people.

29 October: A patient dies of pneumocystis pneumonia in London, making him the first patient to die in of an AIDS-related illness in the UK. In 2021, ITN identified patient zero as John Eaddie of Bournemouth.

30 November: Nicholas Reed, the chief of euthanasia charity Exit, is jailed for two-and-a-half years for aiding and abetting suicides.

1 November: The island Antigua and Barbuda becomes independent of the UK.
Also on this day, British Leyland’s workers begin a strike over pay.

13 November: Queen Elizabeth II opens the final phase of the Telford Shopping Centre.

486. Adam and the Ants – Prince Charming (1981)

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The Intro

1981 was the year of Adam and the Ants. No sooner had Ant and co. hit the top spot with Stand and Deliver! than they were at number 1 again with another early 80s classic.

Before

Following the success of Stand and Deliver!, Adam and the Ants spent most of the summer in continental Europe on tour. Upon their return they headed to London’s Air studios to record what became their last album.

Prince Charming, which became the title track, was an unusual sound for a number 1. Gone were the Burundi beat stylings of previous LP Kings of the Wild Frontier, and even the pop of Stand and Deliver!. Although Prince Charming is imperial Antmusic, it’s fair to say that, had this song been released by a total unknown, it wouldn’t have had the impact it did. Weirdly, it kind of already had been.

In 2010, Rolf Harris, still a national treasure at that point, claimed on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Danny Baker Show that a musicologist had found Prince Charming to sound identical to War Canoe, a 1965 release by Harris. You only have to hear 10 seconds of this (which is 10 seconds more than Harris deserves) to hear that they are indeed exactly the same.

However, Ant never denied it, and in fact showed Harris to be the devious bastard that he proved to be, when he noted that he owned a large collection of ethnic recordings, and War Canoe was in fact an old Maori folk song. Harris subsequently withdrew his complaint ‘with a bit of a giggle’. The prick.

Review

At least Ant and co-writer/guitarist Marco Pirroni made it interesting, adding the trademark Ant wailing alongside the guitar. Ant’s lyrics covered similar ground to Stand and Deliver!. That song concerned a dandy highwayman, whereas Prince Charming was lyrically inspired by Beau Brummel, the 18th-century dandy fashion leader, as well as the extravagance of men during the French Revolution. This tied in perfectly with the emerging New Romantic scene that Ant found himself in.

Much like David Bowie and Marc Bolan had encouraged men to not be afraid to wear make-up and experiment nearly 10 years previous, Ant made himself the voice of his generation, extolling the virtues of being flamboyant in 1981 – ‘Don’t you ever, don’t you ever, stop being dandy, showing me you’re handsome’ and the classic line ‘Ridicule is nothing to be scared of’.

Musically, yes, Prince Charming is far less adventurous than previous material, never changing from that War Canoe strum. But it is a true earworm that buries its way into the consciousness, and with Adam and the Ants, it’s more a case of taking note of the whole multimedia package, which means factoring in the video.

This Cinderella spoof is the strongest element of Prince Charming. Ant portrays the male version of Cinders, left at home while his drag queen evil stepsisters get to go to the ball and ‘dance the Prince Charming’. In one of her final roles, Diana Dors (Ant had personally appealed to her to take part) appears as Ant’s Fairy Godmother and dances iconically with five topless men. Ant becomes a Regency era dandy, goes to the ball and gets to do the dance himself, which went down in history as an essential element of this song. You simply cannot hear Prince Charming without picturing the dance, which is barely even a dance. The video ends with Ant in various guises, including Clint Eastwood, Alice Cooper and Marlon Brando, which he pulls off surprisingly well.

Prince Charming is perhaps Ant’s definitive statement on being a pop star, a love letter to his fans and the high watermark of his band’s popularity, and still sounds great today. But if I’ve spoiled it for anyone by linking it to Harris, I apologise.

After

In November, a few weeks after the single had began to slip down the charts, came the parent album, which surprisingly failed to hit number 1. Despite that, Adam and the Ants were one of the UK’s biggest-selling acts of 1981. In early 1982, Ant Rap peaked at number three. It was to be their final new release, as in March 1982, Ant disbanded his group. Pirroni, who was tired of touring, continued to work with Ant in a songwriting capacity. Bassist Gary Tibbs and drummer Chris ‘Merrick’ Hughes formed a short-lived duo.

The Outro

When Ant shot to number 1 as a solo star with the excellent Goody Two Shoes, it seemed to be a wise move. He was, after all, the star. However, his popularity began to wane soon after.

