Sardonicus reviews a bunch of old 45s

[dmlaw]

Positive Gang - Sweet Freedom (Sixteen Mix b/w IQ Version) (1993)

UK chart peak - Number 34

View attachment 33766

PWL Continental again, as can be seen from the CHEAP AS CHIPS sleeve. You'd think Pete Waterman could have stumped up a bit more CASH for this sort of thing for his acts considering he's made MILLIONS, not to mention allegedly doing everything from DISCOVERING THE BEATLES to INVENTING OXYGEN.

The video clearly cost all of about 9p to make too, with cardboard sets & rinky-dink props ahoy. Still, the group are clearly having a lot of fun & they really do seem like a POSITIVE GANG.

The YouTube upload of the video is one of the scant pieces of evidence that this group EVER EXISTED. I can find virtually nothing out there about Positive Gang, who they were or where they came from. The credited songwriter, G. Lanzini, suggests ITALIAN ORIGINS. I even wondered if it might have been another alias for one of those PESKY BLACK BOX BOYS. Flop follow up "Sweet Freedom Part 2" is a song I've always wanted to hear, but also nowhere to be found on YouTube or Spotify.

The song itself is RIDICULOUS & CHEESY but in the best possible way IMO. 30 odd years on I'm still fuming this tumbled out of the top 40 so quickly rather than bubbling up to the top 10. If you've ever wondered what 2 Unlimited doing the cricket theme would sound like, then this is the song for you. There's some WAILING DIVA vocals & funky organ sounds GALORE.

The B side is apparently a remix but in reality a different song entirely. It's got loads of jazzy loungey piano bits that breaks down into dancey moments every now & then. It's also BLOODY GREAT. I'm even tempted to upload it to YouTube if I can be arsed.

G. Lanzini, if you're out there, PLEASE COME FORWARD. You contributed an underrated but fabulous RAY OF SUNSHINE to the charts in 1993.

The 7 inch for Sweet Freedom part two appears to be on eBay if you fancied hazarding a fiver to hear it.

 

[Sardonicus]

The 7 inch for Sweet Freedom part two appears to be on eBay if you fancied hazarding a fiver to hear it.

Thank you! I've only gone & ordered it

It'll probably be a load of DATED OLD TOOT but you NEVER KNOW

 

[VoR]

Dina Carroll’s Only Human may be one of the most baffling single releases I’ve ever heard. Did A&R actually exist in the mid-90s? Who on earth thought it was suitable for a major singles push - especially considering how much money her first album must have made for the label, so it’s not like they should have been relaxed about it flopping.

 

[Sardonicus]

Belinda Carlisle - Lay Down Your Arms b/w Tell Me (1993)

UK chart peak - Number 27

Another January 1994 BARGAIN BIN purchase. I'd forgotten just how much of a Belinda FANBOY I was back then. Well I still am, but new material has been THIN ON THE GROUND since the mid 90s. The cover is , I wondered if it might have been a clip from an animated music video - which IMO would have suited the song very well - but sadly not

This was the second single after "Big Scary Animal" from "Real", which saw Belinda ditch long term collaborators Rick Nowels & Ellen Shipley to co-write & produce a lot of the album herself with former GoGos bandmate Charlotte Caffey & a few others. I'm not sure if the album title & the cover signified this was Belinda's REAL MUSIC album but it's definitely the impression I'm getting thirty odd years down the line.

Ellen Shipley did get a co-writing credit on "Lay Down Your Arms", which was a cover of an obscure song from a band Charlotte Caffey formed after The GoGos. It's an obvious choice for a second single as it's the most commercial moment from the "Real" album. There's a few Country & Western TWANGS through the verses but the chorus is your classic Belinda singalong. This was the first time in an AGE I'd listened to it (I have the 1992 Best Of which doesn't include this) & I thought it had aged very well. Unfortunately, as a symbol of Belinda's declining chart fortunes, it wasn't a big hit. American success was long gone, but she'd been a pretty reliable hitmaker across Europe since. No more singles were released from the album & she seemed very much DONE FOR.

I picked up the "Real" album on cassette from the bargain bins sometime that year & it isn't her best work IMO. The whole thing has a bit of a TIRED AIR to it, as though she's fed up of the whole album, tour, promotion grind & wants out. I'm sure I remember her saying she was struggling with depression at this time & you can definitely sense it.

It's very apparent in the B side, "Tell Me", a Belinda song I've never gotten on board with AT ALL. It's a bit of a DIRGE, with a wailing chorus that makes her voice sound strained & is quite a painful listen.

