Now That's What I Call A Music Blog

Tag: richard branson

  • Now! That’s What I Call Music II – More, more, more

    Now! That’s What I Call Music II – More, more, more

    now 2

    Almost four months to the day since it had crashed its way through the charts and teenage bedrooms of the UK, NOW! would launch a second onslaught on the nation. And whilst at first glance it seems just like more of the same (including the first use of the ubiquitous phrase “Top Chart Hits”), if you dig deeper, things do seem a little bit stranger this time around.

    Yes, there are the huge hits (Radio Ga Ga, Relax, Girls Just Want To Have Fun), but there’s also some things that have slipped through the cracks of time. As good a track as More, More, More is (and it’s not a cover of the Andrea True disco classic), I’d never heard of Carmel. Nor was I familiar with Julia & Company, Snowy White, Re-Flex  or Matthew Wilder (though his track Break My Stride is fairly well-known).

    So what’s happened here then? Has NOW! blown it already, and only on volume 2? Well, no. Of course not, otherwise I wouldn’t be planning to review all 80 odd albums in the series that has lasted for 30 years.

    What happened was the inevitable result of a shorter window in which to choose tracks from. Whereas NOW! had had a whole year to pilfer from, NOW 2 had the unenviable task of replicating that massive track listing from just four months of hits, ranging from November 1983 (The Thompson Twins’ Hold Me Now) to March 1984 (Culture Club’s soon to be released It’s A Miracle, which it would have been if that had been as successful as their previous singles). A task as difficult as this required a professional, and so Richard Branson brought one in: Ashley Abram.

    Now, Ashley Abram may sound like a runner-up on The X-Factor or Masterchef, but he is probably the most important person in the history of the entire NOW! series, being the compiler of the albums since NOW 2 all the way to NOW 81. He may not be the most recognisable name in pop, but thanks to him unsuspecting teenagers everywhere probably had their first taste of house music, heavy metal or garage. Not much is known about him, and trawling the net for info turns up more discrepancies than an MP’s account of an indiscretion. The most common story is that Branson brought in Abram’s Box Music, a professional music consultancy, to take the NOW! concept to the next level. Other sources say he was Ronco’s chief compiler in the 1970s, another says he was a record buyer for Woolworths, some say that Box Music was his company, others that he was simply an employee. It’s a minefield to be honest and unless I get to speak to him personally, I’m not going any deeper into the background. All I’ll say is, it’s Abram’s name on the back of the albums (at least from Now 4) as ‘Now Co-ordinator’, so he’s the man we thank.

    Whoever made the decision to increase the frequency of releases, it made sound commercial sense, but it was bound to affect the quality. NOW! had been such a huge, unprecedented success, the desire to quickly cash-in is completely understandable, but looking at the track listing here, you have to wonder if three a year (one every four months) was the wisest decision. But then you realise that the releases tie in with the major school holidays (Easter, Summer and Christmas) and of course it makes perfect sense.

    But as a result of the increased frequency, NOW albums would rarely hit as hard as that first release. Already with NOW 2, the quality threshold has dropped considerably, and where the hits may hit even harder than they did before (Relax, still banned by Radio 1 at the time is the masterstroke here), there are far too many duffers. Side 2 would have been swiped off most kids record players after the first two tracks (Nena’s 99 Red Balloons  and Cyndi Lauper), with its mix of mullets and tracks that were probably more popular with their parents, a theme continued later on with the inclusion of Slade, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones (in the first of only two appearances in the series) . The other casualty is the volume of number 1’s, dropping from the massive eleven chart toppers on NOW! to just four here (Only You, 99 Red Balloons, Relax, Pipes of Peace(!)).

