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.
I don't often post Political issues here on my blog, which is normally dedicated to Music, but a couple of songs in the past week have given me concern enough to pen a few thoughts.
A week has passed since the whole EU vote here in the UK and it's still a bit of mystery as to exactly what is going to happen following the result to Leave the EU that was announced on Friday 24th June.
I have been thinking about this whole issue a lot the past week and my head is spinning. Obviously, as one who voted to Remain, I feel that the UK made a bad decision based on the foundation of false promises of the Leave Campaign.
The song above speaks of The Sound of Confusion and that's exactly where we are at this moment in time. Confusion is everywhere, in the Papers, on the Television and the Radio. Social Media is rife with reports of the rise of racist attacks, there are various petitions doing the rounds contesting the result and basically we are all running around like a dog chasing its tail and is never likely to catch it!
The two leading Political Parties haven't helped much in this crisis either and find themselves embroilled in a bitter battle to appoint new leaders. David Cameron had already said he was stepping down and was going to leave the details of the departure from the EU to the new leader of the Tories and of course new Prime Minister and The Labour Party, well they have the appearance of a very badly staged car wreck at present.
The Parliamentary Labour Party have risen up against Jeremy Corbyn and have issued a vote of no confidence in him, despite many members of The Labour Party still supporting him. What is interesting though is that many of TheParliamentary Labour Party have sought his demise right from the very beginning of his Leadership journey and instead of standing firm together against the Government at this very difficult time in our nation's history they have chosen to attack the man they deem as "Unelectable" in order to become the Party that is "Unelectable"! Everyone is saying Corbyn should resign but at present he's standing firm. If he survives and manages to contest the challenge to his Leaderhip and actually wins again I have absolutely no idea where on earth that leaves The Labour Party!
The person that everyone thought would challenge for the Leadership, Angela Eagle, who had in tears declared she was resigning from the Shadow Cabinet on Sunday morning (along with most of the other Shadow Cabinet members in what was clearly a co-ordinated attack upon their leader) is being a bit cagey as to whether she will actually stand now! So the 172 Labour MP's who voted no confidence in their leader seem to have no one who they think could actually defeat Corbyn! They really did think this through didn't they?
The Tories on the other hand seemed to have it all together and Boris Johnson looked as if him and his scruffy mop top were on the way to 10 Downing Street. But wait a minute, Michael Gove who stood alongside Johnson giving the impression of the next Leader and Deputy Leader of the Tory Party, seemed to be acting out a part in the West End Production of Julius Caeser as Brutus when he stuck the knife in the back of ol' Boris and declared that he was basically unfit to be the leader. The Man Who Would Be King then basically had to back track and announce that he was no longer running for the leadership...Bye Bye Boris! So now it's down to Gove and a few others to fight it out among themselves for the position.
If that doesn't sound confusing then this little thing I saw on FB this morning basically states the confusion that possibly all of us are feeling at the moment! I do not know the author Benjamin Timothy Blaine from Adam (but I did message him to ask if I could use his fb post for this blogpost and he said yes) but he does seem to capture what's in our minds at the moment.
"let me get this straight... the leader of the opposition campaigned to stay but secretly wanted to leave, so his party held a non-binding vote to shame him into resigning so someone else could lead the campaign to ignore the result of the non-binding referendum which many people now think was just angry people trying to shame politicians into seeing they'd all done nothing to help them.
Meanwhile, the man who campaigned to leave because he hoped losing would help him win the leadership of his party, accidentally won and ruined any chance of leading because the man who thought he couldn't lose, did - but resigned before actually doing the thing the vote had been about. The man who'd always thought he'd lead next, campaigned so badly that everyone thought he was lying when he said the economy would crash - and he was, but it did, but he's not resigned, but, like the man who lost and the man who won, also now can't become leader. Which means the woman who quietly campaigned to stay but always said she wanted to leave is likely to become leader instead.
