593 Hello The Wedding Present - Nobody's Twisting Your Arm

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Chart entered : 5  March  1988

Chart  peak :  46

Number  of  hits : 25

These  guys  could  have  been  the  next  Smiths  but  chose  to  be  another  Fall  and  did  more  than  most  to  undermine  the  charts  in  the  process. Though  not  the  first  to  make  the  charts , they  are  the  first  of  only  two  bands  featured  on  the  C86  cassette  to  qualify  here.

The  band  was  formed  in  Leeds in  1985  from  the  collapse  of  an  earlier  band, The  Lost  Pandas. Vocalist  David  Gedge  and  bassist  Keith  Gregory  decided  to  continue  working  together  and  formed  The  Wedding  Present, the  name  a  homage  to  Nick  Cave's  Birthday  Party. They  recruited  an  ex-schoolmate  Pete  Solowka  as  guitarist  and    drummer  Shaun  Charman  came  through  auditions.

After  tenacious  gigging  around  Leeds, the band  managed  to  self-finance  their  debut  single  "Go  Out  and  Get  'Em  Boy"  on  City  Slang  Records  in  early  1985. By  the  time  it  had  sold  out  is  initial  pressing  they  had  set  up  their  own  label  Reception  Records  with  distribution  through  Red Rhino. The  single  was  reissued  in  May. It  set  the  template  of  ultra-fast  guitar abuse  by  Pete  against  David'  blunt  and  flat  Yorkshire  vocals. The  song  is  a  reproach  to  a  squaddie . There  are  hints  of  Orange  Juice  and  the  Banshees  in the  musical  mix  but  it  sounds  like  early  Joy  Division  more  than  anyone  else.

The  next  single,  "Once  |More"  the  following  year,  was  better  produced  with  cleaner  guitar  lines, a  bit  like  Altered  Images  but  played  at  breakneck  pace. It sounds  like  a  plea  from  a career  criminal  to  be  allowed  to  continue  his  activities  and  when  you  consider  where  the  band  come  from  it  may  be  they  had  one  notorious  criminal  in  mind. The third  single  "This  Boy  Can  Wait"  moves  further  towards  the  mainstream  with  Keith's  melodic  bass  line although  it's  comparatively  slight  lyrically.

The  band  had  now  come  within  Peel's  radar  and  did  a  session  for  him  which  was  almost  immediately  released  on  vinyl  as  one  of  the  first  issues  on his  new  Strange  Fruit  label  in  1986.

With  their  profile  increasing  the  band  set  to  work  on  their  debut  album , "George  Best"  , a  strange  choice  of  title  for  a  band  from  Leeds, why  not  Billy  Bremner  or  Eddie  Gray  ( managing  Rochdale  at  the time ) ?   I  can  only  give  it  a  qualified  thumb's  up. David  definitely  has  a  good  ear  for  the  idioms  of  proletarian  romance - it's  difficult  to  think  of  anyone  else  who'd  title  a  song  "Give  My  Love  To  Kevin"  for  instance  - but  his  unmelodious   voice   grates  at   not  much  over  a  single's  length. It's  telling  that  the  best  track  "Everyone  Thinks  He's  Looks  Daft" , a  sharply  observed  take  on  futilely  abusing  your  ex's  new  partner, is  the  one  where  he's  accompanied  by  Talula  Gosh  singer,  Amelia  Fletcher.. Similarly,  Pete  is  no  Johnny  Marr  and  although  there's  one  or  two  decent  riffs,  he's  not  got  nearly  enough  ideas  for  a  whole  album. Shaun's  pedestrian  drumming  doesn't  help  either. The  album  contained  their  two  most  recent  singles  "My  Favourite  Dress"  and  "Anyone  Can  Make  A  Mistake"  and  although  neither  troubled  the charts,  the  album  made  a  very  respectable  showing  at  number  47.  Now  the  major  labels  were  interested  in  signing  them  but  the  band  decided  to  remain  independent  for  the  time  being.

"Nobody's  Twisting  Your  Arm" was  their  next  recording. Within  their  particular  sonic  limitations,  it's  a  good  track  with  Keith  providing  some  melodic  bass  work  on  which  to  hang  the  song  and  Pete  placing  a  bright  top  line  riff  over  the  usual  jangle. Dave  comes  up  with  a  good  lyric  from  the  POV  of  a  loyal  boyfriend  fed  up  of  having  his  trust  abused. Fletcher  pops  up  to  again  sugar  the  pill  and  it's  a  shame it  couldn't  quite  get  in  the  Top  40. In  fact  it  set  the  pattern  for  most  of  their  singles   by  dropping  from  its  entry  position  and not  hanging  around.

592 Hello Richard Marx - Should've Known Better

Chart  entered : 27  February  1988

Chart  peak : 50

Number  of  hits : 15

I've  never  seen  the  late  eighties / early  nineties  as a  golden  age. For all  the  excitement  around  acid  house, Madchester  and  grunge, you  also  had  some  utter  mediocrities  managing  to  rack  up  a  fair  number  of  hits  and  here's  one  of  them.

Richard  was  born  in  Chicago  in  1963. His  father  composed  advertising  jingles  and  Richard  started  singing  on  them  from  the  age  of  5. As  a  teen  he  sent  out  demo  tapes  and  somehow  attracted  the  attention  of  Lionel  Ritchie  who  invited  him  down  to  L.A. Richard  sang  backing  vocals  on  Ritchie's  first  two  solo  albums  including  the  mega-selling  Can't  Slow  Down. He   subsequently  provided  backing  vocals  for  Madonna  and  Whitney  Houston. In  1984  he  was  hired  by  Kenny  Rogers  and  took  the  opportunity  to  offer  him  a  couple  of  songs. He  wrote  Rogers' s  1984 US  hit  Crazy. After  that,  he  started  working  for  producer  David  Foster  and  provided  songs  for  Chicago  and  Freddie  Jackson. His  persistence  in  hawking  his  own  demo  tapes  finally  paid  off  when  he  signed  with  Manhattan / EMI  in  1987.

Richard  went  into  the  studio  to  record  his  debut  album  with  help  from  The  Tubes; Fee  Waybill  and  Joe  Walsh, Randy  Meisner and  Timothy  B  Schmidt  from  Eagles. Their  influence  is  all  over  the  first  single    "Don't  Mean  Nothin' ", and  not  just  in  Joe's  slide  guitar  solo . Richard  himself  said  he  thought  it  could  be  slipped on  to  The  Long  Run  and  he's  not  kidding. It's  competent  AOR  rock  but  there's  something  profoundly  depressing  about  a  24  year  old  guy  trying  to  recreate  the  sound  of  a  nine  year  old  album. It  didn't  do  anything  here but  got  to  number  3  in  the  U.S.

"Should've  Known  Better ", the  next  single,  is   particularly  infuriating  because  it's  such  an  obvious  rip-off  of  one  of  the  eighties'  best  singles, Don  Henley's  The  Boys  of  Summer . It's  all  there ,  the  same  tempo, upfront  drum  track, plaintive  vocal  and  very  similar  guitar  work  in  the  middle  eight. However, Richard  doesn't  attempt  to  replicate  Henley's  exquisite  lyric  about  baby  boomer  disillusionment  - probably  he  didn't  understand  it  - and  instead  serves  up  a  string  of  cliches as  he  reproaches  a  lost  love . It's  unbearable  and  I'm  going  to  have  to  run  to "the  original"  to  wash  out  the  taste.  

591 Hello Morrissey solo - Suedehead

Chart  entered :  27  February  1988

Chart  peak : 5

Number  of  hits : 38

Easy  post  this  one  as  I've  covered  the  beginning  of  Stephen  Patrick's  solo  career  here.

590 Hello Coldcut and Yazz * - Doctorin' the House

( * as  Coldcut  featuring  Yazz  and  the  Plastic  Population )

Chart  entered :  20  February  1988

Chart  peak : 6

Number  of  hits :  Coldcut  11 , Yazz  12

Two  qualifying  acts  for  the  price  of  one  on  this  single  which  furthered  the  dance  invasion.

