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.

I’m going through some back issues of the NME.
As part of going through the issue dated 26-5-84 I’ve listed some of the other things that were going on in that particular week in May 1984 (If you want to see & hear the Top 50 singles from this week click here)

Thursday 24th May 1984

The Top Of The Pops line up ran thus:

Presenters:
Janice Long, Mike Smith

Playlist:
Alvin Stardust – I Feel Like Buddy Holly
Duran Duran – The Re-Flex (video)
Evelyn Thomas – High Energy
Howard Jones – Pearl In The Shell (video)
Status Quo – Going Down Town Tonight
Style Council – You’re The Best Thing (video)
Wham – Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

I reckon that- You’re The Best Thing by The Style Council was the best thing in that episode.

I’ve gone through the NME Live list from that week’s edition to see who was playing live that night (24-05-1984) and here are the gigs that caught my eye:
Black Flag and Husker Du at Peter Piper’s in Folkestone (just thinking about that had put the biggest grin on my face)
The Lotus Eaters at Huddersfield Poly
Steve Marriott’s Racket Packet at the Half Moon in Herne Hill
The Psychedelic Furs (Passion Puppets support) at the Manchester Apollo
Budgie at Clouds in Preston
Angel Witch at the Verulam Arms in Watford.

2. Friday 25th May 1984

Echo and the Bunnymen played a gig in Madrid

According to the person who uploaded this clip- this gig by Echo and the Bunnymen took place in Madrid on Friday 25th May 1984. I’ve chosen the song Crocodiles but the whole gig is on Youtube if you fancy seeing it all. (In 1984 I was 16 and too young to go the pub – so in the evenings I mostly just sat in my bedroom backcombing my hair so it would look like McCulloch’s)

As well as Echo and the Bunnymen in Madrid other gig options for 25-5-84 included:

Bronski beat at Snobs in Birmingham.
Alexi Sayle at Fairfield hall in Croydon
Dumpy’s Rust Nuts at Ewell Tech. College
Gregory Issacs at the Brixton Academy
Felt at Manchester University Union

3. Saturday 26th May 1984.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released this week.

Instead of going to the cinema you could have gone to the following gigs on the evening of 26-5-84:

King at the Fantasy Club in Birmingham
Hoorah! Boys Hoorah! at the City Limits in Cambridge.
Billy Bragg at Cheltenham Town Centre.
New Model Army/Animal Farm at the Town Hall Crypt in Middlesborough.
Jive Alive at Angie’s in Wokingham.


Sunday 27th May 1984

Adverts and continuity announcements from Yorkshire TV from the evening of 27th May 1984.

Someone has kept the adverts from before, between and after the ITV news and Spitting Image from the night of the 27th May 1984. A little slice of 1984 ephemera.

If you’d been in the Yorkshire region on the evening of 27/5/1984 you could have gone to these gigs:

The Flying Pickets at the Crucible in Sheffield.
Eek-A-Mouse at the the Leadmill in Sheffield.
Bucks Fizz at Warrington’s Spectrum Arena
Xero at the Manhatten Club, Bradford.
or you could have driven down to Lincoln to see Gene Pitney

Monday 28th May 1984.

Coronation Street

This was a Whit Monday and apparently 11,969,000 people stayed in to watch Corrie St. that night. Never a huge fan but I’ve always liked the title sequence.
(This not from the exact night but I think it’s the right title sequence for the period)

Gigs that night included:

Leo Sayer at the Brighton Centre
Status Quo at the Ipswich Gaumont (start of a 2 night residency no less. Go Quo)
The Cramps, The Specimen and Sexbeat at the Hammersmith Palais.
Restless at the Pindar Of Wakefield in London’s Kings X
Hawkwind at Ramsgate Marina Park
Goats Don’t Shave (No. Me neither) at The Swan With Two Necks in Worcester.

Tuesday 29th May 1984

BBC News report from the evening of May 29th 1984.

In May 1984 the Miner’s Strike was moving into it’s most confrontational period. In the last week of May this is how the BBC were reporting what was happening at Orgreave.

