London 0 Hull 4- The Housemartins (1986)

I often think that time plays tricks on the memory. Case in point: I was chatting to someone the other day who was at University the same time as me and he said "Everyone I was at University with had a copy of "The Queen is Dead" by The Smiths". And to be fair, this is not the first time that I have heard people implying that the campuses of the United Kingdom in the years 1984 to 1987 were awash with the sounds of Steven Morrissey esq, the guitar god, Johnny Marr and the other two whose names escape me.

The fact is though that whilst indeed one did trip over Smiths acolytes (I remember an encounter with an oddly attractive but frankly over zealous disciple who thrust a vinyl copy of Meat is Murder into my face so vigorously she almost gave me a nosebleed), the music taste of students in those days was far broader than just the afore-mentioned Mancunians. If you take my circle of friends as an example, I think it is fair to describe their taste as broad! Amongst the albums they owned I would include the following:

Songs from the Big Chair- Tears for Fears
Suzanne Vega- Suzanne Vega (Much loved by my many female students and therefore a must purchase by many male students trying to impress said female students)
Brothers in Arms- Dire Straits (There's been a Stalinist revision of history that has tried to make out that no one under the age of 25 brought this but that is a LIE!)
American Fool- John Cougar Mellencamp (And the gentleman in question was not from mid west America either)
Reckoning- REM
Rattlesnakes- Lloyd Cole plus Commotions
Zoolook- Jean Michel Jarre (Computer Scientist student, nuff said)

However if you were to force me to name one album which did remind me of my student years, it would the debut album from another band from the north of England "London 0 Hull 4" by the Housemartins.

Much has been written about the state of  music during the mid 80s. There is a lazy history that says that initially you saw the domination of bands that had started out in the late 70s, Madness, The Jam, Specials, The Police, Adam and the Ants- all great. Then you saw the Synth domination and New Pop (Human League, Soft Cell, ABC, Haircut 100, Duran Duran, Culture Club). Then came the years 1984 to 1988 which were dominated by swathes of dross:
Middle of the Road "Coffee Table" acts- Sir Philip of Collins, Level 42, the afore-mentioned Dire Straits, Sade, Paul Young (Unspeakable), Tina Turner, Bryan Adams and so on and so forth.
Hair Metal: Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Poison
Dinosaurs that seemed to have risen from a primeval swamp: Genesis (It's bloody Phil Collins again), Queen, Marillion, ZZ Top, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac
Music that appeared to be written by five year olds for five year olds: Five Star, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, Bros, Wet Wet Wet (Rarely has a band been so aptly named), anything produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, all those bloody awful medley records (Enter stage left Jive Bunny with his Mastermixers in tow)
Makers of POWER BALLADS: (which is where some of the worst singles of the period and indeed of all time come into view) W.Houston esq, Chris De Burgh, Phyllis Nelson, Jennifer Rush, Berlin, Peter Cetera, Robin Beck, bloody T'Pau and so on forever

According to this history, the only thing that saved music in this dark, dark period and British music in particular, was the previously referred to Mancunian giants, the Smiths. Hence of course why you have people saying that all students of the period were walking around clasping "The Queen is Dead" to their collective bosoms (This statement in itself implies that students were magnificent arbiters of good taste, which I suggest is at best questionable- I refer you back to the previous reference to Zoolook).

Now this is not the place to discuss the merits or otherwise of the Smiths but it is definitely the place to say that this is a gross over simplification. For a start of course music is a matter of taste and for many people out there, the days that drove down the M3 in a battered 2CV listening to Level 42, the furry dice swinging from the dashboard were amongst the best of their lives. For another I know of an awful lot of people who would rather french kiss a skunk than spend any quality time listening to a Smiths record.

Furthermore, if you did want to move away from all the dinosaurs, plastic pop and tooth rotting LURVE songs in those years, there was an awful lot more going on than just the outpourings of a man with gladioli sticking out of his bum. In the mainstream you had acts such as Madonna, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Prince and Bruce Springsteen producing critically acclaimed work that had huge commercial success. You had the flowering of the New Country movement with Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett, which some would argue paved the way for Americana. In the pop arena, you had fine work from A-ha, Erasure and, of course, the Pet Shop Boys. It wasn't my bag but in the rap arena, you had groundbreaking albums from Beastie Boys (The scamps), Run DMC and Public Enemy. And of course, as always, if you looked off the beaten track there were always great records to be found. Some of my favorite records of mine came from these years including  "Boat to Bolivia" Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, "Walk on the Rooftops" Blue Nile, "Calenture" Triffids, "Welcome Home" Til Tuesday etc.

However even in the mainstream itself, the Smiths weren't the only so called alternative act having a measure of success. Whilst Echo and The Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain" may not be the greatest album ever made (as the lead singer Ian "Mac" McCulloch in a typical act of immodesty claimed) the Bunnymen were a commercially strong alternative presence in those years as were the Cure, New Order and Depeche Mode (who mutated from a tinkly plonk synth combo to leather wearing gloom merchants). The albums "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" and "If I should fall from Grace with God" by the Pogues revealed Shane Macgowan to be one of the decade's finest songwriters. Meanwhile China Crisis, Prefab Sprout and Scritti Politti continued to fly the flag for the New Pop.

Outselling all of these, though, was the self proclaimed fourth best band in Hull, the Housemartins, with their debut album "London 0 Hull 4". For those of us of a particular musical (and indeed political) disposition, the Housemartins were an absolute godsend. As readers of previous blogs will know, one of the formative bands of my youth were Madness. Apart from the fantastic records and superb videos, both wonderfully entertaining and full of character, I loved the fact that they were successful. This probably makes me the antithesis of an indie kid who as soon as "their" band becomes successful immediately deserts them. Me, as a teenager, I wanted people to like my bands. It validated my taste (These days I don't give a toss if people like what I like or not!) and also if they were successful it was less likely that they would split up. However, as time went on, Madness' records became more introverted and less successful (whether the two were interlinked is a matter of debate). When Uncle Sam became the first Madness record to fail to reach the Top 20, the writing was on the wall. We therefore needed a replacement and we needed one fast.

In addition, these were the middle years of Thatcher's reign of horror. Again this is not the place for an analysis of the politics of Britain in the 80s but my phraseology at the start of this paragraph should hopefully have given you a slight glimpse of my views of the insane old harpy. Suffice it is to say that events such as the Riots of 1981, mass unemployment, The Falklands War and the Miners Strike had politicised and divided Britain in a way not seen since. Included very firmly in the anti Thatcher camp was the music community. Whilst many acts were making shedloads of cash, it was a foolhardy soul who came out and proclaimed that they thought Maggie was Top of the Pops. The only two acts that leap to mind are Gary Numan, whose career went down the dumper shortly after, and Sir Philip of Collins, whose career was strangely bullet proof at this time.

However overly political acts who were also successful were few and far between at the start of 1986. There was the Style Council but to be honest Paul Weller had such a swathe of acolytes that he could pronounce that he has become a Buddhist and thought Nancy Reagan was sexy and people would still have bought his records. Most political acts at that time were struggling to make a breakthrough, The Redskins, The Faith Brothers and the Men They Couldn't Hang were making fine records and even getting the odd radio play but that was about it. Otherwise the most successful political act was this big nosed bloke from Barking. Armed initially only with an electric guitar, an amp and some John Peel exposure, Billy Bragg was, let's be honest, one of the most unlikely success stories of the mid 80s. His appearance on Top of the Tops with Between the Wars, coming as it did immediately after "Pie Jesu" by Sarah Brightman  and Paul Miles Kingston was one of the most memorable of the decade. The fact was though that at the start of 1986, Bragg's fame was in excess of his commercial achievements. He stood out from the crowd because with his guitar and an amplifier and (ahem) rudimentary singing style, he was the very antithesis of the well (over) produced CD friendly fare and stadium swallowing acts that were dominating the market. A lot of people knew of Billy Bragg but only a small proportion of them had actually brought his records.

It was therefore down to the Housemartins to take political pop into the charts and to capture the hearts of all those Madness fans who had jumped ship when Madness released the self fulfilling prophesy "Yesterdays Men". They formed in 1983 as a busking duo consisting of Paul (who insisted throughout the life of the Housemartins as referring to himself as "P.d") Heaton and Stan Cullimore. After a few line up changes, they then added Norman Cook and Hugh Whittaker. As with many alternative bands of the time, their first steps on the ladder of success came via a session on the John Peel show. This in turn brought them to the attention of the afore-mentioned Sir Billiam Bragg and the Housemartins were duly signed to Go Discs, Billy's own label. Their first single "Flag Day" was released in November 1985 and reached a less than spectacular 124 in the charts. However given the fact that the subject matter was the futility of charitable endeavours to change a system that was permanently weighted in favour of the rich, it clearly wasn't radio friendly fare (Peel, ever the exception, not withstanding), particularly as 1985 was the year of Live Aid and charitable endeavours were very much the order of the day.