Coldcut  are  a  duo. Computer  operator  Matt  Black  and  ex-art  teacher  Jonathan  More  met  at  Reckless  Records  in  London  where  Jonathan  worked. He  was  also  a  DJ  on  pirate  radio  playing  rare  soul  and  funk  records  and  drew  Matt  into  his  world.

Their  first  collaboration  in  1987  was  a  white  label  release  "Say  Kids  What  Time  Is  It ?"  a  record  entirely  constructed  around  samples, the   primary  ones  being  the  song  "King  of  the  Swingers"  from  The  Jungle  Book.  and  James  Brown's  Funky  Drummer. It  sounds   like  a  complete  dog's  dinner  to  me  but  was  popular  in  the  clubs  and  put  the  duo's  name  on  the  map. The  title  sample, from  the  kid's  TV  show  Howdy  Doody , was  re-used  by  M/A/R/R/S  in  Pump  Up  The  Volume.  The  duo,  who  previously  had  separate  shows  on  Kiss  FM, joined  forces  on  the  influential  show, Solid  Steel.

They  re-christened  their  partnership  as  "Coldcut"  and  started  their  own  label,  self-consciously  named  Ahead  of  Our  Time"  to  release  their  next  single  "Beats  And  Pieces"  which  sounds   like  more  of  the  same  to  me  if  a  bit   less  cluttered.

They  scored  their  first  hit  as  producers  - though  of  course  the  distinction  between   producer  and  performer  was  blurring- with  a  re-mix  of  Eric  B  &  Rakim's  rap  track  Paid  in  Full  which  reached  number  15  in  the  UK  in  November  1987.

For  their  next  single  they  hired  mixed  race singer  Yazz  to  lay  down  some  original  vocals. Yazz  was  born  Yasmin  Evans  in  London in  1960 . She  was  a  former  volleyball  player  with  the  England  under-19  team  and  catwalk  model.

In  1983  she  sang  on  two  singles  released  by  The  Biz. "Falling"  is  a  passable  Shalamar  impersonation. The  second, "We're  Gonna  Groove  Tonight"  sounds  more  like  Galaxy  with  the  female  backing  vocals  prominent  and   a  relentlessly  upbeat  partying  message. Neither  troubled  the  charts  despite  the  inclusion  of  a  free  pack  of  playing  cards  with  the  latter  single.

The  Plastic  Population  never  actually  existed. It  was  some  sort  of  comment  by  Yazz  on  the  prevalence  of  plastic  surgery  among  celebrities. Oh  well, whatever.

"Doctorin'  the  House"  is  somewhat  more  conventional  than  their  previous  releases, with  a  house  backing  track  that  they  presumably  wrote  themselves . Its  more  accessible  to  the  likes  of  yours  truly  but I  wouldn't  cross  the  road  for  it.   The  samples  are  mainly  dialogue  from  film  and  TV  rather  than  music  although  there's  a  bizarre  scat  break  in  the  middle  that  I'm  guessing  may  be  Cab  Calloway. Yazz's  contribution  on  the  record  is  restricted  to  crooning  the  title  at  regular  intervals  but  she  provided  a  visual  focus  for  the  video  and  Top  of  the  Pops, setting  a  template,  for  putting  models  out  front  with  this  sort  of  music,  that  would  be  picked  up  by  countless  other  outfits  over  the  next  decade.

589 Hello Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis

Chart  entered :  20th  February  1988

Chart  peak : 2

Number  of  hits : 10

And  so  the  age of  the  producer  begins. M./A/R/R/S  were  a  collaboration  between  musicians    from  two  indie  groups  and  Paul  Hardcastle  is  an  accomplished  keyboard  player. It  would  be unfair  to  describe  Tim  Simenon  ( the  man  behind  the  nom  de  plume )  as  a  non-musician but  he  is  predominantly  a  producer.  Although  the final  axe  was  long  in  arriving, this  is  where  the  slow  death  of  Top  of  the  Pops  began, the  advent  of  the "men  in  baseball  caps  jigging  around"  as  The  Guardian  put  it.

Tim  was  born  in  Brixton  in  1967. He 's  never  given  much  away  about  his  background  but  his  day  job  when  he  made  this  was  waiting  in  a  Japanese  restaurant  and  there's  a  definite  Oriental  look  to  his  features. He  was  also  doing  a  part-time  course  in  sound  engineering  at  college  in  Holloway  and  DJ-ing  at  Soho's  Wag  Club .

Tim  came  up  with  the  rhythm  track  for  "Beat  Dis "  himself  on  a  synth  but  otherwise  the  track  consists  entirely  of  samples  from  reputedly  over  seventy  sources  put  together  with  the  aid  of  producer  Pascal  Gabriel. It's  perhaps  most  easily  recognised by  the  Thunderbirds  sample   at  the  beginning  of  the  record.

 I  realise  this  track  is  nearly  thirty  years  old  but  I  am  little  closer  to  understanding  its  appeal  beyond  the  confines  of  a  nightclub. I   appreciate  a  good  bass  line  as  much  as  anyone  but  I  then  want  a  song  on  top  of  it, not  the  musical  equivalent  of  a  wordsearch. There  probably  is  some  fun  to  be  had  in  identifying  all  the  components  but  I'd  much  rather  hear  them  in  their  original  context.        

588 Hello Faith No More - We Care a Lot

Chart  entered : 6  February  1988

Chart  peak : 53

Number  of  hits : 16

This  lot  are  hard  to  classify  but  built  up  a  substantial  fanbase  which  enabled  them  to rack  up  a  fair  number  of  hits.

The  band  were  formed  as  Sharp  Young  Men  in  California  in  1979 . The  members  at  that  time  were  bassist  Billy  Gould ,  drummer  Mike  Bordin  and  two  other  guys.  By  1983  the  group  had  changed  their  name  to  Faith, No  Man  and  released  a  single  "Quiet  in  Heaven /Song  of  Liberty "  on  an  independent  label. It's  a  stomping,  angry,   Goth / punk  record   that  could  be  the  Virgin  Prunes  or  even  PiL  with  original  vocalist  Mike  Morris  sounding  like  he's  been  influenced  by  Lydon. "Song  of  Liberty "  is  the  more  controlled  number  with  its  insistent  bass  line  but  neither  has  anything  that  could  be  described  as  a  tune.

Shortly  afterwards  the  keyboard  player  was  replaced  by  Roddy  Bottum  ( yes  that's  his  real  surname )  and  then  the  band  decided  to  reconstitue  themselves  without  Morris  as  Faith  No  More. After  trying  out  a  number  of  temporary  singers  ( including  a  certain  Courtney  Love  ) and  guitarists  they  settled  on  Charles "Chuck"  Mosley " and  Jim  Martin  respectively. Chuck  had  been  in  a  punk  band  with  Billy  in  the  late  seventies  called  The  Animated  and  more  recently  had  fronted  a  post-punk  band  called  Haircuts  That  Kill, Jim  came  from  a  thrash  metal  band  Vicious  Hatred  and  was  pally  with  members  of  Metallica.

The  band  then  started  recording  their  debut  album  without  any  label  support, managing  to  put  down  five  tracks  on  their  own  money. These  were  heard  by  Ruth  Schwartz  of  the  independent  label  Mordam  Records  who  fronted  the  money  to  complete  it.

The  album  "We  Care  A  Lot"  came  out  in  November  1985. The  opening  title  track   written  by  Roddy, Chuck  and  Billy  seems  to  be  a  sarky  riposte  to  the  burgeoning  pop as   philanthropy  trend  following  Band  Aid  with  Chuck  bellowing  a  list  of  all  the  things  that  supposedly  concerned  them  over  a  steely  funk  bassline  which  rears  up  before  the  chorus  in  similar  fashion  to  Derek  Forbes  on  Promised  You  A  Miracle. It  has  the  muscularity  of  metal  although  the  lead  instrument  is  Roddy's  keyboards  rather  than  Jim's  guitar.

