444 Goodbye The Barron Knights - Buffalo Bill's Last Scratch

Chart  entered  :  19  March  1983

Chart  peak : 49

We  have  an  interesting  culture  clash  here  as  end  of  the  pier  light  entertainment  gets  to  grip  with  the  beginnings  of  hip  hop.

The  Barron  Knights  had  enjoyed  a  peculiar  career  since  their  first  hit  back  in  1964. They  had  a  string  of  similar  parody  hits  up  to  1968  then  they  got  fed  up  and  wanted  to  go  back  to  doing  straight  stuff, at  least  in  the  studio. The  public  were  having  none  of  it. Columbia  indulged  them  for  two  flop  singles  then  they  were  booted  off  and  had  a  long,  commercially  barren,  spell  at  Penny  Farthing  Records. Body  and  soul  was  kept  together  by  touring  the  world  where  their  live  show  remained  very  popular.

In  1977   they  finally  came  up  with  another  parody  medley "Live  In  Trouble". Epic  signed  them  up  and,  nine  years  on  from  their  last  hit,  The  Barron  Knights   were  welcomed  back  as  if  they'd  never  been  away. Cured  of  any  foolish  notions  of  re-establishing  themselves  as  a  serious  group, they  actually  had  more  hits  in  this  second  wave  of  success , including  one  in  America  with  "The  Topical  Song"  which  didn't  chart  here.

"Buffalo  Bill's  Last  Scratch "  , which  passed  me  by  first  time  round, is  primarily  based  on  Malcolm  McLaren's  Buffalo  Gals  ,  a  seminal  single  which  introduced  hip  hop  techniques  into  the  mainstream.  The  guys  themselves  with  engineer  Pete  Wandless  do  an  amazing  job  in  reproducing  a  sound  that  can  hardly  have  been  very  familiar  to  them.  They  then  underline  the  democratising    influence   of  the  charts  by  combining  it  with  Orville's  Song   to  tell  a  shaggy  dog  story  of  the  outlaw  pursuing  the  self-pitying  duck. Towards  the  end  there's  a  brief  snatch  of  the  similarly  MOR  Save  Your  Love   for  no  particularly  obvious  reason. You'd  have  to  be  very  young  or  very  dim  to  find  it  amusing  though.

They  followed  it  up  later  that  year  with  "Full  Circle"  which  I  haven't  heard  so  I  don't  know  if  it  was  serious  or  not. Its  failure  was  enough  to  convince  Epic  to  let  them  go.

They  popped  up  again  in  June  1984  on  Towerbell    with  "Churchill  Rap"  an  obvious  answer  record  to  Mel  Brooks To  Be  Or  Not  To  Be  with  breakdancing  Nazis  in  the  video. Another  year  passes  and  they're  on  Spartan  with  "Mr  Bronski  Meets  Mr  Evans"  peddling  a  comedy  scenario  where  Jimi  Somerville ( not  of  course  Mr  Bronski )  tries  to  record  a  version  of  I  Feel  Love  with  an  incompetent  Welsh  producer. It's  semi-funny   for  one  play.   1986's  effort  on  WEA ,   was  "R-R-Rock Me  Father  Christmas"  , a  festive  offering  mashing  up  Rock  Me  Amadeus, It's  Orrible  Being  In  Love  ( When  You're  8 1/2 ),  Spirit  In  The  Sky  , Merry  Christmas   Everybody,  and  Camouflage.  It's  more  satirical  than  their  usual  fare  with  pops  at  Joanna  Lumley,  Mary  Whitehouse  and  Little  And  Large.

Three  more  years  lapsed  before  "Wot  A  Mix  Up"  which  I  haven't  heard  but  I'm  guessing  might  be  taking  a  pop  at  SAW.It  seems  to  have  been  their  last  record.

The  band  have  kept  going  on  the  cabaret  circuit  though  four  out  of  the  original  five  members  dropped  out  over  the  years. Dave  Ballinger  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  go  , some  time  in  the  late  nineties. He  moved  to  the  USA  and  became  involved  in  producing  musicals. He  has  since  moved  into  real  estate  in  Florida  and  The  Bahamas. I'm  not  sure when  "Barron"  Tony  Osmond  left  the  group  but  he  now  lives  in  Ireland.  Duke  D'mond   had  to  leave  the  band  in  2005  after  an  incapacitating  fall  and  died  of  emphysema  four  years  later. Butch  Baker  retired  on  turning  65  in  2007  and  now  lives  in  Portugal  so  that  has  left  just  Pete  Langford  , the  only  one  you'd  ever  recognise  in  the  street , to  keep  the  group  going  with  three  replacements.

443 Hello Nick Heyward - Whistle Down The Wind

Chart  entered : 19  March  1983

Chart  peak : 13

Number  of  hits :13

Paul  Weller  wasn't  the  only  artist  embarking  on  the  second  phase  of  his  career  that  week.

Nick  Heyward  was  born  in  Beckenham  Kent  in  1961. He  started  putting  bands  together  in  his  teens   with  school  friend  Les  Nemes. They  first  made  a  record  as  Moving  England  with  a  song  called  "Moving  Back"  on  a  tiny  label  in  1980. It's  very  much  early  80s  indie, sort  of  Fall-lite  with  its  scratchy  guitars  and  Nick's  nonchalantly  off  key  vocal.  When  another  friend , guitarist  Graeme  Jones  joined  they  changed  their  name  to  Haircut  100  and  recruited  three  other  musicians  to  complete  the  line  up.

