483 Hello George Michael (solo ) - Careless Whisper

Chart  entered : 4  August  1984

Chart  peak :  1

Number  of  hits : 38

Only  a  short  posting  here  as  we  find  George  prematurely  launching  a  solo  career  and  a  run  of  hits   that  has  only  looked  like  faltering  in  the  last  couple  of  years.

Here's  the  Popular  link  George Michael

482 Hello Alison Moyet - Love Resurrection

Chart  entered : 23  June  1984

Chart  peak : 10

Number  of  hits : 16

We  could  have  said  OK  to  Alison  earlier  of  course  but,  as  I've  covered  both  Yazoo  LPs  on  Clarke  Chronicler's  Albums,  there  seemed  little  point  in  that.

Genevieve  Alison  Moyet  was  born  in  Billericay  in  1961. She  was  involved  in  a  number  of  punk  and  pub  rock  bands  in  Essex  in  the  late  70s  including  The  Vandals, Screamin  Abdabs and  The  Vicars, none  of  whom  made  a  record. In  1981  she  advertised  in  Melody  Maker   for  musicians  to  form  a  "rootsy  blues  band". Her only  reply  came  from  Vince  Clarke  latterly  of  Depeche  Mode  who  she  vaguely  knew  from  school. Having  quit  Depeche  Mode  he  needed  a  singer  on  a  song  called  "Only  You"  to  reassure  Mute  that  he  still  had  something  to  offer. They  became  Yazoo  and  had  immediate  and  massive  success  but  it  proved  to  be  too  much  too  soon  for  a  duo  who  found  it  difficult  to  get  on  at  a  personal  level. They  announced  their  split  before  the  second  album  came  out  in  the  summer  of  1983.

Alison  was  quickly  snapped  up  by  CBS  and  got  to  work  with  Banarama  writer / producers  Swain  and  Jolley.  They  co-wrote  all  the  tracks  for  her  debut  album  and  I  think  that's  why  many , including  myself,  were  disappointed  by  her  solo  career; there  seemed  less  of  her  personality  on  her  solo  stuff  than  on  the  Yazoo  records.  

"Love  Resurrection"   was  her  debut  solo  single. To  anyone  familiar  with  Yazoo  songs  like  "State  Farm" and  "Good  Times "  where  Alison  casts  herself  as  a  latter  day  Big  Mama  Thornton  it  shouldn't  have  come  as  a  great  surprise  that  she's  singing  about  erections  here - "I  want  you  to  grow  in  my  hand"  indeed.  However  raunchy  the  lyric ,  the  single  isn't  bluesy  at  all  but  straight  ahead  eighties  pop , slick  and  tuneful  but  dated ,  particularly  that  ringing  mock-Oriental  keyboard  sound.   It's  a  reasonable  song  but  it  hasn't  aged  well.

481 Hello The Sisters of Mercy - Body and Soul / Train

Chart  entered : 16  June  1984

Chart  peak : 46

Number  of  hits : 10

Another  band  crossing  over  from  the  Independent  charts,  and  probably  the  most  contrary  of  the  lot,  were  these  guys  from  the  Leeds  post-punk  scene. They  began  as  a  duo. Andrew  Eldritch   ( born  Andrew  Taylor  in  Ely )  was  studying  Mandarin  Chinese  at  Leeds  University  and  was  helping  out  various  local  bands  as  a  drummer.  Guitarist  Gary  Marx   was  originally  Mark  Pearman.

The  band  released  their  first  single  "The  Damage  Done"  on  their  own  fledgling  label  Merciful  Release  in  November  1980. The  song  seems  to  be  about  terrorism  and  has  a  decent  melodic  bassline  but  otherwise  sounds  like  a  bad  garage  band  trying  to  sound  like  Joy  Division. Andrew's  low-end  murmur  makes  most  of  the  lyric  unintelligible  although  his  drumming  is  a  reasonable  impersonation  of  Steve  Morris. It's  the  only  one  of  their  records  to  feature  him  on  drums; all  future  releases  would  feature  a  drum machine "Doktor  Avalanche"  although  the  name  covered  more  than  one  model.

It  would  be  eighteen  months  before  their  next  single  during  which  time  they'd  added  bassist  Craig  Adams  and  second  guitarist  Ben  Gunn  to  the  line-up. For  "Body  Electric"  Andrew  sets  the  drum  machine  to  a  frantic  beat  and  adopts  a  shouty  mode  for  a  tale  of  Ballardian  horror  that  would  have  slotted  in  nicely  after  Atrocity  Exhibition  on  Closer.   In  November  1982  they  came  out  with   "Alice"  produced  by  John  Ashton  of  The  Psychedelic  Furs. This  time  round  there's  the  semblance  of  a  tune   and  a  Cure  like  lyric  about  a  delicate  girl. It  was  re-released  as  part  of  an  EP  the  following  year.  By  this  point  they  were  scoring  high  placings  in  the  independent  charts  and  getting  play  on  Jensen  and  Peel. I  remember  the  latter  wryly  remarking  when  they   did  a  session  version  of  Emma  that  it  was  the  first  Hot  Chocolate  song  ever  to  feature  on  his  show.

In  the  spring  of  1983  they  produced  the  remarkably  grim  "Anaconda", personifying  drug  addiction  as  a  crushing  snake. The  lyric  is  devoid  of  all  hope  although  Andrew  sounds  as  passionate  as  he  could  ever  get  with  such  a  hollow  inflexible  voice. The  guitar  sound  is  appropriately  tortured   on  the  constricting  riff   and  it  could  well  be  their  best  song  though  it  was  never  going  to  get  much  airplay.  They  quickly  followed  it  up  with  a  5  track  12  inch  EP  "The  Reptile  House "   which  catches  them  at  their most  lugubrious  with  5  slow  dirges  and  is  strictly  for  the  converted.

At  this  point  I  had  them  down  as  a  poor  man's  Joy  Division  who  were  going  to  stay  exactly  where  they  were  in  the  indie  charts. Then  in  the  autumn  I  went  to  Leeds  University  where  they  were  regarded  as  mega-stars, listed  alongside  the  likes  of  Wham  as  a  major  forthcoming  attraction  on  the  Ents  schedule. Andrew  had  left  the  university  by  then  but  black-clad  groupies  still  hung  around  his  old  haunt,  The  Faversham  in  the  hope  he  might  drop  by.

