44. The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make? (Rough Trade)

9 weeks at number one from w/e 28th January 1984

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, despite their enviable string of hits, have not been given much respect in the UK. Besides belonging to the cohort of groups with bloody silly names which sound gimmicky rather than mysterious, they were fronted by ex-copper Dee; he may have been the first policeman on the scene of the car crash which killed Eddie Cochran, but other than that didn’t really ooze rock and roll. In every single one of his video performances online, he gives the impression of being the steady pop professional, delivering the songs of others with gentle, almost suppressed stage flourishes (he even cracks a whip in “Legend of Xanadu” like he’s trying to flick the residue of some treacle off his hand.)

The songwriters behind the group, Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard, were a different matter. Both were gay men who had worked with Joe Meek and penned songs which occasionally nudged and winked towards homosexual society for anyone paying enough attention. The Honeycombs 1964 flop single “Eyes” is a painful, agonised track about finding love in secret, shadowy places away from society’s gaze, combined with disordered pinging guitars and almost proto-post-punk pattering drum patterns. Meek adored it, the public begged to differ. Then, in 1968, they foisted the ominously titled “Last Night In Soho” on to DDBMT.

In typical fashion, “Last Night In Soho” isn’t explicit, but over a keening, grumbling cello, dramatic church organ flourishes and almost hysterical orchestrations, Dave Dee protests that he thought “I’d find strength to make me go straight”, “I’m just not worthy of you”, and “I’ve never told you of some things I’ve done I’m so ashamed of”. These, however, are coupled with the notion that something else happened in Soho that night which was criminal but not sexual; references are also made to a mysterious “little job” some lads in Soho have offered to Dave Dee, which he should take if he doesn’t want “aggravation” – but anyone waiting for the song’s conclusion to tell them exactly what the protagonist has done would be wasting their time. It is locked up tight as a mystery, a riddle wrapped in a lot of hand-wringing drama, though even in 1968 you have to wonder how anyone could have concluded that perhaps he held up a Post Office. The camp hysteria gives the game away by itself.

I’ve no idea if Morrissey was thinking about “Last Night In Soho” when he penned the lyrics for “What Difference Does It Make”. I somehow doubt it, but given his eclectic tastes in sixties pop, it’s possible. Whatever the facts, it falls back on the same narrative devices, teasing and riddling the listener, just less hysterically. It addresses an unknown other and begins on the line “All men have secrets and here is mine/ so let it be known” before failing to actually reveal the issue to the listener, only telling us the person the song is directed at, whom Morrissey would “leap in front of a flying bullet” for (why was he always so obsessed with sacrifice?) is now disgusted by his revelations. This is seen to be foolish - “Your prejudice won’t keep you warm tonight”, he warns. This feels, shall we say, similar, but there’s a different tone here. There is no begging for forgiveness, no shame; whatever will be will be.

Once again though, some plausible deniability creeps in and the idea is aired that Morrissey’s crime might actually be an arrestable offence by 1984’s standards – “I stole and lied and why?/ Because you asked me to!” The idea that this is just about something darkly illegal is also hinted at by the record’s sleeve, showing actor Terence Stamp cheerily holding up a chloroform patch; the still in question is from the film “The Collector”, in which Stamp’s character stalks and kidnaps an attractive female art student. There’s an alternative lyrical reading here which is altogether nastier than someone simply coming out of the closet, by the standards of any age.
Marr’s guitar lines for the song somehow manage to be both jangly and ominous, circling and creeping and creating unease and intrigue, forming the central spine for the song. They’re only a few notes off being similar to the guitar riffs sixties garage bands would occasionally create when they were trying to lead the listener to nastier, more thuggish places, but Marr doesn’t egg the situation or reach for the distortion pedal, instead letting the spiralling riff do its own work. Rourke and Joyce play along with his theme but occasionally punctuate his ideas with aggressive smashes. In their collective hands, the song sounds as if Morrissey is following you down a staircase, asking not for forgiveness but for you to reflect on your own bigotry and disloyalty and report back in the morning.

The Smiths obviously harked back to the sixties a lot for their arrangements and songs, but “What Difference Does It Make” – in common with much of their work – points towards how society had shifted in the meantime. There’s no hollering (except perhaps towards the end when Morrissey lets loose a human siren wail) pleading or apologising. “No more apologies”, Morrissey grumbles directly and flatly, and he could be singing as much about where society had gone as his own change of heart. What did his ungrateful friend expect, histrionics and men banging on his front door to lead him away? This wasn’t 1968, after all.

