Zippy T Doodar

At that time [1992] I would not really know what would be going on in the Scottish Music Scene, as I stopped buying the Scottish music monthly Cut Magazine a couple of years previously. I do not know if you used to buy this magazine or are a fan of graphic novels, but if you are then you may know this magazine from an infamous comic strip by Grant Morrison which caused a lot of fuss at the time. I used to get that magazine around 1988/1989 and the types of acts that would be featured would be ones like The Blue Nile, Win and Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. I think, through the pages of the magazine, I would have known acts like Paul Haig and Edwyn Collins first as solo artists before I discovered their work with Josef K and Orange Juice. In regards to Orange Juice I do not think I knew anything about their music in the early 1980s, apart from the fact that they had dolphins on the cover of “You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever”. At that point I was a fan of Aztec Camera and owned their “Love” album [one of my favourite LPs at the time], but I do not think I knew of the Postcard Records link between Haig, Collins and Roddy Frame until a few years later. If you are in your 40s then you may have been part of "The Sound of Young Scotland" scene, though if you are also in your mid-30s, you will have probably just missed out like me. I would have been in my later years of school when grunge broke into the mainstream, but as an indie fan, I think it would have been better to have been a 6th Former, 10 years earlier in the early 1980s when record labels like Postcard were first being created. In the early 1990s, you did have Teenage Fanclub in the indie charts, but generally it seemed that Scottish music was being mostly represented by Del Amitri, Simple Minds and Wet Wet Wet, acts who, at that point, did not release the best music of their careers [i like some of their other records]. Even though I would never want to listen to some of Wet Wet Wet’s records again, I think as a vocalist Marti Pellow is slightly under-rated. I prefer him than Michael Bolton. Loz

I heard “Cloudbusting” on ‘Absolute 80s’ last night and for the first time ever, I thought that the production on the song actually reminded me of ‘Tango In The Night’ era Fleetwood Mac [especially “Big Love”]. Loz

I have heard their name mentioned many times over the years, but I could not tell you any records they would have released. As they were a band who were critically adored, I have an idea of their importance to the indie music scene and as a reference I guess they would be similar to mentioning The Field Mice, Talulah Gosh or Sarah Records in an article. There is also an American band called The Young Fresh Fellows and they were releasing records around the same time that The Young Marble Giants were active. As both acts had similar names I would get the two acts mixed up as my knowledge of them has remained vague. I cannot tell you anything about The Young Fresh Fellows apart from the fact that their name was mentioned in a song called “Twisting” by They Might Be Giants [an indie duo that I started liking back in the 1980s, a few years before their “Flood” album was released and an act that I could not mistake for the YMG]. Loz

I do not think “Louie Louie” was ever a big hit in the British charts. I think it may have been popular in America, but as far as the UK market was concerned, I think the song became more of an ‘underground’ tune. I say that, even though I do not know what would be regarded as an ‘underground’ scene in the early part of the 1960s. From what I know of Britain in the 1960s, all the ‘troublesome’ or ‘dangerous’ scenes, like the ones that featured Mods, Rockers and Hippies, would come later on. I think they were the moral panics of the period 1967-1969, whilst earlier on all I can think of as being ‘underground’ would be the beatnik jazz scene that would normally be shown as being situated in and around Soho. I know that The Kingsmen are usually described as a ‘garage’ band but I do not know if this would be just an American genre at the time. I think ‘garage-rock’ could be the American equivalent to that British blues-rock scene that ‘spawned’ successful acts like The Who and The Animals. I do not know if any of the American acts from that scene had the same stadium-sized success in their home country as The Who did here or whether they would be generally regarded as a one-hit wonders, outside a small specialist group of ‘garage-rock’ aficionados. I do not know if you are a fan of the ‘garage-rock’ genre but “Louie Louie” would be the only record that I know that was by The Kingsmen. The tracks mentioned in my previous posts [The Kingsmen, PJ Proby] all feature on a compilation album that is supposed to represent the playlists the pirate radio stations in the mid 1960s. The compilation was issued around the same time as that Richard Curtis film, “The Boat That Rocked”, was released into the cinemas of the UK and Ireland. I do not know if you have seen the film, but if you have avoided it thinking it was just another ‘Richard Curtis rom-com’ [though he was the guy who created Blackadder], then it might be of interest to you especially if this was the era you grew up in [and especially if you were one of those people who would be listening to their transistor radio from under the bed sheets]. Even though the film will never feature on E4’s ‘100 Greatest Comedy’ films list and would be too long to sit through in one sitting at the cinema, it is supposed to be a good representation of the pirate radio scene of the mid 1960s. I grew up in the 1980s, so I associate ‘pirate radio’ with the kind located in tower blocks and parodied by The Lenny Henry Show [Delbert Wilkins of The Brixton Broadcasting Corporation]. The ‘pirates’ of the 1960s may have been radical and scandalous in their day, but it is hard to believe how much trouble they were, especially when many of the presenters on those boats turned out to be the cheesy ‘Smashy and Nicey’ types of the 1980s. Do you remember what radio was like in the 1960s and were you a listener of ‘pirate radio’ at that time? If so, which station did you listen to and could you get Radio Caroline, Radio London or The Big L on your wireless set? Loz