Which means she holds the same view as the leader of the opposition but for opposite reasons, but her party's view of this view is the opposite of the opposition's. And the opposition aren't yet opposing anything because the leader isn't listening to his party, who aren't listening to the country, who aren't listening to experts or possibly paying that much attention at all. However, none of their opponents actually want to be the one to do the thing that the vote was about, so there's not yet anything actually on the table to oppose anyway. And if no one ever does do the thing that most people asked them to do, it will be undemocratic and if any one ever does do it, it will be awful." - Benjamin Timothy Blaine
Still confused? Yep, I thought so!
The other song that's been on my mind is one from 1977 by Punk band The Adverts, The Great British Mistake. Many people seem to feel that the UK has made a huge mistake in deciding to leave the EU, and there seemed to be a lot of regret around a few days after the event when it became clear that many of the "promises" of the Leave campaign were not going to be upheld and infact those who had been at the forefront were now backtracking on those promises on TV and in the newspapers. The one promise that seemed to bite the hardest was the giving of £350 million to the NHS instead of giving it to Brussels, that was all but denied by the leaders of Leave...funny that because they are all saying they never said it yet it was emblazoned on their battle bus for all the world to see! Just incase the Leave Campaign lost the vote, a supporter had set up a petition to call for a second referendum due to it being a very close result, the supporters of Remain then took it upon themselves to sign it by the thousands (it's into the millions now) TV Smith's song that he wrote for The Adverts debut album way back in the late 70s seems oddly prophetic.
The great British mistake was looking for a way out, Was getting complacent, not noticing The pulse was racing. The mistake was fighting. The change, was staying the same. It couldn't adapt so it couldn't survive, Something had to give. The people take a downhill slide into the gloom. Into the darn recesses of their minds.
I swoop over your city like a bird. I climb the high branches and observe. Into the mouth, into the soul. I cast a shadow that swallows you whole. I swoop, I climb, I cling, I suck, I swallow you whole.
String out the drip-feed, they're losing their world, They're losing their hard boys and magazine girls. Advert illegal, T. V. As outlaw, motive as spell. They'll see the books burn. They'll be 451, It's people against things and not against each other. Out of the pre-pack, into the fear, into themselves. They're the great British mistake. The genie's out of the bottle, call in the magician. They didn't mean to free him, devil behind them, Devil in the mirror, chained to their right hands. They're the great British mistake. They'll have to come to terms now, they'll take it out somehow. They'll blame it all on something. The British mistake - when will it be over? How can they avoid it?
The great British mistake. The great British mistake. The great British mistake.
I have not posted this today to jump on anyone's head but merely because I found my own thoughts drifting in response to the music to think about these matters.
Our nation is in a confused place at the moment. I have no idea what the road ahead looks like but from what I can gather neither does the Politcal machine here in the UK.
Normal service on the blog will be resumed tomorrow I can promise you that (and hopefully you won't find me going back on my word!).
A1–Secret Affair - Time For Action A2–Secret Affair - Let Your Heart Dance A3–Beggar - Don't Throw Your Life Away A4–Small Hours - Hanging In The Balance A5–The Mods - Tonight Is The Night A6–The Mods - Let Me Be The One A7–Squire - B-A-B-Y Baby Love A8–Small Hours - Midnight To Six B1–Beggar - Broadway Show B2–Beggar - All Night B3–The Mods - Love Only Me B4–Squire - Walking Down The King's Road B5–Squire - Live Without Her Love B6–Secret Affair - I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap) B7–Small Hours - End Of The Night
This is an album that really gets the old memories flowing as I can remember so clearly the terrible battles that were going on between the Punks and The Mods at the time. There was quite a number of shows at various venues around London that combined Punk and Mod bands on the same bill - this was not always a good idea and rarely went off without an incident or five!