There’s a coolness and creepiness to this single which doesn’t exactly make it mainstream pop material, or even indie breakout material. Nonetheless, it vaulted The Smiths to number 12 in the charts, its confidence and air of intrigue perhaps acting as bait. It was their first significant hit and showed that the music press hype was justified; the group were becoming a phenomenon.

By contrast, “Last Night In Soho”, a follow-up to DDBMT’s number one single “Legend of Xanadu”, managed a respectable number 8 placing but was the group’s final top ten hit. One alternative group played with camp mystery on the way up, while the pop group played that card on the way down, and in terms of sales they came fairly close to meeting.

As for Howard and Blaikley, by the time glam rock emerged they appeared thrilled, penning a song entitled “Do You Like Boys?” which was so explicit it bordered on riotous. Indeed, no more apologies were required and they sound as if they were having a ball as a result, toying with a fresh music scene where smokescreens were no longer necessary – in the end, their sexual orientation truly did make no difference.

New Entries Elsewhere In The Chart

Week One


27. Hagar the Womb - The Word Of The Womb EP (Mortarhate)

Peak Position: 11

East London anarcho-punk band Hagar The Womb were distantly associated with Crass. Their original 1980 line-up was all-female in order to provide a voice to women on the circuit, but became more flexible (and some would say chaotic) over the group’s lifespan.

“Idolization” is an anti-fashion and anti-scenester rant which takes aim at the hangers-on in the fame-hungry music scene - “Mix with you/ Let my ego get bigger/ Oh, I'm such an expert ligger” they sing in a matter-of-fact way. Hagar The Womb aren’t as showy and furious as many of the other anarcho bands of this period, preferring to sneer over spindly punk riffs. As such, they’re a touch more accessible than a lot of the groups on that circuit.




29. Uproar – Nothing Can Stop You EP (Volume)

Peak position: 25

Another punk band with skulls on their record sleeve – there’s something you wouldn’t have seen much of in the late seventies, when skulls were deemed as a bit of a biker fad.

Uproar came from Peterlee in County Durham and this was their final single before they reformed for the inevitable 21st Century punk circuit revival. “Nothing Can Stop You” is a tinny slice of vinyl tinnitus with an uplifting chorus which nonetheless doesn’t really offer anything new by this point.




30. Leather Nun – Prime Mover (Subterranean)

Peak position: 30

Indie chart debut for the Swedish perv rockers who took their Velvet Underground obsessions and bleached them out into something macabre enough to appeal to the goth kids.

“Prime Mover” is a slow, grinding drone which sounds ominous, like the kind of record you’d hear playing from the ivy-coated house at number 23 with the broken fence and dismantled motorbikes in the back garden. The noise of people who don’t get out of the house much and frighten small children when they do.




Week Two


21. Broken Bones – Decapitated (Fallout)

Peak position: 21


22. Brilliant Corners – She’s Got Fever (SS20)

Peak position: 16

The debut appearance of Bristol’s Brilliant Corners, a band so associated with the C86/ twee movement that it’s a surprise to see them putting in such an early appearance here.

“She’s Got Fever” sounds like the work of a different band to the one who produced “Brian Rix” and “Teenage”, though, having a rockabilly rhythm cutting through a sparse, lo-fi arrangement. It’s more 1982 than 1986, and showed a group who were still in the very early stages of deciding their identity.




24. 1000 Mexicans – The Last Pop Song (Abstract)

Peak position: 17

South Londoners 1000 Mexicans couldn’t be accused of taking the standard approach to indie pop at this time, using as many instruments as they could lay their hands on, including trumpets and car hubs, and utilising the junk and treasure to produce furious angular records like this one.

They would eventually put out the first album on the young Fire Records, but would spend most of the early to mid eighties drifting from label to label, perhaps never quite ensuring consistent promotion as a result. As such, they’re one of the more forgotten groups of the era, but one which nonetheless did have a loyal cult following.




29. Screaming Dead – Paint It Black (No Future)

Peak position: 13

Another punk cover, this time by No Future’s gothic hopefuls Screaming Dead. It is exactly what you would expect, which is “Paint It Black” with a lot of reverb slathered on it and some slightly irritated Billy Idol-esque vocals. It’s not exactly rubbish but nor is it really necessary either.