Haircut  100  were  quickly  signed  up  to  Arista   and  released  their  first  single  "Favourite  Shirts  ( Boy  Meets  Girl ) "  in  October  1981. At  this  point  they  were  taken  to  be  part  of  the  British  jazz  funk  movement  as  it  sounds  a  bit  like  Spandau  Ballet's  Chant  Number  One   played  twice  as  fast  with  nonsense  lyrics  and  an  astonishing    horns  and  percussion  break  in  the  middle. It  was  a  combination  that  made  for  a  fresh  and  exciting  single  and  when  the  band  appeared  on  Top  of  the  Pops  as  a  clean  cut,  good-looking  bunch  of  guys  it  shot  up  to  number  4.

The  follow-up  single  "Love  Plus  One" went  one  better  but  was  more   straightforward  pop   than  funk   and  I  found  it  slightly  insipid. Nevertheless  it  established  Haircut  100  and  particularly  their  cute  lead  singer  as  the  new  teen  idols  on  the  block. I  must  admit  at  this  point  I  found  him  intensely  irritating  especially  in  interviews  where  he  deflected  any  probing  question  with  unfunny  non  sequiturs. I  remember  him  being  on  Radio  One's  Round  Table  and  avoiding  giving  a  sensible  opinion  on  any  of  the  records.    

Because  of  this  I  didn't  investigate  their   big-selling  debut  album  "Pelican  West"  which  reached  number  two  in  the  charts. It  now  sounds  like  a  distillation  of  Postcard  influences,  the  scratchy  funk  guitars  of  Josef  K, the  quirky  lyricism  of  Orange  Juice  and  general  celebration  of   a  sixties childhood.  It  also  reveals  a  band  of  skilled  musicians  with  some  very  sophisticated  horn  arrangements  and  jazz  touches  on  songs  about  baked  beans  and  toy  cars. I  can  see  why  the  breezy   guitar  pop  of  "Fantastic  Day"  was  chosen  as  the  next  single  but  it's  far  from  the  most  interesting  track.

Unfortunately  there  wasn't  much  more  to  come  from  the  band. "Nobody's  Fool",  an  undemanding  song  that  picks  up  the  torch  for  late  sixties  pop  recently  dropped  by  Teardrop  Explodes  reached  number  nine  in  September  1982. By  that  time  there  were  already  rumours  of  trouble  in  the  Haircut  camp. Assertive  percussionist  Mark  Fox  who  did  most  of  the  talking  in  band  interviews  was  sacked  then  re-instated.  The  main  problem  was  Nick's  suffering  from  nervous  exhaustion. A  second  album  was  half-recorded  and  then  he  stopped  attending  the  sessions. Not  being  informed  of  his  condition,  the  others  heard  reports  of  a  holiday  in  the  Caribbean  and  understandably  got  a  bit  browned  off.  Fox  was  persuaded  to  assume  lead  singer  duties  , a  decision  he  now  disowns,  and  Nick  was  out  at  the  beginning  of  1983.

We've  said  before  on  this  blog  that  often  such  splits  benefit  both  parties. That  didn't  happen  in  this  case. The  Fox-led  Haircut  100  went  down  the  tube  completely  after  one  minor  hit.
"Whistle  Down  The  Wind" , which  was   originally  slated  as  the  next  band  single , marked  the  start  of  a  moderately  successful  solo  career  which  never  hit  the  same  heights.

"Whistle  Down  The  Wind"  actually  takes  the  first  couple  of  lines  of  "Moving  Back"  as  its  starting  point  but  sounds  very  different  to  that. Recorded  with  session  musicians  including  Pino  Palladino  whose  fretless  bass  is  very  prominent  , it's  much  slower  than  a  Haircut  single  with  Nick  often  slipping  towards  a  David  Sylvian  murmur  in  the  verses. It  rouses  itself  a  bit  for  the  chorus  which  does  sound  more  like  the  old  band  but  it's  all  rather  flat. The  lyrics  are  vague  without  being  intriguing  and  nothing  to  do  with  the  British  film  classic  of  the  same  name  ( the  first  film  to  make  me  cry ). Despite  a  fair  amount  of  publicity , and  a  Top  of  the  Pops  appearance  in  which  he  missed  his  cue  to  start  lip-synching,  it  peaked  below   any  of  the  Haircut  100  singles  setting  the  tone  for  an  underachieving  career.

442 Hello The Style Council - Speak Like A Child

Chart  entered  : 19  March  1983

Chart  peak : 4

Number  of  hits : 17  ( plus  1  as  participants  in  The  Council  Collective )

We  now  say  hello  to  Paul  Weller's  next  venture  but  it's  a  goodbye  for  me  personally  as  this  is  the  most  recent  Weller  record  in  my  collection. I've  often  wondered if   The  Style  Council  made  any  significant  new  converts  or  were  reliant  on  the  old  Jam  fanbase . If  the  latter  was  the  case  I  was  one  of  the  first  to  get  off  the  bus.

