Blancmange: Kind

Track of the Week - 9 July 2017

I got here by a bit of circuitous route so you'll have to bear with me...

One day this week I was near Ely with work. I met up with some local colleagues to explain why saving is a good idea to local schoolchildren and then oversee them painting their own piggy banks.

My initial song thought was something by Eels as I thought that's where Ely gets its name (the aquatic creature, not the band). That's not 100% confirmed though so I needed to move on. How about a savings song?

My first thought was Save Me by Blancmange. Then I found it didn't exist! I considered Piggies by The Beatles, We are the Pigs by Suede and Piggy Bank by 50 Cent, none of which seem appropriate for the schoolchildren theme. Especially 50 Cent.

So I went back to the Blancmange angle and found I'd got the title wrong. I was actually thinking of Kind. Which kinda works as I supposed what we did was a bit kind.

From the brilliant 1982 album Happy Families this is a great example of what the band were doing at the time. They would have been one of the first bands I saw live (at Swindon's Brunel Rooms) where the duo took the stage with a small screen showing animations during each song.

With three top ten hits and four more top 40s between 1982 and 1985 they probably deserve to be better remembered than they are. The fightback starts here!