The Stranglers - Aural Sculpture

This is The Stranglers 8th album and the second for Epic Records. It was a more mellowing sound of the band although some of the lyrics to the songs showed they had lost none of their bite. The tracks were recorded in Brussels the previous year and into early 1984 and was produced by the now very much in demand Laurie Latham, thanks to his work on the Paul Young debut album. This album was quite a departure for the band, after the last album which had more of a European sound, this album was the first one to have a three piece horn section on. The lead single off the album was Skin Deep, which was a great keyboard featured track which managed to get to number 15 in the UK charts but the following two singles fared less well. The album came out in November 1984 and reached number 14 but also helped the band gain a following in Europe.

As typically Stranglers, I originally had the album on cassette, at the end of the album was a short explanation and screams from the band before it went into a game for the ZX Spectrum. It was the Aural Quest, where you had to complete parts of the game to build parts of an ear. I never completed the game as it was always a pain to load up onto the computer, but when it worked, you had to think how would one of the band think, their strange humour featured too, it was a nice added touch to the album. Have a listen to the album on Spotify, it is quite a departure from the previous Punk and New Wave sounds, you'll probably enjoy it. Skin Deep is one of my favourite tracks, along with North Winds Blowing, Souls and No Mercy. Here's the sleeve

Blondie - Denis

The first charting single from Blondie, was a cover version of an American single released by Randy & The Rainbows (originally called Denise) in 1963. Blondie covered the track and put it on their second album Plastic Letters. It was released in February 1978 and climbed to number 2 but Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights kept it from the top spot. The single came complete with a fantastic video exposing Debbie Harry to the UK population and making her a pin up for a generation of boys to drool upon. Over the next few years Blondie would become one of the biggest bands in the world and have 6 number one singles in the UK. The success was pretty instant in the UK after Denis but it took a little longer in their home country. Here's the single

The Sounds - Painted By Numbers

This track should have been a huge hit here in the UK, but for some reason it was more or less ignored, a real shame. The Sounds are a Swedish group who have been around for over 10 years. The band have done a lot of touring around the world as support act and headliners and grown a steady following. Painted By Numbers comes from the album Dying To Say This To You and I first saw the single being played on MTV and thought it was a great single. Very much sounding New Wave, very much sounding like Blondie and I guess similar looking, certainly for the video with the black and white theme (aka Parallel Lines). The single was released in the UK in 2007 but a few months after I first saw it on MTV, maybe the rotation of the video helped get it released here but I feel was a little too late for them. It never charted and it disappeared without trace. Have a listen to it, it is a great tune that should have been bigger and everyone should have heard! Here's the cover

The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl

I still really really enjoy listening to this single after all these years! American band The Cars released this track about a guy who sees his best friend with a new girlfriend and that girl used to be his girl, in October 1978 and slowly climbed the charts to a final position of number 3. This new wave track also had the award of being the first available picture disc released here and vanished off the shelves straight away. It would be a few years later before I managed to get a copy of it.

I remember being bought a new stereo for Christmas in 1978 plus a new pair of headphones and had some money to buy some new records and I bought this single and was the first new single I played on that record player, memories eh! So here is the single, plus the picture disc of the track!

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

Released towards the end of 1978 and got to number 1 in January 1979, this Ian Dury single showed that the the mixture of clever lyrics and great music was a hit with the record buying public. Released on Stiff records and was backed with There Ain't half Been Some Clever Bastards, the single sold just under a million copies and in 1985 was remixed but wasn't a patch on the original.

The song came from lyrics Dury had written a few years earlier, slightly changed and inspired from the piano riff from Wake Up And Make Love With Me (off Dury's New Boots & Panties album). After several takes of the song they used one of the earlier takes for the single although not many of the band were happy with the mix. Listening to the single you get to realise just what a great songsmith Ian was, but the band were equally as good, the band playing on the single were amazing, they were so good Stiff Records often used the band as the label's inhouse band for their solo artists to record with. Ian Dury died in March 2000 but the band still play on, with guest vocalists, however good the singers are, no one can match Ian Dury!

