Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Do you know it's Christmas?
Of course you do. You're a wise and erudite person who stays in touch with the latest developments.
However, in November 1984, there were those who weren't convinced that everyone was cognisant of the fact.
And those people were the assembled hordes brought into the studio to record that year's big Yuletide hit.
That hit was, of course, recorded by Band Aid and I suspect that, from this post's woefully clunking introduction, you've already guessed what it was called. Recorded to raise money to combat the famine in Ethiopia and featuring all our favourite singers - and Bono - it would go on to be released on December the 3rd and sell squintillizillions of copies.
Also released that month, were a bevy of movies; among them, The Killing Fields, A Nightmare on Elm Street and a cult favourite of mine Night of the Comet.
However, for fans of comic books, there was only one film to buy a ticket for.
And that was Supergirl, starring Helen Slater as the Maid of Might. Many have slaughtered the film for being total cobblers but some of us would argue it does a pretty good job of capturing the feel of the comic, even though, tragically, at no point does Comet the superhorse show up.
On the UK singles chart, I Feel for You by Chaka Khan held dominance for almost the entire month, before being toppled by Jim Diamond's I Should Have Known Better which is a single I shall be happy to never hear again.
I was also not totally sold on Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to The Pleasuredome which crashed onto the UK album chart at Number One. The singles were classics but, for some of us, the LP had a distinct air of the cynical cash grab about it. Surprisingly, it only held on to the top spot for one week before being deposed by Wham!'s Make It Big which, itself, was then dethroned by Various Artists' The Hits Album. Various Artists were having a hell of a year and seemed to be topping the chart on a regular basis, with the public never growing tired of them, no matter how many records they released.
But what of the galaxy's greatest comic?
It was still giving us the now-familiar thrill-power of Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Ace Trucking Co, The Hell Trekkers, Rogue Trooper and, inevitably, Tharg's Future-Shocks.
But perhaps the development that most caught the eye was Prog 393's long-awaited return of the Stainless Steel Rat, in a serial titled The Stainless Steel Rat For President. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it involves the Stainless Steel Rat running for president.
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18 comments:
These feature some nice Ewins/McCarthy and Dillon Dredd, plus Cam Kennedy Rogue Trooper and Bryan Talbot Nemesis. Therefore even deducting a point for Ace Trucking we have overall good issues.
I still feel George Michael was unlucky not to have a number one with Last Christmas which, despite my feelings at the time, features one the of the greatest videos ever made. The 4k remaster is now on youtube and Andrew Ridgeley's waving has never looked better. My sister bought the album which I may have taped in a purely post-ironic manner.
A bloke I worked with attended the Wham farewell concert at Wembley, in 1986, to much derision beforehand. The following week he confirmed there was he and 51 girls on the 52 seat bus to Wembley. All dressed for summer. Possibly unrelated, however, he was the only one in my group of work-friends who brought a date to the subsequent Christmas party. She was a Wham fan as well...
DW
Sorry Steve, I appreicate you didnt mention the Last Christmas single but it was released the same day as The Band Aid single (which we all knew).
BTW., I'm early (albeit probably closest to the international date line) but thanks for your continued effort with the blog and Merry Christmas to you and all the commenters.
Cheers
Daren (DW)
Thanks, Daren. A Merry Christmas to you too and to everyone who visits this site.
I see that, this very week, Last Christmas has hit the Number One spot on the UK singles chart.
Its no Wham Rap though, Steve.
Not that thats much more listenable. Mind you, I rarely find myself on a bus full of women, so what do I know?
There was an air of the cash grab around Frankie Goes to Hollywood well before their album. Uniquely, the reaction seemed to have set in while they were actually having the big hit singles - people seemed to resent them even as they bought the latest mixes.
And today - when we're bombarded with retro, and every band thats ever been seems to co-exist at the same time in some form - there still doesn't seem to be much interest in them, as nostalgia or whatever.
Personally, I think Frankie were ok, and 'Welcome to the Pleasure Dome' is alright. But then I didn't pay full whack for a double at the time - it got cheap fairly quickly second hand (; - and ignore the second disc.
It has a great sleeve. Love the ad for Jean Genet boxer shorts.
-sean
On the progs, broadly I agree with Daren from Down Under about them being good at this point. More or less.
Somewhat surprising to see the Stainless Steel Rat - which I associate with the 'and Tornado' era - appearing alongside Nemesis crossing over with the ABC Warriors, and in between the first two Halo Jones series.
-sean
DW, 'Last Christmas' finally reached No.1 in the UK in 2020 and, as Steve said, it is currently at #1 again. The Top 100 is chock-a-block with festive tunes but Greg Lake's 'I Believe In Father Christmas' is nowhere to be seen which is a pity because it's one of my favourite Xmas songs and a masterpiece to boot. No entries for Cliff either. Brenda Lee's 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' is at #5 but what about the Mel Smith/Kim Wilde version from 1987 (it does briefly mention Rolf Harris though). And Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody' is at #38 so its' reputation as Britain's favourite Christmas song must be in serious doubt!
