My Musical History Part 3

Political Turmoil and two elections

1974 was an interesting year socially and politically. First of all, Ted Heath the Conservative Prime Minister, who just a year before had finally led us into the EEC held an election to sort out once and for all who was in charge of the country, him, or the miners. Judging by the incredibly close result, with Heath’s Conservative Party getting 37.9% of the vote for 297 seats and Harold Wilson’s Labour Party getting 37.2% of the vote for 301 seats, the country was none too sure! The balance of power was held by Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberal Party who increased their size of the vote from 7.5% and 11 seats in 1970 to 19.3% and … 14 seats in February 1974! Despite the first past the post system not properly reflecting their huge increase in support they were able to end Heath’s tenure as Prime Minister by refusing to support him in a coalition. In the end, Wilson was able to return to Number 10 as head of a minority government with tacit support from both the Liberals and the SNP on certain issues. In October Wilson went to the country again, and this time managed to gain a wafer thin majority of 3 seats due to a 2% increase in the Labour vote and a 2.1% fall in the Conservative vote. The Liberal vote held up well with a small drop to 18.3% and the loss of one of their 14 seats and the SNP gained four seats to sit on 11. These two smaller parties would become incredibly influential given their size in the years before the 1979 election.

So the future that Noddy Holder had told us to look to at Christmas 1973 looked even more confused and precarious by the time Merry Christmas Everybody finally fell out of the charts in February! The three day week had started to conserve dwindling coal stocks and the generation of school children at the time would for ever be able to bore their children and grandchildren with stories of doing homework by candlelight! The three day week ended in March when Wilson reached an agreement with the miners, but that was a rare economic and industrial bright spot for the year. By the end of 1974, inflation which was super charged by the Barber Boom of 1972/3 reached 17% and the wage rises to cope with this were reaching astronomical levels. 1975 would see worse to come, but that’s another blog post!

The Wombles Batt away the doubters

The first children’s supergroup was undoubtedly The Wombles. The characters were created by Elisabeth Beresford in a series of books in the 1960s. They were a group of small furry creatures who tidied up Wimbledon Common in London and used the items they tidied to make various items for their burrow. They first appeared on television in February 1973 in the 5 minute slot developed by BBC1 to bring Children’s TV to an end. The magical narration of the great Bernard Cribbins made this a must see for adults and children alike and it became a programme that your Dad would laugh along with before getting down to the serious business of real life. This slot, before the BBC News at Six, introduced viewers of all ages to Magic Roundabout, Hector’s House, Roobarb and Ivor the Engine amongst many others. However, only The Wombles went on to chart success, a success entirely due to the songwriting genius of Mike Batt.

The theme tune, known as The Wombling Song was released in 1973 but it was not until late February 1974 that it reached a peak of Number 4 in the charts. The follow up was a stomping call and response number in the vein of glam rock songs like ‘Cum On Feel the Noize’ by Slade and hit Number 3 in May 1974. Another Top 10 hit, Banana Rock followed in July, before one of the best Christmas singles of all time ‘Wombling Merry Christmas’ which just missed out on the top spot in the Christmas charts, peaking at Number 2. Alongside that, Mike Batt had further success with the fantastic ‘Keep on Wombling’ which featured a Prog style concept album on Side 1 and across 11 songs took covered styles as diverse as pop, classical and country and western. For a young boy it was an amazing introduction to what the world of music could offer and that Christmas I played the album endlessly on my new cassette recorder. Along with Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes, The Wombles opened up my musical horizons while Bagpuss, which started in 1974 introduced me to traditional English folk music. As an adult I can listen to it now and marvel at Batt’s skill in writing across so many genres whilst never resorting to lazy pastiche. Suffice to say, any primary school child of the time would have had a place in their heart for the rubbish clearing denizens of Wimbledon Common.

Glam Rock continues to dominate

The biggest selling single of 1974 was released at the beginning of the year and made it to Number 1 at the end of January. ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud was a raucous shout out of a song that featured a ‘roadies dance’ on Top of the Pops that became famous and was easy to copy together with a Shadows style walk that was popular in school playgrounds for many months afterwards. Vocalist Les Gray had a rock n roll style voice that, combined with the crowd pleasing quality of Chinn and Chapman’s lyrics made them irresistible. Chinn and Chapman had an unerring ability to spot a group and then write them songs that produced hit after hit. In 1973 and 1974 alone they were responsible for 19 chart entries, most of them Top 10s. They wrote and produced Number Ones for Mud, Sweet, Suzi Quatro and in the 1980s a US Number 1 for Toni Basil with the cheerleader style ‘Mickey’!

Mud guitarist Rob Davis, who wrote a lot of album tracks that were overlooked as singles, stopped playing when Mud disbanded and became a very successful and respected club and dance songwriter in his own right. In 2000 and 2001 he wrote ‘Groovejet (If this ain’t love), the 8^th highest selling single of the year and then the massive ‘Can’t Get you Out of my Head’ which he wrote with Cathy Dennis and was the song with the highest amount of airplay worldwide during the 2000s.

Along with Mud, who had a total of four Top 10s in 1974, Sweet continued to have significant chart success in 1974 with two more Top 10 hits. Alongside them, the leather clad Alvin Stardust, a persona invented by Shane Fenton to fit into the glam rock era, had four Top 10 hits in 1974 with his moody appearance, rock style vocals and catchy songs like My Coo Ca Choo and Jealous Mind. Slade and Gary Glitter racked up another four Top 10s each and The Glitter Band were responsible for three more. However, the relative lack of Number Ones pointed to the slow decline of glam which would gather pace the following year.

Two very different crushes!