Some good points in your comments, though I cannot see there being too much initial scandal around The Monkees, as I would expect most people in 1960s America would have viewed them as a TV comedy show first. I suppose you could view them as the retro equivalent to ‘Glee’ though in the case of The Monkees I suppose you could say the music is a far better feature of the show, than the comedy. When I was younger, I thought that 1960s acts were just suitable for ‘old fogies’ [my parents] and like S/A/W, Genesis or Hair Metal, this would be the type of music that I would not listen to. Even though I would try to avoid most 1960s music, The Monkees would be one of the few acts that I thought were alright, as I used to watch their show when it was broadcast on TV every holiday morning. You see I hated ‘Why Don’t You’ with a passion and so would watch all those old American comedy shows like The Monkees, Get Smart and I Dream Of Jeanie instead when Inspector Gadget and Ox Tales were not being shown. I do not know if The Archies were a cartoon series as well as a comic strip, or whether the cartoon footage I have seen was just made to promote the song, but I think their music career may have been developed to rival to The Monkees. At the time, I heard that all the people who played on the record were anonymously listed to make it look like the cartoon characters were actually the people who played on the record. I have forgotten who the studio band was, but like Gorillaz I think the people behind The Archies also had many other Number One hits as well. It may have been Flo & Eddie from The Turtles but I think they ended up as part of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention instead. I was actually listening to a 1960s rock album today before I came out to work. On the disc was PJ Proby, whose ‘pant-splitting’ exploits I heard much about in my youth from my father. With all the fuss that was made over Proby I though he might have exposed himself in a way similar to Iggy Pop and his infamous see-through trousers, but according to a documentary I saw recently it was only his knee that was exposed. Also on the disc was “Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen, which I think was regarded as being very obscene back in the 1960s. Even though the lyrics are not supposed to be rude, the mumbled voice on the record does give the impression that you are in fact listening to someone who might be the ‘American Serge Gainsbourg’. I do not know if you have figured out the lyrics yet, but to me it does sound like the chorus is “Louie Lou-eh [rude noises] to the break of dawn”. I do not go to the cinema very much, as generally I am not a person who likes to sit with all the noisy crowds that you get at a ‘blockbuster’, though I did make a point to watch the recent ‘Gainsbourg’ film. I thought the film was entertaining, but as the film overlooked a lot of his scandals, I guess anybody who is not too familiar with Gainsbourg would wonder what all the fuss was about. As expected, the film featured “Je T’aime”, though some of the lines were not subtitled, probably due to maximum rudeness. Not only was “Je T’aime” covered by René Artois from ‘Allo ‘Allo, but by Judge Dread as well, an act who managed to chart many rude reggae songs over a period of about 10 years. I have recently heard one of his songs on a reggae compilation album but I do not know which one as most of his Top 40 hits had similar titles. As these titles included “Big Six”, “Big Seven” and “Big Eight”, I wonder if he would have debuted with a “Big One”. I also wonder if any of his records would have been played on the radio in the 1970s. If “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood was banned in the 1980s and that song was actually not very rude at all, then I cannot see how Judge Dread could get any airplay at all. At this point I am having trouble imagining where Judge Dread fits into 1970s culture, as on one hand he could have been quite an ‘underground’ act and on the other he was a very successful artist in the charts, with his singles on the chart for about 25 weeks each. I am wondering if he would fit into a ‘humourous song’ scene that might also feature people like Jasper Carrott, Max Boyce, Mike Harding or Doc Cox, though I do not think any of these performers had any reggae songs in their sets. Can you remember seeing any of these acts at the time? If so, what are your reminisces and thoughts about this period of popular culture? Loz

