SDP

476. Roxy Music – Jealous Guy (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

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 Space Oddity. 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 More Than 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.

474. John Lennon – Woman (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

John Lennon’s tender ballad Woman was the first single released after his murder, and his third and final solo number 1. This touching tribute to his wife Yoko Ono served as a sequel of sorts to Girl, from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. Ironically, it was the first time an artist had replaced themselves at number 1 since I Want to Hold Your Hand replaced She Loves You in 1963.

Before

Only three days before he was shot dead, Lennon told Rolling Stone that he was inspired to write Woman ‘one sunny afternoon in Bermuda’. It suddenly hit him how much women are taken for granted, and Lennon – whose relationships with women were certainly complex, right back to his feelings for his mother – decided to pay tribute to Ono. Ironically, considering the blame Ono wrongly got for breaking up his old band, he considered Woman the most Beatles-sounding track on his final album, Double Fantasy. This track is also the only example of a song title used by both Lennon and Paul McCartney for their own separate songs. McCartney’s Woman, written in 1966 under the pseudonym Bernard Webb, was recorded by folk duo Peter and Gordon.

Lennon’s Woman was recorded at sessions on 5 and 27 August, and 8 and 22 September 1980. In addition to lead vocal, he also played an acoustic guitar. Joining him were Earl Slick and Hugh McCracken on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, George Small on piano and synthesiser, Andy Newmark on drums, Arthur Jenkins on percussion, and Michelle Simpson, Ritchie Family members Cassandra Wooten and Cheryl Mason Jacks, and Eric Troyer on backing vocals.

Review

Woman was the highlight of Double Fantasy. The LP is often guilty of being too slick, but the glossy production works in favour of this track, rather than against it. Although Lennon considered it a sequel to Girl, it’s lyrically similar to Jealous Guy. He’s directly apologising to Ono again for past behaviour (perhaps the ‘Lost Weekend’?), but also paying tribute to all women. It would be nice to think, after the stories of his sometimes violent history with women, that this was Lennon at his most honest and contrite.

Opening with a barely audible ‘For the other half of the sky’, there’s sterling synth work from Small, and warm Beatles-like guitar from Slick and McCracken. Somehow, despite the sheen, the swooning backing vocals, and the lack of decent lyrics in the chorus, it’s lovely and really charming. And inevitably, this single gained huge added poignancy following Lennon’s death. A fitting Valentine’s Day number 1, indeed.

But what was going on with that chorus? ‘Ooooh, well well, do-do-do-do-do’ was surely a placeholder that Lennon and Ono decided to leave in? And they say McCartney missed Lennon’s quality control…

Speaking of quality control, I have to mention the official video to Woman. I’m in genuine shock. Ono edited the video in January, and understandably, she will have been in pieces. However, the video veers from touching, with footage of the couple in Central Park two months previous, to poor taste, including the pic of Lennon and his killer, lifted from a newspaper. But what’s really shocking is the image of Lennon’s side profile from the back of the Imagine album, made to morph into the last ever photo of Lennon – in the morgue. Unbelievably, this remains in the official video on YouTube.

After

Woman was the last solo number 1 for John Lennon. However, the outpouring of emotion after his death resulted in Roxy Music’s cover of Jealous Guy knocking Joe Dolce Music Theatre from the top spot. Inevitably, people moved on from their grief, and the next single, Watching the Wheels, only peaked at 30.

Three years later, Ono was finally able to work on Milk and Honey, which was the couple’s next projected LP. Lennon’s work was inevitably a little rough and ready as it had been tragically left unfinished, but Nobody Told Me – originally meant for Ringo Starr – was a number six hit. The follow-up, Borrowed Time, was his last original charting single, making it to 32.

Reissues of Jealous Guy and Imagine failed to reach the top 40 in the 80s, but in the 90s the legend of The Beatles grew in stature once more, thanks in part to Britpop and a newfound appreciation of 60s guitar groups. This coincided with the Anthology project, where Lennon’s 1977 demo of Free as a Bird, and 1979 home recording of Real Love, were transformed into ‘new’ Beatles recordings, courtesy of the surviving members and producer Jeff Lynne. Amazingly, neither went to number 1.

