The Fenland Gent

Here are the singles and LP charts as printed in the NME 26-5-84 (Right click for a better look)
To see the cover and what else was in the NME dated 26-5-84 then click here

I’ve made a Spotify Playlist of the top 50 singles from that week.

There are a few of the singles missing from Spotify but if you really want to hear Break Dance Party by Break Machine, I’ll Be Around by Terri Wells, Love Games by Belle & The Devotions Just Be Good To Me by the S.O.S. Band and What Presence by Orange Juice then the links will take you to YouTube. I couldn’t find a version of Jesse by Grandmaster & Melle Mel anywhere (& have never heard of it), and I could not find a decent version of Small Town Creed by the Kane Gang anywhere other than in a documentary on C4’s The Tube. You can find that further down the page.

Now for the self absorbed bit….

SEVEN THINGS I FOUND MYSELF THINKING WHILST LISTENING TO THIS SINGLES CHART

1. When I was a teenager I should have done more dancing.

I was 16 in May 1984 and when I was 16 I was a Cure and Smiths fanatic. Amongst my friends I was pretty much alone in these tastes but I was happy on my lonely crag, starring down witheringly on their taste for Queen, Annie Lennox and dance music. But listening to this chart now I was clearly wrong, not about Queen (though they had a few moments on their earlier LPs ) or Annie Lennox, but about dance music.

Elsewhere in this edition of the NME, in the Singles Review, journalist Paolo Hewitt claimed that the best recent tunes have all come from the USA and he comes up with a list of dance and soul acts that include most of the following: – Somebody Else’s Guy by Jocelyn Brown (Nos 9 in this weeks chart), Stay With Me Tonight by Jeffrey Osborne (Nos 16), Ain’t Nobody by Chaka Khan (Nos 28), Love Wars by Womack and Womack (Nos 15), In the Heart by Kool & The Gang (Nos 41) and Just Be Good to Me by The SOS Band. (Nos 25). These songs really make this chart a belter, not least for this song by the SOS Band which just has the most brilliant opening.

I don’t regret my indie kid youth but it seems that the soul boys were onto something. I missed something there. I should have danced more

2. Paul Weller knew this. You’re The Best Thing (Nos 22) is probably the best thing in this chart and you can dance to it.

3. New Order also knew this. Thieves Like Us (Nos 32) is probably the best thing in this chart and you can dance to it.

4. Each and Everyone by Everything about the Girl (Nos 26) has the strangest quality. Every time I hear it it sounds almost as though I’m hearing it for the first time. The same goes for Pearly Dewdrops Drops (Nos 30) (These two songs are probably both the best things in this chart)

5. I bought 2 of these records as singles. These were Pearly Dewdrops Drops and Relax (Nos 33).

6. In the early Nineties there was a giant poster at Havant Station advertising Phil Collins’ LP “Both Sides Now”. I remember it because someone had graffitied “Here is both sides of My Uzi Now”. (I doubt anyone in Havant, or even in the nearby, much rougher, Leigh Park Council Estate, really had an Uzi – just marker pens and a stupid sense of humour). When ever I hear a Phil Collins song I always think about that graffiti, (that and the drumming ape), which is a bit unfair, he’s not so bad. Some of his solo singles were good in a moody AOR sort of way (including this week’s Nos 3) and he was in “Good” Genesis (though he did play a bigger part in “OK” Genesis and “Quite Bad” Genesis). I also liked him in that film Buster.

7. The Kane Gang (Nos 42) recorded the “Ooh Gary Davies jingle for Davies’ Radio 1 lunchtime show. They must have really regretted that.

I couldn’t find a decent clip of the Kane Gang Song in this weeks chart but there is a version in this documentary about Kitchenware Records from the Tube in 1983 and it’s a decent enough documentary. Kitchenware are still going – the Editors (of whom I’m not enamored) are on the label.

This blog post is just about the singles (which , as I’m sure you’ve noticed, does not have a Nos. 5. One thing about this edition of NME is that it has loads of typos). I’m currently using Spotify to listen to some of the LPs – I’m already intrigued by Nos 30 – Oasis by Oasis.