Silver discs(August 1981)
A monthly look back at the top singles of 25 years ago
The three best records from the Top 10 (11th August 1981) Human League - Love Action (I Believe In Love): It was in this week 25 years ago that both the Human League and Duran Duran launched into the UK Top 10 for the very first time. With the mewl of an electronic cat and the snapping of camera shutters, the future suddenly became mainstream. The decade would never look back. Love Action thrust half-fringe Phil and his jiving Saturday girls into full public glare. It's still a brilliantly inventive record, every layer glistening with its own hooky melody. Meanwhile Hard Times lay wasted on the B side, never quite making it onto the album Dare because vinyl had insufficient capacity. Love and Dancing, anybody? [TotP] [video]
"I’ve had my hard times in the past, I’ve been a husband and a lover too, I’ve lain alone and cried at night over what love made me do" Duran Duran - Girls On Film: How do you make the leap from New Romantic also-rans to world class music icons? You launch a flash record into the Top 10 and then promote it with an unashamedly pornographic video. Producers Godley and Creme set out to court controversy by filming six minutes of slinky pouting models wearing not much, from pole-dancing pillow fights to the notorious final mud-wrestling sequence. But did any of us actually see this rampant nipplefest when we were impressionable teenagers? Did we hell. Newborn MTV demanded heavy censorship while the BBC banned the video outright. It's only thanks to YouTube that I've finally been able to watch the scenes I'd been missing out on for 25 years, and... no, Mary Whitehouse would never have tried that with an ice cube, would she? [watch the full uncensored video here]
"See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight, heads turning as the lights flashing out it's so bright, then walk right out to the fourline track, there's a camera rolling on her back" Electric Light Orchestra - Hold on Tight: By contrast, Jeff Lynne's ELO had graced the Top 10 on several previous occasions. Most early 80s homes owned at least one slice of ELO vinyl, most probably 1977's epic Out ofthe Blue, although this latest single was a bit of a departure. Gone were the trademark classical strings, updated for the new decade with synthesisers and whining guitars, and this was a storming track. But the concept album era was on the wane, and the band's future lay ultimately in a never-ending succession of repackaged greatest hits CDs. This single well deserves its place therein. [video]
"When you get so down that you can't get up, and you want so much but you're all out of luck, when you're so downhearted and misunderstood, just over & over & over you could"
My favourite three records from August 1981 (at the time) Aneka - Japanese Boy: Sorry, but as a teenager I enjoyed a good novelty record as much as the next spotty oik. Never mind that the geisha singing this quasi-oriental track was really a Scottish housewife in a rather blatant ginger wig, I loved it. Never mind her expressionless air hostess smile or the two chopsticks poking out of the top of her head, this was cheesy holiday camp brilliance. Never mind. Two follow-up singles failed miserably to dent UK public consciousness, so Mary Sandeman returned to her day job as an ordinary mezzo soprano Scottish folk singer. But at least one with a chart-topping hit in her closet, which is more than Isla St Clair ever managed. [watch, if you dare]
"Was it something I said or done that made him pack his bags up and run, could it be another he's found, it's breaking up a happy home" Thompson Twins - Perfect Game: Before the Thompson Twins were famous, well before they were famous, there was Perfect Game. This track was raw, it was under-produced, it was about the taboo subject of mental illness and it knocked some of the band's later more successful singles into the shadows. Back in 1981 the band weren't yet a threesome - more a giant post-punk double-digit collective with a penchant for percussion and African rhythms. Tom and Alannah had recently met in neighbouring Clapham squats (and yes, she had frizzy trademark hair even back then). Perfect.
"Somebody's crying now, his head is full of pain, taken to the building where they're playing the perfect game" ...and then there was a Northern Soul cover version. I think I'll do that due justice next month. August has enough classics already.
"Sometimes I feel I've got to run away..."
15 other hits from 25 years ago: One In Ten (UB40), For Your Eyes Only (Sheena Easton), Show Me (Dexy's Midnight Runners), Walk Right Now (Jacksons), Beachboy Gold (Gidea Park), Si Si Je Suis Un Rock Star (Bill Wyman), Startrax Club Disco (Startrax), Hand Held In Black And White (Dollar), I Love Music (Enigma), Wunderbar (Tenpole Tudor), Fire (U2), Backfired (Debbie Harry), Rainy Night In Georgia (Randy Crawford), Chemistry (Nolans), Arabian Nights (Siouxsie and the Banshees) ...which hit's your favourite? ...which one would you pick?
Silver discs (August 1981)
Human League - Love Action (I Believe In Love): It was in this week 25 years ago that both the Human League and Duran Duran launched into the UK Top 10 for the very first time. With the mewl of an electronic cat and the snapping of camera shutters, the future suddenly became mainstream. The decade would never look back. Love Action thrust half-fringe Phil and his jiving Saturday girls into full public glare. It's still a brilliantly inventive record, every layer glistening with its own hooky melody. Meanwhile Hard Times lay wasted on the B side, never quite making it onto the album Dare because vinyl had insufficient capacity. Love and Dancing, anybody? [TotP] [video]