Infact, one such battle took place a few days before this particular album was recorded and it was between Forest Hill Punks and Forest Hill Mods. It was on General Election Day, the day that Thatcher came to power! Thinking back I couldn't tell you if either side won as there was a lot of blood spilled that day on both sides! I always found it quite bizzare though because many of The Mods had been Punks only weeks before! That was a different age and thank goodness some of us have grown up from our youthful tribalism!
I have to admit there were a number of the bands from The Mod Revival in the late 70s that I actually really liked (and I don't mean just The Jam because I had been listening to them and buying their records since 1977). I really liked Secret Affair (not many Punks would confess that but it doesn't bother me), mainly because I had liked their previous band the New Hearts with Ian Page and Dave Cairns and was happy to see that they hadn't totally given up after the band seemed to fizzle out after only two singles. I absolutely loved The Chords as well right from the first night I had seen them at The Wellington at Waterloo. Long Tall Shorty, Back To Zero, Teenbeats, Purple Hearts and a few others as well caught my attention.
"OK, this song's for all Mods everywhere! It's a song called Time for Action" - and so opens the original album from 1979 on Bridge House Records. Ah yes, Time For Action, that rallying call to Mods everywhere to rise up and declare "We hate the Punk Elite", well thirty seven years later I think it is safe to say that most Mods and Punks totally misunderstood that lyric and took it as a cause to fight each other when the truth of the matter is that the Punks would have hated the "Punk Elite" as well for it was they who determined the attitude a Punk should have, what a Punk should wear, what a Punk should listen to etc...so much for old Johnny Rotten singing "I Wanna Be Me!"Punks weren't allowed to be themselves but were all conformed to what the likes of McLaren and Co. were telling them! The album was recorded on the 7th May 1979 at The Bridge House in Canning Town. What I didn't really know at the time of release was that the first two songs on the album were actually the two final songs of the Secret Affair set that night in Canning Town.
It's funny because for years I've thought this album could have been so much better if there was just more than the three songs from the five bands represented: Secret Affair, Beggar, The Mods, Squire and Small Hours. The Merton Parkas would have been on it but I'm guessing that Beggars Banquet didn't grant permission to Bridge House Records to make use of anything from their set.
It wouldn't be until Sanctuary released the expanded version (that did include The Merton Parkas) that this finally came true. You can hear the expanded version below. Whereas on the original release the bands only had three songs each Squire kick off with six songs, Beggar have five, The Mods still have their original three, Small Hours - six songs, The Merton Parkas have a short set of six songs and Secret Affair carry the whole album really (as they did on the original release) with a very strong 14 song set (though two of the songs played in the Encore had already been played during their normal set). But listening to the expanded album I find myself just wanting to listen to the Secret Affair Set! I think that mainly has to do with the fact that whilst there were elements of the other bands that were pleasing to the ear hearing the originally released three songs seemed enough!
I wasn't really that fond of Squire, Beggar, or The Mods but did like Small Hours and managed to see them a few times live. As for The Merton Parkas, well they were nice enough blokes but musically they were not as appealing as say The Chords, Purple Hearts, Long Tall Shorty or Secret Affair. I was pleased though to see Mick Talbot move on from the Parkas and get some success alongside Paul Weller in The Style Council.
There will probably be a few of my old Mod mates pulling out what little hair they have regarding some of the things I've said here but it's better to be honest isn't it and admit that we don't all like the same things (it would be a boring world if we did)!
This is probably not the best live album on the planet (although it made a big splash for many Mods) and I include it today merely because for some reason it came to mind last night and I had a little listen to it for the first time in maybe twenty years and I enjoyed hearing the original release, especially the Secret Affair tracks.
