New wave - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

In 1979, anything seemed possible in pop. Need proof? How about outsider misfits Ian Dury and The Blockheads scoring a number 1 with the new wave classic Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick?

Before

Frontman Ian Robins Dury was born 12 May 1942 in Harrow Weald, Middlesex. His father William was absent for long periods, so mother Peggy took him to live with her parents in Cornwall. After the Second World War the Durys moved to Switzerland, where William chauffeured for a millionaire. In 1946 the family went to live in Essex with her sister, but WIlliam remained.

At the age of seven Dury contracted polio, which he believed he caught in a swimming pool during the 1949 epidemic. In and out of hospital for two years, the illness resulted in the paralysis and withering of his left leg, shoulder and arm. He went to Chailey Heritage Craft School in East Sussex, which also served as a hospital. Children were taught to toughen up and learn a trade but his mother wanted Dury to be more academic so he switched to the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, then aged 16, the Walthamstow College of Art. In 1967 he served under pop artist Peter Blake, who that year co-designed the legendary album sleeve for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In 1970, while occasionally painting illustrations for The Sunday Times, Dury formed the pub rock band Kilburn and the High Roads. In 1974 they signed to Dawn Records and recorded two albums, for which he sang and wrote lyrics. Despite a support slot with The Who, they disbanded in 1975.

Meanwhile, in 1974 pop group The Loving Awareness Band formed, releasing only one album in 1976. In 1977 they split and its bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Charlie Charles joined Dury and pianist/guitarist Chaz Jankel in their new band. An LP was recorded but they struggled to find a record label, perhaps in part due to Dury’s unique and unusual appearance.

Eventually however they found a home with the independent label Stiff Records. Their first release, credited to Dury alone, was Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, which was a critical success and became a slogan in itself. The album New Boots and Panties!! followed and although sales were modest at first, it’s now regarded as perhaps his finest work, including fan favourites like Billericay Dickie.

Watt-Roy and Charles’ former bandmates, guitarist John Turnbull and keyboardist Mick Gallagher, joined the line-up, as did former Kilburn and the High Roads saxophonist Davey Payne, who had played on New Boots and Panties!!. Inspired by the name of a song from the album, they became Ian Dury and The Blockheads when the next single Sweet Gene Vincent was released. Their next single, another fan favourite, was What a Waste, became their first hit when it peaked at nine in 1978. New wave was becoming increasingly popular, and this was the year of its first chart-topper, Rat Trap.

According to Jankel, who co-wrote the track, Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick was written in Rolvenden, Kent during a jam session between him and Dury. The tune was apparently inspired by a piano part on Wake Up and Make Love with Me, the opener on New Boots and Panties!!. Dury once claimed the lyrics had been written three years previous and after his death a typed manuscript from 1976 showed the lyrics, nearly fully formed, along with ideas for the music (‘drums and fuzz bass doing Roy Buchanan volume trick’). His daughter Jemima said he was working on the track as early as 1974.

The track was recorded in the Workhouse Studio on Old Kent Road in London. Unusually, an uncredited Laurie Latham produced it by recording The Blockheads live, situated in different places around the studio, with Dury sat in the centre. There were allegedly 28 takes recorded, but it was the second that was selected. Despite this, Latham was unhappy with the finished result. He was unhappy that Watt-Roy’s bass wasn’t loud enough. It’s hard to disagree, as that bassline is amazing and certainly one of the highlights. He was also unhappy with the vocal and piano, and he has a point that the piano does drop out just before the final verse. To my ears though, this kind of adds to the song’s unique power. Jankel was far more happy with the recoding. After they finished, he rang his mother to tell her he’d just recorded his first number 1.

Review

I’d argue that Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick is one of the coolest chart-toppers of all time, certainly up to this point. There’s so much to love about it – the aforementioned bassline (how is he playing that?), the ultra-catchy rollicking piano from Jankel, the way it turns from rock’n’roll and blues into cosmic funk, with Payne playing two saxophones at once, and of course Dury’s gravelly, occasionally unhinged performance of childlike lyrics that – and this has genuinely only just occurred to me – refer to sex. It is odd how his delivery seems more restrained after the funk section… or is it just because that stands out so much? Here’s a track I’ll never tire of hearing.

The video has left a lasting impression on me too. It was directed by Laurie Lewis, an old art school friend of Dury’s, who filmed the band performing the track on stage. It has an unreal, disturbing quality, and as a child I was at once frightened and entranced by Dury.

On 27 January, Turnbull, Watt-Roy and Charles were sat outside a cinema listening to a car radio when they heard the news they had toppled the Village People from the top spot. Dury was on a beach in Cannes when hotel staff gave him the news and brought him a bottle of champagne. To celebrate, the whole band bought Moss Bros suits for their Top of the Pops performance. Dury normally bought his whole wardrobe bar footwear and underwear second hand (hence his debut LP’s title). It started to look as though the record may sell a million, and Stiff announced that whoever the millionth buyer was, they would receive a mystery prize. Sales stalled however and it didn’t sell a million until downloads were counted towards sales. Nobody received a prize.