The Housemartins then embarked on their first national tour. It is one of my lasting regrets that I never saw the Housemartins live as apparently they were superb. The end of the act used to involve dismantling the drum kit and playing the separate parts as percussion instruments. These were the days when bands usually had to tour their backsides off around the toilet venues of the UK before coming to prominence and that was certainly the case here. The tour went down a treat and the next single "Sheep" reached the dizzy of number 54. It was at this time that the Housemartins developed a lovely (and at the time almost unique) line in self depreciating publicity with T Shirts and badges such as "The Housemartins are quite good" and "If liking them is wrong, I don't want to be right" as well as the previously mentioned "The 4th best band in Hull". Self depreciating it might be but it made them stand out from the masses. If you couldn't imagine Dire Straits, Genesis and U2 publishing such merchandise, then you couldn't see The Smiths or The Cure doing it either. You could have imagined Madness doing it though!

If their profile was rising, the question just remained, did they have the material in the armoury to break through into that Top 40? The answer was a massive, resounding "Oh Yes Indeed!" "Happy Hour" was released in June and, aided and abetted by one of the finest videos of the 80s (and, yes, there was a clear Madness influence) reached No 3, kept only from the Top Spot by the mighty forces of Wham and Madonna.

The album "London 0 Hull 4 followed rapidly after and again reached Number 3 in the charts (This time kept from the top by Madonna (Encore une fois) and the unavoidable Sir Phillip and Genesis) and it sold over 500,000 copies which was impressive.

Even more impressive was that London 0 Hull 4 was a superb album, full of character and great songs. I bought it the first day that it was released and played it to death over the summer. The first thing that struck me was The Housemartins brought into play a number of influences that an English Pop Band hadn't used for some time. Just as Madness (Them again) had utilised Music Hall influences, The Housemartins drew on Soul, Gospel and early Rock and Roll and in places Skiffle. Whilst no one would mistake them for the Temptations or the Beach Boys, a lot of their singing was very harmonious and drawn to the fore by a very clear and basic (in the best sense of the term ) production by John Williams (NOT he of Star Wars fame). Indeed in many of their concerts and on their B sides, The Housemartins sang Acapella. This was virtually unique amongst British bands and would yield their biggest hit (Not on the album) at the end of 1986, a cover version of the Isley Brothers "Caravan of Love".

Leading on from this, it struck me and still does, that these were simple and straightforward songs (And that's intended as compliment) in sharp contrast to a lot of the records doing the rounds then which were complex  ( e.g. "Hounds of Love", Peter Gabriel's "So") or glossily produced (Too many to mention). In the best possible sense of the word "London 0 Hull 4" sounded innocent and sweet and reminded me from that perspective of the Undertones debut album. Both records are extremely easy to love (as opposed to admire, which is much easier to achieve).

The album kicks off with "Happy Hour". One pub debate amongst sad music fans like me is where on the album you put the Big Single. Some say you never start with it as then it's all downhill from there. Others say, kick off with it as you've then grabbed everyone's attention. In my mind, that argument depends on whether the Big Single is the Best Thing On The Album (Because you should definitely NEVER start with the Best Thing On The Album because then it really is downhill from there). As it happens here, as fine a single as "Happy Hour" is, it isn't in my view the best track. What it is though is a fine example of what was to become Paul (or pd) Heaton's trademark, a barbed lyric wrapped up in  a sprightly tune. In fact I wonder how many people who have bopped along to "Happy Hour" at an 80s themed disco (Lord Help Us All) realise that it's actually an attack on the hypocrisy and sexism of young upwardly mobile business types (The mid 80s being the heyday of the Yuppie).

The lyrics become even more barbed on the next track, "Get Up Off Our Knees" which is where the politics really kick in. However before I go any further when I say "politics" the songs are not awash with anti Thatcher sloganeering (Although be in no doubt that the "Thatch" would have been in for a good kicking had she turned up chez Housemartins) but be in no doubt that this is a Socialist album (Note: For anyone aged under 25 who is confused by what the hell the S word means, google it or stick "Tony Benn" into a search engine). The following is from the original sleeve notes:

"A Christmas Message from the Housemartins: "For too long the ruling class have enjoyed an extended New Years Eve Party, whilst we can only watch, faces pressed up against the glass". The Housemartins say: "Don't try gate crashing a party full of bankers. Burn the house down"

Subtle it wasn't! Passionate and outspoken it certainly was! And as stated in 1986 The Housemartins were almost unique in taking blatant socialism into the charts. Of course one could debate until the cows came home how many of the 500,000 people who bought the album actually listened or understood the lyrics or indeed how many people were converted to the socialist cause because of it. But that's a debate for another day.

Coming back to "Get Up Off Our Knees", this is the Housemartins coming out fighting and demanding that people stop fulminating against the injustices perpetrated by the ruling class and do something about it, in the most direct manner imaginable "Don't shoot someone tomorrow that you can shoot today". Again it is wrapped up in a great tune, driven by a great piano (played by Pete Wingfield, producer of "Searching for the young soul rebels" by Dexys). It's my favourite track on the album and given it's strength one wonders why it wasn't a single..............until you realise that it was highly unlikely that Gary Davies (plus his Bit in the Middle) or any of the other buffoons at daytime Radio 1 were unlikely to A list a record advocating shooting the rich!!

Almost all the other songs are similarly politically driven: Anxious speaks of the ambivalence of the rich and the powerful to the plight of the poor ("And they're raising all their eyebrows to the raising of the pound whilst they raze another city to the ground"), "Sitting on the Fence" hits out at wooly liberals who won't get actively uninvolved in political issues, "Sheep" unsurprisingly is about how easily people are led ("They've never questioned anything, they've never disagreed", "Over There" is about the life the rich live which is unobtainable to the vast majority without their resources", "We're not deep" is about how people look down on the unemployed (Unemployment at the time was over 3 million) and "Freedom" was a vigorous attack on the Right Wing press ("From the Front Page to the Interviews, it's sink the Reds and Lift the Blues. They pretend it's differing points of view but it's only different shades of Blue").

Of course, to those who have not heard the album, this may all sound like been preached at for 40 minutes. However for one thing, the lyrics are political but they're also well written, they're partisan but also thought provoking. Moreover, they are accompanied by fine and robust tunes so you're being entertained whilst being told something.

Of course it should be said that it is not a perfect album. "Sitting on a Fence" sounds tired and slightly laboured musically whilst the instrumental "Reverends Revenge" is unnecessary and if they were going to include an instrumental, they should have opted for "The Mighty Ship" which was a B side and included on the CD as a bonus track.

Whilst most of the album is fast paced, there are three slowed down songs. I would call "Flag Day" a ballad but the word "Ballad" tends to be synonymous in most people's minds with love songs, which "Flag Day" undoubtedly isn't. Almost thirty years after it was written, it still strikes me as an extraordinarily brave (and indeed controversial) song. Having been involved in many a charitable endeavour over the years, I'm still not entirely sure I agree with it but I can see his argument. Again looking back it's amazing that the Housemartins didn't get in considerable hot water with the Press (apart from a short kicking from the Sun for dissing the Queen (God Bless Ya Ma'am) in an interview). However at the time they were seen as cheeky chappies as opposed to revolutionaries. Mr Heaton would only become a far more controversial figure during the career of The Beautiful South (especially when he dared attack such venerable institutions as Page 3).

"Think for a Minute" was released as a single in a stripped down (and more effective) format but is still a solid song, calling on people to stop and realise how society has changed and not for the better. The last of the slower songs is, to my mind, the most remarkable song on the album "Lean on Me". Not the Bill Withers song, but for years I thought it was a cover version! However it was written by Heaton and Wingfield. It's a beautiful Gospel style song driven by a great piano and featuring a terrific vocal from Heaton. Of course in these days it is almost de rigeur for pop and rock bands to be influenced by a cornucopia of musical styles. Back in the mid 80s influences away from older pop and rock tended to be restricted to soul and reggae. The idea of a group of white lads singing a song influenced by Gospel was almost unheard of!

Listening to the album again now, it still strikes me as remarkable that it was as successful as it was, Not because it wasn't a great record because it was but because both musically and lyrically it was out of kilter with what else was popular at the time. Of course what happened next is well documented. The Housemartins made a follow up album "The People who grinned themselves to death" which although it had some good songs on, sounded tired overall. They then went their separate ways. Paul Heaton (no longer pd) went on to become one of the most successful songwriters of the 90s with The Beautiful South (and as at the time of writing his latest album, which sees him reunited with ex Beautiful South chanteuse, Jacqueline Abbott, is poised to go Top 5), Norman Cook became Dance behemoth Fatboy Slim, Stan Cullimore became a successful children's author and Hugh Whittaker went to prison for six years in the 90s for assaulting a business partner with an axe (According to Wikipedia, he's now in a band called "Pocketful o'nowt!).