Almost  as  soon  as  I  got  there  they  released  their  latest  single  "Temple  Of  Love"  ( it  became  their  biggest  hit  when  re-recorded  in  1992 ).  With  a  great  riff  owing  just  a  little  to  Pretty  Vacant  and  a  rousing  chorus  to  get  their  fans  slam  dancing   it  was  their  most  commercial  effort  to  date  despite  an  utterly  desolate  lyric  declaring  the  inadequacy  of  love  as  a  refuge  from  darker  forces. It  also  marked  the  end  of  the  first  phase  of  their  career. It  was  their  last  independent  single  as  Merciful  Release  was  signed  over  to  WEA  shortly  afterwards. It  was  also  the  end  of  the  line  for  Gunn  who  became  the  first  of  many  Sisters  to  quit  due  to  irreconcilable  differences  with  Andrew. He  claimed  that  what  was meant  to  be  a  parody  of  a  rock  band  was  turning  into  the  real  thing. He  was  replaced  by  Wayne  Hussey, fresh  from  his  stint  with  Dead  Or  Alive.

This  double  A-side  ( or  12 inch  EP  with  a  re-recording  of  "Body  Electric ")  was  their  first  single  under  the  new  deal. On  "Body  And  Soul  "  the  pace  slows  down  to   a   stately  rumble   while  Andrew  intones  a  rather  more  optimistic  take  on  love. Some  sparse  Banshees  guitar  adds  some  colour  but  it's  not  a  particularly  commercial  offering. "Train"  is  even  more  forbidding. It's  rhythmically  livelier , with  a  decent  riff   but  the  lyric  is  an  extended  metaphor  for  death. It's  also  poorly  produced  with  Andrew's  voice  almost  inaudible  at  times.  Andrew  himself  doesn't  seem  to  have  been  very  happy  with  it  and  kept  it  off  their  compilation  CDs.   Nevertheless  WEA   kept  their  side  of  the  bargain  and  got  them  off  the  mark  in  the  charts.

480 Hello Jimmy Somerville* - Smalltown Boy

(* as  part  of  Bronski  Beat  )

Chart  entered : 2  June  1984

Chart  peak : 3

Number  of  hits ; 21   ( 4  with  Bronski  Beat, 8 with  The  Communards, 9 solo )

Here's  another  guy  who  had  a  very  short  apprenticeship  before  making  the  charts.

Bronski  Beat  were  three  politicised   gay  guys -  the  first  to  make  the  chart  since  Tom  Robinson -  sharing  a  flat  in  Brixton. Singer  Jimmy  was originally  from  Glasgow; the  other  guys  were  from  London. Their  main  musical  influences were  Giorgio  Moroder  and  late  seventies  gay  disco  icon  Sylvester  whose  falsetto  croon  was the  model  for  Jimmy's   singing  style. They  were  signed  up  by  London  Records  after  playing only  nine  gigs.

"Smalltown  Boy"  was  their  debut  single  and  was  picked  up  by  David  Jensen  who  commented  that  they were  a  group  that  didn't  look  like  how  they  sounded, a  reference  to  the  first  publicity  pics  of  three  skinheads  in  green  Harrington  jackets , albeit  not  particularly  threatening  ones.  Musically  it  sounds  like   the  melodramatic  synth pop  of   Eurhythmics   with  Jimmy's  immediately  recognisable  howl   replacing  Annie  Lennox's  voice. The  song's  lyric ( and  the  accompanying  video ) tell  Jimmy's  own  story  of  coming  down  to  London  ( with  a  certain  amount  of  poetic  licence; Glasgow  isn't  exactly  a  small  town )  to  escape  persecution  and  familial  incomprehension. With  its  sad  chords  and  forlorn  chorus - "Run  away, turn  away, run  away, turn  away"  - it's  a  moving  record  even  if  you  don't  particularly  sympathise  with  the  subject  matter.  and  a  hard  one  to  follow  up.    

479 Hello Lloyd Cole* - Perfect Skin

( * ... and  the  Commotions )

Chart  entered  : 26  May  1984

Chart  peak : 26

Number  of  hits : 15  ( 9  with  The  Commotions , 6  solo )

This  guy  seemed  to  come  out  of  nowhere; I'd  never  heard  of  the  band  before  they  entered  the  charts  with  this.

Though  they  were  perceived  as  a  Scottish  band, Lloyd  was  born  in  Buxton  and  only  came  to  Scotland  as  a  student  to  study  Philosophy  and  English  at  Glasgow  University. He  got  The  Commotions  together  while  studying  and  as  main  songwriter  and  front  man   put  his  name  out  front. The  Commotions  included  bassist  Lawrence  Donegan  who'd  recently  had  chart  success  with  The  Bluebells.

A lot  of  sources  describe  "Perfect  Skin"  as  their  debut  single   but  they'd  actually had  one  ready  for   release  the  previous  year  on  an  independent  label  linked  to  CBS ."Down  at  the  Mission"  is  closer  to  Orange  Juice  than  their  subsequent  releases  with  lashings  of  white  funk  guitar  as  Lloyd  lauds  an  institution  not  geared  for  profit. The  production's  a  bit  murky  and  the  rhythm  section  is  unpolished  but  there's  a  good  sense  of  melody  in  there.

Things  didn't  work  out  with  CBS  and  the  group  were  signed  to  Polydor  on  the  basis  of  demos of  "Perfect  Skin"  and  "Forest  Fire".

Though  he's  not  credited  as  a  writer  "Perfect  Skin"  is  hung  on  Neil  Clark's   circular  guitar  riff   with  Blair  Cowan's  Booker T -style  organ  filling  up  the  spaces. Lloyd  admits  he  wrote  it  as  a  consciously  Dylanesque  number  with  Subterranean  Homesick  Blues  a  particular  influence. Instead  of  Suzie  Rotolo, Lloyd's  muse  is  a  weather  girl  called  Louise  who's  "sexually  enlightened  by  Cosmopolitan "   and  he  half-drawls  the  lyric  with  scant  regard  for  metre  in  a  voice  that's  half  way  between  Lou  Reed  and  Matt  Johnson. It's  all  very  arch  and  the  final  verse gets  a  bit  too  meta  -"The  moral  of  this  song  must  be  there  never  has  been  one ". I  didn't  like  it  much  at  the  time  but  coming  back  to  it  after  enjoying  their  later  material  it  holds  up  pretty  well.