At the start of 1974 two solo female artists were in the forefront of my thoughts and they really couldn’t have been more different. The first was Marie Osmond, the sole girl in the family, whose first hit ‘Paper Roses’ reached Number 2 in December 1973 where it was overshadowed by the first real battle for Christmas Number 1. It was a country music single that would have made little impact on me if it wasn’t for her all-American beauty. She got to Number 2 again later on in the year in a duet with brother Donny called ‘I’m Leaving it all up to you’, another country song that showed the quality of their voices and led to them having success in America as hosts of their own show.

At the same time as Marie Osmond was displaying her wholesomeness and talent, another female artist appeared on my radar. Superficially at least, she couldn’t have been more different. In a leather jumpsuit, the guitar playing, hard rocking and massively charismatic Suzi Quatro was increasing the pulse rates of many young men! If Marie was the girl you could take home to meet your parents, Suzi was the girl you would sneak out of the house to be near! Although she had already hit the top with ‘Can the Can’ the previous year, her best known track was Number 1 in January and it was called ‘Devil Gate Drive’. The call and response were present and correct, and the chorus was incredibly catchy. Although on the surface another Chinn and Chapman protégé, she was determinedly in charge of her own career and utilised their songwriting because it suited her so well as an artist.  As her worldwide career sales of 50 million records and her continuing popularity as a live act demonstrate there was always more to her than the leather clad glam rock image. She set the template that many other female rock singers have followed in the decades since.  

New Faces and Future Greats

In the early 70s, a new talent show came along called New Faces, which was a precursor to Britain’s Got Talent in many ways. Singers, groups, ventriloquists, and novelty acts all jostled for recognition. The roll call of future stars from the show was impressive to say the least, largely helped by a panel of judges like Tony Hatch and Mickie Most who had huge experience in showbusiness and an unerring eye for talent. Amongst others, comedians Lenny Henry, Victoria Wood, Les Dennis, and The Chuckle Brothers all got their big breaks on the show. Music wise the success stories were slightly patchier with Marti Caine and Sweet Sensation building reasonably strong careers but few others really breaking through into the mainstream. However, one act built a long lasting and very successful career after appearing on the show. An eight piece band from Leicester who had over 200 weeks in the charts during a 10 year period of success, a Number 1 single and 9 other Top 10 hits, Showaddywaddy became one of my enduring musical loves. Their appearances on New Faces led them to the 1973 All Winners Show where they were runners up to the completely forgotten Tom Waite. In April 1974 they released the self-penned ‘Hey Rock ‘n’ Roll’ with it’s stomping chorus and I was instantly hooked. They reached Number 2 with this classic song, only kept off the top by fellow revivalists The Rubettes with their track, the falsetto filled ‘Sugar Baby Love’. To say I was annoyed that my new favourite group had lost out on a debut Number 1 was an understatement, but at the age of 9 you do tend to get very invested in the charts! Two more minor hits followed that year, but Showaddywaddy’s time would come later in the 70s.

Love songs, story songs and my favourite summer hit

Away from the glam rock groups this year saw the rise of the Bay City Rollers who were taking over from The Osmonds as the teen heartthrobs of choice. More of them next time as I reach 1975.

One song soundtracked my first crush which developed into the full blown Puppy Love that Donny had sung about the year before. Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks was a huge Number 1 hit that namechecked Michele, coincidentally the object of my affections. We kissed in the classroom and were inseparable all year. It was an idyllic interlude in the only school that I enjoyed going to in 13 years of education. As a result it became the song I identified with most in 1974. It was only when I got older that I realised it was a song about death, which was probably just as well!

After the previous year’s ‘Part of the Union’, my social history of the working class gained more perspective with Alan Price’s ‘Jarrow Song’ about the Jarrow Crusade, a 280 mile march by two hundred unemployed men from the Jarrow region of Newcastle. They walked to Westminster to draw attention to their plight and to plead their case to parliament, but in a sign that nothing ever changes, the politicians completely ignored them! Without knowing it, my sympathy for those men when I found out about their plight would set the tone for my fascination with social history that endures to this day. The opening verse tells of the desperation and anger felt by so many at the time.

‘My name is Geordie Mcintyre, An’ the Bairns don’t even have a fire
So the wife says “Geordie, go to London Town!”
And if they don’t give us half a chance, Don’t even give us a second glance
Then Geordie, with my blessings, burn them down.’

This year was the highpoint for a band called Paper Lace whose biggest hit, a Number 1 single called ‘Billy Don’t Be a Hero’ was based around the American Civil War, as were the uniforms they wore on Top of the Pops. It was a song about a young lad called Billy who was engaged to be married, and whose fiancée was reluctant to let him go. She told him,

‘Billy, don’t be a hero, don’t be a fool with your life.
Billy, don’t be a hero, come back and make me your wife.
And as he started to go she said, ‘Billy, keep your pretty head low
Billy, don’t be a hero, come back to me.’

Sadly, he ignores her advice and is killed after volunteering for a dangerous mission. The final verse is biting in its anger and it really cemented the song in my head’

‘I heard his fiancee got a letter
That told how Billy died that day
The letter said that he was a hero
She should be proud he died that way
I heard she threw that letter away’

The final song in this trawl through my memories is my favourite ever summer song. It was a song that got a lot of airplay, but bafflingly only made it to Number 13 in the charts. ‘Beach Baby’ by First Class was a smooth updating of the California sound written by English husband and wife team, John Carter and Gillian Shakespeare. From the first notes it just tapped into something that few songs had up until that point. There was a real excitement that I felt in my chest, and a feeling that this song was one that I would always love. Now, every time I play the song, I get the same feeling and every time I hear it, I am 9 years old again. Perhaps it was the first time I really understood the power of music, however imperfectly.  

As ever, feel free to watch some or all of these songs on You Tube

See you in 1975!