I remember he was going to do a ‘Reload 2’ with Gut Records, but V2 offered him a better deal. I think he should have stuck with a Gut contract, as when he signed to V2, they ended up releasing that “Tom Jones International” song with Wyclef Jean, which was slightly embarrassing. At this point, some might say that Wyclef Jean’s election [as President of Haiti] would be for the best, as it would stop him making any more records like “Tom Jones International”, though to give Jean credit I thought that his solo hit “Gone Till November” was an excellent single. Loz

Talking of ‘oldies stations’, I do hope ‘Absolute 80s’ will one day get around to playing another a-ha record that is not “Take On Me”. It would be nice to find “Train Of Thought” or “You Are The One” on their playlist for once. Loz

Sorry for the confusion as the sentence was supposed to feature three separate acts. Maybe I should have used Indecent Obsession instead of Check 1-2 as David Dickinson, the lead singer of this Australian Brother Beyond, ended up in Home & Away after his band failed to chart in the UK. Yes you are correct, Craig McLachlan was indeed the lead singer of Check 1-2, though they were credited as Craig McLachlan & Check 1-2 by the time the band had their hits, as that billing built upon McLachlan’s success as Henry from Neighbours. I now seem to think that the former name of Check 1-2 was ‘The Y Frontz’ and I think this band may have featured the guy who played Des Clarke on sax. I remember that ‘Des Clarke’ was part of a band during his years on Neighbours and I think that many other cast members were involved too. Unfortunately, I do not think he was able to capitalise on his success, even as a ‘Karl Kennedy’ type of ‘student turn’, because last time his name was mentioned in a conversation at work, someone said he is now homeless. I do not know if you remember an Irish band called The Forget-Me-Nots? Well they were a band who released a jolly tune in 1991 called “Soap Singer’s Beat” [the chorus went “All those records you release, same to me to me”]. It was a pity that the song was not released a couple of years earlier when Kylie & Jason were having all their Number Ones, as I think it would have been a hit back then, especially as those were the days when the charts were also full of ‘Cut Magazine’ acts such as Texas, Deacon Blue and The Bible [if you want to imagine the sound of this record think about what would happen if Claire Grogan was the lead singer of The Frank & Walters]. By 1991, S/A/W had been superseded by the success of New Kids On The Block and even that group’s success was fading as bands like Take That came onto the scene. Even though it seemed that every soap star who featured in ‘Big Magazine’ [for example Abi Tucker and Laura Vasquez] were saying how they were about to release a record, most of these recordings would not trouble Take That in the charts as the majority of these releases were generally worse than any tunes that S/A/W may have recorded in the late stages of their career [including the ones written for Big Fun and Sonia]. Therefore if I had a choice between an album of S/A/W produced tracks and an album of singing soap stars I think I would select the former, as the S/A/W compilation would no doubt have Dead Or Alive’s “You Soin Me Round” as one of the tracks, whilst the latter would probably feature Adam Ricketts or Sid Owen. Unless you or anybody else can come up with any other good examples, I think that the only decent soap star-turned pop singer is Kylie Minogue. Even though I was a big Neighbours fan when I was younger [even watching the first episode], these days I only think of her in terms of pop music and so when she does turn up acting in a film, I generally think of her in a way similar to that of Madonna. Loz

