Northern Irish band The Undertones, formed in 1975 in Derry, soon turned to punk when the style began to dominate, and began their rise to national prominence with “Teenage Kicks” in 1978.
They had sent a demo tape to legendary BBC DJ John Peel.
Peel paid for them to do a proper recording in a Belfast studio and played the song to success.
In fact he always said it was his favourite song and wanted the opening lines on his gravestone. He got his wish.
Although their sound in the late Seventies was three chord punk, when you watch the following videos you may agree with me that The Undertones don’t exactly “look” like a punk band.
Here’s “Teenage Kicks” in 1978:
“Jimmy Jimmy” in 1979:
“You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use It)”, also in 1979:
Nice and short, “Here Comes The Summer”, another track from 1979:
British band Hot Chocolate, led by Errol Brown, was the only group to have at least one UK hit every year throughout the Seventies, and in fact from 1970 to 1984, with songs like “You Could Have Been A Lady”, “Emma”, “You Sexy Thing”, “So You Win Again”, “Every 1’s A Winner” and “It Started With A Kiss” (the latter in 1982).
In 1977, after 15 hits, they finally had a Number One with “So You Win Again”, one of the few Hot Chocolate recordings not written at least partly by Errol Brown (it was penned by Russ Ballard).
I seem to remember they played quite a bit in Germany in the early Eighties, not long after I moved there from New Zealand. I’m pretty sure they were playing a venue in Nuremberg one time when I was there (I lived about 70 km from Nuremberg in Bamberg at the time).
Hot Chocolate have a very distinctive sound, and it’s no wonder they had one hit after another.
From 1971, here is “You Could Have Been A Lady”:
1974 brought the distinctive (and tragic) “Emma”, also known as “Emma, Emmaline”, which peaked at No. 3 in the UK:
“You Sexy Thing” (No. 2 in 1975, and made the Top 10 in three decades) was featured in a number of films, including UK comedy “The Full Monty”:
As mentioned above, “So You Win Again” made it to No. 1 in the UK charts in 1977:
About nine months later “Every 1’s A Winner” peaked at No. 12 in the UK:
Still going strong into the 1980s, Hot Chocolate reached Number 5 in the UK in 1982 with “It Started With A Kiss”:
Hot Chocolate – Every 1’s a winner, that’s for sure…
Another New Zealand band in the Seventies I remember was a young outfit called Golden Harvest with their single “I Need Your Love”.
I don’t recall whether they had any other successes, but this one sticks in my mind.
In any case the chorus is definitely catchy and I found myself singing it this evening, having located the video a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d just put it up today.
I also have no idea whether the track ever got any airplay outside New Zealand, so this may be completely new to you.
For some reason the name Golden Harvest makes me think of a commercial fishing boat down the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island. I’m pretty sure it was a boat that I saw down there once.
In this video of Golden Harvest playing “I Need Your Love” on New Zealand TV show Ready To Roll (of which I also have fond memories, as with Radio With Pictures, that used to come on at about 11 o’clock at night) you can see a bit of fancy guitar work – the guy plays it with his teeth…
New Zealander Max Merritt of Max Merritt and The Meteors has been in the music business a long time, but “Slipping Away”, released in 1976, is the only song I spontaneously connect with him.
“Woh oh oh you’re slipping away from me…and it’s breaking me in two, watching you, slipping away”
This is the promotional video when “Slipping Away” first came out in 1976:
And a quarter of a century later, “Slipping Away” live in Australia in 2001:
And now for something completely different… In 1972 Vicky Leandros had a European hit with “Après Toi” (After You), and I went on my first overseas trip from New Zealand, to the French Pacific colony of New Caledonia.
All the time we were in Nouméa, its capital, we heard the song “Après Toi” again and again, and it came to be the theme song of our two week visit – and always reminds me of that time.
Of course I bought the single (see above), although unlike New Zealand singles it had a huge hole in the middle, so I had to find an adapter to be able to play it!
The reason the song was so big in Europe was she had just won the Eurovision song contest with it, on behalf of Luxembourg.
This is “Après Toi”, in French:
And here are the French lyrics:
Tu t’en vas, l’amour a pour toi le sourire d’une autre,
Je voudrais, mais ne peux t’en vouloir
Désormais, tu vas m’oublier
Ce n’est pas de ta faute, et pourtant tu dois savoir
Qu’après toi, je ne pourrai plus vivre,
Non plus vivre qu’en souvenir de toi
Après toi, j’aurai les yeux humides,
Les mains vides, le coeur sans joie
Avec toi, j’avais appris a rire,
Et mes rires ne viennent que par toi
Après toi, je ne serai que l’ombre
De ton ombre, après toi
Même un jour, si je fais ma vie
Si je tiens la promesse qui unit deux êtres pour toujours
Àpres toi, je pourrai peut-être donner de ma tendresse
Mais plus rien de mon amour
Après toi, je ne pourrai plus vivre,
Non plus vivre qu’en souvenir de toi
Après toi, j’aurai les yeux humides,
Les mains vides, le coeur sans joie
Avec toi, j’avais appris a rire,
Et mes rires ne viennent que par toi
Après toi, je ne serai que l’ombre
De ton ombre, après toi
Vicky Leandros is actually Greek, and having spent much of her early life in Germany with her musician father (Leandros is actually his first name), Vicky Leandros sings in numerous languages and apparently she sang “Après Toi” in seven languages.
The English version, which reached No. 2 in the UK, is called “Come What May”:
Think I prefer the French version… for the words and the memories…
Paul
P.S. Vicky Leandros earlier came 4th at Eurovision in 1967 with “L’amour est bleu”, also known as “Love is blue”, which became very popular in the late Sixties in the version by French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat.
