Rip It Up - New Wave/Post Punk Quotes Part V Quiz

Answer: "Grey Day" - Madness

Even though Madness will always be remembered as 'the nutty boys', with their silly videos and daft trousers, they also wrote quite a few bittersweet songs about life in dead end street, UK. The chorus to "Grey Day" is one of my personal favourites: "In the morning I awake, My arms my legs my body aches, The sky outside is wet and grey, So begins another weary day. So begins another weary day."

Answer: "Stereotypes" - Specials

The second Specials album, "More Specials" (1980), wasn't exactly what the fans expected. Instead of abrasive ska songs, it was filled with Northern soul and easy listening experiments. Still, the songs were so great that the album did become a hit. But nowadays people only seem to remember songs from the first album. Check out "Pearl's Cafe" and "International Jet Set" for example.

Answer: "Man Next Door" - the Slits

"Man Next Door" was a hit for reggae star Dennis Brown, in 1979. It was written by John Holt, who was also responsible for songs like "The Tide is High" (later covered by Blondie) and "Police in Helicopter". "Man Next Door" was actually based on a Garnett Mimms and the Enchanters track, called "A Quiet Place", recorded in 1964. Holt's previous band, The Paragons, had recorded a few previous versions between '68 and '73, called either "Got To Get Away", "Man In My Neighborhood", "A Quiet Place" and "Quiet Place".

In 1998 Massive Attack also recorded a version of the song, for their "Mezzanine" album. The Slits of course changed the lyrics a bit. In their version the neighbour isn't the one who makes the noise and troubles them. They are making the noise and he's so uptight he complains about it. Can you believe it?

Answer: "Spasticus (Autisticus)" - Ian Dury & the Blockheads

This 1981 single was banned by the BBC, even though it was written in order to celebrate the International Year of the Disabled. Singer Ian Dury was somewhat disabled. He suffered the effects of a dose of polio he contracted when he was seven years old.

Answer: "Wunderbar" - Tenpole Tudor

When Tenpole Tudor first started playing this song live, the chorus went "Fall About". Which also fits perfectly. Singer Eddie Tudorpole is also an actor. He appeared in Julien Temple's "The Great Rock & Roll Swindle" (1980) and "Absolute Beginners" (1986); in Alex Cox's "Sid and Nancy" (1986), "Straight to Hell" (1987) and "Walker" (1987); in Peter Greenaway's "Drowning By Numbers" (1988); and more recently in Stephen Hopkins' "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (2004), as the legendary comedian Spike Milligan.

Answer: "Senses Working Overtime" - XTC

This single was on the 1982 album "English Settlement", where XTC really moved away from quirky new-wave pop and into the realms of very English psychedelia. Singer Andy Partridge was quoted as saying: "Why don't we make an album we don't have to reproduce on stage? We can use acoustic instruments, we can overdub keyboards, we can use pianos..." This attitude later resulted in XTC not playing live anymore at all.

The double album was regarded by their record company as one step too far and was released as a single album in the US.

Answer: "Malaria" - Shriekback

When XTC started drifting away from the spiky new-wave sound, their keyboard player Barry Andrews decided to start his own band. Together with dissident Gang Of Four bass player Dave Allen and former Out On Blue Six singer/guitar player Carl Marsh he formed the darkly funky band Shriekback.

Their best known songs are probably "Lined Up" and "My Spine (is the Bassline)". After a few years their line-up consistently changed for each release. Once they even featured Belgian multifunctional musician Luc Van Acker (see also Revolting Cocks, Arbeid Adelt!, etc.) Dave Allen also played bass on Van Acker's biggest hit "Zanna", a duet with New York chanteuse Anna Domino.

Answer: "My New House" - the Fall

The Fall singer Mark E. Smith once mistook fellow Mancunian musician Damon Gough (aka. Badly Drawn Boy) for a cab driver, and signalled for him to stop. Gough recognised the famous curmudgeon immediately, decided not to argue with him and drove him home pronto. Mark forgot his false teeth in the car though, and Gough kept them ever since, inside an acoustic guitar.

In 1997 they collaborated on the track "Calendar", which appeared on the cd single of the Fall track "Masquerade". It is not known whether Gough returned the teeth to their proper owner.

Answer: "Walls Come Tumbling Down" - The Style Council

In 1982 singer Paul Weller split his band The Jam up at the height of their success, to form the more funky, lounge-jazz outfit The Style Council. At first they were a hit. Their first two albums sold pretty damn well. But this didn't last, and by 1989 their record company had completely lost interest in them.

When Weller and Mick Talbot presented them with their new album, on which they displayed a big house influence, the label refused to release it and dropped the band. The album, "Modernism: A New Decade", wasn't released until 2001.

Answer: "In Between Days" - The Cure

When The Cure came out with this single, there were some cries that it was a rip-off from New Order. Bass player Peter Hook even said: "Yes, well, sometimes it seems like they've snuck into our studio and stolen some of our backing tracks." Cure singer Robert Smith completely denies these allegations: "We tend to think that it's the other way around. Of the record releases that are supposed to be similar you'll find that ours generally preceded New Order's. And a lot of it is by chance."