"The newcomer arrives, possession and
guilt in his face
Apologises to the Customs man for the gaping hole in his suitcase
Says: 'I've seen where promises are made,
I've seen how people are undone
It's always done man-to-man
One-to-one'.
I'm ditching an empty suitcase
I've been in Storytown
I've been swimming in poisons
Been slowing up and down
I've known the eeriest wounds
The soul's long quarantine
When no rewards remain
No-one and nothing comes clean"
By the end of March 1977 Howard Devoto had
begun writing new material with a then-unknown but highly
talented guitarist and saxophonist named John McGeoch. By
the end of August they assembled a band consisting of Barry
Adamson on bass, Bob Dickinson on keyboards and Martin Jackson
on drums.
The name Howard chose for the band was Magazine
- a name that reflected a characteristic delight in ambiguity
and double entendre. Would this Magazine prove to be a glossy
and disposable periodical reflecting popular culture; or was
it a stock-pile of ammunition and explosive devices?
The new band's first public performance came
in the form of a brief and unpublicised appearance on October
2nd at the final night of Manchester's Electric Circus - the
venue which Howard had been partly responsible for establishing
as a punk venue a year previously. They borrowed most of their
equipment from Buzzcocks, who came on immediately after them.
Magazine played three songs: 'Shot By Both Sides', 'I Love
You You Big Dummy' and 'The Light Pours Out Of Me'.
Their first full-length appearance occurred
on 28th October at Rafters in Manchester at a benefit for
the Manchester Review magazine. Another relatively new local
band filled the support slot, The Fall. Considerable interest
in Magazine had already grown and both NME and Sounds carried
features although, characteristically, Howard didn't give
much away. He told Paul Morley of NME "I'm not stupid
and I refuse to pretend to be.. I deal in ideas and the effects
of ideas. That's a real distinction. I'm not going to tell
you what the ideas are right now, but I'll give you a clue;
the last place to look for them is in the songs." The
band produced a demo featuring 'Shot By Both Sides', 'The
Light Pours Out Of Me' and a track called 'Suddenly We Are
Eating Sandwiches', the lyrics to which were taken from a
book called How It Goes by Samuel Beckett. The lyrics to this
last number were eventually replaced with original ones before
being re-recorded and released as 'My Mind Ain't So Open'.
During November the band appeared on the TV
show And So It Goes performing 'Shot By Both Sides'
and 'Motorcade'. Shortly after this keyboard player Bob Dickinson
announced that he was leaving the band.
There was considerable record company interest
in the band however, and on 9th January 1978 the announcement
came that they had signed to Virgin Records. The band were
immediately despatched to the studio to record their first
single, now as a four piece following Bob Dickinson's departure.
However, they managed to find a keyboard player, Dave Formula,
in time for their first 7-date UK tour, which began at the
100 Club in London on the 24th.
A Virgin Records press release at the time
described Magazine as follows:
"Magazine are:
MARTIN JACKSON. One-time
drummer and still drumming
JOHN McGEOCH One-time motorbike
thug turned fine artist and guitarist
BARRY ADAMSON: One-time
advertising student and engineer's labourer turned layabout
bass guitarist
HOWARD DEVOTO. One-time
singer with the (sic) Buzzcocks turned on himself.
Thousands of things could
be said about Magazine and none of them would be exactly
true.
What should be obvious from
their first single 'Shot By Both Sides' is that they are
one of the few new
groups with any real substance.
They formed during the summer
of 1977 having decided that popular music needed not be
entirely numb
and empty-headed.
neat but grim
smart but hideous
mixed feelings
confusion and clarity
They describe their first
single as being about 'when the Kray twins meet Buddah in
the market place'.
Their popularity will depend
upon the real state of the nation".
'Shot By Both Sides', was released on 16th
January 1978. By a coincidence which it is tempting to describe
as portentous, the Sex Pistols - the band which first inspired
Howard to want to be in a band himself - were falling apart
in disarray on the other side of the Atlantic. Many Pistols
aficionados would assert that this was the end of the UK punk
scene; if so, it was also the birth of what has latterly come
to be known as "Post Punk". The song itself is based
around a slow, distinctive, relentlessly rising guitar line
originally written by Howard's former Buzzcocks cohort Pete
Shelley (Pete would later employ the line in Buzzcocks' song
'Lipstick').
The absence of keyboards made it a sparser
and harsher sound than most of their later releases but it
was nonetheless immediately obvious that Magazine ploughed
a fresh furrow. There are perhaps some passing similarities
with Eno-era Roxy Music, some of the contemporaneous releases
by David Bowie (Low, Heroes) and with Bill Nelson's lamentably
short-lived post BeBop Deluxe project Red Noise. However in
reality Magazine were about as far from any of the established
"intellectual" bands of the time as they were from
the gobbing, pogoing pastiche which so many of their supposed
contemporaries in the mainstream punk scene were rapidly becoming.
A few other "Punk" bands were attempting comparable
things both in the US (Pere Ubu, Suicide, Talking Heads, Television)
and in the UK (Wire, Ultravox!, XTC) but all of these were
definitely swimming against the prevailing current. Magazine,
clearly painfully aware of their outsider status were caught
between two worlds, united only in their mutual disdain for
each other, as Howard growled:
"I wormed my way into the heart of the
crowd
I was shocked to find what was allowed
I didn't lose myself in the crowd.
Shot by both sides
On the run to the outside of everything
Shot by both sides
They must have come
To a secret understanding"
The 'B' side of the single was a more straightforward,
"punkier" number built around a driving bass line,
co-incidentally not entirely dissimilar to that on 'Get Off
The Phone' by former New York Doll Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers.