478 Goodbye The Boomtown Rats - Drag Me Down

Chart  entered  : 19  May  1984

Chart  peak : 50

After  a  seven  year  run  of  hits  it  was  time  for  the  Rats  to  head  off  into  the  sunset. The  Rats  had  been  in  steady  decline  since  "Banana  Republic" - their  finest  moment  - left  the  Top  10  at  the  beginning  of  1981. Although  the  LP  "Mondo  Bongo"  reached  their  highest  position  in  the  album  charts  ( 6 )  the  follow  up  single  "The  Elephant's  Graveyard ( Guilty)"   failed  to  make  the  Top  20. Bob  Geldof  torpedoed  their  US  chances  by  being  unable  to  resist  insulting  the  out-of-touch  record  executives  who  came  to  check  them  out  and  "I  Don't  Like  Mondays"  remains  their  only  US  hit. In  the  summer  of  1981  guitarist  Gerry  Cott  quit  the  group  in  protest  at  their  dabbling  in  reggae  though  he  had  distanced  himself  from  the  group  for some  time. Their  first  single  without  him,  "Never  In  A  Million  Years" stiffed  at  number  62  and  although  the  follow-up  "House  On  Fire"  ( a  cod-reggae  track  memorably  described  by  Smash  Hits  as  "more  Lenny  Henry  than  Gregory  Isaacs" ) made  the  Top  30  in  spring  1982 , the  third  single  "Charmed  Lives"  flopped  altogether. the  album  "V  Deep"  only  got  to  number  64. With  the  writing  clearly  on  the  wall  for  the  group  Bob  diversified  into  acting , playing  Pink  in  the  film  version  of  Pink  Floyd's  The  Wall  in  1982. He  also  had  to  watch  from  the  sidelines  as  his  girlfriend  Paula  Yates  became  a  major  TV  personality  on  The  Tube. The  group  recorded  their  final  album  "In  The  Long  Grass"   in  1983   but  had  a  long  struggle  with  their  label  to  get  it  released. The  first  single  from  it   "Tonight"  scraped  to  number  73  at  the  beginning  of  1984.

This  was  the  second  single. "Drag  Me  Down"  is  an  entirely  vacuous  example  of  mid-eighties  production  pop  with  only  Bob's  voice  to  tell  you  its  The  Rats  at  all. Bob  was  a  fan  of  Duran  Duran  and  you  can  hear  that  in  the  synth-y  sheen  and  the  contrived  "Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee  Woh  oh  woh "  chants  that  constitute  the  song's  hook  line. The  lyrics  are  vaguely  saucy -"My  soul's  in  your  wrist" - but  mostly  meaningless. It  was  a  success  of  sorts  improving  on  its  predecessor's  showing  but  why  they  decided  to  include  it   in  their  Live  Aid  set  God  only  knows.

The  single  did  nothing  to  improve  the  album's  fortunes ; it  remained  outside  the  chart. They  tried  again  in  the  autumn  with  "Dave". The  song  was  about  the  band's  regular  sax  player  Dave  McHale  who'd  suffered  a  nervous  breakdown  after  his  girlfriend died  of  an  overdose. Putting  aside  the  hideous  irony  of  it  now, the  song  was  obviously  heart-felt  at  the  time  but  it's   utterly  generic  in  its  moody  synth  rock  with  a  chorus  that's  as  mundane  as its  title. Pete  Briquette  tries  on  the  fretless   bass  for  size  but  that's  the  only  point  of  interest.

A  couple  of  weeks  after  its  release  Bob  saw  the  Michael  Buerk  report  on  the  Ethiopian  famine  and  the  rest  is  history  as  far  as  he  was  concerned. The  other  Rats  were  on  the  Band  Aid  recording  and  their  presence  in  the  video  and  on  the  sleeve  has  provided  fruit  for  trivia  questions  ever  since. At  the  beginning  of  1985  Mercury  looked  to  capitalise  on  Bob's  return  to  prominence  and  squeezed  a  fourth  single  off  "In The  Long  Grass "  in  the  form  of  "A  Hold  Of  Me".  A  horribly   and  over-produced  Celtic  rocker   with  mock-heroic  lyrics,  it  sounds  like  Then  Jericho  with  a  chord  progression  pinched  from  Status  Quo's  Whatever  You  Want . It  was  the  last  Boomtown  Rats  single  and  probably  the  worst. Even  with  Bob's  sky-high  profile  it  couldn't  scrape  into  the  Top  75.

With  no  hope  of  persuading  Mercury  to  finance  another  LP  the  group  were  in  limbo. Apart from  his  work  preparing  for  Live  Aid  , Bob  had  another  film  to  promote  ,"Number  One",  in  which  he  played  a  snooker  ace. It  didn't  exactly  set  the  box  office  alight   and   apart  from  the  odd  cameo  as  himself  Bob  has  hardly  ventured  into  the  acting  world  since.

Bob  of  course  put  The  Boomtown  Rats  on  the  bill  at  Live  Aid   and  they  received  a  warm  response  although  you  could  say  that  was  probably  for  their  front  man's  achievement  rather  than  their  music.  Just  under  a  year  later  they  gave  their  final  performance  at  the  Self  Aid  concert  in  Dublin  to  raise  awareness  of  Ireland's  chronic  youth  unemployment  problem.

With  the  band  put  to  bed  Bob  could  now  concentrate  on  a  solo  career  and  making  a  bit  of  money  for  himself. He  published  his  autobiography  Is  That  It ?  in  the  summer  of  1986  which  was  well-received. In  the  autumn  he  released  his  first  solo  single  "This  Is  The  World  Calling"  co-written  by  Dave  Stewart  amid  a  blaze  of  publicity. It's  a  lumpy  stab  at  a  universalist  anthem  which  deploys  an  all-star  female  chorus   ( Annie  Lennox, Maria  McKee, Alison  Moyet )  to  try  and  mask  that  this  is  mid-eighties  studio  pop  at  its  most  arid. The  portentous  lyrics  are  another  minus; the  line  "There's  no  one  who's  as  good  as  you" makes  me  squirm  every  time. An  underwhelmed  public  made  it  a  number  25  hit, a  poor  return  after  all  the  hype.

The  album  "Deep  in  the  Heart  of  Nowhere"   followed  a  month  later.  Bob  was  aided  by  a  plethora  of  star  guests   which  is  never  a  recipe  for  great  music. Thankfully   it  wasn't   full  of  the  overblown  preachy  songs  you  might  expect. Bob  explores  a  range  of  contemporary  pop  styles  - "The  Beat  of  the  Night"  sounds  like  he's  been  listening  to  The  Pet  Shop  Boys' West  End  Girls -  and  some  of  it   is  quite  listenable   but  it's  too  long  and  lacks  any  killer  tunes. It's  solitary  week  at  number  79  indicated  that   solo  stardom  wasn't  exactly  beckoning.  The  follow  up  single  "Love  Like  A  Rocket"  was  co-written  by  Stewart   and  is  an  attempted  sequel  to  Waterloo  Sunset   but  its  mediocre  synth  pop  sound  ( with  superfluous  Eric  Clapton  guitar  solo )   meant  it  didn't  get  past  number  61  in  the  charts.  The  third  single, the  ridiculously  over-wrought  death  ballad  "I  Cry  Too"   sounds  like  Ultravox  trying  to  re-write  Hot  Chocolate's  Emma  and  didn't  chart.