Disc One
Tracklist 1. It's A Mod Mod World (Squire) 2. The Face Of Youth Today (Squire) 3. I've Got You On My Mind (Squire) 4. B-A-B-Y Baby Love (Squire) 5. Walking Down The King's Road (Squire) 6. Live Without Her Love (Squire) 7. Don't Throw Your Life Away (Beggar) 8. All Night (Beggar) 9. Broadway Show (Beggar) 10. Friday Night (Beggar) 11. Doing Alright As I Am (Beggar) 12. Tonight's The Night (The Mods) 13. Let Me Be The One (The Mods) 14. Love Only Me (The Mods) 15. Underground (Small Hours) 16. The Mess (Small Hours) 17. Can't Do Without You (Small Hours) 18. Midnight To Six (Small Hours) 19. Hanging In The Balance (Small Hours) 20. End Of The Night (Small Hours)
Disc Two
Tracklist
1. Tears Of A Clown (Merton Parkas) 2. When Will It Be (Merton Parkas) 3. Plastic Smile (Merton Parkas) 4. I Don't Want To Know You (Merton Parkas) 5. Silent People (Merton Parkas) 6. What'd I Say (Merton Parkas) 7. Days Of Change (Secret Affair) 8. Glory Boys (Secret Affair) 9. Shake And Shout (Secret Affair) 10. Get Ready (Secret Affair) 11. My World (Secret Affair) 12. Sorry Wrong Number (Secret Affair) 13. Going To A Go-Go (Secret Affair) 14. Don't Look Down (Secret Affair) 15. Time For Action (Secret Affair) 16. Let Your Heart Dance (Secret Affair) 17. I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap) (Secret Affair) 18. Time For Action (Encore) (Secret Affair) 19. Let Your Heart Dance (Encore) (Secret Affair)
Secret Affair were never really a huge band, yes they had a couple of Top 20 hits (Time for Action - 1979 #13 and My World - 1980 #16) and a couple of albums that sold respectably enough to break into the Top 50 (Glory Boys -1979 #41 and Behind Closed Doors - 1980 #48) but when it seemed like the whole Mod Revival scene had been laid to waste with the arrival of Two Tone they found the nerve within to release a new album in 1982 called Business As Usual.
The trailblazing single for the album, Do You Know (released in 1981), became a case of "erm, No I Didn't Know" as it stalled at #57 and as for what would be their final single, Lost in the Night (Mac the Knife) - well that didn't make the charts at all and it was more a case of Lost on the way to the Record Store! None of the above is said without a tint of sadness because actually Secret Affair were a pretty good band who deserved better, and they could have made some better decisions when it came to the final singles and the third album. The final track, One Day (In Your Life), on Business as Usual, was, in my opinion, a Single screaming to be released. I think it would have got them back into the Top 20 and maybe have given them a good reason to carry on rather than fold. But it wasn't to be. Still it doesn't take away from the fact that One Day (In Your Life) is quite possibly the best song that Ian Page and Dave Cairns ever put on paper and on record.
"One Day, in your life you’ll realise The reason why you’re here"
"Did you ever stop to think about the world as a whole? Do you ever think about your life beyond your front door?"
One Day In Your Life Written by Page/Cairns
One day, you may have it all your own way And live the life you choose And think you understand The meaning of it all
But don’t close your eyes There’s a whole wide world Just waiting for you
Where is the moment you were waiting for When you walk through your God’s door? Is it what you’ve lived your whole life for Life everlasting or darkness ever more?
But don’t close your eyes There’s a whole wide world Just waiting for you
(and I believe that)
Chorus One Day, in your life you’ll realise The reason why you’re here One Day, in your life you’ll realise The reason why you’re here
Church bells are ringing out for you The Sunday morning call To lay your life right down Your God just takes it all
But don’t close your eyes There’s a whole wide world Just waiting for you
(and I believe that)
Chorus Repeat
Did you ever stop to think about the world as a whole? Do you ever think about your life beyond your front door?
With the Mod Revival slowly running out of steam Secret Affair unleashed their second album. The debut Glory Boys had shown a lot of promise but the album didn't even make the Top Forty, stopping short at #41. In the singles department Time For Action had done well reaching #13 but the follow up Let Your Heart Dance stumbled outside the Top 30 at #32, which is a shame because personally I think it was a better single than Time For Action (there'll be a Parka wearing horde banging at my front door I predict howling their annoyance!).
