(Note to wichita lineman: Curiously, I also saw Orange Juice at The Venue in Victoria, but with The Bluebells supporting. Fairly sure it was August 1981, not long after Poor Old Soul came out.)

How art the mighty fallen!

Don’t think I’m able to offer up much in the way of meta analysis in the context of the era, but I’ve been following it for a while and have been very pleased with the dizzying pace it moved last year, great to be up to the 80s already.

The South Pacific soundtrack, along with those of Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I (and probably others, but mainly those) were part of the wallpaper of my formative years. I won’t hear a word against any of them! The first song I ever learned to sing in French was not Frère Jacques, nor even Sûr le pont d’Avignon but

Dîtes-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est belle
Dîtes-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est gai

I posted a Dolly Mixture song on me blog the other day, probably considered the “famous” one but I’m no scholar of their oeuvre.

Everything went exceeeedingly colourful in 1982, a belated flipside to 1980′s unrelenting monochrome (Closer/Crocodiles/MASH/McLean). It was all teased up, frizzy blonde hair, lurid lipstick, bows and ribbons, the much ridiculed rara skirt. Bananarama and the previously mentioned Belle Stars bossed the look, which was mirrored by the super-chirpy no.1s we’ve been witnessing.

I wasn’t aware of the original, so this take didn’t pall quickly, and was most pleased with its colossal and unexpected leap from 26 to 1 in a single week.

Also I’d been to see Dolly Mixture – in their decidedly un-82, proto-86 Oxfam gear – supporting Orange Juice at the Venue, Victoria, in January. After that they played Croydon’s Warehouse Theatre to about 40 people on a seemingly monthly basis, and I saw them every time. No wonder I was pleased when this got to no.1 and earnt them a Melody Maker cover. It’s hard for me to be objective – but without the DM backing this is no better or worse than Whispering Grass.

It seemed to disappear sharpish – six weeks at no.1 would have tested even my patience.

I also have a soft spot for Dolly Mixture. My oldest friend ran a website about them for ages, and their ‘Demos’ was his favourite album. Like Tom, I still have the C90 my friend made for me of it.

Nonetheless, this is rubbish, and 3 is about right.

1 July 1982. Also in the studio that week were; Visage, Dollar and Natasha, plus Zoo’s interpretation of ‘Murphy’s Law’. John Peel was the host.

8 July 1982. Also in the studio that week were; Imagination, Trio, Odyssey and Bananarama. John Peel was again the host.

I need to put something about the comments in the about page I think – it’s quite common for old posts to suddenly generate conversation.

So, basically, I found this series a couple of weeks back, being quick on the uptake, like. Via Mike. Thanks Mike! So I’ve been reading back in the archives through all the reviews and conversations about this great, great music that I love to bits. I haven’t left any comments, as joining a conversation several months old is never quite as rewarding, but I’ve ever so much been looking forward to a new one being posted so I can…

Oh. It’s Captain Sensible doing ‘Happy Talk’.

I was eleven. I’d never heard of The Damned, I’d never heard of South Pacific. Even at eleven, it made me cringe. A few years on, all I can add to an agreement of snoball’s #18 summary is that there are novelty songs that burst out at you, that have been crafted with wit, with love, with originality. And there are things like this.

Hullo all.

I was also thinking that the 1982 No.1s, and the last 6 in particular, sound like an interesting conversation between shiny/playful/ironic pop and sincere/mature/meaningful pop and the dangers inherent in both; pushed too far in one direction things can get a bit forced (House of Fun) irritatingly wacky (Happy Talk) or start to prowl the boundary between reality and artifice in a slightly worrying way (GTS); go the other way and you make it just too easy to take the piss (Ebony and Ivory, A Little Peace, Hey Laydee). & this conundrum has maybe always been around (its certainly always around in my head, and music consumption), but I’m associating it particularly with the early 80s, hedonism v seriousness in response to mass unemployment and the nuclear shadow blah.

Nice bit of trivia because I thought they were ultra obscure and have an mp3 from them “New Look Baby” which is much fun in a shambolic Bow Wow Wow/Belle Stars kind of way.

That and the incongruity of the performer are the only interesting thing about this record which truly stinks and seems to be an irritating novelty song in any incarnation.

The South Pacific angle makes it seem even more cynical than the intended sardonic delvery. PJ Harvey was at least able to truly subvert the most iconic song from the soundtrack, rather than this giggling family friendly version.

I saw the Damned in 77 supporting T.Rex, and enjoyed their early albums, before they went off the boil a bit. I’m looking forward to seeing them in June when they play with the Alarm in Glasgow.

That doesn’t stop me from enjoying this piece of silliness. I was initially only vaguely aware that it was an “oldie”, but not specifically that it came from South Pacific. I would have thought that most potential buyers (bemused Damned fans and kids) would have thought much the same, so I don’t go along with the “wave of nostalgia” theory. I liked at the time and I like it now – it’s no masterpiece, but a solid 7.

(One downside – was it because of the success of this that Sting’s execrable “Spread a Little Happiness” from the Brimstone and Treacle soundtrack was released as a single??)

Finally, I’m quite sure that, by now, the vast majority of Liverpool (and Celtic) fans are well aware of the origin of their anthem. It is often assumed that as football fans we will be culturally ignorant, but this particular fact is drummed into every fan of these clubs precisely to avoid having the p*** taken by others who wrongly assume the intellectual high ground.

With his whacky proto-Timmy Mallet persona and chirpy song of novelty and enforced jollity, Captain Sensible reminded me of the more blatant type of childrens’ entertainer, the sort who’d create a consensus in his audience around behaving in a ‘humorous’ manner, which I would then feel duty bound to reject. This certainly seemed to be hugely popular with all other children at the time – I was just born to sorrow!

As a grown man I now like both South Pacific and the seventies Damned, but this tawdry thing still just makes me really unhappy whenever I hear it. And in a mocking way, not a cathartic one.

As for Sensible, it just seemed like pure pantomime – fun but he came across as a kids TV uncle rather than trying to do anything particularly interesting with the track (except perhaps rescue it from its dodgy original rendition pidgin English). But when it comes to SOutH Pacific I am more of a Cockeyed Optimist kind of guy.

I think everyone knows You’ll Never Walk Alone is from Carousel, it was a Trivial Pursuit question after all!