McGeoch's braying saxophone solo provides a distinctive edge
and the lyrics again seem to have a direct relevance to the
journey Howard had made and the position he now found himself
in:
"My mind it ain't so open
That anything
Could crawl right in
The last place
To lose yourself
Is in the world
Where we all cling"
In the event, the single was well received
in the press (Rolling Stone even described it as "..
So far the best rock 'n' roll record of 1978") and enjoyed
some minor commercial success. Consequently, to Howard's surprise
and shock, Magazine were invited to appear on Top Of The Pops
on 9th February. At first he declined to do so unless they
were allowed to play live rather than mime - which the programme-makers
refused to permit. Eventually, however - under pressure from
Virgin and with great reluctance - he conceded; while still
protesting about what he perceived as trivialising and commercialising
his art. Their appearance and performance on the show on 16th
February was quite bizarre. Howard's rapidly receding hair-line
was accentuated by a most unflatteringly severe coiffure and
his high forehead seemed curiously unlined, he wore conspicuously
too much eye-liner and his skin had an unnaturally pallid
sheen. He remained almost static, with a look of studied ennui
throughout the performance; and the rest of the band contributed
little more to the unprepossessing visual effect. In an obviously
desperate attempt to compensate for this lifeless performance
the programme's producers resorted to employing every bit
of camera trickery at their disposal (as was their wont at
the time), repeatedly distorting the image and employing various
filtering effects. Howard said later that he looked and felt
"a bit of a tit". Nevertheless he clearly achieved
his aims because the single dropped straight back out of the
charts the following week and, despite consistently respectable
album sales, it was be some time before another Magazine single
made any impression on the singles chart.
On 14th February, Magazine recorded their
first session for John Peel. Recently made available legitimately
for the first time as part of the Maybe It's Right To Be
Nervous Now box set, these sessions comprise 'Touch And
Go', 'The Light Pours Out Of Me', 'Real Life' (the song which
was later renamed 'Definitive Gaze') and 'My Mind Ain't So
Open'. Dave Formula, who had joined the band for their last
tour and now became a permanent member, provided both atmospheric
washes of sound and a distinct additional melodic source interweaving
with the bass and guitar, giving a fuller, less spiky sound
than before. Given the relative freedom of the Peel Session,
Magazine were able to experiment and these perhaps give a
better indication of the way in which they were headed than
their second single.
This widely disappointing next single, 'Touch
And Go' was released on 15th April: ".. doesn't quite
have the dark - grinding menace of 'Shot By Both Sides'"
opines Alan Lewis in Sounds; ".. Pulls nothing like the
punch of 'Shot By Both Sides'" echoes the NME. It is
nevertheless a powerful song. The use of keyboards is more
subtle than in the Peel Session version and prominence was
given to a distinctive guitar line, possibly in an attempt
to give a more contemporary "punk" edge to the sound.
The 'B' side of the single was quite an extraordinary
choice - a cover version of the theme tune to the James Bond
film Goldfinger. The original of this song is glossy,
big production number, dominated by Shirley Bassey's powerful,
dramatic and boldly seductive vocals. In direct contrast the
Magazine version seems course, cold and cracked with Howard's
vocals dark and menacing.
Towards the end of May, Magazine appeared
on The Old Grey Whistle Test to promote their forthcoming
album. The Jam were also appearing this same evening. The
juxtaposition of The Jam's wildly enthusiastic and energetic
performance with the studied intensity of Magazine highlighted
yet again how far Howard Devoto had come in the short time
since leaving Buzzcocks. The growing sophistication of Magazine
was the antipode of the direction that the 'mainstream' punk
bands seemed to be following. After an absolutely spellbinding
rendition of 'The Light Pours Out Of Me', the host of the
show, 'Whispering' Bob Harris announced the band as "Magazine
- the band that some people are describing as 'New Wave Intellectual'"
adding sotto-voce afterwards "If that isn't a contradiction
in terms." An ignorant and foolish comment, without doubt
(perhaps Mr. Harris was still bearing a grudge after a rather
unpleasant altercation with various members of The Sex Pistols
at the Speakeasy on 12th March 1977?). However it was a comment
which displayed both the hostility that still existed in many
parts of the music industry and media towards the punks at
this time, and the confusion created by a band like Magazine
that actually confounded all of their preconceptions.
The first Magazine album, Real Life,
released on 9th June 1978, is by far the most satisfying and
fully-realised version of Howard's vision thus far; also one
of the most potent debut albums of the era.
The album starts with the long, keyboard-dominated
introduction to 'Definitive Gaze', which builds and dissolves
and changes in mood and intensity before Howard intones, in
an almost mesmeric tone:
"I've got this birds eye view
And it's in my brain
Clarity has reared
It's ugly head again
So this is real life
You're telling me
And everything
Is where it ought to be".
After the second verse a deep squelching synth
line continues amidst apparently random fragments of sound
from the other instruments.
Synthesisers were still viewed as something
of a novelty at this time and Magazine's prominent use of
the instrument; not just as a novelty or an atmospheric sound
generator but as a major melody instrument in its own right
too, is a significant and rather innovative feature for a
band at this time, though it provided another reason why they
were viewed with suspicion and uncertainty in many quarters.
'My Tulpa' starts off as a slightly more straightforward
number, with more prominence given to the guitar but with
a distinctive bridge on the synth, dropping down to just drums
and staccato guitar line before building again as first vocals
then bass then keyboards join in. The song reaches a crescendo
with short but blazingly impassioned sax break that blends
seamlessly into a guitar that is in turn replaced by keyboards.
This is followed by a re-recorded, slightly
slower, and far more satisfying version of 'Shot By Both Sides',
with Howard sounding far more confident than on the earlier
single.
