Record Mirror

I realized there were agencies that, that brought DJs out to Europe on monthly contracts.

I think there was an advert in Record Mirror or somewhere, and I answered it.

They invited me to come out, and when I went to Norway, we had to get a boat over, so I drive off the boat and I got stopped and they put sniffer dogs in my car and they started opening the boot and taking bits apart and, and I know n- very little about cars and so they left me like with these things to try and put back together and I do this, and I'm heading up to the north of Norway.

It's a long drive.

I Feel Love also topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Spent six weeks at the top of the Record Mirror disco charts.

Then a marathon remix by Patrick Cowley brought it back to number 21 in 1983.

Then it came back again in 1995, this time as a remix package led by Rolo and the sister Bliss's Monster Mix.

I still think, "Ooh, gold is green, gold is green." Ah.

Thank you, Noel, for that.

It was first reviewed in Record Mirror by James Hamilton as an album track not yet scheduled for release as a single.

He pulled it out when reviewing the album and said, "It's Love to Love You Baby meets Autobahn, an odd pairing with a freaky Kraftwerk electronic rhythm that's a gas." And that led to the single being rush released way ahead of plans in the UK, and getting to number one fairly shortly thereafter.

It w- it was that moment where people really realized, actually, yeah, w- maybe we should mix these records.

And that's when, uh, there was a guy, Rich- uh, uh- Richard, Richard Hamilton, is that right? Um, in Record Mirror-

James Hamilton

...

This is Greg Wilson welcoming you to a special edition of Record Mirror Disco Charts where we veer slightly off the beaten path.

I'm joined as ever by Mike Atkinson, the editor of James Hamilton's disco pages 1975 to 1982 and dance pages 1983 to 1989 from which this list is sourced.

Not a random chart 20 to 1 countdown as normal but Mike will explain.

Right.

This is a special.

We are not looking at a specific Record Mirror disco chart.

Instead, we're looking at a list of tunes which James Hamilton published in Record Mirror in October 1986.

This is how James introduces the list.

They had their problems with life, but rather than just vent or escape from them, they confront them and ask questions and attempt to sort it all out.

Mike Nichols of Record Mirror wrote, the sound seemed to take up where Joy Division left off and become the saviors of the adolescent Grimm Brigade.

In a retrospective article, Unspun Heroes, NME praised the album as underrated and a ferocious vital document.

Uncut called it a monumental work of rock and roll angst and the sound's greatest album, while Trouser Press cited it as the group's best work.

And I got to kind of... learn music from at the same time I had my ear in just like the way everybody did I had my ear crushed to the pillow listening to radio Luxembourg at night time a little purple radio and so I was also hearing the Ramones and some weird stuff so you know I think I was quite I was quite fortunate, really, to fall across some good stuff at the right times.

I was an incorporate reader of, you know, Record Mirror, which was appealing to me as a younger person.

And then when I got a bit older, you know, NME was always my choice over Melody Maker or Sounds by miles, by miles.

And certainly Sounds.

For the uninitiated, our guest founded the fanzine Jamming in 1977.

He later wrote for Record Mirror and Spin, and is the author of biographies of The Smiths, Wilson Pickett, and of course, The Who's Keith Moon.

Tony's latest book is called Pow!, a la Roy Lichtenstein, and it's a memoir of his early '80s years as Jamming's editor and the guitarist with the band Apocalypse.

Tony, given the nature of what we do here at Rocks Backpages, can you tell us why and how you hit on the idea of Jamming at, I believe, the tender age of 13?