After

The group followed this up with the first LP credited to The Blockheads as well as Dury – Do It Yourself. They didn’t like to include singles on their albums, with neither their number 1 nor number three follow-up, Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3, featuring. The latter track is also excellent and among their best.

Jankel and Dury’s relationship had begun to sour, and the former left The Blockheads in 1980. Former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson replaced him for the recording of the album Laughter. The single I Want to Be Straight, also released that year, was their final charting single, at 22. The next, Sueperman’s Big Sister, was their last. Dury was drinking heavily, and it was taking its toll.

In 1981 Dury teamed up with Jankel and reggae duo Sly and robbie to record his second solo album Lord Upminster. It was poorly received, though it did include the controversial Spasticus Autisticus, which went from being banned by the BBC to being performed at the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. It’s a shame Dury wasn’t around to see it. Around this time, Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to write the libretto for Cats. He refused, later saying, ‘I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. He’s a wanker isn’t he?’.

Dury signed a solo deal with Polydor and The Blockheads disbanded. He instead recorded with the jazz-influenced Music Students, and his commercial and critical appeal floundered upon the release of their 1984 album 4,000 Weeks’ Holiday. They did however record the memorable Profoundly In Love with Pandora, the theme to ITV’s 1985 adaptation of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4. Also that year, fellow number 1 artist Paul Hardcastle remixed Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, re-recording all the instrumental parts with keyboards.

Dury had tons of natural charisma, making it inevitable that he would make the move into acting. In 1986 he had a cameo in Roman Polanski’s Pirates and his most notable role was in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover in 1989. He also, despite his hatred of Lloyd Webber, wrote a musical, called Apples with an accompanying album released that same year.

Ian Dury and The Blockheads briefly reformed for a tour of Japan in 1987. Three years later they got together again to play two benefit concerts for the family of Charles, who had died of cancer. Steven Monti replaced him on drums. That December, with Merlin Rhys-Jones augmenting them on guitar and Will Parnell on percussion, they recorded a live album, Warts & Audience. They toured Spain, minus Jankel, the following month.

In 1992 Dury released his seventh solo LP, The Bus Driver’s Prayer & Other Stories. It featured all The Blockheads minus Watt-Roy. Jankel returned from California in 1994 when Ian Dury and The Blockheads were invited to reform for Madness’s festival Madstock at Finsbury Park – the perfect warm-up act for the Nutty Boys. Sporadic gigs followed.

The Outro

In 1996 Dury was diagnosed with cancer. After recovering from an operation, he reunited with The Blockheads to record their first album since Laughter in 1980. Mr Love Pants, released in 1997, was considered a return to form. It was to be their final album. Monti was replaced soon after by Dylan Howe and Payne left soon after, with Gilad Atzmon becoming their new saxophonist.

Sadly this line-up was cut short when Dury died of cancer on 27 March 2000, aged 57. A true original, Dury was a giant of new wave but refused to be pigeonholed and is sadly missed. But thankfully, you can hear his influence in the music of his son Baxter Dury, and The Blockheads continue to perform. These days, Jankel, Watt-Roy, Gallagher, Turnbull and Atzmon perform with John Roberts on drums. Dave Lewis also appears on sax, and Dury’s friend and minder Derek the Draw writes and sings alongside Jankel.

The Info

Written by

Ian Dury & Chaz Jankel

Producer

Laurie Latham

Weeks at number 1

1 (27 January-2 February)

Births

27 January: Actress Rosamund Pike

Deaths

2 February: Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (see Meanwhile…)

Meanwhile…

1 February: Liverpool grave-diggers call off a strike which has delayed dozens of burials.

2 February: Simon John Ritchie, aka Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, is found dead in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, having suffocated on his own vomit after a heroin overdose. Vicious was on bail for the second degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, who had been found stabbed to death on 12 October 1978.

The Intro

After a total of 16 weeks at the top of the charts in 1978, suddenly John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were served notice. In a real changing of the guard moment, The Boomtown Rats became the first new wave act (and first Irish band) to have a number 1. They commemorated this on Top of the Pops (as seen below) by yawning and ripping up photos of Travolta. Enough of the 50s revival – the groundwork laid by punk finally paid off with Rat Trap.

Before

So what actually is new wave? It’s not as straightforward as explaining psychedelia or punk. It’s basically used as a loose term to describe what punk evolved into. However it dates back to before then.

Music critics like Nick Kent were using it as early as 1973 to describe acts including The Velvet Underground and New York Dolls. Other US acts that came later, including Blondie and Talking Heads, have little to do with punk but are certainly described as new wave.