Bob  laid  low  for  the  rest  of  the  decade  as  his  wife  gave  birth  to  two  more  daughters  but  resurfaced  in   June  1990   with  the  single  "The  Great  Song  of  Indifference". A  calculated  kiss-off  to  Saint  Bob - "Baby  I  can  watch  whole  nations  die"  - its   Lou  Reed  meets  The  Chieftains   vibe  somehow  caught  the  public  imagination , fuelled  further   by  the  bizarre  inclusion  of  a  short  middle  aged  man  with  a  comb-over  doing  a  straight  arm  jig  to  the  instrumental  breaks  in  his  backing  band  ( which  also  included  Pete  back  on  bass ). It  reached  number  15  and  propelled  the  album  "The  Vegetarians  Of  Love"  to  number  21.  This  was  the  peak  of  his  solo  career. The  album  was  listenable  but  heavily  derivative.  Van  Morrison   was  the  most  obvious  influence  though  there  were  bits  of  Chris  Rea  in  there  as  well.  Neither  of  the  follow- up  singles, the  Stewart  co-write  "Love  Or  Something"  which  sounds  suspiciously  similar  to  Dire  Straits ' Walk Of  Life,   or  the  dreary  VM  knock-off  "A  Gospel  Song",  made  the  charts  despite  their  amusing  videos   which  used  the  little  guy  for  comic  effect.

If  Bob's  commercial  fortunes  were  on  a  modest  upswing  , the  rise  in  his  financial  fortunes  a  year  or  so  later  was  spectacular. His  television  company  Planet  24  hit  immediate  paydirt  with  The  Big  Breakfast  on  Channel  Four   and  he  went  from  being  virtually  skint  to  a  millionaire  almost  overnight.  No  wonder  his  next  LP  was  called  "The  Happy  Club"  with  Bob  sporting  comedy  beard  and  wacky  clothes  on  the  cover .  The  lead  single  "Room  19  ( Sha  La La La  Lee )"  quotes  so  much  from  Morrison's  Brown  Eyed  Girl  it   must  be  some  sort  of  tribute. The  second  single  "My  Hippy  Angel"  is  forgettable,  bland,  pop  rock. Neither  were  hits  and  neither  was  the  parent  LP. The  title  track  ( passable ) was  co-written  with  World  Party's  Karl  Wallinger  and  his  influence  can  also  be  detected  in  "A  Hole  To  Fill".  The  LP  also  includes  "Too  Late  God "  the  song  he   co-wrote  with  Freddie  Mercury   and  sang  at  his  tribute  concert. The  words  about  middle  aged  angst   - ironic  as  Freddie  didn't  quite  get  there - are  quite  smart  but  the  tune  sounds  like  Hollywood  Beyond's  What's  The  Colour  Of  Money ?  The  album  has  its  moments  but  overall  is  flabby  and  complacent.

In  1994  he  released  the  single  "Crazy", a  new  track  to  promote  Loudmouth  - The  Best  of  Bob  Geldof  and  the  Boomtown  Rats. With  Sting  joining  in  on  the  chorus  it's  crushingly  dull, Bob  mumbling  along  to  a  backing  track  that  seems  to  belong  in  the  mid-eighties. It's  his  last  hit  to  date  clocking  in  for  a  single  week  at  number  65.  The  album  reached  number  10  and  a  re-release  of  "I  Don't  Like  Mondays"  reached  number  38.

If    "Crazy"  suggested  middle-aged  complacency  was  creeping  in,  Bob  was  soon  jolted out  of  it. It's  hard  to  think  anybody  reading  the  post  won't  know  all  this  already  but   here  goes. In  1995  Yates  somehow  persuaded  Inxs  singer  Michael  Hutchence  to  leave  his  supermodel  girlfriend  and  shack  up  with  her  and  the  three  girls. She  and  Bob  were  divorced  the  following  year. Bob  managed  to  put  it  behind  him  and  record  a  comedy  version  of  "Rat  Trap"  with  the  subversive  puppet  Dustin  The  Turkey   which  was  Christmas  number  one  in  Ireland  though  it  didn't  register  elsewhere.

In  1997  Hutchence  was  found  hanged  in  what's  widely  believed  to  be  an  auto-asphyxiation  experiment  gone  wrong  though  Yates  fiercely  denied  this  - at  least at  first  - believing  an  angry  phone  call  between  Bob  and  Hutchence  had  triggered  his  suicide . Bob  won  his  custody  battle  shortly  afterwards  and  Yates  died  of  a  heroin  overdose  a  couple  of  years  later. Bob  assumed  the  legal  guardianship  of  Yates  and  Hutchence's  daughter  so  she  could  be  with  her  half-sisters  , a  gesture  which  gold-plated his  heroic  status. Indeed  the  dignity  with  which  he  conducted  himself  throughout  the  whole  sorry  saga  in  the  full  glare  of  the   tabloids  was  astonishing. He  quickly  became  an  advocate  for  father's  rights.

Bob  returned  to  the  studio  again  in  2001  and  recorded  "Sex  Age  &  Death"   at  Roger  Taylor 's  home  studio   with  Pete  as  producer. To  say  the  album may  have  been  cathartic  is  something  of  an  understatement. The  opening  track  and  single  "One  For  Me"  and  "Inside   Your  Head " attack  Yates   and  Hutchence  with  unremitting  ferocity  and  "Mind  In  Pocket"  's  similarity  to  Inxs  surely  isn't  a  coincidence. Elsewhere  the  lyrics  scream  "mid-life  crisis"  as  does  the  cover  of  a  young  blonde  girl, bra  slipping  and  riding  on  top. It's  quite  a  powerful  piece  of  work  but,  as with  Roger  Waters,  the  lyrics  take  such  precedence  over  the  music  which  is  pretty  threadbare  at  times.  There's  nothing  that  compels  a  second  listen. Despite  a  fair  amount  of  publicity  -  I  remember  listening  to  Bob  discussing  it  on  Radio  Two - it  didn't  sell.