    Joe Fagin and Matthew Wilder aim to take Limahl's title for 'Most Ridiculous Hairstyle Ever Featured on a Now! Album'
    Joe Fagin and Matthew Wilder aim to take Limahl’s title for ‘Most Ridiculous Hairstyle Ever Featured on a Now! Album’

    Side Three would see the first attempt to theme a whole side (remember this was back in the day when the albums would have four sides, rather than two CDs, a CD still being as futuristic as a jetpack to the average Woolworths customer).  These would generally be undertaken when a particular musical style dominates the charts for a certain period. I first became aware of it on NOW 11, where a whole side was devoted to the burgeoning House scene, and goes some way to making that album one of the best in the series. Here, Side Three is almost entirely devoted to post-New wave acts, an odd mix of alternative electro-pop, guitar bands and just general oddness of a kind that wouldn’t normally be seen bothering the charts which at the time were dominated by the likes of Duran Duran. But is that true? As is so often the case people like to misremember the past. Of the eight tracks on Side Three, five of them were top ten hits and Relax is still one of the biggest selling singles ever in the UK. The appearance of The Smiths is rather special though; they would never appear again, though Morrissey’s solo career was a good standby for the series, at least until he stopped having top ten hits at the end of the 80s.

    No idea who’s doing the voice over here, so if anyone can enlighten me I’d be most grateful. I suspect she  was a DJ  on either Radio 1 or Capital, but it’s not a voice I recognise.

    It does a great job of convincing you that you have to have it, reeling off the list of winners with great pride, and any self-respecting pop fan would have killed for this album at the time.  Sadly, NOW 2 has not aged well, appearing to modern eyes exactly like the kind of cheap cash-in that NOW! itself would have to contend with in the months and years ahead. It was going to take something special to convince the record-buying public that this was more than a fly-by-night operation…

    NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC II

    Release date

    26th March 1984

    Biggest tracks

    Relax – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

    Radio Ga Ga – Queen

    Lost gems

    More, More, More – Carmel

    Forgotten tracks

    Bird of Paradise – Snowy White

    Breaking Down (Sugar Samba) – Julia & Company

    Politics of Dancing – Re-Flex

    What’s missing

    Doctor Doctor – The Thompson Twins (would later appear on NOW 4)

    Holiday – Madonna

    Track listing

    Side One
    Radio Ga Ga Queen
    Wouldn’t It Be Good Nik Kershaw
    Hold Me Now The Thompson Twins
    Get Out Of Your Lazy Bed Matt Bianco
    More, More, More Carmel
    Michael Caine Madness
    Only You The Flying Pickets
    Side Two
    99 Red Balloons Nena
    Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Cyndi Lauper
    My Guy Tracey Ullman
    Break My Stride Matthew Wilder
    Breakin’ Down (Sugar Samba) Julia & Company
    That’s Livin’ Alright Joe Fagin
    I Gave You My Heart (Didn’t I) Hot Chocolate
    Bird Of Paradise Snowy White
    Side Three
    Relax Frankie Goes To Hollywood
    Here Comes The Rain Again Eurythmics
    What Is Love? Howard Jones
    What Difference Does It Make The Smiths
    Feels Like Heaven Fiction Factory
    The Politics Of Dancing Re-Flex
    Hyperactive! Thomas Dolby
    Wishful Thinking China Crisis
    Side Four
    Modern Love David Bowie
    It’s A Miracle Culture Club
    Undercover (Of The Night) The Rolling Stones
    Wonderland Big Country
    Run Runaway Slade
    New Moon On Monday Duran Duran
    Pipes Of Peace Paul McCartney


    Video edition     

    The video version is even more of a mixed bag than for NOW!

    20 tracks, but only eleven of them are on the accompanying album. One track (Victims) is from NOW!, one that would appear on NOW 4 (Doctor, Doctor) and seven that never appeared on any NOW! album (Help, Marguerita Time, Let The Music Play, Birds Fly, Breaking Point, Cry and Be Free, The Lion’s Mouth).

    Now 2 video

    Nik Kershaw – Wouldn’t It Be Good
    Thompson Twins – Doctor, Doctor
    Howard Jones – What is Love?
    Duran Duran – New Moon on Monday
    China Crisis – Wishful Thinking
    Tina Turner  – Help
    Status Quo – Marguerita Time
    Carmel  – More, More, More
    Shannon – Let the Music Play
    Icicle Works – Birds Fly
    Bourgie Bourgie – Breaking Point
    Re-Flex – The Politics of Dancing
    Thomas Dolby – Hyperactive
    Matt Bianco – Get Out of Your Lazy Bed
    Big Country – Wonderland
    Marilyn – Cry and Be Free
    Snowy White – Bird of Paradise
    The Flying Pickets – Only You
    Kajagoogoo – The Lion’s Mouth
    Culture Club – Victims

