T Party - You're The Only One/ Man With A Gun

 

Ready salted synth pop from SE Essex

Label: Wax Records

Year of Release: 1985

Just in case there are any young people in bands reading this blog - deeply unlikely, I'm sure - I'd like to give you a basic press related tip. Humbleness is not your friend, and utilising a bit of press hype does not necessarily mean sacrificing your artistic integrity. 

Confused? Let me give you an example. If you're a thoughtful acoustic performer who writes about everyday life, don't go to your first press interview and say "Well, erm, I suppose I'm just an ordinary bloke with a guitar who sings about the things I see!" That might get you on to page 32 of the Sidcup Courier, but it's not going to take things a lot further. Hell's teeth, man, do you think Bob Dylan's debut article with The New York Advertiser Incorporating Used Cars Weekly had him muttering "I just play, man"? Spin them a yarn. Give examples of how your points of inspiration differ from everyone else's - and if you can't think of anything, think harder. You don't even need to be dishonest in the process, just sufficiently self-aware about your talents. Nobody is exactly the same as the person who was in the room immediately before them, after all.

The T Party's debut interview with the Evening Echo (below) tries to make them sound plain and ordinary, which is an interesting PR technique, but is possibly partly due to the Echo's daftness as much as T Party's quotes - after all, this was a paper who ran the headline "Posh Clobber Could Clinch It For (Depeche) Mode" and suggested they'd only make it if they got some high quality suits. 

A sensible Press Officer might have asked them to suggest that while "You're The Only One" was their attempt at a solid gold hit single, offering the kind of undistllled electronic hooks and youthful thrills the somewhat sombre and middle-aged 1985 charts were sorely missing, the B-side showed that they was often a menacing element to their work as well, a faint creepiness under the bright pop spell. 

And do I believe this? Well, you're the listener, you be the judge. Both sides show that the duo were clearly recording under tight budgetary conditions; what you hear sounds closer to a demo than a final product, but there's plenty here an experienced producer could have sprinkled a bit of fairy dust on to. That this seemingly didn't happen for the pair is a shame. The songs themselves display an innocent and youthful zeal. 

There was also a second "unofficial" 12" release from the band on Wax Records with the lead track "Something's Gonna Happen Tonight". This was limited to 250 copies but somewhat strangely seems to come up for sale more often than this one. 

Wax were a local label whose biggest sales successes came in the form of unofficial interview discs, so the group could also have legitimately claimed that they were label-mates with Madonna, The Beatles, U2 and David Bowie - but perhaps sensibly they chose to overlook that slightly unofficial side of the business. The label did also sign bands such as the cultishly successful B-Movie, though, so were by no means unfamiliar with the more traditional end of the music business.

If the previews below aren't working properly, please go right to the source.