One final sobering thought on the album. I still play it a lot. partly because it reminds me of my University years, which were good times. Partly because, conversely, it still sounds great today. Musically it hasn't aged, largely I think because it's influences (Soul, skiffle, Gospel, early rock and roll, acapella)  were not from the 80s but an earlier time and have acted as a preservative!. What is scary though is, given the fact that it's lyrics addressed contemporary concerns (The impact of Thatcherism on society and so forth), it is marked that many of the songs (addressing subjects such as bankers greed, inequality between rich and poor, injustice, apathy) sound like they could have been written anytime since 2008. It's a just a shame that we don't have bands these days in the charts articulating such concerns like the Housemartins did.

The Last Mad Surge of Youth- Henry Priestman (2014)

In previous blog posts I have alluded to the fact that popular music is no longer the sole purview of the young man/woman. When I was watching Top of the Pops as a teenager, most of the artistes weren't a great deal older than myself and those that were tended to be refugees from the sixties (Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, ruddy Cliff Richard etc). Furthermore, there was an assumption that the majority of pop careers would be relatively short. You would either have your fifteen minutes of fame, the public would grow tired of you and you would seek an alternative career in A&R or something similarly riveting  or alternatively you would split up at the height of your fame citing musical differences but in reality it was because you suddenly realised you hated each others guts and the lead singer wanted to pursue a lucrative solo career whilst the drummer wanted to release ambient jazz records!

It was generally accepted, therefore, that pop was a young persons game. In any case these were the days of the fabled generation gap where youths would be upstairs in the bedrooms with their windows open terrorising the neighbourhood with "Never Mind the Bollocks" or "London Calling" or "No Sleep Til Hammersmith" whilst Mum and Dad would be downstairs listening to the gentle strains of Mantovani and James Last. The whole concept then of popular music being made and indeed to by people over the age of 40 was frankly ludicrous!

Oh how time has proved us wrong.

These days popular music is a pan-generational (Big phrase of the day award) business. I was at a Franz Ferdinand gig recently and the age of the audience ranged from 17 to 70.  Pop music is being produced by toddlers such as Justin Bieber and Lorde AND seemingly eternal old timers such as Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones. It seems that the only thing that can terminate a music career is a jail sentence or death......and actually I am not so sure about the latter as Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits has just gone back into the super soaraway Top 20 Album chart and apparently Michael Jackson has a new album out next month!!

Hardly anyone stays split up or retired any more. The vast majority of bands that called it a day in the 80s and 90s have reformed (in one form or another) and have trod the boards or released new material (to varying degrees of success). The list of bands that could reform (i.e all the members are still in the land of the living) but haven't are few and far between (The Smiths, the Jam with Weller, The Teardrop Explodes, The KLF) and is seemingly reducing by the month. There are ominous rumblings of an Abba reunion (Loved Abba but leave it be, please) and Kate Bush shocked everyone by announcing her first live concerts since 1978!

The fact of the matter, though, is that bands are reforming and artists are prolonging their careers because there is a clear market for it (Although whether there is a demand for a Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers reunion is another issue entirely). Back in the 70s and 80s our parents told us in no uncertain terms that we would grow out of this pop music malarkey and gravitate to a nice bit of Bach. But they were wrong, rather than pack up our pop music along with the Action man figures and Matchbox cars, we took it with us into "adulthood". Now we're often parents and, Lord help is, grandparents ourselves and still listening to the damn stuff. And whilst many of us do like to keep up to date with new artistes, we still like what we liked when we were youths. So if they get back together to put out new stuff or tread the boards again, we're there!

In addition there's also the fact that a more mature audience quite appreciates more mature artists as they will or should write songs appropriate for an older audience. Now lyrics in pop music are a funny beast. I don't necessarily think that a singer has to sing lyrics that are appropriate to my situation rather I expect them to come from his/her heart and be appropriate to their situation. So Alex Turner is a 28 year old single man, there is nothing wrong with him making an album in AM that comprises largely of songs about a frankly horny chap looking for some slap and tickle. However as acts get older, we expect the subject matter of their songs to be appropriate to their growing older and that's good for us as chances are those songs will speak to us in our lives too. There is something vaguely unsettling about a 71 year old Mick Jagger telling us he can't get no satisfaction but we respond to acts like Elbow, on their album "The Take off and Landing of Everything" and Manic Street Preachers on "Rewind the Film" as these are albums full of songs clearly written by people approaching middle age

Which brings us (eventually) to Henry Priestman!

Now many of you may say "Who? Never heard of him!" and actually you'd be wrong. Mr Priestman has been around since the late 70s. Firstly he was in a well regarded (which I admit can be a euphemism for "Loved by critics, ignored by public") Liverpool band, the Yachts. He then formed It's Immaterial, who are best known for the Top 20 hit "Driving Away from Home (Jim's tune)" (On which Henry played as a session musician as he had left the band by this point.). Henry then found fame as keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter for the Christians

At which point you, my loyal readers, exclaim "Oh I've heard of them!" And indeed you have! In 1987/88 The Christians were one of Britains biggest bands and their debut album sold over a million copies and was noted for the wonderful singing of the Christian brothers and Henry's fine songwriting (I still rate "Ideal World" as one of the best songs of the latter part of the 80s). Whilst the follow up album, "Colour" debuted at Number 1, it sold a fraction of its predecessor and as Madchester and Grunge dominated the musical landscape (along with Simply Red, but one prefers to forget that), the Christians faded from public view.

I still retained a considerable fondness for their debut album and therefore was intrigued (as well as surprised as it had been over 15 years since I'd last heard anything from the man) when I read in Uncut in October 2008 that Henry Priestman had released his debut solo album "The Chronicles of Modern Life". I seem to recall that I had just discovered Youtube (Back in the day) so I checked out the lead off track (I don't think you could call it a single) "Don't you love me no more?" which was about a man who had just been made redundant. 2008 saw the start of the credit crunch which then obviously became the recession so the song was certainly pertinent and, more to the point, almost uniquely pertinent as no one else was addressing this subject matter. As for the music, well, perhaps to be expected it sounded nothing like the Christians, there were no sweet harmony vocals or smooth 80s production. But it was a fine song, with a great lyric, strong tune and a rousing chorus.

So I went and brought the album and was absolutely blown away. First and foremost, returning to my theme, here was an album that spoke to me. Here was a man of a similar age to me writing about subjects that I was experiencing too. Songs about realising that you are the same age as your dad was when you thought he was old ("Old" oddly enough), of looking back at the punk years and wondering whether it was still worth it ("Did I fight in the Punk Wars for this?") and still being passionately in love even after all these years ("Grey's the new blonde"). I consider myself to have a wide musical pallet but I was struggling to think when I had heard an album that was so relevant to me. Of course I have to add that the tunes were fantastic too. In all honesty, it is hard to categorise the record. I would say acoustic but there's some Billy Bragg-esque electric guitar on "Punk Wars". I would say "Folk" but lazy minds conjure up images of  untimely death, fey youths, English gardens and hey nonny nonny and none of these are featured here. Let's just say that these are magnificent songs, great melodies, loads of robust choruses and not a duff track in sight.

It was by some distance my favorite album of 2008 and was one of my top three albums of the decade (alongside "Truth, Soul and Rock and Roll" by the Elms and "Streets of New York" by Willie Nile). The question was, could he follow it up? The answer was "Not straight away, mate!" "The Chronicles of Modern Life" was originally released on Stiff records and was, I believe, more successful than anticipated and was, therefore, promptly picked up by Island Records and re released. Henry appeared on salubrious places such as BBC Breakfast and the next album, provisionally entitled "Hunting and Gathering ain't what it used to be" was due for release in early 2010.

And then nothing! It then emerged that sadly both Henry's mum and his mother in law had passed away and Henry understandably decided that this would change the type of album that he wanted to release. Time passed. The days of myspace gave way to Twitter and Facebook and details of Henry's activity and his forthcoming album began to appear. Brilliantly he was doing several house gigs and running music workshops in schools.

The album, now entitled "The Last Mad Surge of Youth" was released on 17th February but through the wonders of the internet, I received it two days early and, when it landed "plop" through the letter box, I foresook my ironing duties and rushed upstairs to give the album the attention it deserved.

