Number one for one week on w/e 26th November 1983
Where Vince Clarke's head was at in the early eighties is a subject that's enjoyed surprisingly little debate, but following Yazoo's dissolution he forged the concept The Assembly. The idea behind the somewhat practically named unit was that he and long-term studio engineer and producer Eric Radcliffe would hire a revolving cast of lead singers to front Clarke's songs.
This is a fascinating plan which seems to have been borne more of Clarke’s wariness than any commercial or even creative considerations, and the only song to emerge from it is this one led by Feargal Sharkey. Sharkey was also idly kicking a tin can around in late 1983 - The Undertones were one of many punk groups to have found the commercial headwinds of the early eighties insurmountable, and their final album “The Sin Of Pride”, released in March that year, managed to climb only to number 43 in the album charts (15 spaces lower than plucky Oi hopefuls Blitz, to give some sense of how much even the punk market had moved on). The record saw the group trying to shift direction, incorporating soul, sixties garage and Motown ideas, but the end results failed to create a hit single.
By May 1983 Sharkey had announced the group’s split, and they struggled through to the end of a European Tour, waved goodbye to their remaining fans, and disappeared with surprisingly little fuss or fanfare given the levels of success they had achieved in their prime. A Best Of, “All Wrapped Up”, emerged in Autumn 1983 and performed worse than “The Sin Of Pride”, climbing only to number 67. The Undertones could seemingly win neither with a change of musical direction, nor with their Golden Greats. Nobody apart from their most loyal fans really gave a shit that “Teenage Kicks” was John Peel’s favourite single of all time, or wanted to hear “My Perfect Cousin” or “Jimmy Jimmy” again; that degree of reappraisal would take a long time to ferment.
Under the circumstances, Sharkey had everything to win and nothing to lose from sharing a studio with Vince Clarke. While the latter may have been in a similar position and was equally bandless and perhaps bereft of direction, he had recent success on his side. The charts also proved that Sharkey loaning his voice to a synthetic backdrop wasn’t going to cost him any punk credibility – that counted for nought by this point. As if to illustrate this point, while “All Wrapped Up” was struggling in the lower reaches of the album charts, “Never Never” was already in the national top ten.
His presence also doesn't really upend everything as much as you’d expect. Despite his quivering but tough “big boys don’t cry” vocal stylings, “Never Never” remains a quintessential early eighties era Clarke track. Had this been handed to Moyet as a farewell single instead, there’s no doubt it would have had the same impact; akin to “Only You”, it’s another delicate, spring-wound synth ballad, which despite the high-tech setting – there’s a Fairlight CMI in the mix here - sounds almost rustic. The arrangement knocks and creaks like a windmill in Old Amsterdam (perhaps inspiring the promo video, shot in a windmill in Essex), while the keyboards ring out depressive, autumnal chimes. There are moments where it even sounds like an instrumental excerpt from the soundtrack of a children’s stop-motion animation.
Clarke and Radcliffe are the despondent organ grinders while Sharkey bemoans his loveless fate – “Love’s just a door that’s locked and there’s no key” – and finally, it seems, finds an appropriate setting for his voice outside The Undertones. Their later singles may have been more soulful than usual, but were still attacked vigorously with their primary colour loaded paintbrush, leaving him in his usual role as the exuberant and forceful punk era frontman. “Never Never” allows softer pastel hues in, and proves he had a flexibility few might have suspected in The Undertones earliest years.
Following the success of this single, and against the reckoning of many music critics of the period, Sharkey eventually regained his footing and achieved enormous success by the mid-eighties, his version of Maria McKee’s “A Good Heart” going on to become one of the more enduring number ones of the decade. “Never Never” had presented his ruggedness in a pop context and succeeded, and arguably gave major labels the confidence to view his career afresh.
Clarke, on the other hand, was as restless as usual and seems to have been unenthused by the idea of continuing The Assembly, aborting the project after this single. He and Radcliffe would work together again in the future, but under more conventional circumstances. This is a pity in some respects; there’s a large part of me which would love to hear Erasure’s earliest work being tackled by other unlikely vocalists instead of Andy Bell. There’s an alternate timeline somewhere where Russ Mael of Sparks is singing “Who Needs Love Like That” or Frank Tovey takes on “Push Me Shove Me”, but commercially speaking, Clarke’s decision is sound. The lead singer will almost always be the focal point in any group and a shifting cast would have created a lack of coherent identity - it’s unlikely the public would have bought into the idea long-term.
As it stood, the man’s career actually disappeared into the shadows for a prolonged period before Erasure took off, and he was eclipsed by all his former colleagues – Moyet, Depeche Mode and Sharkey alike – while waiting for his next moment. We won’t be discussing him again for a few (blog) years yet.