'Recoil', an urgent, frantic, helter-skelter
of a song, dominated by McGeoch's blistering guitar and with
some dramatic full-stops, gives way to the slow, brooding
intensity of Burst over which Howard sings at once passionately
and plaintively; and all too soon the first side is over.
Twinkling keyboards are joined by a slow,
insistent drum line, throbbing bass and occasional jagged
shards of guitar as the band begins 'Motorcade'. Reverse-reverb
gives a ghostly pre-echo on Howard's voice through the first
verse. Then suddenly the song explodes with a sense of urgency
and purpose into the chorus before dropping back again for
the second verse and ends up lurching awkwardly between the
two in the final section, the juxtaposition creating an unmistakable
sensation of indecisiveness and insecurity. It has been suggested
that this song is about the Kennedy assassination, however
I am more inclined to believe that this is another of Howard's
self-mocking, introspective pieces of self-analysis:
"And my friend says, 'listen.
To the stupid things they're making you say'".
Whichever, it is clearly about feeling out
of control, caught up at the centre of a whirling machine:
"In the back of his car
In the null and void he sees
The man at the centre of the motorcade
Can chose between coffee and tea"
A fairground organ sound opens 'The Great
Beautician In The Sky' and the opening lines:
"Laughter staggers on
In between their gags"
fit perfectly with the sinister, lurching,
3:4 time signature of the introduction. There is a deliberately
school-yard mocking tone to Howard's delivery.
The jewel in the crown of the album - and
a perennial live favourite - is undoubtedly 'The Light Pours
Out Of Me'. The song builds slowly and inexorably from a simple
but distinctive and instantly recognisable drum line, joined
first by the bass and then another definitive guitar line.
It also features some of Howard's most instantly memorable
('though typically inscrutable) lyrics as he growls:
"Time flies
Time crawls
Like an insect
Up and down the wall".
Reaching a crescendo in a guitar break, the
song comes to an abrupt end.
'Parade' then brings the album to a surprisingly
bright and airy close, compared with the rest of the material.
It is very low-key and relies largely on piano as the lead
instrument - and Howard comes as close to crooning as it is
possible to him imagine doing. Compared with the far darker
and more brooding versions of this song that exist elsewhere
it seems that the band wanted this to suggest that some sort
of catharsis:
"Now that I'm out of touch with anger,
Now I've nothing to live up to"
or at least resignation has finally been achieved:
"They will tell me what I want to see,
We will watch without grief
We stay one step ahead of relief"
Within the context of a whole album it is
starting to become clear what the contents of this Magazine
are. They seem to have wedded the textures and soundscapes
of Eno, Can and Faust with their own darkly brooding vision.
In so doing they reserved the right to adopt either the grandiose
dramatic flourishes of Pink Floyd or Yes, or the stripped-down
minimalism of the Punks in the process, as they felt the context
demanded. Some of the songs are content to be simple and atmospheric.
Others have complex and detailed structures and arrangements
which constantly shift and rearrange themselves like a kaleidoscope
of sounds. All the arrangements are exercised with a perfect
combination of precision and passion. The sound achieved by
the band with the assistance of producer John Leckie somehow
manages to maintain sufficient space within even the most
detailed and textured numbers and create sufficient depth
in the most minimal ones so that the varied pieces hang together
as a coherent whole. It is hard not to suspect that the sound
of this album was a significant influence in the work of Martin
Hannett a year later, changing the punk thrashings of fellow
Mancunian punks Warsaw into the cold, sparse, desolate sounds
of Joy Division.
At a time when deep and wide divisions became
apparent in the music press - as indeed they were in the scene(s)
which they were reporting - the album received generally favourable
(though guarded) reviews in most quarters.
Meanwhile, the band's UK tour to promote the
album began inauspiciously with their arrival at Barabarella's
in Birmingham at 2:00 PM on 2nd July only to find the club
locked and no-one around to let them in. Ever the perfectionist,
Howard refused to play without a proper sound-check. So, after
apologising to fans and promising to reschedule the date for
later in the year, the band departed. The tour ends on an
equally sad note when drummer Martin Jackson announced that
he was leaving the band.
Fortunately, this was not before the band
recorded a second session for John Peel, on 24th July. This
set, which is again included in the recent box-set Maybe It's
Right To Be Nervous Now, again comprises four numbers. First
up is a new song called Give Me Everything. Then comes a considerably
heavier and more powerful rendition of Burst from Real Life.
This is followed by a positively frantic rendition of the
Captain Beefheart song I Love You You Big Dummy which Howard
had first experimented with in Buzzcocks. Listening to these
songs now, it is difficult not to suspect that the first appearances
of John Lydon's new band, Public Image Limited (who were,
of course, signed to the same label as Magazine) weren't influential
in the heavier, more bass-driven sound which Magazine were
exploring on these sessions. Finally Boredom had first been
recorded with Buzzcocks; the first verse and chorus are played
slowly over a thoughtfully tinkling piano and, presumably,
a tongue very firmly in cheek.
With Jackson gone, the vacant drum stool was
filled temporarily by Paul Spencer for their tours of Europe,
America and Canada, until the band recruit a full-time replacement,
John Doyle. Martin Jackson later resurfaced in the band Swing
Out Sister, of all places.
On 22nd November, Magazine's performance at
The Venue in London was recorded by the BBC and subsequently
aired on the 28th. The recording, eventually released in 1993,
consisted of 'Definitive Gaze', 'The Great Beautician In The
Sky', 'My Tulpa', 'Shot By Both Sides' and two new songs entitled
'Give Me Everything' and 'Back To Nature'.
In announcing 'Give Me Everything', Howard
somehow failed to mention that this is the new Magazine single,
released on the 28th. In fact the new single didn't receive
the benefit of any advertising whatsoever - according to Virgin
Records ".. The people who want the record will find
out about it anyway."!
