The 1983 Love The Reason compilation from the Respond label has been spinning on my deck the past week. There are some precious gems on there and no mistake. My personal favourites today would be that Big Sound Authority cut and the gorgeous ‘Give It Some Emotion’ single by Tracie. Of course that particular number was penned by A Craze, whose Such Bliss compilation was recently brought to my attention by Kevin from the wonderful Your Heart Out and The London Nobody Sings blogs. Now Kevin will be the one to tell you the stories of the Respond records artistes with much greater authority than I ever could, but let’s just point out here that acts like A Craze and The Questions were ones poised at a perfect moment in time casting connections back into the punk and ‘new wave’ explosions yet also bringing in the influences of jazz, soul and ‘easy listening’ to such great effect.
There is a lovely interview with Robin Millar on the Strawberry Switchblade website that makes some of those connections, taking in the likes of Sade, Fine Young Cannibals, Everything But The Girl, Weekend, Working Week and Vic Godard. Millar makes a great point about some of those artists and records becoming ‘coffee table’ records after the fact. He suggests that had they sold in paltry numbers they would instead have been thought of as quirky and strange. It is so true.
But back to Love The Reason, and check out Weller’s ridiculously rousing sleevenotes that make marvellously skewed sense of the “teenarama myth”. Remember those days of the Cappuccino Kid? Weller possessed by a spirit of Colin Macinnes. Flicking back now they seem ridiculously stylised and stylishly ridiculous, but I have no problem with that for they were madly of their time. And as we know context is everything after all.
There is passion and madness in these recordings. The madness of being in the maelstrom of creation; the passion of youth and hope. Keep the faith, indeed.
Whatever happened to N.D. Moffat? I’d forgotten all about that song. Building On A Strong Foundation is a beauty too. Did you see Roque’s recent interview with A Craze here . . . http://cloudberryrecords.com/blog/?p=642
I hadn’t seen that interview, thanks for pointing me to it. No idea what became of N.D. Moffat. It’s quite a strange and beguiling number, isn’t it?
I would just like to reply by saying that I am Nigel Moffatt and I am still around – thank you for enquiring. Immediately after Peace Love And Harmony was released on the Love the Reason compilation my playwriting took off with plays being performed at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Birmingham Rep, BBC Radio and Channel 4, I also won various awards for my endeavours. The music suffered of course because I couldn’t make headway in the business. But I have recently been drawn back into it recording The Reggae Album from home and I am now working on an acoustic album – more my forte – that I hope to have finished sometime next year (many of the tracks are still to be written). I have only just discovered these websites relating to Love The Reason and was surprised to find Peace Love And Harmony still being played and featured. I am humbled my the interested, whether small or big, because I really didn’t think there was any out there, though I have always loved the track. My major regret is that I do not have a digital copy of it. Should anyone be interested there is more information on my website with links to my recent recordings. Peace!