Just Want A Poll of the Action: The Very Best of Bucks Fizz Poll

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How must it felt for Abba in the early 1980s to realize they were being beat at their own game by these Fucks Bizzers? Nothing on The Visitors or even Super Trouper approaches the sheer prog-pop fucked-upness of "My Camera Never Lies." But beyond that, their only classics are "Piece of the Action" (Elvis Costello, please cover!) and the morning music staple "I Hear Talk" (and okay maybe "The Land of Make Believe" but it dawdles a bit too much for my tastes). And there's some pretty gruesome stuff towards the bottom (although I dig the Africanisms of "New Beginning").

So yeah vote for your fave. But I don't know the albums so this poll is meant to ferret out the "My Camera Never Lies"-level album tracks (doubt there are any but still).

Poll Results

OptionVotes
"My Camera Never Lies" 8
"Making Your Mind Up" 3
"The Land of Make Believe" 3
"Piece of the Action" 2
"Now Those Days Are Gone" 1
"New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)" 0
"Love the One You're With" 0
"Keep Each Other Warm" 0
"Heart of Stone" 0
"When We Were Young" 0
"Rules of the Game" 0
"You and Your Heart so Blue" 0
"Golden Days" 0
"Talking in Your Sleep" 0
"I Hear Talk" 0
"London Town" 0
"Run for Your Life" 0
"If You Can't Stand the Heat" 0
"One of Those Nights" 0
"Oh Suzanne" 0


Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 1 December 2010 18:14 (fourteen years ago)

Here's a great "My Camera Never Lies" in Easter egg mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIxM9XtMX44

Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 1 December 2010 18:15 (fourteen years ago)

How must it HAVE felt, that should read

Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 1 December 2010 18:17 (fourteen years ago)

Voted "Piece of the Action" as I can't get the chord-change in the synth melody in the sections before each verse out of my head. It sounds like Christmas! The chorus is incredible also — totally ABBAesque.

for the next throbbing minutes (corey), Wednesday, 1 December 2010 18:20 (fourteen years ago)

and the weirdness of "My Camera Never Lies" is remarkable, nothing sounds like it — maybe slightly like ZTT stuff, but dryer gauzier, less-spacious, more analogue.

for the next throbbing minutes (corey), Wednesday, 1 December 2010 18:35 (fourteen years ago)

Ha! Nobody cares!

Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, 3 December 2010 18:50 (fourteen years ago)

Spent 10 minutes discussing "Land of Make Believe" with Mrs V the other day but am struggling to forgive you for comparing any of their stuff to The Visitors ctfo

absinthe of malithe (Noodle Vague), Friday, 3 December 2010 18:56 (fourteen years ago)

Whoa, I've never heard these guys before. The bass in "My Camera Never Lies" is great! The rest of it is this blitzkrieg of hooks makes me feel dizzy in the same way as the Jem theme song.

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Saturday, 4 December 2010 01:30 (fourteen years ago)

OMG a look at the wikipedia entry and I'm pretty sure these guys are for me.
I mean I am in favor of any band whose second photo is captioned "The skirt rip at Eurovision 1981."

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Saturday, 4 December 2010 01:31 (fourteen years ago)

Bucks Fizz were pretty inescapable in the UK at one time, so I'm surprised at how very few of these songs I remember:

"Making Your Mind Up"
"The Land of Make Believe"
"Piece of the Action"
"My Camera Never Lies"
and maybe "Now Those Days Are Gone" (sort of dirgy, right?)

Went for 'Camera' cos those uh-oh! bits are just the best.

Krampus Interruptus (NickB), Saturday, 4 December 2010 01:39 (fourteen years ago)

But were they better than Dollar? Or Tight Fit, if they count? (I'm actually curious. Like songs I've heard from all three, though.)

Voting "Camera," though there's plenty here I've never heard.

xhuxk, Saturday, 4 December 2010 01:43 (fourteen years ago)

Dollar > Bucks Fizz >>> Tight Fit > Bardo

Krampus Interruptus (NickB), Saturday, 4 December 2010 01:45 (fourteen years ago)

Well maybe overall that's true (if an 'overall' can apply to such groups). But I've never heard a Dollar or Tight Fit song to match "Camera." Never heard of Bardo until just now. Like "Piece of the Action," Bardo's "One Step Further" betrays a decided Elvis Costello influence. What's up with that?? Odd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuGPWE1UifI

Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 4 December 2010 02:04 (fourteen years ago)

Costello couldn't top their choreography, though.

for the next throbbing minutes (corey), Saturday, 4 December 2010 02:31 (fourteen years ago)

I don't know how to feel about this nearly paranoia-free cover of "Talking in Your Sleep."

