One week at number one on 14th May 1988
Bill Drummond once argued that anybody could have a number one in 1988, and it felt as if he had a point. There have been few moments in music business history where non-musicians could grab the top spot without the benefit of a major label strategy or a team of stylists behind them, but 1988 was an exception. Perhaps the punk rock dream had finally been realised.
Except that none of the freakiest of these freak number ones, often released on indie labels, sounded anything at all like punk rock. There was no fury, disillusionment or thrashed guitars on offer; instead, the past was burped up on top of House grooves, and represented on television by either a DJ miming their day at “the office”, or a bunch of faces plucked from the latest dancefloor. A casual onlooker might think that the only thing these artists had in common with punk was the volume (and strength) of hair product they used.
Which could be true, except I don’t think that Punk Rock and British House culture were as far detached as they seemed. The Clash begat Big Audio Dynamite, after all, who were one of the first groups out of the traps to use loops and crude samples. Combined with that, many of the DJs didn’t emerge out of the High Street nightclubs of Britain; they emerged from the leftfield, bringing a diverse record collection and a do-it-yourself mentality, and the attendees frequently had an awkward but entirely self-styled glamour.
At the risk of complicating things, however, Mark Moore of S'Express was possibly one of the less marginal DJs. He had already achieved acclaim at the mixed/gay night “Asylum” at Heaven in London, whose style took on board the electronic edges of post-punk and House music. That instantly gave him an edge and a sense of flamboyance many of his contemporaries lacked. If Tim Simenon made shapes with his hands next to street graffiti and M|A|R|R|S’s in-person appearances on British television were practically non-existent, S’Express presented Britain with a camp, frivolous image – one of bright make-up, lame, thick eyeliner and a dependance on the cheap, thrift-store availability of the past (whether that involved the records or the clothes). If a lot of emerging House music DJs wanted to be seen as credible artists, Moore primarily seemed to want to prove that he was having fun and could also provide fun; S’Express dressed up for Top Of The Pops, laughed and sniggered, winked at the cameras, and pouted and beckoned like pied pipers (actually, some photos of the German disco ensemble Silver Convention show considerable similarities).
The music itself mirrored their image and attitude. On “Theme From S’Express”, Moore was never going to sample James Brown or Public Enemy if an irresistible riff from Rose Royce was there waiting to be grabbed, so a sample from “Is It Love You’re After” – a huge hit and not a funk or soul deep cut – is used as the central hook. It’s placed neatly over an acid rhythm, combined with prominent doses of cult psychedelic funk track “Crystal World” by Crystal Glass (I am proud to own a copy of this myself) and a brew of other sources, credible and incredible (it’s flash-in-the-pan US pop star Stacey Q, rather than some obscure soul singer, gasping “overdrive”, for example). It’s the sound of boundaries being pushed to one side, of frivolousness and silliness having a place alongside the credible suspects.
None of this made it an expensive pop project; the mere fact that the hi-hat sound was created with a can of hairspray was entirely a method of convenience (though if you weren’t told, it’s not even as if you’d notice). Moore simply didn’t have the equipment to make a satisfactory approximation of the noise any other way. The group’s thrift store clothes were, likewise, often a result of simple budgetary choices.
The end result is actually, for all its irreverence and scattergun focus, the most pop of all the House music tracks we’ve heard so far. It’s the sound of an ecstasy tablet being washed down with a glass of Cava, of your inner child allowing yourself to raid your older sibling’s abandoned suitcase of seventies clothes, of the once-loved records you left up in the loft being mixed with the vinyl you bought last week.
Pop music is rarely inclusive – the whole point of a pop idol is to give the ordinary pleb something to worship or desire – but the most punk rock thing about S’Express isn’t just their cheapness (in the best sense of the word) but their lack of snobbery and their relatable chaos, their understanding that while current trends and fashions bring joy, that's also true of the things from our childhoods we might have cast off into the cultural beyond. As one sample tumbled into another on their record, so too did their Top Of The Pops appearances revel in the sense they were getting away with something; a group of friends thrown together by a strange set of circumstances gurning and grinning like cheshire cats.
“Theme From S’Express” is one of the few debut records I can think of whose title is an accurate mission statement; everything they set out to become is unveiled here, so nothing they did afterwards was necessarily a huge surprise (though for my money, the next two singles that followed were better). Moore was one of the few eighties DJs to translate the thrill and escapism of the best club nights to both vinyl and television screens - not a natural pop star, but one who understood that those of us who were too young to creep into these legendary dens would want some kind of sharp approximation of it, both aurally and visually.
To this day, I’ve no idea if it was accurate or some kind of extreme pastiche, but “Theme” and their subsequent singles make it feel as if I was there anyway, and I know what happened. That’s a major accomplishment.
Clearly enough others agreed. “Theme From S’Express” reached number one in the national charts as well as the indies. It wouldn’t have achieved that if only the attendees at Heaven had cared.
New Entries Elsewhere In The Charts
16. House of Love – Christine (Creation)
Peak position: 3
On “Christine”, the House of Love finally begin to sound as enormous as Alan McGee had promised, the slack, top-heavy production finally giving way to a summer runway haze of a chorus. The track glides sweetly along, dipping into musty grey sulks and rising above the clouds again on the thermals to let the light back in; it’s still astonishing how something can sound so victorious and yet so moody at the same time.
The group’s reputation became bigger and the major labels began to show interest. Shortly, McGee would be able to take refuge in the Savoy Hotel and invite them all to discuss their offers. Things were starting to get less and less “indie”.
18. The Poppyheads – Cremation Town (Sarah)
Peak position: 11
19. The Weather Prophets - Hollow Heart (Creation)
Peak position: 8
And if The House of Love were moving towards the “proper” music business, The Weather Prophets were over it – dropped by WEA after a series of disappointing sales, and back into the arms of Creation. Their old friends on the roster were surprised to see them looking so happy to be back; where would they be now without their huge marketing budgets?
The answer was obviously back where they started. If WEA could just about nudge the group over the line into the national Top 75, Creation couldn’t, and despite receiving just as much evening airplay and press, “Hollow Heart” was sidelined. A shame, as it's probably one of their stronger singles; the slap and power of old has returned, no longer smothered in fussy production, and the group sound freed up to deliver a petty, impatient snarl of a chorus. Despite this, they would face an unbelievably tricky job convincing anyone they were anything other than a lost cause of a group going nowhere but down.
23. Kylie Minogue - Got To Be Certain (PWL)
Peak position: 8
“Got To Be Certain” sounded like an incredibly hesitant and strangely uncertain pop single when I first heard it in 1988, almost as if Kylie and SAW had somehow blown their lot – “I Should Be So Lucky” was so naggingly written and arranged that anything less than another hyper-caffeinated bit of euro-pop seemed like a bad idea.
While this doesn’t seem to get played on oldies radio much anymore, the kids were still enticed by its matter-of-fact, breezy charm, its slightly more casual contentedness. On “Lucky”, Kylie was the dreamer and beggar. On “Certain”, she’s the chooser, no longer staking her life on a man or waiting around for just any handsome face, thank you very much. Pop stars grew up quickly in those days, sometimes developing sensible boundaries within the space of one single.
For the full charts, please go to the UKMix Forums
Number One In The National Charts
Fairground Attraction: "Perfect" (RCA)
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