     

     

     

  • NOW! That’s What I Call Music – Total Eclipse of the Charts

    NOW! That’s What I Call Music – Total Eclipse of the Charts

     

    now

    And lo, it came to pass that on the 28th day of the 11th month of the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Three, that Lord Richard of Branson did declare “Let there be pop!”, and the British music charts, and the record collections of the nations’ teenagers would never be the same again. From the first bass note of You Can’t Hurry Love, to the final “ooh” of Victims, NOW! was determined to be the definitive collection of the year’s biggest hits, and by jove, did it succeed.

    Glancing through the track listings of later albums in the series you often find yourself staring blank-faced at names that no longer mean anything to anyone. One hit wonders abound, and even some successful artists will elicit the question “what were we thinking?” rather than  “they were great, weren’t they?” Not here.

    Maybe 80s stars were more hard-wearing, maybe I’m being kind to the music I grew up with, but if a contemporary compilation can hit harder than this, I’ve not found it yet: Duran Duran, Madness, Culture Club, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Human League, The Cure, UB40… You can argue the individual merits of the artists, or the song choices included here, but you can’t deny the sheer number of pop titans in attendance here. And that’s looking at it at a remove of 30 years. Imagine how this must have seemed at the time!

    And looking at the track listing (at the end of this post), it’s about as close to “all killer, no filler” as you are going to get. Even the less well-remember tracks would come flooding back with a brief burst of them on the radio.

    Most kids of my generation would record the charts off Radio 1 on a Sunday afternoon, or at least those tracks we liked. The appearance of NOW! almost made that redundant, because they were all here. All we had to do was wait until Christmas, and, if you dropped enough hints when the advert was on the telly, someone would buy it for you (or you could always use that Crimbo money burning a hole in your pocket, and get something tangible rather than blowing the lot on Sherbet Dib Dabs).

    Speaking of adverts:

    Thrilling stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. Odd to hear Gary Crowley, a legendary alternative DJ, plugging an album of pop hits and telling people to head to Woollies to pick it up, but at the time Crowley was the youngest DJ in the country, ploughing his trade on Capital Radio in London. So he’s down with the kids, but regional? Well, no, he was also presenting a kids show on ITV (Fun Factory, not to be confused with Pat Sharpe’s Fun House), so he would have been a familiar voice.

    A more familiar voice, being as she was one of the hottest young stars on TV, and a successful recording artist in her own right, was Tracey Ullman, here promoting the album in a slightly more dynamic fashion:

    The difference in these two ads is astonishing. One is conservative, to the point; the other is fun, playful. Guess which route the advertising would take after this.

    The official NOW! YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/nowmusic25?feature=watch) note that the Tracey Ullman advert was the first to be shown, and the Crowley ad was second. Far be it from me to suggest the official NOW! people are wrong, but this does seem slightly odd, for a couple of reasons. The first, as stated above, is that the Crowley ad is very conservative, as if the marketing team hadn’t quite found their feet yet. Being unsure how to flog the thing, they simply got a hot DJ to reel off a list of the artists on it, with the cover featuring prominently. The Ullman advert is a lot more confident, as if the suits realised “we can have fun with this”. it also features snippets of videos, which would have required additional clearance to use in the advert, which takes time, and then right at the end, there’s mention of a video collection too (featuring 18 of the 30 tracks). Would they really have left that out of the second advert if it was available?

    But like I said, I’m just speculating on this, and I’m sure the young whippersnapper running the show on YouTube knows their stuff.

    So, back to the album.

    The cover design is excellent; NOW! in huge letters has obviously come to be the main focus of the albums over the years, and this was clearly an early design decision. Filling the word with pics of the biggest stars on it helps as well. Don’t forget, in 1983, NOW! didn’t mean anything to anyone, so a hook was needed to get the punters to part with their cash. And that hook, unsurprisingly, was the stars. Notice how the focus is on the artists rather than the songs. I believe this was a deliberate choice, to steer NOW! away from the murky waters of Top of the Pops and Hot Hits, who would adorn their covers with track titles, only for the unsuspecting buyer to discover they’d bought an album of session musicians knocking out chart hits at a rate of about four a day.