The Info

Written by

Adam Ant & Marco Pirroni

Producer

Chris Hughes

Weeks at number 1

4 (19 September-17 October)

Trivia

Births

21 September: Singer-songwriter Sarah Whatmore
23 September: Field hockey defender Helen Richardson
29 September: Hear’Say singer Suzanne Shaw
1 October: Journalist Deborah James
9 October: Actor Rupert Friend/Labour MP Jess Phillips
10 October: Journalist Stinson Hunter
13 October: Footballer Ryan Ashford/Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke

Deaths

19 September: Writer Ruth Tongue
21 September: Actor Nigel Patrick
23 September: Disc jockey Sam Costa 
24 September: Actor John Ruddock
27 September: Physician Sir Stanley Davidson
28 September: Conservative MP Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth
29 September: Historian Frances Yates/Football manager Bill Shankly (see ‘Meanwhile…‘)
30 September: Welsh rugby union player Roy John/Conductor Boyd Neel
1 October: Conservative MP Sir Graham Page
8 October: Labour MP Arthur Allen
12 October: Political analyst Robert McKenzie

Meanwhile…

21 September: Belize was granted independence.  

25 September: Ford announced it was to discontinue the Cortina model, which would be replaced by the Sierra.

29 September: Liverpool mourned former football manager Bill Shankly after he died of a heart attack, aged 68.

1 October: 24-year-old Bryan Robson became Britain’s most expensive footballer when he moved from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United for £1.5 million.

3 October: The hunger strikes at Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison came to an end after six months.

10 October: The Provisional IRA bombed the Chelsea Barracks, killing two people.

12 October: Granada Television’s Brideshead Revisited began transmission on ITV.

13 October: Opinion polls revealed Margaret Thatcher was still unpopular as Prime Minster, largely due to her anti-inflationary economic measures.

15 October: Norman Tebbit’s famous speech in which he told fellow Conservative MPs, how his father didn’t riot when he was unemployed during the 30s. ‘He got on his bike and looked for work’ etc. Whoop-de-do, Norman.

485. Soft Cell – Tainted Love (1981)

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The Intro

It’s rare for a cover version to be better than the original. But by slowing down the tempo, stripping the elements back to sparse synthesisers, and adding a big dollop of sleaze, Soft Cell’s Tainted Love became one of the best number 1s of the early 80s.

Before

Tainted Love had been written back in 1964 by Ed Cobb, a former member of US folk-pop act The Four Preps, for Gloria Jones, the young soul singer he had discovered while she was still a teenager. With lead guitar by the then-unknown Glen Campbell, it became the B-side of her flop single, My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home.

Despite great lyrics detailing a toxic relationship (Cobb later said he wrote it from the point of view of his girlfriend), a driving riff and catchy horns, this original version was mid-level 60s soul at best, missing that Motown magic, and would have most likely been forgotten about.

However, in 1973, UK club DJ Richard Searling bought a copy of the single while in the US, and thought Tainted Love had all the ingredients needed to become a Northern Soul stomper back home. He was right, and Jones’s original became one of the most popular songs played at Wigan Casino.

In the meantime, Jones had joined the writing team at Motown, before become a backing singer in T Rex, and subsequently, Marc Bolan’s girlfriend. In 1976 they co-produced her third LP, Vixen, and among the tracks was a new version of Tainted Love. Jones and Bolan sped the song up, hoping to ramp up the coked-up feel that had helped it become so popular in clubs. But despite this – and the addition of the classic hook that comes in before ‘run away’ in the first line – Northern Soul was on the wane by then, and the remake also failed to chart. A year later, Jones was driving the car that crashed into a tree, killing Bolan. She survived, after fighting for her life.

That same year, students and occasional DJs Marc Almond and Dave Ball met at Leeds Polytechnic University. In 1978 they became the synth duo Soft Cell, combining Ball’s mix of industrial, new wave, electro and pop on cheap synths, with the camp shock aesthetics of Almond. They gained local notoriety for their shocking, surreal shows, in which Almond could be seen smearing his body with cat food, simulating sex with himself in a full-length mirror, or dragging up. A very Yorkshire mix of Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and David Bowie.

Using a £2,000 loan from Ball’s mother, they recorded debut EP Mutant Moments on a two-track recorder for Big Frock Records in 1980. The following year, they gave the track The Girl with the Patent Leather Face to Some Bizzare Records (backed by Phonogram Records). It featured on their compilation Some Bizzare Album, which also featured other tracks by unsigned artists including Blancmange, Depeche Mode and The The.

Soft Cell signed to the label and released debut single Memorabilia, produced by Daniel Miller, the founder of Mute Records. It was popular in clubs, but when it failed to chart, Phonogram let the duo know that, should the follow-up do the same, Soft Cell would be dumped.