Bob  spent  the  next  decade  outside  the  recording  studios.  He  reactivated  the  campaign  for  debt  relief  often  in  tandem  with  Bono.  He  participated  in  the  TV  series  Grumpy  Old  Men.   In  2004  he  organised  the  Band  Aid  20  recording  and  a  year  later  the  Live  8  concert  although  the  rather  vague  rationale  behind  the  latter  didn't  go  without  criticism. He  compiled  his  solo  work  for  the  box  set  "Great  Songs  of  Indifference"  and  went  out  on  tour . He  came  back  to  earth  with  a  bump  in  Milan  in  July  2006  when  he  found  that  the  concert  promoters  hadn't  bothered  selling  any  tickets  and  only  45  people  turned  up.

Bob  took  something  of  a  back  seat  in  the  later  noughties  as  his  daughter  Peaches  developed  her  media  career  but  returned  to  the  studio  in 2011  for  "How  To  Compose  Popular  Songs  That  Will  Sell". The  over-ironic  title  doesn't  do  him  any  favours  but  the  music  is  OK,  a  surprisingly  mellow  collection  of  reflective  songs  mixing  modern  production  with  the  odd  knowing  sixties  reference. It  checked  in  at  number  89  for  a  week.

When  Ultravox  re-formed  in  2008  Bob  told  his  friend  Midge  Ure  "I  can't  do  that  with  The  Rats. It  would  be  too  cheesy". Nevertheless  that's  exactly  what  he  and  Pete  did  five  years  later,  recruiting  drummer  Simon  Crowe  and  guitarist  Garry  Roberts  for  a  tour  of  the  UK  and  Ireland. A  new  compilation  album  came  out  containing  two  new  tracks  "The  Boomtown  Rats" a  techno  chant  and  "Back  To  Boomtown"  which  sounds  like  a  mid-80s  power  ballad. Neither  are  very  good.  The  band  have  been  put  on  ice  since  the  shocking  death  of  Peaches  Geldof  in  2014.

Besides  working  with  Bob  since  1990,   Pete  is  a  successful  record  producer  , scoring  a  number  one  album  in  France  with  the  singer  Renaud  in  2009.

When  the  Rats  split  up  first  time  round , Simon  and  keyboard  player  Johnnie  Fingers  formed  a  trio  with  a  Japanese  singer  called  Yoko  ( not  that  one ).  They  released  two  singles  in  1987 , "Play  To  Win"  and  "Remember " . I've  only  heard  the  first  one. It's  over-produced  and  Simon's  not  got  a  very  interesting  voice  but  it's  not  a  bad  song  in  an  A-ha  style. They  went  nowhere  and  split  up.  Well  Simon  and  Johnnie  did  . Johnnie  married  Yoko  and  moved  to  Tokyo  where  he's  made  a  name  for  himself  as  a  songwriter, producer  and  promoter  of  the  Fuji  Rock  Festival, Japan's  equivalent  to  Glastonbury. He's  made  some  new   music  under  the  names  Greengate  and  Ruffy  Tuffy  but  none  of  it's  made  it  on  to  Youtube  yet.  Johnnie  was  uninterested  in  joining  the  re-formed  Rats  in  2013.

Simon  on  the  other  hand  left  the  music  business  and  became  a  clockmaker  in  Devon . He  unsuccessfully  sued  Bob  for  unpaid  royalties.  In  the  early  2000s  he  became  a  member  of  a  Celtic  instrumental  band  Jiggerypipery.

Garry  , who  could  have  walked  down  the  streets  unmolested  even  at  the  height  of  the  Rats'  fame ,   initially  became  a  sound  engineer and  went  out  on  tour  with  Simply  Red  and  OMD  in  that  capacity. He  then  became  a  financial  adviser  for  15  years. In  1998  he  renewed  his  friendship  with  Garry  in  a  jazz  and  blues  band  called  The  Velcro  Flies  ( no  recordings  )  and  switched  careers  again , becoming  a  central  heating  engineer. From  2008  he  and  Simon  started  trading  on  their  past  under  various  trademark-dodging  names  like  "The  Rats"  before  taking  Bob's  call  in  2013.

Gerry  had  a  brief  solo  career . Given  that  one  of  his  stated  reasons  for  leaving  The  Rats  was  that  they  had  strayed  too  far  from  their  R & B  roots,  it's  surprising  that  none  of  his  solo  singles  reflect  that  concern. His  debut  single  in  early  1983  "Ballad  of  the  Lone  Ranger"  is  a  slow  stately  synth  ballad  like  The  Cars'  Drive  ( which  it  pre-dates ) . It  got  some  airplay  but  wasn't  really  melodic  enough to  succeed. Gerry  stuck  with  the  Americana  theme  for  the  next  single   "Pioneers",  a  rhythmically  awkward  piece  of  Fairlight  pop  with  a  rather  nice  whistling  refrain. His  final  single  the  following  year  "Alphabet  Town"  was  a  minor  hit  in  Canada  and  sounds  like  70s  singing  actor  Brian  Protheroe  doing  a  number  with  New  Order.
All  three   singles  had  something  to  commend  them  but  it  just  didn't  happen  for  Gerry.

Instead  he  built  up  a  successful  business  supplying  trained  animals  for  TV  and  film  work. In  2010  he  released  a  one-take  solo  album  of  acoustic  guitar  music "Urban  Soundscapes". He  appeared  on  stage  with  Bob  in  2011  but  declined  to  join  the  re-formed  group.  






     

477 Hello Everything But The Girl - Each And Every One

Chart  entered : 12  May  1984

Chart  peak  :  28

Number  of  hits  : 21

The  Cocteau  Twins  were  quickly  followed  out  of  the  indie  charts  by  this  duo.

Both  of  the  pair  had  released  records  before they  came  together  as   Everything  But  The  Girl.
Ben  Watt  was  born  in  London  in  1962  and signed  with  Cherry  Red  Records  as  a  singer-songwriter  in  1981. He  released  his  first  single  "Can't"  in  June  that  year  produced  by  maverick  songwriter  Kevin  Coyne. I  say  produced  but  it's  so  lo-fi  it's  hard  to  believe  Coyne  did  much  more  than  push  the  button  on  a  tape  recorder. It's  hard  to  know  which  is  the  more  off-key  Ben's  unlovely  singing  or  his  recorder  playing.