Hello everybody, I am here today to talk about celebrity scandals. Does anybody have any particular favourites they would like to talk about? First of all, I would like to discuss scandals involving performers miming to other people’s voices on ‘their’ records. What are your opinions about this? I mention this as I have been reading about the court case involving Lou De Prijck, the real singer of the Plastic Bertrand song “Ça Plane Pour Moi”. De Prijck wanted to promote himself as original singer of the song, which was much to the disgust of the record company that owned the original rights. Now I was quite surprised that this had come to light again, as I thought that the fact that Plastic Bertrand did not sing on the song was common knowledge by now. I first heard these rumours way back in the early 1990s and anyway I thought that Plastic Bertrand was always regarded as a punk ‘cash-in’, rather than a ‘proper punk’, in the eyes of the press. Even though most people will have not seen De Prijck before or care who Plastic Bertrand actually was [to be honest I would not know who he was without looking at the cover of the first Smash Hits magazine] I think most people on here will remember Milli Vanilli or Black Box, two high profile ‘lip-synch’ acts of the late 1980s. In suppose if the success of Milli Vanilli and Black Box had just stayed confined to Europe, then nobody would have bothered too much as this kind of ‘deception’ was something that you would expect of Euro-pop and Euro-dance producers [49ers, Boney M, Xpansions, DJH featuring Steffi etc]. In regards to English and American acts, I think in the past, most stories have involved people not playing on their own records rather than miming along to other people vocals, though in the cases of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and ‘The Pistols’ [allegedly 10cc and Chris ‘Motorbiking’ Spedding respectively], these rumours have only added to their ‘mystique’. So what do you think? Loz

Yes, Russell Mucahy is the director’s name, though I thought it could be Russell Malachy or Russell Mullhern. “The Chauffeur” is one of my favourite early Duran songs as well, alongside “Save A Prayer”, and yes, those other songs that you mention are very much under-rated. I do not remember the video for “Do You Believe In Shame?” as it is not included on their ‘Greatest’ singles DVD. Thankfully, it looks like EMI will be re-issuing Duran Duran’s entire back catalogue as 2CD/DVD sets so I will be able to get the videos on those releases when they come out. ‘Notorious’ should be next as they are already up to the Arcadia album. I do not know if they will bother re-issuing The Power Station album as well, though obviously Robert Palmer should have been already mentioned in this list for his female video backing band. “Do You Believe In Shame?” is from the Duran album called ‘Big Thing’, so I think you might be remembering The Age Of Chance instead. I think their album may have been called ‘Big Noise’ after one of their singles which had the title “Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Noise”. I remember that the covers for ‘Big Thing’ and The Age Of Chance would have been similar, as both artworks featured a lot of brightly covered type. I like The Age Of Chance’s VHS, even though it is only 10 minutes long. Thankfully I did not pay the original £10.99 asking price for it, as I picked it up when it was only a pound in the Virgin Megastore sale. As well as “Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Noise”, the VHS features the videos for “Kiss” and “Don’t Get Mad…Get Even”. At that point The Age Of Chance reminded me of an indie-dance-punk ABC at the point where Fry & White had David Yarratu and Eden in the line up [‘Zillionaire’]. I think that The Age Of Chance should have been as big as PWEI or Jesus Jones, as a record like “Info-freako” sounds quite similar to the Sheffield group. The Age Of Chance album that I own is the one that they released in 1990 after changing singers. From what I can remember of the album, I think it sounded very much like a male-fronted version of ‘1234’, the album released by Propaganda in the same year [i suppose you could say they were not the ‘real’ Propaganda at that point as only one member was left from the ZTT days]. In regards to Talk Talk, Squeeze and XTC, I can only agree with you as they are bands that I like and their singles are always very welcome when I hear them on the radio [though ‘Absolute 80s’ should play more of their tunes]. I came to XTC quite late so I cannot remember any of their videos apart from the one for “Dear God”. This video is still a very vague memory in my mind and from what I can remember it could be a Talk Talk video that I am thinking of. All I remember is that the video features somebody standing in a field under a tree. I think that this person starts off as a boy who ‘turns’ into Andy Partridge as the video progresses. I cannot remember anything else about the video apart from that and the fact that the boy reappears at the end of the shoot. I do not think there were any DVDs ever released by XTC, which is a shame. On the other hand, there were loads released by Squeeze, of which I own a few different re-issued video collections. Of their early videos, it is the one for “Cool For Cats” that comes to mind first, though generally the videos by Squeeze that are easily remembered, are the ones released from the ‘Babylon & On” album. I think it is because the videos for songs like “Hourglass” and “Trust Me To Open My Mouth” are quite ‘wacky’ and that is why those videos are so memorable for me. I think you could say at this point, Squeeze had become more like Madness and [The] Madness had become more like Squeeze. I think a lot of these videos may have been influenced by the television career of Jools Holland, who I seem to remember collaborating with people like Vic Reeves and Roland Rivron at that time. In the video for the single “8535937”, Holland is replaced by a cardboard cut out as he was making a comedy show and therefore was unavailable for filming. At the time I think he was recording the show where he meets an alien and the two of them go off on a journey around Britain, travelling in a modified Rolls Royce that has a squashed roof. I do not know if you remember this show but it used to be on Channel 4 late at night, which after his live link ‘slip-up’ was the only place Channel 4 would dare put him. I remember watching ‘The Tube’ and know that they used to make a lot of videos for new acts that they had discovered. I have regularly seen the videos they made for The Proclaimers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood [perhaps one of the most important videos of the 1980s, more important than the two videos ZTT released for Frankie], but I cannot remember any other acts, so if anybody else can remember who they saw on The Tube, please let me know in this thread. Loz

