Lori & the Chameleons – "The Lonely Spy" (1980) (part 1)

There’s no way out of Russia

For the lonely spy and me

One of the many wonderful records that I first heard on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes” radio show back in 1980 was “The Lonely Spy” by Lori & the Chameleons.

“The Lonely Spy” was written by Bill Drummond and David Balfe.  The two men – who called themselves the Chameleons – also played on the record, which was released on their own label, Zoo Records. 

Bill Drummond

I recently e-mailed Drummond and asked if I could interview him about “The Lonely Spy.”  Here’s his reply:

My automatic answer to any interview request is to say no . . . .

But then I saw you wanted to ask me about “The Lonely Spy” – that changes everything.

I am way more than happy for you to ask me questions about “The Lonely Spy,” as long as that is all the questions are about.

And I can tell you now that record is one of the things that I am most proud of in my life.

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I was intrigued by that statement because Bill Drummond – who one music journalist has described as “a cultural magician” – has done a LOT in his life.   

Drummond first became famous as a pop musician.  His most commercially successful musical endeavor was the KLF, a pop group that he and Jimmy Cauty formed in 1987.  It became the biggest-selling singles act in the world and won the “Best British Group” BRIT Award (the British equivalent of a Grammy) in 1992.  

Bill Drummond at the 1992 BRIT Awards show

Later, he became an author – Kitty Empire of The Guardian said that his 2000 book, 45, was one of the ten best music memoirs ever written.

But perhaps what is most interesting about Drummond is that he views every aspect of life as a potential work of art.  

For example, after I interviewed Drummond via e-mail about today’s featured song, he took the e-mails we had exchanged and turned them into a radio play – something I would have never thought to do.  (Drummond has chosen the actor who will read his part, but hasn’t decided who will play me.) 

Here’s part one of my interview with Bill Drummond.  

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2 OR 3 LINES: 

Who was Lori?  What made you choose her as the singer for Lori & the Chameleons?

BILL DRUMMOND:

Lori was Lori Lartey.

Lori was an art student.

Before “The Lonely Spy” there was “Touch.”  The song “Touch” had been evolving before Big In Japan came to an end in August 1978.  But we never did anything with “Touch” within Big In Japan.  I don’t think I even brought the idea of it into rehearsals.

[NOTE: Big in Japan, which was Drummond’s first band, was formed in Liverpool in 1977.  After it broke up some fifteen months later, he and fellow band member David Balfe started Zoo Records – the label’s first release was a four-song Big in Japan EP – and formed Lori & the Chameleons, which recorded a single titled “Touch” in 1979 and today’s featured song, “The Lonely Spy,” in 1980.]

With “Touch” we were being very much influenced by disco, even if it was a disco filtered through a very white and post-punk way of thinking.  I had been totally into the whole TK Records thing out of Florida.  

[NOTE: TK Records’ most successful act was KC & the Sunshine Band, who had five #1 singles between 1975 and 1977.]

And also hugely influenced by Shadow Morton, especially the track “Past, Present and Future” by the Shangri-Las.  For me, Shadow Morton was the thinking man’s Phil Spector.

[NOTE: Click here to listen to “Past, Present and Future,” a 1966 Shangri-Las single with a piano part that was based on the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”  George “Shadow” Morton wrote and produced “Past, Present and Future” and several other singles for the Shangri-Las – including “Remember (Walking in the Sand).” He later produced Janis Ian’s “Society’s Child” and the first three Vanilla Fudge albums.] 

As with “Past, Present and Future,” “Touch” only required the “lead singer” to talk her part in the record.  Thus we were not looking for an actual singer.  It was more important to us that whoever was doing it had the right vibe about them. 

Lori was a regular at The Armadillo Tea Rooms where we all used to hang out.  

[NOTE: The Armadillo Tea Rooms was a Liverpool café located on the same block as the Cavern Club – where the Beatles appeared 292 times between 1961 and 1963 – and Eric’s, a legendary punk/new wave club that operated between 1976 and 1980.]

Neither of us knew Lori – or I can’t remember that we did.  We might have known her older sister Sue.  

Lori Lartey

We liked the way Lori dressed.  It was very – and I know I am going to sound patronizing – it was very creative.  She almost dressed in a postmodern take on the way that The Shangri-Las dressed.  A knowing innocence.

So we asked Lori.  And Lori said “Yes.” And Lori did it. 

And “Touch” was released by us on our label.

And Dave Balfe and I called ourselves the Chameleons because we liked to think we could change sound in the way that real chameleons could change color.  

This was sometime before the post-punk band from Manchester called the Chameleons came to public attention.

2 OR 3 LINES:

Was “Touch” a success?

BILL DRUMMOND:

“Touch” got radio play.  It was even the choice of one of the daytime DJs at BBC Radio 1 for “Single of the Week.”

That meant it got played on Radio 1 each and every day for a week.  And back then, daytime BBC Radio 1 reached several million listeners across the UK.  So this for us was massive.

