Muck It Out

Day two of digitized vinyl "ripped from the '80s" brings this little oddity from 1983...

Straight outta Norwich in 1980, The Farmer's Boys released a couple of well reviewed singles before getting noticed by and signed by EMI. They reissued earlier single More Than A Dream, then they hooked the band up with a big time producer, Peter Collins. The result was their stab at the big time, Muck It Out. It's a perky little indie pop tune with some gloriously dramatic falsetto vocals about love gone wrong. I love the funky bass, and there are also some nice '80s keyboard sounds and drum machines. It sounded like a hit to my ears at the time, but radio support wasn't there and the single failed to crack the top 40.

From the Farmer's Boys fansite - This was the first time we’d used a real producer and it was a bit strange at first, and a bit strange when Collins tried to rewrite the song! Eventually we settled halfway between what he wanted and what we wanted, and so began the gradual demise in our working relationship – he eventually stopped working with us to produce Nik Kershaw – say no more! The single was released in March on 7”, 12” and silly shaped picture disc, reached number 48 in the charts and sold about 30,000 copies.

The band carried on for a few years with similarily middling results until finally calling it quits in 1985.