Five weeks at number one from w/e 29th June 1985
The official MRIB indie charts recognised this state of affairs and barred them from entry. The NME, Melody Maker and Record Mirror indie charts all seemed to be in a state of confusion over it, though, letting Beggars in at some point in the mid-eighties before booting them out again a year or two later. So far as I can tell, this wasn’t a hot topic among the readers of those magazines, who probably didn’t care about these trifles; such discussions were fit only for industry types in the pages of Music Week. It must have been galling if you were in with a shot of getting an indie number one during The Cult's reign at the top, though – so commiserations to Doctor and the Medics who suffered that blow during this single’s initial stay there.
In other respects too, “She Sells Sanctuary” feels like something more than a modest little independent release. Every time we’ve met The Cult on our travels through these charts, there have been subtle shifts and progressions, sometimes interrupted by a fanbase-pleasing 45 before they increased their levels of stomp and bluesy strum a little further. “Sanctuary” is the sound of borders not just being fully breached, but the group sprinting across them screaming about their arrival. Held in place by one of the better rock riffs of the eighties - a mutant cross between Big Country’s bagpiping guitar and a classic Keith Richards refrain - Astbury sounds as if he’s screaming for sanctuary while running from one rock genre to the other.
While I doubt the group were being overly cynical in the construction of this one, it is fascinating just how many styles and tropes it wraps into one neat bundle. The incoherent post-punk vocalisations are intact – of all The Cult’s singles, it’s interesting that their biggest hit so far should be the most incomprehensible – but while there’s a Kirk Brandon-esque wail in the mix, there are also moments where Astbury’s voice finds the clench teethed scream of basic metal.
Elsewhere, Duffy’s hoedown hook is consistently interrupted at the tail end by the brief strums of a folky acoustic guitar, so regular, simple and predictable that almost feels like a sample. I’m a sucker for this bit, actually; I love the way it keeps interrupting the busy nature of the rest of the song with its polite, understated tick of approval, as if its visiting from another song entirely. Then there’s that instrumental break, mellow and toying with psychedelia, shoving the central riff underwater and filling it with the whine and buzz of sitar strings.
The end result is that “She Sells Sanctuary” sounded like everything that was going on in alternative rock in 1985 happening at once. At the time, I couldn’t help but be very conscious of its existence; it felt as if it spent most of the summer school holidays slowly crawling around the Top 40, never quite reaching the top ten but refusing to leave. At certain hours on Radio One, its riff needled away on the airwaves, sounding so familiar that it begged doubts as to whether somebody had written it many years before [post-script: It does admittedly sound somewhat like the intro to "Cats In The Cradle"]
Years later, when I became old enough to be let into alternative rock clubs, it still hadn’t gone away. It remained the barnstormer the DJ would utilise at the key moment everyone had consumed enough Snakebite and Black, only to watch the dancefloor seethe with the disordered movements of a hundred grebos, crusties and goths (and some of the metallers too). Some tracks spoke only to small segments of the audience and created vacuums in the corners of the dancefloor, but “She Sells Sanctuary” – like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Firestarter” after it – seemingly spoke to everyone.
The word “anthem” wasn’t used in association with rock music quite as much back then as it is now, but whether I’m in the mood for it or not (and despite owning a copy, I’m sometimes not) there’s no disputing that “Sanctuary” is both a hugely straightforward yet deeply cunning record which does qualify. Its reliance on a repetitive and unvarying central driving riff mean it’s never likely to be covered on a Royal Philharmonic Orchestral Rock album, but the patterns it threads with that riff are often unexpected.
In that respect, what it also reminds me of are some of the early nineties Techno pop smashes which laid hooks on top of hooks, took them to visit different samples and effects, then threw in an ambient break as an atmospheric breather. In its own way, it managed to create as much sweat and joy in clubs as any of them, even if its euphoria was more likely to be fuelled by bad cider than ecstasy. When Astbury sang “I'm sure in her you'll find/ The sanctuary” he obviously wasn’t referring to the song itself – at least, I don’t think so – but it felt as if that was what it became to 350 boozed up, long haired weirdos on a Friday night.
New Entries Elsewhere on the Charts
Week One
8. James – Village Fire - Five Offerings From James EP (Factory)
Peak position: 4
The band’s first two singles bundled together in one package by Factory Records, who obviously realised that Sire Records were getting all their fresh material and James weren’t going to record an album for them. Nothing new to see here, then.
15. Vince Clarke and Paul Quinn - One Day (Mute)
Peak position: 4
Vince Clarke’s first single since 1983 is perhaps one of the most understated comebacks in pop, both in terms of the record itself and its subsequent performance.