Paul  had  secretly  started  rehearsals  for  his  new  project  before  telling  Bruce  and  Rick  that  The  Jam  were  no  more. His  new  musical  partner  was  keyboard  player  Mick  Talbot  who  had  appeared  on  The  Jam's  version  of  "Heatwave"  from  the  "Setting  Sons"  album. Mick  was  a  Londoner  born  in  1958  who  first  came  to  prominence  in  the  band  The  Merton  Parkas  in  which  he  was  keyboardist  and  co-vocalist  ( with  his  brother  Danny ) .  They  had  their  biggest  hit  with  their  first  single   "You  Need  Wheels "  in  1979  which  reached  number  40. Mick  did  the  lead  vocal  in  a  decent  impersonation  of   Georgie  Fame  bragging  about  his  car  but  musically  it's  just  warmed up  pub  rock . If  we  discount  The  Jam's  repertoire,  it  was  the  first  hit  single  of  the  Mod  Revival  but  despite  the  movement  gathering  pace,  the  MPs  were  instantly  left  behind, derided  as  a  joke  band  of  bandwagon  jumpers. Their  one  LP  "Face  In  The  Crowd "  didn't  chart  and  is  pretty  poor, the  band  skirting  between  power  pop, New Wave and  vaguely  post-punk  moodiness  without  any  ability  to  write  a  memorable  tune  or  bring  anything  interesting  to  covers  of  "Tears  Of  A  Clown"  and  "Stepping  Stone ". The  follow up  singles  were  the  instantly  forgettable  power  pop  of  "Plastic  Smile"  and  the  Dennis  Bovell -produced  "Give  It  To  Me  Now"  which  sounds  like  a  Bad  Manners  B-side. There  was  one  more  standalone  single  in  July  1980 ,  the  jangly  pop  of   "Put  Me  In  The  Picture"  which  is  their  best  effort  but  it  was  too  little  too  late .

The  band  split  up  and  Mick  replaced  Andy  Leak  in  Dexy's  Midnight  Runners.  From  what  I  can  make  out  he  only  played  on  the  flop  single  "Keep  It  Part  Two "  before  joining  the  exodus  from  Chairman  Kev  that  ended  up  as  The  Bureau. That's  a  tale  we'll  expand  on  later , sufficeth  it  to  say  that  Mick  was  free  to  take  Paul's  call  in  the  summer  of  1982.  The  presence  in  band  photos  of  the  lugubrious , solidly  built  keyboard  player  in  a  Prisoner  blazer  seemed  to  mock  all  Paul's  ambition  for  The  Style  Council  to  be  at  the  cutting  edge  of  youth  style  and  culture   but  he  was  there  for  the  duration.

"Speak  Like  A  Child"  isn't  a  massive  step  forward  from  the  latter  day  Jam. It's  melodically  close  to  Just  Who  Is  The  Five  O  Clock  Hero ?  and  employs  the  same  horn  sound.  Paul  sticks  with  the  warmer  mellow  vocal  tone  road-tested  on  the  latter  two  Jam  hits.  with  the  However  it's  led  by  Mick's  rich  organ  sound   with  the  bass  ( presumably  played  by  Paul  himself  )  firmly  in  the  background. Some  of  Mick's  phrases  are  rather  similar  to   those  of  Bob  Andrews  on  Brinsley  Scwarz's  Surrender  To  The  Rhythm.  Tracie  Young  pops  up  again  on  backing  vocals.

It's  not  the  tidiest  lyric  Paul's  ever  written  and  comes  across  as  almost  paedophilic,  as  he  himself  acknowledges  with  the  excruciating  " and  if  I  sound  like  a  lecher, it's  probably  true  but  at  least  there's  no  lecture"   line. In  its  proper  context  we  know  that  Paul  at  23   was  still  obsessed  with   capturing  the  teenage  experience  and  he's  almost  apologising  for  his  Jam  persona  with  that  line. Ironically  the  single  behaved  exactly  as  a  lesser  Jam  disc  would  have  done- in  at  6, up  to  4  and  then  rapidly  dropping  away,  a  slightly  disappointing  result  for  probably  the  most  hotly  anticipated  single  of  the  year.

441 Goodbye Pete Shelley - Telephone Operator

Chart  entered  : 12  March  1983

Chart  peak :  66

While  one  ex-punk  came  back  with  a  bang,  another  exited  with  the  faintest  of  pops.

In  stark  contrast  to  The  Jam,  the  Buzzcocks  petered  out  in  rather  messy  fashion.  Having  established  themselves  as  regular visitors  to  the  Top  40  visitors  in  1978-79,  they  were  rocked  when  "You  Say  You  Don't  Love  Me "  failed  to chart  in  September  1979,  probably  because  it  was  released  too  soon  after  the  re-issue  of  "Spiral  Scratch "  which  did  chart. Despite  the  parent  album  "A  Different  Kind  of  Tension"  making  the  Top  30 , the  band  decided  to  abandon  producer  Martin  Rushent  and  work  with  Martin  Hannett  on  the  next. The  sessions  with  Hannett  who  was  still  traumatised  by  Ian  Curtis's  death  were  acid-fuelled  and  the  results  were  fully  in  the  post-punk  vein. The  band  decided  on  the  Factory-esque  jape  of  releasing  the  results  on  three  singles  in  quick  succession  and  naming  them  "Parts  1  2  and  3". "Part  1" , the  spiky and  tuneless  "Are  Everything"  peaked  at  number  61  for  their  last  hit; the  others  were  ignored. Besides  these  questionable  artistic  decisions  the  relationship  between  Pete  and  lead  guitarist  Steve  Diggle  was  deteriorating  by  the  day  and  the latter  deliberately  bumped  Pete  during  their  performance  of   "Are  Everything"  on  a  kids  TV  show.