In  the  autumn  of  that  year  he  met  English  student  Tracey  Thorn   at  Hull  University. After  a  brief  stint  in  a  punk  group  called  Stern  Bops, Tracey  had  formed  The  Marine  Girls  while  in  the  sixth  form  and  they  were  still  an  active  concern  despite  Tracey's  move  north  from  Hatfield. They  released  their  first  single  "On  My  Mind"  in   December  1981  which  is  just  as  primitively  recorded  as  Ben's  effort. Tracey  does  the  lead  vocal  on  this  tale  of  romantic  obsession   sounding  like  a  ragged  Helen  Shapiro  with  support  from  the  lighter  voice  of  Alice  Fox.  Despite  the  rudimentary  musicianship  there's  something  there  in  the  mournful  delivery - knowledge  of  Tracey's  appearance, the  Jimmy  Hill  chin , the  freakishly  large  head  on  a  skinny  frame  usually  topped  off  with  a  staggeringly  unflattering  haircut,  always  gives  her  songs  of  unrequited  love  extra  bite.

In  March  1982  they  released  their  debut  LP  "Beach  Party"  recorded  quite  literally  in  a  garden  shed  by  their  friend  Pat  Bermingham. The  Marine  Girls  have  been  posthumously  lionised  since  Kurt  Cobain  name checked  "Beach  Party"  as  one  of  his  favourite  albums. Comprising  16  short  songs  checking  in  at  28  and  a  half  minutes, it  has  its  moments  but  given  the  rough  and  ready  musicianship  and  lack  of  a  drummer  that's  long  enough. Tracey  and  Fox  share  the  vocals  on  a  set  that  borrows  from  The  Shangri-las  in  the  form  of  spoken  word  teen  dramas  and  there  are  hints  of  The  Slits'  bolshiness. The  wallflower  spite  in  songs  like  "Marine  Girls"   doesn't  do  them  any  favours. It  registered  on  the  indie  charts and  caught  Peel's  interest.

Around  the  same  time  Ben  released  his  second  single, the  "Summer  into  Winter"  EP.   Recorded  with  the  help  of  Robert  Wyatt  who  contributes  vocals  to  the  first  track  "Walter  and  John", a  tale  of  childhood  friends  grown  apart, it  comprises  5  wintry  pastoral  songs  vaguely  reminiscent  of  early  seventies  Pink  Floyd . Again  Ben's  vocals  make  it  a  testing  listen.

In  June  1982  Ben  and  Tracey  first  recorded  together  as  Everything  But  The  Girl  with  an  acoustic  samba  cover  of   Cole  Porter's  "Night  And  Day". The  night  time  DJ's  loved  it  but  to  me  it  sounds  dull  as  ditch  water. Nevertheless  it  brought  Tracey  to  the  attention  of  the  new  jazz  brigade  and  a  certain  Mr  Weller  became  a  fan.

Her  next  project  though  was  a   23  minute   solo  album  "A  Distant  Shore"  released  in  September  1982. Tracey  was  unsure  whether  these  new  personal  songs  about  her  burgeoning  relationship  with  Ben  were  suitable  for  The  Marine  Girls  and  recorded   them  alone  with  just  her  guitar  and  a  few  overdubs. Cherry  Red's  Mike  Alway  decided  to  release  them  as  they  were. If  you  like  minimalist  bedsit  introspection  it's  hard  to  think  of  anything  better  to  recommend   but  it  is  essentially  a  collection  of  demos  that  would  sound  better  fleshed  out. The  single  "Plain  Sailing"  got  a  lot  of  airplay  from  David  Jensen  and  featured  on  Cherry  Red's  "Pillows  and  Prayers "  compilation  which  retailed  at  99p  and  was  a  modest  hit.  My  words  from  the  review  of  that  album  were  :

Tracey  Thorn's  "Plain  Sailing"  ( which  Jensen  played  to  death )  is  ultra-minimalist , just  her  inexpertly  strummed  guitar  and  double-tracked  vocal. There's  an  intriguing tension  between  her  dolorous  voice  and  the  lyric  of  surprised  delight  that  a  blind  date  has  worked  out  so well  but  then  comes  the  devastating  pay-off  line - "Tempting  to  think  now  it  will  all be  plain  sailing, old  enough  now  to  know  there's  no  such  thing". It's  probably  only  second  to  At  17  as  the  ultimate   girl  in  a  bedsit  anthem.

At  the  beginning  of  1983  Everything  But  The  Girl  played  a  gig  in  London  where  they  were  joined  on  stage  by  Weller  for  a  couple  of  songs.  As  this  was  his  first  public  appearance  since  the  demise  of  The  Jam, it  garnered  a  fair  amount  of  publicity. As  yet  though  neither  of  them  was  ready  to  make  another  Everything  But  The  Girl  record.

Ben's  next  single   in  February  1983   "Some  Things  Don't  Matter"  had  already  been  released  on  "Pillows  And  Prayers".   My  review  was :

sounds  like  an  attempt  to  re-write  The  Girl  From  Ipanema  with  its  languid  bossa  nova  rhythm, jazzy  sax  solo  and  third  person  lyric. Watt's  vocal  is  competent  but  unattractive  and  there's  an  excrutiating  couplet - "This  boy  knows  how  to  feel, the blood  in  his  heart  runs  strong  as  cochineal"  which  doesn't  even  make  sense ( I  note  that  the  lyrics  web-pages  all put  a  question  mark in  place  of  the  last  word ).

It  was   the   trailer   single  for  his  album  "North  Marine  Drive"  and  fairly  typical  of  it . The   nine  spare  songs  are  all  minor  key   and  dirge-y   with  some  more  terrible  lyrics   especially  on  "Waiting  Like  Mad"  . Ben's  voice  remains  a  minus.

It  was  the  trailer  single  for  his  album  "North  Marine  Drive"  and  fairly  typical  of  it. The  nine  spare  songs  are  all  minor  key  and  mopey  with  some  more  embarrassing  lyrics  especially  on  "Waiting  Like  Mad". Ben's  voice  remains  a  minus.

The  Marine  Girls  released  their  next  single  "Don't  Come  Back" , produced  by  Young  Marble  Giant  Stuart  Moxham, around  the  same  time, a  sort  of  I  Will  Survive  anthem  delivered  laconically  by  Alice  Fox  with  the  introduction  of  rudimentary  percussion  - it  sounds  like  coconut  shells - hinting  at  a  move  towards  conventional  pop  dynamics. The  following  album  "Lazy  Ways"  is  slightly  more  sophisticated  than  their  debut  but  remains  rooted  in  indie  amateurism.  The  line  from  the  title  track  - "We  sit  reading  under  the  tree / Party  life  is  not  for  me "  -  defines  the  whole  mid-eighties  indie  aesthetic.  Alas,  The  Marine  Girls  would  not  be  around  to  see  it  bloom,  splitting  up  shortly  after  the  album's  release  when  Tracey  and  Alice  fell  out  at  a  concert  in  Glasgow.  The  Fox  sisters  would  briefly  re-surface  in  Grab  Grab  The  Haddock  before  dropping  out  of  the  music  business.

