Returned to number one for six more weeks on w/e 3rd December 1983
The Assembly's "Never Never" may have been a huge chart hit, but The Smiths finished 1983 as an ever-growing and unstoppable cult, and in the world of the indie charts, the ferocity of the cult is everything. The underground kids are the ones marching towards Rough Trade en masse to buy the most important new record, after all, not the biggest pop hit.
That "This Charming Man" managed only week at the top in November felt implausibly stingy at the time, so it's no surprise to see them back on top and managing to hold that position until well into 1984. It's a result that disrupts the natural flow and timeline of this blog somewhat - it would have been much better to see out 1983 and begin 1984 with a brand new track - but sometimes an excess of liquid causes the jug to overflow, and all we can do is mop up the mess around the table as best we can.
Here is what happened in the rest of the indie charts while The Smiths were back at number one.
Week One
12. Birthday Party - "Mutiny! EP" (Mute)
Peak position: 3
The final release following Birthday Party's split in mid-1983, the "Mutiny!" EP shows Nick Cave clearly moving towards the Bad Seeds style. While nobody would dare to suggest that the title track "Jennifer's Veil" was anything approaching pop music, the chaotic fury of their earliest releases has now totally been replaced by something much more controlled but no less sinister. Cave is the clear leader here while the rest of the group twang and strum behind.
20. The Higsons: "Push Out The Boat" (Waap)
Peak position: 14
Charlie Higson and his boys were deeply unlucky not to score a genuine hit in the early eighties - if Pigbag managed to cross over with their angular dancefloor friendly post-punk, there's absolutely no reason why The Higsons frequently more commercial singles couldn't have become a bigger deal as well.
"Push Out The Boat" probably emerged far too late in the day, just as the tide was going out for this kind of affair, but it's an absolute triumph, combining taut dancefloor grooves with a sense of urgency and purpose so many of their compatriots were too cool to get close to. If it weren't for the fact that Higson eventually became best known as a comedy writer and performer, chances are he would have enjoyed a stronger reappraisal at the turn of the 21st Century, but by that point he didn't seem obscure enough or "serious" enough for the Hoxton Hipsters.
21. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - He's Read (Red Rhino)
Peak position: 21
27. !Action Pact! - Question of Choice (Fall Out)
Peak position: 19
Week Two
15. New Model Army - Great Expectations (Abstract)
Peak position: 15
New Model Army would rapidly go on to become a huge cult rock band, simultaneously blessed and cursed with a fanbase who were almost as fanatical as The Smiths' tribe, but often more confrontational. Stories abounded of interested punters casually turning up to their gigs and being beaten up for not looking the part.
Unlike The Exploited, it's hard to imagine New Model Army encouraging this behaviour. While their political ideologies were often strict and puritanical, the group themselves were keen for the ideas to reach as large an audience as possible. Their second single "Great Expectations" is a sneering attack both on the way naive capitalist ideas worm their way into both the education system and parenting. "They said 'Son, it could all be yours, you just work hard and pay your dues/ Don't be content with what you've got, there's always more that you can want/ Everybody's on the make - that's what made this country great" - these are words which could just as easily have been written yesterday as in the Thatcherite sunlit uplands of 1983.
Unlike a lot of the political rants that bind up the indie charts, NMA put across their ideas with both a degree of intelligence and relish. "Great Expectations" is a tight morality tale accompanied with a sneering thrash, and a chorus which Paul Weller (who they probably hated) wouldn't have been ashamed of.
27. MDC - Multi-Death Corporations (Crass)
Peak position: 9
28. Guana Batz - You're So Fine (Big Beat)
Peak position: 28
Week Three
6. Discharge - The Price Of Silence (Clay)
Peak position: 5
The divide between the second-wave punk artists and metal becomes increasingly thin, and "The Price Of Silence" illustrates that fact purposefully. If you compare the noises on the first ever blog entry on here to where Discharge have finally landed with "The Price Of Silence", there's a clear progression - incoherent fury is replaced by lyrical simplicity and some riffs which owe as much to Black Sabbath as any of the first-wavers.
There was nothing cynical about the group's onwards movement, unlike some of the groups over on the No Future label, but the relative order and comparative lack of chaos here may be less appealing to some.
16. Abrasive Wheels - Law Of The Jungle (Clay)
Peak position: 5
Another group who had obviously progressed significantly from their lo-fi racket. Taken from the "Black Leather Girl" album, "Law Of The Jungle" shows The Wheels suddenly developing a wicked swagger, snaking away as if glam rock never quite went out of fashion. Naturally, given that it's 1983 there's a sleazy undercurrent too, as if someone had been to a dirty underground nightclub and wanted to immortalise that filth on 45.