A one-off collaboration with ex-Jazzateer Paul Quinn, its slow digital pulse sees Quinn bellowing and yearning on top, but no amount of passion and drama can disguise the fact that the song itself is threadbare, Clarke’s weakest effort on 45 so far. Something about the squeaking electronics also fails to entirely gel with Quinn’s more organic, sonorous delivery; unlike Clarke’s work with Moyet, this doesn’t feel like a perfect harmony of contrasting styles. The net result was a single which just pierced the UK Top 100 at number 99, then went no further.
Briefly around the same time, though, a singer named Andy Bell auditioned to join a new Clarke project, and sang “One Day” in such a way that Clarke immediately understood he was the right man. At least in that sense, it served a positive purpose.
19. Tall Boys - Final Kick (Big Beat)
Peak position: 13
22. Restless - Vanish without a trace (ABC)
Peak position: 13
Restless formed in 1978, making them one of the earliest psychobilly bands on the circuit, even if it took them until the eighties to start getting records released. “Vanish Without A Trace” is everything you’d expect, but perhaps delivered tightly and more competently than many of their rivals. Whereas some of the other acts at the Klub Foot had punk gob hanging from their double bass strings, Restless rattle and groove away so slickly you could almost convince yourself they were among the original rock and rollers.
26. Rain Parade - You are my friend (Zippo)
Peak position: 26
Another Paisley Underground act from the USA. Rain Parade sound frail and anxious on “You Are My Friend”, in a manner which makes them sound closer to the sixties-adjacent acts on Creation Records than any of the bands they were bracketed with. The simple backbeat and self-doubting vocals suggest a frailty many US acts were usually cautious to approach, albeit hung together with a musicianship and delivery acts like Primal Scream weren’t yet close to.
12. 400 Blows - Movin' (Illuminated)
Peak position: 6
Industrial/ post-punk band 400 Blows take on the dancefloor classic “Movin’” here, though they certainly wouldn’t be the last to do so. It’s a strangely conservative cover with changes very little, but replaces the fluid groove with something that’s more rigid, where hard ninety degree angles replace the grace and flow. Bit of a baffling one, though it obviously received plenty of appreciation at the time.
Tony Thorpe of 400 Blows would eventually go on to work with the KLF as their programmer, as well as operate under the acid house guise of Moody Boyz. There's admittedly a bit of a hint of his future direction here.
14. The Gents - New Direction (Lambs to the Slaughter)
Peak position: 14
22. The Jasmine Minks - What's Happening? (Creation)
Peak position: 22
The Jasmines at their most lo-fi (which is saying something) and punky, scrapping and scraping their way through this basic song in less than two minutes. If some moments sound like the earliest Beach Boys singles, others sound like The Undertones thrashing out the kernel of an idea in a demo studio. In some hands that could be an explosive phenomenon, but “What’s Happening?” races past your ears without really leaving a lasting impression.
25. Folk Devils – Fire And Chrome EP (Karbon)
Peak position: 13
28. A Certain Ratio - Wild Party (Factory)
Peak position: 23
Week Three
6. The Smiths - That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (Rough Trade)
Peak position: 3
This was The Smiths first single to fail to reach the summit of the indie charts since the original Sandie Shaw-less release of “Hand In Glove”, and it also didn’t reach the national top 40. Given that it doesn’t deviate much from the style we’d come to expect from the band, it’s surprising it’s their biggest flop record – musically it mopes along in a very familiar way with Marr and the rhythm section taking it to fresh places, and perhaps its only fault is Morrissey’s less ambitious lyrics, which feel childlike in places rather than witty or sophisticated.
“When you laugh about people/ Who feel so very lonely/ Their only desire is to die/ Well, I'm afraid/ It doesn't make me smile” he condemns like an irritated Ralph McTell. Think on, lad.
The fact that I’m faintly relieved I won’t need to write a long-form entry about this one is maybe another giveaway to its failure. While other Smiths singles offer plenty of food for thought or differing lyrical interpretations, this one presents its wounds without a great deal of ambiguity.
9. The Fall – Rollin’ Dany (Beggars Banquet)
Peak position: 5
While many of the psychobilly acts were creating new rock and roll sounds, the rather less psychobilly fixated Fall saw fit to take an old Gene Vincent number and attach their own idiosyncrasies to it. In their hands, “Rollin’ Dany” is rougher, wilder and drier, Smith’s dispassionate grumbling and slurring about the flirtatious rebel Dany sounding like a witness statement from a confused and drunken bystander who witnessed a rumble.