The  album  is  a  really  frustrating  listen   because  there's  a  lot  of  good  music  on  it. I  love  Roddy's  Ultravox-style  keyboards  and  Billy's  no  slouch  on  the  bass  either. The  problem  is  Chuck. He  writes  some  intelligent  lyrics  but  30  minutes  ( a llowing  for  the  instrumental  tracks )  of  his  tuneless  bawling , somewhat  similar  to  The  Angelic  Upstarts'  Mensi , is  way  too  much. There's  good  songs  here  but  he  does  his  best  to  hide  the  fact. Chuck  actually  addresses  the  issue  in  the  song  "Greed"  - "They  say  that  when  I'm  supposed  to  be  singing, all  I'm  really  doing  is  yelling". Well  "they"  are  right  man, do  something  about  it.

The  following  year  they  signed  with  the  Slash  label  which  had  a  distribution  deal  with  Warner  Brothers. With  a  larger  recording  budget  the  band  decided  to  re-record  "We  Care  A  Lot "  for  the  next  album.  The  new  version  has  a  cleaner  production, the  odd lyrical  change   and  a  slightly  faster  tempo  but  otherwise  it's  not  much  different.  The  video  got  an  airing  on  The  Chart  Show  which  helped  it  into  the  charts  here  before  they'd  broken  in  their  homeland.

587 Hello Pop Will Eat Itself - There Is No Love Between Us Anymore

Chart  entered : 30  January  1988

Chart  peak  : 66

Number  of  hits : 15

None  of  these  guys'  hits  spent  more  than  four  weeks  on  the  charts  and  few  bettered  their  entry  position  so  I  only  really  heard  their  music  in  fleeting  snatches  and  it  never  prompted  me  to  investigate  them  further.

Pop  Will  Eat  Itself  had  their  roots  in  a  sub  genre  called  grebo  which  was  largely  confined  to  the  East  Midlands. The  word  originated  there  in  the  seventies  to  describe  metal-loving  bikers. By  the  eighties, aided  by  music  press  coverage,  the  term  described  a  more  specific  scene  where  elements  from  anarcho-punk  such  as  dreadlocks  and  partially shaved  heads  were  present  in  the  fashion  and  the  music  peddled  by  the  bands  was  closer  to  garage  rock  than  metal. Grebo  was  very  politically  suspect  with   figures  like  Zodiac  Mindwarp  taking  the  gross  sexism  of  traditional  metal  one  step  further.

Singer  Clint  Mansell   ( born  1963 )  and  bassist  Adam  Mole   came  together  in  1981  in  a  band  called  From  Eden  which  included  two  members  of  another  Midlands  band  we'll  be  discussing  shortly. Graham  Crabb   ( born  1964 )  joined  on  drums  some  time   afterwards.  The  trio   stayed  together  after  From  Eden  broke  up  and  recruited  guitarist  Richard  March   for  their  new  band  Wild  and  Wandering.

Wild  and  Wandering  released  an  EP  locally  called  "2, 000  Light  Ales  From  Home"  before  renaming  themselves  Pop  Will  Eat  Itself  , a  phrase  picked  up  from  an  NME  article  by  David  Quantick, in  1986. Their  first  single  under  that  name  was  another  EP  "The  Poppies  Say  Grrr" in  May  1986  which  was  championed  by  the  NME  (unsurprisingly )  and  Janice  Long. I  doubt  she  played  the  fifth   track "Candydiosis"  , a  throw  away  expletive-laden  ditty  about  the  use  of  candy  metaphors  in  pop  that  doesn't  last  a  minute.In  fact  the  most  substantial  song  on  the  EP  is  "Sick  Little  Girl" a  breezy  slice  of  C86  pop  halfway  between  Buzzcocks  and  The  Undertones, which  would  be  quite  pleasant  were  it  not  for  the  deliberately  unpleasant  lyrics.  All  five  songs  were  credited  to  their  collective  pseudonym  Vestan  Pance. The  EP  was  issued  by  two  minor  independent  labels  in  quick  succession.

By  the  autumn  they'd  signed  with  the  more  substantial Chapter  22. Their  next  recording  "Poppiecock"  was  another EP  of  five  short  songs , none  of  them  reaching  two  minutes  in  length. It's  not  bad, a  bit  like  JAMC  at  a  faster  pace and  without  the  smothering  feedback."Oh  Grebo  I  Think  I  Love  You"  is  endearingly  daft. However,  it  was  around  this  time  that  The  Soup  Dragons  accused  them  of  sending  a  racist  postcard  to  their  Asian  bass  player.

At  the  beginning  of  1987  they  released  their  third  single  "Sweet  Sweet  Pie "  and  started  appearing  in  the  "Bubbling  under"  section. "Sweet  Sweet  Pie"  is  a  revenge  song  which  sounds  like  a  sped  up  Lloyd  Cole  and  the  Commotions  with  added  psychedelic  organ  for  the  instrumental  breaks  which  serve  as  a  chorus.

Their  next  single  seemed  like  a  baffling  move  at  the  time, a  cover  of  Sigue  Sigue  Sputnik's  debut  hit  "Love  Missile  F1-11". The  Sputniks  had  crashed  and  burned  in  less  than  a  year but  in  common  with  most  of  the   C86   generation  ,PWEI  had  realised  that  lo-fi  indie  guitar  rock  was  never  going  to  break  out  to  the  masses  and  some  stylistic  shift  was  required. Silly  as  they  were  ,SSS  might  have  been  on  to  something  with  their  samples  and  eschewing  of  verse- chorus  songwriting. So  the  single's  a  sort  of  tribute to  them.  The  band  replace  the  synth  line  with  an  Eddie  Cochran  riff  and  replace  most  of  the  lyrics  with  self-referential  boasting. Robert  Gordon  did  a  remix  incorporating  actual  Eddie  Cochran  samples  and   hip  hop  drum  breaks. The  band  liked  what  he  did  and  hired  him  as  producer  for  their  debut  album  "Box  Frenzy". It  was  at  this  point  that  Graham  decided  to  abandon  his  kit  in  favour  of  using  a  drum  machine  called  Dr  Nightmare  and  go  out  front  with  Clint  as  a  co-vocalist.

The  band  had  not  lost  its  desire  to  antagonise  and  their  next  single  "Beaver  Patrol"  in  September  did  just  that  although  it's  actually  a  cover   of  a  song  by  obscure  US  garage  band  The  Wilde  Knights. from  the  late  sixties. PWEI  give  it  the  Beastie  Boys  treatment  with  Clint  and  Graham  trading  the  lines  and  a  hip  hop  break  in  the  middle. It  missed  the  chart  by,  ahem , a  whisker.

The  album  "Box  Frenzy"  followed  shortly  afterwards  and  is  interesting  if  nothing  else  with  the  eclectic  mix  of  styles  on  display. "She's  Surreal"  goes  even  further  in  trying  to  imitate  the  Beasties  while  "Evelyn"  strives  for  the  mid-point  between  Arnold  Layne  and     Waltzinblack.

The  key  track  though  is  the  five  minute  "Hit  The  Hi-Tech  Groove"  , a  five  minute  manifesto  championing  their  new  cut-up  aesthetic   -"You  don't  have  to  have  integrity, you  don't  have  to  have  ability" -  with  the  aid  of  Mel  and  Kim  ( Respectable )  and   Adam  and  the  Ants  ( Stand  And  Deliver ).

"There  Is  No  Love  Between  Us  Anymore"  was  the  third  and  final  single  from  the  album. It  was  written  by  Graham  and  is  a  largely  instrumental  track  with  a  repeated  reiteration  of  the title  the  only non-sampled  lyric. The  music  looks  forward  to  Depeche  Mode's  industrial  rock  of  the  nineties  which , coupled  with  the  Speaking  clock  repetition  of  "He  loves me, he  loves  me  not",  gives  the  track  a  sinister  edge. On  first  listen  it  sounds  like  a  hook  waiting  for  a song  but  given  time  its  hypnotic appeal  becomes  more  apparent.
 
 

586 Hello Deacon Blue - Dignity

Chart  entered :  23  January  1988

Chart  peak : 31  ( 20  on  re-release  in  1994 )

Number  of  hits : 19

Deacon  Blue  were  formed  in  1985  by  Dundonian  singer-songwriter  Ricky  Ross  ( born  1957 ) .  He  released  an  album  "So  Long  Ago"  in  1984,  featuring  future  Wet  Wet  Wet  guitarist  Graeme  Duffin,   on  Sticky  Records  but  seems  to  have  been  very  successful  in  suppressing  it  as  there's  not  a  sniff  of  it  on  Spotify  or  YouTube.