Ball was a Northern Soul fan, and had introduced Almond to the 1976 version of Tainted Love. Almond was a big T Rex fan (hence ‘Marc’ Almond), and fell in love with it too. They decided to rework it with a view to using it as an encore track for their live shows. When performed live, Ball used a tape recorder for backing, while he played a keyboard and bass synth, while Almond performed in a padded cell.

Phonogram decided Soft Cell should add bass, guitar and drums to a recorded version, as they found the demo too odd. However, producer Mike Thorne had been working on a number of unusual singles at the time, and the trio decided to keep it faithful to the live version.

Soft Cell joined Thorne at London’s Advision studio, where they decided to incorporate another cover into the 12-inch version – The Supremes’ 1964 hit Where Did Our Love Go. As DJs, Almond and Ball were well versed in mixing appropriate songs together, which was more than obvious here – with the Where Did Our Love Go section sounding like Almond questioning the end of his torrid relationship.

For the Thorne borrowed a drum machine from singer Kit Hain as the duo’s own had broken, and Thorne added Synclavier sounds to Ball’s keyboard. It was Almond’s idea to add the immortal ‘Beep-beep’ ringing sound that makes the intro so memorable.

Almond’s performance is incredible. He sounds angry on Tainted Love – he’s had all he can take and is determined to get out. But by the second half of the 12-inch, he’s had time to reflect. Despite five vocal takes, they decided to keep the very first take, even if Almond was occasionally off-key. It didn’t matter that he was, because he adds humanity to the cold precision of the backing.

Review

Soft Cell’s Tainted Love is both very much a product of its time, and yet timeless. It’s aged incredibly well, despite the primitive electronica on display, much like their beloved Kraftwerk. Like Hutter and co, it’s a brilliant example of how the melding of man and machine can make for truly magical pop. In fact, Ball’s atmospheric backing actually creates more humanity than either of Jones’ versions.

It’s not just the change of key and pace that makes this version better than the original. It’s the added dimension of the fact it’s being sung by an overtly gay man. It was nearly 10 years since David Bowie made his iconic appearance on Top of the Pops where he placed his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson. Since then, glam rock continued to be camp, but more often than not, it was simply a case of laddish rock band members dressing up.

Almond was real, and caused a stir himself when Soft Cell debuted on the BBC’s flagship music show. Compared to his shocking behaviour on stage, the sight of Almond in eyeliner and wearing bangles doesn’t seem that surprising in 2024. But in 1981, it was still shocking, and the BBC asked him to wear neither. Almond refused to budge, and sales of mascara and bangles went through the roof as Tainted Love climbed the charts. Culture Club were just around the corner.

Tainted Love‘s lyrics have added poignancy when sung by a gay man in a world in which homosexuality was still considered dirty and seedy by the mainstream. That this version was released four months after the first newspaper article about AIDS adds even more meaning.

After

Tainted Love was mixed to just over two-and-a-half minutes for the single version that everyone knows and loves, but hearing the 12-inch back in my uni days really blew my mind. I love the way the switch from one song to the other takes place and Almond’s breathless, yearning vocal is just glorious. What a voice.

The single was huge, becoming the second-biggest-selling 7-inch of 1981. It became one of the flagship songs of the Second British Invasion, spending a record-breaking 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

Despite the success of Tainted Love, Soft Cell’s debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, was also recorded on a shoestring budget. Which suited the music perfectly. The LP was a very Soft Cell combination of sleaze, melodrama and innovative synth-pop. Two further singles, Bedsitter and the beautiful Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, were also hits, the former reaching four and the latter peaking at three the following year.

1982 also saw Soft Cell release a video version of their first album. Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Exotic Video Show featured a bizarre promo for Tainted Love, in which Almond, dressed as a Roman emperor, angrily shouts the lyrics at a smiling little girl, watched on by Ball in cricket whites.

Also that year, the duo released the single Torch, which stalled at two, and the mini-album Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing, which featured number-three hit What, which was another Northern Soul cover.

It was highly appropriate that their third album was called The Art of Falling Apart, as by that point, Almond and Ball were weary of Soft Cell, and it seemed the audience were feeling similar, as sales dwindled. The singer, who was struggling with drugs, formed the offshoot Marc and the Mambas.

In 1983 their single Soul Inside made it to 16, but Soft Cell announced they were to split after the release of final LP, This Last Night in Sodom.

Almond started a solo career, and unexpectedly scored a number 1 in 1989 with his duet cover of Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart with Gene Pitney. A new version of Soft Cell’s biggest hit, Tainted Love ’91, peaked at five that year.

