Released today in 1981: Backfired

Chrysalis CHS2526

The sleeve of Debbie Harry’s first solo single Backfired featured a detail from a photograph of her taken by Brian Aris. The rest of the image was seen on the cover of her debut album, Kookoo, with alterations made by Swiss artist H.R. Giger who had recently enjoyed some notoriety for his design work on the science fiction horror film ‘Alien’. Harry’s Blondie band mate and partner Chris Stein recalled that “Debbie and I met him right after he won the Academy Award for ‘Alien’. The original prints of the ‘Alien’ artwork were on display around the country, so we went to the gallery in New York and by coincidence he was there and we met him. We brought him over to the house, and we’ve been friends ever since, pretty much.”

Giger was invited to contribute to the artwork for the as-yet untitled album. “When I was back in Switzerland, I picked up some excellent shots in which Debbie wore her hair combed sharply back,” he said in 1991. (Harry had decided that as the album was not a Blondie one, she would visually distance herself from the group by symbolically dying her hair brown for the Aris photo session.) “Since I had just had acupuncture treatment from my friend and doctor, Paul Tobler, the idea of the four needles came to me, in which I saw symbols of the four elements, to be combined with her face.” The result was both stunning and unsettling: Giger painted over one of Aris’s original pictures to show four spikes piercing Harry’s face and neck. This treatment of one of pop’s most beautiful faces was too shocking for some: Chrysalis mounted a poster campaign featuring the image to promote the album, but Stein remembers organizations such as London Underground refusing to allow them to be displayed for fear of disturbing people.

Nevertheless, as Giger recalled, “Debbie and Chris… liked the idea and, in addition, they commissioned me to make two video clips of the best songs.” The first of these was Backfired, which incorporated elements of the imagery from the album cover along with Giger’s trademark ‘biomechanical’ designs. The other clip was for the track Now I Know You Know which was presumably in line to be a single at one time; in fact, the follow-up single in most countries was The Jam Was Moving.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Jul. 24
1981
Debbie HARRY Backfired (Chrysalis CHS2526)
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES (Siouxsie Sioux) Arabian Knights (Polydor POSP309)
1989
BIG FUN Blame It On The Boogie (Jive JIVE217)
Neneh CHERRY Kisses On The Wind (Circa YR33)
FUZZBOX Self! (WEA YZ408)
Kylie MINOGUE Wouldn’t Change A Thing (PWL PWL42)
TRANSVISION VAMP (Wendy James) Landslide Of Love (MCA TVV8)
Sydney YOUNGBLOOD If Only I Could (Circa YR34)

Released today in 1983: Love Blonde

RAK RAK360

The 80s were hard times for a lot of people when it came to fashion. “She’s never waiting on your smile/Devastating, what’s in her style?” asked Kim Wilde on her seventh single, the unusual (for her) jazz and swing influenced number Love Blonde. As the song is supposed to be about Kim herself and her image, it’s possibly a question that only she can answer, and a couple of years later she did just that when Smash Hits (24 April 1985) asked her to comment on some of the clothes she had sported over the past five years. Typically for Kim she laughed at most of her previous stylings, explaining that “I’ll try anything. I’m like that, I’m game for a laugh, which can be a bit lethal. If someone comes up and says, ‘how about this?’, I’ll say ‘all right then’ and land myself in a situation where I think ‘my God! What am I doing here?’. But at least I throw myself in. Some people never even give it a try.” She was no fashion victim though. “I never wanted to be in a position where I would have to be a servant to an image. I just wore the clothes I wanted to wear, jeans, whatever.”

around the time of Kids In America (January 1981). “Oh, my God! This is what I wore for the video. I nicked it off a friend. The buttons wouldn’t do up properly.”

around the time of Chequered Love (spring 1981). “Don’t use this! It’s horrendous…an Oxfam job that I bought when I was just out of art school.”

around the time of Cambodia (November 1981). “Rough and ready. It wasn’t a deliberate change of image, just a jacket given to me by a friend.”