I heard on the radio that she is 52 today. Happy Birthday Kate! Loz

Yes, that was indeed Candyland, a band who, whilst not being part of that old ‘Madchester’ scene, were an indie-dance act. I suppose you could say that they were a cross between EMF and Jefferson Airhead, acts who would have been releasing records around the same time as Candyland [i was going to say ‘The Mock Turtles and Jesus Jones’, but as Mike Edwards never gets good press these days, I decided EMF were a better reference]. The guy you remember with the bleached mop top haircut would have been the singer, though I cannot remember his name or what the album was called. I think the album could have been called ‘Kingdom’, after the third single or had something to do with eating sweets. Even if the band used a pun on the phrase Candyland, I do not think the title was as bizarre as ‘Madstock, The Continuing Adventures of Bubble Car Fish’, which was from an album released by fellow indie-dance types Candy Flip. I actually own that Candy Flip album, as it came in one of those American long-boxes that I liked to collect back in the early 1990s and was cheap enough to buy for the one song that I wanted. Even though I hated “Strawberry Fields Forever” I liked their single “Redhills Road”, a song which at the time reminded me of “Save A Prayer” era Duran Duran. In relation to ‘The Greatest Video Ever Made’, I think most people will normally say that the best Duran video is “Save A Prayer, “Rio” or Girls On Film”, all of which would be usually found in those type of lists. I would disagree, even though the first two videos are the kind of ‘luxury travelogues’ that are always strongly associated with Duran Duran. I would say that their best video is “All She Wants Is…” which was a completely animated video. It was done in a way similar to the ‘cut-away’ shots in the “New Sensation” video by INXS, whereby you move a band member one way and a florescence light the other, shot-by-shot. I think INXS and Duran also used the same video director a couple of times in the 1980s and his name was Russell, though it was not the same guy who created the “All She Wants Is…” video. This person also directed the last Arcadia video using the same visual effects but “All She Wants Is…” is the better song. Another 1980s act that I remember having very watchable videos was Talk Talk. This was because most of their videos were directed by Tim Pope, who also directed all The Cure videos in the 1980s, as well as other ‘natural history’ shoots such as “Charlton Heston” by Stump [the video that included a million frogs]. One video that I did not like by Talk Talk, was the one where they are all standing in a field, on a farm at about 6am in the morning. It would have been alright if it was a straight performance piece, but there were parts in the video where the music stops and the band start doing these ‘comedy interludes’. Not only does Mark Hollis speak into the camera, saying something like “Cor blimey Gov’nor look at my trousers”, but the song is repeated three times on the video collection, as the band have shot alternate back-to-back versions of the video, in the same location, within a time period of about 30 minutes. I do not think there is any similar problems with Peter Gabriel as all his videos are usually faultless. I would say that he is definitely an artist whose work I was introduced to by the medium of video [“Sledgehammer”, “Big Time” etc]. Even though I own his video collection on DVD and VHS, I have never got around to buying any of his albums from before 1986, whether solo or with Genesis [i suppose also due the Phil Collins association problem], and generally I am not too good at remembering album tracks on a day-to-day basis. “Downside Up” is not a record that comes to mind but I may have that track on the “Ovo” album, as I know that album features many guest vocalists such as Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile. Buchanan also appears on my Craig Armstrong album as well, doing an orchestral version of "Let's Go Out Tonight" [one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums]. “This Love” also appears on that album, but I have not listened to the album yet as I think most of the tracks will be instrumental pieces from films that Armstrong has scored. I do not fancy listening to an album like that at the moment, as I prefer listening to compilation albums by artists, such as The Wedding Present, where I know many of their hits. The Wedding Present’s ‘Ye Ye’ singles collection was the album that I listed to last night, but I do not know how any of their videos would go. I do not know if you remember any of the videos from their monthly singles campaign of 1992, but I think that all 12 videos from that ‘Hit Parade’ series have now been re-issued onto DVD [‘Dick York’s Wardrobe’]. I would quite like to buy that DVD as I only ever bought the vinyl singles the first time around. Even though I would like a Wedding Present DVD collection, I am worried that it will be a waste of money. I fear that the promos could be the kind of scrappy camcorder recordings that you would get on the Chart Show’s Indie Chart in 1986 when there were no Mute Records releases to be played, the kind of videos that would only usually be good enough for bonus footage. I have bought DVDs like that before and do not wish to waste my money again, so if you remember what they were like I would be very grateful indeed. Loz