The first thing that struck me was that, whilst Henry Priestman has a very distinctive sound and style, this was clearly a different record to the first one because of the circumstances that shaped it and this is apparent from the opening track "At the End of the Day". This is a beautiful tribute to his mum. Almost hymnal in tone, with some lovely muted brass and moving lyrics ("Who will fix my broken heart? Who will dry these lonely tears, be the one that's here to stay and bring peace at the end of the day"), it is a stunning start to the album. Speaking as someone whose mum has died, the songs clarity and emotional honesty really resonated with me. As a lyricist Henry has a tremendous ability to put emotions and issues over clearly but without being sentimental or trite.

It's also in many ways a brave start to the album. Unless you are intending to write a very downbeat record or are an awkward cuss, it is traditional to start with a vigorous. catchy, attention seeking number. However given what Henry had been through and the fact that it had impacted on the type of album he was making, it was undoubtedly the right way to start proceedings.

Next up comes a track that to my mind sums up what Henry is about perfectly "True Believer". I have had the great fortune of seeing Henry Priestman live at the Green Note in Camden. I'm sure most people have images of pop stars, particularly those from the 80s as either having enormous egos or barking mad or lifestyles so far removed from normal people that they may as well be from an alien race or all three. Henry, however is nothing like that at all. He comes across as, well, an ordinary bloke and a good guy with concerns and feelings similar to the rest of us. He's also someone, who like the rest of us, has had their fair share of knocks but still retains a strong sense of optimism, of love for life and that good times are just around the corner. The chorus goes "I believe that life goes on, what doesn't kill you make you strong, somewhere deep inside you're gonna find peace of mind and blue skies. I'm a true believer". In less skilled and honest hands, lyrics like this could come across as potentially trite but because you know that Henry has lived life and you know that he means them, the words have real impact.

And talking of living life...One thing that Henry is superb and almost unique at is writing songs about normal day to day to experiences. On the Chronicles of Modern Life, you had "He ain't good enough for you" about a dad's view of his daughter's boyfriend. Here we have "We used to be you" regarding parents talking about their teenager heading off to University. If there's another song about empty nest syndrome in modern pop, I haven't heard it. It's certainly not a song that you can imagine Thom Yorke or George Michael writing.

Then we have a taste of politics. Right back in the days of the Christians, Henry's writing has always been informed by the political ("Ideal World", "Hooverville" "Forgotten Town") and that's still very much the case in his solo work. On his first album you have "Don't you love me no more", "It's called a heart" and "The idiot" whilst here we have "Goodbye common sense" "Hunting and gathering ain't what it used to be" and "Same circus, different clowns". Just to clarify when I say political songs, I'm not necessarily saying that we are looking at a "Vote Labour" chant here. Henry writes songs about everyday life and therefore by definition you can't help by being political. Henry is a man who is championing the values of human decency, of honesty, of defending equality and justice of speaking out against greed, against callous large corporations and governments who only look after their cronies. "Goodbye Common Sense" in particular strikes me as a clever track. Right wing commentators such as the ever ghastly Richard Littlejohn always try to hijack "Common Sense" as a right wing concept. Here though Henry flips it on its head and points out that actually caring for the poor and showing love and compassion is, frankly common sense "Farewell equality and sharing the common good, send your scant regards to the unwashed and misunderstood. Hello you power hungry men of eminence, goodbye common sense"

From politics then to love. There is no doubt that Mr Priestman is an old romantic, "Grey is the New Blonde" - a song for his wife of many years- was one of the stand outs of the first album. On this album there is "Valentine's Day". Whilst I cannot deny being an old romantic myself, I've always regarded the love song with a degree of caution because this is a genre whose entrance doors have a sign thereon stating "Danger! Here be dragons!" and said dragons are called "Sentimentality" "Schmaltz" and "Tooth Rotting Old Dreck". I could write an entire blog about the Love Song in Pop Music but suffice to say that it is a very hard thing to get right. "Valentine's day" gets it right. As with all of Henry's best songs, it's simple and you just know it comes from real life experience and the heart. The opening line "You light up the room and you don't even know" is superb. The lyrics are reinforced by a simple, straightforward musical accompaniment. No mass orchestrations or choral bombardments here, thank you very much. Just a beautiful tune, well played, with some lovely backing vocals by Lotte Mullan.

The second half of the record (or second side, as we old farts would call them back in the days of vinyl) is quite heavily taken up with songs about where Henry is in his life right now. I fully appreciate that at this point you may be heading for the sign marked "Exit" as it conjures images up of either Van Morrison in the 90s (For those of you unfamiliar with Van the Man, his output during that decade seemed to consist entirely of songs about...er...Van the Man and how hard done by he was. They are all unbelievably tiresome!) or, more bizarrely, Lady Gaga! Please rest assured that the record does not delve into either "Poor me" territory or surreal self referencing. Coming back to my original theme, this is a man in his fifties (although he doesn't look it obviously!) talking about his own life experiences and they will strike a chord in many people of a similar age.

First up there is the magnificent and magnificently self depreciating "In My Head" in which Henry compares how he likes to picture himself in his head and the reality "Cos I'm cool and I'm fit, kinda witty, oh so quick. Despite advancing years it has been said that I'm a catch and I'll go far. I'm the latest superstar but then real life kicks in and instead it's all in my head". It's a wonderful song that never fails to bring a smile to my face and probably my favorite on the album. It will have you nodding along in recognition.

Then comes "The Last Mad Surge of Youth". I'm 49 and my wife says that this is my song!! Well if it is, it's a bloody good one. Effectively it's saying that we may have lived many years but there's still (hopefully) many more years still to be lived so let's make the most of them: "The ambitions of those early years are no longer in my sights. Ah but there's still so much that I've got to do and so much that I want to say and the source of my enlightenment though she's gone still guides my way". The tune meanwhile is beautiful, reflective and waltz like.

Then there are two what I can best describe as "Railing against the dying of the light" (With apologies to Dylan Thomas) songs, "Rant and Rave" and "A Pint of Bitter and Twisted Please" (and if you don't think that's a brilliant song title what's the matter with you?). Both dovetail into the political songs (particularly "Rant and Rave"). This is Mr Priestman saying that there may be miles on the clock but there are still rights to be wronged, injustices to be put right and things to be said and sung and that's what he's going to do. This certainly strikes a chord with me. When my mum was 70 and I was 26 I remember her saying to me that in her head she was still 28. At the time I thought that was bobbins but she was spot on. As far as my mind is concerned I'm in my twenties and I'm still as pissed off at injustice, bigotry, prejudice and greed as I was then and there are things that need to be done. From these songs I believe that Henry feels the same!

I appreciate that in this review I have concentrated more on the subject matter and lyrics of the songs than the music. To sum things up musically I would firstly use a word that is often misunderstood when talking about music, these are simple songs. Not simple as in rudimentary but they are straightforward. The arrangements are clear and not over complicated. It's probably more of an acoustic record than "Chronicles" but with some lovely touches particularly brass. The melodies are strong as are the tunes. Indeed many of these songs will get stuck in your head very quickly. The production is clear and the singing is excellent and suits the songs very well.

In summary, this is an excellent record. Full of wonderful songs that have tremendous character and that have I think a unique voice in terms of the issues they cover and the way those subjects are addressed. It's wonderfully tuneful, beautifully played and sung really well.  Hopefully, life permitting, the next Henry Priestman album will be on its way to us soon because I sense there are plenty more great songs from where these came from. Henry recently said that he was in a conversation with someone in the music business and they said that from a business perspective he was ready to move to the next level. To which he felt that he was quite happy with the level he was at!! He'd been to the next level back in the 80s. These days he's quite content doing school workshops, house gigs, small scale gigs and making wonderful records such as this. Quite right sir, this level suits you. Under the mainstream radar (whatever that is) he may be but Henry Priestman is still one of the finest songwriters that this country has to offer!

Armed Forces- Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1979)

I appreciate that this is a monstrous cliche but I really do remember the moment as if it were yesterday. There I was at our church Harvest Supper. In front of me was a singularly unattractive repast, a ham salad which consisted of lettuce that could best charitably be described as limp, an unripe tomato, WAY too much cucumber (Someone had clearly over ordered) and a minute piece of oddly colored ham (HELLO Botulism). Repelled by what I was expected to eat, I looked up and I beheld.............HER! Yes that HER! The first love of my life. I had actually known her since I was eight but she was a girl and I wasn't interested in girls. I was interested in Burnley and books and growing vegetables (I had an "interesting childhood"). But now I was almost 13 and life was a very different ballgame. It was as if I was seeing her for the first time.

Pause for everyone to be violently unwell.

Now you may think that I leapt to my feet, overturned the trestle tables at which we were seating, sending the flaccid salads flying and dashed to her side to declare my undying love and to ask her out. I did no such thing. For one thing I had two formidable matriarchs sitting either side of me and they would have frowned at such nonsense. For another, I actually I wasn't quite sure what I was feeling, I just knew I couldn't stop staring at her.