around the time of House Of Salome (European single, late ‘83/early ‘84). “I just said, ‘I want to wear a dress today’. I loved it at the time but I’d never be seen dead in it now.”

around the time of The Second Time (autumn 1984). “That whole project was great at the time but now I really laugh at it… I was really enjoying it, but then I couldn’t handle it anymore. I kind of went, ‘aaargh! Hate it! Hate it! Hate it! Throw it out the window!’ It made me realize I’m not very good at the media thing. I’m not tailor-made for it.”

around the time of Rage To Love (April 1985: the Teddy-boy jacket she wore during promotion for the single and on the cover of the ‘Rage To Rock’ tour programme belonged to her father.)“I like wearing men’s clothes… I think I’ll stick to wearing stuff like this now. Then again, I might just change my mind!”

NEW SINGLES on sale from Jul. 18
1983
HOT CLUB (Clark Datchler) It Ain’t Me Girl (RAK RAK361)
Kim WILDE Love Blonde (RAK RAK360)
1988
AZTEC CAMERA (Roddy Frame) Working In A Goldmine (WEA YZ199)
BROTHER BEYOND The Harder I Try (Parlophone R6184)
Bobby BROWN Don’t Be Cruel (MCA MCA1268)
Nick KAMEN Bring Me Your Love (WEA YZ202)
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES (Siouxsie Sioux) Peek A Boo (Wonderland SHE14)
TIFFANY Feelings Of Forever (MCA TIFF4)

Released today in 1985: Would You Dance With A Stranger?

The Compact Organization PINK10

The film ‘Dance With A Stranger’ concerned Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Released on 1 March 1985, it appeared nearly thirty years after her hanging for shooting dead her former lover David Blakely outside a London pub. Ellis was portrayed by Miranda Richardson, pictured on the sleeve of Mari Wilson’s single Would You Dance With A Stranger? which was used as the film’s theme music. Blakely was played by Rupert Everett, who himself tried to launch a career in pop in 1987 with his single Generations Of Loneliness.

The screenplay was by Shelagh Delaney, long admired by Morrissey. He had used her image on two releases by his band The Smiths in the same year as Everett’s musical debut: on the cover of the (non-UK) album Louder Than Bombs and the single, Girlfriend In A Coma.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Jun. 28
1985
The STYLE COUNCIL Come To Milton Keynes (Polydor TSC9)
Mari WILSON Would You Dance With A Stranger (The Compact Organization PINK10)

Released today in 1987: The Living Daylights

Warner Bros W8305

There were five additions to the James Bond series of movies in the 1980s (‘Never Say Never Again’ doesn’t count) and as custom dictated, a well-known act from the pop music industry was commissioned to perform a theme song for each.

‘For Your Eyes Only’
✇ opened: 24 June 1981
♫ released: 15 June 1981

In 1980 Esther Rantzen produced a documentary film called ‘The Big Time’ which chronicled an unknown singer’s attempt to break into the British music industry. The subject was Sheena Easton and during the programme she met fellow Scot who had already ‘made it’, Lulu. Lulu’s manager Marion Massey told Easton that she was unlikely to make the “big time”, but was proved wrong as by the end of the year Easton was very much a star and was approached to sing the theme to the following year’s Bond film. The irony of Massey’s original assessment of Easton’s chances was highlighted when her single, For Your Eyes Only, made #8 – established artist Lulu’s The Man With The Golden Gun, from the 1974 Bond movie of the same name, flopped. All the Bond themes have been released as singles in the UK, with Lulu’s single one of only three that have failed to chart. (The others were Bond regular John Barry’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969, and, somewhat surprisingly, Moonraker by Shirley Bassey ten years later.)

