RECORD MIRROR singles reviews, 25th October 1986

https://imgur.com/gallery/o5bE436

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1uxwTnmAqGA0vCSk1XL6F5?si=b73eb811616441ed

YouTube:
The Turncoats - One Breath (lead track from Motor Ball Meltbeat)
The Servants - The Sun, A Small Star
Georgie Fame - Samba
That Petrol Emotion - Keen
Disco Aid - Give Give Give

Chart peaks:
7 Duran Duran - Notorious
25 Bob Geldof - This Is The World Calling
36 Prince And The Revolution - Anotherloverholenyohead
58 Aretha Franklin - Jumpin' Jack Flash
79 Trouble Funk - Still Smokin'
80 Mighty Lemon Drops - My Biggest Thrill
80 Run-DMC - King Of Rock
81 Georgie Fame - Samba
82 Kraftwerk - Musique Non Stop
85 Disco Aid - Give Give Give

"Anotherloverholenyohead" is a great track, I didn't realize it broke through into the top 40 in the UK. (It flopped in the US.) If it weren't for "King of Rock," I would have voted for it.

She doesn't like Duran Duran.

Voted Schoolly D.

I bought the Mighty Lemon Drops, Wolfhounds and That Petrol Emotion singles when they came out and I still like all those songs. Wolfhounds ftw obv.

This batch brings back vivid memories. It was my first semester away from home and I remember listening to the Kraftwerk and Schoolly D one many many times in the dormitory. I'll vote Schoolly D.

"the now rotund John Taylor"

I ignored 1986 indie almost completely, and I still don't have an ear for it; I bought the C86 NME cassette and decided that the whole "movement" was a terrible mistake. But maybe it will surprise me, like 1981 punksnotdead.

The ones I bought at the time: Trouble Funk (12"), Georgie Fame (discounted 12" white label), and I had the Prince on Parade and the re-released Run-DMC on a Fourth & Broadway compilation from 1985. I loved the Trouble Funk immensely, so that's still the one to beat. I was a bit sniffy about Schoolly-D, as the NME hip hop brigade were all over him, and it seemed to me that they were too much in thrall to his nastiness.

I remember Melody Maker put Schoolly D on their cover that season - nothing like that would have happened in the US at the time

oh my!

I love Musique Non Stop. I could Boing, Boom Tschak forever.

I also ignored 1986 indie almost completely but my roommate at the time was hugely into Wolfhounds and That Petrol Emotion and I did fall for TPE who actually were heading somewhere else musically entirely. I must have seen them live a dozen times; so good.

Love that Prince track though not as much as Trouble Funk and Run DMC, but way out in front about a thousand leagues ahead of the competition is Schoolly D, with PSK being thee track. i can safely say there probably hasn't been a month that has passed since 1986 that I haven't listened to it. I'll never tire of it. That reverbed 909 beat and his delivery + Code Money's scratching never ceases to slay me. That beat has been sampled almost as much as the Amen break.

I played Masters at Work's "Justa ''Lil'' Dope" at the weekend, perhaps the best Schoolly D beat stealing track?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED4IFokU0nU

I did fall for TPE who actually were heading somewhere else musically entirely. I must have seen them live a dozen times; so good

also they had really good support acts iirc. think it was slab! the first time i saw them

"Anotherloverholenyohead" rules.

think it was slab! the first time i saw them

oh wait, it was slab! and voice of the beehive i wasn't actually that keen on at the time (i love 'i say nothing' now though). think steve mack was dating one of votb?

Haven't voted in one of these yet, but wow, Schoolly D tearing up the charts..."P.S.K." is one of my favourite songs ever; I interviewed him over the phone around that time.

yes, it was slab! which clinced the deal for me. i got to know them a bit from seeing them so often and that was definitely more the area of music they were into. lots of my friends at the time had a major crush on steve mack.

Schoolly D tearing up the charts..."P.S.K." is one of my favourite songs ever; I interviewed him over the phone around that time.

wow!