This was without doubt the most fully realised
single release by Magazine to date. Starting with a frenetic
guitar-driven intro, it rapidly drops back to a powerful but
restrained, clanking bass line, over a minimal bass-drum,
snare and skitting hi-hat, which are eventually joined by
intermittent bursts of big, bold keyboard and occasional volleys
of guitar as Howard almost speaks the first half verse:
"You're gonna give me immunity
You're gonna receive punishment
I'm gonna lose myself in you
Because you're not quite of this world"
The song suddenly picks up considerably more
power and momentum as Howard begins to sing:
"There will be rooms
Where we shouldn't meet,
Times I want to screw you up
And leave you in the street,
You know everybody
You don't know a thing
You watch me in you
But I know what you're really seeing"
Then it drops back to the slower piece. This
pattern is repeated for a second verse, however this time,
just as the song has descended into relative calm for a third
time, it suddenly explodes into a frenetic chorus with a whirling
spiral of guitars and keyboards over which Howard howls:
"Now you give me everything
Now you give me everything
Now you give me everything
Now give me everything"
The 'B' side of this single is an extraordinary
version of the Captain Beefheart song 'I Love You You Big
Dummy' from the album Lick My Decals Off Baby. This
is slightly more refined and better realised than the version
of Howard performing this song with Buzzcocks 2 ½ years earlier,
which may be heard on Time's Up. However it is still
so far removed from the Beefheart original that at first glance
the two are barely recognisable beyond the title phrase! Howard
has imposed a basic 4:4 rhythm, created a recognisable verse
/ chorus - type structure (none of which staid and predictable
formalities inform the original) and written almost entirely
new lyrics. The only possible motivation for this was a desire
on Howard's part to pay homage to one of his heroes.
"Doing the Captain Beefheart one"
Howard told Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover in a recent interview
"that really did seem a little bit different to play
around with his kind of music and turn it into a stripped
down form. It's only much later that you learn things like
John Lydon was a Captain Beefheart fan too."
I was amused when researching this article
to find that Tommy Udo, (writing in the NME) had described
Don Van Vliet as: "the Orson Welles of rock" and
that Pete Frame (the creator of Rock Family Trees) had described
Howard as "The Orson Welles Of Punk". There are
several points of similarity and of contrast between the two
men.
Whereas Don grew up in the intense heat and
the big, bright, open spaces of the Mojave Desert, Howard
was a product of the bleak, grey, claustrophobic, industrial
North of England. I am sure that no-one would say that Howard's
voice has the range, power and authority of Don's - Don's
voice offered him opportunities, Howard's offered him only
limitations to work within and where Don's singing is bold,
proud and strident, Howard's is cowed, wary but defiant. Don
had grown up listening to the Blues and first emerged as a
musician during the Peace 'n' Love '60's whereas Howard had
first appeared as part of the snarling nihilism of the nascent
punk scene. Despite Howard's assertion that "I'm not
interested in poetry at all. Poetry is - I dunno - it's smelly",
both men shared an enthusiasm for exploring and exploiting
the different and often paradoxical interpretations of words.
However whereas Don played with words with an almost child-like
abandon, revelling in the wonders of nature, Howard's approach
often seems to owe more to the calculating malice of a bored
and petulant teenager, systematically pulling the legs off
a captive insect. Both men are irrepressibly inquisitive and
keen observers of human nature; however where the focus of
Don's attention was frequently the actions of mankind, Howard
is more frequently introspective and self-analytical. The
Magic Band's music was seldom constrained by the normal strictures
and dictates of rock music, with the parts played by the individual
instruments often bearing only tangential connection to the
others while still allowing a freedom for the musicians to
improvise within an organic whole. Magazine's music however
was carefully and painstakingly arranged with the individual
parts meshing precisely together like the cogs in a machine.
Listening to the Peel sessions gives a glimpse of how Magazine's
arrangements must have developed, showing how parts originally
played by one instrument were often later reallocated to another.
In contrast, Don Van Vliet would frequently write the different
parts on the piano and leave it up to one of the musicians
to fine-tune the arrangements and decide which part was to
be allocated to which instrument. The effect however, in both
cases, is strangely similar in that with both bands it is
hard to imagine that any other would have allocated the parts
in the same way. The squalling and wailing of John McGeoch's
occasional sax solos, whilst again clearly more controlled,
is also on occasions not a (blue) million miles from the sound
of some of Don's wild freeform workouts.
Whatever else, it is certainly true that the
plaudits received from musicians such as Howard Devoto, John
Lydon and David Thomas during this period helped to revive
interest in and create an increased audience for Captain Beefheart,
thereby helping to make some repayment of an inestimable musical
indebtedness. Listening to the somehow tighter, and more precise
recordings that Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band made
during their (lamentably brief) renaissance during the early
'80's, one might also be forgiven for thinking that Magazine,
Public Image Limited and Pere Ubu may also have had some small
influence on the new members of The Magic Band.