After a brief GoGos reunion in 1995, Belinda made a shock return to the UK top 10 with the first 2 singles from the excellent "A Woman & A Man" album in 1996, but after the fantastic "California" peaked at number 31 in early 1997, no further albums were forthcoming for MANY A YEAR. Whether she just didn't want to do it anymore or the record company support wasn't there, I'm not sure.

A brief Cher influenced reinvention as a dance diva with "All God's Children" in 1999 wasn't a success, & she's mainly stuck to touring the hits ever since, although a couple of albums of French CHANSONS & Sanskrit CHANTS () were released several years back - neither of which I've listened to. I do keep meaning to go see her live the next time she plays Liverpool, the venues might be smaller than her HEYDAY but that legacy of hit singles from 1987 to 1997 are one heck of a run.

 

[Sheena]

I actually really like Real. The singles are both really good and I like most of the self penned stuff.

As for the rest, the yoga album is also far better than it has any right to be and definitely go looking for the recent Kismet EP, which was actually brilliant.

 

[VoR]

Real is the Belinda album I go back to the least. I like both singles, but the fact that it was abandoned so quickly sort of limits the incentive to give it much attention.

From the French album, I believe her pronunciation is quite distractingly awful, but if you don't speak french and are happy to let the funky music do the talking, I do really like her versions of these songs:

La Vie En Rose - No Grace Jones obviously, but a different take on it and the background wailing from Natascha Atlas is quite wonderful.


Bonnie & Clyde - I actually prefer the English version of this one, which only appears on the bonus disc. Lovely moody rendition.

 

[Sardonicus]

Good God, that "Voila" album cover! PWL would be proud.

 

[Sheena]

Voila does little for me. I’ve not played it in years, though. I think the accent, as has been said, is just too much.

 

[Sheena]

She adores it though. She even says it’s her best album in some places. Silly moo.

 

[Sheena]

1. Runaway Horses
2. A Woman and a Man
(These two have recently switched places)
3. Heaven on Earth
4. Live Your Life Be Free
5. Real
(Kismet)
6. Belinda
7. Wilder Shores
8. Voila

 

[Sardonicus]

She adores it though. She even says it’s her best album in some places. Silly moo.

Has she ever commented on why she didn't follow up "A Woman & A Man" for so long? Was she just done with the whole GRIND?

 

[Sheena]

Has she ever commented on why she didn't follow up "A Woman & A Man" for so long? Was she just done with the whole GRIND?

She famously hates a lot of that album. It was recorded when she was at the peak of her cocaine usage and she felt she was forced into a lot of it by the record company (particularly scathing about the Per Gessle tracks- she refuses to ever play the wonderful Always Breaking My Heart live- in all the times I’ve seen her, I think it’s the only single I’ve never seen her do). Despite the two top tens, A Woman and a Man didn’t sell that well and she was a liability, given the drugs. She’d just moved to Chrysalis and they dropped her and I just don’t think she was arsed.

 

[VoR]

Didn't she also have her son around the Woman & A Man era?

 

[Sheena]

Didn't she also have her son around the Woman & A Man era?

Earlier. She was pregnant during the Live Your Life Be Free promo and The Best of Belinda was put out as a stop gap whilst she was presumably on mat leave.

 

[VoR]

Ah. I was getting mixed up because you mentioned her drug problems in the AWAAM era and I remember her blithely admitting she did a lot of drugs while pregnant in front of a horrified Loose Women panel one time.

 

[Sheena]

Ah. I was getting mixed up because you mentioned her drug problems in the AWAAM era and I remember her blithely admitting she did a lot of drugs while pregnant in front of a horrified Loose Women panel one time.

The drugs basically were a thing from the Go-Go’s right through till she finally got clean in the early 00s.

Her autobiography talks quite candidly about it and how around AWAAM she was escaping her management to go out to score in dodgy parts of London and how she was doing grams of coke a night whilst her husband and son slept upstairs.

 

[Sardonicus]

Chaka Demus & Pliers with Jack Radics & Taxi Gang - Twist & Shout b/w Rhythm Killer (1994)

UK chart peak - Number 1

6 brilliant pop reggae hits & a chart topping album. Then, other than a flop cover of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" a couple of years later, we never heard from Chaka Demus & Pliers AGAIN. Although their sound dropped out of VOGUE quickly, I'm surprised the record company didn't at least give a follow-up a proper PUSH given all this success.