    Here, there’s no danger of being ripped off. You want the biggest chart hits by the original artists, you are going to get them.

    And check out that strap across the top left hand corner:

    now-1-strap

    It would be a long time before a NOW! album could again boast eleven (11!!!) number one singles. They were so proud of the fact that inside they list the other, unfortunate number ones that didn’t make the cut, all 5 of them: Billie Jean (Michael Jackson), Let’s Dance (David Bowie), True (Spandau Ballet), Every Breath You Take (The Police) and Uptown Girl (Billy Joel). There was a sixth, Only You by the Flying Pickets which reached number 1 after NOW!’s release.

    It’s easy to speculate on why these would be excluded over say two UB40 tracks, but these were all successful and more importantly POWERFUL artists (with the exception of Spandau Ballet) who didn’t need, and probably didn’t WANT to appear on a compilation album. Jackson and Sting would only ever appear on one NOW! album each, whilst Spandau Ballet and Billy Joel would never appear. Being as their respective record companies were happy to license other artists to appear (for instance Jackson’s Epic Records was also home to KC and the Sunshine Band) you have to assume it was the artist, or more likely his representatives, choosing not to appear.

    Bowie is an odd one. He was signed to EMI, so contractually there was probably no reason why Let’s Dance couldn’t appear. It was a huge hit, so surely NOW! would have wanted it to be included. The fact that Bowie tracks would appear regularly throughout the 80s further adds to the mystery.

    If all this seems unnecessarily trivial, well, you’ve got NOW! to blame for that, thanks to their decision to include a snippet of trivia about each track on the inside of the sleeve. Open up that sumptuous gatefold (along with b-side, another phrase at least two generations will never use) and you’ll find a wealth of pop facts like Mike Oldfield’s Moonlight Shadow reached number 4 on June 29th and stayed there for 3 weeks. Or that Duran Duran’s Is There Something I Should Know was only available on this album (and this single version would remain so until the release of Decade, in 1989). Or best of all that Victims by Culture Club was “Almost certain to be No.1 by the time you have this LP” (would you settle for number 3?). Alongside these nuggets would be the name of the album the song came from, just to try and get a few more pennies out of the kids.

    Culture+Club
    Culture Club: the record company were even more disappointed than they are

    How this inclusion came about, I’m not sure, but somewhere between NOW! and NOW 2, a change came about and a handy compilation of the biggest tracks of the year added the opportunity for EMI and Virgin to start plugging artists that maybe needed a little extra push. The seeds are here with the inclusion of Waterfront by Simple Minds. The little blurb is notable for its brevity “Released from forthcoming LP & cassette” (sic). No mention of chart placing, no mention of an album title… nothing. And this wasn’t included in the anticipation of it being a hit as they had done with Victims. At this point Simple Minds had had only two top 20 hits, and were knocking on the door of success, but by no means breaking it down. Was the inclusion of Waterfront in such distinguished company an attempt to get some of the success sparkle of Culture Club, Duran Duran and Kajagoogoo to float their way?

    Kajagoogoo are an interesting bunch, even more so in their relation to NOW! Famous these days for one song, and one song only, Too Shy (here as Side 2, Track 3), just as they seemed destined for greatness, lead singer Limahl jumped ship and enjoyed a brief spurt of success on his own, whilst the Kaja’s themselves bravely carried on in the face of public indifference, before finally the public decided they didn’t really like either the group or Limahl and his stupid Crufts-winning haircut.

