Home improvement expert - Harold Hill from Harold Hill

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.

01/07/79 : Do It Yourself - Ian Dury & The Blockheads

Well this is a nice surprise! I can't claim I'm an expert on Ian's work, but he always came across as a decent and intelligent chap with a good sense of humour, so I'm looking forward to it. 

It's pretty much the sort of sound I was expecting - cheeky chappy pop. The lyrics are sometimes surprisingly low in the mix and quite rapid, so they were often hard to make out but they sounded worth paying attention to and the instrumentation was a lot tighter and more skilful than I was expecting. It's very much of its time, but I reckon there's been quite a few people over the years who've been inspired by the general attitude on display. 

We're at #12 in the charts this week on their sixth week of an impressive 19 week run, with it having peaked at a higher-than-expected #2 in its first two weeks (kept off the top by ABBA). The top five this week were ELO, Blondie, James Last, Tubeway Army and Earth, Wind & Fire and the highest new entry was Queen (#22).

Wikipedia tells us this is the first album credited to Ian Dury & The Blockheads, with there being one previously credited to Kilburn & The High Roads and one to Ian Dury. It was released after "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" hit #1 in January, but we didn't get to hear it because Ian never included singles on his albums. Apparently there were THIRTY FOUR different album covers, each featuring a different design of Crown wallpaper, with the Crown catalogue number being included on the sleeve (apparently they also wallpapered his sets). Critically, Smash Hits were a big fan, giving it 9/10 (I think that's our highest so far) - unsurprisingly, there's no word of chart performance anywhere else (they'd certainly have no idea what to do with this in the US).

discogs.com tells us you'll have to spend £3.50 or so to get a decent copy but if you want one autographed by all seven members of the group, it's going to set you back £500. This was a fun and educational visit - I struggle to imagine a situation where I'll ever listen to it again but it was certainly an enjoyable enough way to pass the time.

24/06/79 - Some interesting sounds
08/07/79 - Average songs elevated by the playing

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