__________________________
The second Magazine album, Secondhand Daylight
was released on 30th March 1979. Things in the music world
had moved on at quite a pace during the nine months since
Real Life was released however; a new regime was in
place and the lines of demarcation between what was and what
was not permissible had been far more clearly defined. Where
Real Life was greeted with cautious and guarded enthusiasm,
Secondhand Daylight was frequently lambasted by an
insecure UK music press anxious to establish it's punk-rock
credentials and credibility by making it clear at every available
opportunity which side of the fence it is sitting on. Of these,
Garry Bushell's review in Sounds is perhaps the most laughably
transparent piece of ignorant, narrow-minded, self-serving
verbiage in a lifetime apparently spent in the miserable pursuit
of turning arrogance into an art form. Artiness, intellectualism
and anything perceived as remotely progressive (or worse still,
Progressive) in any way shape or form was right out; and the
mindless, directionless, aggressive, gobbing and pogoing self-parody
which the mainstream Punk scene rapidly deteriorated into,
was the order of the day. Most of the bands who rode in on
the punk bandwagon but harboured musical ambitions beyond
a simplistic three chord thrash felt happy to make way for
the new crowd suddenly clamouring to climb on board, by re-designating
themselves - or allowing themselves to be re-designated -
as "New Wave". Even those bands and musicians generally
seen as central to the UK Punk movement at this time (Buzzcocks,
Clash, Damned, Banshees, Slits and even John Lydon) struggled
to manoeuvre within - or out of - the new, strait-jacket definition
of the term "Punk" that the media imposed.
Perhaps in reacting against this, Howard and
his band moved too far in the opposite direction. However
if they were being "Shot By Both Sides" at this
point, it must be said that they deliberately painted the
target on their own backs and positioned themselves directly
in the firing line! Everything about Secondhand Daylight
can only be seen as either wilfully perverse or deliberately
provocative. As Howard explained to Ian Greaves of www.shotbybothsides.com
recently "I think a lot of [the poor initial response
to the album] was down to two things. One was having a gatefold
sleeve at that time which was kind of a 'No no no, you can't
do that, you've gone too far now' with maybe some justification."
The sleeve certainly appears extravagant and self-indulgent
at a time when minimalism and DIY austerity was the order
of the day. Of course it had already been forgotten that only
two years before, Howard's face was one of those on the Spiral
Scratch EPs which was one of the main templates for the look
now so much in vogue! "I also think" Howard continues
"the instrumental 'The Thin Air' really affected how
people heard that album. That was John's piece, which is kind
of curious 'cos I'm not sure there's very much guitar on it.
But he'd written it all on keyboards and went 'Hmmm. I can
hear a bit of Pink Floyd in that' and the way it turned out,
I felt I couldn't.. it wasn't a song. I felt I couldn't write
anything for it. So, the idea evolved to try it as an instrumental
which we eventually made work by cutting the drums out. The
drums kind of crash in about a third of the way into the song
and suddenly it happened, we had a piece of music that worked.
But it was still the same piece of music that John had played
to us and there are nuances of Pink Floyd in there and again
that was 'No no no, 'I Hate Pink Floyd' was on John Lydon's
tee-shirt and you must not do something that's got that kind
of stuff kicking about in it'. So I actually think those two
things really did quite affect how people received it. It
was seeing it, hearing it.. I was probably getting up people's
noses at that point as well".
With all of this said, however, Secondhand
Daylight is a disappointing album. My personal feeling
is that a lot of the problem lies in Colin Thurston's production;
although perhaps this was employed specifically to compensate
for the fact that there had simply not been enough time to
fine-tune some of the arrangements in the same detail as on
Real Life.
Side one begins with a long, slow, mournful
untitled instrumental passage. Whilst sparse in it's instrumentation
there is a warmth and richness which pervades much of the
album. This gives way to the introduction to 'Feed The Enemy'
which is a slow mournful lament with the background filled
by tinkling keyboards and ghostly echoing voices. Employing
such kitchen-sink production methods simply does not allow
enough room for a band with the full dynamic range of Magazine.
Consequently the second track, 'Rhythm Of Cruelty' - a punchy
number which could have come in with an explosive flurry after
the opener - simply does not have the impact it should have
had. 'Cut-Out Shapes' begins as a melodic, mid-paced number
with only a driving high-hat preventing it from becoming plodding
and ponderous, which suddenly launches (again with insufficient
contrast) into a more frenetic part before finally dropping
to resolve in a quiet coda. 'Talk To The Body' is an upbeat,
fluid, almost poppy number with a bouncing bass line. The
final track, 'I Wanted Your Heart' is a powerful and strident
number, strangely prescient of some of the sound Public Image
achieved on some of their later releases and one of the more
impressive arrangements, particularly some of the strange
discordant piano sounds in the quietly disjointed final section.
Side two begins with the full instrumental
track 'The Thin Air' - and yes, it does sound more than a
little reminiscent of Dark Side Of The Moon era Pink Floyd!
Unfortunately, it also seems entirely incongruous in this
setting. Fortunately however, the remainder of the second
side consists of three relatively strong tracks. 'Back To
Nature' has long slow verses which build into powerful choruses
and lyrics which again seems to be somewhat autobiographical.
"Back to nature
I can't go on like this
I want to walk where the power is
Back to nature
I don't know where to start
Back to nature
I don't have that kind of heart"
'Believe That I Understand' is another upbeat
number in a similar vein to 'Talk To The Body' and 'Permafrost'
a bleak and hauntingly sinister number which brings the album
to a close.
There are several fine songs here - although
perhaps too many slow ones, one very obvious "filler",
and certainly nothing with the immediate impact of 'Shot By
Both Sides' or 'The Light Pours Out Of Me' on Real Life.
There is a persistent feeling that too many of the troughs
in the sparser sections have been filled with too much extraneous
detail and too many of the peaks compressed to leave an unsatisfyingly
amorphous whole. The bass is round and ringing, the keyboard
parts frequently seem to have been simply built up in layers
and washes of sound rather than tailored to fit together with
each other and with the rest of the band. The guitar, which
often provided the hook on the most successful earlier numbers
seems either purposeless or muted. Howard has subsequently
admitted, "I think it had a handful of good tracks and
some quite quickly written things that could have been better
honed".