I like both the Cocteau Twins and The Bunnymen, but that McCulloch/Fraser single does not come to mind as I only started to like those acts in the 1990s, around the time that McCulloch’s ‘Mysterio’ album and the “Lover Lover Lover” single was released. I think the lead singer of Echo & The Bunnymen was called Noel at that time, as McCulloch had left for his solo career, and I think they may have gone indie-dance by that time, as I remember their album cover was very ‘psychedelic’ looking. I guess it was no wonder why Echo & The Bunnymen reformed in the mid 1990s with McCulloch on vocals, as apart they were not entirely successful. If I remember correctly I think that the McCulloch/Fraser single only got to number 75 and so I think that they were actually listed as one of the ‘most unsuccessful one hit wonders’ in the Guinness Hit Singles Book, alongside Fish & Tony Banks. I think the Guinness Hit Singles Book was edited by Mike Reid, Tim Rice & Paul Gambaccini at that point, a role they did ever since they invented the first edition back in the 1970s. When they stopped their involvement in the mid 1990s, the new editors thought it was dumb to this list these collaborations as separate acts and so that single was put under McCulloch’s solo list. The band Candyland nearly featured on the list of ‘most unsuccessful one hit wonders’ as well, but their single “Fountain Of Youth”, charted a few places higher. Even though I still have their album somewhere at home [which has a purple banana on the front], I do not remember this single as well as “Bittermoon”, as it was not a record that was ever promoted much on TV. I thought that “Bittermoon” should have been a bigger hit, especially since the video was shown a few times on The Chart Show. I do not know if the members of Candyland went on to form any other groups and unlike The Apples, who did have only one hit at Number 75 with “Eye Wonder”, I do not think they would have been people in the 1980s that we should have known about [The Apples featured members of Win and so probably members of The Fire Engines as well]. In regards to Depeche Mode, it has been many years since I have played all the early videos as they are all on a VHS and the DVD that I normally watch starts in 1986 with the ‘Music For The Masses’ tracks. The fact that it is on VHS is one reason why I have not bothered playing that collection in the last 10 years and also because I think that most of the videos feature Dave Gahan’s ‘specialised’ dancing style, which is very nearly of the Hugh Dennis kind [from The Mary Whitehouse Experience years]. Even though they were made a few years before his ‘Rock God’ period, from what I can remember I do not think “Shake The Disease” or “It's Called A Heart” featured any of this ‘embarrassing dad’ dancing. I cannot remember which of these two songs it was, but I remember that one was shot all at night under floodlights in a kind of corn field. That was probably the best video on the collection [‘Some Great Videos’]. In a way similar to the dance of Dave Gahan [and the ‘stage presence’ of other 1980s stars such as Andy Bell and Jim Kerr] as a child I thought that it was easy to mimic the movements of Kate Bush, which would be done by waving your arms about in a circular fashion whilst singing “Wow”. Even though that association has held firm in my mind from a very young age, I cannot be sure if I ever saw the original video to “Wow” or whether the mannerisms that I remember were actually taken from a parody by someone like Pamela Stevenson on ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News’. Now that I have mentioned Not The Nine O’Clock News, I think I should mention “Nice Video Shame About The Song” at this point, even though it is an obvious reference to make. From what I remember about the sketch, I think was actually a parody of a New Romantic video like Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes” and even though I cannot be certain of the year it was actually first broadcast, I think it may date from 1981, a period that featured many videos shot in studios that should actually be a 'Nice Song Shame About The Video' category. I am trying to think of words to describe the ‘visual texture’ of these videos, though as I am having difficulty, maybe somebody else could come up with a good critique of the style and look that I am thinking about. The videos that I am remembering now include ABC’s “The Look Of Love” and a number of early Soft Cell videos like “Tainted Love”, which was so bad, it was replaced by a much better video in 1991 that made it on Marc Almond’s video hits collection. I do not know if anybody else remembers that Monty Python sketch where they all looked out of the window and found that they were surrounded by ‘film’? That sketch made a point about all those old comedy shows showing a marked difference in definition between the interior studio shots recorded onto video and the outside footage shot on film. I think this difference is also apparent if you watch pop videos from the early 1980s, especially if you were to view a video like “The Look Of Love” and then watched “Ghost Town” by The Specials. Even though both are great records, the ABC video spoils your enjoyment of the track, whilst the “Ghost Town” video is still as ‘gritty’ as it was in the 1980s and really helps to promote the message of the track very well. ABC, The Specials and David Bowie are all artists that I enjoy, so it is easy to pick out dreadful videos that they have made from their wonderful back catalogue and I guess that everybody on here who has mentioned a favourite video, has mentioned it because it is an artist or record that they like in the first place. I suppose if a song was recorded by someone like Michael Bolton or Stock Aiken Waterman, and that song had the best video ever made, I doubt if anybody would want to remember it, let alone admit how good the video was, because the song and artist will always be the most important factor. Even though that was an ‘extreme’ example, I cannot think of any videos that would fall into that “Nice Video Shame About The Song” criteria and I do not know if anybody else could think of any examples. If you can, please post your examples here as I will be very interested to see what you can come up with. Loz