The  demise  of  the  Marine  Girls  left  Tracey  and  Ben  free  to  develop  Everything  But  The  Girl . They  signed  with  Alway's  new  label  Blanco  y  Negro  which  was  run  like  an  indie  but  supported  by  WEA. They  then  collaborated  with  Weller  on  The  Style  Council's  debut  LP  Cafe  Bleu  with  Tracey  doing  the  lead  vocal  on  "The  Paris  Match"  a  cod-jazz  smoocher    spearheading  Weller's  bid  for  Euro-sophistication. 

After  that  they  were  ready  to  release  their  own  material.  "Each  And  Everyone"  was  the  first  single  on  Blanco  y  Negro  and  it's  a  reasonable  introduction  to  the band's  own  songs, a  mildly  reproachful  response  to  the  overtures  of  an  unreliable  lover. Tracey's  glum  delivery  is  rather  incongruous  as  she  shimmies  amid  the  chattering  percussion  and  tasteful  horn  arrangements. Sade's   producer  Robin  Millar  was  at  the  helm  and  the  single  was  lionised  by  the  same  writers  that  lauded  Your  Love  Is  King.
It  would  probably  have  been  a  bigger  hit  had  their  planned  appearance  on  Wogan  gone  ahead. Instead  producers  rejected  outright  the  suggestion  that  they  get  married  on  the  show   as  distasteful  and  the  chance  was  missed.  It  would  be  another  four  years  before  they  troubled  the  Top  40  again  and  over  a  decade  with  one  of  their  own  songs.

476 Hello Cocteau Twins - Pearly Dewdrops Drop

Chart  entered : 28  April  1984

Chart  peak : 29

Number  of  hits : 13  ( Additionally , This  Mortal  Coil's  hit  "Song  To  The  Siren" features  only  The  Cocteau  Twins )

By  one  placing  this  lot  take  over  from  Tom  Petty's  crew as  the  most  "cult"  artists  we've  yet  seen  as  they  never  surpassed  this  one's  chart  performance. I  know  some  people - hello  Mr Carlin- think  they're  the  bees'  knees  but  I've  always  struggled  to  appreciate  them.

The  Cocteau  Twins  were  formed  by  two  Scots  Robin  Guthrie  and  Will  Heggie  in  1979  and  named  themselves  after  a  song  by  Johnny  and  the  Self-Abusers  ( the  nascent  Simple  Minds ).  Robin  worked  for  BP , the  major  employer  in  their  home  town of  Grangemouth  but  also  did  some  DJ-ing  at  a  hotel,  perplexing  the  punters  with  choices  like  The  Birthday  Party. One  girl  seemed to  dig  it  though  and  she  was  asked  to  join  the  band  ; this  was   Liz  Fraser .   She  sang, Robin  played  guitar , Heggie  played  bass  and  a  drum  machine  supplied  the  beats. They  were  signed  by  Ivo  Watts-Russell's  4AD  label  in  1981  and  released  their  debut  LP  ( no  singles ) "Garlands"  in  June  1982

"Garlands "  is  a  slab  of  dense  Goth-rock  with  echoes  of  The  Cure  and  Joy  Division  but  most  of  all  Siouxsie  and  the  Banshees  with  a  better  singer. Unlike  all  those  influences  the  Twins'   sound   was    tethered  by  the  lack  of  a  dexterous  human   drummer  and  taken  as  a  whole  the  album  is  a  bit  of  a  grind  sorely  lacking  any  melody  or  much  variation  in  tempo to  temper  the  billowing  gloom  created  by  the  throbbing  bass  and  Liz's  icy  wail. Compared  to  future  releases  the lyrics  are  relatively  coherent  and  provide  a  steady  stream  of  poetic  imagery  of  pain, death  and  religious  confusion. It  only  made  the  independent  charts  but  found  favour  with  both  the  night  time  DJs, Peel  and  Jensen.

Their  second  release  was  the "Lullabies"  EP  a  few  months  later   which  injects  a  little  more   rock  dynamism  into  its  three  new  tracks  but  is  otherwise  just  as  forbidding  as  the  album.

In  April  1983  they  released  the  single  "Peppermint  Pig"  with  ex-Associate  producer  Alan  Rankine.  It's  a  driving  rock  track  with  a  great  bass  line  and  the  hint  of  a  tune  amidst  the  guitar  squall  and  impenetrable  lyrics  but  strangely  the  band  chose  to  disown  it  and  never  worked  with  an  outside  producer  again. After  a  short  tour  that  spring  Heggie  chose  to  leave  the  band.

Thus  their  second  LP  "Head  Over  Heels"  was  recorded   as  a  duo  with  Robin  shouldering  the  bass  duties  as  well.  Heggie's  departure  immediately  seemed  like  a  plus  with  the  duo  unleashing  a  much  more  powerful, genuinely  Gothic  sound. Robin's  multi-layered  guitars,  Liz's  vocals  getting  more  domineering  as  her  diction  got  murkier  and  an  increasing  melodic  sensibility  carved  their  own  space  in  indiedom. Not  all  of  it  works  for  me; some  of  the  songs  remain  dirge-y  but  "When  Mama  Was  Moth  "  and  "In  Our  Angelhood"  are  outstanding  and  "Sugar  Hiccup"  has  what  you  would  call  a  pop  hook  in  its  chorus. As  well  as  topping  the  indie  charts  the  album  made  number  51 in  the  main  chart  in  the  autumn  of  1983. An  extended  version  of  "Sugar  Hiccup"  was  the  lead  track  on  an  EP  released  shortly  afterwards  called  "Sunburst  and  Snowblind"  which  bubbled  under  the  Top  75.

Shortly  before  the  album's  release  Liz  and  Robin  had  been  approached  by  Watts-Russell  to  record  a  B-side  for  a  single  he  was  going  to  put  out  under  the  name  This  Mortal  Coil, a  re-recording  of  the  Modern  English  song  "Sixteen  Days"  which  they  had  declined  to  revisit. The  duo  recorded  a  sepulchral   version  of  Tim  Buckley's  Song  To  The  Siren"   which  so  pleased  Watts-Russell  he  made it  the  A-side.  With  a  fair  amount  of  radio  play  it  reached  66  in  the  charts  in  October  1983 . As  only  Liz  and  Robin  featured  on  the  A-side  I  should  perhaps  have  counted  that  as  their  first  hit. During  the  sessions  the  band  met  Simon  Raymonde , son  of  Ivor,   a  top  arranger  in  the  sixties  (  Then  Play  Long  incessantly  hammered  home  this  connection )  and  not  long  afterwards   invited  him  to  join  the  band  as  bassist.