That probably sounds like a reasonable excuse for doing bugger all (except for staring and possibly some minor drooling). What certainly sounds less reasonable is that I then spent the next 18 months doing bugger all as well. They say that one of the benefits of getting older is that you can make sense of your past. I'm not so sure. In 1985 I bought Sting's first solo album, "The Dream of the Blue Turtles", which is pretentious, jazz influenced noodling and in "Russians" features one of the worst lyrics of all time ("The Russians love their children too"). Even now,  I can't explain why in the name of decency I did that and I certainly can't explain why I spent 18 months in a lovestruck state without asking this girl out. Oh I spoke to her and she spoke back amazingly. She smiled at me and I gave the sort of look back which would have won many a seaside gurning competition. But did I do the deed? Did I take the plunge? No I bloody didn't.

Thinking back it it could well have been that none of my (ahem) contemporaries were taking the plunge either. Loads of people say that kids matured later in those days. Arse knows if that's true. I know for certain that I didn't have any of my mates giving me GBH of the earhole about "going for it" because "she's bound to say yes" (And if she doesn't you'll look a right tit and we'll have a laugh). That would (painfully) come later.

At this point in my life, I was quite happy to sit/stand/crouch and look at her and think happy thoughts. Then in late 1978 (round about the time that "Summer Nights" and "Rasputin" were locked in a tumultuous battle at the top of the charts) I met a lad who we will call "Christian" (largely because that was his name!). We became friends and he started going along to the same youth group, the self same group that the afore mentioned young lady attended (And if you think I'm naming her, you're Dagenham East- several stops past Barking). For some reason that even 35 years later I cannot fathom, I decided to tell him that I fancied HER (Yes, I know, what a knob!).  Christian mentioned that he thought she was "a bit of alright" (Actually I can't remember his exact words, I hope he didn't say that as he wasn't a cockney!!). Now, if I'd have half a braincell, I would have heard ALARM BELLS ringing at this juncture. Sadly though, when it came to matters of the heart I was naive (or, if you are being less charitable, as thick as a whale omelette) and, like the millions who bought "Be Here Now" by Oasis, thinking "I liked the last one, this'll be a bit of a treat", I was in for a very nasty shock.

One sunny Friday evening in March the lad Christian told me that he wouldn't be ambling down to Youth Group with me because he was bringing his new GIRLFRIEND (Hark, let us strain our ears, are those ALARM BELLS that we can hear? No, still nothing!). So I amble down solo and chat with the swathe of Folkestone youths that had gathered at All Souths Church Hall when I hear someone say HER name. I spun round like I was Dead or Alive and received, on a plate, served with relish, the previously mentioned Very Nasty Shock because (and please don't anybody tell me that this is a surprise or you're more stupid than I was) Christian's Girlfriend was none other than HER.

Earlier in the week, I had been playing my football for my Class Second 11 (I was clearly in good form because our class had 30 pupils, enough for 2 teams, the reminder went into the "Spares" which tended to be my natural home). I was in defence which meant I was usually busy as our Class second 11 was, frankly, shite. The opposing team was awarded a free kick, taken by their star striker, Andy Allon. Allon boasted a fearsome free kick and the entire wall dived out of the way as soon as he unleashed his shot. The exception, unfortunately was, yours truly because I played without my glasses. Ostensibly this was for safety reasons as I didn't want them getting broken. Sadly I was as blind as a bat and therefore did not see the Allon Thunderbolt until it crashed into the Marsh Wedding tackle.

The sensation as Ball met Meat and Two Veg was very similar to the feeling I felt as I saw Christian with HER, although fortunately in this instance I didn't crumple to the floor going "ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!" I stumbled through the rest of the evening feeling and probably looking like an extra from Shaun and the Dead. Having then had to walk up Cheriton High Street with Love's Young Dream, I then collapsed into bed and shouted "WHY?" at the ceiling (My mother thought I had sat on the cat)!

Now, at this point, you are perfectly entitled to say "Hang on a Minute! This is a Music Blog. What in the name of Johnny Borrell's ill fated solo career has Tales of Torrid Teenage Romance (or lack thereof) got to do with Music?". Well, bear with me and all will be revealed. But first a slight digression. I first got into Music at the age of 13, more a less exactly at the same time, in fact, that I had fallen for HER. I leave it to the amateur psychologists to debate whether the awakening of my passion for popular music and my passion for HER were linked.

Anyway, I had obviously been aware of pop music before but I first really fell in love with it (and, in all honesty, there is no better way of describing what happened than that ) when I was laid up in bed with flu and, as a present, my Auntie Helen gave me a radio. I was as sick as a dog and so just lay there as a cornucopia of sounds caressed my ears. It was a true "Road to Damascus" moment. The scales had fallen from my eyes, I was a member of the church of pop music. From that point on I couldn't get enough of the stuff!! The radio was on all the time as I desperately hunted for new songs to fall in love with.

Looking back, the interesting thing was that it was songs I fell for rather than artists. If I liked a song I didn't go tearing off to buy the album. This was probably down to the fact that I was 13 and had bugger all money and wasn't going to invest in an album on the strength of one song. Also in those pre internet days, one was reliant on the radio so if you liked say "Denis" by Blondie and you wanted to hear more from them before deciding if they were a band for you. Initially this would only happen if a) the radio played an oldie by Blondie or b) you just had to wait til the next release rolled out. In the case of the former if your bag was mid 70s AOR rock, you were in luck, by the time I was 14 I had heard the entire Wings and Eagles back catalogues courtesy of Tony Blackburn, DLT and the lads at the poptastic radio 1. Otherwise, forget it. I didn't hear "White Riot" until 4 years after it came out when some enterprising wag managed to get it played in School Assembly!

This meant that by March 1979 I still hadn't formed any real attachment to a band/artist. I knew I liked Disco (and still do, what's your problem?) and suspected that ELO were a band to follow (That would be confirmed with the release of "Discovery") but other than that I was still drifting from record to record (The latest things to tickle my ears being "Pop Musik" by M  and "Cool for Cats" by Squeeze.

And then I discovered "Armed Forces" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

And this is where a third way of finding more music by a particular artist came into play. A number of my contemporaries had more money than me (especially those from the salubrious West End of Folkestone, appreciating that this is Folkestone we are talking about here so salubrious is probably a relative term) and they, therefore, had starting buying ALBUMS as opposed to singles. The great thing with this was that frequently said well off contemporaries were keen to spread the news of how great their latest purchase was by lending it out. In the case of the lad who was absolutely insistent that I borrow "Breakfast in America" by Supertramp- thanks but NO thanks- this was a pain in the arse because at one point he was pursuing me across the school playground with the bloody thing.! In the case of my mate Steve, though, who wondered up to me a few days after my heartbreak at the hands of Christian and Her (You see we got back to all that eventually) and thrust a picture of  large elephants in front of me (The cover of "Armed Forces" in case you thought we had taken a trip into the world of David Attenborough), I shall be forever grateful as it introduced to a man who helped me recover from my emotional turmoil!

Now E.Costello had been knocking about the pop charts for a couple of years but I have to say I don't remember encountering him until I indulged in my Thursday night Top of the Pops ritual and saw him there with his Attractions, playing "Oliver's Army". For those of us of a certain age and a certain musical disposition, "Oliver's Army" is one of THOSE records i.e. a stone cold Classic Pop Track and people who don't agree are regarded as HIGHLY DUBIOUS. The thing that struck me when I first saw EC on TOTP was his appearance. When I was at Primary School, pop music was largely regarded as territory occupied by girls and girls liked pop music because they fancied the boys that made it. This was, after all, the heyday of the teenie bopper , when swathes of teenage girls poured onto the streets to SCREAM at the likes of David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, Marc Bolan and the Bay City Rollers (Lord help us all).

It was widely considered, therefore, that the prerequisite of the popstar was that they had to be attractive. Yet here in 1979, flying high at Number 2 in the Hit Parade, was the man Costello, who not even his mother would deem attractive. To be blunt with his skinny physique and big plastic glasses he looked like a nerd. Or to be more precise, he looked like me! I was immediately disposed to liking him. So when Steve handed the album over and said "You're going to like this, Marsh (All boys Grammar Schools, everyone calls each other by their surnames....or worse)" I suspected that he could be correct in this regard.

Ah lo! He was indeed!I have mentioned in previous blogposts that, in my opinion, when Costello signed to Warners in 1988 he grew a beard and lost the plot completely. However, that need not concern us here. From 1976 through to 1983, Costello produced a series of albums that formed a critical part of my teenage years : This Years Model, Get Happy, Imperial Bedroom and Punch The Clock. Superb records all. It is probably fair to say that I don't think Armed Forces is Costello's best album (That's Get Happy) but if someone came to me and asked for an introduction to the man, I would hand them a copy of Armed Forces as, whilst I am loathed to use the word "representative" to describe the work of a man who has covered many many genres, it is certainly his most accessible album as well as being the most commercially successful.

