1982 In Summary

 

While we've been exploring 1982 over the last few months, there have been moments where it feels as if much of the chart activity has just been a stylistic extension of 1981; the same array of lo-fi punk records, strange, rubbery post-punk sounds, and leftfield electronica. In particular, if it weren't for the Falklands-heavy subject matter, a lot of the punk records issued at the arse end of 82 would probably be difficult to date.

Progression was probably more evident in commercial terms. 1982 saw the deeply unusual phenomenon of indie labels managing to grab not just the year's Christmas number one with Renee and Renato (a record without a picture sleeve, damnit! How much more indie did you want that Italian waiter and his session sidekick to be?) but other positions in the top three as well. Yazoo managed two top three hits with "Only You" and "Don't Go", and Pigbag got to number three with "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag". Two or three years earlier, the idea that Pinnacle, Spartan or Rough Trade could have pushed these records towards even moderate success would have been greeted with some scepticism. These distributors were seen as serving a certain niche purpose and little more - places to rest your first roughly recorded single or two while waiting to see if the big boys came running to your yard with generous financial offers. The idea that artists could actually succeed without inking a major contract with a big business at all was unthinkable.

It wasn't that the indies hadn't succeeded before, but (for example) the modest number 8 chart placing of Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981 - by now an inescapable pop oldie and one of the group's biggest sellers - is evidence that their limited means sometimes stymied records which might otherwise have been colossal. The number of odd UK pressing variants of "Just Can't Get Enough" indicates how desperate Mute were to keep up demand, offering different pressing plants at home and abroad cash to keep more copies coming. 

Looking forward, 1983 is a stranger year in terms of genres in the indie chart, when the gradual decline of punk begins to allow all kinds of other ideas to barge their way through, some of them a lot more straightforward than we've heard before. You can get a taste of some of that on the right hand side of the page. Down below, however, is your one last chance to kiss goodbye to 1982 and all it offered, for better and worse. 

See you again very soon and Merry Christmas.

On a more general note - as it's Christmas, please do consider linking to this blog if you like what I'm doing. Google are currently refusing to consider it for their search index register for reasons known only to themselves, and the only way I'm going to have any hope of them changing their minds is if it starts to get a bit more support externally. 

That said, Google have been carrying an error on their Maps service with a local road for two years now, barrelling drivers down a street with a clear No Entry sign and also claiming it's where my house is... so let's not get our hopes up too high.