The U.K. 70s Singles & Albums Chart General Discussion Thread.

PS: Talking of 'Unter....I read his latest album is now delayed until the new year. Disappointing, but at his age I'm grateful we get anything at all .

 

Not sure I recall this magazine from 1977.



The 70s really were a unique time.

 

Roxy were a very cool band, but Eno could look a bit of a pillock!

Bit like The Byrds were a cool band, but David Crosby wasn't - BUT, he was still in The Byrds.

OK, coat obtained....

 

Looking a bit of a pillock was de rigueur at the time. Unfortunately, I was so young at the time I got into all this that they all looked normal to me, so appearance - no matter how outlandish - has never shocked me. I was in town in the mid-80s and a man with a skinhead haircut dyed like a Union Jack passed by, attracting much attention in the process. An elderly couple were in front of me, and the man said, "You're going to have yours done now, aren't you?"
"You're joking!" I replied, "If I wanted to shock, I'd go a lot further than that! That's nowt! Nowt, I tell you!"

 

Me neither.
Catchy title, it kind of rolls of the tongue…

 

Speaking of David Cassidy just discovered this short lived TV show he did in the late 70s. Seems like a an early version of 21 Jump St

 

Come again?

You crack me up Bob, I wonder what's inside?

 

I wonder if the pages would be stuck together?

 

Everything was cheap in the seventies!

Today it's just your seventies thread!!

 

@Bobby Morrow, welcome home! It's great to see you posting in the cheesy, non-woke seventies thread: hello, hello, is it good to be back?

Every TV program from the seventies appears to start with a warning about reflecting the language and values of the day, so your thread may as well have one too!!

Will you crack 100 pages and can we freak-out more often than bi-weekly?!!

 

Five Pennypiece were a Northern Folk group formed with members from Stalybridge, Chesh and Ashton-under Lyme, Lancs who like Liverpool's Spinners were popular.

 

I guess when I look at favourite years, I look more at albums rather than singles; there were some mighty fine albums in '74 and '75, so those years, seem rather less bleak than they do for some.

1974 was also when I started buying Record Mirror, so nostalgia probably means I look at it differently than if I was a couple of years older.

 

The Spinners (not the Detroit Spinners) were very popular, and another group I inherited from my hard-core father!

The whole family went to see them on the eighties, and had a brilliant night.

Loved The Ellen Vannin Tragedy (@Andy Smith, this is one of the LPs my Dad had with it on?.


The Spinners - The Ellen Vannin Tragedy

 

Yes, I was referring to singles. In 1973/74 I really didn’t have many albums.

I have a soft spot for 1973 as that was the year I began properly listening to music and also buying Record Mirror. I don’t think I really disliked much back then. There were things I wouldn’t have bought, should I have had the cash in the first place, but I enjoyed most of the singles I heard. That’s a nice place to be, really. When you start picking things apart a lot of the fun goes out of it.

 

Showaddywaddy was the band i was into as a (very) young boy. First single I bought was Under the Moon of Love.

Still got those records today although Showaddywaddy were later replaced by The Rolling Stones as my favourite band.

 

If you look at 74/75 in terms of albums that period is better. Thinking of cutting edge albums such as those by Roxy Music,Bowie,Eno & Kraftwerk, albums that pointed the way forward

 

The Wads to The Stones is quite a leap.

 

I still prefer Showaddywaddy to The Stones.

 

Yes, you have to separate singles and albums. I like 1976 for singles (leaving aside obvious horrors like Brotherhood of Man and The Wurzels), but I think it was one of the weaker years for albums. 1975 and 1977 were much better in that regard.

 

And the modern trend of analysing lyrics and filtering them through a contemporary prism, like they do on those YouTube reaction videos. I saw a few 'Love Grows' reactions by people wouldn't even be foetuses for decades to come after that record and I just thought, You're missing the point. It's just a feelgood pop song made for 1970 audiences and nothing more. I always think that you should leave stuff that isn't of your time well alone. You can learn to appreciate it, love it, or like it, but if you have a problem with it, leave it alone, because it's not yours, really, is it?

