4Ever Songs: Space ‘Magic Fly’

Space is a French group playing electronic and synthpop music, founded by Didier Marouani (known also under nickname Ecama). Song “Magic Fly” from their first album was a hit in the 70’s. Space released three studio albums (Magic Fly, Deliverance, Just Blue), which became very influential in their subgenre. Creative differences led Marouani to leave the band around 1980, however the rest of Space released “Deeper Zone” LP in 1981. After it disbanded in 80’s, Didier Marouani continued his career as solo artist before he got the brand name “Space” in the court around 1990, re-releasing classic albums and giving a concert tour. The latest Space album was released in 2002.

4Ever Songs: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “Red Right Hand”

“It’s a song that has fairly humble beginnings,” remembers Mick Harvey, guitarist and co-founder of the Bad Seeds, (who is also credited as co-writer of “Red Right Hand” along with Cave and drummer Thomas Wydler). “Much of it came from a jam we were working on when we writing songs for our album ‘Let Love In’ (released in 1994).”

Nick Cave didn’t think much of the song’s repeating groove at first, but was persuaded to reconsider by his band, and eventually wrote lyrics about a shadowy, alluring, and manipulative figure, stalking the land and striking a combination of fear and awe everywhere he goes. He’s seemingly part deity, part demon. Aside from alluding to the phrase “red right hand,” taken from John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost,” Cave has never revealed who this figure is.

“Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight tells that original idea was to use “Red Right Hand” in the show’s first episode, but he installed it as the theme because it fit the characters, settings, and subplots perfectly.

4Ever Songs: Madness ‘Night Boat to Cairo’

Night Boat to Cairo is a track by UK ska / pop group  Madness  from their 1979 debut album One Step Beyond. Mike Barson and Suggs wrote the song and it was also included on  Work, Rest and Play’s EP peaking at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. It was later reissued as a single in 1993, after the success of the reissued version of It Must Be Love,

4Ever Songs: M/A/R/R/S ‘Pump Up The Volume’

M/A/R/R/S was a one-off collaboration between members of A.R. Kane (Alex and Rudi Kane) and Colourbox (Martin and Steve Young), both veteran 4AD artists. They took their name from the four collaborator’s initials plus that of label boss Ivo Watts-Russell, who suggested they get together. Those four are the credited songwriters on the track.

This song is made up of about 250 samples. The line, “Pump Up The Volume” came from “I Know You Got Soul” by Eric B. & Rakim, which was released earlier in 1987. Other samples include Coldcut’s 1987 song “Say, Kids What Time Is This” and James Brown’s “Funky Drummer.” It also contains three seconds of Stock Aitken & Waterman’s song “Roadblock,” but the group didn’t get official clearance and Peter Waterman placed an injunction for five days while the copyright issues were worked out. This was the first ever #1 UK hit on an independent record label: 4AD. It also reached #1 in Holland and New Zealand.

4Ever Songs: The B-52’s ‘Planet Claire’

The B-52’s were ’70s punks molded not from the syringes and leather of New York City, but from the campy detritus you might have found in the thrift stores and garage sales of their home of Athens.

They channeled spy soundtracks, exotica, surf music, long-abandoned dance crazes and garage rock — music that was gathering dust by their 1979 self-titled debut LP which includes our 4Ever song of the week: Planet Claire.

The B-52’s were ’70s punks molded not from the syringes and leather of New York City, but from the campy detritus you might have found in the thrift stores and garage sales of their home of Athens

4Ever Songs: Devo ‘Mongoloid’

Devo were – for many young Americans – the first new wave band of any consequence. But their super-stylised image of black humour, dazzling visuals and catchy synth-pop hooks caught the attention of weirdos and outcasts everywhere.

Things really took off on Aug. 28, 1978, with the release of the band’s first studio album, “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” The song Mongoloid was included in that debut record.

4Ever Songs: Tom Robinson Band ‘Power in the Darkness’

Anthemic, anti-racist, pro-femme, pro-queer English punk. They were, albeit briefly, one of the bravest, most exhilarating bands of the late 70s. Tom Robinson Band (TRB) were led by an articulate punk hero from a middle-class family with a troubled history.

TRB recorded a hit single, a hit EP and one classic album, Power in the Darkness, that featured promotion for Rock Against Racism on the cover. Then it all went wrong. A second album was far more patchy and the band broke up after two years.