The Pursuit of Happiness - Love Junk

Unless you happened to be one of a small number of people that had access to MTV in the 1980s (which from what I recall at the time seemed to show the same programmes every four hours or so) then like me you were restricted to watching The Chart Show to have any hope of seeing any decent videos.

The Chart Show had three guest charts on a weekly rotation - Rock, Indie and Dance. Indie was okay (and bear in mind Music For Nations was an indie label), but the Dance chart was an annoyance (at least two 'songs' in their top 10 wouldn't even have an accompanying video and would be shown in the rundown with psychedelic graphics).

But the Rock chart was always the one, and was the only show on terrestial TV that you were ever likely to see, say, videos of the Dogs D'Amour.

It was during a new release section on the Chart Show that I first saw/heard 'I'm An Adult Now' (initially thinking it was 'I'm On The Dole Now') by the Pursuit of Happiness. OK, so they're categorically not a glam band, but that song (and the album, Love Junk) were big faves of mine at the time.

It's in the lyrics where they stand out - 'I'm An Adult Now' on the difficulty of entering the adult world (when DJ-ing at a friend's wedding a few years ago the groom requested this be played), while the almost-hit 'She's So Young' first comes across as a lazy love song but there are hints of something darker beneath.

I used to play the album regularly when working in a record shop and would get a sale pretty much every time. Sadly my one-man sales drive didn't make a great deal of difference, but they did survive to release a handful of albums, have been given a best-of and, more recently, Love Junk appeared in Classic Rock as a must-have-album that you might have missed (Motorcycle Boy's Popsicle made it into the same column - more on that anon).

Hanoi Rocks - The Nottingham Tapes

For many years I've always viewed The Nottingham Tapes as the poor relation to All Those Wasted Years. After all it was poorly filmed and, if I'm honest, I was never that keen on Two Steps from the Move, and songs from that album that feature heavily.

However, someone recently pointed out something that had never really occurred to me. With The Nottingham Tapes what you see is what you get - this was the show on that night. No frills, no overdubs (unlike All Those Wasted Years). Thankfully it's not as rough as the painful Rock & Roll Divorce ...

See also:
Hanoi Rocks to split

Flies On Fire - self-titled

This album seemed to be released without any promotion despite being on a major label (Atlantic), produced by Ric Browde (Faster Pussycat, Dogs D'Amour) and, most importantly, actually being rather good.

I only stumbled across it as I was working in a record shop at the time and was processing the new releases on Monday morning. In amongst them was Flies on Fire and what I noticed at first was, quite simply, a picture of some blokes with long hair. Looking closer I clocked the name of the producer and so figured it was worth a listen, and as one of the priviliges with processing stock meant working in a backroom and being able to play whatever music you wanted I stuck it on.

The more folk-based fan I was working with seemed to think it sounded like INXS. In fact Flies On Fire are clearly indebted to Creedence Clearwater Revival (Baptize Me Over Elvis Presley's Grave is a deadringer for CCR's Lodi) and the band briefly recruited Jo Almeida (aka Jo Dog).

Perhaps it was the less-obviousness of the album that meant Atlantic overlooked it; after all this was 1989, G'n'R were at the top of their game and there was a huge market for the harder 'hair' metal. However within a year The Black Crowes hit the scene and showed that there was demand for a band coming more from a laid-back bar-room rock & roll background.