RECORD MIRROR Singles Reviews, 30th August 1980

Released on short-lived Manchester indie label Absurd Records, Cairo's "Movie Stars" is an undistinguished generic ska follow-up to their only other single, the better and less frantic "I Like Bluebeat". Some obscure records are obscure for a reason.

I'm very partial to Cairo's "I Like Bluebeat", possibly for nostalgic reasions as it was always on Radio 1 in the evenings (Mike Read show?) while I was doing my homework.

There were actually 2 versions of "I Like Bluebeat" out almost simultaneously, the other one by The Outline and not as good imo. I always wondered what that was all about. Any idea mike?

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

The Outline and Cairo were actually the same band. The Outline's version is earlier, before they changed their name, and Cairo's version, while extremely similar, is more produced. One version of the single actually has both recordings, separately credited to both band names.

It was some sort of licensing deal, apparently Absurd said "never again"...

Perhaps unsurprisingly the only songs I know here are the Michael Schenker and the Scorpions. I like the Schenker better.

Schenker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44zFCZ4nitQ

Scorpions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X27IfAgzhTY

thanks! x post

the zoo rules.

Its title is the only even vaguely interesting feature of "No Mo Do Yakamo", a lacklustre will-this-do chug which cemented Dr Feelgood's status as former hitmakers, and which, with pointedly cruel timing, was reviewed in the same week that Ian Dury & The Blockheads' "I Want To Be Straight" (featuring the recently joined Wilko Johnson) entered the singles chart.

And while we're paddling in the spillage of pub rock, here's the third and final single from Charles Shaar Murray's alter ego, Blast Furnace (formerly "and The Heatwaves", until Rod Temperton's band took them to court). Featuring Bob Geldof and Phil Lynott on backing vocals, "Can't Stop The Boy" first appeared on the B-side of the band's 1978 debut EP release, and its chummy references to Dee Dee Ramone and The Boomtown Rats already sound two years out of date.

Although "I Still Remember It" is a tidy and effective little slice of power pop, The Hitmen sounded less generic and more characterful on their best known single, "Bates Motel" (1981). At some point in their brief career, the line-up featured Alan Wilder, later of Depeche Mode, but he's not playing on this one. Most of the other band members did OK after they split: the singer joined Youth and Jimmy Cauty in Brilliant, before forming Juno Reactor; the guitarist wrote and produced for Kirsty MacColl, Alison Moyet, Terence Trent D'Arby, Anni-Frid Lyngstad etc; the bassist became Nick Lowe's producer for over 20 years, and worked with Bryan Ferry and others.

Earlier in 1980, I saw Manicured Noise at the Lyceum, at the bottom of a bill which also featured, in order, The Teardrop Explodes, Echo & The Bunnymen (I fell asleep), A Certain Ratio (I woke up) and the Psychedelic Furs. I remember them as more scratchy/angsty/angular/post-punky than this more, uh, manicured recording. Their second single (which was covered by Shack in 1998), it followed "Metronome", which sounds closer to the way I remember them.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Can’t quite work out Mr Nicholls. Tempted to vote for the enjoyable After the Fire in reaction to him lambasting them as “perennial wimps”. I googled him and the top result was home raving over noted macho man Elvis Costello so 🤷‍♂️.

Home = him

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Record_Mirror,_March_14,_1981

I quite like the Classix Nouveaux track but it does also sound like a Flight of the Conchords parody of the era.

I love these threads btw, especially the move to Record Mirror with the extra weirdness. The playlists alone are a great way of dropping into another time without the filter of modern day preferences.

Hitmen->Brilliant->Juno Reactor! Charles Shaar Murray! Who knew? mike t-diva knew. Good stuff.

Classix Nouveaux were originally conceived as a vehicle for X-Ray Spex after Poly Styrene left in 1979, and an advert was placed in Melody Maker looking for her replacement. Sal Solo answered the ad and got the gig, but only two ex-Spexers (guitarist Jak Airport and drummer B.P. Hurding) actually joined the new band (Rudi Thomson and Paul Dean ending up with my workmate Paddy Carroll in The Outpatients, see above). By the time that "The Robots Dance", their debut single, was released on their own ESP label (the label's only release, as they signed to Liberty later in 1980), Jak Airport had already left the band, who had by then been lumped in with the emerging New Romantic scene, rather to their surprise. The track sounds to me like a bridge between the post-punk that dominated at the start of the year, and the futurism that had just begun its ascendancy (we're still exactly two months away from the release of Spandau's "To Cut A Long Story Short", which would properly kickstart the column inches).

I first read about The Motels in Punk in late 1976, but the original line-up split up in 1977, reforming in 1978 with just singer Martha Davis and guitarist Jeff Jourard remaining from the first line-up. They'd already had a Top 10 hit in Australia with "Total Control" in 1979, and they wouldn't crack the US chart until 1982 with "Only The Lonely", but in the interim they had two minor UK hits with "Days Are OK" and "Whose Problem", its immediate predecessor (both recorded after Jeff Jourard had left). "Whose Problem" is my best discovery of this poll, which slips neatly into its post-Pretenders times; it's immensely pleasurable, and I might yet vote for it.

Jeff Scott & The Hitmakers "Keep On Proving It" can't be found online, and it remains rare, selling for around £35 on Discogs. The weedy-voiced Jeff Scott's other two choppy power pop singles - one solo, another with the Hitmakers - are all on YouTube, and sell for similar amounts. They're nothing special.

Despite Mike Nicholls' perplexing praise and predictions of future greatness, Live Wire plodded on hitlessly until 1981, during which time they released three flop albums for A&M. As with Jenny Darren's extended tenure at DJM, you do wonder why they were given so many chances; this is dreary, pedestrian stuff.

For a band much lauded for their intelligence, XTC's "Generals And Majors" offers a pretty facile commentary on the armed forces, rendered more facile still by its video, featuring Richard Branson. Andy Partridge thought so too, commenting that Branson only appeared "because he's a complete publicity hog. He decided he was gonna turn up and keep suggesting that he be in the video. That is the worst video ever made by man".

As with Kenny Loggins above, that silly old Mike Nicholls accidentally reviews the B-side of The Upset's only single, "Hurt". I saw tons of bands like The Upset in support slots during 1980 - there was an absolute glut of them - so it made sense for three of the band (who had supported Dexys on tour) to quickly jump ship and join forces with five ex-Dexys (including Mick Talbot) in The Bureau.

Cathy La Creme's John Cooper Clarke pisstake is nicely done, her vocals reminding me of Yorkshire punk poet Joolz Denby.

"West One (Shine On Me)" is the only one here that I ended up owning on vinyl, as it appeared in the autumn on a cheap Virgin compilation called Cash Cows. Malcolm Owen, who had been fired for his heroin habit and then re-hired, had fatally OD-ed six weeks earlier, making this their final single. I'm torn between voting for this and The Motels.

It would be good if we could poll one of James Hamilton’s disco review columns from Record Mirror. Early 80s ones were pretty interesting with disco, soul, early rap, electro and dance friendly rock all featuring.

Yeah, I can easily do one of those next, as I've been turning them all into a blog over the past four years (started at 1975, now up to 1989). https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/

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

Honourable set of votes there. The Ruts deserved more, it's a fine track and an indication that they would have gone on to greater glories.

Agreed re. The Ruts. That's a resounding mandate for YMO and XTC. Not really getting the love for the latter, but the people have spoken.

The Ruts track is miles better than the XTC track and I speak as an XTC fan of old. Can't quibble with YMO tho.

New poll: RECORD MIRROR James Hamilton's Disco Page, 15th September 1979