If you’ve never heard of The Bureau I’m not surprised but believe me when I tell you that this is the second album that Dexy’s Midnight Runners never made. The Bureau were an amalgamation of members of the Donkey jackets and wooly hats Dexy’s (Pete Williams (bass), JB Blythe & Steve Spooner (saxophones) and Stoker (drums)) that had quit the band because of disagreements with Kevin Rowland. They hooked up with Rob Jones (guitar and trumpet) Tony Bischoff (bass) and singer Archie Brown formerly of the band The Upset who had supported Dexy’s at the “Intense Emotion Revue” I saw in Birmingham, and “Merton” Mick Talbot on keyboards to formThe Bureau.

They issued just 2 singles in the UK, “Only For Sheep” and “Let Him Have It” (both on the album), the latter of which is one of my very favourite 7”s. Then they pretty much disappeared. Years later I discovered they had released an album that for some reason was only issued in Canada and Australia ! It finally got a UK release in 2005 but only on CD. I managed to find a Canadian LP last year.

The band had the same horn driven “soul” sound we heard on “Searching For The Young Soul Rebels” and this album is in no way an inferior version of that. It stands up very well next to it and if you put Kevin Rowland on vocals it could very easily have been Dexy’s follow up.

It all starts in a quite subdued manner. Single “Only For Sheep” and “The First One” are relatively low key but then the next three tracks (“Sentimental Attraction”, “Got To Be Now” which cheekily comes on like Dexy’s “Tell Me When My Light Turns Green” and “Looking For Excitement”) really kick things off.

Side 2 gives us “Let Him Have It” which has always been, and remains, one of my favourite singles by anyone. If you know the film of the same title it’s the same story (although the song is nothing to do with the film) of Derek Bentley who was controversially convicted and hung for a murder he very probably didn’t commit, but he was old enough to hang which the probable murderer wasn’t. 

“This is heinous crime, someone here is gonna pay for this

Too bad that you’re the only one that’s old enough now

All of us here, understand you never held the gun

But we’re gonna prove to everyone that justice has been done”

A sad, sad story turned into a killer single.  Over on this side you also get the joyous “Bigger Prize” and a nice run at the theme from “The Carpetbaggers”.

And then The Bureau just disappeared leaving behind one great album and a classic single. It’s more than most manage.

Let Him Have It - https://youtu.be/MFfRrh44rD0

There was a time around the release of this album when there were 2 contenders for the “next big thing” crown (or so it seemed to me). It was either gonna be the Bunnymen or U2 and once again the great record buying public made the wrong choice and ultimately turned U2 into global superstars instead. Maybe the Bunnymen were just too British (opens whole can of “Scouse not British” worms) in the same way as the Small Faces, The Kinks or Slade never really cut it across the pond. But they had the songs, the pretty boy front man (who had obviously worshipped at the altar of Bowie) and a hint enough of The Doors for the US to take an interest.

The opening tracks of “Heaven Up Here” (“Show Of Strength” & “With A Hip”) find us in the same anxious, dark, twitchy place that “Crocodiles” left us. And then we hit that bit in track 3, “Over The Wall”, where Will Sergeant introduces us to THAT riff. Three notes is all it is but you somehow know the Bunnymen have graduated to some new level of coolness with those 3 notes. If 3 notes can be considered dramatic these 3 have drama in bucket loads. The song is another nervous, nailbiting thing but it’s somehow different. Pete de Freitas drums echo and roll like thunder in the background, Les Pattinson’s circular bass line (4 notes this one) is hypnotic, they quote Del Shannon’s “Runaway” lyrically and in a guitar motif, letting you know that although this music sounds ultra-new it’s coming from a classic education in rock and roll, they’re just using it differently. It’s a beast of a song.

“It Was A Pleasure” twitches and jerks like someone suffering St Vitus Dance in the middle of a dancefloor. “A Promise” made a great single, a bit more smoothed out, like “Rescue” before it, a simple chorus, 2 words, in Mac’s best imploring voice with the closing line of “There's Light on the water” foreshadowing the melody of “The Cutter”.

Side 2 has many highlights (“Groovy, groovy people…”), the one for me is “All My Colours”. First time I heard it was on the “Shine So Hard” EP where it is titled “Zimbo”. Carried from start to finish by de Freitas drumming with the rest of the band barely needed, it sits perfectly in the middle of Side 2.

As an album “Heaven Up Here” isn’t as urgent as “Crocodiles”, it’s much more “Happy death men” than the previous albums title track. Bill Drummond described it as "dull as ditchwater" in his book “45”, which says more about Bill Drummond than it does about “Heaven Up Here”. This is where me and the Bunnymen part ways which some of my friends who make the case that one of their subsequent  albums was their best will find strange but sometimes things just happen that way. They coulda been contenders but the record buying public wanted Bono instead…their loss…

Over The Wall - https://youtu.be/daUDqtWerUg

Liverpool never really had a prominent Punk band but the kids who were awoken by Punk (and Glam before that, well the Bowie, Roxy, Bolan end of Glam for sure) had their say in the post-Punk years, The Teardrop Explodes, Wah!, The Lightning Seeds, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and, of course, the Bunnymen. Friends of mine to this day will disagree on which is their favourite Bunnymen album. The vote is pretty evenly split between “Heaven Up Here” and “Ocean Rain”. For me it will always be “Crocodiles”.

It sneaks up on you with beeps and bleeps and the band fading in before the two chords that are the main riff of “Going Up” crash out of your speakers. Everything about this record is anxious, tight and nervous…but at the same time sexy and dangerous. Ian McCulloch’s persona was part fearful kid and part rock god with a sometimes fear filled singing voice that broke out into this booming, confident rush on the choruses “Do it…do it, do it, do it”. He perfected the lippy Northern frontman schtick later taken on in totality by Liam Gallagher.

The spidery “Stars Are Stars”, “Pride” (“Do it…do it, do it, do it”) and “Monkeys” are followed up by the frantic “Crocodiles” which comes on all Post-Punk wrapped in classic rock cliches “I can see you've got the blues in your alligator shoes, Me, I'm all smiles I got my crocodiles”.

Side 2 opens with one of Mac’s favourites “Rescue” the first thing I heard by them, and just to knock you out of your comfort zone that is followed by the wonderful, piano driven “Villiers Terrace”. “Pictures On My Wall” brings the almost celebratory mood of “Villiers Terrace” back down a few notches. “All That Jazz” returns us to twitchy, nervous town interspersed with de Freitas tight, machine gun drum fills and a beast of a riff by Will Sergeant in place of a chorus. It all ends with “Happy Death Men” which while being doom laden also manages to be as groovy as hell.

The whole album is a wonderful example of brevity with a purpose. Side one is over and done in under 15 minutes, blink and its gone, in total the record doesn’t quite make 33 minutes. Will Sergeant’s, sometimes sparse at other times everything, guitar playing was every bit as important to us as John McGeoch’s or Tom Verlaine’s, a different breed of guitar hero. Les Pattinson and the mighty Pete de Freitas were a fearsome rhythm section who drove the Bunnymen along. We saw them live around this time, all moody lighting and Apocalypse Now styled stage setting, they were incredible.

All That Jazz - https://youtu.be/7qKBjgzyEPk