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.
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.
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 IsYour 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.
By 1981, Off the Wall turned Michael Jackson into a bona fide solo star. And he became so popular that One Day In Your Life, a song that dated back to 1975, earned him the first of his seven UK number 1s. Here’s how one of the biggest celebrities of all time started on the path from precocious childhood talent to deeply troubled ‘King of Pop’.
Before
Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana on 29 August 1958. He was the eighth of 10 children raised by musical parents – Katherine had wanted to be a country and western performer, and Joe played guitar in a rhythm and blues band.
In 1964, aged only six, Jackson and elder brother Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers, which was Joe’s first attempt at grooming his children for stardom. Jackie, Tito and Jermaine were already there when Jackson took up the congas.
Joe was a tough taskmaster, and Jackson suffered particularly. His father would ridicule his ‘fat nose’ and he was more sensitive than his brothers when it came to disciplinary whippings. However, Joe could see Jackson had great potential, and in 1965 he teamed up with Jermaine as a vocalist in the newly christened Jackson 5. The group started winning talent shows, and performed on the Chitlin’ Circuit, opening for great acts including Sam & Dave, Gladys Knight and Etta James.
As covered in my review of The Jacksons’ sole number 1, Show You the Way to Go, the Jackson 5 released their first recording in 1968 and the same year, singer Bobby Taylor was so impressed by Jackson, he got the group an audition with Motown Records. The Jackson 5 became sensations, releasing four US number 1s, but it was child prodigy Jackson that really captured the public’s imagination. He became their lead singer.
In 1972, aged 14, Jackson released his first two solo albums – Got to Be There and Ben. The title track of his first LP was his first solo single, reaching five in the UK, and Rockin’ Robin followed closely after, peaking at three. A cover of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine was a number eight hit.
The title track to Jackson’s second album was the title track to a film of the same name, and perhaps the first example of Jackson’s weirdness, as it was a love song for a rat. Nonetheless, it was his first solo number 1 in the US, and reached seven on these shores.
The Jackson 5 continued to perform and record in this time, but the initial success had dampened somewhat, and Jackson’s solo career soon followed suit. He had no artistic control, and his albums mostly contained a mix of run-of-the-mill Motown production line tunes and average covers. To make matters worse, Jackson could see labelmates Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye doing extremely well since they had wrestled control from Berry Gordy Jr, but his father wouldn’t help. Not a single release from third LP Music & Me charted.
Jackson’s fourth album, Forever, Michael, was to be his last on Motown and was released in 1975. A year previous, the Jackson 5 had made a comeback of sorts with the disco smash Dancing Machine in the US. But Forever, Michael consisted of the usual average soul and light funk material. One Day in Your Life was track three.
Review
It’s fair to say that had One Day in Your Life been released as a single back in 1975, it wouldn’t have become Jackson’s first number 1. It’s a pretty unremarkable Philly soul-style track, apart for one element – Jackson’s soaring vocal. Here was a unique talent, waiting to be set free by his label and allowed to work with the best songwriters and producers. It took just that to make demand for his material so high, this track would top the charts while fans waited for one of the biggest albums of all time.
One question remains – what with this and previous number 1 Being With You, why was there such an appetite for tepid soul in the summer of 1981?
After
In 1975, the Jackson 5 (bar Jermaine, who was replaced by Randy) left Motown behind and signed with Epic Records as The Jacksons. They released their eponymous album a year later, which showcased a more sophisticated sound, courtesy in part to Philly hitmakers Gamble and Huff. Seven years since storming the UK charts, The Jacksons finally scored a number 1 with the charming Show You the Way to Go.
Jackson starred in 1977 musical fantasy The Wiz as the Scarecrow, and although it bombed, he did at least work with Quincy Jones, who would be instrumental in his imminent success. Now 21, Jackson frequented hip nightclub Studio 54, immersing himself in the latest disco, funk, and even early hip-hop.
In 1978, the third Jacksons’ LP, Destiny, was a smash, featuring two of their best tracks, Blame It on the Boogie (number eight) and Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)(number four). Jackson grew increasingly unhappy with his looks, and had a nose job.
1979 was the year Jackson broke new ground. As The Jacksons, he sang on the epic number six single Can You Feel It. But eclipsing that was his first solo album with Epic. The award-winning Off the Wall, produced by Jones, was massive, eventually selling more than 20 million. Two of the greatest disco singles of all time – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough and Rock with You – both deservedly made it to the top of the Billboard chart in the US, but peaked at three and seven respectively in the UK. The title track also reached seven here, and She’s Out of My Life climbed to three. And yet, Jackson felt Off the Wall could have done better, and was determined to prove this with his next LP.
The Outro
In the meantime, Motown decided on a cash grab, plundering the back catalogues of the Jackson 5 and their lead singer. One Day in Your Life concentrated on their later years, and the title track whetted the appetites of Jackson’s ever-growing army of fans. It would be a while longer yet, but was certainly worth the wait.
The Info
Written by
Sam Brown III & Renée Armand
Producer
Sam Brown
Weeks at number 1
2 (27 June-10 July)
Trivia
Births
27 June: Actor Sam Hoare 28 June: Field hockey midfielder Joanne Ellis 30 June: Actor Tom Burke
Deaths
27 June: Author Paul Brunton/Publisher Gordon Fraser/Businessman Charles Jewson 4 July: Cricketer Herbert Blagrave 6 July: Guide leader Alix Liddell 9 July: Golfer Leonard Crawley
Meanwhile…
2 July: Four members of an Asian Muslim family (three of which were children) are killed by arson at home in Walthamstow, London. The attack is suspected to have been racially motivated.
3 July: Hundreds of Asians and skinheads riot in Southhall, London. This follows disturbances at the Hamborough Tavern public house, which is severely damaged by fire.
5 July: When the Toxteth riots break out in Liverpool, CS gas is used for the first time by British police. Riots also occur in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, Wolverhampton city centre, parts of Coventry, Leicester, Derby and High Wycombe.
7 July: 43 people are charged with theft and violent disorder following rioting in Wood Green, North London.
8 July: Yet more rioting, as more than 1,000 people besiege Moss Side, Manchester police station. Also on this day, Joe McDonnell becomes the fifth IRA hunger striker to die, and British Leyland ends production of the Austin Maxi.
10 July: Widespread riots break out in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Ellesmere Port, Luton, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Preston, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Derby, Southampton, Nottingham, High Wycombe, Bedford, Edinburgh, Wolverhampton, Stockport, Blackburn, Huddersfield, Reading, Chester and Aldershot. The two-day rioting in Moss Side ends.
11 years after Smokey Robinson and The Miracles had a UK number 1 with the classic The Tears of a Clown, their frontman was a solo star and perhaps surprisingly became a chart-topper once more with Being With You.
Before
Robinson had been ready to quit The Miracles back in 1969 and concentrate on being Motown Records vice president and a family man. But the unexpected release and success of their 1967 recording TheTears of a Clown caused him to hang on a few more years.
Although he eventually retired in 1972, and The Miracles continued, Robinson couldn’t stay away for long. A year later he released his debut solo LP, Smokey, featuring contributions from former Miracles guitarist Marv Tarplin. In 1974 the track Just My Soul Responding became his first solo hit in the UK – but it only reached 33. Next to the likes of former collaborators Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, who were releasing great records, Robinson looked a little old-fashioned. And he was still Motown vice president, too, so perhaps too busy to do his own material justice.
In 1975, Robinson’s Baby That’s Backatcha reached 26 in the US, but other than that, most of his 70s material was poorly received critically and commercially. His fortunes finally changed when Tarplin presented him with Cruisin’. Robinson wrote some lyrics, and this smooth and sexy single took him all the way to four in the US.
Robinson was impressed by the singer Kim Carnes’ cover of the Smokey Robinson and The Miracles’ track More Love, and penned her the ballad Being With You. However, Robinson didn’t know that Carnes’ and her producer George Tobin had parted ways. When Tobin heard Robinson’s demo, he told him he should keep it for himself, and Tobin would produce it. Good idea. Tobin wasn’t actually much of a producer, but got guitarist Mike Piccirillo to help out.
Review
There’s no denying Robinson is a musical legend, blessed with the voice of an angel that you can hear on a number of classics such as You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me, The Tracks of My Tears and The Tears of a Clown. Not only does Being With You come nowhere near to these hits, it’s also the least memorable chart-topper of 1981 to date. It’s silky smooth and well-produced, and Robinson’s voice is as great as always – but the tune is bland and insubstantial. Being With You washes over you in the same way as buying milk in a supermarket does. The most interesting aspect is the video, in which Robinson hangs around a beach house.
Actually, it’s also interesting to note that Being With You was kept from the top of the Billboard chart in the US by Kim Carnes’ far superior Bette Davis Eyes – and both featured the synth work of Bill Cuomo.
After
Gordy wasn’t very keen on Being With You, and probably even less keen on a Motown release being produced by somebody who wasn’t on his label. But as Being With You began to climb the charts, he started throwing money at the single, and it paid off.
Robinson and Tobin continued to work together for several albums, but to little success. He duetted with Rick James in 1984 on Ebony Eyes, but his hits dried up.
In 1987, Robinson made another comeback with the album One Heartbeat, which saw a return to commercial form, scoring top 10 hits with the title track Just to Hear. That same year, Sheffield pop band ABC paid tribute to the great man with When Smokey Sings, which peaked at 11 in the UK.
The following year, there was some controversy when Robinson found himself inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – minus The Miracles. Robinson didn’t take kindly to this, considering it an affront to his group. It took 24 years before he was able to introduce Tarplin, Bobby Rogers, his ex-wife Claudette Rogers Robinson (they divorced in 1986) and Ron White.
Motown was sold to MCA Records in 1988 too, so Robinson resigned as vice president. A year later he made his final appearance in the UK top 40, recording Indestructible with the Four Tops. Robinson left Motown as an artist in 1991 for SBK Records, but returned in 1999 for the album Intimate.
He left Motown once more in 2003, this time for good. Three years later came his album of standards – Timeless Love – for Universal Records. In 2009 he released Time Flies When You’re Having Fun on his own label, Robso Records. It was his most successful in 22 years.
Robinson experienced something of a comeback over the next few years, with each album charting higher than the last, peaking with Smokey & Friends in 2014, which featured Elton John and Linda Ronstadt.
As a singer best known for romantic, often slushy material, Robinson shocked many with his most recent album, called, er, Gasms. This concept album dealt primarily with, surprise surprise, sex! Behind the scenes, Robinson was known as a bit of a ladies man, indulging in many affairs while with Claudette, including Diana Ross.
The Outro
For a much better example of later period Motown Robinson, try Cruisin’, not Being With You.
The Info
Written by
William RobinsonJr
Producers
George Tobin& Mike Piccirillo
Weeks at number 1
2 (13-26 June)
Trivia
23 June: Blue singer Antony Costa 25 June: Actress Sheridan Smith
Deaths
13 June: Actress Joan Benham 15 June: Author Philip Toynbee 17 June: General Richard O’Connor/Welsh rugby player Ike Fowler 18 June: Rugby player Stan Brogden/Actor Richard Goolden/Novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson/Conservative MP Robert Taylor 20 June: Labour MP Gordon Lang
Meanwhile…
13 June: Marcus Sarjeant shoots six blank cartridges at Queen Elizabeth II as she enters Horse Guards Parade.
13–14 June: 80 people are arrested when fighting breaks out between white power skinheads and black people in Coventry.
15 June: Lord Scarman opens an enquiry into the Brixton riots.
16 June: The SDP-Liberal Alliance is formed.
17 June: War hero Sir Richard O’Connor dies shortly before his 92nd birthday.
20 June: The HMS Ark Royal is launched.
21 June: One person is killed and 16 are injured due to a fire at Goodge Street tube station.
Adam and the Ants captivated children of the 80s – myself included. Adam Ant was my first ever musical hero, and where my love of music began. Here’s how a new wave band with niche appeal became a sensation and shot to number 1 for the first time with Stand and Deliver!.
Before
Adam Ant was born Stuart Leslie Goddard in Marylebone, London on 3 November 1954. Goddard’s grandfather on his mother’s side was Romanichal, which planted the seed of protecting minorities that would become a common theme in Goddard’s music.
His parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother worked as a domestic cleaner to make ends meet. In 1967, she briefly cleaned Paul McCartney’s house, and her son later vividly recalled going round there after school.
Goddard was educated at Robinsfield Infants School, where he got into trouble by throwing a brick through the headmaster’s office on two consecutive days. Ironically, this proved to be a wise move, as he was placed under the supervision of a teacher who encouraged his creative side.
At Barrow Hill Junior School, Goddard enjoyed boxing and cricket. He passed his A-plus and went to St Marylebone Grammar School, an all-boys school, where he became a prefect and gained three A-levels. Next was Hornsey College of Art, where he studied graphic design. But before he could complete his BA, he was swayed by a growing love of music, and he dropped out.
Goddard joined the pub rock band Bazooka Joe in 1975 as their bassist. Although the band also featured John Ellis, who became one of The Vibrators, they are most famous for being the headliners of the first ever Sex Pistols gig, at Central St Martins College of Art and Design on 6 November. Goddard was fascinated by the Pistols, while the rest of Bazooka Joe disagreed so strongly, he decided to leave the group and an idea began to form.
Under his new guise, Ant (named ‘Adam’ after the first man and ‘Ant’ after a creature that would survive a nuclear explosion) formed the B-Sides, featuring lead guitarist Lester Square and Andy Warren. On 23 April 1977, with drummer Paul Flanagan, they became The Ants, holding their first band meeting at a Siouxsie and the Banshees gig at the Roxy in Covent Garden. Ant was in the right place at the right time, as the punk scene was exploding, and he became close friends with Jordan, who worked at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s SEX boutique. She soon became his band’s manager.
Square only lasted a month before leaving to concentrate on his course at art school, though he later formed The Monochrome Set. He was replaced by Mark Ryan, and The Ants began performing regularly around London. Flanagan was replaced in early June by Dave ‘Barbe’ Barbarossa, and The Ants entered a studio for the first time, recording Deutscher Girls and Beat My Guest. These two songs featured in Derek Jarman’s drama Jubilee (1978), in which Ant made his acting debut as The Kid. The Ants sacked Ryan, replaced him with Johnny Bivouac, and became Adam and the Ants.
The leather-clad, post-punk Adam and the Ants had a penchant for controversial fetishist imagery, and were unpopular with the music press, but they gained a cult following. 1978 was a big year, as they made their radio debut, recording a session for John Peel in January. Jordan featured on vocals for their final track Lou, which she used to do regularly at their gigs, but she quit as their manager in May and a day later, Bivouac left the band, to be replaced by Matthew Ashman.
Adam and the Ants recorded a second Peel session in July and at the end of the month they signed a two-single deal with Decca Records. Young Parisians was released in October, but plans for a follow-up were shelved by Decca.
A third Peel session was recorded in March 1979, and the band signed with independent label Do It Records. Second single Zerox was released in July and a month later they began recording their debut album, written and produced by Ant. Soon after, he sacked Ashman and Warren, and the latter joined The Monochrome Set, but Ashman was allowed back. Warren was replaced by Lee Gorman. The LP, Dirk Wears White Sox ( a reference to actor Dirk Bogarde), was released in November. It’s an interesting album, but don’t expect any of the brilliant pop that was around the corner. It did however make it to number 1 on the fledgling UK Independent Albums Chart that launched in early January 1980.
Ant asked Malcolm McLaren to take over as manager of the band, and the former Sex Pistols manager proved to inadvertently have a positive effect on Ant’s career. How? By dropping him and stealing his band. By the end of January, McLaren had persuaded Ashman, Gorman and Barbe to jump ship and join his new group, Bow Wow Wow. Their lead singer was 13-year-old Annabella Lwin, who was briefly joined by George O’Dowd before he became better known as Boy George. Whether Ant
Undeterred, Ant went looking for new Ants. Marco Pirroni, who had been one of Siouxsie’s Banshees, became the new guitarist. They were briefly joined by future Culture Club drummer Jon Moss (using the name Terry 1+2) to remake Dirk Wears White Sox opener Cartrouble as a contractual obligation for Do It, with Pirroni also on bass. The single was produced by Chris Hughes, who Ant subsequently asked to become his new drummer.
Kevin Mooney picked up bass duties, and unusually, there were now two drummers as Terry Lee Miall also joined the band. Ant was to co-write the new material with Pirroni and they signed a publishing deal with EMI. They worked on new material at Matrix Studios and went on the Ant Invasion tour while Ant took the new material to prospective record companies.
The change in direction was startling. Ant and Pirroni used Hughes (now known as Merrick) and Miall to create Burundi-style African drumming to underpin a new sound that was a commercial yet unique mix of pop and new wave. They ditched the leathers and instead of a monochrome look they added tons of colour, dressing as pirates with Native American make-up, and looking and sounding not unlike Johnny Kidd and the Pirates.
Whether these ideas were stolen from McLaren (as their former manager claimed) or vice versa, Ant, who was always incredibly handsome and charismatic, now looked and sounded like a real pop star. It wouldn’t take long to persuade the public he was, either.
Kings of the Wild Frontier was their next single, and what a call to arms it was. Over that soon to become familiar Burundi beat and Pirroni’s rockabilly guitar, Ant began his mission statement by chanting ‘A new Royal family, a wild nobility, we are the family’. He also sang about Native American suffering and declared ‘Antpeople are the warriors, Antmusic is our banner!’ Tremendous stuff, that somehow only scraped into the charts at 48 that summer.
In October came their next single, Dog Eat Dog, which streamlined the formula into a more chart-friendly format. This song, about bands in competition with one another and inspired by a phrase used by Margaret Thatcher, deservedly went all the way to number four.
The following month saw the release of their first hit LP. Kings of the Wild Frontier proved Adam and the Ants weren’t going to be a one-hit wonder. Released as the New Romantic movement was exploding, it contained another mission statement in Antmusic, which peaked at number two in January 1981, being held off the top spot by Imagine in the wake of John Lennon’s death.
Adam and the Ants were so popular, Decca and Do It rushed to plunder their earlier material for a cash grab. Incredibly, Young Parisians climbed to nine. In February the band performed on The Royal Variety Show in a spellbinding performance that caused Ant to shout at Mooney at the close for seemingly going off script. It would be Mooney’s last performance with the Ants, and Gary Tibbs, who had starred in Breaking Glass (1980), took his place. A re-release of the single Kings of the Wild Frontier soared to two.
The band set to work on what was to be the final Adam and the Ants album. Prince Charming’s lead single was to be Stand and Deliver!, in which Ant adopted a new image as ‘the dandy highwayman that you’re too scared to mention’. Ant was a history buff and loved the Georgian era of bawdy flamboyance. He saw it as a perfect vehicle for ‘looking flash and grabbing your attention. And it definitely worked.
Inspiration may have come from several places, including the film The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), the Monty Python’s Flying Circus 1973 sketch ‘Dennis Moore’, Carry on Dick (1974) – the final entry in the series to star Sid James – and the London Weekend Television series Dick Turpin, that was running on ITV at the time.
Review
It was inevitable that Stand and Deliver! should become Ant’s first number 1, after several near misses. The drums are toned down from previous singles, now providing an exciting underpinning to pure brilliant pop, and Pirroni’s guitar is more modern than the rockabilly sounds of what came before.
There’s memorable vocal hook after hook here, too. If it’s not the opening line, or the triumphant chorus, or the ‘HUH’ after the drums in the chorus, it’s the nonsensical but suitably camp ‘Fa diddley qua qua’ as the song draws to a close.
While you can argue Adam and the Ants were too retro or rock to be New Romantics, this song fits the template, as Ant bemoans the lack of colour and fantasy in pop music. The Blitz Kids may have preferred more electronic sounding music, but they’d have totally agreed with lines like ‘The way you look you’ll qualify for next year’s old-age pension’. And the idea of using fashion as a weapon – ‘Not a bullet or a knife’ will have greatly appealed. It certainly did to little young me, and boys across the country. Ant was already cool, but mutating into a Dick Turpin-style character was bloody genius. In the early 80s I thought Sid James in Carry on Dick was cool. Ant as similar? Simply mind-blowing.
To change from edgy S&M stylings to cartoon childhood heroics is quite a transformation, but Ant more than pulled it off. As a child, he was just amazing. Incredibly handsome, charismatic, flamboyant and fun, Ant was a cartoon hero brought to life. I may have missed out on Beatlemania and Flower Power, glam rock and punk, but I feel proud to have been a young boy when Ant was at the height of his fame.
In theory I was too young – I was only two when this was number 1. But I can remember leaping from chair to settee in our living room to Adam and the Ants’ videos, and there’s a photo of me proudly holding an Ants’ single. So the band must have already split by the time I was in love with them, so brief was their fame. But listening to this and watching the video now, it’s clear that Adam and the Ants could only ever be huge for a short time – in a similar way to early T Rex. But what a time!
Ashes to Ashes may have heralded the start of the rise of music videos in the 80s, but with Stand and Deliver!, Ant grabs the torch and gallops away with it. Ant worked with director Mike Mansfield to create ‘a Hollywood movie in three minutes’, and they certainly succeeded. Ant is going round holding up mirrors to his victims – including a man who looks scarily similar to Boycie from Only Fools and Horses, which started this same year. The video, which also features Ant’s then-girlfriend Amanda Donohoe, climaxes with our hero about to be hanged before escaping with the rest of the Ants, and then ends with a topless Ant staring at himself in the mirror, alone. What did this mean? Was it Ant contemplating his own lyrics? Was it his true self, behind the mock heroics? Or was it just a chance to look hot and make his female fans swoon? Whatever it was, it hinted at the title track of their last LP, and next number 1.
After
Stand and Deliver! was an instant smash, debuting at number 1 and staying there for five weeks. It was the third biggest-selling single of 1981, and solidified Ant as a household name that year.
The Outro
20 years later, a troubled Ant made a well-meaning but ill-advised new version of his first number 1, called Save the Gorilla. Ant was trying to raise awareness of the plight of mountain gorillas in Central Africa, and the production is decent enough, but an overweight Ant trying to squeeze his new lyrics into one of his classics just seemed a bit silly. Pirroni helped to block its release.
The Info
Written by
Adam Ant & Marco Pirroni
Producer
Chris Hughes
Weeks at number 1
5 (9 May-12 June)
Trivia
Births
13 May: Labour Party MP Luciana Berger 15 May: Equestrienne Zara Phillips 16 May: Actor Joseph Morgan/Actor Jim Sturgess 17 May: Footballer Leon Osman 20 May: 5ive pop star Sean Conlon 22 May: Comedian Sara Pascoe 26 May: Broadcaster James Wong 29 May: Rugby union player Rochelle Clark 9 June: Backstroke swimmer Helen Don-Duncan/Scottish football plater Alex Neil/Musician Anoushka Shankar 11 June: Scottish field hockey goalkeeper Alistair McGregor
Deaths
9 May: Footballer Ralph Allen/Socialite Doris Harcourt 10 May: Conservative Party MP Geoffrey Stevens 15 May: Liberal Party MP Margery Corbett Ashby 17 May: Classical scholar WKC Guthrie 18 May: Novelist Verity Bargate 19 May: Ornithologist Collingwood Ingram 23 May: Radio producer Rayner Heppenstall 24 May: Actor Jack Warner 27 May: Scientist Kit Pedler/Philologist Anne Pennington 28 May: Archaeologist John Bryan Ward-Perkins 29 May: Organist John Dykes Bower 31 May: Economist Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth 10 June: Welsh journalist Sir Trevor Evans
Meanwhile…
9 May: The 100th FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium ends as a 1-1 draw between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.
11 May: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats debuts at New London Theatre.
12 May: 25-year-old Francis Hughes becomes the second IRA hunger striker to die in Northern Ireland.
13 May: The New Cross fire inquest returns an open verdict on the thirteen people who died as a result of their injuries in the New Cross fire.
14 May: Spurs are victorious in the FA Cup final replay with a 3-2 win. It’s the sixth time they’ve won the trophy.
15 May: The Brixton riots inquiry opens.
19 May: Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of 13 charges of murder, and a further seven attempted murders.
21 May: The IRA hunger strike claims two more deaths – Raymond McCreesh (24) and Patrick O’Hara (23).
22 May: Peter Sutcliffe is sentenced to life imprisonment.
27 May: Liverpool FC becomes the first British team to win the European Cup for the third time, defeating Real Madrid 1-0 at Parc des Princes in Paris.
30 May: More than 100,000 people march to Trafalgar Square in London for the Trade Union Congress’s (TUC’s) March For Jobs.
3 June: Sherman wins the Epsom Derby.
11 June: Queen Elizabeth II opens the NatWest Tower.
One of the most enduring pop images of the early 80s is the skirt-ripping routine of 1981 Eurovision Song Contest winners Bucks Fizz. This is the story of how their entry, Making Your Mind Up, brought about their creation and became their first of three number 1 singles.
Before
Allegedly, songwriter Andy Hill wrote Making Your Mind Up in 1980 with a view to entering it in the UK’s Eurovision qualifying contest, A Song for Europe. Hill’s girlfriend, singer Nichola Martin, suggested Hill team up with a musician called John Danter, who she could sign up to her publishing company, which would enable her to own half the rights to the song, as Hill was signed elsewhere. Hill had been a member of Rags, a group who failed to win the 1977 A Song for Europe.
That October, Hill and Martin recorded a demo with the singer Mike Nolan, who had worked with the latter before. Nolan had been in the boyband Brooks, who were put together by Freya Miller, who became Shakin’ Stevens‘ manager. Another original member of Brooks was Chris Hamill, later known as Limahl.
Two months after the demo was recorded, Making Your Mind Up was selected out of 591 submitted entries to be one of the eight finalists. Martin had decided to name the performer as ‘Buck’s Fizz’, in honour of her favourite drink, so when she discovered the song had been picked, she needed to act fast and create a group featuring Nolan.
In January 1981, Martin contacted Cheryl Baker, who she remembered from the 1978 Eurovision group Co-Co. Baker had previously been in the band Bressingham Spire, which also featured the soon-to-be Radio 1 DJ Mike Read. Worried that Baker, disillusioned after Co-Co’s loss, may say no, Martin also auditioned for another female vocalist, plus a second male singer. The winners were Jay Aston and Stephen Fischer. When Baker agreed to take part, Martin decided to keep Aston anyway, as her vocal complemented Baker’s well. Aston had trained to be a dancer and actress, as well as a singer, and had taken part in the 1978 Miss England contest, where the act during the interval had been Co-Co.