He  formed  Deacon  Blue  on  relocating  to  Glasgow. Besides  Ricky  the  band  consisted  of  backing  singer  Lorraine  McIntosh  ( born  1964 ) , James  Prime  ( born  1960 ) , a  keyboard  player  who'd  recorded  and  toured  with  Altered  Images  but  never  been  officially  part  of  the  band, drummer  Dougie  Vipond  ( born  1966 ), bassist  Ewen  Vernal  ( born  1964 )  and  guitarist  Graeme  Kelling  ( born  1957 )  veteran  of  numerous  unsigned  Glaswegian  bands. Deacon  Blue  were  originally  called  Dr  Love  but  then  chose  Steely  Dan  over  Tina  Charles  for  their  naming  inspiration.

Their  first  recording  was  for  a  compilation  cassette  of  new  Scottish  talent  Honey  At  The  Core  ( strangely  not  featuring  the  Friends  Again  song  of  the  same  name . "Take  The  Saints  Away"  is  a  pleasant  enough  ditty  that  could  have  slipped  easily  on  to  their  debut  album.

They  then  signed  for  CBS. From  that  point , I've  covered  all  the  necessary  ground  in  my  review  of  "Raintown"  which  is  here

585 Hello Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky

First  charted : 23  January  1988

Chart  peak : 1

Number  of  hits : 54

I've  never  quite  got  the  great  love  for  Kylie  that  has  sustained  her  as  a  chart  force  through  to  the  present  day. I  do  like  her  as  a  person, the  epitome  of  the  unpretentious  Aussie  who's  stayed  remarkably  level-headed  through  an  up  and  down  career. But  I've  never  fancied  her ; tiny  skinny  blondes  are  not  my  thing  and  when  she  first  came  out  my  mum  , with  some  justification, pointed  out  the  similarity  between  Kylie  and  photos  of  her  younger  self. I  also  can't  understand  how  you  can  really  get  behind  someone  with  such  a  thin  and  limited  singing  voice - it's  improved  over  the  years  but  not  that  much -  who  doesn't  write  their  own  material. Kylie's  not  the  first  successful  artist  to  fall  into  that  bracket  but I  can't  think  of  another  who's  lasted  this  long. This  might  be  the  advent  of  buying  into  the  personality  rather  than  the  music.

Kylie  was  born  in  Melbourne  in  1968. She  started  acting  aged  11, in  Aussie  soap  operas  such  as  Skyways ,  The  Sullivans  and  The  Henderson  Kids  although  she  was  dropped  from  the  latter  series  after  the  first  season. She  made  her  first  singing  performance  on  Young  Talent  Time   which   featured  her  younger  sister  Danii  as  a  regular  performer  but  didn't  impress.

Her  luck  changed  in  1986  when  she  joined  the  cast  of  Neighbours  as  tomboy  mechanic  Charlene . The  character's  impact  was  immediate  and  enormous  winning  her  four  Logies  ( Australia's  equivalent  to  the  BAFTAs ). The  following  year,  she  and  other  cast  members  attended  a  benefit  concert  at  an  Aussie  Rules  football  club  and  she  performed  Little  Eva's  The  Loco-motion  as  her  party  piece . A  recording  contract  with  Mushroom  Records  followed.

When  released  as  a  single  in  the  summer  of  1987 ,  "Locomotion"  became  the  biggest  selling single  of  the  eighties  in  Australia  and  spent  seven  weeks  at  the  top. Even  though  the  Hi-NRG  backing  track  owed  a  lot  to  You  Spin  Me  Round  ( Like  A  Record )  , Pete  Waterman   hated  the  record. Notwithstanding  that,  he  could  see  the  potential  in  signing  up  a  girl  who  was  currently  winning  over  British  viewers  in  an  increasingly  popular  soap. Mushroom  retained  the  rights  to  release  her  records  in  Australia  so  everyone  was  happy.

The  Popular  take  on  this  one  is  here.

584 Hello Taylor Dayne - Tell It To My Heart

Chart  entered : 23  January  1988

Chart  peak :  3  ( 23  in  a  re-mixed  version  in  1995 )

Number  of  hits : 10

Taylor  is  something  of  a  surprise  qualifier  for  me  as  this,   as  well  as  being  her  only  Top  5  hit  here   is  also  the  only  one  I  can  bring  to  mind.

She  was  born  Leslie  Wunderman  in  Manhattan  in  1962 . She  started  out  as  a  rock  chick  in  college  bands  called  Felony  and  Next. She  also  sang  Russian  folk  songas  in  a  club  frequented  by  Russian  ex-pats. In  1985  she  switched  to  dance  and  started  recording  as  Les  Lee. Her  first  single  "I'm  The  One  You  Want"  is  an  over-cluttered  slab  of  electro  disco  although  there's  certainly  potential  in  her  raw  R &  B  vocals. The  second,  released  the  following  year,  "Tell  Me  Can  You  Love  Me "  is  a  little  cleaner  in  the  production  but   the  song  is  a  bit  generic. Both  were  released  on  a  New  York  independent  label  and  didn't  chart  but  they  raised  enough  interest  to  get  her  signed  up  with  Arista,

She  changed  her  name  to  Taylor  Dayne  which  she  claimed  was  her  mother's  original  intention  before  being  over-ruled  by  her  father.

"Tell  It  To  My  Heart "  was  written  by  professional  songwriters  Seth  Swirsky  and  Ernie  Gold  and  originally  recorded  by  Canadian  singer  Louisa  Florio. That  version  was  little  known  so  Taylor  decided  to  record  it  for  her  first  single. It's  a  straightforward  pop  dance  tune , somewhat  similar  to  Whitney's  I  Wanna  Dance  With  Somebody,  with  Taylor's  black-sounding ( perhaps  why  her  picture 's   not  on  the  sleeve ) roar  well  to  the  fore.  The  video  of  course  revealed  her  to  be  a  hefty  white  girl  with  an  outsize  mouth , big  hair  and  a  considerable  chest.

The  record  took  off  like  a  bomb  in  the  US  reaching  number  7  and  forcing  her  into  the  studio  to   record  an  LP  to  capitalise  on  her  success. She  was  nominated  for  a  Grammy  for  Best  Pop  Vocal, Female  .As  well  as  its  success  here,  it  was  a  huge  hit  in  Europe  reaching  number  one  in  Germany, Holland, Austria  and  Switzerland. A  re-mixed  version  reached  number  23  in  1995, her  last  appearance  in  the  UK  chart  to  date.

583 Hello Sinead O' Connor - Mandinka

Chart  entered : 16  January  1917

Chart  peak : 17

Number  of  hits : 16

One  of  the  more  singular  artists  to  have  emerged  in  the  last  three  decades, Sinead's  output  has  been  somewhat  overshadowed  by  the  megahit  cover that  she's  never  come  close  to  following  up  in  commercial  terms.

Sinead  was  born  in  County  Dublin  ( 1988  would  prove  to  be  a  good  year  for  Irish  acts )   in  1966. Sinead's  early  life  is  mired  in  controversy  with  Sinead  accusing  both  her  parents  of  abuse -  an  accusation  only  partially  supported  by  her  siblings  - and  blaming  the  influence  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland  for  it. It's  been  a  source  of  "inspiration" for  much  of  her  material. What  can  be  stated  with  certainty  is  that  her  parents  separated  when  she  was  eight, she  spent  time  living  with  each  of  them. It  was  her  father  who  committed  her  to  a  Magdalene  Asylum  for  persistent  shoplifting  and  truancy  which  deepened  her  antipathy  to  the   Church.

However  the  Asylum  did  inadvertently  kick  start  her  career  in  music  as  one  of  the  volunteers there  was  the  sister  of  Paul  Byrne , drummer  with  new  folk  rockers  In  Tua  Nua. She   heard  Sinead  singing  and  put  them  in  touch. Although  they  eventually  decided  she  was  too  young  to  join  the  band  they  did  co-write  a  song  with  her  "Take  My  Hand"  which  became  their  first  single  for  Island  in  1984.