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Saturday, 4 December 2010 17:38 (fourteen years ago)

Abbbottt you might dig this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqkI2VBiLgg

Krampus Interruptus (NickB), Saturday, 4 December 2010 17:49 (fourteen years ago)

Like "Piece of the Action," Bardo's "One Step Further" betrays a decided Elvis Costello influence. What's up with that?? Odd.

Ha, I told Elvis I reckoned POTA had a definite EC influence, he said he'd never heard it but said it was "definitely strange"

Mark G, Saturday, 4 December 2010 18:43 (fourteen years ago)

Oh that was you? I knew I read that somewhere on here. Very sharp of you!

It's annoying that he thought it was strange when, as Barry Walters has noted, Abba obviously influenced "Oliver's Army." So it's not beyond the pale that there'd be some Costello-Bucks gene splicing going on.

Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 4 December 2010 18:53 (fourteen years ago)

What is the connection between this song and both (1) "Mirror Mirror" and (2) "My Camera Never Lies"? There has to be one, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr9iIjI7m_s

xhuxk, Saturday, 4 December 2010 20:12 (fourteen years ago)

Anyway I voted "Camera Never Lies". I love the cod-reggaeisms on "Land of Make Believe" but as a song it never delivers a knockout punch imo. "Camera" is sort of all knockout.

absinthe of malithe (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 4 December 2010 20:17 (fourteen years ago)

Ugh xhuxk that Renaissance track induced nausea in me estomac. I had no clue they were new waving it up (or even existed) in the 1980s. What's the connection? "My Camera Never Lies" is prog-pop and "Camera Camera" pop-prog. Can't think too much harder about it without reaching for my licorice and/or charcoal pills. Car-crash fascinating, though.

Here's a relevant "prog unto new wave" thread.

Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 4 December 2010 21:01 (fourteen years ago)

And I actually like that Renaissance album! Though I realize it's blatant pandering to the new audience.

for the next throbbing minutes (corey), Saturday, 4 December 2010 22:43 (fourteen years ago)

"My Camera Never Lies" kind of reminds me of The Buggles' "I am a Camera" but mainly because they both over pronounce Ca Mer Ah in the same way.

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Saturday, 4 December 2010 22:45 (fourteen years ago)

new audience ~at the time~ I should say

for the next throbbing minutes (corey), Saturday, 4 December 2010 22:45 (fourteen years ago)

i have never even heard of any of these bands, wow

that Dollar video is the limit.

beggin' strips continuum (del), Saturday, 4 December 2010 23:03 (fourteen years ago)

"Land of Make Believe" is so fucking sugary, it is blowing my mind. I think Bucks Fizz is the #2 band five-year-old me would want to be in, right after Jem & the Holograms.

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Saturday, 4 December 2010 23:58 (fourteen years ago)

"My Camera Never Lies" is a really classy pop song. Otherwise they were largely second or third rate ABBA or Dollar.

You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Sunday, 5 December 2010 00:00 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Sunday, 5 December 2010 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

Regarding Dollar, this is better than "Mirror Mirror":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6ZCa9PI4Vs

You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Sunday, 5 December 2010 00:03 (fourteen years ago)

"Mirror Mirror" is a pretty decent joint but that video is flipping me the fuck out!

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Sunday, 5 December 2010 00:17 (fourteen years ago)

Dollar escaping through the glass in the Mirror Mirror video made me think of Kraftwerk's Showroom Dummies.

Krampus Interruptus (NickB), Sunday, 5 December 2010 08:53 (fourteen years ago)

ugh! thanks for the headache, y'all.

hipity-hopity muzik ftw! (Ioannis), Sunday, 5 December 2010 09:17 (fourteen years ago)

There was a brief moment when Andy Hill was being mentioned in the same breath as Horn and Rushent, and "My Camera Never Lies" feels like a conscious step-up to the Horn/Dollar plateau. But for me, Hill's finest moment was Virginia David's "Am I Normal", absurd lyrics notwithstanding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT1Uu3USGn8

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 ?
Am I normal ?

Miles slip by
Cruising, cruising
Near the docks of Boon
But auto dies
Stalling out somewhere
Impounding doom
Tearing off composure
She is not so gay
Turns around to find herself about to say
Am I normal ?
Am I normal ?