Fischer threw a spanner in the works when it turned out he was contracted to appear in the musical Godspell, so he was out. A year later Fischer was the male member of the duo Bardo, who came seventh in Eurovision with the song One Step Further (a number two hit).
Martin found a replacement in Bobby G, a singer/guitarist/actor who had impressed in previous editions. On 11 January 1981, Bucks Fizz (what happened to the apostrophe?) met for the first time and Jill Shirley, who had been in Rags with Martin, agreed to be their manager. This meant Martin and Hill could now concentrate on their own entry for A Song for Europe, Have You Ever Been in Love?.
During rehearsals for Making Your Mind Up, the attention-grabbing skirt ripping routine during the lyric ‘see some more’ was hit upon. But by who, remains a mystery. It could have been routine choreographer Chrissie Wickham, formerly of Hot Gossip, who spent two days with the group. Martin, Baker and Aston have all laid claim to the concept too. I’d personally go with Martin, as the Top of the Pops performance that Rags made in 1977 when promoting Promises Promises has something rather similar as they remove their, er, rags.
Martin and Shirley scored a recording deal for Bucks Fizz with RCA Records, and Hill went with the group to record Making Your Mind Up at Mayfair Studios in London. The record, featuring Alan Carvell on backing vocals, was done and dusted in a week.
Review
I have a lot of time for Making Your Mind Up and I feel no shame. It’s pure cheese of course, but it’s so bloody charming and fun. The lyrics are mostly nonsensical – aren’t most Eurovision entries? But, there is some meaning in there – it seems to be about someone playing the field that might have found someone to stick with, but they need to stop being indecisive.
Not that the words really matter when you have a tune like this on your hands. Making Your Mind Up is so sugary sweet, it was always going to go down well at home, and abroad – and the latter is helped by what sounds like an accordion in the latter half.
This is one of those songs that defies analysis, really. It’s pure pop and if you can’t enjoy it, you may be dead inside. It’s leagues ahead of the other UK winners before this point, and I prefer it to Waterloo, too. And Bucks Fizz were the perfect vehicle to promote this song. You’ve got the Ken dolls, Nolan and G, for the girls, Baker has mumsy appeal for the mums and grans, and Aston was very popular with the dads – as was the skirt-ripping when they sing ‘If you wanna see some more’ the last time.
That routine of course featured in the official video for Making Your Mind Up, which starts with the group cheekily waving their arses for an adoring crowd before breaking into song and dance. There’s no bells or whistles here – it’s for all intents and purposes a Top of the Pops or Eurovision performance, really.
After
On 11 March, Bucks Fizz won A Song for Europe, beating even Liquid Gold, a popular act at the time. A Top of the Pops performance followed, which helped the single enter the charts at 24, before soaring to five a week later.
Eurovision was held at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin on 4 April 1981. Bucks Fizz performed 14th that evening, and despite a rather off-key performance (which may or may not have been down to nerves or a mic mix-up), they became the fourth winners from the UK, after Sandie Shaw, Lulu and Brotherhood of Man. Two weeks later, Making Your Mind Up became the third UK winner to then become number 1. The record eventually sold four million worldwide, and Bucks Fizz were one of the hottest groups of 1981.
The Outro
In 2013, BBC Radio 2 listeners voted Bucks Fizz’s debut the best Eurovision entry of all time. The skirt-rip routine was spoofed endlessly, has appeared in numerous Eurovision entries since 1981, and was even copied by Mick Jagger and Tina Turner at Live Aid in 1985.
The Info
Written by
Andy Hill & John Danter
Producer
Andy Hill
Weeks at number 1
3 (18 April-8 May)
Trivia
Births
23 April: Actress Gemma Whelan 25 April: Paralympian sprinter John McFall 3 May: Charlie Brooks 5 May: Singer Craig David
Deaths
19 April: Labour Party MP Colin Jackson 21 April: Antiques caretaker Dorothy Eady/Pianist Ivor Newton/Electrical engineer Lesley Souter 22 April: Liberal Party politician Philip Rea, 2nd Baron Rea 23 April: Olympic rower Sir James Angus Gillan 24 April: Mathematician JCP Miller 25 April: Indologist Isaline Blew Horner 26 April: Robert Garioch 28 April: T Rex bassist Steve Currie/Educationalist Marjorie Rackstraw/Businessman Bernard Mason 1 May: Actor Barry Jones 2 May: Unionist politician Joseph Foster 4 May: Zoologist Alan William Greenwood 5 May: IRA member Bobby Sands (see ‘Meanwhile…‘) 6 May: Film director Gordon Parry
Meanwhile…
20 April: Steve Davis, 23, wins the World Snooker Championship for the first time. Also on this day, skirmishes break out in Finsbury Park, Forest Green and Ealing in London. 100 people are arrested and 15 police officers are injured.
23 April: Unemployment passes the 2,500,000 mark.
29 April: Peter Sutcfliffe admits to the manslaughter of 13 women, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
5 May: 27-year-old republican and Provisional IRA member Bobby Sands died following his hunger strike in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison, one month after becoming MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Also on this day, Peter Sutcliffe’s trial begins at the Old Bailey in London.
7 May: Labour’s Ken Livingstone becomes leader of the Greater London Council.
The UK’s bestselling artist of the 80s was Welsh singer Shakin’ Stevens. Hard to believe, several decades later. But with Elvis Presley gone, there was a gap in the market for old-school, good-time 50s rock’n’roll with an 80s sheen. The first of Shaky’s three chart-toppers had been a number 1 for Rosemary Clooney back in 1954.
Before
Stevens was born Michael Barratt in Ely, Cardiff on 4 March 1948. The youngest of 11 children, Barratt was a teenager in the mid-60s when he formed his first band The Olympics, who soon changed their name to The Cossacks, and quickly changed again to The Denims.
Barratt became associated with the Young Communist League – although he later said this was only because the person who booked their gigs was also in the YCL, who held a lot of sway back then through association with leading stars such as Pete Townshend.
By 1968, Barratt was an upholsterer and milkman during the week, and a would-be pop star at the weekend, performing in clubs and pubs around South Wales. He had long admired retro Penarth-based band The Backbeats, occasionally featuring as their guest vocalist. That year he became their full-time singer. When local impresario Paul ‘Legs’ Barrett saw them perform, he suggested a repackage of the group. With his old school friend Steven Vanderwalker in mind, Barratt and co became Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets.
The future looked bright, at first. Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets signed to Parlophone Records in 1970 and released their first album, A Legend, produced by Dave Edmunds. However, the group spent the vast majority of the 70s touring Europe to minor success, and achieved next to nothing in the UK.
In 1977, producer Jack Good (the man behind early TV music series Six-Five Special) was working on Elvis!, a musical based on the life and recent death of ‘the King’. Good wanted three men to play Presley in different stages of his life, and he chose Tim Whitnall as young Elvis, Stevens as prime Presley, and PJ Proby for the Las Vegas era.