In  the  meantime  Sinead  had  placed  ads  in  the  music  press  and  formed  her  own  band  Ton Ton  Macoute  in  1984. She  was  with  them  for  about  a  year  and  then  left  them  behind  and  moved  to  London  to  sign  for  Ensign. She  acquired  a  manager  Fachtna   O' Ceallaigh , former  head  of  U2's  vanity  label, Mother. Although  he'd  been  fired  off  by  U2, he  remained  on  good  terms  with  The  Edge  and  put  he  and  Sinead  together  to  write  a  song  for  the  film  Captive  in  1986.

"Heroine"  was  released  as  a  single  - I  bought  it -  and  is  a  pleasant  blend  of  U2  and  The  Cocteau  Twins  on  which  Mr  Evans  keeps  himself  in  check  for  the  first  couple  of  minutes  which  are  dominated  by  a  two  note  synth  riff   which  doesn't  seem  to  be  quite  in  time  with  Sinead's  vocals. It's  too  fast  to  be  a  ballad  and  too  slow  to  be  a  pop  hit. The  film failed  to  raise  much  interest  and  so  the  single  failed  to  get  out  of  the  bubbling  under  section.

She  then  did  some  backing  vocals  for  World  Party's  first  album  "Private  Revolution"  , cutting  a  striking  figure  in  the  video  for  the  title  track  with  her  shaved  head.

The  sessions  for  her  own   debut  album  were  fraught   with  four  months'  work  scrapped  because  Sinead  could  not  get  on  with  producer  Mick  Glossop.  Eventually  Sinead  herself  shared  the  production  chores  with  Kevin  Moloney.

Finally  her  debut  single  "Troy"  came  out  in  the  autumn  of  1987. To  say  it  was  a  brave  choice  is  an  understatement.  At  six  and  a  half  minutes  long, the  song  is  a  synth  and  strings , largely  beatless  Gothic  epic  which  starts  out  soft  and  nostalgic  then works  itself  up  into  a  howl  of  pain  and  betrayal , each  minute  more  coruscating  than  the  last. Sinead  moves  from  pure  folk  tones  to  an  icy  punk  snarl  , a  bit  like  Toyah  if  she  could  have  sung  in  tune . The  song's  refrain  is  a  reference  to  the  Yeats  poem  No  Second  Troy. The  daytime  jocks  wouldn't  touch  it  and  it  bombed  completely  here  although  it  was  a  sizeable  hit  in  the  Low  Countries. It  did  however  become  an  enduring  favourite   on  the  Annie  Nightingale  show  and  a  horrible  dance  version  was  a  minor  hit  here  in  2002.

"Mandinka"  was  the  second  single  from  the  album  "The  Lion  And  The  Cobra". Lyrically  it  gives  the  first  indication  of  Sinead's  enduring  interest  in  black  culture, Mandinka  being  the  name  of  the  tribe  of  Alex  Haley's  ancestors  in  Roots. Sinead  uses   Haley's  genealogical   triumph  as  an   inspiration  for  her  own  struggles  with  the  record  company  or  at  least  that's  how  I  interpret  it. Musically,  it's  a  more  conventional  rock  record  with  ex-Anr  Marco  Pirroni  providing  a  fat  glam  guitar  riff  and  a  heavy  backbeat  from  John  Reynolds  who  was  pounding  Sinead   as  well  as  the  drums  when  the  record  was  made. It's  OK  but  would  be  better  without  the  banshee  howls  that  punctuate  the  lyric.

582 Goodbye Imagination - Instinctual

Chart  entered : 16  Jan  1987

Chart  peak : 62

The  British  soul  trio  had  peaked  early  when  fourth  single  "Just  An  Illusion "  reached  number  two  in  the  spring  of  1982. Thereafter  their  decline  was  very  swift , broken  only  by  "Thank  You  My  Love"  reaching  the  Top  30  early in  1985.  Since  then  they'd  had  five  flops  in  a  row  and  at  the  end  of  1987  drummer  Errol  Kennedy   decided  to  bail  out.

"Instinctual"  was  the  third  single   released  from  their  album  "Closer" ( itself  a  flop ). Errol  plays  on  it  but  was  not  pictured  on  the  sleeve. It  was  one  of  two  tracks  written  and  produced  by  Arthur  Baker  and  his  associate  Paul  Gurvitz  although  Phil  Harding  and  Ian  Curnow  then  polished  it  up  for  single  release. Unsurprisingly  it  sounds  more  American  than  the  hits  of  their  hey-day  with  Baker's  chattering  electronic  percussion  and  Fairlight  keyboard  sounds  replacing  Ashley  Ingram's  languorous   piano. Singer  Leee  John's  unmistakable  falsetto  makes  it  recognisably  them. There's  nothing  obviously  at  fault  with  it, it 's  just  that  their  brand  had  gone  stale  and  in  a  chart  dominated  by  dance  records  it  got  crowded  out  by  the  competition.

They  pulled  one  more  single  from  the  album  in  June   , "Hold  Me  In  Your Arms"  which  the  duo  wrote  with  Preston  Glass.  A  mellower  track,  I  think  it's  a  better  song  with  a  decent  hook  but  it  had  no  impact.

In  1989  they  scored  their  biggest  hit  in  the  albums  chart  when  the  compilation  "Imagination-All  The  Hits" got  to  number  4   However  the  new  track  for  single  release  "Love's  Taking  Over", which  I  haven't  heard, went  nowhere  and  prompted  RCA  to  cut  them  loose.

However  the  band  were  not  quite  finished. They  added  Pete  Ryer  to  the  line  up  and  released  a  new  single  "I  Like  It"  in  1990   which  incorporates  house  rhythms  and  spoken  vocals  in  much  the  same  way  as  Madonna's  contemporary  material  such  as  Vogue  and  Justify  My  Love. They  tried  again  the  following  year  with  the  same  formula  on  "Call  On  Me". Neither  single  made  any  impact  at  all. Both  featured  on  their  final  album  "The  Fascination  of  The  Physical"  which  snuck  out  in  1992, after  which  they  called  it  a  day.

Leee  spent  the  decade  as  a  voice  for  hire  on  dance  records  by  the  likes  of  Baker, Byron  Stingily, Jazz  Voice  and  The  Morne.  There  were  two  solo  efforts  in  this  period , "Mighty  Power  of  Love"  in  1995  and  "Your  Mind, Your  Body, Your  Soul" in  1999,  both  under-produced  and  utterly  generic  UK  house  discs.  Neither  troubled  the  chart.

Leee  returned  to  the  public  eye  in  2003  when  he  was   a  somewhat  bemused  but  likable   contestant  on   the  reality  series  Reborn  In  The  USA. He  came  fifth ( out  of  ten ).

Shortly  after  that  he  formed  a  jazz  quartet  with  pianist  John  Watson. They  released  an  album  "Feel  My  Soul"  which  contained  both  original  songs  and  standards  like  "Strange  Fruit"   and  "Embraceable  You". Leee  acquits  himself  well  vocally  but  it  didn't  get  much  attention.

In  2007  he  recorded  a  track , "Trust  My  Heart " for  Ian  Levine's  Northern  Soul  2007  compilation  which  is  a  decent  facsimile  of  a  classic  Wigan  tune. Since  2010  he  has  been  touring  with  a  new  version  of  Imagination  and  he  also  works  as  an  Ambassador  for  the  charity  S.O.S.  Childrens  Villages.

Ashley, the  musical  brains  in  the  group, gave  up  performing  to  become  a  professional songwriter  for  the  likes of  Mariah  Carey, Beyonce  and  Des'ree.  He  has  invested  some  of  his earnings  in  developing  software  for  helping  people  with  speech  difficulties He  now  lives  in Manila  with  his  wife  and  two  children.

Errol  became  a  drummer  for  hire  and  has  toured  with  Odyssey, Arthur  Baker  , Jamiroquai, Frankie  Knuckles  and  sister  Grace. He  also  has  some  production  credits. He  formed  a  new  version  of  Imagination  a  year  earlier  than  Leee.  Errol  does  the  vocals  himself , not  a  good  move  if  their  single  of  last  year  "You  Can  Be"  , an  otherwise  passable  dance  track, is  anything  to  go  by.

