BUCKS FIZZ - WRITING ON THE WALL THE ULTIMATE EDITION
Polydor

Far be it from me to question the wisdom of record label executives, but I wouldn’t have thought that there was a big enough Bucks Fizz fan base to justify the re-release of their albums in double disc extended versions – especially not this final gasp effort from 1986 that was a bomb at the time of release and ultimately led to the band… erm…. fizzling out. But what do I know? My own interest in Bucks Fizz is restricted to the time when Jay Aston began channelling her inner glamour model, and certainly didn’t stretch to actually listening to their music, all of which seemed entirely awful with the exception of single When We Were Young. Given that Aston had quit by the time of this recording – replaced by the rather more wholesome Shelly Preston – the signs were not good, and the album title proved all too prophetic – this was the last studio album, and while the band struggled on for a few more years, before long they had split, to enjoy legal battles, celebrity TV appearances, Butlins gigs by two different versions and misguided reunions.

The album opens with single New Beginning, which proved to be the final hit for the band. A cover version (one of several), the song actually isn’t bad – a pseudo African-feel, solid harmonies and strong pop sensibility make it quite agreeable and the sort of thing you could see still scoring today.

Unfortunately, it’s downhill from then on. Whatever good will that might’ve been built up from the opening track is immediately crushed by a truly unforgivable version of Stephen Stills’ Love the One You’re With, turning the chilled out number into a ghastly slice of over-produced Eighties faux funk. It’s one thing to murder a classic song – but this version drags it into an alleyway to rape and torture it first. Compared to this, the version of Albert Hammond’s cod-reggae Give a Little Love is hardly worse than the original song, which is pretty foul in its own right.

Don’t Turn Back is, at least an original number (co-written by band member Bobby Gee) and one that you suspect could’ve been a decent if unremarkable pop song if not drowned by the awful production (the album had different producers for different tracks, but they all seem to have been caught up in the sound of the time, and Eighties pop really hasn’t aged well at all, with the excessive bombast, brass sections, drum machines, fretless bass etc). And that’s the case throughout the album. It’s not like there are not talented people involved – songwriters like Pete Sinfield (who’s journey from King Crimson to here must’ve been a fascinating one) ensure that tracks like Love in a World Gone Mad are not entirely horrible – in theory at least. But whatever qualities they might have are lost in the calculated and (as sales would attest) entirely misguided attempt to be commercial, unthreatening MOR pop.

And the tracks tend to go for a ‘wall of sound’ approach – perhaps understandably for a group of four singers, but hardly conducive to musical subtlety. It’s notable that the only time this album seems to show signs of life are the all-too-brief moments when one of the two female singers takes a solo spot. On the other hand, Bobby Gee’s solo spot on I Need Your Love is depressingly Michael Bolton like.

To be fair, In Your Eyes is a decent slab of Eighties pop – but it’s too little, too late. On the whole, apart from the opening track there’s nothing here that comes close to any of the Bucks Fizz tracks you might know – and that’s not exactly a high wall to climb.

Disc One winds up with extended 12-inch versions of the various singles – which doesn’t help much. And then it’s onto Disc Two, which opens up with the third version of Love the One You’re With – hardly an auspicious start. Yet this alternative mix is a decided improvement. Stripping away the embarrassing white boy reggae and replacing it with guitars, it’s a more solid version – still not exactly great, but ironically less dated that the ‘official version’.

The rest of the tracks are a mix of singles, outtakes, demos and alternate takes, sometimes with lead vocals from different singers than featured on the final version. Some of this stuff is from 1988 that never saw release. They probably wouldn’t have propelled the band back into the big time. Shelly Preston’s version of Love in a World Gone Mad seems better than the final version, maybe because it’s less overtly produced. Don Black’s What’s One Lonely Woman – presented as a ‘laid back mix’ is a decent enough ballad that (just) manages to avoid becoming overblown. There are also a couple of forgettable Bobby Gee solo tracks, and two shameful live medleys – one of Motown songs and the other, astonishingly, of Rolling Stones numbers. It goes without saying that both medleys strip the songs of their original passion – though there is some perverse pleasure to be had from hearing Bucks Fizz performing Jumping Jack Flash. And the audience bless ‘em, seem to be loving it.

I won’t pretend that Bucks Fizz was entirely insignificant in the history of music. But this is a band that is no longer at its peak, and the album is a weak effort by any standards – even theirs – and probably seemed a bit embarrassing even in 1986. Time has not, sadly, rehabilitated it.

DAVID FLINT

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