Ball became part of experimental group Psychic TV, where he met Richard Norris. Together they became dance duo The Grid in 1988, and are best known for their 1994 hit Swamp Thing.

Soft Cell reformed in 2000 for live dates, and released a new album, Cruelty Without Beauty, two years later. Over the next few years came compilations of demo tracks and a remix album, Heat, in 2005.

Despite an announcement they would play one final gig in 2018, another album followed in 2022. Happiness Not Included featured a collaboration with one of the other most important electronic pop duos of the 80s – Pet Shop Boys.

The Outro

Marilyn Manson’s rock version of Tainted Love from 2001 was a decent stab, but the title has proved sadly ironic following allegations made against the controversial star.

The Info

Written by

Ed Cobb

Producer

Mike Thorne

Weeks at number 1

2 (5-18 September)

Trivia

Births

7 September: SNP MP Natalie McGarry
11 September: Singer Mark Rhodes
15 September: Field hockey defender Richard Alexander
16 September: Field hockey defender David Mitchell

Deaths

5 September: Writer Emery Reves
8 September: Football manager Bill Shankly
14 September: Painter Mary Potter

Meanwhile…

8 September: Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp is set up by protesters of the plans to site US nuclear missiles there.
Also on this day, 16 Labour councillors in Islington join the SDP, and a sitcom called Only Fools and Horses starts on BBC One.

14 September: Cecil Parkinson is appointed the chairman of the Conservative Party.

16 September: Children’s TV series Postman Pat is first broadcast on BBC One.

18 September: Liberal Party leader David Steel overoptimistically tells delegates at conference to ‘go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.’

484. Aneka – Japanese Boy (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

In some ways, early 80s pop was progressive. New romantics were blurring the gender lines and make up was worn by many men in music videos. But then you have this example of cultural appropriation set to an admittedly very catchy tune. But understandably, Scottish folk singer Mary Sandeman, AKA one-hit wonder Aneka, would rather forget Japanese Boy.

Before

Sandeman, born 20 November 1948 in Edinburgh, had released her first record on Thistle Records in 1965. Memories of the Mod wasn’t a Who-inspired record – it was a short selection of traditional Gaelic ballads, that she most likely sang at The Royal National Mòd, which was a Celtic version of the Welsh Eisteddfod.

A few more singles followed, and in 1979 Sandeman released her first album, Introducing Mary Sandeman, on Fleet. Sandeman was working with songwriter and producer Bob Heatlie, and expressed an interest in recording a commercial pop song. Heatlie was sceptical that Sandeman was suited to this, and so he put off the idea, despite constant reminders from Sandeman. Eventually, the frustrated singer told Heatlie she had set up an appointment to record a demo of his non-existent song. Heatlie cobbled together an oriental-sounding chorus with snippets of lyrics from previous material.

The demo of Japanese Boy was rejected by Berlin-based Hansa Records several times, but eventually they were signed. The duo figured Sandeman would need a new look, more in keeping with the song, and so they dressed her in a kimono and wig. And she would need a more fitting name, too, so they leafed through a German telephone directory. They liked ‘Anika’, but Sandeman insisted she became ‘Aneka’, as a link to her surname. The fact that this was a German name, not Japanese, didn’t seem to matter to them – or record buyers, for that matter.

Japanese Boy was released in July and soon climbed the charts, eventually toppling Green Door at the end of August.

Review

Conflicting feelings here. The politically correct me thinks Japanese Boy is a terribly dated song that should be consigned to history – which may well be how Aneka feels, considering she’s never attempted to go back to it. A Scottish folk singer, dressed up as a geisha, pretending to be Japanese, is really not a good look in 2024. The lyrics are pretty poor too – they read like something a teenager writing their first song might come up with.

But, but, but. It really is catchy as hell. Incredibly so. There’s hook upon hook here – however cliched they might be. The production is also great, sounding surprisingly modern for a 1981 potboiler. This is one of the most infectious number 1s of 1981 so far, which is amazing really, considering its up against some of the greatest chart-toppers of the decade. Both my daughters, 12 and nine, also now love it, despite the eldest understanding how tacky and dated the concept is. I would argue Japanese Boy deserves to be better known – but it’s incredibly obvious why it isn’t in this day and age.

The video to Japanese Boy is a bit of a disappointment, as I’d have hoped for some kind of terrible Carry On-style short film based around Aneka searching far and wide for her guy. Instead, it’s simply Aneka stood against a primitive backdrop. This Top of the Pops appearance, featuring backing dancers waving around Japanese paper parasols.