581 Goodbye The Pips * - Love Overboard

( * Gladys  Knight  and  the ... )

Chart  entered : 16  January  1988

Chart  peak : 42


This  was  a  comeback  hit , the  group's  first  in  eight  years  although  Gladys  had  had  a  couple  in  other  collaborations  in  the  meantime.  The  group  had  left  Motown  in  the  mid-seventies  but  had  bigger  hits  for  Buddah  in  the  second  half  of  the  decade  with  both  "The  Way  We Were-Try  To  Remember"  and  "Baby  Don't  Change  Your  Mind"  reaching  number  4  in  the  UK. By  the  end  of  the  decade  they  were  faltering  and  could  only  muster  a  couple  of   lesser  hits  for  CBS  in  1980. They  signed  for  MCA  in  1987

"Love   Overboard"  was  the  lead  single  from  their  final  album  "All  Our  Love". It  was written  by  Reggie  Calloway  from  the   Midnight  Star. It's  a  competent  but  unexciting  contemporary  R  &  B  record. Gladys  and  the  boys  sound  comfortable  enough  as  the   beat  isn't  too  in  your  face  and  it's  moderately  catchy. I'd  have  to  deduct  a  point  for  the  cliched  lyrics  though.  It  was  a  major  hit  in  the  U.S.  reaching  number  13, their  first  Top  20  hit  since  1975  and  winning  a  Grammy. The  album  reached  number  80  in  the  UK, their  first  to  chart  since  1977.

Unfortunately  the  follow  up  "Lovin'  On  Next  To  Nothin'  "  didn't  find  as  much  favour. The  chattering  electronic  percussion  track  is  too  high  in  the  mix  and  masks  the  song. It  only  bubbled  under  here  and  missed  the  US  chart  altogether. Their  final  single  "It's  Gonna  Take  All  Our  Love"  is  a  mellower  track  , like  one  of  their  seventies  ballads  given  a  contemporary  production,   but  it's  a  bit  mutton  dressed  as  lamb. Gladys's  passion  sounds like  she;s  trying  too  hard  to  inflate  a   mediocre  song.

In  1988  they  embarked  on  a  final  tour  then  Gladys  decided  to  go  solo. The  Pips  had  recorded  a  couple  of  albums  without  her  in  the  late  seventies  but  there  seems  to  have  been  no  thought  of  continuing  without  her  now,

Edward  Patten  and  William  Guest  formed  their  oewn  production  company  in  Detroit  which  became  the  Crew  Entertainment  Company. Edward  was  later  struck  down  by  diabetes. He  had  to  have  both  legs  amputated  and  died  in  2005. William  continued  running  the  company  alongside  Edward's  heirs.  He  published  his  autobiography  in  2013  and  died  two  years  later  of  congestive  heart  failure.

Merald  "Bubba "  Knight  remains  involved  in  his  sister's  career  as  her  tour  manager  and  sometimes  joins  her  on  stage.

580 Hello Megadeth - Wake Up Dead

Chart  entered : 19  December  1987

Chart  peak : 65

Number  of  hits : 11

The  third  thrash  metal  group  to  break  through  in  1987  left  it  until  the  end  of  the  year.

We  already  met  Dave  Mustaine  in  the  Metallica  post. He  was  the  original  lead  guitarist  for  them  but  was  sacked  in  1983  over  problems  with  substance  abuse.  He  got  together  with  bassist  David  Ellefson  ( born  1964 )  to  form  a  new  group . The  name  was  taken  from  a  political  pamphlet  about  nuclear  destruction. After  protracted  auditions  they  took  on  Gar  Samuelson   as  drummer  and  Dave  decided  to  take  on  the  lead  vocals  himself.  Another guitarist  Chris  Poland  ( born  1957 )  joined  just  before  they  signed  a  deal  with  New  York  independent  label  Combat  Records.

Their  debut  album  "Killing  Is  My  Business..and  Business  Is  Good !"  was  released  in  June  1985. Dave's  declared  aim  for  the  band  was  to  be  "faster  and  heavier"  than  Metallica. He  got  the  first  part  right ; the  album's  short   with  most  of  the  songs  coming  in  at  under  4  minutes  but  generally  it  sounds  like  a  lighter  take  on  Metallica's  sound  for  all  the  lyrics  about  sex, death  and  the  occult. Dave's  vocals, from  the  theatrical  school  of  Bruce  Dickinson  and  his  like,  are  no  better  than  adequate  and  the  production  is  thin  because  the  band  spent  most  of  their  advance  on  drugs  and  alcohol. Nevertheless , the  album, from  which  no  singles  were  released, drew  a  favourable  reception  from  the  metal  community  It  also  got  major  labels  interested  in  the  band  and  although  Combat  funded  the  initial  sessions  for  the  next  album , Megadeth  signed  with  Capitol  who  took  over  the  project.

"Wake  Up  Dead"  was  their  first  single  in  the  UK, coming  from  their  second  album  ,"Peace  Sells  But  Who's  Buying ?"  but   released  more  than  a  year  after  the  album  came  out  in  the  States. I  can't  account  for  this; they  had  played  some  UK   dates  in  1987  but  they  were  much  earlier  in  the  year.

"Wake  Up  Dead"  had  zero  crossover  potential. Dave's  spartan  lyrics  about  an  adulterer's  fear  of  his  partner's  murderous  ire  are  just  tunelessly  growled  linking  passages  between  displays  of  guitar  pyrotechnics  split  roughly  50/50   between  solos  and  heavy  riffing   with  changes  in  time  signature  to  prove  their  musical  prowess. Definitely  one  for  converts  only.

And  that's  it  for  1987  which  seems  to  have  taken  forever.

579 Hello Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth

Chart entered : 12  December  1987

Chart  peak :  1

Number  of  hits : 23

This  is  another  one  where  I  don't  want  to  pre-empt  my  own  Albums  blog  so  the  account  of  Belinda's  previous  career  is  just  a  summary.

Belinda  was  born  in  Hollywood  in  1958. She  left  home  at  19, having  a  poor  relationship  with  her  stepfather.  She  had  a  brief  spell  as  drummer  with  local  punk  band  The  Germs  under  the  name  Dottie  Danger  but  never  made  a  live  appearance  with  them  due  to  glandular  fever. She  formed  The  Go-Gos  in  1978  with  three  other  girls  including  Jane  Wiedlin . They  started out  as a  very  rough  punk  band. Two  tracks  from  this  period  were  put  out  on  the  mid-nineties  compilation  Return  To  The  Valley  of  The  Go-Gos  and  they're  both  unlistenable. The  addition  of  guitarist  Charlotte  Caffey  and  drummer  Gina  Schock  brought  some  musicianship  to  the  party  and  the  band  got  a  small  following  in  L.A.

Believing  they  could  break  through  in  the  UK  , they  supported  Madness  on  tour   there  in  1980  and  contributed  to  the  More  Specials  LP . Terry  Hall  returned  the  favour  by  helping  to  write  "Our  Lips  Are  Sealed", one  of  their  biggest  hits  in  the  US  and  their  only  UK  hit  in  their  original  lifetime. The  band  broke  through  in  the  US  in  1981 in  a  big  way  with  the  debut  album  "Beauty  and  the  Beat"  and  single  "We  Got The  Beat"  both  reaching  number  one. Here, they  received  a  largely  negative  reaction, being  too  pop  for  the  post-punk  music  press .

Belinda  made  only  occasional  contributions  to  the  songwriting  but  as  lead  vocalist  she  was  the  focal  point  on  stage. The  album  has  a  number  of  bright  pop  gems but  there's  also  a  number  of  songs -"Automatic", "Tonite"  and  "This  Town"  which  hint  at  a  darker  edge  to  the  Californian  lifestyle . The  irony  was  that  when  the  band  started  to  explore  that  for  themselves  with  Chartlotte  and  Belinda  in  particular  becoming  drug  addicts , they  seemed  to  lose  that  in  the  music. Their  subsequent  albums  "Vacationn"  and  "Talk  Show"  have  some  sprightly  pop  gems  like  "Head  Over  Heels"   but  are  relatively  lightweight.