18. Eartha Kitt - Where Is My Man (Record Shack)
Peak position: 9
Persuading Eartha Kitt to turn her attention to the kind of pulsing sounds favoured at gay discos was a genius move. She has the sass, prowl and delivery to absolutely smash anything of this nature out of the park, and even if you get the sense she was in the studio for the paycheque rather than heavily invested in the artistic approach, "Where Is My Man" gives her plenty of freedom to play the character of Eartha Kitt to the absolute best of her ability.
It also provided her with her first UK Top 40 hit since 1954's "Under The Bridges Of Paris".
Week Four
9. The Damned - There Ain't No Sanity Clause (Big Beat)
Peak position: 6
A timely reissue of their 1980 Christmas single, "There Ain't No Sanity Clause" has become somewhat underplayed in the years that have followed. While the lyrical theme is appropriate, a big part of the problem is that The Damned plough along with a bare minimum of effort into evoking a festive feel here. There may be sleigh bells, but they feel tacked on, and they mostly spend two-and-a-half minutes being The Damned in a very unapologetic fashion.
That's going to be good enough for most people, and the spooky garage rock hit-and-run feel of this single is, by the group's general standards, adequate; all twangy riff and boisterous, shouty singing, the sound of one Fallen Angel Christmas Cocktail too many.
29. Violators - Die With Dignity (No Future)
Peak position: 29
The Violators return with a surprisingly simplistic effort which seldom moves an inch from its initial riffage, all basic, stripped back, four-track stomping, a few minutes of abrasive sandpaper rock without a single hint of roll. It's so minimal that if you're not completely in love with the fundamental idea, you're never going to find much to invest in here beyond the basic anti-war lyrics.
Week Five (1984)
18. Violent Femmes - Ugly (Rough Trade)
Peak position: 13
The first chart of 1984 sees Violent Femmes enter high with "Ugly", a track which sounds like something which could have been an enormous hit in either 1965, 1978, 1994 or 2005 with an only marginally different production and approach. The Femmes showcase their ability to create insistent but fundamentally messy and shit-strewn folk pop which makes the likes of The Libertines sound like a bunch of tightly knotted and suited professionals.
The sound of a bunch of kids taking a great garage punk song and skiffling their way through it fuelled solely on enthuasiasm is compelling, though. This is akin to the noise of a suburban campfire session at its absolute rowdiest just as somebody pisses the flames out before the police arrive.
21. Vice Squad - Black Sheep (Anagram)
Peak position: 17
The last time we saw lead singer Joolz was on her solo electro-pop cover of The Kinks "Waterloo Sunset". Vice Squad were an entirely different affair, offering the kind of stomping punk rock apparent here. Joolz's voice is defiant but sweet, and the band crash and thump around her to add the necessary abrasion.
26. Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's All Over (Rough Trade)
Peak position: 26
The Paisley Underground finally makes its presence felt in the indie chart, and in doing so reveals how much of a debt mid-80s alternative rock really owed to it. Dream Syndicate's stoned, austere drawl would eventually makes its influence felt elsewhere, not least on seemingly half the bands signed to Creation Records.
"Tell Me When It's All Over" is a big, hairy sulk, the noise of broke kids too stoned to argue but too pissed off not to tell us about why they might be tempted into conflict.
28. Television Personalities - A Sense of Belonging (Rough Trade)
Peak position: 26
The original part-time punks make their debut appearance in the NME Indie Charts with a surprisingly tight, orderly 45 whose hippified central message shows their earlier mod and punk infatuations were not the beginning and end of their obsessions. "A Sense Of Belonging" contains lyrics which wouldn't have been out of place on Crass Records, referring to CND marches, the nuclear threat and the prevailing cynicism that was beginning to surround such topics.
30. Quando Quango - Love Tempo (Factory)
Peak position: 25
Week Six
15. The Oppressed - Victims (Oppressed)
Peak position: 14
23. Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People (Mute)
Peak position: 7
Fad came back with buzzsaw synths, clattering metallic rhythms and an insistent groove which wouldn't have sounded out of place on a 1984 Depeche Mode album. While it was arguably the closest the man came to commerciality, at the edges of the track you can also hear the beginnings of Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and the industrial movement to follow.
Once again, Frank Tovey reveals himself to be too ahead of his time for his own good, and too determined to smudge the paintwork to be assured of actual success.
For the full charts, please go to the UKMix Forums
Number Ones in the Official Charts
Billy Joel: "Uptown Girl" (CBS)
Flying Pickets: "Only You" (10 Records) - Vince Clarke finally reaches the number one spot in the National Charts, but through the absurd spectacle of a bunch of a capella performers reinterpreting his biggest hit. 10 Records was affiliated to Virgin and not independently distributed, so we will not be discussing it here. Oh damn.
Paul McCartney: "Pipes Of Peace" (Parlophone)
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