Nevertheless  the  group  hooked  up  with  Rushent  once  more  in  early  1981  to  record a  fourth  album  only  to  discover  that  their  label  wasn't  willing  to  pay  for  the  sessions. Rushent  called  a  halt  to  them  and  invited  Pete  alone  to  work  at  his  new  Genetic  Sounds  studio. Pete  was  enthused  about  working  with  the  new  technology  and  applied  it  to  songs  he'd  written  before  the  Buzzcocks  were  formed. When  Island's  Andrew  Lauder  offered  him  a  solo  deal  on  hearing  the  duo's  demos  Pete  decided  it  was  time  to  leave  the  Buzzcocks. The  band  announced  their  dissolution  in  the  summer  of  1981. A  singles  compilation  released  that  autumn and  itself  the  cause  of  friction  between  band  and  publishing  company, failed  to  chart.

Pete  himself  roared  back  into  action  with  "Homosapien" in  September  1981,  regarded  by  many  as  his  "coming-out"  record  though  I'd  first  heard  he  was  a  fruit  at  school  when  "Ever  Fallen  In  Love"  was  in  the  charts. It  was  a  sleek , driving  synth  pop  number  with  an  arresting   contrast  between  the  precision  electronics  and  Pete's  inimitable  Mancunian  sneer. David  Jensen  played   it  but  it  got  a  daytime  ban; even  the  cloth-eared  suits  at  the  Beeb  understood  what  "Homo  Superior  in  my  interior  "  meant. They  didn't  need  to  bother  with  the  follow-up  "I  Don't  Know  What  It  Is"  ; Pete's  overly  abrasive  vocal  effectively  sabotaged  it.  With  two  flop  singles  the  omens  weren't  good  for  the  "Homosapien"  album , released   early  in  January  1982. Rushent's  machine-tooled  synth  sound  was  up  to  the  mark  but  unfortunately  the  songs  weren't,  suggesting  Steve  Diggle  and  the  other  two  may  have  had  an   important  role  in  quality  control.      

"Telephone  Operator"  was  the  lead  single  for  his  next  LP.  It's  a  powerful  synth-pounder  in  the  mode  of   Depeche  Mode's  Photographic   decorated  with  synthetic  horn  blasts  and  Sympathy  for  the  Devil  backing  vocals. It  sounds  impressive  on  first  listen  but  it's  hollow. The  song,  wherein  Pete chats  up  the  operator  for  kicks , is   slight  and  his  mannered  vocal  , particularly  the   campy  syllable-stretching  in  the  third  line  of  each  verse  , becomes  aggravating. Its  single  week  in  the charts  was  Pete's  last  acquaintance  with  them  as  a  performer.

The  album  "Xl-1"  did  rather  better, peaking  at  number  42  and  notching  up  four  weeks  in  the  charts. However  this  was  almost  certainly  due  to  the  novel  gimmick  of  including  a  program  for  the  ZX  Spectrum (  I  remember  being  in  a  Manchester  record  shop  a  few  years  ago  when  two  computer  geeks  discovered  a  copy  and  chortled  over  the  sticker  on  the  front )   which  displayed  ultra-primitive  graphics  and  the  lyrics  in  time  with  the  music. The  latter  was  not  to  the  album's  advantage; it's  hard  to  believe  that  lines  like  "I  react  to  your  reaction, I'm  attracted  by  your  attraction"  came  from  the  same  pen  as   What  Do  I  Get  and  Sixteen  Again.
There   was  a  potential  hit  on  the  album  in   the  tuneful  and  plaintive "I  Just  Wanna  Touch "  but  the  bracing "( Millions  of  People )  No  One  Like  You"  was  chosen  instead  probably  because  it  was  the  only  track  featuring  a  prominent  electric  guitar  and  might  re-connect  with  his  previous  audience. It  didn't.

We  can  perhaps  give  Pete  the  dubious  credit  of  being  a  pioneer  of  the  idea  of  music  as    mere  adjunct  to  dicking  around  on  a  home  computer  but  it  didn't  do  his  career much  good. By  the  time  of  his  next  single  "Never  Again"  in  November  1984,  a  bland  pop  number, over-wordy  and  crushingly  boring, he  was  off  Island  and  even  the  night  time  jocks  had  given  up  on  him.

What  must  have  made  Pete's  situation  more  galling  was  the  burgeoning  lionisation  of  the  Buzzcocks  as  the  decade  wore  on. Orange  Juice  started  the  ball  rolling; at  the  same  time  that  "Telephone  Operator"  made  its  brief  mark  on  the  chart  they  were  in  the  Top  10  with  Rip  It  Up   which  not  only  name-checked  "Boredom"  but  included  a  brief  snatch  of  Pete's  famous  one-note  guitar  solo  in  that  song. Then  Mike  Joyce  of  The  Smiths  cited  the  Buzzcocks  as  his  favourite  band. They  were  clearly  an  influence  on  the  new  wave  of  American  punk  bands  particularly  Husker  Du  and  spiritual  godfathers  to  the  C86  scene  with  The  Soup  Dragons  in  particular  getting  flak  for  sounding  too  like  them.