After

Japanese Boy was only number 1 for a week, but Hansa Records tried to capitalise, by commissioning an album. However, nothing else from the LP charted, including the unusual follow-up, Little Lady, for which Aneka dropped the oriental look and became an aristocratic lady. This clip is an interesting watch. Then came Ooh Shooby Doo Doo Lang, a total change of tack, in which Aneka sang from the point of view of a singer permanently relegated to backing vocals. It drops the early electro styles of the last two singles, and sounds more like a comedy song from The Two Ronnies. Although both Little Lady and Ooh Shooby Doo Doo Lang did quite well around Europe, they sank in the UK.

Sandeman, a mother of two young children at the time, was smart and continued to perform traditional material, performing at the Edinburgh Festival the night she went to number 1. Two more Aneka singles followed – Heart to Beat and Rose, Rose, I Love You, over the next two years, but Sandeman then dropped the name. She gave up music for good in the 90s.

In 2006, Justin Lee Collins tried to get Sandeman to take part in a performance of one-hit wonders for Channel 4, but she refused. She was interviewed by The Daily Record in 2011, who reviewed she was working as a tour guide in Stirling.

The Outro

Japanese Boy was rejected in Japan for sounding too Chinese. Heatlie went on to write for Shakin’ Stevens, and was the man behind his 1985 festive number 1, Merry Christmas Everyone.

The Info

Written by

Bobby Heatlie

Producer

Neil Ross

Weeks at number 1

1 (29 August-4 September)

Trivia

Births

2 September: Cricketer Chris Tremlett
3 September: Television presenter Fearne Cotton

Deaths

29 August: Billiards player Joyce Gardner/Radiologist James Ralston Kennedy Paterson
30 August: Actress Rita Webb
31 August: Motorcycle racer Dave Potter
3 September: Novelist Alec Waugh

    Meanwhile…

    1 September: Filling stations started selling motor fuel by the litre.

    483. Shakin’ Stevens – Green Door (1981)

    / robbarker1979

    The Intro

    Ghost Town had spent three weeks at number 1, soundtracking the country’s dissent over rising unemployment. What did it take to reunite the country? It took the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles II and Lady Diana Spencer, and the retro rock’n’roll of Shakin’ Stevens, who was at the peak of his fame with Green Door.

    Before

    Shaky-mania was a very real thing back then. Grandparents and parents loved the Welsh pop star, who had filled in the sizeable gap left by the death of Elvis Presley, boys thought he was cool, and girls swooned.

    Stevens’ cover of This Ole House had topped the hit parade in the spring, and so it was a case of striking while the iron was hot. Work began on his fourth album, the imaginatively titled Shaky. Adopting the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ methodology, it featured a mix of self-penned Stevens numbers and covers of 50s rock’n’roll tunes. The first fruits of Shaky to see the light of day was the original track You Drive Me Crazy, which was a strong track and rushed out hot on the heels of This Ole House. It was brand new, but could easily have been mistaken for a 50s or 60s hit. It very nearly became Shaky’s second number 1, but it was kept off the top spot by Stand and Deliver!, by the UK’s other hottest pop star of 1981.

    Perhaps sensing that Stevens could repeat the success of his last number 1 by releasing a song the old folks would remember from their youth, Philips Records released his cover of Green Door.

    Green Door had been written by US orchestra leader Bob ‘Hutch’ Davie, with lyrics by Marvin J Moore, in 1956. The original version was recorded by Jim Lowe, a singer-songwriter and radio presenter. The green door in question refers to the entrance to a private club, that Lowe is desperate to enter. He can hear laughter, an old piano which is being played ‘hot’, and can see smoke coming through the keyhole. Lowe’s recording, which became number 1 in the US and eight in the UK, is an interesting production, on which Davie played piano, that he sped up to give it a honky tonk sound.

    In the UK, Lowe’s version was eclipsed by Frankie Vaughan’s, which reached number two. Vaughan, known as ‘Mr Moonlight’, was hugely popular in the UK, and in time he would have two number 1s. However, Lowe’s version is the superior one.

    Review

    I don’t know if it’s age or nostalgia, but here I am bigging up Shaky, whose version of Green Door is better than Lowe’s and Laine’s. It is very similar to the latter, but where normally I’d prefer an authentic primitive 50s production over a glossy 80s take, that isn’t the case here.

    Producer Stuart Colman gives it sheen but also some oomph. It’s catchy as hell and to be fair, the country must have been ready for a party after all the civil unrest that had been going down that summer. And yet, it’s only a few months since I reviewed This Ole House, and I marked that down considerably, despite both singles being very, very similar. Perhaps Stevens caught me on a good day, this time.

