A-Side: News Of The World
B-Side: Aunties And Uncles (Impulsive Youths) | Innocent Man
Record label: Polydor 2058 995
Producer: Vic Coppersmith-Heaven & Chris Parry
Released: 24/02/78
Purchased: 25/04/81
Cute is hardly the word. “Punk Rock” and “Power Pop” come echoing out of a brief dub-style intro over a typically brash New Wave riff. If they’d have slung in “Ranking” as well, they’d have had all the essentials covered.
Still, that’s the point of the song – to number the media cliches. Don’t believe everything you read an’ all that. Why they should choose to name their song after such a responsible organ of public debate I simply cannot imagine. (This has been a stop press bulletin; there will be two more tracks on the real record that follows this acetate). (NME, 25/02/78)
Something a bit different from The Jam. A much fuller guitar sound, which is great, but it does tend to show up their vocal inadequacies. The song itself, about newspapers and the press and stuff, is a bit of a grower – it takes at least a couple of listens.
Incidentally, have you noticed that every Jam single except “In The City” has had ‘world’ in the title? (That information comes to you courtesy of Barry Cain Useless Facts Incorporated). (Record Mirror, 25/02/78)
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