After the recording of the album Drummer Seb Shelton upped Drum Stools, ditched his zoot suit and headed toward the Come On Eileen Era of Dexy's Midnight Runners. His replacement was Paul Bultitude who had been in the power pop band Advertising with Bassist Dennis Smith.
I saw them at the Hammersmith Odeon on the tour promoting this album and whilst they were good a lot of the energy that had been generated around places like The Bridge House, Marquee, The Wellington appeared sapped. Hard to explain why because the songs on the second were pretty good. That night though it was the support act that stood up and won - Laurel Aitken, that legendary Ska man backed by three quarters of The Ruts (Paul Fox on Guitar, Segs Jennings on Bass and Dave Ruffy on Drums).
Late 1981 Secret Affair would return to the lower reaches of the chart with Do You Know (#57) and their last single Lost in the Night (Mac the Knife) (did not chart) and final album (at least until Soho Dreams released in 2012!) Business As Usual couldn't recapture the heady days of 1979! It's a real pity because Lost in the Night (Mac the Knife) is actually one of my favourites of theirs and the album was much better than Behind Closed Doors (another bone of contention I'll have to face!). Personally I thought that if Secret Affair had released One Day In Your Life the lead single for the album then it might have been a very different story for the band at the time.
A1 - What Did You Expect? A2 - I'm A Bullet A3 - Only Madmen Laugh A4 - When The Show's Over A5 - My World B1 - Sound Of Confusion B2 - Life's A Movie Too B3 - Through My Eyes B4 - Live For Today B5 - Streetlife Parade
Two years prior to the release of the debut album by Secret Affair I had stumbled over Ian Page and Dave Cairns when they were in a band called the New Hearts. They supported The Jam on The Modern World Tour.
I remember running down to the record store on the Monday morning after
seeing them the night before at the Croydon Greyhound to buy their
single 'Just Another Teenage Anthem'. Although they only released a couple of singles before disbanding they were the seed for what was to come for Page and Cairns.
Dennis Smith came over from the power-pop band Advertising to play Bass and add vocals and Seb Shelton arrived from the Young Bucks to provide the backbeat on Drums. Dave Winthrop would join later in '79 providing the Sax sounds. Cairns was on the Guitar and vocals and Page of course was the Lead Vocalist and Trumpet player. Their debut show was supporting The Jam at Reading University in February 1979 and from there they pressed on to become one of the leading voices of the Mod Revival.
Having the trumpet and the sax gave the
band a bit of a soulful edge at times as can be evidenced on the debut
album with tracks like 'Shake and Shout', 'Don't Look Down', 'One Way World', 'Let Your Heart Dance''Sorry Wrong Number' and of course their cover of Smokey and the Miracles classic 'Going To A Go-Go'. Lyrically Page and Cairns were on the ball especially with songs like 'Glory Boys', 'I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap)', 'Days of Change' and 'New Dance'.
The debut album really should have gone higher on the charts and the follow up 'Behind Closed Doors' is loaded with great tunes as well, not on the soul side like the debut, but tunes like 'My World', 'Sound of Confusion', 'Only Madmen Laugh' and 'When the Show is Over' that demonstrated good progress for the band. Come the time of their final album before splitting the Mod Revival had pretty much run its course and although the album had a few choice tunes (especially 'Lost in the Night' and 'One Day in Your Life' - which should have been the single instead of 'Do You Know' and would probably have given them a higher chart placing) they finished on a bitof a whimper.
Page and Cairns reunited in 2002 and played couple of live shows and finally got into the recording studios to work on a brand new Secret Affair album and put together a brand new band for touring starting in 2009. The album 'Soho Dreams' finally saw the light of day in 2012! Last year Captain Mod Records released a boxset containing all the albums entitled 'Est. 1979'.
The band are out on Tour again and you can check the dates on their Website HERE.
