I will be amazed if anyone has heard this one before.
A bit of background. For those that don’t know it, Northampton is a very very average town, pretty well right in the middle of England. It used to be a big centre for the shoe making industry, but a lot of that died out years ago, and not much replaced it. I grew up about 20 miles away, and I have to say, it didn’t leave much of an impression on me, apart from grey...
In 1980, the Northampton Development Corporation started a radio advertising campaign in London, to try and tempt businesses to move there. A catchy jingle, written by Rod Thompson, helpfully pointed out that (assuming you were in London), it was only 60 miles by road or rail. Somebody in the music business heard this, and told them they ought to turn it into a record. So “60 miles by road or rail” was expanded into a love song about wanting to go to Northampton to see the one you love, and was full of those fashionable synthesiser noises...
But what about the B-side? Why bother writing another melody, when you can just use the same backing track with another set of words about Northampton? Let’s make it about aliens, fleeing a neutron war, looking somewhere to land, and they choose Northampton, because there’s Energy In Northampton. Yeah, great idea....
I have one of the original Development Corporation copies of the disc, but soon afterwards, EMI picked it up, and re-released it with “Energy In Northampton” as the A-side. It didn’t trouble the chart compilers, because, frankly, it’s awful, although it did get a bit of airplay from John Peel on his late night show, as some light relief.
I do urge you to listen to the original – it’s there on YouTube. For the full effect, just think of the most boring, plain, town near where you live, and substitute its name for Northampton. That’s how ridiculous it is. And one more thing. The singer was the late Linda Jardim, who ALL of you know. Yes, you do. That bit in “Video Killed The Radio Star” where the backing singer goes “You arrrrrre, a radio starrrrrrr...”. That’s her.
Anyway, here goes, and I couldn’t resist doing a bit of the original jingle at the end.