With  each  album  selling  less  than  the  one  before  and  substance  abuse  taking  its toll  on  intra-band  relationships , the  group  foundered. Weidlin  quit  The  Go-Gos  in  1984  and  Belinda  and  Charlotte  decided  to  follow  suit  a  year  later  bringing  the  band  to  an  end. By  this  time  Belinda  was  conspicuously  overweight.

However  Belinda  managed  to  get  clean  and  back  into  shape  after  marrying  James  Mason's  son  Morgan  and  started  a  solo  career  in  1986  with  the  album  "Belinda"  which  fulfilled  her  contract  with  I.R.S. Caffey, on  a  similar  personal  journey, became  her  main  songwriter  and  was  pictured  on  the  sleeve.  The  plain  pop  single  "Mad  About  You"  featuring  Duran  Duran's  Andy  Taylor  on  guitar, reached  number  3  in  the  US  and  was  a  minor  hit  on  reissue  here  in  1988. The  album  itself  got  to  number  13. It's  a  reasonable  collection  of  sixties-influenced  ( particularly  Motown )  pop  but  it  lacks  a  killer  song.

Belinda  was  now  free  to  sign  for  another  label  and  went  to  MCA. This  was  her  first  release  for  them. The  Popular  take  is here

578 Hello Bros - When Will I Be Famous ?

Chart  entered : 6  December  1987

Chart  peak : 2

Number  of  hits : 11

Here  we  have  the  last  act  to  have  the  majority  of  their  hits  in  the  eighties.Bros  to  me  are  a  big  turning  point  in  pop, an  old  model  of  pop  management  reasserting  itself  after  the  disruption  of  punk. Since  1977,  pop  teens  had  picked  the  best  looking  acts   to  follow  from  among  a  pool  of   talented  artists  who  wrote  their  own  material  and  had  an  appeal  to  a  far  wider  audience- Sting, Adam  Ant, Duran  Duran, Wham ,A-ha. It  looked  like  we'd  dispensed  with  the  need  for grubby  figures  like  Tam  Paton  feeding  them  pap like  Bay City  Rollers. That's  not  to  say  Bros  were completely  talentless  but  they  were  compromised  in  a  way  that  those  immediate  predecessors  were  not. When  I  made  this  point  on  Popular, Tom  Ewing  wasn't  having  it , seeing  the  trap  for  his  beloved  Spice  Girls,  but  I  still think  it's  valid.

Bros  were  formed  around  1983   by  three  school  mates, the  non-identical  twins   Matt  and  Luke  Goss  and  Craig  Logan  as  a  junior  soul  band. I  presume  there  were  other  members  as  Matt  just  sang , Craig  played  bass  and  Luke  the  drums. They  signed  for  CBS  in  1987. They  were  heavily  styled   with  Matt  and  Luke  made  up  to  look  identical. Most  contentiously  they  claimed  to  write  their  own  material  but  the  credit  "The  Brothers"  was  registered  with  the  Performing  Rights  Society  as  a  nomme  du  disque  for  their  producer  Nicky  Graham  , a  43  year  old  keyboard  player  who'd  been  a  Spider  from  Mars  back  in  1972. They  shared  a  manager  with  The  Pet  Shop  Boys, Tom  Watkins , who  also  had  a  hand  in  the  writing.

Their  first  single  "I  Owe  You  Nothing"  was  released  in  September 1987. "I  Owe  You  Nothing "  is  a  horrible  confection. The  revenge  lyrics  are  mundane, the  chorus  hook  is  mediocre  and  the  decent  qualities  to  Matt's  voice  are  overshadowed  by  grating  attempts  to  sound  like  Michael  Jackson  with  his  grunts  and  whoops. The  music  is  a  listless  funk  pop,  like  an  updated  Kajagoogoo,  with  a  horrible  Fairlight  brass  sound  blaring  away  over  the  top. Graham  and  Watkins  pulled  off  a  scam  and  got  it  some  club  play  with  an  anonymous  white  label  remix  but  that  didn't  mean  chart  success  until  it  was  re-released  in  the  summer  of  1988  when  sad  to  report, it  got  to  number  one.

"When  Will  I  Be  Famous ? "  is  undoubtedly  a  better  song, the  hook  is  more  appealing  , it  has  more  melodic  bits  and  that  sudden  key  change  springs  a  nifty  surprise. The  song  is  basically  a  less  tragic  take  on  Hot  Chocolate's  Emma   with  the  girl, voiced  by  session  singer  Dee  Lewis ( another  plus )  impatient  rather  than  desperate  and  the  narrator  less  sympathetic  than  Errol  Brown. The  Jackson-isms  and  tinny  production  are  still  present  to  stop  anyone  getting  too  enthusiastic  about  the  record  but  it  is , to  damn  with  faint  praise, probably  their  best  record.

It  originally  peaked  at  its  entry  position  of  62  but , re-promoted  with  a  picture  disc,  it  started  climbing  back  up  the  chart  in  the  post-Christmas  lull. Simon  Bates  stuck  his  neck  out  for  them  by  playing  the  song  when  it  wasn't  on  the  playlist and  they  were  away.  

577 Goodbye The Damned - In Dulce Decorum

Chart  entered : 28  November  1987

Chart  peak  :  72

The  punk  pioneers  had  had  a  chequered  career  since  their  commercial  breakthrough  in  1979. The  following  year bassist  Algy  Ward  left   after  a  series  of  run-ins  with  drummer  Rat  Scabies  and  was  replaced  by  Paul  Gray, formerly  with  Eddie  and  the  Hot  Rods. At  the  end  of  that  year  their  label, Chiswick   collapsed  and  they  signed  with  Bronze.  In  1982  they  added  Welsh  keyboard  player  Roman  Jugg  to  the  line  up  then  guitarist  Captain  Sensible  scored  a  fluke  number  one  on  his  own  with  a    silly  cover  of  the  South  Pacific  number  Happy  Talk   and  began  a  parallel  solo  career. This  raised  the  band's  profile  but  not  their  sales. After  enjoying  another  big  hit  in  1984  with  Glad  It's  All  Over,  the  Captain  quit  shortly  followed  by  Gray  who  joined  UFO . Jugg  moved  over  to  guitar  and  Bryn  Merrick  who  had  been  in  punk  band  Victimize  with  Roman   came  in  on  bass. With  Sensible  gone, singer  Dave  Vanian  took  the  opportunity  to  re-shape  the  band  in  his  own  image  as  a  Goth-rock  outfit. They  signed  with  MCA. This  iteration  of  the  band  was  more  commercially  successful  and  their  cover  of  Barry  Ryan's  Eloise  reached  number  3   early  in  1986  but it's  not  remembered  with  as  much  affection  as  the  punk-era  line  ups.

"In  Dulce  Decorum"  was  the  fourth  single  taken  from  the  album  "Anything"  . Although  the  three  previous  single  releases  had  all  been  hits,  the  album  had  bombed, spending  only  two  weeks  in  the  charts  and  peaking  at  number 40. Although  it  was  given  out  that  it  was  released  to  promote  a  compilation  album  , MCA  having  acquired  the  rights  to  their  Chiswick  catalogue, I  suspect  that  the  song  was  chosen  to  try  and  cash  in  on  Remembrance  Sunday.

The  title  of  course  comes  from  Wilfred  Owen's  famous  anti-war  poem, a  long  time   schools favourite  and  the  song  opens  with  a  sample  of  Winston  Churchill's  "finest  hour"  speech. It's  all  down  hill  from  there  unfortunately.  The  music  is  listless  indie  rock  that  could  have  come  from  any  second  division  outfit  like  Danse  Society  or  The  Bolshoi   and  further  hindered by  Jon  Kelly's  murky  production. What  little  melody  there  is has  been  copped  from  The  Stranglers'  Duchess.  The  lyrics   from  the  point  of  view  of  a  young  soldier  anticipating  death  are  sound  enough  but  Dave's  delivery  is  dreadful.  Always  a  charismatic  frontman  rather  than  a  great  singer, his  booming  baritone  needed  a  strong  melody  to  keep  it  in  check. Left  to  his  own  devices  as  here, he  sounds  like an  old  drunk  at  closing  time. It  managed  a  single  week  in  the  charts.

When  the  generous  compilation  "Light  At  The  End  of  The  Tunnel"  managed  a  single  week  at  number  89,  MCA  cut  their  losses  and  dropped  them  despite  sessions  for  the  next  album  having  already  begun.

