RECORD MIRROR singles reviews, 17th October 1981

https://imgur.com/gallery/df0zUT8
https://i.imgur.com/LndFwqO.jpeg

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ACqhcVYqf42Ntv8lG8h62?si=bad34b7db29a43ff

YouTube:

YouTube:
Peter Godwin - Torch Songs For The Heroine
Bumble And The Beez - Fools
Shock - Dynamo Beat
Andy Gibb & Victoria Principal - All I Have To Do Is Dream

Chart peaks:

2 Laurie Anderson - O Superman (Netherlands 10, Ireland 11, Belgium 19, New Zealand 21, Australia 28)
4 The Jam - Absolute Beginners (New Zealand 35)
5 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Joan Of Arc (Ireland 13)
30 Electric Light Orchestra - Twilight (France 10, Austria 15, Germany 17, Ireland 18, Netherlands 18, USA 38, Australia 93)
31 The Exploited - Dead Cities (UK Indie 4)
64 Discharge - Never Again (UK Indie 3)
65 Orange Juice - L.O.V.E. Love

UK Decay - Sexual - UK Indie 10
The Fallout Club - Wonderlust - UK Indie 29
Tank - Don't Walk Away - UK Indie
Devo - Working In A Coalmine - New Zealand 8, Canada 17, Australia 20, US Dance 30, USA 43
Grace Jones - Walking In The Rain - New Zealand 34, Germany 67, Australia 94
Andy Gibb & Victoria Principal - All I Have To Do Is Dream - US Adult Contemporary 21, Canada 39, USA 51

Tank - Don't Walk Away - UK Indie 43 (oops)

Full edition of Record Mirror: https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/80s/81/Record-Mirror-1981-10-17-OCR.pdf

No way I can't vote for Bow Wow Wow here. That's a track I've always enjoyed, like all their material. The writer wonders whether "Mile High Club" will be an official single release. It was, but only in the summer of '82 after "I Want Candy" was a hit. The cryptic reference to Culture Club has to do with Boy George briefly being a performing member of Bow Wow Wow in '81.

There's also a line which says "Captain Lush speaking, some turbulence on board". Boy George performed with Bow Wow Wow as Lieutenant Lush, and apparently an earlier version of the song referenced his stage name.

http://www.theblitzkids.net/boy-george-bow-wow-wow/

Malcolm (McLaren) cooked me a steak sandwich and talked weird business. He said he was going to put me on a retainer and wanted me to record a new song, The Mile High Club. He spun out the story about children getting gangbanged by animals on an aeroplane and a pilot called Lieutenant Lush. Which would be my stage name.

i bought the Tank single after seeing them support Motorhead. Binned it years ago.

Grace Jones is right up there for me, Discharge too. Have the Shock 7". OMD also.

But, it's going to be Laurie Anderson which left me dumbstruck first time I heard it.

xp That whole "children getting gang banged" scenario was part of a larger musical McLaren wanted to stage which was actually the brainchild of a French couple he met in Paris and he simply poached their idea. Bits and pieces of the would-be musical turned up in other Bow Wow Wow songs as well, such as "Uomo Sex Al Apache," which is about homosexual Apache Indians.

btw I would've expected "O Superman" to be left off the poll with one of those "obvious winner" exemptions, but who knows...

Yeah, "Oh, Superman" seems to be in a league of its own here. Having said that, I don't know if I think "Questionnaire" is my favorite single on here, but I do think Chas gets a bum rap in the review. I may vote for it anyhow.

Oh oh! "O" not "Oh."

Yeah, I did nearly exclude "O Superman", but it didn't quite feel like enough of an inevitably unanimous board-sweeper, so I decided to curb my gerrymandering instincts this time around. (NB I doubt that I'll be voting for it myself.)

The only ones I bought were Orange Juice on 12" (they had basically been my favourite band for nearly a year) and Fallout Club (out of curiosity, as I think there had been a rave review in another paper). I knew about Tank, because their singer Algy Ward (ex-Damned) was a friend of a brother of a housemate, and the brother of the housemate was mad keen on them.

If the Bow Wow Wow single had been available, I'd definitely have bought that too, but their next official single - reviewed by Sunie in RM just one week later - was "Chihuahua". Apparently "Mile High Club" was issued as a promo for BWW's show at Studio 54; there's more here. It did eventually come out officially, but only as a B-side, to "Louis Quatorze".