None  of  this  gave  any  sort  of  boost   to  Pete's  solo  career  ; it  was  almost  as  if  his  continued  music-making   were  an  embarrassment  to  the  memory  and  best  ignored.  Nevertheless  Mercury  took  a punt  on  him  in  1986  and  put  him  to  work  with  producer  Stephen  Hague.  Unsurprisingly  - and  ironically  given  his  support  for  the  fledgling  Joy  Division - he  ended  up  sounding  like  New  Order. That  said,  the  three  singles  he  took  from  the  "Heaven  and  the  Sea"  album , "Waiting  for  Love", "On  Your  Own"  and  "Blue  Eyes"  are  all  at  least    listenable  and  probably  deserved  better.  In  July  1986  he  played  at  Tony  Wilson's  Festival  of  the  Tenth  Summer  concert  at  G-Mex  though  some  way  down  the  bill  behind  The  Smiths  and  New  Order.

The  following  year  he  recorded  the  song  "Do  Anything" , a  brash  but  bland  drum-heavy  pop  number  for  the  John  Hughes  teen  drama  Some  Kind  of  Wonderful  which  is  to  date  his  last  recording  as  a  solo  artist.  His  coffers  were  swelled  that  year  when  Fine  Young  Cannibals  covered  ( not  particularly  well  )  "Ever  Fallen  In  Love"    and  even  more  so  when  they  included  it  on  their  mega-selling  The  Raw  and  the  Cooked  album  two  years  later.

In  1988  he  formed  an  outfit  called  Zip  who  lasted  for  one  single  "Your  Love" , an  instantly  forgettable  Goth-rock  number. The  following  year  he  collaborated  with  a  production  outfit  Power  Wonder  and  Love  on  a  new  version  of  "Homosapien".

Ever  since  the  Buzzcocks  split  Steve  Diggle (initially  with   John  Maher )  had  been  toiling  away  in  a  band  called  Flag  of  Convenience. A  friend  of  mine  Stuart  Dawson  who  had  been  at  art  college  with  Steve's  brother  Phil  designed  one  of  their sleeves. They  got  absolutely  nowhere  and  in  1989  in   a  rather   desperate  move  decided  to  market  themselves as  "Buzzcocks  F.O.C. ".  As  you  might  have  expected , Pete  was  none  too  happy  about  this  but  instead  of  ending  up  in  a  law  court,  the  dispute  resulted  in  a  full  band  reunion.

Buzzcocks  went  off  on  a  world  tour  at  the  end  of  1989. John  Maher  had  in  the  meantime  built  up  a  successful  business  restoring  and  racing  Volkswgens  and  was  reluctant  to  commit  to  anything  more  so  he  was  replaced  by  his  disciple  Mike  Joyce  for  a  couple  of  years. He  briefly  returned  in  1992  before  quitting  the  music  business  for  good. Steve  Garvey  also  left  the  band  at  this  point  and  emigrated  to  the  US  where  he  has  a  low-key  career  as  a  record  producer.

After  recruiting  replacements , Pete and  Steve  went  into  the  studio  to  record  a  belated  fourth  LP  "Trade  Test  Transmissions". Diggle's  contributions  betray  some  acquaintance  with  the  likes  of  Sugar  and  Dinosaur  Junior  but  with  Pete's  songs  it's  like  mainlining  straight  back  to  1978  even  if  you  don't  pick  up  on  all  the  references  to  former  glories  embedded  in  the  music  and  lyrics.  It   was  a  strong  set  but  didn't  restore  them  to  the  charts.  The  video  for  the  single  "Do  It"  got  on  The  Chart  Show   and  they  got  a  prestigious  support  slot  on  what  turned  out  to  be  the  final  Nirvana  tour .

They  recorded  their  next  album  "All  Set"  in  California  for  I.R.S.  with  Green  Day's  producer  Neil  King.  It's  another  strong  album  with  "Point  of  No  Return"  and  "Hold  Me  Close" as  good  as  anything  they've  ever  recorded. It  was  to  no  avail  and  their  future  albums  would  be  recorded  for  minor  labels  in  the  UK.

1999's  "Modern"  was  produced  by  bassist  Tony Barber  and  does  attempt  to  modernise  the  sound   but  it's  pretty  uninspiring  throughout  with  the  songs  not  really  up  to  par.

Pete  took  time  off  in  2002  to  team  up  with  Howard  Devoto  once  more  as  ShelleyDevoto. Pete  handled  most  of  the  musical  chores  on  the  album  "Buzzkunst"  with  Devoto  doing  the  vocals  on  the  non-instrumental  tracks.  On  a  first  listen  it's  uncommercial  electronica  of  limited  appeal.

Perhaps  working  again  with  Devoto  influenced  the  following  year's  "Buzzcocks"  album  on  which  both  Pete  and  Steve  set  out  to  sound  as  snarly  as  possible. Melody  is  sacrificed  for  expletive-ridden  aggression  on  the  under-produced  album  for  Cherry  Red  and   there's  really  nothing  much  to  warrant  a  second  spin. They  toured  as  support  for  Pearl  Jam  that  year.

Pete  recorded  another  version  of  "Ever  Fallen  In  Love"  with  several  bigger  names  as  a  tribute  to  John  Peel  in  2005  but  few  noticed. Another  Buzzcocks  LP  "Flat  Pack  Philosophy"  came  out   on  Cooking  Vinyl  the  following  year. It  doesn't  exactly  see  them  mellowing  out  but  there's  a  definite  feel  of  batteries  running  down  to  it. Pete's  voice  in  particular  was  showing  signs  of  age.