Week Three


9. The March Violets – Snake Dance (Rebirth)

Peak position: 2

Appropriately snaking riffs and New Wave dancefloor grooves combine here to create a single which must have been catnip at the Batcave. Nor is it content to rest on its early laurels, opening up its arrangement to include chiming piano lines, hushed vocals, strummed acoustic guitars and mystically trilled backing vocals.

Unsurprisingly, a massive cult hit resulted in 1984, even if it’s been an absolute age since I heard it in any context – one of those underground monsters which 6Music just won’t touch anymore.




14. 23 Skidoo – Coup (Illuminated)

Peak position: 4

23 Skidoo had been releasing records since 1981, but this is the first to have entered the indie charts. “Coup” contains samples from “Apocalypse Now”, wheezy and uncertain trumpet lines, and is also allegedly the track from which the bassline for Chemical Brothers “Block Rockin’ Beats” may have been sampled.

It’s an insistent groove alright, never quite succumbing to chaos in the way the film samples continually threaten to make it until the tail end.




15. The Three Johns – Some History EP (Abstract)

Peak position: 15


25. Red Box – Chenko (Cherry Red)

Peak position: 16

Red Box would eventually achieve two top ten national chart hits with “Lean On Me” and “For America”, but had their roots on the diverse Cherry Red label. “Chenko” was their debut single and is arguably a finer track than “For America” at least – the group show their ability with profoundly nagging hooks here but also surround them with a misty and uncertain atmosphere neither of their biggest hits had.

“Chenko” was eventually re-released on Sire in an inferior re-recorded form which cut the slow, steady tropical tension in favour of a more radio-friendly blandness.





26. Johnny Thunders – Hurt Me (New Rose)

Peak position: 23


Week Four

15. Tik and Tok – Screen Me I’m Yours (Survival)

Peak position: 11

The robots return with hiccoughing basslines, theremin-esque wails, and an appropriately ticking beat. The futurist pop at the centre of “Screen Me I’m Yours” is essentially Fad Gadget on an even lower budget than usual, with only the occasional gothically styled vocal making it sound like a product of 1984.

30. Miquel Brown – He’s A Saint He’s A Sinner (Record Shack)

Peak position: 30


Week Five

10. Helen And The Horns – Freight Train (Thin Sliced)

Peak position: 7

Helen McCookerybook had already had a substantial recording career by this point, issuing singles with The Chefs on Graduate Records in the early eighties. None of these entered the NME indie listings though, with the spirited “Freight Train” being the first to break in.

It was helped along enormously by John Peel who gave the cowpunk group a session in 1983, which gave “Freight Train” its first airing, then played it keenly when it finally emerged as a single in its own right in 1984.

It’s a strangely spartan sound for the eighties, sounding so close to a 78rpm recording from the pre-rock and roll era that it’s amazing it had an audience. While the eighties were filled with technological razzle dazzle, though, that just created a demand for rawer, more “authentic” sounds, which were clearly on offer here. In time, singers and groups with modest recording studio ambitions and almost absent production techniques began to push their way through to the chart.




14. Skeletal Family – She Cries Alone (Red Rhino)

Peak position: 11

Singer Anne-Marie Hurst has a fantastic voice which can make the ingredients of an Angel Delight sachet sound in some way haunting and mysterious, and in “She Cries Alone” she takes the subject of a fairly ordinary (almost boring) doomed love affair and heightens the tension and frustration steadily and confidently.

Skeletal Family had been releasing records since 1983 but this was the first to really reach an appreciative audience, and the almost folkish drone and rattle to its gothic core is an example of a group being rewarded for attempting an unorthodox approach.




15. The Skeptix – Vendetta (White Rose)

Peak position: 15


17. Eyeless In Gaza – Sun Bursts In (Cherry Red)

Peak position: 17

One of Cherry Red’s more cultishly enduring eighties releases, “Sun Bursts In” is essentially modest synth pop with a squeeze of what sounds like a brassy BBC sports theme being squirted into the mix. Why this one didn’t get played underneath the Saturday football highlights I’ll never know.

Of all the Eyeless in Gaza singles, this is the one which would possibly have had mainstream success with a more expensive production. As it stands, it’s a pop single forced to bunker down with the less conventional boys and girls.