    On NOW!, the collective of Kajagoogoo make up 3 tracks! That’s 10% of the album! (This kind of dominance would not be seen again until the various Spice Girls ruled the world, fleetingly, at the turn of the millennium. ) So, alongside Too Shy, there’s Limahl’s first solo effort, the long-forgotten Only For Love, which reached the dizzy heights of number 16 (but in fairness was climbing the charts well at the time of NOW!’s release; this was back in the day when records took time to find an audience and could take weeks to reach their highest chart position) as well as the post-Limahl Kajagoogoo’s first release, the rather bland Big Apple, which would trump Limahl by at least going top 10 (the dumper would beckon soon afterwards).

    limahl
    Limahl: Best of Breed Winner 1983

    Multiple appearances by artists on a NOW! are not unknown, but are still relatively rare. NOW! would feature 4 multiple appearances: the aforementioned Kajagoogoo/Limahl, as well as Phil Collins (solo and with Genesis), Culture Club and UB40. In future cases, multiples would generally occur when an artist has two massive hits in separate guises (usually as a solo artist, and another with a group or a duet), so the double bubbles here of UB40 and Culture Club are very unusual, and would suggest either last-minute filler (possibly for the number one’s listed above that they couldn’t get) or bigger attempts to plug the artists’ albums.

    So, a legend is born. NOW! would end up as the 7th biggest selling album of the year. Not bad considering it was only released 7 weeks before the years’ end. And 1984 would bring bigger and better things, as well as the first sighting of the coolest even-toed ungulate you’ve ever seen

    NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC

    Release date

    28th November 1983

    Biggest tracks

    Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

    Karma Chameleon – Culture Club

    Forgotten tracks

    Only For Love – Limahl

    Kissing with Confidence – Will Powers

    What’s missing

    Let’s Dance – David Bowie

    True – Spandau Ballet

    Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Eurythmics

    Blue Monday – New Order

    Track listing

    Side One
    You Can’t Hurry Love Phil Collins
    Is There Something I Should Know Duran Duran
    Red Red Wine UB40
    Only For Love Limahl
    Temptation Heaven 17
    Give It Up KC And The Sunshine Band
    Double Dutch Malcolm McLaren
    Total Eclipse Of The Heart Bonnie Tyler
    Side Two
    Karma Chameleon Culture Club
    The Safety Dance Men Without Hats
    Too Shy Kajagoogoo
    Moonlight Shadow Mike Oldfield
    Down Under Men At Work
    (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew Rock Steady Crew
    Baby Jane Rod Stewart
    Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) Paul Young
    Side Three
    Candy Girl New Edition
    Big Apple Kajagoogoo
    Let’s Stay Together Tina Turner
    (Keep Feeling) Fascination The Human League
    New Song Howard Jones
    Please Don’t Make Me Cry UB40
    Tonight, I Celebrate My Love Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack
    Side Four
    They Don’t Know Tracey Ullman
    Kissing With Confidence Will Powers
    That’s All Genesis
    The Lovecats The Cure
    Waterfront Simple Minds
    The Sun And The Rain Madness
    Victims Culture Club


    Video edition

    The video version released at the same time contained 21 tracks, including 3 which didn’t feature on the actual album: IOU by Freeez, Never Never by The Assembly and Hold Me Now by The Thompson Twins, which did appear on Now 2.

    Now 1 video

    Phil Collins  – You Can’t Hurry Love
    Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know
    UB40 – Red Red Wine
    Limahl – Only for Love
    Heaven 17 – Temptation
    Malcolm McLaren – Double Dutch
    Culture Club – Karma Chameleon
    Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance
    Kajagoogoo – Too Shy
    Mike Oldfield – Moonlight Shadow
    Rock Steady Crew – (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew
    Tina Turner – Let’s Stay Together
    Freeez – I.O.U.
    Howard Jones – New Song
    UB40 – Please Don’t Make Me Cry
    Will Powers – Kissing with Confidence
    Genesis – That’s All
    Kajagoogoo – Big Apple
    The Assembly  – Never Never
    Thompson Twins – Hold Me Now
    Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack – Tonight I Celebrate My Love

     

  • Is There Something I Should Know?… a brief introduction to NOW!

    Is There Something I Should Know?… a brief introduction to NOW!

    the now pig sign_small

    This rather odd picture looked pretty incongruous on the back of the first NOW! album, when it was released in 1983. Alongside the names of such huge contemporary stars like Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Madness and Will Powers(?) there is this rather odd, hand painted image of a pig blissfully listening to a chicken honking away (presumably musically, judging from the notes emanating from its beak) to celebrate laying an egg, while the pig oinks “Now, that’s what I call music”. It’s like an outtake from a slightly bizarre Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, maybe directed by David Lynch.