I was, of course, yet to be introduced to all those fine records. Looking back, it is fascinating that I approached "Armed Forces" knowing hardly anything about Costello (apart from the fact that he looked like me and had produced one of the best songs I heard in my, admittedly limited, exposure to music. Two other points should be taken into consideration here. Firstly. as implied earlier, my musical education had started in earnest in 1977. The Eagles and their Radio 1 played brethren apart, I wasn't overly familiar with Singer/songwriters of the past (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen etc) and how Costello and his music compared to what went before. Secondly, at this stage I didn't read the Music Press (such as it was) and therefore I had no idea how it had been received critically.

In other words, when the needle hit the stylus of Side 1 (Oh the nostalgia of it all) and "Accidents will Happen" came on (I was going to say "Blared out of the speakers" but I had a very small, battery powered, mono record player!!), I was approaching the album completely cold. I had no idea whether "they" thought it was any good or how it compared both to Costello's past work or other singer-songwriters. All I know is that it sounded superb and, more importantly, IT SPOKE TO ME!!

Which brings us back full circle to my Torrid Tales of Teenage Romance! As I listened to the album I was a man (Well OK 14 year old boy) who had his heart, if not broken, certainly kicked about a bit. The girl I fancied me had DESERTED me (OK she didn't know I fancied her but that's not the point!) for another man (Well, boy) who in turn had been my friend, who knew how I felt about her and yet still stole her from under my nose- the bastard etc. Furthermore I had had one of my central beliefs about life shattered. Somehow I had managed to pick up this ridiculous idea (Arse knows where I had got it from) that you saw this girl, fancied her, asked her out and she said yes (And the birdies sang and the lambs frolicked in the field). No one had told me that it was waaaaay more complicated than that. Indeed as soon as you fancied someone, the chances are you were in for a whole shedload of trouble!

As soon as Costello sang "I just don't know where to begin" I knew he understood, he understood that if Love didn't stink (That was the J Geils Band) it was certainly something something that smelt dubious. It was something to approach with caution and with a massive helping of cynicism (A word we will return to in a moment). Now I would stress that "Armed Forces" does not contain a song about a youth who fancies this girl, does bugger all about and then gets her nicked by his mate- the bastard etc (That would have been amusing, although more likely to come from the pen of Joe Jackson- see later). In fact the record hardly refers to the lot of teenagers at all. Well to clarify I think it doesn't. Costello was lauded throughout the late 70s and 80s as one of England's finest lyricists. Er possibly. There is no doubt that many of his songs do contain some fantastically clever word play ("Man out of time" off Imperial Bedroom is lyrically sensational) but I have to confess (and this may say more about me than Costello) that half of the time I am not entirely sure what he's on about. Oliver's Army leaps to mind at this point.

If I didn't know what he was saying, how the hell did it speak to me? First and foremost it was his voice. I had never heard a singing voice like it. He seemed to sneer his way through the whole album. The words oozed out of the little plastic record player laden with bile, anger, sarcasm and (it's that word again) cynicism. This may seem an odd thing to say but it was the way that he sang the songs that spoke to me just as much as the lyrics. I believe that "Goon Squad" is about the army but the way that he spits out the words "Mother, father, I'm doing so well, I'm making such progress now that you can hardly tell" gives it a far more general interpretation. The lyrics imply that there is something inherently rotten with not just England's institutions but the way that "respectable people" live their lives. It's the sneer in the voice though that makes the message clear.

In summary, from where I was standing, here was a man who seemed to be standing looking at life and everything "normal people" took for granted and gaze on it with disdain and cynicism. And to me, it was as if the penny had dropped. Now I'm not going to say that I became a wizened cynic overnight but suddenly I had something in the armoury. Life was not all wine and roses. It was something to be inherently suspicious of. I knew this because Costello said so. It was the first time that an artist had spoken to me like this, where their music had connected with me on an emotional level. My graduation into a cynical teenager had begun, particularly where matters of love and romance were concerned. Whenever a couple got together in my youth group I was the first person to suggest that it wouldn't last (I was an absolute charmer, wasn't I?). Indeed Christian  and HER's relationship lasted all of a month. I proclaimed to anyone who wanted to hear (i.e. no one) that I could see THAT coming and then cleared off home to play" Armed Forces" and feel very smug.

And did I zoom in and ask HER out? Of course I did BUGGER ALL but I could reassure myself that there was no point because it wouldn't last because that's what Elvis would do (That's actually bollocks of course because for a man who was no oil painting Costello had an excellent record with the ladies)

Two interesting codas to all this. Costello's commercial success with Armed Forces seemed to inspire a number of other artistes who could be best described as cynical gits. Firstly there was XTC. Although Andy Partridge would prove himself a far more complex songwriter than just a cynic, "Respectable Street" off "Black Sea" is one of the finest examples of the cynical songwriter at work. Then there was Clive Gregson of the under rated Any Trouble (And their first two albums "Where are all the Nice Girls?" and "Wheels in Motion" are worth a place in your CD collection). Above all, there was Joe Jackson. I know that he says that he intended the song as a joke but when I was 14 and I looked out at the number of goons going out with attractive girls, nothing summed up my disdain for such a state of affairs as "Is She really going out with him?" and the opening line thereof "Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street" is frankly a work of genius. As with Costello, all three artists' work meant a lot to me in my teenage years.

The second coda is that you will be glad (because no one likes to think that there is a mentalist roaming the streets) that I did eventually leave my cynicism behind (well......more or less) and become a more rounded individual. It will come as no surprise that this happened when I started going out with my first proper girlfriend (Altogether now..............aaaaaaaaaaaaah!). Oddly though there are two ironic things about this. Firstly that happened after Costello released what I regard as his last great album "Punch the Clock". From that point on, I fell out of love with Costello. Maybe now that I had found true love (Altogether now.....aaaaaaah!) and realised that life sometimes didn't just kick you in the shins, I didn't need him any longer or maybe he just lost the muse. I suspect a bit of both. Many people say that the 1986 albums "King of America" and "Blood and Chocolate" are strong records and I am sure that they are, they just didn't appeal like the earlier ones had. But then came Warner Bros and the Beard and the rest, sadly, was history (and shite).

The second ironic thing about this situation was that my first proper girlfriend was none other than HER! You see in the end I did get off my backside and do something about it. Just took me 6 years. I could tell you the story of how it eventually happened but "Don't start me talking I could talk all night". And if you don't get that reference, bugger off and listen to "Armed Forces".

Hunting High and Low- A-ha (1985)

One of the greatest complements (although I freely acknowledge that it was intended an insult) that anyone ever paid me was when I was called a "Pop Tart". The comment was caused by my declaration that two of the year's (2005) best albums were "Chemistry" by Girls Aloud and "Taller in Many Ways" by Sugababes. I had plunged into an office conversation on this subject and titles such as "Demon Days" Gorillaz, "Silent Alarm" Bloc Party, "Get Behind Me Satan" White Stripes and "XandY " Coldplay had been mentioned. It is fair to say, then, that my suggestions were greeted with something close to derision. Most people thought I was either taking the piss (I wasn't) or had taken leave of my senses (Possibly but not where this subject is concerned).

The fact was, though, and remains that I was being deadly serious. My Top 5 that year were 1. "Exit Music" Steven Lindsay 2. Girls Aloud 3. "Oceans Apart" Go Betweens 4. Sugababes 5  "In The Clear" Ivy. I maintain that these are 5 excellent records. However for many people the presence of two "Pop" bands would invalidate the whole list. Because you see, there is a consensus amongst lovers of popular (in the broadest sense of the term) music and that is that "Rock" (in the broadest sense of the term) is inherently better than pop. The rationale behind this argument is that "Rock" music is made by serious musicians who love their craft and is built to last whilst pop music is made by charlatans (not the Charlatans) who are out to ride the latest fad and make a quick buck by ripping off a guillible market place (largely made up of girls aged between 7 and 14). The resultant "music" is shallow and inherently disposable and will be forgotten once the next trend arrives. For evidence of this you only have to look at these "Best 100 Albums Ever" lists. Actually you don't have to look at the list because you can guess what's in them because they usually all contain the same albums "OK Computer", "Nevermind" "Sergeant Pepper" "London Calling" "Whatever People Say I'm Not" and so on and so forth. All these albums have one thing in common, they are all "Rock" records. You will struggle to find any Pop records, "Dare" by the Human League and "The Lexicon of Love" by ABC possibly but that'll be about your lot.