‘Octopussy’
✇ opened: 6 June 1983
♫ (All Time High) released: 3 June 1983

It wasn’t the first time that the theme song for a Bond movie didn’t match the title of the film. The most famous one is probably Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better, but that song did at least reference the film’s title, ‘The Spy Who Love Me’, in its lyrics. Tim Rice, the lyricist for this movie’s theme, must have wondered how on earth he was going to slip the word ‘Octopussy’ into a song. So he didn’t bother. To create some association with the film, the marketing team at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer used the titular phrase of Rita Coolidge’s single on movie posters and publicity material, describing it as James Bond’s “all time high”. It’s doubtful this did create a link between the song and the movie as the single only made #75.

‘A View To A Kill’
✇ opened: 13 June 1985
♫ released: 7 May 1985

Although the theme song singles were usually released before the film in the UK, there was a big gap between the release of Duran Duran’s A View To A Kill and the opening of ‘A View To A Kill’. This was because the world premiere for the movie was in San Francisco on 22 May1985, a full three weeks before its British general release. (In most cases, the British premiere had also been the world premiere.) To date, Duran’s song is the most successful Bond theme. It made #2 in the UK, the highest placing for Bond theme in the British singles chart (Adele matched this peak with Skyfall in 2012). It did even better in the US, topping the Billboard Hot 100 – still the only Bond theme to do so. Trivia: this year’s Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw performed a live version of the song at Melodifestivalen (Sweden’s version of ‘A Song For Europe’) in 2010.

‘The Living Daylights’
✇ opened: 30 June 1987
♫ released: 22 June 1987

The soundtrack for ‘The Living Daylights’ was the eleventh to be scored by John Barry. A-Ha were chosen to perform the title theme, but their collaboration (if it can be called that) with Barry was troubled. The band was reluctant to give him a songwriter’s credit, believing they had a finished song already that needed no further work. The limit of Barry’s contribution was apparently the string arrangements. At the film’s London premiere (which A-Ha did not attend) Barry mentioned to reporters that he had found them difficult to work with. Indeed, they hadn’t been able to agree which version of the song to release. A-Ha were happy with their first attempt, which appeared on their own album Stay On These Roads, but it was Barry’s preferred mix that was actually used on the soundtrack. The single made #5.

‘Licence To Kill’
✇ opened: 13 June 1989
♫ released: 30 May 1989

The longest-ever Bond theme at over five minutes, performed by veteran soul singer Gladys Knight (without The Pips); it reached #6. The soundtrack to ‘Licence To Kill’ was supervised by Michael Kamen as John Barry was unavailable due to recovery from throat surgery.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Jun. 22
1981
BAUHAUS Passion Of The Lovers (Beggars Banquet BEG59)
1987
A-HA The Living Daylights (Warner Bros W8305)
BANANARAMA I Heard A Rumour (London NANA13)
The CURE (Robert Smith) Catch (Fiction FICS26)
THEN JERICO (Mark Shaw) The Motive (London LON145)
TOYAH Moonlight Dancing (EG EGO35)

Released today in 1980: Simon Templer

Deram BUM1

The character Simon Templar was created by British writer Leslie Charteris in the 1920s. Often referred to a ‘modern day Robin Hood’, Templar has a strong but sometimes dubious moral code and makes it his mission in life to right the wrongs he perceives are done by “the ungodly” (typically, corrupt officials), taking money from them and giving it to parties he considers deserving (i.e., those who have suffered in some way due to the influence of adversary of Templar’s in question). He makes his presence known to those involved by leaving a calling-card featuring a picture of a stick man with a halo, a reference to his nickname of The Saint.

Charteris wrote around fifty books featuring Templar between 1928 and 1963 and his series was continued by other writers for a further twenty years, with Charteris either co-writing or taking an editorial role in those; considered ‘canon’ are those first published in the UK by Hodder and Stoughton. There were also nearly one hundred Charteris short stories featuring the character, published in various periodicals including a photo play in Life magazine, in which Charteris himself portrayed Templar.