New Entries Elsewhere In The Charts
11. Tom Robinson – Atmospherics (Listen To The Radio) (Panic)
Peak position: 6
In common with “War Baby”, “Atmospherics” was written while Robinson lived in Hamburg, and sums up his life there in a less intense but still vaguely paranoid, directionless way. He manages to make buttered toast and coffee sound simultaneously luxurious and also slightly dangerous, as well as capturing the magic of distant European radio stations playing unfamiliar melodies through the crackle of space dust.
Despite its creepy ambience and the superb way it manages to create mystique out of the mundane, “Atmospherics” failed to repeat the success of “War Baby” and only reached number 39 in the national charts. A deep pity as I actually think this is the finer track, but its jazzy stroll through a cool Hamburg night probably failed to cut through on our own radio waves effectively.
Nonetheless, this paints a glorious portrait of a certain place in time – despite his difficulties at the point this song was written, you almost wish you were Tom Robinson tipping his cap to the concierge by the time the track ends.
13. Conflict – The Serenade Is Dead (Corpus Christi)
Peak position: 7
“The Serenade Is Dead” is comparatively commercial by the Conflict’s usual standards, throwing their usual aggravated, almost incoherent fury over the side for something which sounds closer to earlier punk records. Taking the topic of a love affair during wartime, they weave a storyline to their pacifistic leanings rather than plainly lecturing. It’s hard and harsh despite that, with many gritted agitations to fight back against a system which chooses to pervert our human wishes and desires.
17. The Toy Dolls – Alfie From The Bronx (Volume)
Peak position: 14
Of all the punk pathetique bands to emerge in the early eighties, The Toy Dolls occasionally feel like one of the most absurd, owing as much to some scratchy old piece of toytown psychedelia from 1967 as punk rock itself. You can imagine them covering “Excerpt From A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)” slightly too easily (Please don't though, lads).
“Alfie From The Bronx” reduces that rough, tough region of New York to some kind of distant happy playpen. “Alfie, can see/ Johnny and Freddie/ outside the Bronx/ and he, will be/ happy with this memory” sings Olga. It’s the musical equivalent of a child’s crayon doodle of an inner city estate where smiling childish faces are surrounded with the shells of burnt out dustbins.
22. Naked – One Step Further Towards Reality (Bluurg)
Peak position: 22
23. Ex Post Facto – Dancing Child (Probe)
Peak position: 23
Another great single from the Liverpool quartet, who manage to cram every conceivable shadowy post-punk idea into one five minute single here, from eerie introductory instrumentation, bold, bright synthesiser instrumentation, chiming Bunnymen guitars, anthemic female vocals and fat burping basslines. Certainly one of the strongest tracks in this week’s indie charts.
26. Toyah – The Vow (Safari)
Peak position: 16
“The Vow” is one of Toyah’s odder singles, beginning with flutey arrangements which sound close to Mike Batt before slowly unfolding into a breathy New Age chorus which disguises something more sinister – “I breathe white fire in anger” she whispers sweetly, hinting towards a nuclear apocalypse.
It feels like a dainty vision of nuclear war directed by a Finnish animator, all heat, decay and fairy fire; an astonishingly brave single, in other words, which went on to become her first non-Top 40 hit since 1981 (unless we also count the failure of a re-recording of early single “Ieya”).
It also marks her last single to enter the indie charts for some decades, being the last work she released before moving over to CBS. Toyah’s presence here has usually been entertaining and, whether her work speaks to you or not, it’s clear that besides coming up with the occasional strident anthem she also took considerable risks with her career by releasing tracks which sat on a strange intersection between punk, progressive rock, art school awkwardness and bold theatre. “The Vow” proves that while some may like to think of her as pantomime punk, in reality she more often veered towards something stranger and almost uncategorisable.
27. The Nightingales – Crafty Fag (Red Flame)
Peak position: 27
Rattling, rolling, skiffling bit of chaotic post-punk which throws random observations about inconsiderate tea making, best mates being “good publicists” and sly cigarettes into an arrangement that strikes the correct balance between misshapen and cartoonish.
“Crafty Fag” is one of The Nightingales finest moments and sounds like the wonky-pop of Ron Johnson Records way ahead of that time, only with teasing hints at pop hooks the likes of A Witness and The Shrubs never managed.
Number One In The Official Charts
Billy Joel: "Uptown Girl" (CBS)
Conflict has announced a new album to be released this year (no doubt encouraged by your attentions). Will an Ex Post Facto reunion be next?
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