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Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:11 pm
by drakula63
I actually find it quite surreal to realise that it was 40 years ago today - 1st November 1978 - that I bought the single Love De Luxe.

Actually, to be fair, it was my mum who bought it (from Boots record dept in Grimsby) as I hovered in the background. We then went home, stopping off at a chippy on the way and sat at the kitchen table eating fish and chips as the record played (on our National Panasonic music centre) in the background. It seems like it was yesterday.

To celebrate this landmark, I bought the Portuguese picture sleeve version off ebay. And here it is...

'Happy Birthday'

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:20 pm
by drakula63
And here is the record (Portuguese version).

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:35 pm
by drakula63
And here, most importantly, is the actual record itself - EMI 2838. And you'll notice that I helpfully typed the name of the record and the band on the sleeve!

I doubt that I'll still be around in another 40 years, but hopefully this will be. So if you find it in a second hand shop... you know where it came from!

Many happy returns!

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 7:08 pm
by MikeAB
I was coming back from a (long) business lunch in the back of a supplier's car when I heard LDL for the first time - very quietly on the car radio. I thought I must have misheard the name of the artist.

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 9:59 pm
by Monty
I thought it was one of the weakest singles they ever released ! :lol:


just look how far it shot up the UK charts.... :oops: :oops: :oops:

the instrumental 'B' side was o.k. tho'

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:10 pm
by iefje
I heard this track for the first time on the "Specs Appeal Plus" CD, back in the Autumn of 1992. Very different from their usual style, but I quite like it. In fact, I like the live rendition of this track even more, because that's more close to The Shadows' late 1970's studio/live sound.

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 3:22 pm
by Alan Taylor
Personally I think it's the best Shadows vocal single after "Don't Make My Baby Blue".

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 5:44 pm
by drakula63
It's still a favourite of mine - after 40 years!

Great performances all round and the highly unusual move of giving the lead melody/melodies to keyboards. Adrian Lee does a great job on the piano and the synths. Whilst Hank did play the Roland guitar synth live on stage for this song, I'm not convinced he uses it on the single. Mind you, I think he does use it on the b-side, 'Sweet Saturday Night', which I also rate highly.

A great and powerful vocal performance from Bruce and distinctive syn-drums from Brian just add to the appeal. I can understand why a lot of older and maybe more traditional Shads fans were unsure about it, but as a 14 year old, seeing it on 'Get it Together' and hearing it on the radio, I was blown away. A shame it wasn't a hit, but as Marvin, Welch and Farrar proved, the general public don't really want the Shads' singing for their supper. This was more or less proved a couple of months later with a certain single called 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' which, by all accounts, they were crying out for the band to record.

Anyway, back to Love DeLuxe - and I played it for a friend a few years back and he said that he thought it was the Moody Blues. A compliment I'm sure. Also, a few months later, summer of '79, Alan Hawkshaw released a single 'Here Comes That Sound Again', under the name of Love DeLuxe. Probably no coincidence.

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 6:47 pm
by Moderne
I think it's a great record - I remember it well when it came out, it seemed to get a lot of airplay. Pity the film of it seems to have disappeared from YouTube. The Shadows referred to it as "Lovely Ducks"!

Re: Love DeLuxe - 40 years ago today!

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:27 pm
by Syd62
I remember the first time I heard this song, it might have been the first airing. It was on the Kenny Everett Show on Itv. Summer of 78.