Silver discs(May 1983)
An occasional look back at the top singles of 25 years ago
Three obscure-ish but memorable records from May 1983 Jane - It's A Fine Day: This unique acappella ditty is perfectly evocative of a warm pre-summer's day, just like today. Throw open the French windows, sit back in your deckchair and perspire a little. " It's a fine day, people open windows, they leave their houses, just for a short while." Ah yes, a fine day indeed. This is the original version, a sparse vocal performance by Jane Lancaster, not so much sung as breathed. "They walk by the grass and they look at the grass, they look at the sky." The lyrics were from a poem written by Jane's boyfriend Edward Barton, and originally doomed to indie obscurity until John Peel (and then Cherry Red) picked up on their timeless charm. "It's going to be a fine night tonight, it's going to be a fine day tomorrow." Never a hit, alas, until Opus III slammed the vocals over a dance beat and reached number 5 in the charts nine years later. "Sitting in this field, I remember how we were going to sit in this field but never quite did, rain or appointments or something." Mixes perfectly does our Jane, just like a good Pimms. [YouTube]
"We will have salad." Kissing The Pink - Last Film: Ahh, I loved this one. From the opening whistling drumbeats to the disciplined harmonies of the chorus, there always was a hint of military madness about it. The band looked like a bunch of earnest geeks, probably because they were a bunch of classically trained musicians (from Willesden) masquerading as popstars. The name Kissing The Pink was a reference to snooker, obviously, although sexual connotations required abbreviation to KTP in America. The band had tons of othergreatsongs, many on the LP/cassette "Naked" which I bought and played over and over, and you almost certainly didn't. Three consecutive weeks at number 19 on the singles chart was as good as they ever achieved over here, but One Step was the best selling song in Italy in 1985 (yes really), and the club-friendly Certain Things Are Likely reached number one on the US Dance Chart. Sadly underrated, but oh so quintessentially English. [ToTP]
"In the last film I ever saw, they wore suits and they wore ties. In the last film I ever saw, they kept the change and they told lies." Seona Dancing (pronounced "Show-na") - More To Lose: I used to record lots of songs off the radio in the 1980s, including this keyboard curio from some obscure new wave band I'd never once seen on the telly. I must have missed Razzmatazz that week. Just as well perhaps, because the duo's floppy fringes, dangly earrings and eyeshadow might have put me off. So imagine my surprise, several years later, to discover that the band's pretty boy singer was none other than Ricky Gervais, before he was famous, back when he was only proto-desperate. New Romantics in the Philippines adored him, but the UK was not taken. Maybe it's just as well, because if Ricky from Reading had become a big star a quarter of a century ago, pinned up on teenagers' walls and promoting hairgel, we might never have seen The Office. [audio][Razz][fansite][myspace]
"A thousand tortured lives have fallen, wounded dying cut down by the questions that we've sharpened, just to save our losing days"
Silver discs (May 1983)
Jane - It's A Fine Day: This unique acappella ditty is perfectly evocative of a warm pre-summer's day, just like today. Throw open the French windows, sit back in your deckchair and perspire a little. " It's a fine day, people open windows, they leave their houses, just for a short while." Ah yes, a fine day indeed. This is the original version, a sparse vocal performance by Jane Lancaster, not so much sung as breathed. "They walk by the grass and they look at the grass, they look at the sky." The lyrics were from a poem written by Jane's boyfriend Edward Barton, and originally doomed to indie obscurity until John Peel (and then Cherry Red) picked up on their timeless charm. "It's going to be a fine night tonight, it's going to be a fine day tomorrow." Never a hit, alas, until Opus III slammed the vocals over a dance beat and reached number 5 in the charts nine years later. "Sitting in this field, I remember how we were going to sit in this field but never quite did, rain or appointments or something." Mixes perfectly does our Jane, just like a good Pimms. [YouTube]