Charlie, 'It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year' by Andy Williams is at #19 and I heard it playing in my local Tesco supermarket just the other day.
On behalf of SDC readers I've been studying this week's Billboard Hot 100 and I can reveal that Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' is at #1 and 'Last Christmas' by Wham! is at #9 which is the ONLY British Christmas song in the entire Hot 100 so Americans have no love for Slade, Wizzard, Cliff, Shaky, Mud, The Pogues or any other UK festive classic.
Oh, my art school friends and I were really stoked about that Band-Aid single! Probably half the student body at Herron (my alma mater) bought a copy. Midge Ure, Simon LeBon and Sting; all on one song- I HAD to have it. Plus there was the attraction of charity and a good cause...
My girlfriend at the time insisted we go to see "Supergirl". Can't really recall much about it; not that it was bad, just....unmemorable...
Best wishes of the season to one and all!
On the subject of Frankie Goes To Hollywood - the other day Tesco were playing 'The Power Of Love' which is sort of Christmassy (well, the Three Wise Men appear in the video as I recall) but unfortunately the song started playing just as I was leaving the store so I missed most of it.
Colin- alas, you are correct about the current Billboard Hot 100. But check out the Billboard Global chart; Band-Aid is sitting at number 51!
Anyone else out there, besides Charlie, but the CHAKA KHAN album??? It was a cool song. Very danceable!
Colin
Looking at the Australian chart (ARIA) this week, we have:
Mariah Carey at #1 (can you guess which song?)
Last Christmas at #6
Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas by Michael Buble at #11
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee at #12
Jinglebell rock by Bobby at #19
Jolly Holly Christmas by Buble (again) at #36, and
The most wonderful time of year by Andy Williams at #48.
Personally, I'm always receptive of a bit of Bony M at Christmas.
Back in the 80's, I guess the decision to make Welcome to the Pleasure Dome a double album (rather than a pretty solid single album) was the obvious cash grab. I taped a cut down version (to fit on one side of a C90) and this remains my preferred edit.
DW
Red, I'd never heard of the Billboard Global 200 but it does indeed feature a few more British Christmas songs (not many though). Have you heard the other versions of 'Do They Know It's Christmas' by Band Aid II (1989), Band Aid 20 (2004) and Band Aid 30 (2014)? They are all very inferior to the original.
DW, 'Mary's Boy Child-Oh My Lord' by Boney M is in this week's UK Top 100.
Colin- No, haven't heard any of those more recent incarnations of "Do They Know it's Christmas ". However, I love that Boney M tune...
Sadly, just seen the news that Terry Hall has passed away. Too much too young 63.
DW
If I may interrupt the discussion for a moment, I would like to announce the release of my own set of digital trading cards, just like our once and future king, Donald Trump. I call it M.P. series #1, as more may follow.
The first card shows me in a tunic surrounded by Grecian columns debating with Plato about The Theory of Pure Reason.
The second card shows me surrounded by the crowned kings of Europe as they signed the Peace of Westphalia, bringing the end to the calamitous Thirty Years War.
The third card shows me battling the Nazis at Bastogne, and the fourth one shows me in a space suit walking around on Mars.
More will follow. I'm gonna try to work some ancient Egyptian stuff in there, maybe even one of me as Dracula, but for now I'm charging 99 bucks a pop for these DTC's.
Hurry! Supplies are limited.
M.P.
I was a massive FGTH fan for most of 1984.
There were a lot of us, to be fair, and I lived not far from Liverpool at the time which contributed to that sort of thing.
But I absolutely loved those first two singles. Still do. So I was really excited for the album. I couldn't afford it as I was only 13 and my pocket money was meagre, but I waited and waited and finally got it for Xmas.
And it was shit. Apart from side one, it was boring and thin and padded. I tried to still like them through early 1985, but tbh they were pretty much dead to me after that first listen on Xmas day in the front room on the 'big' record player.
I can't like Wham, I just can't, and George Michael's solo stuff was smug and boring. Sorry - I know he was a lovely bloke and everything, but still.
Last Christmas reminds me of a bloke who came to our youth club back then who was really smooth and had money and was called Austen, and whom all the girls liked. He was into Wham. FFS.
These covers then...
An actual good cover for Rogue Trooper - is that Brett Ewins almost arriving at his more jagged 'Bad Company' style? But still with some metallic zing.
That Angelina DiGriz is terrible. Carlos Ezquerra was really just phoning it in at this stage. He looks like he's drawn her likeness from a sex doll.
I think you're going by the US release date for Supergirl. I definitely saw it [twice, for crying out loud], in the summer holidays of 1984.
Not because I liked it but because there was nothing else on. And it has my 13-year-old crush Maureen Teefy in it.
The Superman and Supergirl producers actually released their movies month apart in different territories. Superman 2, for example, opened in December 1980 in Australia, April 1981 in the UK, and June 1981 in the US. Fascinating stuff.
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