Elvis! was only planned to run for six months, so The Sunsets waited for Stevens to return. But the musical was a hit and ran for a further two years. Stevens released an eponymous LP in 1978 with Track Records, and appeared on Good’s revival of his TV show Oh Boy! and Let’s Rock.
In late-1979, Freya Miller became his new manager, and she told him to ditch The Sunsets. She was right, as he signed with Epic Records and released Take One!. The first single to be released was a cover of Buck Owens’ Hot Dog, and it became his first hit, reaching 24. Stevens, together with new producer Stuart Colman, never looked back. Which is ironic as his music was constantly doing just that.
His second album Marie, Marie, was released in October 1980. The title track, an old song by The Blasters, broke the top 20, peaking at 19. But the next single, Shooting Gallery, couldn’t crack the top 40. It took Stevens’ take on NRBQ’s 1979 arrangement of a former UK number 1 to really catapult Stevens to the big time.
This Ole House is – I believe – the first instance of a number 1 by two different artists in two different decades. In Every UK Number 1: The 50s, I wrote about its creation:
‘Stuart Hamblen was an alcoholic, gambling-addicted singer-songwriter and radio personality. He was constantly getting into scrapes and being bailed out, thanks to his charm. In 1949, he decided to take a different path, converting to Christianity after attending one of Billy Graham’s rallies. He was fired from his radio show for refusing to do beer commercials, and then he gave up his vices.
While out hunting with a friend one day, he came across an abandoned shack on a mountain. Upon inspection, they found a dog guarding a dead body. Allegedly, he came up with the lyrics while riding back down the mountain. So the “ole house” in question is in fact the body you leave behind when you die.’
Actress and singer Rosemary Clooney took This Ole House for a week on 26 November 1954, around the time of the release of White Christmas, in which she starred alongside Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.
Review
I gave Clooney’s recording of this song – featuring Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger, a thumbs up, and I stand by it. It’s one of the best pre-rock’n’roll chart-toppers, and one of the rare number 1s of those first few years you can genuinely enjoy.
I also commented on my thoughts on Shaky in that review:
‘It never occurred to me that This Ole House could be about anything other than house renovation. To me, and probably most children of the late-70s and early 80s, it conjures up happy memories of Shakin’ Stevens hanging around an old building in the video of his 1981 cover version. What with this, his cover of Green Door, and his love of denim, I think I assumed “Shaky” was some sort of singing builder as a child’.
Returning to this song, and video, all these years later, nothing has changed. Stevens’ version is serviceable enough, and sums up his appeal. It’s nostalgic but removes the grit and grime of earlier versions, making it swing more but in a very early 80s way that adds nothing exciting or original.
Although it’s hard to be overly critical of Stevens for nostalgic reasons (something that’s going to be a potential problem with lots of 80s chart-toppers for me), one listen to the NRBQ version (This OldHouse) lowers my opinion more. They’re almost exactly the same, apart from the lead vocal by their singer Terry Adams –which is arguably better than Stevens’ rendition. It’s music for grandparents and children, not a 45-year-old music snob.
After
Such was the success of Stevens’ This Ole House, his LP Marie, Marie was retitled to share its name. Many more hits followed, and his second number 1, Green Door, wasn’t far away.
The Outro
In 2005, Stevens, fresh off the back of an appearance on ITV’s Hit Me Baby One More Time, re-released This Ole House along with a cover of P!nk’s Trouble. The double A-side reached 20.
The Info
Written by
Stuart Hamblen
Producer
Rock Masters Productions
Weeks at number 1
3 (28 March-17 April)
Trivia
Births
1 April: S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt 10 April: Atomic Kitten singer Liz McClarnon
Deaths
28 March: Cartoonist Bernard Hollowood/Artist Helen Adelaide Lamb 29 March: Racing driver David Prophet 30 March: Olympian athlete Douglas Lowe 31 March: Playwright Enid Bagnold 1 April: Writer Dennis Feltham Jones 3 April: Labour Party MP Will Owen 4 April: Journalist Donald Tyerman 7 April: Ice hockey player Lorne Carr-Harris/Music producer Kit Lambert 8 April: Film composer Eric Rogers 13 April: Actor Albert Burdon/Novelist Gwyn Thomas 14 April: Composer Christian Darnton 15 April: Actor Blake Butler 16 April: Political activist Peggy Duff/Cricketer Eric Hollies 17 April: Palaeontologist Francis Rex Parrington
Meanwhile…
28 March: Controversial Ulster Unionist Enoch Powell warned of racial civil war.
29 March: The first London Marathon was held.
30 March: The Academy Award-winning historical sporting drama Chariots of Fire was released.
4 April: Bucks Fizz became the fourth UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest, with future number 1 Making Your Mind Up. Also on this day, Oxford University student Susan Brown became the first female cox in a winning Boat Race team. And cancer survivor Bob Champion won the Grand National with his horse Aldaniti.
5 April: The UK Census was conducted.
10 April: IRA member Bobby Sands, on hunger strike in Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election.
11 April: Rioting in Bristol resulted in more than 300 injured people (mostly police officers).
13 April: Home Secretary William Whitelaw announced a public inquiry into the Brixton riot.
The final number 1 tribute to John Lennon in 1981 didn’t come from Double Fantasy, and it wasn’t from his classic album Imagine. Except it was, in cover form. Jealous Guy was released as a tribute by one of the most influential glam rock and art-pop bands of the 70s – Roxy Music.
Before
In 1970, when 25-year-old Bryan Ferry from County Durham lost his job at at a girls’ school for holding record listening sessions, he decided to form a new band. He had been in groups before, including the Gas Board, with bassist Graham Simpson. Ferry and Simpson advertised for a keyboardist and decided to enlist Andy Mackay. Although Mackay owned a synthesiser, rare in those days, he preferred to play saxophone and oboe. He persuaded Ferry and Simpson to also add a fellow lover of avant grade music that he had met at university. And so Brian Eno, who wasn’t a musician but could manage to operate the synth, as well as a reel-to-reel tape machine. was brought in as ‘technical adviser’. Next up was guitarist Roger Bunn and finally. classically trained timpanist Dexter Lloyd on drums.
Mark one of Roxy Music was complete, with the name derived from Ferry picking ‘Roxy’ out from a list of old cinemas. He decided the word conjured up ‘some faded glamour’ but ‘didn’t really mean anything’. After discovering there was already a US band called Roxy, so was born Roxy Music.
The band was in danger of being over before it had begun when Ferry auditioned late that year to become the new singer for King Crimson. Although Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield decided Ferry didn’t suit their band, they saw talent, and helped him to get Roxy Music a contract with EG Records.