In fact, it seems the only medium that this versatile character hasn’t been resurrected in is computer gaming. In the middle of the twentieth century there were several radio shows starring Templar; numerous feature films have been based around him (although the screenplays have usually been original storylines, rather than based on events from the books and stories); he has appeared in a long-running strip cartoon in newspapers, initially written by Charteris, and in comic books which either contained new drawings or collected the previously published strips; Charteris even co-wrote a stage play starring Templar although this was never performed.

But it is the television series that inspired Max Splodge’s deliberately mis-spelled single Simon Templer, which musically borrows heavily from the theme tune of ‘Return of The Saint’ which was airing at the time of the song’s composition. (Starring Ian Ogilvy, this was not a continuation of the 1960s series ‘The Saint’ with Roger Moore, although it is the same character Ogilvy and Moore were playing. Ogilvy’s fame peaked in the early 1980s due to his performance in ‘Return of The Saint’ and he was briefly tipped to replace Moore as James Bond as well as Simon Templar.) In most of the media in which he appears, Templar is intelligent, sophisticated, seemingly independently wealthy, an exposer of corruption and a champion of the oppressed, an amateur poet and songwriter, a wit and a charmer, but Splodge is not impressed by him. “Could this be Mr Simon Templar?” he asks before listing some of the character’s qualities, only to conclude “Well, I think Simon’s head is large,” and ending with the assertion, “I think Simon’s a bit of a bore/Ian Ogilvy and Podgy Moore.”

Splodge could afford to be dismissive. It was one of this single’s two B-side tracks that got him more attention than Mr Templar. Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please received far more radio airplay and was probably what the punters who took the single to #7 were buying it for anyway, a theory supported by the fact that The Official Charts company now has it listed as a double-A-side.

NEW SINGLES on sale from May. 23
1980
The PROFESSIONALS Just Another Dream (Virgin VS353)
SPLODGENESSABOUNDS Simon Templer (Deram BUM1)
UB40 My Way Of Thinking (Graduate GRAD8)
U2 Eleven O’Clock Tick Tock (Island WIP6601)
1983
KAJAGOOGOO Hang On Now (EMI EMI5394)
1986
TEARS FOR FEARS Everybody Wants To Run The World (Mercury RACE1)
1988
FIVE STAR Another Weekend (Tent PB42081)
SADE (Sade Adu) Paradise (Epic SADE2)
TIFFANY I Saw Him Standing There (MCA TIFF3)

Released today in 1987: April Skies

Blanco Y Negro NEG24

Siblings. Many of them appeared on the cover of Smash Hits throughout the 1980s: there were sisters Mel & Kim and brothers-and-sisters Five Star and, of course, Brother Beyond… well, maybe not that last one. But brothers were the most-represented siblings. Here’s the Top 5, according to If You Were There:

5 The Reid brothers
“We’ve got a typical brother love/hate relationship,” Jim Reid said when Smash Hits went to interview him and his brother William (16 July 1986). “Obviously I find him incredibly irritating like today [they had clearly just had a row before the interviewer arrived] and obviously he does with me too. When I was younger I used to pour boiling water over his back. Children are incredibly cruel.” Some early press reports suggested they were no better as young adults: The Sun described their band The Jesus And Mary Chain as “the new Sex Pistols”, due to their surly attitude towards the audience at gigs (performing with their backs to them, refusing to speak to them directly) which often led to fights, bottles being thrown, etc. By the time of this Smash Hits interview, they admitted this deliberately manufactured image was probably counterproductive.

4 The Mael brothers
The Mael brothers grew up in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles and were educated at UCLA. Ron is the keyboard-playing older brother with the moustache who writes Sparks’ songs; Russell is the singer with the falsetto voice.

3 The Goss brothers
When Bros released their first album there were three of them; by album number two, Craig Logan had been dropped and twins Luke (drums) and Matt (vocals) carried on as a duo.