The Doll - Desire Me

The charts in 1979 were an exciting time, lots of new bands with new fresh sounds were hitting the charts and appearing on Top Of The Pops. This was where I saw this band perform this fantastic single. I remember the band fronted by Marion Valentine playing the track and she was wearing a leopard skin suit to match her guitar and got all the boys talking about her. The single only reached number 28 in the charts during it's 8 week spell in the top 40. It got released as a double single (a new format in those days) 12'' & normal 7'' singles but couldn't push it any higher, but classic songs don't always have to sell huge amounts.

The band split shortly after the single, but a newly reformed band recorded the follow up single and an album but neither hit the charts again and the band split for good in 1980.

Squeeze - Cool For Cats

The second single from the album of the same name, Cool For Cats hit the charts in March 1979. Helped by the single being released in pink vinyl, the song complete with Cockney rhyming slang and the Cockney vocals of Chris Difford became the band's biggest hit at that point reaching number 2. The video with dancing, singing girls to the chorus was shown a lot on TV at the time as it was still a rare thing to have a video to a single in those days. When I bought the single it was one of the first few singles I managed to buy in coloured vinyl, it was also released in a rarer deep pink vinyl too!

Blondie - Picture This

After having two top 20 hits in the UK, the band released this single in the summer of 1978 and got to number 12 in the UK charts. Released on limited edition yellow vinyl and was also the first single off the forth coming Parallel Lines album giving us an idea what to expect off the new album (and nobody was dissapointed) also the cover of the single was used as the picture disc version of the album. A classic piece of pop which I always remember it being played on the radio, but I am really surprised to find out the single never got an American release! Here's the single plus the scan of the yellow vinyl 7''.

The Police - Roxanne

Fresh from their record contract with Illigal Records, the band were signed to A&M Records after the label heard this track. Roxanne was first released in the UK in 1978 but never achieved much success and had to wait until the next single, Can't Stand Losing You had been a hit and then Roxanne got a reissue and the rest is history. The song was based around a guy falling for a prostitute and falling in love with her. The single originally was banned by the BBC because of the subject matter but I think the reissue recieved airplay and got to number 12 in 1979.

Here is the single in blue vinyl and complete with the picture cover, it was reissued again in 1980 as part of the Six Pack in a different sleeve and a different shade of blue!

A Little More About Me!

As long as I can remember music and records have always been around me, my Parents are into rock n roll, my Aunt always played the Beatles and the Rolling Stones records. Mother tells the story that I actually learnt to read by reading record labels! But it was my big sister that really got me into music, in the early 70's she was really into Glam rock and had a crush on the Sweet & Marc Bolan. The music then was amazing, exciting and shocking (well to the adults) especially when Bowie hit the scene wearing make up and Elton John dressed, welll like he always did so OTT!

My sister always wrote the top 20 charts out every week and I used to visit her and we'd spend a Sunday listening to the radio or she'd play the previous weeks top 40 she'd recorded onto cassette off the radio. So I did the same, I'd listen to the charts, record the songs I liked and bought singles when I had pocket money. So it was Glam rock I first really got into, Sweet being my faves of that period followed by T Rex, Slade and Queen. After the Punk explosion which I didn't really get into till after event really but I loved a lot of the new wave bands that were coming into the charts, Blondie, The Police & Ian Dury. The end of the seventies came New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (Or NWOBHM as it was refered to in the music papers) which brought bands such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden & Motorhead, I found heavy metal to be just so full of energy and it was exciting like I found Glam rock to be!

The beginning of the eighties was Electronic music, the sound of the synths and the alien sounds that came with the tracks at that time. Gary Numan, Human League and Kraftwerk were big names connected with the music. Which led to the New Romantics who were around from 80-83 with electronic sounds and stylish clothes to match the music who brought us Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Soft Cell and ABC.

To me after around 1985 I think music started to go downhill, there wasn't anything exciting for me, it seemed to turn into safe pop music or Club hits or even R&B and Rap (which I hate, I've tried to listen Rap & R&B but apart from the odd track it's just not my scene man)! Then towards the late 90's came dance music and Trance which I really love listening to which brings back all the electronic music I'd always liked and pulsating beats of trance music brings me up to date!

Here is a photo of a very small part of my 7'' vinyl collection, I'm still sorting it all out, it takes time but I'll get it done then it will be the start of the albums!