#6 – that made me laugh. I’m beginning to think I had a sheltered life (but: council estate, really rather rough state school, in Dagenham, with skinheads, NF types, mods, all that stuff) – never heard anything even remotely like that in the junior school playground, aged 9 as I was in 1984 too. Mind you first time I recall ever being sworn at was in ’84, some rough girl in a playground in one of the three then remaining mining villages in Kent: a group of us had gone down to “offer support” to the striking miners (listen to their brass band and all that – a bit of Yorkshire – or possibly Wales – I can’t remember where the first miners there migrated from – really weird places rather out of place in England’s Garden County), and I was told in no uncertain terms that I was a c— and I should f— off back to the city. Nice. Which is pretty much what the Flying Pickets said implicitly to Yazoo. End of the pier semi-acapella dross, alas.

“Scrupulously fashioned and very clever accapella arrangement for the Yazoo classic. The textures are smooth as ice, the harmonies crystal clear inspired by The Beach Boys and The Bee Gees, I’d say. The lead vocal’s a bit on the nasal side but perhaps the song’s current chart-slog status will leave the way clear for the group to fire some of the pithy political pellets I’m assured they have in their live act.”

No single of the week was awarded. Also reviewed;

Culture Club – Victims
UB40 – Many Rivers To Cross
Robert Plant – In The Mood
Adam Ant – Strip
Billy Joel – Tell Her About It
Nick Heyward – On A Sunday
Def Leppard – Too Late For Love
Elton John – Cold As Christmas
Status Quo – Marguerita Time

Not though anyone would claim that they were an irritating novelty act with an obviously short shelf life in the first place, mind you.

Brian Hibbard went on to play a mechanic who had an affair with Denise in Coronation Street in the early nineties. The exposure from this was enough to propel him into one of the leads in a pantomime at the Lewisham Theatre in 1995, a performance which my friend Harry had to see many dozens of times as usher. The memory of Hibbard’s duet with Britain’s olympic gold medal heroine Tessa Sanderson still makes him uneasy after all of the intervening years.

I’d heard of them before, although I couldn’t tell you where from, and enjoyed the novelty aspect – there were many worse candidates for the Christmas number one, although I’d agree with contributors above that Yazoo should have got there first and that Alison Moyet is a national treasure.

The song takes me back to finals year in the fourth floor of the east wing of Founders Hall (Billy will know what I’m talking about). After the nightmare neighbours of first year and the life-sapping landlady of second year, finals year saw me in with a great bunch of blokes as neighbours. There’d be a competition to play the coolest music you’d hear as you walked down the corridor, but nobody forced theirs down your throat at high volume, and it was just a good atmosphere. One bloke had an early interactive computer game, and I’d wind down from finals revision by playing The Hobbit in his room until the early hours (and a few years later I was best man at his wedding).

And around Christmas that year there was a fad for singing the intro to “Only You” as you passed people’s doors, making the opening “B” as explosive as possible, i.e. “BBBA-da-da-da, BBBA-da-da-da…” It particularly amused one bloke named Butterworth: I never knew his first name because everybody just called him Lenin, since he was a complete ringer for, well, Lenin. One night he was leaning up against a wall in the hall of residence, pissed out of his head, going “BBBA-da-da-da…” at the top of his voice, and someone peered out of his room to say “Excuse me, could you keep the noise down, I’ve an important exam tomorrow?” Lenin threw a scrunched-up piece of paper in hIs general direction with the immortal words, “SHO ‘AVE I…”

The Pickets were good value for their brief stint in the limelight. I remember Smash Hits asking the bald bass singer who called himself Red Stripe for a Christmas message to Mrs Thatcher and his reply was “How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand dead ?” (referring to the Falklands).

the FP were doing the rounds on fringe and left wing cabaret sort of things around this time, and my mum saw them live a lot before this point. and i remember an album getting played a lot, and their (mildly comedic – ie not) version of Summertime is stuck in my head. gah.

@JimD #12 — i made the connection with the sideburns dude in that Dr Who story for myself, but never checked it was true. how awful for poor stubby kaye.

Disappointing…

I quite like the Yazoo version, so I’ll give this marks for the source material. 5 sounds about right.

It was weird but I still have uncanny feelings when I hear it.

i imagine the er détournement of the term was probably originally hamilton’s (of course ferry also “covered” the “bride stripped bare”)

8 December 1983. Also in the studio that week were; Thompson Twins, Tears For Fears and Howard Jones. Mike Read and Tommy Vance were the hosts.

15 December 1983. Also in the studio that week were; Status Quo, Slade and The Pretenders. Simon Bates and Janice Long were the hosts.

22 December 1983. Also in the studio that week were; Slade, Tears For Fears, Dennis Waterman & George Cole and Howard Jones. John Peel and David Jensen were the hosts.

25 December 1983. Also in the studio that Christmas were; Freeez, Shakin’ Stevens, Eurythmics, Adam Ant, Bucks Fizz, Heaven 17 and UB40. Simon Bates, Janice Long, Mike Smith, Andy Peebles, Adrian John and Gary davies were the hosts.

I quite like the song and the way they did it. I do find the original cold, I certainly don’t see any smugness or calculating ‘down with electronic music!’ in the Pickets’ version. To me, it just sounds like they’ve found a strong song that they like and are having a go at it. 6 is good for me.