Vanity and Presumption

6 March: Album - Hex Enduction Hour 19 April: Single - Look, Know 27 September: Album - Room to Live "When what used to excite you does not" I realise this might seem a contrary choice from the greatest album ever made but I'll explain further on. Hex Enduction Hour was recorded in Iceland and Hitchin in late 1981 against a backdrop of tension in the group and even the possibility that this was to be their last work. I'm delighted it wasn't but if it was to have been, what a way to go! This has taken me a while because I find it quite difficult to write about 'Hex' as I've read so much about it. Probably best I don't go into too much detail and embarrass myself so for now I'll just say it is at times powerful, confrontational, provocative, contrary, thoughtful and brutal. In reflective moments Mark E Smith, who never had much time for looking back at his old work, would say he was proud of the record. That endorsement is worth way

31 March: 4th John Peel session - Middle Mass, Lie Dream of a Casino Soul, Hip Priest, C 'N' C/Hassle Schmuck 24 April: Album - Slates 15 September: 5th John Peel session - Deer Park, Look Know, Winter (Hostel Maxi), Who Makes The Nazis? 13 November: Single -  Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul "Everybody hears a hum at 3am" Is this the year it all came together? Two stunning John Peel sessions (Hassle Schmuck maybe excepted!) the brilliant Slates mini-album and yet another in a great series of singles in the shape of 'Lie Dream'. Both Peel sessions looked into the future and four of the eight tracks recorded would feature on 1982's Hex Enduction Hour LP. In between those sessions came Slates. A six-track record costing £2 only (u skinny rats), it was neither eligible for the single or album charts. However you view it, the ideas that swirled around Grotesque are now fully formed. It has a bit of everything. Middle Mass has Riley and Scanlon

?? January: Single -  Fiery Jack 05 May: Live album -  Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never) 11 July: Single - How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' ?? September: Single - Totally Wired 24 September 1980 - 3rd John Peel Session - Container Drivers, Jawbone and the Air Rifle, New Puritan, New Face in Hell 17 November: Album - Grotesque "My heart and I agree" I knew I was taking on a difficult job when I started this and 1980 really brings it home. One track from a year which most bands would want as a career! Three epic singles, a live album, a studio album and a Peel session where at least one of the tracks is more highly regarded than the studio version. The year started with Fiery Jack, the last release for the Step Forward label. It's an excellent single that evokes the early spiky Fall while also introduces glimmerings of what would be the group's 'Country and Northern' sound. The first release for Rough Trade was the (mostly) live album