On my lunch today I purchased collections by Echobelly, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Big Audio Dynamite. I will be listening to one of these CDs when I get home from work. Loz

Yes that is a good choice, as that is one of my favourite Banshees tunes as well. Even though it was a great performance by Siouxsie, I cannot actually remember if the rest of the band were actually in the video. I just remember the image of Siouxsie dressed as that kind of ‘vampire Catwoman’ with the rings on her hand which were actually silver claws. I think Budgie and Severin may have been shown briefly in the background, though I will need to look at the video again. I think at this point I may also be remembering the video to a song called “Bittermoon” by the early 1990s indie-dance band Candyland, which I think was very similar in tone and quite gothic too [you may also remember this song, the lyrics went something like “Do you ever dream of angels in Crimplene, their wings are polystyrene they cannot fly”]. I think Candyland were signed to Fiction records, just like The Cure. Now I think that The Cure are a great video band who, along with Madness, are probably the best video act from the 1980s. In comparison to The Banshees, many more videos come easily to mind, the majority of which would have been directed by Tim Pope. The only other video by Siouxsie that instantly comes to mind would be the one for “Dear Prudence” which also features as a bonus on the ‘Nocturne’ DVD. I do not know if you own the ‘Nocturne’ DVD as well, but there is a very odd video-film as part of the extras that also features Robert Smith as part of The Glove, which is like a demented version of Alice In Wonderland. Another ‘Goth’ act that I liked in the 1980s was The Sisters Of Mercy and a child I used to think that the video for “Dominion” was great. This was the video where Andrew Eldritch and Patricia Morrison [who at the time I thought was actually called ‘Morticia’] were shown in the desert, somewhere in the Middle East, all dressed in white. I guess this is also a reason why the video sticks in my mind as I would usually associate Goth acts with wearing black in Leeds city centre. By the way, if you are wondering why earlier, when I mentioned The Cure and Madness, that I did not mention Depeche Mode as being ‘the best video act from the 1980s’ as well, then I would probably say that their catalogue of videos from the 1990s was actually better overall. I do not know if anybody else would agree or disagree with me on this fact, but as far as memorable videos go, I think it this point can also be applied to the Pet Shop Boys, even when regarding the tracks from the 'Television' VHS compilation, of which I am very fond of. Loz