The “Battle of Orgreave” would follow a couple of weeks later.

If you were caught up in Yorkshire on that particular day, and you had the spare time you could have gone to see:
The Inca Babies and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry at Sheffield’s The Leadmill
(The abysmally named) Toby LeRone & The Acid Drops in Leeds at the Central Station Hotel
If you fancied a bit of drive you could have seen Peggy Lee in the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre.

Wednesday 30th May 1984 Part One

Liverpool Won the Cup

On this day Liverpool beat Roma in 1984 European Cup final. This game went to penalties and was probably best remembered for Bruce Grobbelaar’s wobbly knee antics in the penalty shoot out.

Wednesday 30th May 1984 Part Two

The Joy of Regional Telly

This clip is of local presenter Susan Osmon announcing the next day’s TV schedule and weather on HTV West just before closing. There is a poetry about what she says here – she mentions the band the Strawbs, the weather forecast for Lundy and Irish Sea, she congratulates Liverpool fans and she wishes us goodnight. It is just lovely.

If you lived in the HTV West region and fancied going to a gig that night then this was your choice:
UK Subs were playing at the Level 3 in Swindon,
A band called Nervous Breakdown were playing at the Cardiff Chapter Arts Centre.
The Chieftains were playing at the Exeter Festival.
You could have driven over to Reading to see Dave Swarbrick’s Whippersnapper.
(I’ve seen both the Chieftains and Dave Swarbrick folk junkie that I am)

SOME OTHER THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN MAY 1984

Prince Charles called a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”

I was doing my CSEs. I got a grade 3 in Physics and a grade 4 in Woodwork.

The Russians had announced they were boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

The Guardian Media Section was launched.

Earlier in May 1984 this won the Eurovision. It’s bloody awful

These other magazines were published in May 1984

Finally

I don’t know if Rockpalast is a German venue or a German TV show but the Smiths were on it/in it in May 1984. (This video is the first part of 9 if you fancy seeing the whole gig)

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In the NME from 26-05-84 there are the following features:

A catty letter by Boy George all about Pete Burns, Bronski Beat & gay politics.
An Adrian Thrills’ interview with Everything But the Girl.
A “Des Troy” interview with The Troggs
An interview with a band called Little Germany by Susan Williams (who, I think, was Steven Wells)
The Jazz Butcher are interviewed by Bruse Dessau
A Mat Snow interview with The Cure’s Robert Smith,
Single Reviews by Paolo Hewitt.
Neil (Nigel Planer) is interviewed by Charles Shaar Murray.
Pete Burns is interviewed by Biba Kopf.
Don Watson writes about The Sister Of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch.

(The cover shot above is a thumbnail. Right click for a better look)

As well as the usual things, such as the charts and the letters page, this issue also has REM’s Mike Mills and Peter Buck choosing their favourite groups, records and books. There are also LP reviews by Danny Kelly (Praxis by Praxis and Bands of Gold by Freda Payne), Barney Hoskins (Mange Tout by Blancmange) and David Quantick (From the Hip by Josie Cotton).

You can read what else was happening in the World that week by clicking here
You can hear the Top 50 from that week by clicking here

In Dorchester last week I went into this book shop and left with 120 back issues of the NME from the eighties and early nineties.

2 things I’ve noticed

1. I think this is fairly well known but in the early to mid eighties the NME extended it’s remit from just writing about bands and music and started writing about subjects the paper felt mattered to its readers – things like housing benefit and teenage suicide. It also began to run pieces that theorized the nature of pop and of pop consumption.

I think sales plummeted.

In the late 80s and early 90s the paper got its sense of humour back. It was during this period that I read it pretty much every week and I still read stuff by the writers from that period.

2. I bought a huge pile of NMEs and not one of them has Morrissey or the Smiths on the cover. There were some years when the NME seemed to have Moz on the cover every second week so I guess those issues have found their way onto ebay and into the hands of Moz nuts.