The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 09/05/24
Steve Swindells - "Down On Love Street" (1980)
Music being - as it always has been - the one true solace in my life, I have amassed something of a collection of discs (shellac, vinyl and CD) down all the years.
Having been trapped in hospital in Manchester for two whole weeks in 2016 with only other people's choice of music available, once free I determined to buy an .mp3 player. This was a Philips GoGear with 8GB of capacity. On to this, I loaded my favourites (I couldn't put everything on there; that would need at least a 70GB drive or something like a cost-free permanent data link to a portable server of some sort), including the whole of my Kraftwerk and Half Man Half Biscuit collections, in addition to judiciously-chosen selections from a number of other favourite artists (Hawkwind, The Orb and Sparks to name but three), plus various general categories such as '70s Rock', '60s Pop' and, simply, 'Funny'.
These I choose from when lying in bed at night in the dark, along with the latest editions of Round Britain Quiz, Y Talwrn and Real Synthetic Audio.
One further aspect which I have added in the last couple of years has been the concept of Album Of The Week. Having so much to choose from in my full collection means that I can go years without listening to much of it, and so every few weeks I upload a disc which I haven't heard in a long time and re-acquaint myself with it.
Last week, I picked out an album you're about to hear a track from (should you wish to, of course).
Steve Swindells is a keyboardist and singer who released his first LP Messages on RCA in 1974. After an acrimonious split from his producer/manager who was, by Swindells' own account, an abusive lunatic (which is why another album - Swindells' Swallow - was recorded in 1975 but not released until 2009), he became a member of a late-model version of the pop group Pilot before signing on with Dave Brock for the temporary 'Hawklords' incarnation of Hawkwind after Simon House had decamped to play live with David Bowie. Swindells' contribution to 25 Years On is, to my mind, crucial to the more subtle sound of Hawklords (see - or, rather, hear - what I mean on the two tracks I've linked here).
In 1979, he got the offer of a solo recording contract with Atlantic Records and left Hawklords, having contributed one of the revived Hawkwind's signature tracks of that time, Shot Down In The Night.
The resulting LP, Fresh Blood, released in the autumn of 1980, was therefore his second album to actually be issued. Assisted by a backing band consisting of former Van de Graff Generator bassist Nic Potter and two Hawkwind stalwarts in guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton and drummer Simon King, the result was an eleven-track disc which was mostly in a tight, driving New Wave style. Two singles were issued off the album, the opener Turn It On, Turn It Off and his own version of Shot Down In The Night, this latter ironically coming out on exactly the same day as the release of Hawkwind's own version.
While Fresh Blood garnered positive reviews, sales were underwhelming and his record company dropped him almost immediately, leaving at least two albums' worth of material which didn't see the light of day for another thirty years. Swindells went on to promote gay clubs in London (he had been 'out' since the early seventies) and work as a music journalist.
I won't examine the album in detail here; perhaps some other time. But the one track which doesn't stick to the high-tempo New Wave formula is, to my mind, the very best. Down On Love Street is a slow piece featuring only Swindells' voice and keyboards and a little of King's drums. That voice is of someone who has clearly come through a trauma of some sort - perhaps this is the expression of his recovery from the abuse he had suffered from his former manager - and is returning to what passes for 'normality' in a mood of subtle but determined defiance.
That element of the understated makes this one of the most beautiful rock songs I know. It also gives a clue as to why some observers made a comparison between his vocal style and that of Springsteen. See what you reckon:
