465 Hello Prefab Sprout - Don't Sing

Chart  entered : 28  January  1984

Chart  peak : 62

Number  of  hits : 16

My  regular  travelling  companions  to  away  games  have  always  loved  this  lot. It  took  me  quite  a  while  to  warm  to  them.

Prefab  Sprout  were  formed  as  far  back  as  1977  by  brothers  Paddy  and  Martin  McAloon   and  drummer  Michael  Salmon  in  Durham . Paddy  went  to  the  boarding  school  run  by  the  priests  at  the  Catholic  seminary , Ushaw  College,  leading  to  the  widespread  misconception  that  he  trained  to  be  a  priest. In  fact  he  studied  Humanities  at  Newcastle  Polytechnic  before  working  at  his  parents'  garage. The  trio  were  originally  just   a  provincial  punk  outfit  although  their  songs  were  mostly  Paddy  originals.

Paddy  sent  out  demo  tapes  to  no  avail  and  so  took  the  indie  route  in  1982. The  band  paid  for  a  recording  session  at  a  local  studio  using  money  Martin  had  earned  through  two  months  working  as  a  night  watchman. The  result  was  the  single  "Lions  In  My  Own  Garden ( Exit  Someone  ) "  on  their  own  Candle  label.  The  song  takes  its  acrostic  title  from  the  French  town  his  girlfriend  was  studying  in  ( Limoges )  which  gives  you  some  idea  of  the  sort  of  mind  we're  dealing  with  here. The  lyric  seems  to  be  somewhat  obliquely  about  missing  her. Paddy's  voice  is  similar  to  Aztec  Camera's   Roddy  Frame,  shorn  of  the  Caledonian  vowels   and  there  is  a  hint  of  the  lovelorn  melody  that  became  his  trademark  but  the  sound  is  unmistakably  early  eighties  indie  with  a  spiky  guitar  sound  that  the  added  touches  of  harmonica  and  glockenspiel  can't  sweeten.

They  went  on  the  road  to  promote  it  adding  two  new  female  backing  vocalists  Wendy  Smith  and  Feona  Attwood  and  in  September  went  to  a  studio  at  Durham  University  to  record  a   second  single  "The  Devil  Has  All  The  Best  Tunes". Well  he  might  have  but  that  wasn't  one  of  them, a  ridiculously over-wordy  meta-song  about  songwriting  which  doesn't  allow  the  music  a  second  in  which  to  breathe . It  doesn't  sound  like  they're  playing  in  time  either.

Nevertheless,  it  was  sufficient  to  attract  the  attention  of   Tyneside's  answer  to  Tony  Wilson, Keith  Armstrong  who  put  them  on  at  his  club  and  signed  them  up  to  his  new  label  Kitchenware  ( minus  Attwood whose  stay was  never  intended  to  be  permanent ). In  April  1983  the  first  single  was  re-released. I  remember  them  getting  some  play  on  David  Jensen  but  thought  it  was  just  run  of  the  mill  indie  and  they'd  never  get  anywhere  with  such  a  stupid  name. Salmon  then  quit  to  form  his  own  band  and  the  band  had  to  record  their  first  album "Swoon"  with  an  array  of  session  drummers  including  Aztec Camera's Dave  Ruffy. Kitchenware  re-issued  the  second  single  to  mark  time.

"Don't  Sing "  was  released  in  January  1984  as  the  lead  single  for  "Swoon" . By  this  time,  with  exposure  on  the  night  time  Radio  One  shows   and  a  support  tour  with  Elvis  Costello  , they'd  built  enough  of  a  student  following  to  make  it  a  minor  hit.  The  lyric  is  based  on  Graham  Greene's  novel   The  Power  And  The  Glory  about  religious  persecution  in  Mexico   and  the  music  also  presents  a  challenge  resting  on  a  jangly  riff  not  too  dissimilar  to  the  Doobie  Brothers'  Long  Train  Running  and   Martin's  suspect  bass  playing. The  chorus  is  complex   and  hardly  sing  a  long  material.  The  album  did  better  , peaking  at  22  without  yielding  a   follow  up  hit.