In 2010 a new ‘Stripped Down’ version of Double Fantasy was released. The aim was to remove some of the studio gloss of the original album, and sometimes this worked well. Not with Woman. Part of this song’s appeal was in the production. The 2010 version, shorn of sheen, simply sounded like a demo, not a remix. However, it’s noteworthy that you can hear Lennon drawing his breath in at the close, seemingly a deliberate nod to Girl.

Thanks to AI sound-limiting technology used in Peter Jackson’s excellent Get Back project, McCartney finally felt he could finish Now and Then, the Lennon demo from around 1977 that had been started for Anthology 3 before Harrison refused to continue. Hearing Lennon’s voice, shorn of rough-and-ready ghostly tape echo a la those Anthology 1 and 2 songs, was a beautiful, spine-chilling moment. In 2023, 54 years after The Ballad of John and Yoko, The Beatles were back at number 1.

The Outro

For many years, Lennon’s many flaws (and to be fair, he was very vocal about his failings in his lifetime) were forgotten and because his life was cut tragically short, he became a bona fide icon. A Godlike figure, who age did not dull. The cool, edgy Beatle – which understandably irked McCartney to a degree.

But Lennon’s stature has fallen somewhat in today’s cancel culture. McCartney is often now considered the cool one, his family focused lifestyle now attracting plaudits where he was once laughed at. Lennon may very well have been a nightmare in the age of social media, and his musical comeback may have soon resulted in bland MOR pop (the signs were certainly there in some of Double Fantasy).

However, the truth is more complex than that. Lennon was a troubled man and also one of the greatest singer-songwriters there has ever been – anyone arguing he is the greatest would have a very good argument. The extent to which he was mourned when he passed, and his influence on the era’s number 1s, is more than justified.

The Info

Written by

John Lennon

Producers

John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Jack Douglas

Weeks at number 1

2 (7-20 February)

Trivia

Births

8 February: Actor Ralf Little
9 February: Actor Tom Hiddleston
10 February: TV presenter Holly Willoughby
17 February: Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson

Deaths

10 February: Civil engineer Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith
12 February: Tennis player Murray Deloford
13 February: Writer Eric Whelpton
17 February: David Garnett
18 February: Comic impressionist Peter Cavanagh
19 February: Actress Olive Gilbert/Conservative MP Leonard Plugge
20 February: Cricketer Brian Sellers

Meanwhile…

9 February: Shirley Williams resigns from Labour’s national executive committee. 

12 February: The purchase of The Times and Sunday Times newspapers by Rupert Murdoch from The Thomson Corporation is confirmed.
Also on this day, Ian Paisley is suspended from the House of Commons for four days after he calls the Northern Ireland Secretary a liar.

13 February: The National Coal Board announces widespread pit closures.

15 February: For the first time, Football League matches take place on a Sunday.

16 February: Two are jailed in connection with the death of industrialist Thomas Niedermayer who had been kidnapped by the Provisional IRA in 1973.

18 February: The Conservative government withdraws plans to close 23 mines following negotiations with the National Union of Mineworkers.
Also on this day, Harold Evans is appointed editor of The Times.

20 February: Peter Sutcliffe is charged with the murder of 13 women.

473. John Lennon – Imagine (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

It may have been a new year, but the world was still reeling from the death of John Lennon. Though he was knocked from the top spot by the sickly There’s No One Quite Like Grandma, once the holiday season was over, the public saw sense. One of Lennon’s finest songs, and his biggest seller, the stately Imagine made for a fitting epitaph.

Before

After undergoing primal therapy, the stark, cathartic album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band saw the singer deal with the demise of The Beatles and the childhood trauma of losing his mother when he was a child. It doesn’t get much bleaker than the one-two punch of God and My Mummy’s Dead at the end of that LP, released in 1970.

Lennon started 1971 with a strong political statement. Power to the People saw him reference his non-confrontational approach in Revolution and turn it on its head, urging the public to rise up. Such grand statements didn’t help him appeal to the already paranoid US president, Richard Nixon. But it was a hit, reaching seven in the UK charts.

Work began on Lennon’s second solo album in May. After jamming with George Harrison in New York, the guitarist agreed to be on board for the sessions, and invited Klaus Voorman along too, to resume bass playing duties after his work on the previous LP.