I actually have that Studio 54 promo! As well as the later 45 w/"Louis Quatorze." These are actually two different recordings of "Mile High Club." The Studio 54 version starts with a spoken intro. This is presumably the version being reviewed here, since the Studio 54 gig was in October 1981.

Aha, thanks - I'd put the other shorter version on the Spotify playlist - now corrected.

I prefer this version. It also matches better with the description in Sunie's review.

Oh, and there's a lyrical reference to "sex gang children", which was one of the names suggested when Culture Club were deciding what to call themselves.

Hey never heard of Tank or that song, and I like it. But having listened to the playlist this is Grace Jones by a good bit, even better than I remembered and just so timelessly cool in this setting. The three punk songs are all classic, but Sly and Robbie oof.

Yeah, I made sure to put the Grace Jones 12" remix on Spotify as it must be the one that Sunie's reviewing, and also the 7" remix of Wah!, as it does indeed "knock spots of the LP version".

nothing against it or laurie anderson in particular, but i used to joke that the O in 'o superman' stands for "overrated." i fully expect it to walk this poll without issue.

i voted 'joan of arc' because it really is my favorite of any of these songs by quite a lot.

Golden age of the pop remix starts around '81, doesn't it?

No contest, Anderson's single is still one of my absolute favorites EVER.

Anyone else find the Laurie Anderson/David Byrne/Algebra Suicide downtown twee doesn't hold up for them any more? Loved Knee Plays, William Burroughs guest spots, etc at the time. I have detached from detached bemusement.

I don't think of "O Superman" as twee. Despite some welcome moments of levity ("hi Mom!") it's some chilling shit.

On the other hand, this second disk of remixes of Grace Jones' Nightclubbing on Spotify has made my day. The way all her big Island records have been given generic pre-release cassette artwork is genuinely bemusing to me.

i don't find "O Superman" twee in the slightest. i think 9/11 also made it seem even more chilling. Here come the planes..they're Amercian planes..."

i don't find "O Superman" twee in the slightest. i think 9/11 also made it seem even more chilling. Here come the planes..they're Amercian planes..."

Anderson was touring right after 9/11, doing shows in NYC (Town Hall) and DC (I think the 9:30 Club), and IIRC she was one of the few who didn't cancel her shows. She did "O Superman" and yes, it was pretty fucking chilling.

What was that thread where I was mentioning how mainstream punk was in the UK?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k7Yb65cqrU

I don't think that false start was in the original broadcast... or was it?

Peter Godwin - Torch Songs For The Heroine

i have a few peter godwin records but i didn't know this one. pretty good though if you like pouty new romantic synthpop - sounds like a cross between john foxx and alphaville's 'sounds like a melody'. some really good synth sounds going on. he was previously in a late-era glam band called metro who had a few tunes. this is my favourite one of his:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_NJX4Le8c

Anyone else find the Laurie Anderson/David Byrne/Algebra Suicide downtown twee doesn't hold up for them any more? Loved Knee Plays, William Burroughs guest spots, etc at the time. I have detached from detached bemusement.

― Citole Country (bendy),

I never saw their (and Bowie's) so-called detachment as anything other than a strategy by people who feel too strongly and don't want to show it. Bemusement I don't hear at all.

Chas Jankel - Questionnaire

this one is great too btw. if you like that whole talking heads / kid creole / was not was / defunkt downtown melting pot scene you'll like this. just check out how tight this band is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ln_aFsxnA

this is still my favourite chas jankel though, absolute mega tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdmEg9wG0Q0

That Chaz Jankel track is new to me. Hit!

Even though I loathed it at the time (I like it now), I felt this strange sense of pride when The Exploited were on TOTP. Local lads made good or something? Also was the first time someone I had seen in real life had been on TV as guitarist Big John also worked in Listen Records in Edinburgh.

didn't he end up in goodbye mr mackenzie with shirley manson or am i imagining that?

Yes and a brief stint in Nirvana too.

oh wow, i'd forgotten that! i guess that might've been due to the shirley manson-> butch vig connection?

Kurt was an exploited fan iirc

yeah that might be a simpler explanation :)

That Chaz Jankel vid is insane. Ridiculously tight band!

last couple of minutes are nuts - keyboard player is on fire! think the bass player and drummer are both ex-blockheads. one of the weymouth sisters (as in tina weymouth) was in his band too but i don't know if she's in that line-up.

also i gotta say, chaz is looking very cute there

so-called detachment as anything other than a strategy by people who feel too strongly and don't want to show it.

Hunh, I think I prefer people who don't actually feel, and are okay with it, like Grace and Wattie!