The first That Petrol Emotion track that I took notice of was "Big Decision" in 1987, then I stuck with them through to 1990.

xp yeah steve was cute. he kind of struck me as an adult version of the goofy best friend archetype from a john hughes film. wonder what he's up to now?

The first That Petrol Emotion track that I took notice of was "Big Decision" in 1987, then I stuck with them through to 1990.

― mike t-diva,

Classic VH-1 used to play it a lot -- a jam.

I think that got a bad rep for the bad rap tho

wonder what he's up to now?

i believe he still does music, at least according to old friend who never got over their crush on him. :)

The Great

Kraftwerk - Musique Non Stop
(Actually, this is new to me - Electric Café passed me by at the time, and I don't recall it being well received, in which case time has been kind.)

Schoolly D - Put Your Fila's On/P.S.K. (What Does It Mean?)
(OK, I get it now. In 1986, I was still more interested in hip hop as a branch of dance music, and you couldn't exactly call these club bangers. So when I saw the NME-types salivating over the starkness, I just thought: well, obviously you don't go dancing in clubs, so what do you know. Anyhow, these are well fierce and wicked, etc.)

Trouble Funk - Still Smokin'
(I was massively into go go, bought loads of it, loved Trouble Funk, and this one was one of my favourites. It still gets my vote.)

Duran Duran - Notorious
(It's a pointedly nasty review, but then nobody I knew in 1986 had a good word to say about Duran Duran; they were basically seen as the embodiment of everything that was wrong and bad about the Eighties. Oh, what blinkered fools we were. Nile Rodgers plays on the track, as well as co-producing it, and I've seen him perform it with Chic a couple of times, where it fits well with the rest of his set. It was also the band's release as a trio, with only Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor remaining, and having ditched Andy Taylor, there's now more funk to their funk-rock, i.e. it's light years better than the bloody Power Station.)

The Good

Prince And The Revolution - Anotherloverholenyohead
(Love Parade, but this isn't one of its stand-outs, and I don't think it makes an effective standalone single.)

Run-DMC - King Of Rock
("Rock Box" in 1984 absolutely blew me away, so when this first came out in 1985, I saw it as a bit of a diminishing-returns retread, whereas I wanted them to move on to the next amazing ground-breaking thing. Oh, I was quite the neophyte.)

Smiley Culture - Mr Kidnapper
The Turncoats - Motorball Meltbeat
The Servants - The Sun, A Small Star

The OK

Wolfhounds - Anti-Midas Touch
Mighty Lemon Drops - My Biggest Thrill
The Weeds - China Doll
That Petrol Emotion - Keen
(I can't get beyond my basic antipathy towards 1986 indie, and I can't quite explain why - there's just no connection with it all. I certainly find it too imitative, but so was Britpop - and I enjoyed Britpop, maybe because it was redeemed by a certain cheeky swagger - whereas this bunch just seem pallid and dour. That said, the Turncoats and Servants do rise somewhat above the pack.)

Georgie Fame - Samba
(In essence, it's SAW-do-Matt Bianco, and it's not actively ghastly.)

The Iffy

Aretha Franklin - Jumpin' Jack Flash
(She did a great version of Satisfaction in the Sixties, but this, even with Richards and Wood playing in it, was... ill-advised. I liked the Whoopi Goldberg movie well enough, though.)

Bob Geldof - This Is The World Calling
(His first release after Live Aid, which benefitted from continued public goodwill towards Saint Bob, but he only had one more hit, in 1990.)

The Garbage

Disco Aid - Give Give Give
(The whole Disco Aid (later Dance Aid) initiative was badly bungled - James Hamilton wrote about it extensively - but it didn't exactly help when the whole thing was saddled with this piece of crap. Note also the continued use of the word "disco".)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

is this meant to be an ILE thread?

Oops, no, it should have been ILM. I’ll do a mod request in a bit.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

SMASH HITS Singles Reviews, 30th October to 12th November 1991