19. Lost Cherrees - A Mans Duty...A Womans Place EP (Mortarhate)

Peak position: 13


20. The Varukers - Led To The Slaughter EP (Riot City)

Peak position: 17


21. Trixie's Big Red Motorbike - Norman And Narcissus (Lobby Ludd)

Peak position: 21

The Isle of Wight hasn’t exactly been a hotbed of musical success, with only Level 42 and The Bees really jumping the channel to capitalise on their local promise. Back in 1984, though, Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike stood on the precipice of cult appreciation at least, with “Norman And Narcissus” gaining huge appreciation from John Peel who argued “They wipe the floor with the competition”.

This single is twee acoustic indiepop which is so sweet it may very well cause convulsions among those of you who would rather I’d written 100 words about The Varukers again, but it’s so merry-happy and breezy that it’s impossible not to like it – the gang hum, strum and trill their orderly way throughout in a way that even predates the efforts of Belle and Sebastian, and despite the amateur aesthetic, it hangs together beautifully. This is lo-fi without any accompanying vocal or instrumental incompetence.




25. Riot Squad - There Ain't No Solution (Rotreds)

Peak position: 23


30. Robert Görl and Annie Lennox - Darling Don't Leave Me (Mute)

Peak position: 30

Annie Lennox isn’t credited on the sleeve here, presumably for contractual reasons, but she’s here nonetheless, offering dramatic backing to Gorl’s sturdy, muscular synth-pop. “Darling don’t leave me, it’s senseless” he declares airily, then repeats it so often, adding “I’m shaking”, that the obsession almost becomes worrying. The song also hangs on a repetitive hook with chiming embellishments and a pulsing beat, minimal but restless.




Week Six


13. The Cramps – Faster Pussycat (Big Beat)

Peak position: 8


18. Modern English – Chapter 12 (4AD)

Peak position: 13

“Chapter 12” sees the lads inch towards a melodramatic psychodrama that almost touches on Tears for Fears – “They’ll never let you… Be yourself today!” they scold on the chorus, while eventually merry-go-round synths work their way into the mix.

It’s not their most immediate single, but it is surprisingly effective, inching and winding its way around a very simple idea obsessively with continued elaborations. While it was never going to be a hit, it did highlight the fact that Modern English were one of the more unfairly overlooked pop groups of the period.




28. The Chevalier Bros - Bar Tender (Waterfront)

Peak position: 14

A jumpin’ jive jazz group who managed to briefly find some infamy outside the clubs and barrooms of their usual circuit. “Bar Tender” features trilling vibraphones, honking sax and vocals confidently bemoaning the fate of a man who simply cannot get served in a pub – like “Six Pints of Lager” for the Ronnie Scott set.

In common with Helen McCookerybook, it showed the indie charts were actually becoming a welcoming place for those carrying on the musical traditions of previous eras which had otherwise withered on the vine commercially.




Week Seven


20. Inca Babies - Grunt Cadillac Hotel (Black Lagoon)

Peak position: 6

Manc Goths whose Birthday Party influence is so obvious as to be barely worth mentioning. “Grunt Cadillac Hotel” was their third single and the first to break through into the indie charts, rattling and rolling and snarling about gas-guzzling cars. They would remain a considerable force for some time after this.




23. Marc Riley With The Creepers - Creeping At Maida Vale EP (In Tape)

Peak position: 10

Marc Riley picked himself and dusted himself down from his furious ejection from The Fall – you can’t punch Mark E Smith and get away with it, even if he deserved it – and formed The Creepers whose first recordings were released in 1984.

The Creeping At Maida Vale EP sees their Peel Session from November 1983 getting on to the record racks, and shows that even if Riley didn’t seem as effective or inventive outside the powerhouse of The Fall, he still could rattle his way through some angular riffs and suitably barbed lyrics with aplomb.

The Creepers would eventually work their way into the IPC children’s comic School Fun as favourites of the character Young Arfur, thanks to some interesting band connections.




24. 10,000 Maniacs - My Mother the War (Reflex)

Peak position: 12

Not to be confused with 1000 Mexicans - which I’m sure they weren’t – this was 10,000 Maniacs chart debut on UK soil. The group never did work their way into the hearts of bookish kids in this country in quite the manner they did in the USA, but every second of “My Mother The War” sounds as if it invented the future for the likes of Throwing Muses and Belly, introducing complexity and thoughtful unpredictability to an otherwise somewhat reactive and irritated indie scene.