The  situation  didn't  look  hopeless.There  was  something  of  a  punk  revival  going  on  with  Sham  69  X-Ray  Spex  and  Stiff  Little  Fingers  all  reforming. Sensible  and  original  guitarist  Brian  James  came  back  on  board  for  a  short  London  tour  in  1988  where  the  old  line  up  played  on  the  punk  songs  and  Roman  and  Bryn  on  the  goth  numbers. One  concert  was  recorded  and  released  as  the  live  LP  "Final  Damnation".  It  didn't  chart  and  the  group  officially  disbanded  in  1989.

Dave, Roman  and  Bryn  re-constituted  themselves  as  Dave  Vanian  and  the  Phantom  Chords  and  released  a  reasonable  cover  of  John  Leyton's  death  disc  classic  "Johnny  Remember  Me"  in  1990.  They  recorded  an  album  but  couldn't  find  anyone  to  release  it.

There  were  two  Damned  singles  in  1990. The  first, "Fun  Factory"  dated  from  1982  and  had  been  held  up  by  the  record  company's  collapse. It's  a  pretty  good  garage  punk  effort  but  no  one  was  interested. Dave,  Rat  and  James  recorded  a  new  song  "Prokofiev"  , a  dismal  meandering  effort  and  ended  up  giving  most  of  the  copies  away  on  tour  in  1991.

In  1992  The  Phantom  Chords  released  another  early  sixties  cover, this  time  Gene  Pitney's  "Town  Without  Pity" in  the  style  of  Chris  Isaak. After  that, Bryn  departed  the  project.

Dave  and  Rat  re-formed  The  Damned  with  some  new  players  in  1993  and  toiled  away  on  the  road  for  a  couple  of  years  before  releasing  a  new  album   "Not  of  this  Earth"  in  Japan. It  didn't  come  out  in  the  UK  until  1996  under  the  title  "I'm  Alright  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk". Apart  from  "Prokofiev"  the  songs  were  entirely  written  by  Rat  and  his  friend  Alan   Lee  Shaw  before  the  group  re-formed. It's  a  listenable  effort  , heavily  influenced  by  U.S. Nuggets  -style   garage  punk  ( although  "Tailspin"  rips  off  The  The's  The  Mercy  Seat  )  and  Nick  Cave, but  not  of  interest  to  the  Britpop  crowd.

Dave  and  Rat  then  fell  out  big  time. Dave  hadn't  felt  the  album  was  ready  for  release. He also  wanted  to  keep  touring  to  cover  the  costs  of  his  divorce  while  Rat  wanted  a  break.  The group  fell  apart  and  Rat  hasn't  been  involved  since.

Dave  also  released  an  eponymous   Phantom  Chords  album  in  1995.Although  two  thirds   of the  songs  are  covers ,  it's   actually  pretty  good,  a  lighter  take  on  the  spooky  rockabilly  of Nick  Cave.  Shortly  afterwards  Roman  quit  the  band  later  saying  "I  got  fed  up  relying  on  someone  who  was  unreliable" , Dave  did  some  gigs  as  The  Phantom  Chords  up  to  1999  but  they've  not  recorded  anything  since.

In  1996  Dave  married  ex-Sisters  of  Mercy  bassist  Patricia  Morrison. He  also  got  back  together  with  Captain  Sensible whose  solo  career  had  long  since  ground  to  a  halt  and  re-launched  The  Damned. Both  partnerships  are  still  going  strong. Initially  Paul  was  the  bassist  in  the  new  line  up  but  he  soon  dropped  out  and  Morrison  took  his  place.

After  five  years  as  a  touring  act  they  released  a  new  single  "Democracy"  in  2001. Written  by  Sensible,  it's  an  energetic  punk  workout  although  his  guitar  solo  is  distinctly  metal. The  song  carries  the  same  message  as  Won't  Get  Fooled  Again. The  other  point  of  interest  is  how  much  Dave  now  sounds  like  Spandau's  Tony  Hadley.

The  single  was  a  trailer  for  a  new  album  "Grave  Disorder". With  Sensible  as  the  main  songwriter, it  tries  to  bridge  the  gap  between  the  band's  two  musical  phases. It's  a  bit  schizophrenic  but  always  listenable.  As  well  as  writing  some  Goth  pieces  for  Dave  to  sink his  teeth  into  ("Til  the  End  of  Time ", "Beauty  and  the  Beast " )  Sensible  offers  some  wry  commentary  on  modern  culture  in  "song.com" and  "Would  You  Be  So  Hot  ( If  You  Weren't  Dead  )". Unfortunately  no  one  was  much  interested  in  new  material  from  veteran  punks  in  the  new  millennium.

In  2004,  Morrison  gave  birth  to  her  and  Dave's  daughter  Emily  and  retired  from  performing  being  replaced  by  Stu  West.  She  became  the  band's  manager.A  year  later  they  released  a  new  single  "Little  Miss  Disaster",  a  synth-laced  modern  rocker  which  suggests  that  someone  had  been  listening  to  The  Killers  recently.

Fans  had  to  wait  until  2008  for  the  next  album, "So  Who's  Paranoid ?", again  written  mainly  by  Sensible. This  time  around  Inspiral  Carpets  seem  to  be  the  main  inspiration  with  a  number  of  energetic  organ- driven  numbers, none  of  them  bad  but  unlikely  to  get  them  back  in  the  charts. The  less  said  about  keyboardist  Monty  Oxymoron's  overblown  contributions  ( "Since  I  Met  You", "Nature's  Dark  Passion"  )  the  better.

The  band  played  a  fortieth  anniversary  gig  at  the  Royal  Albert  Hall  last  year  and  are  currently  working  on  a  new  album  funded  by  Pledgemusic.

Algy  got  involved  in  the  New  Wave  of  British  Heavy  Metal  and  formed  his  own  band  Tank with  him  on  lead  vocals . Algy  was  flanked  by  two  brothers  called  Brabbs  and  the  band  was  often  compared  to  Motorhead. "Fast"  Eddie  Clarke  produced  their  first  album, "Filth  Hounds  of  Hades "  which  was  very  well  received  in  the  metal  community  but  made  no  commercial  waves. The  Brabbs   brothers  left   after  the  third  album  and  were  replaced  by  a  couple  of  guys  called  Tucker  and  Evans. The  band  eventually  called  it  a  day  in  1989  but  in  1997  Tucker  and  Evans  resurrected  it  without  Algy. He  racted  by  forming  his  own  version  of  Tank  with  him  as  sole  member   so  you  currently  have  two  Tanks  out  on  the  road.

Paul  had  also  gone  metal  and  played  with  UFO  for  four  years  until  they  split  in  1987. After  that  he  did  session  work  including  playing  on  Andrew  Ridgeley's  ill-fated  solo  album. He  also  played  on  Eddie  and  the  Hot  Rods'  comeback  album  "Gasoline  Days"  in  1996  before  rejoining  The  Damned. After  leaving  once  more,  he  worked  for  the  charity  Community  Music  Wales  until  coming  down  with  tinnitus. He  currently  works  for  the  British  Musicians  Union  in  Cardiff  and  occasionally  appears  on  stage  with  both  The  Damned  and  the  Hot  Rods. He  has  battled  cancer  in  recent  years.

After  leaving  The  Phantom  Chords  Bryn  dropped  out  of  sight  for a  number  of years  until  he  joined  a  Ramones  tribute  band, the  Shamones  in  2010. In  2015  he  was  struck  down  with  throat  cancer, ending  up  in  the same  ward  as  Paul !  He  died  that  September.

Roman  also  laid  low  for  a  number  of  years  before  re-emerging  with  a  solo  album  "Papa  Loco"  in  2004  comprising  under-powered  Goth  tunes  with  his  own  weedy  singing. Since  then  he  has  played  with  an  Irish  folk  band, Dirty  Water  and   produced  new  punk  songwriter  Andy  Gallagher.

Rat  is  a  drummer  for  hire  and  has  toured or  recorded  with  Donovan, Neville  Staple  and  other  names  that  mean  nothing  to  me. He 's  also  done  some  production  work.