Aye, Chaz looking hot.

Also in total agreement with the remixes of Nightclubbing. Some of the very best music of any era.

I’ve heard of exactly one of these songs (“O Superman”) and I hate it. You Brits were into some crazy obscure shit back in the day.

Hunh, I think I prefer people who don't actually feel, and are okay with it, like Grace and Wattie!

― Citole Country (bendy),

Grace Jones is exactly one of those people I mentioned. The only people in the 20th century who ever wanted to be statues were T.S. Eliot and Ronald Reagan.

The Jam, Grace Jones, Orange Juice, OMD, Devo, ELO - I mean, that's not really that obscure is it? xp

I believe Morrissey knows this tune, what you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox9FWzqao-g

The Jam, Grace Jones, Orange Juice, OMD, Devo, ELO - I mean, that's not really that obscure is it? xp

― groovypanda, Tuesday, October 12, 2021 7:06 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh, I know those names and I like some of their stuff (“Going Underground”! “Rip It Up and Start Again”! “Enola Gay”!) just not these particular tunes. Either they were only hits in the UK or they really were hits here but they just faded into obscurity over time. Like, I never knew Devo covered “Working in a Coal Mine”.

There's a lot here that I never heard at the time; the ones I did know are Orange Juice, Bow Wow Wow, OMD, The Jam, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, The Exploited and The Fallout Club. I knew of the Andy Gibb/Victoria Principal, but probably never heard it. And, yeah, I had no idea that Devo covered "Coal Mine".

Pretty sure I recognize more tracks in this poll than I did in any of the previous ones. I think Devo had been covering "Coal Mine" since about 1974!

Given that the record review columns are a snapshot of what was released that week it's inevitable that only a minority would end up being hits. If anything it only proves that UK record buyers don't like "crazy obscure shit'.

Would like to see a U.S. music magazine’s singles review from about the same time to see if I recognize any of the songs.

Here's Billboard 11/7/81, "Coal Mine" at #64. It also includes recent releases by Savoy Brown, which I've never heard, and Sneaker, which I've never even heard of.

https://www.mcrfb.com/?p=72116

I'm familiar with 11 tunes in that Billboard Top 20 - never even heard of the other 9, apart from "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" which I know from Ronnie Spector's version.

“Working in a Coalmine” stands out in my memory because of the unusual way it was packaged - the 7” single was included inside the album

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

My vote's for the Exploited. Until the advent of YouTube I wasn't sure if as a nine year old I had imagined their appearance on Top of the Pops.

This list does strike me as significantly better than the 1966, 1971 and 1976 lists - but then I was 19 in October 1981, so this stuff was absolutely meant for me.

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

I would've given the Jam a pity vote had I known this would happen.

The Jam were going off the boil for me by now. Of the final run of singles, from "Funeral Pyre" to "Beat Surrender", the only one that properly grabbed me was "Town Called Malice".

I voted for Grace Jones. I'd somehow never heard that remix before, and it's glorious.

She's no Richard Fairbrass, but the Laurie Anderson is one of our better novelty hits, I'll grant you. That thing where "arms" become "arms" is awfully clever.

The punksnotdead stuff has worn remarkably well. I thought that "Dead Cities" was utter garbage, but actually it's great, while the Discharge now sounds way ahead of its time.

I'd not heard Orange Juice's Al Green cover in years, as it had led me to the original (bought soon after in a second-hand shop), at which point I didn't think I needed the cover any more. But actually, I can get with Sunie's enthusiasm - it is indeed a great vocal from Edwyn Collins, and her praise of the "authentic-sounding soul backing vocals" comes from a time when, to the best of my recollection, no other UK guitar bands had attempted anything similar. Obviously we ended up with the dead-end of "soulcialism", but that had yet to happen, and it looks as if Orange Juice were the unwitting originators.

The Peter Godwin sounds somewhat like Depeche Mode in four or five years' time.

The duds for me are Bumble And The Beez, Tank, Gibb/Principal and especially Shock. The sickliness of the Gibb/Principal is almost Lynch-ian.

RECORD MIRROR singles reviews, 25th October 1986

Shock did have one classic single in them, but that one wasn't it. I think they were connected to Tik & Tok and the whole Blitz/Taboo/Leigh Bowery scene iirc?

plus future lifestyle-guru-to-Cherie-Blair, Carole Caplin!

carole caplin was in shock? wow!