2 The Campbell brothers
“The eight of us in the band, we’re all brothers you know, not just me and Robin,” Ali told Smash Hits (2 July). That was the position in 1986, anyway. Today there are two rival bands of brothers playing UB40’s music, one featuring Robin and one with Ali: when Ali quit the original UB40 in 2008, he was replaced another Campbell brother, Duncan.

1 The Kemp brothers
Why are Gary and Martin Kemp our number one pair of brothers? Because not only did they work together in Spandau Ballet, they also went on to begin their acting careers as a partnership: playing another pair of famous brothers:

NEW SINGLES on sale from Apr. 20
1987
The CULT (Ian Astbury) Lil Devil (Beggars Banquet BEG188)
The JESUS AND MARY CHAIN April Skies (Blanco Y Negro NEG24)

Released today in 1986: Live To Tell

Sire W8717

The viewfinder icon next to her name on the sleeve is the only indication that this song is taken from the soundtrack to the film ‘At Close Range’, which starred Madonna’s husband Sean Penn. The label copy for the American issue of the single contained details about the song’s inclusion in the film, and the promotional video clip for Live To Tell shows Madonna in an empty studio singing the track, intercut with scenes from the movie. So it certainly wasn’t a secret that the song featured in the film; however, the information was of little use to British audiences who would have to wait until 12 September 1986 for the film’s release here, by which time the song was a distant memory. Over in the US, though, the film was released in the same week the single was issued in the UK: Live To Tell appeared in the shops on Monday in UK, and ‘At Close Range’ was in cinemas on the Friday in the US.

As an actress, it’s generally agreed that Madonna’s first film was ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’; this, and her other movie credits for the 1980s, are discussed below, along with notes on her contributions to their soundtracks. But she had performed in two other film projects prior to this, and both were released in 1985. The first was soft-porn, low-budget Stephen Jon Lewicki movie ‘A Certain Sacrifice’, shot from 1979 to 1980 and unreleased until it was unearthed in 1985 due to Madonna’s growing fame. She lost a court battle on 2 August 1985 to have the film supressed, and was unable to persuade the director to sell her the rights, so it saw a video release on 1 October in the US that year. Her past was catching up with her, and the same year nude photos of her appeared in Playboy and Penthouse. None of this damaged her career in any way.

The second was ‘Vision Quest’, filmed in late ’83, in which she appears as a nightclub singer performing Gambler and Crazy For You: both tracks were featured on the Geffen soundtrack album and were issued as singles. (A copyright claim was filed for a third song, Warning Signs, but this was not used.) Although Madonna’s involvement was publicized when ‘Vision Quest’ was released to cinemas in America, the main promotional image used was a very unappealing sepia photograph of the film’s stars, Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino; the same picture was hand-tinted and used for the soundtrack album cover. In Australia, and later in the UK, the film was renamed ‘Crazy For You’ to strengthen the association with Madonna’s hit song, and she featured prominently in publicity material. Modine commented that it was a better title anyway, as ‘Vision Quest’ sounded like a sci-fi movie. A striking image of him in training (the character he plays is a boxer) that was used on the back cover of the soundtrack album was used on publicity posters for the re-titled release.

Madonna At The Movies

‘Desperately Seeking Susan’
Role: Susan Thomas (supporting actress)
US release date: 12 April 1985
UK release date: 6 September 1985
Soundtrack release: Madonna did record a title song for the movie, as did another artist, but neither was used in the finished film. Instead, Into The Groove (not specifically recorded for the film) was used as an unofficial theme and issued as a single, with a publicity photo of Madonna and the film’s star, Rosanna Arquette, on the sleeve. The promotional video clip for the song compiled footage from the film. The score for the film, composed by Thomas Newman, was released as an album along with Chas Jankel’s score for the film ‘Making Mr Right’.

Albeit a supporting cast member, Madonna’s part in the film was the title role. The job was perfect for her: ‘Susan’ was quick-thinking, fast-talking and street-wise, exactly the media image of Madonna herself. (In fact, if there was a criticism of her performance it was that she was effectively playing herself.)

