Gang of Four didn't quite make it to the great alternative pop party that was 1982. While others who shared a similar, abrasive Post Punk past did. ,But there was a contrast to be made. Human League, Associates, ABC, Simple Minds, Bunnymen managed to tailor their basic packages in a way that remained true to themselves but also demand daytime radio play.
Not so for this lot. Their album Songs of the Free and this, it's lead off single were perfectly competent and seemed utterly appropriate in some ways to reap similar commercial rewards to the bands I've just listed. But somehow they weren't quite right for this moment.
The reason they weren't isn't difficult to discern. Politics pure and simple. The UK Singles charts of 1982 weren't filled with political statements. The bands above seemed more interested in love than in mounting the barricades. The only other explicitly political song I can think of off the top of my head this year was Shipbuilding by Robert Wyatt and Elvis Costello. Even The Clash and The Jam were more guarded on that front this year. And both of them would soon be gone.
The Gang of Four were Marxists pure and simple and The Man knows Marxists when he sees them and certainly doesn't put them on the Radio One playlist or Top of the Pops. Added to the fact that I Love a Man In a Uniform was not likely to appeal much to the mainstream in the year of The Falklands and didn't bear comparison with anything from Entertainment, their golden moment, in terms of message or quality anyhow. Frankly, by comparison, it sounds somewhat lumpen.
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