The sessions properly started on 11 May at Lennon’s Ascot Sound Studios at his Tittenhurst Park residence (several tracks had however already been recorded back in February). Phil Spector was back on board as producer after barely being involved in his last album, despite his credit. Lennon wanted a less brittle sound than before, adding strings to the mix and hoping for greater commercial appeal. This might have been partly down to the ensuing war with his former songwriting partner. Lennon perceived Too Many People on Paul McCartney’s album Ram to be a personal attack on him, and so wrote the nasty How Do You Sleep? in response. So, this new album wasn’t exactly smothered in commercial appeal – but it was certainly warmer in general than John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, thanks in part to Torrie Zito’s strings. And of course, because of the title track.

Imagine was inspired in part by Yoko Ono’s 1964 book Grapefruit, particularly the poem Cloud Piece, which featured the words ‘Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in’ – that made it to the back of Imagine‘s sleeve. Another inspiration was – ironically, considering the line ‘And no religion, too’ a Christian prayer book, given to Lennon and Ono by the comedian Dick Gregory. Lennon also once compared Imagine to The Communist Manifesto.

Perhaps with the musical motif John’s Piano Piece (created during the sessions for Let It Be in 1969) in mind, Lennon finished creating the most of Imagine – both musically and lyrically – in early 1971 at a piano in one of his Tittenhurst bedrooms, while Ono watched on.

The recording of Imagine began late in the morning on 27 May and finished that evening at Ascot Sound Studios. Initially, Spector had tried to record Lennon on his famous white baby grand in his and Ono’s all-white room, but wasn’t happy with the acoustics. He also had session pianist extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins playing along with Lennon but in different octaves. With Voorman on bass and Alan White on drums, Imagine only took three takes in the end. Zito’s strings, performed by The Flux Fiddlers, were overdubbed on 4 July at The Record Plant in New York City.

Review

Where do you start with one of the most famous songs of all time? The reputation of Imagine is so huge, it’s like writing about an ancient hymn. So it came as some surprise to discover it wasn’t even released as a single in the UK until 1975. Why that is the case, I don’t know.

I do know that, in part due to the formidable power of Imagine through the decades, there has also been considerable criticism aimed at the song. Mainly due to the idea that we should imagine no possessions when the man suggesting we do that is a very, very rich man. I don’t think that’s fair, however. Lennon isn’t being hypocritical. As Ringo Starr suggested in a 1981 Barbara Walters interview, Lennon isn’t telling us to give up our possessions. He’s simply asking us to imagine it. Yes, that might make for a convenient get-out clause for the ‘working class hero’, and I can understand the critics who complain that Imagine is trite. And yet, despite being more of a cynic than a dreamer, I buy into it. Imagine is aimed at all the dreamers, the people longing for a better world. The idea that the world Lennon asks us to imagine could be real was out of reach in 1971. In 2024, it’s even harder to picture. But, if you’re still a child at heart or there’s even an element of hippy longing inside you, the chances are you love Imagine.

Musically, Imagine is just as simple as the idealistic world Lennon conjures up – and again, that’s part of its mass appeal. And as prone to overproduction (not as important as him also being a total psychopath, of course) as he was, his work on Imagine is perfect. The piano reverb is warm and enveloping, wrapping you up in the cotton wool of a world with no hell, nothing to kill or die for – a world of peace. The strings are uncharacteristically subtle for a Spector production, and so much better for it.

So, although overfamiliarity breeds contempt and the simplistic world view (ironic considering what a cynic Lennon was) of Imagine understandably rubs some up the wrong way, I could and probably have heard Lennon’s signature solo song a million times, and will hear a million more. But I’ll never tire of it. And if, for all his flaws, Lennon is known for Imagine, well, it does him no harm.

After

Imagine was released as a single in the US in October 1971, where it reached number three. It topped the Canadian charts, and in time became his bestselling solo record. The accompanying album, also released that October in the UK, was also the most commercially and critically successful post-Beatles LP.

