BOXSET REVIEW: 1979: Revolt Into Style (Cherry Red Records)
It’s long been my opinion* that 1979 was the best year EVER for popular music in the UK, given the sheer range and quality of records released.
This 3CD set, which cherry-picks 76 porky prime cuts from that year (including a few wilful obscurities) , happily reinforces rather than dispels that notion.
As a music-mad youngster who entered his teens that year, the variety of stuff coming at me from all sides was simply mind-boggling.
I hadn’t yet completed my journey into punk, yet its anger and energy had already sparked post-punk, mod and ska revivals, power pop, and the nascent electro-pop scene – and that’s without even mentioning the new wave of British heavy metal.
This set follows on from Cherry Red’s sets covering 1977 (The Year That Punk Broke – reviewed here) and 1978 (The Year The UK Turned Day-Glo – reviewed here), and for me is the best so far.
Disc one kicks off with Revolt Into Style, a single by former Be-Bop Delux man Bill Nelson’s then-new band Red Noise, whose title gives the collection its name.
Eddie And The Hot Rods, Magazine, The Only Ones, X-Ray Spex, Toyah and Ian Dury And The Blockheads are also featured on the first disc, though all with lesser-known tracks, rather than the sort of hit singles normally featured on compilations of this nature.
It’s that sort of attention to detail that makes these Cherry Red overviews so essential; that and the fact they never faily to throw up a few artists you’ve literally never heard of.
That’s the case here with Andy Arthurs, The Cannibals, Dead Fingers Talk, The Outsiders and Jonnie And The Lubes – and that’s just from the first disc.
The big hitters are here too; Sham 69’s Questions And Answers, Siouxsie And The Banshees with Staircase Mystery, plus contributions from John Cooper Clarke, The Fall and Tubeway Army.
After rationing the well-known songs on disc one, disc two comes flying out of the gates with Squeeze’s magnum opus Up The Junction and Groovy Times by The Clash – the latter a notable inclusion after their omission from the ’77 and ’78 sets.
The songs which soundtracked my youth come thick and fast: choice cuts by Skids (Masquerade), The Undertones (Here Comes The Summer), The Jam (When You’re Young), The Ruts (Something That I Said) and the power-pop of The Jags (Back Of My Hand).
The changing face of music in 1979 is also demonstrated by new bands like Echo And The Bunnymen, Gang Of Four, Joy Division, The Teardrop Explodes, Adam And The Ants, and the retro stylings of The Teenbeats and The Barracudas.
Disc three starts with XTC’s breakthrough single, Making Plans For Nigel, and also includes alternative classics like Spizzenergi’s Where’s Captain Kirk? and the Notsensibles’ ironic I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher.
It’s this disc which perhaps best demonstrates the sheer diversity of the music being released in 1979, from Public Image’s jarring post-punk to the third-wave ska of Madness, and the mod revival scooterist sounds of Secret Affair.
Elsewhere, there’s The Revillos, The Monochrome Set, Swell Maps, and the soon-to-be-huge Dexy’s Midnight Runners and The Human League, rubbing shoulders with John Peel favourites The Mekons and no-hit wonders like Disco Zombies and The Monks.
Of course, there are the usual absentees: the likes of Elvis Costello, The Specials, Stiff Little Fingers, Angelic Upstarts, UK Subs, The Cure and Simple Minds are all artists whose presence would have enhanced this boxset.
But overall, it’s a great mix of the famous and the obscure, with songs spread between singles, B-sides and album tracks, which gives 1979: Revolt Into Style the sort of depth which other compilations lack. 9/10.
- Like this? Check out our review of Staring At The Rude Boys: The British Ska Revival 1979-1989.