 

Bang on.

 

….and another opportunity Tim to advise people to check out Richard Hawley & the Smoke Faeries’ version of ‘Ellen Vannin’.

 

Think you've just done it Andy!


Edit. Cut out the middle man!

 

Here's Hughie's (wot writ it) version:





It's a beautiful, but sad song, whatever version you listen to.

 

UK Album Chart 6th November 1977:

1. (-) The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
2. (14) Bread - The Sound Of Bread
3. (1) Cliff Richard - 40 Golden Greats
4. (2) Diana Ross And The Supremes - 20 Golden Greats
5. (4) Genesis - Seconds Out
6. (3) David Bowie - Heroes
7. (5) The Stranglers - No More Heroes
8. (7) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
9. (21) Santana - Moonflower
10. (8) Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart
11. (6) Slim Whitman - Home On The Range
12. (18) Various Artists - Soul City
13. (-) Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
14. (13) Yes - Going For The One
15. (-) Various Artists - Feelings
16. (23) Elton John - Greatest Hits Vol.2
17. (12) ABBA - Greatest Hits
18. (10) Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
19. (-) Graham Parker And The Rumour - Stick To Me
20. (15) David Soul - Playing To An Audience Of One
21. (49) The Rolling Stones - Get Stoned
22. (19) The Carpenters - Passage
23. (11) Original Soundtrack - A Star Is Born
24. (21) Rod Stewart - The Best Of Rod Stewart
25. (26) Steely Dan - Aja
26. (22) Leo Sayer - Endless Flight
27. (33) Phil Spector - Echoes Of The 60s
28. (-) Queen - News Of The World
29. (24) Elvis Presley - Moody Blue
30. (27) Elkie Brooks - Two Days Away
31. (25) ABBA - Arrival
32. (20) Joan Armatrading - Show Some Emotion
33. (29) Bob Marley & The Wailers Exodus
34. (34) Wishbone Ash - Front Page News
35. (35) Various Artists - Motown Gold Vol.2
36. (17) The Rolling Stones - Love You Live
37. (32) Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
38. (16) Donna Summer - I Remember Yesterday
39. (31) The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus
40. (44) Ian Dury And The Blockheads - New Boots And Panties
41. (-) Frankie Vaughan - 100 Golden Greats
42.(47) Steve Hillage - Motivation Radio
43. (28) Johnny Mathis - The Johnny Mathis Collection
44. (36) Eagles - Greatest Hits 1971-75
45. (-) Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - 40 Greatest
46. (41) The Boomtown Rats - Boomtown Rats
47 (50) The Motors - 1
48. (37) Eagles - Hotel California
49. (39) Dr Hook - Making Love And Music
50. (-) Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue

What a fabulous juxtaposition the top three make. Cliff dethroned by some bollocks, with Bread sandwiched in between. 20 Supremes hits; well you can't go wrong there. I like the first side of Heroes, but the instrumental soundscapes of the second side bore the pants off me. Two Stranglers albums. I quite liked the debut Rattus, but the follow-up is far too boorish. Burnel always struck me as a thug. The Motors were kinda punky power pop. Their debut is all over the place stylistically. Best thing about them was guitarist Bram Tchaikovsky - fab name! I remember buying a couple of his solo singles.

Overall, I think it's a rather underwhelming chart. What's surprising is how low the new albums from Queen and ELO entered at. Anyway back to The Pistols. Bollocks landed at #1 like an alien spaceship. Mclaren's shenanigans with Virgin meant it was very late to the punk party. It almost felt like a valediction. Jones beefs everything up, without sanding too many edges. The singles are epic; the rest a clenched fist of poptastic, shooting star, thrills. Three months later Rotten quits, and the band limp on as a tawdry farce. And soon vulnerable halfwit Vicious (and Spungen) would be dead.

Problems: