On this day in 1980 two bands at the heart and centre of the Mod Revival released brand new singles with one reaching the lower end of the charts and the other breaking into the Top 20 in the UK
*************** Jimmy was featured on the Debut Album from the Purple Hearts - Beat That! My World was featured on the Second Studio Album from Secret Affair - Behind Closed Doors.
After their departure from Fiction Records due to poor sales of their debut album Beat That! in 1980 the Purple Hearts signed a one-off deal with Safari Records (home to The Boys and The Teenbeats) and released their fourth single My Life's A Jigsaw.
Unfortunately, the single flopped big time despite making the Radio One Playlist! It's a shame because it's a great single I think and is just as good as any of their previous releases including Millions Like Us. My Life's A Jigsaw is still one of their singles that I love going back to and having a blast of. Still sounds great 35 years on. B-Sides are pretty tidy as well, Just To Please You - a Purple Hearts original followed by a faithful performance of The Equals' Guy Who Made Her A Star.
Purple Hearts started in 1977, when teenagers Jeff Shadbolt, Simon Stebbing, Bob Manton, and Nick Lake formed the band in Romford, East London as The Sockets, before they even knew how to play their instruments (taking a cue from the then prevailing DIY aesthetics of the punk rock movement). They formed for the sole purpose of getting a support slot at a Buzzcocks gig at the East London Polytechnic, to debut their tongue-in-cheek rock opera, Reg. The amused audience took the amateurish teenage punks to their hearts and the group decided to soldier on. Several gigs followed, including an appearance on a float in the Romford Carnival.
In 1978, their drummer Nick Lake broke his leg. Struck down in his prime and with no chance of a quick recovery he was replaced by Gary Sparks from Romford Punk outfit '1348'. The band switched their name to Purple Hearts, after an amphetamine-barbiturate mixture popular with the mods of 1960s. Accordingly, they changed their sound from the rough-edged punk rock which was already beginning to fall out of favour to a more mod-influenced sound, which, thanks largely to The Jam, was beginning to capture public attention. In September 1979 the band scored a minor hit with their debut single 'Millions Like Us' which reached number 57. The band then toured the UK with Secret Affair and Back To Zero on 'the march of the mods' tour in the late summer/early autumn of 79. The bands second single 'Frustration'was released in November 79 but despite being described by Charles Sharr Murray as - "the best piece of teenage whingeing since 'Teenage Depression' by Eddie and the Hotrods" it failed to make much of an impression on the charts only reaching number 92. A tour of the UK to promote the single followed.
In 1980 the band released their debut album 'Beat That',an interesting mix of sixties and seventies influences. The album was produced by Fiction Records supremo Chris Parry. The single taken from the album, 'Jimmy', gave the band another minor hit reaching number 60 in the spring of 1980.Once again the band toured the UK to promote the record. After the commercial failure of 'Beat That' the band parted company with Fiction records before signing a one off single deal with Safari which produced the 'My Life's A Jigsaw' single, produced by Andy Arthurs. The 45 did make the Radio One daytime playlist but did not make the national charts. However in the Sounds Indie chart it reached number 20. A period in the wilderness followed allowing the band to change their music to much darker 'underground' sounds. A final single, 'Plane Crash' was released in 1982, on the small indie label Roadrunner Records before the band split in November of that year after a failed American trip.
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They are actually playing together again after reforming in 2009. They released a live album in 2010 that included a brand new song 'Urban Soul'.
We begin the second part of this reflection of the music of The Mod Revival (and I think I might have to stretch to a third part as well) with a band that I had the pleasure of working with briefly back in early '80's - Long Tall Shorty.
Click on the links to enjoy the music.
Their first single was released on Warner Brothers as part of a collection of bands signed up by Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 (the others were Angelic Upstarts and The Kidz Next Door), but due some dodgy tactics by the label the single never really got the shot it deserved.
What I liked about LTS was their ability to not only draw upon the great weight of fine 60's tunes but also their nack of writing great songs themselves clearly inspired by the whole Punk scene (something that many a Mod would never admit to!). When they got back together again in 2000 it was not uncommon for them to be playing songs by The Heartbreakers and Angelic Upstarts.
The Purple Hearts were another band I really liked and they managed to release a few cracking singles starting with the anthemic 'Millions Like Us'. They were another band who had their roots in the Punk movement, they had formed in 1977 as The Sockets and changed their name and sound in 1978 heavily influenced by The Jam of course.
In support of their debut single they hit the road with Secret Affair and Back To Zero on 'The March of The Mods Tour'.
Quite a number of the bands from back in 1979-80 are still out playing today, Purple Hearts are among them.
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