Of course most of Howard's erstwhile contemporaries
in the Punk / New Wave scene had been releasing albums at
a positively frantic pace. Buzzcocks, Clash, Damned, Generation
X, 999, Only Ones, Sham 69, Squeeze, The Vibrators, Wire and
XTC all released 2 studio albums each by this time - The Jam
and the Stranglers had released 3! With the greatest possible
respect to all of these bands (well, with the exception of
Sham 69!) few if any of them were producing material of the
complexity of Magazine's which required careful development
of their detailed arrangements to achieve their potential.
Perhaps Magazine would have been better advised to buck this
particular trend, as they did with so many others, and resisted
whatever pressure and / or temptation they were experiencing
to rush into a second album so soon after Real Life.
A single was released at the same time, comprising
'Rhythm Of Cruelty' from the album with the non-album track
'TV Baby' on the 'B' Side. The latter is a clean, simple,
upbeat, spiky little number, rather simplistic, sounding more
like a jam than a song which would clearly not have fitted
on the album, although it would doubtless have appealed more
to Mr. Bushell and his ilk than 'Thin Air'!
At this time Howard only agrees to do one
interview in the UK, with Nick Kent of the NME (although as
he recently admitted to Ian Greaves "I did loads in America.
I yabbed me bloody head off") which was to be his last
for some time. "I stopped doing interviews for The
Correct Use Of Soap" he explained "I'd had enough
of it by [then] and I didn't really want to do it".
A little over a month later, on 8th May, Magazine
recorded their third session for John Peel. The tracks this
time are a slightly shorter and more fully developed version
of 'TV Baby', a snappier, harder-hitting and far more purposeful
version of 'Permafrost' plus their own rather curious rendition
of the old Sly And The Family Stone classic 'Thank You (Falettinme
Be Mice Elf Again)'.
On the 7th September, in Aberdeen, Drummer
Kenny Morris and John McKay suddenly deserted Siouxsie And
The Banshees just as their tour began. The implications of
this on Magazine would soon become apparent, however The Banshees
rapidly recruited drummer Budgie who had recently left The
Slits and managed to complete the majority of the tour with
Robert Smith of support group The Cure standing in on guitar
for The Banshees as well as fronting his own band every night.
A more immediate threat to the stability of
Magazine would appear to come from the extra-curricular activities
of three of its key members. John McGeoch, Dave Formula and
Barry Adamson had all been recording with local Blitz Club
scene-maker Steve Strange. Steve involved his associate, former
Rich Kids drummer Rusty Egan, and former band mate Midge Ure.
He in turn brought along keyboard player Billy Currie from
Ultravox!, the band he had just joined as replacement for
their recently departed vocalist John Foxx. This rather crowded
"all star" line-up became known as Visage and their
first single, entitled 'Tar', was released on 3rd November.
This is a quirky, synth-dominated number, in a similar vein
to the old, pre-Ure, incarnation of Ultravox!. Although significantly
"heavier" than the bands better-known later releases,
this was a landmark in the development of the scene later
known as the New Romantics.
The recording of yet another Magazine session
for John Peel took place on 7th January 1980 and was aired
the following week. This consisted of three new songs, 'Twenty
Years Ago', 'Look What Fear's Done To My Body' (which will
later be renamed 'Because You're Frightened') and 'Model Worker'.
All three are bold, strong, confident and powerful numbers
and suddenly the future looked bright for Magazine again.
This was followed on 8th February by the first
of three planned single releases, all to come in matching,
distinctive brown cardboard sleeves, each to have a different
contrasting coloured label. This one has an allegedly red
(in fact it is more of a dusty maroon!) label and the titles
are 'A Song From Under The Floorboards' and '20 Years Ago'.
The sessions were produced by Martin Hannett, who Howard last
worked with when Buzzcocks recorded the Spiral Scratch EP.
Despite Howard's assertion in the opening lines of the song:
"I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly
as sin
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking"
It is clear that Magazine have never been
in better shape. Reviewing the single for NME, Paul Morley
describes this as "the most complete slice of Magazine
music since 'Light Pours Out Of Me'" and it would be
churlish to argue the relative merits of 'Give Me Everything'
at this juncture.
"I know the meaning of life, it doesn't
help me a bit
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it".
The 'B' Side is another powerful song, if
a little chaotic (once again, more of a jam than a fully completed
arrangement) and considerably less memorable.
One month later, on 7th March, Magazine released
the second single in the series - this time with a green (well,
a very dull green) label. 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf
Again)' is a somewhat fuller rendition than the one they gave
in the Peel session recording the previous May (though the
omission of the a cappella choruses is rather a shame) although
strangely closer to the loose-limbed, loping funk of the original.
The reception to this was considerably less favourable; and
to have made such a strange choice for a single seems to be
a typically wilfully perverse gesture. The 'B' side, 'The
Book', is even more of an oddity - a short story is narrated
about a man who finds himself at the door of hell, and is
asked by the old man who guards of the door to hold his book
for him while he opens the door. Behind this there are some
apparently random and unconnected keyboard sounds.
Also released the same week, however - and
to far warmer critical reception - is the latest Siouxsie
And The Banshees single, 'Happy House', featuring their latest
guest guitarist - John McGeoch.
The third single in the planned series was
inexplicably delayed and so we had to wait until the 2nd May,
when Magazine released their third album The Correct Use
Of Soap, to find out whether 'A Song From Under The Floorboards'
was an isolated spark of inspiration. Could they have an album
of comparable quality up their sleeves?
All doubts and fears were immediately assuaged
as the album bursts immediately into vigorous and self-assured
life without any of the cautious, atmospheric introductory
scene-setting of the two previous albums. The opening track
is 'Because You're Frightened' and it has all the hallmarks
of Magazine's finest moments. The verses build over a sparse
but effective drum line and pumping bass, a distinctive guitar
line joins as the tension mounts. The chorus is punctuated
by a rapidly repeated pair of stacatto piano notes, over which
Howard complains "Look what fear has done to my body"
before this gives way to a distinctive Moog synth bridge.
