Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Fighting Your Way up the Charts


I was reading this post on Mr H's Bleat blog about when Heavy Metal bands would appear fairly regularly on Top of the Pops. Among the clips he has on show is the one above, Girlschool playing - alright miming along to - Hit & Run back in 1981 or so. I remember watching this, and I even went out and bought the single. Unfortunately, however, not so many other folk did, because the notable thing about this TOTP performance is that the single actually went down in the charts the next week. Which was quite an achievement because it was only at no. 44 or so in the first place. I bet they weren't expecting that. I bet their record company wasn't expecting that either.

A Singles Chart formed out of healthy sales is a cruel taskmaster. One of the thrills about following the singles chart back in the early 80s was watching one of your favourite singles fight its way up the placings. Singles had a lifetime, and you knew that if they'd gone up 5 or 7 places a couple of weeks back but only 1 or 2 places last week, then they'd probably got as far as they were going to go. This was annoying when they were knocking at the Top Ten: AC/DC still haven't had a Top Ten hit in the UK, their best placing is No. 12 (Heatseeker), while they've also been at 13 (twice), 14, 15 (twice) and 16. Even more bitter sweet was when your band's song stalled at No. 2. I can still remember the helpless frustration of watching Dr Hook's When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman stubbornly keeping Crazy Little Thing Called Love off of the top spot. Still, at least Queen already had a no. 1; Marillion surely knew they were never going to get closer to no. 1 when Kayleigh stalled at no. 2 in May 1985.

Later, as singles sales plummeted, Top Ten hits became ten a penny and it was quite normal for songs to appear on the charts in high positions and then go down the next week, especially if the band had a strong fanbase. I doubt if many of Iron Maiden's singles from the late 80s and 90s actually went up the charts. Maiden of course, have a no. 1 single: Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter. Still, it was only because loyal fans went out and bought the thing on the first week of release. It didn't count for much, not really, and a set list from their current tour makes the point: Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter is nowhere to be seen, while they finish with Running Free, which fought its way to the giddy heights of No. 34 in February 1980.

13 comments:

  1. Happy days indeed. But what's that Mr Managing Editor, Sir? You want me, Mr H, to do a New Wave of British Heavy Metal special for Get Ready To Rock Radio in October? And I can play anything I want? Even Wikkyd Vikker, Witchfinder General and Silverwing? Sorry, Sir, that was drool dribbling out the phone. Oh, yes...

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  2. you're making that up. there's no way someone with the title of Mr Managing Editor would allow someone to play Silverwing on the radio. You'll be telling me he's allowing you to play Bitches Sin and Split Beaver next.

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  3. Split Beaver LOL I had their 1st album and thought it shite, but laughs were to be had when listening to "She gives good head". My mate Paul loved it though for the crappy cover and he swapped No Sleep til 'ammersmith! Methinks I got the better of that deal ;-)

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  4. Hmmm, let's see, "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" versus Split Beaver's first album ... yup, I'm thinking you got the better deal on that one.

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  5. Same thing happened when Girl played their radio friendly (!) Hollywood Tease. The shufflers at the front of the stage in their maxi-dresses didn't know what the f**k was going on; maybe the TOTP top brass should have let Pan's People gyrate to the tune instead.

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  6. John, I saw that TOTP too! The thing I remember about that one is that the singer sang standing behind the drum kit, which I thought was a bit novel. However, my favourite incongruous Heavy Metal TV show appearance was when Judas Priest played ITV kids show "Razzamatazz" in 1982 or so. Rob Halford and co banging out their latest while a bunch of twelve year olds try their damnedest to headbang along. I've tried to find this on youtube, but no dice so far.

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  7. Bring Your Daughter... is a terrible song which is why they don't play it any more. Besides it was a sole Bruce Dickinson composition so I can't see 'Arry letting him keep all the live royalties.
    I went to see them on the Christmas tour before BYDTTS came out, there were flyers being dished out for the single. It was a skilled marketing campaign: there were about twelve different formats and the band knew that the rabid Maiden completists would go for every one. It was aslo released the week after Christmas, the weakest week of the year for singles sales.
    That led directly to the BPI (or whoever organised the charts then) changing the rules on how many formats could be used to gain a chart placing. They didn't like sweaty Maiden knocking Cliff off of No. 1, see? (Bruce shouted fromthe satge "Who wants to knock fucking Cliff Richard off of No.1?) Mind you, it must have been a happy fortnight for EMI.

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  8. Bring you Daughter ... is an absolute clunker, but then it was made during the period where Maiden could release any old rubbish and still sell records. I'm not surprised about the smart marketing, Iron Maiden like to present the world with an image of ordinary lads who like a beer and football etc, but we all know that they're a competitive, very well-managed band, who probably never design the artwork for a record cover without thinking how it will look on a T-Shirt.

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  9. The playlist for the radio has shaped up to be Wikkyd Vikkyr, Praying Mantis, More, Diamond Head, Tank, Witchfinder General, Baby Tuckoo, AIIZ, Holocaust,
    Silverwing, Vardis and Fist. Now that's the kind of top quality programming that the BBC constantly fails to come up with. Sometimes, I am a genius.

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  10. SILVERWING ;-) They were the English Kiss wannabees, I was a massive Kiss fan at the time and so anyone trying to copy them got only HATE from me. Although I bought the 1st Cloven Hoof album... it was shite as I remember but I'd probably enjoy it now.

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  11. Mr. H,
    That list is impressive, it contains the good (Holocaust), the bad (Witchfinder General) and the ugly (Silverwing). What about Venom? Or Trespass? Or etc etc. So when's this going to be on then?

    DF,
    I have a photo of Silverwing in an old Kerrang! where they look a bit like a NWOBHM version of Duran Duran. Or maybe a Duran duran version of NWOBHM. It's hard to tell, but they're wearing headbands and RED JEANS.

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  12. Mr H has a fairly decent playlist there, I'd have liked the addition of Dundonian metallers Satan's Empire, if only for the track Soldier of War. I think Silverwing did try but failed.
    As for Split Beaver, I saw them live once as they guested at a HEAVY METAL disco*. Less said the better.

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  13. But Lost-one, can you confirm that they gave good head?

    Thumper, I am wearing a Headband and Red Jeans at this very moment!!!

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