112b. Wedding Present - Nobody's Twisting Your Arm (Reception)

 

One more week at number one on 16th April 1988

You can't keep a brilliant track down it seems, and The Wedding Present returned to the number one slot for a further week once Erasure's sales weakened.

As ever, we will use this as an excuse to look at what was happening lower down the charts.

17. Danielle Dax - Cat House (Awesome)

Peak position: 2

"Baby baby you're my heart's desire/ got my engine going and my pants on fire".

Seldom did a track in 1988 burst out of your stereo with a sexual statement of intent as direct as that. This phase of Danielle Dax's career is truly fascinating, because while you can reference its gothic edge as well as the glam and faintly psychedelic elements, the simple truth is that it's old fashioned rock and roll sass on a low budget as well. The honking one-note sax riff here hints to that, but so too does - and I almost dare not say this - the almost Meatloafian tail end to the verses just before the chorus kicks in. And if you don't think that kind of camp, biker rock element exists in "Cat-House", just listen to the way Danielle sings "He's the one with my magic key/ knows my road from A to Z" and try to imagine Cher singing it in biker gear. Far fetched? I rather thought not.

So "Cat-House" is ultimately camp, silly, trashy, hard-edged and sassy all at once, and was a much bigger deal at the time than you'd possibly imagine, despite the fact that a lot of elements of it seemed faintly out of step with everything else in 1988. A big part of that is down to the chaos of the chanting chorus,  which sounds incredibly "alt" even if the surrounding elements of the track aren't always so, and the fact that Danielle sells the song incredibly well. That so many people expected her to become a fully fledged pop star should probably surprise nobody.

20. Coco Steel & Lovebomb - The Sound of Europe Part 1 (Instant)

Peak position: 20

With a backbeat that almost (though not quite) resembles John Hawkins "Freestyle" (later sampled by Primal Scream for "Loaded") and a less busy, more freeflowing style, "The Sound of Europe" seems like the future of Dance music as it would become - and indeed, Coco Steel & Lovebomb would probably play more of a part in that than many of the groups we've covered so far.

Still, the sampling on display here is really risky, with instrumental segments of Imagination's "Body Talk" taking front and centre at various moments. "The Sound of Europe" has somewhat evaporated from view in the years since - to the extent that I had to upload it to YouTube myself years ago - and I have to wonder if somebody noticed and it received an old-school copyright strike. 

21. The Man From Delmonte - Will Nobody Save Louise (Ugly Man)

Peak position: 21

Infamously managed by Jon Ronson before he became a successful journalist and writer, The Man From Delmonte were a Manchester band with their heads firmly in the indiepop era - no electric organs, funky drummer beats or ecstacy tablets for these chaps, thank you, they were happy enough to tend their catchy sixties melodies instead. Fronted by the effervescent Mike West (son of Australian author Morris West) they oozed a carefree uncool which was as thrilling to some indie pop-pickers as it was alienating to others.

Channel 4's "The Chart Show" seemed unusually keen on them, and "Will Nobody Save Louise" achieved some mainstream exposure as a result. It didn't result in significant sales, unfortunately. Their sound landed rather late in the day when this kind of unapologetic dorky outsider merriment was starting to lose ground, and while they would retain a loyal cult audience, their pure tradness meant that they would never become a serious proposition.

22. The Fizzbombs – The Surfin' Winter EP (Calculus)

Peak position: 16

26. Crime And The City Solution - On Every Train (Grain Will Bear Grain) (Mute)

Peak position: 26

Nick Cave's ex-partners in crime return with a shuffling, hypnotic and faintly sinister pean to lust, love, memories, obsession and God knows what - the code is unforgiving and possibly deeply personal. The song remains firmly on track, never shifting course, only picking up speed as it continues, then leaving the idea behind as it halts.

28. Close Lobsters - the Janice Long Session (Night Trax)

Peak position: 28

For the full charts, please go to the UKMix Forums

Number One In The National Charts

Pet Shop Boys: "Heart" (Parlophone)

63. New Order - The Perfect Kiss (Factory)

Four weeks at number one from w/e 1st June 1985

Until very recently, I always assumed “The Perfect Kiss” had a long gestation period. Everything about it smacks of perfectionism and contemplation, feeling like a record which, without once being boring or indulgent, knows precisely what is needed and when.

It opens with fairly basic drum patterns, but it soon unfolds, introducing Peter Hook’s bassline boldly, followed by a beautifully twittering sequenced synth pattern, a second layer of bass level sequencing, a strong, triumphant chorus hook, then once you’ve finally succumbed to the idea that the song has a traditional structure, it reaches the halfway mark and decides to pull every conceivable melodic variation out of the bag. Peter Hook suddenly gets the idea that he needs to rock out and produce what can only be described as a Miami Vice chase sequence riff, then there’s a gentle rhythmic and ambient melodic breakdown involving ribbeting toads (nobody had that pegged on their New Order bingo card at the time), then skiffled kitchen noises, before the track becomes borderline symphonic.

Seven minutes in it decides it hasn’t said everything it wants to say, exploding into a crescendo of lasers and bright melodies. The group seldom sounded like Jean Michel Jarre, and probably wouldn’t take the comparison as a compliment, but this is the closest they came to exploring the idea of seventies progressive electronics, where being bold and exploratory, letting ideas sprawl and breathe and taking your own sweet time to sniff every avenue weren’t things to apologise for. If that makes “The Perfect Kiss” in danger of sounding like a chore or a bore, it’s actually anything but – every moment of it is a joy. It’s a rare example of a long, drawn out single which feels half the length of its actual playing time.

While the above may cause readers to conclude that “The Perfect Kiss” was a labour of love, in fact it wasn't - the track was recorded in a rush before they set off on tour. The only real clue to this frenzy lies in Sumner’s lyrics, which are even more half-arsed and disjointed than usual, offering fragmentary and contradictory ideas such as “Pretending not to see his gun/ I said let’s go out and have some fun” and “I know, you know/ we believe in a land of love” which never quite glue together in any meaningful way. Sumner later informed journalists that he actually didn’t know what the song was about and could only account for what inspired certain fragments, so it’s a series of torn up lyric book ideas thrown into the air, a jagged breadcumb trail of notions which ultimately lead nowhere.

Beyond that, it’s an unconventional and ambitious groove which may not have been as accessible as “Blue Monday”, but was certainly the first post- “Blue Monday” single to prove that the group still had the ability to produce something that was both epic and majestic – that it was obviously effortless for them to do so remains astonishing.

Both British radio and the record buying public seemed unimpressed, however, causing the single to be the first New Order single which wasn’t an import to fail to reach the Top 40. If Depeche Mode’s fortunes waned in the synth pop unfriendly mid-eighties, New Order’s crashed – Radio One, which later became a huge champion of the group, largely snubbed it despite its obvious strengths, turning their focus towards the slickly produced rock and soul of the day.