"Rock" music is, so this argument goes, built to last whilst "Pop" is inherently disposable and, therefore, inferior. Now I fully appreciate that a volume of people don't like "Pop" but it's still a huge, and frankly, indefensible, step to state that no one is allowed to attribute the whole genre any lasting merit. I can't stand Jazz but if someone presented me their list of great albums and it contained a volume of Jazz records, I wouldn't dismiss it as nonsense. Now, there's a number of reasons why people look down their noses at pop. Naysayers cite the usual "rockist" criticisms: makers of pop records don't write their own songs, they don't play their own instruments, it's all manufactured in the studio etc etc etc.

Personally I suspect that it has more to do with the following. Firstly it relates to pop music's initial target audience, which (and please excuse the broad generalisation) is the afore mentioned girls aged between 7 and 14 (although that upper limit is lowering as time passes). There is an implied and actually quite insulting criticism that if that is your target market then your product (please pardon the business speak) must be trite drivel because girls between the age of 7 and 14 have no taste. Incidentally I say "initial" target audience because, as the years pass, there are signs that as a pop audience ages, it still retains a fondness for the pop bands of their youth. A prime example of this is Take That. When they were in their heyday, their target audience was.......girls between the ages of 7 and 14. 20 years on and the "That" are very much a going concern and the bulk of their audience is made up of ladies between the ages of 37 and 44!!

Secondly I think what we have here is good old fashioned envy of success!! This is particular noticeable these days. Have a quick shufty at the singles charts and they are awash with pop bands and the album chart, once the dominion of "Rock" acts, is about the same. As I write, out of the current Top 10 albums, 2 are by definite "Rock" acts (Springsteen and London Grammar) and there are 7 Pop acts. This leaves Bastille and I am not sure how to classify them (except as shite-ho ho). Pops acts are selling records by the shedload and not just initially either. The current number one album, Ellie Goulding's Halycon, has been in the charts for 67 weeks! By contrast virtually any rock album that goes in the Top 10 has normally made it's excuses and buggered off before the month's out. Rock albums, of course, tend to be far more critically lauded. Take David Bowie, for example. His surprise 2013 album "The Next Day" was lauded to the sky by the critics as a work on a par with his 70s output, it received extensive coverage in the mainstream press (largely because of the nature of its release) and it featured in most Music Magazines Top 5s. However, although it sold veryreasonably, it was only the 26th best selling album of 2013 (and was one of only 3 "Rock" albums in that Top 30 alongside Stereophonics and Arctic Monkeys) and was comprehensively outsold by the likes of One Direction, Michael Buble, Olly Murs and Bruno Mars.

Faced by what they surely perceive as a flagrant injustice, "Rock" fans cry "Foul!" and state that Murs, Mars, Styles and the lads, Buble et al don't play their own instruments, don't write their own songs, it's all manufactured pap etc etc etc. And they then climb onto an even higher echelon of their soapbox and state that in years to come, they will all be forgotten whilst "The Next Day" will be still lauded and presumably be being poured forth from the speakers in Restaurants, Shopping Precincts and at Weddings.

Sadly for these people, as the years pass and popular music, in the widest sense of the term, grows ever older, there are ever growing signs that they are frankly TALKING BOLLOCKS. For Pop Music is, contrary to their expectations, lasting, putting down roots, being passed on from one generation to another...just like "Rock" music in fact. OK it may not dominate the afore mentioned "Greatest Albums" ever lists but to be honest, who gives a toss what's in those lists anyway.

And for evidence of this I call "Hunting High and Low" by A-ha to the stand.

1985 was a strange year for music. From mid 1982 through to the release of "Do They know it's Christmas" the pop scene in the UK was largely dominated by the Big Pop Bands (and Michael Jackson but that's another subject), Duran Duran, Wham, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and for all of 1984, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. However most of those had peaked, even if it wasn't fully obvious at the time. There are those who would argue that artistically Duran Duran peaked with the Rio album. Certainly the follow up "Seven and The Ragged Tiger" never had the same cultural impact (The video for Rio itself was one of the defining clips from the 80s) and whilst they remained a potent commercial force (The Reflex was their biggest selling single), there were signs that the only way was down. The signs of decline were even more marked for Spandau Ballet and Culture Club. After spending 3 years arsing around with keyboards, blankets and then sub Pigbag funk, Spandau (as they were known) broke big with the "True" album (which was effectively a collection of ersatz white boy soul) and, in particular, the title track, from which even now there is no escape. However the follow up "Parade" was effectively a pale copy of "True" and unlike its predecessor, lacked any Big Pop Hits, which was a major error when you were a Big Pop Band.

If the yawning maw of the dumper was opening for The Kemp Brothers, it was threatening to swallow Culture Club whole. I think people forget just how massive Culture Club were in 1983. "Karma Chameleon" was the years biggest selling single and "Colour by Numbers" was the third best selling album. Moreover "Colour by Numbers" was lauded to the skies by the critics (It is oddly, if unsurprisingly, given my previous argument about Rock vs Pop, overlooked by the same critics now). Boy George meanwhile was, seemingly, loved by everyone, even your mum. Then, sadly, two things happen which have happened to many popular music acts. First and foremost DRUGS. Clearly a considerable number of popular music combos had encounters with chemical substances but not, I would hasten to suggest, to the extent that Boy George did. And secondly, and clearly linked to this, they released an absolute DOG of a follow up album "Waking up with the House on Fire". This was preceded by one of the most trite singles of all time "The War Song", which, with a refrain that could (and probably was) have been written by a five year old, stated very clearly "WE HAVE LOST THE PLOT"

The only one off the Big Pop Bands who looked like sustaining their popularity into 1985 and beyond were Wham. They finished 1984 with the Christmas No 2 "Last Christmas". However, it was only thwarted from the Top Spot by Band Aid. After Christmas, they flipped it over and the B side (ah, those were the days) reached No 1. It is currently the 18th best selling single of all time. Despite releasing no album in 1985, they remained both visible and popular and in December, scored their 4th No 1 with "I'm Your Man!". However, even for Wham, there were clouds on the horizon for the lad George Michael was showing distinct signs of tiring of this pop lark. He wanted to be a SERIOUS artist, one that released drone fests like "Careless Whisper" and chorus free offerings like "A Different Corner".

Now one would have expected other pop bands to rise up and take their place. But no! What we got was something very different indeed. In actual fact I am struggling to think of what to call them, I was going to say "Adult Acts" but that conjures up the wrong image as does "Acts for the Adult Market". Shall we just say that the whilst the Big Pop Bands aimed at.....er Girls between the ages of 7 to 14, what happened next appealed to their mums and dads or at the very least their older brother! Because if you look at the Top 20 albums of 1985 you will see the names of Dire Straits (Ah, "Brothers in Arms"), Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins. Tears for Fears (People often mistake TFF for a pop band but they were in reality Freud obsessed weirdos who appealed to students), Alison Moyet, Kate Bush and Paul Young. In addition, although they didn't release studio albums in 1985, U2 and Queen were VERY popular

All of a sudden, Pop had become "Mature". A number of reasons have been bandied around for this. Many have blamed Live Aid but whilst it did launch U2 into the Rock Aristocracy and resuscitate Queen, many of the above acts either weren't at Live Aid or were massive beforehand. Others have ascribed the growth to the CD market but CD's were only a nascent format at this stage and didn't really take off until a couple of years later. Personally I think 1985 was the year when it became obvious that Popular Music's audience had grown up and realised that it still actually liked Popular Music. However rather than get all obsessive about it, they had become the kind of audience that just bought a couple of albums a year and wanted those albums to sound like the sort of thing that sophisticated young adults listen to. Of course, the question as to why then felt the answer to this was "No Jacket Required" is another matter entirely but there you go.

So where did this leave "Pop" music and it's attendant throng of girls between the ages of 7 to 14? Well for most of the year, at a bit of a loss, to be honest. I fully appreciate that there was Madonna and 1985 was the year that she really broke big with "Material Girl", "Into The Groove" and the accompanying album "Like a Virgin" but therein lies the rub because the arbiters of the nations taste weren't completely convinced that Madge banging on about being "Like a virgin, touched for the very first time" was suitable for that age group. In any case, there was a bigger problem, Madge was.....a GIRL. In these pre-Spice Girls days, Big Pop Bands were made up of Handsome Young Men. But look as one might they appeared to be in short supply.

And then in September 1985, a Norwegian Act called A-ha released a single called "Take on Me".

Actually strictly speaking that's not true because "Take on Me" had been released on a number of occasions before and each time it had stiffed! Initially it was called "The Juicy Fruit Song" (and it stiffed, well there's a surprise!), then "Lesson One" and finally "Take on Me". I am not sure if the reason behind all this shilly shallying was that they thought if they kept changing the title, it would fool people into thinking it was a different record. Having decided on a title, they then foisted the song on the general public THREE times and on each occasion, the General Public said "No Thanks, we prefer "Move Closer" by Phylis Nelson". As a last throw of the die, A-ha did two things. Firstly, they recruited Alan Tarney to re record the thing. This may seem an odd choice as Mr Tarney was best known for his work with Sir Cliff Richard. However these were in the days when Sir Cliff was best known for a series of pop hits in the early 80s rather than Mistletoe and Wine and being a sanctimonious old bastard. Secondly A-ha made a video.............

