“Behind Closed Doors” arrived just 11 months after “Glory Boys”, served up 2 more hit singles (“My World” #16 and “Sound Of Confusion” #45) and saw Secret Affair become genuine pop stars for a brief while. But by the end of 1980 when the album was released the “Mod Revival” was over as a youth cult and that, allied to less than enthusiastic promotion from I-Spy’s parent record company Arista, meant it didn’t perform (in record company world “perform”=“sell”) nearly as well as its predecessor.

It’s a quite different sounding album to “Glory Boys” too, many of the rough edges to their sound had been smoothed off, this is a more polished sounding thing, not nearly as “sweaty nights in a Canning Town boozer” sounding as before. Part of this was a deliberate attempt to highlight the different influences at work in the group and part of it was caused by Ian Page and Davie Cairns writing separately rather than as a team this time around. Page was in the USA remixing “Glory Boys” for seemingly more sensitive American ears and Arista were pressuring the band for a second album, resulting in most of this album being written by Page or Cairns.

Interestingly the two singles were both written by Davie Cairns while the three songs that most obviously signal the change in sound were penned by Ian Page. Those three songs, track 1, side 1 “What Did You Expect ?”, “Life's A Movie Too” and “Streetlife Parade”, are all much more expansive, relying less on Cairns slashing guitars and leaning much more on piano, orchestration and featuring Dave Winthrop saxophone solos that are not unlike those that Clarence Clemons was supplying for a certain Mr Springsteen and his E Street Band (you could say that about some of the piano work and Roy Bittan too). It makes you wonder how much of an influence that trip to America had upon Ian Page. I’d even go so far as to say that album closer “Streetlife Parade” is not entirely dissimilar in form and structure to some of the Boss’s epic album closers, think “Jungleland” but populated by sharp suited Mods and you’re part way there. My other favourite on “Behind Closed Doors” is the Cairns/Page co-write “When The Show's Over” which is a bit of a mash-up between Page’s more orchestrated style and Cairns guitar fired uptempo preferences. 

I lost my original copy over the years and replaced it a couple of years ago with a lovely Purple vinyl re-issue with extra tracks, they being the b-sides from the two singles. Secret Affair ain’t changing anyone’s life 40+ years removed from their heyday, the musical and youth cult landscape are very different now, but I will enthusiastically defend my position that they in no way deserve the ridicule that they still receive to this day.

Streetlife Parade - https://youtu.be/fC1rIGZq3Ww?si=nFsLqItB-CHPFpl0

Secret Affair were a much, much, much better band than history remembers them being. They seem to suffer under the memory of their somewhat cringeworthy debut single “Time For Action” but hopefully this piece and this album will help redress that balance. 

Singer Ian Page and guitarist Davie Cairns had previously been in New Wave band New Hearts who made a couple of singles for CBS and did a few gigs supporting The Jam before splitting up. Page and Cairns then recruited bass player Dennis Smith from the band Advertising, Young Bucks drummer Seb Shelton and occasional saxophonist Dave Winthrop and formed Secret Affair. They quickly got involved with the developing Mod Revival scene based at the Bridge House pub in Canning Town and appeared on the “Mods Mayday 79” live compilation recorded there.

That debut single “Time For Action” peaked at #13 in the UK (their biggest hit). I guess it said something to all the little kids who’d latched onto the Mod Revival, gave them a slogan to shout about, but some of the lyrics were cringeworthy (“We hate the Punk elite” and “…sweet Julia speeding on the late night train” yeuch) and it wasn’t a great song, period. Second single “Let Your Heart Dance” was much more like it and there are songs on this album that blow “Time For Action” outta the water.

First song “Glory Boys” s one of them. It begins like Dexy’s “Searching For The Young Soul Rebels” (and was released 8 months before it) with someone spinning through the radio dial and falling on a police siren that sounds suspiciously like the start of The Clash’s “White Riot” and then songs by Sister Sledge (!) and Secret Affair themselves before the acoustic intro calms you before the song comes bounding in proper. As anthems for the Mod Revival go this one beats the hell outta “Time For Action”, I’m a particular fan of the lyric “Don’t you know I’m a Glory Boy, I could cut you down by combing my hair”!

At the end of Side 1 we find “New Dance”. Now never mind Mod Revival, this is as good a New Wave/Alternative, whatever you wanna call it, song as this period ever produced. Davie Cairns guitars crash and slash throughout, this is exciting guitar playing to me. The way Davie booms out the couple of bass notes after the lyric “and try to make me look a fool” just before the first chorus are more thrilling to me than any amount of pentatonic fretw@nk anyone could muster. The lyrics are dense (some might say pretentious), “You try to see me from behind cataracts, And smile with faces of melted wax” (followed by more Davie Cairns booming bass notes, I love it), but Ian Page sings them with such conviction you gotta forgive him his poetic affectations.

As already mentioned, second single “Let Your Heart Dance” and Side 1’s “Shake And Shout” are much better examples of what they were about, a good time, guitar based dance band for the Glory Boys of Canning Town, and final song “I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap)” keeps that going while letting Page and Cairns strut their musical stuff with a bit of trumpet (did I mention that Ian Page played the trumpet ?) and guitar duelling. They were a bloody good live band too. We saw them twice in 1980 and again in the early 2K’s when they reformed, all great shows.

The message here is stop your sniggering at the back there, pack away your prejudices based on the cringy debut single and have a listen to “New Dance” with fresh ears…cos Secret Affair were a much, much, much better band than history remembers them being…and this is a great debut album.

New Dance - https://youtu.be/ojV9kNiUcp4?si=y6l05L4zdg3cJvBz

There isn’t really any argument that John Squire is a talented guitar player***. What he’d suffered from was being in a band with a singer that couldn’t. One of the reasons I like this album is that singer Chris Helme really can sing, it must have been quite the experience, and relief, for Mr Squire.

Helme was discovered busking outside a Woolworth’s in York. Bass player Stuart Fletcher was seen by Squire while depping for a covers band, again in York. Drummer Andy Watts was an acquaintance of Fletcher and Helme. Thus were The Seahorses assembled, primarily I’m sure as a vehicle to highlight Squire but Chris Helme certainly had quite the piece to say in the making of this record.

There’s more than an air of Folk Rock about “Do It Yourself”. A lot of that comes from Chris Helme’s voice (Squire was hesitant about including Helme after the auditions because he “closed his eyes when he sang and only folk singers do that”) but Squire’s playing has more than a hint of Fairport era Richard Thompson about it in places. There are two real standout songs within, the two singles “Blinded By The Sun” and “Love Is The Law”, although any praise of the latter is to be tempered by it being extended to almost 8 minutes for the purposes of the album by Squire’s uneccessary mid-song fret w@nking!

The whole focus of this record is Squire and Helme. Squire had honed what he was aiming at on his previous bands mess of a second album and Helme managed to stamp his mark all over this. The rhythm section could honestly be anyone and, in the 27 years since this was released, today is the first time I even bothered looking at who they were! I do like it, although it was something of an impulse buy when it was re-issued a couple of years ago (original vinyl copies now sell for 3 figures). It’s folk rock…whether Squire likes it or not. 

Love Me And Leave Me - https://youtu.be/tDYenCgDLgw?si=ovlTTIVFD9kpwSem

(***although, given recent developments with the front man from another BritPop combo, definitely one with a questionable choice in singers)