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Welcome, welcome welcome.

Welcome to the sixth instalment of our dip into my vinyl singles collection. @mimismartypants was the person randomly selected to choose the next single on from The Frank Chickens, and win some delgated HP & Rising Star goodies. If you want to win some HivePower and Rising Star stuff, there's more info at the end of this post...

So, @mimismartypants chose the single that is 48 places on from We Are Ninja by The Frank Chickens.

We're into the 'M's - and the single we landed on is a classic ealy 80's cut. 1981 to be precise. A top ten hit, this record couldn't be more 80's if it tried. Without further ado, avail yourselves of the video.

So. Let's count 'em off.

Backcombed hair....................................................☑️
Trenchcoats............................................................☑️
Boys with hairdos....................................................☑️
Strange clown-like character..................................☑️
White gloves............................................................☑️
Surreal arty faff (the mirror is water! Shocker!).....☑️
Moody shots though metal fences.........................☑️
Small confused child...............................................☑️
Monkeys!..................................................................☑️
Slow motion running................................................☑️

We are definitely in the 80s.

I must admit, when I flicked on to this sleeve and I remembered the track in my head I had the chorus, and thought I knew the song. But I'd forgotten just how quite mad it is at times. The fairground bit in the middle and "Sind sie allein in Berlin?".

But there's some lovely synth sounds in there (naturally - Minimoog and Prophet 5 from what I can see in the TOTP video...). And doesn't the singer (a lady called Anna Maria) remind you of Toyah when she starts? 😉

But there's something about it. It's a catchy little thing - for all its strangeness.

The b-side is a pretty standard indie funk-lite rockout. A little underwhelming after the synth laden madness of the main event.

The Mobiles never really bothered the charts again. Their next track - Amour Amour - didn't make the top 40 (it's not bad per se, but it doesn't really grab you), and then further singles didn't even chart. they split around '84.

But Drowning in Berlin is a seminal early 80s track. Folk do remember it - and for good reason.

I'm tempted to go and dig the album out and have a listen - hoping there's another couple of Drowning in Berlins in there, and not so much Tiptoe in Paradise... 😉

I'll leave you with their Top of the Pops appearance.

God, I loved the 80s.

Win Stuff!

My record collection listening chain is a series of occasional posts working through my 7" single collection (and maybe other records as well). The general idea is that I started by posting about the first record in my collection, then asked readers to reply with a random number from 1 to 100. I would then choose someone at random, and count on from the last record posted about by the number they have chosen and post about that record. Then we'll rinse and repeat until we get bored! Oh, and I also chuck in a 100 delegated Hive Power reward & Rising Star instrument card to the chosen poster as a 'thank you for playing'!

Edit 4th March - for those using the Music4Life tribe token, I will now also be delegating 50 VP as well as the HP until the next draw! Bonus!