Handcuffed in the back seat
She is under thumb
Car is in custody
But it still don't run
Am I normal ?

mike t-diva, Sunday, 5 December 2010 11:53 (fourteen years ago)

Hill also produced David-from-Dollar's really-quite-good debut single "Young Americans Talking", which stalled at #41:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CEHkbJkOLs

mike t-diva, Sunday, 5 December 2010 11:59 (fourteen years ago)

Dollar look like Ken and Barbie, like special edition Fake George Michael Ken.

Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Sunday, 5 December 2010 16:45 (fourteen years ago)

you lot know that ex-King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield wrote the words to "Land of Make-Believe", right?

ban this sick stunt (anagram), Sunday, 5 December 2010 18:00 (fourteen years ago)

Yes. Which means that Sinfield had a compositional hand in "21st Century Schizoid Man", "Land Of Make Believe" and Celine Dion's "Think Twice".

mike t-diva, Sunday, 5 December 2010 18:07 (fourteen years ago)

I'm blanking on 1970s ABBA imitators/inheritors. Luv, Dschinghis Khan...Boney M? Brotherhood of Man? Who else? I suppose you can just run through Eurovision contestants.

Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 5 December 2010 22:22 (fourteen years ago)

Pussycat. (Not bad.) The Dooleys. (Bleh.) Middle Of The Road. (???, but they did this, which counts for a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc

xhuxk, Sunday, 5 December 2010 22:46 (fourteen years ago)

Oops, guess they were actually pre-Abba, shows what I know! (Wiki: "Middle of the Road are a Scottish pop group who enjoyed success across Europe and Latin America in the early 1970s...By early 1972 alone the group had sold over five million records.")

Metal Mike Saunders to thread, he knows this stuff inside out.

xhuxk, Sunday, 5 December 2010 22:48 (fourteen years ago)

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

System, Monday, 6 December 2010 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

Middle Of The Road were my first ever Favourite Group! In mitigation, I was nine years old.

mike t-diva, Monday, 6 December 2010 00:26 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah - of course, those dates make Middle of the Road a sort of PRE-Abba group.

timellison, Monday, 6 December 2010 00:39 (fourteen years ago)

I only ever bought a Middle of the Road record after reading Metal Mike, by the way.

timellison, Monday, 6 December 2010 00:40 (fourteen years ago)

my love for bardo's "one step further" knows no bounds and it is criminal that it did not win eurovision that year (tho tbf the actual performance was a bit meh)

chris and cosey and ted and alice (donna rouge), Monday, 6 December 2010 00:45 (fourteen years ago)

^^^agree with Bardo love

Satantango! (Matt #2), Monday, 6 December 2010 00:56 (fourteen years ago)

And let's not forget Schmetterlinge...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTygxa3p8c4

Mark G, Monday, 6 December 2010 10:00 (fourteen years ago)

I'm blanking on 1970s ABBA imitators/inheritors. Luv, Dschinghis Khan...Boney M? Brotherhood of Man? Who else? I suppose you can just run through Eurovision contestants.

Tight Fit started out covering 60s pop, but later did this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfZWErZjFzM

Although they were much later, Steps also need a mention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnN3YATAe7o

You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Monday, 6 December 2010 12:30 (fourteen years ago)

See also virtually every Swedish Eurovision entry since Charlotte Nilsson's 1999 winner.

You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Monday, 6 December 2010 12:31 (fourteen years ago)

Why is there a Confederate flag at the end of that Tight Fit clip?

Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, 6 December 2010 15:26 (fourteen years ago)

Because Bobby Gillespie is 9 years old.

Mark G, Monday, 6 December 2010 15:30 (fourteen years ago)

?

Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, 6 December 2010 15:38 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

"London Town" kind of freaks me out.

wizards of wonder are the keepers of knowledge (Abbbottt), Friday, 4 March 2011 16:49 (fourteen years ago)

it's kinda lolling me out. weird "please let me stay" lyrics vs. repeated use of "london town" makes it sound like a cross between alphaville and fizzwick-cum-puddleton, population 32

ledge, Friday, 4 March 2011 16:55 (fourteen years ago)

ten years pass...

after the Tina Turner doc, i still haven’t wrapped my head around Bucks Fizz, the group who did an earlier recording of What's Love Got to Do with It pic.twitter.com/RKvNN9i590

— Adam Piron (@adam_piron) March 29, 2021

too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Monday, 29 March 2021 22:36 (four years ago)


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