Still  the  band  carried  on. The  rhythm  section  was  replaced   in  the  following  few  years. In  May  2012  Maher, Garvey  and  Devoto  re-joined  the  band  for  a  couple  of  special  gigs  in  Manchester  and  Brixton. Two  years  later  came  another  LP  "The  Way" funded  through  PledgeMusic.  I  hope  those  who  subscribed  feel  they  got  their  money's  worth  because  "The  Way"  is  a  worthless  pile  of  crud  that  finally  proves  they  should  pack  it  in,  at  least  as  a  recording  act. For  the  first  of  time  on  a  Buzzcocks  album,  Diggle  gets  an  equal  share  of  the  songs  but  you  suspect  that's  less  to  do  with  egalitarianism  than  sparing  the  listener  from  too  much  of  Pete's  singing. His  voice  is  shot  to  pieces  and   he  sadly  now  sounds  like  someone's  dad  making  a  fool  of  themselves,  particularly  on  "Virtually  Real",  an  old  man  down  the  pub   rant  about  social  media  that's  the  most  embarrassing  thing  I've  heard  in  a  long  time.  The  other  songs  are  hardly  much  better , regardless  of  who's  written  them.

Buzzcocks  clearly  intend  to  plod  on,  despite  both  their  mainstays  turning  60  this  year , playing  half  way  down  the  bill  at  festivals  and  entertaining  old  punks. Pete  himself  regularly  pops  up  on  music  docs,  amiably  chatting  about  "Spiral  Scratch", the  Free  Trade  Hall  or  other  aspects  of  the  Manchester  music  scene  and  let's  hope  that  continues.




  

440 Hello Big Country - Fields of Fire ( 400 Miles )

Chart  entered :  26  February  1983

Chart  peak : 10

Number  of  hits : 23

More  than  two  years  after  The  Skids  last  troubled  the  charts , Stuart  Adamson  was  back   and  in  some  style.  I  think  that  delay  probably  helped  Big  Country  establish  themselves  as  a  new  act  in  their  own  right  as  did  the  fact  Stuart  was  still  only  24  and  hadn't  been  the  front  man  in  his  previous  outfit.

As  we  know  Stuart  confirmed  his  departure  from  The   Skids  in  the  summer  of  1981  and  almost  immediately  recruited  another  guitarist  Bruce  Watson.  Bruce  was  born  in  Canada  but  working  in  a  Dunfermline  shipyard  at  the  time. The  first  line  up  of  Big  Country  also  included  Peter  and  Alan  Wishart  ( the  former  now  an  SNP  MP)  and  drummer  Clive  Parker  from  Spizzenergi  after  The  Jam's  Rick  Buckler  played  on  their  first  demos. They  played a  couple  of  support  dates  for  Alice  Cooprer  in  1981  and  went  down  so  badly  they  were  thrown  off  the  tour.  A  number of  record  labels  rejected  their  demos.  Manager  Ian  Grant  persuaded  Stuart  to  fire  off  the  other  three  members  and  look  for  a  new  rhythm  section.

They  were  pointed  to  a  couple  of   Anglos,  bassist  Tony  Butler  and  drummer  Mark  Brzezicki   who   were operating  as  a  session  duo.  Tony  was  born  in  London  in  1957  to  Ghanaian  parents  while  Mark's  father  was  Polish. His  willingness  to  help  out  any  band  with  drummer  issues  led  to  Smash  Hits  famously  dubbing  him  "Mark  Unpronounceablename from Big  Country" . They  were  already  known  to  Stuart  through  being  in  the  band  On  The  Air  with  Simon "brother  of  Pete"  Townshend  who  supported  The  Skids  on  tour  in  1980. Their  first  single  "Ready  For  Action"   is  a  power  pop  anthem  with  prog  rock  keyboards  somewhere  between  Secret  Affair  and  Marillion. It's  notable  for  the  comic  book  sleeve  design  which  was  obviously  the  inspiration  for  the  one  with  A  Woman  In  Winter  six  months  later. The  follow  up  "Another  Planet"  six  months  later  strips  out  the  keyboards  and  they  sound  more  like  The  Jam   on  a  dystopian  fantasy  song  about  overpopulation  which  is  worth  hearing. At  the  same  time   the  pair  worked  on  Pete  Townshend's  solo  album  Empty  Glass   although  Mark's  involvement  was  restricted  to  one  track.

The  chemistry  was  good  as  soon  as  they  met  in  the  studio  and  Tony  and  Mark  accepted  the  invitation  to  join  the  band. A  recording  contract  with  Mercury  soon  followed.  Their  first  single  "Harvest  Home  "  came  out  in  the  autumn  of  1982. "Harvest  Home"  is  an  effective  introduction  to  their  sound. The  "bagpipe  guitar"  effect   pioneered  in  The  Skids  is  even  more  to  the  fore  now  Stuart  has  an  accomplice  in  playing  it. The  punk  energy  is  replaced  by  crisp  martial  rhythms. Stuart  was  a  prominent  backing  vocalist  in  The  Skids  but   now   he  was  out  front  with  a  strong  but  inflexible  holler  and  , in  a  nod  perhaps  to  previous  Scottish  chart  stars  the  Bay  City  Rollers, well-filled  ( as  some  girl  bothered  to  write  in  to  Record  Mirror  to  point  out ) tight  trousers. The  song  is  just  a  string  of  pastorally-themed  accusatory  questions  and  the  Biblical  assertion  "Just  as  you  sow  you  shall  reap"  which  suggests  it  may  be  aimed  at  the  government  with  most  of  the  folk-y  melody  in  the  instrumental   passages.