If I had a pound for everytime I heard the words, "You shouldn't be listening to that, they hate punks!", I'd not be a rich man, but I would have quite a few quid in my pocket! My response to this was that Ian Page said in the song 'Time For Action' that he hates "the punk elite" and in many ways that's totally understandable. The "elite" were the ones who were ripping people off with expensive clothes, trying to manage what a punk rocker should look like (I'm sure they were partly responsible for all those articles in the press like 'How to dress like a Punk' etc). The "elite" were responsible for "the uniform" creeping into the Punk scene and disposing of the individualism that had been there at the beginning. So when Page says that he hates them I totally understood where he was coming from.
Two years prior to the release of the debut album by Secret Affair I had stumbled over Ian Page and Dave Cairns when they were in a band called the New Hearts. They supported The Jam on The Modern World Tour. I remember running down to the record store on the Monday morning after seeing them the night before at the Croydon Greyhound to buy their single 'Just Another Teenage Anthem'. Although they only released a couple of singles before disbanding they were the seed for what was to come for Page and Cairns. Dennis Smith came over from the power-pop band Advertising to play Bass and add vocals and Seb Shelton arrived from the Young Bucks to provide the backbeat on Drums. Dave Winthrop would join later in '79 providing the Sax sounds. Cairns was on the Guitar and vocals and Page of course was the Lead Vocalist and Trumpet player. Their debut show was supporting The Jam at Reading University in February 1979 and from there they pressed on to become one of the leading voices of the Mod Revival.
Having the trumpet and the sax gave the band a bit of a soulful edge at times as can be evidenced on the debut album with tracks like 'Shake and Shout', 'Don't Look Down', 'One Way World', 'Let Your Heart Dance''Sorry Wrong Number' and of course their cover of Smokey and the Miracles classic 'Going To A Go-Go'. Lyrically Page and Cairns were on the ball especially with songs like 'Glory Boys', 'I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap)', 'Days of Change' and 'New Dance'.
It's an album that still gets an airing because of the sheer quality of the music. The albums that followed were pretty okay but none of them really measured up to the standard they set with their wonderful debut album.
Bank Holiday Weekends always remind me of times down at a beach town (especially Brighton and Hastings). I found myself there a few times back when I was younger. Firstly for a UK Subs show on Hastings Pier with local Mod band Teenbeats as support. Another time it was Brighton when I accompanied seasoned DJ Jerry Floyd for a huge show on The Lambrettas Beat Boys in the Jet Age tour. Another time it was for a show by The Chords. The music of the Mod Revival of 1979 is a bit of a pick and mix, not all of it was great but there were a few bands who were fantastic live and just happened to make brilliant records. I thought I'd share a few bits and pieces that I have in my own collection that still thrill me when I hear them today. Click on the links to enjoy the music. You cannot really focus on The Mod Revival without actually thinking about The Jam. They popped up in the nation's conciousness back in May 1977 with their ground breaking debut album 'In The City' on Polydor records.
Another band in 1977 who were destined to play an important part in The Mod Revival of 1979 are Power Pop's New Hearts featuring Ian Page and Dave Cairns. They only released two singles on CBS before regrouping and forming what would be one of the stand out bands of the time in Secret Affair.
Their debut on I-Spy Records, 'Glory Boys' I still think stands the test of time and is loaded with brilliant songs including the excellent 'Days of Change' and 'I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap)'. After another two albums they packed it all in back in 1982 but are currently back on the circuit and released a new album 'Soho Dreams' (Listen to 'Walk Away' here) in 2012.
The Chords were another at the forefront of the new Mod movement and they released some cracking material. Their debut album, 'So Far Away' doesn't have a single track on it that you would skip over (the whole album used to be on You Tube but I can't seem to find it now).
Lastly for this post one of my favourites from back then and a band I got to see many many times - Teenbeats. Their first single was a cover of The Troggs classic:
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