The one I bought was their 1980 cover of The Glitter Band's "Angel Face":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3al8J3m6HY

...but its proto-kosmische B-side "R.E.R.B." is still really good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msN21Equqw0

They were Blitz/Tik & Tok rather than Taboo/Leigh Bowery, and, yeah, Carole Caplin!!!

kinda makes sense that cherie was a wannabe blitz kid, while tony was more just wannabe blitzing kids

Shock also featured Barbie Wild who has a very good example of a Wiki page that reads suspiciously like it was written by the subject

In 1986 she robotically mimed with British TV legends Morecambe and Wise in their Christmas TV Special of 1983 and appeared as a robotic mime as part of the duo Technical Glamour on The Sooty Show, the longest running children's TV program in the UK. As well as Hellbound: Hellraiser II, her other film appearances include Death Wish 3 (1985) starring Charles Bronson and Grizzly II: The Predator (1987) starring Charlie Sheen, George Clooney and Laura Dern.

In the 1980s, Miss Wilde wrote and hosted 'The American Hot 100' (Skytrax TV) as well as 'The Morning Show' & 'Supersonic' for Music Box, where she interviewed Jimmy Somerville from Bronski Beat, Roger Meddows-Taylor of Queen and The Sisters of Mercy. In 1987, Miss Wilde presented a long-running music show for Granada Television called 'Hold Tight', where she interviewed such pop personalities as Cliff Richard, John Lydon (AKA Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols), Iggy Pop, The B-52's, Black, Pepsi & Shirlie and Lisa Stansfield. In 1988, she wrote and presented 'The Small Screen', a film review program for the Night Network on London Weekend Television, where she interviewed actor Hugh Grant. In the 1990s, Miss Wilde hosted a live music program, 'The Gig', for London Weekend Television and the movie history program, 'Sprockets' for Sky Digital Television.

Just remembered, "R.E.R.B." stood for Rusty Egan and Richard (James) Burgess, who co-wrote and co-produced it.

oh thanks for the shout on RERB - i have that record but don't think i ever played the b.

...and appeared as a robotic mime as part of the duo Technical Glamour on The Sooty Show

absolute scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOsw_52dwBU

^ need a track ID on that btw. art of noise?

Nick, you don't have any idea where to get that long version of Les Emotions Francaises, do you?

also, Nick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aigtAQXM3c

ahh, thanks jed!

you don't have any idea where to get that long version of Les Emotions Francaises, do you?

it's the b-side to 'emotional disguise' and it's actual name is 'french emotions'. can't remember whether the uk 12 is the long version though, but will try and find my copy so that i can check!

okay i figured the 'les emotions francais' thing out. the UK 'emotional disguise' 12" only has the short 'french emotions' on the b-side, which clocks in at just two and a half minutes, as do all the other appearances of it afaict. there's also an extended instrumental version (4 minutes long) that appears on the US 12" and the two have just been stuck together to produce a long french version. these two also appear together in that sequence on the canada only 'images of heaven' EP:

https://www.discogs.com/release/371668-Peter-Godwin-Images-Of-Heaven

maybe they run into each other on that? that's the sleeve image the uploader has used anyhow.

Ok, That's helpful! Thanks, Nick.

just been looking at the weird career of the guy who produced the peter godwin stuff, a norwegian guy called georg holtgreen who started out in the uk acid folk band eclection in the 60s, went on to front the horrific 70s band sailor, then in the 80s went weirdo synth pop in a duo called data who made this awesome tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYcMjxhIlF8

Sailor were not horrific!

There's good sailor!? I just remember 'girls, girls, girls' making me feel queasy when I was a child. I know that the 'down by the docks' 12" has become a minor cosmic disco classic but even that's dodgy as hell

I remember "World wide traffic jam"

Sailor's "A Glass Of Champagne" remains fantastic.

I saw Data in early 1982 - I think they were supporting Kid Creole - and they were delightfully idiosyncratic and odd.

Virginia David, who joined Sailor in 1980, made a fantastic single in early 1983 called "Am I Normal?", produced by Andy Hill (Bucks Fizz) and co-written by Julian Marshall (Marshall Hain). I only knew about it because a friend was working in Andy Hill's studio at the time - he wrote to me and said it was the best thing that Hill had done. The lyrics are batshit crazy though:

Comes alive
Driving auto fast
Exhastavent
Loves to drive
Shifts away from that
What's got her pend
Waiting for the stop light
Nerves are very near
Asks herself a question
Suddenly sincere
Am I normal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyWPChIR9ss