This has, however, given this fantastically named duo a special place as maybe being more representative than any other act of the 1993-94 period. All the singles were great, commercial, catchy & summery stuff. "Twist & Shout" is obviously a standard done to death by everyone from The Beatles to Salt & Pepa, but this bouncy version is my favourite. It's just so BUBBLY & INFECTIOUS. The sunny video is a reflection of that & was a welcome dose of summer in chilly January 1994, enough to give it a couple of weeks at the top in the post-Christmas lull. It also pushed the album to the summit too. Other than Bob Marley, I can't recall any other Jamaican acts that have had a chart topping album in the UK, so all in all WELL DONE LADS.

The B side doesn't feature the FUN-LOVING duo at all. It's a harder edged ragga tinged collaboration between the Taxi Gang & Shinehead (who had a minor UK hit in 1993 with a reggaefied cover of Sting's "Englishman In New York") - THIS is what you do if you've got BUGGER ALL to go on the flip side - give an opportunity to a couple of lesser known label mates! Of course none of these people ever bothered the UK charts again, but IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.

CD&P's top 40 days were also over by the time 1994 was out, as their chart friendly reggae/ragga stuff (along with acts like Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Bitty McLean, CJ Lewis & so on) peaked & fell away in favour of Britpop & dance/trance numbers instead. I've never seen HIDE NOR HAIR of them since, either as talking heads on documentaries or doing the nostalgia circuits, although admittedly I've not paid it any attention. Fond memories INDEED though.

Now, let's GET UP THE DUFF & MOVE YOUR BODY, ONE TIME

 

[Sardonicus]

ABBA - Head Over Heels b/w The Visitors (1981)

UK chart peak - Number 25

A leap back in time now, with a sift through what I've inherited from what's left of my parents' old 80s & early 90s records. And it's a start with perennial Moopy favourites ABBA. Obviously they need no introduction, the story of the band is familiar to everyone & there's a swathe of members here with a better knowledge of the group than me able to chime in if I miss any HOT ABBA FACTS.

It's odd that with so many ABBA songs woven into the fabric of popular culture, the first one I knew, & grew up listening to the most thanks to this single, was "Head Over Heels". Due to always knowing the song intimately, I'd always assumed it was one of their major hits. Imagine my shock when I perused a copy of British Hit Singles years later to find it'd had actually broken their long streak of top 10 hits, reaching a disappointing number 25. It's a pity as although it's not in the A list of some of their PEERLESS classics, it's still a great tune, expertly sung & played, by a group that knew better than anyone how to write a hit. A couple of years earlier & this surely would have landed in the top 10.

Working title for the song was "Tango" although I'd never noticed that it was actually written with that sort of tempo until it was pointed out, although it seems OBVIOUS now. In keeping with the more storytelling nature of later ABBA records, it appears to be all about some IMPULSIVE RICH LADY who has too much of a liking for SHOPPING.

The flip side is the title track of what proved to be ABBA's last album for 40 odd years, & it was always one that FRIGHTENED me as a young'un with its weird synth bleeps & robotic distorted vocals I've obviously come to realise it's a work of GENIUS since. A showcase for just how the songwriting had changed & matured over the years, "The Visitors" is open to numerous interpretations - it could be a tale of an agoraphobic or it could be about the secret police KNOCKING ON THE DOOR. It all builds up into a huge, disco influenced crescendo & is a TOWERING EPIC. I am not sure but I think it might have been their last single release in the USA?

A further ABBA album after "The Visitors" was potentially a very interesting release as they continued to explore new ground on "The Day Before You Came" & "Under Attack" - but with the hits not coming as easily as they did, not to mention how awkward it must have been to be in a band with your ex - they called it a day. The ABBA revival started in earnest in 1992 with Erasure's chart topping covers EP & "ABBA Gold" & continues to this day. "Voyage" aside, they left many of their peers with one further musical lesson - always leave them WANTING MORE.

 

[AGinAg (38)]

The Visitors is probably a better track than Head Over Heels, although I'm fond of both.

I genuinely don't think they could have released another top 10 hit at the time. Music was changing quite rapidly, and despite their musical evolution, ABBA as a product were no longer as appealing as some of the new young chart stars.

Obviously knowing what we know now, makes it very easy to judge 1981/1982 as an absolutely disgusting time.

 

[octophone]

Chaka Demus & Pliers with Jack Radics & Taxi Gang - Twist & Shout b/w Rhythm Killer (1994)

UK chart peak - Number 1

View attachment 33812

6 brilliant pop reggae hits & a chart topping album. Then, other than a flop cover of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" a couple of years later, we never heard from Chaka Demus & Pliers AGAIN. Although their sound dropped out of VOGUE quickly, I'm surprised the record company didn't at least give a follow-up a proper PUSH given all this success.

