Happy Birthday

I’ll have to be brief because I’m not supposed to be blogging at the moment. I’ve packed the kids off to school (easier said than done) and taken the day off work so I can spend some quality time with Mrs Mick on her birthday, which she just happens to share with Clare Grogan…

Bonus Friday post

This is the 3rd and final 70s Talk Box record in my mini series. I bought this back when I was 16. It’s not cheesy or saucy like the others but it turned up on a 70s CD set I got (from my favourite charity shop again) and when it unexpectedly blasted out of my cars speakers I was struck by how great it sounded, but also how the production and singing style (which won’t be to every ones taste) and particularly the synth and (Talk Box) guitar solos rooted it firmly in its time. Not that that’s a bad thing.

John Miles - Slow Down (1977)

Interesting pop fact: John Miles was a member of a band called The Influence which also included the great Paul Thompson of Roxy Music fame.

Another cheesy Friday treat

Remember that song I posted last week that was cheesy, saucy, raunchy, sexy etc? Well I didn’t intend it to turn into a series but I’ve got an even better record from the same year which is all that and has the Talkbox guitar. Hard to believe this record was almost a guilty secret tucked away in my odds & sods box. It sounds like an absolute classic now.

Fox - S-S-S-Single Bed (1976)

There’s a brilliant TOTP performance here. I just watched it with my 6-year old who’s off school today and he says it’s rubbish

I’ve got one more Talkbox classic from 1976 that I want to share. It’s by a male artist, it’s not as sexy and cheesy as Dr Kiss Kiss and S-S-S-Single Bed but it’s funky and urgent. Any ideas?

1980 Single of the Week

What with 1980 being 30 years ago now (can you believe that?) this is a cunning plan I’ve come up with to ensure I do at least one post every week. I considered doing this a few years back with 1978 singles and in a way I regret not doing it. It would have been an interesting mix of new and old wave music. By 1980 I was firmly in the new wave camp but I wasn’t about to give up on all my old favourites so this series may throw up a few singles which will shock and appal you.

I’m going to start, however, with the sort of single you would expect to find here; a double-A from Fad Gadget AKA Frank Tovey. Fireside Favourite got far more plays due to its brassy synth and funny lyric. Actually the way it mixes sexual imagery with a description of a nuclear explosion was probably meant to be disturbing but it appealed to my sense of humour at the time. We always sang along with the ‘now we’re just a scab on a piece of wire’ line near the end back in my house sharing days.

Insecticide is life from a fly’s perspective. Probably the reason I favoured the other side.

Fad Gadget - Fireside Favourite (1980)
Fad Gadget - Insecticide (1980)

I’m not joking – I love this song…

I got this on a disco CD from that favourite charity shop I’m always going on about. I’m not sure I would describe it as disco but it could only have come from the mid 70s with the ‘talk box’ guitar that was all the rage at the time. Words that come to mind are kitsch, arch, corny, saucy, foxy, brash, cheeky, sassy. Those are all good things by the way but for me the song is made by singer Linda Kelly who gives it a far better performance than it deserves and does those great screams, especially the one at 1.50.

5000 Volts - Dr Kiss Kiss (1976)

To Heaven A Jet

This is another of those ‘can’t believe I haven’t already posted this’ posts. I was saving it for a planned series of posts on Bill Nelson’s Cocteau records but realistically any series of posts just isn’t going to happen.

I know nothing about To Heaven A Jet. They didn’t even get to play on both sides of this single. The b-side was credited to Revox Cadets which was actually a Bill Nelson pseudonym and can be heard on one of my previous posts. Airfields has the characteristic cold and synthy sound of its era and went the way of most Bill Nelson productions, ie sank without trace, but we love this sort of record round these parts.

To Heaven A Jet - Airfields (1981)