David  Jensen  gave  it  some  spins  but  it  didn't  chart  which  helped  persuade  the  band  that  their  choice  of  producer  - Chris  Thomas -  was  a  bad  one. Certainly  the  sound  on  "Harvest  Home"  is  a  bit  murky. Before  their  next  single  they  boosted  their  profile  with  a  support  slot  on  The  Jam's  farewell  tour.

 Steve  Lillywhite  was  brought  in   for  the  next  single  In  1983  he  produced  all  three  of  the  bands  leading  the  "new"  rock  charge. Although  the  basic  elements  of  the  sound  are  unchanged  on  "Fields  of  Fire"  Lillywhite  makes   a  huge  difference  with  a  big  fat  drum  sound  that  encourages  you  to  turn  up  the  volume  and  a   spaciousness  that  matches  Stuart's  epic  pretensions  on  this  anthem   for  returning  Celtic  heroes. I'd  forgotten  just  how  much  of  the  record  is  given  over  to  guitar  pyrotechnics  with  the  song  itself  relatively  slight  but  it  set  them  up  to  be  one  of  the  year's  big  success  stories.  

439 Hello Luther Vandross - Never Too Much

Chart  entered : 19  February  1983

Chart  peak : 44  ( 13  as  a  re-mix  in  1989 )

Number  of  hits  : 28

It's  always  difficult  to  write  about  an  artist  whose  work  never  interested  you. Luther  was  undoubtedly  a  talented  guy; he  just  never  employed  those  talents  in  ways  I  found  appealing.

Luther  was  born  in  1951  in  Manhattan. He  learned  the  piano  at  a  very  young  age. His  aunt  was  in  the  doo  wop  group  The  Crests  and  took  young  Luther  to  gigs  in  New  York. After  high  school  he  joined  the  theatre  workshop  Listen  My  Brother  and  was  involved  in  the  first  series  of  Sesame  Street  in  1969.

He  began  his  career  as  a  session  singer in  1971   by  appearing on  the  first  Roberta  Flack  and  Donny  Hathaway  album. He  started  and  became  the  first  president  of  the  Patti  Labelle  Fan  Club.  The  following  year  he  wrote  a  couple  of  songs  for  Delores  Hall's  Hall-Mark  album.  His  profile  was  raised  in  1975  when  he  co-wrote  "Fascination"  with  David  Bowie  for  the  Young  Americans  LP   and  went  on  tour  with  him  as  a  backing  vocalist. In  the  same  year  he  wrote  "Everybody  Rejoice"  for  The  Wiz..

While  now  at  the  top  of  his  game  as  a  session  singer , the  tour  with  Bowie  whetted  Luther's  appetite  for  performing  and  he  formed  a  vocal  quintet , modestly  called  Luther,  later  that  year. In  June  1976  they  released  the  single  "It's  Good  For  The  Soul"  which  had  Parts  1 and  II  on  either  side  of  the  disc. It's  an  average  slice  of  mid-seventies  soul  but  it's  slightly  too  slow  and  plods  instead  of  soars. The  follow  up  "Funky  Music  ( Is  A  Part  Of  Me  )  in  September  was  more  of  an  O'Jays  style  disco  record    and  is  pretty  good. Although  the  singles  did  well  in  the  R  & B  chart  they  didn't  cross  over  and  the  LP  "Luther"  didn't  chart.
The  next  single  was  "This  Close  To  You "  in  March  1977, a  Philly-style  smoocher  with  corny  spoken  intro. It  was  the  title  track  and  only  single  from  their  second  LP  which  made  even  less  impact  than  the  first. Cotillon  dropped  them  from  the  label; Luther  later  bought  the  rights  to  the  recordings   to  stop  them  cashing  in  on  his  subsequent  success.

These  disappointments  didn't  stop  people  banging  on  his  door  to  grace  their  records  with  his  golden  tones   and  he  appeared  as  lead  vocalist  on  records  by  New  York  City  Band, Greg  Diamond  Bionic  Boogie, Charme , Quincy  Jones, Soiree  and  Mascara. In  1980  he  was  co-opted  by  Jacques  Fred  Petrus  to  sing  with  his  studio  project  Change.  Their  album  "The  Glow  of  Love"  is  the  best  record  Chic  never  made .The  two  songs on  which   Luther  did  the  lead  vocal  , "Searching"  and  "The  Glow  of  Love"  were  both  Top  20  hits  in  the  UK  in  1980  although  the  latter  was  little  heard  as  it  was  a  double  A-side  with  the  female-led  "A  Lover's  Holiday"  which  radio  preferred.

Luther  was  invited  back  for  their  second  album  "Miracles"  but  he  now  had  a  solo  deal  with  Epic  and  made  only  a  minor  contribution  as  a  backing  vocalist.  His  first  solo  single  in  the  UK  was  "Sugar  and  Spice  ( I  Found  Me  A  Girl )" , a  sprightly  Shalamar-style  pop-funk  number  in  October  1981.