"Pearly  Dewdrops  Drops "  was  available  as  either  a  7  inch  single  or  a  12 inch  EP  with  an  extra  track  "The  Spangle  Maker  "  (  a  bit  too  close  to  Joy  Division's  Atmosphere  for  me  ) which  was  apparently  the  lead  track  posing  a  challenge  for  Gallup  presuming  that  sales  of  the  two  were  amalgamated  in  determining  its  chart  position.  It's  been  listed  just  as  "Pearly  Dewdrops Drop". It's  a  bit  disappointing  after  "Head  Over  Heels "  , a  slow  drone  with  Simon's  Peter  Hook  bass  line  buzzing  underneath  Robin's  chiming  riff  and  Liz  intoning   a   repetitive  mantra  with  occasional  whoops.  The  music   slowly  builds  in  intensity  as  the  record  progresses  but  there's  no  real  climax. When  it  got  into  the  charts  I  looked  forward  to  seeing  the  lyrics  in  Smash  Hits  but  none  were  forthcoming; the  generally  accepted  internet  version  which  seems  to  be  about  someone  called  Roddy  buying  sweets  is  surely  nonsense.

475 Hello Jocelyn Brown - Somebody Else's Guy

Chart  entered :  21  April  1984

Chart  peak : 13

Number  of  hits : 20

Another  pointer  to  the  future  arrives  with  a  lady  who's  had  more  hits  as  a  featured  guest  than  in  her  own  right.

Jocelyn  Brown  was  born  in  North  Carolina  in  1950  and  started  working  in  the  music  business  during  the  mid-seventies  disco  boom. She  was  a  session  singer  whose  work  was  mainly  with  faceless  studio  outfits  like  Ceronne, Inner  Life  and  Disco  Tex  and  the  Sexolettes. The  most  successful  record  she  featured  on  was  Musique's   risque  disco  classic  which  reached  number  16  in  the  UK  and  58  in  the  US  in  1978  despite - or  maybe because  of - its  naughty  lyrics  ( "Push !  Push ! In  the  bush ! ") . She  certainly  wasn't  one  of  the  dolly  birds  that  featured  on  their  record  sleeves. Jocelyn  also  worked  as  a  backing  singer  on  tours  notably  with   Bette  Midler.

In  1984  Jocelyn  decided  to  make  her  own  records  and   released  this  debut  single  which  she  co-wrote  with  Annette  Brown. "Somebody  Else's  Guy"  is  about  the  disappointment  of  finding  out  that  the  guy  you  fancy  is  someone  else's  property. It's  often  been  assumed  that  the  guy  in  question  actually  turns  out  to  be  gay  though  the  lyrics  don't  say  one  way  or  the  other. Jocelyn  starts  the  record  with  a  sustained  high  note  and  gives  a  high  octane  vocal  performance  in  the  best  Arethra  Franklin  tradition  throughout. The   music  is  a  mixture   contemporary  electrofunk   and   piano  jazz  and  sounds  a  bit  lumpy  to  me; this  is  a  vocal  showcase  rather  than  a  great  dance  record.  It  remains  her  only  hit  in  the  US  where  it  reached  number  75.

474 Hello Paul Hardcastle - You're The One For Me / Daybreak / AM

Chart  entered : 7  April  1984

Chart  peak : 41

Number  of  hits  : 13  ( including  one  as  "Silent  Underdog"  and  one  as  "the  DTI" )

Paul  Hardcastle  is  certainly  a  proficient  keyboard  player  and  not  just  a  producer  but  in  his  facelessness  and  the  fact  that  he  broke  through  without  any  support  from  Radio  One  he  is  the  harbinger  of  much  to  come.

Paul  was  born  in  London  in  1957. He  first  came  to  prominence  as  the  keyboard  player  in  the  jazz-funk  group  Direct  Drive . Their  first  single  in   1982   "Don't  Depend  On  Me  " is  a  solid  enough  work  out  in  the  same  area  as  Freeez  and  Beggar  & Co,   The  second  single  "Time's  Running  Out"  is  an  anti-nuclear  ditty  with  more  prominent  synth  work  but  it's  bland  and  unfocussed.  Paul  then  decided  to  work  as  a  duo  with  singer  Derek  Green  called  First  Light. The  first  single  under  this  name  was  a  terrible  version  of  America's  "Horse  With  No  Name ", attempting  to  turn  it  into  a  bland  soul  ditty  over  the  backing  track  to  Change's  Searching.  Their  second  single  was  a  12  inch  EP  "16  Minutes  of  First  Light"  with  the lead  track, "A.M."  a  moody  synth  pop  instrumental  composed  by  Paul   with  echoes  of  the  theme  from  the  theme  tune  to  doomy  70s  kids  TV  series  The  Changes . 

The  duo  were  then  signed  to  London  Records. Their  third  single  in   May  1983   was  "Explain  The  Reasons"  which  sounds  very  like  Imagination  with  added  synth  work.  It  reached  number  63. Their  eponymous  debut  album  didn't  chart.  They  released  one  more  single  at  the  beginning  of  1984  , "Wish  You  Were  Here", a  more  languid  throbber  which  sounds  a  bit  like  The  Chi-Lites  with  an  updated  production. It  reached  number  71. After  that  Paul  had  a  financial  argument  with  Green  and  started  to  record  as  a  solo  artist.

"You're  The  One  For  Me / Daybreak / AM"  is  a  medley  of  the  D  Train  hit  from  two  years  earlier  with  two  of  Paul's  instrumental  compositions  from  the  First  Light  era, the  aforementioned  "A.M."  and  "daybreak" which  first  appeared  on  their  album.  Kevin  Henry  supplied  the  vocals  on  the cover.  Most  of  its  sales  were  on  12  inch  which  had  the  full  six  and  a  half  minute  version. The  D  Train  song  doesn't  sound  all  that  different  from  the original  although  Henry  has  a  lighter   voice  than  James  Williams  and  the  meld  with  his  own Kraftwerk  -influenced   tunes  is  pretty  seamless.  It's  a  good  club  record   which  got  to  the  brink  of  the  Top  40  despite  national  radio's  indifference. D  Train  themselves  must  have  liked the  record  as  they  invited  Paul  to  remix   the  original  the  following  year  and  it  got  higher  in  the  charts  second  time  around.