    Unbelievably, this image was on a poster in the office of Virgin Records Managing Director, Simon Draper. He’d been bought the poster by his cousin, who happened to own the company, one Sir Richard of Branson, who had found the the 1920s Danish Agricultural Products poster in a Portobello Road bric-a-brac shop he spent far too long hanging around because he fancied a girl who worked there. The poster would become legendary during a meeting between Draper and  his EMI records counterpart, Peter Jamieson while mulling over a name for this exciting new compilation series the two record companies had made a historic pact to produce together.

    totp-cover-smallhot hits cover

    Throughout the 70s and early 80s, chart compilations were everywhere. The market was dominated in the 70s by the Top of the Pops albums, and the competing Hot Hits series. Both of these are fondly remembered by middle-aged music lovers rather more for their cover art than for their content, being as they featured scantily clad lovelies in various odd situations (playing snooker in underwear, playing croquet in underwear, skiing in… well you get the idea; featured lovelies included Caroline Munro, Linda Lusardi and Mary Millington).

    The content, such as it was, consisted of hastily prepared cover versions of contemporary hits re-recorded by session musicians, usually within days of the single’s release. They were cheap, in more ways than one, and proved massively popular for years, with the original cycle of Top of the Pops albums finally ending with volume 92(!) in 1985.

    Both series would be affectionately referenced in the Pulp song Bad Cover Version.

    More information about these series can be found at these wonderful places: Top of the Pops , Hot Hits

    k-tel dynamite

    The other big players in the compilation market were Ronco and K-Tel. To people of my age, K-Tel brings back memories of endless TV ads for exciting sounding collections of chart hits, usually accompanied by some contemporary theme (for instance a sci-fi themed album  around the time of Star Wars). Whereas Ronco is more likely to conjure images of Clothes Defluffers, or Heated Hostess Trays. But they also ventured into the record market, striking gold with their rock n roll compilation soundtrack releases for the films That’ll be The Day and Stardust but also the slightly less expected success of the disco-themed soundtrack for The Stud (whatever the quality of the film, the soundtrack is astonishingly good).

    stud soundtrack

    Both companies released a seemingly endless stream of unrelated compilations for years, but with major problems. As with the Top of the Pops/Hot Hits albums, the production of the albums was incredibly cheap, necessarily so to keep the retail price low, and sell more copies. As a result, the albums themselves sounded dreadful. Tracks would also, often be edited, or simply faded out early, in order to squeeze as many tracks onto one album as possible. At a time when your average album would manage no more than 11 or 12 tracks, these collections would squeeze anything up to 22 tracks onto piece slice of vinyl.

    space_invasionrock n roller disco

    So, come the 1980s, the chart compilation market was in a pretty sorry state of rip-offs and shoddy treatment. Then, in 1983 two Virgin executives, Stephen Navin (Head of Licensing and Business Affairs) Jon Webster (General Manager) had the idea to release an end of year compilation of the labels biggest and best hits, following a particularly successful year. They took the idea to MD Simon Draper, who in turn talked to Peter Jamieson at EMI, who had had a similar idea, after a similarly successful idea. This was the moment when it was decided that a compilation album containing both labels output would be mutually beneficial than two separate albums. There was also the possibility of licensing other tracks from other labels to create the ultimate album of the year. This would be a quality product, not a cheap cash-in. It would all original artists, spread over two albums so as not to compromise on the content.  A deal was agreed aboard Richard Branson’s boat in the Thames, with Virgin taking the lead on the project (after Jamieson had been so impressed with their ideas and enthusiasm). At a later meeting to discuss a title, Jamieson glanced at the poster hanging behind Draper’s desk:

    “Seeing the poster with the same title on it that had become so familiar to me was serendipity, ‘fate’ even, and I knew then that this had to be the title of our series. It was a powerful and meaningful statement in its own right, and when abbreviated to ‘Now’, gave the ultimate contemporary message”. (http://www.nowmusic.com/about/)

    And a legend was born. And Branson ended up marrying the girl in the bric-a-brac shop. Aaah.