The biggest-selling album in 1977 was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours which shifted so many copies (40 million!) it went way beyond being merely a successful record into the stratosphere inhabited by cultural juggernauts like Saturday Night Fever and Thriller — before those two came along it was the best-selling album of all-time (it’s now the 8th). I bought a copy too even though I don’t remember particularly being a fan of the group or any of the singles from it (none of which even cracked the Top 20 in England) because I thought an album that had become such a monster was something I should buy as a 15-year-old with growing pretensions to being a “serious” music fan (though I still didn’t “get” punk.) I bought the mega-selling Dark Side of The Moon for the same reason — “you have to buy it!” a schoolfriend had said to me — but that turned out to be a dull snoozer of an album (God, what a bore Roger Waters is) that I only played a few times while Rumours was actually a decent record, though I’m still puzzled why it sold the cartloads it did — it’s good but not that good. I didn’t particularly care for their more folky, mandolin-y leanings but I did love the bright AM pop songs of Christine McVie who is still my favourite voice in the group.

Download: You Make Loving Fun (alternate outtake) – Fleetwood Mac (mp3)
Buy: “Rumours” (Expanded Edition)” (album)

Obviously there were other, more radical, things happening in 1977 and I imagine that a lot of people who didn’t buy Rumours bought the first Clash album instead and saw rich, long-haired soft-rockers like Fleetwood Mac as representatives of the rock ruling class who would be among the first up against the wall after the punk revolution. So by the time they followed it up over two years later (an eternity back then) the musical landscape had completely changed, supposedly making the group and their brand of sunny Californian AOR irrelevant, at least in England — I’d had my own musical epiphany too during that time and was now firmly on the side of the revolutionaries.

But surprisingly, the Tusk album didn’t sound like they had just spent the previous two years lounging by swimming pools and smugly counting their royalties but were actually very aware that there had been a musical earthquake while they’d been gone and were open to it. Instead of Rumours: Part Deux it was a sprawling, often “difficult” record full of banging primitive beats and nervy jerky rhythms that sounded like Lindsey Buckingham (in particular) been listening to a lot of Talking Heads and probably The Fall and Gang of Four too (I vaguely remember him name-checking them in interviews), it was startling to hear these laid-back hippies making a noise like this:

Download: The Ledge – Fleetwood Mac (mp3)
Download: What Makes You Think You’re The One – Fleetwood Mac (mp3)
Buy: “Tusk” (album)

Too startling for some people I guess as the album “only” sold four million copies (boo hoo), though the bizarre Tusk single was a bigger hit than anything off Rumours had been in England. It must have been a nightmare trying to follow up the biggest selling album ever so they decided to not even bother and do the “interesting” thing instead. So I ended up buying that album too but not because I felt any obligation to either, turns out these oldsters weren’t that bad after all and maybe didn’t deserve to get shot.

A few things came to mind watching this:

1) Why is it in black and white? England wasn’t that primitive in 1973.
2) Noel Edmonds was always an annoying twat, wasn’t he?
3) But how great was Phil Lynott?
4) Fantastic pair of dancing dollies at 2:31, and keep an eye out for the lad in the starry jumper behind them who may be the worst dancer I’ve ever seen. Hope he wasn’t trying to pull.
5) “Telly’s on the blink again!” (my Grandad)

I’ve had mates who were Punks, Mods, Soul Boys, Skinheads and Rude Boys but I’ve never known anyone who called themselves a New Romantic, and not because I have anything against blokes in frilly shirts and eyeliner either. I used to work with a girl who was a regular at Blitz and knew Boy George before he was famous but she’d laugh if you applied that label to her, the scene was far too individualistic to be pigeonholed in that way which is why for a while they were called The Cult With No Name.

Yes, New Romantics looked a bit ridiculous at times (Exhibit A above) and were often better at dressing up than they were at making records, but given the choice between their flamboyant silliness and the plodding denim rockism of an Oasis I think I know who I prefer, especially when they made such cracking 12″ mixes as these.

Download: Night Train (Dance Mix) – Visage (mp3)
Download: Planet Earth (Night Mix) – Duran Duran (mp3)
Download: The Art of Parties (12″ version) – Japan (mp3)

Read: Spandau Ballet, the Blitz kids and the birth of the New Romantics (excellent article)

I think if you look up the word “cool” in the dictionary you’ll see this picture. Actually, you won’t because they don’t have pictures in dictionaries but you know what I mean.

And if you didn’t think you could envy/hate him any more that’s Natalie Wood he’s got his arm around.

Download: Mickey (Spanish version) – Toni Basil (mp3)

And this clip you should play to anyone who’s ever wondered what the big deal about that Rod Stewart bloke was. The Faces weren’t too shabby either.

Oh hell, have another one. He’s worth it.