27. The Revolving Paint Dream - Flowers In The Sky (Creation)

Peak position: 27

Creation’s debut entry in the indie charts isn’t The Legend! - thank God – but the retro psychedelic drone of the unimaginatively titled “Flowers In The Sky”.

The Revolving Paint Dream were sold as a mystery group initially, but were essentially a Creation supergroup featuring Alan McGee, Andrew Innes and seemingly anybody who was passing at the time. “Flowers In The Sky” is a passable bit of paisley pop, but its leaden beats and scratchy production ensure that it never quite levitates.




Week Eight

10. Alien Sex Fiend – RIP (Anagram)

Peak position: 4


15. Hawkwind – Night Of The Hawks (Flicknife)

Peak position: 15


18. 400 Blows - Declaration of Intent (Illuminated)

Peak position: 18

Tony Thorpe remixed funkathon with chaos at its core. Endless reverb, snapping rhythms, dub echos and swirling effects stop this from being a straightforward dance number and bring it closer to an urban soundtrack.




22. Frank Chickens - Fujiyama Mama (Kaz)

Peak position: 9

Frank Chickens seem like a strange proposition from a 2025 perspective, but were a genuine music press and evening radio phenomenon in 1984, mixing Japanese culture and sounds with off-kilter synthetic New Wave sounds. “Fujiyama Mama” somehow sounds more threatening than some of the US hip-hop that was doing the rounds in 84, while also seeming oddly lo-fi and twee, a contradiction that doesn’t make for an easy listen.




25. Tools You Can Trust - Show Your Teeth (Red Energy Dynamo)

Peak position: 19

Seldom has politically orientated pop actually sounded this breathless and threatening. “Show Your Teeth” is a frightening listen which fully inhabits the Tools philosophy of maximum percussiveness and minimal use of traditional instrumental melodies. The end result sounded unlike anything anyone had heard in 1984, and it still feels alien and unfamiliar even now.




26. Holger Hiller - Jonny (Cherry Red)

Peak position: 26

27. The Jasmine Minks - Think! (Creation)

Peak position: 27

The modest, low level invasion of Creation Records continues. The Jasmine Minks came from Aberdeen and initially made hard-edged Jam-influenced indie pop, of which “Think!” is a prime example.

As the label’s fortunes grew they found themselves cast as also-rans, but in 1984 they led the pack, and the gritted teeth vocals and almost threatening jangle on offer here is powerful enough to not be passed over.




28. The Pastels – Something’s Going On (Creation)

Peak position: 28

The Pastels indie chart debut is less assured, being a stumbling, fumbling, staggering thing which sells its naivete as charm and just about gets away with it. “Something’s Going On” is pop distilled through the brains of kids who want to be Orange Juice but don’t really have the funk, and somehow find that doesn’t necessarily matter as much as it should. It’s a passable 45, but they would release far better records than this one.




Week Nine


27. Break Machine - Street Dance (Record Shack)

Peak position: 11

At my junior school, the eldest and coolest kids all attended breakdancing lessons after hours, perfecting their technique to impress in the playground. By 1985, they’d all stopped, but Break Machine were a manufactured group put together by the Village People team to capitalise on the dance trend while it was still hot – and capitalise they did.

Irrespective of the group’s inauthentic origins, “Street Dance” is an utterly irresistible record, with hook being piled up on top of hook until it can take no more – that jaunty whistling riff, the tension building chorus and the gorgeous groove made it a global hit. Here in the UK, it reached number 3 in the official charts and became a favoured track for young schoolkids who were the coolest in the playground, but not quite cool enough to understand that what they were listening to was Village People adjacent.




29. The Michael Reed Orchestra - The Music of Torvill & Dean EP (Safari)

Peak position: 29

The Michael Reed Orchestra were Safari’s biggest singles chart success after Toyah. This EP capitalised on the UK phenomenon of ice skaters Torvill and Dean, a pair who dominated popular culture for a brief period following their Olympic success in 1984, only to ironically lose a certain amount of media visibility when they turned professional shortly afterwards (insert your parallel observations about Toyah signing to CBS here).

Still, as amateurs it’s possibly only appropriate that their favoured skating tunes emerged on an indie. The EP reached number 9 in the National Charts, causing Ravel’s Bolero to become a genuine chart hit in the process.

For the full charts please go to the UKMix Forums

Number Ones In The Official Charts

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: "Relax" (ZTT)

Nena: "99 Red Balloons" (Epic)