‘Shanghai Surprise’
Role: Gloria Tatlock (co-star)
US release date: 29 August 1986
UK release date: 17 October 1986
Soundtrack release: none, but songs by George Harrison (whose film company, HandMade Films, produced it) were featured.

The Madonna backlash in the British media began in earnest with this movie. It seemed pointless to attack her music (you either liked her stuff or you didn’t, and given the chart positions it seemed most people liked it), so they went after her acting career instead. In February 1986 the film’s stars – husband and wife Sean Penn and Madonna – arrived in the UK for filming. Provoked by the press, who hoped some minor scuffles they orchestrated would develop into full-blown fights and lead to more negative press for Sean, they were nicknamed ‘the Poison Penns’ during their visit and the film was panned on release. It wasn’t just in the UK that the film was received badly; the film was nominated as Worst Picture at the Seventh Golden Raspberry Awards, Penn was nominated as Worst Actor, and Madonna won Worst Actress.

‘Who’s That Girl?’
Role: Nikki Finn (lead)
US release date: 7 August 1987
UK release date: 23 October 1987
Soundtrack release: album Who’s That Girl marketed as a Madonna album, but only four of the songs are hers. Three were issued as singles (the title track, Causing A Commotion, and The Look of Love) and she performed them all on her Who’s That Girl world tour. (The remaining cut was Can’t Stop.)

The working title for this comedy was ‘Slammer’. Madonna won her second Worst Actress award at the following year’s Golden Raspberry Awards.

‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’
Role: Hortense Hathaway (cameo)
US release date: 3 November 1989
UK release date: no theatrical release
Soundtrack release: none. Madonna duets with Jennifer Grey during the film (I Surrender Dear) but this has never appeared on an audio-only format.

The film opened in the US to a very limited release and was straight-to-video in the UK, available at rental stores from 7 December 1990. Once again, Madonna had a nomination at the Razzies, this time for Worst Supporting Actress.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Apr. 14
1986
The ALARM Knife Edge (IRS IRM112)
DEPECHE MODE A Question Of Lust (Mute 7BONG11)
MADONNA Live To Tell (Sire W8717)
SADE (Sade Adu) Never As Good As The First Time (Epic A7061)

Released today in 1986: I Do What I Do

Parlophone R6125

The ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ of the 1980s,’ 9½ Weeks’’ shortfalls were summed up in one sentence from Variety magazine: “The virtual absence of anything interesting happening between [the two leads] – like plausible attraction, exotic amazing sex, or, God forbid, good dialogue – leaves one great big hole on the screen for two hours.” It wouldn’t warrant mentioning the film at all if the soundtrack hadn’t included the first solo single by Smash Hits cover star John Taylor.

I Do What I Do was originally offered to Dalbello, but she turned it down (although she did contribute another song). Taylor more or less spoke his way through his vocal for the track, which relied heavily on contributions from session singers. It was reasonably successful in America, where it made #23 on the Billboard Hot 100, but here in the UK it fell short of the Top 40 and was quickly forgotten. This was reversed regarding the fortunes of the film itself: audiences stayed away in the States, while it was a hit in the UK – especially on home video, where it became one of the most borrowed titles of late 80s at video rental stores.

The soundtrack featured a mix of American, British and Canadian acts. Other Smash Hits cover stars appearing were Bryan Ferry, whose Slave To Love from his 1985 album Boys And Girls was included (the track had already been a hit single prior to the film’s release), and Eurythmics, with This City Never Sleeps from their 1983 album Sweet Dreams. Stewart Copeland of The Police contributed Cannes.