The following year, Lennon and Ono released a film of the same name. Its opening scene is now recognised as the official music video for the song, with the couple walking through fog as the piano begins. They enter an all-white room, where Lennon plays his white piano, and as the song progresses, Ono lets light into the room – to the consternation of critics who find it sadly ironic that Lennon is singing of no possessions just as Ono shows how wealthy they were. Four years after the creation of Imagine, the single, housed in a photo by then-girlfriend May Pang in 1974, was finally released in the UK to promote his compilation Shaved Fish. Possibly due to most fans already owning the Imagine album, it only made it to number six.

Following Lennon’s murder in 1980, it was the 1975 single that climbed the charts in January 1981 and became his second posthumous number 1, after (Just Like) Starting Over. The single was re-released in 1988 to accompany the documentary film John Lennon: Imagine, but missed out on the top 40. In 1999 Imagine reached number three.

The Outro

One of the most famous pop songs of all time, Imagine has been covered countless times. Probably the worst version is the widely ridiculed 2020 celebrity version, headed up by actress Gail Gadot during the initial COVID-19 lockdown. It is pure torture.

The Info

Written by

John Lennon

Producers

John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Phil Spector

Weeks at number 1

4 (10 January-6 February)

Trivia

Births

11 January: Singer Jamelia/Kasabian singer Tom Meighan
19 January: Actress Thalia Zucchi
22 January: Footballer Richard Butcher/Rally driver Guy Wilks
25 January: Rower Alex Partridge
29 January: Actress Rachna Khatau
30 January: Footballer Peter Crouch
31 January: Reality TV star Gemma Collins
1 February: Racing driver Rob Austin

Deaths

11 January: Labour MP Malcolm MacDonald
12 January: Actress Isobel Elsom/Labour MP Joseph Sparks
15 January: Racing driver Graham Whitehead
16 January: Actor Bernard Lee
18 January: Engineer David Stirling Anderson
19 January: Boxer Eric Boon/Geologist William John McCallien
20 January: Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Derick Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Viscount Amory
21 January: Racing driver Cuth Harrison/Welsh poet BT Hopkins/Ulster Unionist Party MP James Stronge (see ‘Meanwhile…’)/Ulster Unionist Party MP Sir Norman Stronge, 8th Baronet (see ‘Meanwhile…’)/Jockey Tommy Weston
22 January: Artist Gladys Vasey
23 January: Economist Sir Andrew Shonfield
27 January: Screenwriter Roger Burford/Landscape architect Brenda Colvin/Lawyer Cecil Davidge
29 January: Aviator John Cecil Kelly-Rogers
2 February: Cricketer Jack Parsons
4 February: Tennis player Joan Ingram/Neurologist Douglas McAlpine
6 February: Cricketer Gilbert Ashton

Meanwhile…

13 January: The prison officers’ overtime ban comes to an end.

14 January: The British Nationality Bill is published.

16 January: Northern Ireland civil rights campaigner and former MP Bernadette McAliskey is shot at home in County Tyrone.
Also on this day, 78% of British Steel Corporation workers vote in favour of their chairman’s ‘survival’ plan.

18 January: 10 people were killed in the New Cross house fire. Three more died in hospital.

21 January: Sir Norman Stronge and his son James, both former Stormont MPs, are killed by the IRA.

22 January: Australian mogul Rupert Murdoch agrees to buy The Times newspaper if an agreement can be reached with the unions.

25 January: Four right-wing Labour MPs: Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, Bill Rodgers and David Owen – dubbed the ‘Gang of Four’ announce The Limehouse Declaration, in which they reveal plans to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

26 January: Nine more Labour MPs declare support for the SDP.
Also on this day, Secretary of State for Industry Sir Keith Joseph announces more financial support for British Leyland.

27 January: Tony Benn replaces Bill Rodgers in the Labour Shadow Cabinet.

28 January: Sir Hugh Fraser is removed as the Chairman of the House of Fraser.
Also on this day, damage is caused in cells at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland.

2 February: The Brixton prison escape is released, resulting in the Governor being transferred to an administrative post.

4 February: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announces the Government is to sell half its shares in British Aerospace.

6 February: The coal ship Nellie M is bombed and sunk by an IRA unit driving a hijacked pilot boat in Lough Foyle.
Also on this day, the Government drops two controversial clauses of the Nationality Bill.