The mid 80s were the high water mark of the pop promo. Increasingly from the mid 70s onwards acts made a video to accompany to their singles. Some acts were quick to realise that an excellent video was a great way of selling more records, Madness leap to mind at this juncture. But it was the launch of MTV in 1981 that made a video a necessity, particularly in the States, and so the pop video became an artform in its own right. As more and more videos were released, they had to become more eye catching as a result and the bar kept being raised. The premiere of Michael Jackson's Thriller was more of an event than the release of the single and was almost a mini movie!

However, even given all the competition, The video for Take on Me grabbed the imagination. Now in these days of advanced CGI, it is possibly a bit hard to explain why this was the case. Indeed the blend of live action and animation had been seen earlier in the year in Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" (or maybe that should be "live inaction" as we are talking about ver Straits). I think this is far more memorable for two reasons 1. The video for "Take on Me" had a story and therefore made much more imaginative use of the animation. "Money for Nothing" was effectively Knopfler and the lads playing the song, accompanied by some animated noodling. 2. Let's be blunt, A-ha were a damn site more photogenic than the chaps from Dire Straits. As a result it genuinely felt that this was something brand new! And it is one of the few pop videos that people still remember even after 30 years.

The video quickly achieved widespread play on MTV which helped propel the re re re re re released "Take on Me" up the Billboard Hot 100 in the States reaching No 1 (Just after "Money For Nothing" oddly enough). Now these were the days that if a record made it big in the States, the chances are it would get airplay in the UK as well and so it proved here (Incidentally that came to an end at the start of the 90s when Country went massive in the States with Garth Brooks. With the exception of Billy Ray Cyrus "Achy Breaky Heart", the UK charts have proved resistant to the charms of Country. This marked the start of an increasing divergence between the UK and US charts, culminating in the mid 90s where a band like Hootie and the Blowfish could sell 15 million copies of their debut album but couldn't get arrested in the UK)

"Take on Me" rapidly rose to No 2 and it was only kept off the top by "The Power of Love" by Jennifer Rush, one of the most rancid No 1s of the 80s. And this was frankly an injustice. Not just because of the foulness of Rush's slushfest but because the quality of the video and the endless re releases should not detract from the fact that "Take on Me" is a BRILLIANT Pop Song. It's got a great introduction, it's insistent, there's a great synth line, it's incredibly catchy. And of course it has stood the test of time incredibly well (So there goes the "Disposable" argument) and it is one of the best loved tracks of the 80s.

Suddenly the Teen Magazines thought they found the successors to Duran Duran et al- a band that would appeal to THAT market, Girls between the ages of 7-14. And the reason for this was not just because they had had a big hit but because here were three very good looking young men. Well, without wanting to be unfair to the chief songwriter, Pal Waaktaar, he was possibly the weak link in the chain, looks wise but this was more than compensated for by the lead singer, Morten Harket. In all honesty I am generally no judge of what makes an attractive man. However, Morten Harket was undoubtedly one (He still is, the bastard. I know of many women of a certain age who go weak at the knees at the very mention of his name) and lo and behold, A-ha found themselves on the front cover of Smash Hits. A Pop Sensation was born.

Or was it? The question was: were we in the presence of the new Duran Duran or the new King? Were they going to be one hit wonders? Bearing in mind that they had just had such a big hit, you may think this was an odd question but there was a reason for it. Bluntly put, they weren't from round here or from America, they were from Norway, they were EUROPEAN. And this was a problem because European Pop had a terrible track record in the UK charts, largely because it was, frankly, BOLLOCKS. With the exception of Abba, one would struggle to think of any credible European band in the previous 5 years. All you had was a succession of ghastly novelty hits that cretins decided to buy when they returned from a trip to the Costa Del Sol ("D.I.S.C.O, The Birdie Song, Seven Tears and so on). Furthermore, the ghost of the German band Nena hung over proceedings. "99 Red Balloons" is a Pop Classic but sadly that was all they had in the armoury and their UK career died on its arse! Was history about to repeat itself (although whether Morten Harket had armpits as hairy as Nena's is another matter)? A strong follow up, therefore, was absolutely critical.

On 16th December 1985, A-ha released "The Sun always Shines on TV".

In my humble opinion, there are two types of people in this world. People that love "The Sun Always Shines on TV" and FOOLS! "The Sun Always Shines on TV" is a MAGNIFICENT record. Right from the off, it is very different from "Take on Me". Whilst "Take on Me" is bright and poppy, "Sun" is a much darker beast. It is dramatic, it's bold, it could almost be a Bond Theme (Of course A-ha did a Bond Theme 18 months later). And it made us realise fully that Morten Harket could SING. I mean really SING. In case you haven't guessed I love a lot of 80s pop but there weren't many great singers. Morten Harket was and is a GREAT singer. It soared to the Number 1 spot outdoing "Take on Me". In my mind, it is one of the best No 1s and it hasn't aged a bit!

"The Sun Always Shines on TV" established A-ha as a pop force to be reckoned with and the debut album "Hunting High and Low" sold 11 million copies worldwide and was the fifth best selling album in the UK in 1986 (if you ignore Now 7 and 8- Lord it really was a long time ago). Whilst there is no doubt that the first two singles are the strongest songs on the album, that's no insult because if the rest of the album had been as good, it would have been one of the greatest albums of all time. As it was "Hunting High and Low" is a fine fine album and one of the best Pop albums of the 80s. Personally my favorite A-ha album is "Scoundrel Days" but that is so serious it's questionable as to whether it is a "Pop" record.

What is clear from the album from the off is two things. Firstly Pal Waaktaar is a songwriter of some considerable ability. He writes all of the songs on the album with the exception of "Take on Me" which is a band effort and "Love is Reason" and "I dream myself alive" which are co writes with Mags. Secondly, and this was clearly obvious from the moment "The Sun always shines on TV" was released, there was more to A-ha than a catchy love song. Pal was clearly a man prone to melancholy (a streak that came out in spades in "Scoundrel Days"). Part of this was due to the fact that he was separated from his girlfriend when writing the bulk of the album. Part of it though, I think stems from the fact that he comes from Scandinavia, a place where it's dark more than light. The last twenty years has seen a volume of Scandinavian bands for whom melancholy is a calling card, the Cardigans, Dylan Mondegreen, NoNoNo, Lykke Li leap to mind and I think they can all count A-ha as an influence.

To my mind Morten Harket's voice really comes into it's own on the more melancholy tracks "The Sun always shines on TV", "Living a Boy's Adventure Tale" and, particularly the title track and 4th single "Hunting High and Low". There is a lazy tendency to lump a lot of 80s pop in together, which is frankly stupid and for an illustration of that listen to "Hunting High and Low" the song. In many ways, I think it's like an 80s Walker Brothers, just less over the top.

As for the rest of the album, if one is being critical , the more upbeat songs ("Take on Me" excepted) probably aren't as strong as their slower brethren. However there really isn't a duff song on the album and it is an album I can just put on, play and then play again and at 37 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome. "Love is Reason" is by some distance the poppiest thing on here and it is actually to A-ha's credit that they did not release it as a single. "Train of Thought" is a great, if slightly odd, third single.  However the real strange one is "Here I stand and Face the Rain". the last track, There is a distinct air of paranoia here and in many ways it is the forerunner of "Scoundrel days"

Coming back to where we started, I was at University at the time that "Hunting High and Low" came out and (just as I did 20 years later when I mentioned Girls Aloud and Sugababes) I received Dog's abuse when most of my friends heard that I had bought the album. They were all into "Meat is Murder", ""The Head on the Door" and "Hounds of Love". Frankly, as in 2005 and as now I didn't care. I knew I owned a great Pop album by a great Pop band. Time, of course, has been good to A-ha as frankly time should have been. There are many bands who cite them as an influence, Coldplay being the most notable and they often cover "Hunting High and Low". Many of their singles receive regular airplay and, if any one gives a monkey's arse about such things, when people who think that Pop matters (as it does) compile THEIR list of great albums then "Hunting High and Low" is inevitably on it.

Is it as good as "Nevermind" and all that cobblers? Personally I think it's light years better but I'm a Pop Tart, Of course I'd say that. To my mind what is truly great about this record is that my 8 year old daughter (That 7-14 year old girl bracket again) thinks it's great!! It means it's pop that spans the generations, that will last, whatever the so called taste makers say. Pop Tarts of the generations unite!!!!