Established artists Joe Cocker and Devo contributed cover versions of You Can Leave Your Hat On and Bread and Butter respectively. The soundtrack album was completed by tracks from acts less well-known to the Brits. Corey Hart’s Eurasian Eyes, from his 1985 album Boy In The Box was a single in several territories, including his native Canada. The other Canadian nationals on the soundtrack were Dalbello, with Black On Black (a single in Germany), and Luba, who supplied two songs:The Best Is Yet To Come, which was chosen as a single in the UK, and Let It Go, taken from her 1984 album Secrets and Sins and which was the preferred choice as a single in the US.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Mar. 3
1986
David BOWIE Absolute Beginners (Virgin VS838)
CULTURE CLUB Move Away (Virgin VS845)
Howard JONES No One Is To Blame (WEA HOW9)
Julian LENNON Stick Around (Charisma CB420)
John TAYLOR I Do What I Do (Parlophone R6125)

Released today in 1984: What Difference Does It Make?

Rough Trade RT146

In addition to the Smash Hits cover acts, there is another roll call from the 1980s of the famous and obscure that needs mentioning on If You Were There: Morrissey’s eclectic roster of “cover stars” (he first used this phrase on the cover of second single This Charming Man – see RT136 in the table below) who adorned the sleeves of the records issued by his band The Smiths. “From the beginning, all the artwork was conceived and controlled by Morrissey, whose instinct for presentation was unerring,” remembers Rough Trade Production Manager Jo Slee. “With a sensualist’s eye for colour and line, he explored the complexities of visualisation; from a hoard of assembled images came the inspiration for each new design. He was always appreciative of the end result, at times seeming almost astonished to see his own ideas made concrete.” ¹

Not all were famous people: some appeared in pictures that caught Morrissey’s eye and were brought to public attention unnamed. But most were recognizable – for instance, actor Terence Stamp, who was chosen for the sleeve of What Difference Does It Make?. The image is still from the 1965 movie The Collector; Stamp, as sinister protagonist Freddie Clegg, is holding a chloroform-soaked pad to use to subdue one of his victims. Although Rough Trade secured permission from the film’s distributors to use the picture, Stamp objected to his image being used and a new sleeve was printed depicting Morrissey recreating the original pose, but holding a pint glass filled with milk instead of the drugged pad. Eventually, Stamp relented and the original sleeve was reinstated. What difference does it make? About £30 on eBay for a mint condition copy: the Morrissey version is far rarer and commands a higher price.

Cover Stars of The Smiths’ UK Singles:

Cat no.	Cover star	Notes
RT198	Avril Angers	1918-2005, comedienne and actress; the picture is from the film The Family Way. Originally, RT198 was to have been Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before with a sleeve featuring actor and singer-songwriter Murray Head from the same movie, but an unfortunate lyric meant it would have been insensitive to release it to radio when the Hungerford massacre had only recently taken place. The track was released as a single elsewhere in Europe though, with the Murray Head sleeve.
RT166	Billie Whitelaw	1932-2014, actress. The picture is from the film Charlie Bubbles, a source of considerable inspiration for images to Morrissey.
RT200	Billy Fury	1940-1983, born Ronald Wycherley, a prolific hit maker in the 1960s. Rheumatic fever suffered as a child led to poor health in adulthood and ultimately to his premature death.
RT196	Candy Darling	c1944-1974, Trans actress born James Slattery brought to public attention by Andy Warhol. She had a cameo in his film Flesh which starred Joe Dallesdandro, who appeared on the cover of The Smiths’ debut album. She is the Candy who “came out from on the island” in Lou Reed’s classic Walk On The Wild Side.
RT195	Elvis Presley	1935-1977, the ‘King of Rock N’ Roll’. The lead track on RT195 was originally to have been You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby; some copies with that A-side made it into the shops and are now collectors’ items.
RT192	James Dean	1931-1955, actor and American cultural icon. He died aged 24 in a car crash.
RT136	Jean Marais	1913-1998, French writer, sculptor and actor with over 100 TV and film credits.
RT181	Pat Phoenix	1923-1986, one of the first actresses cast in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. Morrissey interviewed her for Blitz magazine in May 1985.
RT193	Richard Bradford	1937-, American actor and star of 60s ITC show Man In A Suitcase.
RT176	Sean Barrett	1940-, British actor, voice artist and former child star.
RT197	Shelagh Delaney	1938-2011, British dramatist. She also appeared on the cover of The Smiths’ compilation album Louder Than Bombs.
RT191	Truman Capote	1924-1984, American screenplay writer and novelist. A cover featuring footballer George Best was planned for the sleeve of RT191, but Best declined.
RT156	Viv Nicholson	1936-, Pools winner who said she would “spend, spend, spend” her fortune. A musical of her life story using that quote as its title opened in the late 90s, starring Barbara Dickson as Viv. The first choice for cover star for RT156 was actor Albert Finney in a still from the film Saturday Night, Sunday Morning but his agents wrote to advise Rough Trade that “Mr Albert Finney is not willing to consent to the use of his likeness in the manner you describe”.
RT194	Yootha Joyce	1927-1980, jobbing actress (she had a minor role in the previously mentioned Charlie Bubbles) who found fame in 1970s in sitcom. She died shortly after a feature film of her show George and Mildred was made; her liver failed followed years of excessive drinking which she had successfully hidden from friends and colleagues.