A couple of brief stabs of piano, a strangled shriek from
Howard and the band launches into another powerful number,
'Model Worker', where Howard confesses:
"I have been indulging in ostentatious
display
Doing little more than eat three square meals a day";
and there seems to be a sardonic self-mocking
as he ponders:
"And I just want to know, while the revolution
lasts
will it enable me to swallow broken glass?"
This song has much of the frantic helter-skelter
pace of 'Recoil' on Real Life, but compared with the
uneasy edginess of that number, this time the band seemed
confident, purposeful and in full control.
The pace drops slightly for 'I'm A Party'
and again it is hard not to see a scornful message for all
those who had previously written the band off, in the instantly
memorable chorus:
"You can do me a favour
Do whatever you want to
I will let you hurt me
Because I know it hurts you"
'You Never Knew Me' is a dark and mournful
ballad, with yet more deeply affecting lyrics that explore
one of the albums recurring themes - the fear and pain of
love and loss:
"I don't want to turn around and find
I've got it wrong
Or that I should have been laughing all along
You're what keeps me alive, you're what's destroying me
Do you want the truth or do you want your sanity?"
Side one ends on a powerful note with the
upbeat and excitable 'Philadelphia'.
Having thus (re)established their credentials
and laid out their manifesto, the band relaxed and experimented
a little more on the second side. 'I Want To Burn Again' is
a strangely intriguing narrative over a majestically swirling
backing that repeatedly builds and drops down to a powerful
but minimalist drum roll before reaching it's final conclusion.
In this context, 'Thank You' seems to make more sense than
it had as a single. 'Sweetheart Contract' is a relatively
straightforward but catchy number whilst lacking any obvious
hooks. 'Stuck' features a strangely de-constructed mutant
funk bassline and 60's-style organ with occasional incongruous
stabs of metallic, industrial guitar, over which Howard croons.
The album reaches it's ultimate climax with the single 'A
Song From Under The Floorboards'.
There is a feeling of catharsis about this
entire album, a feeling that Magazine had been doing a thorough
Spring-cleaning (hence the relevance of the title, perhaps?),
deciding which of their accumulated possessions were worth
keeping and which were just unnecessary clutter. The arrangements
are as precise as on Real Life but seem more fluid
and natural. Guitar and keyboards equally provide depth and
texture, or blasts of power and melody as and when required.
And perhaps more importantly, they showed sufficient restraint
to remain silent when they are not. A balance has been achieved
between Magazine's dark, ethereal and brooding side and their
contrasting propensity to blast forth with power and venom,
without unduly favouring, flavouring or compromising either
aspect.
Producer Martin Hannett must take a significant
part of the credit for this renaissance. Having clearly been
inspired by the bleakness of the soundcapes pioneered by Magazine
in Real Life, Martin has explored and perfected these
in his work with Joy Division on their album Unknown Pleasures.
He therefore unexpectedly helped Magazine to achieve their
roundest and warmest sound yet while still leaving enough
space for the natural dynamics to take full effect.
Barry Adamson really came into his own for
the first time on this album too. The round, full bass sound
which had often sounded leaden and bloated on Secondhand
Daylight, now sparkles with the addition of a touch of
chorus, and becomes and proudly prominent feature, competing
on equal terms with the guitar and keyboards for the first
time.
Of course all of this would be academic if
the songs were not of sufficiently high standard but these
are without doubt the most finest set which the band had put
together to date. Perhaps there was a clue in the fact that,
for the first time, credit for writing the music is attributed
equally to the whole team. Writing the words, however, remained
exclusively Howard's domain, and the lyrics are as intriguingly
oblique and opaque as ever, containing some of Howard's finest
writing. His singing too seems more confident and shows greater
depth and breadth in his range than had previously been apparent.
The music press were ecstatic and Magazine
were thoroughly vindicated. Giving the album a full 5 stars,
Dave McCullough urges the readership of Sounds to "Throw
aside all those prejudices and misconceptions, for The
Correct Use Of Soap is from any aspect a magnificent record".
Meanwhile in NME, Chalkie Davies observes that "The
Correct Use Of Soap makes Secondhand Daylight superfluous
in that it's the logical synthesis of the heady impatience
of early Buzzcocks and the rich forceful flow of Real Life.
It is also Magazine's masterpiece."
The delayed third single in the series is
released on 16th May (deep blue, almost purple label, if you
were wondering). This is a non-album cut, 'Upside Down'. This
catchy and immediately likeable single is unfortunately largely
overlooked in the shadow of The Correct Use Of Soap,
but it is a strong number and easily as good as most of the
tracks the album. But then, as Howard observed, "I'm
always turning things upside down". It is difficult not
to draw direct comparison between McGeoch's guitar work here
with that of his other current role in The Banshees.
The 'B' side is a substantial reworking of
'The Light Pours Out Of Me,' more in the fuller style of the
band at the time and highlighted how much more confident Howard's
singing had become. However in the final analysis the impression
is much the same as the prevalent tendency for motor companies
to update their existing product by exchanging simple straight
lines and bold, blunt corners for smoothly rounded curves.
The new model may be more chunky and aerodynamic but the old
model was a classic and we'd have preferred it if you'd left
it as it was and hadn't messed with it, thanks all the same!
On 18th July Magazine released four tracks
which were recorded live at the Russell Club in Manchester
on 3rd May. These are 'Sweetheart Contract', 'Feed The Enemy',
'20 Years Ago' and 'Shot By Both Sides'. The first 10,000
are released as a double pack 7", when these are sold
out the same tracks will only be available as a 12".