"Never  Too  Much "  was   released  the  following  month; in  the  US  it  was  released  first  and  reached  number  33  in  the  charts. It's  a  slick  soul  number  resting  on  the  Chic  template  of  clipped  rhythm  guitar , sinuous  bass  and  string  interjections  with  Luther  gushing  the  romantic  sentiments,  and  deciding  not  to  go  to  work  when  his  babe  comes  round  first  thing  in  the  morning  ,  in  his  rich  Grammy-winning  tones.  For  me  the  melody's  too  boring  to  really  grab  the  attention  and  it  wasn't  a  hit  first  time  round. After  the  single  "Bad  Boy/ Having  A  Party"  from  his  second  LP  and  a   duet  with  Cheryl  Lynn  failed  to  score  in  1982, Epic  decided  to  give  it  another  go  and  this  time  were  rewarded   with  a  modest  success.  A  re-mixed  version  of  the  song  to  promote  his  greatest  hits  compilation  in  1989   did  much  better.  

438 Hello Aztec Camera - Oblivious

Chart  entered : 19  February  1983

Chart  peak : 47  ( 18  on  reissue  later  in  the  year  )

Number  of  hits : 11

Like  The  The,  Aztec  Camera  were  another  "group"  that  was  essentially  a  vehicle  for  just  the  one  singer-songwriter  but  the  similarities  end  there.

When  Postcard  Records  proclaimed  themselves  "The  Sound  of  Young  Scotland"  they  weren't  kidding  in  Aztec  Camera's  case  as  main  man  Roddy  Frame  hadn't  turned  17  when  their  first  single  came  out.  Roddy  was  born  in  East  Kilbride  and  learned  to  play  the  guitar  at  an  early  age. Inspired  by  Bowie  and  punk,  his  first  band  was  called  Neutral  Blue. Aztec  Camera started  out  as  a  trio  with  the  other  members  being  bassist  Campbell  Owens  and   drummer  Dave  Mulholland. They  were  featured  on  a  cassette  of  unsigned  Glasgow  bands  before  coming  to  the  attention  of  Postcard  Records.

They  released  their  first  single  "Just  Like  Gold"  in  January  1981. Peelie  and  the  N.M.E.  received  it  rapturously  but  I'm  not  a  great  fan. The  words  are  vaguely  romantic  but  strung  together  without  much  wit  or  cohesion  and  the  melody  seems  to  be  going  somewhere  different  with  each  line.  The  recording  is  also  fairly  ramshackle  with  the  final  verse  at  least  twice  as  loud  as  the  first.

Their  second  single  "Mattress  of  Wire"  in  May  1981  turned  out  to  be  the  label's  last .  It's  a  much  more  coherent  song  than  their  debut  addressed  to  someone  enduring  some  form  of  self-denial  through  religion  with  a proper  verse  /chorus  structure  but  it's  marred  by  Mulholland  completely  losing  the  tempo  halfway  through,  making  it  sound  a  bit  like  the  record's  jumping.

As  Postcard  imploded , Rough  Trade  moved  in  to  snap  up  the  band. Mulholland  was  ousted  in  favour  of   Dave  Ruffy , a  somewhat  unlikely  candidate  for  a  largely  acoustic  band.  Dave  was  a  record  shop  manager  who  first  played  in  the  funk  band   Hit  and  Run.  They   released  a  disco  cover  of  "Woolly  Bully"  in  1978.  By  that  time  Dave  and  guitarist  Paul  Fox  had  already  quit  to  form  The  Ruts  with  the  latter's  old  school  friend  Malcolm  Owen.

Although  late  to  the  party,  The  Ruts  gave  punk  a  shot  in  the  arm  with  their  ferociously  tight  playing  and  political  commitment ,releasing  a  strong  debut  album  "The  Crack " and  a string  of  incendiary  singles. "Babylon's  Burning"  made  the  Top  10  in  the  summer  of  1979. As  well  as  Owen  sounding  like  Joe  Strummer  they  also  matched  The  Clash  for  experimenting  with  reggae  and  dub. Alas  they  were  reduced  to  a  footnote  by  Owen's  death, drowning in  a  bath  after  taking  heroin,  in  July  1980. After  a  cobbled  together  second  LP  the  band  continued  as  Ruts  DC  for  a  couple  of  albums  but  there  was  to  be  no  New  Order -style  resurrection  and  the  band  split  up  in  1982.

At  the  same  time as  Dave   producer  Bernie  Clarke  joined  the  line  up  as  keyboard  player. The   first  single  for  Rough  Trade  was  "Pillar To  Post"  in  the  autumn  of  1982. David  Jensen  gave  it  a  few  spins  and  I  actually  prefer  it  to  "Oblivious ".  It   sets  a  slightly  sour  regretful  lyric  to  a   tuneful   rush  of  a  chorus  with  the  keyboards  and  backing  vocals  filling  up  the  sound and  making  it  less  brittle.

"Oblivious "  came  next  and  was  Roddy's  deliberate  attempt  at  writing  a  hit  single.  It's  set  to  a  flamenco  rhythm  and  there  are  references  to  mountains, fountains  and  ballrooms  in  the lyric  to  enhance  its  slightly  exotic  feel. Roddy's  blunt  vocals  ponder  the  mysteries  of  love  in  opaque  fashion  before  the  joyous  chorus. It's  a  little  too  jazzy  for  my  tastes  but  I  can  see  why  it  was  successful. Rough  Trade  gave  it  another  shot  later  in  the  year  and  were   rewarded  with  a  bigger  hit  although  Bernie  had  left  the  band  by  then  and  future  Smith  Craig  Gannon  had joined.