¹ Slee, Jo. “Introduction”, Peepholism. Into The Art Of Morrissey, Sidgwick and Jackson Limited, 1994.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Jan. 20
1984
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN (Ian McCulloch) Killing Moon (Korova KOW32)
Nick KERSHAW Wouldn’t It Be Good (MCA NIK2)
The SMITHS (Morrissey) What Difference Does It Make? (Rough Trade RT146)
1986
BEASTIE BOYS She’s On It (Def Jam A6686)
MADNESS Sweetest Girl (Zarjazz JAZZ8)
PUBLIC IMAGE LTD (John Lydon) Rise (Virgin VS841)
SIMPLE MINDS Sanctify Yourself (Virgin SM1)
Midge URE Wastelands (Chrysalis URE3)

Released today in 1982: Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)

Dindisc DIN40

Joan of Arc, born and baptized in 1412 in Domremy, France, had a short life that had a profound effect on the Middle Ages. In her teens, she began to hear voices and claimed that three saints had spoken to her, telling her to free France from the threat of England (the Hundred Years’ War between the two nations was in its second phase). She travelled to Vaucouleurs to join the Dauphin’s forces; initially turned away, she was eventually given command of a small troop and lead them to victory in the battle to free Orleans from the English in April 1429. Although wounded early the following month, Joan lead several further battles in the spring and was instrumental in helping to get the Dauphin crowned King of France in July – without Charles VII on the throne, France might have fallen under the control of English King Henry VI and the course of European history would have been quite different. The King retreated to Loire later in the summer and Joan lead an assault on Paris in September.

When a brief truce with England at the start of 1430 ended, Joan was captured in a battle with Burgandy in May 1430 and attempts to rescue her failed. In January 1431 the famous trial at Rouen (the seat of the English occupation government) began at which she was eventually found guilty of heresy. On 30 May 1431 Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, still a teenager. The King ordered an investigation into the trial if for no other reason than the legal process was severely flawed. By the time the declaration of her innocence was made in 1456, the Hundred Years’ War was over.

All of which has very little to do with pop music in the 1980s. Except that Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released two consecutive singles with Joan of Arc as their theme taken from their 1981 album Architecture And Morality, the second of which was released 33 years ago today. Mostly instrumental, Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc) makes the Top 5, just like its predecessor Joan Of Arc.

NEW SINGLES on sale from Jan. 15
1982
BOW WOW WOW (Annabella) Go Wild In The Country (RCA RCA175)
The BUGGLES Adventures In Modern Recording (Carrere CAR222)
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc) (Dindisc DIN40)
SPANDAU BALLET She Loved Like Diamond (Reformation CHS2585)
Mari WILSON Beat The Beat (The Compact Organization PINK2)
1983
BAUHAUS (Peter Murphy) Lagartija Nick (Beggars Banquet BEG88)