    Or perhaps it was the silliness of the video that made me warm to Green Door. Shaky’s videos are always good for an easy laugh, and this is no exception. Just like This Ole House, the director is taking things very literally (possibly the same director?). Stevens jumps around in front of some, yes, green doors in much the same way he jumped off the old house (yes, really). There are repeated shots of an eye looking through a keyhole, a piano… you get the message. Then he finally gets inside the club and gets the chance to do some Elvis-style gyrations on the piano. It’s ridiculous, but in a good way, and I can totally see why he must have seemed so cool to me as a little lad.

    After

    After spending nearly all of August 1981 at the top of the singles chart, the parent album Shaky was released, and went on to be his most successful LP ever, also reaching number 1. It’s Raining, also from the album, peaked at 10, but he would soon be back at pole position.

    The Outro

    Green Door is obviously squeaky clean and upbeat. But it also took on a more sinister meaning for me, thanks to its reworking for a 1976 public information film, that continued to be shown well into the 80s. Looking at it now, it’s really not scary, but it did its job when I was a boy, as after seeing it I’d be too scared to answer the door to anyone. Cheers, Central Office of Information!

    The Info

    Written by

    Bob Davie & Marvin J Moore

    Producer

    Stuart Colman

    Weeks at number 1

    4 (1-28 August)

    Trivia

    Births

    8 August: S Club 7 singer Bradley McIntosh
    11 August: Scottish singer-songwriter Sandi Thom
    17 August: Conservative Party MP Johnny Mercer/Actor Chris New
    20 August: Ben Barnes
    27 August: Comedian Olivia Lee
    28 August: Scottish Labour Party leader Kezia Dugdale

    Deaths

    5 August: Poet Molly Holden/Clarinettist Reginald Kell
    9 August: Landowner Ralph Bankes
    10 August: Civil servant Sir Alan Lascelles/Anglican clergyman James Parkes
    12 August: Royal Navy captain Howard Bone
    15 August: Lawyer Sir Humphrey Waldock
    16 August: Cinematographer Denys Coop
    18 August: Second World War pilot Athol Forbes
    19 August: Actress Jessie Matthews
    21 August: Journalist JRL Anderson
    22 August: First World War nurse Mairi Chisholm
    24 August: Physician Margery Blackie
    26 August: Television producer Peter Eckersley
    28 August: Record producer Guy Stevens

    Meanwhile…

    1 August: Kevin Lynch became the seventh IRA hunger striker to die.

    2 August: Less than 24 hours later, Kevin Lynch became the eighth.

    8 August: Thomas McElwee became the ninth.

    9 August: Broadmoor Hospital is criticised when double murderer Alan Reeve became the second prisoner to escape there in three weeks. 

    17 August: An inquiry opened for the Moss Side riots.

    20 August: Michael Devine was the 10th IRA hunger striker to die in prison.
    Also on this day, Minimum Lending Rate ceased to be set by the Bank of England.

    25 August: Britain’s largest Enterprise Zone was launched in Tyneside.

    27 August: 31-year-old Moira Stuart was appointed to be the first black newsreader on the BBC. 

    482. The Specials – Ghost Town (1981)

    / robbarker1979

    The Intro

    Few number 1s have captured the zeitgeist like The Specials’ Ghost Town. This classic state of the nation address was released and climbed the charts amidst mass rioting that had spread to most cities in the UK. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s politics had resulted in rising unemployment and disaffected youth. Ghost Town was one of the finest chart-toppers of the decade and spoke volumes to Thatcher’s Britain.

    Before

    Following the success of their number 1 EP, Too Much Too Young – The Special A.K.A. Live!, The Specials hunkered down to record their second album, More Specials. However, it wasn’t a happy experience, as Jerry Dammers became the 2-Tone band’s leader and producer, and added Muzak sounds to the mix of pop, ska and reggae. This didn’t go down well with guitarist Roddy Radiation, who wanted to steer the group in a rockabilly direction. Singer Terry Hall also began contributing his own material. In the meantime, they released hit double A-side single Rat Race/Rude Buoys Outa Jail, which peaked at five.

    More Specials was released in September 1980, and the first single, Stereotypes, reached six. The follow-up, Do Nothing/Maggie’s Farm, was their most successful single to date, reaching four.

    However, the accompanying tour was fraught with the growing tensions within the band, as well as audience violence. As The Specials drove around the country, Dammers was haunted by the effects of recession. Shops were closing, unemployment was spiralling, and people were starting to riot in protest. Using ‘weird diminished chords’, as he said in a 2011 interview for The Independent, Dammers began to put his thoughts into music, working on a tune that conveyed ‘impending doom’, matched to sparse lyrics.