This has, however, given this fantastically named duo a special place as maybe being more representative than any other act of the 1993-94 period. All the singles were great, commercial, catchy & summery stuff. "Twist & Shout" is obviously a standard done to death by everyone from The Beatles to Salt & Pepa, but this bouncy version is my favourite. It's just so BUBBLY & INFECTIOUS. The sunny video is a reflection of that & was a welcome dose of summer in chilly January 1994, enough to give it a couple of weeks at the top in the post-Christmas lull. It also pushed the album to the summit too. Other than Bob Marley, I can't recall any other Jamaican acts that have had a chart topping album in the UK, so all in all WELL DONE LADS.

The B side doesn't feature the FUN-LOVING duo at all. It's a harder edged ragga tinged collaboration between the Taxi Gang & Shinehead (who had a minor UK hit in 1993 with a reggaefied cover of Sting's "Englishman In New York") - THIS is what you do if you've got BUGGER ALL to go on the flip side - give an opportunity to a couple of lesser known label mates! Of course none of these people ever bothered the UK charts again, but IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.

CD&P's top 40 days were also over by the time 1994 was out, as their chart friendly reggae/ragga stuff (along with acts like Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Bitty McLean, CJ Lewis & so on) peaked & fell away in favour of Britpop & dance/trance numbers instead. I've never seen HIDE NOR HAIR of them since, either as talking heads on documentaries or doing the nostalgia circuits, although admittedly I've not paid it any attention. Fond memories INDEED though.

Now, let's GET UP THE DUFF & MOVE YOUR BODY, ONE TIME

It's one of the most noticeable things about watching all these eps of TOTP over the last 5-10 years; reggae used to be such a presence in the British charts but by the mid 90s it was seriously waning and by 2000 it was gone, never to return.

 

[Sardonicus]

The Visitors is probably a better track than Head Over Heels, although I'm fond of both.

I genuinely don't think they could have released another top 10 hit at the time. Music was changing quite rapidly, and despite their musical evolution, ABBA as a product were no longer as appealing as some of the new young chart stars.

Obviously knowing what we know now, makes it very easy to judge 1981/1982 as an absolutely disgusting time.

Your namesake, I've just realised!

Agree their days as a chart topping force were probably at an end. Interesting as their later releases are, I imagine THE KIDS in 1981 seeing them as very much a product of the 1970s with little relevance to the new romantics etc beginning to clutter up the charts.

Sadly this copy is not in great condition but at least was listenable which ain't bad considering it's been gathering dust for at least 30 years.

 

[Sheena]

I always wonder how much the styling affected Head Over Heels. Frida looks FRIGHTFUL in that video.

 

[Sardonicus]

I always wonder how much the styling affected Head Over Heels. Frida looks FRIGHTFUL in that video.

Just watched it & OMG hideous!

 

[lolly]

The infamous electric lesbian divorce hairdo

 

[Sardonicus]

Elkie Brooks - Fool If You Think It's Over b/w Givin' It Up For Your Love (1982)

UK chart peak - Number 17

As promised earlier on to @VoR

"Fool..." was the first major hit for Chris Rea, reaching the US Top 20 & UK Top 30 in the late 70s. I'm always a little surprised he never followed it up with more American success, he has the sort of drivetime easy listening rock really suited to the AOR stations IMO. Anyway, this song has become a bit of a mini-standard covered by a number of different artists. It's a rare sort of song that's quite suited to a whole bunch of different interpretations & vocal styles, from a feminine reading to Chris Rea's GRUFF STYLINGS.

Elkie Brooks (with the equally birth name of Elaine Bookbinder) is a bit of a female Jimmy Somerville in that her solo career consists almost entirely of covers of other people's songs. Again, this sort of approach seems MOST USELESS in the Spotify era with the originals available at the touch of a button, but a definite exception can be made for "Fool If You Think It's Over" - the song can be viewed entirely differently from a female approach & its leisurely MOR stylings suits Elkie Brooks' voice to a T. Although she's rather FORGOTTEN these days, I think she's got a brilliant & very underrated voice - a lovely mixture of a little bit husky & a little bit velvety. Listening to this for the first time in countless years, I've decided it's the DOG'S BOLLOCKS & deserved to have been a much bigger hit. I'll be giving it a few more spins for sure

B side "Givin' It Up For Your Love" is another cover of a male original (by Delbert McClinton - I DON'T KNOW HER) & chugs along quite nicely with a bit of a country TWANG. Elkie seems to do well as an interpretor of songs originally done by men - her cover of Rod Stewart's "Gasoline Alley" is worth a listen too.

