364 Hello Bad Manners - Ne-Ne Na-Na Na-Na Nu-Nu

Chart  entered  :  1  March  1980

Chart  peak  :  28

Number  of  hits  : 12

Bad  Manners  are  the  last  band  from  the  mod/ska  revival  to  qualify  here  and  by  this  time  the  movement  had  a  half-hearted  ( and  that's  overstating  it  somewhat )  adherent  in   yours  truly.

This  came  about  because  from  around  November  1979  my  best  friend  Steve  got  into  it  in  a  big  way. This  didn't  seem  to  be  a  problem at  first -  I  couldn't  have  cared  less  what  music  he  liked  or  what  clothes  he  wore  -  but  from   that  Christmas  onwards  our  relationship  rapidly  deteriorated. His   interest  in  most  of  the  activities  we'd  enjoyed  together  evaporated  , he  started  cadging  money  and  lying  to  me  and  eventually  became  derisive. I  decided  one  Sunday  afternoon  to  become  a  mod  in  the  hope  that  this  would  shore  things  up. It  didn't  amount  to  much  more  than  wearing  a  tie  and  buying  a  pair  of  two-tone  trousers. I  already  liked  Two-Tone  and  The  Jam ; that  didn't  have  to  be  faked. Steve  expressed  approval  but  it  didn't  change  anything.

What  took  me  so  long  to  realise  was  that  it  wasn't  being  a  mod  that  was  important  to  him,  that  was  just  an  avenue  to  being  cool  and , whatever  I  might  be  wearing  at  the  time  , an  association  with  me  was  never  going  to  help  him  achieve  that. Looking  back  I  think  I  should  credit  him  with  some  qualms  ; the  process  of  dropping  me  took  around  six  months   after  all, but  I  can  honestly  say  that  of  all  the  break-ups  I've  experienced ,  that's  the  one  where  I  was  completely  blameless,  there  was  nothing  else  I  could  have  done  to  save  it.

Towards  the  end  of  April  we  finally  fell  out. I  took  him  to  task  over  flouting  the  "rules"  of  a  little  club  we  and  another  lad  had  going  and  it  was  clearly  the  excuse  he'd  been  waiting  for  to  call  me  a  "boring  square"  and  make  his  exit. When  his  grandmother  ( a  lovely  lady  )  died  a  few  weeks  later  there  was  a  reconciliation  of  sorts  but  nothing  beyond  a  superficial  cordiality  on  either  side. I  don't  think  he  achieved  his  ambition ; to  our  peers  at  school  he  was  a  figure  of  derision, a  bandwagon-jumper ,  and  his  little  gang  had  to  be  formed  from  younger, more  easily  impressed  kids. He  left  school  at  16  and   got  married  early  but  it  didn't  work  out. I  used  to  see  him  in  the  pub  sometimes  in  the  nineties  and  we'd  chat  affably  enough. How  much  of  all  the  above  he'd  recall  I couldn't  say.

With   Steve  gone  my  mod  phase  died  on  the  vine. When  myself  and  two  other  friends   were  press-ganged  into  helping  some  guy  get  his  Vespa  back  on  to  the  path  at  Loughrigg  Terrace  ( where  neither  he  nor  the  other  parka-clad  hordes  should  have  been  )  at  the  end  of  June  that  year  my  identification  with  them  ceased  for  good.

Anyway  back  to  Bad  Manners. They  were  formed  in  1976  at  a  London  comprehensive  called  Woodberry  Down. The  six  members  were  the  larger-than-life  Doug  Trendle   who  took  the  stage  name  "Buster  Bloodvessel"  from  the  Ivor  Cutler  character  in  Magical  Mystery  Tour , Alan  Sayag  aka  Winston  Bazoomies  ( harmonica ) , Paul  Hyman  ( trumpet ) Louis  "Alphonso "  Cook  ( guitar ), Dave  Farren  ( bass )  and  Brian  Tuitt  ( drums ).  They  had  no  name  at  first  then  became  Stand  Back.  As  the  band  left  school  and  played  gigs  in  the  outside  world  they  acquired  three  more  musicians, keyboard  player  Martin  Stewart  and  saxophonists  Andrew  Marson  and  Chris  Kane  , the  latter  the  only  member  who  could  actually  read  music.

The  band  had  a  wide  variety  of  musical  influences  from  twenties  jazz,  and  TV  theme  music  to  the  Bonzo   Dog   Doo  Dah  Band  as  well  as  the  obvious  reggae  and  ska  giants. Doug's  crazed  stage  behaviour  and  size  soon  got  them  noticed  as  they  toured  the  pubs  and  clubs  of  London. There  was  a  large  dose  of  broad  humour  in  their  act  which  may  not  have  served  them  well  in  the  long  term. Two  Tone  were  interested  in  them  but  they  decided  to  go  with  Magnet  instead.

I  remember  reading  an  early  interview  in  Sounds   where  Doug / Buster  boasted  about  eating  28  Big  Macs  in  one  go.  At  the  time  McDonalds  hadn't  penetrated  the  UK  as  far  as  the  North  West  where  Wimpy  still  ruled  so  I  thought  he  was  referring  to  a  Mackintosh's  toffee  bar  and  was  both  unimpressed  and  concerned  for  his  teeth.

"Ne-Ne  Na-Na  Na-Na  Nu-Nu"  was  a  cover  of   an  old  rock  and  roll  tune  by  Dickie  Doo  and  the  Don'ts  in  1958  which  apparently  influenced  Robin  Williams's  Mork  character.  Where  Dickie  did  the  sparse  vocal  interjections  as  a  comic  child,  Buster's  delivery  is  cribbed  from  Dave  and  Ansell  Collins  and  he's  on  the  record  a  lot  more.  Bad  Manners  play  it  much   faster  turning  it  into  a  sax  romp   bringing  inevitable   comparisons  to   Madness. Of  course  playing  a  two  minute  tune  faster  means  you  have  to  add  some  new  ideas  and  they  pad  it  out  with  Martin's   unexpected  cheesy  synth  break, probably  the  only  one  on  any  ska  record   and  then  a  passage  where  the  saxes  start  playing  The  Laughing  Policeman.  It's  a  good  party  record  which  I  enjoyed  at  the  time  but  seems  pretty  ephemeral  now.