    In March 1981, Dammers asked reggae writer and producer John Collins to produce Ghost Town, opting for a small 8-track in a house that had been recommended by bassist Horace Panter. The Specials had recorded their last album in a large 24-track professional space, with room for the whole band to play live. For Ghost Town, Collins built the song out of asking each member to perform their piece, one at a time. This didn’t help improve the general mood within the band, who recorded the three-track single over 10 days that April. Dammers, who had spent a year meticulously working out the song, stormed out of the sessions more than once. Radiation kicked a hole in the studio door, singer Neville Staple refused to do what Dammers wanted, and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Lynval Golding ran into the studio insisting the recording was going wrong.

    Collins liked the idea of Ghost Town sounding like an authentic roots reggae song, and brought the Sly and Robbie-produced What a Feeling by Gregory Isaacs to the studio for drummer John Bradbury for inspiration. Collins also suggested the Hammond organ rhythm played by Dammers throughout. The shortage of tracks available to record on added to the old-school recording techniques used by Collins, who recorded every instrument in mono, then added stereo reverb over the top. The backing track was almost finished when Dammers insisted on adding a flute, played by Paul Heskett from the band King, which led to a very nervous Collins in danger of accidentally wiping the brass section (Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez) from the entire recording.

    Collins took the tracks away and mixed at his home for three weeks. Hall, Staple, Golding and Dammers, who had performed backing vocals, all visited Collins at various points at this time to add further vocals. All that was left was for the producer to add the synthesiser that created the ghostly whistle at the start and end of the song.

    Review

    Pop, art and politics combine to spellbinding effect on Ghost Town. As a song, it’s unique. As a number 1, it’s incredible. Although written in response to riots in Bristol and Brixton in 1980, it landed at number 1 the day after rioting in cities across the country. Yes, chart-toppers had summed up the public mood in song before – A Whiter Shade of Pale, for example. But that was a blissful psychedelic record in keeping with the Summer of Love. Ghost Town was the polar opposite. The only comparison at the top of the hit parade would be God Save the Queen, if you were to be controversial.

    The lyrics to Ghost Town are blunt and concise. Thatcher is never mentioned, but the results of her politics are laid bare. It was six years before the Prime Minister famously said ‘There’s no such thing as society’. However, pre-Falkland War, she was immensely unpopular for plunging the country into recession, with unemployment figures reaching new highs – a 70% rise in two years. ‘All the clubs are being closed down’ was a direct reference to the Locarno in Coventry, which was often frequented by Staple and Golding. The ‘Too much fighting on the dancefloor’ was a sadly familiar sight to The Specials, whose music was popular with skinheads. Despite the 2 Tone act’s admirable attempts to urge their fans to embrace unity, race was a sadly inevitable issue in a divided Britain.

    The verses are so on the ball, the chorus needs no words. The wailing that is in its place is at once scary, horrible, ridiculous and histrionic. And the brief blast of nostalgia to the good old days ‘before the Ghost Town’ is a great piece of music in itself, timed perfectly so you long for more before we’re all too quickly returned to 1981. Dammers has later claimed that it was obvious to him that Hall, Staple and Golding were planning to leave the group, and that Ghost Town is also referring to the current mood within the band. Which makes the upbeat section sounding so much like classic Specials that much sadder. The rest of the band weren’t keen on Dammers’ experiments with muzak, but it’s used to great, unsettling effect on Ghost Town – not sure I’ve heard muzakal reggae before or since. So great is this track, it makes it hard to sympathise with the rest of the band. Dammers’ ego may have taken over, but how could you argue against his genius vision here?

    The video to Ghost Town is an early classic of the medium. Graphic designer Barney Bubbles filmed Panter driving the band around the deserted streets of London in a Vauxhall Cresta, which was achieved by filming in the early hours of a Sunday morning. The shots of the band miming along were enabled by a camera attached to the bonnet via a rubber sucker – which you can see fall off at 1:18. The eerily lit shots of the band at night deeply unnerved me as a child, as did Staple’s demeanour. Though now I’m older, his pointed interjections of ‘Why must the youth fight against themselves?/Government leaving the youth on the shelf’ are the soul of the song.

    After

    The inevitable split happened very quick. Hall, Staple and Golding announced to Dammers at their triumphant Top of the Pops appearance after reaching number 1. Soon after they formed Fun Boy Three, who became best known for their excellent collaborative covers of It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It) and Really Saying Something with Bananarama in 1982.

    The Specials reverted to their previous name, The Special AKA, with a revolving line-up. Their first post-Ghost Town release in 1982 couldn’t have been more different. The Boiler, credited to Rhoda with The Special AKA, was a disturbing new wave tale of date rape that only reached 35. The next single, Jungle Music, was credited to Rico and The Special AKA, and failed to chart. Neither did War Crimes or Racist Friend, their first release of 1983.