To me, new wave is an effective way of describing the new underground (soon to turn mainstream) pop acts that wanted to shake up the staid pop scene of the mid- to-late-70s. Not as stylised as punk, they often came from pub-rock acts that brought some much-needed excitement to music.

It’s interesting to note that often decades are said to not ‘begin’ until several years after they have, ie, the 60s started with The Beatles in 1963, the 70s began with glam in 1973. If so, you could argue the 80s began several years early thanks to new wave. There’s certainly a very welcome injection of excitement and quality in the number 1s I’ll be reviewing from here on in for some time to come. Even as early as 1978 though, some bands didn’t like being referred to as new wave. XTC’s single This Is Pop took aim at the concept – to singer-songwriter Andy Partridge, his group were simply a new pop band.

The Boomtown Rats began as The Nightlife Thugs in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin in 1975. Guitarist Garry Roberts and keyboardist Johnnie Fingers had decided to form a band and recruited Bob Geldof, a former New Musical Express journalist, as singer, plus bassist Pete Briquette, guitarist Gerry Cott and drummer Simon Crowe. Roberts hated their name and threatened to resign unless they changed it. Geldof came up with the name that stuck – he’d been reading Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory, in which Guthrie mentioned a gang of children called The Boomtown Rats.

The Irish music scene was moribund at the time and The Boomtown Rats shook things up with exciting performances of covers by The Who, Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones. Thanks in part to Geldof’s media contacts, by the summer of 1976 the band were performing in the UK and were signed to Ensign Records soon after.

In August 1977 The Boomtown Rats released debut single Lookin’ After No. 1 and they were an instant hit. It reached two in Ireland and 11 in the UK. A month later came their eponymous debut album, which also spawned Mary of the 4th Form. It peaked at 15 here. The Rats transformed from a pub rock band to one heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen thanks to Geldof’s songwriting. And it’s worth noting that their producer was a young Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange – future husband of Shania Twain. Producing The Boomtown Rats was his first taste of success, with much more to come.

Second album A Tonic for the Troops came out in 1978 and they continued to do well, with She’s So Modern reaching 12 and Like Clockwork made it to six. Which left one more single to come.

Review

Despite the importance of Rat Trap as a sign of pop morphing once more into something new, it’s rather forgotten about. Obviously, Geldof’s later career as one of the men behind Band Aid/Live Aid has overshadowed anything The Boomtown Rats did but I Don’t Like Mondays is much better remembered than this track. And I can kind of see why.

While listening for research it occurred to me the only thing that’s ever stuck with me from this song (and I can imagine it’s the case with everyone else) is the sax refrain, played by Alan Holmes. It’s a great opening, before the song settles down and starts to sound rather similar to Squeeze’s Cool for Cats, also recorded in 1978.

Rat Trap is the tale of bored teenagers Billy and Judy and the track is clearly indebted to Bruce Springsteen both lyrically and sonically. Billy and Judy are bored of their lives and longing for escape. It’s epic in scale and you could also argue it’s progressive rock in the way it changes tack into several different sections. Yet I guess the main difference is the simplicity of the different parts and the youthful energy is more indebted to punk than prog. Scanning the lyrics, there’s some great stuff, especially in the second verse:

‘Billy don’t like it living here in this town,
He says the traps have been sprung long before he was born,
He says “Hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors,
And pus and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores”

And yet, yes I can think of a fair few new wave songs from around this time that might have been more deserved than Rat Trap. I’ve listened to it again several times and it’s one to admire and interest rather than really love. It was perhaps a case of ‘right place, right time’, with young record buyers deciding enough was enough and deciding to get behind anything that could get rid of that bloody Grease film.

The Outro

The video featured The Rats reading Rat Trap by Craig Thomas, which didn’t actually have any link to the song other than its name. It was directed by up-and-coming filmmaker David Mallett. In 1978 he made this, Bicycle Race by Queen and Blondie’s Hanging on the Telephone. Over the next few years he made some of the most imaginative videos for some of the greatest pop of the era, particularly with his work for David Bowie. We’ll be hearing more from those two.

The Info

Written by

Bob Geldof

Producer

Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange

Weeks at number 1

2 (18 November-1 December)

Meanwhile…

20 November: Buckingham Palace announces Prince Andrew is joining the Royal Navy.

23 November: Birmingham nightclub Pollyanna’s lifts its ban on black and Chinese revellers, after a one-year investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality concluded the nightclub’s entry policy was racist.

29 November: 22-year-old Nottingham Forest defender Viv Anderson becomes England’s first black international footballer, appearing in their 1–0 friendly win over Czechoslovakia at Wembley Stadium. Six months previous he had become the first black player to feature in an English league championship winning team and was also on the winning side in the Football League Cup final. And yet here I am 43 years later writing in a week in which several black England players were bombarded with racist messages after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final.

30 November: An industrial dispute closes down The Times newspaper until 12 November 1979.