73. Easterhouse - Whistling In The Dark (Rough Trade)

One week at number one from 15th February 1986

Regardless of their claims otherwise, the “serious” music press have always been just as susceptible to hype as glossy teen magazines. Unlike Smash Hits and their metaphorical "dumper", however, they have often been more coy about their failings, crowing about their successes while hastily burying their dud predictions. The itinerary of NME hopefuls whose subsequent careers were either cruelly brief or never got off the ground is long; from Department S to Gay Dad to Terris to Brother (all of whom were cover stars) sometimes it's been hard not to wince at the risky long shots or desperate decisions.

As 1985 drew to a close, Easterhouse began to be sold as a solid proposition. Formed by brothers Ivor and Andy Perry in 1982, their credentials were impeccable – the group's association with The Smiths was strong, beginning with a Manchester support slot in 1983, and Morrissey and Marr had loudly proclaimed their brilliance to anyone willing to listen. The band also gave socialist diatribes to a music press happy to run over the word count for such things, and their first two Martin Hannett produced singles on London Records, while poor sellers, indicated a charged yet serious band.

Despite having all these credits on their side, London Records didn’t feel it was worth the effort investing further and dropped them, leaving them to be rescued by Rough Trade where, somewhat miraculously, the press enthusiasm continued unabated. One listen to “Whistling In The Dark” gives the game away as to why; this is an incredibly good and staggeringly robust record. It opens on a swinging Motown beat which subsequently dominates throughout, but that beat is augmented with hard, heavy guitar sounds – walloped metallic bass lines meet rhythm guitar lines which sound as if they’re echoing around a steelworks. “Let’s get to the point/ Get to the heart of it” bellows Andy Perry at the start, making it immediately clear that this was a band for whom toughness and directness were seen as virtues.

In a world where a band’s presence in the indie charts increasingly meant either deeply experimental music or delicate whimsy (or in the case of the Cocteau Twins, both) “Whistling” suggests that the powerful ideas birthed by punk rock weren’t necessarily exhausted. The music press were quick to suggest that Easterhouse may be Rough Trade’s Clash to The Smiths’ Pistols as a result, but in reality the bark and swing of the track feels as if it owes a bigger debt to The Jam; there’s the same strident, hectoring edge combined with a muscular but nonetheless irresistible delivery. 

Just when you think the track has shot its load and made its point, the final few moments turn out to be among the finest – “Don’t get caught the same way twice/ You give them money for old rage” yells Perry and the group completely let loose, thrashing, jangling and upping the dynamism past the point you thought it possible for them to go. It is, in short, a fine single and one I still play to this day.

Despite this, Easterhouse’s problem in the long term was multi-faceted. Firstly, a straightforward political punk revival clearly wasn't going to happen; even Paul Weller didn't want his records to sound like The Jam by this point. Besides that, the mid-eighties were a confused period in the music business, and nobody at either Rough Trade or any of the major labels seemed to effectively predict the way the wind was blowing. One of the common bets being placed by journalists and A&R reps was that if alternative music was going to crossover, it was going to have to adopt mainstream arena rock's production values and delivery. Throughout 1986 and slightly beyond, groups such as Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and Love And Money took the attitude and the sound of the alternative sector but turned their noise on vinyl into something airbrushed, vast and blown out. In the mid-eighties, any indie band getting signed to a major may have ended up sounding faintly like Big Country or Simple Minds in the end.

As a group, Easterhouse weren’t incompatible with this approach. “Whistling In The Dark” is three quarters of the way there already (you can surely imagine Stuart Adamson nodding his head along to it). The problem was that nobody, as it turned out, badly wanted that kind of thing after all – by the time their album (the unfortunately titled “Contenders”) was released to the press in June, the sound of a hundred reversing ferrets could be heard.

Robert Christgau tartly commented “Like so many leftist ideologues before them, they make promises they can't keep”, before glibly referring to their work as “uniform arena-jangle”. Other critics got busy with the non-committal three stars, praising their work reservedly, but Record Mirror’s review was perhaps the most damning of all: “They’re radical, opinionated… but they also make exceedingly dull records”, stated Stuart Bailie. “Don’t listen to all the liberal apologies for this band… this just isn’t very good”.

“Contenders” is, it’s fair to say, notably flawed, not sounding like the work of a group capable of putting out a single like this. Ivor Perry quit the band not long after its failure, but they carried on regardless, returning with a second, largely ignored album “Waiting For The Redbird” in 1989 on which only one member of the original line-up (Andy Perry) was still present. After that, there would be no more.

Sometimes though, life and music isn’t just about the long game but also the short, sharp thrills on the way. Easterhouse may never have released an album of note, but few bands put out singles as powerful as this one in 1986. “Whistling In The Dark” is the sound of a group’s collective potential being realised suddenly, just for a few short minutes, and producing something that sounds more timeless than you might expect - even if you won’t find it on Spotify. If you haven’t heard it before, I thoroughly recommend giving it a chance. 

(Note - the actual promo video is here, but the sound mix has gone horribly wobbly, so is only worth viewing if you're extremely curious). 

New Entries Elsewhere In The Charts

19. Xmal Deutschland - Incubus Succubus ll (4AD)

Peak position: 19

More reverb laden buzz and grind from XD, who were nothing if not consistent with their darkness. The lo-fi simplicity of the production is beginning to date them by this point, though – just as goth rock was beginning to get grander and more expressive, they remained firmly tied down to their charred, melted toys in the cramped basement. 

20. The Rose of Avalanche - Goddess EP (Lil)

Peak position: 17

Though to be fair, The Rose of Avalanche from Leeds were similarly scrappily macabre (they would also have firmly denied being a goth band, but the sheer number of heavily made-up men and ladies in black at their gigs would prove that their audience disagreed).

In their defence, there are moments when “Goddess” releases itself from its leaden anchor and sounds genuinely wild and celebratory.

23. The Mekons - Beaten and Broken (Sin)

Peak position: 23

Like The Fall and Wire, The Mekons began life in 1976 as a defiantly arty post-punk band. Unlike The Fall and Wire, however, their influence and media presence has remained almost insultingly marginal, despite their longevity.

Always a restless group, by 1986 they had moved on from their anarchic punk roots to incorporate country influences. “Beaten and Broken” twangs and scrapes away, singing of drunken infidelity, betrayal and a subsequent regret-filled trip back to Sheffield. Their work found a cult audience in the USA despite its frequently barbed anti-American sentiments, with the commandeering rock critic Robert Christgau chalking them up as one of his all-time favourite bands. 

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Number One In The Official Charts

Billy Ocean - "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" (Jive)