associates - party fears two

Amongst random tunes the other day was the utterly mad “Nude Spoons” from the Associates’ marvellous album Sulk. I'd genuinely forgotten how loopy this song was and I was astonished that not only was this track ever recorded but that it was included on one of the best selling albums of 1982! 

 

Then I got to thinking about the Associates, and principally “Party Fears Two” – one of my all time favourite songs. I've little idea what the song is actually about - and that's fine, as many of my favourite songs baffle me with their lyrics. The mix of the mundane lyrics - "I'll have a shower, then phone my brother up" and the utterly euphoric music is wonderful. Billy Mackenzie's vocals are shockingly good - odd, operatic, tender and mad all at the same time. The jaunty keyboard motif that runs through the song is hustled along by a chunky rhythm track and the whole thing is brilliantly catchy, but seriously strange too.

 

A while back I searched you tube for a Top Of The Pops performance of this song. I first found one where Billy Mackenzie was wearing a fairly sensible suit, but this wasn’t the one I wanted. I was after the first time the Associates appeared on TotP - Billy was wearing a long beige mac, buttoned up to the neck, and a beret. This would probably have the first time I'd heard "Party Fears Two" and that performance had stayed with me since 1982! On rewatching this clip 33 years later, it wasn't perhaps quite as overtly camp as I'd remembered but it's still one hell of a performance. Billy prances around like a flouncy Frank Spencer, pouting at the cameras, giving it everything he's got. But the best thing is his expression – he genuinely looks like he really can’t believe he’s on TotP; he’s grinning like a loon, (and was probably off his face, actually), and you can just see he’s thinking "we’re getting paid to do THIS??"

 

I don’t recall now if it was this clip or the other performance that featured guitarist Alan Rankine miming badly on a banjo (which doesn't feature on the song anyway...) whilst improbably dressed like an extra from Blake’s 7 – he looks marvelously sci-fi but sadly the cameraman barely shows him. Instead the camera lingers on the glamour of keyboard player Martha Ladly (also one of the Martha’s from the Muffins) who has huge hair, loads and loads of makeup, a long slinky dress and elbow length gloves – she’s so 1982 it hurts!