The Damned Phantasmagoria

In 1985 The Damned released the Phantasmagoria album. A much more palatable crossover sounding collection of tunes than anything they had ever produced previously in their punk years. It spawned the singles Grimly Fiendish and The Shadow of love and was a sort of gothic/pop offering that suddenly gave them a mass appeal along with a few top 40 hits.

When this album was sold in to our record shop  by MCA records we were given the opportunity to do some promotional advertising paid for by the label. I say ‘paid for’, we never actually received any cash, the payment was just free Albums. The idea being that we got 10 free Vinyl  LPS (no CDs in those days) and the freebies would allow us to reduce the price and advertise it in our local paper.

£4.49 would be our cut price so all we needed to do now was think of a snappy ad to go in our local Rag.

Now I know that in the cold light of day this doesn’t sound like comedy gold but at the time I thought that it would be amusing to have the tag line (in bold black lettering) “I’ll be Damned if I’ll pay more that £4.49 for the new Damned Album, blah blah…out now….etc etc”. LOL, hilarious, Jimmy Tarbuck eat your heart out.

So we got the artwork approved, sorted the price/size of ad/what page it would be on etc. and arranged for it to go in the paper just before the weekend for maximum sales.

But on the day advertisement was due to go to press a lady from the paper rang to say there was a slight problem. The editor wouldn’t let us use our comedy wording “he thinks that the line ‘I’ll be Damned’ sounds a bit too much like swearing” she said. “Wot? that’s the name of the band, The Damned!, how the hell can you take that bit out ?”.

“I know” she said “ but he’s made us reword it I’m afraid, I hope you don’t mind?”

So what magical Gem did they come up with for our fantastic Damned Promotion?

“We won’t condemn you to pay more that £ 4.49 for the new Phantasmagoria album- out now”

Shite!
We never bothered with the Sex Pistols Never mind the bollocks re promotion...

10,000 Maniacs Limited Edition Elephant Pack

You don't get this sort of thing with an MP3 do you ?.
Oh for the days of the "special pack" with a weird idea from some promotions person put into practice and sold to the record buying public. You can just imagine the moment someone in a smoke filled room came up with this one.

I wonder what they were smoking at the time?. But i love it anyway. It must have cost a fortune to make but it certainly does it for me. LOL.
Sadly the idea didn't work. It wasn't a hit, in fact it didn't even reach the top 75 here in the UK. Does that make this thing rare and worth a fortune?.

I doubt it.

10,000 Maniacs - Trouble me
Including Party of gods Featuring Billy Bragg
1989 Elektra Records Cat No EKR 93 CDX

The other hit Strawberry Switchblade

If you are an avid record collector you will know that it's fairly easy to buy the big hits. All those greatest hits and best of albums are everywhere. And they have the added bonus of including the lesser hits as well. The one that only reached no 60 or something like that.

But what if the artist or group didn't have enough hits to warrant a compilation of their own ? and you don't fancy buying the one album they ever released for only two tracks you know and love ?. Answer, you have to search through those various artist best of the 80`s type compilation things or perhaps the Now that's what i call music series.

Getting that one big hit isn't so bad, but finding the other hit can be a bugger. The one that you sort of remember, but no-one else does until they hear it.

This is Strawberry Switchblade. Rose Mcdowell and Jill Bryson. A mid 80s duo from Scotland who most people remember for the excellent Since Yesterday. a top 5 hit in the UK in November 1985.

They had three runs at the charts, a cover version of Dolly Partons Jolene scraped in at No53, and this one, Let her Go which i thought wan't bad and assumed would be a top 10 follow up to Since yesterday. In fact it did even worse than Jolene and stalled at 59 in March 1985.

If you fancy the album you can buy it here. and there is a Website here.

Records don't have to be round

A one hit wonder from the 70s. Richard Myhill - It Takes two to tango. I know practically nothing about this man. In fact i don't even know what he looks like.
However on doing a little research via the net i find that he went on to produce singles and albums from the likes of Hazel Dean, Matchbox, The Piranhas, & Duran Duran as well as releasing a follow up single called While London Dances.
Obviously this all comes via the web so i could be talking rubbish here, if you know better let me know.
I bought this single because it was Square, so marketing does work. In the late 70's through the 80s releasing music in imaginative ways that had absolutely nothing to do with the record seemed to be a big thing. I'm not sure why this single is square. It's a Tango not a square dance, but hey it got him in the top 20, reaching No 17(UK) April 1978.
That's 31 years ago for anyone who remembers it. (eek)

21 Years ago today Sept 1988

Associates Heart of Glass
Reached No 56(uk)
Sept 1988
Buy it

Special Edition

I've seen some weird ideas for special edition singles but this has to be one of the stupidest. A laser etched vinyl single that looks pretty enough but let's think this through a minute.
A laser Etched pattern dug into the vinyl plastic that a needle has to run along to play the music.
As you can imagine the sound quality on this one isn't quite as up to scratch (excuse pun) as it should be, and it didn't really catch on.

Split Enz was a successful New Zealand band during the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn (Crowded House).

Their biggest and best hit was I Got you which reached No12(UK) in Aug 1980.

Split Enz - History Never Repeats
Reached No 63 (UK)
May 1981