LETTER FROM BRITAIN
With the lazy, spectatorial languors of Wimbledon and cricket at The Oval upon us, the rush to see who would produce the first “post-Election protest” songs was brief. Wham! (Andy Ridgeley and George Michael, the dole-queue-downbeat duo who switched from street threads to leather-queen slicks to become “Bad Boys”) have taken the teenies by storm with this week’s release of their Fantastic LP.
LETTER FROM BRITAIN
THE CRUEL, THE COOL & THE GHOUL SCHOOL
Cynthia Rose
With the lazy, spectatorial languors of Wimbledon and cricket at The Oval upon us, the rush to see who would produce the first “post-Election protest” songs was brief. Wham! (Andy Ridgeley and George Michael, the dole-queue-downbeat duo who switched from street threads to leatherqueen slicks to become “Bad Boys”) have taken the teenies by storm with this week’s release of their Fantastic LP. Ian Mac of Liverpool’s fave sons the Bunnymen has described their new—if not different—single, “Never Stop,” as a “post-election protest number.” But the most surprising contender in this elusive genre has come from still-gladto-be gay Tom Robinson.
Robinson’s self-issued “War Baby” 45 entered all the charts within the Top 20. Its author (whose career began back in ’73 with a folk trio called Cafe Society) had been in retreat since the little-noticed demise of Sector 27, his last outfit. Exiled in Hamburg— where he says he was inspired by Way Of The West’s “Don’t Say That’s Just For White Boys” track—Robinson penned “War Baby,” recording it over the course of an entire month.