Sire Records licensed “Touch” from us.  Sire gave it the big push.  But it never became the major hit that they and we thought it might.

The “Touch” 45

It stalled at #70 on the UK singles charts, never cracking the all important Top 40.  But it had done well enough for Sire to want the pick up an option on us doing a follow-up record.

Thus we wrote “The Lonely Spy.”

At that point Dave Balfe and I had no idea if Lori could sing.  I think we had even recorded the backing track before we asked Lori into the studio to attempt to sing the song.  I thought the way she did it was perfect.  

Other than the four Lori & the Chameleons tracks, I don’t know if Lori every recorded any more songs. Even if either of the singles we did with Lori had been successful chartwise, I don’t think we would have wanted to do any more, let alone an album.  

I had always been very much into female solo 45s that came out of nowhere, and were massive hits, and then no one ever heard from then again. My ultimate of that was “Terry” by Twinkle.  An absolute classic.

[NOTE: Click here to hear “Terry” by Twinkle (née Lynn Ripley), which was a #4 single in the UK in 1964.]

2 OR 3 LINES:

You and David Balfe co-wrote "The Lonely Spy," performed the instrumental parts, and produced the record.  What were your respective roles on “The Lonely Spy”?  Who else was involved?  

BILL DRUMMOND:

Dave Balfe and I wrote “The Lonely Spy” very much together, although the lyrics were more driven by Dave.  I played the acoustic rhythm guitar in the background.  Dave played the keyboard parts.

I was then and still am very much into chord structures.  I somehow imagined the chord structure I put together for this song sounded very Russian.  Not that I have ever had any real idea what sort of chord structures are used in real Russian songs.

Dave had a very modernist take on what pop music should sound like.  As far as he was concerned everything should start with Kraftwerk.  Anything prior to Kraftwerk should be ignored.

That said we both still did love The Beatles.  But we put that love to one side.

Dave probably did not approve of me using a guitar on the tracks.  Especially an acoustic one.

Dave and I would do any backing singing that was needed on the Lori & the Chameleon tracks.

I don’t think we used a bass player on “The Lonely Spy.”  In my mind, the record didn’t need one. This was probably a mistake on my part. That said, Dave was also a bass player.  Maybe he did add some bass to it.

The drums were either played by Tim Whittaker, who had been the drummer in Deaf School, or Gary Dwyer who was then the drummer in The Teardrop Explodes. They were both mates.

And we got a guest trumpeter in – I can’t remember his name, but we did get him to play on other Teardrop Explodes records that we worked on.  He was great.

[NOTE: After Bill e-mailed me his initial answers to my questions, he had breakfast with Mick Houghton, a veteran music-industry publicist who is the author of Fried & Justified: Hits, Myths, Break-Ups and Breakdowns in the Record Business 1978-98.  Mick   Mick had recently seen a used copy of a 1982 Zoo Records compilation album that included “The Lonely Spy” at a nearby record shop, and the two men headed there after finishing their breakfast to check the liner notes.  Later, Bill spoke with fellow Chameleon Dave Balfe, who confirmed that Tim Whittaker was the drummer on “The Lonely Spy.”  Although he also was a drummer, Gary Dwyer only sang backing vocals on the record.  The trumpet player on “The Lonely Spy” was Ray Martinez.]  

We did all the recording for The Lonely Spy down in Rockfield Studios in South Wales. It is the same studio that we did the first Echo & the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes albums. 

And I guess we were working with Hugh Jones who also engineered on those albums.

[NOTE:  Rockfield Studios is now owned by Dave Edmunds, whose “I Hear You Knocking” was the first #1 hit recorded there.  (Edmunds later produced the Flamin’ Groovies Shake Some Action album there.)  Other well-known groups who recorded at Rockfield included Black Sabbath, the Boo Radleys, City Boy, Judas Priest, Oasis, Queen, the Stone Roses, and the Stranglers.  Hugh Jones engineered or produced albums by Adam and the Ants, the Charlatans, the Damned, the Icicle Works, Modern English, Simple Minds and many others.]

2 OR 3 LINES:

Did “The Lonely Spy” get played on the radio in the UK? 

BILL DRUMMOND:

As stated in my answer to your first question, “Touch” got nationwide radio play in the UK.  We expected more of the same for “The Lonely Spy,” but it didn’t get it.  

Chartwise, the record stalled outside the Top 100.  A total flop.  We could not believe it.  

So we gave up on creating a one-off, female-focused heartbreaking novelty hit record.  We got on with what we were doing with the Bunnymen and Teardrops. 

Maybe if “The Lonely Spy” had been a hit, I would have somehow gotten sidetracked and ended up not being able to be part of others things I became involved with in the future. And in that happening I would have shot my “pop” load way too early. 

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Part two of my interview with Bill Drummond will appear in the next 2 or 3 lines.

Click here to listen to “The Lonely Spy.”