After recording demos in early 1971, Bunn left the group. He was replaced by David O’List, former guitarist with The Nice. One of the unsuccessful applicants, Phil Manzanera, was employed as a roadie. At the end of the year, Roxy Music finally made their live debut, at the Friends of the Tate Gallery Christmas Show. Ferry’s band were not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill band.
O’List didn’t stick around long, quitting Roxy Music in February 1972 after a fight with Thompson at their audition with EG Management. When he failed to turn up for the next rehearsal, his job was given to Manzanera, who had been privately learning the band’s repertoire.
Roxy Music signed with EG Management, who financed the production of their eponymous debut LP. Although unimpressed at first, Island Records boss Chris Blackwell relented and the album was released in June. Weird and occasionally wonderful, Roxy Music was avant grade glam that captured the imagination of record buyers, housed in a seedily glamorous cover that would become their trademark. However, Simpson left after it was recorded, and was replaced by Rik Kenton.
Kenton was around long enough to take part in the recording of one of the most impressive debut singles of all time. Virgina Plain shot to four in the charts and made Roxy Music pop stars – albeit unusual ones. David Bowie’s appearance on Top of the Pops that year to promote Starman is rightly feted as a great TV moment, but the sight of Roxy Music on the same show also left its mark.
In January 1973, Kenton left the band and was replaced by John Porter, who had been a member of the Gas Board. Second album For Your Pleasure, released two months later, saw Chris Thomas replace Sinfield on production duties. Their second single, Pyjamarama, was a non-album release and peaked at 10.
Eno departed after Roxy Music toured the album, due to increasing differences with Ferry. Fans lamented the loss, but he did pretty well for himself, as we know. Eno’s replacement was 18-year-old multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson from Curved Air. What he lacked in experimentalism, he made up for in technical accomplishment. Porter also left, becoming a successful producer for The Smiths and Ferry in his solo years. John Gustafson of The Merseybeats briefly took up bass duties.
Third album Stranded, released in 1973, saw Mackay and Manzanera joining Ferry as songwriters. Ferry also began to seemingly become the posh sophisticate figure he had previously adopted ironically, and has been ever since. The single Street Life was a number nine smash. The next LP, Country Life, was the first to enter the US album chart, and featured the UK number 12 single All I Want Is You. The sexy, slinky Love Is the Drug deservedly became their biggest hit to date in 1975, peaking at two behind the reissue of SpaceOddity. But a year later, following their tour of its parent album Siren, Roxy Music went on hiatus.
In 1979 a new line-up released the album Manifesto. Ace’s Paul Carrack replaced Jobson on keyboards, while Gustafson was also gone, with bass duties split between Alan Spenner and future Adam and the Ants member Gary Tibbs. Luther Vandross featured on backing vocals. Manifesto contained two of Roxy’s biggest hits in Angel Eyes (four) and Dance Away (two).
Thompson was injured during the recording of their first album of the 80s, Flesh + Blood, and quit soon after its release. From then on, the core trio of Ferry, Mackay and Manzanera were joined by session musicians. Their seventh LP featured Oh Yeah and Over You, which both reached five. Any sense of experimentalism in the group’s sound had been gradually removed and replaced by smooth sophistication, in keeping with Ferry’s look.
After Lennon’s murder in December 1980, Roxy Music added a cover of Jealous Guy to their live set while they toured Germany. This 1971 plaintive ballad was perfectly in keeping with Roxy’s repertoire.
Jealous Guy began in 1968 as a spiritual Beatles song called Child of Nature. Lennon was inspired by a lecture from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and was one of a plethora of tunes considered for The Beatles and demoed at George Harrison’s Esher home. Although it wasn’t selected, the song was also performed in 1969 during the Get Back sessions, where it was referred as On the Road to Rishikesh. The tune was fully formed, but the lyrics felt unfinished, and the song disappeared.
Two years later, Lennon reworked the song for Imagine, creating a personal, confessional soft rock song about his failings and inadequacies towards his wife Yoko Ono… although there are theories out there that consider it may really be about his feelings for Paul McCartney during their bitter post-Beatles years. Despite being one of his most famous solo songs, Jealous Guy was not released by Lennon in his lifetime as a single.
Review
Roxy Music were at their best in the early years, when their music was more adventurous. Eno leaving was a big loss, and the more Ferry seemed to transform into a real-life posh playboy, the less interesting his band were.
This version of Jealous Guy is inferior to the delicate original. Phil Spector was not exactly known for his subtlety, but his production on Lennon’s version is light and even a little ethereal. Whether because they rushed this out or not, Roxy’s version is pure 80s schmaltz, particularly due to Mackay’s sax on the chorus line. Watching Ferry crooning away in the video like an early 80s catalogue model just makes me want to laugh, rather than enjoy or appreciate this alleged tribute. Whether this cover was well-intentioned or not, it comes across a rather cynical cash-in – and one which obviously paid off. But then, when it comes to Roxy Music, I’m more of an In Every Dream Home a Heartache kind of guy than a Jealous Guy.
After
In 1982, Roxy Music released their eighth and last LP, the critically acclaimed Avalon. The first single, the decent ballad MoreThan This was their final top 10 hit, peaking at six. The title track reached 13, followed by Take a Chance with Me, which soldiered on to 26. After they toured the album, Roxy Music dissolved in 1983 and the core trio all went solo – Ferry having had a parallel solo career since 1973.
In 2001, Ferry, Mackay, Manzanera and Thompson reunited and toured to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary. The latter two, and Eno, contributed to Ferry’s 11th solo album Frantic the following year. Roxy Music reformed in 2005 to play at the Isle of Wight Festival and Live 8 Berlin, and announced a new album was on the cards – with Eno contributing too. Instead, material from the album was used for Ferry’s 13th solo album, Olympia, released in 2010. Manzanera later claimed the Roxy reunion album was permanently shelved.
Despite this, Roxy Music continued to tour in 2010 and 2011. They teamed up once more in 2022 to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
The Outro
Roxy Music are an acquired taste and a lot of it depends on how much Ferry you can stomach. Nonetheless, there’s gold littered throughout their career.
The Info
Written by
John Lennon
Producers
Bryan Ferry & Rhett Davies
Weeks at number 1
2 (14-27 March)
Trivia
Births
27 March: Northern Irish footballer Terry McFlynn
Deaths
14 March: Cricketer Ken Barrington/Screenwriter Billie Bristow 17 March: Actor Nicholas Stuart Gray/Literary critic QD Leavis 19 March: Journalist John Deane Potter 22 March: Journalist Dudley Carew 23 March: Motorcycle racer Mike Hailwood (see ‘Meanwhile‘)/Football administrator Bob Wall 24 March: Organist George Charles Gray 26 March: Biologist CD Darlington
Meanwhile…
17 March: The Conservative government, already unpopular, was met with anger when Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe revealed further public spending cuts in the Budget.