A combination of this unusually obvious (unusually for Magazine,
that is!) little marketing ploy with the renewed excitement
provoked by the recent album propelled Magazine into the lower
reaches of the UK singles charts for the first time since
'Shot By Both Sides' 2 ½ years previously!
Despite this however, on 20th July it was
finally announced that John Mc Geoch was leaving the band
to become a full-time member of The Banshees, having recently
appeared again as guest guitarist on the Banshees single 'Christine'.
The split was regrettable but not acrimonious and it transpired
that his departure had been kept secret for 3 weeks while
Magazine rehearsed with his replacement, former Ultravox!
guitarist Robin Simon. As Howard explained to Ian Greaves
recently "It was partly us moving to London. By that
time we'd all moved to London, so there were a lot more temptations.
There were a lot more groups. And y'know, the guys run into
Siouxsie And The Banshees and they run into Ultravox! and..
I was pulling back from things at that point. My father had
died and I was really wanting to withdraw quite a bit. But
I think that John probably perceived that as, y'know, me not
'going for it' so much at that time. At least that was what
was suggested to me. John didn't say that to me directly but,
if you see what I mean, there was something that seemed a
bit more lucrative. We certainly weren't making any money.
We were just getting by. So.. [Siouxsie And The Banshees]
were doing quite well. Like I say they were probably quite
attractive to John. He could also play quite a major role
in them as well, whereas it was a bit more of a tussle with
Magazine, what with Barry and Dave. Musically it was probably
a bit tougher for him. I don't know, I suspect a combination
of those things."
McGeoch was to remain a member of The Banshees
for the next 2½ years, appearing on the albums Kaleidoscope,
JuJu and A Kiss In the Dreamhouse before leaving
the band due to supposed "ill heath" in 1982. He
also contributed to Visage's first, self-titled album released
in 1980, subsequently going on to play with The Armoury Show
as well as appearing on former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy's
first solo album Should The World Fail To Fall Apart
in 1985 (which included a version of 'The Light Pours Out
Of Me'). He was then recruited by John Lydon to become a member
of Public Image Limited and appeared on the albums Happy?,
9 and That What Is Not between 1986 and 1992.
Meanwhile, Magazine embarked on an overseas
tour with their new guitarist. On 16th August they were filmed
at Santa Monica Civic Centre playing Model Worker for the
film Urgh! A Music War. Sounds described Howard Devoto's
on-stage demeanour as "looking like an over-intelligent
lift-operator from another world dropped into a disco."
On 16th September their performance at the Melbourne Festival
Hall was recorded for a live album which is eventually released
on 5th December, entitled Play. The track list is 'Give
Me Everything', 'A Song From Under The Floorboards', 'Permafrost',
'The Light Pours Out Of Me', 'Model Worker', 'Parade', 'Thank
You', 'Because You're Frightened' and 'Twenty Years Ago'.
Although there was nothing new or particularly exciting here
the performance throughout is tight and powerful and the band
seem relaxed and confident - it certainly seemed that Robin
Smith has fitted seamlessly into the line-up.
It came as a surprise therefore, on 15th December,
when Robin announces that he was quitting the band, complaining
that he felt artistically stifled and did not believe that
he received his rightful share of the song-writing credits.
The rest of the band's version was rather different, stating
that Robin "lacked the personal commitment and creative
communication that we require". Howard elaborated to
Ian Greaves recently: "Robin essentially filled in for
us with an American and Australian tour and he was fine for
that. He could do John McGeoch almost as well as John McGeoch,
but it was.. when we came to, y'know, writing the next album,
it just wasn't happening.. He didn't seem to have very much
to contribute, writing wise. At least at that time. And that
wasn't how Magazine had worked. There were strong contributions
from everybody. And certainly I wanted a strong guitar presence
in it, y'know, just like every.. male kid on the block, anyway.
The electric guitar was the most thrilling of things, so y'know
I wanted a strong guitar element in it, like I say, it just
didn't happen with Robin.."
It was unclear what was to happen to the studio
album which the band had begun recording and the single that
they planned to release in February. John McGeoch came back
to lend a hand, and Ben Mandelson, former guitarist with Amazorblades,
was enlisted to help finish off the recordings.
Meanwhile, during March, Magazine signed with
IRS in the USA. Up to now Virgin had released the three studio
albums but not any of the singles in the US. The first Magazine
title IRS release, during May, is the live album Play.
On 1st May, the next Magazine single, 'About
The Weather', was finally released with the 'B' side 'In The
Dark'. A 12" version was also available with an extended
version of the 'A' side and an additional track 'The Operative'
on the 'B' side. If Howard had wanted "a strong guitar
presence" then he must surely have been disappointed
in this single since the most prominent features are the grandiose
floods of keyboards and the fashionably over-prominent, treated
snare sound. Although Howard later attributed a large part
of the responsibility for this to Martin Hannett's production,
he also conceded that "Ben wasn't really the right kind
of guitarist, a fantastic guitarist as he is in his own right".
The 'A' side is unusually upbeat for Magazine - almost cheerful
in fact. Eddie Snide, in Grinding Halt fanzine, expressed
his extreme disappointment, complaining of "Elton John
keyboards and Devoto trying to be Bowie". 'In The Dark'
sounds more typically Magazine but lacks any real hook and
'The Operative' is another pleasantly quirkly ballad, which
also disappointed.
Before their fourth studio album had even
been released, a tired and disillusioned Howard Devoto announces
his departure from the band on 30th May, thereby
effectively bringing the story of Magazine, and this particular
chapter in his life, to an abrupt and disappointing end.
(part
three...next month, if Stewart's fingers have grown back in
time)
Clarity
Has Reared It's Ugly Head Again...