To be honest, whether Vincent is delivering this or Smith is, I can’t make head nor tail of what happened on the night that Dany walked up to the “six cats” by the wall, beyond the fact that it sounds like an amazing groove – I’d rather listen to this than The Meteors any day.
16. Broken Bones - Seeing Thru My Eyes (Fallout)
Peak position: 11
18. Slaughter Joe - I'll Follow You Down (Creation)
Peak position: 18
Aka regular Creation producer and label co-founder Joe Foster, who was also a member of house band Biff Bang Pow alongside McGee.
Slaughter Joe was a strange alias he used on a number of occasions to release Mary Chain adjacent singles filled with feedback and stripped back rhythms. While all these records could be seen as cousins to the JAMC’s catalogue, in reality Foster’s delivery is less jaded and hangdog than the Reid Brothers, and he created material which felt closer to The Stooges in the process. “I’ll Follow You Down” is an example of that primitive spirit in action, and it caused the unlikely situation of Foster briefly eclipsing most of the acts signed to his label.
19. Ramones - Bonzo Goes To Bitburg (Beggars Banquet)
Peak position: 4
The Bitburg Controversy feels as if it’s drifted out of political consciousness these days, but in 1985 it created serious questions about Reagan’s competency as a president. That year, he visited a cemetery in the German town of the same name and gave a speech about the 40th Anniversary of the end of World War II, laying a wreath before he left.
What should have been a fairly innocuous cross-cultural visit descended into outrage when it was revealed that 49 of the 2,000 German soldiers buried in the cemetery were members of the SS. Reagan countered that almost all German military cemeteries were going to contain some SS bodies, but this didn’t satisfy everyone and attracted stinging criticism from Jewish communities in particular.
Among those who were upset were Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, who penned this protest song in response which was ultimately only ever released as a single in the UK. “You're a politician/ Don't become one of Hitler's children” the group chide, though it has to be said the rest of the lyrics aren’t really cutting satire. “Bonzo goes to Bitburg/ Then goes out for a cup of tea/ As I watched it on TV/ Somehow it really bothered me” they tell us, sounding more confused than anything, desperately trying to make sense of the madness.
Musically, however, it was the most pepped up they’d been since their glory days, perhaps even being directly angry about a specific issue for the first time – this is no “gabba gabba hey”. If Reagan achieved one thing from his visit, it was revitalising a group who had become milder and gentler in their old age.
22. Angelic Upstarts - Brighton Bomb (Gas)
Peak position: 9
Less talked about is The Angelic Upstart’s response to the IRA bombing of the Conservative Party Conference in 1984, which is subtle melodically but utterly damning lyrically. “So cry to me of cowards, and countries with the right/ The right to take up a fight” the band sing over a melancholic rather than aggressive or triumphant melody.
The track was inevitably banned and has seldom been heard since despite being one of the more contentious singles of the period. The Upstarts were in the winter of their careers, a punk band now operating on the outer fringes of relevance, and “Brighton Bomb” ultimately became a deep ocean obscurity, neither played on the radio nor referenced much in lists of notable punk controversies.
25. The Coward Brothers - The People’s Limousine (Imp)
Peak position: 3
Aka Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett. A dense, rambling Everlys-esque rattle which seems to be yet more political satire, but unlike the street level simplicity of the Upstarts and Ramones is harder to pin down. Costello appears to focus his ire on the warped hypocrisy of Soviet politics and the useful Western idiots who surrounded them, with the lyrics all presented as cryptic puzzles rather than direct hits.
Week Four
No new entries this week.
Week Five
19. Colourbox - The Moon Is Blue (4AD)
Peak position: 5
26. The Burmoe Brothers – Skin (Some Bizarre)
Peak position: 26
Marc Almond joins forces with British cellist Audrey Riley and Guy Chambers, and his transformation into torch singer – absolutely no pun intended – feels utterly complete and impressively executed here, like he took a weird trip to the smoky room behind the door of the as-yet-uninvented TV show Stars In Their Eyes. George Michael doubtless looked on in wonder.
There’s nothing stirring about “Skin”, though, which is polite, glitzy and emotionally unchallenging enough to pass as background music. He would do better later on.
Guy Chambers would eventually have considerable success as a writer and producer, not least with Robbie Williams. Riley would work as a session musician and arranger for all manner of more credible artists such as Lush, Test Department, Nick Cave, The Sundays and Go-Betweens, though would later work with more conventional stars such as Coldplay. This was the pair’s sole release as a working duo.
For the full charts, go to the UKMix Forums
Number One In The Official Charts
Sister Sledge: "Frankie" (Atlantic)
Eurythmics: "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)" (RCA)
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