21 March: Home Secretary William Whitelaw allows Wolverhampton council to place a 14-day ban on political marches, due to growing problems with militant race riots. Also on this day, Tom Baker is replaced by Peter Davison in Doctor Who, and ‘Mike the Bike’ Hailwood is seriously injured in a car crash.
22 March: A minority of Tory MPs are reported to be planning a leadership challenge against the increasingly unpopular Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
23 March: The government imposes a ban on animal transportation on the Isle of Wight and southern Hampshire following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Also on this day, Hailwood dies from his injuries two days earlier.
26 March: The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was formed by ‘Gang of Four’ Labour Party defectors Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and David Owen.
The UK singles chart of early 1981 was in a strange state of flux. John Lennon’s murder had understandably turned much of the top 10 into a shrine, with three posthumous chart-toppers. At the same time, Lennon’s fans suffered the indignation of seeing his records be overtaken in the hit parade not once (There’s No One Quite Like Grandma), but twice, by novelty songs. And the type of novelty songs that are retrograde, screaming ’70s or earlier’, rather than displaying any sign of the new, youthful pop of the 80s that was (thankfully) right around the corner. This time around, it was one-hit wonder Joe Dolce Music Theatre’s Shaddap You Face. Yep. That one.
Before
Joseph Dolce was born 13 October 1947 in Painesville, Ohio. He was the eldest of three children to Italian-American parents. In his senior year at Thomas W Harvey High School, Dolce got the acting bug, playing the lead role of Mascarille in Molière’s Les Précieuses Ridicules, and he also created a song based on material in the script. One of his co-stars, the Canadian Carol Dunlop, introduced Dolce to folk music and poetry.
From 1965 to 1967, Dolce majored in architecture at Ohio University. While there he formed several bands, including country rock act Headstone Circus, who released the album Please Tell a Friend in 1968. One member, Jonathan Edwards, had a US hit with Sunshine in 1971.
By 1974, Dolce was performing a mix of poetry and rock along the US east coast. Four years later he relocated to Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. His first single, in 1979, was Boat People, a protest song about the poor treatment of the growing community of Vietnamese refugees in the city.
That same year saw the formation of Joe Dolce Music Theatre. This revue toured cabarets and pubs with various line-ups, including Dolce playing a character he called Guiseppe. Among the songs he performed was Shaddap You Face, based on his memories of childhood (‘Just about the eighth grade’), where parents and grandparents would often speak in broken English. Audiences loved the story of Guiseppe and his dreams of stardom, answering his bossy mum back with the song’s title. So much so in fact, that drunken crowds began cheering ‘Heh” inbetween each chorus line.
Shaddap You Face was recorded and released in late 1980 by Australian musician Mike Brady’s label Full Moon Records, who correctly predicted a monster hit.
Review
My opinion on Shaddap You Face is divided. Clearly, we’re not talking about high art here. Dolce’s one-hit wonder is catchy to the point of extreme irritation. The over-the-top Italian-American accent is annoying and highly cliched, annoyingly shifting between spoken word and singing, and the tune is simplistic in the extreme, never shifting a gear. In a pop climate that was about to erupt with Adam and the Ants and the New Romantics, Shaddap You Face belongs in the 70s along with other novelty number 1s like Kung Fu Fighting (which is highly superior). It’s also a good example of the UK’s obsession with distilling an entire country and its culture into a silly song. So no wonder it was huge here.
However, Dolce is rather charming, so it’s also simultaneously hard to dislike, too. The accordion adds a nice touch of authenticity, and the story the song tells is rather sweet. Grown-ups doubt loved the breezy, infectious tune, while children relished the chance of shouting ‘Ah, shaddap you face’ to their parents. As novelty number 1s go, there’s much worse out there – and how many feature an accordion solo?
The official video is filmed in a smoky club full of nonplussed people, until the end, when Dolce successfully urges the audience to shout ‘Heh’, until a weird guy in sunglasses brings proceedings to a sudden halt by throwing a pizza at the singer.
After
Shaddap You Face was massive, becoming number 1 in the UK and 11 other countries – though, perhaps surprisingly, not in the US. Whether deliberate or not, beloved DJ Terry Wogan played a part in the UK success by spinning the record on his show, proclaiming it to be the worst thing he’d ever heard. Bit rich, when you consider The Floral Dance. It kept Ultravox’s Vienna from number 1 in the UK, and became Australia’s best-selling single ever, ironically usurping UpThere Cazaly by Brady.
Dolce turned his back on comedy songs, forming several performance groups with Lin Van Hek, including Skin the Wig and Difficult Women. In 1984 the duo wrote Intimacy, which became the final track on the original soundtrack to The Terminator. Dolce also became an actor, starring in the Australian comedy Blowing Hot and Cold (1988). Since 2009 he has been a successful, award-winning poet.
The Outro
I’m very happy to report that writing this blog helped me become reacquainted with a bastardised version of Shaddap You Face, used in a 1990 advert for McCain Pizza Slices.
The Info
Written by
Joe Dolce
Producers
Joe Dolce & Ian McKenzie
Weeks at number 1
3 (21 February-13 March)
Trivia
Deaths
22 February: Olympic athlete Guy Butler 25 February: Labour politician Mary Sykes 26 February: Conservationist Robert Aickman/Actor Gerald Cross/Actor Robert Tonge 28 February: Carry On screenwriter Talbot Rothwell 1 March: Welsh Congregationalist Minister Martin Lloyd-Jones 4 March: Chess player Nancy Elder/TV producer Ian Engelmann/Actor Torin Thatcher 5 March: Artist Winifred Nicholson/Actress Totti Truman Taylor 6 March: Cricketer George Geary/Actor Garry Marsh/Motorcycle racer Roland Stobbart 8 March: Conservative MP Nigel Birch, Baron Rhyl/Biologist Joseph Henry Woodger 10 March: Composer Bill Hopkins 11 March: Intelligence chief Sir Maurice Oldfield 12 March: Newspaper proprietor William Denholm Barnetson 13 March: Writer Wrey Gardiner/Industrialist Sir Patrick Hennessy/Author Robin Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham
Meanwhile…
21 February: 30,000 people in Glasgow march in an unemployment protest.
24 February: The engagement of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer is announced.
26 February: The England cricket team withdraws from the Second Test when the Guyanese government serves a deportation order on Robin Jackman.
27 February: Two-time former Labour Prime Minister Sir Harold Wilson announces he is to retire from Parliament at the next general election. Also on this day, The Archbishop of Canterbury to view homosexuality as a handicap, not a sin. Jesus.
3 March: The first Homebase DIY and garden centre superstore opens in Croydon, Surrey.
5 March: The ZX81 (my first ever computer) is launched by Sinclair Research.
9 March: Lorry driver John Lambe is sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of 12 women. Also on the day, thousands of civil servants hold a one-day strike over pay.