    However, their 1984 LP In the Studio, featured the number nine anti-apartheid carnivalesque track Free Nelson Mandela, which was their last charting single. Following the release of What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend, Dammers announced The Special AKA was disbanding.

    In 1993, producer Roger Lomas was asked by Trojan Records to find a new group to back ska superstar Desmond Dekker. Lomas approached everyone from The Specials, and Radiation, Staple, Golding and Panter took up the offer. With the addition of various session musicians, the album King of Kings was credited to Desmond Dekker and The Specials. Buoyed by the experience, this version of the band went on to record two LPs, Today’s Specials in 1996 and Guilty ’til Proved Innocent! in 1998. Two more albums, Skinhead Girl (2000) and Conquering Ruler (2001) followed, but minus Golding.

    In 2007, Hall and Golding teamed up for the first time since Fun Boy Three split up in 1983, to perform Specials songs with Lily Allen and Damon Albarn at the Glastonbury Festival. The following year, Hall and Golding were joined by Staple, Panter, Radiation and Bradbury to perform at Bestival, and announced they were to tour the following year to celebrate the group’s 30th anniversary. This made many a rude boy happy, but not Dammers, who was quoted saying Hall and co’s actions amounted to a takeover. In 2012 The Specials performed at the Olympic Games closing ceremony in London.

    2013 saw the departure of Staple, and Radiation left the following year, to be replaced on guitar by Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Cradock. In 2015, Bradbury died, aged 62. He was briefly replaced for live dates by Gary Powell of The Libertines, before PJ Harvey’s drummer Kenrick Rowe took over.

    In 2019, Hall, Golding and Panter were joined by Cradock and Rowe and session musicians to record Encore, the first Specials release to feature Hall since Ghost Town and their first chart-topping album since 1980. Buoyed by its success, one final album, Protest Songs 1924-2012 was released in 2021.

    Another album was planned, but the comeback was derailed permanently by the shock death of Hall due to pancreatic cancer in 2022. Soon after, Panter confirmed there was no point continuing without their much-loved vocalist and songwriter.

    The Outro

    The Specials were one of a kind. In their original incarnation, they combined pop, ska, reggae and political commentary better than the rest. Their fanbase were and are rightly devoted to them. Their live shows were legendary, and they released some of the most exciting and interesting material of the early 80s.

    It’s a shame egos and differences in direction broke up that first line-up, but some acts only burn brightly for a while. Dammers may have been too weird for the group to have continued scoring mainstream pop success, but Ghost Town was mostly his doing, and what an amazing feat to accomplish. With its righteous anger, it’s one of the best pop singles of all time, let alone one of the best number 1s of the 80s. If your only issue with this 7-inch is that it doesn’t go on long enough, check out the extended version.

    10 years after its initial release, Ghost Town Revisited packaged the original mix with Ghost Dub ’91, credited to Special Productions. It’s superfluous.

    The Info

    Written by

    Jerry Dammers

    Producer

    John Collins

    Weeks at number 1

    3 (11-31 July)

    Trivia

    Births

    14 July: Singer Lee Mead

    Deaths

    11 July: Liberal Party politician John Beeching Frankenburg
    17 July: Footballer Sam Bartram
    23 July: Welsh Labour Party MP Goronwy Roberts, Baron Goronwy-Roberts
    25 July: Journalist Alice Head

    Meanwhile…

    11 July: More rioting – this time in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

    13 July: Martin Hurson is the sixth prisoner to die in the IRA hunger strike.
    Also on this day, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announces police can use rubber bullets, water cannons and armoured vehicles on rioters.

    15 July: Police battle black youths in Brixton after police raid properties in search of petrol bombs, which are never found.

    16 July: Labour narrowly hold on to the Warrington seat in a by-election, fighting off former member Roy Jenkins, now with the new SDP.

    17 July: The Humber Bridge is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and my Dad helped supply the cement that built it.

    20 July: Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine tours recession-hit Merseyside to examine the area’s problems.

    27 July: The British Telecommunications Act separates British Telecom from the Royal Mail, with effect from 1 October.
    Also on this day, the two-month-old daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips is christened Zara Anne Elizabeth.

    28 July: Margaret Thatcher blames IRA leaders for the hunger strike deaths.

    29 July: The ‘fairytale’ wedding of Prince Charles II and Lady Diana Spencer takes place at St Paul’s Cathedral. More than 30 million view the event on television, making it the second highest TV audience of all time.