423 Hello China Crisis - African and White

Chart  entered : 7  August  1982

Chart  peak  : 45

Number  of  hits  : 11


Merseyside's  most  anonymous  and  perhaps  under-rated  band  made  their  chart  debut  in  the  summer  of  1982.

Vocalist  and  keyboard  player  Gary  Daly  and  guitarist  Eddie  Lundon   met  at   St  Kevin's  Secondary  School  in  Liverpool's  near-neighbour  Kirby. Both  from  working  class  backgrounds  they  formed   China  Crisis , the  name  a  vague  reference  to  Eddie's  slightly  Oriental  facial  features, in  1979  with  drummer  Dave  Reilly.

The  trio  wrote  this  song  together  and  first  released  it  on  the  independent  label  Inevitable  at  the  beginning  of  1982  when  it  had  the  misfortune  of  being  slobbered  over  by  Radio  One's  Peter  Powell. When  he  first  joined  the  station  in  1977  Powell  seemed  like  a  good  bloke  and  in  1980  was  given  the  tea  time  show. That  same  year  the  practice  of  broadcasting  specially  recorded  session  tracks  to  get  around  the  needletime  restrictions  was  extended  from the  evening  shows  to  his. Probably  by  happy  accident  two  of  the  first  bands  featured  on  his  show  were  Spandau  Ballet  and  Duran  Duran  and  when  they  went  stellar  it  turned  his  head. He  saw  himself  as  another  great  taste-maker, a  sort  of  John  Peel  for  the  masses, adopting  an  unctuous  presenting  style   - mocked  by  his  then-tolerable  colleague  Steve  Wright  who  trailed him  as "the  sincere  voice  of  Peter  Powell" - which  made  his  show  a  difficult  listen  and  becoming  obsessed  with  spotting  the  next  big  thing. Most  of  his  predictions  were  dismal failures  - anyone  for  Buzzz, Bim, Passion  Puppets, Matt  Fretton ? - and  his  endorsement  probably  did  a  band  more  harm  than  good.

I've  already  reviewed  the  song  on  the  albums  blog :

"African And White" comes next, a song I still don't hold in much regard. This was the way they could have gone, pallid vaguely funky agit-pop , a sort of lightweight Gang of Four without the passion to pull it off. The references to Israel are perplexing - perhaps they're protesting Israel's dealings with the apartheid regime but there were targets closer to home which makes singling Israel out very questionable. I do like the intro though , the way the real drums emerge from behind the electronics and then the percussion fills; it's a shame the song as a whole is disappointing.

I  have  noted  since  writing  that  there's  still  some  debate  as  to  whether  the  lyric  does  mention  Israel  though  on  a  live  version  from  2005  on  YouTube  Gary  does  enunciate  the  word  more  clearly  than  on  record.

The  single  didn't  chart  on  first  release   but  Virgin  still  snapped  them  up  and  gave  them  a  generous  advance. There  was  an  intervening  single , "Scream  Down  At  Me" , which  is  in  a  similar  vein  but  to  my  ears  more  appealing,  before  it  was  re-released  in  the  summer. It  was  billed  as  a  re-mix  but  I  couldn't  tell  much  difference  and  I'm  not  sure  which  mix  was  included  on  the  album.