The excellent "No More The Fool", a rare original, hit the top 5 in 1987, becoming Elkie's biggest hit & signature song. I've always felt it LONG OVERDUE for a cover. Sadly no further hits were forthcoming, & the last time I recall Elkie on British screens was in the early 2000s as part of reality show "Reborn In The USA" - a show remembered mainly for hilarious SPATS between Sonia & Dollar, & Michelle Gayle & Then Jerico lead singer Mark Shaw. POOR OLD ELK didn't last long before being given the boot, & it was back to the chicken in a basket circuit afterwards, although I believe @dmlaw mentioned a recent Radio 2 appearance during the earlier HOT ELKIE CHAT.

 

[lolly]

Elkie Brooks has just done Radio Two's Piano Room last week which I intend watching at some point.

 

[lolly]

I adore No More The Fool, and don't think it gets enough love outside old Internet poofs. It's an amazing vocal.

To the general public, I'd say either Pearl's A Singer or Lilac Wine are better remembered.

 

[Shirley]

I love Pearl's A Singer. I don't remember Lilac Wine but it was on an old Pops the other day. What a PECULIAR song

I can't like No More The Fool because of one of my friends' DADS trying to convince me how GREAT IT WAS at the time

 

[Shirley]

Oh and there's THIS which got DUG UP AND REMIXED a while ago

 

[Sheena]

My Mum was a VAGUE Elkie Brooks fan and I had copies of both Pearls albums for 50p from a charity shop at some point.

Like my LEARNED friend @lolly, I absolutely ADORE No More The Fool, and is another of those songs I sing one line of ALL THE TIME for no apparent reason, despite not having listened to it in an age. See also PEARL'S A SINGER.

Fool If You Think It's Over is alright, but I always think of that as really "old folk" music, considering it was my Mum's fave. Wasn't (Isn't?) Elkie something of a SURPRISE ROCK CHICK rather than that Mumsy image I equate with her as a result?

 

[VoR]

She was in a band with Robert Palmer pre-fame, I think?

Anyway I'd agree that if she's remembered at all these days, it'd be for Pearl's a Singer. The Spotify numbers seem to bear that out too.

 

[lolly]

No More The Fool is just the PINNACLE of GAY MELODRAMA

 

[lolly]

Just listen to the chorus

It should only be performed IN BLOCK CAPITALS after at least half a bottle of gin

 

[Sardonicus]

Never heard her version of "Lilac Wine" - although I know Jeff Buckley's version well, & I'd also forgotten I knew "Pearl's A Singer".

I may be turning into a bit of a belated Elkie FAN

 

[jyxz]

I still pray that one day her recording of the theme tune to ‘A very peculiar practice’ will see the light of day.

 

[Shirley]

WHAT A SHOW THAT WAS

 

[lolly]

Bugger it, I'm having an Elkie commute.

I'd forgotten how lovely her Don't Cry Out Loud is.

 

[Sheena]

As much as I adore her, I can't quite get my head around No More The Fool's Wikipedia's assertion that:

"The song was written by English producer and songwriter Russ Ballard. He had originally intended the song for Kim Wilde, but was persuaded to give it to Brooks"

 

[lolly]

(citation needed)

 

[Sardonicus]

Adrian Gurvitz - Classic b/w Runaway (1982)

UK chart peak - Number 8

I'm calling it now - we have reached the LOWEST POINT of the thread. By comparison to this piece of shit, Jive Bunny should be in line for a Nobel Prize for Literature & CANONISATION. A quick PERUSAL of Wikipedia reveals Adrian Gurvitz to have been in numerous 70s bands with little success before this became his only solo hit in early 1982.

I can only assume this was bought as a Valentine's gift & such by MISGUIDED BOYFRIENDS in order to become a hit. Personally I'd END IT ALL if someone had bought me this (& I don't just mean the relationship). It starts off with the lyrical combo of:

"I'm gonna write a classic,
I'm gonna put it in the attic,
Because baby I'm an addict,
An addict for your love"

VOMIT. At least Desree's WANK LYRICS had a bit of comedy value. His singing voice also gives me CHILLING REMINDERS of Chris DeBurgh, an artist I truly can't stand - although let's face it, even Aretha Franklin would struggle to POLISH THIS TURD.

B side "Runaway" is a staid rockier number that reminds me of old 70s bands like Rainbow. I'm not VERY FUSSED but at least it's not "Classic".

The only reason I can think why this song isn't regularly voted amongst the worst ever top 10 hits is because it's been rightfully UTTERLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT. I don't know what Adrian Gurvitz has been up to since this single departed the charts but I can only hope he's REPENTING for this MUSICAL SIN.